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"Convincing Heero"Written By: Hemlock Inyx Disclaimer: This chick does not own any of the
Gundam Wing characters because they belong to Bandai and Sunrise.
I am borrowing them for this fict and will return them
in good (if somewhat sticky) condition. I also don't own Nora Robert's
Convincing Alex, on which this fict is heavily based (well more like
a fusion/translation). This fict is written out of love and not for
profit, don't sue. Thanks and enjoy! Rating: NC 17 Warnings: AU Romance/Cop Drama, Cross-dressing/drag,
humor, romance, some OOC-ness, language, and murder- not main characters.
Pairings: 1x2, 4xC for added interest. More pairings
to come. Summary: Heero is a cop, Duo is a cross-dressing man who writes for a daytime soap opera. The pair meet when Duo is arrested doing 'research' for the soapie.
" Convincing Heero"
"How often do you have one of these things?" Heero asked when he took Duo up on his offer of a last cup of cappuccino in his now empty and horribly cluttered apartment. "Oh, when the mood strikes." The after-party wreckage didn't concern Duo. He and the cleaning team he'd hire would shovel it out sooner or later. Besides, he enjoyed this-the mess and debris, the spilled wine, the lingering scents. It was testament to the fact that he, and a good many others, had enjoyed themselves. "Want some cold spaghetti?" Duo asked him. "No." "I do." Duo unfolded himself from the corner section of the pit and wandered over to the buffet. "I didn't get a chance to eat much earlier-just what I could steal off other people's plates." Duo came back to stretch out on the cushions and twine pasta on his fork. "What did you think of Karen?" "Who?" "Karen. The brunette you were dancing with. The one who stuck her phone number in your pocket." Remembering, Heero patted his shirt pocket. "Right, Karen. Very nice." "Mmm…she is." As he agreed he twined more pasta. Duo propped his feet on the coffee table, where they continued to keep the beat of the low-volume rock playing on the stereo. "I appreciate your staying." "I got some time." " I still appreciate it. Let me run this by you, okay?" Duo continued to eat, rapidly working his way through a large plate of food. "Jade's got a split personality due to an early-childhood trauma, which I won't go into." "Thank God." "Don't be snide-millions of viewers are panting for more. Anyway, Jade's alter ego, Josie, is the hooker-or will be, once we start taping that story line. Storm's nuts about Jade. It's difficult for him, as he's a very passionate sort of guy, and she's fragile at the moment." "Because of Brock." "You catch on. Anyway, he's wildly in love and miserably frustrated, and he's got a hot case to solve. The Millbrook Maniac." "The…" Heero shut his eyes. "Oh, man." "Hey, the press is always giving psychotics catchy little labels. Anyway, the Maniac's going around strangling women with a pink silk scarf. It's symbolic, but we won't get into that right now, either." "I can't tell you how grateful I am." Duo offered him a forkful of cold pasta. After a moment of hesitation, Heero gave in and leaned closer to take it. "Now the press is going to start hounding Storm," Duo continued. "And the brass will be on his case, too. His emotional life is a wreck. How does he separate it? How does he go about establishing a connection between the three-so far-victims? And when he realizes Jade may be in danger, how does he keep his personal feelings from clouding his professional judgement?" "That's the kind of stuff you want?" "For a start." "Okay." Heero propped his feet beside Duo's. "First, you don't separate, not like you mean. The minute you have to start thinking like a cop, that's what you are, that's how you think, and you have no personal life until you can stop thinking like a cop again." "Wait." Duo shoved the plate into Heero's lap, then bounded up and hunted though a drawer until he came up with a notebook. Duo dropped onto the sofa again, curling up his legs this time, so that his knee lay against the side of Heero's thigh. "Okay," Duo said, scribbling. "You're telling me that when you start on a case, or get a call or whatever, everything else just clicks off." Since Duo seemed to be through eating, Heero set the plate on the coffee table. "It better click off." "How?" Heero shook his head. "There is no how, it just is. Look, cop work is mostly monotonous. It's routine, but it's the kind of routine you have to keep focused on. Make a mistake in the paperwork, and some slime gets bounced on a technicality." "What about when you're on the street?" "That's routine too, and you'd better keep your head on routine, if you want to go home in one piece. You can't start thinking about the fight you had with your woman, or the bills you can't pay, or the fact that your mother's sick. You think about now, right now, or you won't be able to fix any of those things later. You'll just be dead." Duo's eyes flashed up to Heero's. He said it so matter-of-factly. When Duo studied him, he saw that Heero