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"Regained "Written By: Artemis Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters are
copyright to Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties.
I make no money with this fic. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: yaoi lemon, masturbation, angst, violence,
language Pairings: 6x2, 3x4, mention of 13+11, R+1 Summary: Sequel to Interfacing: Lost. GAIA, the
new alliance, fights its first battle in Antarctica; Duo and Zechs
begin to rebuild their relationship "Regained"
"Hey, there!" Duo shouted and waved, though Zechs was still a good fifty feet away. He pushed off from the wall and crossed his arms in front of him, getting the idea suddenly to pretend to be miffed about having to wait. "It's about time," he said, tapping his bare foot on the floor, and biting his lip so he wouldn't laugh. Zechs looked up to see Duo waiting for him like a mad mother hen, making a fiercely scowling face while simultaneously looking like he was going to burst into laughter. Suddenly his step was lighter, and the weighted cares of the world could slip off his back for a time, just because Duo Maxwell was teasing him. He smiled tiredly, so glad to see his little lover that it almost hurt. When he was but ten feet away, he abruptly went into a courtly bow, complete with a sweeping flourish of his arm as if he wore the cape that completed the OZ costume. "My dear," he murmured, "I humbly beg your forgiveness. It seems the base had other ideas about my time this afternoon, but I ran it through with my sword and it won't be bothering us for another few hours, I'm certain." //Wow, Prince Charming really does exist and he's right here in front of me...// Duo thought, completely spellbound. He was tickled inside and out that Zechs would join in the spirit of his teasing remark and play right along. "Well, in that case I think I can forgive you... but just this once," he said, smiling brightly. "Your humble servant, the Prince of Sank, thanks you for your generosity," Zechs murmured, dipping his head again in a bow, then, totally unexpectedly, swept Duo up into his arms, got a hand free to input the code to unlock the door, then carried his laughing Duo into the room. When Duo was put down carefully in the middle of the room, he took hold of his lover's neck and drew him down into a kiss. It was sweet and filled with the devotion each man felt for the other. "Zechs," Duo said, pulling slowly out of the kiss and looking up into those ice-blue eyes. "You *are* my prince, you know that?" "Mmmm..." Zechs was still savoring the taste of his beloved's mouth on his tongue as he straightened. "Am I? I don't feel I'm truly the prince of anything anymore, but I suppose I can be that, if you would like it." Then he smiled. "And only if you would be the prince of my heart as well. Will you? It comes with a great responsibility, I'm afraid. My heart's been through a lot over the years." "Well, I'd have to practice that bowing and sweep of the arm thing you did..." Duo grinned. Hearing Zechs's moving words, he realized he had never known what he'd been missing in life until he met Zechs Merquise. Before then he was only a solitary street kid trying to survive anyway he could. And now, a man, who truly was a prince, was asking him to take on the responsibility of his heart. "I'd love to be the prince of your heart, Zechs," Duo said, awed by this honor. He placed his hand on the man's chest. "Thank you for asking me." Zechs covered the hand with his own. "You're welcome," he said quietly, looking deep into the blue depths of Duo's expressive eyes. Then he remembered that they had each killed many soldiers of Romefeller this day in battle. A deep inner voice wanted to sob that his bright, loving Dancer could not have, would never, should never *kill*, even in war, and that Dancer should never had had to know war in the first place. The Lightning Count's voice reminded him that great sacrifices had to be made to bring true peace, and that the blood staining his hands had a purpose, a reason, and that was to ultimately end the killing. The man, Zechs, wanted only to do what he had to in order to make a world in which he could love his Duo in peace. Milliardo Peacecraft, as always, was silent. He broke the gaze, looking down at their joined hands. "Your prince right now needs a shower. But first, I can't wait to get out of this uniform. The boots always put up a good fight, of course..." He glanced up and was pleased to see the avidly hopeful look on his little lover's face. "I don't suppose you could fight alongside of me one more time today?" //His soul is right there in his eyes for