|
"Going the Distance"Written By: Clara Barton Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The following
is an intellectual exercise with no intention of profit. That said,
these characterizations, words, and situations are mine. Please ask
before reprinting. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Angst, language, violence, sex, AU Pairings: 1x2x3 Summary: Duo Maxwell has just signed on to join Team Gundam Wing, an upstart League of Legends team looking to win the World Championships. Duo Maxwell, the first openly gay professional gamer. Duo Maxwell, the guy hated by almost all of Reddit. Duo Maxwell, the guy whose own brother hates him. Duo Maxwell, the guy who really just wants to find a team that doesn't hate him. A/N: This fic is an AU that has the boys playing
professional League of Legends. I'm going to try my best to not get
bogged down too much in game terminology or things like that, but,
well, I WILL reference the game and try to explain as much as I can,
as I go. I'm also way too lazy to make up "new" teams for
the league, so I will be using existing teams and players, with the
exceptions of Team Gundam Wing, Zodiac Gaming, and the Valkyries.
So… I will be referencing real people and real teams. "Going the Distance" Chapter Sixteen Of course their flight to Rio left at seven in the morning, and of course Quatre whined about it during the entire taxi ride to the airport, but even a lack of sleep didn't put a dent in Duo's excitement. They were going to Rio de Janeiro. It was his first time on a plane, and his first time leaving the country, and it was all because of the All Star Games. He, with his team, had earned this opportunity. Even Wufei looked less than murderous as they got out of the taxi and stood in line at LAX. That might have been because ZG had agreed to trade Meilin for Wufei and Wufei would soon rejoin his favorite Jungler, but Duo suspected it was also because Wufei was looking forward to this international competition. Heero and Trowa seemed fairly nonchalant about the entire thing, but they each had slight smiles on their faces that betrayed their excitement as well. Quatre, on the other hand, looked as though he was trying to figure out how to sleep standing up, leaning heavily on Relena's back. Duo doubted Relena minded the position much at all and he had to smirk when Quatre started to tilt to the left and Relena caught him. Those two seriously needed to just get locked in a room together and told to have sex. "Hey!" It was all the warning Duo had before Hilde crashed into him. Duo barely managed to stay on his feet, but he steadied himself and glared at Hilde. She grinned back, looking surprisingly perky and put together for five in the morning. "I think our taxi was right behind yours," Hilde said. "Ours?" Duo echoed, and then he remembered. "Oh. Right." The League were paying for their flight and accommodations, and Relena had given them the heads up yesterday that Hilde and Solo would meet them at the airport. Solo trailed behind Hilde at a more sedate pace, his hands shoved into his pockets and a frown on his face as he looked over the TGW team. "Morning," Relena said to him, her tone impressively neutral. "Morning," Solo responded. His eyes glanced towards Duo and then kept moving, fixing on a billboard off to the side. After what felt like an eternity, the collected their tickets, made it through security, and barely managed to get to their gate in time to board the plane. As Duo fiddled with his seatbelt, Relena and Quatre, seated in the middle and outside of his row, gave him amused looks. "Nervous?" Relena asked. "He's never flown before," Solo spoke up, from the seat behind Duo. Duo scowled. He hadn't needed his brother to broadcast that information. "Oh." Quatre smiled. "It's going to be fine." "I know it will," Duo muttered. "I've just... never done this before." "I always just try to sleep," Quatre confided. Duo gave him a look. "Yeah, you do," he agreed. Quatre smirked. "You're more likely to die from a vending machine falling on you than in a plane crash," Wufei, seated beside Solo, helpfully contributed. "Jesus. Thanks, Wufei. Now I can be terrified of vending machines," Duo shot back. "Statistically speaking, you have a higher chance of winning Worlds than dying in a plane crash," Sally continued. "Are you sure about that?" Solo and Duo muttered at the same time. And that abruptly ended all attempts at conversation and teasing Duo. Hilde, seated across the aisle with Trowa and Heero, gave him a sympathetic look. She had tried to switch seats with Solo to sit beside Wufei, but Heero had refused to sit beside Solo. Duo sighed, said a mental fuck it, and closed his eyes. He wondered what the statistics said about the likelihood of Solo ever forgiving him. Probably there was a greater chance of Duo dying in a plane crash. The fifteen hour flight was... weird, would be the only way Duo could describe it to himself. Quatre fell asleep almost as soon as the plane took off, and Relena fell asleep soon after, the two of them leaning against each other and looking so adorable that Duo had to pull out his phone and grab a photo of them. He had trouble sleeping, himself, and he was grateful that he had thought