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"Obsession "Written By: Dentelle_noir Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing AC or the
characters. GW belongs to Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. This
is a work of fiction and written for fun, not profit Rating: PG Warnings: Fluff, obsessions Pairings: 1x2 Summary: Duo’s veiwfinder accidentally captures
another student, and he can’t seem to get those blue eyes out
of his head. " Obsession " PART TWO The whole day began on the wrong note. Heero’s brother, Trowa, had called him, which was usually a good thing, except that he had forgotten there was a time difference, and his call came through at seven in the morningam. The early wake up call did have its advantages, though, since Heero was awake enough to deal with anoying first years while he proctored another exam.. Being a Head Teacher’s Assistant, otherwise known as a TA to all of the undergraduate students, sucked during midterms and exam times. The rest of the time, though, it wasn’t too bad. Heero’s glare and monosyllabic ways discouraged most students from asking him too many questions, except those that had paid attention and knew that Heero was smarter when it came to computer programming than the professor he was ‘assisting’, and came to him instead; those were intelligent questions that he didn’t mind answering. Those were the people who were able to understand his answers. He hated having to explain what a backslash was. But, as his morning continued to unfold, it progressively got worse. And, for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why. Down in the student centre he began to toast his regular bagel, but these two freaky looking students kept staring at him. Not just looking, but openly gawking and trying to get a look at the bottoms of his shoes. It was just plain weird. So, while he was trying to shake off the crazies, he burnt his breakfast. He then needed to attend one last English class of the year, which he spent listening to his professor drone on about the daily importance of literature, as if a computer student needed it, which was enough to put a black mark on any day. But, when he went to hand out the soon-to-be-finished exams, five of his students were outright staring at him just like the crazies in the caf. The little cluster of them all whispered amongst themselves, then stared at him, and whispered some more. He knew he didn’t have anything in his teeth, a kick me sign on his back, or toilet paper on his shoes (which he guiltily checked) and he was now at the point of anger. Which was never a good point for Heero Yuy to be at. But, he was a professional, and professionals didn’t blow up at chatty students for looking at him more than once, or twice, or constantly... He decided to simply ignore them and they would eventually stop. And really, after this exam, he need not see these particular students ever again. This was the last class of ‘Introduction to Computers’, and then he had 5 exams himself, and then he was DONE for the term and could go home to Arizona and help out his brother in his shop for a while. Trowa was absolutely overburdened with projects that he wasn’t able to begin before his promised finish date, so Heero obliged to help. He may not have been even remotely as talented as Trowa was with wood, but he could cut down a 2x4 with the best of them. The happy thoughts beyond the exam room buoyed his patience and lessened his homicidal impulse enough that he could walk towards the students. He grit his teeth as he got to the front of the giggly knot of students and gave them a stern look as he plopped the exam paper down. Instead of shrinking away in fear they stared expectantly at his wrist, hidden by his long sleeve shirt. Refusing to let this faze him, he handed out more tests to the rest of the row, and then reluctantly moved to the row behind to hand the exam to the rest of the gaggle. He put the paper down, then the other, and he had to reach for the third. The whole group erupted into fangirlish squeals as his bracelet was revealed. He immediately jumped back as if stung. What the HELL was wrong with these people?! The professor moved up the rows to see if there was a problem, but Heero finally lost it, “What the HELL is WRONG with you people?!” He demanded. Not one of them had the decency to look sheepish. One of the guys, (although with the artsy style and androgynous look it was hard to tell) looked Heero right in the eye, “If you are going to pose for an art exhibit by our prodigy then you better be ready to accept the praise.” He said snidely. Heero lifted a brow. “Explain,” he demanded in a voice as sharp and cold as ice. That tone sent the previously giggle girls into cowed silence. “At the Label gallery. Duo’s final work—the pieces of someone, he never named who...But it’s you!” One girl said helpfully, “The eyes made us think it could be you, and you have the same bag too, but the bracelet was a dead giveaway. You’re