Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 3 Ties That Bind ❯ Twenty-One ( Chapter 21 )

“Love you,” Duo muttered, kissing Ashley’s head. “I’ll see you in a few days, huh?”

“Okay,” Ash agreed, smiling brightly up at him.

It was Friday, and for all that Selena’d been griping about going to her sister’s baby-shower, it’d taken remarkably little time for her to have a guard lined up to go with her and the kids.

Seeing as Tasia had been born on Tuesday, and Relena’d deputized Duo as temporary king, he couldn’t very well go, so his wife and children were taking a vacation of a sort, and he was not.

I had to wonder if that bothered him.

I waved at Ashley when she waved at me.

“Make sure your mother goes to bed on time,” Duo ordered the little girl, who promptly started to giggle…and Selena pulled away with a parting smile.

Duo watched them go, then sighed and turned to look at me.

“What?” I asked.

He turned his neck from one side to the other, then shook his head…and flinched. His shoulders rounded back slightly and his head flicked, almost like stretching, but he did it so often…

I wasn’t sure how many times I’d seen him do it…but it was consistent enough that I was actually starting to get worried about it. He did it again, then shook his head hard and started toward me. “Come on. You’re supposed to be on bed leave.”

I laughed at that, following after him.

His phone started ringing before either of us could speak, and he twitched again. “Maxwell…yes. No. Yes…all right. I’ll…hold on,” he turned to look at me. “I’ve gotta go take care of this. Get back up to the apartments and I’ll see you for dinner.”

I nodded and watched him disappear into the building.

It was all well and good for Relena to give the reigns to Duo. Duo would have made a much better king than I did, but I couldn’t help but wish it’d been Trowa who’d come in first. Trowa wouldn’t have been bothered by that, and then Duo could have gotten away with Selena instead of developing a tic.

I sighed and moved quickly toward the apartments.

I didn’t want to annoy Duo right now.

- -

“Ryu!”

“Yes, sir?” I asked, turning instantly to salute the sergeant approaching me.

“You got a date tonight?”

“I’m sorry?” I asked blankly. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“You’re standing first shift watch-duty.”

“Yes, sir,” I returned instantly, nodding at that.

Most of my sergeants didn’t really like me. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was doing everything they told me a lot quicker than the other recruits, or if it was because every night I was whisked away by Trowa before joining the group of leaders for supper. Of course, I got away with shit with Wufei, too.

I sighed and went back to reading the documents they’d shoved on me to memorize, wondering if the knights had the shit memorized.

“Ryu!”

I turned at Duo’s voice, saluting instantly as the sergeant near me stopped to salute as well.

“Now,” Duo snapped, actually snapping his fingers and pointing next to him. The annoying thing about it was that he was teaching the puppy Fei to heel with that exact same gesture.

I darted across the grounds to join him as the sergeant raised his arms in exasperation.

“Ramon,” Duo said levelly, “I need the recruit more than you do.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Ramon retorted irritably. “I’m used to being able to train my soldiers.”

“Don’t make me remind you that I trained you,” Duo said levelly.

Ramon sighed and saluted.

I saluted him in return and darted after Duo.

“He thinks he’s hot shit but he’s not,” Duo noted as we started down another set of stairs. “You’re my runner,” he added, meeting my eyes. “Take this,” he passed his official folder into my hands and took away my book thing. “Go down to central and pick up the folder that they’ve got for me, then go to Tomé’s office and get his secretary to give you three copies of his reports. Then you need to go…”

…how the fuck could he keep it all straight? I nodded as I listened, memorizing the instructions and wondering why there was so much more than before. When I’d been his assistant I’d got to do this shit, but it hadn’t been so extreme.

“I’m heading to the council room,” he added, studying my eyes. “Come directly to me. I need this shit done five minutes ago, and you haven’t disappointed me yet.”

I flashed him a brief smile, then turned to run to central.

“Right, so get someone to fix it,” he added irritably into his cell phone. “I don’t understand why you didn’t do it weeks ago when the tree fell on it.”

I had to imagine that half the reason Duo’d grabbed me was because everyone I was going to now had gotten used to me doing his errands before. It’d been several months, but it did make it a lot quicker when I was holding Duo’s folder and asking for his files.

“Som!”

I came up short, turning instantly to Quatre.

“What’s going on? That’s Duo’s, isn’t it?”

“I’m kinda in a rush,” I returned, starting to chant the last of the instructions to myself so I didn’t lose them.

That’d be hell.

Of course, it made me stop completely when I realized that Quatre was holding another half peeled orange.

I frowned at him, shifting back slightly.

It seemed like every day he showed up when I was in some abandoned hall with an orange like that.

“What are you doing?”

“Duo came and got me,” I explained, staying back from him as he continued to move up to me. “He needs me to get this stuff done for him.”

I blinked, then quickly started reciting the instructions in my mind again.

“You want some?” he asked, offering the thing over a bit.

I shook my head.

He snorted at that, pulling a wedge off and actually eating it himself. “Go on,” he added, gesturing at me. “Get out of here.”

“Later,” I muttered, then turned and ran.

