Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 2 Reign ❯ A Tiskett A Taskett ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter Twelve: A Tiskett A Taskett

"You're kidding me." Selena purred at me, running her fingers lightly over my chest, "He wouldn't do that! Mr. Trowa is very level headed."

I shrugged at her, shifting slightly in the water to face her better. We'd decided to utilize a hot tub we realized was in the courtyard outside of the royal suite. It seemed to have lost its novelty for everyone else, so it was just Selena and I.

"I know, he usually is, but I'd kissed Wufei, who is engaged to Miguel. You know how that can get. Messier than that shit over in Paris."

"Yeah, seriously." she muttered, running her fingers over my bruise.

"I couldn't believe how bad he flipped out over it," I added, allowing myself to be a victim for a while. I knew it was all my fault, but that was hard to focus on when Selena was being so very sweet. "I was cooking those steaks-he used his weight to pin me to the stove."

She giggled, "You're making things up now."

"I am not!" I protested, "He really did!"

She laughed, "Not about that. You liked it and you know it."

My victim façade crumbled and I laughed happily, wrapping my arms better around her, "Okay, I did."

She smirked at me, "I'm impressed that you didn't actually hurt him."

"Not much." I agreed, focusing on the stars in the clear-night sky beyond the enclosure. "We did slam each other into the counters a few times."

"And the couch." she noted darkly.

"I said I was sorry!" I protested, "It wasn't my fault, he's heavier than me."

"I don't know if that could really have made less sense," she noted.

I sniggered.

"That's reassuring."

I laughed again, smiling as I ran my fingers over her cheek, "I'm glad you're here." I informed her.

She stared at me in amazement for a while before smiling and nuzzling my chin-it made the bruise twinge, but that was hardly a bad thing.

I sighed, relaxing with her in my arms.

"So explain that last comment," she ordered, still touching me.

-

I stared at myself in the mirror in disbelief as I heard Trowa putting Alex down for bed. Even after his fight with Duo he was acting like nothing had happened. Maybe in his mind nothing had…

His mind…

I closed my eyes a moment before opening them to stare at myself again, running the water and rinsing my face.

I wasn't quite sure what to think…

There was a tap at the door, "Hilde?" Trowa asked, "Lexia wants you to read her a book. I guess you promised."

I washed the tears away before grabbing the hand-towel as he pushed the door open and looked at me, "You okay?" he asked, frowning at me a bit. I had been somewhat bitchy to him, hadn't I? But really, he'd fought Duo…

"I'm fine, Trowa." I replied, dropping the towel and pulling him into a hug and kissing him. I studied his green eyes a long moment before pushing around him to join…my daughter…in her room.

"This book is okay, isn't it, Mommy?" she asked sweetly.

Hearing her call me "Mommy" again nearly brought the tears back.

I smiled, nodding at her as I moved onto the bed with her and took the book.

If I didn't know better, I'd just had the best day of my life…I couldn't wait to talk to Selena.

-

I sighed as I listened to Duo and Selena talking together. The hot tub was just outside our bedroom. Relena was well asleep, and had been since before the pair had even gotten into the tub, but I was a bit worked up. It was going on midnight, and well past time for me to be asleep, but I just couldn't go down.

Selena was so much like Kayla…

The thought perturbed me as I heard her giggle and the water shift again.

It had to be getting cold now. It was already mid-September. We were just about out of our summer-days and the nights were getting ridiculous…

I remembered Kayla again, feeling grief and wondering how Duo could live anymore. If I lost Relena everything would go in a downhill spiral; zero to sixty in three-point-five seconds. I couldn't imagine my life without her, and had my doubts that my friends could give me enough reason to live.

Of course, Duo had gone chasing after her murderer…

"Assassin?"

That woman…she'd taken over Gray-Day, according to Jesse. Duo had left her alive and scarred for life. The memory now, though, was accompanied by amusement. She'd probably watched the other…four or five…of her friends get slaughtered by a madman with a knife. For all I knew, she could have been with Donovan. Seeing me…well, I could understand how she blacked-out, I just wished she hadn't. It had taken me precious minutes to revive her and then several more minutes to realize what Duo might be doing next.

By the time I'd gotten to Ace's apartment, I knew for a fact that Duo was gone. Unfortunately, no one I'd asked had been able to give me any more information.

Selena giggled again.