the mystery man.” Heero finished handing out the exams with passion, anger burning with every second he stewed over it. How dare someone just take pictures of him and have them posted all over the crazy art building! Heero had never been in there himself, but he had some ideas, and he didn’t like them. Whoever took those damn pictures was going to pay. ~*~ Heero didn’t need to double check, the pictures were definitely him. He stood, red with anger, in the middle of the foyee of the Art building, surrounding by blown up pieces of his image hanging with different mountings and backdrops, but him all the same. And each placard bore the same name: Duo Maxwell. He had been harassed no less than 6 times by people all giggling up to him and asking for his name, one even took a picture with her phone of him glaring angrily at her, with the still of his partial face right behind him. She’d been giddy. He’d been pissed. “Where can I find Duo Maxwell?!” He ground out between clenched teeth, and still giggling stupidly, they had all shrugged. “I can help you, if you need to find him,” a gentle voice said from his crowd of admirers. She was a blonde, short, and pretty enough, but she had a quiet way about her that made everyone else shut up to hear her. Her name was Relena, he gathered from a few random comments made by the others. She began to walk deeper into the centre, Heero following close behind her and growled until none of the others followed. He didn’t need witnesses when it came time to cave in the head of that asshole-photographer. “Duo’s really obsessed with you, you know. He tried to find you from what he saw; he couldn’t, so he figured the only way would be to submit what he had into his end of year project, knowing people would see it, and hoping someone would know who you were. I guess it worked better than expected, because you came yourself.” Relena turned a bright smile on him as she turned yet another sharp turn and glided through a room housing a copy machine and light-box and took another sharp turn through one of three doors. “Well good. He can be all proud of himself up until the minute that I ring his neck.” He cut back. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a serious promise ended up coming out like a mumbled sulk. That girl had a smile so open and sincere that he just couldn’t keep the righteous fury he had spent the last 3 hours working up. Damn it. Relena then turned into a large garage-like room that seemed to be for sculpting, if the half-finished clay and wire-frame pieces were anything to go by. After two steps, she turned into what looked like a closet, just to come out in another sort of lobby-like area with a few scattered chairs and literally thousands of pictures pinned, taped and pasted to every inch of the wall. The word “Photography” was spray-painted over parts of the wall-paper-collage and a single red light bulb protruded over a similarly covered door. He hoped Relena wouldn’t leave him, because he had a feeling that without her guiding him he’d never make it out of the maze-like building before he died of dehydration. Relena gestured him to one of the chairs, and pointed to the lit bulb “When the light is on, no one opens the door to the developing room. The light ruins the pictures. Duo’s in there. He’s got the three-foot braid, you can’t miss him. Try to remember how much you liked the pictures before you strangle him, ‘kay?” She said merrily and, before Heero could absorb the goodbye, she was gone, leaving him stranded in the bowels of the Art Building of Doom! He had enough time to get grumpy, but not furious, before the light abruptly blinked off. The door opened loudly, and two voices, talking and laughing, bounced out into the hallway. A boy walked out and stopped dead in his tracks at seeing Heero sitting there patiently waiting. He was defiantly not what Heero had been expecting. Heero figured he’d be some obviously artsy beatnik type, with weirdly painted hair and black tipped nails, spouting sonnets and artsy new-age things. But, the boy he saw was so normal looking in simple dark wash jeans and a black T-shirt that if Heero hadn’t been told to watch for the braid then he wouldn’t have believed in a million years that the guy standing in front of him was the one who defiled his personal privacy by plastering pictures of him and his rejected carrots all over the art building. “Are you Duo Maxwell?” Heero asked abruptly, his tone cold and edged with anger. Duo gaped, staring at the man that had haunted his fantasies for nights. This was him, he could see him fully from the top of his shaggily cut hair, the tips of his short-cropped nail, and all the way down to include the same shoes Duo had hours of tape of. He stared at those gorgeous eyes, that stared back. Then those eyes began to harden, and as he kept standing there, just basking in the mere presence of his guilty little obsession those eyes turned to glare and his perfectly deadpan face deepened into a