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"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 Nine Duo imagined this was what it felt like to be in a relationship and cheat on your partner. Every other night he found himself staying up late, after TGW practices ended, switching over to his second account and logging on in the hopes that NoName3 would be on and ready to play. It was weird, Duo knew that, and it probably wasn't a good thing that he found himself constantly comparing Wufei to NoName3 and wishing that his teammate would just trust him a fraction of the amount that NoName3 trusted him. At least he hadn't tried to get NoName3 to join him on a Skype call yet, mostly because Trowa stayed up late playing as well, and Duo didn't want to go down the path of Trowa overhearing Duo throw himself at a stranger online. Not that Duo would actually throw himself at NoName3 - he would just casually mention that he was the best top laner Duo had ever played with and beg him to please help Duo come up with a plan to get Wufei onto a different team and try out for TGW. Yeah. He definitely couldn't let Trowa overhear that, and he also didn't want to risk NoName3 hearing his voice and figuring out who he was. Duo was enjoying their gaming too much. He liked the lack of pressure - he and NoName3 were constantly matched up against pros and the games were hard, hell, they had even been matched up against Heero one night, but they had yet to lose a game together, and that was an incredible feeling. Not that TGW was going poorly. With only four weeks left in the Spring Split, TGW was in tied for third place with ZG, only two games behind second place Cloud 9, and it was kind of amazing to think that TGW had gone from a really disastrous first game to this - a shot at making the Spring Playoffs and a chance to go to the All Star Invitational Tournament in Rio. Duo wasn't holding out much hope for that, despite the fact that Quatre clearly was - the blond gave daily pep talks about keeping their focus and their dedication up, telling them that they were only a few games away from the Playoffs, only a few weeks from the chance to compete on the International Stage. And it would be incredible, Duo acknowledged to himself, if TGW made it to All Stars, but to do that they would have to take down ZG, Cloud 9 and Team Solo Mid. Those were three ridiculously strong competitors. All the same, Duo felt a little hope creep in, especially when the 'Duo Maxwell Blows' Reddit thread wasn't updated for three days. Sad, that three days without being insulted was the highlight of his season thus far. But it seemed that the PR campaign Relena had engineered was paying off - her and Quatre had delivered a great interview on IGN, Duo and Wufei had managed to play it cool and not embarrass the team at MLG, and Heero and Trowa had come back from GameStorm with a slew of fangirls and enough attention on Reddit that Wufei started to walk around the house calling them Playmates. Which only gave Duo really dirty mental images of Heero and Trowa wearing bunny ears and fishnets and maybe it was weird, but in his head at least, it was pretty damn sexy. So phase one of the PR campaign had been successful, and TGW continued to win games - they had lost one last weekend, but won their other game and their record was still amazing, still good enough to be tired for third. But phase two was just beginning. "Okay, tomorrow we start at noon," Relena said. She had assembled everyone in the kitchen, around the center island counter and she had a legal pad in front of her with charts drawn on it. "Quatre and I will take the first four hours," Relena said and Quatre made a face. "Can't I do the second four hours?" He begged. Relena glared at him. "No. You and I are starting this off because you're the face of the team and because I'm not going to spend my whole day waiting around to embarrass myself on League." Duo laughed at that. He was actually pretty excited to see Relena play, and he was looking forward to watching her. "Wufei and Sally will take the second round," Relena continued. "And then Duo and Heero." Duo arched an eyebrow. "Not Heero and Trowa together?" "Nope. The Playmates are going to spread their wings and share the love," Relena said and both Trowa and Heero glared at her. Neither had much appreciation for the nickname Wufei had given them, or the fact that Relena and Duo had started to use it as well. "Trowa and Quatre will take the fourth round, Duo and Wufei will do the fifth, and then Sally and I will finish off the last round." "I still think this is a waste of our time," Wufei muttered and crossed his arms. Duo rolled his eyes, but refrained from commenting. "It's not," Quatre insisted. "We've seen a decrease in negative press since we