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"Multi Universes Trifecta"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, angst, sap Pairings: 1x2, 3x2, 1x2x3 (or combination thereof) A/N: In horse racing terminology, a trifecta is
a bet in which the bettor must predict which horses will finish first,
second, and third in exact order. This is something like that. Without
the horses or the racing or the betting. I'm keeping the" three"
part. In that order, more or less. Thank you, Waterlily, for the fabulous editing
job while you moved across the world. This story is for Snowdragon's birthday. Best
wishes, sweetie! Summary: Duo wakes up to discover he has two boyfriends
living two different lives in two universes at the same time. When
the third one comes around, it's over. "Multi Universes Trifecta " Chapter One- Home was never this good Seagulls crying in the distance. I loved that sound. It meant peace. My eyes seemed glued shut. I wanted to leave them that way and float on the waves. Rocking in a hammock. Oh! At the beach house. That's where I was. Nice. I lay straining to hear the bird calls and imagining the warmth of the sun, the cooling breeze off the sea, until the bird sounds morphed into human voices. I unpeeled one eyelid from its salty crust and peered into the vague, watery world of light outside my head. Maybe I was underwater? I wiggled a finger; I know because I felt the fuzzy cloth under it. Ah. The sunbaked warmth came from a thin blanket. I listened carefully and tracked the sound of air nearby. I tried focusing my eyes on that and the sea breeze turned out to emanate from a wheezy old air vent. Not the beach. Not anywhere nice. Why had I opened that eye? Where am I? It was natural to want to know that first off, although, I was guessing from the disinfectant smell and minimal bedding that I was in a hospital. Why? Well, that would be the next logical question, wouldn't it? I felt no pain, but I wasn't all there, which could have signaled pain killers. Why? And stepping on the heels of the whiny "why" was my next query: what time is it? None of these questions got asked aloud, because I couldn't seem to talk. What I wanted was to go back to where I'd been and stay there-that warm peaceful place. So, I gave up on looking around the blurred universe and escaped back to nirvana. (o) When next I awoke-or more precisely, when I became aware of my surroundings because I don't think I'd been sleeping- I was in a car and groggy. Memories of waking in a medical room faded the more I tried concentrating on them. I had no idea how I got there or where I was going, but I did recognize the driver. Trowa Barton. His hair trimmed short in back hung long to one side over an eye, the one furthest from me. He looked young close up, with a tan and light freckles. Not knock-your-socks-off gorgeous, but damn good-looking in a quiet way. Nice. In profile he didn't have an aggressive jaw nor was his grip on the steering wheel a white-knuckled one of a man focused on the job-just the opposite. He was laid-back personified. He just oozed calm. I could relax knowing I'd left myself open to attack with him watching my back. We were both in our Preventers work clothes. Why was that? My eyes closed on their own and I let those facts settle in my brain a moment, and then I knew we both worked in the same field office, so all was fine. "Hey, you falling asleep on me?" Trowa asked. I looked his way just in time to catch his hand moving over to rub against my thigh. My thigh! My brain strained to come to full alert status, but the only thing that did was my dick. Full steam ahead, Little Maxie! "Um..." "It's okay. It's been a hard day, I know, but we got Yuy's team in place without blowing cover and got out so we should enjoy our down time, as brief as it will be." Trowa said this while casting me a sly smile and turning off the freeway ramp to a broad avenue. "Ah, yeah." I couldn't remember that assignment, but for some reason it didn't matter one iota. I accepted it with everything else as fact and moved with the flow. "Pick a place and order up something and we'll swing by and pick it up." His hand moved further up my leg, definitely into Dangerous Territory. "Don't want to waste time I can be spending with my boyfriend." Boyfriend!? Come again? Who me? I was Trowa Barton's boyfriend!? Me!? When...? Touch more! Oh yeah... "You okay?" he asked, seriously. "Maybe we should go back and have the medics check that head of yours. You must have hit it on the aircraft door harder than I thought." Pieces fit together now. I had awoken at some time in a hospital, no, the Preventers clinic, probably. Must have been that. I certainly didn't want to go back there and give up the opportunity of a roll in the hay with my buddy, noooo, my boyfriend, Trowa. "No, I'm fine." And I realized that I felt terrific, in fact. Not a single ache or pain, which seemed a little weird. I always had something hurting from some minor, or major, injury I'd incurred during field work. But sorting myself out now, I absolutely felt better than ever. "Feel great! I was at the clinic and got checked out. They wouldn't have let me out if I wasn't. Just a little tired." "Logical. Sally would have locked you in. You made it out to the car fine. Okay." I could see him checking that off his mental list and smile when he came up with the next rational excuse for me acting abnormally. "Must be in need of food. I could use some." "And what you