to bring a book. Reading, however, was a little difficult considering the low murmurs of Wufei and Solo behind him, chatting away about life in the ZG house, about Ralph and Zechs and Wufei's bright future with ZG. Duo was happy for Wufei. He genuinely didn't want to play on a team with someone who wished they were somewhere else, and he was glad Wufei would enjoy his new team. But he was also a little jealous at the instant camaraderie between Wufei and Solo. Eventually, Duo resorted putting on headphones to listen to the only playlist he had downloaded on his phone, a playlist Alex had made for him last year with all of his favorite music. He was at least able to immerse himself in his book, American Gods, and by the time Relena and Quatre woke up for dinner service ten hours into the flight, Duo had made quite a dent in the book. The last few hours of the flight were spent listening to Relena and Quatre go over their itineraries for the next few days, and Duo tried to read again, but hearing them talk about the games made him anxious. This was real. It was really happening - they were flying to Rio to represent North America. Their flight landed at two in the morning local time, and even though it was only ten at night back in Los Angeles, Duo was exhausted. He felt sore and cramped and tense from sitting in his seat for so long, and he couldn't wait to get to the hotel and stretch out in a bed. A glorious bed with a pillow and a blanket and a flat surface. They had to split up into two taxis to get to their hotel, the Pestana Rio Atlantica, and Duo found himself into a back seat with Quatre, Relena and Hilde while everyone else rode together in a taxi van. The hotel was amazing. Before this, the nicest hotel Duo had ever stayed at was the Holiday Inn in San Diego with Relena and Hilde. All of the teams were staying at the hotel, which was fairly close to the Riocentro Convention Center where the tournament was held, and Duo felt like a bit of a fanboy stalker as he looked around the lobby, hoping to catch sight of anyone. "It's two in the morning," Hilde said, smirking at him. "XPeke is getting his beauty sleep." Duo glared at her, but gave up on his search because she was right. The other teams were probably asleep. "Okay," Relena walked up to them, room keys in her hands. "We have three suites. Sally, Hilde and I will take the one with the awesome view of the beach," she passed out the room girls to the other girls. "Which leaves you guys to split up the other two rooms." "I'm not rooming with Solo," Heero stated, arms crossed, duffel bag slung over one shoulder and a combative expression on his face. Solo smirked at him, clearly amused by Heero's antagonism. "I'll share a room with Solo," Wufei volunteered. Quatre shrugged. "I'll room with them as well. Duo, Heero and Trowa can take the other room." Duo looked over at his teammates, wondering if they were okay with that arrangement. After their... discussion on Friday night, things hadn't quite settled back to normal yet. They had spent all day Saturday and Sunday practicing, and while Heero and Trowa hadn't gone out of their way to ignore Duo anymore, they also didn't seem willing to just jump back into the easy friendly-flirting jokes from before. "Sounds good," Trowa spoke up and held out his hand for his room key. Relena passed the keys out. "Great," Quatre gave all of them a tired smile. "Guys, we've got an afternoon practice slot so let's meet up here at noon to get lunch and then head over to the convention center. Um," he looked at Solo and Hilde, "good luck with your games." Hilde grinned but Solo only shrugged. They weren't here to engage in serious competition, just to please the fans. But still... Duo sighed. Whatever. They crowded into an elevator and Duo was grateful that his room was on a different, lower floor. He, Heero and Trowa got out on the tenth floor and said their good nights before going in search of their room. "Wow," was all Duo could say when Trowa opened the door and they stepped inside. The room was about the size of the game room back at the house, with two floor to ceiling windows on one side of the room that revealed that dark outline of the beach, dotted with glowing lights, and it was definitely a breathtaking view. He wondered how on earth the room that Hilde, Relena and Sally had snagged could compare. "It's a great view," Trowa remarked, coming to stand beside Duo and look out of the windows. "It is," Heero agreed and Duo turned to see Heero looking at them. Had he meant... "Where do you want to sleep?" Trowa asked Duo, interrupting his train of thought. Duo looked around the room. There were two double beds on one wall, close enough together that only a sliver of space could be seen between them, and on the other wall there was a couch that would pull out into a bed. "I'll take the pull out," he said and gestured towards the beds. "You guys can... yeah." Trowa arched an eyebrow, a hint of amusement showing on his face and it was almost like old times. Almost like the days when Trowa and Heero casually flirted with him and Duo completely misunderstood their attempts. "Want help setting it up?" Trowa offered. Duo nodded and they worked together to pull off the cushions