started doing these things and our website has had increased activity as well - even the team merchandise sells are up." "You think tomorrow will help even more?" Duo had to ask. While he didn't share Wufei's loathing for the idea of a twenty-four community live stream, Duo was still feeling a little anxious about the entire thing. It would be way too easy to have some troll jump on and start giving him shit about Solo or ZG or being gay or - or anything, really. Relena nodded. "Definitely. The fans have been really supportive of the idea - we've had a lot of people post of the forum trying to reserve spots and I really think this is our chance to show the community how great TGW is. I mean, you guys are awesome - you're good at League but you're also just cool. This is our chance to prove that." Relena gave Wufei a hard look. "This is also something that MSG wants us to do. So if anyone has that big of an issue with it, we need to take it up with management." Wufei glared back at her. "Don't threaten me, I said I would do it." "Right, well, tomorrow is going to be a long day, but then we've got practice as usual on Thursday," Quatre reminded them. "We have a scrimmage with the Valkyries scheduled and I want us to really be on top of our game. This weekend is the last weekend before Super Week and we need to try to get a lead over ZG." Duo nodded in agreement. Super Week had always been his favorite week to watch, as a fan, because of the crazy amount of games that were played. Each team played four games over a four day span, for a total of thirty two games in one weekend. It would be intense, but it would also be good preparation for the Playoffs two weeks afterwards. It was hard to believe that Duo was only four weeks away from the end of the Spring Split, four weeks away from the end of his first Split as a pro gamer. "So, before I let you guys go," Relena spoke up again, "things to remember for tomorrow." She started to tick points off on her fingers. "One, look your best - this will be streamed, so we want everyone to see your handsome faces and clean clothes. No pjs," she paused to look at Quatre, who scowled back, "team jerseys are great - actually, let's all agree on team jerseys now. Second, be friendly. These are our fans and they love you, or they will once you show them how friendly you can be," she looked over at Wufei, who just scowled back at her. "Third, have fun and make sure they do too. We're doing this in teams of two, and we're going to just be playing custom games, with one of us on each team, so that means we're dealing with eight fans at a time. That's not too bad. If they want to play your position, let them and give them encouragement. Don't get down on anyone if they do stupid things. This isn't a real practice." She looked around until everyone nodded at her and then she smiled. "Good. Okay, it's almost midnight, which means that Quatre can go to bed now and still get ten hours of sleep." "Eleven and a half," Quatre argued. "Ten," Relena shot back. "You're waking up early to help me make sure everything is set up and you have to shower." Quatre heaved a long suffering sigh. "You're such a slave driver," he mumbled. "Someone has to be," Relena responded and then turned to everyone else. "Okay. No practice tonight. Go relax, get some sleep, maybe Google a few ways to make friends over the internet..." "I've got that one covered," Duo said. "I said friends, not murderous stalkers," Relena smirked at him. "Oh. Right. My bad - easy mistake." Relena stayed in the kitchen while everyone else left, and gestured for Duo to wait with her. "I've already spoken with Une from ZG. There won't be any attempts to crash our stream or troll our games tomorrow." Duo actually hadn't considered that possibility. "You really think they would do that?" Relena shrugged. "I don't know, but Quatre and I didn't want to take the risk. Anyway, if they do it will be harassment and it will become a legal issue." "Jesus. That's exactly what I need - to be the reason my brother winds up in court again." "It wasn't your fault last time and it wouldn't be your fault this time," Relena argued. Duo sighed, but he shrugged. "Speaking of you and awkward situations," Relena continued and Duo frowned at her, "I ran into Jason last night." "How?" "I went to a party over at Mike's house." Relena hadn't come back to play soccer with Duo after that first week, but he wasn't really surprised that she had kept in touch with some of the guys, especially Mike, who was almost as good looking as Jason. "Really?" She nodded. "Unlike you nerds, I don't have to spend all night playing League. I actually get to have a social life." She smiled sweetly at him. "Anyway, Jason was there and he asked about you..." "Oh yeah?" Despite Jason saying it was