Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ For Love of Darkness ❯ Dinner ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I don't own GW or any guest characters that should appear in this story. Guess what anime they're from!

 

WARNING: Pissed Heero, Quatre on happy pills (a LOT of them!! XP)

 

Chapter 2

Dinner

 

May 19th, AC 198

Wufei ran the sharp blade over his wrist and watched the blood begin to flow. He glanced over at Duo. The braided teen was focused completely on the crimson fluid sliding down Wufei's arm. The Chinese Preventor motioned for Duo to walk closer. Duo obeyed Wufei's silent command, and soon, the two Gundam pilots were standing almost uncomfortably close. The beautiful mouth closed over the self-inflicted wound. Wufei felt the familiar euphoria drown out the strange sensation caused by the blood loss.

The young Vampire finished after only a few seconds. Duo was rapidly learning to time his meals so he wouldn't drink Wufei dry. He pulled back silently, wiping his hand across his mouth to get rid of the blood. Wufei noticed how color returned to the deathly white face almost immediately. The violet eyes lost their cat-like qualities quickly, the normal irises forming again.

“How are you feeling?” the Chinese man asked calmly. He wrapped a bandage around his wrist. The advantage to being a willing target for Duo's thirst for blood was the injuries healed impossibly fast. Duo was not that lucky; Wufei could still see the twin puncture wounds just above the junction of neck and shoulder. It would take a while for those to fully disappear. Wufei pushed the depressing thought away. He knew that Duo remained blissfully unaware of the thoughts that sometimes plagued the Chinese man.

Duo walked over to the front hall. “Better.” He pulled a Preventor coat off of the rack and slid it on. “We should probably get going. Une will have our heads if we're not on time.”

Wufei sighed and followed the braided teen out the door.

 

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May 26th, AC 198

Heero glanced over at the two empty desks. He hadn't seen, let alone spoken, to neither Duo nor Wufei in nearly a month. Wufei's absence was understandable; he was always on missions, but Duo worked in the mechanics' workshop and rarely went on missions. Of course, they were partners, but that didn't change the fact that Heero hasn't been able to meet either of them during the day shift. Their desks, however, showed signs of recent use.

The Japanese Preventor reached over to his telephone. He connected with the Preventor Headquarters' operator. “Hello?”

“Connect me with Agent Chang's home phone,” Heero ordered. “It's important.”

 

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Wufei jerked awake when he heard the phone ringing. He swore softly as he dragged himself out of bed. He stepped out into the hall. He slipped past Duo's door. He walked into the living room and answered it. “Hello?” he asked, still somewhat asleep.

“Wufei, my god, it's good to hear you again!” Quatre said cheerfully. “I was beginning to worry that you were avoiding us!”

“No, we got transferred to the night shift,” Wufei stated calmly. “Duo and I had to get used to sleeping during the day.”

Quatre said something to Trowa. “Did I interrupt your sleep?”

“No, I got up early.” It hurt Wufei to lie to the gentle blonde, but he knew that Quatre would worry himself sick if he knew that he did, in fact, wake Wufei. “You know how Duo is sometimes. If someone doesn't wake him up, he'll sleep until the end of time.”

Quatre laughed. All of the Gundam pilots had some experience with getting the L2 colonist awake. Each of them had developed a special technique for Duo, but when Quatre asked Wufei what his was, the Chinese pilot had blushed slightly, glared at him, and proceeded to disappear into his room for the rest of the day. Immediately, Quatre had felt the embarrassment and affection radiating off of Wufei. “Well, I should probably get going.”

“Wait,” Wufei said suddenly. Quatre paused and waited. “How… How about… you come… for dinner tonight? I'm sure I can fix something up.”

“Really?! I'd love to! Can I bring Trowa and Heero along?”

Now it was Wufei's turn to pause. He expected Quatre to bring Trowa along, but the suggestion to bring Heero Yuy along was sudden. “I guess it wouldn't hurt,” Wufei said, hesitating slightly.

“We'll be there at six! Bye, Wufei!”

“Bye.” Wufei hung up his phone. Almost immediately, the Chinese man regretted allowing Quatre to bring Trowa and Heero. Even though a month had passed since the rape, Duo was still somewhat skittish. The braided teen had gotten used to Wufei, but at work, Wufei had been forced to threaten bodily harm on anyone who came within three feet of Duo after the mechanic had nearly cracked his skull open when an assistant startled him while he was working on the engine of an armored car. Wufei didn't know how Duo would react to meeting with the other pilots, their adopted brothers, two of whom Wufei knew could snap Duo in half if they wanted.

