Teenage Dirtbag Sequel Chapter 12

by Granate, 2004

Disclaimer: I own Gundam Wing. But I'm also certifiably insane, so don't expect that claim to hold up in court.

Duo and I lounge around for the remainder of the afternoon. I do anything and everything to keep from thinking about our evening plans. As if this place and the memories weren’t enough, now I have to think about dealing with actual people. Besides this trip, I really don’t think about my high school years all that much. It’s the past; I try not to look back because it never gets you anywhere. Yeah, I know I acted like an idiot, but I don’t feel particularly bad about it, it’s not like I’m going to apologize to any of these kids. They acted like idiots too, for the most part. I’m still not sure why I’m here. To make Duo happy, I guess, and to see Relena. However, I’m not terribly enthused about his plan for me to meet people and make nice.

We take Helen out for dinner to where ever she wants to go. The three of us talk about what we want to do tomorrow and what time Duo and I should be at the airport. She brings her camera and Duo is right, the woman is a menace. I’m naturally paranoid, but I feel like she’s taking a lot of pictures of me and I swear I saw her wink at Duo. I think of all my terrible childhood photos and remember to smile for her.

We stop back at the house to drop Helen off and change clothes. We both wear nice pants and button-down shirts. He leaves a few more buttons open than I do and rolls the sleeves. I sit on the bed when I’m dressed and watch him fix his hair. He unbraids it, brushes it with long, rapid strokes, and then replaits it. I strongly suspect he’s a little nervous but trying not to show it for my sake. I get up and hug him from behind as he wraps an elastic band around the end.

“We’ll live,” I say, looking at him in the mirror. He gives me a smile.

“Glad you think so,” he answers and turns his head as if to kiss me. We are both startled by a flash and a click. My arms tighten around him automatically and I look to the doorway, but it’s empty.

“Heero,” I hear him say calmly, “down boy. That woman is my only living relative. You will not kill her.”

“Can I kill the camera then? Just a little?”

He snorts. “Just be glad she wasn’t with us this morning.”

I grimace at him in the mirror and release him so we can go.

“Hey, what about my kiss?” he demands, turning to face me. I give it to him.

I can’t think of another way to procrastinate besides sex but I don’t think he’d fall for that. Anyway, may as well get it over with. Before I know it, we’re in the car heading for the high school. The parking lot is pretty full already since Duo and I saw no great reason to get here exactly when the thing started. We get out of the car and head for the entrance. I try to look natural. I try to look pleasant. It annoys me that I’m even a little bit nervous. I don’t care what these people think of me, why should I be dreading this?

“Oh, hey,” he gets my attention as he slows down. I look over at him. “I owe you a day of Duo Bottom Week,” he says, “last night didn’t count.”

I nod and study him for a moment and it occurs to me that more than just my own reputation is riding on this. Duo has willingly put me at his side, whether or not he realized that everything I do will be reflected on him. I begin to think of the myriad of ways I could mess this up for him, I could snap at someone, or be too quiet, or fucking just look at someone wrong and embarrass him. That’s why this has been bugging me. People can think or say anything they want about me, but if anyone so much as glances at Duo cock-eyed, there’s going to be problems.

“Come on, dude,” he winks, taking on a friendlier, less intimate tone. “Time for your big debut!” he teases, a little sarcastically.

I move to catch up to him. He’s clearly got no qualms letting anyone know about the friendship between us. He obviously does not care about how I acted in high school or what people thought about me. He wouldn’t have badgered and bribed me into coming along to this reunion if he was worried about me embarrassing the both of us. He grins at me before leading me inside and I remind myself that Duo isn’t one to care about other people’s opinions either.

Of course, just as I’m convincing myself that maybe this won’t be so bad, we have to meet up with someone he knows as soon as we enter the lobby.

“Hey, it’s Duo Maxwell!” the guy says with a broad smile. I don’t recognize him.

“Nikol!” Duo greets him and shakes his hand. Nikol glances over Duo’s shoulder at me and his face twists into ill-concealed shock and horror. Ok, so perhaps I exaggerate, but it’s definitely not thrill and excitement.

“Hey, you remember Heero Yuy,” Duo comes to our rescue.

“Sure,” Nikol Whoever says, adapting a friendly if uncertain tone. “How you been, man?”

