Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, past NCS
Shinigami's Lover
Front
"You are not firing him," Duo insisted as he forked his noodles around his plate in agitation.
Wu Fei sighed as he fended Kong away from his plate yet again and looked hard at Heero. "It seems that I wasted time preparing dinner. Argument does not make a good sauce."
Heero glared back. "The man has a definite reason to hate Gundam pilots. I don't want to risk him working on our home."
"Half the Earthsphere has a beef with Gundam pilots, Heero!" Duo protested hotly. "You can't fire all of them! So, he gets hot under the collar when we're around. That doesn't make him a bad guy. We've learned to live with it. I've learned to live with it. If you want him fired because of me, that makes it even worse. It means that you still don't trust me to-"
"This isn't about trust!" Heero snapped back. "It's about a man who dislikes us working on something that we both love. You may want to tolerate him, but I don't!"
Soda padded over to Duo, ears cocked and alert, not liking Heero's tone.
"Green, Soda," Duo murmured absently and ran a hand through Soda's thick ruff.
"Okay," Duo tempered. "This is about you. I can accept that. So, you want to go through everyone's background and weed out every man and woman who's had Oz or Alliance ties as well? We may be building our house all by ourselves then."
Heero's jaw worked and then he sat back and sighed.
"We can't hide from what we are," Wu Fei said solemnly.
"It won't hurt to double check everyone's work, though... if you want to?" Duo suggested and then grinned as Heero looked as if he had been handed a compromise that he could accept.
"And you will be there to watch each other's backs," Wu Fei pointed out as he dished a second helping of sesame beef onto his plate.
"And Mr. Hulitt can keep an eye out for funny business, too," Duo added. "Hell, he'll enjoy having something to do. He's been bored since we haven't been around to make things interesting."
Heero suddenly chuckled and nodded. "Now I know how it feels..."
Duo cocked his head. "Huh?"
Heero gave him a heart felt look, "Having people attempt to calm your paranoia."
Duo laughed and Wu Fei looked amused.
"We're big bad Preventers and ex Gundam pilots," Duo reminded him as he reached for more noodles. "Most people would pee in their pants rather than mess with us."
Wu Fei pulled the plate of noodles out of reach and Duo glared. "Enough," Wu Fei warned.
"I still have room," Duo complained.
"You always think that you do," Wu Fei admonished him, "but, if you insist, we won't clean up the product of your lack of judgment."
Duo made a face and let Wu Fei move the plate. Soda gave him warm, soulful eyes. Duo snorted as he pulled what was left of his noodles away from the dog. "Not on your life. This is mine."
Soda whuffled in disappointment.
"Since arguments are now out of the way," Duo began, "maybe we should think up a schedule for working on the house? Two hours after work, sound good. We could get some big lights and work longer, well, until the electricity gets turned back on."
Heero frowned. "Duo, it will take time, you realize? We have duties that require us to be alert. We can't work ourselves to exhaustion."
"Okay, okay," Duo groused.
"I mean that," Heero stressed. "If I see you cutting out early or leaving to work there during lunch hours, I'll put a stop to the entire thing."
Duo grumbled, "You're not my boss."
Wu Fei made an exasperated sound. "Let's agree on two hours every day, after work, and continue with our meal, please."
Duo gave Wu Fei a sideways look. "You sound like you're offering to help."
Wu Fei blushed a little, uncomfortable. "If that's acceptable? It has been my home as well."
Duo went thoughtful and then nodded. "It always will be," he replied. "You know you're always welcome there, right Fei?"
Wu Fei bowed slightly and then concentrated on his meal.
Duo exchanged a look with Heero and they both smiled as they began to eat as well.
He didn't complain, but it was work both of them weren't used to. Duo sweated
and talked animatedly, but Heero went at the task of redoing the plumbing with
a scowl. Both of them had their way of dealing with a sense of being overwhelmed
by something as mundane as piecing pipe together and worrying about pee traps
and drain elevations. Mr. Hulitt made an appearance now and again and gave his
advice, but he wasn't up to the grueling physical requirements. Wu Fei, though
very willing to help, was as much at a loss as they were.
Duo shoved back stray strands of hair, that had escaped his bandana, as he sat on the dust covered floorboards and tried to glue two pipes together with frustrated concentration.
"No, wrong size," Heero pointed out as he leaned down to get the right one from a large pile of them. Too late, he realized that he had not made his position known in advance. Duo's elbow caught him in the face in a wicked backward movement.
"Shit, Heero!" Duo exclaimed as soon as he realized that the man, crouching on his knees and gripping his face with both hands, was not an enemy. "Are you okay?"
Heero had his eyes closed as he tried to breathe through the pain. Duo had just missed his nose, but his nerves were telling him that his cheek would sport a very large bruise in short order.
