Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Winning Duo ❯ Chapter 17
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Calic0cat 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / / Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 02.27.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 1.3K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / / Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 02.27.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 1.3K | Status: Completed
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Title: Winning Duo
Chapter: 17/?
Author: Calic0cat <calic0cat@fastmail.fm>
Story Started: Jan. 2003
Genre: Yaoi, Romance, Humour, Angst
Pairings: Working towards 1x2x5; 3x4; 6x9; others may be implied
Rated: NC-17
Warnings: OOC, Swearing, Shifting POV, Threesome
Archives: At Mediaminer.org under Calic0cat. Anyone with archive permission for my other fics can help themselves; anyone else, please ask.
Disclaimer: Duo and Heero and the rest of the GW gang aren't mine. This story is. Nuff said.
Notes: Starts one year after Endless Waltz. POV changes frequently.
'Thinking'
"Speaking"
*** Time passing or scene change
Author's Notes: I usually write 1x2x1, so a 1x2x5 is a first for me (well, writing one is - I've been reading them for quite a while now, that's the *only* threesome I actually *like*). Feedback is appreciated.
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"Duo... Duo, wake up..." Wufei called softly.
"If he is that deeply asleep, maybe we should just let him sleep," Heero whispered.
Duo stirred slightly and mumbled, "No, 'm 'wake..."
Wufei stepped closer to the bed and reached out to brush Duo's bangs away from his forehead. "How do you feel now? Headache better?" he asked as Duo blinked sleepily up at him.
"Mm-hmm," Duo responded. The headache was not entirely gone, but it had been reduced to a dull pressure. Nothing he couldn't live with. He couldn't resist turning his head to press his cheek against Wufei's cool fingers as they stroked his hair away from his face. Even that small bit of contact felt so nice... His gaze slipped past Wufei to where Heero stood. Now if only Heero would do that sort of thing once in a while...
"Wufei told me that you wanted to go to Venice Beach and the Santa Monica Pier. Is that still where you'd like to go?" Heero asked as Duo rose from the bed.
"Um, yeah... If that's okay with you guys?" Duo answered.
Heero nodded in response. "Leave in half an hour?"
"Sounds good." Duo promised himself firmly that he *was* going to have a good time this afternoon. No moping around allowed.
***
Heero and Wufei exchanged slightly indulgent grins as Duo darted from one touch tank to another, handling every sea star, sea urchin, starfish, sand dollar, clam, and crab that the aquarium had on display. It was nice to see him so excited. Including a stop at the Ocean Discovery Centre located beneath the pier was definitely a good idea.
"One would think he had never seen such things before," Wufei said, sounding puzzled.
Heero gave him an incredulous look. "And exactly where would an orphan from L2 have seen real, live, sea creatures?"
"Are not school field trips to aquariums a standard part of all school curriculums? They certainly were at my school," Wufei answered.
After checking to make sure that Duo was occupied and unlikely to overhear, Heero demanded in disbelief, "Have you ever *been* to an L2 colony?"
He had. Once. J had sent him there with one of his trainers for "urban combat training". Heero had been very glad when it was time to leave and even more pleased that they never went back. The neighbourhoods that they trained in didn't just *look* like war zones. They *were* war zones.
Admittedly, the area they had spent most of their time in was probably not typical of the entire colony cluster but even the least rundown areas they had passed through would have been considered ready for demolition on an L1 colony. And those knives and lockpicks that were apparently as natural a part of Duo's life as his braid were giving Heero the uneasy feeling that whichever part of the L2 cluster Duo was originally from had more in common with that colony than not.
"No," Wufei shrugged, "but are not all colonies more or less the same?"
Shit. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Heero didn't even know where to *begin* explaining the difference between an L5 colony, even a very old and rundown one, and the average L2 colony. And Wufei needed to understand, particularly if his own suspicions that Duo's past was rather closer to his own than to Wufei's had any truth to them. Earlier that afternoon, Heero had realized that while J had said G "picked up an orphan from L2" the actual word "orphanage" had never been mentioned. That thought had reinforced his own suspicions about how difficult Duo's childhood may have been. Not wanting to get involved in this discussion while they were supposed to be having fun with Duo, Heero simply growled, "*NO*. Far from it. Talk to me after he goes to bed tonight."
