22-Apr-2004
Title: The Devil And Duo Maxwell
Author: Lys ap Adin
Ahem. A bit of fluff and silliness.
Warnings: Shounen ai, fluff, heresy, all in a day's work.
The first time Duo Maxwell met the Devil, he might have been all of six years old and he certainly had no notion just who the man in the fancy white suit and gleaming smile was. In point of fact, Duo didn't know his own name at the time, since until recently he'd just been the Kid to the rest of the gang, and the gang had gone and died on him and there was no one to call him anything at all.
The boy who would be Duo was crouched in an alley, trying to formulate some sort of plan, when the Devil appeared--just appeared, no puff of smoke and flames or whiff of brimstone (not that he would have even known what brimstone was) to herald his arrival, one moment he was alone in the alley and the next there was the Devil in his white suit and blond hair.
Until this point, the boy had not thought that people could appear from nowhere like that, but despite his bewilderment he tensed his muscles to run, because his finely-honed instincts said that the man in white was dangerous.
"Where, exactly, are you going to run to, boy?" the Devil asked. "I've blocked the only exit from this alley."
"That don't mean I can't try," the boy said, and bolted.
The Devil stuck out a leg and tripped him, sending the boy sprawling in the muck. None of the filth splattered the Devil's white suit, although the boy was covered by it.
"And it was a splendid attempt," the Devil said, picking the boy up by the scruff of the neck and holding him. "Pity it didn't work."
"Whaddya want from me?" The boy squirmed and glared.
"Do I have to want something?" the Devil asked.
"Rich folk don't bother us if they don't want nothing," the boy said. "So what is it?"
"You are clever, aren't you... even if your grammar is atrocious." The Devil smiled. "I like that."
"Good fer you. Whaddya want from me?"
The Devil laughed. "This is what I want--for you to be one of my friends."
"No way," the boy said promptly, trying to wriggle out of the Devil's grasp. "Not my thing."
The Devil was disconcerted for a split second, and then sneered. "That's not what I meant, you little barbarian, although I fail to see how you would stop me if it were."
The boy demonstrated, stomping on the Devil's foot and kneeing him in the groin. This did not have the effect he had hoped for, because the Devil just laughed.
The Devil glared at him. "S'posed to work better'n that," he muttered.
"I'm sure it was," the Devil agreed. "It's not that sort of friendship I want, boy. I'd like for you to think of me as an ally... Someone you can ask for help when you need it."
"Yeah? What's in it for you?"
"Nothing just now, although someday I might ask you to pay me back."
"No way," the boy said, shaking his head.
"No?" the Devil said. "Why not?"
"Solo always said not to trust a Greek horse bearing gifts in his mouth," the boy said promptly.
The Devil blinked. " ...Don't trust Greeks bearing gifts?" he ventured.
"That's what I said."
"I see. Pity. I could be quite a good friend to you, boy. You ought to reconsider."
"Nope," the boy said, voice firm.
"Very well." The man released Duo and dusted his hands. "I suppose I'll have to wait. See you around, boy." And he disappeared.
With sudden conviction, the boy said to the empty air, "My name's Duo," and wondered whether he was imagining the chuckle he heard in reply.
The second time Duo met the Devil, he was heading home (just thinking the word 'home' made him grin) and the Devil fell in step alongside him. "Hello, Duo." The Devil was still wearing his white suit, and his smile was just as bright and sharp as Duo remembered. "You've grown."
"You again," Duo said.
"And you haven't forgotten me. How delightful." The Devil flicked an imaginary bit of lint from his cuff.
"What do you want?" Duo asked.
"Same thing as last time, Duo. I'd like to count you as one of my friends."
"Why me?" Duo asked. "And I still wanna know what's in it for you."
"It's in the nature of an investment," the Devil said, waving a lazy hand. "I see great things ahead of you, and I want to be able to say that I knew you when."
"Hah!" Duo spat into the street.
"Think about it," the Devil said, as their route toward Maxwell Church intersected the path of a group of local toughs. "I could be very helpful, you know."
"Oh yeah," Duo said, distracted from the conversation as he eyed the handful of boys that had broken away from the crowd. "Hell," he mumbled under his breath.
"Very useful," the Devil repeated. "I could make sure they never bothered you again, for example."
"What, you think I can't fight my own battles?" Duo demanded. "I can take care of myself, thanks." He turned his back on the Devil and marched off to meet the bullies.
The Devil observed the ensuing brawl for a while, noting that for such a small boy, Duo was managing to give a good accounting of himself before sheer numbers got the better of him. Then he left, deciding to wait a few more years to see if that did the trick.
The third time Duo met the Devil, it was while he was performing maintenance work on Deathscythe, rummaging around beneath a hatch. "Stupid fucking Heero Yuy," Duo growled, still fuming over his latest brush with Pilot 01.
"Having problems with your, ah, cohorts?" the Devil asked, suddenly lounging next to Duo.