"Heero?!" Duo exclaimed again, hands gripping Heero's shirt anxiously. "Please tell me that I didn't break your nose?"
Heero opened his eyes and sat back, letting his hands fall so that Duo could see the livid mark on his face. "I was stupid," Heero managed.
"And as tired as I am," Duo added. He pulled Heero into an embrace. "Sorry," he whispered. "Maybe we should call it a day?"
Heero kept himself very still in that embrace, remembering during the war how an episode like that one would have sent Duo into madness for days afterward. "Let's finish up this part," he suggested. "It's nearly done."
Duo let Heero go, perhaps more high strung now than he was revealing, and nodded.
"Excuse me? Sirs?"
Heero and Duo both looked up to find the angry man backing away from the doorway to let Harri slide past.
Duo felt a sharp chill, wondering how long the man had been watching them, but he didn't have time to note anything but a sour expression, as the man turned and went back to his work, and Harri filled up the room with his vivacious nature.
"Oh, plumbing!" Harri beamed. "It must be so nice to be so handy!" Dressed in a three piece suit with shiny black shoes, he looked less like a man servant and more like someone about to go to a dinner club. He gave them a small bow and continued, "I was in the neighborhood and thought that I would stop in to see how the construction was going. I perused the blue prints, and I must say, you do have an innovative design for the kitchen, minimulism at it's best. May I, though, interject a few upgrades to the mix that would make it far easier to cook food for you, rather than resuscitate freeze dried meals?"
"There is a stove and-" Duo began, rather glad that Harri wasn't making him nervous.
"A stove?" Harri looked amused. "That is a hot plate. We will need six burners, a grill, and a warming tray, at the very least."
Heero smirked, noting the 'we'. "There is only the two of us," he pointed out.
Harri rolled eyes. "And Mr. Wu Fei, Mr. Hulitt, and Sally Po. Mr. Winner and Mr. Barton have also expressed a wish to visit. I would hate to do less than my best when you are entertaining."
Duo was still too nervous to laugh, but the amusement was there. "All right, Harri. I suppose if we go all out on cabinets, we shouldn't do less with the stove."
"And the refrigerator," Harri pushed boldly. "The other one never did work properly."
Duo felt a moment of intense remembrance at that. They had discovered that the old refrigerator had managed to hold up a fallen beam, one that would have collapsed part of the roof on to them. It seemed a disservice to let it go to the landfill after that, but it had been bent beyond repair.
"Okay, okay!" Duo sighed. "Make a list, Harri, and we'll see what our bank account can stand."
"Oh, thank you, sirs!" Harri beamed. "You won't regret it."
Harri leaned suddenly, plucked a random pipe from the pile, took up glue and a new pipe bend, and put them together with expert quickness. "That should work," he told Duo and gingerly handed it to him as he brushed his hands together to get off any residual dirt. "I'll leave you to your work, then, sirs. Good day, and thank you. I'll be eager to return to your service soon."
They were given another bow, but Harri paused as he almost went out of the re-framed doorway. "That man that was here, sirs. Be careful. He has a look about him..." and then he was gone.
Heero gave Duo a pointed look. His face was growing a colorful bump.
Duo frowned as he picked up more pipes. "Okay, so you're both right. Let's tell the foreman to let the guy go."
"Good," Heero grunted as he picked up the glue.
"Done," Duo breathed as he stepped back from their handiwork. "Okay,
Heero, turn on the water."
Duo grimaced expectantly as Heero turned the shut off valve. As water rushed into the bathroom plumbing, they both waited for disaster.
"It's holding," Heero said with a grin and then reached out to give Duo a brief hug. Duo accepted it, even going so far as to lean in and give Heero a small kiss. With the workmen gone for the day, they were alone in their triumph.
"That's sweet," a voice sneered and they both whirled.
Duo had only a split second to register the gun in the man's hand before his foot was in motion, coming around and hitting the man's wrist with bone breaking force. The man howled, clutching it, his gun spinning across the unfinished flooring. Heero scooped it up smoothly and aimed it at the man.
"Don't move," Heero warned unnecessarily.
It was the man that they had fired. Face twisted in a grimace of pain, he didn't seem defeated in the least. "Doesn't matter," he said through gritted teeth. "You can't get away fast enough, anyway."
Heero pressed his gun to the man's forehead. "What are you talking about?"
The man shrugged and grinned. "Name's Byron, Tony Byron. I suppose you don't know the name, being mass murderers and all, but a few of those people you murdered meant everything to me. I don't mind dying to get payback for them."
"A bomb?" Duo guessed, eyes flicking about in search of it. "Timer? Pressure button?"