I’d never smell another fucking orange without thinking of that man…

I stopped dead as I turned into a hall, realizing that I’d lost my next step.

…damn!

- -

“Great, thanks,” I muttered to Som, taking my folder from him as he stopped next to me with his chest heaving. “Take a minute, because I’ve got another list.”

He blinked at that, then dropped his rear onto the table beside me. “I got it all, right?”

I flicked through the files. “Looks like, as long as you dropped everything off.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, running his hands down his face. “Duo?”

“Yeah?” I asked, flipping open a folder and starting to scan the first page.

“Do you still like me?”

“That’s treading dangerous ground,” I retorted.

“You don’t hate me?” he asked seriously, frowning at me.

“Why would you even ask that?” I protested, meeting his eyes. “You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t like you.”

“I wasn’t just some piece of ass?”

. . .

“No,” I stated firmly, smiling slightly at him. “I’d have had you and been done if that were even the case.”

“Then why is this the first time we’ve been alone since Marlea turned sixteen?”

I blinked at that, realizing there was no one else in the room.

“You…you…weren’t just going to chase me off, were you?” he pressed. “You sounded just like them…”

“Considering that you’re only barely legal, I want you to know that this them you refer to will probably end up dead in a ditch if I find out who and where.”

That made him look down.

“My wife chooses to tail after you instead of stopping and talking to me,” I reminded him with a grin. “Trowa makes sure you’re included in every plan we make if Heero hasn’t suggested it, and if Quatre thinks we’re neglecting you with our thoughts he reminds us all of you…that wouldn’t happen if I’d just planned to brush you off. I told you then, I would never have just stopped paying attention to you, and I’m telling you now that I wouldn’t have grabbed you today if I didn’t like you.”

He nodded slightly.

I patted his knee, meeting his eyes. “Guess what?”

“What?”

“I need you to get Heero to sign this,” I slid the top file off, “and then get Trowa to sign this…and tell him to call me in fifteen minutes and that if he doesn’t I’m going to hunt him down and use his hide as a blanket when I go to bed tonight.”

Som grinned at that, sliding off the table…and I gave him my second set of instructions.

- -

“I think so, yeah,” I muttered, flipping through a magazine. It had an article in it about how France’d entertained the Brazilian ambassador, and Alex had told me it was kinda cool.

“So we’ll make sure those rooms are cleaned then…”

“That’d be wonderful,” I muttered. “I know that the Queen would be upset if we didn’t.”

“Right, I’m on it,” she noted…and hung up.

Not that I could remember what her name was…

I found the article due to a wavy pink line inked along the margin with little hearts, stars, and daisies.

How was it that this got my attention faster than a phone?

“Yeah?” I asked, hitting the flashing button.

“You seen Ryu?” Wufei asked with a frown. “Ramon was just bitching about him taking off.”

“No, I haven’t,” I returned, frowning slightly. “Did Ramon explain?”

“No,” he frowned more. “I thought something’d happened and he went to find you. What do you think? Bother or excuse?”

“Let’s wait until we see what he’s up to before we do either,” I suggested.

“I guess,” he muttered, then shook his head. “How goes the planning?”

“I’ve gotten as far as cleaning out the royal rooms.”

“But that’s not invitations,” he reminded me.

“Yeah, for some reason this flashing red light interrupted me.”

He laughed and hung up.

I hit the disconnect and looked back to the article as I trailed my fingers over the line.

I was damn lucky.

“Trowa!”

I looked up as Som darted into the room and closed the door behind himself with a click, leaning against it as he stared at me.

“Your ears burning?” I teased, noticing Duo’s binder. “What’s up?”

“You’re supposed to sign this,” he explained, setting a file from the binder on the desk. “And Duo said if you don’t call him in fifteen minutes he’s going to skin you and use your hide as a blanket.”

I grinned at that.

He sat down across from me, wiping at his lips. I could smell orange on him, and wondered if it was bad that it made me think of Quatre.

“What’s up? Why’d you call me like that?”

He shifted slightly where he sat, looking down and shaking his head.

“Come on,” I suggested. “You’ll tell me anyway, and if I can do something about it now…”

“It’s just…Quatre,” he returned, meeting my eyes briefly. “I think he’s following me.”

“Quatre?” I repeated, raising an eyebrow at him. “Sure, he’s been acting weird, but if we get him laid he’ll probably be fine.”

That got a grin.

“What’d he do?”

“He keeps feeding me orange,” the kid explained, looking away.

“Aren’t you into older guys?” I demanded.

He gave me a look.

I smirked, shifting back in my seat as I looked to the clock. “So why do you think he’s following you?”

“Every day he finds me in some hall,” he explained. “He’s always got an orange and always feeds me pieces of it…he found me earlier when I was supposed to be quick for Duo, so he let me go, but just now,” he gestured down the hall, “he backed me against a wall and was asking me why Duo’d grabbed me and stuff…asked if we’d be alone any time soon and stuff…he’s kinda freaking me out.”

