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"Warheads"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: Post War, angst, fluff, psychological
issues, lemon Pairings: 2x1 Summary: Duo and Heero try to become more than
comrades in their attempt to be normal young men. They settle down
but find that peacetime is difficult to adjust to and with only each
other to rely on, it is a struggle, especially for Heero. " Warheads "
"The woman is relentless..." I muttered. One hour earlier: It's four thirty, I concluded, casting my first glance of the day at my alarm clock. My vision was blurred with sleep but I could still make out the offensive red letters. Will I ever be able to sleep in? I ignored my growing back pains and stayed in bed for as long as I could stand it. By four forty I was kicking the sheets away from my body and jumped out of bed. I stretched lengthily and arched my back with a groan. I have come to call the painful lower back aches as "pilot back". Being jostled around violently while you are firmly strapped into a hard, uncomfortable seat didn't do wonders for the vertebrae and back muscles. I knew Quatre and WuFei had it too. I could tell because Quatre tended to whine about it and WuFei had the habit of stretching thoroughly, like me. I had always teased that he looked like a pregnant woman, with his hands on his back as he arched. Now I had eagerly adopted the technique. I took my time getting dressed, if I was at the bakery before five, they might not be out front in the store yet and I would have to wait. I did not like waiting. With plenty of time to spare I leisurely walked down the streets. It was going to be one of those hot, humid days. More of them were coming as summer was fast approaching and I was not looking forward to it. Even at the early hour and in only a pair of dark jeans and a T-shirt, I felt the fabric getting damp in my armpits. With all the time that I had, I should have remembered to spray on some deodorant. At five o'clock I was met at the door by an apologetic face. "I'm so sorry, Duo," the old lady began, gesturing me to come inside, "Drea messed up the orders... She's a really sweet girl but-" Her train of thought was derailed, "You should meet her!" Suddenly she sounded excited. "No, really," I resisted her pull toward the back of the store, for an old-timer she had a good grip, "I should get back, make breakfast ready." I knew what her intentions had been, but I wasn't interested in meeting anyone in that regard. "I don't have breakfast. I don't have bagels." She sounded frustrated with herself. "That's alright. I don't mean to be a bother." She shook her head, "You are not a bother, you are a good boy, I will find you something else for breakfast." and she scurried to the back room. I could hear her talking in a language I didn't understand. She emerged moments later holding a paper bag like it were queen Elizabeth's crown jewels. "Croissants," she announced as she handed me the bag, "fresh out of the oven, hot hot hot." She smiled at me. "Thank you, you are so kind. Are you sure you don't want me to pay?" Her generosity made me feel a little guilty. "No, please! Don't be silly. You go home now and eat. Good boy must grow to become good man!" She made powerful hand gestures to emphasize her point. I chuckled while I was being ushered out of the store. "Thank you for the croissants." She smiled at me again, a gap between her teeth showing. "You don't have to keep thanking me, Duo. Go, go." I went back to our apartment, our home. I was looking forward to our work-out, finally an activity we could engage in together, something different from the alien movie nights. Heero was still in bed, his morning ritual was short, due to purposefully established and well timed efficiency of course. "And because someone prepares his breakfast." I said to myself with a smile as I cut one croissant through the middle and placed a slice of cheese in between. My own croissant was slathered royally with peanut butter. It might not have been the most conventional combination but I ate peanut butter with nearly everything, so croissants weren't that much of a stretch. I had just taken my spot by the window when I was startled by our loud buzzer. I leaned into the bay window to look down at the front door of the apartment complex. Waiting impatiently outside was a delivery man, shifting the weight of his obese body from one foot to the other. His face was obscured by a baseball hat, his finger went for the bell again and in our apartment the buzzer sounded once more. I hurried over to the intercom before the third buzz would wake Heero. "Yes?" I didn't know what else to say, we had never gotten mail before. "Uh," my own uncertainty threw the delivery man off, "I have a package for 'Hero Yuy'." My whole body tensed. "Is it heavy?" "Uh... Uh, no... why?" I shook my head. Yeah, why, Maxwell? I asked myself. Like anyone would send Heero a bomb or something... "Hmm..." "Sir? Is this Heero Yuy speaking?" "No. I'm his roommate." "Could you come down here? I just need a signature, so..." "I'll be down in a second." I hurried downstairs. I saw his figure behind the frosted glass. "I should have asked which company he works for. I should have asked for the return address..." I wasn't sure if that was truly me speaking, or Heero whispering paranoid nothings in my ear. I opened the door just a little. He gave me a weird look and held out