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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?"
Chapter 18: The Spider Catches The Fly Just when I turned the burner off, Howard and Hilde
tumbled in. (Sorry, morning people we were not). After my sister and
uncle each had a pot of coffee, they were somewhat alert and oriented.
I then filled them in on Hunters, Lagranges, and anything else I thought
of. I was surprised that they didn't begin going off the handle. In
fact, they seemed to be thinking very hard about something. That was
unusual--especially in Howard's case--this early in the day. It was
only about two in the afternoon. "Howie? Hil? What is it?"
She shrugged while Howard just shook his head. "Duo,
this is just...overwhelming. The world is not how we thought it was.
This is one hell of an adjustment we're trying to make." "Well, at least there hasn't been another murder,"
Hilde put in thoughtfully. "Maybe the killer knows he's being
tracked?" "The killer knows he's being tracked. It hasn't
been kept a careful secret," I told her. "But there hasn't
been another human murder. Darlian's mate may have been a Were, but
she still counts. Whoever killed her killed Mooney, Luna and Harvest."
"Shit," Howard said. "I forgot about
that." Hilde shrugged again. "Well, what are we going
to do now?" Excellent question. "I don't know Hil. I am completely
tapped out at this point." Right then the phone rang. Howard picked it up. "What
do ya want?" I snorted, and turned back to my eggs when the phone
was shoved under my nose. "It's for you." "Huh?" I said, and looked at the phone as
if I've never seen one before in my life. "Who could be calling
me here?" I asked to no one as I took it from Howard. "Hello?"
"Duo, it's Trowa." Wow. That was unexpected. "Hey Trowa. Everything
okay?" "Yes. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Oh?" I was not liking the sound of this...
"Thank you for letting Quatre stay with you,"
he said instead, surprising me. "I couldn't be in two places
at once. I needed to be at Wufei's side, but I didn't want Quatre
to be alone. Last night was hard for us...and hard for him too. He
really cared about her, and that's saying a lot. Quatre hasn't befriended
with many of the Pack. Spending time with you did him a lot of good."
Damn. What the hell could I say to that? "It...it
was my pleasure, Trowa." "Well, thank you again. And if you need anything,
call." "I will. Thanks." He hung up, and I passed the phone to Howard. "That
was Trowa, Quatre's mate?" he asked. "Yeah." "What did he want?" I started to clear the plates. "He wanted to thank
me for having Quatre stay with me last night." "Quatre's a good-looking boy," Howard said
objectively. "Probably smart as hell too. Don't know why those
werewolves are trying to take human lovers. You'd think they'd have
plenty of their own kind to mate with." He threw me a look that
stated his comment was for both Quatre and myself, then took the plates
from my hands. "You cooked, so Hilde and I will clean."
Nope, Howard did not realize he had a shape-shifter
in his house last night. Like hell I was going to tell him. As they started to clean up in the kitchen, I went ahead
and got dressed. I didn't have any idea of where I wanted to go from
here, but I wasn't going to sit in the house and wait for lightening
to strike either. With the way my luck has been running lately, I
was sure that once I was out and about, the answer will come to bite
me on the ass--probably literally. I had thrown on some loose black jeans and a white tank
top, and jumped into some old, broken-in Jordans. I popped my head
into the kitchen to kiss my sister goodbye, and to tell my uncle I
would be back before dinner. Then I went to my black, beautiful, low-on-gas
car, and hopped in. "Duo!" My window was down, so I stuck my head out. "Yeah
Howie?" "Here." He handed me something heavy that
was wrapped in a dishtowel. "Take this." Settling the object in my lap, I carefully unwrapped
it and nearly jumped out of my skin. "Howie, I don't think I
need a .44 Magnum to drive around town." "I beg to differ. Take it. Keep it in your car.
Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it."
I have never understood that phrase, but I wasn't going
to argue. "Okay Howie. I'll take it." "You make it sound like I was giving you an option."
He grinned, and smacked me in the forehead. "Watch your back."
