A/N: Wishing Kangofu-CB the happiest day of birth. I hope you enjoy this and thank you for letting me write you a thing!
A/N2: Title inspired by the HAIM song by the same name.
A/N3: Always, always thanks to Ro for beta reading and supporting me. You are, quite literally, the best. I also want to thank ChronicWhimsy, who graciously gave me another set of eyes and editing on this.
Warnings: angst, language, sex
Pairings: 2x3
Ready for You
Chapter 6
Trowa had actually been to the Harlem Tavern before.
Three years ago, Trowa had come home from work and almost suffered a concussion when the man moving into the apartment on the level above dropped a box. Trowa had helped the man, Maji, finish moving in.
In return, Maji had taken him to the tavern and plied him with beer. What had followed was one of the most awkwardly awful sexual experiences Trowa had had since leaving Preventers.
He and Maji hadn't spoken again - about the sex or anything - and it had been a relief when Maji moved out last year.
When Duo had invited him out for drinks at the Harlem Tavern to celebrate finishing his Comprehensive Exam, Trowa had hesitated. In the week since their near makeout session on Duo's stoop, Trowa had seen Duo twice - one night for coffee and a different night for dinner. Each time, Duo had looked bleary-eyed and stressed. It had reminded Trowa of the Eve Wars, of those endless hours on Peacemillion fighting sortie after sortie before the final battle. He hadn't mentioned the analogy to Duo.
Their conversations those two nights had mostly revolved around Duo muttering about what a failure he was going to prove to be, and Trowa reminding him to eat or drink. Duo had been in a rush, both times, coming from and then heading back to the library, and Trowa had barely managed to get in a kiss one time. Duo had returned it - absentmindedly, but then enthusiastically - and had left Trowa still looking exhausted but with a grin on his face.
Tonight would be a chance for Duo to finally relax, and for Trowa to relax with him. The only catch was that it wouldn't just be Duo, Trowa and twenty strangers at the bar.
Apparently, most of the graduate students in Duo's year had decided to celebrate finishing the Exam as well. It would be weeks still before they knew if they had passed, and Duo had hinted that there were probably going to be more than a few students drinking farewell toasts.
In the end, Trowa decided to go. He wanted to spend the time with Duo, even if it meant possibly running into Avery again.
By the time Trowa arrived at the tavern, it was clear the celebration was well underway.
It took him a few minutes to spot Duo, and when he did pick him out of the crowd, Trowa could only stare.
Duo had had several beers, the night of the play, but Trowa didn't think he had passed the threshold into actual inebriation. Even if he had, Duo had been wound so tightly that any effects were masked by his anxiety and the sheer force of will it had to have taken to keep from putting Avery in the hospital. They had split a bottle of wine during the cooking class, and Duo had been all smirks and casual touches because of it. Trowa had, he assumed, been much the same.
Trowa suspected that Duo had already had more to drink tonight than he had on either of those others.
The Harlem Tavern had live bands on the weekends, karaoke some nights, but otherwise, the small stage at the back of the bar was kept empty and canned music was played over the speakers.
Tonight, the stage was not empty.
Duo, Alice and Jehan were on the stage, and Trowa assumed that they thought they were dancing.
It looked more like the rehearsal for a pornographic film.
Duo was sandwiched between them, pelvis looking fused to Alice's ass and one of his hands on her hip. Jehan looked like he was trying very hard to dry-hump Duo, one of his hands out of sight, up Duo's shirt and the other holding a beer aloft. The trio were swaying to the music, moving against each other and putting on a show that more than a few of the bar inhabitants seemed to be enjoying.
Trowa wasn't sure if he should be amused, jealous, or disgusted.
"Trowa!"
He wondered if he would ever get used to the sound of his name being called out like that, in a crowded room full of strangers, and, as always, it sent a flare of anxiety dancing along his spine.
Sven, the burly Terran from the night of the play, was waving at him.
Trowa drew in a deep breath and moved towards him.
The other man had strategically placed himself at the bar, and Trowa gratefully accepted the full pilsner that Sven pushed into his hand.