okay for Duo to hang out at the soccer games on Sundays, Duo hadn't gone back. It felt too weird, and since he was staying up later these days to play with NoName3, Duo had enjoyed sleeping in a bit on Sundays instead. Relena nodded. "Which was weird, that he had to ask me about his boyfriend..." "Shit. I completely forgot." Relena crossed her arms. "You forgot to mention you broke up with your boyfriend two weeks ago? How do you forget that, exactly?" Duo shrugged. "I've kind of been focused on the team. It was just... a personal thing and I didn't think it really mattered." Relena sighed. "Yes, it was a personal thing, but it matters, Duo. My job is... basically, I'm paid to be your friend and your big sister. So partly it's my job to know what's up with you so I can try to make sure you stay focused, but partly I care about you and I want to know what's up with you so I can try to make you feel better." "I'm fine," he assured her. "It's not like we were really going anywhere, anyway. Our schedules never worked out and there was all of the shit with Jason and... I'm fine," he repeated. Because he was. More or less. "You know, I have a friend -" He held up a hand. "Please, please don't try to set me up with someone. I'm fine, really, and it's not like I have time to date someone anyway. And I'm pretty sure all of the guys are happy they don't have to worry about running into a guy coming out of my room in the mornings." Relena frowned. "I don't think it's that big of a deal to anyone." "Wufei -" "Wufei's just an asshole. He'd be pissed about anyone coming out of anyone's bedroom." Duo suspected she had a point there. "Heero and Trowa were assholes about Jason," he had to point out. "Do you want me to talk to them?" "No! Seriously, it doesn't even matter. No one else is dating anyone anyway. It's really not a big deal. I'm fine," he repeated yet again. Relena looked at him intensely for a moment longer. "Okay," she said at last. "But I'm here for you - as a friend." "I appreciate that," he assured her. "Good. I'm going to go practice now, so I don't humiliate myself tomorrow." Duo had to grin. "I was going to stay up and play for a while, want me to give you some pointers?" "No. I'm going to practice in the safety of my room, away from you, so you can't make fun of me." "I would never make fun of you," Duo assured her. "Uh huh. Right. Just like you would never stare if Heero and Trowa walked past you completely naked." "You would too," Duo reminded her. Relena shrugged. "Duh. I like gorgeous men just as much as you do." -o- Duo actually managed to get a decent night's sleep. He had stayed up to see if NoName3 would play last night, but by one in the morning he hadn't made an appearance and Duo decided to call it a night. He spent another two hours talking to Hilde on Skype up in his room, watching replays of a few Korean games and debating the merits of the Jungle champions that were being used overseas, but eventually they both fell asleep and when Duo woke up at ten the next morning the Skype call was still going. After ending the call he took a shower and changed into clothes he thought Relena would approve of - his TGW jersey and the track pants that matched his team jacket. He knew Relena wasn't the biggest fan of track pants - Quatre had told him that she tried to get it written into their contracts that they had to wear khakis - they were part of his team uniform. It was almost noon by the time he was done, and he detoured to the kitchen to grab a Coke and a sandwich before wandering into the game room to watch Quatre and Relena. He made sure to sit out of the line of the camera's streaming the two, but Quatre caught sight of him and demanded that he come closer and hang out. So the first four hours of the streaming event ended up being Duo coaching Relena and her team of random fans while Quatre valiantly led his own team against her. It was fun, and Relena was actually pretty good at the game - good enough that Duo wondered how highly she was ranked - and the fans who played with them and those just watching the Twitch stream and commenting in the sidebar seemed to be enjoying themselves. They also weren't assholes, which took Duo by surprise. There were the expected comments about Relena being really hot, but for the most part, the fans seemed intent on just playing with them, and offering support and congratulations on their wins. It was cool, and when Relena and Quatre turned the stream over to Wufei and Sally, Duo was actually kind of excited for his turn with Heero in four hours. "See," Relena said when she, Quatre and Duo went out to the back porch, "I told you it was a good idea." "You were right," Duo agreed. "I can't believe you helped her kill me," Quatre muttered, giving Duo a betrayed look. Duo had to