Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ One Step Forward, Two Steps Back ❯ The Date ( Chapter 7 )

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Authoress: Kimpisces

Archives: Well, you can find all my fan-fiction at either ff. Net or mm .org

Summary: “Love can die but a dance will last forever. You may not be happy but at least you'll never feel the pain of betrayal”
Heero Yuy is a boy who doesn't believe in love
Duo Maxwell is a boy whose never felt its touch
What happens when these two boys meet and Heero's belief that a relationship should be based on a dance around the other is put to the test against Duo's belief that love conquers all?
Who will win? Come and witness the dance.

Rating: T

Warnings: Angst, AU, slight OOC, Shonen-Ai/Yaoi, Relena Bashing, Language

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter Seven: The Date

Duo didn't even know why he was trying to put on his tuxedo. It wasn't like he actually owed this to Heero. Hell, he hadn't actually agreed to this date at all. Heero had just assumed that he would go along with the whole thing. So why was Duo standing here, going along with this?

Pulling at his bow tie, Duo looked at himself in the mirror. He supposed he looked good, with his hair in its usual braid and kohl-highlighted eyes. The kohl brought out the brightness of his eyes and made them look like they were glowing.

He didn't even know why had he went through the painstaking actions of applying the kohl. The only reason he had even been able to get his hands on any was because he had borrowed it from his foster sister. He was sure she had agreed to let him borrow it, simply because she had an obsession with homosexuals. So much of an obsession that Duo questioned her own sexuality sometimes.

Duo heard the doorbell ring and butterflies jumped into his stomach. Why was he so nervous? It was just Heero and this wasn't even a real date.

Nevertheless, Duo checked his appearance in the mirror once more and then rushed downstairs.

“Why, they're beautiful! I've never heard of someone bringing the mother flowers before.” Duo could hear his foster mother swoon as he tried to make sure his steps were slow and not at all anxious. He couldn't let Heero know that he was nervous about this whole thing.

“I figure it's something too often overlooked by people,” Heero returned with a smile and then looked up the stairs to where Duo was walking. “Ah, Duo. Hello. Are you ready to go?”

Duo nodded, unable to say anything else as he concentrated on not falling down.

“Good.” Heero's eyes drifted up and down Duo's body. Duo blushed as he realized that he had been half-hoping that Heero liked what he saw.

“You two can go and have fun,” Duo's foster mother said. “Heero, have him home by midnight, and Duo, don't do any thing crazy.”

Smiling as calmly as he could while his insides were going through an earthquake, Duo grabbed Heero's hand and led him out the door. Heero then took the lead and guided Duo to a truck that waited for them. Opening the passenger side door, Heero watched Duo climb in before closing the door and heading to the other side.

“You know, this really isn't going to work,” Duo stated as Heero turned on the engine.

“What's not going to work?” Heero asked.

“You being a gentleman and bringing her flowers. You may win her over but you're not going to win me.”

Heero said nothing.

A few awkward minutes later, they pulled into a large parking lot that belonged to a building that Duo had never seen before in his life. He glanced over at Heero, who quickly looked away and Duo realized that he had hit a nerve earlier.

“Where are we?” Duo asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“A place I chose to try and win you over,” Heero answered dryly and then sighed. “Listen, Duo, I don't understand you. If you're so against me, then why are you even here?”

“I don't know.”

“I just don't want to think I'm acting like my father would. He's a serious player, you know, and I don't want anyone to think that I'm like him.”

“I'm not going to be the thing that's going to differentiate you from your father.” Duo sighed and placed his hand on Heero's arm. “Though if your guilt is any indication, I doubt you're really like him.” With that, Duo opened the door and moved to climb out.

“Do you really want to do this?” Heero asked suddenly, grabbing Duo's arm before he could get out of the truck. “If you want, I can take you home right now.”

Shaking his head, Duo pushed Heero's hand away. “So now you decide to play the good Samaritan? When I tell you that I don't want to go out with you, you follow me around and trick me into it. But when I finally decide to agree to the whole thing, you decide that maybe it's a good idea to take me home?” Duo sighed. “Look, I'm here because in some weird way, I want to be. I'm annoyed with you right now, because I don't really know where you're coming from anymore. You're just too confusing. However, right now, I'm really annoyed with you because I actually care about what's wrong with you and because I actually want to, somehow, go on this date. So are you going to take me into that restaurant or not?”

Heero looked at Duo for a moment and then nodded, climbing out of his side of the truck, Duo doing the same on his side. Following behind Duo, Heero guided them to the front door.

“I'm glad that you want to go on this date with me,” Heero said finally as they waited for a waitress to come to the door and lead them to their table.

“Good,” Duo said, smiling and reaching behind him to grab Heero's hand and squeeze it reassuringly before dropping it.