"I'm almost sorry to see you," Sven said.
Trowa arched an eyebrow at that.
It would be irritating, though hardly surprising, to learn that Sven was interested in Duo.
Trowa looked again at the stage, at Jehan, and decided to reassess his initial evaluation of him as well.
"Oh?" he tried to make it sound polite.
"Ines thought you wouldn't show, and I bet her twenty that you would."
Trowa found himself lost in the other man's logic.
"You're… sorry to make twenty dollars?"
Sven chuckled and shook his head before taking a gulp of his beer.
"No! No, the twenty is great - means I can grab a decent dinner instead of heating up ramen again. But Ines is never going to come home with me if she's in a shitty mood. She hates to lose bets."
"I see."
Trowa sipped on his beer and looked at the stage again. He wondered if he should make his presence known.
Duo looked happier than he had in weeks, and certainly Trowa had never seen this side of him.
He wondered if this Duo was the one that his classmates were used to, or if this was the culmination of sleepless weeks and anxiety coupled with manic relief at finally being finished.
Or, perhaps, it was an attempt to battle against the overwhelming depression of failure. He wasn't sure how Duo would react, if he had failed his exam.
There was, he was uncomfortably aware, a lot that he didn't know about Duo.
Strange, how knowing the other man's weaknesses and strengths in battle left Trowa thoroughly unprepared to figure him out as a civilian.
And that, he was forced to admit to himself, was part of the appeal.
Whatever song had been playing ended and another one came on, all loud bass and shouting lyrics, and the trio onstage lost interest.
There were boos from their peers, but Alice flipped a few people the V and Duo offered up a mock bow before climbing down.
Trowa lifted his glass in Sven's direction, and then nodded towards Duo.
"Oh, sure, go enjoy your drunk boyfriend while I get to deal with my pissed-off drunk girlfriend."
Trowa felt his lips tug into a sympathetic smirk. He liked Sven. The Terran was easy going, insightful, and far less full of himself than so many of the other Lit students seemed.
He made his way through the press of people until he bumped into Duo.
"Sorry, I- You came!" Duo beamed up at him, and this close Trowa could see that Duo was definitely nearly dead on his feet. Likely alcohol was the only thing keeping him upright.
"As if I could pass up the chance to use an obscure quote to call Avery an asshole."
Duo chuckled and leaned close, standing on his toes and looking as if he were about to kiss Trowa.
Trowa had never been kissed in public - not unless he counted the glowing darkness of a club, surrounded by strangers and barely on a first name basis with the man pressing against him - and he hesitated.
Duo saw it, eyes flickering over Trowa's face and grin tightening.
"'S'okay," Duo murmured, and reached out to squeeze Trowa's wrist. "Would have been a first for me too," he added with a shrug.
Which made Trowa strangely regretful.
He didn't want to unpack that thought.
"How did you do on your exam?"
Duo shrugged again, and reached for Trowa's glass.
"Mind if I have a sip?"
Trowa passed the glass over, and Duo drank it as if it were water, nearly emptying the glass.
"I think I passed. It wasn't… It…" Duo went ahead and tossed back the last of the glass. "You want to do shots?"
It was on the tip of his tongue to suggest that Duo should try shots of water, but Trowa had always prioritized self-preservation.
He kept his mouth shut and offered a shrug of his own.
Six rounds of shots later, Trowa was nursing his third beer and wondering why the hell he wasn't at home with Diana.
He had put her in the bathroom, moving anything dangerous out of jumping height and surrendering a roll of toilet paper to her determined little jaws before setting out extra food and water for her. Even so, Trowa had the suspicion that when he went home, he would find her on his bed, in a pile of ruined socks, kitchen trash can raided and library books devoured.
The shots had been accompanied by toasts, by shouts and lots of hugging, and Duo pressed against Jehan or Alice.
Trowa wasn't even aware of asking for shots, or the glasses of beer, but they seemed to magically appear in his hands as the night wore on and the crowd slowly, finally, started to thin out.
