Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 3 Ties That Bind ❯ Twelve ( Chapter 12 )

“When did you get up?” Quatre muttered to Duo, blinking at the guy. “I fell asleep like…as I hit the pillow, so I didn’t hear you come in, even.”

“A while ago,” Duo muttered non-responsively, staring at the window that showed a terrific view of the forest.

“Hey, go talk to her,” Quatre muttered, hitting him in the leg. “Come on, you can fix this now that she’s had you in the dog-house two nights running.”

“Huh? No,” Duo shook his head, rubbing at his eyes. “No…I’ll wait until later.”

“Oh, come on, we can see you’re dying,” Quatre protested, shoving harder at his leg.

I yawned, then clapped a hand to my mouth as Duo started laughing and looked at me.

“That’s not what I meant,” I muttered, yawning even harder and rubbing at my face before smirking at him.

He smirked back and shook his head.

“What? I didn’t start it,” I protested at him, thinking over my night with Jacob.

It was really amazing how someone you’d never considered a possible bed-mate could suddenly set your world on fire.

“You sure finished it, though,” Jacob noted, moving into the room with an evil laugh.

We all laughed at that, then focused on Quatre, who’d covered his mouth with his hand.

“I’m too pregnant for that laugh,” Relena informed us as she moved from her bedroom in a robe. “Which means you need to not have it, which means you need to stop doing the stuff that makes it. It’s too early for naughty boys.”

We all grinned at her.

“How ya feeling, baby?” Duo asked, tilting his head slightly at her.

“I slept good,” she returned, “if that’s what you mean…why are you all in here? It’s Sunday. We don’t have to be up until noon.”

“I’ve been up,” Duo responded, looking away.

“I…woke up…” I hesitated, looking to Jacob, then shrugged and looked away.

Jacob sniggered.

Quatre was rubbing at the inside of Duo’s knee and a bit up his thigh, his eyes considerate as we all looked at him. “What?” he asked, stopping to look us all over, then focus on Relena. “What did you say?”

“I asked why you were all up,” she retorted, grinning at him. “You’re in no man’s land, aren’t you?”

“My daughter put a bug in my ear,” he explained, pressing his mouth to Duo’s leg since he was mostly leaning against it—I should probably note at this point that Duo was sitting on the table beside Q with his back to me so he could face the wall with windows. I was directly across from him and Jacob had moved to sit next to me.

“About what?” Duo asked, blinking at him.

“Uh…” Quatre pulled away from him to study his eyes, then shrugged. “She told me that I should take Wade on a date and she could stay over with you and Nira…”

“Oh!” I noted, starting to laugh. “There’s a reason you’re poking at him to make up with Selena!”

He started laughing at that.

“You’re horrible,” Relena protested, moving over to stand in front of Duo with her hands on the back of the chair his feet were in as she looked at him.

He laughed guiltily and hopped off the table.

“Go make up with your wife,” Relena ordered, kissing his cheek. “I’m sure she’s done sleeping by herself.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Duo muttered, kissing her on the lips before starting for the door.

“Duo,” she protested, wiping at her mouth and wrinkling her nose at him.

“Sorry,” he muttered with an almost naughty grin…then disappeared into the hall.

“So, Jacob,” Quatre muttered, looking to the guy. “Any particular reason you decided to rape my friend?”

Jacob laughed wickedly. “You can’t rape the willing, Quatre. It’s a technical impossibility.”

I started sniggering.

“Hush about that, you lot,” Relena reprimanded. “I’m going back to bed and Heero hasn’t woken up yet…don’t wake up the girls, they’re in Faye’s room.”

“Yes, ma’am,” we all responded instantly.

She gave us all a look, then disappeared back into her bedroom.

“So…Lea thinks I should try for Wade,” Quatre noted, studying us. His tone was too quiet for anyone else to hear.

“Lea?” Jacob asked. “Your daughter?”

“Yeah, that was kinda my thought, but she had a point.”

“Wade?” I asked blankly.

“The girl I was dancing with and with after?” he asked, meeting my eyes.

