|
"All Through The Night "Written By: Honor Disclaimer: They aren’t mine. The boys are
actually quite grateful for this. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Shonen-ai, language, wacky humor, emotional
angst, romance, yaoi, and I’m acting like the war lasts two years
and Eternal Waltz didn’t happen Spoilers: Er…yeah, maybe. It would help if
you watch the series first. Pairings: 2x5, 3x4 established Summary: Sequel to Persistence ~dream/ thought~ /thought/ *emphasized* " All Through The Night " Chapter Eight The courses of true love never did run smooth. Duo flipped open a channel as they headed away from the base. “Status, lovebirds.” <Mission accomplished.> Duo blinked at the flat response—in Quatre’s voice. “Something wrong?” <Later, Duo.> “Uh…okay.” He switched to the channel Heero and Wufei were on. “Did you catch that, guys?” <Yes,> Wufei acknowledged. <Sounds like something went wrong.> <Obviously. Let’s settle this at the house.> “Roger that.” Duo upped his speed a little. Quatre and Trowa were able to leave and drive straight to the house, something they couldn’t really do. That left Duo arriving at least a few minutes behind them. Right now…that seemed like a bad thing. + Duo opened the door and was immediately blasted with “—so what if I was flirting with her!” “Quatre, you *don’t* flirt with people when you’re undercover!” Three pilots stayed just inside the doorway, taking in the very unusual scene of pilots 04 and 03 yelling at each other with dropped jaws. “She flirted with me first! It would have been weird if I hadn’t at least acknowledged that she was interested in me! Besides, it bought you the time you needed, didn’t it?!” Quatre was red in anger, blue eyes snapping and in Trowa’s face. He simply could not *believe* the accusations pouring out of his lover’s mouth. Trowa’s eyes narrowed. “So that’s all it was?” “YES! For the love of Allah, Trowa, I’m a short, too-cute blond with big blue eyes and an innocent smile, *everybody* flirts with me! I have to use that to my advantage.” “And when you flirted with me,” Trowa demanded harshly, “was that ‘using it to your advantage’?!” Quatre’s temper snapped. Without compunction he let a fist fly and hit Trowa squarely in the jaw. Trowa’s head snapped back, throwing him against a chair that somewhat broke his fall. Without looking at the fallen man Quatre stormed past, up the stairs, and into his room. Everyone winced when the door slammed shut behind him. Wufei pushed Duo a little to the side to let him through and knelt to help Trowa to his feet. “That needs ice,” he commented neutrally. Trowa accepted the help silently, head bowed as he was led into the kitchen. Duo and Heero exchanged glances. “Should we give Q someone to rant at?” Heero gave the ceiling a thoughtful look. “Have you ever seen Quatre lose his temper?” “Uh…no.” “I’d advise giving him at least a half an hour to cool down.” “…right. Let’s do something else, then. Something quiet. At the other end of the house.” “Good plan.” Inside the kitchen Wufei was putting an ice pack together for his morose friend. Trowa was leaning against the counter, and looked on the verge of tears. It made Wufei a little uncomfortable—would it be better if he went somewhere else until the two lovers had worked this through? He wanted to help, though. Quatre and Trowa had always been there when he was troubled by something. /I’ll at least offer the support. If he would prefer to be alone, then the option to talk to a listening ear is at least there./ There was a very healthy bruise developing on Trowa’s chin. The brunette hissed when the ice pack was gently pressed against it. “Your lover has a mean right hook,” Wufei observed quietly. “It might be wise to remember that in the future, and avoid pissing him off.” Trowa lifted a hand to keep the icepack in place. “Yeah.” “Do you want painkillers?” Trowa dumbly shook his head. “Do you want company?” There, Trowa hesitated for a moment. “I…” /I’ll take that as a yes./ “What started this, Trowa?” It took a deep breath before Trowa could force the words out. “A receptionist, summer hire probably, caught us in the process of hacking the computers. I was ready to simply knock her out, but…Quatre looked at her and gave me the signal to keep going and stay cool. Then he just…flirted. Caught her attention, and kept it entirely on him. It made my blood boil, Wufei. I knew—know—he did it for the mission, but I hated watching him flirt with…” …someone else. Wufei sighed, finishing that sentence all too easily. “Jealousy.” “Pure and simple,” Trowa agreed bitterly. “I tried to keep my mouth shut, but Quatre knows when I’m upset and he just kept pushing until I exploded. If he’d simply left it alone…” “Would it really have solved anything?” Wufei reached out to gently shake his friend. “The next time this happened, and your lover had to flirt with someone to give you the time you needed to work, would you have reacted any differently?” Trowa looked away, swallowing hard. “…no.” “And that is why, no doubt, Quatre pushed you to say something now. Trowa Barton, do you know why you were eaten with jealousy seeing your lover flirt with someone else?” The nod was so slight as to be almost indistinguishable. “Then I suggest that you go tell *him* that.” + Trowa stared at his closed bedroom door, icepack melting in his hand. He knew Wufei was right. Nothing would be solved by separating himself from Quatre. He just wasn’t sure on what to say, either. Finally he raised his hand and knocked softly. “Quatre?” There was no response, but Trowa could practically feel the heated glare aimed in his direction. Wincing, he tried again. “Will you let me in?” “*NO*.” The door in no way masked the snarl that word was delivered in. Trowa had seen Quatre lose his temper exactly three times. The first time, he’d destroyed two colonies. The second time, he ripped the phone line out