thought of it that way. "What about the fear?" "You usually have about ten seconds to be afraid. So you take them." "But what if the fear's for someone else? Someone you love?" "Then you'd better put it aside and do what you've been trained to do. If you don't, you're no good to yourself or your partner, and you're a liability." "So, it's cut-and-dried?" Heero smiled a little. "Except on TV. You're asking me for feelings, Maxwell, intangibles." "A cop's feelings, " Duo told him. "I'd think they would be very tangible. Maybe a cop wouldn't be allowed to show his emotion on the job. An occasional flare-up, maybe, but then you'd have to suck it in and follow routine. And no matter how good you are, an arrest isn't going always going to stick. The bad guy isn't always going to pay. That has to cause immeasurable frustration. And repressing that frustration…" Considering, Duo tapped his pencil against the pad. "See, I think of people as pressure cookers." "Sure you do." "No, really." That quick smile, the flash of the single dimple. "Whatever's inside, good or bad, has to come out, or the lid blows." Duo shifted again, and his fingers nearly brushed Heero's neck. Duo talked with them, Heero noted. With his hands, his eyes, his whole body. Duo just simply didn't know how to be still. "What do you use to keep the lid on, Heero?" "I make sure to kick a couple of small dogs every morning." Duo smiled with entirely too much understanding. "Too personal? Okay, we'll come back to it later." "It's not too personal." Damn it, Duo made him uncomfortable. As if Heero had an itch in the small of his back that he couldn't quite scratch. "I use the gym. Beat the crap out of a punching bag a few times a week. Lift too many weights. Sweat it out." "That's great. Perfect." Grinning now, Duo cupped a hand over Heero's biceps and squeezed. "Not too shabby. I guess it works." Duo flexed his own arm, inviting Heero to test the muscle. It was a gesture of a small boy on a playground, but Heero couldn't quite think of Duo that way. "I work out myself, " Duo told him. "I'm addicted to it. But I can't seem to develop any upper-body strength." Heero watched Duo's eyes as he curled a hand over his arm and found a tough little muscle. "Your upper body looks fine." "A compliment." Surprised that a reaction had gone straight to his gut at the casual touch, Duo started to move his arm away. Heero held on. It took Duo some work to keep his smile from faltering. "What? You want to arm-wrestle, Detective?" Duo's skin was like rose petals, Heero noted-smooth, fragrant. Experimenting, he skimmed a hand down to the curve of Duo's elbow. Duo was smiling, and his eyes were lit with humor, but his pulse was racing. "A few years back I arm-wrestled my friend for his wife. I lost." The idea was just absurd enough to catch Duo's imagination. "Really, is that how the Yuy men win their women?" "Whatever works." Because Heero was tempted to explore more of that silky, exposed skin, he rose. He reminded himself that the uncomplicated Karen was more his type than the over inquisitive, oddly packaged and gender confused Duo Maxwell. No, he wasn't ready to even think about going the gay route, much less start something with a man who succeeded all too well at being a woman, and a damned irresistible one at that. Though the way his gut reacted every time Duo smiled at him, Heero thought he might do well to run-not walk-away. " I have to go." Whatever had been humming between them was fading now. As Duo walked Heero to the door, Duo debated with himself whether he wanted to let those echoes fade, or pump of the volume until he recognized the tune. "Yuy. Is that Japanese? Korean, Thai, what?" "We're English-American-Japanese." "Really? That would explain the blue eyes." Intrigued, Duo watched Heero pull his jacket on. "How did that happen?" "My mother is American-Japanese; her father had been a solider who was based in Japan after World War two. She ended up marrying an Englishman when it wasn't popular to do so; they left Japan quickly afterwards to come to America." Heero felt a tug, a small one, as he often did when he thought of the country of his blood. And how his parents where forced to leave the home they both had loved. "Have you ever been to Japan?" "Only in spirit." Smiling, Duo straightened Heero's jacket for him. "I minored in cultural history in college. I always liked the Asian cultures best." Duo kept his hands on the front of Heero's jacket, enjoying the feel of the leather, the scent of it and of Heero. Their bodies were close, more casual than intimate, but close. Looking Heero in the eyes, those blue, uncannily focused eyes, Duo discovered he did want to hear that tune again. "Are you going to talk to me again?" Duo asked him. Heero's fingers itched to roam along that tantalizingly bare skin along Duo's back, a feeling that had him taking a step back. Trying to put a little more distance between himself and the cause of his-at this point-unwanted desires. "You know where to find me. If I've got the time and the answers, we'll