17-Jul-2005
Title: Howl 9/?
Author: Sol 1056
Rating: NC-17 for sex, violence, and dirty mouths
Warning: Subplots deal with the establishment, child-bearing... oh, and werepervs. Yes. That's right. Werepervs.
Pairings: Various, but predominantly 2x1, 1xR, 2xR, 4x3, 5x3, 1x3, 4xC, 3xH, RxD, 5xM, and a few others that may come and go.
Disclaimer: No, don't own 'em... Hey! Could that be a sigh of relief from Bandai?
Archived: sweetlysour and gwaddiction
Critiques: always welcome, natch!
It was this, or get chewed on.
"love is the heritage, and cousin to death. That the only love can only be the first love, the only death the last, the only life within, and the only word... choked forever"
---Jack Kerouac
Duo grunted, holding on tighter as Heero bucked against him; for a moment, Duo suspected his grin had to be quite manic against the back of Heero's neck, feeling the muscles tensing under his grip. But the sweet, hot pressure around his dick had the small room spinning in his vision, twirling into infinity as he came, slick and furious. Biting down on Heero's exposed shoulder, he reached around to find Heero already pumping, one hand splayed against the wall. Duo added his hand and Heero cried out softly, the sound fading into a jagged panting.
"Hey... " Duo tongued the scar on Heero's shoulder; he had to be pressing Heero flat against the wall but if he let go, he knew his legs would give way. "Mine," he growled.
"Yours," Heero echoed, faint and sated. His eyes were half-closed, mouth open, lips reddened and bruised. He looked delicious, but groaned when Duo thrust, experimentally. Heero elbowed backwards, but without much conviction. "You're heavy."
"Mm." Duo pulled back, grabbing a workout towel to wipe himself off, then Heero. Tucking his cock away, he dropped the towel and stretched, arms reaching over his head, before letting his hands fall to Heero's waist, thumb rubbing the scarred skin over one hip. "We're square, now."
"Square." Heero smiled over his shoulder, then rolled along the wall to face Duo. He opened his mouth, pausing with a frown. "Is that my phone ringing?"
Duo grimaced. "Maybe." He'd been trying to ignore any disruptions.
"Damn it--" Heero glared, pushing past Duo to dig in his jacket. He snapped it open, studying the number before hitting a button and raising the phone to his ear. "Yuy--what? Who is thi--" He froze, eyes going wide. "We'll meet you there." He shut the phone. "Relena's in hysterics, and Trowa's taking her home. An intern is driving them."
"What happened?" Duo grabbed his shirt, pulling it on with abrupt, nervous moves. All the relaxation from boxing, then wrestling, and then fucking Heero's brains out--wiped, completely, with one cryptic message.
"Didn't say. Only that there had been a situation, and Trowa went, in the words of Dr. Chang, apeshit, and told the cops in no uncertain terms he's taking Relena home." Heero looked almost pleased, smirking despite the line between his brows. He finished buttoning up his shirt, kicked the abandoned towel to the side, and straightened his shoulders. "Let's go."
Duo followed, some rear part of his brain amused that Heero automatically took control of the situation--but the majority of his awareness was running through what he knew. Relena had been in the hospital, and they'd run tests. He'd seen as much from quick glimpses at her chart in the hallway, while chatting with Trowa. Undoubtedly they'd run tests on her to assure the pregnancy had not been harmed by the blood loss or shock of being shot. And if Relena were in hysterics, the news had to be bad.
But her pregnancy was healthy, as was she; he had caught only a hint of pain while visiting, but mostly boredom and then extreme irritation. Under it all, though, she smelled like apples, like fresh rain, the light musk of a woman carrying a strong child.
Or several...
Duo winced, glanced at Heero's stern face as they left the gym, and decided against saying anything. He'd let it ride; he had a fairly good idea of the only alternatives Relena would've been given. For a moment the world ran with a wash of crimson, and he had to grit his teeth, wondering if Heero--
"What is it?" Heero stared at him, suspicious.
"Hunh?" Duo opened his eyes wide. "Cab--"
Heero raised his arm, flagging the cab down without even looking. "Something... " He sniffed, then frowned. "Never mind."
Duo stared after him, then climbed into the cab with a shrug. He'd never expected either of his lovers to develop an acute sense of smell. Or perhaps it was simply that they'd developed an acute perceptivity when it came to him. He wasn't sure which he'd prefer.
Duo leaned against the wall and regarded the Yuy's living room, which seemed to have spontaneously become Grand Central Station. He and Heero had arrived just as Trowa had been helping Relena from a small blue coupe; the driver parked and followed them into the building, introducing himself as Dr. Chang.
