Disclaimer: I
don’t own ‘em, wish I did, just enjoy writing about ‘em for free etc
Pairings: 1+2
Category: AU,
romance
Warnings: Yaoi
Spoilers: None
Notes: Just a conversation over coffee between
friends…
Feedback: If you liked it, PLEASE let me know!
For merith :
to celebrate the anniversary of ‘meeting’ one of my best friends, whether on or
off line *hugs*
The
cafeteria was having a busy morning, cluttered with children who were late for
school and shoppers who were early for the sales. Their table was the only one free, squashed
up in a corner of the room beside a lusty rubber plant in a thick terracotta
pot. Heero shifted his chair to avoid
one of the leaves stabbing his ear. Then
he passed the sugar to Duo and watched as his companion heaped several
spoonfuls into his coffee.
Duo’s eyes
flickered up to Heero’s face then away again.
He grimaced, like he wasn’t keen on the expression he saw there. “Spare me the lecture. I need the sugar rush this morning.”
Heero’s
eyebrows raised.
“Heavy night?”
Duo
sighed. “I wish. It’s just that Quatre’s flight was delayed,
so I ended up waiting until past one a.m., to see him off. Then I brought his car back as arranged and
had trouble parking the damned thing, it manoeuvres like a tank. Then Hilde rang,
that boyfriend is giving her trouble again, never turning up on time, and she
thinks he’s seeing someone else at the same time as her. And Wufei had mailed me about some problem
with his heating, he knew I’d worked on a similar system some time back and
wanted to know if I knew about the thermostats, so I was looking out the manual
from that box in the attic …”
He caught
Heero’s expression and laughed. “What?”
“I’m
exhausted just listening to you! You’re
always so busy doing things for other people, Duo.”
A couple of
school kids bumped their way past their table, waving half-covered cups of
coffee and doughnuts that were scattering sugar over the other patrons. They were arguing with a mixture of habit and
half-heartedness, and looked startled when Duo bent down to pick up and return
the book they’d dropped from a carelessly open bag.
He turned
back to Heero with bright eyes. “You said
about being busy? I don’t mind, of
course I don’t. It’s for my
friends. You do the same.”
Heero
smiled back. He liked Duo’s expressions,
Duo’s speech; always so lively and alert.
His friend was stimulated by people – he thrived on interaction. Heero basked in the reflection of that
stimulation when he was with him. It was
warm, like a padded coat suddenly drawn around him. He felt a relaxation that he never felt
anywhere else – or with anyone else.
“I don’t
think I can compare to you, Maxwell. I
help a couple of people out with their technical issues, sure. Like I helped Relena when
she had those network problems last month.”
Duo reached
for another spoonful of sugar and stirred it aimlessly into his coffee. He grinned.
“You mean you yanked her out of the brown and smelly stuff when she got
drowned in spam.”
Heero
looked into the wide, mischief-fuelled eyes and his smile grew broader. “That was amusing, wasn’t it?”
Duo liked
it when his friend smiled like that. It
creased the smooth skin of his cheeks; it made his eyes glint with the wry humour that he didn’t always show to the public. He liked making Heero laugh. “Yeah. If she’d taken even a fraction of the mail up
on its offers, she’d have had a penis the length of the freeway –“
“ – enough
money on secured loans to buy a small, richly-armed militia of her own –“
“ – and
four cupboards full of miraculous, fat-shrinking diet tablets.”
Duo was
laughing aloud, now. Heero smiled at
him. “You were a good assistant, Duo –
kept her hysteria away from me as I worked, plying her with your jokes and
distractions. When I first arrived, she’d
been preparing to throw some really fine equipment out of the window.”
“By the
time you left, you were the Saviour of Mankind and I was the one she wanted to throw out of
the window,” grumbled Duo.
They
laughed together. The kids cracked some
kind of joke of their own in the background and all conversation was
momentarily drowned out by other, more raucous laughter.
*
“And so how
was Quatre?” Heero asked. “You saw him
off safely?”
Duo
nodded. “He’ll get there in time to see
Trowa before he goes in for the operation.
I mean, I’m sure the guy will be OK, it’s not a life-threatening thing,
but it was important that Quatre got there to be with him, you know? There was no other flight available at that
short notice; no other way of getting Quatre to the airport apart from me
driving.”
“I
know. You offered straight off.”
“Hm.” Duo bit back
a yawn. “No problem. They need sorting out, those two. Keep messing about with jobs at different
ends of the country when they should be together.”
“Remember
when they weren’t?” Heero mused. “A couple, that is.”
