Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The D.C. Saga ❯ The D.C. Saga, Part Thirty-Five ( Chapter 35 )

Title: The D.C. Saga, Part Thirty-Five

Warnings: All is not well in paradise. The boys have their first real fight. ^^;;; Oh, and there's another shameless self-insert. ^__^ Hey, Nomi wants to go to the damn baseball game too!

Rating: Probably R. Duo curses a lot in here, though he feels bad about it later. He's trying to quite. ^^ So am I, but damned if it's working....

A/N: And we are back to 1x2ness. There's a baseball game coming up. Heero said no. Duo wants to go. What will happen? ^__^

**
**
**

"I GOT TICKETS! I GOT TICKETS!"

WuFei jumped when Reiko ran right in the room and right out. He glared at her retreating back and returned to his book. Duo, sitting next to him on the couch, laughed. "Scared you, Wu?"

"Don't call me that," he replied, not exactly answering the question. Reiko ran back in.

"I GOT TICKETS!" And she ran out again. Trowa was highly amused, sitting curled up in his chair the way he was. He gave a small smile.

"Think it's a baseball game she's raving about?" he questioned, voice soft. WuFei snorted. Duo nodded.

"I don't think-I know. Hey, Reiko!"

On her third pass by she stopped dead and looked at him. "Yes?"

"Baseball game?"

"Yes! My mom got tickets and her boss's son gave them to me at school!" She jumped up and down a few times. "I only have five tickets, but I figured at least one of you would want to-"

"No."

She stopped and looked at Heero, blinking a bit. "Look, if you don't want to go you don't have to. It's an open invitation."

"We can't go."

"Can't or don't want to?" she questioned, a little bit of a bite to her tone.

"Can't," Heero said flatly. Duo glanced at him.

"Come on, man. We've been lying low for months. Can't we go do something normal?"

"No." There was a finality in his voice that made the others nod. But Duo just continued to stare at him.

"Heero, if you don't want to go, fine. But if I do, I'm going to go. I'm not an idiot-I know how to be careful."

"No."

Quatre gave a sigh. "Don't fight. It's not a big deal. We'll have to go some other time, then."

Heero didn't comment, and neither did Duo, but their eyes were locked together. Duo was furious. He didn't quite know why-Heero was their leader, after all, and they usually had no problems listening to him-but the American felt that this was different. He wasn't an idiot, he knew how to handle himself. His expertise was stealth, for God's sake! He knew how to sneak around without getting caught.

"Heero, may I speak with you in private?" I will not have a fight in front of everyone. I will not get angry. I will not get angry....

"For what? The topic is closed."

Duo blinked. Nope, not angry. I'm fucking PISSED. "Yuy, meet me in the bedroom in five minutes." And he left.

Reiko blinked a few times, slightly confused. Quatre rubbed at a forming headache and gave Heero a pleading look. "Heero, please don't fight with him."

"There will be no fighting. End of discussion. No one is going to the baseball game." But five minutes later, he left the room, a strange look in his eye.

Quatre sighed. "Duo's dead."

**

Heero entered the bedroom and saw that Duo was pacing. When he shut the door behind him, Duo spoke instantly. "You son of a bitch. I can't believe you did that out there."

Heero blinked, stunned and confused. "Did what?"

"You know what I mean, Heero! Making me sound like some sort of stupid idiot!" His braid whipped around as he paced, like an angry snake, and Heero leaned against the door, folding his arms across his chest, glaring through the heavy fringe of his bangs.

"Duo, no baseball games. I already told you that."

"No, Heero, you don't understand-I know how to take care of myself. I am not stupid enough to jeopardize anything. What you don't seem to get is that I'm the stealth expert-I could snatch your underwear off of you in the middle of the night without you even waking up. I think I could stand to blend in with forty-thousand people at a baseball game."

"Your braid is too noticeable-"

"I'll stuff it under a fucking cap!" Duo yelled. "You're missing the point, Heero!"

"And what's that?"

"It's that you do not own me! That's basically it, Heero-you don't own me. I know that you're the leader, I know that what you say goes, but you're being too cautious-"

"Duo, don't be thick," the Japanese pilot snapped, growing annoyed. "You can't be too cautious."

"Yes. Yes, you can. And this is it, Yuy." He got right up into Heero's face then, pushing him against the wall, their chests nearly touching, their noses inches apart. Eyes flashed and met. "I am sixteen years old. I've never, in my life, been to a ballgame. And who knows how much longer I'm going to live? I could die tomorrow. So you know what? Whether you like it or not, I am going to go to that fucking ballgame. Come with us if you want, but don't do it if you're going to be such an asshole." He took a deep breath, trying to calm his fiery nerves. "If you ever talk to me like that again, you can forget about kissing me."

Heero blinked. "What do you mean by that?"

"If you insult me with that mouth, you don't do anything else to me with it either." The purple-blue eyes were so dark and serious that Heero nearly nodded. Instead, he merely looked away.

"That's fine with me."

Duo, a little hurt by the comment, stepped back. "Good. Get your head out of your ass and see the big picture, Heero. We're teenagers-and I'll be damned if I die before acting like one." He pushed Heero out of the way and stalked out the door.

Heero sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed they shared, scowling and pissed. Why couldn't Duo just listen for once? Though....though he probably shouldn't have said things the way he did. And he had to admit (only to himself) that Duo did have a point.

It didn't mean that Heero had to go to the ballgame, though. If he gets caught, it isn't my fault. I tried to tell him, and he didn't listen, so it's not my problem anymore.

It didn't stop Heero from slumping a little when he heard all of them-minus WuFei and Trowa-leave for the ballgame. It also didn't stop him from waiting up.