Not more than ten minutes later, a young woman arrived. Heero introduced her as Meiran Long, and she greeted Duo absently before speaking in hushed, angry whispers to Dr. Chang, in a language Duo hadn't heard enough to catch more than a few of the more lurid curse words. Definitely married, Duo decided, watching Meiran move to Relena, on the sofa.
Heero made coffee, apparently ignoring Relena's wistful gaze at the mugs. And then, of all things, the doorbell rang again, and Trowa let Hilde into the apartment.
"We've never had this many people before," Relena said, but her laugh was brittle, and she sank back into the corner of the loveseat. Her tense movements made Duo want to throw everyone out, and he restrained himself only by sheer willpower.
"Duo," Hilde whispered. "Trowa told me the news... and he thinks you should tell them about... the world outside."
Four children, which even with the best medical technology could be a hard birth. But to C-section all four, and terminate three... Duo shuddered, and for a moment wished he'd known sooner. He would've pulverized the punching bag at the gym, rather than blow the time dancing around Heero, dodging blows and... Or maybe he'd just have decked the doctor with the gall to suggest such a thing. And then slaughtered any others--especially the politicians who came up with this damned--
"Duo!" Hilde poked him in the chest. "They'll listen to you."
"Listen to what?" Dr. Chang--no, Wufei--glared at them, from where he stood by the loveseat, at his wife's shoulder. "This is too many people. Mrs. Yuy needs quiet, and rest after--"
"What is it?" Relena's weary voice cut through the babble of soft murmurs, her eyes fixed on Duo. "Tell me."
Duo regarded Wufei and Meiran, uneasy. He didn't know them, and what he might say, if they so chose, could land Heero and Relena in an even worse situation than the one they already faced. It was one thing to whisper dissent, another to bald-facedly lay out such knowledge as he had. No thanks to Trowa and Hilde for leaving it on him.
Then again, Hilde had always let him be pack-leader, and that meant Trowa was technically below in the odd ranking that had become habitual after so many years on all fours. He snorted, amused at the visual, suddenly. He'd spent a decade going on all fours, but he'd never lived his life on his knees. Now he had a pack of his own, with his adopted-sister an extension. It was a heady, if scary, responsibility.
Heero frowned, and moved to sit on the arm of the sofa by Relena; it was an odd tableau of couples facing Duo, from where he stood against the wall. Trowa and Hilde by the window, Relena and Heero at one end of the sofa, and the two unknown variables at the other end.
"I trust her implicitly," Relena said, putting her hand over Meiran's. Meiran, to her credit, looked startled, then flattered.
"Dr. Chang," Duo began. "If... if you had the say of things, what would be your position on a woman about to bear four children?"
"The law is very clear--" Wufei began, stiffly, then scowled when Meiran twisted in her seat to hiss at him. He set his jaw, staring down at her, then something in him relented. He shook his head. "At the very least, if economically a family can only raise one child at a time, I would want the other three to be raised by other couples, with the children knowing each other as siblings, fostered by unofficial aunts and uncles." He looked away, a frown creasing his face. "This is how it's done, was done, in my family's traditions."
Duo nodded. That'd have to be good enough; at least it meant Wufei wouldn't go bleating back to the hospital, or anyone else.
"There's no reason for you to give up three of your children," Duo began, keeping his gaze on Relena. She frowned, started to speak, and Duo held up a hand. "In fact, raising all four to be healthy adults is something the world needs, very badly."
"We're in a resource crisis," Meiran interjected. "We have limited--"
"No, actually, we don't." Duo shrugged, and pulled his braid around to smooth it down, before realizing the old habit and dropping his hands, shoving them into his pockets. "First let me give you some old history. Thirty years ago, the plague hit."
Every nodded; they had no need to hear more on that score. The plague had ripped through the world. A third of the population dead, though mostly in lesser-developed nations where sanitation was poor: those that survived were rendered asexual, naturally sterile. It took another five years to discover that the sterility was sometimes passed on, and sometimes not; the plague continued to flare up despite inoculations and a semi-effective cure. With each ensuing pass, more of the world's population was left unable to bear children.
"This country was one of the few industrialized nations that could develop and disseminate a vaccine, and if not a cure, damn near close," Duo continued. "And I know you've all been raised to believe the earth's population was past its bursting point at the time of the plague, but... it wasn't, really. It was simply that we were inefficient with our resources, which could feasibly support a higher population. So while the population was high, the resources were available."
"This is simple economics, but in the years since, things have changed," Wufei retorted.
"Yes, they have, more than you know, and more than your government's ever told you." Duo smiled, coldly. He didn't look at Heero or Relena, who stared at him with a combination of hope and confusion. "This country has a population that's consistently risen, but it's not because of birth rates. It's because of immigration."