“Pretty decent,” I reply.

“Here you go,” Duo says, holding something out to me. I look down and see a name tag with my name on it, and then I look up and see a big grin on his face. My sadistic boyfriend is enjoying this. I snatch it away, rip the backing off, and slap it to my chest without hesitation. Nikol is looking at me like I’m from another planet until I narrow my eyes at him and he immediately looks away.

We file into the gym, where the event is already in full swing. New lines have been painted on the gym floor since I was here last. It’s decorated with balloons, streamers, and banners in the school colors. There’s a buffet table on one end and round tables and chairs near by. The tables are covered in the school colors and extra year books and confetti are strewn about. Over all, I have to say the atmosphere is much too cheerful for my taste. It makes me wonder why Duo wanted to come. As far as I could tell, he was almost as happy as I was to leave high school behind.

I feel stupid trailing after him like some little brother, but I’m not about to let him out of my sight. He dragged me here, and he is going to keep me entertained, damn it. At least there is free food, as he promised. I catch a glimpse of Relena surrounded by a crowd of people. I haven’t had a cigarette in months, but the craving washes over me and my fingers twitch involuntarily. I think I’ll try to catch her later when she’s alone. Which will be when hell freezes over, but I can hope.

Duo and Nikol scout the tables and find some friends.

“Duo!” a blond-haired guy calls with a wave. I hide the best I can behind my shorter lover.

“Hey guys!” Duo replies when he reaches the table. He sidesteps a little so that I’m not directly behind him. “You guys remember Heero Yuy?”

Faces around the table go blank, but not because they don’t remember who I am. This is the moment of truth. I can do this. I did fine with Duo’s racetrack buddies, this shouldn’t be so hard. I can be relaxed and sociable and meet new people. I can be cool and interesting. I can make small talk and interject witty comments at just the right moments.

“Hey,” I say lamely.

Duo makes introductions, all names I vaguely remember hearing on roll calls and seating charts. I give a nod and sit down next to Duo. It seems to me like he’s seen or at least talked to most of these people since we graduated, but something catches the Quatre guy’s notice. He laughs richly.

“Oh my god, Duo!” he exclaims and reaches for Duo’s long rope of hair. He pulls it around so everybody can see and wags the end. “You always said you hated hair cuts, but this!”

Duo colors a shade from the attention. “Yeah, I guess it’s a little…”

Everyone at the table has something to contribute.

“Extreme?”

“Excessive?”

“Over-board?”

“Long?”

“Shiny!”

I feel eyes on me and realize I’m glaring at the way the blond kid is playing with Duo’s hair. I glance around and catch the Trowa guy watching me with an arcane expression before I lower my eyes to the blue table cloth. Smaller conversations start around the table and the blond Sylvia girl across from me leans her elbows on the table suddenly.

“So this is weird, you being here,” she says with out preamble. This chick cuts straight to the quick, I think I remember her. “Shouldn’t you be over there?” she asks, nodding to the much larger group surrounding Relena.

“And shouldn’t you be using cramps as an excuse to get out of baseball in gym class and making out with Charlie Hamilton behind the dug-out instead?” I counter. Don’t know where I pulled that one from. Her thin eyebrows rise.

“I’m surprised you noticed through the haze of smoke around your head,” she says smartly. Why do I get the feeling she’s flirting with me?

“I’m surprised you took your eyes off my gym shorts long enough to notice the haze of smoke around my head,” I retort. The table howls with laughter, including Sylvia.

“Touché,” she says sportingly, “but this is still the last place I’d expect to see you.”

“He didn’t want to come,” Duo cuts in, coming to my rescue, “I made him.”

“How…?” Wu Fei begins to ask. I remember this guy. He’s one of the kids I really wished would shut up in civics class. Total buzzkill, that guy.

I don’t think Duo wants me to tell them how he really convinced me to come here, so I keep my mouth shut.

“We work together,” he provides and then laughs. “Talk about blast from the past.”

“Where do you work?” Wu Fei asks. Duo and I look at each other.

“NASA,” he says. It gets the expected reactions from around the table.

“Is that why you moved to Florida?” Quatre asks. “Why didn’t you tell me!”

