Disclaimer: Not mine, don’t sue.
Warnings: Lime, eventual lemon, bitchy Relena, bad language.
Pairings: 3x2 main, possibly some others
Feedback is always welcome! Let me know what you think. Pretty, pretty please?
REDEMPTION – PART 2
It took Trowa several days to work up the nerve to actually dial the number he had been given, no matter how many times Wufei teased him about it. He had attempted to call Duo but had hung up before the phone could ring.
The only difference between the days before and after he had met Duo was that the other man would toss off a quirky wave each morning as he hurried down the sidewalk to open the store. Trowa had managed to wave back, hoping Duo wouldn’t be able to see how his face flamed each day, but still unable to take his eyes off the braided beauty.
Right now, he was sitting at his desk, staring at the seemingly harmless piece of paper. He jumped when a hand clapped down onto his shoulder, startling him out of his thoughts. “Are you ever going to call him, or not? If you’re not going to, I would be more than happy to take him off your hands.”
“I was getting ready to,” Trowa defended, crossing his arms across his chest and glaring at his best friend.
Smirking, the Chinese leaned against the wall, “If you call and ask him out right now, I’ll pay for the entire date.”
“What if I take him out to dinner at a fancy restaurant?”
Wufei grinned, his dark eyes glittering, “I’ll let you borrow my credit card for the entire date, providing you do me a favor.”
“What’s the favor?” Trowa narrowed his eyes at the other man, suspicious. The last time he had been asked for a favor, he had ended up on a blind date with a woman that slobbered all over him all evening. He had eventually left the restaurant when she had tried to shove her hand down his pants.
Obviously recalling the same thing, Wufei held his hands in front of his body to ward off any flying objects, just in case. Trowa was still a bit sore about the whole thing. “I just want you to ask Duo to sit for a shoot with you. I’d like to sign him on.”
“You want him to be one of your models?”
With a sigh, Wufei moved to sit on the edge of Trowa’s desk, a habit that annoyed the green eyed man tremendously. “You must know that he’s gorgeous, Trowa. Why wouldn’t I want him to work for me and, by extension, for you? Wouldn’t it be nice to have him under you, metaphorically speaking?” he questioned with an evil grin.
Ignoring the entendre, Trowa pushed at the other man to get him off some documents he needed, “He owns the bookstore, Wufei. He doesn’t just work there, it’s his.”
“Yeah, the first time we met. It’s his store.”
“Ask him for me anyways. He couldn’t really be making a lot of money there. I’m sure he could use some extra cash and who wouldn’t want the chance to be famous.” Wufei grinned again, “But you have to call him now in order to get my card for the date.”
Trowa conceded, not bothering to explain that he had been about to call Duo, he had just been trying to make sure that his lunch had settled on his stomach before he called. With shaking fingers, he picked up the phone and dialed the number. He was very aware of the eyes on him as he heard the ringing on the other end of the line.
He let it ring several times and was preparing to hang up in defeat when the ringing abruptly cut off, noises signaling that the phone had been answered. There was a loud clutter and a few choice curse words before he heard a familiar voice.
“Ow! Shit. Hello?” Before he could speak, Duo began again, “Hold on a sec, I can’t hear a thing in here. Will you shut up for a second?” Trowa waited with a smile on his face, enjoying being able to listen to Duo interact with whoever was with him. After more curses and thinly veiled insults, the other man came back on the line, his tone more normal. “Hello?”
“Duo? This is Trowa, from the other day?”
“OH! Damnit Hilde, get off me you flippin leech,” Trowa’s eyes widened at the words, wondering if he had misunderstood Duo’s words and actions a few days before. “I remember you, Trowa. I was hoping you would call.” Hearing the smile behind the words, Trowa grew even more confused, at least until the other man started to explain what was going on. “Sorry about the language, but I have a friend here that is extremely drunk. She got dumped by her boyfriend and I guess I was the first person she thought of, so now I have her holed up in the my office, trying to keep her from scaring off all of my customers.” There was a frustrated huff, “Unfortunately, she’s one of those people that loves everybody when she drinks, and then gets sick all over the place.”