Wufei turned the ring tone off and after putting the phone down on the table, walked upstairs.

 

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Rukia paused as she passed Agent Yuy's office door. The Japanese Preventor was glaring at his telephone like he wanted it to disappear or do something that it wasn't made to do. Like burst into flames or something like that.

“Yo! Rukia! Get your head out of the clouds!” Renji yelled from down the hall. The young woman snapped her head towards her red-haired friend. “We've got a mission! Come on!”

“Coming!” Rukia yelled back. Renji shrugged and turned to talk with her older brother. She glanced back at the glaring officer. She sighed in defeat and ran over to her partner. “Get a room, you two, and let's go.”

Rukia avoided the glare that Byakuya sent her way. Renji turned away from the two Kuchiki siblings to hide his blush.

 

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Heero slammed his phone down on the desk and smirked when he heard the plastic snap in half. He was tired of Wufei's blatant avoidance of him. The Japanese pilot glared at the broken piece of equipment, hoping, praying that it would immediately set itself on fire.

“Sir, there's a phone call for you from Mister Winner,” a young woman said calmly. Heero turned his glare on her, but the woman had become accustomed to his unspoken death threats over the past few months. The secretary eyed the destroyed telephone on the desk. “I'll transfer it to Agent Maxwell's desk,” she said before turning to leave the office.

Shortly after she left, Duo's phone rang. Heero virtually launched himself over his desk to get it. “Yuy,” he growled into the phone.

“Heero, I just wanted to know if you wanted to join Trowa and me for dinner at Wufei and Duo's at six?”

“I need to talk to Wufei anyway, so I might as well.”

“That's great! I'll call them back later. Then they can-.”

“Quatre,” Heero said calmly, interrupting the blonde's excited babbling. Quatre went quiet. “Do you know why Wufei and Duo haven't been coming to work?”

Quatre was silent for a second. “Wufei said that he and Duo got transferred to the night shift, so they've been sleeping in during the day.”

Heero accepted the reason quietly. It explained why Wufei and Duo were no longer coming in during the day, but it didn't explain why they had gotten the transfer in the first place. Neither pilot worked as well at night in comparison to the daytime. Despite Duo's inability to wake up at a reasonable time in the morning, the braided teen had admitted to enjoying the daytime more than the night. The action went against the Duo Maxwell and Chang Wufei that Heero had come to expect.

“Do you need someone to come and pick you up?” Quatre asked innocently.

Heero glared at the phone for a few seconds. “I do have a car, Quatre,” he said, scolding the blond boy. “So I'll meet you there.”

“Alright, Heero. See you then,” Quatre said, effectively ending the call.

The Japanese Preventor hung up the phone. He had questions that he wanted answered, and tonight would be the perfect time to ask them.

 

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Quatre ran to answer the door. “Heero! It's good to see you!” he cheered. The blond heir let the Japanese pilot into Duo and Wufei's house. The braided teen was helping Wufei set up the table. “Duo and Wufei are just finishing getting dinner together.” Quatre led Heero into the dining room.

Wufei was dressed in his uniform pants and white dress shirt. He had left his gun and badge in his room. His hair was tied back into its signature ponytail. Obsidian eyes glanced over at Heero as the Japanese man walked into the room.

Duo walked into the dining room, holding a large plate of food. “Oh, hey, Heero,” he said hesitantly. His pale skin stood out against the black turtleneck and pants he was wearing under the bottom part of his mechanic's uniform. His meter-long braid swayed with each step he took. Duo set the plate down on the table. As he bent down, the golden crucifix around his neck hung dangerously low. “Well, dinner is served. Quatre, would you call Trowa in?”

“I'm right here, Duo,” Trowa said.

The braided teen jumped. “Trowa! Jesus Christ, where the hell did you come from?!” Duo said, spinning to confront the silent pilot. Trowa stared at Duo. Duo seemed to pale suddenly, if that was possible. Trowa and Heero both noticed the defensive posture Duo unconsciously took and wonder what had caused the severe changes in Duo's reactions to them. It had to have been something extremely bad for it to have affected the cheerful teen so much.

 

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Dinner passed fairly quietly. Duo chatted cheerfully with Quatre. “How was the business going” frequently passed over the table. Quatre eagerly replied with “Excellent but stressful” to each repeat. Duo laughed in return, and Heero and Trowa noticed nothing of the creature they'd seen only an hour ago. The mask was firmly in place.

