Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Forged Together ❯ Chapter 12 ( Chapter 12 )

A/N - the fast pace of updating is coz I'm putting up the chapters I've already written. Once that runs out, I'll be a regular slow poke…plodding over chapters. At the moments I've been stuck on one chapter for the past two weeks and it's very annoying. But thank you for the reviews ppl…a little encouragement goes a long way.

 

By the way I found out about the abrupt transitions. My paragraph breaks don't appear in ff net. Damn, I noticed it just now. Sorry ppl, I'm fixing it, asap. And oops, when I said this wasn't going to be 3x4 I meant there won't be anything explicit as in sex between the two…the possibility for 3x4 exist. Some must have wondered why I put that pairing as a final pairing then say it's not. My mistake. Sorry.

 

 

Chapter 12

 

Wufei was the first out of bed, and he made his way to the washroom and back in record time, dressed before Duo could even shake his hair free. They moved about silently, getting dressed and combing hair, behaving as if they were about to attend a funeral.

 

“Well,” said Duo as he looked at Wufei who was looking out the window. “Can I just say last night was an unmitigated disaster and leave it at that?”

 

Wufei however, found out that he did not want to `leave it at that.' “How long ago were you raped?” he asked bluntly, not having much use for small talk.

 

“You haven't heard of easing into the conversation, have you?” Duo asked with a wry smile. “Doesn't it look less serious in the bright sunlight of the morning?”

 

In answer, Wufei fingered his lower lip and felt bad when Duo winced and looked away. His lip was split, an injury worth as much attention as a broken fingernail, but Duo was feeling guilty about it. “I think you need help,” Wufei said softly.

 

“I don't need help,” Duo said sharply. “I don't have a problem. Give me time and I'll be… be okay with it.” He was using his façade of good will to brush away the incident and pretend everything was alright, but to Wufei, things had shifted. He did not know how to react. Everyone assumed that Trowa was the emotion-stuck of the five, the person who was quiet and withdrawn, but in fact it was Wufei who lacked finess when it came to handling people. He did not know how to behave towards people or react to situations where human relationships were concerned. Trowa, in his own way, understood people the same way he understood animals but Wufei had failed. He had failed to understand his wife and now, his would-be lover.

 

Duo was hurting but Wufei did not have the experience on what to say or do. He could pilot a gundam but that did not amount to rape trauma counseling or dealing with people who needed to be handled gently. Something in his outlook had changed. He could deal with physical actions, hurt and pain, but everything else was a mystery to him.

 

“I don't know how to deal with you,” he said softly. “Duo, you were shouting for me to stay away last night and you were terrified of me. I …can deal with physical weaknesses but…”

 

“There always that isn't there?” Duo said with a wry smile. “I am weak and you don't have the patience to deal with it.”

 

“I don't think you're weak,” Wufei said hastily. He admired Duo's bravery, the way he would push away his fear and react. The way Duo had come to his bed the night before even though he'd been afraid. “I am not familiar with the concept of …dealing with abuse victims.”

 

Duo looked as if Wufei had thrown him over a cliff. “I'm not a victim,” he snarled angrily. “I have …”

 

“Have you had sex with another man since you were raped?” Wufei asked, a question which had been bothering him for sometime.

 

“No,” Duo answered. “Not yet. But back home, a bunch of my mates and I did mess around a bit but, well, it didn't turn out so good so I gave up on that and thought I'd wait until I met someone special.”

 

Wufei nodded as he acknowledged the blow. He wasn't special enough but he was willing to try. He was no fool to think Duo was not special but to deal with this was impossible; he felt emotionally castrated. “What happened to the person who did this to you?” he asked instead. Physical violence he could deal with. He could avenge this wrong the only way he knew how.

 

“Who knows,” Duo said with a shrug. “Kids like us were dime a dozen all over L2 and people who prey on them…man, who doesn't?”

 

“It seems so unjust,” Wufei said, trying to understand it. He might not have grown up in the kindest of homes but their entire colony operated as a clan. Everyone looked after everyone else and it was the clan leader's responsibility to look after the wellbeing of others; a position he or she took very seriously. Even the poor had something to eat and there were no unwanted children.

 

“Yeah,” said Duo. “Life happens. I'm going to scoot off to my room and get a change of clothes.”

 

Wufei wanted to do something for Duo, something that would reassure him, but he was afraid to touch him. A part of him knew it was ridiculous; that Duo was not going to panic if he touched him; that yesterday his actions had triggered some memory in Duo, which had terrified him, but the part of him that remembered seeing the buddle of fear in the corner was reluctant. In the end, he settled for a careful hand on Duo's shoulder and gave a cautious peck on the temple.

