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"Brothers"Written By: ExecutiveShrimp Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, it belongs
to Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. Written for pleasure not
profit. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: AU, Get together fic, sap, angst, fluff,
citrus Pairings: 2x1 Summary: After the death of his mother, Duo is forced to live with his estranged father. The new family seems perfect at first, but the truth is entirely different and will be revealed as Duo starts to get feelings for his "brother".
"Brothers " Chapter Five "Sooo..." I trailed off, staring at him quizzically. At his prompt knock on my bedroom door I had welcomed him inside, watching as he carried his laptop and a stack of books directly to my desk and sitting down without even acknowledging me. I had been standing in the middle of the room for a good minute, staring at his back. I didn't know what I had expected, I just knew this was weird. And rude. "What do you want me to do?" I asked, approaching him. I looked over his shoulder at his laptop screen and the books he had neatly organized on the surface of the desk. It was clear he was going to work on our physics assignment and even though it wasn't conform the rules we had previously agreed upon, I really wanted to help. I hated feeling useless and like I was taking advantage of someone. Moreover, I wanted Heero to know that if he would just give me a chance, he would find that I'm not as stupid as he had me pegged. "I want you to be quiet," he grumbled and started leafing through a particular book, landing on a chapter entitled "Planetary Motion" in which "Kepler's laws" seemed to be the dominating term. I rolled my eyes at him and grabbed a book of the desk. "Please don't touch my things." He looked up at me with narrowed, offended eyes. "Look, let's get this straight and avoid discussion in the future. The moment you plunked your ass down in my chair and placed your shit on my desk, I was granted the right to touch whatever I want." Well, maybe not whatever, I thought to myself, averting my eyes from his intense yet ridiculously attractive face. "It's not even your chair, or your desk," Heero snapped venomously. I sighed, ignoring the sharp pain in my chest as he stabbed at my heart with his words. Way to make me feel welcome, brother. "This isn't going to work." "We're stuck together now, so we'd better make it work." He glared up at me. "Then let me help." I started leafing through the randomly selected book, having no idea what page to go to. "No," he growled firmly. We stared each other down but in the end I had to admit defeat. I dropped the book back down on the desk with a loud bang and threw myself onto the bed where my own laptop had been waiting for me. Secretly I would just google Kepler's Laws. Surely Wikipedia had some intel on that stuff. If I could just get myself acquainted with the subject, I might be able to impress him enough to let me work with him. Because I really didn't want him to write this report on his own and then have to suffer his arrogant gloat when he would ace it. "What are you doing?" He demanded when he saw me take my laptop into my seat. "Surfing for porn, duh." I stuck my tongue out at him. Very mature, Duo, very mature, I appreciated sarcastically. "Just mind your own business." "You can't go to porn websites when we are supposed to be working on our assignment." I couldn't believe that he actually took the porn-comment seriously, but it sure as hell amused me that he did. "Why? Does it make you uncomfortable?" I stared at the screen pointedly and groaned: "Ohhh, yeah, that's hot." He didn't know that I was still staring at my desktop wallpaper, so at my remark his face went red. With anger or with embarrassment, I couldn't really tell which, but it was funny regardless. He jumped out of his seat and stared at me incredulously. "Relax," I said and turned my laptop around to show him there was no reason to get all fussy. "It doesn't matter," he replied, his face cooling down, "you can't surf the web for whatever idiotic entertainment that you would like to waste your time with. He will see." I frowned. "He, as in He?" I pointed a finger up at the ceiling. "What?" "God." I clarified. Heero snorted. "Of course not. Don't you know anything?" "You'd like to think so, wouldn't you?" I quipped. "When you go online, Cameron can see your activities," he informed me dryly. "Excuse me?" I exclaimed, more than a little perturbed at this revelation. I was about to accuse him of lying, trying to mess with my head, when I remembered that night when Cameron came to my door and told me it was too late to be on the internet. I didn't give it much thought at the time, but it seemed to back up Heero's words. How else could Cameron have known that I had been online? "It's a