Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Matchmaker ❯ Come Clean ( Chapter 10 )

Title: The Matchmaker 10/15?
Author: Makoto Sagara
Series: Gundam Wing
Archive: fanfiction.net, afallenangel.net/makotosagara/, mediaminer.org, Foreverfandom.net, makochanupdates.livejournal.com; anywhere else, please ask first.
Category: Supernatural, Angst, Romance, Sap

Pairings: Eventual 2x5x2, 3x4x3, and 1xRx1
Rating: T
Warnings: Shonen ai, language, angst, sap, het, supernatural dealings
Disclaimers: Yeah, like I own Gundam Wing. (Goes off to cry, but not before turning out pockets) I am poor as well. Flames will be used to amuse my muses. They are easily entertained, but highly obnoxious.

A/N: So, um, yeah, sorry that it's taken me soooooooooooooooooooooooo long to get these last few chapters out. I got *sucked* into a new writing fandom, and, um, it was fun? *whistles innocently* Please don't kill me? I'll try to update more often, I promise!!!!!! *runs to hide in a corner* …And the good news is that I think this fic will be about fifteen chapters, so we're two-thirds of the way done!

Chapter Ten - Come Clean

Duo moaned as sunlight, bright and obnoxious, spilled across his face. Carefully, he stretched and then went completely stiff as his hands caressed a warm body before they were seized harshly. `Okay, I'm in a bed, not the hospital or my bed on L2. And there's someone, a really strong someone who's in it with me.' Slowly, he cracked one violet eye and nearly crowed in joy when he saw golden skin and silky, black hair lying next to him. `It's `Fei. God, if this is a dream, please let me stay here, for just a little. I promise to be good if you do!'

“Stop moving, Maxwell,” his bedmate grumbled before releasing his hands.

“No can do, `Fei,” he whispered, not trusting his voice to go any higher. “Nature calls.”

“And I suppose you require assistance,” Wufei asked tersely as he sat up, rubbing harshly at his sleepy black eyes.

“Please?” he asked, sticking his pride in his back pocket in hopes of having the other man touch him. Then, what happened between them the day before flashed in his mind and he flushed heavily.

His friend stared at him before getting up and wrapping an arm around his middle. Carefully, Wufei hauled Duo up off the king-sized bed and walked him over to the bathroom door, avoiding jostling Duo's sore leg more than was absolutely necessary. `He's so warm. No wonder I slept so heavily. It's been a long time since I've been that warm while I slept.'

Duo's blush became even more noticeable as Wufei's thoughts trickled into his head, but he remained quiet. However, the Chinese man's next thought turned his complexion extremely pale.

`I'll need to contact Zechs and Noin about those other incidents, and then Duo and I are going to discuss what's going on. Too many strange things have happened since he woke up, and I don't like this.'

Feeling as if he'd been smacked, Duo shrank away from his friend, shutting the door in his face, trying to keep himself from having a panic attack. `I knew this was coming. No reason to freak out, Duo, you knew he was going to want to know what's going on.'

Gathering his courage, Duo quickly relieved himself and washed his hands. He briefly looked at his reflection in the mirror and grimaced. `Well, I don't look like Death warmed over any more, but I'm not sure why the hell `Fei nearly jumped me last night.' Bright, pink spots bloomed on his cheeks and he shrugged nonchalantly. `Who cares? `Fei is attracted to me! Yes!'

Slowly, he limped over to the door and opened it, only to find Wufei on his cellphone, speaking quickly and quietly. A few words drifted over to where Duo stood in the doorway, but nothing concrete. However, Wufei's thoughts were loud and clear.

`Too zaizi, there were a rash of accidents on L2 right before Duo was hit, all in his neighborhood, but nothing suspicious on any of the other colonies or Earth. So, it was probably meant for him.' Wufei gave a mental growl that sent delighted shivers up and down Duo's spine. `When I find out who these faceless, useless bastards are, they are going to wish their ancestors aborted their lines long before conception.'

`Whoa!' Duo thought, blinking rapidly. `I wasn't aware that `Fei was that vicious… Nothing like this happened during the…' He paused as he processed what he'd heard. `Great, so, someone was trying to kill me. As if I didn't have enough of that before we had `peace'. I swear to God that I'm changing my name now. Then, I might be able to not deal with psychos.' He snorted mentally. `Okay, so any more than normal.'

