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"The Wedding Planner"Written By: Snowdragonct Disclaimer: Don't own any part of Gundam Wing or the characters, more's the pity. This is for fun...no profit involved. Warnings: AU, yaoi, some OOC, angst, potential lemon(s), sickening sappy fluff Pairings: to be announced, or it’d be too easy (but you know who I like) A/N: This idea hit me while I was driving somewhere, and I needed to start it before the inspiration faded. But it will take second place to Boot Camp and the sequel to Boot Camp, so I can’t promise regular or frequent updates. It’s probably totally predictable FLUFF, so you have been warned. And I’m trying out the world of first-person here, with point of view shifting between Heero and Duo (maybe others…not sure yet). Rating: NC 17 Summary: Heero isn't thrilled when Relena hires
someone to plan their wedding, but once he meets the young man, he's
downright unhappy. Duo Maxwell is friendly, good looking, and spending
way too much time with Relena...Heero's jealousy knows no bounds.
"The Wedding Planner"
Heero’s Point of View When we arrived back home after a long, tiring day of food tasting and got out of the limo, Duo said a polite good evening to us and headed straight for his car. Relena was already on her way to the house, so I tagged along with Maxwell, feeling like I owed him some kind of apology. I could tell he’d been distracted all day, and could only assume our conversation about his past was the cause. “Maxwe—Duo!” He turned, giving me a questioning look. “I—you seemed—not like yourself today. And I feel like it’s my fault,” I said awkwardly. “Why?” he said, his tone a little bitter. “Just because you pried into my past?” He lifted his chin slightly, that stubborn pride taking over. “Look, Yuy,” he said frankly. “You dug up stuff that hurts like hell to think about.” “I know I did,” I answered. “I told you, I had Wufei start that a couple of weeks ago…before I knew you.” “You still don’t know me,” he said curtly. “And I’m having trouble figuring out why you’d want to.” I shrugged helplessly at that. I wasn’t sure myself. “You—seem like a nice enough guy.” He gave a wry laugh. “You know the truth though, don’t you?” “Look, just because you hit a rough patch after—.” I caught myself sharply as he fixed a deadly glare on me. “Everyone runs into trouble at some point in their life,” I said diplomatically. “Trouble?” he echoed, shaking his head. “Hell, Yuy, I’m lucky I didn’t do jail time.” “So what?” I caught his arm as he started to turn away. “Does that change who you are?” He gave way to the pressure on his arm, turning a wary gaze to me. “Look, Heero…I know you’re sorry for playing dirty. But you don’t have to overcompensate by trying to be pals. I’ll behave myself around Relena. Hell, I’ll even call her Miss Peacecraft if you like. And not because you’re forcing me to. But because, well, I kind of respect you—since we had our little chat yesterday. You were straight with me, and I appreciate honesty—even brutal honesty. I think we have that much in common.” He respected me? I replayed what he’d just said in my mind. So after I grabbed the steering wheel of his car, and got right in his face to yell at him for being too cozy with my fiancée…he respected me. I guessed that honesty must be pretty high on his list of good qualities to look for in a friend. “Okay,” I said quickly, seeing a trace of impatience in his expression, as I pondered all that. “That’s a start.” “A start?” I nodded. “Yeah. You like honesty…and I do honesty pretty well. When I say I feel badly about digging into your past, I’m being honest.” “I know. I can tell.” “And when I say I want to be friends; again, I’m not just saying it to be polite.” “You still haven’t told me why.” The indigo eyes were now searching my face as if looking for something. “Why would a hotshot business exec need to be friends with his wedding planner?” “For starters, because I have to trust you with my fiancée,” I reminded him. “I’m gay. You can trust me with her.” I laughed at that. “I wish you’d said that the first day we met. Would’ve saved us both a lot of aggravation.” I fixed him with a serious gaze. “I have a feeling I could have trusted you with her even if you weren’t.” “You could have.” He flashed a bitter smile. “But you didn’t.” “It wasn’t you I didn’t trust.” As I said that, I realized it was true. I hadn’t been jealous of the way he looked at Relena. I’d been jealous of the way she looked at him. And there was precedent for that. I’d seen her look the same way at some of the handsome young diplomats and princes we encountered at international functions. Duo’s eyes widened, and a strange look crossed his face. “I’m sorry, man.” “What?” “You really thought I had a chance with her.” He shook his head. “I didn’t realize how insecure you were.” I decided it was time for some of that honesty we’d been discussing. “She cheated on me before,” I admitted, looking down at the ground between our feet. Duo gaped at me in utter shock. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” I shook my head and shrugged, trying to be casual about it. “She’s fucking nuts,” Duo muttered, shaking his head. I had no idea how to take that comment, but when I looked up, Duo looked hastily away. “Well, hell, you’ve got it all, Yuy,” he said with a shrug. “Looks, brains, money…why would she be stupid enough to risk losing all that?” I was on the verge of snapping at him for calling Relena stupid. But instead I shrugged again. “Maybe she wanted charm, wit, and humor,” I suggested. This time when I looked up, he didn’t avoid my eyes. “So you can see why I felt threatened by you,” I added. He blinked and shook his head slightly, giving me a puzzled look. I had to laugh at his bewilderment. He really didn’t seem to know how gorgeous he was. “You’re too damned good-looking for your own good, you know.” He frowned, trying to figure out exactly how I meant that. “Uh, thanks…I think?” he ventured tentatively. “Well, shit,” I muttered, half under my breath. “If I find you attractive, how could she not?” “You—?” was all he got out before snapping his mouth shut abruptly and giving me a strange, almost wary look. “Uh…you’re straight, right?” “Of course I am,” I