"And you watch yours," I finished, then peeled
out of his driveway. *** I went to the gas station I used to work at, and filled
my car up. No one had replaced me either, but apparently everyone
was confident that I would return. There were IOU's taped, pinned
or held down by rocks all over the place. It was kind of sweet in
a way. The people had a chance to make off like bandits, yet they
weren't. Wow...I didn't realize I had this many customers. Well, once
this mystery was solved and I got back to work, I was going to be
racking it up. My next stop was the convenience store by my house,
where Luna had been killed. I didn't think it would be open for business,
but I was surprised to see that it was. Stepping inside, I saw that
one of Luna's sons had taken over the business. Lawrence was his name,
I think. He usually worked part-time here anyway. I guess he was the
owner now. My good feelings disappeared when I stepped outside.
The sun was bright in my eyes, so it took me a while to adjust. When
I did, I saw Tsubarov's assholemobile parked next to my baby. Oh my
god... "Duo." I jumped and spun around, nearly committing the ultimate
sin of dropping my beer. As sure as shit smelled, it was Tsubarov
that said my name, but he was not how I remembered him. His face was green, yellow and blue of all varying stages
of healing. The stitches marred his otherwise clear skin, giving him
the appearance of having a mask sewn on as a face. His eyes were puffy
and red, his jaw swollen asymmetrically, and his mind...he hated me.
He hated me with everything he had. "Duo," he said again, in a voice that despite
my best intentions, scared me. "Tsubby, baby," I said in my best 'devil may
care' voice. "Did you miss me?" "Somewhat," he said cautiously, looking around
before back at me. "I've heard you've been having a...hard time
lately." "If by that you mean having some guy come by to
kick my ass with a shovel, then..." I shrugged, and dipped into
his head. When he thought about paying that man fifty bucks and not
having a broken bone on me to show for it, I nearly laughed in his
face. Instead, I held my beer safely against my chest, and strutted
for my car. "Duo--" "Sorry Tsubby, I've got places to go, beer to drink,
people to, you know..." I waggled my eyebrows, and let the rest
of my sentence trail off. I heard him take a step, and then another. He was following
behind me, and I was not happy about that. I moved so fast it bordered
on panic, because I felt some emotion coming from him that I didn't
like. He hated me, but that was because he wanted me so much it kept
him up at night. He couldn't sleep, he wasn't eating much...he was
becoming obsessed with me and he knew it. He knew it and although
he couldn't help himself, he didn't want it to stop either. I saw
in his mind that he wanted me broken and begging underneath him. At
that point, all I wanted was to get the hell away from him. I hopped
into my car, buckled my beer in and started to back out when he stuck
his head through my open window. "I called you that night." "Have you lost your god damn mind?!" I yelled
in near panic. I did not like his face that close to mine. "Get
the hell outta my car!" "I called you the night you were attacked. I wanted
to tell you not to go outside!" I started to back up again, not caring if he was hanging
on my door or not. "I didn't want you to get hurt. I wanted you safe!"
He lost his footing and fell. I made sure to back up
straight so that I wouldn't run him over. Once I was a good distance
from him, I punched on the accelerator and took off with a bang. Just
like Hilde with the Toyota, I zig-zagged on the road until I regained
control of the car. I was in such shock that I didn't know what to
think or do. Thinking back to that night, I remembered that there
was one number that was unaccounted for. On the caller ID it read
'Unavailable.' On the answering machine it was the click of a phone
being hung up. That was Tsubarov. Wow. And I thought my life couldn't get any more complicated.
*** I almost, almost went to Wufei's. I was so close I could
taste it. But I was irritated beyond belief. Tsubarov's words put
me in a mood I couldn't even describe. I should've taken it as flattery
but I couldn't. I wanted to be mad but I wasn't. I wanted to rip his
nuts off and shove them down his throat for thinking that I was worth
fifty bucks to get my ass kicked, when I was worth so much more...well,
at least *I* thought I was. Overall, I was just fried. My brain had
been turned into mush trying to read the minds of the supernatural
(one who was dead), and from trying to piece together why a murderer
was murdering. I had seen a lot of horrible shit in less than a week,
and I knew of the existence of creatures that 99.99% of the world
would never know. I felt I had a lot of shit on my plate. Instead, I went to my uncle's bar. He and Hilde wouldn't
be there until the night shift, so I was stuck being a regular joe,
possibly having to pay for my food. Thankfully, the lunch crowd was
gone, so the customers were few and far in between. I brought my beer
in so that Long could stick it in the frig. At least he knew who I
was to Howard. "Duo!" He waved back. "Come on over."