Somewhat taken aback by Heero's vehemence, Wufei said, "Very well." 'What is so different about L2?' he wondered. Admittedly, his studies had been rather abruptly ended before getting very close to the present in colonial history. All they had really studied by that point was the standard who-backed-which-colony sort of thing. About all he recalled about L2 specifically was one of his teachers saying something about it being no wonder that L2 produced so many rebel groups, having been founded primarily by a country that had its roots in rebellion against outside rule. But surely that would not have any real bearing on what colonies in the L2 cluster were like. Would it?
"Come *on* guys!" Duo urged. "There's still a few more exhibits we haven't seen yet!" This place was *so* cool. Getting to not only see but actually *touch* some of the creatures he'd read about was great, regardless of how slimy or prickly they might happen to be. Impulsively, he dashed back to the other two and grabbed their hands to drag them along with him as he backed towards the next exhibit. No sooner had he done so then he thought, 'Idiot! Maybe Wufei will at least not get mad about the physical contact in public - he *has* been voluntarily touching me after all - but Heero...' Heero had never seemed to like being touched during the war and the past couple of days hadn't shown any sign of that having changed.
"Sorry..." Duo said, letting their hands slip from his.
"Sorry for what?" Wufei asked, closing his fingers around Duo's before they slipped completely free. 'He was so happy and excited just a second ago... What happened?'
"I know you guys don't like physical contact. I shouldn't have grabbed your hands like that," Duo said in a subdued voice. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' he berated himself.
Heero flinched. He had done this. All those times that he had shrugged off Duo's touch or growled out a warning or even physically shoved him away came back to Heero in painful detail. How to fix this... Sighing, Heero offered, "It was never about not liking the contact; it was about not liking the emotional confusion the contact created. I missed all those casual touches once you quit, you know."
"Then why don't you ever touch *me*?!" Oh shit. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. And certainly not in a tone of voice that came damn close to qualifying as a desperate wail. But now that he had, Duo forced himself to meet Heero's eyes rather than avoiding his gaze as he so desperately wanted to.
"You... *want* me to?" Heero asked disbelievingly. "But... yesterday... you pulled away... I thought I wasn't allowed..."
'Yesterday? When the hell...' The only time Heero had touched him yesterday was when he'd grabbed his elbow after the arcade game debacle. What the fuck did *that* have to do with anything? "Heero, I was hurt and flaming pissed at the time! That was before you explained anything! Of course I pulled away from you then!"
Still struggling to process the fact that Duo *wanted* to be touched by him, Heero protested, "But the night of the ball you hugged me and kissed me on the cheek and last night you just said good night! I thought..."
As Heero sputtered in obvious confusion, Duo felt an almost overwhelming urge to scream in sheer frustration. As he raised one hand to rub his forehead in a vain attempt to prevent his headache from returning, he abruptly realized that Wufei still had hold of his other hand and was gently stroking the back of it with his fingertips and watching him with concern. 'I suppose it was too much to ask that both of them have some clue about how to actually be comforting... Guess I should just be glad that at least Fei does...' He gently squeezed Wufei's hand in silent thanks.
Wufei was becoming distinctly uncomfortable with the amount of attention the three of them were drawing. But he had no intention of interrupting a conversation that was apparently long overdue. 'It isn't like any of these people actually know us,' he thought. 'And at least Duo is finally *telling* one of us what we're doing wrong!'
He wasn't very happy about the strain this little confrontation seemed to be putting on Duo, though. 'His headache's coming back,' Wufei realized unhappily as Duo switched from rubbing his forehead to massaging the back of his neck while Heero continued to try and explain just where he'd gotten the idea that he wasn't supposed to touch Duo. Exasperated, he elbowed Heero sharply and snapped, "Yuy, shut up and just *hug* him for god's sake!" He accompanied the verbal push in the right direction with a solid physical shove for good measure.
The sharp order - and equally forceful shove - from Wufei had Heero in motion before he had a chance to second-guess the instruction. His arms closed awkwardly around Duo's disturbingly tense body almost instinctively, but then he had no clue what to do next. He turned his head to catch Wufei's eyes and frantically but silently mouthed, "Now what?"
Wufei clapped his free hand to his forehead in disbelief. Hadn't Heero ever hugged or comforted someone before? Or had someone comfort him? 'Actually, from what he said about his past, maybe not...' Okay, so Heero had an excuse for being clueless. One that Duo would probably understand if he wasn't quite so stressed out. And Duo would probably be happy to *teach* Heero how to hug properly and how to comfort someone under other circumstances. At the moment though, Duo was the one in need of comforting, specifically comforting from Heero, and Heero didn't have a clue how to go about it.
