Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Denial ❯ that's how it is ( Chapter 16 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimers: Gundam Wing and the g-boys aren’t mine. I gain no profit from this fic, but the story is mine and unfortunately so is Quin. ‘nuf said.

Warnings: POV shifts, shonen ai, angst, angry Relena, see first chap for full spiel.

Pairings: burgeoning 1x2, 3x4, 5xS, Solox?. . .

AN: Moving sucks ya know....

feedback is appreciated

---xXxXxXx--- means transition or scene change

Denial

by priscel

Fourteen - that's how it is

It was the fourth week into the semester, he and his partner stayed after school to finish their art project for Mr. Cadmis’ class. He rested his head against the cool metal of his locker as he tried to figure out if he needed to start on another assignment. Unfortunately for him, all he could think of was going to bed. He pulled on his jacket and headed purposely toward the door when he realized just how light he was. He groaned, his hand coming up to rub his face, he had locked his book bag in his locker. He sent one last beseeching look to exit doors and headed back to his locker. He slowed his half run when he spotted his partner reading the numbers on the lockers and stopping in front of his with a decidedly malicious look on her lovely face.

“Hey Rel, 'Sup?” Duo smiled at his startled partner who was looking guilty and skittish.

“Duo, I thought you were already headed back home.” She said cordially, glancing back at the locker. 'Drat!' She was so close to discovering the identity of the girl who she'd spotted with Heero. Dorothy had been teasing her mercilessly saying that she was becoming fixated with finding this mysterious girl who had stolen her Heero away. On several occasions, Dorothy had asked her to give her a description: a slender girl with pale skin, long brown hair that shone amber in the light and oddly colored eyes. She had flushed in confusion every time Dorothy would just laugh at her. Her friend obviously knew the girl or knew of her whereabouts, but she wouldn't tell her anything and she wasn’t about to fling unfounded accusations at a friend. Though she'd begun to doubt it was just teasing. Today, though, Dorothy took pity on her and gave her a locker number during lunch with an odd calculating look.

Now, here she stood, so close to getting the answer she needed and all she had to do was get into that locker. She was sure there would be something within it that had the girl’s name on it, but an obstacle happened by- one by the name of Duo Maxwell. His shirt was half untucked with the first three buttons undone, revealing the thin undershirt he wore beneath it. She smiled, switching her train of thought away from her disappointment when she saw the undershirt and stopping herself from wondering why he started wearing one.

“I left my back pack behind.” Duo shrugged one shoulder not missing Relena looking nervously at the lockers again. Duo sighed when he realized that she wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon. “I thought you were going to hang with Dotty today? Do you need my help with something?” He offered, giving himself kudos for keeping the irritation out of his voice. He was sure if there was anything that resembled a bed nearby he'd pass out on it before he could even think the word sleep, 'Shit it's been a long day.'

“Dorothy? Oh, well she had other matters to attend to. I was just waiting for someone.” She thought up quickly, well aware that Duo knew that her locker was on the other end of the hall.

“Ok.” He said unnecessarily as he made a move toward his locker, but she wouldn’t budge.

He arched an eyebrow in thought as he looked her over again; it was more like she was hovering... too much like what she did when she was around Heero and only when he was in the immediate vicinity. Duo tensed thinking about what this meant since her great expectation wasn't actually there.

'Not me, she couldn't,' he glanced at her then his locker, keeping his face carefully blank before it split into a relieved smile. He'd forgotten that the locker next to his was Heero’s, though he seldom saw his roommate at his locker. 'I wonder why,' Duo mused, stepping closer to his locker until he was practically standing nose to forehead with her.

"Sorry," she mumbled moving out of the way, forgetting that there was a locker beneath her target.

Duo suppressed a sigh and shook his head, “Rel-girl you’re getting creepy on me.”

“Sorry," she mumbled again, "I guess I should have gone to sleep rather then working those extra hours on the assignment.” She rattled off, fighting back a yawn that broke through her anxiousness and revealed the truth in her excuse.

“Well, I think it was worth it.” Duo smiled and she smiled in turn, Duo was one of those people whose praise she didn't receive often. It lacked the obligatory approval corded by her wealth and position. Duo's praise was wholly honest and she blushed upon realizing this. "Thank you" she mumbled, her fingers fidgetting along the edges of her school jacket and her lips twitching into a coquettish smile as she stilled her hands. When did she ever fidget?

Duo noticed a small envelope in her hand, “If you want to give Heero that note, I can take it and leave it on his desk.” Duo offered, smirking at the girl's flushed face.