I slid into the booth and automatically ordered a tuna
sandwich with fries and one of my beers. Like hell I was going to
pay for one when I brought my own. "Late lunch?" "Yeah," he said, wiping his mouth with his
sleeve. He was such a guy's guy. "Been at your neighbor's all
day." "Really? Why?" "One of them called me. Quatre, I think. Said he
and his boyfriend found an eye when they were in the cemetery, about
to bury that little girl's goldfish or something." He shrugged.
"We went over right away, and sure enough there it was. It took
a while, but forensics came down and snooped around." He took
a bite out of his sandwich. "We found Mrs. Dalian's body buried
there. It was weird." He shook his head. "What was weird Cob?" He looked at me. "The ground hadn't been disturbed.
It was very clever. Whoever buried her kind of...made the top layer
of ground lift up like a sardine can. Once we peeled back the layer
of grass, we could see the disturbed soil underneath where she was
buried. It was a very interesting gardening technique. Not only that..."
He got quiet. I started to intrude, but decided against
it. I needed to stop doing that. "What Cob?" "Duo," he began, total disbelief in his eyes,
"that poor woman had been ripped to shreds. Just like Mooney."
He shook his head again. I sat back in my seat. The waitress came and dropped
off my food and beer. She hurried away to finish filing her nails.
"Oh god Cob. What's the world coming to?" "I don't know." I took a bite out of my sandwich, and worked on the
french fries. We were quiet, but I could feel Meizer's eyes on me,
as if weighing me. "Duo, can I ask you something?" I almost choked. That was odd. "Cob, you can ask
me anything. You know that." He was silent, then: "Is Chang your boyfriend?"
This time I did choke. "What?!" *cough**cough*
"Is Chang your boyfriend?" His voice held
curiosity, but I felt he was screaming inside. He knew the answer,
he just needed to hear it from my mouth. "The night before last,
when he was touching you, the way he was touching you...you didn't
seem to mind." I sighed. "No--well--not yet. He's...he's trying
real hard though." "I see," he said, and I could feel his hurt
even more. "Meizer, I--" "No no, it's okay Duo, really." He smiled
sadly. "I mean, I never made a move, right?" I felt terrible. "It's not only you. I--I could've
made a move." "I would've acted like you hadn't even if you had
Duo. Just...make sure he treats you right, or else I'll have to kick
his ass, okay?" What the hell could I say to that? "Okay."
"Sorry, but I gotta run." He stood, and came
to my side. "There's a lot more work I need to do now."
"Okay," I said softly. "Just...be careful?"
He gave me a sharp nod. "Sure thing." Then,
in an unexpected move, he bent down and slowly, kissed me on the bridge
of my nose. I froze, and couldn't stop my eyes from closing at the
softness of his lips. I balled my hands into fists to keep myself
from grabbing him and pulling him down. Then in one fluid move, he
stood and walked right out of the bar without looking back. I sat
in a daze until it registered where I was. Looking around with my
heart in my neck, I found that no one had noticed what Meizer did.
There were only two patrons (including me) here, and the other one--at
the other side of the bar--was thoroughly drunk. I stood, and went to pay for my food when Long, from
his place in the kitchen, waved me away. Waving my thanks, I grabbed
my beer and got in my car, wondering where to go next. Hmm...I got
beer. I got gas. I ate. Hey, I wondered how the wolves were doing.
Guess that was my next stop. *** I pulled up to what was damn near a construction site.
There were makings of several extremely large houses. So I backed
out and parked at the end of the driveway. Walking up, I waved to
Rashid and a few of the Maguanacs that I recognized. As I came upon
the house, I saw Trowa opening the back door to Wufei's car. I almost
laughed. Trowa was dressed all in black with matching sunglasses,
looking for all the world like a Secret Service agent. Wufei got out,
and smiled when he saw me. Then I saw Catherine pop out of the passenger
side, (dressed the same as her brother, complete with sunglasses and
tie) and open the door behind her. Out of that door was Darlian. Without even thinking about it, I ran up to him. He
turned at the sounds of my footfalls. I saw the pain in his eyes,
and knew it wasn't from his injuries. He knew his wife was dead, and
he was absolutely soulless because of it. "Please," he said
to me, bowing at the waist. "I understand why you are concerned,
but like I told the police, I don't remember how I got into your kitchen."