anyone to see,// he thought, amazed. "You bet I would," Duo said, enthusiastically. He stepped back and looked down at the high boots, at how they accentuated the long line of leg and the tight white pants. He swallowed, feeling his groin twitch as he admired this sexy uniform. //Have to hand it to those OZ-ies, they sure know how to dress,// he thought, very amused. "Have a seat," Duo said, gesturing toward a chair and smiling. "I'll see what I can do." Zechs sat down and sighed gratefully as Duo knelt and went to work tugging the boots off. "When we're resting," he murmured, "I'd like to talk to you about the battle. I'm holding a meeting after dinner tonight to discuss it with the others, but I'd not only value hearing your thoughts beforehand on a professional level, but on a personal level as well." His voice dropped softer. "It was our first time to fight together, Duo." The younger pilot looked up as he tugged the second boot off and set it aside. "Oh, sure," he said, trying to discern just how Zechs felt about having fought with him today. "Guess we should talk about that." //I wonder what he thought of the God of Death? At least I know that didn't frighten him off... he's here with me now.// Duo stood then and began to unfasten the rows of buttons on the red military jacket. It was a task he had begun fantasizing about after the battle this morning as he had drifted to sleep in his room. "Hope you don't mind me helping with this, too," he said with a bit of mischief on his face. //I know he's tired, but I just want to be a little playful with him...// "Mind?" Zechs smiled wearily, reaching to play with the chestnut tendrils framing Duo's face. "Not in the least. My hands still feel all cramped up from gripping Tallgeese's controls. It's a wild beast to rein in, you know. Half the time I just felt like I was hanging on for dear life while it battled without me. Besides, I really like when you do things like this for me. It's... comforting." "Yeah, it's comforting for me, too," Duo said with a grin. He stood between Zechs's legs to finish unbuttoning the heavy, wool jacket. "So, how do you control it then, if it has a mind of its own? I mean, you didn't seem out of control to me today," he said, and then pictured the graceful, but powerful white suit battling in mid-air. "Everything went well... we all worked well together, don't you think?" Now that the boots were off and the jacket was open, Zechs stood again, but before Duo could step away to give him room, he wrapped his arms gratefully around the slim shoulders of the other pilot. "We worked very well together," he murmured in his husky voice, looking down into Duo's wondering eyes. "And, no, I don't suppose I ever was out of control with Tallgeese. It's truly like a beast... like a barely-tamed mustang. Somehow by now, it seems to have learned to respond in accordance with my own reflexes. It's a lot like riding a powerful and willful horse, in fact. But it knows I'm its master and it allows me to exert my will over it." Then Zechs gave Duo a more relaxed smile, kissing the top of his head and releasing him. "Shower," he reminded his lover, shrugging out of the red jacket as he unhooked the high collar of his black uniform shirt. "You sure I can't join you?" Duo asked, only half teasing. But before he got the expected negative response he quickly added, "Just kidding. I'll play some games while I'm waiting my turn." He nodded toward the computer desk in the corner of the room. "I'm sure I can find a game on that military-based network of yours... there's always one. That's what we've found anyway, when we've hacked into other systems," he said, grinning from ear to ear. Heero had at least taught him that much. //Hacked into systems?// Zechs thought, giving Duo a smile before he turned to hang up his uniform. //Damn, I should have guessed...// Immediately he wondered if his own security setup was advanced enough. //They're boys... but they're not! Damn...// He turned back to Duo and gestured toward the computer. "This is my personal system from Lake Victoria. The only games on it, I'm afraid, are not very challenging - just some puzzles and simulations, though you might enjoy the latter. Let me get the system up - it's voice-secured." He sat down as Duo joined him, and started up the system. Upon reaching a security screen, he said slowly and clearly, "Zechs Merquise." The voice recognition system accepted his login, and went to a menu screen. "There," he said to Duo who was watching, leaning on his shoulder, "you should be able to find what you want now." "Thanks," Duo smiled, kissing Zechs's cheek. "I promise to be good." //Hmm, I wonder if Heero has tried hacking into this system yet? I wouldn't put it past him.