There were scuffling sounds in the background, then a muffled argument. Fighting a smile at the other man’s predicament, Trowa finally remembered his original reason for calling in the first place. “I was just wondering if you would like to go get coffee sometime, or maybe dinner?”
Reminding himself not to sound too eager, Trowa paused for a moment, “How about tomorrow night? We could get dinner or something?” He could hear Wufei snickering at him, but ignored the sound.
“About seven?” Duo sounded slightly harassed, confusing him until he heard the retching noises in the background. “I can meet you here, if that’s okay.”
“Seven would be perfect. I’ll let you go so you can take care of your friend. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay, see you…Hilde, damnit! Couldn’t you have waited until you got to the bathroom? You’re soooo helping me clean this shit up later. I can’t believe that you did this to me again…”
The line disconnected, leaving Trowa chuckling and looking at the phone in amusement. He didn’t envy Duo his job right now and felt sorry for the girl who would feel even more miserable when the alcohol was out of her system. He let out another snicker; Duo had the face of an angel, and the mouth of a sailor.
“Well?” Wufei was watching him with a smug expression. “You’re actually going to go out with him?”
“Why do you have to sound so surprised?” Trowa stood, striding out of his office and into the studio. “Am I so socially inept you don’t believe I’m capable of going on a date with someone without it becoming a disaster?”
“That’s not what I meant, Trowa, and you know it,” Wufei had followed him and was now watching his movements closely. “I’m honestly surprised that you went through with it, that’s all.”
“I do go out every once in a while, you know.”
The Chinese sat on a sofa, crossing his arms over his chest. “When was the last time you went out on a date that I didn’t arrange?”
Trowa stopped rearranging the cloth that covered the platform, his face creased in deep thought. After several minutes, he began to move again, “I don’t remember,” he stated in a low voice.
The admission hurt, not so much because it had been so long, but the fact that he had been painfully alone the entire time. While Wufei had been enjoying a social life for the last few years, he had remained alone at home unless forced into a blind date by his friend. The bright side was that even if Wufei had been dating, he hadn’t found someone that was able to hold his interest.
“I hope you have a good time.” When he looked up, his friend was standing before him with a credit card in his hand. “Just don’t forget about the favor you promised me.”
Quirking a smile, Trowa took the card, “I’ll remember, but you can’t fuss when you get the bill.”
At six-thirty on Friday, Trowa was standing outside Duo’s bookstore, trying to calm his stomach, wondering if there was a limit to how nervous a person could become. He had left work early to go home and get ready for his date, not thinking about what lay ahead of him that night, hoping he would be a little calmer when the time came to see the long-haired man again.
Wufei had helped him choose an outfit, and he had attempted to push his past dates behind him, doing his best not to recall how badly they had gone. There had been the date with Otto, a guy that worked for a security firm, where he had been taken to a gay bar and the other man had spent the entire evening trying to climb inside of his clothes while he was still in them...
Then there had been the date with Marcus, the accountant that had seemed so sweet and innocent. Trowa had lost all illusions when the Marcus had attempted to climb in his lap at the movie theater, making Trowa fear they would be arrested for indecent exposure…
The last date from hell had been with Treize, one of Wufei’s models. Trowa had assumed that going out with the man would be a different experience since Treize was a bit older. The date had actually gone pretty well, until the very end of the night when Trowa was trying to get out of the car. That was when the older man had nearly torn his clothes off trying to pull him in the back seat. When Trowa had escaped from the vehicle, Treize had made the comment that all photographers were supposed to be up for anything. After that, Trowa had gave up on dating, fearing the outcome.
Now, here he was again, actually looking forward to the date even though it felt like elephants were doing a waltz in his stomach. He looked over his reflection carefully in the window glass, hoping he looked as good as Wufei had said. The thin black slacks and grey t-shirt had been picked out because Wufei had said that they looked good on him. Trowa hoped Duo would think the same thing.
Glancing at his watch, he learned he had managed to waste almost fifteen minutes staring at himself in the glass. He took a deep breath and reached for the door, and…
“Hey!”
