Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Edulcoration of Duo Maxwell ❯ The Purple Dodge ( Chapter 24 )

The Edulcoration of Duo Maxwell - 24/?

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Note: This fic was written in response to Nova Una's challenge to the 1x2ML to write a Gundam Wing/Pretty Woman fusion fic with Heero in the Julia Roberts role and Duo in the Richard Gere role.

Warnings: AU, yaoi, coarse language, violence, angst, citrusy situations, suggestive dialog, significant (read that as major, MAJOR) deviation from Pretty Woman script as I see fit. Gratuitous insertion of red herrings throughout.

Spoilers: None for GW, quite a bit for Pretty Woman.

Disclaimer: I don't really need to be Captain Obvious here, do I? No ownership, no money being made, yadda yadda. Written for fun, not profit.

Edulcorate (verb) - To free from harshness (as of attitude); to soften

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Chapter 24 - The Purple Dodge

Quatre was in the process of turning off the shower when he felt the water scald his skin. He yelped in surprise and fumbled for the faucet handle. Once it was off, he froze in place as he realized that his skin was practically burning, but the water temperature had been normal. Cooler, in fact, than when he'd gotten in the shower, but their hot water supply had never been the greatest.

He wrapped a towel around his body and examined his skin. It looked completely normal, no reddening or blistering.

What the hell had that been all about?

He also felt a keening sense of loss for some inexplicable reason, and thought perhaps he might ask Trowa, beg him if he had to, for something to drink when he got to the bar.

And he wasn't thinking of something as innocuous as a cup of tea.

~~~~~

If Duo noticed that Heero's skin looked unnaturally flushed after the shower, he said nothing.

"I don't think I can afford a repeat of yesterday," Duo said cautiously, referring to his playing hooky.

Heero grunted in acknowledgement, inwardly cringing at his return to monosyllabic gutteral sounds as a form of communication. He just wasn't quite ready. Ready for what, he wasn't sure, but he knew his broken pencil structure had no epoxy holding it together.

'My life is a Jenga puzzle,' he thought, and couldn't help the rueful smile that played about his lips.

Duo wasn't sure what had caused, what he supposed passed for, a grin on Heero's face, but it made him feel a bit better. He wasn't sure what was going on with Heero, but he knew there was a lot more to the man than even he had originally suspected.

"Wufei and I are going to be trying to shepherd things in our favor," he said, taking a sip of coffee.

"Hmmm," Heero replied absently. He was buttering his toast, and Duo didn't think he'd ever seen Heero use more than the thinnest layer of butter, but the bread was covered with what looked like a mountain of spackle.

Heero noticed when he took a bite and grimaced at the mouthful of butter he got as a result.

"Lubrication inside and out, I suppose?" Duo said.

Heero looked at him in shock, then started laughing. It was almost creepy, the way someone might laugh if they were either screwing you over or losing their mind, but it was the most honest emotion Heero had shown to Duo, outside of anger and lust.

Then that soft smile Heero had worn when Duo found him on the balcony was back, and Duo wanted to curse Peacecraft for dragging out this entire acquisition.

Despite his frustration with the progression of things on that front, he couldn't help but smile in return.

"I suppose I'd better go face the music," he sighed, draining his coffee cup and wincing at the bitter taste it left. He grabbed his jacket and slid both arms into it hurriedly.

While he was pulling his braid out of the back of his jacket, Heero stood and walked over to him, then smoothed the jacket's lapel and fixed Duo's collar before moving to the cuffs of his shirt which were poking out the bottom of the jacket sleeves.

Duo inhaled deeply. Heero HAD been using his conditioner. Part of him wanted to bury his face into those impossibly thick locks of hair. He stepped back a bit abruptly, leaving Heero with a slightly puzzled look on his face.

"Don't wait up," he said with a wink. He grabbed his cell phone and left the suite.

Heero stared after him blankly, then snapped himself out of the momentary daze.

The run-in with Alvarez had served one useful purpose. It reminded him that today was Friday.

He supposed it would be only fitting that he use Duo's computer. After all, that's where he'd seen the photo of Duo with that woman.

It seemed that photo had been prophetic, in a sense. He'd thought he was safely hidden away, but it seemed that his past was a rather tenacious bastard.

Sparrow on a string, he thought, then frowned. Where had he heard that before?

Before he wasted time pondering riddles, he had to take care of business first.

Duo's computer was already up and running, as he'd half expected. He sat down and went through an elaborate series of reroutes and false ISP addresses to hide the laptop's identity and location, then made his phone call.

~~~~~

By the time Quatre arrived at The Bar, he was feeling much better, and suspected that a lot of his turmoil had to do with being alone in the apartment. At least he was hoping that was the cause of his episode this morning.

He could have kissed Trowa, he was that relieved to see the man unlocking the front door just as the bar came into sight.

"Trowa!" he called happily, and the brunette patiently waited for him before opening the door and flicking on the lights.

"Need me to do anything?"

Trowa looked at him oddly, then went behind the bar and squatted down to rummage for something underneath the shelves of alcohol. He reappeared and handed a box of cleaning supplies to the blond.