 

Instantly, Wufei knew it was the wrong thing to have done, though he couldn't figure out why. Duo looked as if Wufei had kicked him in the crotch and fled the room.

 

----!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! --- !!!!!!!!!!----

 

Sunrise found Wufei brewing Herbal tea at the counter, hair tied back firmly, spine straight. Trowa came in a few minutes later and poured himself a cup as well, sipping it slowly in small mouthfuls as it should be, not reacting to the bitter taste.

 

They drank tea in silence, each to his own thoughts, until Wufei finally opened his mouth. “How do you do it?” he asked softly. “Hurt someone you like?”

 

“I'm doing it for his own good as well as mine,” Trowa said. “I can't let my feelings for Quatre interfere. If he gets involved with me, he'll lose sight of his objectives.” He poured himself another cup of tea and continued. “I don't want to weaken him. He has his own things to look after, his sisters to care for. He shouldn't be …bogged down with me. I'll go back to Catherine after all this is done and…” He stopped when he realized Wufei was staring at him.

 

“I wasn't talking about you,” Wufei said softly, tilting his face lightly so Trowa could see the bruise forming on his cheek. “I just wanted to know: can you hurt someone unwittingly?”

 

“I don't know,” Trowa answered, refusing to ask where Wufei had gotten the bruise from. It was one thing Wufei liked about the other boy; he respected others' privacy and knew when to remain silent. Wufei had been grateful of the silent support but he had to know.

 

“Why Yuy?”

 

Trowa did not pretend to misunderstand. “He wanted it and it seems so uncomplicated,” Trowa said. “Not that I didn't want it but I can live without it. It's just a break from everything, but sometimes, I think for Heero our relationship means something different,” he shrugged. “I can leave Heero and not look back; but with Quatre…” he shrugged. “If the day comes, I want him to be able to shoot me and not cry about it.”

 

“Quatre'll never do that,” Wufei said with certainty. “And what you're doing now is hurting him more.”

 

There was no answer to that but as Trowa reached for the last of the tea and Wufei realized he was not going to be able to get his answers from the already confused boy. Trowa was too deeply sunk in his own problems to deal with Wufei's and he found himself wishing for Sally. Not to ask her for advice, of course, but sometimes, some of the things she'd said actually made sense once in a while and…

 

In the end there was only the five of them and they didn't know how to talk, not even with each other. Trowa was no help and Heero was about as emotional as a gundam, which left Quatre.

 

Wufei walked up the flight of steps that led to the upper floor bedrooms, something he had not done before. The staircase was of solid wood with a peeling balustrade sweeping up grandly, and Wufei had to appreciate the effect. Some time back, this house must have been the envy of the neighborhood. The rooms were well spaced-out, set along either side of a long corridor. Wufei knew that the first bedroom belong to Heero and facing it directly was Trowa's. Duo's bedroom was further back, facing Quatre's, and there were two bathrooms placed between each room. He had not been up here before, but listening to Duo talking had given him a pretty good idea of the layout.

 

He found Quatre's room quite easily and pushed the door in and stormed in, determined to get his problem over with. “Winner,” he said. “We need to talk.”

 

The blond cursed then turned around, his hand on his keyboard. “Haven't you heard about knocking?” he asked irritably.

 

“Should I go out and knock?” Wufei inquired. “Now that you know I'm here.”

 

“No,” said Quatre with a smile. “The day you learn your manners will be the day you… Never mind Wufei, I take it you came up to talk to me about something important.”

 

“I wanted to know about something…” Wufei said, hesitating a little as he wondered how to answer.

 

“Does this have anything to do with Duo and that bruise you are sporting?” the blond inquired.

 

“Might,” Wufei admitted.

 

“Is it personal?” Quatre asked. “Will Duo kill me if I know this?”

 

“Yes,” Wufei said. Hell, with these one word conversations he was becoming as bad as Yuy. “Just…how did you know it was about Duo?”

 

“Last night,” the blond said with a shrug turning around and fiddling with his laptop. “It's not something you would normally understand but something shook him up and I could feel it. But unless you are willing to talk this out with Duo first, don't come to me for advice. He might be a friend but he does value his privacy and if what you tell me is going to breach it, I don't want to know. Unless it's very serious…for example is he suicidal or…”

 

“Nothing like that,” Wufei said quickly. “It's just that I think I might have reminded him of something in his past that disturbed him greatly.”

 

“That's saying a lot while saying absolutely nothing,” Quatre said. “Tell you what. I'm going to the Maganacs' Base with Duo and my sisters this week. I'll see if I can get him to talk while we're there. We always wind up in the same bedroom and since everything is taken care of by someone else, we usually have a bit more free time.”