Duo looked
at him, sharply. Heero didn’t often talk
personally about things, let alone relationships. “Uh-huh, of course.” Quatre and Trowa had worked together for
nearly a year before they started dating openly. “Far as I remember, it was you who helped
them to it.”
Heero
looked a little flushed. “No, I didn’t
mean … It was about to happen anyway.”
“You asked
Quatre to house-sit, didn’t you?” persisted Duo. “Both of them were in house-shares at the
time. It gave him and Trowa a chance to
spend some time alone together.”
Heero
looked like he wanted to argue, but didn’t.
“Just coincidence.”
“Not,” said Duo, quite sharply. He wouldn’t take his eyes away from
Heero. “It was generous of you. You could have asked me to look after the
plants – I’ve not killed ‘em yet. Or you
could have taken paying lodgers. You
were away for a couple of months on that oil rig project. But instead, you let our friends have some
time and space, and next we knew they were snuggling on the bus and nauseating
every one of us.”
“Until you
found them a car and they took up snuggling in that,” Heero retorted.
“We’re bad
as each other,” grinned Duo, and watched Heero’s
expression relax again.
Heero
sipped from his coffee, but Duo knew it was only a diversion for him, to allow
him to gather his thoughts again. He
wondered what had made his friend touch on the subject in the first place.
*
The coffee
machine at the counter hissed and someone called cheerily from the
kitchen. Some more customers came in – a
couple left.
“You said
that Wufei had emailed you?”
Duo nodded. “He’s fine, too. Just about getting his
place straight now.”
“Thanks largely
to you,” said Heero. “If you hadn’t
helped him get the apartment renovated, after the fire gutted it …”
Duo
dismissed that with an impatient wave of his hand. “I was just glad he wasn’t hurt. Damned landlord should be hung, drawn and
quartered for that spaghetti mess of wiring we found. No wonder the place went up in flames. You fixed it for him, anyway, rewired it and it’s good as new.
Better, actually.”
“But you
were the one who helped him clean and paint it all. Encouraged him to
show enthusiasm and pride in it again – helped him salvage some of his
possessions when he thought he’d lost everything. Went out to him in the
small hours of the morning to talk it all through.”
“Just got him some furniture and stuff.”
Duo wriggled a bit on his seat. He
moved closer to Heero’s chair, and one of the plant leaves tickled at his neck.
“No,” said
Heero, quite softly. “Much
more than that. He doesn’t talk
easily about his past; about his family.
His belongings are precious to him.
You helped him come to terms with what he’d lost, and also what he
hadn’t.”
“Ah … the
least I could do.” Duo sighed and took a
long slurp of his drink. Heero watched
him with trepidation - he thought that the quality of the refreshments had
seriously deteriorated over the last few months of coming to the mall, and
Duo’s coffee must have had enough sugar in it to make the spoon stand
upright.
Despite all
this, he saw a look of utter bliss spread over his friend’s face. “God, that’s better!”
And Heero
laughed again – he couldn’t help himself.
*
Duo grinned
at him over the rim of the paper cup.
“Yeah, that’s much better. Haven’t seen you laugh for days.”
Heero
grimaced. “It hasn’t exactly been an
amusing time, Duo.”
Duo
shrugged but there was sympathy deep in his eyes. He knew Heero wouldn’t appreciate pity, but
he also knew that Heero was not always the
Heero
shrugged as well, but his shoulders were tense.
Duo could see that clearly. “I
lost my job, Duo.”
“It happens.”
Heero
rolled his eyes. “Three times in a year?”
Duo’s grin
was more rueful this time. “Just bad luck.”
Heero
leaned back in his chair, pushing another leaf impatiently out from under his
nose. “Thank God I didn’t buy a lottery
ticket, then.”
Duo tutted.
“Don’t whine. It’s a hard time in
your industry, Heero. It’s not
personal. No reflection on your giant,
miracle-of-modern-science brain. It’s
just that there are too many programmers, not enough programs.”
Heero
smiled. He wasn’t offended. Duo always spoke like that. It was Duo’s way, wasn’t it, to be blunt –
and he liked it. “Right. Do you have any idea at all of what I do?”
Duo smirked. “Geek. You geek a lot. There’s talk of code and binary stuff. Script – assembly – SQL
stuff. I listen on a need to know
basis, you know?”
Heero
raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. The geek industry is under pressure. You’re right.”
“See?” Duo grinned again. “Like I said – there’s too many geeks. And most of ‘em seem to be
starting at around age 8. Can’t
see how you can compete with that.”
