"The Cabin"

Disclaimer: I don't own the GW characters - am just borrowing to torment for my amusement

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: sexual relationship, supernatural elements, swearing

Pairings: 2x3

Summary: Trowa's debut novel became a best-seller and now he is failing at writing a follow up. In order to find peace and quiet to write, he rents a secluded cabin near a small town to find inspiration. Yet writing becomes hard when he keeps hearing howls from the woods in the middle of the night and even harder when he meets a charming diner owner named Duo…

"The Cabin"

Chapter 3

By the time Trowa returned to the cabin, the day light was already beginning to fade and most of the day had gone. He paused when he got out of the car, listening to the forest around him and shaking his head at the average and normal animal noises he heard. It had been first night nerves, he reasoned with himself, and he imagined those noises as some form of sadistic entertainment for himself. He was a writer, after all, his own imagination was his own worst enemy. It really was not helping him in slightest at the moment.

He carried the groceries in and turned on all the lights, lit the fire and made the cabin as bright and comfortable as he could. He changed into some comfortable sweatpants and removed his socks, his feet curling into the floorboards underneath with every step as though to absorb the warmth from the underfloor heating. He intended to relax and write. His good intentions soon faded.

After cooking a small but satisfying meal, he turned on his laptop with the intent to write. And, of course, as soon Trowa was filled with the intent to write was the moment he heard the loud howl from outside. It sounded close and Trowa sat up straight and listened, straining to hear something. Yet there were no noises from outside for five minutes and Trowa relaxed back into the chair and started to type, ignoring what could be a one off occurrence.

But as he began to type, he heard the scratching as though something was trying to get in the cabin. It wasn't at the door, it was from the walls and Trowa got up, and put his boots on to try and see what was going on. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not or what he was going to do if he was confronted by a large animal but that didn't stop him from stepping out and lighting around him with his phone torch.

It felt cold, colder than it had earlier and Trowa walked around the cabin shining the torch against the walls and towards the forest. Now he was outside he could hear the rustle of leaves, the wind whistling and the occasional hoots from owls yet he didn't heard that howl again or that scratching. There was no real evidence of it happening either as Trowa looked and soon he had done a perimeter sweep and was stood by the car, staring at the lake as though it could provide an answer.

Maybe it was a cliché tale. He, the writer, was going mad from his lack of inspiration and in his isolation he was going to start to imagine that there were monsters in the forest. Maybe he was finding his inspiration. Or he was going crazy. Neither were good.

Returning inside, Trowa sat back down at the laptop, the screen now blank from no longer being used. He stared at it and then drummed his fingers on the wooden table. He needed to find out if there was something about the forest around him and the cabin. Trowa thought that might help him rest. So he did the only thing he could.

Google.

He'd researched the town prior to his arrival and had seen nothing remarkable. And neither had he seen anything remarkable about the building of the cabin. All in all, it yielded nothing and had been a waste of his time. He reached for his phone and typed in the number from his crumpled notebook, his fingers doing so slowly as though stalling the inevitable. Why was he already messaging the local guy? Was he really that pathetic? Logic told him it was curiosity and the guy had been handsome. He ignored the other part that feared there was something man-eating in the woods.

Think you have time to tell me about the town tonight?

Trowa sent the message and then realised he was a dumb idiot. As he hadn't told Duo who it was and he was being too damn forward. Relationships were not Trowa's forte, he was a fuck and run kind of guy and those encounters were aided by the use of an app. He never really had to message from out of the blue some random guy who had given him his number. It felt like an gesture from a generation ago. He slammed his fist on the table, rattling his laptop and dislodging his notebook to the floor cursing himself as "fucking idiot" underneath his breath. Should he message again?

Clarify who it was and let Duo knew he wasn't a complete douche? Yet he didn't need to as there was a reply on his screen.

For a second Trowa didn't want to look. As surely Duo thought he was an idiot.

Guessing this is Trowa?

Trowa sighed, relief flooding his system and some of his annoyance at himself dissipating. If only a little bit.

Yeah. Sorry.

He imagined then Duo laughing, that soft chuckle he had already heard and Trowa felt something flicker in his stomach.

Come down to Howard's. The only bar in town. You'll find it ;-P

Trowa frowned as his phone and then looked down at his comfortable outfit. He had not planned on leaving the cabin. He had still not even written any coherent on his laptop. Yet he was walking towards the bedroom, removing his sweatpants and swapping them for a pair of straight cut jeans, his grey sweatshirt for a button down shirt. After checking he looked presentable, Trowa left the cabin, leaving the heat and light on for some reason he couldn't quite explain. Maybe he hoped the sign of human activity would be off-putting to whatever they were. If they even existed. He shook his head as he got in the rental car, increasingly annoyed by his imagination when it was only making him paranoid and not getting his novel written.

He drove into the town once again and Duo was right, it was not hard to find the only bar in town. Howard's was separate from the strip of shops with its own small parking lot and Trowa parked, hesitating before he exited the security of his rental car. He guessed that Howard's would be exactly the same as the diner, that everyone would stare and gossip and he needed a moment to prepare himself for that.

The anxiety of being the centre of attention actually eased any nervousness regarding meeting Duo so after steeling himself, Trowa stepped out of the car and walked in with bravado he didn't feel. Trowa had worked in bars for half of his life, he seemed, but they had always been the sort of bars with elaborate cocktail menus and where a uniform was required. This was not like those places. It was dark with wood rather than light with chrome and glittery floors. And the floor was definitely not shiny or filled with lights, it was sticky as Trowa walked like the old music venues that had all disappeared in recent years.

As Trowa stepped in, he saw an old-fashioned jukebox, a pool table, and old posters of local tourist attractions. It was all lived in and Trowa liked it more than those places that had followed the trend so much that they all seemed the same. There was a familiarity to Howard's yet a certain uniqueness and Trowa scanned the room to find Duo.