“Oh, why thank you Duo.” Relena said, her cornflower blues meeting his blue-violets as she clenched the note. Her back up plan had been to leave the note if she couldn't get into the locker and request the girl to meet with her after school tomorrow. Though she hadn't considered sending a note for Heero by one of his friends, “I’ll remember that, but I think I'd prefer to slide this one into his locker.” She moved aside, glancing up to see Duo focused on the lockers in front of him. She closed her eyes and sighed quietly to herself, thankful of the privacy he granted her.

Duo opened his locker, not wanting address the strange contemptuous heat he suddenly felt in his chest at the way Relena reverently touched Heero's locker. He shook it off, pulling out his book bag and closing it to jerk back a step in surprise at a wide eyed and pale faced Relena gawking back at him as if the world had ended.

“Rel?” Duo called to her gently, snapping his fingers in front of her face when the dumbfounded expression took its place.

“Hey, Rel? What’s the matter?” Duo asked again, reaching out to touch her shoulder only to arch a brow when she shifted away from it.

“That’s your locker?” she stammered out.

Duo glanced back at it and then back to Relena’s startled expression. “Yea, why?”

“Did you switch with someone?” she asked with an incredulous expression on her face, her mind going around in circles as to what this meant.

Duo’s eyebrows bunched in confusion.

“Did you switch with someone?” she demanded, her voice firming and her chest heaving with each inhalation.

Duo looked at her curiously, she reminded him of a chicken with ruffled feathers when she did that. “No Rel,” though he was smiling at the thought, his voice didn't stop his concern from being heard. “What’s the matter?”

“N-nothing.”

“Rel?” ; She never stuttered. Duo stepped forward reaching out to her only to be halted by her raised hand.

Relena felt numb inside, an acerbic laugh escaping the half smile she tried to pull over her shock. “I should have known...” she swallowed a sob when she realized what Dorothy knew all along. What everyone else must have known; everyone but her.

Duo’s ears twitched, attempting to catch her whispered words. Relena's head remained bowed as her shoulders shook. Something was definitely wrong, “Rel talk to me.” She just shook her head not making a sound. He bit his lip in frustration when she moved away from him as he reached for her again. “Relena what’s the matter?”

“You're the girl.”

Duo chuckled. “Dang Rel, do we need to get your eyes checked? I'm not a girl.”

“Obviously not!” She said hotly with a sharp humorless laugh. She knew she had lost all composure. She couldn’t follow decorum or use practiced negotiation tactics, she could give a flying fuck about civility. She chuckled mentally at the little verbal reminder of Duo. It hurt beyond words to find out that the person she had almost considered a friend was the one who had stolen her Heero. Anger bubbled into the pain as she raised her head and set accusing cornflower blues on Duo. An errant tear streamed down one pale cheek then another followed on the other side of her face. “I should have known there was something more than friendship between you two.”

Duo’s clueless look at her insinuation only made her anger flare. “Don’t play the innocent with me. You could have just told me it was you, instead of letting me talk to you about Heero when all along you were with him-”

He held up his hands in a placating gesture, “Whoa! Wait a minute, Rel-”

“... Behind my back, when I confided in you! And you mock me by offering to take something to him for me?! For me, really Maxwell you needn’t play me the fool, you already have him! To think I trusted you!” She sneered at him and laughed darkly. “L2... You disgusting thing, using your body-”

“Shut it, Rel! ” Duo kept his fisted hands at his sides, he wouldn't let her goad him into slapping the shit out of her. She was upset, very much so. So was he, but he wouldn't let that rule his actions. He had been expecting L2's reputation to come up at some point but never from someone close to him. “Damn it Rel, can you let me get a freakin’ word in-”

“You made a joke of me in front of everyone. Everyone.” She sobbed out. “You lied to me. To. My. Face.”

“I. Don’t. Lie. I didn't lie to you about whatever the hell it is you're going off on me about. I sure as hell didn't rub your face in it.” Duo simmered, trying to defuse her anger but not being able to get in more than a few words in his defense across to her. "Relena," the warning was clear in his tone, he didn't know what he would do if she called him the word she'd left out when she spoke of L2 with such venom.

"You LIAR!" She screamed at him and Duo grabbed her. She sobbed, not putting up any resistance and flinched when she was yanked forward.

Duo pulled her into a hug, feeling too exhausted to do much else and not wanting to get into a shouting match with Miss Pacifist. He was glad there was no one else around, an audience would have only made things worse and made it incredibly hard to talk about anything without Relena losing face. "Will ya hear me out?"

