Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 3 Ties That Bind ❯ Eighteen ( Chapter 18 )

“Oh my god, stop doing that!” I protested at Som.

He sniggered wickedly as Tro moved up beside him and gave me a curious look.

“He made me jump,” I explained almost petulantly as I moved out of their way.

“That means you’re supposed to go in,” Trowa muttered quietly to him when he didn’t move.

Som gave Trowa a look, then moved around me into the apartment.

“Where is everyone?” Trowa asked curiously.

“That’s what I was trying to figure out,” I explained. “You said Hilde was making pot pie again, right?”

He nodded. “She was baking it a while ago…I need to help her with Mikhail.” He looked around the apartment and pointed at Dean, who was still in his bassinette. “Keep an eye on’em, huh, kid?”

He started to walk away.

“Trowa!” I protested, stepping after him.

“What?” he asked, turning to blink at me.

“…wir sind allein,” I muttered, gesturing back at Som.

“What…German?” Som asked, moving up beside me.

I avoided letting him touch me carefully.

“I trust you,” Trowa returned pointedly, studying my eyes. He watched me a second, then pointed at Som and turned to walk off.

Som moved away from me, crossing the room quietly to look at Dean, glancing back at me briefly.

“Um…” I hesitated to leave the door, looking for anyone in the hall. “Selena and Wufei decided they wanted to do a snack run.”

“Yeah?” he asked, sitting on the couch. “How long do you think they’ll be gone?”

“I dunno, ten, fifteen minutes.”

“How long will it take Tro?”

“I have no idea how ready Hilde is,” I returned, moving back into the place with my hands in my pockets as I met his eyes.

“How…are you?”

“A little tired,” I muttered, sitting on the far arm of the couch. “I haven’t been sleeping that well.”

“If I could go back in time, I’d tell you no,” he noted, looking down.

I sighed, wondering what I’d have done if he’d have actually said it. I knew all too well how easy it could be to ignore that…to get my way anyway…and I’d really been in that state of apathy.

“We can’t change the past,” I noted, not looking at him.

“I hate this,” he muttered, running his hands over his face. “I liked it better when you were being a dickhead. At least then I could sit in a room with you without feeling like I was sinning.”

“I fucked up,” I returned, not quite looking at him.

“Why did you have to tell?” he hissed, standing and stopping near me. “If you wouldn’t have said anything…”

“It’s that easy, huh?” I demanded, meeting his eyes. “So simple to just lie?”

“At least then you could be done with me,” he retorted, storming toward the door.

“I’m not like those other guys,” I noted before he could actually leave. I’d kinda done the math about his rant when I’d first shown him it was a one-time mistake. “I wasn’t only in it for a one night, and I had to tell my wife.”

He shook his head, then started to move again.

“Ah! You’re alone!” Heero was smiling happily as he bounced up and moved into the room, which made Som back up. He looked between us with bright and mischievous eyes before spotting the bassinette and stepping closer to see that my son was actually in the thing. “Oh, never mind…good job, junior. You’re a good watchman.”

“Heero,” I muttered.

“Hush, Omae,” he returned, gesturing for Som to sit. “I’m here now.”

“Som was just leaving,” I noted to my friend, looking away.

“Oh, nonsense,” Heero retorted. “If you hadn’t said anything you would have been like everyone else and just chased him off.”

“I can deal with that,” he noted petulantly, looking away.

“What?” I asked blankly.

Heero flipped his cell phone with one hand. “Hilde started making food late so they won’t be coming back up for another twenty minutes or something. Couldn’t have a quickie now, could we?” he smirked at me, dropping on the couch and laying back.

I considered that a moment, then moved to straddle him. “I’m not that bad.”

Heero laughed wickedly as I started to unbutton his shirt, and he looked down at the thing before looking me in the face. “You know I’m not that easy.”

There was a noise and we both looked up to Som, who’d run into the second armchair while backing away.

Oh…yeah.

“Good, now I can make you stop,” Heero muttered, shoving me off and sitting up again.

“What?” Som asked blankly.

