18-Dec-2005
Title: Ties 1/?
Author: Draco
Pairing: 1+2
Rating: PG so far
Warnings: Future Fic.
Author's Notes: For KoujinSS. May this story finish before it gets too big.
The beach freaked Duo out. The sand was so white that it was almost like walking in burning snow. He doesn't remember where--maybe one of the travel brochures that Hilde kept around--but he had read once that people paid good money to vacation on a white sandy beach. But then again, people paid good money to do a lot of stupid things.
Wiping his forehead with his forearm, he continued on. He was in the E 5 grid already. It should be a matter of time until he sees something. But of course, this, like everything else could not be easy. Of course there would not be an address, no neighborhood, no street signs, just a spot on the map.
If he hadn't brought all of his tracking equipment, he was fairly certain that he would have gotten lost among the sameness of white sand and the invariable rhythm of the blue ocean. For a moment, he imagined himself running frantically into the water to get away from the sand, screaming, "Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink!"
Duo sighed, shook himself, and took a large gulp from his water bottle. Then, as he was still moving forward with the water bottle in his mouth, he saw it.
There had been nothing but tiny sand dunes for miles, but just now when he stepped over what looked like yet another sand dune, there it was.
A huge wood and steel monstrosity.
The wooden frame looked as if had been force to curve and bend at painful angles to form the decaying skeleton of a ship that had a steel blossom bursting through its guts. With its brow tilt slightly forward in the sand, the ship looked as if it had been trying to crawl forward when the fatal wound ripped open from within.
Duo barely managed to swallow the water in his mouth as he shuddered. But, nonetheless he walked closer. The wood on the ship's frame had fresh chisel marks on it, and as Duo touched his finger to the ship he felt ill at ease.
Right beside the murdered ship was a set of railroad tracks laid out in the sand. One end of the train track went straight up into the sky. It took Duo a full thirty seconds to realize that the railroad tracks did not simply disappear into the heights, but each railroad tie decreased in size as they went up to create the illusion. In fact, the structure wasn't very high in the air at all, which was why Duo had not seen it from further away. But the other end of the track looked like it went straight into the ocean no matter how long Duo studied it.
"God, this is fucked up," Duo said.
"I agree," Heero said as he emerged from seemingly nowhere, nearly making Duo jump. And the way he looked... Duo had to make a conscious effort to keep his mouth closed. Tanned and bare-chested, Heero had nothing on but a loose pair of gray pants on, not even shoes. He looked like one of those models that came with the white sandy beach brochures--the exotic stranger that you hope to meet and entangle-- which was very weird when Duo thought about it in context of what he knew about Heero.
Heero just sort of looked at him like he dropped by every Thursday or something.
"You're looking very avant-garde artist-ish," Duo said finally just as Heero asked, "What brings you here?"
"Well," Duo said, taking his time to stare openly at Heero, "Relena is finally getting hitched, and she wants you to come to her wedding. Because you were able to drag me into the Eve wars and that little thing with Mariemeia, she figures the reverse must be true, so she sent me to make sure you were there for her big day."
Heero's eyebrows rose ever so slightly at his announcement, but his voice showed no surprised when he said, "Your analysis of Relena's logic notwithstanding, how did you know I'd be here?"
"Actually, I had no idea where you were. I didn't even know that you had eight different houses in many random and deserted places, but Quatre said to come here and handed me a map," Duo said.
The eyebrows rose higher.
"I know you've spent some time with Quatre during the wars. Haven't you figured it out that Quatre knows everything?" Duo said, feeling a little smug.
"Hn."
Duo waited a moment for Heero to say more, but when he did not Duo couldn't resist the urge to tease him. "You know, this tormented artist thing really works well for you. You can be your psychotic anti-social self, welt fucked up stuff, and high society is still willing to pay good money for the things you make."
"I enjoy the welting," Heero said, staring pointedly at the duffle bag Duo had slang over his shoulder. "You're packed to stay with me for a few days." Not a question.
"Yep. After the fourteen hour foot hike to get here, you didn't think I was going to drag you off right away to Relena's island wedding did you? Besides, I haven't taken a vacation in ages. I might as well enjoy the umm... ambiance of your estate." Then he paused and gestured toward the ship and the railroad tracks. "Though, after this, I have to admit I'm scared to see your house."
"Actually, I sleep right here on the railroad tracks because I like to be close to my work," Heero said.
For a brief moment, Duo was speechless, but then he heard the almost audible click in his head when he realized the joke. "That's not fair! You can't start develop a sense of humor on me now! I've seen you reset your own leg. I'd believe anything of you!"
"That was seventeen years, eight months, fifteen days ago, Duo."
"You know, I really can't tell you whether you're kidding or not," Duo said. Then he smacked himself hard on the head. "Shit, did I miss a lot of your jokes during the wars too?"
Heero smiled, and started to walk away. Duo quickly followed, though he took a moment to appreciate the irony of finding himself following Heero's lead again.