 

“Thank you,” said Wufei, knowing it was for the best. Maybe, time away from him would help Duo see things in perspective.

 

“What are friends for?” said the blond as he turned around and he hastily tried to cover the screen as a pop up appeared. Wufei watched with amusement as the boy wrestled with the web site, trying to close them as more and more pop ups of…

 

“Winner,” he said before he could help himself. “Are you surfing for gay porn?”

 

“Well, unlike you, I have not been blessed with a liking for the opposite sex,” Quatre said snidely. “And there seems to be lot more to it than fitting plug A with plug B.”

 

“Oh,” said Wufei, swallowing dryly when he saw a photo which made him feel distinctly uncomfortable.

 

“I mean, Trowa isn't the only guy in the world and I'll eventually move on and it helps if I know the basic mechanics.”

 

“Mechanics,” repeated Wufei dimly as his feet took his closer to the screen until he was standing next to Quatre.

 

“Yeah,” he said and Wufei could see the blond was blushing so hard his ears looked as if they were on fire. Not that he was unaffected either. “It seems more complicated than you'd expect; not like with women where you know what goes where ...um…” Wufei coughed and returned his attention to Quatre, blushing. He had been caught staring at the screen. “You want to do some research on this?” Quatre offered.

 

“Winner, I'm not sure …”

 

“I'm sure it's something sixteen year olds would normally do,” he was offered tentatively.

 

---!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! --- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!----

 

“Stupid,” said Duo throwing a spanner. It hit the metal surface and bounced back, not even denting it. “Idiotic.” He picked up some spare bolts and started throwing them, one by one at Altron.

 

“You are going to need those sooner or later,” said the nasal voice of the last person he wanted to see. Duo spun around, cursing as a handful of nuts fell to the floor, rolling in all directions.

 

“Heero,” he said. “You have to stop sneaking up on people like that.”

 

“You were distracted,” Heero pointed out.

 

“I had a good reason,” Duo said. “I hate that thing.”

 

“The gundam?” even Heero looked puzzled.

 

“Do you know what Wufei's wife was called?” Duo said before he could stop himself. “Nataku.”

 

At that, Heero cracked one of his rear smiles. “I don't think that's possible,” he said.

 

“Why ever not?' Duo demanded angrily.

 

“Because no matter how highhanded he gets, I think it's unlikely he married a god,” Heero said sarcastically.

 

“A god!” Duo exclaimed. “Nataku is a god. The bastard. He said …”

 

“A male god,” Heero confirmed. “Is something going on between you and Wufei? Last night…”

 

“Just leave it,” Duo said hastily. He did not really dislike Heero, seeing that he and Heero had sort of connected, being the first two gundam pilots to have met. “It's confusing at best and I don't want to discuss it with you just now.”

 

“Did you tell Quatre?” Heero asked next, making Duo pause. Why is the world would he want to…

 

On second thought, telling Quatre seemed like a good idea but still. “He's not our mother, you know,” Duo said with a grimace. “He's just a kid with problems of his own and adding more on top of it wouldn't help.” Plus, how was he going to tell Quatre he had problems with his sex life wen he hadn't even told his friend he was with Wufei.

 

“But I thought you and Quatre were…”

 

“Friends,” Duo said with a shrug. “But this is between me and Wufei.”

 

“But pelting his gundam with our tools is not going to help either,” Heero pointed out reasonably.

 

“Maybe it's a Chinese thing,” he said, remembering what was said earlier. “Do they get married to gods or something?”

 

“Not that I know of,” Heero answered. “I only know they kept concubines...mosto f the emperors did…”

 

“Isn't that like a mistress?” Duo asked, interested by the turn of the conversation.

 

“They had a better position in court and were treated with about the same level of importance as the Queen,” Heero explained.

 

“That's nice,” said Duo dully, his mind whirling as he thought about his newly acquired information.

 

It was not concubines he was thinking of as he walked into his room, but about an acquaintance he'd had back in L2. Duo had no idea what had happened to the boy, an older prostitute who had befriended him for a small while. They had never been bosom buddies but he had hung out with Duo a bit and they had traded stories. One of his main incomes had been from an older man who hired him every Friday - or what counted as Friday - and took him back to his house.

 

“Doesn't his wife mind?” Duo had asked fascinated, after seen the boy get into a car with a man who looked like someone's favorite grandfather. Most of their clients did not take them home, it was usually to an alleyway or convenient junk pile.

 

“The old lady knows,” the boy had snorted. “And she gives me cash to keep him busy so she gets some rest.”

