"Recast"

Written By: Kaeru Shisho

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story.

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: Yaoi, AU, and an unlikeable Heero, Trowa, and Quatre, but very nice Wufei and Duo

Pairings: 1+2, 2x5x2

Summary: Wufei pursues Duo, who has been forsaken at the altar and is now trying to sort out his life, aiming to turn lost hopes into paradise found.

A/N: Thanks to Waterlily for generous feedback and improvements to the story throughout.

"Recast "

Chapter Two

Duo took a long drink of his juice and looked over his friend again. Travel worn, but overall glowing with health, Wufei had never looked so good, but then Duo had never taken the time to get a good look at him lately, and certainly not get to know him. "How long have you been here?" he asked.

Wufei stared back and made no move to locate his own timepiece. "What, ahem," he sipped at his drink and attempted to clear his throat again, "What time is it?"

Duo turned on his cell phone and read the time off the glowing face. "About five PM."

"I've been here an hour and a half," Wufei said.

"You just arrived then?" Well, that explained the man's hoarse voice. Breathing airplane air for the better part of a day had nearly killed him. The poor dude needed some downtime, for sure. "Where ya staying?"

"Any suggestions?" Wufei shouldered his travel bag. "This is everything."

"If you like the idea of sleeping in a hammock under a palm leaf roof, then I've got the place for you."

"What's the weather like?"

"This, a bit cooler around dawn, but it's warm day and night."

Wufei tossed back the dregs from his juice. "Thank you. The hammock sounds delightful."

"It's cool and rustic." Duo smiled. "You might wanna come take a look first. I'm not offering you much of a place."

Wufei didn't seem to care by the wave of his hand. "You've gone native then?"

"As much as possible."

Wufei leaned closer over the table. "Happy?"

"Are you?" Duo couldn't look him in the eye when he said that. "I'm getting past everything."

"That's ... commendable... really."

Duo figured that Wufei had embarrassed himself by talking about such a personal sore point. "So, my home is in this direction. It's a stroll away. Everything is. Or I use the bus. Haven't needed a car since I landed here, not that I have one."

"I have a rental car."

"Just send it back. I can call them and they will pick it up."

"Fine."

"Where is it now?"

Wufei pointed out a small parking lot a few streets down. After a brief phone conversation, they walked over to the car and waited for a rental agency employee to arrive.

"We got about half an hour, so get comfortable." Duo scooted himself up onto the back of the car hood. Wufei did the same. "Let's say you'd picked the wrong place to go looking for me, what were you planning to do next?" Duo asked.

"Go back and start a search, but I knew I was right."

"Oh, yeah?" Duo grinned. "I'm not complicated, you think?"

"You left the other ticket at your apartment," Wufei reminded him.

"His apartment. Not mine. I'm just storing stuff in a room... for a while."

"Yuy's apartment, then. That wasn't the point."

"You were inside?"

"Yes, I was. I made him open the door. I was sure you'd left a note. Winner told me he'd tried calling you, but you wouldn't answer."

Duo shrugged indifferently.

"He also said that you'd told him Heero would know where to find you. Yuy claimed he knew no more than the rest of us, so I looked around."

"Heh, bet 'Ro loved you doing that."

"Not particularly, but I discovered the ticket on a bookshelf and made him explain where it had come from."

Duo's smile dropped. He stuffed his hands in his cargo shorts' pockets and studied where his feet stepped. The bastard could have made the trip, come to see Duo, and made everything turn out right. Heero hadn't though. He hadn't cared, and that hurt.

"I asked if he thought you'd taken the other ticket and he said-," Wufei closed his mouth and frowned, his eyes scrutinizing the horizon line. A city bus stopped at the corner.

Duo traced his line of sight, studying the people getting off the bus, and guess that he was watching for the rental attendant to get off.

"It doesn't matter what he said," Wufei continued. "I took his ticket and had it changed over to my name. I took off a day to think about what I would do. Here comes our man!" He slid off the car, offered a hand to Duo, who didn't take it, and signaled the car rental agency employee to join them.

"And here you are," Duo completed for him.

"Here I am. The hotel reservations were in the envelope with the plane ticket, which is how I ended up in the parking lot across the street from it."

"And you thought I'd still be here? It's been two months."

"I didn't get back from that damned African mission until a few days ago," Wufei closed his eyes, while making another midsentence course correction. "I didn't expect you to be burning through your savings, wasting money on a posh hotel-."

