Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ All The Pretty Things ❯ Chapter 1

All The Pretty Things

Pairings : 2x1x5
Rating : heavy R
Warnings : Yaoi, romance, lemon, mild angst
Disclaimer : Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu. Not me.

Summary : A 1x2x5 threesome story. Lemon/Angst/Romance indulgent! Our three men enjoy one another and reminisce about the past.

A/N : Uhm, this is the first time I'm doing a 1x2x5 piece that is actually...a REAL threesome and not a love triangle or something, LOL. Hope you enjoy. ^^

"Heero."

"Hm?"

"Do you remember how it started?"

One half of the entwined limbs and bodies stirred as the Japanese man pulled away just that slightly to look at his lover. "Why do you ask?"

Still cocooned in Heero's arms, the chestnut-haired, pale-skinned figure of Duo Maxwell shook with quiet laughter. "Should I be proud that I *knew* you'd answer a question with another one? You never used to be that way though..."

Heero tilted his head. His hair, still rakish and untameable even now, fell into his intense cobalt blue eyes as he digested Duo's words. He appeared to be confused, boyishly adorable so in his seriousness, as he finally shook his head once. "I don't understand. You said I never used to be - "

"Heero!" Duo broke him off with a loud guffaw. He straightened abruptly, twisting around in Heero's arms so his violet eyes were sparkling at Heero in amusement. "This is exactly what I mean. Before, you'd never question anything. Look at you now." His laughter subsided into a soft, contented fondness that shone in his expression in such a way only the intended recipient would be able to tell. "I can see him in you."

"So can I." The reply was swift, sure, and so simple it was followed by a surprised silence.

"Really..." Duo's full-lipped mouth quirked in a wry smile. "I suspected that as well. Heero...do you think people see us in him too?"

"I hope so." Heero said with an absolutely straight face. "Specifically your eternal optimism, and my restraint." The by now cast-in-stone hardness of his face softened as Duo's lips found his own, and they kissed slowly.

"Heero." Duo said against his mouth when they pulled apart just a little. "Do you remember how it started?"

A fond - or as fond as Heero would ever allow himself to look - expression settled on Heero's features, before he nodded. "Yes."

"Me too."

"I can't believe he said that to us." Duo rolled his eyes at the memory, but already, his lips were curling into an indulgent grin.

"But it worked for him." Heero reminded.

"For all of us, you mean."

The clicks at the door brought Duo and Heero's heads turning towards the source of the noise. The sound of a keycard being slotted down the reader, and the key turning in the lock, before the door slid open, and a figure stepped silently forth.

It was decided long ago between Heero and Duo that one their favourite moments was when the eyes fell on an unguarded expression, or an unadulterated emotion, or the face when all masks were down. And at this fleeting point, it was beautiful just watching as their lover emerging from the darkness of the hallway into the shadowed light of the living area.

Obsidian eyes blinked in surprise, not the least by finding that two other pairs of eyes, one violet and the other deep-blue, but both bearing the identical emotion that came so close to what could be love, fixed so intently on him.

Toast-coloured lips twitched in half-surprise, half-awkwardness, before they lifted and Chang Wufei smiled a smile that reflected answering warm gazes from his two lovers.

"I'm home," he said.

It was already eleven when he returned to the apartment. He was quiet, taking care not to disturb either of his lovers, knowing that Heero liked to sleep early and Duo preferred to work late into the night when he could concentrate.

It made him pause in surprise, when he saw the two men curled up on the couch instead. It almost made him hesitate, the intensity of their gazes on him. But he recognised the intensity as something that was the closest to love that any of them could ever manage in this lifetime.

Wufei wondered briefly if they knew what he was thinking right now, and if they knew how much of their intersecting memory's lane he had been traversing just moments earlier. He smiled at them. "I'm home."

"Whatcha standing there for? C'mere."

Wufei's smile turned dry at Duo's very demanding tone. "No thanks." He pretended he didn't hear the flamboyant man's sputtering that followed as he shrugged off his blazer.

"Wufei."