"We have an industrialized society that offers many opportunities," Meiran said. She glanced at her husband, then at Duo, her brow furrowed.
"Mostly you have a society with damn good medicine, but once the immigrants get in, they find it's impossible to leave." Duo scratched the back of his head.
"What does this have to do with ou--my ba... babies?" Relena asked.
Duo moved to lean against the window, letting the late autumn heat sink into his shoulders through the glass. "The population goes up, with working-class citizens. They can produce goods and revenue for the government. This revenue, in turn, is used on government expenditures, such as schools, infrastructure, technology... "
"Health care," Meiran prompted.
"No." Duo smiled, bitterly, at her responding frown. "See, health care is expensive, and doubly so for young children and the elderly. Did you ever notice, during the war, when the government raised the health insurance rates for the elderly to such levels that it was unaffordable for all but the most wealthy?"
Heero shrugged. "It was war, and there were--"
"They never lowered the rates again," Trowa interrupted. "The elderly, who cannot produce, have been effectively cut off from medical care. The death rate among those above sixty is triple what it was prior to the plague, and all because we lack preventive health care."
Wufei looked ill. "I've never seen a patient over fifty," he muttered.
"We've constantly been at war," Duo continued. "Who gets sent to war? The neutrals. The orphans. Children of lower-class families, with little chance for an education, who otherwise would work the low-level jobs, the blue collar, or might even end up on the dole."
"Why?" Relena's mouth barely moved when she spoke, her blue eyes glittering in the late afternoon sun.
"Each person produces so much money in tax revenue," Duo replied, keeping his voice even and objective. "The fewer people that you actually spend the money on, however, and the more there is for the rest. It does end, if you do the math, though. The population is slowly being reduced, with each successive generation smaller than the one before, especially with the birth rates one-half the immigration rates. By the time your children--" He nodded to Relena, then Meiran-- "are our age, there will be one person working and producing tax revenue for every four people at or above the age of retirement."
"Unless there's no one above that age," Trowa observed. His expression remained bland, but Hilde leaned into him, her face pale.
"It'd take three generations to undo one generation's damage. In the meantime, those at the top of the heap can live quite well on the tax revenue from so many who will not, in turn, live to demand a return on their efforts." Duo sighed. "Meanwhile, outside this country, the rest of the world is struggling to create enough hands to do the work needed to create the resources that this country turns into finished products."
"What do you mean?" Relena sat up straighter. "I've talked to officials from other countries, and they say--"
"That they're doing fine, yes, yes, because if they don't, they'll lose their trade agreements with your country." Duo waved a hand. "They need the trade, this country's factories and intellectuals, who turn raw goods into finished products, which the other countries then buy back. I'm aware of that. I know a lot of them, because they're the ones who get me in here to do my job while they're busy drawing your government's attention to their jobs."
"Your job?" Meiran sounded suspicious.
"He works on antiquated machines," Relena said.
"No." Duo grinned, a little embarrassed. "That's my hobby. My job is smuggling medicine."
"Did you know this?" Heero turned to Trowa, who nodded. Heero scowled, tensing. "Why didn't you--"
"I told him not to," Duo cut in. "If you only had one child, this country is probably the best place to make sure that child can be raised healthy and whole. Unlike all but a few other places, it's one of the few with the means and money to provide a good life for those... lucky enough to be in the right place to take advantage of it."
"I'm not afraid of hard work," Relena said, and looked down at her belly as her arms wrapped around her stomach. "I don't know about carrying four babies at once--" She laughed, somewhere between surprised and despondent. "But if there's a place in this world that would welcome them, that's where I want to be."
"Rel," Heero said, leaning over her. "But our life--"
"Not much of a life," Meiran told him. "They're going to cut her open and take out three of your children and--"
"Enough," Trowa said, tossing his head so his hair fell out of his eyes. He fixed Meiran with a stern look, then turned to Duo. "You realize it's almost September."
"Two months," Duo replied.
"On foot, with a pregnant woman."
Heero glared at them both, one hand falling to Relena's shoulder.
"And," Duo retorted to Trowa's stare, "she'd have two trained soldiers at her side."
"Three," Hilde added. She turned to look up at Trowa, her blue eyes sad. "Four, if... "
Wufei stepped forward. "What exactly are you planning?"
"If Relena-girl wants all her children, then it's not going to happen here." Duo took a deep breath. "That means we have to leave."
"You said no one can get out." Meiran chewed on her lower lip, and glanced up at her husband, then away.
