Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Happy Trails ❯ Chapter 8

Warnings and disclaimers in first part


Trowa fought for a good reason, taking a risk by using the truth. Standing, he framed Duo’s face with his hands. “He hurt you. I would have wanted to know about him because of that, but knowing he’s related to Quatre made me want to know immediately.”

Duo’s eyes changed from angry to shocked to stricken as he spoke, “Related to Quatre?” he asked as his legs seemed to turn to water, slumping into Trowa.

Worried, Trowa picked up the smaller man and took him to the couch; frightened by the extreme reaction. Duo’s eyes were unfocused, his breath coming in gasps. “I’m sorry, Duo. If I had known he was so important to you, I wouldn’t have brought it up at all. God, breathe!” he shouted, panicked by the abrupt paleness of Duo’s face.

The strength used to push Trowa away was surprising. As soon as Trowa backed away, Duo bent over, putting his head between his knees and taking several deep breaths. By the time he sat back up, he seemed to be more in control, though he was still pale, “I wasn’t involved with Cal,” he gasped, holding his head.

“What can I do?” Guilt was trying to swallow Trowa whole for making Duo react in such a way.

“Can you get me some water?”

Less than two minutes later, Trowa was handing Duo a glass of water filled with ice. Unable to do anything more, he ran his hands over the other man’s back and hair in an attempt to rectify his mistake. “Can you forgive me? I didn’t realize it would upset you so much,” he declared, closing his eyes and cursing mentally for being so inept at comforting someone.

A hand on his face stunned him into opening his eyes, confused when he saw the way Duo smiled at him, sadness lurking in the blue-violet eyes. “Hearing about Cal isn’t what surprised me. Hearing he was related to Quatre was what made me have such a…extreme reaction. I’m fine…or I will be. Why did you ask Heero to find what he could about him?”

“Last night I heard you. When you went to sleep…” with a grimace he shook his head.

“You snuck into my room and got the photo-cube. I saw it on your bed this morning, Trowa. I didn’t mind you looking at it, but next time, don’t assume you have any idea what’s going on. Cal and I were never involved, not like that. We were good friends for about a year.”

The need to know was too great to let it go. Taking one of Duo’s hands in both of his own, Trowa focused on the lines of Duo’s palm, tracing the callused fingers with his smooth ones, another testament to the different direction their lives had taken after the war. “Can you tell me about him? I think I need to know,” he added, not sure why he felt that way.

“We met a few months after the war. I was bouncing from one colony to another, trying to stay under the radar.”

“You were trying to stay hidden from Quatre,” guessed Trowa.

“Partially; I was also trying to stay away from the press and people that hadn’t approved of the Gundams. I met Cal on L1. He had a lot of problems, Trowa. He was using a lot of different drugs; uppers in the morning and downers at night - that kind of thing. He also drank…a lot. It didn’t take too long to figure out he was an addict and I started hanging out with him in an attempt to get him off the shit.”

“It didn’t work?” Trowa guessed, seeing Duo tense.

“It did. It wasn’t an overnight thing or a miracle of some kind, but he got clean after five months. He told me he was from a wealthy family that had let him have anything he wanted until right after the war. Suddenly he found himself ostracized and given an ultimatum; either comply with what the family told him or get out.”

Keeping one hand around Duo’s, Trowa put his arm on the back of the couch, rubbing the back of the braided man’s neck. “He decided to leave, I assume?”

“No, he had no idea how to take care of himself. He was just seventeen and had never been alone in his life. Cal had always been surrounded by servants and family and was scared to leave. One of the conditions he had to agree to in order to stay was that there would be no drugs or alcohol of any kind.”

Trowa nodded in understanding, “Ah, he couldn’t live without them.”

“You’re assuming again, Trowa,” the braided man chided with a sad smile before shaking his head. “He craved it, but stopped. He wouldn’t even drink a glass of wine with dinner. He did what he was told, dated the women chosen for him, and went to work in the family business.” Lifting his eyes to Trowa, Duo winced, “Cal never told me what his family’s business was, but he said textiles. That should have given me a clue. Winner owns over half the textile companies on Earth and L4, which is where Cal had come from.”

“There are still several small family companies that refuse to sell to Winner. Quatre complained about it often,” shrugged Trowa when Duo blinked. “I’m confused. If Cal stayed away from drugs and alcohol and did what he was told, why was he kicked out?”

“A family member, he never could find out who, did a search of Cal’s room. Imagine everyone’s surprise when several bottles of pills and three bottles of liquor were found. They didn’t even give him a chance to explain or listen when he said it wasn’t his. Someone stayed with him while he packed to make sure he didn’t steal anything and then they had him escorted to the front gate by three guards.”