“Come on,” Nikol snorts. “Is this like claiming to have invented post-it notes or something? NASA?”

“We’re just interns,” I mumble. I guess I should have expected that people wouldn’t believe I work for NASA. It’s not like I spent a lot of time convincing anyone that I was very smart.

“What a coincidence,” Wu Fei says with a detectable amount of skepticism.

“I got an internship there and saw Duo’s name on an applicant list for another position, so I suggested they hire him,” I bluff.

“How did you get this position?” he asks.

“Recruited from undergrad when I graduated last spring,” I tell him.

“Where was that?”

I start to feel uncomfortable because of the attention we are getting from around the table and dread answering this question. “MIT,” I finally say, eyes narrowing. Will this guy want to see my fucking diploma next or what?

The table is dead silent until Duo laughs, “Objection! Counselor Chang is badgering the witness.” Wu Fei’s busty girlfriend snorts in laughter.

“Well, what do you think, Duo? Do you like it better than your job at the speedway?” Quatre asks, steering the group to safer topics. I listen quietly and try not to draw attention to myself. The topic skips around, from Wu Fei’s LSAT scores to Sally’s medical school and who plans to go to grad school and where. Eventually, Duo suggests we go forage at the buffet and I gladly get up and follow him.

“They hate me,” I inform him when we’re away from the table.

“No they don’t,” he says. I cast him a dubious look. “You got the last word on Sylvia,” he says with a smirk, “trust me, they don’t hate you.”

We pick up plastic plates and select some hors d’oevres. He talks to someone in line. No one talks to me. It’s exactly how I imagined it would be. I wish I could leave but my hour isn’t nearly up yet. Maybe it’s time to do what I really came here for. I give my plate to Duo and tell him I’m going to find Relena. He nods in understanding.

I shove my hands in my pockets and head straight for the eye of the storm where I last saw her. I get a few looks and some tight-lipped smiles, but no one talks to me until a male voice asks, “Looking for someone?”

I turn and try not to scowl at the owner of that voice, a tall, trim brown haired guy in a shirt and tie. “Hey, Danny,” I say as civilly as I can, “is Relena around?”

“She was a moment ago, but you know her,” he says. The haughty look on his face reminds me why I hated this prick so much. He always thought Relena should be with him simply because he was rich and white. To him, I was a half-Asian fuck-up and obviously not good enough for her. Delusional assholes like him are all too common around here. An old hostility prickles just under my skin and my hands form fists on their own.

“Right,” I say flatly and turn to leave but he starts trying to have a conversation with me.

“So, Heero, how’s life these days?”

“Fine,” I answer shortly.

“Where did you go to college?” he asks, obviously expecting me to say that I never went to college. I grit my teeth and glare at him. “I went to Stanford. You?” he says with a sickening smirk. He was better at keeping his animosity under the table during high school because he wanted Relena to be friends with him, but I should have known that all bets would be off if Relena and I weren’t together.

“Massachusetts Institute of Technology, don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of it,” I snap, biting off the ‘dumbfuck’ I mentally added to the end of the sentence. God damn it, why am I playing this jerk’s game? I didn’t come here to name drop.

“MIT?” he asks. Other people have turned from their conversations and are watching us.

“Yeah,” I say and walk away.

“Was this after rehab?” he scoffs.

I see red for a second and turn around.

He sneers at me, “If you think claiming to have your life together is going to get her back, you’re wrong. You blew it, Yuy, and she’s too smart for that now.”

I charge in his direction and people stand back. I must look awfully threatening because he flinches. The pussy actually flinches. I stop in my tracks and stare at the petrified look on his face. And then I start to laugh. He thought I was going to hit him or something! I’m insulted by that on some level, since I was just going to get in his face and spell it out for him what a fucking moron he is, but I can’t help feeling smug, too. Shooting his mouth off and running for cover, that was always Danny.

I fix my eyes on him again. There are too many things I want to say right now so I just shake my head in disgust. I feel absolutely no need to justify myself to this guy.

“You’re hopeless, Danny,” I say and turn to leave. People get out of my way as I make for the gym door.

I leave the gym and go out the nearest exit to cool off. Yeah, I kept my head in there but the confrontation stirred a lot of ugly feelings. This whole night is kind of going down the toilet. Back in the parking lot, there was a moment when I thought maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. I guess I let Duo convince me that I could change things somehow, but I’m not exactly being given a chance here. I was right that some things can’t be fixed and should just be left in the past.

