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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 Seven
Heero shot back, characteristically annoyed: "Why
are you talking - why are you sitting?" He looked at me more
than a little perturbed when I seated myself closely next to him on
the third step of the stairway, in a corner of the school building
that sees very little student traffic. "I just thought I'd have lunch with my little brother." He made a face. "I'm not your brother." "Tough shit. Some of my DNA would really do you
good. Balance out that whole anal-retentive thing you've got going
on." With a grin I took a big bite from the sandwich Tabytha
had packed for me. "Oh yes, undoubtedly I would be much better off
if I were a slob like you," He replied sarcastically and with
dismay his eyes followed a glob of mayonnaise dripping from my sandwich
to my lap, staining my dark jeans. "Glad we agree on something. Want a bite?"
I held the dripping sandwich out towards him. Heero violently pulled away from me, scooting several
feet away. "What are you doing?" I nodded at the papers
in his lap. He frowned. "Why are you talking to me?" "It's one of the basics of human interaction…"
I pointed out dryly. "I know that, like, seventy percent of communication
is non-verbal; so body language and facial expression and stuff, but
I'm really tired of 'listening' to what your haughty, displeased face
has to say, so I thought we could try something new. On the off-chance
that your mouth actually has something nice to say." "I don't have time to talk to you. Verbally or
non-verbally. I'm busy." He pointedly bent himself over his work. "It's lunch. Lunch is for lunch." "For you maybe. I am taking a course of Computer
Science at the learning center. I hadn't yet found the time to catch
up on my reading." I sighed dramatically and rolled my eyes. "Can't
spare five fucking minutes to talk to me? I thought we were hot again." He snapped his head up at me and blinked confusedly.
"Excuse me?" "We are constantly doing this hot and cold thing.
One day you hate my guts and ignore me and the other day you actually
offer a sliver of hope by acknowledging my existence. I thought today
was a hot day." "You're crazy…" He noted, staring at
me like he honestly believed that. Then he shook his head and redirected
his eyes to his reading material. "Why study so hard? Aren't the teachers at the
learning center receptive to sexual favors?" I knew I was being
harsh, but not without reason. I had to do something to get his attention.
I was curious to get to know him better, partly because I was eager
to reveal the secrets of this not-so-perfect family. I looked forward
to being able to say to Cameron, on my eighteenth birthday, that he
wasn't good enough for me. And then promptly leave the way he had
left me and my mom. Heero looked up at me, his eyes stone cold. "Shut
up," he said, his tone dangerously calm. "What are you trying
to imply, that I am too dumb to get good grades without 'sexual favors?'" I blinked. "Uh… no. I was trying to imply
that you whore yourself off without good reason. But you don't even
see it that way, do you? You don't even see how fucked up it is that
you are so blasé about all of this." "I told you, it's not a big deal. Besides, it was
a Sex Ed class, I think it was an appropriate final exam." His calm, casual tone frightened me. I wondered how
he could possibly be so impersonal about what had happened. That prompted
the question: "What happened to you before you were adopted?" His eyes became wild, his entire body went rigid. "Shut
up!" He suddenly yelled, a complete contrast to his calm from
before. "Shut up! Shut up and leave me alone!" His reaction left me stunned, I had not been prepared
for it. "Heero-" "Mind your own fucking business! And find your
own goddamn staircase to have lunch on! This place is mine!" I held my hands up in surrender, attempting to appease
him. Slowly, I got up on my feet. "Okay… okay…"
I shushed, like I was trying to calm down a wild, cornered animal,
but I wasn't about to leave, I had every intention of resolving the
issue, even though I hardly grasped the meaning of it all. "Leave me alone!" He screamed, his voice hoarse
with raw emotions that took us both by surprise. Heero took a few
deep breaths, his eyes purposefully turned away. He seemed embarrassed
and regretful about letting his emotions shine through. With haste
he gathered up the papers that were in his lap and spread around him
on the steps and he promptly left, climbing up the stairs. "Heero, I'm sorry," I called after him. Obviously
by bringing up his past I had greatly upset him and I felt guilty
about that. I had only meant to pry a genuine reaction out of him,
inspire interaction between us. I hadn't expected my words to have
that kind of effect. Heero didn't respond to me and soon turned a corner
and disappeared out of sight. Before I could decide whether it would be helpful or
even appropriate for me to go after him, the bell rang and I realized
I had classes at the other end of the school building. I couldn't
risk being late, the school had a strict policy and Cameron would
learn of any tardiness on my behalf. I didn't want to give him any
ammunition. My best cover was to appease him, I figured that as long
as I wasn't too big of a disappointment I could fly under the radar
and gather some relevant intelligence on the off-beat family that
I had been dropped into. I spent the rest of the day with my body confined to
classrooms and crowded hallways, but my mind being completely elsewhere.
