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"Destination Eden"Written By: Lisa-chan
Disclaimer: The G-boys are not mine. I only use
them for loads of fun and for putting them in compromising situations
and stuff. Rating: NC-17 Warnings: yaoi, shounen-ai, voyeurism, slight
het, blood, angst, sap, OOCness, Relena-bashing, OC, AU on Duo’s
behalf. Pairings: 1x2x1, 1x3, 2x4, hints of 2+OC, 4x3
implied Summary: AC\200. The war is over, total peace
reigns. Heero loves Duo. Duo loves Heero. Only neither one is aware
of the others feelings. Who will make them find out? Author: Lisa-chan Author’s e-mail: m.van_kerckvoorde@planetinternet.be
Author’s note: This fic is a rewritten version
of a fic I once wrote, called Nobody’s perfect. Some might recognize
it. I’ve added parts of both Duo and Heero’s past, Duo about
his life on the street, Heero about his harsh training with Doctor
J. The original story, the one in their present lives, basically stayed
the same. I’ve also added a prologue and epilogue. I have indicated
AU on Duo’s behalf, especially concerning his past. No Maxwell
church, no sister Helen, no Sweepers on his fourteen years old. He
did meet Solo. But I’m gonna stop rambling now before I give
everything away. Don’t let the het scare you away, I promise
some good boys on boys action ahead ^_~ Well, enjoy! Reviews would
be nice. Thoughts in Italics ~o~O~o~ indicates flashback Thousands of thanks to Shenlong for the beta reading
^_^ ~*~*~ Destination Eden
Perfect! This was just great! Her first day at work and she was already late. Stupid traffic. She should’ve foreseen this. Tomorrow she would get up ten minutes earlier. Close to despair and with an anxious eye continuously fixed on her watch, she had tried her best to maneuver her way through the streets. Here a congestion, there a diversion, too many red lights. Lately you couldn’t take one step outside without the streets being turned upside down and inside out. She was relieved to see she wasn’t the only one who in vain had tried to avoid the antics of the street workers. Oh well, antics. They only did what they were told to after all. “Go ahead and take a seat. The loser who’s responsible for you is late again anyway, for a change,” were the first words her boss, she assumed, some grumpy looking, blonde-haired lass, had said to her when she came dashing into the office, breathing heavily and undoubtedly with a red face. A little bit shy and with an annoyed feeling in her stomach she stepped towards the desk that the gruff looking woman, Miss Peacecraft, as she had to call her, had showed her. There was only one chair. A blue, comfortable looking desk chair which surely wasn’t meant for her. Still she sat on it. She looked at the somewhat messy desk in front of her while she took a Belgian waffle out of her purse. With her other hand she grabbed a stray hole punch and looked at it from all corners, as if she had never seen one in her entire life. Filled to the brim, about to burst open. “Typical,” she sighed. A woman would fit perfectly in this mess. Just as she went to open the thing and empty it in the waste-basket, she heard a flustered manly voice coming from somewhere near the elevator. “I’m sorry I’m so late! Traffic, you know.” “Duo, one of these days…” she heard her boss muttering. “I’m sorry. But I’ve had a terrible night, and because of that I got up late,” he interrupted her. “Oh, had nightmares again?” she asked, a lot softer and almost compassionate now. There was a short silence before some more mumbling, but she failed to catch any of the words. When the man came in, she almost choked on the waffle which was serving as a quick breakfast. Saying he looked good would’ve been an understatement and would’ve been a grave injustice to him. That braid. Bit weird. But very nice, though. She collected her common sense and conjured a sunny smile to her face. “Good morning,” she said cheerfully. She was human after all. The witch had feelings. She showed compassion for what he had gone through and didn’t see it as some kind of excuse when sometimes he arrived late at the office. And an excuse it never was. Nightmare after nightmare he had seen playing in front of his eyes while he was sleeping. So many times he had seen her in their burning house. She was looking through the window of their bedroom, standing there with her hands reaching out to him. He ran and ran, but didn’t advance. Then the roof collapsed and suddenly she was gone. The earth split open and swallowed him to take him to the deepest pits of hell, the ruler there was always the same; an eerie, burly devil with the face of her father. A merry “Good morning” greeted him when he entered his office. He absent-mindedly looked up at the woman and felt like he was walking right into one of his dreams as he saw her. Dreams, no nightmares this time. “G-good morning,” he stuttered, his violet eyes almost popping out. It was as if lightning had struck right in front of his feet. Was that the new employee Lady Une had been talking about, the new employee that he, of all people had to train, and would