got," I added gamely. When I saw the glitter in his eyes, check, single hazel eye, I knew I'd said the right thing. "Yeah, and yet you haven't called in an order." "Ah." I found my cellphone where I expected it to be, in my inner jacket pocket, and looked up my contacts. Barton... Chang... "Chang?" "As much as I admire the man, he can fend for himself. I want you alone tonight," Trowa remarked. I'd been thinking "Chang takeout", but of course it must have been Wufei's number. Common enough name. Anyway, as good as I felt, my head wasn't exactly on straight yet. "You're hopeless tonight," he sighed. "How about Turk's up ahead?" "Okay." I was more interested in what Trowa's hand was doing, his nail buzzing along the inseam of my uniform slacks, and Little Maxie laboring under layers of clothing for more direct attention. "At least that seems normal," Trowa observed. Between his raspy voice and the additional pressure from his hand, my body was thrumming for more. Forget the food! But I didn't actually say that, so Trowa wended his way through the takeout line, ordered by memory (I just nodded at whatever), and, since I hadn't managed to get out my wallet, treated me to a dinner of what turned out to be falafel sandwiches, hot and fragrant. Love the food! I couldn't wait to eat. We gobbled it in the parking lot, washing it down with some kind of minty, sweet tea drink. "Much better. Where to now?" I asked, hoping it was home. Home. I conjured up a white-washed, wood structure bleached by the sun. "I'm taking you home," Trowa said. "Okay." Home turned out to be Trowa's apartment. My stuff was there, too, I discovered when he opened the closet to hang our uniforms, so it was our apartment. And the more I thought about it, the righter that felt. Sure. I lived with my boyfriend. Nice. It all fit together nicely. Real nice. "I'll start the shower." Trowa said as he strode off. I stood staring, detached, unable to voice my feeling as I watched him strip off his clothes. He turned my way and scooped the hair off his face. He was definitely expecting something, and for a second there I wasn't sure if this was really happening. There was, like, a wobble around the edges of my consciousness. I chanced a smile. I'd have to show him I wasn't afraid to join him, that we'd done this dozens of times in the past, so I removed the rest of my clothing, folding them into a neat pile, even picking up Trowa's things, folding them and placing them side by side. The moment of doubt passed with a pins and needles feeling replacing the numbness. I'd done this before. Hadn't I? His hot lips were on mine and I felt dizzy and light. It was if every cell in my body struck a chord at once, sending a thrumming from my toes to my ear tips, and I fell into his arms. Hot water rained down and strong hands massaged my back. Our arousals surged together, mine slipping and sliding against that smooth hard place near his hips. I was shorter than him (in regards to height!) by inches. It was like that. One minute I'd be floating and reveling in a flood of sensations, the next I'd notice some stupid detail. My brain on sex was firing like crazy. I came with a moan, and if he hadn't caught me, I probably would have ended up face down in the tub. "Steady, Duo." "Whoa, shouldn't exercise on a full stomach, heh, heh." I'd nearly passed out with happiness. The idea of getting regular sex with him sent my blood supply southwards, leaving me light-headed. "Let's do that again," I suggested. He raised an eyebrow. "I'm fine, really. I wouldn't lie about being injured. Not to you." That seemed to convince him. Man, he must have been crazy about me to make it that easy, though, which was comforting to know. Getting Trowa to trust you wasn't a given thing; he probably hadn't granted more than a handful of people that exceptional offering. So it mattered. A lot. "After we dry off," he said. "I think you're safer horizontal on a mattress." Right! This was what I'd always wanted. I was living my dream for real. I felt overwhelmed with happiness and wonder. And yet... something wasn't quite right. Stupid me. What more could I want? And then I sighed, selfish thing that I was. Here I lay wrapped in the comforting embrace of the man who loved me. He'd told me so. Trowa Barton loved me. What more could I want? My eyes wanted to close, but I fought them. I didn't want to lose this feeling of wellbeing and I had the gut feeling everything would be whisked away when I slept. Silly really. Trowa was breathing deeply, asleep. I closed my eyes and instantly regretted it. I wrenched them open again, taking way too great an effort to be right. A woozy feeling coursed through my body, affecting my vision so that the outline of Trowa asleep on my chest grew foggy, and my ears, so that I could only dimly hear the ticking of the clock on the wall... (o) That same feeling of well-being garnished with well-deserved (I thought so) suspicion followed me into the morning. My body felt really good and so did the one I'd wrapped myself around. Smooth warm skin over hard muscle and it fit just right-and that wasn't quite as it should be. Trowa was taller; I'd discovered this in the shower and remembered clearly how our bodies slid into comfortable positions. Now my knees fit into his, my hips around the luscious bottom I hoped to explore more deeply, and when I felt around with my toes, our ankles matched. Possibly it was how we were bent, or I'd grown overnight, but Trowa's smell