Disclaimers: Don't own any part of Gundam Wing nor it's characters. Merely borrowing them for a little torture.
Warnings: Shounen-ai (because I suck at yaoi) , mildly blasphemous in terms of my depiction of heaven. Not a death fic… ish. Usual 1x2, 3x4, and with 5 hanging in the wind. The poor darling.
Notes: Betaed by Keiran. Thank you.
Chapter 13: Plans gone awry
"That's not fair!" Duo ranted. "I was promised three days!" He stood in the middle of living room, now in complete disarray.
Quatre stood to the side, looking at him sadly. "Please Du… Adrian, don't do this."
Solo had tried to calm Duo down when he started tearing the place apart but his friend was too far gone to listen to reason. "Look, we both knew that it would be only a matter of time before the Chairman found out what we were doing."
"He's freaking God, he better well know what we are doing!" Duo huffed, a wild look in his eyes. "I don't care if you call him the President of the company of whatever shit. He made me a promise!"
Solo shook his head. "Duo, be reasonable, he emailed out an inter-office memo demanding your return in two days. And I would be required to go through and inquiry committee for gross insubordination. I've given up my entire career for you, please, just listen to me this one time."
Duo, emotionally spent, dropped into the closest chair and rested his head in his hands. "How am I going to get Heero to fall for Relena by tomorrow? I can't leave knowing Heero is alone and hurting!"
As if to answer his question, Solo's PDA rattled again. This time a smile spread across Solo's lips. "Erm, you seem to have a personal message from our Chairman. He says, tell the meddling idiot to get his ass back up where it belongs and leave the love arrows to me."
The American stilled and looked at Solo. "What the…?" He took a furtive glance around. "He's looking at us now?"
Solo read from his PDA. "He says yes."
"Well, that answers my question."
XXxxXX
Duo had somehow snuck into his and Heero's apartment and was rifling through some of their things, more accurately, their photo albums. He touched the many photos they had, smiling in irony that Heero would be so sentimental to want to keep pictures.
Tomorrow, he was leaving tomorrow, and half the day gone already. Quatre had been chased back home, after Duo decided there just wasn't anything the blond could help him with, and seeing him, knowing that they would part scant days later, hurt. He would rather spend the rest of his time here, with Heero.
It was then he decided. He would do this for Heero.
XXxxXX
Heero never thought that with peacetime came a barrage of paperwork. Not that he enjoyed walking around with his gun in his hand but still, some training was hard to undo. Things were made worse due to the fact that his mind was not on his work.
Adrian, that person bothered and attracted him at the same time. He kept telling himself he wasn't attracted to the boy 'that' way but he could feel the conviction getting weaker and weaker. Just when did Adrian start to remind him so much of Duo? He had spent a large amount of time with the boy, but over the past few days, Adrian had started acting, talking, and generally being more like Duo than ever before. Just why was his mind playing tricks on him like that? There were times where he could swear Adrian saying things that Duo would say and doing things that only Duo would do.
After that, he would face the harsh truth: that Duo was no more. Adrian was right, he would have to move on, sooner or later. He felt completely lost at that. Despite living with that braided whirlwind for so many years, he still knew almost nothing at the intricacies of romance. Duo hadn't needed him to do anything special or out of the ordinary for him to be happy. So how was he going to learn to 'wine and dine' someone?
His biggest problem was, why was he thinking to wine and dine Adrian? He was supposed to be making amends not thinking about making love to him.
"Heero Yuy?" A bored voice called out to him somewhere to his right.
To his utter embarrassment, Heero Yuy, Perfect Soldier was so startled that not only did he drop his pen, he overturned a mountain of paperwork onto the floor as well. He was in the midst of picking the mess up when he finally noticed the person standing next to him once again.
"Yes, it is I," he looked up, seeing a flower deliveryman, in his arms a huge bouquet of red roses. For a moment, his brain shut down from a litany of 'this is not happening, this is not happening'.
The man, with a slight smirk on his face thrust a delivery note at him. "Sign here."
"W… What?" Heero had never stuttered a day in his life before, even when asking Duo Maxwell to move in with him. It had been more of tossing a set of keys to him and telling him the deliverymen would be over at his place to pick up his stuff. Now, he found himself stuttering. "Ex… excuse me?"
The deliveryman laughed. "Flowers, boy, for you. Sign it, so I can get on with the next one."
"Who… who… sent me flowers?" Heero's fingers twitched toward the delivery note.
The man shrugged. "Boy, that's your business."
Heero bristled at being called 'boy' twice but the back of his neck was itching at the intensity of the curious looks being directed at him. Everyone at the office had an overwhelming curiosity about who Heero Yuy was getting flowers from. Growling under his breath, the ripped the paper from the man's hand and scribbled his name on it.
The man had a lopsided smile on his face, indicating that he found this amusing too. Not too often 21 year old men got flower deliveries.
Heero reached out to take the large bouquet gingerly, as if it would suddenly bite him. In his point of view, taming a wild lion and handling an arrangement of flowers was the same thing, they were completely alien to him. Just who was it that was playing such a stupid joke on him? His trigger finger itched to pull out his trusty gun and shoot said person through the eyes. Then, he noticed the deliveryman still standing there. Just what was he waiting for? Oh yeah…
"You're waiting for a tip?" The already pissed off Heero muttered.
The man merely smiled.
"Here's one. Don't piss off Preventors agents. Most of them are trigger happy." With that Heero turned his back on the man, who stalked away huffily, promising himself that a job change was in order.
The moment the man moved away, a huge gaggle of agents moved in on Heero, most of them women.
"Whoa, nice flowers."
"Secret admirer?"
"This person has good taste."