talk." "Thanks." Duo's lips curved as he rose on his toes so that their eyes and mouths were level. He leaned in slowly, an inch, then two, to touch his mouth to Heero's. The kiss was soft and breezy. Either of his sisters might have said goodbye to him in precisely the same manner, Heero thought. But that cool and fleeting taste of Duo didn't make him feel brotherly. And that could be a problem. Duo heard the humming in his head. A nice, quiet sound of easy pleasure. Heero tasted faintly of wine and spices, and his firm lips seemed to accept the gesture as it was meant-as one of affection and curiosity. Duo's lips were still curved when he dropped back on his heels. "Good night, Heero" Heero nodded. He was fairly sure he could speak, but there was no point in taking the chance. Turning, he walked into the foyer and punched the elevator button. When he glanced back, Duo was still standing in the doorway. Smiling, Duo waved another goodbye and started to close the door. It surprised them both when Heero whirled around and slapped a hand on it to keep it open. The fact that Duo took an automatic step in retreat surprised himself further. But it was the look in Heero's eyes, Duo thought, that made him feel like a rabbit caught in a rifle's cross hairs. "Did you forget something?" "Yeah." I forgot my sanity. Very slowly, very deliberately, Heero slid his arms around Duo's waist, ran his hand up his back, so that Duo's eyes widened and his skin shivered. "I forgot I like to make my own moves." Duo braced for the kind of wild assault that was in Heero's eyes, and was surprised for the third time in as many minutes. Heero didn't swoop or crush, but eased Duo closer, degree by degree, until he was molded to him. Heero's fingers cruised lazily up Duo's back until they reached the nape of his neck, where they cupped and held. Still Heero's mouth hovered over Duo's. Heero's hand moved low, intimately, where skin gave way to silk. "Stand on your toes," he murmured." "What?" "Stand on your toes." This time, it was Heero's lips that curved. Dazed, Duo obeyed, then gave a strangled gasp when Heero increased the pressure on his back and pressed them center to center…and awakening erection to awakening erection. Heero's eyes stayed open as he moved his mouth to Duo's, brushing, nipping, then taking, in a dreamy kind of possession that had Duo's own vision blurring. The humming in Duo's brain increased until it was a wall of sound, unrecognizable. Duo was deaf to everything else, even his own throaty moan as Heero dipped his tongue between his lips to seduce his tongue. It was all slow motion and soft focus, but that didn't stop the heat from building. Duo could feel the little flames start to flare where he was pressed most intimately against Heero, then felt those flames spread outward. Everywhere. Heero never pushed, he never pressured, he savored, as a man might who had enjoyed a satisfying meal and was content to linger over a tasty dessert. Even knowing he was being sampled, tested, lazily consumed, Duo couldn't protest. For the first time in his life, Duo understood what it was to be helplessly seduced. Heero hadn't meant to do this. He had been hoping he would avoid even thinking about doing this. However much pleasure it gave him to feel Duo's body melt against his, to hear those small, vulnerable sounds vibrating in Duo's throat, to taste that dizzy passion on his lips, Heero knew he'd made a mistake. Duo wasn't his type. And Heero would be damned, but he was starting to want more of this queen. The instinct Heero had been born with, and then honed during his years on the force helped him to hold back that part of himself that, if let loose, could turn the evening into a disaster for both of them. Still, Heero lingered another moment, taking himself to the edge of his control. When his system was churning with Duo, and his mind was clouded with visions of peeling Duo out of that swatch of a dress, he stepped back. Heero supported Duo by the elbows until Duo's eyes fluttered open. They were big and dazed. Heero clenched his teeth to fight back the urge to pull Duo back against him and finish what he had started. But, however stunned and fragile Duo looked at the moment, Heero recognized a dangerous thing. He'd been a cop long enough to know when to face danger, and when to avoid it. "You, ah…" Where was all his glib repartee? Duo wondered. It was a little difficult to think when he wasn't sure his head was on his shoulders. "Well," Duo managed, and settled for that. "Well." Heero let Duo go and added a cocky grin before he walked back to the elevator. Though Heero's stance was relaxed, Heero was praying the elevator would come quickly, before he lost it and crawled back to Duo's door. Duo was still there when the elevator rumbled open. Heero let out a quiet, relieved breath as he stepped inside, and leaned against the back wall. "See you around, Maxwell," he said as the doors slid shut. "Yeah." Duo stared at the mural-covered walls. "See you around."
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