Disclaimers and warnings in first part
TEN YEARS – PART 3
In sight of the house, Duo slapped himself on the forehead and groaned, “I forgot my notebook.”
“This one?” Heero handed over the item he had tucked under his arm upon leaving the park. “I knew you’d remember it eventually.”
Laughing, Duo took the notebook. Wryly he noted, “This day can’t get much worse. I’ve had to read papers that made my eyes bleed, ran into walls, got yelled at by Trowa, took off without even getting my wallet, and ruined your date with Wufei. I don’t think I can handle anymore.”
“Oh, hell,” Heero muttered as they reached the end of their street. “I hope you can handle a little more,” he said, gesturing to the expensive car parked in front of their house.
Recognizing the car, Duo growled deep in his throat, “What the hell is he doing here?”
“It’s not the first time he’s shown up after you turned down an invitation,” Heero informed him with a shrug. “I never let him in. If you had wanted to see him you would have made time like you do for Trowa.”
“You should have told me, Heero,” Duo fussed, ignoring the comment about Trowa, not ready to deal with the fallout from their argument. “I think it’s time to get rid of this pain in the ass once and for all,” he muttered, spotting Coby at their door.
“Want me to do it?”
Duo grinned at the query, laughing when Heero dramatically flexed his hands. “I think it would be better to do this without having to find a place to hide the body. Go inside. I’ll call if I need some backup.”
Heero nodded, walking up the steps and into the house without acknowledging Coby’s presence. Coby didn’t seem to mind, turning to Duo with a full smile. “I came by to see if you were busy. We still have plenty of time to get to Jean’s.”
Dancing out of Coby’s reach, Duo truly realized how much the pampered and spoiled man disgusted him. “I told you I was busy.”
“Yet, here you are, taking walks with your so-called friend,” Coby sneered disdainfully. “A man in your position should associate with a more cultured crowd, dear.”
Coby had never outright admitted he didn’t like Heero, though it had always been in his voice. “What’s wrong with Heero?”
“Really, darling,” Coby’s smile oozed of superiority. “Surely you know who he was? A Gundam pilot? I’m surprised the university hasn’t asked you to find another roommate by now. I’m sure they don’t want to be connected to that sort of riff-raff.”
Stunned the man had actually used the term ‘riff-raff’ in normal conversation, Duo raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “You have a problem with Gundam pilots, even after they saved the earth?”
“There’s no doubt they did the world a favor, but I heard they were merely children at the time. They must have been monsters to know how to fight that young. I assume they were created in a lab or something; people really can’t learn that type of fighting. They had to be bloodthirsty from birth.”
“Bloodthirsty from birth,” Duo muttered softly. “That’s a new one.” Recalling the pain and torment the five of them had suffered during and after battle, he felt his anger growing. The thought of someone as kind and innocent as Quatre had been being called bloodthirsty was almost enough to make him laugh – almost. “Not everyone is able to live a plush life like you, Coby. There are places where you learn to fight from a young age just to survive.”
“You were too young to remember, but they were quite vicious. The mobile suits they piloted were horrible,” the styled hair didn’t move as Coby shook his head. “Those machines were so powerful. The thought of that power being in the hands of children was terrifying.”
“The colonies didn’t think they were so bad and I can remember it well enough, Coby. I was fifteen, five years younger than you.” The burning in his gut had his arms hanging at his sides, his eyes narrowing in anger. “If it wasn’t for the Gundams, you wouldn’t even be here,” he commented, aware the general population wasn’t aware of what the original mission of the Gundams had been.
“You sound as if you actually agree with what those…hooligans…did,” Coby sniffed.
“I didn’t just agree with them, I was one of them.”
When the other man began laughing, Duo waited, face sober. When Coby took a good look, his humor died away, replaced with an expression of shock, “You’re serious?”
“Does it look like I’m joking? Those people you refer to as ‘hooligans’, ‘monsters’, and ‘riff-raff’ are my best friends and I would appreciate if it you would refrain from insulting us. It really pisses me off. Since I’m such a bloodthirsty killer, it wouldn’t be a good idea to make me mad, would it?”
“Why wasn’t I aware of this?”
Hiding a smile as Coby stepped away from him Duo realized he had discovered the perfect way to get the spoiled man to leave him alone for good. “It’s a matter of public record, Coby. I guess it doesn’t come up a lot in normal conversation. I do hope you keep this to yourself. You don’t really want your name to be connected to people like us, do you? Someone might start to wonder about the riff-raff you associate with.”
He took one step closer, smothering a grin when Coby whimpered and ran for his car, the carefully styled hair going in all directions as he gunned the engine and took off down the road. As Coby flew down the road like the hounds of hell were behind him, Duo raised his hand in a cheerful wave, snorting in amusement as the tires squealed when Coby took a turn too fast in his desire to get away from the house.
Laughing as he entered the house, he grinned at his roommate, “I don’t think we have to worry about him coming around or calling anymore. Apparently, he believes the Gundam pilots were monsters.”
“I’m sorry, Duo.”
“Don’t be,” he replied with a shrug. “The only reason I dated him for so long was because I respected his father. Too bad the apple fell far from the tree in this case.” Needing to make up for the interrupted date, he pushed Heero in the direction of the phone. “Call Wufei and tell him to come tomorrow and plan to stay. I’m gonna get out of the way for the night.”
“Duo, are you sure? I don’t want to put you out of your own house,” Heero argued, though there was no heat behind it.