"Who's the new boyfriend, Heero?"
"Read the card! Read the card!"
Yaoi fangirls, Heero thought, smiling nostalgically at the term. He had never even heard of that term before, which was ironic since he knew his mother tongue pretty well, and it was Duo who taught him that. He had been pleasantly surprised that not only were his colleagues supportive of their relationship, which still broke many of society's norms, they were in fact always trying to catch the two trying to paw each other. It was embarrassing to say the least. Duo couldn't care less about public displays of affection and soon they had a very large following. And when Heero meant following, he really meant following. These girls could have given Relena a run for her money when it came to stalking.
Heero turned to the eager eyed girls, who had shared his grief when Duo had departed so abruptly and glared. Taking the hint, the girls scattered, leaving him alone with his large bouquet of heavenly smelling roses and a lonely card, which he missed. He reached for the plain white card, his hand shaking. It made no sense, why was he so nervous? So frightened? Oh yeah, now he remembered, someone sent him flowers, that's why.
He inched the card open, peeking through the edges, feeling foolish. It was just a card. Taking a deep breath, he flipped it open.
I hope the answer is yes. Love, Adrian
Shit. Shit… SHIT!
Not Adrian, anyone but Adrian. He could say no to anyone except to Duo and to the current Adrian. It didn't even dawn in his confused mind that he had made a clear differentiation between the Adrian he knew earlier this year and the Adrian he met these past few days.
"But yes to what?" Heero murmured to himself. Almost as if in answer, his computer chimed, indicating an email received. The feeling of impending doom hit him like a hammer as he reached for his mouse. His screensaver disappeared and a password prompt flashed on the screen. He keyed in the password and the cursor hovered over his email window. Something screamed at him not to open it, while another yelled that if he didn't, he would regret it for the rest of his life. When one started to hear voices in their heads, it was time to get themselves committed.
Dinner tonight? At your place? I'll cook for you. Adrian
Heero swallowed, his mouth dry. His heart rate started picking up, hammering wildly in his ribcage. No, this can't be happening. Adrian was making a move on him? Why? What should Heero do? He didn't make his sudden interest known, right? Right? Oh shit, he really couldn't take this. He clicked the reply button before he thought about it and his fingers hovered on the keyboard. Twitching fingers inched toward the N key before it stopped. Did he want to say no? Was he going to say no?
Growling in frustration, and causing his colleagues nearest to him to pick up their files and fled to the other part of the office, he grabbed the phone and hit the first speed dial number, not really knowing exactly whom he was calling. He just hoped it wasn't Commander Une, or she would be really pissed for someone to call her about personal problems, especially one that was if he should have dinner or not.
Someone picked up the phone on the other end and Heero started speaking. "OhmyGodIdon'tknowwhattodoAdrianaskedmeoutfordinnerandIthinkheiscomingontomehesentmeflowe…"
"Babble speak, you must be looking for Quatre," Trowa laughed. "Hold on."
Heero focused his breathing, knowing that hyperventilating in the middle of the office wasn't good for his image. And what the hell was going on? Why was he acting so completely out of character? It was just one date request, he could always say no. He was acting like a drama queen, for goodness' sake. Heero Yuy was afraid of a boy.
"Hello?" Quatre greeted cautiously over the phone.
"Quatre…"
"Yes?" Now Quatre sounded confused. "Heero?"
"He asked me out on a date!" Heero blurted, remembering at the last minute to cover the mouthpiece of the phone.
"Who?"
"Adrian!"
There was some suspicious sounding noise reminiscent of choking from the other end.
"Quatre! Quatre! Are you alright?" Heero called out urgently.
"So…" Wheezing. "So… are you going to go?"
Heero took a deep breath, and answered.
XXxxXX
Duo smiled as he left another note hidden in one of the nooks and crannies that their house had. During the entire afternoon, he had been planting little love notes for Heero, reminding him to be strong, to live life a day at a time. Little things like that.
Things that reminded Heero to be human.
He was careful to leave the house and its things just as it was, because, if anything, Heero was pretty anal where he put his stuff. But he left three letters in his lover's desk, knowing Heero will find it sooner or later.
He wandered from room to room, noting that many of his stuff were still lying in the open. It was as if he never left. It hurt actually to know that Heero never truly let go. He decided to leave Heero with a special surprise. Perhaps his lover might call the police or check surveillance tapes for someone breaking an entry but Duo hoped that Heero would remember. Remember the wonderful meal he made for Heero on their second anniversary.
He went about the kitchen, preparing everything carefully. He had no fear of Heero returning, he had arranged for him to be at the restaurant with Relena tonight. It would be late before he returned. He smiled as he slowly filled the table with Heero's favourites. He wondered about his lover's reaction at seeing the setting. Flowers had been added to the middle, along with soft scented candles scattered all over the house.
His mind drifted back to the day when he had met Heero at the door with all of that. Only then, he was wearing nothing but a skimpy black thong. The food had gone to waste that night. But the two of them remembered that anniversary with much fondness.
"No point to dwell on the past, little brother," Solo advised, sitting across Duo at the table.
"I know," Duo muttered, tracing patterns on the white linen.
"He's already moving on."
"I. Know."
Solo wisely backed off at that point.
The sound of the key jiggling at the door caused the two of them to jump to their feet.
"Who else has keys to Heero's home?" Solo asked, panicked.
"Me!" Duo hissed, his eyes darting about looking desperately for a place to hide. "What's he doing home anyway?"
Then there was little time for conversation as the door swung open and Heero stood at the door, gaping at the spectacle before him.
"Adrian, how did you get in here?" Heero asked, his eyes wide.
Okay, Duo was definitely in trouble.
Tbc…