said quickly. “I just meant…it’s obvious…you’re…” I stopped, figuring I’d babbled enough. He laughed, apparently relaxing again. “Obvious to who?” he chuckled. Then he shook his head. “Yuy—you are about the most—inexplicable person I know.” “Is that good or bad?” “I dunno,” he said with a vaguely troubled look. Then he flashed me that trademark smile. “Look, if you want to be friends, that’s fine. But don’t feel obligated. You don’t have to.” “I know I don’t,” I assured him. He was right. I could stay a fucking prick and keep treating him like shit, and he’d probably put up with it to a certain extent, just for the job. But, I didn’t want it to be that way. Not any more. Struck by inspiration, I handed him one of my business cards. “Look—how about tomorrow you call me, and I’ll meet you somewhere after work? We can just get something to eat, maybe have a drink, and since I was the one who went prying into your past, I’ll give you the chance to pry into mine.” His grin was teasing. “Oooh…‘twenty questions,’ eh?” “Well maybe not that many.” “You promise to answer whatever I ask?” he pushed, his deep indigo eyes glimmering with amusement. “Y-yes,” I replied with some hesitation, and quite a bit of misgiving. He held out a hand. “You’ve got a deal. There’s a place called The Circus, where Quatre and I hang out sometimes. It’s a bar, but you can get a decent enough meal there, too.” “I think I’ve seen it,” I told him. “It’s just around the corner from the gym where Wufei and I go.” His eyes widened, and he cocked his head to one side. “Pop’s Gym?” “How’d you know that?” “I go there too,” he said, his grin turning a little sly. “Where d’you think I learned how to shake hands?” I chuckled at that, recalling the sheer power in his grip, and my surprise that he possessed that much strength in such a slender, graceful hand. “How come I’ve never seen you there?” “Dunno,” he replied. “I usually go in the morning, before appointments.” “Ah, that explains it. ‘Fei and I go evenings. Or, well, we used to before he got married and I got engaged.” “Heh. So that’s why you did it…going along with the crowd?” “Did what?” “Decided to tie the knot.” I frowned at him. “That is not why I got engaged.” “Then why?” “It’s what people do, isn’t it? You did it,” I reminded him. “I did it because I was ‘crazy in love,’ both times,” he said with a wistful smile. “What’s your excuse?” “Maybe I’m ‘crazy in love.’” He snorted skeptically. “Whatever you say.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “You aren’t the type to be ‘crazy’ anything,” he replied complacently. “You do things out of a sense of—I dunno—duty? Or because it makes good business sense.” At that point I scowled darkly at him, wondering what made him think he knew me so damned well. He gave me an almost sly look from under his lashes. “Am I right, Yuy?” I opened my mouth for a scathing reply, but instead simply shook my head. “Maybe you should get to know me before you make that kind of judgment.” I was rapidly rethinking my idea to be friends with the aggravating guy standing in front of me. He had a knack for saying things that brought my hackles up and sent me into my most defensive mode. “It’s not a judgment,” he amended quickly, frowning at my expression. “Just, from what I know of you, you seem like the type of guy who does things for sound, sensible reasons.” He gave a wry smile. “As you can tell from my past, I’m not. I’m more of a spur-of-the-moment kinda guy.” I borrowed a page from his book. “No shit.” He laughed in delight at my dry, sardonic tone, and then sobered, keeping an amused twinkle in his eyes. “I gotta go, Yuy. See ya tomorrow.” He waved the business card, before tucking it into his pocket, and then he hopped into the Jag looking more like his usual cheery self than he had all day.
“Yes, to Duo!” She walked closer, jaw set in anger. “Did you threaten him?” “Of course not,” I asserted. “He was different today.” “Maybe he was having an off day.” “He never has an off day.” I raised an eyebrow at that. “So how much time did you two spend together while I was out of town?” I knew better than to bait her like that, but I already felt badly enough about the effect my prying had had on Duo. And I was kind of relieved he’d agreed to get together and give me a chance to make it up to him. “Enough that I know when he’s avoiding me,” she snapped. “I didn’t see him avoiding you,” I replied with what I knew was maddening calmness. “I saw him acting like a professional doing his job.” “He was edgy and distant,” she countered, and I could only marvel at how accurately she’d pegged his mood. It irked me that she paid that much attention to his behavior, and yet seemed oblivious to mine. “Was I anything less than civil to him today?” I demanded. “You were fine,” she said in exasperation. “But he was—hiding. And it must have been something you did or said yesterday that made him change.” “He told you himself we had a great time,” I pointed out. “He was lying!” she accused, working herself into a fine rage. “Damn it, Heero Yuy, you intimidated him, and I want to know exactly how! Then I want you to apologize!” I almost blurted out to her that he was gay, and now that I knew it, he got no entertainment value out of baiting me. But I didn’t want to have to explain how I found that out about him, and have her get curious about the rest of the stuff I’d learned. “For the last time, Relena, I did not coerce Maxwell into acting differently around you. He did that all on his own.” “If you’re going to insist on being stubborn about this, maybe you should just stay at the penthouse for a few days,” she suggested archly. “I don’t think I want you around Duo and I while we’re planning the wedding.” “Fine by me!” I snarled in response. “Since you don’t give a shit what I want for a wedding anyway!” Her mouth dropped open in shock, and then her eyes narrowed to angry slits. “How dare you say that?” “I dare because it’s the truth,” I growled back. And it was. She hadn’t once asked me how I wanted something done for the wedding. “But since I’m paying for most of it, you can expect to start doing things my way!” I turned on my heel, stalking out without another word. And I hate to say it, but that felt really good.
tbc... |