parental control thing." "Uh... No! It's a gross invasion of my privacy! This is isn't parental control, this is spying!" I stared at my laptop in betrayal. This birthday gift had suddenly turned into a curse, a mere tool for him to keep his eyes on me and aim to control me. How fucking sick was this? "So, like, how does this work? I start up the internet and then what?" "He has a program that monitors your internet activity. It logs every website you visit, he can even see what you are doing in real time." He seemed a little smug, probably thought me stupid for not having known this, since I wasn't the computer genius he was. "This is crazy!" My mind raced as I revisited each website I had accessed. Luckily I hadn't felt at ease enough to visit any 'suspicious' websites but I did wonder what he would think knowing that I spent an inappropriate amount of time looking at Heero's mathlete picture on the school's website. I suddenly felt sick. "I could fix it, if you want," he announced matter-of-factly. "Fix it? You know how to fix it?" He shrugged. "Of course, I did it for my own laptop a long time ago." "Wait, he was spying on you as well?" What kind of sick, distrusting bastard was this man who fathered me? "Yeah." "And that doesn't bother you?" "No. Because I fixed it." he rolled his eyes on me and sat back down at the desk. From his laptop bag he produced a USB drive and inserted it into his laptop, quickly loading a file onto it. He walked back over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it. "Give me your laptop," he ordered. Under different circumstances I would have argued with his tone, but since he was doing me a favor, I wisely kept my mouth shut and handed over my laptop. I crawled over to him to look over his shoulder. He propped the machine on his lap and loaded the file from the USB drive. A program instantly booted up. The screen went black and infinite lines of grey-lettered code scrolled by. Heero's fingers hammered down on the keys, his gaze focused and pensive. "So... what? This program shuts him out?" I wondered, amazed he was able to keep up with the speed of the code as it kept on rolling across the screen, making me feel dizzy and appropriately inadequate. "Of course not, a lack of internet activity would be too suspicious," he answered. I waited for him to elaborate and rolled my eyes when he didn't. "So what does it do?" I insisted. He sighed impatiently, but explained nonetheless: "First, this program loads a database onto your computer. It's a database of websites that you are likely to visit - I'm making some adjustments since my preferences obviously differ from yours." "Please don't fill it with porn sites." "I won't," he grunted. "The second thing the program does is hide your actual internet activity. Thirdly, and finally, when Cameron tries to access your internet activity, the program will pick a random site from the database, with some sites having slightly larger odds of being picked - I wrote the algorithm myself - and the program present this website as the website you are currently on. That way, he can't see what you are actually doing. When he tries to view your internet history, the program composes a list of websites, including dates and time spent on the site. It uses only the times when you were actually online, otherwise it might show that you visited a site at a time when you weren't even here." I noticed the pride in his voice and made me warm up to him. He was clearly passionate about programming and even though it was a hobby I would never understand, it was a hobby no less and it made him seem more three-dimensional to me, rather than just a hot yet rude asshole. "I've never heard you talk this much at once," I noted. "Well... don't get used to it." "Too bad," I commented sincerely. He took out the USB drive and handed me back my laptop. "Here, finished." "Thanks. So I can surf for porn now?" He scoffed and got up off the bed, not even dignifying me with a response. He sat back down at the desk and resumed his work on our assignment. I scooted further up the bed and leaned against the headboard, my laptop in my lap. I was still disturbed by the knowledge that Cameron had this desire to spy on his sons and I wondered what that was all about. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come up with any good justification for why he would take 'parental control' to such an extreme level and it made me feel uncomfortable. Quite frankly, it made me feel creeped out. I looked around the room suspiciously. "Say, Heero, there aren't any bugs or hidden cameras, right?" "No. Not in my room at least. I checked." Yeah, definitely creeped out. I distracted myself by booting up the internet and starting my search on Kepler's laws. Though I couldn't deny often peeling my eyes away from the screen to look at Heero, hunched over my desk, staring at his laptop or the pages of a textbook with an intense expression. He didn't have to help me. He could have just told me of Cameron's spying and leave it at that. But he did help me. My lips formed a smile, but I looked away and molded my face into a thoughtful frown when Heero suddenly cast a glance over his shoulder. He wasn't all that bad, I realized. Even though he was trying very hard to be severe and aloof, I wasn't buying it. We stayed in my room working on the school assignment - me secretly - until we were called downstairs for dinner. Cameron inquired enthusiastically about the project, not aware that however uncomfortable I was around him before, things had taken a turn for the worse since I knew he had been spying on me through my laptop. But I fake-smiled my way through and answered all his questions, even getting into a little detail regarding the topic, making Heero look up, as I was supposed to know nothing about Kepler's laws of planetary motion. "I am very happy to hear you two are able to work together," Cameron commented, looking at both of us. "I really hope that one day you two will consider each other as brothers." I nodded even though I didn't believe I ever would. Not with the way I had been thinking about Heero lately. As a - like I said - hot but rude asshole. The whole potential of brotherly love is ruined once you've looked down your "brother's" ill-fitting blouse and had a dream about him in tight jeans. I didn't really seem the harm in it. I never expected us to be like brothers, there was too little common history and not even blood to bind us. It only felt a little weird when other people referred to us as brothers, as it reminded me that, on paper, some of the thoughts I had been having were highly unethical. It did, however, make me wonder what it would have been like to have had an actual brother. After dinner I went back upstairs and dug out the photo album my mother had left me and started leafing through the pages where I had left off. I never felt like I needed a sibling, my mother always made sure that in spite of our few possessions and nomadic existence, I was always content. I could only hope that I had been enough for her. That she never felt like something had been missing from her life. Aside from a husband, of course. I skipped back to an old picture of her, I wasn't in it, I was the one who had taken it. The picture was blurry but her beauty shined through clearly. She was sitting on a park bench, the background was dominated by a tall Ferris wheel and a colorful merry-go-round. She was smiling so brilliantly, her long chestnut braid draped over her shoulder, the end resting on her thigh. In her arms she held my teddy bear - I had given it to her because I didn't want her to be alone in the picture - her long, gentle fingers petting his soft fur. Before I had taken the picture, I had said to her: "Say cheese, mommy." She had replied: "I will smile for you, if you tell me you love me." "I love you." And then she had smiled the most beautiful smile - one of those smiles that makes you feel special, and makes you realize how special the other person is - and I snapped the picture. How could anyone leave a woman like that? But maybe it was for the best. If Cameron was the kind of father that doesn't trust his own children to the extent that he spies on them, maybe they weren't a good match anyway. Because my mother always trusted me and loved me unconditionally. It's just a shame that she never got to know that it was probably better this way. In his absence she had grown to resent him. It seemed like she hated, maybe even feared him. She had probably never suspected that he could break her heart like that and just leave us one day. On her deathbed she had told me not to let them - the social workers - take me back to him. She told me to run and gave me a bundle of money that she knew wouldn't last long, but hoped it would be enough anyway. At that memory, the guilt of being there, in his house, was almost unbearable. She didn't want me to be here. Probably didn't want Cameron to get a second chance after what he had done to us. I tucked the photo album away in the drawer, securely locking it. I hadn't been very mindful of where I left the key, but now that I knew Cameron might be the type to go snooping - like father like son, I supposed, it just wasn't fun when you were on the receiving end of it - I felt the need to hide it, to protect this precious keepsake of my life from his prying eyes. Eyes that had no right to see. I ripped a piece of tape from the dispenser, figuring the key would be safest taped underneath or behind something and I looked around the room. The space underneath the newly black dresser was just high enough for me to fit my hand underneath. I reached as far as I could, until my arm threatened to get caught between the carpet and the wood