Heero's severe reaction to me emotionally prodding him kept repeating
in my head, but I couldn't extract anything more useful out of it
than the realization something dark must have happened to him in his
past. After giving it some thought, I wasn't surprised. After all,
why else would he have been given up for adoption, if things hadn't
been dark where he had come from? Heero had to be the key to unlocking the mystery of
the twisted family dynamic at the Maxwell residence. I was more curious than ever. Unfortunately any kind of progress I had made with Heero
had been undone by my provoking him during that lunch hour. There
were no more "hot days" that made me believe I was getting
any closer to him, the "cold days" only seemed colder than
ever. Of course we still had to play by Cameron's rules and maintain
the façade of us getting along better if we wished to avoid
his meddling, but that only made matters more uncomfortable, as he
would, at times, join me in my room and we would spend several hours
sharing that small space without even acknowledging each other. The
silences were incredibly tense and for some reason each attempt of
mine to interrupt the silence died in my throat. None of my attempts
to mend things between us had been successful and I was fast losing
my confidence in my ability to patch things up. I felt like my investigation
was hitting an insurmountable wall. Cameron and Tabytha weren't giving
me anything - other than the creeps, with their subdued, controlled
attitude and mannerisms – the house I had already raided when
I first got there without much result and Heero was completely stonewalling
me. It was… boring. I listened to the furious scribble of Heero's pencil
on a new page of his notebook as he sat – stubbornly quiet -
in my desk chair, working intensely on God knows what – world
domination maybe. Ignoring me had been perfected to an art by my step-brother.
He didn't even flinch anymore when I would purposefully scrape my
throat or move around on my bed, where I always sat, with my laptop
in my lap. He wouldn't even sneer at me anymore if I started up a
violent online game and 'accidentally' neglected to plug in my earphones.
Digital soldiers would be dying with terrified screams or a gurgle
as they choked on their own blood and he would just sit there. Writing. I caught myself paying less and less attention to the
games, the movies, or the music I put on to distract myself in the
eerie quiet. Instead, I spent most of our shared time watching him,
my eyes tracing the outline of bulky clothing masking what the belt
on his hips, holding up his trousers, revealed to be a slim frame.
The long, stiff neck, the wayward hair, the sharp nose and full lips,
the lower lip usually being caught by his front teeth as he worked.
Sometimes he would turn his head just enough for me to see the line
etched between his eyebrows as he always seemed to frown. Not a confused
frown, but an angry frown. I wanted to hate him, he was being a spoiled brat after
all, but I couldn't. I knew a troubled kid when I saw one. And I should,
I saw a troubled kid every time I looked in the mirror. Though, sympathetic as I was to him and curious as I
was, his capacity to annoy me was in no way diminished. His silence
was merely the latest method and for lack of a better option I figured
I would just have to wait it out. I trusted that, eventually, he wouldn't
be able to ignore me any longer, after all, seeing as how upset I
had made him during that lunch break, he must slowly be overcome with
the yearning to 'rip me a new one'. When we were called down for dinner we both practically
jumped at the opportunity, even though neither of us very much appreciated
the presence of neither Tabytha nor Cameron, that was no secret. As
we headed down the stairs, I started talking to Heero about a make-believe
subject, pretending to be finishing a conversation we had been having.
Little theatrical displays like that I deemed to be necessary to successfully
sell our brotherly bonding to the ever-meddlesome Cameron, but Heero
gave me nothing in return to work with. Tabytha was still on the kitchen, talking rapidly into
the cellphone she held pressed between her ear and shoulder and her
manicured hands rifled through a large look-book on the counter. We took our seat at the table with Cameron and we waited
for Tabytha to finish her call and bring us our plates. "Sorry about that, boys," She apologized insincerely
as she sat down after serving us. "The wedding location fell
through and now we are hard-pressed to find something equally perfect,"
she explained, although no-one had inquired, or even seemed interested
for that matter. "I'm going on a little road-trip with the girls
this weekend to visit the top contenders." Cameron suddenly lay down his fork and knife and the
gesture caught everyone's attention. I stopped chewing my lamb chop. The tension in the room
alerted me to shit making its way towards the proverbial fan. "This weekend?" Cameron asked with a small
smile that made me feel uneasy. From the look on Tabytha's face I deduced she just then
realized the mistake she had made but quickly weighed her options
and decided to play dumb. "Yes, darling. Why, is something wrong?" "I told you, I have already made plans for me and
Heero to go up to the cabin this weekend for one of our fishing trips,"
He calmly informed her and then turned to Heero with the sideway remark:
"It was supposed to be a surprise." Heero didn't look up from his plate. Tabytha fumbled: "Well, you can still do that,
can't you?" "We can't very well leave Duo here alone." Tabytha looked at me. "Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine.