“And you're one hundred percent about this, Marquise?” Wufei growled into his phone. “Thank you. Yes, I've talked to both Une and Po. They understand the situation, and I'm fairly positive that they'll deal with the consequences once I get back to headquarters. Yes, he's doing as well as can be expected. No, I don't know what your sister and Yuy are doing. No. Ask Winner. Yes, thank you again. I'll let him know.” He hung up so abruptly that Duo had to smile. Wufei didn't use the word `goodbye'. In fact, Duo was pretty sure that they didn't exist in his vocabulary.

“So, how are Sexy Zechsy and the Lovely Lu?” Duo asked when the Chinese man had put his cellphone down on the bedside table. A flash of what could only be jealousy crossed Wufei's face before he answered.

“They are fine. Noin says hello and to stay out of trouble.”

“I don't gotta look for it. It finds me,” Duo said flippantly as he hobbled his way back to the bed. His leg was really starting to hurt again and he could feel a headache building behind his eyes. “So, what was that all about?”

“I had them check for anything around the time of your accident to see if there was something suspicious.”

“And, let me guess, there is.”

“Yes, the week before your accident, there were seven other incidents in your neighborhood.”

“'Fei, I live on L2. There's always something fishy going on around me.”

“Yes, well, how many accidents are because of delivery vans?”

“In a week?” Duo thought about it, and realized where it was going. “Maybe one every two months, I'd say. I don't really keep track, but they aren't that common on the colonies.”

“Close,” Wufei said, sitting down next to the American on the bed and clenching his fists. “There is roughly one incident involving a delivery van or truck once every three months on each colony, since they are going out of usage. It's more on Earth, but that's to be expected since there are a lot more vehicles there.”

“Okay, so, you're saying that someone deliberately hit me and had seven test runs before they got it right?”

“It appears that way, yes.”'

“Any clues as to who's behind it? Any witnesses?”

“The police haven't found anything.” Duo scoffed scornfully and crossed his arms across his chest.

“They wouldn't. They're pretty much useless. Any sort of public service on L2 comes from the Preventers or Neighborhood Watch groups going around. And I can just imagine that none of the lovely gang-bangers have volunteered anything, not even to Preventer agents. Beautiful…”

“While that's true, I'm certain that we'll uncover some evidence,” Wufei said slowly. “However, that's not all that I want to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” Duo could feel his heart racing in his chest. “Then what?” `Oh, God, please don't let this be what I think it is,' he silently begged, trying his hardest to read Wufei's thoughts before they began talking. To his dismay, the other man's mind was completely blank. `Oh, shit, I think we're going to have The Talk.'

“Ever since you woke up from your coma, you've been acting strange. I didn't say anything at first, because to be honest, I was relieved that you were awake. However, I've had some time to adjust to that fact, and my suspicions have returned. What is going on, Maxwell?”

Duo blinked. `Fuck, he just called me by my last name. He must be really pissed.' Taking the time to sit down so his leg would stop throbbing, Duo looked carefully at his friend. “How much do you trust me to tell you the truth?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Quatre woke up and sighed happily. Things were finally working out in his favor. Duo was awake, his time away from WEI could be seen as a vacation, he'd confessed to Trowa, and he'd had the world's best sleep last night. Even the fact that Trowa was sleeping in the room's other bed didn't bother him. `It's just like during the war, I guess.”

He smiled softly at that thought and stretched languidly. He really wanted to talk to Duo. Perhaps he had some suggestions as to what he could do with Trowa to advance their relationship. The blond froze as he felt a heavy stare on his back.

“Quatre, what are you doing?” The brunet's rich voice sent shivers up and down the smaller man's spine.

“I was thinking of taking Duo out shopping for clothes and then to lunch. I was going to ask Relena if she'd like to come as well,” the Arab said sweetly, flashing a bright smile at his companion. “That way, you, Heero and Wufei can plot and talk about us behind our backs. I'm sure that Wufei has learned Duo's secret by now and will need someone rational to discuss it with.”

“And you think that I count as someone rational? Or Heero?” Amusement was shining in Trowa's visible green eye.

“Well, you two are less… emotional than Relena and I. Wufei does seem to respond better to that most of the time.”

“Unless he is an inner emotional wreck himself, and can give control over to you,” Trowa clarified happily.

“Mm, well, there is that, yes.”

“So, shall I tell Heero while you call to Duo and Relena? That way, Heero and I can successfully take Wufei out of the equation and distract him long enough so that you three have your `bonding time'.”

“You act as if you three won't be bonding as well.”

“Oh, we will engage in dialogue that will undoubtedly leave us with a better sense of camaraderie, but it will be nowhere near the level you will be enjoying.”

