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" Everywhere I Look "Written By: Presser
Disclaimer : I do not own Gundam Wing or its characters. This work of fiction is written and shared freely without any attempt to profit financially from it. Rating : R Pairings : 1x2 Warnings : Wistful romance, AU, after Endless Waltz, and departing quite a bit from canon direction Summary: Duo Maxwell is a young, upcoming artist with a hole in his heart. He hates himself for never confessing his love to Heero Yuy, a war-weary mecha pilot running from his past all the way to the Phobos Project—the first manned mission to Mars. Duo longs for the man he loves, but doesn’t know where he is. Can they find love in each other’s arms? And what of Heero’s mysterious collapse when he arrives on Earth to search for the one he loves?
"Everywhere I Look " Chapter 17 Okay, Quatre, you're right. I've started too many threads here, and there's no way I can tie them all together before we have to leave. So you get to pick. I can tell you about how Heero found me, how he proposed, what happened with Dr. J, the whole fainting thing at the spaceport, the hyperoxia, the investigation... Well, I said I started too many threads, didn't I? But they're all twined together and-- All right, good choice. Dr. J, the hospital thing, and the investigation are all really part of the same thread, and you can find out more about that at the party if you want. What you won't hear tonight is what happened when I opened the door to my apartment and found the guy I've been pining after for years standing there with a giant smile and a bouquet of flowers bigger than me. Um, Quatre, I don't think you can hear me unless you stop giggling and bouncing. Oh hush. So here's how it happened. I was doing the most mundane thing, really: watering the plants on the balcony. The sun was breaking through the clouds after a storm, and the air had that freshly washed smell. Kind of crisp, like--well, not like autumn's on the way, but sort of a pre-nip in the air. Yeah, I don't know what it means, either. Just kind of a hopeful feeling, okay? I've always had this thing about the change from summer to fall being exciting. Anyway, I heard a knock and stuck my head through the sliding glass door and raised my voice. "Coming." I put the water can on a little table outside and went to the front door. I remember thinking, "I'm not expecting anyone, and the door to the building's coded, so... who?" I opened the door, and there was Heero Yuy wearing a hopeful smile with his hands behind his back. I'm not sure how to describe what happened next, though I've been through it at least a thousand times. First, everything went totally slomo, like the bullet scene in The Matrix. Neither one of us moved for the longest time. I blinked, he waited, and finally he said, "Hi, Duo." I was speechless. Shock isn't strong enough to describe me right then. All I could do was stare into his eyes. Then he opened his mouth to speak. When that happened, something in me broke loose. Everything I'd been trying not to hope for, all the sighs I'd stifled since he left--they all rushed up from the bottom of my heart. My eyes got wet and I started trembling. He said, "Can I come in?" Then things went from slomo to two-ex in an instant. All of a sudden Heero was toppling backward because my arms were around him and my cheek was slammed against his chest. I still don't remember tackling him, just that we were tottering into the hallway. Something soft hit the floor behind him and he leaned forward to keep us from falling. When we had our balance, he put his arms around me. And don't forget, the last time we saw each other was at a coffee shop more than four years ago, and our conversation then was kind of strained. I was nervous and he was distracted. I was trying to find the courage to ask him out, hoping he'd be interested, that's why. And he was trying--of course I didn't know it then--trying to find a way to explain that he was leaving for Mars. Totally failed, by the way, both of us. All he did was mumble something about considering an assignment with the military. When he said that, I chickened out. I stared at my coffee for a long time. I finally got control of my heart and looked up to wish him well. But he was gone. What did I do? I hated him for weeks. Then I hated myself for hating him and for getting my hopes up when there was absolutely no reason I should've. But back to last week. I think we pretty much blew each other's minds. I know mine was completely fried. I haven't asked him about his yet. So after he kept us from falling down, he hugged me for the longest time. It was wonderful and weird all at once. It was weird because, like I said, the last time we saw each other was nothing but awkward, and tense, and not meeting each other's eyes -- stuff like that. Absolutely no contact from more than four years ago until that day at my door last week. Hell, I didn't even know if he was still on Earth. I'd done everything I could to bury my feelings for him, but like I said before, that's been pretty much impossible because it always seemed like he's everywhere I look. And he certainly hadn't let me know how he felt about me. Ever. So me tackling him at first sight totally made no sense. I'm glad I didn't think about it, though, because--well, I don't know what would've happened. Don't really care. Does it make sense if I say my heart must have had a mind of its own? Yeah... so after the longest hug, he released me. We
stepped away from each other, both of us smiling, me blinking back
tears. Then he said "Can I come in?" with this smile somewhere
between shy and sly, like he had this... this thing he was
dying to spring on me, but was kind of embarrassed about doing it.
I don't know how else to explain it. So I stood to the side to let
him go first, but he turned around and bent down. When he stood, his
hands--no, his arms, for Zeus's sake--were filled with a
bouquet bigger than me. Really, no exaggeration. He held out this
enormous bunch of flowers, and I just stared. My face must have looked
completely gonzo, because he started laughing--something I didn't
think Heero Yuy knew how to do. He pushed it against my chest and
said, "These are for you. Let's go inside and I'll explain."
That was seven days ago, and I'm still reeling from what happened
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