and then I taped the key to the underside, scratching my nails over the tape to make sure it would hold. It was crazy that I would have to take these measures. But I didn't want him to come into my life uninvited. I wasn't comfortable with that. I liked being able to keep him at arm's length, it just felt safer that way. I preferred to get to know a little bit more about him before I could trust him to know anything about me. If he wanted a fair chance to get to know me, he had better odds inventing a time machine, to go back and not leave my mom and me all those years ago. We may be in his house, but we were doing this father-son-reacquainting thing on my terms. The next day was another school day. After enjoying fifty minutes of my lab partners undivided attention, a pretty girl with long, raven black hair - what I really enjoyed were the jealous stares that the hot, popular guys were giving me - I casually strolled through the halls, trying to remember which locker was mine. They shouldn't make the halls so similar and the numbers above the lockers so damn small. I rounded a corner and suspected I had found myself in the correct hall. It looked familiar enough. I didn't have to search for the specific locker, I had a pretty strong inkling which one it was. The one Heero was leaning against. Waiting for me. He looked dutifully chagrin when he spotted me walking up to him. "You know where to find my locker better than I do." "That is because you are stupid," he stated dryly. I opened up my locker to get my books for next period. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" I asked sarcastically. "I need you to go to the library after school and get a book. I'm stuck at a mathlete contest all afternoon." He pushed a piece of paper into my face. I folded it open and frowned at the scientific title and very detailed descriptions of where I would find it. I turned it over and joked: "No map?" "Would you just go get it? We need it for our physics paper." "We?" I leaned against the wall of lockers and grinned at him. "Our?" "Well, if you're desperate enough to help to quote wikipedia articles over dinner," he paused to shake his head disapprovingly, "I might as well put you to use." I smiled at him. My strategy had worked quicker than I had expected it too. Who's the genius now? "Read the chapter on Brahe. There was nothing on him in my books and since Kepler based his model on Brahe's data, I think we should include him." "Wasn't there a word limit, or something?" I muttered. He quirked an eyebrow at me. "No." "Fantastic..." I deadpanned. "Look, you either want to help, or you don't. No half-assed stuff." "Relax, I'll find the book, I'll read the chapter, I'll write a limerick on planetary motion and do a little dance routine. Whatever you want. Wow," I finished. It was clear from his decidedly deadly glare that he did not find my dry humor amusing. "I really want to help, I do." "I'm going to regret this," Heero remarked and then he walked away, shaking his head. I watched him go, snorting to myself. "Making friends?" I jumped at the sudden voice behind me. "Jesus!" I exclaimed. I turned around and was met by the same quartet of buffed-up jocks as before. Did these guys make a habit of popping up like that? "Ease a guy into it with a cough or something, count Dracula. Materializing out of nothing like that..." He put his hands on his hips defiantly and informed me: "My name is Brody? We've met before." He didn't exactly introduce himself to me at the time, but overtime I had heard his name pop up frequently in hallway chatter. "Well, I didn't actually mistake you for a Transylvanian vampire. Brody." "You're being funny again, funny guy?" "I don't know. Honestly, it's hard to tell without the laugh-track." He stared at me angrily and his friends copied his demeanor. "Uhm, might I remind you: you approached me. What do you want?" "Just keeping you on your toes, other Maxwell." He walked past me with a challenging look, his shoulder brushing against mine. The big, popular boys had had an intimidating effect on me before, but as time went by they proved to be nothing more than a comic mockery of a threat. I called after him: "Consider me en pointe." "Look at the funny man, being funny in French," the last of the minions deadpanned as he walked past me. "Faggot." He cackled at his own unimaginative insult. "Aww, you say that like it's a bad thing." The four turned around in unison, each with his own variation of the expression baffled. "Standing up for that little cocksucker of a brother of your, other Maxwell?" Brody asked. That pissed me off without any particular reason. "Standing up for myself." "Holy shit!" Brody started laughing uncontrollably, doubling over. "You're a fairy too? Well, then you two must be related." The others followed in laughter. Without hesitation I corrected him, even though