“It’s the least I can do since I was the cause of your lost time tonight. I’ll fix your dinner before I leave. It might do me some good to get away from the house for a night anyway. I can concentrate on all of those hideous papers I need to read.”
Heero took the phone, studying Duo’s face as he did so. “I heard your extension ring when I came in, a number of times. Since Coby was outside, I can only think of one person that would call that many times. It sounds like someone needs to talk to you.”
Without comment, Duo trudged up the stairs to his own room, frowning at the blinking light on his phone. With a sigh, he pushed the button to play his messages, stunned when Trowa’s call was first, his face almost desperate as he spoke, “I hope you don’t just erase this without listening. I’m sorry I was such a jerk earlier. What I was trying to say came out all wrong and I need to explain. Please call me when you get this.”
Although he was still hurting from the angry words Trowa had used, Duo was unable to stay angry in light of such obvious sincerity. Shaking his head, he sat on the bed to remove his shoes, which dropped from numb fingers when the next message began to play. “It’s been an hour since I called, and I wanted to know if you were home yet. Either you aren’t or you’re not taking my calls. Please call me back, Duo.”
Duo could only stare as two more messages played, both with Trowa pleading Duo to call. Bewildered why the tall man was so upset, he finished undressing and reached to dial the familiar number, jumping slightly when the phone began to ring as he touched it. Relatively certain it wasn’t Coby, he flipped on the screen, stunned by the way the man on the screen looked. “Trowa?” he asked, wondering why his friend’s eyes were red.
“Oh God, Duo, you answered. I was afraid you weren’t going to speak to me ever again.”
“We got back a little while ago and Coby was outside. It took me a few minutes to get rid of him,” he explained carefully.
“Coby? Oh, yeah. The guy you’ve been seeing.”
“For the last few weeks he’s been the guy I’ve been avoiding. I don’t think I need to worry about him anymore. He won’t be back.”
Hoping they had put the episode behind them, Duo leaned over on his bed, propping his head on one hand as he maneuvered the screen so he could still see the other man as he talked. “Apparently he didn’t approve of my friends.”
“I thought you really liked him.”
The strange tone in Trowa’s voice had Duo looking closer at his friend, who turned his head at the scrutiny. “He was okay for a while, but we don’t have anything in common. We both like music, but he likes the new expressionistic crap and I prefer the older stuff. He likes regimented sports and I’d rather play basketball. They seem like little things but when those little things add up with all the big ones, he was a pain in the ass.”
“I didn’t realize you were so different.”
Glad to be on speaking terms with Trowa, Duo put aside the reminder of his hurt feelings. “I thought we had some things in common at first. His dad was great. I guess I hoped Coby was like his father, but they were as different as night and day.”
“Oh.” Trowa seemed unsure of what to say. After clearing his throat, he asked, “If you didn’t like him why stay with him for so long? Was he that great in bed?”
“Wouldn’t know, never slept with him,” Duo replied absently, more focused on the first question than the last. “I guess I stayed with him because I hoped deep inside the spoiled man there was someone I could like. There wasn’t.” Rolling to his stomach, Duo played with the end of his braid, “That’s enough about Coby the Boring. I really don’t want to talk about him.”
When Trowa spoke, Duo groaned at the words, “I’m sorry for what I said. It didn’t come out the right way.”
“No worrying allowed. Got it? Can we move on now?” Duo continued to speak, not giving Trowa a chance to discuss what had happened. “Poor Heero and Wufei, the first time they get to see each other in weeks and you and I have a …disagreement. To make it up to them I’m going to fix them dinner tomorrow, then let them have the house to themselves.”
“I’m sure they’ll enjoy having the house to themselves for a few hours.”
“They have the house for the night,” he corrected, smiling when Trowa gaped.
“It’s a nice gesture, but where do you plan to stay? Quatre’s?”
“Nah, blondie’s out of town for a few days,” Duo recalled Heero telling him that today – or yesterday. “I’m just gonna stay in a hotel for the night. It’ll give me a chance to finish grading some papers.”
“You could always stay with me,” offered Trowa.
Duo’s first reaction was to refuse, but he found himself nodding in agreement. “I’ll still have to get some work done.”
“I’ll provide dinner and give you all the time you need to do your work.”
“I should be able to be there about five or so. Let me write this down so I don’t forget,” he muttered, rising to his knees without thinking about his unclothed state. The sharp intake of breath got his attention and he sat back down with a piece of paper and pen in his hands. “You okay?”
“Duo, you…you aren’t…you have no clothes on.”
Looking down at his naked body, he smiled sheepishly, “I was getting ready for bed. Sorry.” He shrugged as he shifted again, this time to pick up his glasses.
“You sleep naked?”
“Usually,” he replied absently, writing a list of things he needed to do the next day and times he needed to remember. “I like the way the sheets feel against my skin. I’ll wear shorts while I’m over there, okay?”
“That’s not necessary,” Trowa replied quickly, though his face was flushed. “Do whatever you feel most comfortable with.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to inform the other man he would be most comfortable in Trowa’s bed, but he bit down on the urge. After another few minutes of conversation and confirming their plans one last time Duo replaced the receiver, feeling better than he had since Trowa had shouted at him. Sticking the note to the mirror where he wouldn’t miss it, right beside his glasses, he climbed into the waiting sheets with a sigh, still baffled why Trowa had sounded so odd.