eventually become his new colleague? God, she looked exactly like the woman he had lost not all that long ago. “Enjoy your meal,” he said, taking off his coat and hanging it on the hat stand, trying to somewhat function in a normal way. “Thank you. Didn’t have any time to have breakfast,” she said with her mouth still half full. “Now that you mention it, me neither,” he sighed, and his protesting stomach agreed with that. “Want some?” she asked, offering him a piece of the waffle. “Sure, why not,” he said shrugging, taking the food. “Can’t work on an empty stomach, ne?” He sucked on it instead of biting of it and out of the corner of his eye he kept a close watch on her, his gaze raking up and down. “What?” she asked, slightly amused. “Nothing,” he said, quickly looking away. For six months he had lived in a downward vortex of pain and grief, and that had changed him a lot. No more flirting, no more babbling all day. He had become, well, pathetic, in spite of all the efforts from his friends to cheer him up. “I haven’t introduced myself yet,” he said suddenly, offering his hand to her. “My name is Duo Maxwell. Nice to meet you.” “Oh, same to you. My name is Heidi Schmitzer,” she replied, shaking his offered hand. “Excuse me, but… are you foreign?” “American,” he said with a rejecting gesture of his hand, like he wanted to slap the subject away. “My name, I know. But talking about foreign, your name doesn’t exactly sound very native either, does it?” He tapped his finger against his bottom lip and decided to throw the piece of waffle away. “Hey!” she squeaked, sprinting to the waste-basket. “I didn't give you that, to throw it away!” He ignored her comments and kept on staring at her with a pondering frown. “Or am I mistaken?” he asked. Pouting at him from by the wastebasket, her face all of a sudden switched back to merriment. “Born and bred here in this very country, Duo. Know it as if it was my own pocket.” She frowned when he took a relieved breath. “But I have German parents,” she continued, giving a giggle. He squeezed his upper arm, in an attempt to anchor in the mess his guts were in. This was getting weirder by the second; what would be next? The same perfume? Who was this girl? It was as if she was Hilde’s reincarnation, as if she continued her life in her, wanted to let him know he shouldn’t stop living and had to show the love he had hidden inside of him to others. She wanted to make him love that woman, and let her seduce him if she wanted to. She would let him enjoy the way she looked at him now from the desk chair. Challenging, but also with a twinge of playfulness. “Well then,” she said, putting her one leg over her other. “What about doing some work?” Already busy seducing on her first day of work. She should be ashamed of herself. “Right.” He jumped up from his pondering. “Alright, but… your sitting in my chair.” She pouted again and threw him a reproaching look. “Come on now, be a gentleman,” she muttered, switching on the computer. “What else did that guy up in heaven give you legs for?” “I’m your superior. You have to be obedient. Please get off my chair,” he said stubbornly, drawing on what little patience he had. “You are not my superior. I’m an employee, and so are you. All you have to do is show me how everything works in this company and how I have to handle all that… stuff,” she insisted, waving her hand over the computer and other equipment. “Now, are you gonna help me?” He narrowed his eyes and put on a mock, hostile face. Duo Maxwell had met his equal. “Fine, you win,” he barked. He shuffled towards her with caution. He didn’t want to get trapped in her web, but the fact that he actually smelt the same perfume when he bowed over her to enter the password of his computer, almost drove him crazy. Second squeeze. The chair this time. Startled he pulled away from her and looked at her with big eyes and his mouth open. “What’s wrong?” she asked, surprised. She turned around in her chair and felt the back of it. Had it become burning hot for some weird reason? Nothing out of the ordinary. “Nothing,” he said nervously. “But… It’s just that…” She arched an eyebrow and turned toward him completely. “What? If something’s wrong then please, tell me. Maybe I can help you.” That voice. So hauntingly familiar. Creepy! This was
just plain creepy! Did she do this on purpose? Was this just coincidence,