my palms were sweaty at that point. "I'm not a fairy. I'm gay." "You say tomato-" "I say: fuck you," I interrupted him. Brody scoffed and gave me a foul look. "At least you have something in common with your brother. Come on guys, we're already late for class." I watched them walk off. It wasn't the first time someone had confronted me about my sexuality. People had their bias at the ready at the sight of my braid, having their prejudice reinforced only made them all the more insufferable. I had learned not to let their ignorant social commentary get to me. What did get to me was the new accusation towards my 'brother'. These assholes were revealing more about him than he did himself. Despite the 'whore' remark and the blow-job gesture, I hadn't dared to think that any of it actually meant Heero was gay, but at the very least there had to be something that fuelled these rumors. I finished my classes and then had detention at the end of the day for showing up late for one of them. I didn't bother mentioning that it had been Brody's fault. After detention I went to the library and with the help of Heero's instruction I easily found the book, tucked away on a lower shelf all the way in the back. "Hello?" I called as I stepped through the front door into the foyer. "Hi, darling! I'm in the kitchen!" I raised my eyebrows and followed Tabytha's voice into the kitchen. She yelped as she looked up from a gathering of folders and spotted me in the door opening. "Oh, you sound so much like your father. I thought Cameron was home." She looked down at her watch. "Honey, why are you so late?" "Had to pick up a book at the school's library, for the Physics paper Heero and I are writing." "Oh." She looked at her watch again. "Had trouble finding the book?" She asked with a smile. I scratched the back of my head sheepishly and lied: "Yeah." I sat down at the breakfast table and wondered: "What's all this?" "Oh, I'm deciding on a caterer for your aunt's wedding. I wanted to use the same one as last time, but she thought that would be tacky and on second thought I totally agree. You know, third wedding and all, you have to be careful with that sort of thing." "Hm," I replied vaguely, having no idea about weddings. "Which one appeals to you?" She pushed some folders my way. I knew that whatever I was going to say, she wouldn't heed my advice anyway, so I didn't bother paying much attention to the folders. "I'm really not the right guy to ask. Pizza menu's appeal most to me, so..." "Oh," she responded awkwardly, not knowing what else to say to the guy with the poor upbringing who was raised on take-out meals. "When does Heero come home?" I inquired. I had to admit I was quite excited about confronting him with the new piece of information that had been revealed to me, hoping to get a meaningful reaction out of him this time around. "Not until dinner. He's at some sort of contest," she waved her hand dismissively, clearly not caring too much about the activities of her son. Not invested in the least in the decision between caterers I excused myself and headed upstairs. I had some reading to do after all. I struggled through the dull material on Brahe that Heero had instructed me to read and I made notes because I sure as hell wasn't going to give him the opportunity to accuse me of not doing a good enough job. For the first time since I had arrived, dinner was a welcome relief. "Where's Heero?" I instantly wondered when I sauntered into the dining room and noticed his unoccupied chair. "The contest ran long. Apparently they ended in a tie, so now it is up to a sudden death round to decide the winner," Cameron answered and then looked up at me with a smile as I sat down at the table. "Wondering where he is? Do I dare take this as a positive sign?" I shrugged. "I just wanted to know because we were going to work on our paper tonight. If the contest takes too long and he's too tired, I just wasted my afternoon." "Heero is never too tired for schoolwork," Cameron stated argumentatively. "Oh... okay." As soon as he looked away, I made a face. Chill out man, I thought, taking a quiet sip of my Italian potato and tomato soup. Ten minutes into Tabytha's rambling about the wedding and Cameron quietly eating his soup - probably not even paying attention to her - the door to the garage opened and Heero walked over from the kitchen. I grinned up at him. "Hey, buddy, is it raining outside?" Heero glared at me through his bangs, plastered to his forehead. Water steadily dripped on the hardwood floor from his soaked clothing. "Heero!" Tabytha shot up and ushered him back to the garage door. "Don't drip on the floors, we just had them done two months ago! You go warm up and take a shower and I'll reheat a nice bowl of soup for you." I chuckled at the scene of Heero awkwardly moving through the rooms, restrained by his heavy, wet clothing. Without