“She was like…a kid, though,” I protested, blinking at him.

“And who was the one talking about fucking a recruit who’s not even a year legal?” Jacob’s tone was wry.

I grinned at that, giving him a look. “Fucking and dating are two different things entirely.”

“And which are you two doing?” Quatre asked, raising an eyebrow at us.

“Fucking,” I noted.

“Dating,” he said at the same time.

We blinked at each other and looked back to Quatre.

“Dating,” I corrected.

“Fucking,” Jacob agreed.

Quatre started laughing, covering his face with his hands.

“I dunno, playing a little,” Jacob admitted, poking at his breakfast with his fork. “I don’t see anything more than our friendship in the future, huh?”

I nodded my agreement. “A little stress relief and entertainment…maybe not the most moral of things, but…”

Quatre nodded at that, then glanced toward the main of the building. “What did you two notice about Duo?”

“He looked haunted,” Jacob tilted his head.

“He looked out of it,” I agreed.

Quatre frowned slightly, nodding his agreement.

“He should be better here in a bit,” Jacob noted, glancing at his watch. “He’s making up with Selena, so he’ll get back to his normal petulant self in no time.”

I grinned at that as Quatre rolled his eyes.

- -

Out of it? I moved from the royal apartment and moved toward the door to Duo’s place, hesitating.

No, Duo’d been more than out of it. After months of snapping at us not to touch him whenever it looked like we might be thinking it, he hadn’t even batted an eye when I was nearly molesting him.

I saw guilt.

I went to knock on his door and hesitated, pressing my palm flat against it as I heard the puppy whining and the low rumble of his voice. I could hear Selena crying, too…so maybe he was telling her?

I shook my head, reminding myself that I might just be jumping to conclusions, that he’d been around seven years without once showing any signs of…well, Wufei’d seen it in him. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t really my business unless I got more proof than a sick sensation in my stomach. My sense of Duo hadn’t changed.

I started back for the stairs.

He hadn’t come back to my apartment.

The bug that my daughter had planted had been two headed…first at night with pointing out Wade…and then in the morning when I’d looked into the two empty rooms of my suite and noted my friend wasn’t there. I’d moved to check Jacob’s room before heading up and tapping on Lea’s door.

She’d told me that he hadn’t even come back to the apartment, let alone woke up early to leave it.

So where had he been? He hadn’t actually said he’d left early. All he’d said to me was that he’d woken up a while ago…

I bit my lip, stopping on the landing and looking back up the stairs toward the man’s apartment.

The church, of course.

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d stayed most of a night in a church. Granted, the last time he’d done it, he’d had faith…but…

I moved down the second set of stairs as Dustin and Tro moved from their apartment with Blackie on a leash and trying to play with it.

“Morning, Q,” Trowa greeted me.

“Hey, morning,” I returned, grinning back at him. The dork hadn’t taken off his glued on vampire teeth yet. It meant his smile looked a little wicked.

He laughed, encouraging Dusty to get the dog moving.

“You cause me physical pain, you know that, right?”

Trowa laughed more.

I walked with them to my apartment door and ruffled Dustin’s hair before turning into my rooms and looking around.

“Lea?”

No answer.

I moved across the place and glanced into her bedroom to see her sleeping soundly on her bed with Shadow draped across her neck. I grinned.

It was Sunday. She had no reason to get up.

- -

“So what’s up?” I muttered, yawning largely.

“I…dropped off some papers about a month ago,” Tomé explained. “You said you’d try to get to them?”

“Oh!” I grinned at him, digging through the stack of stuff I’d had Duo do. “Sorry, I had a long night.”

“The party was fun,” he agreed, sitting somewhat hesitantly on the edge of his seat as I read down Duo’s notes on the thing. “Had you and your friends practiced that waltz?”

“Huh?” I grinned at him and shook my head. “We just…can read each other’s body language.” I focused back on the reading.

“Majesty?” he asked uncertainly.

“Huh? Oh, sorry, I had to give part of the work to Duo and I’m reading his notes.”