A loud sniff was his answer and he grimaced at the warm, wetness seeping through his white uniform shirt. "You know that you're going to have to pay for that."

Relena, mortified by her nose dribble, shifted in his arms and tried to wipe it off his shirt with her handkerchief. "Liar," she muttered with a pitiful sniffle.

Duo sighed, his breath a warm puff against her skin. "Rel, I don't lie. Never have, never will. Well not intentionally. Look Rel, this has nothing to do with me being from L2, its reputation isn't reflected in everyone that lives there. Think about Hilde and your posse already knows about Solo. Rel, there are really good people that live in my sector and I won't have you slander them for the sake of your anger and pain."

She hadn't done that had she? She raised her head from his shoulder to speak but Duo cut her off, "That's not the Relena I've gotten to know since I've been here, though you have your ahem... quirks like everyone else, you don't make it a point to hurt people just because you're upset or because you can. Heero's my best bud. Take my word for it when I say that besides sharing the same room and pissing each other off on occasions, well a lot really, there is no me and Heero."

Relena snorted and ducked her head.

Duo grimaced again, looking a little green, "Oh now it has a twin!"

Relena hit him in the chest.

"Shit, hell must have frozen over when you hit me y'know." Duo's laugh came out as a breathy ouch when a second hit followed, "What?" Duo rubbed his chest with a pout and half smirk, "Y'know, if you smear that one a little more they can be identical loogies-ow ok."

"..." She pinched him and glared at him, a handful of his shirt pressed against her nose.

"Oh don't start impersonating Heero." Duo smirked, rubbing at his lower back where Relena's arm was still looped loosely behind him. He smiled at the giggle Relena smothered, though he had a feeling this was far from over.

"Is he..." she started, muffled behind the wad of shirt in her hand.

"I won't answer that for him. You should try talking to him, yelling at him like you do me and stop trying to make him what he's not." Relena blushed, doubtful that the reason for it would be easily readable from the rest of her flushed face. She shifted her face to a relatively dry place near his shoulder, the two inch difference between them was more noticeable to her now that the tears had stopped but damn her nose. She hugged him with both arms and felt pleased that he hugged her back. She wasn't taking liberties, she sniffled again and Duo shifted beneath her.

"Don't worry if you need another dry spot, we still have the back left." She felt the beginnings of a smile on her lips, she half believed him.

Another day of classes over, but no work today. “Besides the academic kind,” Duo grumbled quietly as he walked into his shared room to find Heero studiously working on a paper, with several books opened and highlighted about his laptop.

“Hey Roomy. Whatcha been up to?” Duo asked, trying to distract himself from thinking about the things Relena had said at his locker the other day. In class today, she hadn’t mentioned it again but she gave him a thoughtful smile when he had took his place beside her.

Unfortunately for him, Heero wasn’t in a talkative mood. Duo snorted to himself, tossing his book bag on the bed and pulling out his reading assignment along with a manga. ‘Heero? Talkative? That just doesn’t go together.’ He sighed, ‘Maybe I am the baka he’s always telling me I am.’ He mused, thinking about how close he and Heero had become despite Heero’s earlier actions and his one to three word answers. He snickered to himself, he got lengthier responses from Heero when he teased him or gave him pet names.

He couldn’t help his curiosity and he couldn’t stand the quiet. He wanted to know more about his roommate and often found himself talking, if not about what went on during the day that he thought was of interest to share, then of his family, friends, the church and Solo. He didn’t reveal any of the deep stuff. ‘Just enough,’ he always thought in hopes of Heero opening up and sharing something about his own family. No such luck in that regard. He did learn that Heero didn’t seem to mind his music as much as Wu Fei as long as it was played within ‘acceptable levels’ while he was in the room.

‘I wish he wouldn’t talk like a damned machine.’ Duo groused with a slight frown as he placed his book on his desk and opened the manga he had stashed inside.

He skimmed the pages, coming across the use of ‘-chan’ and the annoyance reflected by one of the characters. He smiled, filing the Japanese honorific away for future use and thought about his project with Relena. The girl wasn’t all that bad once you got to know her. He decided, while covered in Relena goo, that he would try to help her. He wasn’t trying to prove to her that there was nothing between him and Heero except friendship, though that would get the banshee off his back. She was a somewhat narrow minded girl. He knew it. Heero knew it and so did their friends. But he was convinced that if he could show Heero the side of Relena he was used to seeing, maybe Heero would see past her infatuation with him. It was odd, he was sure that Heero would know this considering how Quatre had hinted that the two had grown up together. He shrugged and decided to give his improvised plan a try.