Until at last it was just a dozen of them - Duo, Jehan and Alice back on the stage - Sven and Ines slow dancing despite the tempo of the music being completely inappropriate, a few students sitting in a corner booth commiserating, and Avery. Always Avery.
He was holding court with two fresh-faced Terrans hanging onto his every word, while Avery's focus kept drifting back to Duo.
It was annoying to see another man paying as much attention to Duo as Trowa was himself. Especially when Trowa hadn't actually gotten to interact with Duo much at all.
He spent most of the night talking to Sven, Ines or groups of Lit students who wandered their way. He didn't make much of an effort, interjecting a point here or there, offering up corrections whenever conversation strayed towards the wars. He was on the periphery, a position he was comfortable with for the most part. Except where it concerned Duo.
Trowa wasn't sure how exactly he was supposed to feel about this, and not knowing made him frustrated.
He didn't mind trying new things, but he usually had the ability to research and plan.
Dating - dating Duo Maxwell, at that - didn't come with much of a field guide.
Jehan finally detached himself from Duo, paid his tab, collected his coat, and left. All without having said a word to Trowa or even making eye contact.
Trowa would definitely have to reevaluate.
It was just Alice and Duo dancing now, arms around each other and sloppy smiles on their faces, and it was almost… cute. Two young people relieved and happy and clinging to each other and those feelings.
Avery abandoned his group and moved towards the stage.
With a groan, Trowa finished his beer and dug out his wallet. He dropped down enough money to hopefully cover whatever drinks he and Duo had consumed, and then headed towards the stage as well.
Disappointingly, but predictably, Avery beat him there.
"...that place in SoHo. You coming?"
Avery was leaning against the stage, looking up at Duo with a complacent smirk.
Duo snorted and looked past Avery to Trowa.
"Hey, you ready to go home?" Duo asked the question as if they had planned to do that all along.
Trowa shrugged.
"If you are."
"Yeah, Alice was on her way out, so there's no reason to stay." Duo didn't even look at Avery as he said it.
Trowa, however, couldn't resist shooting a superior smirk at the other man. It earned him a dark-eyed glare.
Duo and Alice climbed down from the stage, leaning heavily on each other and giggling as they did so.
"Where do you live?" Trowa asked her as she and Duo, arms slung over each other's shoulders, started towards the door.
"She's in campus housing," Duo answered for her.
"I'll be fine." She straightened up once they were outside and started to walk away.
Duo and Trowa both caught up with her.
"No, no, no. You're on the way home - plus, Trowa needs to sober up."
Trowa shot Duo a look, but the other man just smirked back at him over Alice's head.
The three of them walked towards the Columbia campus, Duo and Alice singing what sounded a lot like Sweeper drinking songs to each other, voices just barely above a whisper, lyrics broken with laughter.
They watched Alice stumble up the stairs to her dorm, and then Duo turned to Trowa.
"Well. Another fucked-up night?"
At least Duo knew Trowa hadn't enjoyed it much.
"Not as bad as the other one."
Duo snorted, shook his head, and started walking north.
Trowa caught up and fell into step beside him.
"What were you going to say, earlier? When I asked about the exam?"
Duo licked his lips and tilted his head back to stare up at the night sky. It was barely visible, above the ever-present glow of the city.
"You remember the ZERO system?"
"Never heard of it."
Duo shoved his shoulder, but Trowa remained stubbornly upright.
"I, uh, didn't have the best time with it."
Trowa did remember that. Or rather, he remembered Duo's recounts of it during the war. Not as bad as Quatre's first time, but not good.
"Heero always used to say… it was like opening a data log. Like just diving into code and having binary wrapped around you like a blanket."
It was a simultaneously horrific and hilarious analogy. One that only Heero Yuy would have made.
Trowa didn't have much of a leg to stand on, he knew. The ZERO system had helped him overcome his amnesia, and while he would never ever subject himself to the system again, it had perhaps felt a little like what Heero described.
He wasn't sure what this had to do with Duo's exam, however.
