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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"
Chapter Twenty Four: Soul Searching Duo’s Point of View After leaving Relena in Heero’s care, I headed straight back to my apartment. I know I could have gone for a walk on the beach, but I’d done that the night before, and didn’t like to torment myself with visits to the beach house too often. I could also have gone to The Circus. But I’d have had to watch Trowa and Quatre making eyes at each other. Not that they weren’t cute as hell together; but watching them merely reminded me of what I was missing out on. My third alternative was going to some other bar where no one knew me and picking up the best-looking guy I could find for a night of purely meaningless sex. Don’t think I didn’t linger awhile on that last option. But after watching the way Heero brushed Relena’s hair out of her face, and the absolute tenderness in that gesture, I knew I wanted something like that again. I just didn’t even know where to start looking, and frankly, I was too tired to bother. So I took a long, hot shower, got into my most comfortable sweats, and parked my ass on the couch with a cup of tea and a book. And then, of course, the doorbell rang. I scowled at it, hoping it was a salesman or someone selling girl scout cookies, and they’d go away if I ignored them. But, no. It was Quatre. And seeing as he had a key to my place, he let himself in. “Duo, since when did you get too lazy to answer the door?” he demanded, walking in with a pizza box in one hand, and Trowa’s hand in the other. Trowa gave me a rather timid smile, which seemed to indicate a little unease at being off his familiar turf. “Hello.” “What’s all this?” I demanded curtly, although the smell of pizza was already making me less resentful of the intrusion. “Second Wednesday of the month, duh,” Quatre teased. “We always have pizza and a movie.” I blinked in surprise, having forgotten the day and week. But even if I’d remembered, I wouldn’t have expected Quatre to show, since he’d started dating Trowa. “I forgot.” “I kind of thought so when you didn’t call around quitting time.” “I didn’t call because I was busy taking care of a puking client,” I muttered, hopping up and meandering to the kitchen for plates and napkins. “Yuy?” “Peacecraft.” “Oh.” Quatre shoved the pizza into his tall, green-eyed lover’s hands and tagged along, grabbing sodas out of my fridge to go with the food. “How come Relena was throwing up?” “We went wine-tasting today.” “Ah,” replied my blonde employer. “She had too much?” “Way too much,” I smirked. “Seeing her like that brought back too many memories. I’m kind of glad I gave the stuff up.” “So am I,” he said warmly, giving my shoulder a companionable squeeze as he walked by with cans of soda. I caught his arm before he walked out the door. “Hey, Quat—now that you have Trowa, y’don’t have to waste time hanging out here if you don’t want to.” The look he turned my way both reassured and shamed me. “You’re still my best friend, Duo. You always will be. And I’ll still want to have time with you no matter who I’m dating and where it goes.” I felt a blush creep up my cheeks. “Thanks.” He just shook his head, giving me a ‘silly idiot’ look before walking back out into the living room. Trowa looked up from putting a movie into the dvd player. “Hope you don’t mind us barging in like this. Quatre said it’s a regular date for you guys.” “Well, it was when we had nobody else and nothing better to do,” I teased. “I wouldn’t have made him drag you here if you two wanted to go do something else.” “Naw, this is nice,” Trowa assured me. “After working in a bar most nights, it’s fun to just lie around and watch a movie with friends.” He still looked a little worried. “You don’t mind my being here in the middle of what’s supposed to be yours and Quatre’s time together, do you?” I shook my head. “I’m not the jealous type, Trowa. Quat’s my very best friend—and you’re his boyfriend. You’re welcome to be here any time.” Quatre beamed a smile at me, and mouthed “thank you” from behind Trowa’s back. I flopped back onto the couch, opening the pizza box and checking out the toppings. “Ah, half pepperoni and hamburger…half mushrooms, onions, and peppers…the usual.” “Trowa likes both kinds,” Quatre smirked. “So he can eat from both our halves.” “Figures,” I joked, suddenly glad for their company and the normalcy of the little ritual Quatre and I