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"Halfway to Sublimity"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: AU, male/male pairings, language Pairings: 1x2x1 Summary: When Duo moves to a new town on the river,
he meets a young man running the river and a rich boy who seems nice.
Maybe he'll settle down for awhile, or maybe not. "Halfway to Sublimity"
Chapter Thirty-One
(This is ending with Duo's POV-- like the story began, right?) "I hate snow and all things cold related to it, like icicles messing with the shingles, an' the ice crackin' up my walkway making more work for me in spring. Ruggie? If I'd wanted to live with snow I'da gone north." Duo had been shoveling and mopping up for hours. The seasonal but uncommon snow hit unexpectedly and there was no easy way to deal with it. He'd had to clear the dock, the path to the house, around the house, and eventually the path to the roadway and to the boatyard. And, not with Heero's help either, just him. Heero was due back from Serendipity any time and he wanted to look as if he'd been taking care of things and not just sleeping and playing with his dog Ruggles. He could have stayed with Heero, and it even made some sense, since he could have stayed and bummed around with his old Sweeper buds at the shipyards, but someone needed to get the old home fires burning and he wanted to be that person. Funny thing. He'd become such a homebody. Sure, blowing up ships had been fun, while it lasted, but when the smoke settled, there'd been a lotta folks hurt, good ships damaged and lost, and a few people died-good and bad, but none his closest friends. "I'm looking forward to the spring. There's celebrating my first-year anniversary of coming to Sublimity and meeting Heero, that's something special. There's Zechs and Noin's craptastically overblown no-surprise-there wedding to get all dress up for. Um... oh Trowa and Quatre's, steamboat shows ought to be starting by then. That'll be fun. Oh, Wufei and Hilde's baby is due, or is that in summer? What's wrong with you? Don't you remember either?" Ruggles whined and rolled over, begging for belly scratches not irritating questions, then he stiffened and instantly righted himself and dashed, barking up a storm all the way to the front door. Heero opened the door, ready for an armful of excited dog and lover. "Hey, don't slobber-no, Duo, you can, just not Ruggles." "Missed you." "Yeah, me, too. Howard sends greetings. Trowa, too. Quatre sends, well, take my pack, you'll see. All kinds of food." "Food! Yay, Quat! Whoa! Habib just sent over some of his lentil soup for us and another of his proverbs." "Which one was that?" "'In the eyes of his mother the monkey is a gazelle.' Go figure, but fresh bread! God, we'll have a feast tonight." "Yes, we will." Heero's expression as his eyes roved over Duo's face, chest, and legs spoke silently of a carnal feast to come of a sexual kind. "I slipped some meat into the soup." "Good." Heero rubbed his groin into Duo's. "I got some meat of my own to stuff somewhere." "Oooh, a come on. I like that and anticipating your coming, I thought up something to do about it on my own." "I'm ready for anything you want to give me," Heero said, all husky-voiced. "I got the tub water heating up, for later, I figured." "You figured right." Heero wasted no time cleaning up for dinner and Duo ladled bowls of warm soup. There were the thick slices of bread to slather with sweet butter and jam, bursting with the taste of summer past and bottles of beer from the White Fang. Desert was a long hot soak in the tub. When Duo stepped out of the tub, Heero helped him wrap his hair in a towel, then led him to the bedroom. "You're still wet," Duo commented while running a hand over the hard, toned body he knew so intimately and loved so well. "Wanna massage?" "Yes." He sank face down, arms spread wide onto the bed as proof. Duo poured a handful of mineral oil and let it warm slightly in his palms before letting it drizzle between his fingers onto Heero's back. He worked from the neck and shoulders down to the trim waist standing by the side of the bed. "I just love touching you." Duo didn't expect a reply and got a 'hn' at best. He started manipulating the muscles of Heero's neck and shoulders, loving the feel of the golden tanned skin and rope-like muscles born of hard work. Then, he squeezed and pressed his way down each arm all the way to the fingertips. "Relaxed?" "Uh, huh." "Yeah, I find it's so relaxing when you do it to me, too. This is sort of how everything between us usually starts. Sore muscles and too much day to day stress. A friendly back rub that leads to a leg massage to the full body massage when you need