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"Blood or Chocolate?"Written By: Karen Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of
its characters. Otherwise, the show would've been way different. Warnings: First and foremost, this fic is supposed
to be a humor fic. Shounen ai and Yaoi next. Violence, blood and gore,
supernatural elements, such as werewolves, vampires, evil leprechans,
trolls, witches, and other stuff I think of along the way. Expect
lemons, limes, death of insignificant characters, and angst. (heh!)
OZ people are also going to really intermingle with the GW boys, particularly
with Duo. Pairings: Will be 5x2, 3x4, past 5x1 (and we're
talking WAY in the past), Meizer+2/2+Meizer and everybody+2 (hey,
everyone loves Duo). Summary: Duo Maxwell is an almost average guy
in a small, rural town. He works at the only gas station for miles
around, is gorgeous, but single. He also gets harrassed by the town's
rich idiot. But what makes him different is that he's a clairvoyant;
he can read thoughts by touch or he can simply 'hear' them. Kind of
complicates matters. Yeah. So when he runs across a man whose thoughts
he can't hear, although trying to gives him nosebleeds, he decides
that that is a fair trade. That is until he finds out that the guy
isn't a typical 'guy,' and that getting involved with him only leads
to trouble...and a few dead bodies. "Blood or Chocolate?"
I know that everyone has heard the saying, ‘Be
careful what you wish for, you just might get it.' Well, when I was
younger, I used to think that that was the dumbest proverb of all
proverbs. I mean come on; how could getting what you wanted be bad?
It's what you wanted, right? But now I've learned (the hard way) that
it wasn't the wish that you had to be careful about; it was the manner
in which your wish was granted that was the bitch. And boy was it
ever. Needless to say I got my wish, and I wasn't exactly too thrilled
with the whole process. In fact, the majority of it downright sucked.
Don't worry, you'll find out about that little bit o' fun. I am what's called a clairvoyant. No, I'm not psychic.
No, I'm not a fortune teller. No, I don't know where Jimmy Hoffa's
body is buried. That's not how it works, exactly. At least with me.
I get...impressions. Thoughts even. I'll touch something or while
I'm talking to someone I can suddenly see through them. I'll know
their intentions, what they're feeling, their life, just...everything
will flash across my mind. It's like looking at the cover of a book
and knowing all of the words in it from front to back. Sometimes I
see images. Sometimes it's sounds. Sometimes I can't control it. No, that wasn't what I wished for. I've been this way
as far back as I can remember. My parents died when I was ten. We lived in this hick
little town called Pike Creek in Texas, about two hours from San Antonio.
It was a small town in the classical sense of the word: one church,
one store, sheep grazed the highways and neighbors lived miles apart.
I was sitting in the back seat of our car, crying my eyes out. I had
gotten in trouble at school that day, but it wasn't me. Some other
kid set the teacher's garbage can on fire, but of course they all
blamed me. Because of my...ability, I knew some things about the other
kids that they really didn't like, and so I got picked on a lot. My
twin sister, Hilde, did her best to kick everyone's ass that said
anything remotely negative about me, but she could only do so much.
Anyway, my parents and I were on our way to school for
a parent-teacher conference for the little garbage can ‘incident,'
and I kept saying that something bad was going to happen if we went.
Being parents (and thinking I was trying to get out of going), they
tossed my ass into the stationwagon and ignored my hell raising all
the way there and through the conference. It wasn't until we were
on our way home that the feeling of unease grew to the point where
it was causing me physical pain. Then it happened. The road we were on was a two-way highway. I watched,
in slow motion, as an U-Haul truck swerved out of its lane into ours,
and hit us head-on at fifty five miles an hour. I woke up a week later
at our spit of a town's hospital, with my sister on one side and my
Uncle Howard on the other, to tell me that my parents were killed
instantly and that they already had the funeral and were buried. I never did cry about their deaths. Life went on after that. Hilde and I moved in with our
uncle since he was our neighbor (his house was ten miles from ours),
grew up and moved back into our parents' house on our eighteenth birthday.
Neither of us have gone to college, content to live our lives as hard-working
people. I worked at the only gas station for miles around, in the
middle of nowhere, and spent my days watching TV in eyebrow-burning
temperatures, or tinkering around with an old gray junker that has
been abandoned at this gas station for more years than I've been on
this earth. I was twenty three, single, lonely, and gay, not to mention
lonely, gay, and don't forget single. It was impossible for me to
find a suitable mate. It's hard to go out with someone when you could
‘see' that they only wanted to get you into their bed, or they
were trying to be buddy-buddy with you so that they could get your
sister into their bed. I really couldn't blame them. I mean, Hilde
was the hottest on two legs. As a result, many of my days were spent
kicking someone's ass for groping my sister. She worked as a barmaid
for Howard a few miles from where I worked. Life at this point wasn't exceptional, but it was decent.