a digital reader and a plastic pen. With the pen I scribbled my signature on the touch screen where indicated, all the while never fully opening the door. He handed me the package, small of size and so light it almost seemed there was nothing in it. He left with one final, confused frown. I sniffed at the folds of the cardboard as I went back upstairs. I didn't detect any suspicious scent, but a lot of dangerous gasses were odorless. "This is just crazy!" I said to myself and once I had returned to our kitchen I ripped the box open. I didn't care that the label said "Heero Yuy". A protection detail was the perfect excuse for snooping around in privately addressed mail. The box held no biological or chemical weapon, just a single piece of paper, rolled up and bound by a velvet, red ribbon. I eyed it curiously. What the...? I thought. I gingerly lifted the delicate roll of paper out of the box with my two index fingers, judging the grain of the paper. Expensive, I noted, some sort of handmade parchment. It obviously didn't form a threat to Heero's wellbeing but my curiosity was too piqued to wait for Heero to come out of bed and open it himself. I pulled the ribbon loose and unrolled the paper. Intricate calligraphy came into view, it was almost impossible to read. "Dear mister Yuy," I read aloud, "You are cordially invited to the second annual ball celebrating the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, as a guest of honor..." The rest of the invitation praised the soldiers of the war briefly but concentrated on the peaceful relations between the Earth and the colonies under the Earth Sphere Unified nation, denouncing violence of any sort. "This sounds an awful lot like..." I mumbled, skimming through the rest of the barely legible invitation. "Oh good God... The woman is relentless..." I breathed as I read the signature at the bottom. "Relena Cecily Esmee Peacecraft... how many names does a person need? One for each of her personalities...?" I felt a little caught in the act when the bedroom door opened and Heero stepped out. Even though he was going to work later, he wasn't wearing his uniform, that was probably folded neatly inside the duffel bag he carried with him. He had donned grey sweatpants and one of his fitted black T-shirts. He placed the bag on the floor by the table and moved into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. With the cup at his lips he walked back towards me and cast his gaze down at the table, where his breakfast lay prepared for him. He looked up at me. "They were out of bagels." I explained and watched him pick up the croissant. "This is good too. Besides, a little variation in diet isn't a bad thing." "I like bagels." He admitted, taking a bite from his croissant. I smiled at him and replied: "Duly noted." I held the pretentious invitation up for him to see. "You got an invite." He didn't seem interested and didn't take the letter from me. "The second annual Ball for the ESUN. You're a guest of honor." I teased him. "It's probably all Relena's doing, a devious ploy to get you where she wants you, under the pretence of honoring the Gundam pilots." My voice was unintentionally bitter. He finally took the letter from me to read it for himself. The expression on his face betrayed little, but his lips grew a little taut. That would mean nothing to anyone but me. I knew he was displeased. He probably disliked the idea as much as I did, attending as "guests of honor" while guilt and doubt was eating away at us, to remember a time of which only we knew how atrocious it was and to celebrate a time we had difficulty adjusting to. The invitation requested him kindly to prepare a speech, a testimony of how little Relena knew about him and of the war. What was Heero supposed to say up on that stage? What was anyone supposed to say? Our words were not the words Relena and the other pacifist politicians wanted to hear. Our words refer only to pain, dirt, blood and doubt. Hardly a topic to discuss with royals and upper class dignities who just wanted to talk about peace like it's a shiny new toy every kid on the block wants to play with. "Where is your invitation?" His question was logical, but it startled me nonetheless. "This invitation is clearly addressed to me." He pointed out dryly. I smiled grimly at him. "Mine probably got lost in the mail." He frowned at that. "I don't think the postal office would be so careless." His sweet innocence and ignorance to sarcastic verbal cues was as endearing as it was amusing. Heero continued his breakfast under my watchful eye, not bothered in the least by my scrutiny as I further familiarized myself with the color variations in his eyes, the still muscles in his face and the slight, unintentional movements of his mouth as he himself was lost in thought. "Do you want to go?" I finally asked, curious about his answer and underlying motivations. "I'm not ready yet." He said and took a purposeful bite of his croissant. My lips curled. I sat down across from him at the dinner table and placed the invitation back in front of him, to clarify my question. "I meant: Do you want to go to the ball?" He eyed the calligraphy. "I don't know." He answered honestly. "Do you want to go?" I shrugged. I wasn't dead-set against it, but I also knew it wouldn't make for a fun evening, being stuck up in a rented suit. "We could go. You don't have to make a speech." "Do you want to go?" He repeated, noting