02-December-2004
Title: After Hours 2/2
Authors: DaMoyre and bonnejeanne
Pairings: 2x5
Warnings: yaoi, language
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: None. Set a couple years after EW
Disclaimer: We don't own GW. Just having a little fun here. No harm intended.
Archive: GWAddiction
Note: Watch out for POV switches.
The alarm went off at six-thirty, and Duo reached out with his hand, smacking down the snooze button without opening his eyes. He would not be getting out of bed anytime soon. His lips were dry, and the semi-bitter after-taste in his mouth could not be ignored. Remnants of alcohol and sweat, combined with dehydration and morning breath didn't make for such a lovely combination.
But who ever thought of stuff like this?
He opened his eyes and then closed them again, shutting them from the bright light sneaking in through the window. His eyes were burning, and his mind was foggy. Never a good sign.
He felt sticky, too. A shower would be very welcome right about now. Of course, that would require actually getting out of bed, and walking to the bathroom.
Not part of the plans at the moment.
He could not find his pillow anywhere. It had probably fallen to the floor sometime during the night. Turning on his side, he searched for the sheets, only to find that someone else had gotten a hold of them first.
He blinked a few times to be certain of what he was seeing.
Wufei.
Laying in bed next to him.
And suddenly everything was very clear, the fog in his mind dispersed. The surprise visit at three in the morning, the drinking, and then...
Wow.
He remembered everything. A little too clearly, perhaps. But then, it would be something hard to forget; Wufei and him, and who would have thought? Never in his wildest dreams.
Duo sat up a little, and rubbed his temples, where a mild headache was beginning to throb, threatening to escalate. Good thing he'd just stacked up the medicine cabinet.
But back to more urgent matters...
All this was a little too strange. The events from the previous night didn't make any sense, and if he'd not been there himself, he'd not believe it had actually happened.
He was not used to waking up with someone else. He didn't allow anyone to spend the night.
But Wufei was still here.
Duo ran his eyes over the well-defined lines of Wufei's back muscles, noticing details he'd missed the night before: like slight tan lines on Wufei's skin, and just how much longer the black hair looked now that it was freed from the severe ponytail. It was an interesting vision.
Undermining the throbbing in his head, Duo felt something stir within him, something warm and powerful, something mirroring the desire of the night before.
Duo sighed and lay back down, careful not to move too much, not to make any noise. He really wasn't used to this waking-up-with-someone routine. But watching Wufei sleep, right there, next to him was kind of...nice.
Wufei did not feel so good.
Once he began surfacing through deep layers of sleep, prompted by who knows what - a full bladder? slight movement? unfamiliar scent? an oddly sore behind? - he could not sink back down no matter how hard he tried to do so.
Clutching the sheet tightly, his face creased in a scowl, eyes tightly shut, he battled his way through the last few layers, disliking to drift up slowly. Unfortunately just as he broke the surface, some random dust particle tickled his nose and he sneezed hard, which jerked him the rest of the way and threw a stab of pain through the back of his head from the sudden movement. What the fu...
Blinking, he opened his eyes to see a naked, alluring, sexy Duo Maxwell lying on the bed beside him, looking at him interestedly. His hair was down and he looked...
A second sneeze brought the back of Wufei's hand up to his nose and then he saw something on it that wasn't...
Stumbling up, half tripping himself with the sheet, he staggered blindly in the direction of the bathroom, finding it only through luck, as he tried to pinch his nostril and block the sudden nosebleed.
Duo shot up from the bed, as quickly as he could manage, considering the room began spinning as soon as he assumed an upright position. He rubbed his forehead, trying to soothe away the pain in his head.
"Wufei? You okay in there?" He called out, as he looked down at the mess of clothes they'd left the night before, and scanned for his jeans.
"I'm fide!" Wufei yelled back, pressing a washcloth soaked in cold water to his nose. How embarrassing. And his head was throbbing and his rear felt like...
No, thinking about that was a bad idea, he realized as blood spilled over the washcloth.
"Okay. If you say so," Duo mumbled from the bedroom, slipping back into his jeans.
Duo tossed his hair to the side and rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. He tore off the bed sheets, and piled them on the floor, kicking them out of his way as he walked towards the closet to get new ones.
The pounding in his head would not stop, so he opened the drawer of his night table and shuffled around until he found a small bottle of analgesic. He popped a few pills in his mouth and swallowed them dry.
Looking over at the clock, he noticed that it was past seven. He took his pager out of the drawer and pressed a few numbers to send a message to the Preventers. He didn't like taking unexcused leaves, but today would most definitely qualify as a 'sick' day.
A few minutes later Duo heard the shower go on.
Listening to the sound of running water brought back his initial desire for a shower come back in full force. Maybe a little cool water on his head and his face would help.