I had a job, I loved my beautiful sister and she loved me, we had
our own house, we made ends meet....life was real decent. Yeah. So
of course I had to do something to screw it up. It was a Wednesday night. I was at the gas station,
watching the black and white version of Frankenstein, when I started
to feel depressed. Again. That has been happening a lot to me lately.
So I looked out the window and stared at the moon. Tonight it was
in the shape of a crest, but still bright and waxy. I studied the
visible dark spots on what little of the moon there was, counted the
stars in my little window of sky, and got depressed all over again.
I didn't want to be in this atom-sized town anymore. I wished something
would happen to me. I wished for some adventure! I wished for some
excitement! I wanted a big, strong, man's man to barge into my life
and sweep me off my feet to sex me all day long. That's what I wished
for above all else. Where the hell was a genie when you needed one?
Deciding that it was unlikely I would get a customer (I hadn't had one in three days), I went ahead and made up my mind to leave and hang out at the bar for a while. Once the place was locked up tight, I hopped into my black 1988 Mustang GT, fondly named Deathscythe, and headed to the bar. It was about a twenty minute drive, but listening to Jimi Hendrix at full blast made the ride bearable. As I pulled into my usual parking spot at Howard's (that was the name of the bar) I could see my sister passing drinks out faster than you could say ‘Jack Daniels.' Stepping inside, I was greeted with a winning smile by Hilde, a cheery ‘hello there!' from Howard, and was bustled up to the bar by Sylvia Noventa, another one of Howard's employees. She had blond hair, blue eyes, was cute, and she liked me. Too bad I didn't swing that way. "Here you go Duo," she said shyly as she passed
me a beer. "Thanks luv," I said in a horrible British
accent. She blushed prettily and scurried off to work. "Stop that," Howard admonished, smacking me
on the forehead. "You're distracting my employees." He placed
a bowl of peanuts on the counter. "Sorry Howie." I reached into my wallet and
began to pull out some money when he shoved it back into my hand.
"Boy, you know your money's no good here."
"Okay," I said, hands in the air. "Just
don't decide one day to put it all on a tab. I'll have to sell my
house to pay you back." "You know better than that boy," he said,
glancing over the rim of his sunglasses. "I'll take care of my
own until breath leaves this body." "Yeah, I know Howie." "Good." While he was wiping down the bar, I glanced around at
the place. Tonight wasn't packed by any means, but it sure was busy.
The girls were handling it like pros though, refilling drinks and
changing empty beer bottles for full ones before the customers had
a chance to blink. Just looking around, I didn't ‘see' anything
to be worried about. Sure, the guys' thoughts strayed to sex with
Hilde, Sylvia, or both, but that was typical of any guy. No harm was
intended, or disrespect. This was a good crowd. "Duo," Hilde began as she glided by me, getting
more drinks. "I wish you came earlier. I met the new neighbors
tonight." "Really? Where do they live, not across the pet
cemetery?" "They sure do," she said cheerfully. "I'm
not exactly sure how many are living there. They were just checking
out the area, but one of them did buy the house, and the others are
staying there temporarily to find houses of their own. Isn't that
neat?!" "Yeah. It'd be great to have new people around
here. What do they look like?" "Exotic," she said, eyes turning inward. "I
mean, they're not like anyone I've ever seen before. People pass through
here all the time, so it's not like we don't see folks from the big
cities that are beautiful, but these people...they're something else.
Howie was completely drooling all over himself," she added as
an afterthought. "Those women had him around their fingers and
they didn't even know it." We both laughed. "How long are
you gonna stay?" she asked. "Just ‘til I finish this beer, then I'm heading
home." "Alright sweetie," she said, kissing my cheek.
"Don't wait up." "You know I will," I called back. Howard came back just then, grumbling to himself like
old men do. "So, who were these women you were drooling over?"
"What? That damn Hilde! She can never keep her
mouth shut." "Tell me something I don't know," I said,
raising an eyebrow and taking a swig. Before my uncle could answer, there was a shout of alarm
from the kitchen, a lot of clattering, and then the sound of something
spinning to a stop. "Ah hell." "Howie, what is it?" "Long," he said, and turned around to face
the kitchen, hands on his hips. "Long, what the hell is going
on back there?" Over the counter a head and shoulders appeared. Long
was this Chinese guy, probably eight hundred years old judging by
the wrinkles on his face, four foot nine and about as friendly as
a pissed off rattlesnake. Long has worked for my uncle for six years
now, and all of us have yet to understand a damn word that man has
said. He did not speak English, Howard did not speak Chinese. Don't
ask me how they communicated, I haven't got a clue. "Yes baby," he said as saucily as a sixty
five year old man could, blowing me a raspberry. The entire bar laughed
at that, and I headed outside, heart lighter than it had been all
day. As I was making my way to my car, I caught a glimpse
of someone standing under a lamppost, seemingly staring into space.