// Duo bumped Zechs with his hip to encourage the man to get up from the chair, and then laughed. He was only being playful again and Zechs certainly brought that out of him. This man seemed to accept everything about him. His jokes, his quirky little habits, even his bantering were more than fine with Zechs. //God, I love him!// Zechs chuckled as Duo replaced him in front of the computer. "I know you will," he replied easily, giving the braid a little tug. //Though I haven't told him that the deeper levels of the system - such as the archive of my recordings of my conversations with Treize - are voice-secured differently. Though if he asked... I'd show him.// As Zechs continued on into the bathroom, he thought soberly about Heero Yuy's wariness. //I'd even show Heero. They all have a right to know... and my conscience is clean.// It was a relief to realize that. After stripping the rest of the way, Zechs showered in his usual methodical fashion, even to washing his hair. It was a needed release after the morning battle, to erase the grime and sweat of the killing from his body and a little from his mind. The rest, he had no doubt, Duo would manage shortly. //How I've needed him... and never knew that I could need anyone like this. I hope I can make love to him again soon...// The sound of the shower drew Duo's eyes away from the computer screen to the bathroom door. It wasn't hard to imagine the scene inside. A completely naked, god-like man with long golden hair, stepping under a warm spray of water. "Mmmm," Duo said, reaching down and rubbing his stirring cock. //He's probably lathering himself right now.// Oh, the image was too much. He was getting hard. //I can't jack off like this,// he scolded himself. But his hand wasn't listening, it was rubbing even harder at his growing bulge. Soon he'd forgotten all about playing computer games and was unzipping his pants and dipping his hand inside to grab the swollen shaft. "Shit," he said, stroking himself, and leaning back in the chair, letting his head fall back. "Oh, fuck... Mmmm," he moaned louder, imagining Zechs wet and wild and hard for him. His arousal grew so fast that his orgasm erupted quickly, almost without warning. "Ahhh...nnnn!" he cried out, completely oblivious to the fact that his voice might carry. Thankfully, his cum sprayed back toward him... onto his hand and his red shirt. He stroked himself slower, milking the delicious feeling of post-climax, and relaxed back into the chair. "Now I have to clean up," he realized. Standing, he slipped out of his jacket and shirt, wiping himself down and rolling his clothes. //Zechs is gonna wonder what the hell happened... now I'm shirtless!// He returned to the computer, still a little damp with sweat, and scanned the programs for the simulation Zechs had mentioned. "Ha, there it is," Duo said, as he opened it. Program options appeared on the screen: 'How many pilots in training?'; 'How many Leos do you want to defend against?' ... and so on. The way the program was configured an individual could play against the computer or other individuals on different computers. Duo chose to play the computer and selected one opponent to begin with, just to acquaint himself with this game. Immediately one green and one blue Leo appeared on a simulated battlefield. As the program began, he was immediately impressed by its speed and gaming capacity. "Awesome," he said, as he attacked the blue Leo with his green one. //For just a simulation this is pretty good. Could sell it as a game...// After leaving Zechs's office, Heero slipped into an empty office with a computer setup, hoping it was connected to the base's computer network. He locked the door and, slipping behind the desk, powered up the computer. It took a while, fussing with cables and settings, but he managed to access the system. In a matter of moments, Heero accessed the main menu of the local network. "Hmmm," he murmured to himself, flexing his fingers, "that was too easy. Let's see... the menu choices are Personnel, Accounting, Games, and this other odd one, Archive. Let's start with that..." Inserting a datadisk with his own private password-breaking program on it, Heero began to break into the second level of the network. Five minutes later, he frowned deeper at the monitor. "Huh, someone's good," he acknowledged, for his attempts had all been thwarted. Going back to the menu, he next tried "Personnel", and then "Accounting", but those areas were completely secure as well, not yielding at all to his expert maneuverings. He sat back, bewildered. Dr. J had trained him in state-of-the-art OZ network technology, and