it." Duo spent a lot of time massaging his back and buttocks, now eliciting moans from his lover. He used just the right amount of pressure on Heero's thighs and calves to make him groan and finished up with a brain-voiding foot and toe massage. After that, he had to help Heero roll over. Again, he started at the wide shoulders, relieving the strains, and working his way down towards the toes only briefly brushing past the straining cock. "Hey." "Hey, yourself," Duo said, his voice low. "This feel good?" "You know it does." Heero made that quick reassurance. "It's just that you're quiet, as in, you're not talking or even looking me in the eye." "If I look into your eyes I'm gonna loose myself here. I wanted to give you something good and finish the job." "Fuck finishing." Duo met his eyes, "Okay, hot stuff," and crawled over him in order to reach his lips and kiss him thoroughly. For several minutes they confessed their feelings, their needs and love for one another through their touches. When Duo broke the lip-lock, he tried to put his thoughts into words. "Before I met you I didn't know what love was. Sex was just a physical release. Now I have everything and I just don't know how I got so lucky." "Me neither. And I have another dilemma." Duo actually was worried by that. "What?" "Shh, it's all right," Heero said, smothering him with another kiss and then saying, "I'm just trying to build up a little more sexual tension." "Got plenty of that-"Duo began his complaint. "Well, I still don't know what I want more, for you to make love to me or if I should make love to you." Duo chuckled. "What difference does it make? We'll both feel great no matter what." "True. So, I'm flat on my back and more relaxed than I've ever been. Take me now, lover." Heero flashed him a big, devilish grin. "On one condition." "What's that, babe?" Duo asked. Very sexy grin. "I'm docking the boat next time 'round." "Okay, okay," he giggled, almost giggled, and bounced around in anticipation of making his next move. "Just don't break my ribs," Heero warned. Duo looked down at the pulsing erection about a foot or so under his chin and reached to fondle it. Heero closed his eyes and let him jack his cock for less than a minute before twisting and body slamming Duo onto the bed. "What was... that for?" Duo asked, gasping at the pressing weight to his diaphragm as Heero crawled over him. "For stalling , you fucking tease." Heero smiled. "I wasn't stalling, just taking some time to make you feel good." "My dick already felt plenty good. Now," he said reaching back for Duo's erection, "I want you to feel good." Duo cried out, "God 'Ro!" when Heero lowered himself slowly, carefully onto his lover's hard on until it was buried deep. Wiggling to adjust himself, nearly made Duo lose control. He opened his eyes. Big mistake. The look of pleasure on Heero's face and his incredibly hot torso had him biting his tongue to gain some self-restraint. "Jeee-sus!" Heero started to ride him right away. Duo whined, "S-slow d-down," which he ignored. Only when he squeezed and pulled at his cock did he slow and stop for a short breather. A short one because his needs took over. It was a short ride to nirvana for sure. And then, after all that love making Heero had a full erection, again. "Doesn't that thing ever go down?" Duo asked, smiling lewdly and not a little bit winded. "Now and then, yeah, but rarely when you're around. Come lay next to me while I sleep?" Duo blew out the bedside candle and snuggled under the thick layer of blankets. "Sure, babe. If you're good I may wake you up with a present for Mr. Happy!" Duo laughed as Heero's face scrunched up in distaste. "Mr.--? Never mind Mr. Happy, just let me hold you." Duo felt a wet kiss smear across his cheek, and then the sometimes painful grip of Heero's arms pulling him into place and wrapping him in his warm embrace. The grip went slack moments later as Heero fell asleep. He was breathing deeply in minutes. After about an hour of alternating between watching Heero sleep and counting his lucky stars, Duo thanked God for small miracles, closed his eyes, and nodded off. (o) The young man closed the thick file, taking great care not to damage the aging papers within. "And that's the story," he said, "Admittedly, distorted by my family's point of view." "Wow." The young woman shot the cute librarian a winning smile. "Thank you for all this--sharing your great grandfather's diary and your time and everything." "You are very welcome. I, in fact, enjoyed having someone so interested in the history of this region. I took great pleasure in it-- immensely." "I think you should write a book, a history book based on what you have