And I don't think he would mind. Would you, Duo?" I shook my head. "I'm not sure if that is such a good idea."
Cameron stated flatly. "Maybe you could take Duo with you to the cabin
then?" Erupted out of the housewife. After the remark her eyes
became wide. Her husband replied: "I would love for Duo to come
with us." For the first time in days I could feel Heero's eyes
on me, but I was preoccupied trying to see through Cameron's façade.
Unsuccessfully. My brother's gaze fell back to his plate. "Surely Duo understands." Cameron looked at
me expectantly. "Oh. Yeah. Sure." "What are we going to do about this weekend?"
Tabytha questioned. "I really need to help decide on a new wedding
location." Cameron's cool slipped briefly and he shot her a glare,
clearly not appreciative of, nor used to, her defiance. He let the
silence stretch for an uncomfortable amount of time, likely expecting
his wife to offer to stay and baby-sit me after all. When she disappointed
him by remaining equally stone-faced, his lips forced another smile
and he placated: "Fine, fine. I suppose we can trust Duo is mature
and responsible enough to be left to his own devices for one weekend." Wow, he clearly doesn't know me at all, I thought to
myself. With the issue settled, dinner continued in silence.
However, I noticed Heero didn't pick up his cutlery. He kept staring
down at his plate, his food untouched except for the few bites he
had taken before the awkward conversation. "Lost your appetite, brother?" I asked. Given
Cameron's and Tabytha's presence I was confident he would answer me,
to keep up pretenses. "I wasn't that hungry to begin with," He answered
and he looked at Cameron to ask: "May I be excused? I'm quite
tired." Cameron's eyes narrowed slightly. "Of course. Tabytha
will wrap your dinner and put it in the fridge, you can heat it up
later." Tabytha started to get out of her seat to do as we she
was, indirectly, told, but paused her motions when Heero assured her
with flat voice: "That is not necessary. I won't be hungry later
tonight either." Then he left. I stared at the archway to the kitchen through which
he had disappeared, pondering the meaning behind it all. Heero's parents
didn't seem to share my concerns in the least. Cameron wasted no time
digging into his food, Tabytha gingerly placed the embroidered napkin
back in her lap and pricked some salad onto her fork. Inwardly I questioned
if they didn't notice Heero was upset, or if they didn't care. Or
maybe a combination of both: maybe they didn't care enough about him
at all to notice. To speed the process of dinner along I hurriedly shuffled
the finely prepared food into my mouth in much the same way I would
work my way through a large fries and a cheeseburger in any given
diner, on the road with my mom. I caught my father and his wife looking
at me with their forks halfway up to their mouths, somewhat perturbed
by the haste and indelicate way in which I consumed my meal. When
the plate was practically clean, I asked to be excused as well. Before giving me permission Cameron noted sarcastically:
"You must have been hungry." As blind as he appeared to
be to Heero's inner issues, he looked to be suspicious of me. I shrugged and was then cordially allowed to leave the
dinner table. I didn't care to spend any more time in their cold presence. My bed invited me to drop face down onto it. I wondered
what would be the best way for me to spend the weekend. I had already
been given an opportunity to search the house, but maybe a second
look couldn't hurt, I didn't have much more back ground information
to work with on my search, but maybe knowing what little I did could
help me along in finding the answers. Mostly I was aching for the
opportunity to snoop around my 'brother's' room. I didn't doubt he
had some skeletons in his closet and as intelligent as he was, he
was probably far less cunning than his picture perfect adoptive parents
at keeping secrets. Knowing him a little better than I did when I first
came here, I did get an uneasy feeling at planning to break into his
room, mostly because I could easily imagine how angry and betrayed
I would feel if someone came into my room without permission and found
the treasured photo-album my mother had left me. But I justified my
immoral plans by reminding myself that I had the right to know what
kind of family I had been thrust into. If they weren't going to give
me information voluntarily, I had no choice but to make things happen
myself. Heero was more stoic and tense the rest of that week
than I had ever seen him. I saw him in the hallway of the school as
we moved between classrooms and a kid bumped his shoulder into him.