the deliberate formulation of my answer. He didn't know why I tried to evade his question, just knew that I hadn't given an appropriate answer. His logic told him a simple solution was to ask again. I shrugged again. I didn't really know myself, I hadn't made up my mind yet, there were more cons that pros, but for some reason I edged towards a "Yes" on the RSVP. Not just to bug the shit out of Relena Cecily Esmee Peacecraft but more importantly, I realized, Quatre, Trowa and WuFei's invitation probably won't get lost. The ball would create the perfect opportunity to see them again, without putting pressure on either of us. But the suit, I reminded myself and the small-talk with people who think they are better than everyone and are just looking for a pat on the back while I just wanted to smack them in the face... "I guess I don't either." He nodded. "I'm done now." He announced, moving to place the empty plate and cup in the sink. "Okay, let's go." I grabbed my own duffel bag by the door and together we headed out. We moved quietly through the hallways, as to not disturb the other residents and took the three stairs to warm up. In a comfortable pace we walked down the street, sometimes we bumped shoulder and I was happy Heero didn't shy away from the contact. Who gets happy from that? I asked myself, with my lips tightly pursed in displeasure, that certainly isn't normal. It took us five minutes to get to the gym, which had just opened. We were welcomed by a receptionist, who signed us in and showed us to the dressing rooms, the showers and finally the several work-out areas. I smiled when we passed a ring for sparring, that might be of particular interest to Heero. We didn't need to get dressed, we were already wearing our gym clothes, a clean change in our bags. "Cardio first?" I suggested. Heero nodded and he followed me to the area where all the treadmills were. We picked two side by side by the window. Since it had been a while, I set mine to a medium pace, having no intention to exert myself too much and end up with painfully sore muscles, but, being a guy - competitive by nature - I responded to Heero's fast pace by cranking up the speed on my own machine. We were running in step with each other, but fifteen minutes in, I wasn't keeping up with the treadmill quite as gracefully as Heero was. I had broken a sweat, the back and front of my white T-shirt were embarrassingly wet. I couldn't get enough oxygen through my nose so I had opened my mouth and started to pant and the muscles in my calves and thighs had started aching and burning. I knew I would have to give up soon, or I would regret it come tomorrow. It shouldn't bother me as much as it did, after all, Heero didn't think of it as a competition and therefore wouldn't mock me for backing down, but it was a pride thing, fed by years of training with the burly men of the sweeper crew who made an art form of mockery. Defeated I reached towards the red arrow pointing down and pressed a few times, till the speed had been reduced to a walking pace. "I'm gonna..." I took a deep breath, "lift some weights..." I stopped the machine and stepped off. "Okay." He didn't even sound out of breath. The weights were in the back, far away from the cardio section. I had chosen the weights deliberated because it would give me the privacy to catch my breath. There were only three other people working out at the early hour on a Sunday morning. Two men who were also in the cardio section and a woman in the aerobics section, stretching her body elegantly. "Oh Jesus..." I breathed, sitting down on one of the benches. I never did excel in cardio, I always blamed it on the boredom of the work-out. Weights and sparring was more my kind of exercise. I looked over at the ring and at my frantically beating heart and painful lungs taking effortful breaths, I knew sparring would have to wait till next time. Friend or not, Heero would not fail to take advantage of an opponents weakness. He would whoop my ass and I'd never get an apology. I chuckled breathlessly at that thought. Though difficult to live with someone in that kind of mindset, I knew I could always feel safe around Heero, he may whoop my ass but he would kill anyone else. Feeling better I grabbed a three kilogram weight in each hand and worked them up and down from my knees to my chest. When my muscles had warmed up, I choose a heavier weight and continued the repetitive motions. Heero joined me and imitated my course of action, starting with a lighter weight before working himself up to something more serious, straining and ultimately: muscle building. The weights made me feel better. Heero may be the faster runner and he kicks and hits harder too, but my arms were bigger. My pride was vain, as Heero would argue if he knew. My muscles may be bigger, as was my entire frame, but Heero's body was most efficient, more compact and lithe, but with unrivaled endurance and strength. He didn't need to tell me that, I knew, yet as vain pride was all I could get, especially if I start arguing with myself on Heero's behalf, I took it and brushed it off's an innocent "guy thing". "Duo?" I looked up at the source of the high pitched voice that had called my name. I was surprised to see Aiden Pippa, I didn't think regular high school kids went working out on an early Sunday morning. After staring at her inappropriately long I blabbered a cheery greeting. Only later did I