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"Romance Vignettes "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: R Warnings: Yaoi, AU Pairings: 1+2, 3+4, 5+6 Summary: For your thanksgiving Holiday reading.
All six Gundam pilots get a stab at telling how Duo and Heero finally
get together, with diversionary glimpses into their own romances. "Romance Vignettes " Part Two Chapter Five -Zechs "Have you seen Duo Maxwell recently?" I asked a pair of agents who appeared to be at task, but were, in fact, leafing through a personal photo album. One jumped to attention; the other snapped shut the album and blushed. "Um, no-?" "Yuy in the building?" I asked. "Ah, Agent Catalonia, at the next cubical might know, sir." I hadn't asked for Catalonia! I scowled and turned to the young man at my side. "Follow me. Don't wander off," I commanded. He looked unconcerned, but nodded. "To Yuy!" he said, grinning. Dear God. It had come down to this, my sentence, enforced by my commander, Lady Une: it was my job to keep track of the ex-Gundam pilots. Oh, I had missions with Preventers agents, but every one of them offered me an opportunity to drop in on L4 to see Winner, or scour some satellite for Barton or Maxwell, or partner with Chang. Yuy, most remarkably, had remained in Sanc and was the easiest of all to track. Very considerate of him. Une's plan to concentrate them on earth and in Sanc had been a brilliant one and it had worked, so far. Barton and Maxwell were to remain in the area all winter, providing security for the palace gala events. And where Barton went, Winner would not be far away for long. Yuy would be on the premises at headquarters running training programs, when he wasn't attending classes at the University of Sanc. My job had become effortless and painless. And then last month, Maxwell disappeared for two weeks. The sneak knew every trick in the book, and then started his own. Our agents lost him on a bus in Northern California. ON a BUS. Before I had to report that failure to the commander, he reappeared, conjured out of the shadows and graffiti walls right back at the ramshackle office building housing the business he shared with Barton. That was the word I received while stalking the halls of the Sanc palace, a couple hours before guests would arrive- including my commander. I had been expecting Barton to show up at the event, praying fervently that Maxwell would also. I wanted no unwanted questions raised concerning his absence and I had no desire to explain it all, what only could be seen as my failure, to Commander Une- a task neither without effort or pain. And then I saw him. There he was, talking to Barton and another security guard. Oh, my... That was Duo Maxwell in that tuxedo, wasn't it? Was it the ensemble-excellent taste- that triggered his transformation from scrubby teenager to stunning young man? No. The clothes contributed substantially, but there was something else. After that glimpse, he slipped away, and I had to pretend I had business wandering the halls in order to keep him within sight. But I did, and next time he paused, he was all business. He was locating each of his men and speaking to them for a few minutes. Smiles. He left them smiling in his wake. I wondered what he said, what uplifting message he gave, or was it only a joke? The guests had begun to arrive and I had been called to action, greeting everyone, delivering that personal touch, inviting everyone to my home; except, it was not my home. Not even my sister, Relena, chose to reside at the elegant bastion of Sanc civilization any longer. The Sanc palace had become a museum, honoring a past hardly anyone living still looked back on with the desire to re-live. The transformation from "majestic home to people mostly now dead" into a "mausoleum in which the currently living could party" had actually made it easier for me to move on with my own life. I'd been born to do this, but if I reflected too far back and poked around, I'd find the open sore. I discovered that poking about was exactly what I had been doing and put a stop to it. Musing on the past only made me depressed. All the pilots had begun putting in an appearance. I'd made certain they all received invitations. I'd made sure. I had personally handed one to Yuy... and to Chang. There was a man in whom I had found someone to believe in and desire. Chang Wufei, a man of honor and hidden charms liked me, too, and had just walked into sight, so I had absolutely no excuse for becoming a morose bore. The Chinese swordsman that had bested-no, not bested- more precisely, he was the man to whom Treize had fallen. That intrigued me, and that we were nearly on the same side one or twice during the war titillated my imagination even more. And when he arrived at Preventers headquarters, by no other than the commander's request, I had my wish and met him formally. At that moment, standing in Une's sterile