“He’s done it since he got back,” Heero dismissed, fixing his shirt. “I used to freak out on him and tell him to stop…never seemed to work for some reason…”

“What?” Ryu whispered.

“What, what?” Heero returned.

Som met my eyes, his own going wide.

I sighed and moved away from them both, glancing at Dean to make sure he was still sleeping before leaning against the windowsill with my left hand in my pocket.

“What?” Heero protested.

“Nothing,” Som muttered quietly. “I should get back to the base.”

“No,” Heero said simply.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m expected…”

“That’s an order from your king,” I snapped darkly.

“What?” Heero asked me quietly. “What’s wrong?”

“Som didn’t realize I was capable of rape.”

“It’s not in the typical mark-up of a knight, remember?”

“Capable?” Som asked quietly.

“He’s admitted to raping Jun,” Heero noted happily, moving into the kitchen. “That’s another state secret. You’d be safe to assume that anything I tell you isn’t to be repeated. Wufei told me he’s told you the stories of Mr. Martin, so you know…”

“You raped Jun?” Som asked quietly.

“Ooh, rude,” Heero muttered, digging into the fridge. “Didn’t realize I was that nonessential to this conversation, maybe I should leave.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Duo?” Som asked.

I turned to snap at him, but he was standing within arm’s reach of me and that interrupted my thoughts.

“You raped Jun?” Som demanded, staring at me with wide eyes.

I wanted to say several things that were highly inappropriate, and my already dark mood hadn’t gotten any brighter. I had my belt undone before I realized what I was doing, and in the moment that followed, Som almost got away before I had his arms wrapped in the thing, standing eye to eye with him. “What do you think?”

That was what I’d wanted.

He looked startled and a little freaked out.

I yanked the thing and pulled his arms above his head, shoving him against the wall…and letting him go as I turned to storm toward my bedroom.

Heero was standing in my way, watching me with very serious eyes.

“What?” I snapped.

“I’m telling you right now that as soon as I leave this room, I’m heading straight to the medical examiner in the soldier’s wing, and I’m picking up a sedative. Your behavior is turning erratic and I won’t have you flying off the handle.”

“What makes you think I’d let you shoot me with that shit?” I hissed at him, considering his stance and how likely it was that he’d kept himself in shape.

“What makes you think I’d give you the opportunity to stop me?”

We stared at each other.

“Um…Duo?”

The fact that Som’s voice was right at my shoulder made me jump hard and I turned on him before I realized what was really happening. He cursed as he fell backwards, but before anything else really registered, he was sitting on me with his chest heaving and his arms still wrapped together in front of his chest.

We met eyes for a matter of seconds before he was jumping off of me and I was jumping up from the floor.

Heero’s laugh was a wicked and almost ugly thing as he moved past me and shoved his cup into my hands. I blinked down at that before realizing that he was trying to un-loop the belt.

“Shit,” I snapped, shoving the cup back into his hands and working my fingers into the proper spot to yank and pull the belt loose.

“Daddy!” Ashley called, and I could hear her running across the hallway as I re-threaded the thing around my waist. “Daddy, is Deanie up yet?”

“Deanie?” I demanded, fastening my belt back down and turning toward the door. “That’s a sissy name!”

Ashley giggled as Fei came bounding into the room and started sniffing excitedly at my feet, yipping at me as his tail wagged.

“And no, Dean is not awake yet,” I returned, bending over to pet the puppy.

“See?” Heero asked sweetly from behind me. “Erratic. Keep an eye on the love-birds,” he noted in Cantonese to Trowa. “I need to head to the medical center.”

“Hey, Heero?”

Heero turned back to look at me.

“Fuck you.”

“The lord forgives all sin,” he noted, his smile not reaching his eyes, “but you have to have faith to be forgiven.”

“And just think,” I called as he started off, “I had faith until you got me drunk enough to fuck some woman.”

