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"Puppy Love"Written By: Waterliliylf Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. All rights
remain with Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. No profit being
made here. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: sap, angst, fluff, Alternating Trowa/Quatre
POV, AU Pairings: 3x4 get together, Background 1x2, 5x6
Summary: quatre gets a new puppy and has ot take
it to the vet. "Puppy Love"
Chapter 39: Miraculously, watching the newborn foal take its first shaky steps almost made running out on Quatre worthwhile. OK, I said almost. Equally miraculously, I think it was the first time since we'd met that I'd gone for hours without thinking about him. I'd thought about him on the drive to the Noventa estate, of course. I'd tried to concentrate on driving, and the problems that a mare could have foaling, but it had been hard not to think of Quatre tangled in my dark green sheets; those blue eyes glazed over and his mouth swollen. He'd been disappointed when I'd had to leave; that much had been pretty obvious. He was just so damn difficult to read sometimes; it had been quite a nice little boost to my ego to know that he'd really wanted me. He'd been brilliant, though. He hadn't bitched or moaned or pulled a hissy fit. He hadn't pulled any kind of emotional blackmail, that if I'd really loved him, I'd have stayed with him. I'd had all those reactions from previous partners. Quatre had just been concerned, and he'd given me a very nice kiss before I left. OK, things hadn't turned out precisely the way I'd planned for us, but on the plus side, he wanted me, and I had almost four hours before I had to go back to the stable to check on the mare and her foal. I didn't think it was really necessary, but Sylvia Noventa had insisted, given that her father and his head groom were both away. So the pluses pretty much balanced out the minuses, and I dialled Quatre's number. 'Hey.' There was only silence on the other end. Shit, my 'phone wasn't dying on me, was it? 'Quatre? Can you hear me? It's Trowa.' 'Um, hi,' he managed. 'Sorry, I was just in the middle of something.' 'It's OK. Listen, I just finished up at the stables; I should be home in about twenty minutes. You fancy coming over?' There was another minute of silence; weird. I'd have to get my 'phone checked out. 'The thing is,' he said at last, 'I had to go into town to get a few things. I haven't had lunch yet; would you like to meet somewhere?' Oh. So afternoon sex didn't seem to be on the menu. Unless we just grabbed a burger or something and headed back to my place. Or we could just order pizza and have that for dessert? Cold pizza can be pretty good. 'There's a lovely Italian restaurant just opposite the General Post Office,' Quatre informed me, before I had a chance to suggest any of this. 'Don Giovanni's. I can meet you there, if that's OK.' Right, he wanted a proper sit-down meal for lunch. Well, maybe he thought it would be romantic or something to go to a nice restaurant. 'I guess. The thing is, I said I'd be back at the stables by six, and it's two now, so..' 'Oh, that's all right. I'll get there first and reserve us a table. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. You'll have plenty of time.' 'Right,' I said resignedly. 'That's fine. I should be there at around half two.' Hell, I was never going to work the guy out. I'd had all these nice visions of him dragging me back to bed, but he apparently wanted a plate of pasta more. Quatre was sitting at a corner table, slightly removed from the throngs of families and happy couples. He looked distant, somehow. He had a menu in one hand, but he was staring into space. 'Hey!' I rested one hand on his shoulder and he jumped about a foot in the air. 'Sorry about that!' I grinned, surprised when he didn't smile back. That was weird. He'd told me he wasn't into the physical display thing, but I hadn't thought a little thing like that would count. Plus he'd seemed a lot more comfortable with me touching him in public over the last couple of days. Or maybe he was just kind of pissed that we'd been interrupted earlier. Well, that was flattering more than anything else. 'So what have you been up to all morning?' 'Oh, I just had to run a few errands.' For the first time, he looked at me properly, searching my face as if looking for something. 'Quatre,' I asked quietly. 'Is something the matter?' He shook his head, handing me the menu. 'We should probably order. I've been sitting here for nearly half an hour, and they're really busy.' 'Ah, OK.' Ordering took ages; Quatre read every item on the menu with great attention and then had a long discussion with the waiter about the day's specials. What in God's name was wrong with him? Everything had been fine when I'd left. The actual leaving hadn't been fine; he'd been disappointed, but then so had I. Along with screamingly frustrated. When we were finally alone with our drinks, I leaned over and whispered in his ear. 'I'm really sorry about this morning, honey. Tell you what; next time you can tie me up and then I won't be able to escape!' 'Trowa!' He hissed, scarlet, jerking away from me. 'What's the matter? Come on, it's not like anyone else can hear us.' He shook his head, fingers tearing his napkin into shreds. Oh, shit. 'Quatre. Why don't you just tell me what's wrong, and maybe we can sort it out? If you're still pissed about this morning, OK, I wasn't exactly thrilled about it either, but it's my job. It happens sometimes that I get called to emergencies and there's nothing I can do about that.' 