steel and cement bunker of an office, I was captivated by his air of quality and exotic beauty. He gave me one look, a derisive sniff, and negotiated his contract with, "As long as I am not partnered with...him." "Agent Wind? I see, well, that will be no trouble. I like my experienced agents leading separate teams anyway," Une replied, completely unruffled. "I'll have men at my command?" he asked. "And women!" she laughed at his expression. Not me and no women-a choosey man. I liked that. It gave him charisma, in my eyes. Since that time, I'd made making inroads to getting closer to Wufei. He was a man of nobility and high values. A little high-strung and impetuous, but who was I find fault in what served him as virtues? Over the past year, he even suffered me to team up on a particularly difficult and complicated case. I must have impressed him favorably, because I believe I achieved a kind of reluctant friendship with him. With a little work, and a call from Winner insisting that Wufei was "attracted" to me, I built our rapport into something beyond camaraderie. He had accepted a dance with me at that damnable ball, and made the evening a blessed memory. Hovering on the horizon where dreams take place and reality unfolds, I perceived a date coming up for us. I stopped my musing over the events of the last month and was just about to narrow down where to take him to one of two restaurants, when a call came in from security. "It's a Curtis Winthrop asking for Duo Maxwell." "Page Maxwell. You know your job! Why are you bothering me with this?" I demanded. Nothing was more irritating than incompetence. "I'm sorry, sir. I have been unable to connect with Mr. Maxwell. You are on his contact list-" Of course I was... "-All right. I'll track him down. If he is in this building, I'll find him." Or someone would find him. I had no desire to have a close encounter with the man, not after watching him dance in the palace. No. When Temptation affected an earthly appearance, that form was Maxwell. Steering clear of him was a priority, now that I had secured, barely, the interests of another more worthy individual. "Thank you, sir. Um..." "What?!" "Sorry, sir, but what am I to do with Mr. Winthrop?" "Keep him at the front desk!" What else?! Who's training these people anyway? "Sit on him if he seems prone to wandering off." "Yes, sir, but-" "But? Spit it out!" "He insists that he could help, if you took him along with you. He claims he can find Duo in a metropolis of-" "I'll be there in five minutes." I slammed the door to my office and marched down the hall, peering over cubicles (being tall had its advantages, even if, as Chang insisted, it diminished capacity in a chase through sewer tunnels or air vents). I had to smile thinking back to that mission; the vision I had of his sweet, tight, ass disappearing into the air vent after having vaulted him up off my shoulders. We had made a fine team. Curtis Winthrop was lean, attractive, standing at 5 foot ten. He wore his flaming red hair tied back in a tight braid. A spray of freckles gave him a terribly homespun appearance of innocence, but the hooded green eyes spoke volumes of a life rife with experience. What disturbed me about him was how distressingly alike I found he and Maxwell were. "Hi! Just call me Kurt, that's with a "k". Are going to help me find Duo in this fortress?" His directness set my teeth on edge, but his smile was entirely disarming. I decided to sic him on Yuy as soon as I found him, if he was in from the training field and if he hadn't already left the building. "I am Captain Merquise. Follow me." Why I let this adolescent get to me, I didn't know. Dear God. My job had boiled down to delivering dates to Maxwell! "Have you seen Duo Maxwell in the building?" I demanded of the next knot of slacking agents. "Um, no, sir. Are you sure he's here today?" "No!" I growled and peeled off to the hall leading to the locker rooms, and, hopefully, Yuy. "Do you know him well, Duo, I mean?" The Winthrop man quick-stepped to keep up with me and made it look easy. He didn't bother waiting for my reply. "I met him in a crosswalk in San Francisco. He was lost, or looked that way. I saved him!" A ripple of warm laughter followed that admission. I felt it enter my chest and knock around inside until we entered the locker room, where Yuy- thank God the man was here- was finger-combing his hair. "Merquise?" His eyes took in the young man at my side and his patented frown deepened. "That's... not a new recruit." "No," I said, putting that fear to rest. Curtis Winthrop wouldn't survive a day, an hour, training under Yuy, if I was any judge of glowering looks. "This man is looking for Maxwell. I leave him in your charge." I gave a curt nod to them both and left the room, completely confident in Yuy's ability to complete his assignment. And that was the last I believed I would ever see of Curtis, Kurt with a