"Normally, yeah. But there are ways. They're risky--"
"More so, with winter coming on," Trowa observed.
"We only have three months before... " Relena came to her feet. Heero gave her a startled look, and she took a deep breath. "I'm in."
"Relena-girl... " Duo started to say.
"Same." Heero stared at Duo, but the clear gaze wasn't challenging, so much as hopeful, and a little lost.
Duo flashed back to Heero's fury during their boxing match, then when wrestling; each time he'd let Heero win the first then trounced him soundly in the next two, having figured out Heero's patterns and the keys to beating him. But Heero's spirit refused to budge, until Duo had pinned him, whispering the reminder: <I>mine</I>. And Heero yielded, pliant, welcoming. Where Relena went, Heero would go, but where Duo went, Heero would also go. It was bigger than just protecting his pups, or his mates.
He could no longer walk away from the couple, because they weren't going to let him. Duo understood with sudden clarity: this was another cost of taking the lead. If he failed any one of them, he'd fail all of them. But he hadn't failed yet, and he didn't plan on it.
"Anyone else?" Duo glanced around the room.
"We're going." Meiran stood up.
"Wife!" Wufei glanced around the room, then turned on his petite wife, who stared up at him; a muscle flickered in her jaw but she didn't look away. "Our whole life is here," he told her, in a tightly controlled whisper. "I'm not about to toss it all away on some whim."
"It's not a whim." She suddenly deflated, and Wufei wasn't the only person startled by the unexpected reaction. "I want... I want to have children. I want you to be the father of my children. I think you'd be a good father. And while I understand this society had its reasons, however misguided, and I respect Mr. Barton," she glanced over at Trowa, then away, a light blush staining her cheeks, "I would much rather that I be the only one to see you... naked. And not in five years, either."
"I... " Wufei's brain appeared to catch up with her words, and he stared at her, open-mouthed. He shook himself, scowling. "Wife, the law says--"
"I'm sick of the damn law. I've put up with the family's law all my life, and I've dutifully done my papers and gotten my degree and observed all the protocols at the meetings that go nowhere... " She sighed, giving Relena an apologetic glance. "Well, they don't. I've busted my ass all these years and I know the society has problems but I just never figured they'd have much to do with me. I didn't even think I'd have to get married! But... I do want to have kids. At least one. More, maybe. And while you weren't my first choice--" She sniffed, tossing her head at Wufei-- "You'll make a decent father."
"Hunh." Wufei crossed his arms, unimpressed.
"Besides, they can't go without a doctor along to help, if there were any complications with the pregnancy," she pointed out. "And I speak seven languages, so it's not like I wouldn't be useful, at some point."
"They can get a different doctor. And take some translation dictionaries."
"Husband!"
"Wife."
Meiran shook her head, and held up her left hand. Carefully, never dropping her gaze, she removed her wedding ring and placed it in Wufei's breast pocket. "There," she said, patting his chest. "If you want to join us, you can. But I'm going. I want a life where what I do makes a difference."
"You could make a difference here," Wufei said, stricken.
"No. No, I think it's time I realize that's not true." Meiran stepped back, moving to flank Relena.
"I... I have to think about this," Wufei said, turning to Duo. He bowed stiffly. "I promise I won't speak of this to anyone. Excuse me." He left, head still down, and only once the door closed behind him did tears drip down Meiran's face.
Duo did the best he could, which was to ignore the entire thing, including Meiran's obvious distress. Even Relena did no more than reach out and grasp Meiran's hand, while Hilde looked away, and Trowa closed his eyes, clearly hurt.
"Such a trip will cost money," Heero finally said, into the silence. "And if we spend a lot of money on an out-of-season hiking trip, I'd think someone might notice. If we're not really allowed to leave, as you say."
"True." Shit, Duo swore to himself. Traveling over the mountains would already be well-nigh impassable for humans. He'd done it plenty of times, but he also came with his own built-in fur coat. So much for heading to Star. "Northwest is out of the question, this time of year."
"We could go south, head west to Haven," Hilde suggested.
Duo considered that. He'd not been to Haven in two years, but last he'd heard they were intact, working the battered land and having mild successes. It'd be only one rough crossing, through the pass, but... He shook his head. "There's a resort about thirty miles' distance from the border. But it looked pretty pricey. That would give you reason for being down there, and take you out of the usual observation for long enough to slip away."
Heero looked unconvinced.
"Trowa would accompany you as the bodyguard," Duo continued, thinking out loud. "Meiran and Wufei--if he joins us--as a second couple, enjoying the vacation. It's just a matter of money."
Heero snorted.
"I know someone," Trowa said, quietly. He didn't look their way, and Duo suspected he knew who Trowa meant. "He's discreet. I'll speak with him tomorrow."