I did a double-take and was stopped cold at the sight. Whoever this
was had nice, slim legs, encased in what was probably silk pants.
They were blood red. He had a Chinese-style tunic on, blood red also
with black swirls on it. The snaps keeping the tunic closed were also
black, and he had black slippers on to match, without socks. His jet
black hair was loose around his shoulders as he stared up at the moon,
arms folded placidly behind his back. Wow. Sensing someone watching him, he turned in my direction.
Caught staring, I jumped. I could feel my cheeks burning as he stared
at me. I guess he was thinking I was some sort of pervert. Even more
embarrassed now, I raised my hand and gave him a sheepish wave. He
continued to stare. I started to get real uncomfortable. He didn't
so much as blink yet. Then I heard a noise, and I saw coming out of
the dark another young man, this one even taller than the black-haired
one. He had what I believed was brown hair, draped over half of his
face. He wore tight jeans and a green turtleneck. But the way he moved....he
didn't walk. Well, he was walking but he was gliding at the same time.
His movements were fluid, like running water. He had me captivated.
He stopped beside the shorter man and looked at him, but the other guy didn't so much as glance in his direction. After a minute, the tall one started to come towards
me. Thinking I was about to become involved in a fight, I started
to walk towards him, popping my knuckles, rolling my neck, and nudged
my ‘talent' to come out and play. Suddenly, I felt as if I had
run face first into a brick wall. WHAM! Stumbling backwards, I covered my eyes with my hands
in order to get myself grounded. My breathing was coming out in harsh
rasps, and I could feel myself shaking. The air had stilled. I opened
my eyes and saw that the black-haired man was where I last saw him,
and the brown-haired man was maybe four feet away from me. Confused,
I looked him in his face to try and see his thoughts, but I was met
with a green eye. A VERY green eye. It seemed to be glowing. Before I was consciously aware of it, I was making my
way back into the bar. Heading straight towards the back, past Howard
and Long, I dug around in the office for one of Howard's guns. A rifle.
Good enough. I loaded it and went out the back, Howard hot on my heels
with his shotgun. "Who is it?" he asked. "Two guys, one dressed in red with black hair,
another dressed in jeans and green turtleneck, brown hair." "Got it." I guess I wasn't the only one not
bullshitting tonight. We went through the employee parking lot that was at
the back of the bar, and came around to the front where the black-haired
one would be under the lamppost. He wasn't. Shit. We walked along
the front where the brown-haired one was. He wasn't there either.
God damnit! I walked in front of the windows, trying to see if maybe
they went inside after me, while Howard ran around to the back to
see if they were there. We met up on the east side of the building.
"I didn't see them Howie." "I didn't see anything out of place, kiddo."
"Damnit!" "What happened? Did they threaten you? Or the girls?"
"No. In fact, they didn't say a thing." "Then what the hell was this all about?" "I don't know Howard!" "What do you mean ‘you don't know?' I got
my hopes up that we were gonna shoot something! Or someone!"
"Howie, please." "Well, something must have upset you to get one
of my guns. I know you don't like guns, so..." He made that encouraging
gesture. "I don't know Howie. They were just...just..."
"Just what?" "Dangerous," I finished, my eyes becoming
unfocused. "They felt dangerous." "Felt? What do you mean....oh." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah." "Well, your...feelings have yet to be proven wrong.
I'm not about to start questioning them now." Howard and I started
to make our way into the bar through the back door. We put the guns
away and headed back out front. Long gave us a funny look, but didn't
stop cooking to find out what the hell we were up to. The girls didn't
seem to notice Howard's absence, so we played along as if nothing
strange had occurred. On silent agreement, I stayed for the rest of
the shift to make sure that the customers and girls were safe. I didn't
have to wait to long. Howard, irritated from earlier, got frustrated
to the point where he kicked everyone out and closed the bar a few
hours early. Once we all were home, Hilde and I went through our nightly
routine and before long I was comfortably in my bed, staring at the
dark ceiling, contemplating tonight and the strange feeling of being
hit in the face like that. That had never, ever, happened to me before. When I try to use my...gift, it's like I can see through
people. They become transparent and I can visualize everything about
their lives. When I touch objects, it's the same thing. I can visualize
things about that person's life and personality. But tonight...I couldn't
tell you what happened. I have never been blocked like that before,
and knowing how painful it was I was kind of...afraid to try again.
As I fell asleep, I couldn't help but replay the whole
incident in my mind's eye. This time, I could see the black-haired
man watching me curiously, and I could see that surrounding both him
and the green-eyed man was a red, pulsating essence that I have never
visualized around another person before. ~ * ~ (tbc) |