"Hey, no man, you got it all wrong," I told
him, trying to get back on the right foot. "I just want to say
I'm sorry and offer my condolences. The rest of that stuff about you
in the kitchen can wait." His eyes brightened even more, and I felt a wave of
relief flow from him. Damn, the police must've been giving him hell.
"Thank you Mr. Maxwell. Your words are very comforting."
I nodded. "You're very welcome." I watched as Trowa and Catherine escorted him into the
house. I turned to Wufei. "Hey, how're you feeling?" "Much better, now that you're here." He walked
up to me, and wrapping his arms around me, he gave me a light kiss.
I was feeling tingly all over. Yippee! "If you're trying to sweet-talk me, it's working,"
I teased. "I meant what I said. If you consider that 'sweet-talk'
and it works, that's just an added bonus." He chuckled, and we
pulled away from each other to walk side by side. "You have a
human's smell on you that's familiar. Who?" Shit. He could smell that?! "I had lunch with my
friend, Meizer. He's the cop in charge of this case." "Oh yes, now I remember. The one you've been friends
with since childhood." "Yeah." "Was it a nice lunch?" "Yep." "Good," he said, closing the subject. Thank you god. We went inside, and every werewolf in there treated
me as if I had spun straw into gold. Although I hadn't found out yet
who the killer was, everyone was confident that I would, and soon.
The story on how I figured out the purpose of the hydrogen cyanide
had traveled through the Pack, and now I was referred to as 'Maxwell
the Genius.' In all honesty, I liked that title. Unfortunately, the second Wufei and I walked through
the door, a werewolf came running up to him, stuttering to him that
the Prince was on the phone and wanting to speak with him urgently.
Wufei excused himself, and muttered under his breath about how spoilt
that 'sniveling vamp-lover' was. I heard a few astonished gasps come
from several werewolves, and quite a few eyes widened in shock and
disbelief. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but apparently
it was a major insult. So for the next few hours, I partied with the werewolves.
They were celebrating Darlian's return, so as soon as everyone got
off of work from their various jobs, there was food and liquor galore.
Wufei had finished his call with the Prince in a record hour and a
half, and was able to join in on the fun--sort of. Apparently, being
Packmaster meant standing on the second floor of the house, looking
down as everyone else had fun. Trowa and Catherine were at his side,
doing their bodyguard thing. Once again I was the Guest of Honor,
but Darlian held the 'Seat of Honor.' He was standing next to Wufei
as if he was a bodyguard too. Heero explained to me that that was
a special treat; to stand next to Wufei like he was Privileged. Uh
huh. When it was getting around nine o'clock, and I had danced
so hard I threw out my back, I called Howard and Hilde to let them
know that I probably wouldn't make it back tonight. I invited them
to come join the party, but Hilde politely refused and Howard told
me how many ways the werewolves could kiss his ass. They also told
me that Meizer called them, and said that the forensic team had everything
they needed and that it was all right for us to go back home. Hilde
didn't want to come back just yet, so I told her I would pick up some
of her panties and stuff to bring back tomorrow. She told me she'd
pick them up herself sometime tonight, and for me to keep my mitts
off her things. Humph. Apparently she had some edible underwear she
didn't want me to see. Hell, I did her laundry all the time. She never
cared before. Hmm... At my last thought I started cracking up. Quatre, who
was dancing with Mariemaia (well, jumping up and down was more like
it), sidled over to me when I started laughing for no apparent reason.
"Duo, what's so funny?" I pulled him close and told him
what Hilde said, and the fact that I always did her laundry. He grinned.
