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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" 37) In a few minutes, Duo was bounding into Zechs's room, having retrieved a few things for the night from his own room first. Zechs followed, smiling, as he closed the door behind them and removed his gloves. "You're certainly full of energy!" he exclaimed as Duo turned back to him, grinning. "I take it the discussion with Heero went well?" "It was amazing! We actually talked!" Duo said, and began to laugh. The idea of him and Heero having a conversation was suddenly a laugh riot. The younger man hopped over to his lover, eyes and face bright with the news. "I think it's finally happened... Heero's going to be my friend." And he laughed again. "As much of a friend as Heero can be." "I'm so glad," Zechs murmured as he tossed the gloves onto a chair by the door and hung up the long, gray morning coat. Then he collected Duo back into his arms, smiling down at the cheery, sweet face. "I know it's vexed you that he's treated you so coldly in the past." "It's been terrible! I mean how can anyone not like me?" Duo snorted and laughed cheerfully. "But now all of a sudden we're okay... we're friends." He snuggled into his lover, pleased with the warmth of the strong arms around him and with the knowledge that he'd righted his relationship with Heero. Zechs felt his heart opening even more to this precious gift in his arms. [We've been through so much together in so short a time... thank God there's some healing now. I know it's bothered him to have any animosity between himself and anyone, especially Heero as one of the other pilots... and especially perhaps since he shot Heero when they first met. Oh, Dancer... you need me to heal as well... and I don't know when that will be.] "I don't know how anyone cannot like you, Duo," Zechs agreed, smiling. "As for me, I more than like you. And I was very glad to have you present in that meeting." "That was something, huh?" Duo asked, beginning to caress Zechs's back with his hands. "I mean Heero... what a showboat! And who would've believed Quatre would be our fearless leader?" He was quite pleased with the results of that meeting. A new alliance, made that much stronger by Heero's joining it and Quatre agreeing to lead it. Automatically, Zechs's fingers began to fondle the soft braid in his hand as he listened to his beloved. "I thought Quatre was the natural choice all along," he murmured, then grew serious. "Trowa seems very protective of him." Duo's mind turned numb, remembering another's words... an accusation. "Trowa..." he said, quietly and with bite. "How could he say I'm only supporting you because we're sleeping together?" Zechs kissed Duo's temple tenderly. "It doesn't seem like you two know each other very well at all. You hadn't met Trowa before in person, had you? Perhaps he resents the time you got to spend with Quatre. Or he could be conflicted himself, still wrestling with his own decision to join the alliance. What he accused you of could very well be what he accuses himself of and won't admit it." "Hmm," Duo said, considering his lover's words. It was true, he didn't know Trowa other than what Quatre had told him and the little he'd observed here in Antarctica. Maybe it was time he tried to get acquainted with Quatre's other half? "Yeah, maybe that's it," Duo agreed, finally. "He didn't seem too keen on the alliance to begin with and maybe he's only joined because of Quatre?" "I don't know, Duo," Zechs admitted thoughtfully. "I think both of us could get to know him better." He took a deep breath, fingering the braid. "You're all so different, you know. All five of you Gundam pilots... as far as I know, that is. Trowa's even more reticent than Heero, I think. I can't begin to imagine what their lives have been like... what led each of them to pilot a Gundam." He looked deep into the dark blue eyes watching him. "Can you tell me more about, ah, how you got into this line of work, Dancer?" As he spoke, he tucked Duo under an arm and began steering him over to the sofa so they could sit down. They settled on the sofa with Zechs spreading out at one end and Duo sitting snugly against him with his knees pulled up to his chin. "I guess it started when the Alliance attacked the Orphanage... I was seven," he said, drawing his arms around his legs to keep them tight against him. "The rebels told Father Maxwell they wanted a mobile suit... Well, he didn't have one!" he exclaimed, still outraged by the demand. "So, I stole one, but by the time I got back..." His eyes went glassy. "Well, you know the rest." "Yes... and it was all over by then..." Zechs trailed off, draping his arms loosely around the slender body. "You stole a mobile suit when you were seven... amazing. But I believe it." Duo shifted slightly, laying his cheek on his knees and looking up at Zechs. "I ended up with the Sweepers after that... when I was twelve, Professor G found me stowed away on his ship and it wasn't long before I was in training to be a Gundam pilot." "Professor G - one of the Gundam scientists," Zechs murmured. "I wonder what's happened to them..." "Yeah it's strange, isn't it?" Duo asked, trying to sort out the eerie silence that had followed that last great battle in Siberia. "We all received missions from our respective scientists... and then after Siberia... nothing... not a peep out of any of them." They fell silent for a few minutes, reflecting on the strange events in the past month. Quatre closed the door to his room behind him and leaned against it. His eyes settled on the tall, russet-haired boy standing at the center of the room with a small gray duffel resting on the boy's left foot. "Well, you're here. I'm so glad we decided to do this. We're spending so much time with each other anyway..." Quatre said, smiling at his lover. In the 36 hours Trowa had been on base the pair had spent at least 