"I might have," Duo argued, just to argue. "So, are you gonna tell me how you tracked me down?"

"Obviously you wanted to be found," Wufei said. "No magic, Duo. I used your cellphone ID locator and waited."

"Oh. Yeah. Well. I didn't make it too hard in case someone wanted to find me."

"Someone did." Wufei gave him a meaningful look.

Before Duo could deny that, the man from the agency joined them. Wufei had already removed his single bag from the back seat, so he simply returned the keys, and had the contract voided. They were done.

"That's that. Now, what were we doing?" Duo asked, joking. "Oh, yeah, checking out the hammocks."

Wufei smiled and shouldered his rucksack. "Can I put dinner on that to-do list?"

"Okay, but after I show you my digs."

Duo led him out of the resort and business district a short distance to where the shanty town began. All along the beach the other village lay tucked under palms well out of the tidal zone. The ramshackle huts (one had to think of them like that not as houses) were small and made from found pieces: a sheet of aluminum siding served as a roof on one, a row of old surfboards provided siding on another. Besides sharing the general appearance of derelict housing, all the structures sported wide, covered porches with hanging hammocks. Some had bright rugs, a cat, or small tables for additional decoration.

When Duo stopped in front of one, Wufei asked, "Did you build your own?"

"Ha! No, I'm renting it for a pittance. Those that can, pay, and if you can't you work clean up and repair crew. Pretty self-sufficient, for city-owned and run units."

They entered the hut and Wufei dropped his bag alongside boxes which appeared to serve as Duo's clothes closet. "That door's to the bathroom with running water and it's tied to the city sewer."

"Not bad," Wufei muttered. "Simple. We really only need the basics."

"Yeah, it doesn't get more basic than this and still be hygenic." Duo smiled out at the ocean view, rolling over in his mind the "we" Wufei had used, liking the warm sound of it. "They're sturdier than you'd think and easy to fix after a storm." Duo pointed out the palm leaf porch covering on the way back outside. "Takes the wind pretty good."

"I don't see a kitchen. You don't cook?"

"Not here. They allow fires in the rock rings out there. See them? In the sand? If fire got loose in here, the entire place would go up."

"Wise. What do you prepare... out there?"

"You like fish, dontcha?"

"I do."

"Then you'll be a happy camper here. C'mon. Time to collect dinner."

"We have to catch our own fish?" Wufei asked, horrified.

"We could, but no. The market's open for a few more hours and the fishermen... This is fun!" Duo felt lighter, enjoying his chance to show off his new home.

Small fishing boats hauled up onto the light sandy shores formed a colorful line and brimmed with silvery fish. Duo went directly to one and pointed out two on top. The fishmonger wrapped the fish in a leaf and exchanged the parcel and a warm smile for Duo's money.

"Now, the other direction. You can see the farmers' market under the banners."

"I saw it earlier when I was parking. Will they have rice?"

"Let me count the ways," Duo said with laugh. He liked laughing again. He felt fortified already. "Fried rice, yellow rice, steamed plain, and loads of other kinds. And stuff to put on it, you know, veggies. There'll be fruit. Scads of that. Kinds I never heard of."

"I wouldn't think you had many selections on L2."

"And you'd be right. Same things year round. Apples, oranges and bananas. Oh, and lemons, but they don't count for eating." Duo kicked at a rift of sand. "How about L5? You grow your own fruit?"

"Yes, we did. Not I. I was a boy and of... It wasn't my job."

"What was?"

"Well, I was a scholar and in marital arts training. My father was head of our clan."

"So you were like... a prince!"

"Something like that." Wufei mimicked Duo's tone and smiled.

They bought their side dishes and took their fish to one of the fire pits. There a man was handling all the preparations. Duo gave him the fish packets and a bottle of local beer with lemon, which acted as payments for the cooking service.

Minutes later, Duo joined Wufei at folding chairs and a small table with the steaming fish. Wufei took a bite and declared: "Now I eat like a prince. This is delicious."

Duo stopped for two more of the lemon beers on their trip back toward his house. "We'll drink these on the beach and watch the sunset. Tradition. We'll need a few things first."

"After only two months, 'tradition' might be a bit premature. Ritual, maybe."

Duo collected a couple woven reed mats and towels rolled neatly inside. "It's my tradition, okay? Ritual sounds... creepy. I got everything, so down to the shore we go." He flicked a switch and tiny fairy lights sparkled dimly around the door.

"Do all the places have them?" Wufei asked.

"Yeah, you'll see."