and set up the bed. "Thanks," Duo said and he was grateful for more than just the help setting up the bed. Trowa smirked, understanding what he didn't need to say. "It's after three," Heero pointed out. "We should probably try to get some sleep." "Yeah," Duo agreed. He sat down on the edge of his bed and definitely felt exhausted. He felt confident he would be able to immediately pass out. He let Trowa and Heero use the bathroom first before grabbing his toothbrush and toothpaste and taking his turn. When he came back out, all of the lights were out except for the lamp beside Duo's bed. He could see that they had decided to share a bed, and he wasn't really surprised by that. Jealous, maybe, when he saw the curve of Trowa's back as he spooned against Heero. Aroused, maybe, when he could see the smooth skin of their bare chests above the sheets. But not surprised. -o- Wednesday morning came all too quickly for Duo. His sleep schedule was more than a little off, with the four hour time difference and the fifteen hour flight on top of his anxiety doing nothing to help him sleep on Tuesday night. After a solid four hours of practice time with the team, Duo was left feeling edgy. The practice itself had been fine, their communication on point, their strategies solid. But Duo had overheard people talking about the other teams, their practices, their unbelievable plays and he was left just praying he wasn't part of a conversation discussing the worst plays after this. Duo woke up before Heero and Trowa, and he couldn't help but glance at them, at the way they had moved in their sleep and Heero had one leg thrown over Trowa and his head resting in the crook of his arm. He felt like a voyeur and a letch, though, and he quickly grabbed clean boxers and his toiletries before showering. As he found himself doing far too often, he couldn't help but think about Heero and Trowa as he masturbated, imagining it was Heero's hand on his cock instead of his own, Trowa's long fingers pinching his nipples and squeezing his ass instead of his own. He wouldn't ever get to experience their touch again, he was confident, but at least he had the memory of it. When he came back out of the shower, Heero and Trowa were awake, Trowa laying in bed reading while Heero sat in from of the television, on the edge of Duo's bed, watching the local news. "Do you speak Portuguese?" Duo asked him. "No," Heero admitted. "I have no clue what they're saying." Duo laughed at that and Heero turned to smile at him. His smile froze a bit as he looked over Duo, naked except for the red boxer briefs he had pulled on, and Duo swallowed hard at the intensity of Heero's gaze. He glanced over and saw that Trowa had looked up from his book and was also looking at him. Duo felt himself becoming aroused under the combined weight of their gaze and he just barely checked his own hand from reaching out to stroke himself. It seemed to be an effort for Heero to look away from Duo's body. "I'll shower next," he said and stood up. The front of his pajama pants outlined his growing erection and Duo felt his mouth go dry. He turned away and started to get dressed. Heero was attracted to him. They had established this. And Duo was obviously attracted to him as well. And Trowa - Trowa was watching him get dressed with a hungry expression on his face that made Duo want to say fuck it and beg them to make a sequel to Sex Disaster Night. Duo forced himself to remember that this was the All Star Games. In two hours, they would be on a stage in front of a two-thousand member audience, broadcast live all over the world, facing the top international teams. Now was not the time to get distracted by thinking about Trowa's cock in his mouth. Now was the time to focus on not being a national embarrassment. When they met everyone else downstairs, Duo could see that that they were nervous too. Quatre, especially, looked on the verge of freaking out and Relena was keeping a close eye on him. By the time they arrived at the Riocentro and saw the thousands of fans, even Heero, Trowa and Wufei started to look a little anxious. "Any speeches about all for one and one for all?" Duo had to ask Quatre. Quatre looked a little green. "Let's just do our best. This is our first chance to face international teams." Quatre drew in a deep breath. "It's not going to be our last. Let's just go out there, play the way I know we can, and enjoy it. We earned our place on this stage." -o- "You know," Relena said at dinner, "It's not like the teams that win at the All Stars ever win Worlds." It was a sad attempt to make them feel better, but Duo still appreciated the effort. They had played two games that afternoon, the first against Fnatic and the second against the Saigon Jokers. TGW had lost both games, badly. The team had stayed to watch the other six games that day, and Duo had been blown away by just how tough the competition was. In the North American league, TGW had had to fight for every win. But here - Duo didn't see how they had a hope of winning tomorrow either. "Royal Club didn't win any games today, either," Sally helpfully added. "So we still have a chance of making it into the semi-finals if you can win at least one game tomorrow and they lose both of