Notes: The arc begins between one and two years after Endless Waltz. Duo POV in this story.
Life With Heero Arc Part 78
Worth Waiting For
"Well, it appears that everything is in order. A very neat, efficient job, and completed on time." The man held out his hand and Duo shook it firmly.
"Satisfied customers are always a pleasure," Duo said with a grin. The job hadn't been particularly big or difficult - just clearing out an old factory prior to it being torn down in order for a new one to be built - but it was the sort of "bread-and-butter" job that paid the bills. Most of what came out of the place was strictly recycling quality machinery, very little that was even reusable for parts. The automotive manufacturing plant had been obsolete and shutdown for years, after all. But the job had gone smoothly and was well within its projected budget; that was the important part. Duo had learned to really appreciate the jobs that went this nicely even if they did tend to be a bit boring. Not that he was spending much time onsite on the easy jobs anyway; Take Two Salvage's work crews were experienced enough to handle those with minimal supervision.
"Brooks International will definitely be satisfied with the job," the company representative assured him. "They're anxious to get construction of the new facility underway; completion of the salvage portion of the operation on time was absolutely critical."
"Completing jobs on time is important to us as well," Duo responded. "We make every effort to accurately predict completion time and costs prior to quoting a job. Inevitably, there is a certain margin for error but our staff is very experienced."
And after that one resource satellite salvage debacle, the one that had stretched out to over a month rather than the week it was supposed to last, they'd been very, very careful to check things out thoroughly before making a quote or putting in a bid on a job. They'd ended up having to absorb part of the cost overrun on that one due to the way that the contract was worded. One job like that wouldn't break them but they couldn't afford to have that sort of error happen very often.
Heero was particularly good at tracking down discrepancies in Request For Quote documents. His thorough, methodical approach had saved them a few unnecessary headaches even before he bought into the company.
Tucking the job completion paperwork that the client had just signed off on into his briefcase, Duo wrapped up the meeting and headed back to the office. He wondered how much longer it would take before Tanaka announced the results of their job bidding. 'At this rate, Hilde and Rick will be back by the time we find out whether we got the job or not.'
Duo actually had somewhat mixed feelings about that bid. The job was a good one, the profit margin on it was more than acceptable, and winning the bid meant a lot to Heero personally as well as meaning a pretty good future for Take Two. But at the same time, winning the bid was going to mean hiring a lot of extra help, subcontracting out parts of the job, and a lot of travel. Specifically, it was going to mean that Heero would have to do a fair bit of travel since he was their representative for the deal. And Duo was reluctant to have him gone that much. Selfish, but true.
'And if you feel that way now, Maxwell, how damn bad is it going to be when you're actually lovers?' Duo shook his head and snorted softly in self-disparagement. He'd just have to get used to it.
Assuming, of course, that they ever made it to the point of actually being lovers.
Duo sighed as he pulled onto the expressway to head back across the colony to the office. They weren't having much luck getting past Heero's control training. The damn stuff kicked in every time. Heero's growing frustration and self-directed anger were only aggravating the situation. The more tense and upset he got, the sooner the training kicked in. The harder Heero fought it, the stronger it kicked in. It was turning into a vicious cycle and Duo wasn't sure how to break it.
He'd suggested that they have a guys' night out tonight; a trip to a professional basketball game and junk food at the game. No kissing or handholding or making out; just a night doing things together as friends. No pressure.
Heero had jumped at the suggestion much to Duo's relief. He'd been a little bit worried that Heero would take the suggestion the wrong way and would either be hurt or angry. But he hadn't. And when Duo had thought back over the past few weeks, he'd realized that despite their original resolve to not let every minute they spent together be about developing their relationship, to keep doing things together as friends too, they hadn't been doing a very good job of it. That the games of one-on-one and chess and the time spent working on the old pickup that was their latest restoration project had mostly been replaced by making out on the couch.
That was a trend that needed to be reversed before things got out of hand. Neither he nor Heero wanted to let their friendship deteriorate because they were too busy exploring a physical relationship.
So Duo had pulled out a calendar and he and Heero had sat down together and actually scheduled in "best friend time" for the next few weeks. Dates and "making out" would have to fit in around that.
He'd also suggested that they temporarily back off a bit on the making out. That they figure out when the control training was about to kick in and stop before it could. Heero had been a bit reluctant but Duo had pointed out that if they just pushed the limits without setting it off, maybe they could gradually stretch those limits further. 'And it's pretty damn obvious that fighting it isn't going to get us anywhere. If anything, it seems to be strengthening the effect. I'm not too sure this will work any better, but at least it'll buy some time to try and come up with other ideas.'
Half under his breath, Duo repeated what he'd told Heero, "There's no rush. I can wait. What we've got between us is worth waiting for."
TBC...
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