Nature worked the sunset and clouds like magic, distributing colors from violet blue through pinks and magenta to reds and oranges, all across the sky.

"Spectacular." Wufei tasted his drink, stretched out his legs and watched the show play across the heavens.

"Yeah, it's pretty chill. Like picture-book visions of paradise." Duo gulped his beer, finishing it quickly. "Here come the torches! They light up the shoreline for a few hours so folks can stroll. It's darker here, so when the sun goes down we can go swimming."

"In the dark? Is it safe?"

"I guess. So far it is. Lots of others go out. Never seen a shark. I think they sleep. Anyway, there'll be light enough. You'll see."

As it grew dark, Duo stood and stretched.

"Where do we change?" Wufei asked.

"Heh. Right here. It is dark," Duo said with a laugh. He had figured this comment would shock his reserved friend, who he'd always suspected of being very inhibited. "Not that I'm an exhibitionist, but the locals do it."

Duo stripped quickly and dashed out into the shallow warm water. To his surprise, splashing followed him. Wufei broke the surface, spouting water.

"Refreshing!"

"Yeah," Duo chuckled back.

"I'm not certain how much I like the feeling of-"

"The exposure?" Duo suggested. He could feel, rather than see Wufei's burn.

"I was thinking of sand getting into delicate places."

"Oh, that. Yeah. You can shower off in the hut when we get back."

"Won't you?" Wufei asked him.

"In the morning. I can use the sun to dry my hair."

They swam around a little, stretching muscles and using the warm water to relax. When Duo headed back to the clothes and towel pile, he noticed Wufei hung back to give him privacy. He had a towel secured at his waist by the time Wufei was near and he turned away to look at the line of huts.

"Can you spot mine?" Duo asked.

"Ha! You mean, can I not miss the one with 'Maxwell' spelled out on the roof?'" Wufei added a snort to punctuate his amusement.

"Excellent powers of observation."

Back at the porch, Duo arranged the second hammock, hanging it properly and tossing on a few giant towels. "Those are dry. Just put your wet things over the railing on that side and they'll be dry eventually."

"I won't need more blankets?"

"Nope. You'll be throwing off these by morning, if it's not cloudy."

Duo demonstrated getting into the hammock without flipping, and they both turned in. There was no talk of what to wear to sleep in. Duo wore nothing and Wufei, apparently, slept nude also; at least, he didn't go inside to his travel bag.

This is nice, Duo thought to himself. He wondered at how comfortable he felt just hanging there with no conversation between them. He was grateful not to have to talk about what had happened to bring them both to this place of peace. Someday, he'd ask about the mission details. Or not.

There was one important detail to pin down, and if he kept asking the question, eventually he'd get the complete answer.

"What made you come here?" Duo asked.

He listened to Wufei's tempered breathing in the dark, his hammock swaying ever so slightly.

"I didn't want you to think you...were alone."

He didn't want me to suffer here alone, Duo thought, but kept it to himself. "Thanks for coming," he whispered.

"My pleasure," was all he heard his friend say in response, and it was enough. The breeze blew, rustling the palm fronds. The surf pounded in the far distance. What more did he need to hear?

(o) Wufei's pov

Wufei had a terrible time falling asleep. Even the sound of Duo's soft drowsy murmurings and the white noise surf couldn't reset his internal clock. But he must have dropped off eventually, because he awoke in the morning. The sun angle was all wrong and then he remembered where he was: on an island with Duo, although the hammock beside him was empty.

He successfully dismounted the swaying bed contraption without falling on his head, and found the bathroom about ten strides inside the hut Duo called his house. The mirror was still steamed over, which indicated that Duo had showered and left already.

He felt a little cloud of disappointment settle over him, but pushed it away immediately. It was nice of Duo to leave a clean towel and to give him a few minutes of privacy, Wufei decided.

His rucksack sat by the door. He rummaged through it for clean underwear and t-shirt and a toothbrush. He didn't need a shave, but cleanliness would feel superb.

He emerged refreshed and decidedly hungry. After a quick search of the premises for Duo, with no sighting, he remained in the doorway and scanned the shoreline. He liked how he could see right through the house to the ocean.

People dotted the edges of his vision, moving away into the distance or closing in, but his attention focused on the figure at the water's edge combing out miles and miles of brown, wavy hair. Duo.

He licked his lips. His mouth had gone dry as the drought-stricken land he'd flown over leaving his last job for Preventers. He needed Duo on some keenly-felt primal level.