looking up from his soup, Cameron asked: "Do you think that's funny?" I shut my mouth and looked at him, but he didn't even dignify me by looking up from his dinner. After a few more spoonfuls of soup he noted: "I think it's inappropriate to laugh at that. I thought you too were getting along." I blinked, confused by the seriousness of his tone. He made it sound like I had laughed at Heero on his deathbed. "Well, friends laugh at each other." I thought of one even better and pointed out: "Brothers laugh at each other," stressing the first word. He finally looked at me. His gaze was chilling. "What if he got sick and got behind on his schoolwork?" I dumbly argued: "Heero is a minimum of two weeks ahead in each class. I doubt a common cold will incapacitate him for that long." "I don't appreciate you talking back to me like that." Without further ado he turned his attention back to his soup, like he hadn't just been an unreasonable, stuck-up prick. I watched him eat for a minute or two, completely baffled. What was the matter with him? I didn't have to think long. Of course he couldn't have the disappointing son make a mockery of the adopted boy wonder. That would just be unheard of. Heero joined us at the dinner table with his bowl of soup just as we started in on desert. Cameron inquired about the contest and of course Heero could smugly report they had won, although Cameron felt the need to point out that it wasn't an admirable win, since it had taken a sudden death round. Way to be supportive. "Did you get the book?" Heero practically snapped at me once the contest had been discussed in length, wolfing down his food. "Oh no- of course I did!" "Yes, you boys seem to be getting along just fine..." Tabytha remarked sarcastically but focused on her desert when Heero and I shot a look at her. "And did you read the chapter?" "Yes." "Was it any good?" I rolled my eyes at him. "Yes. It was fascinating, absolutely riveting. It was the most exciting read in my life," I deadpanned, then felt uncomfortable as the others stared at me. Cameron in particular had me on edge. He was just so... serious. Maybe that is why he left us, because my mom was always very goofy and playful. That must have bugged the shit out of him. Good. Asshole... "I meant," Heero nearly seethed, "was there adequate information on Brahe?" "Oh... uh, yeah, sure. Enough for an intro at least." "Good. We should write that tonight." We? I smirked at him, causing him to look away. "Heero, would you like some desert?" Tabytha inquired once he had finished his soup. "No, thank you. It is getting late, Duo and I should really get some work done on our paper." Heero promptly got up out of his seat and started towards the staircase, grabbing his laptop bag along the way. Realizing he was heading for my bedroom, unattended, I jumped up and hurried after him. My bedroom was my domain. If he got to be possessive and protective - and obsessively secretive - about his bedroom, I could too. "Wait up!" I rushed after him on the stairs, but purposefully looked down at the steps, repeating a mantra in my head: don't look at his ass. Don't look at his ass. Don't look at his ass. "Yeah, sure, go right inside, make yourself at home," I muttered when he burst through the door and seated himself at the desk. He immediately started booting up his computer and leafed through the book that I had haphazardly thrown on the desk. "So," I plopped down on the bed, "you want us to work together?" He downplayed our breakthrough by stating: "I just didn't have time to read the chapter myself and according to the schedule we should have the introduction finished by tonight." I frowned. "What schedule?" "My schedule." He turned around with an irritated expression. Quickly becoming impatient with me. "If we stick to the schedule, we'll be done this weekend and we can hand it in on Monday." I raised my hand into the air, like a student wanting to ask a question in class. This truly annoyed him. "Yes?" "I wouldn't want to argue with "the schedule", since it's like the thing that holds the universe together," I made a lot of exaggerated hand gestures to complete my mockery, "but the paper isn't due for another two and a half weeks." He grunted. "I'm quite aware. I think it's better to hand things in early." "Two weeks early?!" "Yes." His tone was a little more meek, like he worried about me possibly judging him. "Why?" "I don't necessarily have to hand things in two weeks early, it's just that I always complete assignments ahead of time. I just work harder or faster than the other students." I sighed. "I don't mean to sound repetitive, but: why?" He frowned at me. "What else would I do with my time?" I scoffed. "Geez, I don't know. Relax, have fun, hang out with friends?" I looked at his face and fell silent. "Oh," I let out as it dawned on me that he never did those things. He