With a sigh, Wufei realized that *he* was going to have to instruct Heero. With only a passing thought for just how weird it was to be instructing his rival how to comfort their mutual love interest, Wufei set about doing just that. "Rub his back," he said silently, trusting that Heero would read his lips. Heero's determined look and sharp nod in response made him continue hastily, "Like this!" He placed his free hand on Heero's back and moved it in gentle circles. Heero's look softened and he nodded slightly again, reassuring Wufei that he'd understood.
Wufei stepped back a bit, certain that his face was flaming with embarrassment. He would have preferred to step a bit farther away as the three of them looked decidedly odd standing there together, but Duo's death-grip on his hand ensured that he wasn't going anywhere. Instead, he had to settle for turning to face slightly away from the two of them and glaring any gawkers into moving along.
Duo tensed even more as Heero's arms closed around him. He couldn't quite believe that Heero was actually hugging him. Pretty damn awkwardly, but hugging nevertheless. As Heero started to hesitantly rub his back, he began to relax, dropping his head against Heero's shoulder and accepting that Heero really *didn't* mind physical contact with him. 'I guess he's just really, really confused... Maybe I'm expecting too much again...' When a slight tug on his hand signalled that Wufei was trying to draw away from them, Duo's grip tightened automatically. 'No, Fei, please stay...' he thought desperately. He was relieved when the tug stopped and was not repeated.
Keeping a careful eye on the other visitors, Wufei decided after only a few minutes that they would have to move on. He was fairly certain that a couple of the gawkers had headed off in search of someone to complain to. Still facing away from Duo and Heero, he cleared his throat insistently. "Heero... Duo... I think we had best be leaving now. Before we are asked to do so."
Heero's face flushed at the reminder. 'Shit! How the hell could I forget we were in a public place?!' Simple answer really. He *hadn't* forgotten, at least not at first. He had simply judged it to be an unimportant fact compared to the need to reassure Duo. 'And after that, I trusted Wufei to "watch our backs" so to speak and didn't bother worrying about where we were...' "Duo?" he asked hesitantly as he drew back slightly.
"I'm okay," Duo answered, summoning up a rather weak but genuine smile. It may not have been the appropriate time or place for this, but he was glad they'd gotten this discussion out of the way. Maybe now they could make some real progress instead of all this one step forward, two steps back nonsense that had been going on.
They made a rather brief stop at each of the remaining exhibits, all too aware of the curious stares and whispers of the other visitors to the centre. Duo would have been worried about the unwanted attention's effect on Heero and Wufei if it weren't for the fact that they were each currently holding one of his hands and death-glaring anyone who dared comment.
After leaving the Ocean Discovery Centre, they stopped for an obligatory ride on the ancient carousel on the pier above. It, like the pier itself, had been restored many times but it was still in essence the same one that had been sitting there for literally hundreds of years.
Wufei smiled in amusement at Duo's antics as he bent low over his carousel horse's neck and pretended to urge it to go faster. On the other side of Duo, Heero shook his head and laughed in response to some comment of Duo's.
As Duo's laughter rang out too and he turned to flash a brilliant grin at Wufei, inviting him to join in on the fun, Wufei came to the jarring realization that the *only* times over the past couple of days that Duo had seemed genuinely happy had been times that they were *both* with him. Abruptly, he knew what at least one of the causes of Duo's extreme stress was. 'He doesn't want to choose. Maybe even honestly *can't* choose. He wants us *both*.'
That was - a distinctly difficult concept to wrap his mind around. Wufei wasn't quite sure how he felt about the idea. 'If I had to choose between giving him up or sharing him, what would I do?
'Dumb question, Chang. Sharing Duo - at least with someone you respect like Yuy - would be infinitely better than losing him.' But how would Heero react to that idea?
Feeling rather as if he had taken a hard throw during a sparring match, Wufei realized that the only times he had ever, *ever* seen Heero genuinely happy had been over the past couple of days. Most of those times had been in Duo's company... but there was also that small smile that *he* had earned. Perhaps... perhaps Heero would not be entirely adverse to sharing either, if that was what would make Duo happy and incidentally allow both of *them* to be happy as well.
Mind whirling, Wufei forced himself to stop speculating for the moment. The greater part of the week remained. He would wait and observe for now. He *could* be mistaken after all.
And if he wasn't... well, he would deal with that if and when the time came. But the simple fact remained that when it came right down to it, sharing Duo was a far, far better outcome than no Duo at all in his life.