k, Winthrop. I was in error. The next day, Curtis Winthrop returned. This time it was Wufei who came to tell me about the repercussion of his visitations, making it as pleasurable an event as possible in this world I inhabit. "Yuy is going mad." Wufei was like a roiling column of chaos, tightly controlled, but with the potential of exploding into something wondrously messy. "Really?" I gestured to the open chair. Call me wicked, but I found the very idea of a nutty Heero Yuy to be amusing, just as seeing Chang in a passion over it, or of any kind, enthralled me, so I decided to play it up a little and see what it brought me. "Tell me about it." He closed the office door, but didn't sit. "It's not funny. At all." Try as I did to hide my smile, it repeatedly popped back. "My apologies." "You know he has difficulties." That was all he said. He'd paused, waiting for some reaction, so I nodded. "Seeing Maxwell several days a week is trying enough, but in a good way, I think." I did not follow that. "You do?" That remark earned me a scowling look. "You haven't noticed the man darkening the corridors like a heat-seeking bomb?" I'd described Maxwell more as a bitch in heat, but lucky for me I didn't say that. As it turned out, he'd been referring to Yuy, and not the "changed man" at all. "Obviously not," he said. Chang had few nervous gestures, but ample angry ones. He treated me to one now, and sliced the air with a hand. And then I was snorted at! With charm. I wanted to sweep him up and turn all that passion into lust for me. "I thought all our agents were highly trained observers," he added. He dared to look down on me, well, up, but with an entirely "down" aspect to it. Adorable. "I must explain this, I see," he relented and backed down a degree. I found him still very, very hot. "The man likes him and Yuy likes him back, but keeps it to himself for the most part." "Heero Yuy is attracted to Duo Maxwell, you say?" I did not know that. Wufei's long-suffering sigh of frustration told me that he believed I'd understood what he'd said-at last. "So you can see where this is going?" he asked me, or told me, making the assumption, possibly, that I'd made a leap of imagination, which I hadn't. "Not clearly," or at all, "Where?" I dared to inquire. "NO?! You saw Maxwell at the palace dancing." His eyes bored through my skull, daring me to deny what was obviously true since it was Wufei who interrupted me about to ask Maxwell to take his dance moves to a less exposed part of the dance floor. I hadn't been about to ask Duo to dance. I'm not saying the thought hadn't crossed my mind. At the time, many thoughts had crossed my mind, all lusciously, lascivious ones. Should Wufei ever find out, the consequences would not be good. "Yes," I admitted, with a slight shiver. And there again, that awkward snitch of a smile crept back onto my face. "And then that..." Wufei paused over a word a moment. "... that... Winthrop character keeps showing up to claim him." "Claim him? As his boyfriend?" "What else?! Yes, his boyfriend. Duo takes off for two weeks and returns a changed man that even Heero had to admit was inescapably attractive. You know what he said?" "Who?" I didn't know which man Wufei was talking about now. "Duo Maxwell! Focus! I'll tell you, and this is how I know what that Winthrop grease spot means to him. He said, 'I met a like-minded young man who swept me off my feet. I'd never been romanced nor had attention from men before, so I wasn't sure if I was, you know, gay.'" "I see," I said, because at last I did and I was getting bored with the topic. What I wanted was to seduce the passionate young agent now in my office and to hell with everyone else and their silly dramas. "Maxwell found himself a boyfriend, who has shown up in town, and Yuy now has to deal with the real threat of losing all his chances with him unless he grows a pair and reveals his feelings." "Yes!" Thank God. I stood and walked right up into Wufei's personal space. He retreated a few steps, but not many. I had him backed to the wall. I was not going to allow him time to voice an opinion. If he didn't want this to happen, I was certain he would let me know. He wouldn't think twice about pummeling me. The crush of his strong, lithe limbs against mine drove me wild. I covered his lips with mine and claimed my prize. Oh, he fought a little. Just a little to be cute. His arms I pinned over his head. His piercing black eyes flashed excitement. His mouth, I plundered. When his hardness rubbed against my thigh, pushed between his legs, and he kissed back, a heat pulsed through me, encouraging me to continue my attack. But this little voice in my head told me take my time, back away, give him space, make him want more. Make him want me. That seemed to be a good idea. Besides, the workplace was not where I wanted to have sex with him, for the first time. With great reluctance, I stepped back, caressing