Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Day Trip ❯ One-Shot

Quatre looked at the clock and bit back a sigh. Trowa was late. Again. And if things ran true to form, Quatre could probably consider himself stood up.

He was upset, but what could he do? He had tried so many ways to win Trowa's affection and had failed on absolutely every count. Trowa wasn't even his friend. Oh, he'd tried, but he should have realized that he wasn't going to succeed. He and Trowa had only music in common; that, and being gundam pilots.

Quatre had attempted to embrace Trowa's interests, but that had failed, too. He clearly wasn't welcome at the circus. If Catherine's outright hostility hadn't told him that, Trowa's more than normal icy reserve should have. Whenever Quatre tried to talk to him, the brush-offs had been subtle. They'd been so subtle that it had taken Quatre awhile to realize that they were brush-offs. It had taken many late or skipped meetings, meetings Quatre had hoped could be dates, to realize that. Those were more obvious. This was just the last in a long string. //Message received loud and clear, Trowa.//

The plan had been a visit to the museum as an attempt on Quatre's part to offer Trowa a chance to learn about him. Apparently Trowa didn't want to learn, didn't want to be with him. Only a fool would keep trying. And of all the things Quatre considered himself, a fool wasn't one of them.

Quatre pushed out of his chair as anger swept through him. He wasn't quite sure whom he was angry at. Trowa for not telling him straight out that he didn't want to be around him or himself for not having the strength to give up sooner? He wasn't sure about anything but the fact that he was angry. Realizing he needed to find some outlet for his anger, Quatre stormed from the
safe house, walking swiftly away.

~*~*~*~

From an upstairs window, Duo watched Quatre leave. His sad eyes looked at the brilliant color of the turning leaves and the deep blue color of the clear sky that only happened on cold fall days. Then he looked at Quatre's stiff back retreating down the sidewalk, covered only by a long-sleeved dress shirt. He didn't seem to notice the cold. //Warmed by his anger, I suppose. Damn
Trowa!//

There were many things about Trowa that Duo didn't understand and some things that he understood all too well. He didn't know why Trowa had handled the situation with Quatre the way he did; it seemed rather cruel from a boy that was capable of such kindness. Especially cruel because Duo knew why Trowa didn't want Quatre. Trowa was head over heels for Heero, and had been since he'd nursed him back to health. And even if Heero wasn't quite past his training enough to return affection, he did feel for Trowa. That was obvious to Duo if no one else.

//After all, I did make quite a career out of watching Heero, trying to figure him out, trying to get close. For a while at least, until I noticed how he looked at Trowa. And it was that realization that made me give up. Odd that giving up made all the difference in our friendship. Partners and best
friends, while we both pine after other people.//

Making a spur of the moment decision, Duo grabbed his own coat and rushed headlong down the stairs, nearly colliding with Trowa. Feeling uncharitable, Duo aimed his best glare at Trowa as he moved around him.

"Just say it, Maxwell." Trowa had always been jealous of the braided American, and found he couldn't halt the provoking words.

Duo turned at the challenging voice and looked at the one visible emerald eye. // I wonder if he realizes how silly his unibang looks.// Then he laughed. "I have nothing to say to you, Barton."

Trowa glared with palpable force and snorted. "Typically selfish of you. Flaunt your emotional tantrums but deny anyone else the closure of resolving them."

Duo's face shuttered with sudden, pure rage. "Selfish?" he spat softly.

He felt a moment's satisfaction as Trowa took a sudden step backwards.

"Closure?!" Duo stalked closer. "The hypocrisy around here is sickening."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Trowa blinked in confusion. It slowly occurred to him that this was more anger than he deserved as a rival for Heero's attention.

The absolute unawareness pushed Duo over the edge, and he grabbed the taller boy by the collar and held him against the wall, his feet dangling. "Why wouldn't you 'just say it', Barton? Did you get some kind of sadistic kick out of watching him dangle? Why couldn't you just cut him loose and let him get on with his life?"

Slow understanding seeped into Trowa's face as Duo very quietly yelled at him. It wasn't a trick he would have figured the generally loud American to have mastered, but mastered it he had. There was much more menace in the soft voice than sheer volume could ever have conveyed. And that menace was all on Quatre's behalf. "Dangle? I didn't leave him to dangle. I've been very clear."

"Letting him down gently?" Duo mocked, as if he knew everything Trowa was thinking. He pitched his voice to sound like Trowa's and continued. "He didn't need a blunt rejection, especially when we all still have to work together. HA!"

Trowa's stomach roiled as he listened to Duo. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Duo cut him off with a glare.