“I’m not saying that Quatre’s not out of line,” I muttered seriously, “but can’t you deal with this? Ask him to stop? Ask him why he’s doing it? Chances are he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it. My brethren are special.”

He looked down. “I ask and…and things get out of hand.” This was accompanied by a glance to my eyes.

“No,” I started to protest, sitting up.

“Yeah!” he protested in that abrupt and somewhat loud way he had that meant honesty. “Always! It starts out with trying to explain and…like…with Quatre,” he sat up to explain better, “he’d touch my lips and then he’d kiss me and I’d start to pull away and remind him that’s not appropriate…and it goes down hill.”

“You’re easy,” I noted, considering that.

He gave me a look.

I grinned and shook my head as I considered that logic. The sad thing was I could see it.

“It works,” I conceded, “until you hit one very key factor. You know what it is?”

“Quatre’s a good guy?” he asked somewhat hesitantly.

“More like straight,” I corrected. “And if he did start kissing on you we’d all be very confused.”

“Straight guys don’t usually feed guys bits of fruit.”

“Now we rewind to the fact that my brethren are special,” I noted, grinning more.

He shrugged, looking down, then hopped up.

“What?”

“I have like…fifty things to do!” he exclaimed, then turned to start for the door and stopped, turning to frown at me. “Can you talk to him for me?”

“I’ll mention it to him,” I agreed.

He nodded, thinking about that, then darted out of the room.

So…Quatre was starting to play at “Robert” again…he had been acting weird for a while, really. His game of conniving bastard with Duo seemed more that he was letting Duo do the conniving for him…not that Quatre really did any of his own conniving anyway.

But if Som was asking me to help, it wasn’t like I’d refuse. The boy had a naive streak in him that you wouldn’t imagine, because he also had an equally learned streak to counter it. He was capable of keeping up with Nira in dirty jokes or suggestive comments, but if you approached him just right, he’d blush just like Alex.

So what was Quatre doing? Why was Quatre doing it?

And what the hell was with the oranges?

- -

“Yo, I have your dog,” Duo muttered.

“What?” I asked blankly.

“I have your dog,” Duo repeated. “I needed Som and…”

“Needed him, huh?” I asked, grinning slightly as I dug into my desk for a pen. “What for?”

“You know I don’t actually find that funny, right?” he demanded in a tone that suggested the words had annoyed him and he’d get over it.

“Sorry,” I muttered, blinking at a blue glitter pen. I knew it was a glitter pen because it had the word “glitter” emblazoned down half of it.

Yeah…I’d bought a pack of those for Marlea once…why did I have one?

I rolled my eyes and scribbled out my to-do list.

“Chang?” Ryu moved into my office almost nervously.

“Yeah?”

“Sir Maxwell wanted you to sign this,” he explained, setting a file in front of me and saluting.

“At ease, kid,” I returned, reading down the first page.

He settled where he was.

“Yeah, sign it,” Duo ordered. “And give it back to him.”

I signed the document, then stared at the glittered ink in disbelief…that was talent.

“Come on, I need him to do sixty more things than just finding you jackasses.”

“Sorry,” I returned, capping the pen and passing the folder back to Som. “Stick with Maxwell.”

“I have watch duty tonight, sir,” he muttered, hesitating.

“What?”

“Sergeant Ramon put me on watch duty first shift,” Som explained. “I have to be back by nineteen-hundred hours.”

“Nineteen-hundred?” I demanded, sitting down again to blink at him. “That’s…”

“Everyone gets watch duty, sir,” he noted.

“Everyone but you,” I grumped, then sighed. “I can’t show you that much favoritism, though.”

“What’s up?” Duo asked.

“He’s gotta be back by seven,” I explained into my phone.

“I’m not gonna be done by seven,” Duo protested.

“But he hasn’t had watch yet and I can’t just…let him skip it,” I reminded him. “Come on, we take him out of the shit more than enough to make everyone jealous…and you know the other half.”

Duo sighed.

“Just try to get the running part of it done,” I suggested, passing Ryu the folder. “We can get a different recruit on you so he can tell horror stories of this so-called preferential treatment, huh? So don’t get all the running done…and be an ass. I know that’s hard for you and all…”

Duo snorted.

Som grinned at me from the door and waved slightly before darting away.

“He knows the castle,” Duo reminded me. “He knows where all the offices are.”

“So I’ll get you a pretty little boy of non-Asian descent so you don’t get distracted, huh?”

“Wufei, please,” he muttered with a tired sigh. “I’m trying to pretend I didn’t cheat on my wife and reminding me that I did makes it kinda complicated.”

I snorted at that.

“Just get someone smart, huh?” Duo added irritably. “I can’t be asked fifty questions when I say to go to an office. I want someone who’s not going to get completely lost.”

“Why the hell doesn’t Heero have people running around like this?”

“He does…he has runners…court runners that don’t intrude on us. I don’t have runners that I know, and dealing with the party and shit for the birth gives me that much more to build on.”

“Are you all right?” I asked quietly.

“All right,” he guffawed. “Fuck…”

…and he hung up.

I snorted, closing the phone and thinking about it. I needed to go pick through my recruits.