had performed for so long. I looked at the tall, handsome bartender, and the tender expression on his face as he handed a plate to Quatre with the blonde’s pizza on it. “Aw, you’ve already got him trained,” I teased. Then Trowa politely passed me a plate, too, with slices from the opposite side of the pizza, and I was completely charmed. “Wow. Quatre, it’s a good thing you got him first.” Trowa smiled shyly at that, sitting on Quatre’s other side so the blonde was in the middle. Quatre merely gave me a smug grin. “You had your chance, Duo. We’ve both been going to The Circus for months. Trowa’s mine.” I looked at the green-eyed man, who wore a totally content expression. “You agree with that?” Trowa nodded. “I’m all his.” “Don’t go for long-haired brunettes, eh?” The bartender slid an arm around Quatre’s waist. “Not any more,” he smirked, giving me a teasing wink. “The story of my life,” I mock-lamented. “Bad timing.” Yeah, and if I’d ever seen Heero Yuy before Relena got to him…but we won’t even go there. The movie started, but as usual, Quatre and I only half-watched the familiar action flick. Our Wednesday nights were for talking, laughing, and just plain unloading on each other. We rarely got movies we hadn’t seen before, or that we didn’t want to miss a moment of. “So is Miss Peacecraft okay?” Quatre asked, sipping his soda and leaning against his lover in a comfortable, companionable way. “Yeah. I called Heero and he came to take over.” “How pissed was he that you got her drunk?” “Not at all,” I shrugged. “But then I didn’t bother to tell him she hit on me.” Oh, shit—I’d meant to leave that detail out. “She what?” “It was just one—er, two—kisses.” Quatre’s eyes widened. “Duo—you better watch your step. Wasn’t Heero ready to kill you out of jealousy at one point?” “You met him last night,” I reminded my friend. “You saw how he was. We got past the jealousy thing.” A sly gleam entered Quatre’s eyes. “Yeah—with those deep, intense blue eyes of his, I’m sure you wanted a more—agreeable relationship.” “Well, he’s hot,” I admitted with a shrug, not even bothering to deny Quatre’s little innuendo. “There’s no denying that. I can’t imagine why ‘Lena would be remotely interested in me.” From the other side of the couch, I heard a snort of disbelief. “You look at yourself in a mirror recently, Maxwell?” Trowa commented with a grin. “Damn, Quatre—I’m really starting to like this guy,” I chuckled. “I knew you would.” Quatre snuggled closer to Trowa, tucking his feet up on the couch so they were half-over one of my legs, making the whole scene feel cozy and companionable. So we watched the movie, ate pizza, and bit by bit traded life stories. I found out Trowa had grown up in a traveling circus…that he liked the big cats…and he had a sister named Catherine. He, in turn, found out pretty much anything he wanted to know about my messed-up history. I didn’t feel self-conscious about sharing with him, because I knew Quatre wouldn’t have included him in our movie night if he wasn’t a guy to be trusted. By the end of the movie, and the pizza, I felt like I’d known Trowa most of my life. Though he was kind of quiet, he had a subtle, quirky sense of humor, and a unique perspective on life and love. I could tell he had it bad for the sweet little blonde I worried over, and that was very reassuring. I trusted my instincts about people. I usually wasn’t totally wrong, though I’ll admit my initial evaluation of Heero had been a tad off. Of course, I didn’t consider that entirely my fault. He’d been the one to overreact and get hostile…not me. But now that we’d gotten past that shaky start, I was glad we’d made the effort. I could tell by the way he and Wufei interacted that he was a good friend. And since he was already taken, on the romantic front, all I could hope for was friendship. Amazingly enough, I looked forward to that. I could tell he’d be a lot a fun if he’d just loosen up a little, and I resolved to see that side of him even if it killed me. “Duo?” I blinked, realizing Quatre had been chatting for several minutes since the end of the movie, and I’d just been staring off into space. I seemed to be doing that quite a lot lately. “Sorry—tuned out for a second there.” I smiled apologetically, and caught a suspicious look from my blonde employer. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I nodded earnestly. “So, what are you going to do about Miss Peacecraft’s, er, advances?” he repeated. “Um…nothing,” I shrugged. “She was drunk out of her mind, Quat. She probably won’t even remember it in the morning.” “And if she does?” “Hopefully she’ll just be embarrassed and apologize and that’ll be the end of it,” I said firmly. “I told her I’m gay—so I don’t expect her to try anything again.” “Well, at least that’s all out in the open,” Quatre said with relief. “I told you to just tell the truth and put everyone at ease.” “I’m not so sure about Heero,” Trowa spoke up from where he was gathering napkins and the empty pizza box. “Did you see the way he was looking at Duo?” Quatre shot him a warning look, and I swear some sort of communication passed between them. “You were looking at Duo the same way,” he accused, though I could tell he wasn’t jealous. In fact, his words were more of a diversion, as if he wanted to change the subject. “It was the leather,” Trowa said innocently, giving me an apologetic smile. “You were rather eye-catching.” “Thanks.” Quatre chuckled quietly, picking up glasses and heading for the kitchen. I tagged along, while Trowa lingered in the living room…deliberately, I suspected. “So, is this where I’m supposed to give you my approval of your new boyfriend?” I asked, opening up the dishwasher and loading the glasses. “That’d be nice,” he shrugged, leaning on the counter. “You have it. He’s great.” I was graced with a smile so warm you could bask in it. “You really mean it?” “I do. He seems crazy about you.” “I’m crazy about him, too.” “No, really? I couldn’t tell,” I teased. Then as I was closing the dishwasher, a stray thought came back to nag at me. “What did he mean about Yuy looking at me?” “Ah—just—he, er, we both noticed,” he stammered rather uneasily, giving me the impression they’d discussed it more than he was willing to tell me. “He seemed—.” “He’s straight,” I said quickly—flatly. “Yes, yes, I know, but—.” “And engaged,” I added, glaring at my blonde friend. “Ah, yes, I especially know that,” he said in an almost tragic tone. “I just wonder if—socializing with him is such a good idea.” His aquamarine eyes were filled with characteristic worry. “We had a few laughs over dinner, Quat. What’s the big deal?” I felt anger welling up, and I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. “I’m not allowed to be friends with a client now?” He backed off immediately. “No, Duo! Of course—you can be friends with whoever you want.” A scowl furrowed his forehead. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.” I blinked at that, anger slipping away to be replaced with confusion. “Hurt how?” “You already admitted he was attractive.” “And unattainable. So what’s the problem?” I shook my head, a little hurt that Quatre had so little faith in my judgment. “You think I can’t be friends with a good-looking guy? How d’you explain you an’ me? Or me an’ Trowa for that matter? You’re both gorgeous. And I consider you both friends—nothing romantic—just guys I can trust and have a good time with. Why can’t I have that with Heero?” “No reason,” Quatre said quietly, still looking worried. I glared sternly at him. “Don’t you trust me?” “Of course I do,” he said firmly. “It’s not you I doubt.” “Yuy?” I asked in utter amazement. “For Christ’s sake, Quatre, he’s not interested! He’s straight and engaged, and I’m planning his fucking wedding! How much less eligible could he be?” He shrugged. “Just promise me you’ll be careful, okay?” I rolled my eyes at his dramatic tone. “Yes, mother. I promise not to let the gorgeous blue-eyed hunk of Asian perfection sweep me off my feet, have his way with me, and then dump me for his pretty pink fiancée, leaving me to slit my wrists and die miserable and alone.” The solid punch on the side of my arm reassured me that Quatre understood he’d overstepped the bounds of friendship with his over-the-top theatrical concern. “You’re an asshole, Duo.” I grinned cheekily…somber moment averted! “And you love me for it.” “Yeah, always.” We wandered back to Trowa, and I ushered my two guests
out, relieved that Quatre had dropped the mother-hen attitude. Much
as I loved the guy, I found his constant concern a little frustrating.
I knew he wanted me to find someone, especially since he’d hooked
up with Trowa. And I was even ready to admit to myself that I kind
of wanted that, too. But I wasn’t in nearly as much of a hurry
as Quatre was. And I didn’t need him rushing me. If I was going
to find someone to love again, it’d be in my own time, not his.
tbc... |