had changed. Not that I usually kept attuned to how people smelled, but when you've been as intimate as Trowa and I had been, that musky something stuck around in your head, my head anyway. And this was a new scent. A queer doing-wrong feeling ached through to my teeth. I even felt my hair lift with it. I snatched my hands away. "Duo? You awake?" I shot up, eyes open wide, flailing at the sheets. That hadn't been Trowa's voice at all! "Waa-a?" Hands I knew could bend steel clung to my shoulders or I would have upended onto the floor. "Duo!?" my bedmate cried out. He looked angry but then puzzled and then worried, probably as the shock of my outburst wore off bit by bit. The fingers released me and rubbed my shoulders in circles. Oooh, yeah... Nice... "You haven't been on a hair-trigger like thatfor years. Bad dream?" Years?! I'd been sleeping with Heero Yuy for years? Yeah, it was Heero. His coarse dark hair fell into his face and he raked it out of his eyes- penetrating, staring, deep, dark blue pools of earnest concern. "Sorry." It was all I could think of to say. I certainly wasn't about to tell him I thought I'd been in bed with Trowa, wherever he was. And Trowa's complete disappearance should have bothered me more than it did, but it didn't. Even though Trowa was my boyfriend and I lived with him? What was with that? I lived with one guy and had another on the side for what amounted to years? If that was true, they were both pretty dense or... they couldn't pass up Duo the Slut Supreme under any circumstances. And the name fit because when Heero pulled me into a mind-stunning kiss, I just let my bold friend tumble me flat on my back amongst the pillows, take me for a ride and have his way. "Let me make you forget it," he murmured. His way was my way; apparently my body thought so with Little Maxie leading the way. "God... love you, Duo..." How lucky was that? I filled with this crazy-ass, hilarious pleasure and nearly burst out laughing. Heero Yuy in love with me! And Trowa! Both! "Take me," I begged. It must have been great because I heard the sound of a distant fog horn, and I loved that sound. Surrounded by the comforting warmth of that cared-for feeling, I knew someone was looking out for me and submitted entirely to the wonder of it. If only that niggling feeling of something missing would go away. (o) "What happened?" I wondered, growing tired of feeling groggy and wondering where I was, why, and, most terrifying of all, with whom. This time it was Trowa sitting up in bed holding his phone. Almost by reflex, I looked up at the wall knowing I'd find his wall clock. 5:00 AM. God-awful time. "Heero's not responding." His face was lined with concern. "To what?" I even looked around expecting to find Heero's lifeless body-or something. Trowa must have been worried. He kept to the facts and didn't give me hell for not paying attention. "He didn't report in." Ah, of course. Trowa and I had dropped his team off. Heero always reported in at designated times. Greenwich Time could be set by his activities. A "no call" meant serious trouble. Trowa was pulling on clothes, so I got up expecting to be weary, but, once again, there I was feeling like a million bucks. "Director's office ASAP for orders," he told me. "Count me in." This time, I hadn't even closed my eyes for a microsecond when... (o) Thrown into confusion again! Too fast... too fast! I had assumed in a muddled and buried way that I had been bounced into another change of houses-that would be Heero's this time? But instead I was surrounded by billowing smoke. No, not smoke. The fogginess was cold as well as thick, contributing to my serious lack of sense of direction. I looked around, everything was a mist, and panic was about to set in. I staggered and a hand grabbed me. It gave me a vivid, physical shock, like a live wire, but it worked to collect my wits. Heero. It was Heero's support that got me my footing back. "Thanks." I gave him a flustered smile. "Hn." Heero smiled back at me. "My boyfriend's become a klutz." The pins-and-needles feeling I'd felt before was gone, replaced - some seconds ago when I thought about it-by a very nice feeling that all was well. Well, it was about time. It didn't occur to me to mention Trowa's concern for his no-call from work. In fact, that seemed unreal and very, very far away now. Heero was obviously safe. I was okay. We were happy. All was well. "I guess. Maybe I'm growing?" I grinned back and noticed the fog clearing behind his head. The breeze smelled of fish and things oceanic. A gull screeched by, swirled overhead and landed near our feet. I had a bag of sandwiches. As if by magic it appeared in my hand. I was carrying it and in retrospect I must have bought the food to bring along on our walk and share. I dug around a bit, and tore off a bit of crust. "If you give him that," Heero warned, "you'll have the entire gull population after the rest of our picnic." "He doesn't look villainous," I said, but dropped my hand and re-sealed the top of the bag. "'Greedy beggars' Quatre calls them." Heero draped an arm across my shoulders and we resumed our stroll on the beach. "Opportunists," I corrected. "If you're hungry, soliciting food isn't an act of greed." I'd had to steal food to eat at way too young an age. I never had sufficient food and never took more than I could eat unless it was to share with a less nimble, equally starving kid. "You're right," Heero said supporting me in every way. He added a