Once outside, I smell cigarette smoke and instantly want one. I follow my nose to the source and discover Duo’s friend, Trowa. He catches my eye and nods at me.

“Can I bum one?” I ask. He wordlessly pulls out the pack and the lighter. “Thanks,” I say, lighting up and handing it back. I lean against the wall and blow smoke.

“Looks like you’re having a blast,” Trowa comments after a moment.

“Yeah,” I grunt.

“Don’t read too much into Wu Fei giving you the third degree,” he says after a moment.

“Hn?” I puff and then exhale. “Oh, it’s not that. It’s Relena’s fucking friends.”

“Thought you were cool with all them.”

I snort and shake my head. “They never liked me, only her.”

“So, why’d you come here?” he asks.

I ash onto the concrete and watch until it burns out. “I don’t know, I guess I let Duo convince me that I could turn things around or start over or something. It’s not working so far,” I snort. “Some fucking people just don’t change.”

“And you have?” he asks, obviously on the offense here.

I’m about to snap at him, but decide to let it go. Things haven’t been going the way Duo or I hoped, at least not for me. He appears to be doing fine, but I’ve sort of been reverting back to the way I used to act. It probably seems like I haven’t changed at all. “Yeah, I changed a lot,” I shrug. The fingers of my free hand tug my sleeve down over my wrist, a nervous habit that started many, many years ago.

“Is that why you helped Duo get that job?” he asks. What’s with all the god damned questions? I make a sour face.

“Look, you guys don’t know everything, ok? Duo and I, we were sort of friends.”

Trowa’s facial expression changes for the first time tonight. “Friends? All I remember is you picking on him.”

I frown. I guess I can’t blame him for attacking me like this if all he saw was how badly I treated his friend. Duo is the kind of guy who inspires strong loyalty from his friends. I saw it in his racetrack crew as well; he was everyone’s little brother. He attracts those kinds of feelings from people not because he’s helpless or anything, but because he’s so open, so accessible to others. You can’t help but like him. Hell, he got through to me in one of the worst periods of my life.

“Yeah,” I say to Trowa, “but he was nice to me anyway, so I stopped. We hung out a couple of times, just at the end of senior year.”

“Huh,” Trowa says in surprise.

We’re silent after that. When he finishes his cigarette he says, “See you inside,” and leaves me out here by myself. I take as long as I can to finish my cigarette and even after I snuff out the butt with my toe, I stand here alone for a few minutes before going in.

I open the door to the gym, look in, and immediately shut the door again. I wander down the hall a bit, past the stairs, and then sit down on the floor leaning my back against the blue metal lockers. Maybe I can stay out here until my hour is up. I can’t go back and look for Relena again. Duo will have more fun catching up with his friends without me. I hear the gym door squeak open down the hall but don’t look up until I hear footsteps in my direction. I turn to see Relena walking towards me. She looks very pretty, she always does. She’s less girlish and more womanish now, and she has a new hairstyle.

“Heero?” she says, a smile lighting her face. That smile is such a relief, after the way I saw her last.

“’Lena,” I say with a small smile of my own and start to get up.

“No, don’t get up,” she says and I obey. “I heard you were here, I must say I’m surprised,” she continues as she sits down on the linoleum floor next to me.

“Yup, here I am,” I shrug.

“Well, I’m glad. It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you, too,” I say. “What are you doing these days?”

“I live in D.C., interning with one of our senators,” she answers.

“Good for you. How do you like it?” I ask.

“I like it a lot,” she says. “I’m learning so much! There’s more and more I want to do every day.”

I smile wanly. I’m sure she’ll accomplish it all. “Boyfriend?” I ask keeping my tone neutral. I hope she doesn’t think I’m coming onto her. I just want to know.

“Yes,” she says, voice growing tender, “but he couldn’t take time off to come here with me. You?”

I almost laugh out loud. I want to answer, ‘Yes, I do have a boyfriend, actually,’ but I just say, “Yeah, I’m seeing someone.”

“I heard someone say you went to MIT,” she says.

“Yeah, graduated last spring.”