“Allah forbid that I should enjoy something more than you.” Quatre's smile died as he felt Duo's emotions spike in the direction of fear and unease. “Trowa, I think we should move quickly. There's something wrong with Duo and Wufei.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Relena helped a pale and nervous Duo into a lovely café three blocks from their hotel, and waved at a seated Quatre, who seemed to be as withdrawn as Duo. As she sat down at the table, she sighed heavily. “Alright, so, who wants to tell me why it feels like someone killed the team mascot?” Two sets of eyes, one aquamarine and the other violet, gave her similarly confused looks.

“I don't know what's absolutely wrong, but I'm sure that Duo could tell us what's going on with him,” Quatre answered softly, looking up as the waiter came to get their orders. When he left them alone, the two blonds turned to the braided boy with expectant stares. “Are you going to tell us, or am I going to have to drag it out of you. I'm not above calling Howard, you know.”

Duo sighed, his eyes resembling those of a skittish animal. “I guess I should tell you… Quatre, you know what we talked about, privately, when you visited me alone?” The blond man nodded slowly. “Well, Wufei has been curious for a while about my behaviour.”

“Oh,” Quatre responded slowly, a look of dawning recognition coming over his face. “Oh. OH! That's not good.”

“Alright, you two are going to tell me what is going on with all the cryptic Gundam pilot talk, or I will be handing your respective crushes your balls,” Relena shot at both men, watching them both turn an interesting shade of green. “Well?”

Duo cleared his throat. “Well, see, it's like this… Since I woke up from my lovely coma, I can read everyone's thoughts. It's not brain damage. The doctors told me that my brain is surprisingly in good shape for someone who was used a stopping block for a delivery van. Yeah, so, since then, everyone's fucking thoughts have been driving me absolutely batshit crazy! Heero was insanely jealous about the way you and I joked. Quatre's been thinking about Trowa's ass. Trowa…” He shuddered dramatically. “You do not want to know what Trowa's been thinking about. You've been pretty tame in comparison. I don't want to talk about what Wufei's thinking. It's all over the place.”

“Please, it centers on you,” Relena said kindly. “There's no point in denying it. I may not be able to read thoughts or emotions like you two, if I should believe all this at any rate, but even I know that that man is totally, completely, insanely in love with you.”

The American shifted uncomfortably, his face a very bright shade of red. “Um, yeah, well… `Fei made me `fess up this morning…”

“Oh… Oh. OH!” Relena shook her head sadly. “I can imagine that he wasn't very sympathetic. He strikes me as extremely taciturn.” She paused thoughtfully. “In fact, when I first saw how strongly he felt about you, it surprised me. He only reacted strongly about Treize Khushrenada, OZ, and his place in the world after the first world. That was the first time in two years I'd seen him act so angry.”

“Yeah, he's not really a teddy bear type, I suppose.”

“But does that matter to you, Duo?” she asked quietly. He shook his head in response. “Then, have you two talked about how you feel about one another.”

He whispered his response so low that Relena missed it completely.

“What?”

However, it was Quatre who answered. “You and he kissed, Duo?” The brunet nodded sadly before his face completely shut down, resembling a blank mask. “I'll kill him,” the blond growled through clenched teeth.

Relena looked between the two men for a few long moments, trying to decipher what news Duo had given them. And then, his reaction made sense, and she was enraged. “Only if you let me help, Quatre, are you allowed to kill Chang Wufei.”

“No!” Duo reached out and grabbed both of his friends' arms in a tight grip that she was sure was going to leave a nasty bruise, but she didn't complain. However, the braided man loosened his grip before proceeding. “No, I figured that he'd react this way. There's nothing you can do. If nothing changes, I'll go back to L2 and Hilde will help me out.” He winced.

“Isn't she…” Quatre started cryptically.

“Yeah, she is, but what else choice do I have, Q?”

“You could come back to L4 with me,” the blond snapped. “He isn't the only friend you have, you know!”

“Or you could come with me. I know that I'm busy a lot of the time, but Pargon is excellent at assisting with those who have injuries,” Relena offered. She was surprised at how calm she sounded, but she was planning what she was going to say to Heero so that he could take out Wufei if he rejected her friend the way it seemed he might have.

“Thanks, both of you, but ya'll have your own lives, and… uh…” Duo began banging his head against the wire-frame table, muttering under his breath. “I just want to sleep this whole nightmare away.”

“You've slept enough,” Relena snapped. “Besides, running isn't going to change anything. You haven't done anything, and if he's stupid enough to let something you can't control interfere with a possible relationship with you, then he's the biggest idiot I've ever met and not worthy of your despair!”

Duo looked up at her slowly and began snickering. “Yes'm. Now, don't you have some news to share?”

TBC

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