Heero completely froze up, causing a pile-up of student behind him,
like a traffic jam. Even after he got pushed out of the way by a particularly
large girl he seemed immobile. I was about to walk up to him –
more to investigate than anything else, I had myself convinced –
but I stopped halfway and decided to blend back into the crowd before
he could see me. I scolded myself as I let the current of student
bodies push me down the corridor, past Heero. He may have been a dick
to me, but that was no excuse to treat him the same way. It was apparent that this impending father-and-son-trip
was making Heero edgy. During boring classes and dull family dinners
I imagined dark and unspeakable explanations, but I knew I couldn't
trust my imagination. Being a young man that grew up in the passenger
seat of an old truck that had no working radio, cutting through God's
more uninspired work in terms of landscaping, my imagination tended
to be over the top and surreal, albeit vivid as a way of escapism.
A guy in a particular car could pass us by with only a fleeting glance
and I would spend the rest of the day fantasizing about his life,
in startling, dark detail. No one could sue me for being a glass-half-empty
kind of guy. I had to discover the truth. That Friday afternoon the build-up had left me anxious.
I wasn't really sure what significant thing I expected to unearth,
given that I had already had a fairly unsuccessful rummage through
the house, but I was hopeful this was my shot. Tabytha had already left while I had still been in school.
When I came back to the house, the black motorcycle had been rolled
out of the garage and parked on the driveway, causing me to raise
my eyebrows, briefly marveling at the machine I had previously only
been able to admire in the dramatic shadows of the garage. I moved
my hand to touch the leather seat, but paused at a bellowing voice. "Please don't." I turned and watched Cameron approach me, a smile perfectly
in place. With a more subdued tone he offered: "If you want the
two of us can go for a trip someday." I retreated my hand. The offer did not entice me, not
with the way Heero had been tense and almost frightful the past days. Cameron's clothes were uncannily casual; dark jeans,
a grey T-shirt and a black leather jacket. He didn't look like himself,
I noted as I scrutinized him. He hunched over and fastened the saddle bags he had
been carrying to the motorcycle in preparation of the trip, ignoring
me as I stared. "Upstate. We have a cabin. You know this,"
He said, clearly a little annoyed, but he flashed me a smile over
his shoulder with the vain intention of undoing his blatant irritation. "Right, fishing." I nodded to the saddle bags,
clearly only packed with clothes and the likes. "Where's the
gear?" Cameron took a deep breath and slowly straightened up,
turning to face me. His lips bore a smile, but his eyes were dull.
"We keep our fishing gear at the cabin," he replied impatiently. "Cool." I shrugged and walked off, but made
mental note of the tense and awkward interaction and that I had probably
just been lied to. I halted and looked back at him with a frown. He chuckled,
shook his head and bent back down to make sure the bags were secure.
Why did I suddenly feel like I had been threatened? I turned to continue
my way back into the house and walked straight into Heero. "Sorry," I reached down to pick them up but
he swatted my hands away and got them himself. "I don't need your help," he hissed at me,
the first words he had said to me in days, "And if you know what's
good for you, you won't try." He pushed past me towards Cameron. I frowned, not really sure what he meant with that but
knowing it went beyond helping him pick up the helmets. I watched
'my brother' approach Cameron, looking decidedly less casual than
his adoptive father, in his usual ill-fitting slacks and oversized
button-up shirt. Without making eye-contact he handed him the helmet
and then pulled his own over his head. Before Cameron put on his helmet he addressed me: "There
is plenty of food and we left some money on the kitchen table, so
you can order in pizza if you'd like. We'll be back Sunday afternoon." I offered a halfhearted wave. "Have a good time.
