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"Bedraggled "Written By: Asymphototropic
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam wing. Author: Asymphototropic (attracted toward the
light, but never quite arrives there) Email: asymphototropic@aol.com Rating: R Warnings: Post EW, language, violence, yaoi Summary: Zechs discovers a pest in his mansion. After careful consideration, he decides against calling the exterminator Pairings: 6x2
"Bedraggled " Part 3. Zechs removed his bloody shirt and dropped it into a hallway hamper. He laved his face and shoulders at the washstand, and thoroughly dried the unaccustomed moisture. Next he pulled a tortoise shell comb from his trousers and slipped it through his hair. Studying his mirrored image, he ran hands over the perfect planes of his chest. He hadn't been fat when last he left Earth. Now on his return, there wasn't a spare milligram of adipose remaining. The austerity of life on the Mars colony had left his body toned to a turn. Zechs listened to the sound of the shower in the adjoining room. He had followed right after Maxwell, into the guest wing, here to the rumpled, unmade bed, where the boy had slept last night. Merquise had an acknowledged ulterior motive, no doubt. But it also occurred to him that he had been months on Mars without a single sexual encounter. At first, he had felt broody, caustically critical of his role in the last two violent conflagrations of war. And later, when he took time out from his intensely demanding work, he hadn't found any individual sufficiently enticing to draw him out of his asceticism. He smoothed some chapstick over his lips. Then he fluffed the pillows against the headboard. He lounged back, folded his hands over his tense abdomen, crossed his bare feet, and waited in ambush. Duo washed his hair, conditioned it, rinsed it, blotted it on a towel, brushed it to a highly glossy state, and braided it. By then he felt more utterly wrung out than his hair. The sun scarcely had risen on this day, and he already had walked a distance, been beaten into submission, had shot and killed an assailant, and assisted in the arrest of several international art thieves. Oh yes. He'd also been captured by Prince Platinum. Who he heartily hoped wasn't plotting the next universal revolution. At least not before tea time. A reasonable concern, since Merquise had a dangerous personal history to date. Duo entered his bed room and stopped stock still. Zechs smirked. "How long before the staff arrives?" The kid glanced at the twirling golden spheres of an anniversary clock on the mantel, then shifted his view to the face of the timepiece. "Hour and a half," he shrugged. Merquise devoured the boy with a look that started at his wriggling bare toes, traveled negligently over his lean calves and thighs, and lingered upon the masculine outlines lurking under a damp towel. Next, to the nude chest and shoulders, where most of Earth's water supply appeared sequined upon porcelain flesh. He enjoyed the view of the extravagant multihued braid, ascending over its serpentine twists. Paused to examine the lips, pursed in a puzzled pout, then the whimsical snub nose, wrinkled in perplexity, and finally, those exotic purple eyes. "Don't they feed you?" Zechs demanded. "They would if I wanted, I guess. Haven't had much of an appetite lately. Lookit here, now. What ther bloody bumfuck are ya up to? Whatever mayhem it is, I can tell you right here and now, yer not getting away with it. Queeny calls or visits nearly every day. If I dun answer my phone, Sally Po will be over here like a skyrocket, assuming the worst and all. So incommunicado ain't gonna hack it." "Tsk, tsk, Duo. I assure you, I am not up to anything. I have been on Mars for months. And in transit back here for weeks. I simply want to get my planetary legs back under me, before I see anyone. Not to put too fine a point on it, I look and feel like shit." He cringed, incredulous he had allowed himself to say that. But it was a sacrifice for the cause. The kid grinned. "Really? 'Zat all? Ya look okay to me." "Oh good. I'm glad you think so." Zechs purred, then pounced. He leaned over the boy and kissed his mouth thoroughly. The world spun around Duo. He felt Merquise's hot mouth all over his face, a firm tongue invading far beyond his lips and teeth. The kid's knees trembled, then folded. Merquise felt the collapse as it happened, grabbed the body, and manhandled it onto the bed. "Duo?" He groped the kid's throat for a pulse. Heartbeat, breathing. All right. Zechs shook his head in relief. Never before had he kissed anyone into fainting. If it hadn't been so alarming, he might have felt a certain triumph. As it was, maybe he should proceed rather more slowly. The eyelashes fluttered now. "Erm. Yer know what ya said about looking and feeling like shit?" "You look okay to me," Zechs quoted, then licked Duo's lips, eliciting a low moan. "Whatcha doin?" "Seducing you. How am I progressing so far?" "Pretty good." Duo had to admit to himself that he had been bored and lonely. Very bored and lonely. He wasn't used to inactivity or isolation. And Zechs Merquise was a damned handsome fellow. The man was running his hands all over him, making him squirm, chuckling down at his reaction. "D'ya think we should close the curtains?" "Why?" "Deary Nereidy, the fountain hussy. She looks jealous and pissed off. And her goldfish seems like he wants to bite me." Zechs laughed out