"The bathroom could use cleaning," he said.

Quatre had a feeling this was a punishment of sorts, but he had asked, and he was sure that the bathroom did, in fact, need cleaning.

He took the box and sighed. He supposed it still beat feeling sorry for himself at the apartment.

~~~~~

Wufei was starting to regret listening to Meiran and going back to bed, despite how good it had felt to spoon himself behind her and wrap his arms around her. He'd nuzzled her neck until she'd lifted one of his hands to her mouth and bit him.

"Sleep," she'd ordered, and he had.

She'd turned off the alarm clock and he'd woken two hours later. Physically, he was feeling as if the extra sleep had done him good, but mentally, he was tightly wound as he realized he hadn't even checked to see if any other companies besides the one in Nevada were investigating Peacecraft.

Duo had better not flake out on him this morning the way he had the day before.

~~~~~

Heero disconnected his call and blew his bangs out of his eyes. He was set for another week.

He looked around the suite and took in the evidence of Duo that was everywhere. Duo's computer. Duo's empty coffee cup. Duo's shirt from the night before, thrown aside carelessly. He walked over to the discarded garment and picked it up.

He should have been horrified to find himself bringing it to his face and breathing in Duo's scent, but he was beginning to get used to the way things didn't go the way he'd expected them to. The shirt bunched in his hands briefly before he dropped it to the loveseat.

Maybe this would be the last week he'd actually need to make that call. He looked around the suite again.

He was almost sure of it.

~~~~~

Duo was surprised to see Wufei leaning against his desk with his arms crossed.

"What's wrong with your desk?" he asked, throwing his briefcase on the small conference table in the middle of the room.

"We are running out of time, Duo."

"Think I don't know that?" Duo ran a hand over his face. "I just have this feeling I'm missing something. Something big."

"Something that will come back and bite you in the ass, then me, if you don't figure it out soon."

"Maybe I just need something to trigger my memory," he said.

"Fine. Go see what Janet has found. The girl works well as a sounding board, if you're so inclined."

Duo stared at Wufei in amazement. Had Wufei actually carried conversations with the girl?

He supposed he was curious. She had seemed remarkably competent. Maybe something she said just might help him remember that elusive piece he knew he needed before it was too late.

~~~~~

"It's true," the blonde insisted. "It's the Purple Dodge Syndrome!"

"The Purple Dodge Syndrome," the redhead replied. "Janet, you're losing me."

Janet was frowning at the radio again, hitting one button after another trying to find something that didn't set her nerves on edge.

"OK. Ever learn a new word?"

"All the time," Nadia said. Janet looked over to see if she was being sarcastic, but as usual, her face was a blank slate.

"Well, don't you notice that after you learn it, all of a sudden it seems like EVERYONE is using it?"

Nadia nodded. She'd grant her that.

"It's not that everyone else just learned it at the same time you did. It's that it was there all the time, but you just didn't know it, because you didn't understand it and therefore it didn't stick with your conscious mind.

"BUT...now that your eyes, or your mind, has been opened to the word, it clicks, and you recognize it and appreciate it. Even notice if it's used inappropriately."

She finally gave up on the radio and scowled at it before plopping in her seat and pulling a wrist support out of her desk drawer. She turned on her computer and spun her chair around as she fastened the velcro on her brace.

Nadia didn't know if she should ask. Damn it, Janet had her curious now.

"What does this have to do with a Purple Dodge?"

"Ever seen a purple Dodge? The car, I mean?"

It sounded like a childhood poem for a moment, and Nadia blinked a few times.

"Can't say I have seen any purple cars."

"Go out and buy one."

Nadia's snort was unintentional this time, but Janet's was not.

"I don't mean to really go replace that Volvo of yours with a purple Dodge."

"It's not a Volvo. It's a Subaru."

"Whatever. Unimportant. Don't get lost looking at the trees, my friend."

Nadia rolled her eyes, already regretting she'd asked.

Janet seemed content to take her time.

"If you were to go out and buy a purple Dodge tomorrow, I guarantee you'd notice them more."

"I think I'd notice a purple car of any kind if I saw one."

"But you'd pay more attention to it, because you'd have one. How many Subarus do you notice now that you own one?"

Nadia couldn't believe she was actually listening to this, but Janet did have her moments of brilliance.

More than just moments, she grudgingly admitted.

"Don't look now," she muttered. "Sex god, three o'clock."

Janet's head whirled to her left and she brightened as she saw Duo standing there.

"You should be an infiltration expert," she said, smiling at him broadly.

"I don't think your theory will work with Wufei's car," he said, returning the smile.

"Well," Janet said, "that's only because it's practically a custom made vehicle. The odds of seeing one of them are smaller than of seeing a purple Dodge." She shot a look at Nadia. "And if you owned one, you WOULD see another one. Maybe not right away, but you WOULD."

"Well, I sure as hell wouldn't beep and wave at the other color blind driver," Nadia retorted.

"I found this so far," Janet said, handing a file folder about half an inch thick to Duo.