"Feel like explorin'?" The two of us started to slip away. Quatre caught Abdul
by the arm, and told him where we were going. As he did that, I looked
up to Wufei to see him watching us wearily. I guess wild parties weren't
his thing. Feeling suddenly sure of myself, I pursed my lips out in
a kiss, and winked. He raised an eyebrow, smiled, and shook his head
to himself. Catherine and Trowa saw me, and both of them laughed outright.
Darlian didn't find it funny. In fact, he looked downright appalled
and displeased. Interesting. "Come on Duo!" Quatre hollered over the music.
Waving back at Wufei, we left. *** Quatre and I took the route around the pet cemetery,
but we had to make it interesting by crawling under bushes, hiding
behind trees, and other things you would expect two twelve-year-old
boys to be doing instead of two grown men--well--a grown man and a
shape-shifter. Once on the back porch, I dug up a loose board that
we kept a spare key hidden under and let ourselves in. Shooting straight
into my sister's room, Quatre and I acted like two brothers tormenting
their older sister. We went through her drawers and pulled out her
underwear, socks, shirts, and threw it all on the floor. Just to be
funny, Quatre and I started to try some of the stuff on, even the
thong panties. It was a riot. Then we tried on her high-heeled shoes.
Quatre accidently broke one, so I ran into the pantry and got the
SuperGlue. Once we glued the heel back on, we stuck it back in the
closet like nothing happened to it. Finally, when we were digging around for porno tapes
or something, Quatre and I struck gold: we found Hilde's vibrator.
I was ready to DIE. When I was fourteen, Hilde had found
my Playboy magazine under my mattress. Well, she didn't let me live
it down. She embarrassed me further by telling Howard about it, and
so he took it away. My embarrassment went away about a week later
when I found it under his mattress. Hmm...I wonder if he still has
that issue... Anyway, Quatre and I played with it for a bit, poking
each other with it while it was on, using it as a sword, a lightsaber,
and whatever the hell else we thought of. Who knew how long we were
goofing around, but soon enough I was dead tired and ready for a nap.
"Let's go Cat. Wufei's probably wondering what the hell happened
to us." "Yeah, but let's get a drink first. I'm thirsty."
"Me too. And I need a smoke." I dashed into my room to get one of my packs, then into
the kitchen. The milk and stuff I didn't trust, but the beer Wufei
bought me was still there, and it beckoned me. I took one while Quatre
had water. We guzzled our drinks. Then I lit my cigarette on the stove
and we went outside. Quatre waited for me as I locked the door and stuck
the key back into its hiding place. I stood, and was ready to announce
that we were set to go, when all of a sudden the cigarette went sour.
Well, to be more precise, it suddenly tasted like ass and throw up.
I spat it out, and started to claw the skin off my tongue when this
whole thing came together for me. Hearing Heero's voice in my head, I recalled him saying
that the chemical created a foul tasting odor with tobacco smoke.
Well, that was as foul as foul could be. "Hey Quatre." I
grabbed his arm. "Can you smell my cigarette smoke?" He took a sniff and his eyes widened. He didn't need
to say anything. "Shit Duo." This was not good. This was not good. "We need
to call Wufei." "Hurry up and get the key back out," Quatre
demanded, tense. "I can't smell who it is, and they're being
too quiet. I can't pinpoint their location." Quickly but quietly, I dug back under the floorboard and got the key. Letting ourselves back in, I locked the door. Quatre went to the phone to call, and I went through
the kitchen drawers to find a knife...and discovered that we didn't
have any. "Shit. Shit!" Where the fuck were my knives?!
"Duo, your phone is disconnected!" "What?! Those fuckers! I paid the bill on time--"
"No Duo, 'disconnected' disconnected." He
made the 'scissors' motion with his fingers. "The line is dead."
Just then the lights went out. "Quatre, all of
my knives are gone." He held his hands up. They were no longer hands, but
claws. "What about any guns?" The Magnum. Shit! "Hilde and I don't keep any here.
And the .44 Magnum I have is in my car." Quatre sighed. "Then we're on our own." Just then a car pulled up, and I ran to the front of
the house, Quatre right behind me. Once parked, the headlights dimmed,
and I recognized the grill as Howard's car. I saw two bodies in the
front seat. Howard and Hilde were here. Oh my god... ~ * ~ (tbc) |