‘Matchmaker Duo at your service.’ He snickered mentally, imagining himself bowing with flourish and a top hat in hand.

“Oi, Hee-man,” Heero raised a brow at the new moniker, typing in the ‘save’ command on his report before he began proofing it.

Duo smiled, undaunted by Heero’s lack of verbal response but the slight twitch at the manipulation of his name, told him he was listening. “I guess you had a good day today. Me too, but Mr. Cadmis... the guy has issues I tell ya. Here’s the skinny... The assignment he gave us he called ‘shades of expression’ and lucky me, I got partnered with the pink beast.” Duo smirked at the nickname afforded to Relena by Hilde when she had a study session with her in her dorm room.

“Well together we decided to pick a color and use all the possible shades we could get from it for this assignment. Rel chose pink, no big surprise there I guess." Duo rubbed at the back of his head and Heero couldn't help his snicker at Duo's confused look even though he tried to hid it by increasing his wpm. "There’s a lot more to pink than I even realized. Now Mr. Cadmis isn’t afraid to back up his commentary on any of the work in class; rich, powerful, demented, poor, insomniacs, pyromaniacs...” Duo shrugged, a secretive smile tugging at the corner of lips for the last,“they’re all the same in his book. I appreciate the teachers who are like that at this school, but I had to stick up for Rel today.”

Heero glared at the revision, “Shut up, you loud mouth baka.” Heero growled, not wishing to hear about Relena or address the sudden distress he felt at the thought of Duo protecting her.

Duo smiled, putting his hands behind his head as he leaned back on the hind legs of his chair. “It’s good to know that you’re actually listening, Hee-chan.”

Duo’s smile grew at the glare he received over Heero’s shoulder before the messy haired teen returned to typing on his laptop. Duo snickered quietly and then decided to continue with what had happen. “Any ways, the bastard tried to destroy her work with some paint thinner. He railed on her about her pink fetish even though her piece was mostly blue. She calls it ‘October sky’ and it’s was the best I’ve ever seen her do. I wasn’t the only one who backed her.” Duo shook his head, lost in thought and not hearing the continuous typing his roommate was prone at doing, falter at his next words. “Heero you really oughta go see it.”

“Hn.” The typing began anew with a few audible clicks from the built in mouse.

Duo simmered, “Come on Hee-man. I know she has this huge ass crush on you-”

“Obsession with me.” Heeero corrected in his usual monotone.

“Fine, ‘Obsession,’ but the girl has her upsides too. She dedicated the damn thing to you and it’s not half bad.”

Heero snorted. “Relena is drowning in her ideals and fantasies. I’m not going to feed into them by accepting it or showing interest in it.”

“Damn, you're a cold bastard.” Duo bristled covering his surprise at the truth in those words . “I wasn’t asking for you to bump uglies or go down on one knee for the girl, just... to try a different approach to get her out of this- whatever the hell it is she has for you.”

“Obsession.” Heero dead panned.

“Whatever. She’s got it bad for ya buddy and she’s a pretty hot girl once you get past her umm... issues.”

Heero raised a brow at that, feeling uncertain of whether Duo's sudden interest in Relena. If Duo wanted her, why was he giving him the ‘Give her a chance’ talk? He snorted derisively, “Fine you can go out with her then.” Heero quipped, turning in his seat to see Duo go pale. He couldn’t help the smile that came to his face as he continued, “You have my blessing.”

Duo blinked coming out of his shock, to look at the strange expression on Heero’s face. It wasn’t so much as strange as his face actually having an expression on it. Duo scratched the back of his neck and laughed nervously at the smile that remained on Heero’s face. “Nah man, she’s... pink princesses are not my type.”

“And they’re mine?” Heero looked aghast, feigning a look of horror and Duo laughed for real this time.

“Oh... man. No I guess not. Buddy we gotta get you to do that more often.”

Heero looked at Duo quizzically and Duo just smiled back, watching him with his elbow on the desk and the side of his face resting against his fist.

After awhile Heero became annoyed when Duo wasn’t forthcoming with what he meant. “What?”

“You should smile more often.”

“Hn.” His cheeks flushed a light red across his tanned skin, Heero turned back to his laptop and pulled out some notes from his bookbag by his seat. “Baka, do you’re homework or you’re going to be late for track practice.”

“Yes, Mama Yuy.” Duo jested with a snicker.

tbc...