“That’s wonderful,” she says warmly. “What are you doing now?”

“I’m an intern, too. Working for NASA, just some boring engineering stuff,” I say quickly.

“NASA? Wow,” she remarks, eyes widening.

“I don’t think people believe me,” I chuckle ruefully. “I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“Who? Who doesn’t believe you?” she demands.

“Well, Danny,” I say, not mentioning that he’s the only person I actually talked to.

“Well, Danny doesn’t know shit,” she states firmly. She smiles at me again and we sit in companionable silence.

“You came with Duo Maxwell?” she asks curiously after a moment.

“Yeah, we work together now. He dragged me along,” I say.

“Well, that’s good,” she says. “I was talking to him just a moment ago. He has certainly changed! I can’t imagine you two becoming friends before.”

I don’t answer, or tell her that we sort of were friends for a little while.

“I like your hair,” I tell her, changing the subject. “You look great.”

She laughs at me again. “You, Heero Yuy, look exactly the same, only… bigger, but you’re practically a different person! MIT and NASA,” she says in wonder, shaking her head.

“My uncle died,” I say suddenly. It just occurred to me that she’d like to know that.

“Jay? Oh, when?” she asks.

“About a year after graduation, I was living in California at the time.”

“Oh,” she says sadly. I know she never liked Jay, but she sounds genuinely concerned. “So, you didn’t get to say good-bye to him, then.” She may think I’m a different person now, but she can still read me pretty well.

“No.”

She rests a hand on my arm comfortingly.

“It’s not a big deal, I just thought I should tell you since you knew him,” I shrug. Our eyes meet for a moment.

“Thank you,” I blurt out, surprising myself. Her mouth hangs open a little bit and she blinks her soft blue eyes. I have to look away so that I can finish. “I might not have made it through high school if not for you.”

All of the sudden, I have my arms full of Relena Peacecraft. I feel a little embarrassed after my confession, but it’s the truth and she deserves to hear it and that’s what counts. I hug her back until she lets go.

“Heero, I’m so glad you came here,” she says.

I just nod and she digs into her purse. She pulls out a business card and writes on the back before giving it to me. “That’s my personal email address. Keep in touch, ok? Please?” she says, handing it to me.

“Thanks,” I mumble. “I will.”

“I need to get back,” she sighs and leans against the lockers.

“You know, Relena, these school events are a lot easier of you’re not in charge of them. I’m wondering when you’re going to realize that,” I joke.

She laughs and looks at me with that disbelieving look again. She shakes her head. “Heero, I’m so proud of you,” she says with a smile. It’s nice, she doesn’t say anything justified, or starting with ‘I always knew…’ She’s just happy for me. She gives my arm a squeeze and gets up to dust herself off. I listen to her shoes click away, and stare absently up at a colorfully painted poster for the winter semi-formal. I’m not sure how long I’m staring at that poster before I hear a different set of shoes.

“There you are.”

I turn to look at him and watch his face change as he reads my expression. “Geez, look at that smile,” he observes. “Are you smoking, planning to bomb the place, or having a little Happy Time out here by yourself?”

“No nothing like that,” I say as Duo sits down next to me. “Relena and I talked.”

“Yeah? Good talk?” he asks. I love that he displays absolutely no jealousy that I was just out here alone with an ex-girlfriend.

“Yeah, good talk,” I nod. I don’t really feel like going through it word for word, so he’ll just have to be satisfied with that. He is. I feel his shoulder lean into mine. “You told her to find me out here,” I say.

“Yeah,” he admits. “It looked like you ran into a little difficulty with her friends.”

I just nod. “Thanks.” We sit quietly for a moment, just leaning on each other, until I ask, “Why’d you want to come here?” He thinks for a moment.

“Morbid curiosity?” he chuckles. I do, too. “I guess I wanted to see how people would interact five years later, you know? Maybe it was meeting you all over again that made me realize how much people can change. Of course, there’s also the lure of seeing who got fat, who got married… who went gay,” he grins and elbows me in the ribs.

“Gay? Who’s gay? Maybe I just have a weakness for pretty young men with long hair,” I joke.

“Har har,” he says sarcastically. A smug smile curls my lips. I feel his fingers lightly on my lower back. “You know, Sylvia’s gushing about you,” he tells me.