firm squeeze around my shoulders, sending shivers down my spine. Good shivers. I didn't want to interrupt the wonderful moment with questions. I'd live in the moment. The sand felt warm after a few minutes of sun so we meandered to the water's edge and dipped our toes. We rolled up our pant legs and splashed a little deeper. "Found a shell!" I found a piece of a clam all sun-bleached and its rippled edge worn smooth from being tossed by the waves over and over into the sand. "I found a treasure, too," Heero said. A finger ran along my jaw, others dug into my hair, and then he tipped my head to the side. Our mouths mashed together as our bodies crushed into one critical mass of explosive material. Hot damn! "I'm enjoying our vacation already," he said when we came up for air. "Are you?" Ah, a piece of information! I was vacationing with Heero. Cool. "Yeah, this is the best. Love this place." I said that as we rounded a dune and a house came into sight. It stood back a ways and atop a cliff. White-washed and bleached by the sun. Under a wide porch hung a pair hammocks and a window looking out over the sea. I knew it was where we were staying the instant I saw it. "I have good news." "Yeah?" I wondered, what now? Heero frowned a little more, adding on to his often grumpy facial expression. "I said 'good' not 'terrible'." "So, tell me." I couldn't help but tense up ready to run or kill something. "Relax," Heero said. "It's just that Quatre told me he'd consider selling us the house." I looked up at my dream house. "That one?" "None other." Heero appeared pleased. "Cool." I smiled. Can we afford it?-type questions had no place in this universe, apparently. I liked the magical wave-of-a-hand sort of way things simply fell into place here and wouldn't think of altering how things worked. "What can we do to convince him to sell now, do you think?" "I thought you'd have an idea." He led us up a narrow trail to the house. "Me?" "You, yes." Heero wasn't being serious. He was in fact being playful and fun. I could count on one hand the number of times I could recall seeing him this way-one hand missing four fingers. "Couldn't we just low-ball him an offer and pray for his benevolence?" "No. He likes a challenge. You know how he is. He'll dilly-dally around for ages if we don't prod him. I was considering extortion, but we can't blackmail him unless you have something on him. He never breaks a rule and he's so scrupulously honest." "Right and bribery is out." I was confused about many things, but Quatre Winner's self-sufficiency was a surefire bet. "There's nothing we got he can't get himself." "Almost nothing." Heero looked absolutely wicked and could not hold it in. It was an expression rarely seen, so I knew he was keen on something. I'd wait him out so he could get the maximum enjoyment out of his secret knowledge. We reached the house and sat on the wood-slat floor of the porch, our legs dangling into the sand. No doubt about it this was somewhere safe; somewhere I could lean back and just be me, rather than an agent, ex-Gundam pilot, fighter always on alert. I could stay here forever like this. If only... Damn it all. There was that irritating voice in my head prompting me to think. Things weren't perfect as is. And then Heero capped it off by leaning over and kissing me. If that didn't make me feel like a guilty two-timing cheater, nothing would! "I could eat if you offered me something," Heero said, hinting badly. The bag I'd been carrying contained a complete meal for two. From the neat packaging and cute labels I determined that we'd gone for a walk to buy this. Grilled tuna on rye, pickles (I never would have gone to that much trouble to include pickles, but I loved them!), chips, and lemonade sodas. "So, what is it that Quat can't get for himself?" I asked at last. I could only hold out so long, not as long as Heero, obviously. "Chang." In a single word, succinctly put, Heero blew my mind. And it was pretty shot by this time. "You mean Wufei?" Surely not the takeout joint... Heero nodded. "Quat likes him?" "Yes." "Likes him, as in a has-the-hots for him kinda way?" "Yes." "Damn." "And Wufei doesn't know it." "Um," I wondered at that. Wufei was nobody's fool. Unless he was an idiot at romance, which was a distinct possibility in this universe. Yes, I'd come to think of this reality as my Heero Universe. "And he would like to ask him out, but can't bring himself to do it. If we could make that happen, he would owe us," Heero concluded. "Big time," I agreed. I heard a ringtone and felt a wave of nausea. "Don't answer that." Heero did. "I have to. It's a work emergency." His face pulled down into a concentrated frown as he listened and I knew it was Trouble summoning us from our vacation time. I had been right to warn him. When he ended the call, I was already standing. I just knew we would have to go. I could just feel it. "T-trowa's..." Heero's voice cracked. I could see he was really upset. "Trowa's come up missing in action." "We'll find him." I knew we had to leave immediately, but remembered I had no idea where in the world we were headed. "Office?" "Airport. Leave our bags." From that I guessed Heero intended to find Trowa and return here. Vacationus interruptus not endous. The day had suddenly thickened with clotting clouds blotting out the sunlight. I felt wobbly and had a moment to firmly plant my feet before the horizon tilted on its axis. TBC
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