Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't make any money off of this and I don't own them.
Warning:Male/male sex.graphic, language, violence, attempted NCS
Soldier Boys
sequel to Interlude
Romancing Duo
"I just want out of this bed," Duo grumbled. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes were glaring at Heero.
Heero was used to the glare. He ignored it as he picked books and magazines off the floor, food containers, and the small bits of trash around a trash can.
"If you were well enough, you wouldn't have missed," Heero pointed out as he began arranging his burden neatly and putting the garbage into the trash can.
Duo's glare became more intense. "I wasn't trying to get them into the trash can," he pointed out angrily. "Give me my shorts, Yuy, or, I swear, I'll walk around nude and you guys can just kiss my ass."
Heero finished and sat down in the chair by the bed. "There's nothing wrong with getting up and walking, with help," he told Duo, "But you intend to do more than that. When you promise me that you will restrict yourself, then we'll let you out of bed."
"I need to get the hell back in shape!" Duo snarled. "I have a war to fight!"
"Three days is not enough time for your stitches and your inner tissue to heal," Heero suddenly growled and he gave Duo a glare of his own.
"Oz isn't going to have a lock down on the city forever," Duo shot back. "What's going to happen when they give up and we have to move out of here? You aren't going to drag a useless soldier along with you!"
"We will," Heero told him. "You are not useless. You will heal and pilot again. You are necessary to the war."
"Are you sure?" Duo wondered. "Who's talking? The perfect soldier or the guy who has the hots for his fellow pilot?"
Heero stood as if his chair had given him a jolt. He was stiff, face dark and blue eyes like molten lava; furious. Duo watched him regain control with an effort and then he replied, "I know that you are frustrated. I know that you want to get back into the war as badly as we do. Harming yourself further, by trying to do more than your body can withstand, will not achieve your goal, it will only kill you."
Duo slumped into the mattress and he sighed. "Sorry, man. Guess..." He plucked dispiritedly at the blankets. "I guess I just feel useless and... I kind of wonder if I didn't do a permanent number on myself and that I WON'T get better. I don't think I could handle not being able to fight anymore."
Heero nodded, understanding that kind of fear. "You've had too much time to think. If you promise to limit yourself, I can take you to the other parts of the suite."
Duo smiled wanly, but conceded, "Okay, I promise," but then his smile faltered and he wondered, "Why do you take my shit, Heero?"
"I don't," Heero replied and then more gently, "You do always apologize afterward."
Duo smirked. "I'm an apologetic bastard, then."
Heero raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like Quatre."
Duo nodded sheepishly. "I heard him use it when he was talking about Zechs Marquise. The man is always so polite and sorry as he's ordering troops to destroy you. An apologetic bastard."
Heero nodded thoughtfully. "It fits."
"Jealous?" Duo teased, but deep down, wondered if Heero was.
Heero's mouth tightened as he gave Duo a pair of white shorts and helped him put them on. Duo was free of the IV lines now, so it was simple for Heero to put arms under him and lift him up. He suddenly leaned in and nuzzled Duo's neck, giving him a small kiss along the line of his jaw. "Who's arms are more preferable?" Heero asked. "His or mine?"
"He is pretty damned handsome," Duo teased, unable to help a blush, but, realizing that Heero wasn't getting the joke, he amended quickly, "But you're even better looking. You win the 'carrying Duo around' award hands down."
Heero smiled then, satisfied, and Duo thought about the intense competition those two men always seemed to be in. What was it that drove them both so crazy? Why did they have to strive to be better than each other? Duo didn't care about being better than anyone, he just wanted to be ABLE to do the jobs required of him so that he could win the war and get his revenge. Worrying about beating out a fellow soldier just seemed stupid.
"All right?" Heero worried as he began carrying Duo out of his bedroom.
"Yeah," Duo replied. "It doesn't really hurt much now, unless I pull on the muscles there."
"You do heal fast." Heero was impressed.
"Just give me a couple of square meals a day, and a little down time, and Duo Maxwell will overcome anything," Duo replied proudly.
"Heero?" Quatre was suddenly by their side looking worried. He was dressed in a loose shirt and a pair of blue shorts. Duo couldn't remember ever seeing him look so informal.
"What's the occasion?" Duo wondered with a grin to prove to Quatre that he was all right.
Quatre looked confused and then chuckled when he realized that Duo was referring to his clothes. "These rooms were for executives and their families to stay during business meetings. There were some things left here."
"Walking on the wild side," Duo joked. When they reached a sitting area with a large entertainment array. Duo glared at Quatre and Heero. "Okay, why the hell couldn't I come in here before?"
"You wouldn't promise to take it easy," Heero told him as he lowered him on the black leather couch, "and you were only unhooked from your IVs this morning. It wouldn't have been practical."