Byron snickered. "If it were a pressure button, you'd be dead already. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't get away before it goes off. I didn't expect you to finish so soon, though. I was ready to sacrifice for the war, guess I have to do it now too to make sure you get blown up."
"You are not fucking blowing up my house!" Duo shouted and twisted Byron's broken wrist up behind the man's back, making him scream. "I sweated too much over these fucking little pipe fittings to do it all over again! Tell me where the bomb is or I'll make your last minutes hell!"
Byron was sobbing in pain, but he snarled," Why not? Won't matter. You've got less than a minute."He jerked his chin behind him. "It's in the drywall in the living room. Next to the fireplace."
Heero was already in motion. He snatched up a board, cracked it until it made a point, and then rushed into the living room. Duo followed him, still twisting Byron's broken wrist and making him scream. As Heero began ripping into drywall with his stick, Byron sobbed, "Why aren't you stopping? I told you where it was!"
Duo wrenched on the wrist again, and Byron screamed, as he snarled back, "I decided to make your last seconds hell anyway!"
"Got it!" Heero called.
Duo shoved Byron into Heero's arms and pulled out a small flashlight that he had been using for the plumbing. Sticking the end between his teeth, he aimed it at the bomb, nestled in the insulation. He snickered in the next moment, reached in, and defused it.
"Amature," Duo growled as he turned back to Heero and Byron.
Byron was wide eyed, stunned. "You- You defused it?"
"Since we aren't in burned chunks right now, yeah," Duo replied. He slammed a fist into his palm and approached Byron. "Now, we're going to call Preventers and have you put away for a long time, but, before that, I'm going to make you sorry you-"
Heero shook his head. "Duo..."
Duo scowled. "Come on, Heero, he almost blew up our house!"
"But he didn't, so follow regs, okay?" Heero insisted.
Duo growled and turned away as he snatched out his cell phone. "All right, but now we have to redo the drywall and slog through paperwork on account of him. I think-" A shout of pain from Byron, made Duo turn back around. Heero was looking at him innocently, but Byron looked as if he had taken a blow to the gut.
Duo frowned, and then snickered, as he went back to his phone call.
After Preventers arrived and took the man into custody, ranting and raving about murderers, Duo and Heero were left, once again, in the gathering gloom of evening with their half finished home. They stood in silence, looking around them, and then leaned into each other, arms going about each other's waist.
"I hated that," Duo whispered finally.
Heero wanted to tighten his grip on Duo in comfort, but knew better.
"The war is over. I don't want it in my home," Duo continued.
"We kept it out," Heero replied. "Both of us."
Duo looked at Heero and gave him a grim smile, that was crumbling at the edges. "Bodies are easier to keep out than the past. We are murderers. That guy-"
Heero cut him off, saying firmly, "Duo, we can only live our lives now."
"Sometimes," Duo admitted guiltily, "I don't think we really deserve to."
Heero looked concerned, pained, and then he admitted, "I've thought the same... yet... "He let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "I want to live it."
Duo managed a truer smile. "I do too."
"Then let's do that," Heero replied and motioned to the house. "Here, together, without the past as a roommate."
"I'll try," Duo breathed and then leaned into Heero. "So, what's next, Heero the Plumber?"
"The kitchen," Heero replied, "and more plumbing."
Duo snickered, "Maybe we should consider it for a second job?"
"Like hell, Little Baka," Heero snorted, "I already have a second job."
Duo's eyes widened "What's that?"
"A Preventer agent," Heero replied.
Duo blinked, confused "What's your first job, then?"
Heero smiled tenderly, "Why you, of course."
Duo laughed and leaned in for a deep kiss.
___________________________________________________
"Ready?" Heero asked.
Duo stared at the open doorway of their finished home as if mesmerized.
"Should I carry you across the threshold?" Heero wondered with a grin.
Duo scowled. "No, asshole! I just want this to be special."
Soda and the Akita puppies ran past them, skidding on the tiles of the entryway. Duo ran after them, shouting, "Out back, monsters! You are not ruining my house!"
Heero sighed and chuckled as he followed. They had worked hard on the house, right up until completion, but they hadn't been there for the carpet and tile installation, or for the paint to go onto the walls. Heero had to admit that the light coral flowed nicely into the warmer tones of the hallway and the living room. The white kitchen showed off blue countertops and white cabinets nicely, and the mosaic, of blue and gray tiles, was a perfect accent. It seemed that Duo really did have a talent for decorating.
Heero found Duo standing in another doorway, the one to the backyard. The dogs were cavorting and playing tug of war with a found painter rag, while Duo looked on, as if lost in another world.
"Love?" Heero asked as he carefully picked up the end of Duo's braid and kissed it.