Blowing out a breath, Trowa felt sorry for the man he had never known. “You think the drugs and liquor were planted.”

“I think someone brought it in and didn’t ever bother with an actual search. Cal was an embarrassment to the family and had to be gotten rid of. Who do you know capable of being that ruthless?”

“You think Quatre would do something like that?”

Pulling his hand from Trowa’s, Duo stood and moved to the center of the room. “After everything you’ve heard you don’t think he could? Let me tell you what I learned a few years ago when I was searching for a way to get out from under Quatre’s thumb. As head of the company, he’s also head of the family. Not just his immediate family, but aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. All of them have to have Quatre’s approval in what they do. He’s the one that decides if a proposal should be accepted or if a business should be bought or sold.”

Stunned, Trowa shook his head. “I knew everyone talked to him about marriage, but he said it was a show of respect.”

“Respect for his position, not for him. You wanted to know about Cal,” Duo frowned. “He had no money, no family, and no skills. He’d never worked a day in his life and suddenly had to support himself.”

“We had harder lives, Duo,” reminded Trowa softly.

Sitting down on the edge of the couch, the braided man shook his head, “We were born into a hard life and we learned to adapt to survive. Cal’s entire life was luxury and opulence while he was told where to be, when to be there, and how to act. It would be like me trying to change to fit into Quatre’s world, wearing a tuxedo and rubbing elbows with the universe elite. Simply put, it wouldn’t work.”

Trowa spent a moment trying to imagine Duo in that world, realizing there would be no way for the long-haired man to fit in; Duo was too independent and opinionated. It was something Trowa had struggled with while being Quatre’s lover. “I see what you mean. The streets would eat him alive.”

“That’s what happened. He stayed ahead of the more dangerous people for about a month then learned what happened to helpless boys on the street the hard way. He said he didn’t know to be ashamed or grateful when they threw money at him…after they were finished with him. Instead of buying food or shelter, he turned back to the one thing guaranteed to take away the pain.”

When Trowa rubbed the back of his neck, Duo sighed, “He’d probably been on the streets about four months when he hitched a ride to L1 by doing sexual favors for the crew, consisting of five men. I’d never seen anyone look that bad. I assumed he’d lived on the streets for years and was a lot older. Out of pity I bought him a meal while he was scouting for a client. I was staying in a motel, offered him a place to stay. He declined. Saw him around the neighborhood, ate and talked to him occasionally until I heard his story. A month and a half after we met I found him outside my room, naked and almost dead.”

“A customer?”

“Yeah, it didn’t take Cal long to realize people on L1 were less refined than what he was used to; he wasn’t a good judge of people and chose the wrong guy. I got him put back together and asked him to get help.”

“He did eventually.”

Nodding slowly, Duo continued speaking, his eyes staring into the distance, seeing something from his past. “It took a while and he made a few more bad calls, but he finally realized he wasn’t going to survive much longer and checked into rehab. He struggled with it, relapsed about five times, but finally beat it. Cal got a job as a dishwasher at a diner and was happy as hell about it, he had an apartment and he was getting close to a girl he worked with.”

“He wasn’t gay?” Trowa was stunned, assuming Cal to be homosexual because of his choice of clients.

“Cal was straight as a ruler, but he learned women didn’t go looking for hookers, especially when they’re as pretty as Cal. The people willing to pay for his services were men. He was so high he could pretty much enjoy anything.” Duo shrugged, “Desperation leads to some weird things you wouldn’t normally consider. I know I thought about selling myself a few times for food. I couldn’t do it. Cal could.”

Not wanting to remember his own past, Trowa went back to the original topic, “So he had a girlfriend?”

“She wasn’t his girlfriend yet, but that’s where they were heading. Marly was a waitress at the diner. She was a sweet girl and a good influence on Cal. She knew we were good friends so when he didn’t show up for work one day she called me and asked me to check on him. It was the first time in four months he had missed work.”

Fingers tapping on his leg, the braided man shook his head quickly, a grimace pulling his mouth back. “I figured he had overslept or was in bed sick, there was a virus going around the neighborhood and agreed to go to his apartment. It was a few blocks away from my motel, so I walked. I turned the corner and froze when I saw sector police in front of his building. I looked over just in time to see Cal’s landlord point at me. All those damn cops turned to stare at me and I did the first thing that came to mind.”

Duo’s instinct would have been the same as Trowa’s in the same situation, “You ran.”

“Hell yeah, I ran. I learned early that cops are nothing but bad news and these did not look happy to see me.”

“How did you get caught? I’ve seen you run. You’re damn fast, Duo.”