The Chinese man only shook his head at Heero's command, ignoring the flare of something warm and almost electrifying in his insides, when he accidentally caught sight of the *looks* on both of his lovers' faces.

"Don't look at me like that, you two." Wufei began walking to the hallway leading to the inner rooms, exceedingly careful to keep a distance so even *if* they were to pounce, he could make a decent run for it. "I need a bath, I *will* have a bath, and both of you should go to bed."

"With you?"

Ignoring that blatant overture, Wufei trotted into the safety of the bathroom, before loosing the chuckle that was already bubbling up his throat. And when he heard the colourful response from Duo and Heero's snort, he had to laugh again.

He hummed a random tune under his breath as he ran the water and poured a little of foam solution into the tub. It hadn't been long since he first felt so light-hearted but it was something he could get really used to. From the first day they had started living together, it was like the heaviest burden had been lifted from his shoulders. And his heart.

Taking his time, he peeled off the scratchy shirt he had on, relieved to be free of it at last. His pants and underwear were just as quickly discarded. And of all these, he folded neatly on the counter. It was a habit that he couldn't really get rid of.

His reverie was rudely interrupted with strangely familiar sounds. Wufei raised his head sharply, instantly alert. What was that? The sounds were getting louder, and they were coming from...

Rounded obsidian eyes darted towards the source.

The door.

Or rather, the door being *picked*.

His head snapped up sharply at the same moment it swung open.

"You take bubble baths?" Violet eyes widened in comical amazement.

"Yes. And perhaps you won't be so surprised if you didn't just barge in here." Wufei sounded a little strained.

"True." Duo agreed pleasantly.

"Is that all you can say?" Wufei said incredulously. He gestured indignantly at the door that now lay open when it should have been safely locked.

A second person stepped up behind Duo and piercing cobalt eyes gleamed over the American's shoulder. A lock-pick dangled from fawn-coloured fingers.

"Some things don't change?" Heero suggested.

Wufei's mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound issued from his choked throat. Did...Heero just say that? First, those two had barged in here while he was trying to relax, then they had admitted to picking the lock like it was the most natural thing to do at barely past seven in the morning! And *then*, they cracked a joke out of it. He lived with two *evils*.

"How could you take a bubble bath without us?" Duo said sweetly as he began unbuttoning his pyjamas top. "And how dare you lock the door."

"Wha – " Wufei said uncomprehendingly. His eyes widened dramatically when he saw Heero began shedding his clothes as well. "Just what do the two of you think you're doing?" His voice hovered dangerously close to a croak.

Duo paused in his work for a second. "Joining you, of course! What does it look like?"

It looked precisely *that* to Wufei, that's the problem. He tried not to stare when two naked bodies – one long, slender and pale, and the other shorter, golden-skinned and corded with lean muscle – appeared before him. They looked good...temptingly, forbiddingly and just amazingly *good. The last thought managed to sneak into his brain but he shook it off.

"But – !" Wufei gaped as he was momentarily overwhelmed by the two mentioned naked bodies clambering into the tub. He didn't have a lot of time to contemplate about the sudden change in the state of affairs, though.

Hands hooked around each copper ankle and tugged. The Chinese man disappeared beneath the foam and re-emerge sputtering, choking and half-drowned by the white stuff. The same hands then began swiping away the foam from wet raven hair and scowling face. Callused by battle and hardened by weapons they wielded, those hands were surprisingly gentle in their task.

"You look like a drowned cat."

Those were words, spoken in a nasal voice, that Wufei barely registered before a firm mouth covered his own and he was being very thoroughly kissed. The clean, sharp, masculine muskiness could taste of only one person – Heero Yuy. Wufei's eyes grew heavy-lidded. Heero's mouth never failed to sap away his mind like that.

Duo had been laughing when he saw Heero drag Wufei into the foam, but now his chuckles subsided into almost awe as he watched them kiss like old lovers. For a fleeting moment, Duo was content to just watch, when a copper arm stretched out and snagged his hair, tugging sharply. Duo was caught between a wince and a grin as he read that demanding gesture. Get involved.