“Hello, how may we help you?” the waitress asked as she walked up to the book of reservations.

“The reservations are under Yuy,” Heero replied. The waitress nodded and led them to the left of the main door and up a set of stairs. Duo glanced quizzically at Heero, but Heero refused to meet his glance. Sighing, Duo followed the waitress into a small room and they sat down at the table.

“Private enough?” Duo asked jokingly.

“Tons of my parent's friends come here. I didn't want to embarrass you by having them come up to us,” Heero explained. “They wouldn't leave us alone for a second you know.”

“Oh, sounds like fun.” Opening the menu, Duo's jaw dropped at the prices that he saw next to each of the dishes.

“Don't worry about the cost. As long as you don't plan to do the model thing, I'm willing to pay for anything you want to eat.”

“The model thing?”

“Pick the most expensive item on the menu and then eat a whole bite of it before pronouncing that you're full,” came the explanation. “It's an extreme waste of my money and I don't appreciate it at all. Just because I can afford it, doesn't mean I want to waste my money.”

“No kidding. Don't worry, I won't even think of doing that.” Duo stared at the menu again and frowned. “I don't even know what half these things are.”

Heero laughed. “Don't worry about it. I've been going to places like this for my whole life and I still don't know what half the stuff on this menu is.”

“Very reassuring,” joked Duo. “I think I'll just have a salad and lasagna.”

“Sounds good.” Heero closed his own menu. “The waitress should be back any moment now.”

“Cool.” Duo chose this moment to look around the room, and he noticed a fireplace on the wall. “They truly do have the entire setting thought out, don't they?”

“Yeah,” Heero replied.

“Do you bring all of your dates up here?”

Before Heero could answer, the waitress walked into the room. “Hello, sirs. May I take your order now, or would you like a few more minutes to decide?”

“We're ready now,” Heero replied, smiling.

“I'll have a caesar salad and a meat lover's lasagna please,” Duo said, as he handed the waitress his menu.

“All right. What would you like to drink with that?”

“Uh...” Duo shot a look over at Heero for help.

“We'll have the bartender's choice, please, and I'll have the same meal as he is,” Heero said smoothly, covering up Duo's discomfort.

“Of course, Mr. Yuy.” The waitress bowed and then left the room.

Duo looked over at the fireplace again. “So can you really turn that thing on, or is just a piece of decoration?”

“You can turn it on.” Heero got up, flipped a switch on the wall, and the fireplace roared to life. “It's a gas fireplace.”

“It's beautiful,” exclaimed Duo as he went to stand closer to it. “Can we eat in front of it?”

“Of course,” Heero replied. “We can eat wherever you want.”

The door opened and the waitress walked in with a bottle. “Here you are, Mr. Yuy.”

“Thank you.”

She bowed again and left the room, leaving the bottle behind.

Duo looked at the label and his eyes widened. “That's alcohol.”

“Yeah.” Shrugging, Heero opened the bottle and poured a glass. “My mother has given me permission to have alcohol and it's on file. If you want something else though I can go and get them to bring us it.”

“No, it's fine. I guess when you're rich, rules can be twisted for you.”

“Look I'm sorry Duo.” Hero ducked his head so that his eyes were hidden behind his bangs.

“It's all right.” Duo sighed and then decided to change the subject. “So what would you normally do on a date in here?”

“Well, usually I don't have to do anything. My dates are usually pushy enough to allow me to just sit back and pay the bill and have everything else happen to me. However, I do enjoy sitting by the fire.”

Duo smiled. “Sounds good.”

Grabbing the bottle of wine, they settled themselves on the ground. They were both unsure about what was far enough away to keep things comfortable but close enough to not look like they were uncomfortable with the whole thing.

Finally Duo looked over at the wine and sighed. “You going to pour me some of that or what?”

“Yeah, sure.” Doing so, Heero passed it to Duo and was surprised to feel a shock when he touched Duo's hand.

Duo held it in his hand for a minute, just staring at it and then downed it, realizing instantly that it had been a bad idea. He began coughing and Heero pounded his back to help him out.

“That was fun,” remarked Duo sarcastically, but he gave Heero his glass for another helping anyway.

“Don't drink it so fast,” Heero advised, as he gave Duo another glass. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Duo took the glass and sipped it this time. “Aren't you going to have some or are you going to be the designated driver?”

“It doesn't matter, my dad's sending us a limousine around at about eleven, so I don't really have to worry about that.” With that Heero poured himself a glass and took a sip.

“Do you have a butler?” When Heero nodded, Duo continued. “What's it like? Do you have your phone answered for you? Your clothes are magically washed and put back in your drawers? Your underwear gets picked up from the side of the pool when you decide to have a midnight-skinny-dipping session? Your parents just happen to get called away when they're about to walk in on you and a girl?”