"Hilde and I will do the arrangements on our end. Your job--" Duo glanced at Relena, and Heero. "Is to say goodbye to whomever matters to you here, but without alerting them. And it is goodbye, because you won't be coming back, and I don't know, having left, whether I'd be able to get messages to anyone you know. The few people who've ever gotten out--myself included--have left behind friends who've been under surveillance until proven ignorant."
"My mother, my brother," Relena murmured, under her breath. "What if I leave letters for them? So they at least know, afterwards?"
"That's fine. Make it clear you didn't tell them beforehand, but you mustn't act suspicious, make them worry, give them any reason... " Duo figured he didn't need to finish that line of thinking. Relena seemed to understand. He turned to Heero.
"No." Heero gave him a shy smile, if tinged with sadness. "Everyone I love is in this room."
Trowa's eyes widened, and then, when Heero glanced his way, Trowa smiled, a sweetly open look. Duo caught it, and wondered, but felt no jealousy. There was no doubt in his mind that he'd been included in Heero's statement, but that Trowa was part of that, too, if in a different manner. Besides, Duo hadn't smelled Trowa on Heero except in the casual degree of the two perhaps standing close while talking, so Duo had no doubts Heero had held up his promise that he wouldn't be with anyone else. Not that Duo should need to check, he reminded himself, a bit sharply. And he didn't, not really. He realized he felt little jealousy at all, and noted it for later contemplation.
"Wufei and I are both only children, and... " Meiran shrugged. "I'll send a letter to my grandmother, so it arrives after we've left."
The conversations continued, mostly between Relena and Meiran, but Duo withdrew, turning to look down on the street below. Dusk settled, orange-blush over the city, and Heero came to stand at Duo's shoulder.
"The mountains are dangerous," Heero observed, a flatness in his tone that set Duo's teeth on edge. Danger, it said; Heero smelled of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and a hint of longing. "We'd be slowed down, too, with so many people."
"We'll have two months to prepare."
"Without raising suspicions." Heero snorted.
"Hey, you'd be surprised what you can get away with." Duo pulled his braid around, studying the chestnut-coppery threads before dropping it. "People see what they want to see, not what's there. Be what they don't expect to see, and you're damn near invisible."
Heero frowned, just a little around the eyes. "Like you'd know. You stand out."
Duo chuckled, and turned to see Relena shutting the door behind Hilde and Trowa. She sighed, leaning against the door for a moment before trudging across the small space to join them. Closing her eyes, she stopped a few feet short of them, and with a breath, fell forward.
Heero dropped low, catching her around the waist, while Duo instinctively caught her shoulders, letting her head fall against his chest. It was awkward, but gently they raised her back up, and she slipped her arms around their waists, tilting her head back to give them a smug look.
"I know you'd catch me," she whispered, kissing Duo, then Heero. "I trust you both to protect our children."
"And you," Duo replied, forcing the words out.
"Yes." Heero buried his face in her neck, clinging tightly to both of them. "If anything happened, Rel... "
"Things will happen," she replied, but smiled at Duo. "But that's not the same as something bad happening."
Duo moved to embrace them both, and somehow ended up with Heero a bit more in the middle. He was holding onto Relena, but one hand had clutched Duo's shirt and wouldn't budge. Duo grinned, kissing them both lightly, before leaning back to look down at them from his just-barely taller height.
"Mine," he murmured.
"Yours," they both replied, a promise.
For a long time, they stood by the window, hugging each other, saying nothing, until Relena stirred. She sighed, and laid her head on Heero's shoulder, looking past him to Duo.
"We'll probably have to carry rucksacks, I guess," she said. When Duo nodded, she made a moue. "D'ya think there will be enough room for a book?"
"How big?" Heero grimaced. "A book isn't the highest priority--"
"Nothing big," she assured him. "Just... a book of names. For our children."
"What's wrong with Duo Junior?" Duo grinned widely, not even bothering to dodge when she swatted him on the shoulder. "Hey, no, really. I think it's rather catchy. Or you could go for Junior One, Junior Two... "
Heero shut him up, in an effective manner, but only temporarily. Duo pulled back from the kiss, and kept going.
"Junior Three and Junior Four. We'd call them One, Two--"
The second time, Relena's kiss stopped him from talking. When her hand dug down into his jeans, he whimpered into her mouth, and Heero laughed.
Naturally, Duo wasn't about to let that one pass, and for a little while they seemed to agree to forget about what lay ahead. For at least one night, they would pretend, and in the morning, they'd begin planning their journey to freedom.
End Part 9
(:./sol/howl9)