recognize the outfit, she had been the woman I had noticed in the aerobics area earlier. She turned to Heero and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Aiden, I go to school with Duo." Of course Heero didn't take the offered hand, he stubbornly kept lifting the weights and uttered a dangerous "Hello". Aiden was undeterred by his hostile demeanor and sat down on the bench close to mine. As I feared, she hadn't come to lift weights. "So who's he?" She opened the conversation, which I suspected to be awkward and slow, nodding towards Heero who was sitting at my other side. "Heero is my friend and my roommate." I continued to lift the weights but she didn't take the hint. She crossed her long, slim legs and leaned in towards me. I noticed she was wearing make-up and thought it was silly. "Is he always that quiet?" She asked with a sultry smile. "You got more than most people do." I said and added a chuckle when she looked at me funny. She joined me in laughter. I could tell it was forced, being the master of fake smiles and laughs. For the second time, talking to her, I got the distinct feeling that she was being flirtatious and found myself questioning her motives. What could she want from me? As far as I knew, though introspection wasn't my strong suit, I was the dorky outsider who hung out with the strange, outspoken southern girl. I've seen the popular boys flock around her in what I observed to be normal adolescent male behavior, sniffing out the estrogen. "We could work-out together." She glanced past me at Heero, who had decided to ignore us, "The three of us." My brain scrambled for an excuse. "Sparring!" I blurted, catching perplexed faces from both Aiden and Heero. I smiled it off. "Heero and I were just about to uhm... push each other around a little." Normal friends would have ruined my cover with stupid, surprised questions like: "We are?", but that was the beauty of having a silent partner in crime. He didn't rat me out. Instead, he put down the weights and rose, ready to go with me to the ring. I got up myself. Unfortunately, so did Aiden. "I'll watch you." I stared, dumbfounded. Why? "If you don't mind." She sweetly batted her eyelashes at me. "'Course not." I pivoted on my heels and walked over to the ring with short steps and stiff shoulders. My whole body burned from the previous work-outs, it wasn't wise to fight Heero in this condition. Heero had trouble containing his strength in a combat situation, he could end up hurting me more than he intended to because he expected me to be able to block and evade more of his jabs and kicks. By the ring there was protective gear, but we paid it no heed. In real combat, you didn't have time to don gloves and put on protective head gear. Moreover, it looked geeky. "Level?" Heero asked, fully in soldier mode, shaking his arms and legs to loosen the muscles. "Mild." I whispered back, so Aiden wouldn't hear. I didn't know why I cared, but I did. Heero raised an eyebrow at my hushed response, it was yet another thing he did not understand. We face each other, brought our fists up to our faces and held still for a moment, seizing each other up. At my curt "Go" Heero jabbed his fist at me with lightening speed, but I ducked and he missed. I grinned, he always opened with left, because he figured everyone expected him to open with right. It was his tell, his only tell, the only free pass anyone would ever get from him, after that, your reflexes would have to be fast enough to keep up him, because the only sign you get that he is going to hit you, is that fist speeding towards you. I threw punches back at him, three in rapid succession, but he danced around me. "She is watching us." Heero pointed out whilst throwing and evading punches. "Don't think about it." An impossible suggestion as I was hyper aware of her watchful stare myself. Feeling pressured into doing something spectacular, which I usually didn't care for. Heero was the quiet one with the flashy moves, I was the underrated blabbering fool who didn't give a damn - just did whatever got the job done. "You guys look hot." Aiden called, admiring us from outside the ring. I was caught off guard and was barely able to make Heero miss with his next move; a stiff, outstretched hand trying to cut into the juncture between my shoulder and my neck. I shook it off and pinned my gaze back onto his eyes, but staring into the blue orbs, I found myself becoming distracted by the sight of them and the surroundings they were set in. His eyes were dangerous, peering low at me from beneath his eyebrows. He had started to sweat just enough to give his golden skin a light sheen. His lips had parted to get bigger lungfuls of air, more efficiently. I couldn't speak for myself, I probably just looked like a sweating, panting moron, but Heero did look hot. My blood ran cold at that and the icy fluid froze my body. Slap! My cheek burned from Heero's sole act of charity: instead of taking the obvious opportunity to crack open my eye socket, he slapped me across my face with an open palm - lightly by his standard. His eyes scolded me. "Stay focused." They beamed, sharp like daggers. Aiden's laughter added insult to injury, it fuelled my dented ego and I made mistake number one: emotionally based fighting. Heero expertly twisted away from my sloppy, angry right hook and grasped my arm by the wrist in a death grip and gave me another slap across the face, from the other