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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 Four - My love life was never this hot "AH!" I lost my balance and fell hands first onto a rocky slope. My fingers scrabbled through the loose rock for a hold, but each time I thought I had a grip of something secure, it would give way and I'd be clutching wildly for another. "Argh!" I cried out in frustration and fear as I scraped along the rough surface at least body-length's distance downhill. First one hand, then the other clawed then latched onto a narrow shelf of stone that had been too narrow for my feet to catch. I had to find a footing; my hands felt like ice and were going numb. "Duo!" Thank God! I chanced a glance up and saw Trowa silhouetted against the white sky. "Tro!" Tiny dots like flakes of ash from an explosion were whirling down upon me. When one touched my hand it melted. Snow! Where fuck was I now? I struggled for a secure grip and craned my neck, trying to catch what Trowa was shouting at me. "...rope..." At least I thought he'd said that. I couldn't risk another look. I was afraid to budge from my spot of relative safety to either sneak another peek at Trowa or lean out and see how far I was going to fall. But... My fingers couldn't grasp the ledge much longer. I hoped Trowa had an idea. What a way to go out! After surviving the war, all those battles and near escapes, I nearly laughed at imagining the God of Death plummeting down a cliff in an alternative universe. It set me to wondering if I'd die in the other universes as well and made be sad to think of leaving Trowa alone in this one. And Heero! Heero would never know why I never showed up at the beach house. Would he miss me and die a sorrow-filled, lingering death far, far away in the other universe never knowing what had happened to me? God. That was just too sad to think about. Best avoid dying. It wasn't just a rope that hit me on the head; it was a climbing harness, like the one Trowa showed me he used while practicing on the circus high wire. I jeopardized my hold for a heart-stopping second, releasing one hand to grab at the leather. When I'd slid it up over the elbow and bent my arm, I had a secure support, and just in time. My fingers looked white with cold. There was no way I was going to climb into the harness properly, but with my next flashy move, I managed to get my other arm hooked inside. It was as good as I could do. "GO!" I shouted up at the sky. When my shoulders ached from my weight, I knew my feet were no longer supporting me. I didn't think about the rope. I moved up. I noticed I had on a leather jacket and hiking boots. A hat and gloves would have been nice, but I was grateful I'd thought (if that's how it worked) to put on something more than the t-shirt I'd been wearing with Heero. The airy flakes I'd seen before were now clumping into big wet blobs that smacked me in the face. Poor Trowa, hauling my ass up this cliff in a snowstorm! Weariness hit me as soon as I hit the horizontal ground. I was so tired I almost missed seeing Trowa detaching the rope from the block-and-tackle pulley set up. It listed to one side from holding my weight kept upright by a chain wrapped around all that was left of a fence post. The rest of the fence was missing. I guessed it had been dragged off the side of the cliff when the mountain side collapsed under it. Glad to have missed that momentous event. Unless... I didn't know where this cabin was. I wasn't sure if in my universe Wufei had such a place, no... it was Quatre's cabin in Trowa's universe... wasn't it? Ugh! It wasn't that complicated, Maxwell-think! But... If it were so, wouldn't it be one of those strange, extraordinary coincidences if the rockslide that fell on my car in the other universe where Heero and I just barely avoided being smashed was the same one as this? "C'mon," Trowa urged me off my ass and towards the cabin. "Your leg-?" Say no more about my leg. I'd twisted it. It hurt, but I could put some weight on it, not that he let me. No, my hero (gulp!) swung me into his arms and carried me across the clearing, past a wood pile, and over the threshold. What was it with me and comfort-scenarios in my current cross-universe lifestyle? The answer to that would have broken all my illusions, and it was too soon for that. The heat from the wood fire was such a sudden change from the frosty temperature I'd been enduring, that my nose and fingers tingled. "Whoa! It's sooooo warm in here." We left our boots by the door and Trowa explained about the primitive conditions. No bath, outdoor loo, water unheated. "Not what I'd expect from a Quat who