…almost jumped out of his skin. Spinning around in surprise, he met Duo’s wide eyed look. The braided man immediately grimaced, “I’m so sorry, again. I really don’t mean to sneak up on you all the time.”
“I thought we were supposed to meet here?” Trowa was still trying to get his heart rate back to normal. He failed when he took a good look at his date for the night.
Duo had chosen to wear a skin tight pair of black jeans and a button-up short-sleeved silk shirt that was white on first glance. The usual long coat was gone, replaced by a leather jacket that appeared to be tailored, it fit so perfectly. Looking closer, Trowa realized he could see thin strips of silver and gold mixed in on the shirt, giving it a shimmering appearance. The long hair was still in its usual braid, but it wasn’t as tight as normal, allowing wisps of hair to float around the heart-shaped face.
“Oh, yeah. I had to run home and check on Hilde. She ended up passing out there last night in one of the guest rooms,” Duo was smiling and rolling his eyes. “So, where did you want to go?”
Trowa winced and looked down at his feet, his natural shyness rearing up once again. “I wasn’t really sure what you liked, so I wanted to see where you wanted to go, if that’s okay?”
The words were barely out of his mouth when Duo grabbed his arm and began to guide him down the sidewalk in the direction he normally came in the mornings. “I know this really great place outside the city, if you’ll trust me to drive.”
There was a brief moment of panic as Trowa recalled the dates from hell, but he shook them off, hoping this would be different. “I trust you.”
At the short statement, Duo froze and turned to face Trowa, his face startled. Wondering what he had done or said wrong, Trowa waited for the excuse to come, ending the date before it had even begun. Instead, the other man leaned toward him and placed a small kiss to his cheek and whispered, “Thanks,” before hurrying them away again.
They walked three blocks to a parking garage, talking about some of their favorite places near their jobs as they passed them. Duo carried most of the conversation, allowing Trowa time to feel more comfortable. He was starting to wonder why Duo would park his car so far away from his place of business, but was concerned that he would sound nosy if he asked. Curiosity overcame his concern finally. “Why don’t you park your car at the store?”
“Are you into cars? I mean really into cars?”
Trowa was enchanted by the blush that had appeared on Duo’s skin. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. I can name most cars by looking at them, if that counts.”
“In a few minutes, you’ll know why I won’t park my car on the street. Please don’t say anything bad about me. I don’t have another car right now.” Duo’s voice was subdued as he keyed into the parking garage.
Trowa already knew it must be an expensive car considering the level of security surrounding it. Unless someone had a key, they would be unable to gain access to the cars inside, and even then they would be watched by the many security cameras on each level. As they traveled up a flight of stairs, he glanced at some of the vehicles to see what kinds of cars were stored inside. He made a fair sum as a photographer, but had never spent a lot of money on a car, seeing them as a way to get to work and back. Any time he needed to go out of the city for a job, he and Wufei would either fly, or rent a car big enough to carry his equipment.
At the second floor, they walked through the row of cars, separated by a larger space than would have been found in a regular garage. Trowa was mostly following Duo, enjoying the view as he walked slightly behind the other man, when his eye fell on something he never thought he would see in his lifetime. “That’s a Bugatti.” He was almost afraid to breathe on it, scared he would mar the surface of the almost two million dollar automobile. “It’s beautiful. I wonder who could own it.”
There was an almost tense silence from the man that stood next to him. A sudden rattle of keys and the chirp of an alarm being turned off threw Trowa into a stupor. “It’s yours?”
“Um, yeah. It was my dad’s before he died. I don’t like driving it, but a friend of mine wrecked my Mercedes and I don’t like to drive the Porsche unless I have to go to some sort of party because it attracts too much attention.” With a shy smile, Duo opened the passenger side door for Trowa before moving to the driver’s side.
Blinking owlishly, Trowa carefully settled in the seat. As Duo started the car, he watched the slender hands wrap around the steering wheel, wondering why someone that owned that many expensive cars would own and work at a bookstore. Another troubling thought was – why would someone like Duo want to go out with someone like him?