laugh. At one point in the last game he had talked Relena through a pretty cool kill on Quatre when he thought he was safe, and Relena had shrieked in triumph and spent the last half hour of the stream rubbing Quatre's face in her moment of glory. Quatre stretched, and Duo rolled his eyes at the way Relena looked at him, a lustful, wistful expression on her face. "I think I'm going to take a nap, and then look over the stats for our matches this weekend," Quatre said. "A nap? Why am I not surprised?" Relena grinned. "Hey, I got up at ten - just like you told me to. You should be proud of me." "I am," Relena assured him and Quatre smirked. "Catch you guys in a few hours," Quatre said and walked back into the house. Relena watched him go and Duo couldn't restrain himself. "You know, I'm here, as your friend. Actually, I'm kind of paid to be a combination of your gay friend and an annoying little brother. So if you want to talk about this problem you have of mentally undressing Quatre every time you look at him, I'm here for you." Relena glard at him. "I do not have a problem." Duo arched an eyebrow. "It's not my fault," Relena defended herself. "Look at him!" Duo nodded and reached out to pat her hair. "I know, I know. He's gorgeous and completely oblivious." Relena huffed in annoyance. "I just don't get it. I've been flirting with him for over a year now and - nothing! If he isn't interested he should just say so." Duo shrugged. "Maybe he thinks it would be awkward, if he turned you down, but I'm betting he doesn't realize you're into him." Relena stared. "How much more obvious do I need to be?" "Relena, I hate to break it to you, but Quatre is a pro gamer. He's a nerd - like, a world class nerd. And yeah, he's really good looking, but he spends all of his time playing video games with people who have the social skills of cranky kindergartners. He probably doesn't even think it's remotely possible that you're into him." "Boys are stupid," she muttered. "No argument here," Duo agreed. "Urgh." She shook her head. "I'd better go inside and keep an eye on Wufei and Sally - she's pretty competitive and if Wufei starts to act like an asshole it's going to be a rough four hours." "Yeah, I'm going to stay as far away from the Game Room as I can while they're in there," Duo confessed. "Coward." "Yep." -o- At seven thirty Duo headed upstairs to get Heero for the start of their eight o'clock shift on the live stream. He had spent the afternoon outside, borrowing a few manga from Relena and relaxing. It was only the end of February, but it was also California, and Duo managed to actually get some sun while he sat outside, until night fell and he retreated to the kitchen to grab dinner. He could hear Sally and Wufei in the game room, shouting at each other and their team mates. It didn't sound like they were threatening to kill each other, but it was still a lot more intense than the shouting between Quatre and Relena had been. Duo resolved to be as cool as possible on the stream. He hadn't really played against Heero too often, and he knew his team mate was super competitive even when they were, as Quatre tried and failed to get them to do, playing for fun. He knocked on the door to Trowa and Heero's room and then opened the door. "Yo, Heero, we're up man and - holy fuck." Duo had a hard time processing what he was seeing. Heero was naked. Trowa was naked. They were naked together. On a bed. On Trowa's bed. And Heero's cock was buried in Trowa's ass. And Trowa had a nice cock. A very hard, very nice cock. "Come in or get out, but close the door," Trowa hissed. Duo was startled out of staring by Trowa's voice and he stumbled backwards, back out into the hallway, and closed the door behind him. When Heero stepped out into the hallway five minutes later, fully dressed and a fierce scowl on his face, Duo still couldn't wrap his brain around what he had seen. "Knock next time," Heero said. "Uh - have you ever thought about locking the door?" Duo was relieved to know that his natural inclination towards being a smart ass was still intact. Heero glared at him. "I thought I had." "Well, I thought I knocked," Duo replied. And he had, but maybe he should have paused between knocking and opening the door. They stared at each other, and Duo really couldn't help but think about the fact that he had just walked in on Heero Yuy fucking Trowa Barton. "You guys ready?" Relena called up from downstairs. Duo arched an eyebrow at Heero. "I'm ready if you are," Heero said. Duo nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be." He had no clue how he was supposed to get through the next few hours and focus on playing League, on having fun and being friendly and representing TGW to the fans when all he could think about was what he had just seen. ~ * ~ |