"You never made yourself clear enough. He's always been the type to hope; willing to pine away if he thought it might help. Blunt would have been better, because at least then you two could have been friends. But then, those are the only kinds of overtures he ever made, wasn't it? Can we say a tad over sensitive, Barton?" Cynical laughter erupted from the braided pilot. "Now....now, you'll be lucky if he so much as speaks with you, since he's finally understood. Wonder what he'd think if he learned you've been after Heero?"

Trowa blanched and again tried to speak, but was interrupted by the front door opening. Heero and Wufei stood in the entrance, staring at the scene. Unwilling to make this an issue with all of the pilots, Duo released Trowa with a look of disgust. "Remember what I said, Barton."

Duo then stalked toward the front door, snagging Quatre's coat as he went. Heero reached out a hand to stop him, but Wufei restrained him, watching Duo with considering eyes. There was much more going on here than any of them had realized.

~*~*~*~

Quatre's anger ran out in a flurry of orange leaves and a realization of the cold. He looked around and for the first time saw the beauty of his surroundings, and just how far he'd come from the safehouse. He was on a path around a small lake, geese and ducks swimming calmly on the very blue water. The trees were bright with sunlight on the colorful leaves. He took a deep
breath of crisp air, then shivered. //Running off without my coat...real smart, Winner.//

He moved to a bench in the sunlight, finding it marginally warmer, and sat to watch the birds. He still wasn't ready to go back and see everyone. He felt stupid, and didn't want the reaction the others would undoubtedly have. He figured that Heero would 'Hn' and berate him for taking unnecessary risks. Wufei would probably rant at him. Trowa would ignore him. And Duo would...Quatre paused as he thought about it. Duo would tease him and then somehow draw all the attention away, onto himself probably.

Duo did that kind of thing often, Quatre remembered, though it had never struck him before. Duo broke the tensions that inevitably built up by teasing and distraction. He somehow seemed to know exactly what everyone needed. //Better than I do, certainly.// And it was possible because there was every reason to like Duo. He was friendly, funny, an excellent pilot, serious about his work,
helped the rest of them, and to top that he was gorgeous. Though Quatre had never meant to pry with his fellow pilots, he knew that all of them, and he was honest enough to include himself, had felt a physical attraction to Duo Maxwell at one point or another. Almost everyone seemed to find something about him that drew them, whether it was physical or otherwise.

Staring across the lake, Quatre saw the object of his thoughts walking toward him carrying a coat. //Bless him!// Quatre smiled, then rose and went to meet Duo.

~*~*~*~

Duo felt warmed inside by the sunny gratitude of the small blonde as he shrugged into the coat. It was for these little special things that he lived now. He couldn't remember exactly when he'd started to feel more for Quatre, but he remembered when he'd realized it. It had been a simple moment, and it still seemed frozen in time for him. They had been planning for a mission, and
Duo had made a serious suggestion that Wufei had immediate laughed off, assuming Duo was being an idiot again. Quatre had quite calmly told Wufei to shut up, then turned and looked at Duo with his aquamarine eyes so serious, yet friendly, it nearly hurt. Then he'd taken the lead in the discussions, using Duo's ideas. That one look, and the fact that Quatre could see past the joker
and take him seriously had crystallized Duo's feelings. He had then set out to hide them, knowing that Quatre wanted Trowa. Of course, hiding your feelings from an empath was no easy task, but Duo had become quite adept. But looking at Quatre now, he almost mourned the fact that he'd hidden things so well that Quatre didn't even have a clue.

"You came all this way just to bring me my coat, Duo?" Quatre asked, now that he was warmly snuggled into it.

"And to see if you were alright. You took off rather suddenly." Duo almost regretted speaking his mind when Quatre's face hardened.

"Well, yes, I did. But I'm feeling better now."

Duo looked just looked at him until Quatre began to squirm. "I mean it, Duo."

"No you don't. You might be the empath, but you can't fool me." He grinned at Quatre's shocked look. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, yes, I don't know." Quatre shrugged in his confusion, suddenly fighting back tears. "Trowa, he- dammit, am I blind?"

Knowing he was being selfish even as he did it, Duo reached out and pulled Quatre into an embrace. "No, you're not, you were just hopeful. He was being selfish."

Those words loosed the spill gates and Quatre sobbed onto Duo's chest, his arms wrapped so tightly around Duo's ribs that they creaked. Duo counted it a small price to pay for being able to comfort the gentle blonde. He listened as Quatre sobbed out the story, detail after tiny detail that all made sense in hindsight. When Quatre finally wound down and calmed, Duo released him, reaching out to gently wipe at the tear-stained cheeks.

"Quatre, why don't we go to the museum?"

The surprised delight in those aquamarine eyes caused a flutter inside Duo's chest.

"I'd love to go to the museum with you, Duo."

Duo smiled. //Scratch flutter, this was a veritable heatwave.//

~Owari~