side. With both cheeks burning, more from shame than pain, I took a few steps back and spotted the slight, victorious grin on his lips. Anyone else would have judged Heero's expression as blank, but I recognized the minute changes in his facial features. The bastard is mocking me! I thought, indignant. Before he figured I had recovered I moved forward and pushed out my right fist, he evaded it by moving to his right, my left, which I had anticipated. I gave him a piece of his own medicine and slapped him with my left hand. I grinned at his barely surprised expression. "Don't ever get cocky with me, Yuy." I bantered. He didn't take the jest lightly. I saw his leg twitch, but he stopped himself from delivering a low kick, realizing "mild sparring" didn't include kicking. We continued but were both stopped by Aiden's following question. "Where did you guys learn how to fight like this?" Heero and I looked at each other, both failing to come up with a sufficient lie. "Just... You know..." I was a little out of breath and worked my way out of the awkward situation with a trademark, carefree smile. Aiden smiled back and handed me my water bottle. "Must be a great work-out." I drank heavily from the bottle to avoid looking at her and responding to her. I felt very uncomfortable in her presence which exuded an obvious sexuality that was supposed to move me - being a young, healthy, fully functional male - but of all the confusion feelings it left me with, none of them was lust. Though surely a girl like her would be irresistible to any guy... "Maybe you could teach me?" I caught Heero's questioning frown. I took the bottle from my lips and answered that it was more of a guy sport. Aiden huffed at that, giving me a feminist flavored speech, but no matter what she would tell me, I knew men and women were not equal, because I could never imagine myself hitting a woman, within or outside the ring, contrary to men, of whom many have felt the blunt force of my knuckles. "I just can't hit a woman." I explained to stop her short of producing a political, verbal essay. Her face turned friendly with an endeared smile. "Aw, that's so cute. And so like you." Like me? I asked myself. How could she possibly know what was "like me"? She didn't even know me. What was up with this misplaced interest anyway? "I'm going to shower." Heero announced. "Bye, Heero." Aiden called. Heero just walked away. "He's a real charmer." She joked. I felt strangely insulted and defensive. "He's okay." I retorted. Aiden scoffed. "He is weird, that's what he is." I glared at her and she backed away at the intensity. "That's not fair," I pointed an angry, accusing finger at her, "you don't even know him." "I'm sorry." She raised her hands in surrender, like I was holding a gun to her forehead. "I'll see you at school tomorrow." She didn't sound scared, just confused. With one last look she quickly moved away from me, back to another area where she soon continued her yoga exercise. I released a deep sigh, feeling guilty about going all soldier on her, but I did not regret standing up for my friend. I joined him the locker room and took the shower stall next to his - the only one in use when I came in, Heero's uniform hung over the door. "Sorry 'bout that." I started, turning on the warm water. "About Aiden." I added. "Why?" "Well, she was a little annoying. Didn't you think so?" I raised my voice to be heard over the sound of the running water. "No, why are you apologizing for that?" "It's just something you say, when someone you brought into the situation was annoying." "Why? You have no control over her actions." I smiled under the spray. Always the rational one, I mused. "I don't know." "It doesn't make any sense. I don't understand." "You don't have to understand everything. No one does." He was silent. I chuckled. He still wanted to understand everything. "Heero?" I called out after a few seconds of contemplation. "Hn?" He turned of the shower and started drying himself off. "Why do you have to understand everything?" He thought about this quietly as his hands moved to dry his body. Finally, he answered, with that innocently honest tone that his voice sometimes had: "I don't know. I hope that when I understand, it will be normal." "What isn't normal?" "Everything." My smile turned sad. I felt for him. I could empathize with his confusion, there were a lot of things I didn't understand either, of most I accepted my lack of understanding, of others I knew life would whisper the answers in my ear sooner or later and I had the patience to wait. But for Heero, this was his new mission, to be normal and experience mundane things as normal. And as rule number one dictates, the mission has priority. "And that's why you have to understand everything." He grunted affirmatively. "Okay. I'll help you, buddy." He didn't thank me, he didn't say anything, probably because he had to refrain himself from biting back: "I don't need your help." When I turned off the water I could hear clothes rustling in the stall beside mine and then the sharp sound of a metal belt buckle. "I'm going to work." He announced, opening the door of his stall. "See you later. Bye." I listened to him walk
away, instantly missing his calm, assertive presence. "What a
total man-crush you have, Maxwell." I whispered flippantly to
myself, but after that I was deeply lost in thought all day.
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