glared at me, he must have noticed the sudden expression of pity on my features. "Some of us like to exercise our above average intelligence and focus our efforts on our future. What good does 'hanging out' do?" He turned back around in his seat and ignored me as I kept staring at him in shock. Finally, he burst: "You can stop looking at me like that. I have an IQ of 158. I have a 4.0 GPA, I have several science and engineering awards, I am president of the chess club and captain of the mathletes. Every summer I take advanced classes. When I graduate, universities are going to be falling over themselves offering me scholarships. I have all that. What do you have?" He shot a look at me over his shoulder. I shrugged. "A life?" Or at least I did. Until my mom died. Now, i had to admit, I just had a photo album of a life. He snorted degradingly. "What good is life if you are going to spend it flipping burgers?" "I'm sorry, mister Modesty," I replied sarcastically, "we don't all have to be rocket scientists. I'm not saying it's bad to work hard for school or for your future but you don't get to say that flipping burgers or whatever is meaningless. Jobs are what we do, not who we are. We have to spend time with ourselves and, more importantly, with our friends and family." "What do you know? You don't have any friends either and you have no family." His words were like a knife right to my heart, plunging it through the vital muscle and then twisting it around with each syllable. Emotions flowed like blood and stained my sarcastic, detached mask that had been protecting me. There was no hiding behind it now. "What about you? You call your parents by their first name and you hide yourself in schoolwork so you don't have to be with anyone, not even with them! What the fuck is up with that, huh? I think you are just bitter, because if you are as smart as you think you are, you are fully aware that all that IQ and GPA and president stuff doesn't mean shit." I was near tears, but I fought them with all my strength because I didn't want him to have the gratification of knowing just how hard his words hit home. I didn't want him to see this soft-spot exposed and vulnerable, available for him to abuse and exploit. "At least I have the memory of family, of my mom. What memories do you have? There aren't even any family pictures in this house, just fucking awards! You are not a son to them, you are just the prodigy child; a commodity! You're just the thing that makes them look good at family reunions and office Christmas parties." He had fallen into utter silence. His usual harsh look had melted away, leaving his features looking incredibly young and vulnerable. "Fuck," I said to myself as it hit me then like a ton of bricks. His had just been a mask too. We sat in silence, both our masks broken, not knowing what to do with ourselves or say to the other. I wanted to hate him, like I hated Cameron. But I knew I couldn't. There was something about his annoying, arrogant, sarcastic attitude that was strangely likable. Probably because I had observed I was the same things when trying to defend against, hoping to keep others at distance. It made me realize that even though we had completely different lives and truly, devotedly, didn't want to have anything to do with each other out of non-sensical, petty reasons, there was no avoiding it. We had something in common: we were both sarcastic, detached assholes on the outside, damaged and lonely on the inside. "I'm sorry." I looked up, amazed. "What?" "You heard me, don't make me repeat myself," he snapped, securing the mask back in place. I followed his lead, forming a grin on my face. "Right..." I added sincerely: "I'm sorry too." "Let's just finish this introduction," he suggested after another long, pregnant pause. "Yeah. We don't want to mess with 'the schedule'." He groaned at my banter. "Hey, Heero, now that we have bonded a little, can I call you 'bro'?" I asked, hoping to lighten the atmosphere after what had probably been the most significant argument I had ever had, in my life. He turned to his laptop to focus his gaze on the screen as he opened the file. He answered absentmindedly: "You could try. But only once." "Why only once?" "Because then I kill you." I chuckled and grabbed an extra chair from the corner of the room and pushed it right up next to his. "You know what's funny?" He asked flatly. I interrupted my laughter to wonder: "No, what?" "That you think I'm joking." Unknowing to him, I smiled. He was going to grow to like me. He just didn't know it yet. And that was the fun part. We would never truly be family and no one would ever replace my mom, but maybe in him I would find the long term friend that I had never had. After all, I was going to be there for a while... might as well make the best of it.
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