there." "Well," he demurred, "I once thought about it." "Oh, you should do it! How much of this can be verified? Can I visit these locations?" She didn't bother curbing her enthusiasm. She liked his faintly Asian looks and the frank looks of appreciation he kept giving her. "Some. The Governor Khushrenada's estate is a museum, open to the public in what is now Atlas City. And, before you ask, I checked; the caves were all blasted close." "What about the Watergardens?" "The building is still there. It still exists as a holding of the Winner Corporation, but is closed to the public. The Merquise fortress stands but it is fenced off. The rest is gone completely." "Gone?" "Totally. Wiped out by the Great Flood." "Tell me, tell me! I've been trekking the badlands of L4 and I'm new to Sanc." "Oh, that's right, you told me that." He sat back, interlacing his fingers and taking a moment to pull together his thoughts, including those centering on the exceptional girl sitting across the desk from him. Vivacious and new and hot. He leaned forward, fingering a loose hank of silky dark hair that had fallen into his mouth. "Okay, well, the winter of the steamship battle was the second or so of several cold winters. Snow built up in the mountains, especially to the north until one spring there was an early heat wave and the melt came too much and too fast and turned the Rogue into, well, its namesake. Here, I have a collection of articles I can show you." "Here," he opened another folder and read aloud, "The flood struck the upper Rogue River, displacing or killing at least 15,000 and shattering the notion that river engineering had eliminated the threat of flooding." He flipped to another page. "Let's see, oh, this is interesting: 'The invention of the steam engine had brought incredible changes. Railroads for one thing started replacing most of the river traffic. Young people left the rural areas and moved to the cities, leaving these small towns to dwindle---'" The librarian checked that his listener was still interested, then said, "-- which is why so few were actually killed and why no one bothered to come back and try to rebuild." "That's so sad, though. They all sounded so happy living there." "They did, didn't they? I always thought so, too." He flashed a nervous smile then pushed his wire-rimmed glasses further up his nose. "This article blames the burning of wood to fuel steam engines for the clearing of low-lying lands that had once been forests and speeding the spread of the flood waters." "The Sanc Red oak is protected now, isn't it?" "Mostly, in the preserves. Seems like everything's protected now except my pocketbook." The girl laughed. "No kidding!" "Um, yeah," he shuffled past a couple pages, and read, "So, after several years of heavy snow buildup, the spring saw warm weather, record rainfall (with more than seven inches falling on Sublimity in just a few hours), and early snow melted in the north, causing the upper Rogue to swell. Rain fell in the Sublimity to Serendipity valley, sending the smaller full rivers gushing into the already swollen Rogue. There was no place for it to go because the ground was saturated. Lakes, rivers, and streambeds were full." "Sounds terrible." "Yes. Luckily for L3, at the Rogue's destination there was scant rain and it remained dry and the excess drained to the sea, or L3 would have been a mess." "That's good. I grew up there, you know," she said. "You did? I'm native Sanc, I'm afraid. Not very exotic." "But it's where everything cool happens!" They exchanged shy smiles and then she asked for more information. "Yes, there's more here. 'Floods devastated the land, cresting at about 49 feet In some places, the river was sixty miles wide. Every town was flooded under the enormous surge of water.' Here it says downtown Serendipity was 'dry and dusty at noon, but by 2:00 p.m. mules were drowning on Main Street faster than people could unhitch them from wagons.' Ah, water poured in and had nowhere to go." "Poor mules, huh?" "It gets worse. Listen to this: 'Homes and stores stood for months in six to thirty feet of murky water. Dead animals floated everywhere. With the floodwater having nowhere to go, much of the flood zone remained under water through the spring and summer and into the fall. Farmers could not plant crops. The carcasses of thousands of dead animals lay rotting in stagnant pools. Mosquitoes found perfect conditions to breed that summer, carrying malaria and typhoid to refugee camps already burdened with dysentery and the threat of smallpox.'" "So how much was wiped out?" she asked. "Okay... looks like 27,000 square miles of land was inundated, not to mention that all the bridges and roads required