He sat on the bed, pushing the fresh bedding to the side. Moving very slowly, and pressing the tips of his fingers to his eyes, lest his eyeballs fall out of their sockets, he leaned down and reached for the pillows on the floor, then placed them back on the bed.
About ten minutes later, Wufei emerged from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips, clean, hair slicked with water, a Kleenex in hand just in case.
"I think I have a hangover," Wufei said.
"Welcome to my world." Duo snorted.
He stood up from the bed and unfolded the clean sheets, then spread them out on the bed, covering as much of the mattress as he could muster - considering he was only using one hand, while he kept the other vigorously rubbing the back of his neck.
"Lay down," Duo said, pointing to the bed. "There's pills in the drawer if you need a little help with that headache. I'm gonna shower."
Never particularly inclined to take orders, Wufei scowled slightly and stepped into Duo's path. In spite of his own sense of unwellness, he placed his hand around Duo's neck, the fingertips finding pressure points along his neck and around the base of his skull. He rubbed his fingers against the pressure points in a slightly circular motion.
At first the sensation of the nerves being touched so directly nearly sent Duo through the roof but very quickly the longhaired Preventer found that his knotted and bunched muscles were relaxing as if by magic.
After another moment or two, Wufei dropped his hands and stepped out of his way. "Yes, shower. And brush your teeth too. I'm not kissing you with that morning breath."
Duo looked at Wufei for a moment. "I'll rinse my mouth with chlorine and do whatever else you want, as long as you keep doing that to my neck." He walked into the bathroom and started the shower.
Behind his back, therefore safe from detection, Wufei smirked.
The truth was, Duo didn't really smell that bad, and Wufei had been very tempted to kiss him the moment he woke up. But it didn't hurt to let people know you had standards.
Once he heard the water in the shower running, Wufei sat down on the edge of the bed - a little gingerly, his butt was a bit sore from Duo's enthusiastic pounding the night before - and leaned his head into his hands.
In the light of day, it was abundantly clear that Sally had been right and he had been fighting something that he wasn't going to be able to get back in the bag after this.
And....Duo.
It wasn't an accident that he had come here. Well, aside from the fact that he knew Duo lived alone, and also knew, whatever he said in public, that Duo would never turn down a friend in need. No, he had come here because of Sally's accusations, because he knew they were true, and because the cause of his distraction most often in the last few years had been the chestnut-haired man from L2.
And now... now he had... what?
Among the many other things Duo was legendary for, was the commonly understood fact that the God of Death did not park in the same bed too many times in a row. He was a free spirit. He guarded his autonomy carefully.
Which meant that for him, this was mostly likely a one, or perhaps at most two night stand.
And Wufei knew that having broken his long, self-imposed barriers against what they had done, that he'd opened a breach in his own heart that was probably going to split wide and crack the reputedly mythical organ apart.
Duo emerged from the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist, another wrapped around his head. He knew he didn't exactly look his best at the moment, but it was much better than wet hair dripping down his back.
He wiped the fogged mirror with the back of his hand and examined himself for a moment. Truth be told, the towel on his head wasn't exactly what was making him look like hell, but rather the slightly dark circles under his eyes, and the yellowish-greenish tones on his face. Good morning, dear friend hangover!
Taking out a little plastic cup from the medicine cabinet, he filled it up with water and took a few sips. Then re-filled it and walked back to the bedroom, where he found Wufei sitting on the bed, his head down, his hands covering his face.
"You okay?" Duo tapped him on the shoulder and waited for him to look up to offer him the cup of water.
"I'm fine," Wufei snapped, and then winced slightly at the sound of his own voice. He looked up, eyeing the cup of water. When Duo extended it towards him he took it and drank it all, muttering something that you could interpret as a curt thank you if you felt generous.
"Well," Wufei said, feeling awkward. He stood up. "Well." Spotting his clothes, he handed the cup back to Duo and began getting dressed. "Thanks for... letting me stay the night. I should go start looking for a new place."
Duo watched in silence as Wufei drank and muttered. Obviously, neither one of them was having a good morning. He placed the cup on the night table and sat on his bed. He removed the towel from his head and began patting his hair with it, taking out as much excess water as it was possible. It would be hours before his hair was completely dry, one of the drawbacks of keeping the length.
Wufei was getting dressed, and Duo watched him, not quite sure of what to say next. After someone shared his bed, Duo was always relieved to see them go, a couple hours later, or immediately if at all possible.
But this wasn't just anyone. This was Chang Wufei. And he'd come to him, and he'd opened up about the fiasco with Sally.
It didn't feel right to let Wufei go, and Duo found himself in foreign, unexplored territory. Hilde would probably smack him if he told her about any of this!
He wouldn't, though. He would not tell anyone. Wufei liked to keep his personal life private, and so it would remain.
What exactly had happened the night before?
Duo couldn't quite decide. But whatever it was, lust or the effects of too much alcohol would not be enough to erase what he and Wufei had - a common history during the wars, years of friendship afterwards.
