Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ notice ❯ Telling ( Chapter 6 )

Title: Telling

Overall Rating: NC-17 for mature themes. Not for the impressionable.

Chapter Rating: PG

DISCLAIMER: The series Gundam Wing and the characters therein do not belong to me. I'm just putting them in different situations to see how they react.

Chapter Summary: The rest of the pilots are told Duo's story.

* * *

We slept in. Well, it was late for us, anyway. We were both just so used to being up before dawn to be ready for work on time. It wasn't that it took either of us all that long, we just liked to take our time in the morning.

The sun was fully up when Duo finally stirred. I had already been awake for a while. Ok, not all that long, but earlier than him. It was a wonderful feeling, being in someone's arms. The warmth and comfort was something I had never known before. Not to mention the sight of that angelic face, so peaceful in it's repose. That was a sight worth waking up for.

I could tell that Duo was returning from dreamland. His breathing began to lighten from the slow, deep breaths of sleep and his eyes scrunched tight as the sunlight hit his closed lids. I smiled as he tried to burrow deeper into my own warmth. I shifted slightly in order to shade him from the sun's glare.

He froze at the movement. His breathing immediately returned to that of deep sleep. I watched in amusement as one eye cracked open, ever so slightly. It had been years since the wars had ended, but apparently some habits just couldn't be completely broken. It's not that I blamed him, I had reacted the same way to waking up in an unfamiliar situation. I remembered his mentioning that he had rarely spent the entire night with any of the guys he'd gone out with, so waking up in someone's arms would not be something that he was used to.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," I whispered, not wanting to startle him.

Duo's eyes flew open. "Heero?" The look on his face was priceless. "Hmph," he pouted as my greeting registered. "Sleeping Beauty was a girl."

"Well, you were sleeping and you are most definitely beautiful," I told him with a grin, "so it fits."

He pondered that for a moment, then grinned back at me. "Ah, but Sleeping Beauty was awakened with a kiss, now wasn't she? I wasn't."

I raised up on an elbow and brushed his bangs away from his face. "I can fix that." Then I kissed him keeping it soft and undemanding. "Are you awake now?" I asked, pulling back.

"Mmm hmm," he said with a dreamy smile.

We both began to laugh when his stomach growled and mine answered. It wasn't really surprising that we were hungry. We would normally have eaten our breakfast several hours earlier.

"Do you want to shower or cook?"

Duo considered those options. "Cook. I got a bath last night, remember?" I remembered. I could still smell the lavender from the aroma therapy I had used last night.

"Ok," I agreed, climbing out of bed, "but I don't want a huge breakfast. The guys are coming over later for that pizza bake. Are you still going to make your burrito pizza?"

"Yep. Wufei insists he can't believe I could turn a burrito into a pizza and make it good for you too. I fully intend to prove him wrong."

I paused in the doorway. "Ah, but will they eat it after finding out what's actually in it?"

"Who cares?" he laughed. "If not, more for me!" I couldn't help but laugh along with him at that comment as I headed for the shower.

* * *

After breakfast, we took our coffee into the living room and curled up together on the couch. I really didn't want to ruin Duo's high spirits, but we needed to talk about what was going to be said to our friends. I pointed out that they cared about him and were worried. We didn't need to replay the entire thing, but they needed to know something. I offered to be the one to explain as he felt that he couldn't.

"We're in this together, Duo," I reminded him, as I took his cup from his slightly trembling hands and placed it on the table with mine. I then pulled him onto my lap and held him close. "I love you. Remember that. No matter what happens, I'm here. Nothing and no one can change that fact."

His trembling stopped and he perked up. "Are we gonna tell them?"

I had a feeling that the topic of conversation had just changed dramatically. "Tell them…?"

"About us, silly." He drooped slightly. "Unless you don't want to."

I growled softly and flipped Duo onto the couch. He yelped in surprise, then began to giggle as I trapped his hands above his head and started placing playful kisses around his face. "We'll tell them *kiss* anything *kiss* you like. *kiss* I love you, *kiss* and I *kiss* don't care *kiss* who knows it!" With a final kiss to his mouth, I changed my grip to hold both his hands with one of mine and moved the other one down to his ribs.

I had discovered years ago, totally by accident, that Duo was ticklish. It was a knowledge that I had never exploited…until now. I had read once that tickling could be used as a form of torture. I could see how this could be true. Forced laughter while one was mercilessly tormented would not be a pleasant experience. But in small doses…

"Heero!" Duo yelped as my fingers found his ribs. "Don't!" He began laughing. "Stop!" He shouted as he writhed helplessly.

I stopped immediately, hovering above him. "Anything you want, love. All you have to do is ask."

"Anything?" he drawled, leering at me.

"Once you have healed a bit and aren't so raw," I said, kissing the end of his nose, "anything."

"And if I wanted to tickle 'you'?"

I grinned at him. "But I'm not ticklish."

"You're sure of that?"

I suddenly found myself on the floor next to the couch with Duo laying on top of me. I also, to my dismay, found that I had been wrong about my not being ticklish…horribly wrong.

I was saved by a knock at the door.

"Hey, are you all right in there?" I could hear Wufei's voice only faintly over my own helpless laughter.

"Come on in, it's open!" Duo called, finally relenting in his torture.