30 of those hours together. After the meeting tonight they had made the decision to move in together. "Put your things wherever you like," Quatre continued, pushing off from the door and crossing the room to stand just inches in front of Trowa. "This is your room now, too." Trowa was temporarily frozen, his mind going back to the strange meeting. [Treize... can't get my brain wrapped around Treize being involved, no matter what was in those recordings. He could be setting up Zechs for a big betrayal, couldn't he? Using their friendship against him... and we'd all be taken down with him.] Then he registered what his lover was saying. "Yeah... okay." He glanced down at his beautiful little kitten then. "Now that you're leading GAIA, you'll be busier. And we'll be upgrading the Gundams. We won't always be able to spend all this time together. There's still a war to be fought..." The little blond sensed the swirl of emotions inside his companion. Confusion, fear and... [Love!] Quatre gasped as that last strong emotion tugged at him, warmed him. He placed his hand on his lover's forearm, squeezing it lightly, ready to reassure him of his devotion. "We'll just have to promise to make time for each other. We can do it, Trowa. We can still fight this war without letting it get between us." The taller boy covered the hand with his. "We need to improve Sandrock a great deal, Quatre," Trowa murmured, serious. "We can't let our relationship be a vulnerability - your Gundam must get stronger! Today I felt..." He stopped, unsure how to proceed. "Tro?" Quatre asked, his heart pounding a little faster at the other boy's concern. He looked up with worried eyes. "We'll make those improvements to Sandrock. Duo's friend Howard will help all of us," he said, trying to make sense of his lover's frantic tone. "But I don't understand why you think our relationship is a vulnerability..." [Though I did hesitate on the battlefield today when Trowa joined us, but that was only because I was surprised... right?] "To have to watch out for someone, to have to protect another fighter during battle... th... that's a weakness," Trowa managed to say, and tore his eyes from the wide, aquamarine gaze of his lover, his trusting kitten. "And when I thought that Zechs had betrayed us to Treize, I wanted to run and take you out of there... protect you. Isn't that a weakness, too?" "Is that what you think? Loving me makes you weak, because you have this urge to protect me?" Quatre asked, his brow tightening. He was aware of Trowa's protectiveness on the battlefield and in the meeting, but surely that was just a symptom of new love. "I know I don't have the strongest Gundam, but I've fought battles before and survived..." He shook his head. "Please, Trowa, you can't believe that loving each other is a weakness." "I used to think like that," Trowa murmured, thinking about the past before he took over the name he was using now. But Catherine had told him not to be so selfish... she'd chosen to care for him as a brother. [If she were here,] he thought, [she'd say 'It's not weak to love someone. Only a strong person can love.'] He looked into Quatre's worried gaze and automatically put a hand to the boy's cheek. "Now I don't know what I think. I just know you're someone very important, Quatre. Important to this alliance... important to me. I suppose it's natural to want to protect that." "And you can protect what's important to you without it being a weakness. We can work with this, Trowa. We really can," the smaller boy said, leaning into the touch. [He's so confused... but he's desperate to do the right thing.] "You're very important to me, too, and I want to do right by you and this new alliance. And I think we can." He grinned, trying to release some of the anxiety that had built between them. "This is all new to me, too... very special and new," he continued, stepping closer and slipping his hands onto the other boy's hips. "But I'm not afraid, because I know you're here, right beside me." Zechs had closed his eyes momentarily, trying not to think about the colonies and the missing scientists, wanting to let all the worries go and concentrate on enjoying this closeness with his lover. "I'm so glad I found you in time, Dancer," he murmured quietly. "You're very important to me, you know. And I'm glad you're a strong fighter, too. I wasn't used to fighting alongside a lover, but I'm confident in your abilities. I know I can count on you in a battle. I don't have to watch to see if you need help." "Thank you. I appreciate you saying that," Duo said as he raised his head from his knees. He knew it had been difficult for Zechs to accept him as a fighter, but in the past day the man had genuinely taken that step. This acceptance brought a new understanding that they could be warriors and lovers together. Duo reached out his hand to touch his lover's face. "It felt good having you on the battlefield with me." "Yes..." The light touch of slender fingers on his face sent a tingle deep within the older pilot. He felt so exposed these days without the mask, though he did not miss that hated piece of steel. Only Duo was allowed this, to touch his face, an act both sweet and incredibly intimate. He knew now it was for him like touching or handling the braid was for Duo. "I love when you touch me like this," he breathed. Duo smiled... a smile that reached from his lips to his eyes and back again. "And I love this... when we're alone and it's quiet and you get that look in your eyes." He let his fingers drift from his lover's cheek, down his jawline to his lips. [So soft...] How could he ever get enough of this man? His Wolf? His dream? "Oh, and what look is that?" Zechs asked, his voice a bit more husky than normal, the corner of his mouth curving as his lips were touched. "You know... that look you give me," Duo said, chuckling. His body was warming from this conversation and his fingers