Heero glanced down at his food. “Who made this?”

Duo flinched. “It was my turn to cook tonight,” he said cautiously.

“It's good.” Duo smiled slightly. Heero could see the relief in the lovely violet eyes. Duo was hiding something serious, and Heero wondered how it would affect the rest of them. “I was wondering why you weren't coming to work during the day anymore.”

Both Duo and Wufei froze, heightening Heero's suspicions. “Things happened, and we chose to transfer to night shift,” Wufei growled. He noticed the look in Heero's eyes. “Don't try to dig any deeper, Yuy. There's no trail to follow, and Une's been sworn to silence.”

Heero glared at the Chinese man. He acknowledged the fact that Duo was standing up to clear the table. It was getting late, and soon, both of the hosts would have to leave for work. Duo picked up a plate and walked into the kitchen. Quatre and Wufei moved to help the slender teen. Heero looked over at Trowa. The taller brunette shrugged at Heero's unspoken question. Quatre walked back into the dining room and sat down next to Trowa. Heero sighed in defeat. He knew that nothing could be done here.

Heero got up. He grabbed the last plate and carried it into the kitchen. His mental processes came to an abrupt halt when he saw Duo pinned to the sink by Wufei's strong arms. The two pilots turned to look at him in surprise. Wufei pushed away from the counter. “We'll talk about this later,” he warned. Duo simply grinned in return. The gesture didn't reach his eyes. Wufei left the room, heading back into the dining room.

Duo turned back to the dishes in the sink. Heero walked over to him and set the dish down on the counter. “What did Wufei want?”

Duo let out a burst of air, almost like he was about to start laughing. “He just wanted to make sure I had eaten enough, among other things. Never would have guessed him for the mother type.”

“Have you?” Duo turned, one eyebrow raised. “Eating, that is.” Duo laughed, but the sound sent a shiver down Heero's spine.

“Yeah, I've been eating. Eating myself sick sometimes,” Duo said unexpectedly coldly with just a touch of defensive sadness. “I'm getting better though.”

“Duo! We have to get going!” Wufei called from the front room.

“Well, I should probably be going,” Duo said, turning to leave the room. Heero sighed. He followed Duo out the door.

 

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Wufei walked into the nearly empty garage and scanned the room. His obsidian eyes fell on the braided teen leaning into the front end of a patrol car. Already the navy blue uniform was dirty with oil and grease. “Duo,” Wufei said, his voice barely audible above the music Duo was playing.

Duo heard him anyway and extracted himself from the car's hood. Wufei frowned at the deathly pale face smeared with black oil and the cat's irises in both amethyst eyes. “Hey, Wufei,” Duo said. He walked over to his friend, wiping the his hands off on the uniform. It was easy to wash the grease and oil off. “What do you need?”

“You need to eat,” Wufei said simply.

Duo looked away slightly. “Do we have to do that now?” he asked quietly.

Wufei led Duo into the side office. Duo went to sit down as Wufei locked the door and closed the blinds. “Vampires will attack people if they get hungry, and those people are turned into Vampires,” Wufei stated. “Do you want that?” It hurt Wufei to use Duo's protective nature and his overwhelming guilt to get the braided teen to eat sometimes, but it had to be done.

Duo sighed in defeat. He got up from the chair. Wufei grabbed a knife off of a nearby desk. He knew that it was safe to use; Preventors, especially mechanics, kept very good care of their weapons. He opened the blade and dragged it across his lower arm, careful to avoid any major blood vessels. Duo closed the distance between them.

The euphoria swept over Wufei as Duo began to drink the dripping blood. He concentrated on staying on his feet until Duo finished. His mind went blank.

As always, the feeling lasted less than a minute. Wufei was barely aware of Duo pulling away as he slowly recovered from the blood loss. He felt weak, his magic drained as according to his deal with Yuuko. By the time Wufei completely regained consciousness, Duo was gone from the office and back into the garage.

Wufei sat down on the same chair Duo had claimed. He reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a small bottle. He tipped it over, and the last pill fell out. He popped it in his mouth and swallowed. He immediately felt slightly better. The blood replacer worked quickly. The cut on his arm closed and healed, and some of the lost blood was slowly replenished. The two pilots were falling into a routine that Wufei knew would protect the fledgling Vampire from the more radical conservatives. If not, Wufei would take Duo and disappear. He knew more than enough vanishing spells to hide from the magical world until the end of time if need be. No one would be able to find them if they disappeared.