Yep, I could definitely understand how tickling could be considered a form of torture. I had never been so happy to see the other Gundam pilots as I was at that moment. It was a good thing that Oz hadn't tried this at a time I was captured. I would never have been able to withstand it. Dr. J's training never covered that particular torment.

Our friends burst in the door and stood looking down at us in surprise.

"Are we interrupting anything?" Trowa asked dryly, his one visible eyebrow raised.

"Nope." Duo jumped up. "Heero was just learning that paybacks are hell is all."

"Is this true, Yuy?" Wufei asked, reaching down to give me a hand up.

"Hn."

"You seem to be in a good mood today, Duo," Quatre said as he closed the door.

Duo sobered a bit. "Uh, yeah. Heero and I had a talk last night."

I motioned for them to have a seat, figuring to get this out of the way immediately. Duo made to sit beside me and yelped slightly when I pulled him onto my lap instead. The others raised eyebrows at this, but said nothing.

When everyone was settled, I wrapped my arms around Duo in a loose embrace. "Are you sure you want me to tell it?" I asked him softly. He nodded, his face buried in my chest.

I proceeded to relay the events of the fateful date, leaving out the graphic description. I emphasized the fact that although he hadn't been raped, what happened hadn't been exactly consensual.

As I explained what he'd told me about his past history, and the 'expectations' of the guys he'd gone out with, Duo curled up tighter, as if trying to hide in shame. I tightened my embrace and rested my cheek on the top of his head. I wanted to convey to him that I wouldn't reject him, regardless of how the others would react.

No one interrupted while I told them. Duo couldn't see their reactions, but I did. No one was rejecting him. There was no condemnation in their expressions, which I was sure Duo was expecting. The only comments came when I described my seeing him with his gun. I had left that part out last night.

Trowa broke their silence. "Why didn't you talk to one of us?"

I explained what he'd told me, how he thought we would react to him.

Wufei seemed hurt by Duo's fears. He came over and knelt in front of us and placed his hand on Duo's leg.

"Did you really think that I care so little for you? That I would do such a thing to you?"

Duo pressed tighter against me before turning his head to peek at the Chinese man from under his bangs. "You were always ranting at me, picking on me. I wasn't so sure."

"Oh Duo, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any of it. I was just teasing you. Just like you are always picking on me. I thought you knew that."

"I kinda did, but it still hurt, ya know?"

"Can you forgive me?"

Duo nodded.

Wufei stood before leaning over to hug him. "I am sorry. I never intended to hurt you."

Duo accepted the hug, sitting up a bit to lay his head on Wufei's shoulder. "I forgive you, Wu." Then he chuckled softly. "But you'd better stop hugging me now. I'm taken you know."

"So I'd noticed." He stood grinning at us. "And such a lovely couple you make, too." His grin subsided. "Take good care of him Heero. He very special you know."

I looked up at him. "I know."

Quatre had been looking thoughtful through this exchange and spoke up as Wufei returned to his seat. "Duo, you'd mentioned that I would get you 'help'. Would that be such a bad thing? Maybe talking to a professional would do you some good."

"And have everyone find out just how crazy I really am? I don't think so."

"But Duo, we already know how crazy you are," Trowa deadpanned.

Duo looked at him in shock then laughed. "No crazier than you are, my friend. At least I don't intentionally let people throw knives at me!" Then he sobered again. "No, not you guys, everyone. You know how they tend to lump all of us together. If they found out that I had a problem, it would come back on all of you."

We tried to deny this when Duo cut us off. "Wufei, you work with Zechs in Preventer. How well is he trusted? I mean 'really'?"

Wufei opened his mouth to answer then shut it again, looking thoughtful. Finally, he answered. "It's taking a very long time, but people are just now starting to trust him. They keep mentioning what he did during the war."

"You see? It doesn't matter that he's better now. All they can remember is that he went crazy for a while. If someone gets sick physically, people don't care. The person gets treatment or surgery and people forget it. But if it's a mental or emotional problem… It's like you're cursed for life. I saw it before, back on L2. Crazy Brenda was always 'crazy', even after she supposedly got better."

"But we could get you private help," Quatre argued.

"Yeah, private until they found out about the gun. Then they would lock me up for sure. For my 'protection' they would say. I'm a Preventer, even if I'm on inactive status at the moment. How would that reflect on the rest of the organization? 'Could any of us really be trusted?' is what the general public would say. The credibility of the entire Preventer force would be compromised. I can't allow that to happen. Besides, it's not like I was really going to do it, I just thought about it for a minute."

Everyone was silent for a moment, then Quatre spoke up. "I still would rather that you spoke with a professional, but I can understand your reluctance. I do want you to promise me something, however." Duo focused on him. "I want you to promise that if you ever think of taking your own life again, no matter how fleeting a thought it may be, you'll come to one of us first. Will you promise me that?"

Duo nodded.

Quatre stared at him, considering, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, Duo, but that isn't good enough. I need to hear you say it. I know you don't lie, so if you actually say the words, then I'll know for sure that you mean it."

Duo sat up straighter. "I promise you," he turned his head to meet the eyes of each of us, "all of you, that I'll talk to one of you before I try to do anything to hurt myself."

Quatre smiled and nodded. "Good enough." His expression turned curious. "So, tell me about this burrito pizza Wufei was ranting about on the way over here."

Duo's laughter rang and the mood was lightened tremendously as the conversation turned to the plans for the evening.

TBC