theirs." Wufei gave her a look. "Yes, let's hope that someone is even worse than us," he muttered. "Let's hope for something, at least," Duo responded. After they lost the first game Wufei had returned to his sour self - grumbling about Duo making the wrong decisions and even saying something about how Ralph would have done it differently. It took all of Duo's self-control to ignore the comment, and he tried to keep his head clear, going into the second game, but he didn't have all that much success. Only Heero and Trowa played well, doing an amazing job holding their lane and trying to carry the game, but Quatre, Wufei and Duo struggled and were simply no match for the finesse of the Jokers. "Guys, we're in Rio de Janeiro, eating at a restaurant on a beach and we're here because you're the best team in North America," Relena reminded all of them. "Today sucked. A lot. But today sucked a lot in Rio. Playing against the best teams in the world." "We need to think of this as a scrimmage," Quatre decided. "These games are just a chance for us to learn more about the teams we might be facing at Worlds." "You're right," Heero said. "We can learn from these games." "It's also the last time we'll all play together," Trowa added, with a look in Wufei's direction. "We should appreciate that, at least." Wufei sighed. "Fine. Fine - you're right. And I'm grateful to have this opportunity, to be here with all of you." He paused. "Even with you, Duo." Duo laughed and Wufei managed a small smirk. "Good," Sally said. "Now that everyone is over their suicidal urges, let's get back to the hotel and everyone should have an early night. You still aren't adjusted to the time difference and your reflexes are showing it." She was right, and despite the fact that they were in Rio, no one complained. Relena had already made plans for tomorrow night - taking advantage of the day off on Friday if they did manage to advance to semi-finals - and had researched the best tourist friendly night spots for them to visit. Duo was looking forward to it, but first, he needed to make it through tomorrow. Back at the hotel everyone split up to go back to their rooms. Once Duo, Heero and Trowa were back in their room, Duo shrugged out of his jacket and sat on his bed. "Tired?" Trowa asked. Duo shrugged. "I think so, but I'm too wired to go to sleep yet." Trowa nodded in sympathy. "There's a lot to think about, after today," Trowa agreed. "Yeah, like how to not suck as much tomorrow," Duo muttered. "You didn't suck," Heero said. Heero climbed onto his own bed and laid down on his stomach. Trowa joined him. "I wasn't at my best," Duo argued. "I'm not fishing for compliments. I wasn't god awful, but I could have been a lot better. You two were great, though," Duo added. "I mean, really great. I wish the rest of us could have been on your level." Trowa and Heero exchanged fond looks. "We figured it's probably our last chance to play together like this, we might as well make it our best," Trowa said. Duo felt like an more of a loser. He should have been better, for their sake. He didn't want Trowa's last games as a support to be bad memories. "I promise tomorrow will go better," he assured them. Heero gave him a serious look. "I'll hold you to that." Duo smirked. He noticed the way that Trowa was leaning against Heero's side, one hand edging towards the hem of his shirt. "I, ah, think I'll go grab some air," he decided. He grabbed his MLG sweater and pulled it on. "You guys can - I'll give you an hour for you two to... do whatever," he trailed off, feeling stupid when they looked at him in confusion. "You know," he waved his hand, "sex or whatever." "Oh." Trowa looked amused. "Thanks." "Sure. Um, yeah." Duo made a speedy escape. He was getting very tired of feeling like an idiot around the two of them. He walked down to the elevators and considered going up to the room Hilde shared with Relena and Sally, but he didn't really want to get a lecture from Sally about getting rest. Instead, once in the elevator he pressed the button for the top floor. The team had eaten lunch up here, by the rooftop pool, on Tuesday before going in to the Riocentro to practice. This late at night it was almost deserted. The bar was only open up here during the day and weekend nights, so Duo found himself completely alone. He snagged one of the lounge chairs and lay down on it. He could hear the buzz of the city below and the air felt warm and damp and it was incredibly soothing. Duo closed his eyes and tried to just clear his mind and exist. "I thought I would find you up here." He must have dozed off. The voice startled him awake and Duo blinked, surprised. "Solo?" His brother sat down on the lounge chair beside his. "Remember when we with the the Gilbert family? Whenever they fought you'd always run down to the public pool and just sit there for hours and hours until I came to get you." Duo swallowed. He remembered. "Why were you looking for me?" He asked. Solo sighed. "I've been... advised to try to fix things with us." "Oh." For some reason, that was the absolute most depressing reason Duo could have thought of. "You could have just lied... said something about missing me or being bored or something." Solo gave him a look. "I