The man’s expression darkened instantly as he looked away and nodded.

Okay, that bit of pettiness made me feel better.

“You won this one,” I noted, sitting back to look at him. “Maxwell agrees.”

Tomé blinked at me.

Actually, Duo’s note said that there wasn’t anything in it to dance about, but there was nothing overtly wrong. In the end, it didn’t matter if his initiative passed or got dropped. He said that whatever I felt like he would argue for me…and then on the page underneath he went into the details for me so I didn’t have to read the ten page thing.

I pulled his notes off and signed the file on top.

Tomé was staring at me.

“In spite of what it seems,” I noted, passing him the file, “Duo’s not going to turn down everything you ever say.”

“Just like that? We argue for an hour in council, and…”

“You said yourself that you tailored it to my arguments,” I reminded him. “If I get my way, I’m not hard to deal with.”

That made the man grin slightly.

“So in tomorrow’s council we can bring it up again and see if it flies or not. I don’t see my wife denying this, so you have a good chance of getting your first option.”

That also made him smile slightly.

“All right,” I pointed at the door, studying him. “I’ve got stuff to do.”

He noted the pile of work to my right…that hadn’t shrank slightly in the past month, even with me giving handfuls at a time to my knights to sort through for me.

He smiled again, rising to his feet to bow properly, then turned and left the room.

I shook my head, picking my pen back up.

The little things in life could make or break you…life lesson number one.

- -

“Hi,” Som muttered, leaning up to kiss me as I shut the door to my office.

“What’s…going on?” I demanded, moving away from the next kiss he tried to offer. “What are you doing?”

“I had some free time,” he explained, settling to study my eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I frowned at him and started to shake my head. “Last night…I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I shouldn’t have…”

His eyes instantly changed to hurt as he stared at me.

“I…Som…I’m sorry,” I muttered, touching his face. “I didn’t mean…”

The hurt changed to anger in a flash and he shoved me away hard, glaring at me. “You’re all the fucking same!”

“What?” I asked blankly.

“You fucking bastards,” he spat at me, shoving me away again as his eyes filled with tears.

“Hey,” I protested, “come on…”

“Isn’t that what you said last night?” he hissed at me.

“And it obviously worked,” I retorted, dropping the consoling tone entirely.

The hurt returned and he looked away from me.

“What do you mean, we all? What are you talking about?”

“Like you don’t know,” he spat, starting to shove away again.

“I’m sure I do, I know a lot of shit,” I retorted, keeping him pinned.

“A pretty piece of ass,” he spat in my face. “A throw away toy, like a condom, use it once and dispose of it, huh? Dirty, unclean…”

“What?” I protested. “Som…last night got way out of hand.”

“Yeah, you’re always Mr. Reasonable,” he agreed. “Mr. Seduction, Mr. Not-to-be-denied.”

“Yeah, and I really need to control myself,” I snapped.

That made him blink.

“I’m sorry, okay?” I demanded. “I never actually meant for things to go that far.”

“That’s exactly my point,” he spat, rubbing at his eyes. “You’re all the same…tell me ‘oh please oh please’ and have your fun, and then tell me ‘oh no, oh no’…”

“I’m sorry,” I persisted, touching his cheek. “I honestly fucked up…I’m manipulative as hell. Once I put my mind to something there’s no denying it. I’m not saying I’m in the right, but I am saying that this can’t happen again.”

He smacked my hand away, looking away from me.

“I could say all the clichéd murmurings to console you, but I won’t belittle your intelligence. I used you. Period. End of sentence. I can’t take it back, I can’t change it, and I can’t do it anymore…and I’m sorry. That’s all that’s left for you and me.”

“Until I tell your wife,” he retorted, looking down.

“Just wait until she has the baby,” I returned.

He met my eyes again, wiping the tears that were trying to pool away.

“I’m telling her what happened after she has the baby,” I explained. “If she kicks me out, so be it. I’m not putting her through that stress until the baby is out of her system.”

He took a deeper breath, looking away again.