Heero's house, as it turned out, was only about a few more sand dunes down from Heero's creations.
And it did freak Duo out, just a little.
The house was shaped like a cube, and it looked like it was made from mirrored glass. There was some kind of special coating over the surface so that the cube did not glare with the sunlight. Instead, the mirrors reflected the surroundings perfectly, which made the house almost impossible to see amongst the white sand dunes.
When they were in front of the house (or what Duo assumed to be the front), Heero pressed an unmarked area, and a door slide open to a hallway. The hallway was also made from mirrored glass. But it was very narrow and Duo let Heero walk ahead of him so that they would not be bumping elbows.
There were three doors in the hallway aside from the front door, all of them slightly open. The door at the very end of the hallway appears to lead to a large bathroom. And the other two doors were directly facing each other half way between the front door and the bathroom door. One of them opened to what looked like a debris field of Heero's creations. Duo couldn't clearly see what was the beyond the other door, but it looked like a bed.
Duo followed Heero into the room full of debris. Once inside of this room, Duo realized that all the mirrors were one way so that once inside, the entire room was transparent. The glass was so seamless he would almost believe that he was still in the open air but for the lack of the ocean breeze. The side of the wall that bordered the hallway was also transparent on this side so that Duo could look at his own reflection along with the sand dunes in the mirror on the opposing wall of the hallway.
It was kind of weird, but also kind of cool.
When Duo tore his attention away from the odd transparency of the room, he noticed the actual content of the room itself. There was no furniture in the room to speak off, though there was a kitchen area on one side of the room that was surprisingly free of wood and metal. Heero had walked over to the kitchen and was shifting items in what looked like his refrigerator.
Duo tossed his duffle bag on a fairly debris free area, and then sat down next to it. After a minute, Heero came over, pushed a black leather tetrahedron out of the way, and sat down next to him holding two opened bottles of beers. He handed one to Duo as he took a drink out of the other bottle.
"Beer? You drink *beer*?" Duo read the bottle label a few times.
"Would you prefer something else?"
"No, beer is good." Duo took a generous gulp from his bottle, ran his hand over his hair, and felt that maybe he wasn't drunk enough for all of this. "It's been a while."
"Hn."
Duo allowed himself to slouch a little more as he tried to absorb just how long it's been since the wars. Since he first met Heero.
"I think I'm in my early thirties now," Duo said after a while. He and Heero had sat side by side, but he did not turn to look at his old comrade. Instead, he stared steadily at the sand outside. "Not really sure about my age, but Relena just had her thirty-second birthday, and I figure I'm about as old as she is."
"I never thought I live past sixteen," Heero said. "Though I suppose it's not for a lack of trying."
Duo laughed. "Me neither." He turned to Heero and clinked their beer bottles together. "To living to the ripe old age of thirty-two."
"To Relena," Heero said.
"Sure, but there'll be plenty of toasting to her when we go to her wedding," Duo said, and took another long drink.
When he looked to Heero again, Heero's expression seemed very far away.
"Thinking about the road not taken?"
Heero said, "Not a choice I was given. She left me."
"Really?" Duo sat up a little. "I never knew all the details. But I always figured you did the leaving. Well, that and--you left."
"I was as unprepared for her rejection as I was for mine departure," Heero said. "But then again, to me... and I suppose to the rest of the world, Relena is, or she was, larger than life."
Duo turned to face him, but Heero had turned toward the ocean.
"So were you, Heero."
Heero didn't reply, but something about his features stilled.
And just when Duo thought maybe Heero wasn't going to say anything at all, Heero said, "So was I." Hearing the unexpected admission, Duo turned to look at the sand and the ocean again. Now that he knew where to look, he could still make out the very tip of the railroad track that went up toward the sky. After a moment, Duo said, "Well, back then, everything was larger than life. I always figured that was the whole designing philosophy behind the gundams."
This time Duo knew Heero wasn't going to say anything, so they just sat side by side and watched the ocean grow slowly into the sand.
After a while, Duo realized that of all the things he was feeling, the one emotion he could put a name to was disappointment, and that was so odd that it made him laugh. He said, "You know, I've always thought you left because of something more dramatic, like you had to go battle some inner demon. Or because you suddenly discovered some elaborate conspiracy you had to infiltrate. Or... I don't know. I have to admit I'm a little under whelmed that you left because your heart got broken."
Heero said, "It was a little more complicated than that, but the end of our relationship was the catalyst to many things."
"Well, now that I know why you left, I won't drag you to her wedding if you don't want to go. Which is too bad because I had brought a good tranquilizer gun with me too."
The corner of Heero's lip was turned up slightly when he said, "I'm glad you've planned for every contingency."
"Yeah," Duo said. He has a vivid memory of Heero telling him to always have two backup plans for every step of a mission. They had been stuck in a bunker together at the time, and he can't quite remember why they were there, but he does remember the smell of spent gunpowder. Both of them had been covered with it.