"The exam… it's designed to be hard, you know? Not just difficult, but… you've got to prove you belong. Prove you know every single obscure fucking thing and that you're worth the investment of continued mentoring. People came out of it crying, Trowa. One guy just crumpled up his papers and walked out the door. It was brutal."
It sounded almost like being a test pilot while undercover with OZ.
"So it was rough?"
That had been hell for Trowa. The fear of being discovered, the juggling act of his performance as a pilot, his usefulness to Une, his objectives for the rebellion.
"No!" Duo practically shouted the word. "It's the easiest fucking thing I've ever done in my life!"
Being fluent in sarcasm, Trowa was usually very adept at picking up on it. But he couldn't tell if Duo was being facetious or not.
"It was… Tro, I sat down, I opened the blue book and I started writing, and it was all so- It was all right there," he tapped his head. "I just… Fuck. It felt amazing. I could have sat there for days taking that shit. Hell, Tro, it was fun."
Trowa wondered if the mention of the ZERO system was supposed to be a warning that Duo was currently a little unhinged.
"You didn't seem very enthusiastic, when I asked you earlier."
Duo's shoulders slumped, and he nodded.
"Yeah. No. I… I finished the exam, and I was riding so fucking high, and I just- Trowa, what if none of this shit had never happened?"
"None of what?" He asked the question cautiously, confident he didn't actually want to know the answer.
"The wars. What if- what if I'd grown up in that orphanage as a pain in the ass, and I'd spent my days reading and going to school, and- You know I used to think I was an idiot?"
"When?"
Duo shrugged.
"After I met Quatre. After I met you and Wufei. After the wars. When I was applying for college. I used to think I was good for just one thing, you know? Destruction - I could do it lots of different ways. I could fuck shit up so silently no one would even know until they woke up dead, or I could, like, blow up an entire fucking quadrant, but I… It was all I was good for. Fucking shit up."
"You were good for more than that."
Duo snorted and glared at him.
Trowa shrugged.
"You weren't an idiot when it came to chess. Well, until you let Wufei move for you."
"Let? Listen, Barton, I didn't let Wufei do shit. That- Yeah. I get it. Haha."
Trowa's attempt at levity fell flat, and they walked in silence for several minutes.
"I didn't realize, until I was in college and taking Particle Physics and Cosmology for my science requirement because I tested out of everything else, that I looked around and… and those kids were learning, they were struggling to get it. And I just sat there and… I knew it, Trowa. I used to stay after and argue with the prof all the time, and she used to load me down with all of this outside reading, and it was… Trowa, it was easy. It was like… it was like disassembling and reassembling a Beretta in the dark kind of easy, you know?"
Trowa had had moments like that himself, working in the wood shop. Moments of looking at a project and being able to piece it together perfectly in his head and then execute it.
He nodded and wondered, not for the first time, why Duo wasn't pursuing degrees in maths or science.
"I just… I got so angry, you know? Not then - today. If none of this shit had happened, I could have gone to school, I could have learned, and I… I don't know. Maybe I could have done more with my life than fuck shit up, you know?"
Once again, Trowa had to nod.
It was a different feeling for him, a different question than the one Duo wrestled with.
Trowa didn't have that point of reference in his past where, had things been different, his life might have been better. But even so, he could look back. He could question the decisions that he had made, the path he had been forced to take because of conflict and violence and necessity.
"I just… Hell, I've been in a shit mood ever since." Duo shrugged. "I should have called you and told you not to come. But I just…"
Trowa reached out for Duo, grabbing his hand and lacing their fingers together.
"I'm glad you didn't call me."
Duo snorted.
"Yeah, and you had an amazing time, didn't you?"
Trowa shrugged.
"Sven and I got into an argument about the Yankees. That wasn't so bad."
"Oh my god, you follow that shitty Terran sport?"
"I'm a shitty Terran, Duo."
"Pfft. Shitty isn't exactly how I'd describe you, Trowa."
Funny, how just those few words went a long way towards erasing the disappointment of the last few hours.