insists on spotless pastels and who gets manicures," I commented smoothly, certain I'd nailed down the rustic cabin's provenance. "Yeah," Trowa said. There was a wry smile emerging from his placidness (something I'd done teased from him, heh, heh). "Who'da thought he'd have the pioneer spirit?" "Maybe he missed out on all that in his childhood?" "It's not out of nostalgia," Trowa agreed, the smile curling the corners of his mouth and adding a crinkle at his eyes. Ni-ice. "Guilt?" I proposed. Trowa shook his head not willing to commit to my assessment. "So, I started the propane water heater an hour ago, when I located it. I didn't know about it until I looked around... while waiting... Until then cold water will have to do." "You haven't been here long then?" I asked. Naturally, he'd been expecting me to show up. I didn't understand how these universes worked, but the best way for me to deal with entering a new one from the last one seemed to be to accept the situation and integrate into it. After a few minutes I knew from experience that I'd feel right at home. "Not too long." Trowa helped me to the "sink" where I cleaned the dirt from my scraped up hands and off my face. "What do you want to do?" I asked. He wasn't volunteering much information, leaving me to prompt him, and, as it turned out, that question triggered his inner tiger. He rounded on me. Evidently, he'd been holding in some anger. "Duo! What in hell were you thinking? Why did you come up the trail? It's dangerous even in good weather! Where's your car? Where's Heero? I came as you told me to-" "-Only to save my life." I kissed his lips lightly, testing. He crushed his lips to mine, tongue prodding, prying, trying to prove he had control over something, I guess. I let him dominate my mouth while hanging on to him for balance and avoiding putting weight on my gimpy knee. Minutes later he let me breathe. "Why...?" he whispered into my nearest ear. He'd come this far on nothing but his pure faith in me. "I was driving with Heero-" "So you found him? He's okay?" "Yep, and the slide happened and crushed my car, but we were fine and we walked to the coast and Heero's waiting for us at the beach house. Beach House, 'Tro. Not Cabin." "You said vacation house. I never'd been to the beach place." "Well, in my universe you had. Anyway, that explains why you are here." "And you?" he asked, totally eluding the whole side discussion on alternate universes. "I took the trail up because the road was blocked by the same rock fall." Of course. "Must have happened just after I got here." He let me go and stalked over to the window and pushed aside the heavy insulated curtain. "Shit." "What?" I asked. I could see nothing but white and guessed what he was thinking, but I knew Trowa was layered; I never could be sure what he had tucked away inside his head. Heero, yes; Trowa, no. It added to his complexity. It made him illusive and interesting and dangerous. "We can't get out of here until the snow stops." "Not driving blind down a mountain road?" I teased. "Where's the adventure in pleasant days with safe drives? Tired of living dangerously?" I provoked him a little more. Speaking of living dangerously, it occurred to me that mocking Trowa while holed up in a very small cabin for an unknown amount of time might be awfully like being caged with a hungry tiger and waving a piece of red meat. I got the lethal look when he turned his head and stared, narrow and green, just like he was long and lean. "My adventure is all cooped up in here with me." His smile showed an edge of teeth. "Good thing we have supplies," I said, loaded with optimism and grateful Heero and I had eaten like gluttons in case Trowa hadn't had time to shop. "You bring anything with you?" "Luckily this is Quat's place and he stocks it pretty good. I brought...other supplies." Ah, yes, important ones. Sexy ones. "I thought I'd eat you, if it came down to that." His predatory smile widened as he snapped his jaws at me and growled. I wiggled my butt and egged him on a little more. "Just you try." Oh, there was pain, but not much, and not mine. Hitting the hard wood floors with me on top must have smarted. He howled like he'd broken something to make me go all soft and comforting, and then rolled us over and pinned me to the rug-covered floor nearest the couch. Whatever his plans had been, my throbbing knee forced compromises. Draped over the back of the couch wasn't the worst way to be taken, especially after having received the hottest of blow jobs. All that licking and his leaving little nip marks on my hip bones and the swallow-me-whole talk? Worked for me. When pressed, my quiet