loud. "Has anyone ever called you eccentric?" "Most of the folks I know dun have that large a vocabulary." The phrase was intended as a joke, but ended strangely on a somewhat sobbing sigh. "Duo?" Merquise looked into the kid's eyes, catching a glimpse of misery before Maxwell shifted away from him. "Shit. Sorry. I've been trying not to do that. But my brain is buzzing, round n' round. I keep thinking. Wondering about that guy. Maybe yesterday he was debating his next play. Thinking 'those toffs in the mansion, they're never there, they got tons of money. Insurance'll pay 'em back. Just pull this one heist job.' Next thing he knows, he's taking a blast to the chest, and its all over for him." "He was about to kill me," Merquise pointed out, coolly enough, though his stomach suddenly had twisted into a knot. "Still, I'm gonna catch hell from Preventers' command. I'm supposed to shout 'Preventers agent. Freeze. Drop your weapon. Put yer hands up.' Shit like that." "Hell, I'm glad you didn't. If you had given him that much opportunity, surely he would have shot me. And likely you as well." "Yeah, yeah, I know. But then, when I do shoot, I'm supposed to try and wing the perp. Not blast his innards all across the lawn." "You had precious little time to aim. And those men knew exactly what they were doing. They are professional art thieves, used to big hauls, accustomed to living grandly off other people's wealth. Had you given them the chance to surrender, unlikely they would have done so." "I'm still gonna get suspended. Internal affairs inquiry. Fined. Reprimanded. Put on desk duty. Shuffling paperwork. Crap. I'll go nuts. Go right off the deep end, mouth off to a superior, n' get myself fired. Have to go back to living on the streets." In spite of his disquiet, Zechs smiled down at the boy. "You can foresee all that already?" "If you knew me, you'd know s' truth." Merquise grazed his finger tips over the kid's pouting lips. Then gathered the boy and drew him onto his lap, leaning back together against the mahogany headboard. "I am very grateful to you. And I certainly shall inform Une that you backed me under most dire circumstances." "Hey, tha's right. You and ther Commander are pretty tight together, right? Go back a ways n' all. So she might actually listen to you." "I believe I may have some small influence with her," Zechs smirked. He stroked the boy's slight form with lingering touches, feeling the lack of substance there, and frowning. "In the meantime, I should like to feed you." "Good luck," the kid grimaced at the very idea of eating. Zechs sighed dramatically, nuzzling the sweet smell of Duo's hair, feeling the silky texture on his lips. "Surely I am being punished. Sisyphus and Tantalus have absolutely nothing over me." "How'dja figure that?" "There I have been, condemned to linger for months in hell. In a command position, with my personnel close to starvation, and insufficient supplies to feed them, with damn-all I can do to change matters. So here I come rocketing back to the glorious abundance that is planet Earth. Where I'm presented with merely one body that requires nourishment. I am provided with a vast kitchen, every dainty morsel and fine edible known to please man's palate. A talented staff who like nothing better than to become frenzied into a creative fit of bakery. And what have I got in my grasp? One guest with no appetite." "If there was some soda pop, I think I could swallow a little," Duo offered meekly. xXxXx "Whazzit?" Duo raised his muzzy head off the pillow, enough to study the glittering crystal tumbler proffered on a sterling silver service tray. "Ginger ale splashed with Grenadine. Lightly chilled. A fresh sprig of bruised mint leaf. And the tiniest drop of Benedictine, to serve as pain killer." "Hey, not bad." Duo sipped the cool concoction gingerly. "Thanks." He could feel the trace of liqueur race instantly to his head, making it spin. Zechs set the tray within easy distance of the boy's hand. "I should perhaps hesitate to serve you anything with pomegranate as an ingredient." "Yeah?" Merquise sidled up to his newly acquired bed mate. "For fear Hades might send a messenger to abduct you and carry you off to the underworld." "Wid my luck, I'd get all the way to the ferry, wearing only m' boxers. Realize just then I haven't a wallet, much less a dime on me. Fer lack of my fare, the abductors'd toss me into the river and tell me to swim back wherever I come from. And I'd get back ta here, dripping stinkin' muck on the front door step, a tad of duck weed in my braid. And find out you were entertaining one hundred of your dearest friends. Oh yes, black tie, my my, dinner jackets n' sech." Zechs drew the boy closer into his arms. "At which point I would tell my guests, by all means, to continue with the jollities, politely excuse myself, strip down and join you in the shower, so I could scrub your back." "Would yer that, true enough?" "Most decidedly, yes. Hand me that newspaper, if you please. I feel an urgent need to become updated on local affairs." Zechs read out loud, turning the pages with avid interest, until he noticed the kid's weight seemed somehow more pronounced against his torso. Almost as if the underworld were trying to pry Duo's body out of his grip, suck it downward into Hades after all. With his best covert moves, then, Merquise shifted the body and settled the covers over the dozing kid.
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