his lips with my tongue as I went. "Zechs..." he gasped. I nearly changed my mind and attacked him again. "Tonight? Can I take you... to dinner?" "Yes." "Excellent. I have one last task to perform for the day, and then I'll drop by your desk." "That's a little early-" Our eyes met. "-oh, all right," he said agreeably. "Yuy should be changing in the locker room by now." "Why should that-? Oh, yes. You guessed correctly what my next step should be. Thank you." Agents and staff gave me a clear path as I rushed through the building in search of Yuy. I found him just leaving the locker room. Like clock work. Same time as the days before. "Yuy!" "Yeah?" he looked up to see me as if we did this every day, which we had lately. "Zechs?" I didn't bother pointing out that he dropped the "sir". "Curtis Winthrop is at the security desk. Again. The man does not belong in the Preventers building." He traded dark looks with me. "No, he doesn't." "Escort him out the door and see that he understands that he is not to return here." "I'd be... delighted." Now there was a man who could follow orders. "I don't want to see him again." "Nor I." I was pleased with myself, a fleeting feeling, but one I seized onto when possible. I'd made my intentions known to Wufei, and set Yuy on the track to doing the same for himself. It wasn't until I noticed the particular tightness of his coat across his retreating back that a concern for his well-being came to mind. Would Yuy take me literally, act on his emotions, assuming Wufei had been correct in his assessment, which I believed he was, and do something... rash to the determined nuisance, Curtis with a k? Finding I couldn't concentrate on anything else, I chose to follow Yuy and watch him. Surprisingly, he went straight to Une's office. Well, maybe not so surprising after all. Maxwell exited the room shortly after I arrived. "Hey, 'Ro!" "Duo." Heero rocked back on his heels, opened and closed his fists, and ran his fingers through his hair. The man was tense. "I-" "You come looking for me or get raked over the coals by the commander lady?" "You. I came to see you." Maxwell led him around a corner to a more private spot. I had to move also, which put me by the coffee urn. Using the opportunity afforded to me, I helped myself to a cup and a cookie. "So, what'sup?" "Curtis is here. Again. Do you... want him... here?" I am ever grateful for my parental heritage with provided me with the proper genes for height. With little effort I could peer through a ficus tree (mental note: report spider mite infestation) and over the partition to see Maxwell's reaction. He appeared nervous as well. "Um, not exactly." "Tell your...friend... not to visit you at work; at least not the Preventers building." "Oh, um, yeah, I tried that. He's quite persistent." Yuy, meanwhile, just stood, glaring at Maxwell, waiting for more, I guessed. Maxwell blew out his breath and folded his arms over his chest. "I met him in San Francisco and he showed me the sights." I don't know how much Yuy was able to read into that, but I hoped enough not to ask for details. I needn't have worried, though. The man stood stone still, fully intent on just listening. "I learned some things; a facet of me became clear." Yuy made no sign of moving. The man was solid, concentrated power leashed so tightly that I believed one touch from Maxwell and he would have self-destructed; although, I could have been mistaken about the reaction. If he felt any attraction to Duo, he might jump him, instead. "Right. When I left, I didn't think he'd follow, but... heh, heh... guess I was wrong, right?" "Why do you permit him to stalk you if he is unwelcome?" Ah, yes. I could almost hear Yuy tacking on "You're a Gundam pilot. Take care of the bastard." "He wants to take me back with him." Maxwell shrugged his shoulders and threw his arms out, waving them around. "He loves me, Heero. I can't just tell him to fuck off. Geez! If I had any sense at all I would go back with him. Lead a cheerful little life in Blissville." "Why don't you?" God, Yuy, you are a blockhead! "You don't know, do you? You can't even guess? Do you get that I discovered I'm gay? That I am attracted to men? That I might only be happy with a boyfriend-?" Yuy nodded one curt dip of the chin. "I understand. I will take care of this. Excuse me." And he spun about and marched away. Too, bad. He missed what Maxwell said next: "-That I'd only be truly happy with you?" Chapter Six - Wufei Duo Maxwell can be the most irritating man in the universe or he can be the best man to have protecting your back. He's a good person-remember I said that-and an excellent fighter to have on your side. And he is a good friend to me and one I recruited as my partner at the Preventers Sanc station several years ago. Now, he and a mutual friend of ours, Trowa Barton, run a security company, which works closely with Preventers. I know I could count