“Did you tell her I’m taken?”

“Nope,” he grins. “She only asked if you had a girlfriend, to which I had to answer that you did not.” I give him one of my milder glares but it has no effect. “She’s always had a thing for you,” he sighs as he leans back and laces his fingers behind his head.

“Really?” I ask.

“She used to talk about you in your gym shorts,” he chortles. “How’d you know that, anyway?”

“I didn’t!” I tell him, “I made it up!” I knew there was something disconcerting about the way they all laughed at that comment.

He laughs and then asks, “Want to come back in now?”

“No,” I say quietly, “I want you to kiss me.”

His grin fades and he looks into my eyes for a moment before leaning over and kissing me. I don’t let him leave it at short and chaste. I hold him by the base of his braid and kiss him savagely. His fist bunches in the cloth of my shirt before I pull away just enough to look in his eyes.

“Now I want you to take me home and show me that I’m not the horrible person everyone here thinks I am,” I hiss. His eyes go wide and his mouth just gapes for a long moment, until he looks at his watch.

“Sorry, buddy, you’ve still got fifteen minutes left,” he reports with a cruel grin. I groan loudly. There I was, practically begging him to defy Duo Bottom Week, and he’s watching the time! He gets to his feet and looks down at me. “Come on, Heero,” he says in a gentler tone, “fifteen more minutes. You can do it.”

I grumble obscenities but get up and follow him back into the gym. We sit back down at the table and Trowa nods at me almost imperceptibly. Duo joins right into the conversation and when the topic winds down, Quatre looks at me.

“So, Heero,” he says, “you said you graduated in the spring. Was it a five year program, or did you take a year off?”

“I took a year off,” I tell them, “moved out a week after classes ended.”

They seem generally impressed by that, and a couple people lament about living with their parents. Wu Fei asks me what I did that year and we get to talking about job fields and necessary degrees and things like that. I get the feeling they’re trying to be nicer to me and I suspect Duo said something while I was gone. Or maybe Trowa, but somehow I doubt that.

My fifteen minutes is almost up and I’m starting to get antsy, but a throat clears over the loudspeaker.

“Welcome, everyone! I have some announcements, and then our Class President, Relena Peacecraft, will speak,” the guy in the corner with the microphone says. Duo glances over at me with an evil little grin. Damn it all. I settle back in my chair and cross my arms over my chest. The guy whose name I can’t remember talks about renovations to the high school and other updates. Duo’s knee bumps mine under the table and rubs against it a little. That is not going to make up for this.

Relena takes the microphone and I fully intend to listen and be good, that is until she starts reading letters from teachers and students recounting memories from our high school years. I zone out and entertain myself by thinking about the different positions I’d like Duo in. Hair loose of course, and I will tell him not to cut it shorter no matter what anyone says.

Her speech ends and I almost feel bad for not listening. People clap and a four-man live band sets up on the low platform. It looks like we are supposed to dance and mingle some more, so I think that’s our cue to leave. Duo chats a little more and starts to make some excuses, but Sylvia jumps to her feet.

“Dance with me,” she says, looking right at me. I try not to look vaguely horrified or blurt out, ‘but I want to go home and fuck my boyfriend now.’ She laughs and comes around the table to claim to my arm and pull me to dance floor. Duo shrugs and grins at me as I am dragged away. There are other people dancing so at least I don’t feel like everyone is watching. I do my best not to make a fool of myself. I’ve been told I move well, but I’m still self-conscious. Duo joins us soon with Hilde, the same girl he went to prom with.

The song ends and I make a break for my seat at the table.

“You owe me a dance, Heero,” Relena says behind me.

I turn to face her and it’s like the whole dance floor moves around her. The belle of the ball always. I see what I used to see in her, it’s still there. It’s me who’s changed. She herself noted that I’m a different person now and it’s the truth. I know what I need in my life and I’ve found it. I’m thinking about Duo as I take her hand. He’s my partner, sometimes my antagonist, always my best friend, and the best lover I have ever known. I get a glimpse of him over her shoulder and he’s looking at me. Our eyes meet for a second before his attention is drawn away and I understand what he meant when he said it was a whole other feeling when he’s with me.