I sat up carefully, detaching myself from my wife and moving to our bedroom window. I couldn't see inside the tub from the second story, but I could see the gazebo roof and a bit of the water. Evidently they'd found the floating candles, too. There were a good twenty of them in my sight.

Granted, for a party-sized tub, twenty didn't do a whole lot of damage.

How long I stood there listening to them flirt and Selena giggle, I would never remember. The glass was cold against my shoulder as I leaned against it, but no clouds came in to obscure the bright stars.

One thing I did realize, though, was that Selena was much stronger than Kayla had been. Kayla had more issues than any female I'd ever met, and it seemed to me that Selena's only issue was Duo. Maybe that wasn't entirely fair of me to say, but from what I'd seen of them, he wasn't worth the hassle…even if he were good in bed. There are just some lines that you do not cross.

Not only was Selena mentally stronger than Kayla, though, but her physical prowess was impressive; her self-confidence on top of that. Not many people would just attack Duo, and her entrance had been a bit of spitfire in our midst.

Which led my thoughts back to Trowa. Hearing Duo talk to Selena now made what happened crystal clear. He'd even admitted that having kissed Wufei…which shocked me. He had come to join me for lunch and completely forgotten about it.

What the hell did he think he was doing, kissing Wufei? There was some precedence for it, granted, but being engaged changed the rules. Not to mention the fact that the precedence had been set with Jun watching. It wasn't something that had happened in a locker with no one around…

Was it?

Suddenly I started to wonder if we'd all missed something. We'd all thought we had at different points, but Duo had been very in love with Kayla.

I shifted away from the cold glass as I continued staring down at the hot tub and the gently moving water.

The idea that maybe Wufei and Duo'd had more of a relationship really bothered me now. Miguel himself had taken picture after picture of the pair together and that physical boundary had not been broached since Duo's return; at least not for more than a few hours. I was fairly certain that Duo had not held Wufei since the night he arrived.

There was a light splash and the candles started to float away from each other as Selena broke into more giggles.

"Come back to bed, Lover." Relena muttered suddenly, her tone informing me that she'd been awake for some time now.

"Hm." I returned, not wanting to make the effort of talking.

"I'm your queen and I command it," she teased, rolling onto her back and studying me curiously, "You haven't slept yet." she noted.

"Not yet." I agreed.

"Who's out there?" she asked when she realized I wasn't going to go on.

"Duo and Selena."

She giggled slightly, "Can you see anything?"

I focused on her sharply in disbelief.

She giggled more, shifting around on the bed and snuggling back into the blankets, "How long have they been out there?"

"Since not long after you fell asleep." I replied.

"They have to be getting cold."

"My very thought."

She giggled slightly, falling silent again.

Our little prophecy was fulfilled a few minutes later as, one by one, the candles disappeared. A moment later, Selena appeared with a towel wrapped around her body. It was hard to see, since there wasn't backlighting to this particular section of the grounds unless we specifically requested it. She paused a long moment watching over her shoulder. Duo appeared then, gathering her long blond tresses into his hands and ringing it out as she tolerantly dipped her head back before jogging toward the building again.

Duo didn't follow, though. Instead, he looked around the area before looking to the building itself.

He'd felt my eyes on him, then.

It probably wouldn't have been a good thing, had I ducked, so I waited until he was looking up at me to turn away from the window and crawl back into bed with Relena. I didn't care what Duo did as long as he didn't come barging into the room and wake Relena up.

For some reason, I felt drained, as if his getting out of the tub somehow released me from…everything.

I yawned, pulling Relena closer to me.

It was really past time to go to sleep.

-

"So what will you do next?" Quatre asked me, his tone happy sarcasm.

I turned to look at him, blinking. Apparently, he'd been waiting for me outside the employee locker-room.

"Will you…seduce Relena, perchance?" he asked, falling into step with me when I started to walk away, "I know! You'll seduce Hilde!"

"Get over it." I recommended, heading toward my office and the mound of paper work that I still had to do before I could actually be off work.

"Hm…maybe." he conceded, still tailing me, "You know, you could attempt Trowa. That might be interesting. I find that bruise appealing for some odd reason."

I turned on him. Dealing with Wufei all day after yesterday's bull-shit was wearing, and to have him tailing me with suggestions of things I should probably do just to piss him off…no, wait. Relena and Hilde didn't deserve even that thought process.