on him at a second's notice. He is, however, a frustrating sonofabitch. Another of the Gundam pilots with whom I have remained in contact is Heero Yuy. He considers himself a free man. He gave up his gun, refusing to be a killing machine used by anyone, and enrolled in college to find his "calling". He recently did, however, take the commander up on a new proposal, similar to the program I had completed. Preventers would pay for his schooling and he would work part-time leading trainees through their physicals. So, he has become a free man on a leash. Well, aren't we all? Although I see Barton and Winner seldom, I call all the ex-Gundam pilots my closest friends. In my estimation, their personalities are like night and day, and sometimes oil and water. Maybe it is that contrast that I like? In any case, over the past months I have observed how they interrelate. Occasionally this has occurred when we have all been under the same roof. I am thinking of the palace ball in particular. More commonly, I've watched their interactions on a limited basis, during short visits, and listened attentively to their conversations. What I learned was that Winner and Barton are gamers. They thrive with the hunt, the chase, and more power to them, but I wish they would both leave me out of any future intrigues. Please! I also determined that Yuy was attracted to Maxwell far more than is good for him. And that Yuy has been keeping this fact to himself. Don't imagine that Yuy confided in me about feelings! No. This I learned from Quatre Winner, who I had reason to see at a local convention on mining rights several weeks back. I had provided part of the Preventers peace-keeping presence for the event and Quatre Winner was there to present the Winner Enterprises Incorporated vision for the world. The politics had bored me, but in the few minutes of break time afforded me, Winner had been able to touch on the latest activities of all our past comrades, including the fact that my once-upon-a-time partner, Maxwell, was still subtly pining over Yuy. This was not something Duo wanted advertised or probably even suspected was known by any of the rest of us, but having told Winner, well, what had he expected would happen? I hadn't even been aware of his sexual preferences being anything different from the norm. He'd dated women. He'd once told me that he had. He'd never intimated that he might be gay; in fact, I doubted it was true and told Winner so. "Nonsense!" "It's true!" Winner insisted with a stomp of his foot. "I didn't say he was casing after men, just moony-eyed over one. A-and Heero's such a-a dolt he might not even be aware that he feels the same way about Duo." "Oh? And how do you know he does then?" I asked. "Because I do." He patted his chest over his heart. "Heero aches with loneliness, Wufei, and you being in town should take his upcoming winter class break as an opportunity to do something kind for him." "I do things with him all the time," I maintained. Winter break? That was months away, or weeks. Weeks at least. Plenty of time to worm out of whatever Winner had planned. He waved his hands, brushing away all my things. "I'm sure you do, but I'm talking about getting him to spend time with Duo." "You want me to set them up on a ... date?" For the love of-! The roll of his eyes informed me that he didn't think me competent, and for once I was grateful that he found be lacking. "I only require that you meddle a little. I have pulled strings to get Duo a pair of invitations to the L2 reconstruction celebration. Oh, they were inviting him, but these include round-trip transportation and deluxe accommodations." "I don't see where my particular skills come in." "You are to agree to go with him, when he asks you, and he will, and then exchange places with Heero, of course." "Of course. And does Yuy want to do this?" "He will if you ask him to." "Ah. The point of weakness in the plan." "Make it happen, Wufei, or you'll be spending a week on L2 with Duo instead and making both your friends - and you!-miserable." "I should think you are more suitable for making romantic liaisons occur." Oh, the look on his face nearly scared me witless. I'd fallen into a trap of his. Another one. "I'm so glad you think so. There's someone I'd like to introduce you to, away from the workplace. He's been begging me for months, you know, and there is the first palace ball coming up shortly." "I have someone in mind. I need none of your interference." "Even if the man I had in mind was Zechs Merquise?" Well. That altered things considerably. I had a weakness for moody, platinum blondes in positions of power, and with drinking problems, apparently. We discussed the particulars of his plan of action, ripped it apart, and parted with my promise to "think it over." Time passed. I agreed to Winner's machinations, if only to have a serious chance with Merquise. This part of the plan worked