could have," he agreed. "But we don't lie to each other, right?" Duo nodded. He had been four, when their parents had died, and Solo had been seven. The social worker who collected them had lied to Duo, had said his parents were away for a while and she was taking Duo and Solo to stay with some nice people. Solo had found out the truth and had promised Duo he would never let them be separated, and that he would never lie to him. "So, when you say fix things...?" Solo sighed and shrugged. "I don't know." Duo snorted in amusement. He was not in the least surprised that Solo didn't know what to do. He sat up, swinging his feet over the side of the lounge chair so that he faced Solo. "You still have that sweater?" Solo asked, looking at Duo's hoodie. "Of course," Duo ran a finger over the very faded logo. "I've got a lot of fond memories with this thing." Solo gave him a hard look. "Is that really what this is all about? You winning? You proving that you're better than me?" "What? No. That's not even - I wore this hoodie the day I met Hilde and she only spoke to me because she thought I was as much of a gamer nerd as she was. I was wearing this at the party where I met Alex - and we walked around outside and he was cold so I gave it to him to put on and yeah, winning it that day was cool, but it was cool because I was with you." "Because you beat me," Solo corrected. "No," Duo argued. "I would have been just as happy if you had won and I'd come in second. Solo - you're my brother. I love you. I - fuck, Solo, I worship you." Solo sneered. "Then why didn't you just tell me you were gay? Why did I have to walk in on some guy doing that to you? If you worship me so damned much then why the hell did you - you should have said something, Duo! You almost ruined my life!" After almost a year of hearing this from Solo's online fans, Duo was over it. "No, I didn't almost ruin your life. I didn't ask you to attack Alex - I yelled at you to stop and you didn't listen. You walked in on me having sex with my boyfriend - not some guy, but Alex, who was always hanging out with me at our apartment. Even if I never said anything, it should have been really fucking obvious that he wasn't raping me, Solo. That was completely consensual." "You never said anything though, you never got all weird and gay about guys or pop music or whatever. How the hell was I supposed to know?" Duo buried his head in his hands. "No, I never got weird and gay about guys and pop music. Probably because I don't like pop music and because I knew I couldn't go all weird and gay over guys in front of you. And what the hell would I have said to you?" "Something like hey, Solo. I'm gay. So if you see me having sex with a guy, don't freak out?" Solo suggested. "Considering that I never planned for you to see me have sex with anyone, since that's kind of a personal thing, and considering the fact that you would have lost your shit if I told you I was gay, I don't think that would have worked out so well." "I would not have lost my shit," Solo argued. "Oh like fuck you wouldn't have. Look at you now - you know I'm gay now and you don't want anything to do with me. It wouldn't have been any different back then." "Yes, it would have! I don't have any choice now, Duo! You put me on this side, put made me one of the people I want to protect you from." "What the hell are you talking about? I didn't do any of this to you." "You never even gave me the chance to get adjusted to this." "I didn't so much get that chance either," Duo reminded him. "One day I'm a happy as fuck closet gay and the next the internet hates me because of you. I never had a choice about coming out. And now that's all I am. I'm just the faggot gamer." "Don't use that word," Solo growled. Duo snorted. "Yeah, that's what this is really about isn't it? The fact that you have a faggot brother and you'd rather I was still in the closet. And do you know why I never told you? Why I never said anything to you when I first starting looking at guys and going all weird and gay about them? Because I grew up listening to you and your friends insult people by calling them gay. By calling them cocksuckers. By telling them to bend over and get fucked. By calling them faggots. Everything I am - it's all a joke to you. It's an insult. How was I supposed to tell you I like to suck cock when you called all of the bad gamers you met cocksuckers? When you and your friends call them faggots?" "Stop using that word," Solo said again, his teeth gritted. "It's what I am, Solo. I'm a faggot. I'm your faggot brother. I'm the faggot gamer who -" Solo punched him, his fist catching Duo on the corner of his mouth. They stared at each other in shock. Duo reached up and felt blood on his lips. They were brothers, and growing up there had been a fair amount of rough housing, and they had bloodied each other's lips numerous times. But they weren't kids anymore. And this wasn't two brothers playing around. "You going to tell me that was my fault too?" Duo asked, unable to resist. His entire body felt numb, as if he wasn't there, as if this wasn't really happening. Solo didn't answer. He stood up, shoving his lounge chair backwards and he walked away, not bothering to look back at Duo. ~ * ~ |