"Thanks for telling me. About today."
Duo sighed.
"Yeah, I… Well, you know, you wanted less of the avoiding shit parts."
"I did. I do."
They had made good time walking back to Duo's apartment, and when Duo started up the stairs, Trowa realized he was still holding the other man's hand.
Reluctantly, he let go.
Duo looked back at him with a frown.
"You don't want to come up?"
"I didn't realize that was an option."
Duo grinned and jerked his head towards the door.
"C'mon. You can make sure I don't end up in the wrong apartment."
Trowa arched an eyebrow, and forced himself not to ask if that had happened before.
He followed Duo into the building and impulsively reached out to take hold of his hand again.
Duo looked back at him with a smirk, and as they reached a landing on an ancient staircase, Duo pulled him close.
Their noses bumped, and Duo stood up on his toes to press a kiss to Trowa's lips.
Trowa was fairly certain the kiss was supposed to be a playful tag before they continued on, but he held Duo close when the other man started to pull away.
Duo grinned, and put one arm around Trowa's neck and the other around his waist, and leaned back in.
Trowa imagined he could still taste beer on Duo's tongue, imagined he could swallow all of the frustrations Duo had been struggling with, imagined he could find just the right way to touch Duo and make both of them forget about the past.
When they finally parted, both of them were breathing heavily, and Duo offered up a hoarse chuckle that was nearly a groan.
"Come on," he said, and tugged on Trowa's hand.
It was another three flights before they reached Duo's apartment.
Trowa knew it wasn't actually very helpful, but when Duo reached into his pocket to pull out his keys, Trowa let his hands ghost along the same path.
He smoothed over Duo's hips, thumbs looping into Duo's belt loops and pulling the other man back against him.
Duo sucked in a deep breath and leaned his head back against Trowa's shoulder.
Trowa pressed a kiss to Duo's exposed throat, and then trailed his lips and tongue up his neck.
"Fuck, Trowa," Duo groaned.
He managed to open the door, and then turned in Trowa's arms, kissing him again while pulling him inside.
Trowa kicked the door shut behind him and started tugging at Duo's clothes.
"You want something, Barton?" Duo teased as Trowa tugged Duo's shirt over his head.
"You," Trowa growled. He pulled Duo close again and splayed his hands wide on Duo's bare back.
He could feel the scars - knife wounds, shrapnel, burns. Duo's body was nothing like the men Trowa usually fucked.
He groaned and ran his hands down to Duo's ass. He squeezed, and Duo ground against him.
"I'm guessing you want to skip the tour and go straight for the bed?" Duo breathed.
"See? You're not an idiot."
Duo laughed, the sound so raw and sensual and genuine that it made Trowa momentarily forget how to breathe.
He felt Duo's nimble fingers pulling at his own clothes, and helpfully tossed his shirt aside while Duo went to work on his jeans.
Trowa stumbled out of them, following Duo into what he hoped was the bedroom, and they fell onto the bed together.
"Ow, fuck, your knee," Duo grunted, and shifted under him.
They managed to remove the rest of their clothes without incident, and then it was all exploration, Trowa learning where to touch Duo, how to make him gasp and groan and laugh, and Duo- Fuck.
It was like Duo was trying to infiltrate a base, pushing at boundaries and finding just the right spot on his first try, and Trowa wasn't used to this.
Of all the partners he had had - confident, fumbling, drunk, sober, familiar or complete strangers - no one had ever devoted quite so much attention to driving him crazy.
Duo hadn't even touched his cock yet. He was, instead, using that smirking mouth and those clever fingers to tease Trowa's nipples, his wrists, his thighs and his neck.
He could feel Duo's breath puff against his abdomen as the other man chuckled and drew a moan from Trowa and fuck.
Duo was dismantling him, stripping away everything but sensation and flooding Trowa with pleasure.
It was intense and so damn good.
He tried to keep up, tried to return all of the teasing caresses and near surgical attacks, but when Duo finally - finally - reached for his cock, Trowa gave up and let Duo have his way.