I barely remember dancing and I couldn’t tell you what song it was to save my life. There’s only one thing on my mind now. Relena kisses my cheek when the song ends and we part.

“It was wonderful to see you,” she says, squeezing my hand. “I hope you’ll keep in touch.”

“I will,” I promise and she leaves me. I approach Duo and Hilde.

“Ready to go? Early flight tomorrow,” I lie.

“Yeah, it’s a bummer,” he says. He hugs Hilde and says goodbye. Wu Fei, Sally, Nikol and Sylvia pause from their dancing to say farewell to us and then we stop by the table to say goodnight to Quatre and Trowa. I finally wrestle Duo out of the building and we hurry to the car, eyeing one another like a couple of horny teenagers. He quickly unlocks the doors and we get in before we practically attack each other. Our kisses are hungry, hot and aggressive. His hand is soon at my fly.

“Let’s get home,” I say, pushing him away just enough to make my point. “We don’t want to be that cliché couple who does it in the parking lot at the class reunion.” He sits back in his seat from where he was about to crawl over the console.

“At least we didn’t sneak off to the bathroom or something,” he jokes and then laughs, “Oh my god! That reminds me, Hilde asked if I wanted to ‘take a walk’ with her!”

“Wait, isn’t she the one who ditched you at prom?” I snicker.

“Yeah! She made out with that other kid almost the entire time!”

“And then you ended up with me,” I remind him. He grins.

“I guess I was kind of, um, staring at you and Relena dancing,” he admits, “and she asked if I still had a crush on Relena. I laughed and just said no. Then she asked if I wanted to take a walk.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I said I couldn’t disappear because we’d be leaving soon.”

“That’s cold, Maxwell.”

He just laughs and starts the car.

“Well, Sylvia grabbed my ass,” I say as he backs out of the parking space.

“No!” he cackles.

“Yup, while we were dancing.”

“Stop talking about your ass while I’m driving, I can’t concentrate. Hey, just so you know, some of the guys might come to Florida this winter and I said they could stay with me. You’ll hang out with us, of course.”

I mumble something and look out the window.

“They like you,” he reassures me

I don’t think they do, but I shrug and don’t say anything. It’s quiet for a few minutes until he stops at a red light.

“Hey,” he says, eyes darting over to me. “You ok? You’re not mad at me, are you? It wasn’t that bad, was it?”

“It was fine,” I say honestly. It wasn’t any better or worse than I’d been expecting, really.

He doesn’t seem to have heard me. “You had a good talk with Relena, though, right? You guys looked real happy on the dance floor.”

My head snaps around. “Don’t you think it, not even for a second!” I say.

“I wasn’t!” he claims. “Well, maybe when you guys danced. Then I kind of thought it. Just a little,” he amends sheepishly. I’m about to growl at him, but he explains, “But then I thought about how funny it was that this time, I was jealous of her, not you!”

“This is all so messed up,” I chuckle.

“Tell me about it,” he snorts.

After a moment, his hand somehow finds its way to my lap and I give up thinking about the reunion. We’re damned lucky his aunt won’t be there when we get home because I really want to be alone with him right now and not thinking about someone else in the house.

We get back to the house and head straight for the bedroom, where we are all over each other like we’ve been apart for a year, or just survived some life-or-death experience together. We stand by the bed, slow to realize that it’s near impossible to remove clothes when bodies are grinding together and arms won’t seem to unwind. Finally, he shoves me away and all but rips the buttons open down the front of my shirt. I elect to by-pass buttons all together and just yank his shirt out of his pants and over his head, leaving the sleeves inside out as I toss it to the floor. Lips lock again as belt buckles jingle and zippers are unzipped.

When he’s out of his pants, I throw him on the bed and de-sock him before crawling between his legs him. Duo raises his knees, forcing our cocks together and I hiss. The feel of his hot skin against mine is momentous to me right now. His need is fierce, thrilling, and made unmistakably real by that rigid cock against my groin and the urgency underlying his every move as we begin to thrust against each other. I start to think I might come before I ever get inside him. To prevent that, I rise off of him and give him a kiss that demands his full attention. He groans into my mouth and his hips continue in vain to seek friction against mine. His frustration mounts as I kiss and lick his neck and shoulders.