Fishing." He nodded, put on his helmet and mounted the bike. Heero
followed his lead, his hands seeking purchase on the handlebars on
either side of the seat. Cameron revved the engine twice and then
the two of them sped off. I stared down the street long after they were out of
sight, genuinely confused. Was I just imagining things or was that
really twisted and suspicious as hell? I shrugged off that uneasy feeling that had overcome
me and headed into the house. With no time like the present, I immediately
started my hunt for the key to Heero's room. An obvious place to start
was his backpack. I rummaged through that thing three or four times,
but it turned out to be too obvious. Empty-handed I stepped into the
garage and eyed the winding staircase to the locked door. Then I looked
around myself and my gaze fell on the work bench at the far end where
everything was perfectly organized. Too perfectly. I had long figured
the work bench was Heero's, so he could do his little science experiments
and bring home the trophies that earned him at least some recognition
in the household. I froze when I heard a car and waited and heaved a sigh
of relief when it just passed by. I opened the drawers one by one,
disturbed – more than anything – that all the tools and
equipment were carefully sorted and stored. I realized I had to take
care not to move anything. Heero seemed like the kind of anal-retentive
psycho that would notice if something was minutely out of place. So
my curses were properly colorful when, during my search, my focus
had been so dedicated to the task at hand that I failed to notice
the open box of nails on the corner until I felt my elbow bump into
it. I watched – almost with comical horror – as the box
fell and the hundreds of nails scattered across the concrete floor.
I knew I had to retrieve every single one of them if I intended to
leave no trace. I knelt down on the floor and started the tedious
task of gathering them all back up in the box, scouring the concrete
floor for runaways. As my gaze scanned the surroundings for any remaining
nails that I may have missed, my eyes caught sight of something unusual
and my attention was drawn to the underside of the workbench. Taped
to the underside, far back enough to go announced by anyone - who
wasn't incidentally squatting on the floor – was a small box,
not unlike the box of nails. It was taped sideways, so it made a tiny,
secret shelf underneath the workbench, hidden in the dark shadows. "You've got to be kidding me." I reached up
and slipped my fingers into the box, which appeared to be empty. A
grin spread across my face when my fingertips encountered the irregular
edge of a key. I produced the object from its hiding place with a
near maniacal cackle. However, a sudden dread and sinking feeling
quieted me. I was hit with an unpleasant mixture of feeling like a
creep as well as feeling fear of what might happen if Heero would
ever find out I violated him like that. In the end though, sheer curiosity overshadowed my doubts.
Heero was such a mystery to me, I hated that, I ached to know him
better, although I couldn't really explain why. It went beyond trying
to understand this weird family. I guessed I just needed to believe
and see proof that he wasn't just a superior asshole. More than anything
I needed an ally in this alternate dimension I had been dropped into
and he seemed like my best – albeit still unlikely – chance
at a sidekick. At the top of the staircase I bit my lip in a final
moment of hesitation and then with a twist of the key and the doorknob
the door was opened. I peeked inside tentatively, like Heero was going
to jump out at me and yell: "Boo!" The room was enormous, with the apex of the angled roof
high above my head. The décor was bland and impersonal. Beige
carpet, white walls and yellow pine furniture; a double bed, a long
stretched desk and a TV stand. Not a single photograph or decorative
element. With the mobile whiteboard with complicated mathematical
formulas by the bathroom door and the extreme level of organization
the room had a very mad-scientist-psychopath feel to it. It was a
disappointment because evidently I wasn't going to glean much information
from the space, but it did bring back that uneasy feeling, that settled
deep in my gut. I felt like I was fifteen minutes into a horror movie;
the monster hadn't revealed itself yet, but you knew something was
off. I could almost hear the ominous music in the background. I suddenly laughed at myself. "My imagination is
getting the better of me again," I said, echoing the words my
mother often spoke jokingly. At least I didn't have to feel guilty
about invading his privacy. There was nothing personal about the room,
nothing that anyone would require to be private. All I found in his
desk drawers were school papers and all I found in his closet were
his poorly tailored items of clothing. A frown broke the smile that was in the wake of my laughter.
There really wasn't anything private. So why would he lock the door? No, not someone. Heero. He can't stand his own reflection, I concluded, staring
at the opaque pane of glass. My heart thudded. I was scared. I was scared my imaginations
were not – for once – an exaggeration. Clearly this went
beyond cutesy socially awkward, something was really haunting Heero
and somehow he could see it in his own reflection. I pitied him, even
though I knew he would hate me for it. I aborted my search and hurried back downstairs, putting
the key and the box of nails back where I found them and stepping
out of the garage with a shudder. I realized my quest to find something
to throw in Cameron's face and humiliate him would probably unearth
something much more serious. Something bad must have happened in Heero's
past, before he was adopted, probably. But that had been years ago,
why would he still be at a point where he can't stand the sight of
himself? That mirror couldn't be just about the past, there was more
to it. I couldn't put my finger on it – or maybe I just didn't
dare to – but something was wrong. More than ever I believed
Cameron did me a favor by leaving me and my mom. I was determined to find out exactly how bad of a father
Cameron was and once I had exposed the truth, I would make sure both
Heero and I would be free of his reign. tbc... |