*
Heero
nudged at his coffee cup. He’d been
waiting for it to cool down, but now he wasn’t sure he even wanted it. The kids were noisy over in the other corner,
and a harmless drunk had rolled in from an uncomfortable night on the street
and was hunched over a mug of tea, singing songs from a Broadway show to anyone
or no-one in particular.
“What
should I do, then? Become something
other than a geek?”
Duo leaned
back in his chair and slurped again. “Not
so sure you have that option. You
naturally have the look.”
Heero was
startled. “What look?”
“Glazed eyes. Stretched fingers. The ability to remember most of the numbers
on my cell,
let alone your own. The sad fact of
being able to understand all that SQL stuff in the first place.”
He looked
at Heero’s face almost surreptitiously.
He wanted to see a smile of amusement – he wasn’t sure how close to the
bone he was cutting, and he might have misjudged. But Heero wasn’t easily upset. And Duo didn’t unleash the most merciless
edge of his humour on Heero. No, he treasured his friend in a rather more
protective way.
Heero
looked back at him, unperturbed, and gave a slow, wry smile. He saw the slight relaxation in Duo’s posture
– the pleasure that flickered in his friend’s eyes. It required confidence and comfort with a
person to be able to banter like this, like he and Duo did. It had taken him a while to adapt to it – to learn
the measure of them both. It was
especially good, though, when he saw he could amuse Duo in return.
“So what about you?”
“Me?” Duo looked puzzled.
“You work
in the shop, fixing vehicles in the yard, creating things. What’s your
look? Eyes shining like headlamps?”
Duo laughed
aloud, and the drunk looked across, temporarily losing his way in the
chorus. “Nah. My look can only be described as cute.”
Heero pursed
his lips, as Duo smirked confidently. “Cute? Please! Is that really a look?”
“What do
you think it is – an ambition?” Duo scoffed.
“I have it in bucketloads, Heero Yuy. My cute factor is 10+. You only have to look at me to know it.”
“Cute factor? What the hell’s that?”
“You need
to get out more.” Duo drained his coffee
and appraised Heero’s barely touched cupful.
“It’s an entertainment I have.
Everyone has a cute rating – it’s just that some have more than
others. Some are off the wall – some are
cheesily cute.
It’s fun to watch people and imagine what they may be.”
“You watch
people here in the mall?”
“Sometimes.” Duo’s tone was breezy, but for a
second his eyes narrowed. Heero knew he
was remembering when business had been quiet for him, back in the summer. All he’d had to keep him occupied then was to
hand out advertising flyers for the repair shop and – obviously – sit around watching
people. And Duo was the kind of guy who
needed to be occupied, else he got broody.
It had been a few months before the customers started drifting
back. It had been a time of considerable
tension.
It seemed
when one of them was in work, the other had trouble. But in a way, it was lucky it was like that. It had become some kind of unspoken
arrangement that they supported each other when it happened. Not with money; Heero had tried offering that
once and Duo had spent several weeks being particularly brittle towards him –
and not even allowing him to buy a coffee.
Now they used their company and their humour
and their understanding instead.
It worked
well. Heero felt the warmth again.
“It must rely
heavily on the watcher’s point of view,” he said, dryly. “This cute factor rating.”
Duo nodded,
triumphantly. “Hey, you’re getting
it! That’s the whole point - if we were
all the same, what the hell fun would that
be?”
“So some may
score you a cute factor of only – say – 3,” said Heero. His face was perfectly solemn.
Duo peered
at him, lip curling slightly. “It’s just
not likely, is it?”
Heero
smiled. “You’re incorrigible.”
“And you,” retorted Duo, “are unusually pensive
for an early Tuesday morning.”
*
He saw
Heero’s gaze falter, and worried again that he’d disturbed him. It hadn’t been easy for either of them, the
last year. He looked at Heero’s hands,
clenched quite tightly together on the table top. They were strong hands, very masculine, but
well kept. Heero was creative and
sensitive; Duo had received comfort from that side of his friend many times in
the past. He wondered if he’d ever told
Heero that.
They both
looked back up at the same time; their eyes met, quite steadily; quite openly. Duo smiled again, but gently.
Heero
stared at that smile with the concentration he usually only gave to the
infamous SQL. “I’m just thinking, Duo.”
“Yeah?”
Heero
paused. He saw Duo’s eyes glance over the
scuffed table top, and he pushed his cup over for his friend to finish up. He wasn’t that keen on coffee, anyway. “We have a lot of memories, don’t we,
Duo? A lot of shared
memories. We have good friends, and
have fun with them. We’ve helped them,
and helped each other. Lots of good times. It’s
been a while.”