scowl. Suddenly Duo went from drooling stupidly on his shoe to fearing for his life. This guy was pissed and getting angrier each second Duo spent analyzing each tensing of his fist...as if readying to punch....Uh oh.... Without knowing what else to do, Duo had to rely on his smile. Duo lifted a hand to brush his hair away from his face in a nervous gesture before he replied to Heero’s question, “Uh, yep. That’s me. I may run and hide but I never lie, that’s me in a nutshell, Duo Maxwell at your service.” He said with a trickster grin, turning on every ounce of charisma he had to save his ass before he got any more on his obsession’s bad side. Those eyes and that face just made Heero wanted to smile in return, but he quashed the urge immediately. He wasn’t going to have any of that. So what, the guy was charming; so was Satan. “You plastered pictures of me all over the foyee. My students giggled straight through their exams. I was stalked during breakfast, mauled in the foyee, then lead around this maze of a hell hole just so I could bide my time until you finished in there, so now I can kick your ass!” Heero declared. Duo tensed, with each accusation, but made no move to back down. “Well, I’m sorry about you being stalked, I mean, people will get over it in a day or two, probably. Plus it’s the pretty much last day of school! Who’ll care afterwards, right?” Heero didn’t say anything, right away. What that Relena girl said was ringing a bit true, the pictures in the foyer captured a certain mystery to his character that was palatable, almost magical, and most defiantly art in its truest form. Heero had a deep respect for art in all it’s forms, but, he had never been the unknowing source of it before. Heero wasn’t sure if he should walk away to look at the photos again, or just punch the guy now, and as the silence dragged on he debated. “So...” Duo, of course, couldn’t stand silence, “Why don’t you tell me the name of my most popular subject?” “Heero. Heero Yuy.” He supplied grumpily, not having time to fully deliberate, but was sympathetic towards not turning Duo’s smiling face black and blue. It seemed wrong somehow to want to break him....he did only snap a few pictures... The door to the photography room opened again, and out walked a petit girl with boyish purple-black hair. She stopped dead as well, looking from Duo to Heero with wide eyes, then smiled softly. “I’ll see ya at home, okay.” She said simply and walked off. That seemed to break the spell of silence, and Duo regained his charm again. “Well, buddy. You got me an A+ from the biggest hard-ass teacher around here, how about I buy you something to eat and a few drinks. Sky’s the limit. Up to fifteen dollars and sixty...five cents.” Heero couldn’t help but crack a slight smile and the roguish way the boy grinned and the way he tilted his head to the left. “Alright,” left his lips before he could stop it, but once it did he didn’t feel particularly bad about it. Duo seemed to light up at the prospect. Duo made it out of the maze with relative ease, stopping for a few moments in some room with a few lockers to grab a bookbag, jabbering about all sorts of rubbish the whole way. He then led Heero across the street behind the art building to a pub Heero had never ventured into before, which was funny, considering he lived on campus for so long and ate virtually everywhere. It was a busy place, but not bustling, its patrons smoking cigarettes, drinking, eating, and generally having fun without being boisterous and drunken like most bars around campus. It looked like an art-crowd hang out, the tables muraled in different styles and shellacked until they could be cleaned, the floors made of thin hardwood planks painted black all over and well worn in some places until they showed through to the pure wood underneath. The place felt like history to Heero. He loved it immediately. Duo ordered some broccoli and cheese poppers and Heero, never having heard of anything like that before, ordered it too, to Duo’s delight. “Heero, tell me some stuff about you. I mean, I photographed you, and a picture’s worth a thousand words, but you, my friend, seem much more complicated then those few words could explain.” Duo asked after their beers had arrived. Heero shrugged off the compliment and looked at Duo, “When did you photograph me, anyway. I think I would’ve noticed someone following me around snapping pictures.” The braided man’s face lit up like it was Christmas, “Completely by fate. You do believe in fate, right? Anyway, I had a camcorder in the student centre and it fell onto the seat, and it just filmed you for three hours studying. I didn’t even know it was on, it was just an empty table at first, then you just happened to sit down and, BANG, instant magic! It was exactly the sort of thing I wanted for my end of year project.” Duo explained brightly, his eyes lighting up and smiling brightly. Heero couldn’t even find anger when he looked at that smile. Duo was charming