“We aren’t fighting, Duo,” he noted from just outside the door. He pointed from himself to me. “We aren’t fighting. You can’t really push me away when I’m under your skin, and you can’t really expect me to flinch at these insults when I can see hell in your eyes. Once upon a time, I made a mistake…and my wife forgave me for it. You can wallow in self pity all you want, but you did do it,” he glanced toward Som. “And you enjoyed it. So get over it, because you can’t run from this with your babies standing here in confusion. I’m going to the medical wing.”

“What?” Trowa asked blankly as Heero disappeared.

I had my teeth clenched.

“I think I should go,” Som muttered quietly, starting away.

“Som,” Ashley protested, moving to interrupt him, “Uncle said you’d play chess with me.”

“I told you he might if you asked him to,” Trowa retorted.

“Tell him to, he listens to you,” she argued, then thought and looked to me. “Daddy?”

“I could tell him to do it, but that’s not fair if he doesn’t want to,” I noted, moving toward my bedroom. “Watch the baby. I have to pee.”

- -

Hell in his eyes?

I smiled at the little girl across from me as she…thoroughly…kicked my ass at chess.

No…it wasn’t hell in his eyes, he was in hell in his own home.

Wasn’t getting a sedative shot a bit harsh?

“Hey, Q,” Heero muttered, moving toward the blond. Everyone but Wufei and Selena had been served dinner and were just kinda floating around the house. “Here.”

I turned my head in time to see Heero passing a syringe with a blue liquid to the blond man.

Quatre took it, studying it a moment before raising his eyes to Heero’s.

“He’s getting erratic,” Heero explained quietly. “I don’t think he’d lose it with junior there, but he might…end up hurting someone else.”

What?

Sure, Duo had an explosive temper sometimes, but thinking he might hurt me? There was no way in hell he’d do anything to his daughter or wife, so…

This situation had definitely spun out of my control. There was no way in hell I’d be able to fill my contract…but Trowa said he’d help me with that…with not doing it. Well, I hadn’t told him, but…

“I hate you so bad right now,” Duo said quietly.

Heero turned to look at the man, then pulled a handful of syringes from his pocket and passed one to Trowa.

“What’s going on?” Trowa asked, studying the thing a moment before looking around as Heero passed one to Hilde and to Relena.

“Heero,” Relena started.

“What are those?” Ashley asked, her head tilting in a manner that I’d seen in Duo countless times.

“Nothing,” Duo said, looking away.

“You…don’t really need to do this,” Trowa noted, trying to pass his back to the king with a frown.

“We can talk about it without little ears,” Heero noted, tucking his hands back into his pockets. “What are Selena and Wufei doing? I thought you said snack run.”

Duo shook his head, looking away.

Seriously hell in his own home.

“Som?”

I looked back to Ash, who pointed at a piece. “Your turn.”

“Oh,” I considered the board a long moment before making my move.

“Didn’t your daddy teach you how to play?” she demanded, making another move that was proving more and more that she was going to win.

“No,” I returned. “My dad wasn’t around. I saw him two or three times when I was little, but then he showed up again just before I came here.”

“Oh,” she thought, shifting in her seat. “So your dad is a meanie-head and you thought you’d give him a better chance to be nice?”

You couldn’t fight the innocent mind.

I smiled slightly at her, making another move.

“But he was still mean, huh?” she added, thinking again as she looked the board over. “That’s why you came here…my dad will be your dad.”

. . .

I looked away from her.

“He will!” she protested. “He’s a good dad! Huh, Daddy? Som can be my big brother.”

Duo laughed a kind of laugh that didn’t deny, then disappeared into his bedroom.

“Why is he sad?” she snapped at Heero. “You made him sad.”

“It’s adult stuff,” Heero retorted. “You wouldn’t get it.”

“Aren’t you done yet?” Dustin demanded, moving up beside Ashley to look at the board.

“It’s his turn and he thinks harder,” Ash retorted, gesturing at me.

Dustin sighed, giving me a look…and moved a piece.

“Hey!” Ash protested as the thing was surrendered to my side.

“You’re not too good at this, are you?” Dustin asked me. “You’re losing and she’s only seven.”