He'd almost forgotten why he'd shown up. He leafed through the pages, seeing that she had found a lot of legal activity, but nothing useful. Maybe Wufei could see something he couldn't. He'd bring it to the conference room with him.

"How did you ladies end up discussing purple cars?"

Nadia's look clearly said 'ASK HER.' She turned to her computer and powered it on.

"Songs," Janet said.

Duo was beginning to see why Wufei sent him to her. She made remarkable leaps of logic to connect two different topics.

But she didn't expect him to understand what that had to do with anything. She explained.

"I am suddenly, painfully, aware of the existence of all these 'love, you done me wrong' songs," she said, her brows furrowing slightly. "It's not that there are any more now that I've had my heart stomped on, but now I notice them more, because they've become personal to me. Hence, the Purple Dodge Syndrome." She glanced up at him and Duo thought she was going to wink at him. "How much of our conversation did you overhear this time?"

"Enough," he said. The girl seemed completely unperturbed that just yesterday she'd been caught discussing him as a potential bed partner.

He thought it likely that her ex-boyfriend was an idiot.

"Thanks," he said, waving the folder at her as he left the two of them.

"GOD, that hair," he heard her sigh as he rounded the corner.

~~~~~

A woman with curly auburn hair rapped her knuckles on the surface of the bar. Trowa, who was lying on his back fixing one of the soda lines, greeted her without getting up.

"Cathy, what are you doing here?"

She laughed. "How'd you know it was me?"

"No one else would calmly walk in here as if they owned the place."

At that moment Quatre came out of the bathroom, a pair of latex gloves on his hands. "Trowa," he began, then stopped when he spotted the woman leaning on the bar.

"The only one, hmmm?" she asked, looking at Quatre speculatively.

"Be nice," the voice said, this time low enough so only she could hear it.

"Where do you keep the liquid soap?" Quatre finally asked. "One of the dispensers is empty."

"It's in the closet next to the sink," Cathy said. "Trowa keeps the key in the register."

Quatre looked ill at ease, but walked over to the bar and proceeded to carry out the procedure of whacks and thuds necessary to get the drawer to open. He reached in and withdrew the key. With one last nervous look at Cathy, he returned to the bathroom.

Trowa had finished with the soda lines and stood up, wiping his hands on a rag he'd stuffed in his pocket.

His look dared her to say something, but she sighed instead.

"Have you given any thought to what I said?" she asked, changing the subject that had been forbidden by his warning look.

"I told you my decision," he said. "I have a new job now."

"Are you happy working here?" she pressed. "Really happy?"

"Cathy," he said, his eyes darkening.

"Trowa," she returned, before sighing again. She tilted her head in the direction of the bathroom.

"He's taking advantage of you," she said.

"How would you know? You don't even know him," he said, his tone rising in volume only slightly, but enough to let her know that he was not pleased with her.

"He knows how to open the register, Trowa? You're too trusting!" As soon as the words were out, she slapped a hand over her mouth in horror.

He looked at her coldly. "Not anymore, Cathy. I told you, I will not be stupid enough to entrust my back to others."

She closed her eyes and fought the urge to scream at him.

"It's not the same everywhere," she said. "Look at where I am-"

"Yes, Cathy, let's look at it. You just transferred to this district. Wait a while. You'll see that everyone has a hidden agenda, and if you get in the way, or you don't conform to what they view as 'normal,' it'll be your neck on the chopping block. Someone has to be the sacrificial lamb. Keep your nose clean and make sure it's not you."

There were so many things she wanted to say, but didn't dare. He wasn't going to listen to her right now.

"I'll be back tomorrow," she said. He nodded.

As soon as she left, Quatre poked his head out of the bathroom door. "Trowa?"

"You can come out now, Quatre," he said. He was gritting his teeth. Cathy's words had made him think about things he hadn't wanted to think about in a while. Sometimes, when he and Quatre and Heero were sitting around talking, he felt that all three of them had something in common, although he had never been able to place what it was. This felt like one of those times, even though Heero was absent.

He looked at Quatre, who was running a finger along a circle worn into the bar's finished surface from countless glasses sitting there without coasters.

He could tell something was bothering him. Maybe he would get out of his own blue funk if he could do something about Quatre's.

"Quatre," he said. "You've got to stop throwing the games and letting Otto win."

Quatre's head snapped up and his mouth dropped open.

"I do no such thing," he said, but the panic in his eyes told Trowa that he'd been right on the money.

"Quatre," he said gently. "You should be saving your money. You're too smart to be doing...this..." he gestured around the bar and toward the bathroom.

To his surprise, Quatre's look turned feral.

"You don't know anything about me!" he shouted. "Nothing! You might think you do, but you don't!" He swept his arm to the side, shoving the box he'd set on the counter hard enough to send it sliding across the bar and onto the floor. The sound of the cleaning supplies crashing to the ground seemed to set him off even more.

"And who the HELL are you, anyway, to tell me what to do?"

With that, he stormed out of the bar for the second time in two days.

Trowa watched the door slam behind Quatre without flinching.

"No one at all," he said quietly. He shook his head. "No one at all."

tbc