"Beautiful." The word passed his lips before he could stop it. No one would confuse that striking bodywith a woman's - the cut chest, the well-rounded shoulders, and slim hips. Only the hair. Glistening hair. Shaking it to one side. Combing the tips. Shaking it side to side. Oh, yes.

More.

Duo had told him he had to cover up most of the day (sigh...too bad). He hadn't discovered any sun lotions that sufficiently protected his thin L2-influenced skin. If he wanted to go shirtless, then he would have to take advantage of the early morning and evenings.

Wufei vowed, with one foot in the sand and one still on the porch, to make certain he never overslept and rose in time to enjoy this view. He closed his eyes making sure the image of Duo was well sealed in his memory. There had to be some protective lotion that would do the job, available only by prescription? He'd look that up.

When he next opened his eyes ( was it 20 seconds? 30 at most!), the picture playing out on the beach had taken a dramatic move forward. Duo had been joined by a boy, or young man.

"Damn these ageless natives. He could be 12 or 30!" Wufei grumbled. Boy or man, he had to investigate this turn of events.

His first impulse was to intercept the stranger in case he intended Duo harm. Wufei took out after him, heedless of how unprepared he was to take on attackers. He stopped halfway to his target to reassess. He spat out a tendril of hair which he hadn't tied back while it dried; he was barefoot, bare-chested, and weaponless- but so was the stranger. That he could best the boy, or man, he had no doubts at all.

But... re-evaluating... from the hand on arm contact and Duo's grin, this was no unfamiliar person. Wufei could stand down.

But... re-re-evaluating... No! Duo had already found a lover! Actual pain nearly caused him to crumple inward. Had he blundered into an intimate meeting? How stupid he was not to consider that a sexy, handsome man like Duo wouldn't have attracted dozens of lovers by this time?

I should go. His feet continued forward though as if drawn inevitably toward Duo. I'll say good bye and then go, he decided.

"Hey, 'Fei! Great come on over and meet Jiko. He taught me the ropes here when I was a newbie."

Ropes? Wufei shook Jiko's hand, but he couldn't smile while pondering the entire range of possible rope tricks one could be taught. "My name is Chang Wufei. Thank you for looking after Duo. It was very thoughtful of you." You can go now. I am here.

Jiko grinned at him as if he'd said those last bits aloud. "Chang? Chinese? Duo told me he was waiting for someone." He waggled a finger at Wufei. "You took a long time, almost too long! Ha!"

Before he could object, and Wufei wanted to correct the man's faulty impression (He was not Yuy!), Duo started calling out to another young man to join them. "Joni! Better claim your boyfriend here!"

Wufei relaxed several notches. Whatever Duo and Jiko had had, it was brief. And over.

Joni and Jiko greeted each other with a quick kiss and held hands. Duo started telling them about his plans for the day, but Jiko proposed a different idea.

"Take Chang kayaking. He looks fit." Jiko winked Wufei's way.

What a flirt! Kayaking, however, did sound fun. "Is that possible?" he directed toward Duo.

"Yep! Cheap and easy. Just like me, heh, heh." Duo joked, but Wufei didn't like him putting himself down that way.

"You are a person worth treasuring," Wufei said, putting his feelings out there as succinctly as possible.

Duo sputtered. Joni laughed and pounded Wufei on the back. "Stop staring at my boyfriend like you want to kill him."

Wufei had to mentally scream at himself not to break the offending arm. "I was not-!"

"A jealous lover, my Duo, be careful!" Jiko warned, laughing as his dragged his boyfriend out of reach. "Carlos and Sinka give the best deals on rentals-remember!"

"Thanks!" Duo waved back. Clearly, he'd been embarrassed as much as Wufei had. His skin was pink... or... burning.

"Duo, you should get out of the sun," Wufei warned.

"Oh, yeah, thanks. Forgot, with all the excitement and all."

All the excitement. And all. Jealous boyfriend! Not I!

Duo looked at him and smiled. "Nice hair. Grown it out. I hadn't noticed just how much. Waist length? Almost, yeah."

Wufei had forgotten how he must have looked. He'd only been here one day and already he was going native! His hand swept back his hair into a ponytail. He regretted not having a tie for it. "Yes. I'm too busy to cut it."

"Don't."

Silently, Wufei vowed never to cut his hair. Never, as long as Duo looked at him that way.

He could feel the lovely warmth of his hand where it had touched his head for a long while after.

TBC

Chapter 3

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