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Title: Winning Duo
Chapter: 17/?
Author: Calic0cat <calic0cat@fastmail.fm>
Story Started: Jan. 2003
Genre: Yaoi, Romance, Humour, Angst
Pairings: Working towards 1x2x5; 3x4; 6x9; others may be implied
Rated: NC-17
Warnings: OOC, Swearing, Shifting POV, Threesome
Archives: At Mediaminer.org under Calic0cat. Anyone with archive permission for my other fics can help themselves; anyone else, please ask.
Disclaimer: Duo and Heero and the rest of the GW gang aren't mine. This story is. Nuff said.
Notes: Starts one year after Endless Waltz. POV changes frequently.
'Thinking'
"Speaking"
*** Time passing or scene change
Author's Notes: I usually write 1x2x1, so a 1x2x5 is a first for me (well, writing one is - I've been reading them for quite a while now, that's the *only* threesome I actually *like*). Feedback is appreciated.
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"Duo... Duo, wake up..." Wufei called softly.
"If he is that deeply asleep, maybe we should just let him sleep," Heero whispered.
Duo stirred slightly and mumbled, "No, 'm 'wake..."
Wufei stepped closer to the bed and reached out to brush Duo's bangs away from his forehead. "How do you feel now? Headache better?" he asked as Duo blinked sleepily up at him.
"Mm-hmm," Duo responded. The headache was not entirely gone, but it had been reduced to a dull pressure. Nothing he couldn't live with. He couldn't resist turning his head to press his cheek against Wufei's cool fingers as they stroked his hair away from his face. Even that small bit of contact felt so nice... His gaze slipped past Wufei to where Heero stood. Now if only Heero would do that sort of thing once in a while...
"Wufei told me that you wanted to go to Venice Beach and the Santa Monica Pier. Is that still where you'd like to go?" Heero asked as Duo rose from the bed.
"Um, yeah... If that's okay with you guys?" Duo answered.
Heero nodded in response. "Leave in half an hour?"
"Sounds good." Duo promised himself firmly that he *was* going to have a good time this afternoon. No moping around allowed.
***
Heero and Wufei exchanged slightly indulgent grins as Duo darted from one touch tank to another, handling every sea star, sea urchin, starfish, sand dollar, clam, and crab that the aquarium had on display. It was nice to see him so excited. Including a stop at the Ocean Discovery Centre located beneath the pier was definitely a good idea.
"One would think he had never seen such things before," Wufei said, sounding puzzled.
Heero gave him an incredulous look. "And exactly where would an orphan from L2 have seen real, live, sea creatures?"
"Are not school field trips to aquariums a standard part of all school curriculums? They certainly were at my school," Wufei answered.
After checking to make sure that Duo was occupied and unlikely to overhear, Heero demanded in disbelief, "Have you ever *been* to an L2 colony?"
He had. Once. J had sent him there with one of his trainers for "urban combat training". Heero had been very glad when it was time to leave and even more pleased that they never went back. The neighbourhoods that they trained in didn't just *look* like war zones. They *were* war zones.
Admittedly, the area they had spent most of their time in was probably not typical of the entire colony cluster but even the least rundown areas they had passed through would have been considered ready for demolition on an L1 colony. And those knives and lockpicks that were apparently as natural a part of Duo's life as his braid were giving Heero the uneasy feeling that whichever part of the L2 cluster Duo was originally from had more in common with that colony than not.
"No," Wufei shrugged, "but are not all colonies more or less the same?"
Shit. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Heero didn't even know where to *begin* explaining the difference between an L5 colony, even a very old and rundown one, and the average L2 colony. And Wufei needed to understand, particularly if his own suspicions that Duo's past was rather closer to his own than to Wufei's had any truth to them. Earlier that afternoon, Heero had realized that while J had said G "picked up an orphan from L2" the actual word "orphanage" had never been mentioned. That thought had reinforced his own suspicions about how difficult Duo's childhood may have been. Not wanting to get involved in this discussion while they were supposed to be having fun with Duo, Heero simply growled, "*NO*. Far from it. Talk to me after he goes to bed tonight."