'I know,' he said miserably, and I started to get worried. How the hell was I supposed to make this better? 'I just - this wasn't how I thought today would work out.' 'Yeah, me neither.' Damn, I really, really wanted to touch him. Just a hug or something. 'It's just a rain check, honey, you know that. I'd drag you back home with me right now, except I have to go back out to the stables in a couple of hours, and I might end up having to stay there overnight.' 'Really?' He actually seemed to brighten up a little when I told him that. God, I was never going to understand him. All those mood-swings were starting to give my brain whiplash. 'Is there still a problem?' He sighed, looking down at his hands. Well, that was answer enough. 'Is it something I've done?' 'I don't know.' He lifted his eyes and gave me another one of those intense stares. 'I don't know if it is you.' What was that supposed to mean? Shit, we could spend hours going around in circles like this. The waiter turned up with our starters just as I was about to ask him what the matter was. Brilliant timing. 'Quatre?' I prompted, watching him crumble his piece of garlic bread, apparently miles away. 'Fine!' he snapped, apparently to the bread. 'Ah, I mean this tastes very good. Fine, in fact.' 'I'm glad you're enjoying your appetiser,' I said carefully, 'but I think you were going to tell me something, weren't you?' He nodded. 'I think there's something we need to talk about.' Oh, shit, did that mean he wanted to break up with me again? 'I think honesty is vital in a relationship,' he said quietly. 'I think that if two people are together, then they shouldn't have secrets. Not important secrets. If you're with someone you should be able to tell them anything. Don't you agree?' I just nodded. 'I imagine everyone has some sort of secret, but you should be able to share. Even if they're big. Like identity problems or something. It's wrong to keep things hidden. They always get found out in the end.' 'You know you can tell me anything, honey,' I said gently, wondering what was the big secret that he'd been hiding. I couldn't work out whether he meant he was on drugs, or suffering from schizophrenia. 'What?' he asked, head whipping up from an in-depth scrutiny of his starter, sounding confused. 'No! I'm not saying this right. I know you told me you find it hard to trust people, especially when you've just met them, and I can understand that. Really.' He gave me another one of those weirdly intense looks. 'If you have any problems, I'd want you to feel you can trust me, Trowa.' 'I do trust you.' All right, now I'd officially given up on understanding whatever it was he was trying to say. 'Really?' His eyes drifted over my face, apparently searching for something. Was that he was getting at; that whole trust thing? I'd thought we'd gone through that already. 'Do you really trust me, Trowa? If you did have some sort of secret, would you tell me?' 'I don't have any secrets,' I assured him, and then the waiter turned up with our main courses, flourishing black pepper and parmesan, which effectively put an end to the private conversation. Probably just as well; he'd been saying something about witness protection programmes and sex change operations. God, I really hoped he wasn't taking some sort of drugs. 'Hey, wait 'til you see this.' I fished in my jacket pocket for my 'phone. 'I took a couple of photos of the foal this morning.' I handed him the camera. 'Quatre, meet Trowa.' I could feel my grin broaden at his expression. 'They offered to call him after me.' 'They're calling him Trowa Barton?' Quatre asked, looking at me intently. 'Well, that's what the girl said. Sylvia Noventa. Her father might have other ideas, but racehorses do have pretty weird names.' 'I suppose Trowa is quite unusual. I've never heard it before. It's not a Sanque name, is it?' 'Don't think so; it's just an abbreviation anyway.' Quatre stared at me, a few strands of linguine dangling from his fork. 'What do you mean? Isn't Trowa your real name?' 'Nope.' I ate a mouthful of my own lasagne. 'It's Triton, really. Horrible, isn't it? Everyone's always called me Trowa, luckily.' 'Oh, but I think Triton's a lovely name!' He sounded positively giddy. I was never going to be able to keep up with him. Well, not with his thought processes, at least. 'So your real name is Triton Barton?' 'Triton Bloom,' I muttered, figuring I might as well get all the damn revelations over with in one go, and waiting for the inevitable teasing over having a flower as my surname. Instead, my dear, confusing Quatre shot me one of his most blinding smiles. 'Your name is Triton Bloom? Not Trowa Barton? Did you hear that?' 'Well, of course I heard it! I am sitting beside you,' I reminded him. 'Oh! I didn't mean…um, why don't you use your real name?' I shrugged. 'When I was born, my mother registered me as Triton Bloom. Everyone always called me Trowa, and most people just used nicknames in the circus. No one ever bothered with surnames. It was never a big deal 'til I came to live here. People just assumed my name was Barton, and it was easier to go along with that, having the same surname as my dad and Cathy. I never use Bloom, although it's on all my official documentation.' 'That's wonderful!' He beamed at me. 'I mean, ah, I think it's, wonderful that they're calling a horse after you.' 'Yeah, it is pretty cool.' I grinned at him, glad to have my sunny Quatre back. 'I'm not sure if it'll actually happen, though. I suppose it's up to General Noventa rather than his daughter.' 