of the wall. The third time he’d punched his fist completely through a wall. All three times had a certain element in common—Quatre took a long time to calm down to the point of being rational again. Sighing, Trowa sank against the wall opposite the door and resigned himself to waiting. + Below stairs, Duo inched his way into the house and saw Wufei sitting on the couch, calmly reading. In a loud whisper he asked, “Is it safe to come in yet?” Wufei shook his head. “It’s been *three hours*,” Duo protested. Wufei shrugged. Duo cast a dubious glance up the stairs, then decided only the foolhardy (or Wufei) would decide to stay indoors when His Blondness was pissed. He carefully inched back outside where he and Heero were working on one of the bikes. It seemed like a much safer alternative than staying indoors. + Trowa hoped that three hours of waiting had done its job and once again knocked softly on the door. “Quatre?” Silence. Okay, so maybe he should give it another three hours. He was about ready to settle against the wall again when Quatre suddenly spoke. “Trowa, the only way I am letting you in this room is if you tell me why you’re being such a prick.” A brief surge of hope went through the brunette. Maybe he didn’t have to wait for another three hours. It was quickly squashed by the realization that he had to come up with a very good answer so he could actually sleep in his own bed tonight, instead of the couch. “I…was jealous.” From the other side of the door, there were the rough scraping sounds of furniture against wooden floors (Quatre really had barricaded himself in there, hadn’t he?), the lock being snapped back, then Quatre in all of his angry glory stood inside the open doorway. “*That*,” the blond spat icily, “is obvious. WHY were you jealous?” Trowa stood there, mute and miserable. “You know very well that I love you, Trowa Barton, and that I’d rather cut off both arms before betraying you so why would innocent flirtation—for the sake of a mission, no less—make you jealous?” Quatre didn’t sound at all loving. In fact, he was rather symbolic of a lawyer tearing into the defense. “Because you’ll have to do it again,” Trowa whispered brokenly. “WHAT?!” Licking dry lips, Trowa forced his eyes up to narrowed blue ones. “When this war is over, you’ll take over WEI.” “Probably,” Quatre agreed in confusion. What did that have to do with anything? “And as the CEO of WEI, you can’t have any scandal touch you. I’ll have to step into the shadows in order to stay with you. We can’t be anything more than friends in public. And you’ll have to—” his voice choked up and he simply couldn’t continue. Quatre advanced until Trowa was backed up against the wall, fists clenched and trembling at his sides. “Do you honestly believe that I would choose my father’s company over you?” “That isn’t what I said—” “That *is* what you said!” Quatre snapped. “If it means hurting you, Trowa, then the hell with my father’s company! If they can’t accept the fact that I have a male lover, then they can shove their prejudices up their collective asses and swivel on them!” Trowa’s eyes steadily widened as Quatre spoke. He had rarely heard his lover swear, and it leant a great deal of weight to what he was saying. Quatre groaned at seeing the obvious surprise, feeling the rush of hot anger cool and drain out of him. “You idiot. You honestly thought that? That I’d have to keep our relationship a secret and flirt with other people in order to keep up appearances?” He could see it clearly in the green eyes looking at him—yes, Trowa really had thought that. Grabbing his shoulders, he shook him none-too gently. “Idiot. You loveable idiot. I should be flattered, I guess, that you would be willing to do that just to stay with me. But Trowa, the thought of denying our relationship to *anyone* never crossed my mind! I’m certainly not going to try to pander to the whims of a spoiled media. Okay?” Trowa dredged up a wan smile for him. “Okay.” Knowing that Trowa needed to think about everything before it really sunk in, Quatre let it drop. It was just the way he worked. He would think about something, internalize it, study it from every angle, then either accept it or deny it and move on. Quatre would give him some time to think it over, and then either reinforce what he had said or just let it lay, depending on Trowa’s response. He gently turned his lover’s face to get a better look at the damage he had inflicted. “That looks painful.” “As Wufei observed, you have a mean right hook.” Quatre’s mouth twitched into a smile. He did feel bad about punching Trowa—but it was hard to not be a little proud that he snuck past his lover’s guard at the same time. “Patch you up, did he?” “Hm. He also told me that it might be wise to avoid pissing you off in the future.” “He is a fount of wisdom sometimes,” Quatre acknowledged dryly. “Did you take any painkillers? Hm. Didn’t think so. You’re feeling rather masochistic today, love. Come on, let’s go down and assure everyone the coast is clear.” When they did come downstairs, it was to see a glass of water and a bottle of painkillers sitting on the coffee table, Wufei comfortably curled up on the couch with a book on his lap. Quatre took one look at the setup and groaned. “We aren’t that predictable, surely?” “I knew once you were calm again, you’d be worried about it.” Wufei smiled slightly as he stood. “A simple deduction of logic. I’ll fetch Duo and Heero, shall I? The stolen data has already been sent to the doctors, by the way.” Trowa only then remembered he had set the cd of information on the coffee table as he stormed into the house. He’d forgotten it completely when he and Quatre started fighting. “Thanks.” Wufei waved the thanks away and went outside to tell his fellow pilots the coast was clear. Now that everything was settled, maybe he could finally get some decent reading time in. ~*~*~*~*~
|