Somewhat taken aback by Heero's vehemence, Wufei said, "Very well." 'What is so different about L2?' he wondered. Admittedly, his studies had been rather abruptly ended before getting very close to the present in colonial history. All they had really studied by that point was the standard who-backed-which-colony sort of thing. About all he recalled about L2 specifically was one of his teachers saying something about it being no wonder that L2 produced so many rebel groups, having been founded primarily by a country that had its roots in rebellion against outside rule. But surely that would not have any real bearing on what colonies in the L2 cluster were like. Would it?
"Come *on* guys!" Duo urged. "There's still a few more exhibits we haven't seen yet!" This place was *so* cool. Getting to not only see but actually *touch* some of the creatures he'd read about was great, regardless of how slimy or prickly they might happen to be. Impulsively, he dashed back to the other two and grabbed their hands to drag them along with him as he backed towards the next exhibit. No sooner had he done so then he thought, 'Idiot! Maybe Wufei will at least not get mad about the physical contact in public - he *has* been voluntarily touching me after all - but Heero...' Heero had never seemed to like being touched during the war and the past couple of days hadn't shown any sign of that having changed.
"Sorry..." Duo said, letting their hands slip from his.
"Sorry for what?" Wufei asked, closing his fingers around Duo's before they slipped completely free. 'He was so happy and excited just a second ago... What happened?'
"I know you guys don't like physical contact. I shouldn't have grabbed your hands like that," Duo said in a subdued voice. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' he berated himself.
Heero flinched. He had done this. All those times that he had shrugged off Duo's touch or growled out a warning or even physically shoved him away came back to Heero in painful detail. How to fix this... Sighing, Heero offered, "It was never about not liking the contact; it was about not liking the emotional confusion the contact created. I missed all those casual touches once you quit, you know."
"Then why don't you ever touch *me*?!" Oh shit. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. And certainly not in a tone of voice that came damn close to qualifying as a desperate wail. But now that he had, Duo forced himself to meet Heero's eyes rather than avoiding his gaze as he so desperately wanted to.
"You... *want* me to?" Heero asked disbelievingly. "But... yesterday... you pulled away... I thought I wasn't allowed..."
'Yesterday? When the hell...' The only time Heero had touched him yesterday was when he'd grabbed his elbow after the arcade game debacle. What the fuck did *that* have to do with anything? "Heero, I was hurt and flaming pissed at the time! That was before you explained anything! Of course I pulled away from you then!"
Still struggling to process the fact that Duo *wanted* to be touched by him, Heero protested, "But the night of the ball you hugged me and kissed me on the cheek and last night you just said good night! I thought..."
As Heero sputtered in obvious confusion, Duo felt an almost overwhelming urge to scream in sheer frustration. As he raised one hand to rub his forehead in a vain attempt to prevent his headache from returning, he abruptly realized that Wufei still had hold of his other hand and was gently stroking the back of it with his fingertips and watching him with concern. 'I suppose it was too much to ask that both of them have some clue about how to actually be comforting... Guess I should just be glad that at least Fei does...' He gently squeezed Wufei's hand in silent thanks.
Wufei was becoming distinctly uncomfortable with the amount of attention the three of them were drawing. But he had no intention of interrupting a conversation that was apparently long overdue. 'It isn't like any of these people actually know us,' he thought. 'And at least Duo is finally *telling* one of us what we're doing wrong!'
He wasn't very happy about the strain this little confrontation seemed to be putting on Duo, though. 'His headache's coming back,' Wufei realized unhappily as Duo switched from rubbing his forehead to massaging the back of his neck while Heero continued to try and explain just where he'd gotten the idea that he wasn't supposed to touch Duo. Exasperated, he elbowed Heero sharply and snapped, "Yuy, shut up and just *hug* him for god's sake!" He accompanied the verbal push in the right direction with a solid physical shove for good measure.
The sharp order - and equally forceful shove - from Wufei had Heero in motion before he had a chance to second-guess the instruction. His arms closed awkwardly around Duo's disturbingly tense body almost instinctively, but then he had no clue what to do next. He turned his head to catch Wufei's eyes and frantically but silently mouthed, "Now what?"
Wufei clapped his free hand to his forehead in disbelief. Hadn't Heero ever hugged or comforted someone before? Or had someone comfort him? 'Actually, from what he said about his past, maybe not...' Okay, so Heero had an excuse for being clueless. One that Duo would probably understand if he wasn't quite so stressed out. And Duo would probably be happy to *teach* Heero how to hug properly and how to comfort someone under other circumstances. At the moment though, Duo was the one in need of comforting, specifically comforting from Heero, and Heero didn't have a clue how to go about it.