Trowa started laughing, moving to snatch his son up. “Your Uncle Duo taught you all to play and Uncle Duo thinks in strategy. Not everyone is taught to think like that, so don’t be mean to Som because he only kinda knows how to play.”

I grinned at Trowa as the little boy giggled. “You’re pokey! Mom, why did you let him get pokey!?”

“Because I like him pokey sometimes,” Hilde retorted.

“Make him shave,” Dustin persisted as they disappeared back into Ashley’s room.

Hilde sniggered, moving up behind me and studying the board as Ashley made a move. “You should just surrender,” she noted with a grin. “She won a long time ago.”

I grinned. “It’s kinda fun to see what she comes up with,” I countered, winking at the girl.

“I suggest you give up the ghost.”

“I don’t give up,” I explained, looking at her over my shoulder. “Until I’m dead, there’s still a chance left.”

“Oi, now you sound like Trowa,” she muttered, rolling her eyes and moving away.

“You’re a lot like us,” Quatre mused. “You can move without being noticed and disappear in a heart-beat. Heero told me earlier that you had your arms tied up and still got Duo on his back…but you can’t play chess?”

I looked to him with interest.

“Go,” Ash muttered.

I considered the little girl a moment, then moved my piece.

“Hey!” she protested, sitting up to stare at the board and make her move. I actually started playing as her protests got more and more in the upper ranges of dog hearing before we were at stand-off of one move and she was dead, or I was dead.

“I thought you only kinda knew,” she protested at me, staring the pieces over.

“I wanted to see how smart you were,” I retorted. “So I played like I was stupid.”

She giggled at that, hesitating over a piece.

Quatre moved up behind her to look the board over then met my eyes…and moved her piece. “Check mate.”

Ashley gasped, turning excited eyes up to mine.

“Just remember that when you work as a team, you have more than one mind to help,” Quatre muttered to the child, kissing the top of her head as Duo moved up behind to look himself.

I hadn’t realized he’d come out of the room. The little girl was really good at the game, so I’d had to actually concentrate to finish it out.

“Life lesson number two, huh?” Heero asked. “Everyone needs someone to count on.”

“That’s life lesson number one,” Trowa noted a bit sardonically.

“No, life lesson number one is the little things can make or break you,” Heero retorted.

They grinned at each other.

“Life lesson number one is don’t ask, don’t tell,” I corrected.

They all looked at me.

“One question leads to two,” I shrugged, “and two leads to three, and three leads to nine and so on and so forth until you’re either tangled in lies or have nothing left of yourself to give.”

They all blinked at me.

“You so shoulda been more than one during the war,” Quatre muttered almost pointedly with a sidelong look at Duo.

…and Trowa caught Duo around the middle much like he had at the court-trial thing.

“Daddy!” Ashley squeaked, jumping out of her chair.

…the anger was gone that fast.

I blinked at the man, then at his little girl as she moved up to him with disbelief.

“I’m mad,” Duo informed her, lifting her from the floor to study her eyes seriously. “I’m really mad right now, and that’s why I’m sad, okay? That medicine Uncle Heero has is so I can sleep if I get too mad, all right?”

She nodded, her eyes wide.

“If I get mad and they give me that medicine, you need to not be scared or worried, okay? Because I’ll take a nap and be in a better mood when I wake up…right? Like when you’re grumpy after school and we make you lay down. I can’t take naps anymore, I try but I can’t fall asleep because I have an adult mind with adult thoughts that don’t shut up. You understand?”

“So that’s nap-time medicine?” she asked in return, thinking it over. She was probably looking for something wrong with the logic. “Because you’re grumpy?”

“Yeah.”

“And…it’s okay?”

“It’s okay,” he replied, hugging her tightly. “I love you.”

“And Deanie?”

“His name is not Deanie,” Duo retorted. “He’s Dean Evan, and Deanie is a sissy name.”

She giggled almost wickedly and kissed his nose before scrambling from his arms and disappearing into her bedroom.

Everyone was watching Duo.

Duo turned and moved to be in Heero’s face until the king stepped back slightly, then sauntered over and sat across from me at the table. “Let’s go. I want to see if I can kick your ass.”