Only a few more seconds of hesitation, and then Duo spoke...
"Last night," he said, unsure of what he'd say next, "we drank a lot."
The phrase sounded lame, stating the obvious. Duo frowned, inwardly cursing himself. It seemed that all his communication skills had gone to hell this morning.
Time was running out. Wufei was almost fully dressed, and if he'd made up his mind about leaving, nothing would stop him.
"Look," Duo said, "you can crash here for a long as you need to."
He hoped it was clear that this suggestion was an open, honest invitation. Wufei would not accept anything he regarded as charity.
"You can have the couch," Duo added, "if you don't mind the mess. But I guess you already saw the living room and you didn't mind it much. I'll put the laundry away. Or you can use the bed, you know it's big enough..." he threaded off, realizing that he was beginning to ramble. "Stay."
One word, plain and simple. That's the one he'd been looking for from the beginning of this little speech. He should have said it sooner. It would have saved him so much time.
Wufei automatically finished dressing as Duo began to speak, his hands operating on autopilot. He mentally dialoged with every comment Duo made, his mental voice harsh even to him.
For a man with his pride, the course of action was obvious and already chosen. Go find a place to live, get out of Duo's apartment, continue to act the same way with his fellow former-Gundam-pilot as he always had. Pretend that the night before had never happened, or if it had, it was just some kind of drink-induced aberration.
The problem was, he didn't want to crawl back in his shell and pull it closed behind him. He didn't really want to face the embarrassment and possible vulnerability of doing anything else... but the straightjacket of his pride had caused pain to both himself and Sally for long enough.
Okay, it had taken exhaustion, stress and drink to crack his defenses. But it could be safely assumed that whatever it might have been for him, last night was almost certainly just another of Duo's one-night stands. And that thought pissed him off a lot.
Because he wished it wasn't.
Running a hand through his hair, he was about finished with the internal debate, ready to say something at least polite but probably dismissive, when Duo's last few words came out followed by that one lone... request.
Stay.
He found himself motionless, his hand still on the belt he'd just finished fastening. The one word seemed to hang in the air.
Finally he shook himself and opened his mouth to say something.
"I do mind the mess, that couch should be condemned. If I replace it with a decent futon is that a problem? And on my nights to cook, not a word about the rice."
Duo smiled.
Wufei had accepted. Despite the mess and the unforgivable couch, he'd decided to stay. Duo felt both relieved and uncertain. Yes, it was the right thing to do, and it was perfectly acceptable to have a friend crash your place.
At the same time, unless he counted the other orphans from the Maxwell church, he'd never really had a "roommate" and after the previous night's unexpected chain of events, it was hard to tell where things would lead.
"You can do whatever you want with the couch." He shrugged. "Somebody threw it out, and Trowa helped me haul it up the stairs. All three floors, can you believe that? Can't really deny it's a piece of shit, but I needed something to sit on."
He walked over to his closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and the first t-shirt that didn't look too wrinkled. "And you'll get no complaints on the rice. I survive on instant dinners."
Even though he could tell Duo had been sincere in his offer, when the words came out of his mouth, part of Wufei half expected Duo to object to his 'conditions', or at least, expected him to give him a hard time about one or more.
Duo's lack of resistance surprised Wufei almost as much as his own acceptance had.
He had a place to stay.
With Duo.
Wufei found himself facing Duo, a slight, nonspecific frown barely shadowing the skin between his eyebrows.
"...well, fine then....thanks."
He took a deep breath, made himself relax a little, and then repeated the last word, with a couple of light shades more of feeling.
"Thanks."
"No prob!" Duo finished getting dressed and passed a hand over his t-shirt, ironing out a few small wrinkles. He combed his fingers through his hair and pulled it back in a lose ponytail, tying it with a rubber band he wore around his wrist.
"My head is pounding," he said, moving his fingers to his temples, pressing on the bridge of his nose. "I think I need breakfast to help with the hangover," he said and walked over to Wufei.
He lifted one of his hands to the Chinese man's chin and tilted his head up, looking into the black eyes for a moment. "We need breakfast... and then a nap." he said, leaning over for a quick kiss, and then another. "You hungry?" Duo asked, flashing one of his trademark grins.
Undone with nonchalant ease by the combination of Duo's casual friendliness and his equally unconscious sensuality, Wufei clenched his jaw for half a second, then wrapped both arms around the former God of Death as if daring him to escape.
"If I eat, I'l probably throw up," he said, leaning his forehead against Duo's. "But hungry? Yes. If you couldn't tell that from last night I may never let you drink alcohol again."
Throwing the shreds of his pride to the winds, Wufei returned Duo's quick kisses with one that seemed unlikely to end much before they both ran out of oxygen.
~Fin~
(:./damoyre/hours2)