"And what will you do to me?" Quatre nearly purred at me, studying my eyes as he stepped back a bit, "Use one of your lovely little toys? Your belt? Trowa was ranting about your belt to me." he stepped forward and lifted the hem of my shirt to look at the thing. His eyes were amused as he pulled back to meet my eyes again, "Would you dare?"

I wasn't sure exactly how to respond to this. Quatre had never challenged me, and even now he was giving ground. If I pulled another stunt so soon after yesterday's disaster, I'd hear about it forever. Having Heero shout down at me was not my idea of fun.

"You know what I think I'll do, speaking of my toys?" I asked, the thought of Heero crossing my mind, "I think I'll go play with our king."

He caught my arm, studying my eyes when I turned back to him, "What do you mean by that?"

I grabbed his right wrist and flipped it, unbuttoning and shoving his sleeve up his arm. I ran my index finger along it, studying the vague lines of a scar I'd given him, "I dunno, Q," I purred, smirking as I met his eyes, "What do you think I mean?"

I wasn't going to give him time to reply to this, and instantly turned and started for some stairs. I'd found several paths that were much more direct than the main thoroughfare, and intended to put them to good use.

Fuck Quatre if he was going to play at being clever.

-

It took me a long moment to understand what Duo meant. I'd forgotten that he'd cut me before, and the scar was only really visible if you were looking for it. I hadn't been sure what to expect when he'd moved my sleeve, and it wasn't until he was already up the set of stairs at the far end of the corridor that I realized what he meant.

Heero had a thing about blood, after all.

I gave chase, though I soon lost Duo in the labyrinthine of passages. The area of the building was offices and meeting rooms. There were signs that showed the cafeteria and the mezzanine…but public places would not list the royal wing. Also, my own offices were next to everyone else's on the first floor. I hadn't ever had a reason to venture into this area.

I wasn't quite lost, but I had no idea which way Duo may have gone.

"Q?"

I turned to focus on Jacob as he came down a hall, blinking at me.

"Have you seen Duo?"

He shrugged at me, "Not today."

I frowned, looking around.

"What are you doing up here, anyway?" Jacob asked, tilting his head at me.

"Duo's going to fuck with Heero," I replied quietly, "I attacked him a bit ago and he…"

"Attacked?" Jacob's tone was sharp.

"Verbal," I clarified, "I was going to bitch at him for yesterday's…uh…" I cast a round for a polite word in case some other employee neared us.

"Yeah." he agreed, frowning as he thought, "Don't do that in the future." he added.

I met his eyes, giving him a look.

"He came up here?" Jacob asked, ignoring that.

"No, I'm just doing this for my health." I replied, "I need to walk more."

"You do, but that's not the issue," he considered the halls for a long moment, "It would be faster for you to take the route you know."

"Yeah," I agreed sarcastically, "He's probably already there."

"What is he going to do?" Jacob asked, focusing on me again.

"I'm not completely sure, he didn't do more than indicate this." I raised my arm and pointed at the most obvious bit of scar.

"Um…" he was blinking.

"Duo did that when we were fucking with Jun," I explained as I re-buttoned the thing, "I know I told you about it."

He nodded, frowning at me.

"Blood, Jacob," I clarified, "Heero gets off on blood, and with the way Duo is, he can cut himself like nothing."

"But its Heero," Jacob muttered, confused.

"…who informed us all that Duo tasted like peaches."

That brought an amazed silence.

"I'm not saying that he'll manage anything, but he'll probably piss Heero off and this is my fault."

"Leave him to his own." Jacob muttered, grinning a bit, "You honestly can't control him."

I gave him another look, then went to find the other pain in the ass.

-

I looked up to the door as Duo swept into the apartments, "Hey, I thought you weren't off for another hour?" I muttered, smiling slightly at him. I myself was just done with work and had been about to change.

Duo didn't say anything to me, though…he pulled a knife.

I blinked at him in amazement, wondering what he was going to do with that…and dropped my jaw as he ran the blade across his arm, "What are you…"

Duo flicked his arm slightly…and blood started to bead.

I blinked at that a long moment, not quite comprehending what I was seeing as he ran the knife a little off of that, hissing…blood started to drip down his arm.

I took a deep and calming breath as he stopped in front of me, offering the wounds up to me.

"What are you doing?" I asked finally, catching his wrist and watching the blood.

"I'm having a little fun." he replied easily-dragging the knife over his skin again, more toward my fingers.