were burning from the touch of lips under them. "It's like you know me better than anyone ever has... you're hungry... and dangerous," he said, smiling a bit ferally. "And tender, of course... always tender." Zechs's mouth curved even more. "Dangerous? I'm not feeling particularly dangerous at the moment, but perhaps a little hungry... and always tender. You draw that out of me." He shifted so that he was leaning forward a bit, his face closer to Duo's. "Touch me some more," he whispered, wanting more of those sweet, shy touches. "Oh, you're dangerous all right," Duo said, reassuring his somewhat surprised lover even as he shivered from the man's wanton command to touch him. He turned his body fully to him, tucking his legs under to kneel almost reverently before his task, and then placed both hands with fingers spread on the handsome face. "Is this what you want?" Duo asked, as he lightly skimmed the noble features... cheeks, nose, brow, temples. [There's something about me touching his face that's very... erotic to him. I swear I can almost hear him purr.] Closing his eyes, Zechs sighed deeply as he allowed the intimate petting of his face. He could feel muscles relaxing as his body gave in to the sweet soothing while his hormones began to stir him to readiness. "You're the only person I've ever let touch my face like this," he murmured quietly. "Except, of course, my mother when I was little and Relena when she was a baby, the little brat." He chuckled softly, remembering his little sister's endless fascination with his platinum hair. Then he sobered. "No lovers... it was enough that I took my mask off. I would not let them touch my face with their hands. Not until you." "I had no idea," Duo said, awed that this simple act was actually a privilege his lover had granted him. "Thank you for this." His fingers smoothed over skin and dipped into the hairline around the man's face, pushing back the white tendrils to look deeper into the man's eyes. "I'm the same way with my braid. Since childhood I haven't let anyone else touch it, but you." This commonality in their lives struck Duo as both strange and fascinating. [Neither one of us has shared this with anyone... until now,] he thought in complete wonderment. Certainly these touches were a testament to their love and commitment to each other. "A part of ourselves we both have shared only with each other," Zechs murmured, kissing his lover's fingers when they passed near his lips. "Thank you for the privilege." Then he leaned in again, this time catching Duo's chin with his fingers. "And now, something else we only share with each other now..." Closing his eyes, Zechs bent his head and pressed his mouth against Duo's, smiling when it immediately opened to him. The feel of those lips was so amazing that Duo moaned into the kiss. "Ohhh," he said, the sound being swallowed by his lover's mouth. [Yes, Zechs... only share this with you.] He took the man's tongue into his mouth, letting it explore him, taste him completely. Then his hands were slipping from his lover's face, skimming over tanned neck to finally settle and squeeze into broad shoulders as their kiss became hungrier. Trowa shoved aside the duffel bag with his foot and reached to circle Quatre's shoulders. "You're so strong in the heart, Quatre," he murmured, looking down into his lover's earnest gaze. "We just have to get used to all this, I guess." He sighed, then drew Quatre closer against his body at last. "Oh, kitten, I'm so glad I have you now." "Oh, Tiger, yes," Quatre said, exhaling in relief, and wrapping his arm's around his lover's waist. "We're very lucky to have each other." He stretched his body up, tip-toeing, needing to feel his lover's lips on his... connect the way they had last night. "Please... I want to kiss you," he said, encouraging his love to meet his lips. Pulling the smaller pilot up against his body, Trowa gave in to his sweetheart's wishes, taking his mouth in a warm, deep kiss. There wasn't yet the fire in it like the night before... not yet. Not until he could shed his last worries in a deliciously sensual abandonment with his little lover. These loving sessions were healing to the former mercernary's heart, he who had no real family except a circus and a crazy teenage girl who claimed him for a brother. Something had changed in him, he thought, since meeting Quatre Raberba Winner, though he'd ignored it carefully, concentrating on his missions until the Gundam Heavyarms had picked up the supposedly dead body of Heero Yuy from the plain of Siberia. That something had begun to awake in the month in which he and Catherine had nursed the comatose pilot back to health. It had been an awakening back to life somehow. Then when Heero had told Trowa to "act on his emotions", it had begun to make sense. Now he thought he understood as he held his Quatre close. The war had to be fought, but not just because there was an enemy in his way, but because the war would lead to a peace where people could live and love without fear. Did Zechs understand that now? Is that what he and Duo found? [Zechs was a fearsome warrior in Siberia,] he remembered, thinking how hard-pressed Heero had been to match him. [It seemed then he was only interested in fighting a Gundam, and not at all interested in the OZ mission going on. It's changed for him, too. Did Duo do that? Maybe I've misjudged the little motormouth...] When Trowa released them enough to breathe, Quatre smiled. "We still have a lot to celebrate," he said, snuggling the lean body tightly against him. "I wouldn't mind a repeat of last night..." He blushed at that, hardly believing he had just asked for sex. [But I love Trowa so much, and we need this closeness. It's healing him somehow...] "Yeah?" Trowa replied, actually giving the little blond a wink. "I could do that." [Damn, he's so cute when he turns pink...]
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