“A while?” Duo didn’t seem interested in the coffee any
more, and there was a flicker of wariness in his eyes. Many of the patrons were leaving the
cafeteria now, making their way to their day ahead. There was a small oasis of empty chairs
around their table. He leant around the
intrusive plant, which took his head a little closer to Heero’s shoulder.
Heero was
very aware of it, as if Duo’s body had actually touched him. It was an odd feeling. A fascinating one.
“I meant, it’s been a while since we’ve been friends. Been together.”
“Sure,” Duo
replied. He leant in a little closer to Heero. “We’ve built up quite an album, I
guess.”
Heero was
still staring at him. He’d relaxed his
hands and was placing one of them on the table, very carefully, palm down, so
close to Duo’s that their little fingers almost touched. Duo held his breath, though he wasn’t quite
sure why.
“An album?”
Heero asked.
Duo
nodded. “It’s cool.” He felt unusually
tongue-tied. “It’s like having a virtual
photo album in your head, isn’t it? Building memories together.
You know?”
“Yes. I know,” replied Heero.
They
continued to gaze at each other, not seeing anything weird in it. Heero watched Duo’s mouth; traced the smile
with his eyes. It was a little tentative
now, but it reached to the very corners of his wide, honest eyes. Heero liked to see that. That was what he liked to watch.
Duo’s voice
was a murmur. “Umm … I can’t exactly
remember helping you out with much,
Yuy. You’re always pretty much self-sufficient.”
“So are
you.”
“True,” Duo
agreed, nodding. The coffee on an empty
stomach after little sleep – it was making his head race a bit. Yeah, that was it.
Heero
licked his lips and continued. “But you do help me. A lot. All the time.”
Duo raised
his eyebrows in a genuine question.
Heero shook
his head a little impatiently, though his eyes still smiled. “You find good things to say; good things to
do. You care. You’re there for me. Hell, you’re just there!” He grunted, as if he
was embarrassed at last. “Do you know
what I mean?”
Duo felt
the space around them in the cafeteria sweep outwards, far away, and then back
in to enclose them. Just
them.
“Yeah,” he
said. “Sure I know.” Heero’s hand was pressing on to the table
quite fiercely now; Duo could see the veins standing out on the top of it. He watched his own hand nudge another inch
across and nestle against it. The mall
outside the window of the cafeteria was getting busy; there was muted sound
through the thin walls, and the shadow of movement against the frosted
windows. Duo felt rather hot.
“It’s the
best feeling,” he said, surprised to find he was struggling to find the right
words. “That you’re there. It’s the same for me.”
They were
quiet for a moment. It was a very
pleasant feeling.
*
“So, Yuy.” Duo coughed, clearing his throat. He felt like grinning. He thought he might close up the shop today
and suggest they got some lunch together later. “Shouldn’t we get going? What time’s your interview?”
Heero bit
his lower lip. “Not until eleven, but
it’s across town. You’re right.” He brushed absentmindedly at his jacket,
smoothing the creases at his elbow. Duo
thought how good he looked in a suit; his build carried it well. He looked good in most things, really.
They filled
a couple of minutes getting up, their chairs hitting the plant pot and rocking
it on its base. Duo caught it as it
toppled; righted it. Heero watched the
careful confidence of his movements.
“Thanks for
offering me the lift there, Duo.”
“No
problem.”
Duo held
the door and the two of them filed out.
The drunk was asleep on his chair in the corner of the room, his snoring
melodic in its own way. The two young
men started back to the parking lot, weaving through the shoppers. They bumped against each other, as the flow
of bodies took them. It happened quite
frequently, considering it was only a short stroll back to their floor.
In the
stairwell, Heero paused for a moment as Duo loped past him, rummaging in his
back pocket for his car keys. “Just one question, Duo.”
“Huh?” His friend turned back, his face half
shadowed.
“What cute
factor do you give me?”
Duo started
to laugh, but something made him halt. “Didn’t think you bothered about such things, Heero.”
Heero was
silent. He stood in that self-contained
manner of his, his body still but his eyes bubbling with activity. It made Duo shiver, in a good kind of way. He’d teased his friend about it once or twice
– though he didn’t do that now.
Heero
stepped down a couple of steps until he stood at the same eye-level again. Duo tilted up his chin. He didn’t think he mistook the light brush of
Heero’s arm against his hip.
His chuckle
echoed in the concrete stairwell. “Now you,
Heero … You’re a 13, I’d say.”
Heero
looked startled – maybe he hadn’t expected a proper answer.
Duo grinned
again and turned to continue on down to the car. He called back over his shoulder as he
went. “Lucky for some,
eh?”
“Yes,”
replied Heero, almost to himself, his eyes following the twist of Duo’s back. “I know.”
End