The two Asian men broke apart and Heero turned to look at Duo. "What are you waiting for?"

Violet eyes crinkled in a smile. "I hear you, sirs." Duo had never been this glad to accept an offer. He waded up to the two men, coming up behind Heero and stretching out his legs to fit the Japanese man between them. His hands found their way to broad gold shoulders and he massaged them, feeling the bunched muscles relax under his touch. He kneaded his way over the slippery skin, mapping wet circles around scars from old gunshot wounds. His lips feathered soft kisses at the nape, where the brown hair ended in wet short locks.

Growing low in his throat, and Heero rocked into the warm body pressed against his back, bringing Wufei more firmly against him. His own mind was lost; he was just feeling now. Sweet mouth in his own, feathery touches at his neck, long, whispery coils around his shoulders…

They broke apart for the second time. Wufei's hands had curled around one of Duo's and as copper fingers traced the nicks and bruises that seemed to particular favour Duo's knuckles, Wufei's dark head bent and he pressed his lips to them. It was an action as simple as it was intimate, and one of the rare displays of open affection from Wufei. Duo knew it, treasured it, even as his own hands were still caressing Heero, and Heero himself was carefully untangling the knots that had worked themselves into Wufei's raven hair.

They would have been contented like this, just soaking in one another's feel and presence. They might live under the same roof, but moments were like these were still few and far between. And though none of them had actually said it, but when you don't get too many blessings in life, you learn to make the most of them.

None of them was actually sure when one thing led to the next, not when their limbs and skin were meshed so closely they couldn't tell ivory from fawn to copper. The dial was turned, and water and foam began draining away, the sounds unusually loud in the pregnant stillness around them.

Duo was just barely aware of Heero reaching silently for the bottle of solution perched on the rim. He poured some into his palm, then pressed the bottle into Duo's hand. Slowly he clambered onto his knees so he loomed over Wufei, and his back was presented to Duo. Taking the cue, Duo righted himself, and even through Heero's body, he could feel Wufei bracing himself.

It wasn't really a conscious decision by any of them, but now they were all in this together. And they would finish this together.

Duo teased his finger along the crack between Heero's firm rear, before slipping it inside. Beneath him, Heero's body was a taut coil of knees braced on ceramic and hands feverish against Wufei's body. Laid out against the head of the tub, an arm wrapped tightly around Heero's shoulders to keep his teetering balance, Wufei's head was arched against the wall. His mouth had gone slack, his heavy breaths fluttering the strands of hair across his lips. A grimace of what could be either pain or pleasure knitted his brows, and Duo knew why a second later. The tip of Heero had already disappeared between Wufei's buttocks.

Heero moved again, stiffly and obviously barely able to control that demanding urge-reflex to just *thrust*, and Heero was more than halfway inside Wufei. Even teeth were now clamped down tightly on toast-coloured lips as Wufei adjusted to the intrusion. He was already a mass of tattered raven hair and wet copper flesh, the look in his eyes hazy and drugged with desire.

"Duo," Heero urged, his control all but frayed, the word almost sounding like a snarl. He was not new to this and he dealt easily with pain. There was no need for Duo to be too careful.

Sliding his finger out, Duo pushed back in with three. It was a stretch; Heero was tight. Duo pressed a messy kiss to the side of the mouth that had turned to him as he draped himself over his lover's backside and pressed his hardness against that tight entrance. A low moan was dragged from the Japanese as he shifted into the penetration, his face buried against Wufei's shoulder.

It was just as timely that the line of incoherent curses muttered in his native tongue, that Wufei should be the first to demand *movement*. So impatient, always, their raven-haired lover.

Hissing through his teeth, Duo could feel the remaining tatters of his resolve melding into a single core of urgency - need. He surged up against Heero, groaning against fawn skin as clench of heat and sex swallowed him to the hilt. The motion forced Heero deeper into Wufei and long, low moan was finally drawn from the man as the stimulated him in all sorts of interesting ways.

Slow, awkward thrusts at first, that stretched longer, heavier and surer as they began to find the rhythm that smoothened their rough joining. Their harsh pants and ragged breaths filled the air, interspersed with the erratic thump of back against ceramic as Wufei was rocked back again and again against the tub.