extensive rebuilding." "No wonder no one wanted to return, that and the dead animals." "Right, instead, the river was dammed, making it the trickle it is today." He concluded by closing the folder. "So sad. Were any of the people you've told me about washed away?" "No. Surprisingly, they had already all moved away or were out of town at the time. Like I said, there was this mass migration of folks to the cities. Anyway, Duo, Heero, Wufei, Trowa-- they became rather wealthy all having shares in the steam engine inventions of Winner Corporation, and remained lifelong friends." "I heard stories about them growing up, not many, but a few. But how about that boy Todd who worked at the cabin?" "I don't know, but I'll bet there's records at the Watergardens that could tell us." "We'll have to go there and find out. Maybe there's still someone who knows our ancestors there?" "Possibly." "Tell me about your family connection to all this. You said you had one and my guess is through Wufei Chang, because, well, Heero wouldn't have had children and you like look kinda Oriental." "You're right, though it's pretty dilute, I think." "Oh, yes! Very! Just, um, all in a good way." After embarrassing themselves, the librarian pulled himself together to say, "My great grandfather was Wufei and his wife, Hilde, was my great grandmother. They had become embroiled in government issues, moving them to Sanc. They were part of the force behind changing the anti-gay laws, probably because they weren't. Zechs and his sister, Relena, were strong proponents as well." "That's cool to have such forward-thinking relatives." "Heh, heh, I'm sure Wufei had some pressure behind him. Quatre Winner had wasted no time demanding Zechs use his new position as General to Duke Dermail and change the gay laws. Dermail intended to continue using Relena as a figurehead, but Winner wanted her to be promoted to prime minister, that or himself. My great grandfather stepped in and resolved it all." "I guess having been the one to kill that Treize Khushrenada guy gave him some powerful credentials." "I guess, though, it haunted him all his life. He'd wanted a real fight, you know, an honor thing." "Men and honor!" she laughed. "Well, sure-" "That noblesse oblige thing was big back then, huh? Good thing, because Zechs Merquise helped out my family, which was the Blooms in L3. He found Trowa Barton's connection there with an aunt and uncle and an estate of his own and money, which he turned over to Catherine." "That was nice of him." "Yeah, he didn't need it. And she stayed with the circus. She, ah, my great grandmother was Catherine Bloom. I guess that's where I get my wild streak." "Wild? I think you're charming." Realizing what he'd said, caused the librarian another awkward moment. The young woman giggled and revealed her depths of sensitivity when she quickly changed the subject. "What of Dorothy the laundry lady?" The young man jumped at the opportunity to display his knowledge and establish his creds once again with the cute girl. "She became Relena's personal assistant and closest advisor. Dorothy was a very strong willed, determined woman, and kind at heart, but saw her kindness as a weakness. I think she grew into her role and accepted who she was, because she stayed with Relena until her death. Oh, and don't ask why a retired general built that bridge." "I think it's obvious. Dorothy's father wanted to replace the shipping with overland trade entirely and to do that he'd have to bridge the rivers. And that hadn't been popular with guys like that Dekim Barton who had everything bet on the water trade. That about started the whole war thing those guys had." "I'd say you're probably right." He smiled. "You must have grown up hearing about some of these guys." "I know my great grandmother left a few stories about her brother and his steamboat showboats, but that happened later, after the war and all." "That's right. Trowa took charge of one of the Winner Corporation enterprises. He upgraded and fancified a couple of steamboats and docked them in Serendipity and Sublimity." He withdrew a photograph. "Many of the old-time dances of the towns were given on board his steamboats, which would be tied up at the docks or cruise up and down the river, anchoring at times on dark nights on river." "The boats carried their own orchestra, I was told," she added, "Yeah, like in that picture, they looked like, like palatial passenger boats. Hospitality reigned, and no admission fee being charged." "My great grandfather said that he and Quatre remained together all their lives and died only months apart in time." "How romantic, huh? What about Duo and Heero?" she asked. "Duo and Heero traveled