**

"YEAH! WHOO HOO!" Duo cheered with the rest of the fans, taking a sip of his Coke before cheering some more. Quatre had to be explained the rules of baseball, but once he understood, he was the loudest out of all of them.

"YEAH! GO BERKMAN, WHOO HOO! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!"

For a girl, Reiko was freakishly loud herself. All in all, Duo was having an absolutely wonderful time, despite the fact that his hair itched from being pinned up under an Astros cap for so long. "Is the game over?"

"Almost!" the girl shouted, standing up and bouncing around a bit. "It's the ninth inning. So after this, we can leave." As she shouted obscenities at the Cubs players/fans/entire franchise, Quatre turned to Duo with the most exuberant, happy smile the braided boy had ever seen.

"Wasn't this fun?"

"Hell yeah!"

Reiko's two other friends, Nomi and Kane, were cheering loudly as well. Reiko turned to the boys with another happy grin. "Having fun?"

"Yes!" they chorused, and all five proceeded to cheer even more loudly until the game was over. The score was incredible-fourteen to five, Astros.[1] They all left in good humor, piled into Nomi's Jeep, and they were off.

On the ride there, Reiko ended up falling asleep against Quatre, who seemed completely tense yet smiling a bit. Next to Reiko, Kane was sleeping with her forehead against the windowpane.

In the front seat Duo changed the station until he found some classic rock, glad that Nomi didn't mind. "Have a good time, Duo?"

"Yes, I did. Thanks so much. That was a lot of fun." He glanced over at the driver, a girl only half a year older than himself, and hesitated. "Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did," she laughed, and Duo gave her one of his `yeah, no shit' looks.

"You know what I mean."

"Sure, go ahead."

"It's just...well...Kane said you were good with the whole relationship thing-"

"Yes, I am. Any but my own." She laughed again and Duo had to smile. He didn't feel as comfortable around her as he did with Reiko, but she was nice, she had a car, and she had good taste in music.

"Well...I mean....wait. One more quick question."

"Yeah?"

"How do you feel about...like...guys who like other guys?"

"It doesn't bother me at all," she grinned. "About eighty percent of my friends are at least bisexual, so I'm extremely open-minded. Got a boyfriend, Duo?"

The braided boy flushed. "...I might..."

"Ah. You had a fight, didn't you? That's why you're squirming."

He glared at her. "You're reading me like a fucking book."

"It's my job, darling."

He sighed. "Well...I mean...yeah, we had a fight. But...I feel kind of bad. I don't know why."

"Did you yell at him?"

"...Well, yeah. I lost my temper. I tried not to, but he fucking pissed me off so much..."

"Did you apologize?"

"No way! It was his fault!"

"What did he do to piss you off?" She stopped in the traffic that had accumulated outside the ballpark and glanced at him, thumbs tapping to the Iron Maiden coming from the speakers.

"He tried to tell me what to do." He realized how stupid that sounded, and added, "He basically tried to run my life for a moment. Tried to tell me that I couldn't do something that I knew was perfectly safe."

"Aren't you a Gundam pilot?"

Hesitating, he nodded. She blinked. "I can understand why he would get mad, but he has no right to tell you what to do. Did you talk it out?"

"I tried, but he was being a prick again."

She smiled. "Talk to him tonight, Duo. Calmly. If you're anything like me, you'll want to rip him a new one, but just talk to him. And kiss him silly, if you can." She winked. "It'll stun him so much he'll just agree with everything you say."

Duo laughed. "I don't think Heero's like that, but I'll give it a try. Thanks."

"No problem. And let me know how it goes, okay? Just give me a call tomorrow. I'm nosy as hell."

He smiled. "Will do."

Quatre, Reiko and Duo reached the house just after midnight, and Nomi waved them off as she drove to bring Kane home. Duo dreaded going into the house-he didn't want to fight anymore, he was too tired-but he knew he had to.

As he'd expected, Heero was sitting up and waiting for him. "Have a good time?" came the icy voice, as Duo shut the door and undressed for the night, searching for the pajama pants he always wore.

"Yes. Yes, I really did." He slipped off the cap at last and unpinned his braid. After a second's pause, he unbraided it and shook it out, scratching his scalp like mad. It itched like hell.

Heero was silent until Duo had rebraided his hair. Then he sighed a bit. "Are you still angry?"

"...I don't know. Are you?"

"No."

"Are you going to apologize?"

Steely blue eyes locked with his. "No. I don't feel I have anything to apologize for. Are you?"

"No. I don't feel I have anything to apologize for."

There was a moment's silence. Then Duo threw down his cap. "Oh, hell. Who gives a shit anymore? I'm fucking tired-let's go to bed."

So they did. And while Duo was still a little peeved, Heero noticed that he didn't reject a soft good-night kiss.

They were entwined in the darkness when Heero spoke again. "Are you busy tomorrow?"

"No. Of course not. Why?"

"...Help me service Wing?"

"I guess so. I need to service Deathscythe, anyway." He still wasn't feeling his most jolly, but Heero cleared away the rest of Duo's attitude when the braided boy found himself smothered in kisses.

"Heero! Heero, stop! Ahahah-that tickles! Heero!" He ended up laughing himself silly until Heero was satisfied. They cuddled together some more, huddling for warmth, and Duo sighed.

"God, you piss me off so much."

"I know."

"And then you go right back and make me laugh my ass off."

He felt Heero smile against him. "I know."

"You suck."

"I know."

Wrapped together, they both fell asleep.

**

[1] - This happened in the Astros game against the Cardinals that Reiko saw. I heard it was awesome. ^^

A/N: Sigh. Done. Tired, but done. Apathetic...but done. Review, please. Please? Thanks. Night, all.