An errant hand knocked into the taps and water cascaded from the showerhead, lancing like shimmering needles onto their bodies.

They could scarcely feel the water. Their minds were lost somewhere between exquisite sensation and surreality. Each giving himself up to the flow, kilting up, thrusting, until their bodies moved like one, lost to the ceaseless rhythm that had taken control. Wufei's back slipped against the ceramic, his legs rising to anchor around Heero and finding Duo's waist as well. Heero's arms braced against the wall above Wufei's head. And Duo, hips snapping forward to take both his lovers with each thrust, somehow finding the last coherency of mind to curl his hand around Wufei's engorged erection.

Heero was the first to hurtle over the edge, his body surrendering to the exquisite torture of both giving and taking. He drove deep into Wufei with his last few thrusts, coming with a harsh cry. Almost on cue, Duo felt the hot flood in his rough caresses and Wufei surged up against Heero as he shuddered violently. His hands clutched convulsively over Heero's back, before wounding into the waves of Duo's hair.

"Duo..."

Duo heard that husky urging, but couldn't tell who it came from, before his vision exploded into fiery sparks. Release ripped through him.

They finally collapsed in a heap of spent limbs, exhausted but sated.

The tap was turned off. The foam had run into a puddle of suds and it felt cold against their heated skin.

But their meshed skin was comfort enough as they rested and breathed again.

Closing his eyes, he lifted his head and breathed. He liked it here, where it seemed he was closer to the sky and he could touch the clouds if he tried.

For *some* reason, the rooftop became the busiest traffic junction in the messy network of spaces and places in their lives. Obviously, there were lavish recreation rooms, lounges and what-have-you somewhere the building, but nothing could beat the rooftop. There was the unbeatable feeling of being right on top of the world, of course, and there was also the drafts of wind that combed your hair from roots to ends with cool fingers and caressed your face like a touch as soothing as a lover's.

When he stretched his hand up to the sky, he would feel less like he was missing the feeling up being in space. There was one time he wondered, just briefly, if he was supposed to feel guilty that he would actually miss piloting Wing Zero, but he did not allow his thoughts to linger long enough to find the answer.

Over time he had come to realise that there was another reason, one that had been buried so deep in the recesses of his consciousness, that he liked the rooftop for other than the backdrop of blue and breeze. Was it weeks...months, that on and off, now and then, he was joined on the rooftop by first Chang Wufei, then Duo Maxwell?

The Chinese man had followed him, not even bothering to be discreet about it, but following him just a few steps behind as he walked the short stairway that led to the rooftop. And when he sat himself in the centre of the open space, Wufei had stared slowly around them, the surprise on his features gradually giving away to understanding, and finally what looked like self-satisfaction as though he had just solved a mystery. He had not said a word after that, but disappeared back down the stairs, and reappearing again with a book in his hands.

The title was 'Understanding Difficult People'.

He remembered he had to turn away to his laugh, and Wufei had that telltale twitch on his lips that said clearly that he was in on the joke as well.

Duo Maxwell was much louder. He didn't end up there by following either of them. Rather he had appeared on his own volition, bursting from the stairway and stopping short in bewilderment as all three of them stared at one another. "The hell?!" Duo had gawked, before grinning and plonking himself unceremoniously beside them. The shades perched on top of his head were pulled down onto his nose and he lazed comfortably next to them.

It was at that time he found out that Wufei had a sense of humour and Duo could be quiet.

The next time they had met as a threesome at this common meeting place so high up above the ground was a little more blurry in Heero's mind. It was a first for him, to not recall something with his usual razor-sharp clarity. And it was a conscious action, his pushing aside the memory so far to the back of his mind so that he wouldn't recall it too clearly.

Now only bits and pieces of it remained. His own voice calling out a warning to the assassin running away after the failed attempt on Relena Peacecraft's life. Freeze! Drop your weapon! It struck him with bitter amusement that he sounded every inch the soldier he once was. And the man kept running...he wouldn't stop. Heero had no choice. Shot once, at the shoulder to disarm. Stop moving!