a lot to see to the growing steam engine powered train routes, then moved much further away, taking the last steamboat out of Sublimity." He handed her a few more photos of old flatboats and docks. "These were all taken years later, after the flood and pretty far south." "And you say those places are really gone totally?" "Yes. Before you get to the highway to Atlas City, there's a turn off for the Rogue River nature preserve. There's hiking trails and the access road to the Watergardens." "I'd like to go there and see for myself what the flood left behind. Maybe I can find a piece of that bridge." The overhead lights blinked off and back on a couple times. "Is it that late?" "I've kept you all afternoon!" "My pleasure. Really. Say, would you like to see the Peacecraft estate? It's not far, up on a hilltop in town. All the streets around it are named after the lost towns along the river." "Oh, I'd love to! I may need to get a bite to eat, though." "Perfect, I know a wonderful bistro a short walk away." "I think I'm going to enjoy my visit to Sanc, Mr. Chang." "Max, please. Mr. Chang's my father." "Max. Nice. And I'm Dotty. Dotty Devers." She made a face. "My crazy parents," she said with a shrug. "Mine, too. So, your great grandmother was Catherine Bloom." "Yep, and I was named after Dorothy Catalonia. And don't tell me, you were obviously named after-" "Duo Maxwell. You guessed it. Great grandson of Wufei and Hilde Chang gets named Max." "Aren't we the pair? What do you think the odds are of us meeting this way?" "Better than Duo and Heero's odds at finding one another and they managed to find true sublimity; at least that's what I was told, and, in fact, I think they ended up living in Euphoria, by the sea." "Now that's a romantic ending," she said, gathering her purse and following the most interesting young man out of the library and on a new journey. (o) Heero asked, "Did your travels ever take you to the coast?" "Have I seen the ocean?" Duo rephrased the question. "Nope. I mean, once I got here... What could be better than a place called Sublimity?" "I don't know, but I've heard of a small town further south named Euphoria." "You're kidding." Duo searched Heero's face for a clue to whether or not he was pulling his leg. "I'm not." "Funny name," Duo said. "Kinda braggy, I'd say." "Maybe it's the truth? I once heard of a place called Perfidy. It was a small village once separate, but later it merged with the next town over." "Merged, indeed," Duo remarked. "Really, I mean, actually. The buildings were so close together they looked stitched...or, knitted by the interwoven bricks at the edges." "You never went on like that before." "No poetic observations?" Heero asked with a smile. "No, you were the silent spectator type." "The shop windows reflected steely panes as if they were riveted shut," Heero went on. Duo grunted. "Doesn't sound friendly," he said. "Let's avoid the place." "I was describing the town of Perfidy." Means 'treachery' but actually the place had a good feel to it. I liked it there." Duo looked his lover over and shook his head. "You would." "Just kidding. You know, I always wanted a real vacation." "Oh, yeah? And you're thinking of this Euphoria place? Then let's go." And they did, giving Todd the keys to their house, to give to Rashid when next he saw him. "Tomorrow," Todd Sweeny said. "He's driving me to boarding school in Sanc, if you can believe it. Me! In the capital!" "You'll knock'em dead with your work ethic and smart-ass attitude," Heero said. "Think so? Well, thanks, and write to me, through Mr. Winner. He'll have my address there." Duo promised he would and then they took Ruggles for a walk to their boat, and hopped aboard. The Rogue River was at peak spring flood and the small steamboat, Wing2, passed serenely over the sand bars, churning south without once catching on spars or fallen trees. The river led on through useful reef-bordered channels, the land beyond the banks more beautiful with every day. Draws and bottomlands were choked with wild plums, cherries, gooseberries, currants, and strawberries. The prairie was alive with animals. Duo and Heero feasted on wild fruit and fresh meat, sharing the later with their scruffy companion, and indulged themselves with a sense of timelessness - of savoring Eden. They traveled day after day up the dazzling sunlit reaches toward the retreating horizons of an untracked and smiling world, never looking back to when the last boat vanished - plumed smoke, misted paddles, and mournful whistle - from the Rogue River. A/N: The quote: "I'm docking the boat next time 'round," is courtesy of Waterlily. The End
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