Trowa came on as a ferocious lover. And a kind one. He cleaned me up using some of that precious, warm water, and made us dinner from the larder of instant noodle bowls, canned soups, and tea. To note: Quatre wasn't much of a cook at the cabin, apparently. "No cell phone," I told Trowa when he asked if mine was working. "The last time I had it I was ordering food with you." "You were trying to." He wouldn't let me live down the Chang takeout thing. "Doesn't matter. The storm's so bad I can't get satellite either. However long this lasts, we're not going far." "Cool." I smiled, perfectly serene and ready to wait out the storm rather than go ploughing through who-knew-how-many miles of the freezing, white stuff. "Why the beach house?" he asked me. Heero hadn't questioned my choice of meeting places, but I hadn't spent as long a stretch of time with him, so maybe we never got around to deep, soul-searching talks. "No beaches, no oceans on the colonies," I said. "It's so entirely new to me and the sounds and smells..." I really felt more at home in Heero's universe. I'd like it especially if I could have Trowa there with me...us... all three of us at the beach house. And I'd choose this universe over mine. In a heartbeat. I could have Heero, I bet. I could have Trowa, already did. I could find happiness. In my universe, I'd be forever yearning for what might be. No, no, no! I could change that! I'd make it all become real; I convinced myself I could, if I ever made it back there. It would be wild, wouldn't it? I must have been smiling goofily, because he chuckled and smiled. "Quatre's good for some hunting and fishing. You could do that too, but, now, this visit has had a lot better balance." Ah, Trowa was harking back to his workout stays here with back-to-basics Quatre. So, I did make things better for Trowa. What a discovery! And when I looked up, all I could see were his eyes gazing deeply into mine. "Find what you're looking for?" I asked, unsure if we were about to fool around or embark on some other journey of the heart. "I love you. My heart...sings for you." He said that. "Wow." I had to say more. That was too fucking lame a response and he deserved a better one. "I love you, too." I didn't tell him how Little Maxie danced for him. I wasn't an idiot at romantic stuff. I knew that would have diminished what he'd said. I left what I'd said to stand on its own. "Heero loves you, too." And there it was. Tro' said it and now he was studying me, watching for my reaction. Not knowing how things worked in this universe, I'd done pretty good thus far, but this took me so far off-guard my stomach did a loop-de-loop. This could be a bombshell he was laying on me for the first time, or old news we'd rehashed before. I didn't know and he wasn't giving me any clues how to act. So, I winged it. "He told me." Well, he had in his universe! Trowa's eyes widened with surprise. Oops! "He did? He finally did? Fuck. I was so sure he wouldn't be able to." "Maybe Wufei lit a firecracker under him?" I chanced. Why not? Didn't the Chinese invent the things? Trowa gave me a look. "Weak joke, Maxwell." I gave him a carefree shrug. "However, that would explain us all meeting at the beach house. You know, to work things out between us." This made sense to me even though the idea had just popped into my head. I mean, really. There were complications. Heero and Trowa were AWOL from their missions in their reverse-respective universes, and the director was under the impression that they were in danger. There would be consequences. Those were serious offenses in my universe! Thinking about my universe... What the hell were we all doing back there? What was going on in my universe while I was sorting out my life in these alternate ones? Not only did I find it hard to genuinely care about my universe, I didn't want to return to it, that life. "Could be. What do you want?" he asked. His question drew me out of my head again, which was good because my head was being to scare me and I had no answers for my questions. I did for his. "What you want." He huffed an exasperated little huff. "Duo-." Well, I was tired of delicately dancing around the most important questions. I knew how Heero and Trowa felt about me (at last), but nothing would come of my dream (now that I had established in MY mind that the three of us should be together), it would remain a fantasy forever, if Trowa and Heero didn't want each other as well. I had absolutely no evidence to support that they felt anything toward one another, beyond than friendship. But... I had two more universes to blow the deal in, right? So, given all that baggage, I simply blurted