flawlessly, Zechs danced with me at the ball, and, later, at work he... he kissed me, but the part involving Maxwell failed to culminate in a proper Yuy-Maxwell moment. I don't know why that seemed to surprise Winner. Maxwell had shown up at the ball after returning from a vacation a "changed man". Not only was he capable of making a scene, dancing like a stripper at a bar in public, but he appeared to have acquired a boyfriend. I feared Yuy might have an aneurysm when the boyfriend showed up unannounced at Preventers. But since that also occurred on the day Merquise kissed me senseless in his office, I didn't dwell much upon Yuy and Dewy's romance. Besides, Zechs set Yuy on task to deal with his competitor. Case closed. You'd think so, but, alas, not. Yuy ridded Maxwell of the leach from San Francisco, intimidation style. But. He didn't follow through. He didn't go back and win the heart of the man he'd fought over. He didn't do shit, as Maxwell would put it. I was glaring at the email Winner had sent, detailing how he had kept up his end of the bargain (I didn't know how. I didn't care. Zechs was mine now.) and that it was my turn to "get with the program. And don't come to me with your problems; I'm on holiday!" "Erm... you okay?" I closed the email window. Now, I had Maxwell's face hovering over my desk. I had to think fast. Re-think very quickly how far I was willing to interfere in my friends' lives. "Chang, my man, how goes it?" "I am busy." "You don't look busy." "I'm editing my journal of-" "Well, put away your erotica for a second and listen to this-" "Neurotica! Maxwell! It's a highly respected journal on psychoses-" "Sure it is, heh, heh..." "What do you want?" "Want? Everything, but what I want to know is if you're busy this weekend." "T-this...? What is this about?" "It's about me getting a special invite to visit my old home patch on L2 for the re-opening ceremony and all-." So soon! I thought I had weeks to prepare. Well, time simply flew by while I'd been submerged in a sea of infatuation... "-It's been rebuilt since the war, modernized, given the ole spit and polish, and they sent me a formal invitation to the grand opening gala." "You're going?" "I am, but..." He didn't want to go alone. It seemed obvious to me. "You took me to the L5-re-build shindig, remember? It's my turn to reciprocate. You can hitch a ride with me, all expenses paid, and I'll give you the complete tour of my humble abode of the past. Too good a deal to pass up, eh? Whatcha say?" "I'm honored, of course, that you'd consider me-" He sighed and gestured for me to hurry up. "I would think Barton or...Winner would be better company-" "Both on a honeymoon, so to speak. You haven't heard? Oh, yeah, well, Trowa's taking off some time so I'd know first, I guess. Apparently, Quat was given notice: drop the gay boyfriend or his position at WEI. Bad for their L4 charter forbidding gay relationships. Very dark ages, eh? Anyway, he chose Tro' babe and now they are vacationing for a week, God knows where. I unscheduled us from a couple small job interview thingys and there's no palace parties for a couple weeks. Yeah, a tiny one, but Preventers have got it covered. Leaving me free to do as I like. We're all cool. So, you decide yet?" "I have to decide this minute?" "Pretty much, yeah." "I-I have to see if I can juggle my schedule. I just can't drop everything at your beck and call." Mostly, I needed to get a hold of Heero and light a fire under him. "I assume you asked Yuy-?" Duo made an elaborate gesture miming a look at an imaginary wristwatch, and then declared, "-I am afraid we are out of time." Each word he had enunciated carefully. A flash of temper crossed his face- or pain, I couldn't distinguish the difference, but I interpreted it to mean he either hadn't tried, or had tried to contact Yuy, and failed. Clearly, it wasn't a topic from which I should attempt to tease out more information. "Well, in that case, of course, I'll go." I could tamper with "the who" at a later date. "Really? Cool, then. Yeah. Pack dressy stuff and casual for a long weekend. We leave..." He pulled out a printout and unfolded it. "Says here, Thursday 5:00 PM. I'll have a taxi take us from here? At 3:00?" "Let's meet at the shuttle station. I may work at home that day. I don't know." I wanted plenty of leeway to accommodate any change of plans I was going to have to make. I waited until Maxwell had left the building before making my call to Yuy. He was on his way to a class. I was "lucky" he answered. I should feel "special" that he did. Asshole. "Why aren't you going with Maxwell to L2? It is a very special occasion." "I have finals," he told me succinctly. "When? Next week?" "The week after. I'll be studying." "Bullshit." "I will." "Are you planning on attending graduate school? Being a student forever?" "No. I -" "Well, then," I cut him off, "you'll find out sooner or later that grades