With a sigh, Wufei realized that *he* was going to have to instruct Heero. With only a passing thought for just how weird it was to be instructing his rival how to comfort their mutual love interest, Wufei set about doing just that. "Rub his back," he said silently, trusting that Heero would read his lips. Heero's determined look and sharp nod in response made him continue hastily, "Like this!" He placed his free hand on Heero's back and moved it in gentle circles. Heero's look softened and he nodded slightly again, reassuring Wufei that he'd understood.
Wufei stepped back a bit, certain that his face was flaming with embarrassment. He would have preferred to step a bit farther away as the three of them looked decidedly odd standing there together, but Duo's death-grip on his hand ensured that he wasn't going anywhere. Instead, he had to settle for turning to face slightly away from the two of them and glaring any gawkers into moving along.
Duo tensed even more as Heero's arms closed around him. He couldn't quite believe that Heero was actually hugging him. Pretty damn awkwardly, but hugging nevertheless. As Heero started to hesitantly rub his back, he began to relax, dropping his head against Heero's shoulder and accepting that Heero really *didn't* mind physical contact with him. 'I guess he's just really, really confused... Maybe I'm expecting too much again...' When a slight tug on his hand signalled that Wufei was trying to draw away from them, Duo's grip tightened automatically. 'No, Fei, please stay...' he thought desperately. He was relieved when the tug stopped and was not repeated.
Keeping a careful eye on the other visitors, Wufei decided after only a few minutes that they would have to move on. He was fairly certain that a couple of the gawkers had headed off in search of someone to complain to. Still facing away from Duo and Heero, he cleared his throat insistently. "Heero... Duo... I think we had best be leaving now. Before we are asked to do so."
Heero's face flushed at the reminder. 'Shit! How the hell could I forget we were in a public place?!' Simple answer really. He *hadn't* forgotten, at least not at first. He had simply judged it to be an unimportant fact compared to the need to reassure Duo. 'And after that, I trusted Wufei to "watch our backs" so to speak and didn't bother worrying about where we were...' "Duo?" he asked hesitantly as he drew back slightly.
"I'm okay," Duo answered, summoning up a rather weak but genuine smile. It may not have been the appropriate time or place for this, but he was glad they'd gotten this discussion out of the way. Maybe now they could make some real progress instead of all this one step forward, two steps back nonsense that had been going on.
They made a rather brief stop at each of the remaining exhibits, all too aware of the curious stares and whispers of the other visitors to the centre. Duo would have been worried about the unwanted attention's effect on Heero and Wufei if it weren't for the fact that they were each currently holding one of his hands and death-glaring anyone who dared comment.
After leaving the Ocean Discovery Centre, they stopped for an obligatory ride on the ancient carousel on the pier above. It, like the pier itself, had been restored many times but it was still in essence the same one that had been sitting there for literally hundreds of years.
Wufei smiled in amusement at Duo's antics as he bent low over his carousel horse's neck and pretended to urge it to go faster. On the other side of Duo, Heero shook his head and laughed in response to some comment of Duo's.
As Duo's laughter rang out too and he turned to flash a brilliant grin at Wufei, inviting him to join in on the fun, Wufei came to the jarring realization that the *only* times over the past couple of days that Duo had seemed genuinely happy had been times that they were *both* with him. Abruptly, he knew what at least one of the causes of Duo's extreme stress was. 'He doesn't want to choose. Maybe even honestly *can't* choose. He wants us *both*.'
That was - a distinctly difficult concept to wrap his mind around. Wufei wasn't quite sure how he felt about the idea. 'If I had to choose between giving him up or sharing him, what would I do?
'Dumb question, Chang. Sharing Duo - at least with someone you respect like Yuy - would be infinitely better than losing him.' But how would Heero react to that idea?
Feeling rather as if he had taken a hard throw during a sparring match, Wufei realized that the only times he had ever, *ever* seen Heero genuinely happy had been over the past couple of days. Most of those times had been in Duo's company... but there was also that small smile that *he* had earned. Perhaps... perhaps Heero would not be entirely adverse to sharing either, if that was what would make Duo happy and incidentally allow both of *them* to be happy as well.
Mind whirling, Wufei forced himself to stop speculating for the moment. The greater part of the week remained. He would wait and observe for now. He *could* be mistaken after all.
And if he wasn't... well, he would deal with that if and when the time came. But the simple fact remained that when it came right down to it, sharing Duo was a far, far better outcome than no Duo at all in his life.
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