'I know Sylvia actually. She's a really good friend of Relena's.' He went all quiet again for a minute and then stood up. 'I have to go to the bathroom. Excuse me please.' He was in the bathroom so long I'd started to worry about him. He was smiling happily when he came out though. 'So…what was the big secret thing you wanted to talk about?' 'Oh, it was nothing important,' he beamed. 'I just thought we needed to know that we could trust each other.' 'You're not really in the Witness Protection programme then?' He blushed a vivid crimson. 'Of course not. I was just giving a totally hypothetical example. I wasn't really being serious. Anyway, the foal's so adorable! Was it a difficult birth?' 'The actual birth wasn't too bad. The problem was that the placenta - that's the afterbirth - wasn't expelled right away, and I had to clean it out manually.' I noticed he was staring to look rather green, and decided to tone down the technical details. 'It was great, actually. Cathy and I have never done a procedure like that together, before, and we worked really well together. I'd been kind of worried about it; she still tends to treat me like her little brother sometimes. I caught her looking over my shoulder a couple of times when I started here, even when I was doing simple stuff, and it bugged the hell out of me. But this morning was brilliant; she just treated me like any other vet and left me in charge when she had to go back to take a clinic.' I took a long swallow of coffee. 'I'll tell you one thing; it made me decide to accept the permanent job offer to stay here.' 'I didn't realise you were on a trial period.' I pulled a face. 'Well, sort of. I think we were both a bit worried about what it would be like working together, so we decided to try it for two months and see how we got on.' Quatre gasped. 'Do you mean, you might not have ended up staying here? That you would have left?' 'Hey, calm down, OK? The first week was a bit tricky; Cathy was double-checking every damn thing I did and it didn't help that we were also sharing a house. There were a couple of times when I was on the verge of packing up, but I suppose it got better. And then I met this blond guy and had a serious incentive to stay on and make it work.' 'I'm glad,' he said quietly. 'Yeah, me too.' Damn. What the hell were we doing in this stupid public place where I couldn't just kiss the hell out of him? 'You are definitely staying now, aren't you?' he asks, just making sure. 'Absolutely. I've already told Cathy it's definite. She can officially have me listed as staff now.' 'So you're not currently listed as personnel?' he asked curiously, and I shook my head. 'There wasn't any point, really, until I knew for sure that I was staying. So do you want dessert? Or coffee or something?' Quatre blushed furiously for no reason that I could see; it hadn't been that suggestive a comment, had it? 'I think I've had enough, thank you. Let's just get the bill and we can….I don't want any dessert.' 'Well, it's not compulsory or anything.' Surely he wasn't taking drugs or something? This was an extremely weird conversation. Maybe he just had really low blood sugar and needed to be fed more regularly? It didn't sound like he ate properly; I was going to have to start looking after his diet. Or maybe it was just sexual frustration; something I could identify with. Something I'd be more than happy to help him with. 'What time have you to go back to the Noventa Estate?' I checked my watch. 'I said I'd try to get there around five. We still have a bit of time; want to go for a walk or something?' 'Oh, I'd love that. I just need to go to the bathroom first.' The trip was a little shorter this time, and he was positively beaming. What was he doing in there? Jerking off or something? 'So when do I get to see you again? We have to go and look at those beds, right?' Look at them, test them out, maybe go home and give my futon a bit of attention so it won't feel left out? Quatre considered. 'I can't really do tomorrow; we're having a meeting about fundraising at the Youth Club. And I'm meeting Duo on Wednesday.' 'Tuesday or Thursday then?' I suggested. That worked OK. I had to work on Monday evening and I could meet up with Wufei on Wednesday. 'Tuesday would be perfect,' he decided. 'I'm going out with Relena on Thursday night. And then we'll be in Nova for the weekend.' 'I can't wait. So what are you and Relena up to?' He made a face. 'It's nothing very exciting; just a dinner in aid of a children's charity, but I promised to escort her.' 'Tuesday then. And maybe if it doesn't take too long you'll come back to my place, and spend a little time with the futon?' This time, his smile positively split his face in two. 'I promise, before you get rid of the futon, we'll give it the send-off it deserves.' 'I like the sound of that.' I really liked the sound of that, actually. 'And this time, no 'phones, no neighbours, no pets interrupting.' 'No ridiculously paranoid friends interfering,' he said firmly. Before I could figure out what that was supposed to mean, he added, eyes flashing and blush threatening, 'Maybe I will have to tie you up so you can't escape?' Wow. I thought back to the game and how much he'd enjoyed tying me to a tree. That had been pretty hot. I'd never let anyone tie me up before, but then his rope-tying skills weren't worth a damn so it hardly mattered. I could indulge his little bondage fetish if it made him happy. 'Whatever you want. I trust you.' 'Trust,' he murmured, almost too low for me to hear.
'I trust you as well, Trowa.' ~ * ~ |