or was there really some kind of a connection? She looked at him with a dubious face while insanity and madness were merrily having a party. She followed him when he bolted out of the office in the direction of the toilets. A smack and the door was closed. She ran after him and without any scruples, she pushed the door open. She didn’t see him at first. Must’ve been in one of the stalls. “Duo? Are you okay?” she asked softly. It stayed silent for a while, but suddenly the silence was broken by a loud sob. “Duo…” she said insecurely. “Duo, are you crying?” Again a short silence, but longer than the last time. Just when she was about to go away again, she heard his voice anew. He waited a few moments before he spoke. Unspoken offended pride. She had heard him crying. “Leave me alone. Please go away. I want to be alone for a second,” he said with a broken voice. “Did I say something wrong?” His answer was yet another sob. She gave a sigh and turned around, but as she pulled the door open again she almost bumped into two of her male colleagues, quite good looking, just as Duo. In fact *very* good looking. The one with the blond hair had soft and sweet features, and in some way reminded her of an angel fallen down from the heavens who hadn’t found his way back. Or didn’t want to. He was accompanied by a guy with brown hair, who had a body and a face that simply screamed out to be worshiped, and the fact that his hand was trapped in the blonde one’s showed clearly who had the privilege to do that. “Oh, I’m sorry,” was the angelic one’s reaction. “But…” With a confused look he pulled his head outside again and looked at the tag next to the door to see if he wasn’t mistaking. Men's lavatory? Men's lavatory. “Oh, but wait a minute!” he yelled. “You’re the new one, right? These are the men's lavatories, you know. You’re not supposed to be in here.” “For your information, “the new one” has got a name. I’m Heidi,” she said somewhat offended. “And I know that these are the men's toilets. I have eyes in my head, you know.” “Yes, you do have eyes,” the other one said pondering. Eyes which somehow reminded him of someone. And not only those eyes, the entire girl. He had heard rumors that there was a double walking around somewhere on this planet for everyone. Never known it could be so weird when you all of a sudden were in that ‘somewhere on this planet’. “And I’m here because there is something wrong with Duo,” she continued. “He's already acted weird the moment he saw me, but then, all of a sudden, when he leaned over me to enter the password to his computer, he simply lost it.” “Yeah, I can imagine that,” he sighed. “Excuse me?!” she yelled. Spoken pride offended. “No, it’s not personal!” he said quickly, raising his hands in apology. “But you know…” His voice went to a whispering tone. “Six months ago he has lost his girlfriend in a fire, and you look exactly like her.” “I do?” she said surprised. “I didn’t know that. So maybe I’d better go back and just leave him for now.” “Yeah, maybe that’s a good idea,” the
first one replied. “And by the way, I’m Quatre, and this
is Trowa,” he said, pointing to the man next to him. Meanwhile, Quatre and Trowa were left to sway Duo into opening his one by one meter cage. “Duo, open the door,” Trowa commanded softly. “No,” came the answer. Quatre pulled a pitiful face, knowing the world would first have to come to an end before he would listen, obstinate as he could be. “Duo, open the door,” Trowa repeated. “No,” he replied. Obstinate, like I said. The lowered eyes of Quatre looked back up to his lover, a determined look in them. Then he turned to the closed door. “Duo, we’re not leaving. I didn’t hesitate all those years ago to pull you out of your misery and I’m not going to hesitate this time either. We care about you, and it’s obvious there’s something bothering you,” he said. “Well, have I got news for you! Hilde died just six months ago, and here practically her twin sister walks in, whom I have to work together with for God knows how long!” he yelled. “Can’t a guy be a little mournful?!” Quatre stayed quiet for a moment, but then continued. “I’m sure that’s not the only thing, Duo.” Silence again. He seemed to have hung himself in there or something. “Listen Duo, I don’t care where we discuss this. Here in the lavatory, where anyone can walk in on us, or back in my office, where it’s quiet. It’s up to you.” There still seemed to be some kind of life in that little cabinet. After some stumbling and sniffing the lock finally clicked open and he followed Quatre and Trowa to their office in a lazy, sauntering, most reluctant kind of way. On his way, he looked at everything, except for the two preceding him. The regular seams in the parquet floor, the ridiculous purple color of the paint against the walls, the rain seeping melancholically along the windows. “Sit,” Trowa said curtly, who only seemed to be there to give out orders, while he closed the door. Duo rolled his eyes and heaved an exasperated sigh. “Yes sir,” he muttered sarcastically, slumping down into the nearest chair and looking at both of them. “Shoot,” he said. “Let the lecture begin.” But Quatre didn’t say anything, and neither did Trowa. “Well?” Duo said. The blond boy’s stare rested upon him, he seemed to be trying to peel off Duo’s skin to bare his wounded soul, to release him from his torture. It hurt him to see one of his closest friends in so much pain, and as a master in swaying people into telling their deepest emotions with his endearing and angelic features, he obliged himself to put an end to it. “Duo, something is bothering you. Tell me what it is, for God’s sake, talk about it,” he said softly. Duo sighed again and buried his face in both his hands. He had played the tough guy all this time, but in fact he was relieved to be able