"You know, I always wondered what it would feel like to fuck you."
"Always?" Trowa could hear just how breathless he was, and it was no wonder. He groaned and clenched at the sheets as Duo dragged the flat of his tongue along the underside of Trowa's cock, down past his balls and along his perineum.
"Hmm," Duo hummed as he reversed course, sending vibrations of pleasure through the skin he encountered.
"I mean, I was fifteen and every second was borrowed time - I was horny as hell. Of course I wondered what it would be like to fuck you."
"I hope it's living up to your expect- Fuck!"
Duo swallowed his cock from tip to root in one swift motion that had Trowa arching up from the bed.
He could feel Duo laugh, and that- that was a uniquely pleasurable feeling that Trowa had never before experienced.
Trowa wished they had turned on a light, wished he could see the man between his legs, so intent on devouring him.
But he wasn't about to move or make any kinds of requests. Not when Duo was doing that, sucking and humming and his hands-
Trowa liked to think he wasn't unskilled. Had, in fact, put in the effort to become a decent lay after his first few fumbling encounters after the war.
But this-
Maybe it was the beer. Or the fact that he and Duo had been flirting their way towards this moment for weeks, but everything felt so much more intense, Duo's hands so sure and skillful as he coaxed pleasure from Trowa.
Trowa wrapped a hand in Duo's hair, keeping his grip loose, allowing Duo free reign to keep the steady, oh so perfect rhythm he had worked up to.
It was divine, the sensation of Duo's mouth moving over him, the prickle of cool air on his flesh as Duo pulled away before sinking back down again, all tight suction and heat.
And his fingers-
Duo went from fondling his balls to caressing his perineum and teasing at his anus, fingers mapping their way from one moan-inducing spot to the next.
He felt his orgasm approaching, too soon for something he never wanted to end, heavy and hot and surging from deep in his belly, and he cried out as he came.
Duo held onto him, held Trowa steady as Trowa pumped load after load down Duo's throat, and fuck.
He fell back onto the bed, and it felt like he was in zero-g. He felt heavy and weightless and completely untethered in the most blissful way possible.
"Duo," he moaned, and tugged at the other man.
The feel of his cock sliding from between Duo's lips was enough to make him moan again.
Duo moved up his body, nipping here and here and there until he was even with Trowa's face.
He pressed a kiss to the corner of Trowa's mouth.
"You rang?"
Trowa laughed and reached through the darkness for Duo.
His fingers ran over the curve of his mouth before Duo opened his lips and took a gentle bite at him.
"That was incredible."
"I aim to please." Duo released him and pressed another kiss to Trowa's lips, a slow caress that deepened, tongues sliding together as Trowa pulled him close.
"You always did have good aim."
Duo laughed again and shifted, laying his head on Trowa's chest.
"I think I had too much to drink to be any use to you otherwise," he said.
Trowa snorted a laugh. He wasn't sure how Duo was even conscious now, considering how much Trowa had seen him drink, and knowing he had certainly had a head start before that.
"No complaints here," Trowa assured him.
"Mhm. Good."
Duo threw a leg over his waist and seemed intent on falling asleep just like that, naked and tangled in the bedclothes.
"Duo."
"Mm?" He sounded exhausted, sounded already half-asleep.
"I can't stay."
That roused him quick enough.
"No. Right. Of course." Duo rolled away, defenses slamming back up, and Trowa cursed to himself.
He grabbed for Duo, finding an arm and using it to haul Duo back to him.
"I want to," he assured Duo, and pressed a kiss to his forehead, his nose, his eyelids. "But my dog is going to turn my apartment into a disaster zone if I leave her alone overnight."
Duo huffed out a laugh, and relaxed against him.
"Probably," he agreed.
"Next time, you should come to my place."
"Next time?"
"I believe I was promised 'waking up in bed naked' parts."
Duo laughed again, more humor to it this time.
Trowa sat up and pulled Duo with him.
"Help me find my clothes. And drink some water before you go to bed."
"Yes, Cathy."
-0-