out, "Are you in love with Heero? Um... that's my point." "How would you feel about it if I was?" I deserved that, frankly. Oooh, you tricky man, you, making me carry the load here. "I'd be fine with it. It would solve all the problems, assuming Heero loves you, too, of course. And I'm sure he does. How could he not? If he can fall for me, he certainly is able to see how much more attractive, athletic, caring- how everything that you are exceeds everything I am. Of course he's crazy for you." Anyway, I'd convinced myself of the truth of it. If I said it, it was true. It didn't occur to me, or at least weigh on me, that my boyfriend wouldn't know this unless he'd been fooling around behind my back, but my normally acute common sense had long ago vaporized in the universe swapping. "You think I'm... all that? And you don't mind...sharing?" "Mind? Hell, no! It's fucking spectacular. My every dream come true in two-fold!" Not that you alone aren't great for me. God, what an omission... an assumption to make! And yet, I took the chance. It was as if this wasn't real... "Of course." Trowa was halfway to a smile. "He does, and... I do." Heero does and Trowa does and I do, too. Cool. Trifecta complete, at least, in this universe. "Then that's settled." Trowa threw back his head and laughed, loudly and for a long time. Tears flooded his eyes and he ended up coughing and wheezing on the floor. I sat and watched. Seeing Trowa completely lost in the throes of emotion? Once in a lifetime, so far. "Only you," he choked out eventually when he could breathe. "Only me what?" "Only you could think things are settled." "Well, they will be once we haul ass to the beach and talk it over with Heero. Clearly he's come to the same conclusion-" "That being-?" "That we three belong together." "Together," he repeated. "Yeah." After that, we played card games and talked about ourselves. There was no going outside and very little to entertain ourselves doing. There is a limit to the number of times you can have sex in a row, and we found it. Three. Numero quarto was a fail. That doesn't reflect back onto Quat, either. "Remember when I forgot everything?" Trowa asked. "Yeah, I'm surprised that you do." "Funny." I learned about his mercenary years that led him to becoming a Gundam mechanic, and about his stints working for a circus. His life had been hard and sad. "It's a wonder you found a way to love," I whispered. "I watched you." That was so sweet it hurt. "Me?" "How you formed easy friendships and how you and Heero fell in love." "You knew?" If only this was true in MY universe, how easy things would be. What if they were? "Yeah," Trowa said. "Heero didn't know it, but I did. Actually, Quatre did and told me. And that's how I knew I'd fallen in love with you... and him... both. But you... were more accessible." "I was easy?" "Easier. More approachable. And I could see myself happy with you alone if Heero never felt the same way." That was nice. I won Trowa first! In Heero's world, we'd never delved into the nitty gritty of our getting together, but he'd chosen me. I was the man! "Too bad Quat and 'Fei can't find someone," I said. I was the man so I could accommodate everyone's wellbeing. Heh, heh. "I'd like them to be happy, too." Why not? "Once we make it known..." Trowa paused, then reworded his thoughts, "I think hiding our feelings hasn't encouraged them to... come out." "They know about us?" I didn't know how open we were in this universe. "Yeah," he said as if I should know that, but we keep our relationship low-key, and they see Heero's being left out and don't want him alone, I think. " "Huh." I hadn't thought of Wufei's reticence to pursue a lover- and likewise Quatre's in the other universe- as having anything to do with how the three of us worked out our relationships. "I think it's something else, though." "Double huh. Might be more complex. I think they're waiting for us." And Trowa, it seemed, had figured it all out. And now me. Heero maybe as well. Well. There was nothing left but to give a three-way a chance! Three days, we stayed. Magically, the food supplies held out and so had the propane. The day we set out for the coast, I just knew I wasn't going to do it in Trowa's car. That would have been just too fucking easy, so I took precautions. "Um, Tro'? Just in case... here." "What's this, your will?" "You jest, but it's kinda like that. Just read it and do what I say. It's in case we get separated." He took the note I'd folded into a crane, origami-style, like Trowa had been trying to teach me. "Okay, but that's not going to happen." Right. TBC
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