"This is the same," Duo replied, as if holding in great emotion. "Just like we left it... well, except for the really nice kennel. I was afraid that it wouldn't feel like home any more."
Heero slowly melded himself to Duo's back and slipped arms loosely around him. He couldn't fight the tears in his own eyes. "Where ever you are, Love, that's home for me, but... it's good to be here, with you, again."
Duo turned, eyes damp, and they simply held each other for a long while. When the dogs tried to come back inside, they had their hands full preventing them. Getting them settled in their kennel, was the next step and then they spent the rest of the day unpacking the few boxes that contained what was left of their worldly possessions.
It was sad, seeing what was left of their lives, but there was an understanding, too, that they would be making memories again. When each item had been lovingly put in its place, they turned, as one, and faced the stairs.
"You don't have to feel..." Heero began, but then tried again when Duo looked stricken. "I know that you're probably feeling... vulnerable. I can sleep down stairs, tonight."
Duo smiled and pulled Heero close. "I am nervous, but I want to sleep with you, all right?"
Heero wasn't a coward, but sleeping with Duo, when he was on edge, was a dangerous idea. His lover was hard to judge, just then. Heero wasn't sure whether Duo was nervous because of the strangeness of the remodeling, the smell of new paint, and carpet, or simply excited about finally being home. Misreading Duo's mood could be deadly.
"It's really all right," Duo insisted and pulled Heero up the stairs by one hand.
Finding their new bed and dresser, looking showroom perfect, was something that Duo had to remedy. He tossed off his shirt onto the dresser, and then yanked the blankets about on the bed and wrinkled them. His socks and pants were next, landing in untidy heaps on the floor.
Smiling, Heero was more conservative. He took off everything, except his underwear, and draped them on the end of the dresser. Facing Duo, then, he waited for his lover's lead.
Duo came forward, seductively, and slipped a finger into the waistband of Heero's underwear. Pulling it away from Heero's skin, Duo looked inside, as if finding something interesting, and asked, "Got something for me in there, Love?"
Heero couldn't deny the swelling, but he knew better than to do anything other than stand still and let Duo do as he wished. When Duo's finger pulled his underwear down, and let his passion spring free, he couldn't help a gasp. That gasp turned into a groan, as Duo bent over and took it in his mouth.
Heero almost exploded, time and time again, as Duo sucked and teased him, but he held himself in tight control and waited, knowing that Duo might stop, or might go further than he had dreamed possible that night.
"Want you," Duo whispered as he left off and straightened, letting Heero bob free, drooling with thwarted desire. "Just you. Only you. Always you." He said the litany as he loosed his hair, fingered it out of it's braid and then bent over the side of the bed. Looking back at Heero, he begged, "Come on."
Duo was hard, his balls blushing pink between his legs, and his face flushed with desire as he looked over his shoulder at Heero. Heero was wary, but Duo had made him want past all caution.
"Fuck me," Duo groaned and lifted his hips, offering.
"Love," Heero insisted. "I want to make love to you, Duo. I want to see your face. I want you riding me."
Heero stretched out, carefully, on his back on the bed, and held his swollen cock straight, offering it to Duo. Duo crawled on to the bed after him, and it was then that Heero saw his tension, saw that his offer had been a form of thanks for everything that he loved, for the house, for their lives together. Heartfelt, but a sheathe over turmoil, over nervousness, over a sense that this safe place, wasn't so safe with it's smell of new paint, and new furniture.
The dance was old and familiar, and Heero knew all the steps. He prepared himself and Duo, watching his love for the slightest reluctance, and ready to defend against any violent movement, even when Duo settled onto him with a groan of pleasure.
It felt good to cry out, to let loose all restraint, and not be afraid of disturbing Wu Fei. The rocking of the bed, the thump of the headboard against the wall, and both their sounds of pleasure, were unfettered. When they both came, it was perfection, the tender kisses and caresses,after, a dessert after fine wine.
"We're home," Duo murmured against Heero's collarbone.
"Home," Heero agreed with a soft smile of contentment.
"Let's have a party here, for everyone, to celebrate," Duo suggested, his hand questing low on Heero's belly.
"That's a good idea," Heero replied, and then gasped as Duo's hand did something wicked. "Not tomorrow, though. Maybe the day after."
"Yes, the day after," Duo agreed with a throaty chuckle. "I have plans with you tomorrow, Love of mine, all day plans."
"All day," Heero echoed, pleased. "Tonight as well, I hope?"
Duo smirked. "Are you up to it?" he asked as he squeezed hardness.
"Definitely," Heero replied.
"Then let's christen the bedroom again." Duo suggested as he slid on top of Heero and lowered himself down.
The End... for now. ^_^
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