“Not in a pair of flip-flops. Marly’s call had gotten me out of the shower, so I wasn’t really dressed. It didn’t take long for them to catch me. They didn’t give me a chance to explain or anything. They just shoved me in a patrol car and took me to jail. They questioned me for hours, asking me the same things over and over again. I kept telling them why I had been there and what my relationship to Cal was, but that wasn’t good enough. I probably would have been arrested for murder if an old ‘friend’ hadn’t shown up out of the blue to vouch for me,” Duo’s snarled words made it easy to understand Quatre had been the friend. “He told them I was a very important person. His assurances and a few well-placed bribes had me out in two days without being formally charged with murder.”

“What happened to Cal?” backtracked Trowa.

“The police labeled it accidental death, but they actually thought he committed suicide. I think he was killed. He died of an overdose, Trowa. A heroin overdose and that’s ridiculous.”

Trowa didn’t want to argue, but had a point to make. “He could have had a relapse, Duo. You said he’d done it before.”

“Cal never used heroin. Never. He saw someone die of an overdose and it terrified him. Pills? He’d take them and he’d snort anything he could, but he would never use injections. He was terrified of needles. I asked the cops if they thought it was odd for someone that had no track marks to die from an overdose of heroin, but they said Cal was probably trying it for the first time.”

“What did Quatre say?”

“He was in the area taking care of some unfortunate family business and heard I was in trouble. Those were his exact words, Trowa. Later he told me he was tying up some loose ends of a problem.”

Trowa didn’t want to admit Quatre was capable of killing someone in cold blood, but after everything else he had learned, he couldn’t say his former lover wasn’t capable of such an act. “Do you think he knew you and Cal were friends?”

“I didn’t think about it at the time. I knew he had kept up with what I was doing, but I wasn’t aware of his connection with Cal, so it didn’t occur to me. I bet in his twisted little mind he was killing two birds with one stone. He wouldn’t have to worry about Cal popping back up to cause problems later and the favor he did for me indebted me to him.”

“Could Cal really have caused problems for Quatre? I can’t see how.”

Duo rose to pace the room again. “When I first met Cal you wouldn’t have associated him with one of the richest families in the universe, but after he got off the drugs he was getting healthy again. He was gaining weight and worked out when he had a chance. By that time I had pushed Quatre as far back in my mind as possible. I never thought about him and when I did it was with disgust. Thinking back, the likeness was unmistakable. Before being kicked out of his family home, he was in the press on a regular basis. It wouldn’t have been long before someone recognized Cal and began asking questions about why he was a dishwasher in a third-class diner.”

“That would have been awkward for Quatre if Cal’s suspicions were made public. Usually in that kind of situation after one person speaks up, there are a lot of people suddenly willing to tell their story, too. It might not have worked for the waiter at that restaurant, but for someone that was in the Winner family…someone might have actually listened.”

“If Cal talked, Quatre might suddenly have a lot of uncomfortable questions to answer. It’s not so hard to believe now, is it?”

“It wasn’t Cal that ruined your life. It was Quatre.”

Duo shook his head, “I wondered how much you heard. It was Quatre. He had made it very clear what would happen if I came around the three of you and after that he had a new thing to hold over my head. If I did anything he didn’t like he would let everyone know I had been suspected of drug use or murder, whichever he thought people would believe.” Looking at his watch, the smaller man made a face. Trowa knew the conversation was at an end, his assumption confirmed when Duo spun toward the kitchen. “I’ve still got a thousand things to do today and not enough time to do them in.”

The surprise in cobalt eyes was clear when Trowa caught up to his host and grabbed his arm, stopping Duo just outside of the kitchen. “I really don’t have more time to talk right now.”

“I don’t want to talk. I want five more minutes,” the tall man wasn’t surprised when Duo looked away, opening his mouth. “Don’t tell me this morning was a mistake, Duo.”

“That’s exactly what it was. It shouldn’t have happened, either time. It won’t…”

He knew Duo was going to say it wouldn’t happen again; Trowa stopped the statement by putting his mouth over the small man’s. Heart racing, he wasn’t gentle as his tongue mated its counterpart, the hand that had been holding Duo’s arm moving to his back. When they pulled apart, he lowered his head to nip at the skin of Duo’s neck, his entire body trembling. “Don’t say it isn’t going to happen again, Duo, because it will. You know it will, so why fight it?”

Feeling a hand on his chest, he allowed himself to be pushed away, though his hand remained on the other man’s waist. “This might be easy for you, Trowa, but I have to fight it. Protecting myself is the most important thing right now.”

“I won’t hurt you.”

Duo moved away several feet before he turned to give Trowa a sad look, “You already are.”