to finally pour his heart out to someone, to break that dam and let his emotional river flow. Parents; he didn’t have any to cry his heart out to, and his father-in-law, he was rather a liability. Maybe he had found support with his mother-in-law, but then he first had to find a way to pay heaven a visit, coz she was dead. “I miss her, Quatre. She was special to me, I loved her, I wanted to marry her, hell, she was even pregnant... And now she’s gone. It’s killing me, Quat. It’s tearing me down. Now she has vanished, my heart seems to have vanished as well. It’s so empty inside,” he sniffled. “And it doesn’t stop there, no. It isn’t cruel enough yet. Of all the people walking around here on this earth, practically her twin sister gets to be my new colleague. Do you even know what that means, Quatre? It seems like she’s still alive, like it’s really her who’s sitting there next to me, but she isn’t. I’d cry every time I see her, I’d cry when I try to do some work, all the time I cry for her.” Quatre gingerly approached him and carefully removed his hands so he could see his face. “You’re not crying now, are you?” he said softly when he saw no tears. “Quatre, I thought you would’ve been brighter than that, that you would understand,” he said, his words disjointed. “My eyes are dry, but my heart keeps on watering. It’s a never-ending flood of tears, it never stops, never dries up. And it never will. So don’t go telling me I have to try and put myself out of it, it’s no use, nothing can take that pain away.” “I’m not talking about taking it away, Duo. Only softening it. Maybe she can help you. She feels for you, I can see that. Maybe if you start a relationship with that girl…” “If I start a relationship with that girl, I won’t be able to love her because of who she really is. I’ll always see her as Hilde. It wouldn’t be fair to her.” Quatre cast his eyes down. “I understand. Either way, something has to be done about it though, right?” “I know. But it still remains to be seen that starting an affair with her is the right solution. And yes, Quatre, I know. I shouldn’t be too harsh on her. It’s not her fault.” Judging by Quatre’s silence, he thought the conversation was over, so he wanted to stand up, but the Arabian pushed him back down. “Hold on, still one thing,” he said. A surprised and expectant look in his eyes, Duo looked up to him. “What Quatre?” “You know, Heidi’s not the only one who’s after you.” “Oh? Who else is after me? I don’t know anything about that.” “Don’t act like you’re falling out of the sky. I’m sure you’ve already seen it. You have flirted a lot more with him than with the rest of us, and I’m sure that wasn’t without a reason.” “Him? Are you talking about Heero, Quatre?” he asked in disbelief. “Are you actually saying he’s in love with me?” “Ever since Hilde died, you avert your eyes when you see him, you close them, so you cannot see the love he’s trying to show you, in spite of the fact he isn’t allowed to. It hurts him that you keep on ignoring him. And even though he shouldn’t show it, it would help him a lot if he at least knew you care and don’t just see him like something you can toy with whenever you feel like it.” “But I… I don’t… I’m not like that,” he stammered. “I’m not like you and Trowa, really.” Quatre considered him for a moment. “You know what I think, Duo?” he asked. “No, but you’re about to tell me, I guess.” “You’re right, you’re not like me and Trowa.” “Thought so-“ “You’re somewhere in between, aren’t ya? You like both of them.” Duo’s eyes widened and he leaned forward in his chair. “What did you say, Quatre? Are you insinuating that…” “Of course, it’s so obvious,” he said, like he had only just seen the light in the darkness. “Your flirtatious behavior when Hilde was still alive has given you away. You made moves to men *and* women, especially to Heero. All those years you have played with him, without meaning. Have you ever thought about how hard it must’ve been for him?” “That was only for fun!” Duo still tried to defend himself, but Quatre knew he had him, and Duo realized he couldn’t hide it anymore. He had made a clean breast of it, and he had searched for it himself. “Alright already, you’ve got me cornered,” he sighed in defeat. “Do you love him, Duo?” “I… I guess that… I” An answer which made any sense at all didn’t seem to come, but instead he slowly nodded his head, his eyes lowered. He had to admit, Heero was a walking wet dream, but he didn’t have the faintest idea if he saw him in the same way he did. “Why don’t you show it then? Not all at once that you love him, but at least that you care about him.” “I can’t do that.” “Why not?” Quatre urged. Apparently he had made it his quest to purge the world of any pain, which of course was impossible, so he annoyed his comrades with his well meant sermons. “I have my reasons!” he said, slightly annoyed. It was enough to give Quatre a start. “Alright then,” he said. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.” “So do I, Quatre,” he sighed. “So do I.” To be continued…
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