“Yes and no,” Heero replied. “He does our laundry, dishes, grocery shopping and gardening. He answers the main phone line, but that's only because anyone can get access to that phone number and therefore it's just safer to allow him to do that. He also cleans the house but only once a week or if it's really messy. For the most part we pick up after ourselves. I have to clean my own room if I want to keep my privacy, though. He checks it every two weeks to see if he needs to clean it. Once, when I was thirteen, I neglected to clean it and ended up losing my first porn collection. I've never had it messy enough for him to feel the need to clean it since.”

“Don't blame you.” Duo laughed. “Did you ever get them back?”

“Nope. I had to rebuild it.”

Duo fell silent for a moment and then looked up at Heero hesitantly. “Did you have any gay magazines in it?”

“In my first collection?” Heero took a swig of a beer bottle that the waitress had brought up with their salads while they had been talking. “Nope, not in my first collection.”

“So does that mean that you have some now?” Duo asked, a blush spreading across his face as he thought about it.

“Maybe. Does that bother you?”

Duo turned an even brighter shade of red at that, even as he shook his head.

“Don't worry. None of them are as good looking as you,” Heero teased.

“How would you know? You've never seen me . . . ” Duo hesitated. “You know, naked.”

“So? I don't have to see a person naked to know that they're attractive.” Heero chuckled and grabbed Duo's braid, playing with the bottom of it. “And you're very attractive.”

“You just want me to like you,” Duo protested, though he didn't seem to be protesting very hard. “You're just biased because of that. So your opinion doesn't really count.”

“That doesn't sound very fair,” Heero commented.

“Life's not fair,” Duo retaliated.

“True.” Looking at the beer bottle in his hand, Heero offered Duo some.

“I'll just stick with the wine,” Duo said, holding his glass up.

“Suit yourself.” With that, Heero took another sip.

“When do you think our lasagna will be here?”

“Soon.”

“Oh, okay.” Duo smiled and poured himself another glass, trying not to let his shaky hands cause him to pour some of the wine on the floor. Heero stared at him for a moment and then shook his head. Frowning, Duo looked at Heero. “What?”

“I was just wondering how you could possibly think that you're unattractive,” Heero replied. “I mean, there has to be a reason if you can't just look in a mirror and see the truth staring you right back in the face.”

“You see yourself covered in what you can only hope is dirt 90 percent of the time and you won't think that you're attractive either.”

“Hm. Even with dirt all over your face, I still think you'd look great.” Heero inched forward until he was almost on top of Duo and then leaned in. “If you were covered in dirt your eyes would still be there, your cute nose would still be there and you'd still smirk in that same way that you do now. Plus your hair would still be long and gorgeous, but you know what?”

“What?” Duo mocked. “If I cut my hair, you would hate me?”

“No.” Heero grabbed Duo's hair possessively anyway. “But don't cut it.” Heero smiled. “No matter how dirty you are, you're still going to be Duo and that's what's going to keep you attractive in my eyes. You're still going to be the guy that I like and that's all that matters.”

Duo swallowed hard, the tension in the air was choking him. Finally, unable to think of anything else to say, he decided to make a joke out of it. “You're really sappy, you know.”

Heero rolled his eyes. “Nice way to repay me for a compliment.”

“Sorry.” Duo looked down. “I guess I'm just not comfortable with taking compliments. It's just hard to believe you.”

“So how am I supposed to prove it to you?”

“You just don't.” Duo replied, shrugging.

The waitress came in, which stopped their conversation for a minute, and put their lasagna in front of them and then left.

As Duo dug into his lasagna, Heero put his fork down. “Wanna hang out tomorrow?”

“We're hanging out today,” Duo replied. “Why do we need to hang out tomorrow too?”

“We're just going to play in my backyard.”

“Your backyard?” Duo repeated, dumbly.

Chuckling, Heero leaned in and used his hand to clean off sauce that had made its way onto the corner of Duo's mouth. “Yeah, my backyard. We'll go skinny dipping.”

“What . . . what?” Duo started to cough.

Heero grinned mischievously. “I'm just kidding. But we will go swimming, so bring your bathing suit... unless you want to go skinny dipping.”

“But . . . but . . . “ Duo looked down at his food.

“What now?”

“I don't own a bathing suit,” Duo said in a small voice.

“I'll let you have one of mine, then. You can keep it, I have enough that I won't mind.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“All right then, I guess we can hang out tomorrow too.” With that Duo returned to eating his lasagna.

“I promise we'll have tons of fun.” Heero smiled encouragingly.

But the look in his eyes, had Duo seen it, might have caused him to change his mind. The look in Heero's eyes was of devious plotting.