Heero himself had learned even more tricks in his frequent accessing of the OZ databases for various missions. Could it be new technology? "OZ isn't that smart," he declared aloud, then thought of something else to try. For the next minute, Heero painstakingly manipulated the computer's focus pointer around the menu screen, looking for invisible access points. Somewhere near the bottom, he finally located one. Clicking on it, a new screen came up. To no surprise, it was the menu screen for OZ's internal network. "Hello," he muttered, and in moments had gained access and was poking around. He found the newest reports to Romefeller and opened the top one. To his amazement, it was a report on an ice storm... in Antarctica! "Bingo," Heero murmured softly, then scanned through it. Sure enough, it was exactly as that OZ officer had reported to Zechs, that the "ice storm" had decimated Inspector Acht's forces, and that a single report of the presence of a Gundam was thought to be a hallucination. Heero frowned at the screen again. "This isn't what I'm looking for," he admitted out loud to himself, then found a path back to the original menu screen for Barclay Base. He methodically finished the scan for another invisible link, but there wasn't one. It was then he began to wonder why he felt some sort of tickle in his head, like he was so close to something but it was out of reach. //Maybe this crazy bond thing Zechs was talking about, feeling a connection. It's a bunch of crap, but no matter what it is, it's still information. The answer is still here... somewhere. I'll find it...// A minute later, he decided he needed a break. "Hmmm, Games... strange, this isn't protected at all. Figures." Heero selected "Simulations". As expected, it appeared to be a training simulation about mobile suit fighting. He cracked his knuckles again and went through the options, selecting to fight against the computer. In seconds, his blue Leo was facing off against a green Leo. "This should be easy pickings," he muttered, remembering the easy time he had against the Leos he faced in the Earth's upper atmosphere before the first time he faced Zechs. He went at the green Leo, determined to take it out in a matter of seconds. When that stretched into a minute, he hit the keys for Pause mode and sat back. //Wait a minute here,// Heero mused, scowling again. //There's something familiar about this green Leo... like I've faced it before...// Then he realized - it was fighting in a manner similar to Duo's slash-and-dash method of fighting! "What the...?" He felt cold. //OZ knows the characteristics of the Gundam pilots,// he mused soberly. //They know Duo's style... and they know mine. Now they have their training simulations designed so that their pilots train to fight *us*! Zechs surely has this simulation just because they've moved here from the OZ base at Lake Victoria. But still... it's a hard pill to swallow. Not that it helped them any in that battle this morning...// Resolute, Heero continued to vie his skills against the OZ-programmed "Gundam 02" Leo. After a couple of minutes Duo began to feel as if he knew the "blue Leo." //That machine fights like... like... Heero!// "Wait a minute!" he said, paying even closer attention to the movement on the screen. //Could they have programmed Heero's fighting style into this?// His heart thumped. //Of course that's what they did. Heero fought Zechs twice before... they must have recorded their battle... And maybe recorded all of us!// It shouldn't have surprised him that OZ had analyzed their fighting styles, had made recordings of their machines in battle. But it did and the revelation disturbed him. Suddenly the reality of the war came back to him. How desperate OZ was to defeat the Gundams... how desperate Zechs had been at one time. [He was our enemy... I tried to kill him because of that,] he shivered with the thought. Only Quatre's own quick reflexes had saved Zechs's life that morning in Cairo. "Damn." The water in the shower had stopped. Duo pressed the automatic simulation key for the program to proceed without his input and looked up from the screen towards the bathroom. He would watch and wait for Zechs to emerge from the other room and then ask him about this "game." Abruptly Heero defeated the Leo. "What?" It had shifted from "02" mode into something else, falling to Heero's Leo easily all of a sudden. "That's odd." He sat back, folding his arms over his chest as he thought about his dilemma of not being able to break into the system. What to try next? When no ideas were forthcoming, Heero queued up another Leo to fight, a red one this time.
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