With out warning, he flips us over, pinning my body to the bed with his own. I grunt in satisfaction and jerk under him but I am not yet ready to relinquish control. We roll around on the bed, twisting, pulling hair, sucking necks, grasping limbs, biting ears, pawing and fighting for purchase on the smooth sheets. We finally pause with him on top of me and I realize that this is where I want him. I let him untangle my hand from his loosened hair and pin it to the bed as I stretch upwards to kiss him. I change the movements of my body against his to slow and deliberate, trying to let him know that playtime is over and I want the real thing.

He responds to me immediately, matching my pace and succumbing to my long, deep kiss. When we part for breath, he attempts to roll us back over, but I don’t allow it. Then he moves as though he intends to get up and straddle my hips. The idea of him riding me is tempting for a moment, but just knowing that he was ready and willing to make good on his promise is enough for me tonight. Right now, I just want him inside me.

Even after all my fantasizing, I’m suddenly back in the high school hallway, needing the kind of solace I’ve only ever found with him. I want to be able to blame the room and its strange effects, but I know deep down that it’s not the room at all. It never has been. This trip has been making me face things I’d rather avoid but now I know that, in the end, it doesn’t matter because I’ve got someone who sees the best in me always, whether I can see it or not. Duo shows me who I am, all the good things I am.

It strikes me that I’ve come to need him more than I ever thought I could or should need another person. That’s always been the road block for me - trusting someone, relying on someone that much. I thought I would have to force myself, but it seems to have happened all on its own and it doesn’t scare me. Not at all; right now I feel like my heart is soaring.

“I love you,” I say without a second thought. I’m kind of surprised at how easy that was. It’s been on my mind lately, but saying it doesn’t turn out to be all that hard. It’s not some earth-shattering moment or grand revelation, it feels very natural.

“Ahh! Argh, no no no no,” he says quickly and puts his hand over my mouth with a pained look.

My heart stops. I can practically feel the blood slow in my veins. Or maybe time itself is stopping, I don’t know. It feels like a three ton weight was just dropped on my chest. Did I mess up? Was I not supposed to say that? Is it too early? I never bothered to think what he’d say back! I’ve never said it before, I don’t know how it’s supposed to work! What should I do? At the moment, I can’t move enough to draw breath. I don’t even think I want to anymore.

“Damn it,” he exhales softly. His eyes are a serious, dark blue. “I wanted to say it first.”

I almost laugh in relief as the tension melts away. “Well, how long was that going to be?” I ask, rolling my eyes in attempt to disguise a smile.

He chuckles and hangs his head so that his bangs fall over his eyes. “Uh, any time now, as soon as I stop being such a wimp,” he admits.

“Well, we can pretend that didn’t happen just now,” I suggest gamely.

“Hmmm, ok,” he agrees after some thought.

I wait patiently.

“Hey, Heero?”

“Yes, Duo?”

His fingers tighten slightly on my bicep. His eyes are that same intense blue. When they catch mine like this, I can’t look away. His mouth opens and hangs for a second before he says, “I love you, Heero.”

The hushed, breathy tone of his voice makes my cock leap. I want him. I want him inside me and surrounding me. I want him now. I bury my hands in his hair once again and pull him down for another kiss.

He knows exactly what I want from him. That’s what it is about that look in his eyes when we do this, the look I like so much. His eyes say he understands me. I spread my knees out and up, opening myself completely to him when he enters. He stays low and close tonight instead of straightening up, knowing that I need his mouth on me and the weight of his body against mine. He keeps it slow and hard, piercing me deepest as I come, arching sharply off the bed and throwing him into orgasm along with me.

The next thing I’m aware of his him pulling out and then a chill when he sits up to find the covers. As soon as he spreads the blankets over us and lies back down beside me, I turn onto my side and kiss him. He readily greets my tongue with his own, lethargic as they both are in our sated state. We kiss lazily, basking in the afterglow. He doesn’t even tease me about not making it through the week, though I’m sure to hear it later. I can always claim extenuating circumstances or temporary insanity. Or not so temporary in this case. You might say that this story ends were it started – in high school. Here in this very room, even. But as for Duo and me, our story is not stopping here. There is nothing temporary about it, of that I am sure. Perhaps we’ll tell people the truth at our ten year reunion.