aren't material- not a twit. It's what you know that does matter and how you apply it." I was on a roll and just went with it.. "You can study just fine on the trip. Don't let something as insignificant as a test score determine your future." "You think I should accompany him, then?" "Absolutely! Don't you want to!?" "Yes, if it is important." "Do you want to risk missing out again?" "No." "What I don't understand it why, after ridding us of the Curtis leech, you didn't latch onto Maxwell yourself. No! Don't explain to me. Make it up to him, if you care one iota for him. Now, here's what you'll need to do-" Of course, I wasn't stupid enough to trust Yuy to do the right thing. The image of Maxwell standing broken hearted at the shuttle station, alone, kept reappearing in my mind's eye. I would not let that happen to him! Should Yuy be a no-show, then I wouldn't be. I informed Zechs that there was a chance I'd not make the small gathering this weekend at the palace. I hated disappointing him; he'd been so desirous that I be there to relieve the tedium, since he had no choice but to attend. When I told him the situation, though, he was very understanding. Of course I should stand by Maxwell! So, Thursday afternoon I packed an overnight bag and a dress clothes bag and taxied to the shuttle station. I was early, not wanting to see Maxwell uncertain and alone for even a moment. I didn't see him. I checked the departure board, and, yes, I was on time and in the proper waiting area. Casting about for a switch of brown braid wasn't locating Duo Maxwell for the longest time, or so it seemed, and then I heard his voice. Yes! I spotted him... and Yuy! Together! And Yuy was carrying luggage for the trip! Was he actually going through with this? I jogged over to the couple, lugging my, hopefully still, unnecessary bags. "Maxwell!" "'Fei-man! You're here! I tried calling you-"he began. "No, he didn't," Yuy interrupted. "I told him you'd want to see him off anyway and not to bother." "Well, I thought about it, heh, heh." "It's fine, Duo," I assured him, so pleased to see him practically radiating joy from behind a discomfited look-the look clearly coming from having been caught out for not warning me not to put myself out getting here- I forgot myself and called him by his first name. "He just showed up at my apartment," Maxwell explained apprehensively, probably expecting me to be angry at being replaced or having gone out of my way to change my plans, pack, and get here on time-something like that, possibly. "You need not explain. My feelings are not hurt." I smiled widely to demonstrate just how not hurt I was. And then an idea, a way out of this uncomfortable scene, dropped out of the ether and into my mind. "That's what I get for gloating at the workplace." Both men looked at me quizzically, while I took a moment to collect my thoughts and concoct the rest of my lie... story. "That I was going with you to L2. I mentioned it to a few people." I stared meaningfully at Yuy. "It caused a stir of envy." He took up the charade as best he could. "Accompanying Duo to the L2 celebration is more important than studying for tests." Maxwell blushed at the meaningful look aimed at him when Yuy said this and couldn't stop his grinning, so I knew it was time for me to leave. We had a few more words, mostly me reassuring Duo that I didn't mind at all that Yuy was going instead of me, and then said our goodbyes. As I turned to the exit, I found Zechs leaning in the doorway. "Everything go well?" he asked. "Yes. Yuy showed up and Maxwell looks pleased. So do you." "I am glad to know I have you free this weekend and not vacationing with another man." I thought came to me that Zechs was not above his own machinations. "And how much pressure did you put on Yuy?" "None at all," he said loftily and gave his hair a fling over his shoulder. I could tell, however, that he was too pleased with whatever role he'd played in the farce, and didn't have a long wait to hear all about it. "I simply pointed out that I'd have him to thank for spoiling my future with you should Maxwell charm the pants off you. I believe it inspired him to action he had already intended to take." No pressure at all. "All's well that ends well, so to speak," I summarized. And it did end well. We all had a delightful weekend. I know I did. How did I know Maxwell and Yuy worked things out? Maxwell sent me a series of emails, beginning with this one: "L2 changed, not run down, all shiny new and not really familiar." "I had to make a speech! Lucky for me, I think fast on my feet!" And ending on this promising note: "For those following along and playing at home, all's well. Real good. Terrific." And if there was any question how it all turned out, Zechs shared a short note he'd received from Yuy: "Tell Chang to stand down. I have Duo's back from now on." The End.
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