Duo reached out with one hand. "Remote!" Quatre laughed and gave it to him. Duo turned on the vid screen and watched as the 3d images appeared. He immediately began flipping channels.
"I wasn't sure about this," Quatre said to Heero, "But I have the feeling that he won't be trying to move from the couch any time soon."
Heero grunted in agreement as he sat down close to Duo. "I'm going to make sure that he doesn't."
Quatre left them, then, and Duo tried to get comfortable. He hadn't been sitting up for long stretches and the couch was harder than his bed. As he found a movie that he liked, and adventure vid, he began to feel some pain and weariness. There was only one way of relieving both problems. Duo felt Heero stiffen as he took up a small pillow, put it into Heero's lap, and then stretched out on the couch with his head on the pillow. Being out of that room and connected to the outside world again, via the vid screen, was worth being found in a such a compromising position.
"Don't mind, do you, Heero?" Duo wondered, feeling embarrassed and uncertain.
Heero took a moment to respond and to relax. "No, not al all, "came his soft reply and Duo kept his eyes on the vid screen, almost afraid to look up and see an echoing softness in Heero's eyes. He still didn't feel ready for a romance and all that implied, but, when Heero's hand brushed the hair from his eyes and then came to rest protectively on his shoulder, it felt good, so good, that his reluctance began to dissolve. What was so wrong? A small voice inside of him asked. Nothing, he answered it, nothing about Heero was wrong. Then why fight it? the voice demanded. Duo knew the truth and he couldn't lie to himself. I'm scared, he knew, because I don't know what to do, how to be in love with someone, how to... he thought of sex with Heero and felt his gut tighten, not in disgust, but in fear for the unknown. What would it be like? Would it hurt? What was involved? What if he hurt Heero? What would happen if.... He just didn't know. How to be in love? How to have sex? Was any of it right at his age, especially during war?
"I don't know either," Heero suddenly said.
Duo did look at him then and found Heero looking, not sad or disappointed, but amused. "How'd you know what I was thinking about?"
"You're trembling and you're scowling," Heero told him and his hand smoothed along Duo's face. "You don't have to worry. I won't pressure you. We'll learn what to do together."
"And how did you get so smart about it?" Duo wondered. "I don't think that 'How to love your fellow soldier' is in the handbook."
Heero shrugged. "Lessons aren't necessary. Everyone is different. We need to explore and learn about each other."
Duo turned back to the vid screen and felt himself melting under Heero's caresses. Being touched like that was answering a desire he never knew that he had. It needed a response from him, he felt, it couldn't all be one sided. Heero was wearing shorts and his large, steel toed yellow shoes. His knees were scarred and his long, strong legs were corded with muscle and lightly dusted with dark hairs. Duo tentatively reached out and traced a scar with one finger. He felt Heero shiver and heard him draw in a strained breath. So much power in so small a touch, Duo thought and felt a warmth spread through him to know that he could give Heero that kind of pleasure. He kept caressing that scar and then moved on to another one.
"That feels good," Heero breathed.
"Ditto," Duo replied with a smile. He resisted the urge to turn and answer another need, a need for a kiss from Heero. He continued to watch the vid show instead, drawing an invisible line and knowing that he was doing the right thing. Go slow, he told himself, learn your new territory. Heero was right about that.
Wu Fei came into the room and sat down. He pulled his legs up into his chair and sat cross legged, back straight, and eyes watching the vid screen curiously. Duo let his hand drop as if it had been burned and he tried to sit up. Heero held him down.
"Don't," he said simply, almost under his breath.
Wu Fei looked over at them, raised one, black eyebrow, and then turned his attention back to the vid screen. There was disapproval in the tilt of his chin, but Duo had the feeling that it was more about such an open display of their 'interest' in one another than any disgust at the fact that they were.
"May I watch a news show?" Wu Fei asked. "Colony news?"
Duo didn't want to do that. He wanted to escape into a vid show fantasy and enjoy his closeness with Heero. He found himself choosing the right station though and resigning himself. Wu Fei inclined his head slightly in thanks. Duo found himself studying the young man.
It had seemed so simple not a few weeks ago. Make friends with everyone, make a team, and make a new 'family' for himself, a new gang to be a part of. In his wildest dreams, that plan had not included, finding out that two team mates were lovers, discovering that he was gay, falling in love with Heero Yuy, and suddenly having to figure out sex and a relationship at fifteen in the middle of a war. Wu Fei had seemed like his biggest challenge, someone who would fight tooth and nail not to be a part of their team. Duo had not expected the man to be the least of his worries.
What was he thinking? Duo wondered. Was he just waiting to get away from them all? Duo wouldn't blame him. He thought about getting up again, not wanting to make Wu Fei any more uncomfortable. They needed to stay a team. If ever there was a reason for keeping some discrete distance from Heero, at least in public, this was one of them. They needed Wu Fei and his Gundam too badly to drive him away by being a 'couple' in his face.