Thick trails of blood followed the assassin as he stumbled...but he didn't stop.

Heero shot to kill. The mask was removed and he stared into the face of a boy.

That same night he didn't return to his apartment, but stayed at the HQ. He didn't understand it himself. He would have been alone back in his apartment, but at the HQ anyone could intrude on his solitude. But he knew that once he was surrounded by the possessions that he had acquired over the years after the Eve Wars, he would only be reminded of what he had robbed from others.

He had stayed on the rooftop, eyes closed to the beauty of the sky and the stars that he loved. He had not felt anyone coming. At daybreak he had re-gathered most of what remained of his crumbled resolve, enough to let him turn back.

This was when the recollection got hazy. He couldn't remember exactly when, or which moment it was, when he stopped dead in his tracks, and stared into the sleeping faces of Chang Wufei and Duo Maxwell. The two men were leaning against each other, both sporting dark circles under their eyes, and shivering where the cold winds had bit into them.

He remembered he had kept still for a long, long time, just staring down at his slumbering comrades. Why...were they there?

He might have spoken his question aloud, for he woke them. Duo was first to react, springing from his sleep, eyes flying open, limbs falling all over Heero, a torrent of words spilling from him.

"Jesus, Heero! Are you alright? Don't scare us like that ever! You try keeping awake for the whole night on some goddamned roof! It was fucking *freezing*!"

Wufei spoke not a word, but he did in action. Even now Heero could still feel the sword-callused warmth of Wufei's hands checking him over for any self-inflicted injury.

Heero realised then that for the whole night, long as it was, they had stayed with him, and watched over him.

His mouth opened to thank them, but for a long moment, not a word could get past the tightness in his throat.

Duo loved life. Anything about it, and everything about it. Nobody would probably know it this, but he could spend hours watching people, who were the embodiment of life itself. That was why he loved the rooftop, looking down at the world below. It made him feel alive, just to see others alive. It was even okay, for him to be on the outside looking in. That was the fun part of it. And sometimes there were the not so fun parts, like becoming death. There must be something really philosophical and deep about all these life and death matters, but it was simple to Duo, really.

Life would exist only if there was death.

Duo loved life, but more so when it was bestowed on others. He could take care of himself great, and he'd live even when others thought him dead, so he didn't mind if he was a little shortchanged now and then.

That day he had sandwiched himself Heero and Wufei, it was a bit of a squeeze but there was not shortchanging in that. He hadn't expected them there of course, but when he saw them, it surprised him that he actually liked it that much. With a hard male body on either side of him, both similar in some aspects, and vastly different in others, all three of them kinda fitted. Even without touching, the mutual warmth was like an invisible bind, wrapping gently around them, comforting.

It was one of those little things that somehow mattered. Duo thought he might have fallen asleep that day, just like that.

When Heero had came back from his mission with that same closed, drawn expression he had when he was a fifteen-year-old killing machine, Duo knew something was wrong. Heero...just didn't *look* like that anymore. Ever since the Wars, he had grown. Expressions, humanity, emotions, everything. He had became *someone*, not a something.

Duo's first instinct was to make Heero talk. This wasn't just Duo's nature speaking. Duo had always been comfortable with letting everything rip from him, screaming out his troubles into the wind and feeling drained but *good* after that. He wanted Heero to do the same. It didn't matter *what* Heero said, as long as he said something.

Then Wufei had stepped in.

Even till now...Duo couldn't actually pinpoint the moment when Wufei's presence just made itself felt, and how it fitted so carefully, so rightfully and so gently into the midst of them. Wufei had told him no, that Heero should be left in his solitude.

Duo's response was automatic. "You gotta be kidding me! Leave him alone?!" And after that, he'd never forget the look and the answer Wufei have him.

The Chinese man looked up from the novel he had been pretending to read with the softest expression Duo had not seen on anyone for a long time. "Solitude is not isolation, Duo. As long as we are here."