"You're going to hurt yourself." I muttered uncertainly, not able to actually look at him.

"Of course I am," he replied, using the tip of the knife to spread the blood around a little, "I like it that way."

I swallowed, running my thumb across the liquid before realizing it was blood…

He made another small nick.

I took another deep steadying breath, forcing my eyes away, "What are you doing?" I demanded, meeting his eyes and attempting to let him go. I found, however, that my thumb was in the mess again.

"I was just curious is all," he muttered, running the tip through the blood again, "I was just curious…about your current state of mind."

I decided not to answer that, pushing at the cut near my thumb and watching a bit more blood spill from it.

Unfortunately, Quatre slammed into the room.

I was distracted instantly from Duo as warning sirens went off in my mind. I dropped him and reached for my firearm before realizing that it was Quatre.

"What are you doing!" he shouted at Duo, shoving him away from me, "Where the fuck do you get off…"

"In a bed, generally," Duo replied nonchalantly, moving so he was no longer between Quatre and I.

"That's not what I mean!" Quatre snapped in reply, glancing sidelong at me and watching me a moment before focusing on Duo again, "Are you happy?" he snapped.

I wasn't able to follow their argument properly. My own mind was moving sluggishly, like I'd been drugged. Well, at first. After a few minutes of their bickering I realized what Duo had done.

Relena was working for another hour.

I shoved Duo in sheer irritation, ignoring his flailing arms as he stumbled back and started laughing.

Quatre sighed, rubbing his temples.

"What the fuck was that all about?" I demanded of Duo, not bothering to wait for an answer as I moved into the kitchen and dug out a hand-towel, yanking his wrist up and wrapping it quickly and tightly. I managed to keep from being distracted by focusing entirely on what I was doing.

Of course, he wiped the knife on the towel, still in my view.

I let out another irritated breath, wiping my hand on that and shoving his arm pointedly out of my vision, glaring at him.

He laughed again as the knife disappeared, leaned over…and kissed Quatre.

"Duo!" Quatre's tone was outraged as he shoved at the guy-which only made Duo laugh more before he turned and left the room.

I blinked at Quatre.

He met my eyes for only a moment, then turned and followed Duo.

-

I studied Duo as I moved into his office, wondering why Quatre thought he'd still be riled.

He looked up at me and smiled, "Hey, Nira."

"Hey, baby." I replied, moving around the desk and studying his eyes as he gave me a curious look. "I just talked to Quatre," I explained.

He snorted, running his hand over a large bandage I could see now. He knew what I was saying.

"Do you feel better?" I asked curiously.

He snorted, putting his pen down and pulling me into his lap, "Yes, actually."

"Did you have to kiss him?" I asked, still curious.

"Of course not. It just makes him irate."

"And you know this how?" I demanded skeptically. I had a feeling that he'd never actually kissed the poor guy before.

"Well," he replied, thinking a second, "I kissed Mr. Trowa and he got all pissed."

"You also said they're your friends. So why are you fucking with them?"

"Because I can," he shrugged again, looking vaguely uncomfortable, "Because bad habits are hard to break."

"Hm." I studied his eyes a moment, then nodding, sitting up to kiss him before rising to my feet, "I'm going to run into town for supper with Hilde."

"Oh," his tone was slightly disappointed as he looked away from me, "All right."

"We're bringing food back," I added, not wanting him to think I was ditching out on him, "We're eating at Mr. Trowa's."

"Oh," that sounded almost relieved, "All right. I'm almost done here," he indicated a form or something he'd been writing in and then a pile of papers to his left, "This shouldn't take more than ten or fifteen minutes."

"Okay. We'll be quick," I leaned over and kissed him, smiling slightly at him.

He smiled as he watched me leave the room, and then I ran to catch up with Hilde, who had said she'd meet me out at the cars. She wanted to talk to me and had been bugging me all day. Of course she'd had to work, so that had been a quickly cut-short plan. She'd also had to cancel on me for lunch in favor of Relena, who had wanted to rant about things of state.

She was beaming at me as I flew out the front doors of the place, "There you are!" she exclaimed, moving forward to pull me into a tight hug before breaking into giggles and shoving me toward the car.

"My, my, but you're happy." I noted as I moved around the thing and studied her eyes as she hopped into it.

"I think I'm the luckiest woman alive," she agreed, her eyes sparkling as she started the car, looking at me, "You won't believe what I have to tell you!"