"I think the cramp is gone, Heero, you can sit me up again," Duo said and thought that it sounded lame in his own ears. "Thanks for rubbing it out for me."
He tried not to see Heero's frown, but he supposed that Heero understood. He didn't object again as he helped Duo sit up in the corner of the couch against some cushions. Duo smiled for him and surreptitiously caressed him briefly along a strong arm. Duo realized with a start, as Heero suddenly looked warmly at him, that he had unconsciously copied the covert, yet intimate caress that he had seen Trowa use on Quatre. Duo understood it then. There were rules to this game of courtship, of togetherness. A person didn't go all the way in front of people. There were... nuances. It went against Duo's all or nothing personality, but, when he looked at Wu Fei he could see, even though the young man was still watching the vid screen as if oblivious to anything else, that he had relaxed and wasn't sitting so ramrod straight any longer.
My Gundam, Duo thought, deep space, away from everyone and every headache. He wanted so badly to put off becoming an adult, and all that meant, until after the war.
Heero was watching him, slight frown on his face, but his eyes were full of concern. Duo wondered if Heero could see his inner cowardice on his face, his unwillingness to cope.
Heero suddenly leaned very close, reaching for a magazine on the coffee table and pausing in that position as if looking at the cover. He whispered, so low that Duo almost couldn't hear. "You told me," Heero reminded him, "to not forget to be human and that we were allowed to be, even though we might have to fight and die in this war."
Heero straightened with the magazine. He put it in his lap and began reading.
Heero still thought that Duo was thinking about his duty. He didn't realize that Duo was struggling, like anyone else his age, to deal with a suddenly complex life. It was hard to go from, depend on yourself, live and die for the cause, and have a little fun once in awhile, to treading the turbulent and murky waters of a relationship and how it effected himself and everyone else around him. If they had been alone, even partnered operatives, it would have been a little easier. How could he learn what he wanted and what was right for himself and Heero when he had to worry about...
Duo let out a long breath and snorted. Heero looked at him in concern, but Duo smiled at him. Duo suddenly knew what was tying him in knots. He was trying to come at things in a way that wasn't natural for him. He wasn't Trowa or Quatre. Discrete, subtle, and sweet just wasn't Duo Maxwell.
"Uh, Chang," Duo said abruptly and Wu Fei looked at him with a slightly arched black eyebrow. "Does it bother you that me and Heero are... well, you know, hooked up together?"
"It is unwise when all of our dedication should be to the war," Wu Fei replied, his eyes going back to the vid screen. "But I have seen that it doesn't effect your fighting ability or your honor. That is all I care about." He paused, but then added, "I am not comfortable with ANY open displays, though. It is.... unseemly."
"Because of us both being guys..." Duo finished for him, but Wu Fei was shaking his head.
"No, because open displays are unseemly... for any kind of.... couple," Wu Fei corrected him tightly. "May we not speak of this now?"
"Just wanted to make sure we weren't grossing you out enough to want to leave," Duo explained.
Wu Fei scowled then, his hands going into fists. "I stay as long as my fight benefits from partnering with your group. My likes or dislikes are irrelevant."
Duo stared at him, watching those black, liquid eyes of Wu Fei's reflect something other than the images on the vid screen. "No, they aren't," Duo told him firmly and Wu Fei blinked. "Tell me right now if.. if us ... being together... bothers you. We can, you know, not-"
"Maxwell," Wu Fei growled. "What you do outside of fighting, doesn't interest me."
"I'm trying to be nice here!" Duo complained.
Wu Fei did look at him then, face tight and angry. "It is not something that I require!" He stood up then and walked out of the room.
Duo slumped. "What the-! I was just...." He trailed off and scowled. "That guy has a stick a mile long up his butt."
Heero suddenly laughed and Duo looked at him incensed. Heero always laughed low and deep, as if he were trying to lock it down and keep it from giving him away. It was still a nice sound and Duo found himself smiling back despite himself.
"So," Duo groused, "What's so funny?"
Heero quieted and then said with warm feeling. "You always charge straight in to everything."
"Yeah, I do," Duo agreed, sudden serious, "But that's me. I think I've been getting tied into knots because I've been embarrassed and off balance. I've been wondering what other people think of me, of us, and that's not ME at all. Screw everyone else."
"Then what was that about Wu Fei, if you don't care what other people think?" Heero wondered, confused.
Duo grinned. "I don't care what they think, but I do care about how they feel. Besides, we need an unpissed off Wu Fei to help us with the missions. I'm going to be myself, but I don't have to rub his nose in it if he doesn't like it."
Heero put aside his magazine and looked amused as he carefully took Duo into his arms and let Duo rest against him. "You realized that is a complete contradiction?"
"That's my middle name!" Duo chuckled as he began changing channels again, "Get used to it."
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