People stared in Trowa's direction as he stood in the doorway. He expected it and yet it wasn't quite as intense as it had been in the diner. People looked up from their beers and then back to whatever conversation they were having in one swift gesture rather than lingering. Maybe he was already old news in town.

He spotted Duo, he was sat at the bar, his braid now trailing down his back rather than hiding down the back of his shirt. He was talking to the old guy behind the bar who was wearing the brightest and more obnoxious Hawaiian shirt that Trowa had ever seen along with sunglasses in the darkened room. He seemed bizarre yet Trowa didn't get chance to think any more about his ridiculousness as Duo turned then, a big smile on his face and holding a bottle of beer in his hand.

"Trowa! Wondered if you'd make it," he said with a wink, "shall we grab a booth and some beers?"

Trowa didn't get time to respond as Duo then had already got beers in front of him as though the old dude behind the bar was some kind of psychic and was walking towards the indicated booth, holding them in his hand. Trowa followed, sliding in at the opposite side and accepting the beer readily. He felt like he needed.

"So finding it lonely at the Winner cabin, huh?"

Blinking at the bluntness of the question, Trowa felt his mouth open and no words come from it. He wasn't lonely at the Winner cabin, he was just unable to concentrate and that was something completely different...

"I'm kidding, don't worry...ask me what you want to know about the town, I'll see if I know anything."

Trowa took a sip of his beer and tried to compose his questions. He watched Duo's relaxed pose, the way he seemed to sink into the old leather and he wished he felt as at ease. His fingers were already beginning to pick at the label on the bottle.

"Are there are stories about the town? Anything strange?"

Duo "hmmed" and his eyes drifted to the ceiling, his gaze purposefully avoiding Trowa's for a few seconds. Then he shrugged. "It's a small place. Anything strange would be big news, you know? I've lived here most of my life and I don't remember anything you know... weird. The most exciting thing that happened here was your friend Winner pitching up and building that fancy-ass cabin. That caused enough gossip for a goddamn year."

"Did people not want him to build it?"

"No, I mean... yeah, there were some people who didn't want some rich dude cutting down trees and shit. But then he wasn't actually gonna do a lot of that and the project was all sustainable and he used local guys to build it and source from. Like at first, no one wanted it but then like by giving people some jobs it was different, you know? I mean, no one ever met the guy but he was pretty decent by all accounts."

Trowa nodded and took a long swig of his beer as Duo did the same. Just as Google said, the place was unremarkable. That was probably why Winner had chosen the place for his cabin. Away from reality, from cities and in a town where literally nothing had happened in. It seemed all too perfect. There had to be something interesting about the place. Then he remembered the noises from the wood...

"What lives in the woods?"

Duo raised one eyebrow and took a sip of beer. "Nothing much. Maybe some bears. Deer, I guess. Some people hunt but not many. There's no real mystery or anything."

"I heard... howling. Like wolves. Then some scratching at the cabins walls."

"Huh," Duo sighed, "maybe there are. I don't really get time for a hike so I dunno. Maybe I should go on one with you. See if there's anything hiding. I mean... it'd have to be Sunday as that's the only day I close the diner but I guess it can wait until then, right?"

Trowa nodded, dumbfounded a little at how quickly Duo's mind worked and how an idea he had mooted had suddenly become a solid plan in the space of a few seconds.

"Cool," Duo said, raising his bottle, "let's toast to Sunday's hike."

"To the hike," Trowa mumbled, clinking their bottles together.

"So... can I ask what you're writing?"

Trowa laughed softly. "Trying to. My first novel was published last year and I'm trying to write my follow up. And failing."

"What was your first novel? Anything I'd have heard of?"

Shifting awkwardly, Trowa looked around the bar. He worried about mentioning the fact he had wrote a gay novel yet there was no one close enough to hear except Duo.

"It was called Flicker Fade. It was about two guys who'd broken up reuniting at a friend's funeral."

"Sounds interesting," Duo said with a smile, "can I get a signed copy, Mr Writer?"

"I can get my agent to send you one and I'll sign it. I'm not in the habit of carrying around copies."

"Thanks, man. And your second novel is about...?"

Trowa shrugged. "I don't know. I wrote Flicker Fade as I had to... it just needed to be written. I was working two jobs and still found time to write it. Yet now..."

"Too much time and no inspiration?" Duo asked, a gentle tease in his tone.

"Exactly."

"So you came here for inspiration?"

"I guess."

"Maybe we'll find some on Sunday, huh?" Duo raised his bottle to his lips, downing the rest of the drink. "I gotta bounce. I have to be up at an hour that is far too early in the morning so I need some sleep but I'll see you Sunday, okay?"

"Okay," Trowa replied.

"Cool, see you Sunday," he said and then he proceeded to the bar to pay the tab, leaving with a wave to a few of the regulars.

Trowa finished his own beer and looked to see that in the process of their conversation he had removed most of the label, the remnants of the paper embedded underneath his fingers. He followed Duo's lead, leaving and waving in the direction of the old dude behind the bar, and got back into his rental car to drive back to the cabin. The one beer was hardly impairing him but he drove back slowly, aware that he shouldn't really be driving on unfamiliar roads but not wanting to walk back in the dark.

Duo's words had reassured him. Made Trowa feel that it was purely his imagination and after Sunday, he would be sure there was nothing visiting him at the cabin and trying to get it.

Yet as he drove along the long path to the cabin ever so slowly, Trowa thought he almost saw something in his headlights, brief as it was. He was glad of the one beer as he blamed it on the alcohol and not anything more mysterious.

~ * ~

Chapter 4

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