 

And that had been a cornerstone in his education. He knew people needed sex, which was why people paid for it or resorted to rape. It was also a way of life and L2 was full of rich people who slept around. All most people ever saw was the junk piles which did not mean there were no rich people on L2. Those people had built it and they lived in the lap of luxury. The street kids were the remnants of the workers who worked with the original settlers, those who could not afford to look after themselves. In some cases, certain parents had had enough money to buy passage on a ship to Earth for just themselves and had left, promising they'd return for their children but never had.

 

What interested Duo was not earning money, but the fact people with money always wanted sex. He had seen older men divorce older wives for younger ones, citing sexual prowess. He'd serviced men whose wives `were not good enough' and it the end, sex made the colony spin. As he'd grown up, he'd understood that the basics of relationships were different from what he'd learned on L2, but a part of him always knew that a relationship without sex was going to lose out. What if Wufei got impatient while waiting for Duo to brace himself for sex? Duo liked kissing, he liked messing about but the thought of actual sex freaked him out. It was something everyone else, apart from him wanted.

 

But something Heero had said made him… think.

 

Which was why he made his way down the house, hoping to find Wufei in his room, reading another classic as usual. Instead, he found Wufei standing with his hands on his hips, a smug look on his face while an extremely flushed looking Trowa stood in front of him, fists bunched as if to hit him.

 

“He wouldn't,” Trowa was snarling. “He's not like that.”

 

“Go comb your hair, Barton,” Wufei said derisively. “I think it's blocking your perspective.”

 

“He wouldn't,” Trowa said his tone less angry and more desperate.

 

Duo stepped closer, and Wufei look around Trowa at his movement and nodded. “Duo,” he said, when he saw the other boy. “I was wondering where you were.”

 

“You could have looked for me,” Duo pointed out. “It's a big house, but still.”

 

Trowa looked around at Duo then brushed past, his shoulder hunched.

 

“I though you might be avoiding me,” Wufei answered reluctantly, ignoring Trowa completely. He moved back and sat on his bed, in his usual position.

 

“Why would I do that?” Duo queried going over and nudging Wufei so he'd move.

 

Wufei looked relieved as he moved to make room for Duo. “I…hurt you last time and…”

 

“You did not hurt me,” Duo said firmly. “I might have hurt you but you did not…”

 

“But something I did…”

 

“You did nothing wrong,” Duo interrupted and then they were silent for a while. “I was thinking,” said Duo after a while. “About … us and all and well, see, and about Trowa and Heero.”

 

“What about them?” Wufei asked.

 

“Remember you said you'd help me keep those two apart so Quatre would have a chance with Trowa?”

 

“I don't think it works that way Duo,” Wufei said with surprising gentleness.

 

“Guess not,” Duo said. “Heero wants sex and as long as Trowa gives that to him, they are stuck together.”

 

“Duo,” said Wufei stiffening

 

“I mean, Trowa and Quatre getting together is going to be hard when you have a readily available sexbot running around,” Duo continued. “You have to admit Heero is programmed just right.” He saw Wufei open his mouth to disagree so he hurriedly shook his head. “Maybe it was a part of Dr. J's master plan, if you can't blow up OZ, at least sleep through them.”

 

“I've agreed help Quatre and Trowa since you asked,” Wufei said formally, ignoring Duo's speculations. “I think I've been shoving them both in the right direction for some time now. You work on Quatre to take a firmer stand and I'll work on Trowa. See… we don't need to mess with Yuy in any way and it's less complicated…”

 

“But…” said Duo. “He is sex on legs isn't he? With his chocolate brown hair and those blue eyes which are soooo nice to look at and that body. You know he's got this nice…” He stopped when he looked at Wufei who was regarding him oddly.

 

“Are you trying to convince me to have sex with him or yourself?” he asked, and from the way he said it, it was no joke.

 

“Admit it,” said Duo. “He's not half bad and you know it. At least where looks are concerned …” he gulped but kept on going. “…but still, I'm being an idiot and you can forget I ever said that.

 

“It's dishonorable,” Wufei said bluntly making Duo feel as if he'd suggested they gang -bang Relena. “He's one of us no matter what. And I'm with you,” he added showing that he was not all that dense. “As I should be. If you have a problem, we deal with it together, not look the other way.”

 

Duo smiled at it and settled a little lower. Wufei did not comment on it and Duo decided not to bring up the point but he was thinking. He was going to go off with Quatre to the desert and leave Wufei, Heero and Trowa in the safe house. And he knew Heero had kissed Wufei once…

 

He conveniently forgot that he had done the same.

 

A/n- the next chapter will either make or break this fic so …here's keeping my fingers crossed.