There was no way you could even *try* to look cool and composed with those onyx eyes staring so deeply into you. So Duo didn't bother. Plopping himself next to Wufei, he made himself comfortable, using the poor man as a makeshift bed. Duo had to consciously restrain from sniggering when a still-unused-to-contact Wufei squirmed in awkwardness every ten seconds or so.

Maybe it was the strange mood they were all in, but then he blurted out the question before he could censor himself. "Why the solitude even?"

For several moments, Wufei's face took on that reflexive closed-off mask that he had perfected over time. Then carefully, slowly, he lifted his eyes. The raw openness in them took Duo's breath away. It was as if Wufei was letting him into his world, even if it was so fleeting.

Both of them had fallen asleep gradually after that. When they awoke, Heero was back from his lonely vigil. Wufei was quiet but efficient about it, reaching out to check Heero for any possible injury, and Duo saw that same expression in Heero's eyes, that was also mirrored in Wufei's. It was the same longing and despair beneath the steeliness.

It made Duo feel like crying, because he was so glad he knew.

As a rule of thumb, Wufei did not dwell on things happened. When they happened, nothing could be done to change them. On the contrary, he had control over what was going to happen *after* they had happened, and he made sure he exercised that control.

The philosophy stayed with him throughout the wars when he had to fight, and even throughout the peace, when he spent time participating in the rebuilding of L5, and visiting the small, quiet memorial he had built for Long Meilan. He liked the sense of serenity that suffused the clear, marble plague with its gentle white flowers. The silence allowed his mind freedom to reflect. Even if he did not obsess on the past, now and then, he liked to ponder over it.

Ever since the night he had stayed up with Duo to keep vigilance over Heero, they had spent so many days together that he had lost count. And yes, he *had* been keeping count. He liked to keep track of where his time was going. At first it had been clear and simple. The three of them would spend lunchtime together, so that was one time every day. Then they met up to just talk, and sometimes there was no talking, but just warm silence. Once became twice a day, then thrice, and more. In the end, even without counting, he found he didn't mind with being ambushed in the corridors of the HQ for a quick drink, or dragged off to pick out a new book at the shop.

It was when he realised he could not think of a day *without* these little activities that he sat up and took notice. If there was mutual attraction between them, it was not quite tangible. Instead, it was a quiet breeze of floating...pieces.

Still, none of them put voice to this attraction. It was if they were all afraid of the aftermath. Wufei had been scared too, for the first time in a long time that he feared of losing what he already *had*. He sensed it was the same for them. To have and to lose was a thousand times worse than letting slip of what had not been yours.

So, he did the only thing he knew. He laid down the terms for them.

"I refuse to accept anything less than the full, complete measure of anything that *is*! I'm done with the could-have-beens and the maybes and the what-ifs. I see all these possibilities before me, and I want them. I want them all."

They had their first kiss after that. None of them actually remembered it actually happened with the three of them, except there was the soft slide of lips that tasted sweet no matter which kiss it was.

It was that sweetness, when all they could remember was mostly bitterness, that counted.

Today Wufei stood at the memorial, wallowing in uncertainty. It was a wretched state of feeling, and almost entirely foreign to him. The philosophy that he had been adhering so religiously to in his young life had been deeply shaken. It was like his life had been caught up in a swirling vortex of...

Force. An out-of-his-control, unpredictable, yet not entirely unwelcome force.

"*Two* of them, no less, Meilan. What do you think of that?"

As if in answer, a curl of breeze nudged against his cheek at that moment. A flash memory of Meilan came to him. She was standing, proud and chin lifted, hands jammed on her waist in her half-matronly, half-girlish manner. Decide for yourself! She would say, then jab her finger at his chest like she always did when she had a big point to make.

There was just maybe a hint of wry in his smile as he bent and laid the three white flowers against the memorial.

Other memories, softer, more fragile, yet just as bright filtered into his mind. Hot, fiery touches. The soft tickle of chestnut curls, the unspoken emotion in cobalt eyes, warm chuckles, playful growls and giggles. The sometimes tears and sorrow. The mostly gratitude, appreciation and sheer gladness.

All the pretty things.

fin
March 2005