Startled, Duo raised his head and bumped it on the hatch. He swore. "Don't sneak up on me like that, you bastard!" He waved a wrench at the Devil.
"Sorry," the Devil said, failing to look contrite.
"I'm sure you are," Duo said, bending back over his work.
"So. As I was saying--problems, Duo?"
"Problem, singular. His name is Heero fucking Yuy."
"My goodness, what *was* his mother thinking?"
"Hah, hah, very funny."
"And what's so very problematic about Mr. H.F. Yuy?" the Devil asked.
"None of your business," Duo told him. "I never signed a contract saying you were my friend."
"I don't suppose you'd reconsider that," the Devil said, retrieving a contract and a pen from his breast pocket. "I have some *very* good terms I can offer you."
"Fuck off," Duo told him. "I'm still not interested."
The Devil frowned. "You've never even given me a chance to tell you what it is you're missing," he said. "I'm very good to my friends."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
"Think about it. What would you like most in the world? Money, perhaps? How about a roof over your head for more than a couple of nights in a row?"
"What would I do with those?" Duo shook his head. "No."
"Well, then," the Devil purred, "you're a young man... with a young man's hungers. I could do something about that."
"I don't have time for chasing tail. There's a war on, idiot."
"Perhaps I could take care of that for you."
Duo put the wrench down and straightened up to look the Devil in the eye. "Are you," he said, "telling me that you can end the war? Honestly?"
The Devil hemmed and hawed and looked embarrassed. "Not per se," he muttered. "Not my jurisdiction, you see, but I know a guy, could pull a few strings maybe--"
"No deal, then."
"I *can* give you power," the Devil said quickly. "Lots of power. You could be a hero and end the war, and then make sure another one doesn't start. And then you *could* have time for, ah, 'chasing tail' as you so charmingly put it.
"And you don't consider that cheating?" Duo asked.
"Damn you, boy, when did you have time to get scruples?" the Devil demanded.
"Dunno. Bugs me sometimes, too."
The Devil threw his hands up. "Fine. Be that way. I'll see you in a few years, once the world's had a chance to tarnish that soul a bit."
"Assuming I'm still alive at that point," Duo said, but the Devil had already gone.
The fourth time Duo met the Devil, he was in a bar, attempting to get very drunk, very quickly. "Damn it, damn it, damn it," Duo growled into his drink. "You wouldn't think one man could be so dense!"
"Is Mr. H.F. Yuy still causing you problems?" The Devil slid into the chair opposite Duo and manifested a glass of wine for himself.
"Like you don't already know the answer to that," Duo said, and knocked back the rest of the glass. He signaled for another.
"You're such a sullen drunk," the Devil chided.
"Bugger off."
"Not my style, although it seems to be yours."
"Unfair," Duo said, accepting the glass from the waitress.
"Where in the rules does it say that I have to play fair?" the Devil asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Point."
"I hate to see you unhappy," the Devil said after a moment's reflection. "I could--"
"No." Duo stood up and planted his hands on the table. He leaned over until they were nose to nose. "And don't you ever ask me that again."
"Still with the scruples, I see," the Devil complained.
"Yes. Go away, please."
"But I haven't finished my wine," the Devil protested.
Duo made a face and dropped some money on the table to pay for his tab, and stormed out.
The Devil sighed. "Until next time," he said, toasting Duo's back.
The fifth and last time Duo met the Devil, it was after a Preventers mission gone awry, and Duo was fumbling with a tourniquet and pleading with an unconscious Heero. "Don't you do this to me, Heero," he said. "Damn it, don't you dare--"
"Ah, Mr. H.F. Yuy, ever the problem," the Devil said, suddenly kneeling on the other side of Heero, white suit remaining pristine despite the widening pool of blood.
Duo looked up at him, hands suddenly frozen. He swallowed. "Can you--?"
"I can," the Devil said, and laid a hand on Heero's chest, and the bullet wounds began to close. Duo put the tourniquet aside, and picked up one of Heero's hands, gripping it tightly--a right that he'd earned on his own, he was proud to say--and watched the color begin to return to Heero's face.
"You missed some," Duo said, when the Devil took his hand away.
"You've already called in the emergency medical evacuation," the Devil said. "It would look silly if he weren't wounded when they arrive."
"Oh." Duo took a breath and looked down at his lover. "So. What do I have to sign?"
The Devil looked at Duo and smiled. "Nothing."
Duo reminded himself, looking at Heero's face, that it had been worth it. It was going to have to be.
"This was a gift," the Devil said. "A gift to a friend."
Duo looked back up at him, startled. "I don't under--"
"Hush." The Devil placed a finger over Duo's lips, silencing him. "It was a gift."
Sirens could be heard in the distance, growing steadily louder. The Devil grinned at Duo and stood. "Take care of yourself, boy," he said, and disappeared.
Duo held onto Heero's hand and waited for the paramedics, and wondered over the unexpected miracle.
--end
(:./lys/devil)