him like a snake and Heero was almost happy to dance to the tune. So Heero began to tell him, he told him about taking Computer Programming, about living in residence, about his thoughts on the world and about how much he loved antiques, although not as much as his brother did. Which led Duo to asking about his family, and about his bracelet. Duo was itching to see it close and read the inscription. Heero hesitated, but after everything he told Duo, he figured it was the least he could do. He outstretched his arm and turned it pulse up. Duo fingered the wooden rectangle gently, it was well worn and scuffed, like he had figured, but close up he could make out the carving much better. It said “Heero Bloom.” That was all. But before Duo could get disappointed that the bracelet he had been so keen on was such a simple thing, he remembered something odd. “I thought you said your last name was Yuy?” Heero colored, but nodded, knowing Duo was smart enough to catch it but still hoping he didn’t. “Yuy is my real name. My father, well he’s dead now, but he was in jail, My mother wasn’t a very good mother, and when I was six I was taken away.” Duo nodded solemnly, not overly shocked or pitying; like he could relate. “I kept the last name Yuy, but I was bumped around into a few foster homes before I landed at the doorstep of the Blooms. They had never had foster kids before, and they took me in to their family. We all got attached; they were very nice to me. Trowa loved woodworking and he made this bracelet and put Heero Bloom on it so that if I left I’d always remember that I was part of the family.” Duo was tearing up my then, the story hitting close to home and getting him all chocked up. Heero didn’t have the heart to leave him upset, so with a smile, Heero finished the story “But I never did have to leave. I guess they all talked about it, and they adopted me. I’ve never looked back since. I may still be Heero Yuy, but I’m Heero Bloom in my heart, you know. I wear the bracelet to remind me how lucky I am to have a family, because I almost didn’t.” Duo ordered a shot of Jack after that, downing it, and another, in close succession. “I grew up in the Maxwell Church orphanage. Father Maxwell and Sister Helen have always been great to me. Howard, that’s a guy who used to help us out a lot at the church, brought Christmas gifts and stuff, always kept the place working no matter how old something was, gave me a room and a job at his auto shop when I was too old to stay anymore. I still live with him when I go home for the summers, and I work at the shop, and help out at the church. It’s a good life, you know.” Heero lifted his glass in a salute, and downed another shot of Jack Daniels with Duo. “So...what about that girl I saw you with today. How long have you two been together?” Heero finally asked. It had been bothering him for a while now, not that he was interested in Duo or anything. He wasn’t really into guys, or girls for that matter. Trowa, he knew, buttered his toast on the other side, but Heero preferred no butter at all. But, being with Duo; watching him smile and laugh and fidget with his straw, made Heero’s insides warm. Heero began to think maybe he buttered his toast on the Duo side, to hell with the rest. “Hilde? She’s my roommate and keeper, we always say. I’d loose my head if it wasn’t for Hilde. She’s been my friend since we were kids! She’s really great. Bad taste in guys if you ask me, though; I’ve had to scare away like six because they couldn’t take the hint!” “So you aren’t, together? What about that girl with the braids, Relena?” Heero asked, a little too-intently. Duo had to give the poor guy a break after that one, “I would just give up, if it’s Relena you’re after. She has her sights set on this chick in sculpting named Dorothy. Seems like all the art nerds are bi!” Duo chuckled, but the off-handed quality slowly died as he got a look at the serious expression of his companion. “Are you? Bi, I mean. Do you like guys?” Heero asked bluntly, but with a tinge of some emotion Duo couldn’t decipher; it was concealed so well behind the perfectly constructed face of Heero. Without hesitation, and without an ounce of shame Duo stared Heero right in the eye, “Nope. I’m gay. Bi is too wishy-washy for a guy like me. What’s it to you?” Heero stared right back, then let his mask break with a little tug of his lips, “If you’re not bothered by the idea, then would you want to go out on a date with me?” Duo paused for a minute to collect his scattered brains and pick his jaw up off the floor. A date with his hot obsession was something for dreams, not reality. Duo arched a brow, and tipped his beer to Heero, “This seems like a date to me. But if it’s a second you want, you’d better impress me with a goodnight kiss.” With a devilish smirk, Heero moved his chair towards
and happily obliged, earning himself a second, third, and fourth date
with his new favorite photographer.
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