"But I had planned to attend the wedding with or without duress," Heero said.
"What? Really?"
"Relena had sent me an invitation several days ago," Heero said. "She had it delivered to me when my supplier came to restock my food and materials. "
"Wait, wait, wait, you have a supplier that delivers here?" Duo put his beer down and looked at Heero in disbelief.
"I don't make the fourteen hour hike to town because I want beer, no," Heero said. "There is an air shuttle transport that stops by every Sunday. Mail too."
"Why the hell didn't I come by air transport then?" Duo asked.
Heero said, "Probably because Quatre thought it would be a good idea for you to take a hike. As you know, he knows everything. I'm sure he was aware of the air shuttle."
Duo picked up his beer again and downed all of it in one breath. "So does Relena, it would appear. I'm beginning to see that this is some sort of conspiracy to get me to do a lot of unnecessary walking."
"You look like you have not kept yourself in shape," Heero said. His eyes were on Duo's waist area, which, okay, was getting a little pudgy. But Duo hadn't really been that self conscious of it until now. Not even when he saw that Heero was still as toned as he ever was.
"I'm the lead engineer for the Preventers! It isn't exactly conducive to my job if I'm running over to the gym every ten minutes to make sure I'm still as skinny as I was when I was fifteen," Duo said. He didn't say that it was no longer necessary for him to be a soldier. He didn't think he had to.
"I believe your eating habits probably has much to do with your physique as your sedentary life style," Heero said. "I seem to recall a particular fondness for pizzas."
"You should also remember that I still have the tranquilizer gun in my bag," Duo said, eyeing his bag. "And I can still drop you unconscious in three moves... Oh, no wait, you're the one that knocks out his own teammates."
"If you're resorting to juvenile stabs at me from events that are no longer relevant, you know you're becoming too defensive."
"Are you trying to make me shoot you?" Duo asked, narrowing his eyes.
Heero stared at him, impassive.
"Geez, I haven't felt the need to shoot some one this bad since I was fifteen!" Duo said.
"Except you're less fit and have less hair."
"I hate you."
"Now you're just being reactionary--"
Duo lunged at Heero, and though Heero reacted pretty quick to the attack, Duo still managed to pin the smug bastard down underneath him. A bunch of Heero's toys had been knocked around them, but Duo had a secure grasp on Heero's wrists on the ground as splayed himself over him.
"Now I'm going to sit on you, and crush you with my fatness," Duo said.
"You don't quite have the density for that," Heero said. He was smiling.
And Duo found himself laughing suddenly even though he had been genuinely annoyed at Heero just seconds before. "How the hell did we go from having an adult conversation about relationships and aging to acting like ten year old in a heart beat?" Duo asked as he let go of Heero's wrists.
"I'm not certain you want me to answer that," Heero said. He reached up with a freed hand and ran his fingers through Duo's hair.
The intimacy of it knocked the air out of him, and he didn't trust himself to speak just then.
"It's been a long time," Heero said, softly.
"Yeah well, even though I'm not balding as you were implying earlier," Duo said, regaining his composure. "A long haired scientist just looks silly."
"A Hawaiian shirt does not?" Heero let his hand drop back to his side.
"Not at all!" Duo pulled lightly at his own brightly patterned shirt. "Howard was a legend, the embodiment of cool, and I want to grow up to be just like him," Duo said. He lifted himself from on top of Heero. "I was thinking more of Dr. J. Now, that's some one who looked silly with long hair. And, as you probably know, I do have to wear a lab coat now."
"I never thought your hair looked silly," Heero said.
Again, Duo felt the air rush out of his lung, and he smiled at Heero and resisted the urge to hug him.
"Though I did think it was an operational hazard," Heero continued.
The urge to hug Heero dissipated quickly.
"Well, hair or not, I've just shown that I can still pin you."
"Only because I was certain that if I knocked you over, you would have landed on some of my creations," Heero said as he sat up. "Though I am confident at their structural integrity, I have more reservations about yours."
Duo grunted at him. "Okay, I think I get it now. This is all a revenge plot engineered by Relena and Quatre, and you're in on it. They are trying to get back at me for years of snappy comments and whining about my lab's lack of resources by sending me here."
"I would have thought you would have gotten over your paranoia years ago," Heero said.
"It's at least partially your fault I'm paranoid. And as my 14 hour foot hike is clearly a some sort of ploy between Quatre and Relena, I obviously have reasons to be paranoid!"
Heero smiled instead of answering and Duo had to really fight himself hard not to throw a punch.
"You know what, I'm going to bed," Duo said. "I'm exhausted and freaked out and paranoid. And I seem to remember sleep deprivations being one of the tactics you've personally used to extract information. And also I need a nap."
"The bed is in the other room. Help yourself."
End Part 1
(:./draco/ties1)