“What can I do for you?” I asked, wiping at his eyes as I studied him. “It might be bad of me to ask, and don’t take it the wrong way…but I have to be able to do something. You want money? More time off? I can’t give you rank or anything, but I can do the monetary bit.”

“What?” he asked me in disbelief.

“It’s all I have left to offer,” I muttered, looking away from him and moving away.

There was a knock on the door and I ground my teeth together as he moved away from the thing…and it shoved open.

Quatre stepped into the office to look between us, then study the boy a long moment before shaking his head at me…and walking away.

The door shut with a click.

“He knows!” Som hissed, darting like he’d leave.

I caught his wrist. “He knew this morning,” I noted. “I was supposed to sleep in his place last night.”

“But…he might tell your wife…” Som was trying to pry at my hand.

“I’ll talk to him,” I reassured him calmly. “I didn’t realize it this morning but I’ve been chasing everyone away when they touch me and he was rubbing at my leg and I didn’t even look at him.”

He frowned slightly at me.

“It wasn’t…that sounds really bad, but we’re…we’re like that with each other…it doesn’t matter. He’ll wait to talk to me before…that’s what that was. That was him telling me I needed to go talk to him…Calm down.”

He stopped, staring into my face with a sort of hurt uncertainty.

“Just go back to the recruit area,” I suggested. “Pretend last night was just a juicy fantasy and move on, huh? It’s not like I’ll pretend you don’t exist or anything. Go to the bathroom and clean yourself up, you can tell you were crying.”

“Duo,” he protested, his eyes worried. “I don’t want to ruin your marriage! I can’t…they might…I…” and he started muttering in Thai…or something.

I shook my head at him, pressing my finger to his lips. “I don’t understand you.”

“What?” he asked, blinking, startled from the ramble.

“I don’t know that language,” I explained.

He stared at me in disbelief…and tears spilled down his cheeks.

“Som,” I muttered, wiping at his eyes again. “Hey…”

“I’ve gotta go,” he returned, leaning up to kiss me again…then run from the room before I could protest.

I stepped after him, but focused on Quatre, who was down the hall at the entrance to the courtyard.

“Fine knight you make,” Quatre noted sardonically.

“Fuck you,” I retorted, moving to look down the hall Som had taken.

He was gone.

I’d swear the boy had the same training I did…

“Now,” Quatre ordered me, pushing into the courtyard.

I sighed, moving to follow him as he pulled a remote from his pocket and directed it at the nearer camera for the thing.

“Why did you do that?” I demanded, knowing the screen in the monitoring room would read Quatre’s stats and that his remote had blanked the camera for state-approved reasons and the only way to override it was for me to put in my password…or Heero to.

“Because you cheated on your wife,” he returned.

I snatched the remote and blanked the second camera for the courtyard, narrowing my eyes at him.

He put the keychain back in his pocket as he studied my eyes.

“What?” I asked. “What do you want me to say?”

“You’re remarkably calm,” he returned.

“I agreed with Selena years ago that if I lost it like that I’d tell her.”

“Have you told her?”

“Not until she has the baby,” I retorted. “I will tell her.”

“You cheated on your wife,” he repeated, staring at me.

“Yeah, I did,” I agreed, crossing my arms. “Didn’t mean to, didn’t plan to, never thought I would…but there we go.”

“And what would you do if I went and told her now?” he snapped.

“I’d kick your damned ass,” I returned. “I put enough stress on her with my fucking linguistic prowess.”

“And this is fine to you?” he demanded, his voice rising slightly. “You can look me in the eyes and admit that you fucked some little teen-age boy? Shit, you better stay away from the girls’ friends!”

My jaw dropped.

How could he even…

He shoved me so I almost fell backwards, opening his mouth.

His phone started ringing.

He glared at me, then turned and stormed back into the building.

I pulled out my key-chain and used my remote to override the camera commands and turn them back on again, shaking my head in disgust as I moved into the hall.

Quatre was walking off toward the training wing.

I went to find Selena. I needed to tell her that something happened before someone slipped up.

Maybe I should just tell her…but…

Fuck it. I’d figure it out when I go there.