Author's Note: Eh, it gets kind of limey here... :guilty smile: Not heavily so -but enough to kick this fic up into an M rating, according to the rating scale of FF. Net...
As of 08-28-05: Okay, I was definitely going to wait awhile before posting this, but I just got SO eager to find out everyone's input that I just HAD to post it today! So, er, be gentle, ne? I'm sick, and my fragile little heart can't take any abuse...
Actually, my "fragile" little heart is a shriveled black prune today, and I feel miserable enough to not really give a crap if you hate this chapter or not. But... :wide, teary eyes: I'll cry quietly later if everyone hates it...
The Professional and the Amateur Part 11
Three weeks after Duo Maxwell and Family moved in, things were settling into a sort of normal pace. Normal for the group of movie stars, however, was vastly different from the normal Duo and Family was used to.
Hilde found that it was tradition in the household to collect on the patio and gossip. This is something she had never really given thought to before, but soon Dorothy was dragging her to the single table, chatting in excitement about the latest rumor regarding Relena. For some reason Dorothy liked telling Hilde many things about Relena... But she also soon found herself enthralled with the form of chitchat.
Duo was mortified. But after all was said and done, he could do nothing about it.
Helen was doing a great many things. Of course she didn't climb the stairs much. She did, however, try her best to help out around the mansion. While the two housekeepers were busy with something, she would frequently wonder around looking for dust to be dusted or dishes to be done. It was habit to do this, and she didn't like to be lazy.
Solo found a lot of things to get into. Half of the mess Helen cleaned was because of the little rugrat. He was startling similar to Duo at his age, Hilde had once told Dorothy. Duo would get into anything and everything, many a times able to break something or damage another.
"He once got into his dad's truck and turned it on," Hilde had explained with a grin, either ignorant or ignoring Duo's heated stare and flushed cheeks. "He was all the way down a block before they realized he had driven off in the truck in the first place. After dodging all that without a ding, he ended up stopping the truck... with a flagpole! It was the funniest thing anybody had ever seen... besides Paul, that is."
Anyway, Solo hadn't broken much. On the day of their arrival, he had marveled a 'pretty' vase that had been sitting in the den. "Yeah," Duo had said drily. "'Pretty' expensive." It had a strange design clashing with colors of all types. Duo honestly thought it was bought plain before a two year old had gotten a hold of it with a box of markers and called it art.
Dorothy sniffed. "It's a work of art."
"It's a work of something, all right," Wufei had put forth in passing, grinning when Dorothy glared heatedly at him. "Love you, honey."
A day later that same vase had been broken. When interrogated by Duo, Solo swore up and down he was outside when it happened. Heero claimed it was okay; he didn't like the damn thing anyway. Yet Duo found it mighty suspicious when, upon inspecting the patio, he found tiny shards of colored bits that greatly resembled the quote-unquote "work of something." Solo remained firm with his statement that he had 'been outside' when it had happened.
Duo found himself bored. He didn't know how that had happened. Usually he had too little time to do anything, but with the weather so crummy he had nothing to do but read a book, rehearse his lines, and take naps. If someone offered frequent flier miles with nap time, Quatre swore Duo could take a round trip to Japan.
Dorothy claimed Duo was too tense. "You need to start relaxing," she insisted one morning between bites of yogurt and sips of latte.
"Do-chan, I spend a total of sixteen out of twenty-four hours sleeping," Duo had reminded her with a grin. "There is no possible way I'm tense."
"Heero deals with stress that way," Trowa commented casually. "If a day becomes stressful, he just sleeps until his subconscious is ready to make a killer comeback."
"I try to do that, too," Solo replied solemnly over his bowl of Fruitylicious. "But my teacher ends up waking me up and tellin' Duo and Mama. Then I get a fifteen zillion minute lecture on the importance of an education."
"It's because Mama and Duo don't have one, baby," Hilde replied, patting him on the head. "Finish your breakfast. Paragon will be taking you to school in fifteen minutes."
"Where is Heero, by the way?" Quatre asked, realizing for the first time that the Japanese actor was missing. That seemed to be happening a lot as the movie progressed. He just had no idea what Heero and Howard talked about when they disappeared together.
"He said something about some solo inside scenes," Duo replied thoughtfully, "and picking up some ice."
Three out of six people at the table began to cackle gleefully. Duo held back his question with a sweatdrop and shook his head. Sometimes he would wish Wufei was around a lot more often; that guy was the only one that seemed to really make sense around the place, even if he did sometimes insist on bringing his camcorder.
Later found Duo cuddled deep into the couch, on the verge of yet another restful nap. Dorothy managed to cut in on Nappy Time though.
"Hey, Duo," she chirped noisily, flopping down on the part of the leather couch that he didn't occupy. His stomach, however, was in the vicinity of that flop, so he ended up jerking awake instead of being able to innocently ignore her.
"Hey, 'Thy," Duo greeted with a tucked in yawn, raising a hand in salutation. "What's up?"
"I just realized," Dorothy replied easily, "that you were never really given a tour of the house. Would you like that? Maybe you could find something to keep you awake. I swear, only a bear was meant to sleep as much as you do." She managed to make it sound so innocent, which clearly meant that the suggestion was far from innocence. Whenever Dorothy Catalonia sounded even remotely innocent, it just meant she was up to something. That or a strong case of the stomach flu was going around and the person she was speaking to was delusional with stomach pains. Either way, Dorothy never sounded innocent unless she had a scheme.
Poor Duo hadn't known her for a very long time. He had no idea. "Sure. I mean, if you don't mind..."
"Don't be silly!" Dorothy grinned. "Why would I ask if I minded?"
So Dorothy ended up showing him the whole kit and caboodle, from every closet to every bathroom. Their last stop, however, was certainly a door Duo had never even noticed before.
"This is Heero's room."
If Duo were a cartoon, he would have literally screeched to a grinding halt and backpedaled away from the door like it was cursed. Since he wasn't, he opted for staying in his place and nodding politely. "Uh-huh."
Unfortunately Dorothy didn't catch the hint that he didn't want to know where Heero's room was, because that was bound to bring on a slue of 'should I?'s in the middle of the night. Basically if he didn't know where Heero's room was, then he was fine. Dorothy decided to open the door and wave the unsure braided boy inside.
"Dorothy..." he protested feebly, feeling her hands on his arm as he tried to turn away, "I don't think--"
"C'mon!" Dorothy relentlessly urged, hiding a grin behind an innocent looking pout. "It'll be fine. I just want to show you his closet and personal bathroom. Then I'll leave and the tour will be over. Okay?"
Poor should-have-been-a-blonde Duo. He didn't know what hit him. "O-okay..." So she ended up showing him Heero's wide-space closet --walk in, of course-- and they quickly moved onto the bathroom. What Dorothy hadn't told him about was the huge Jacuzzi. She did, however, introduce him to the laundry room, a small room connected to the bathroom with Heero's very own washer and dryer.
"He says he doesn't like to wash his clothes with everyone else's," Dorothy said in all seriousness. "He suspects Wufei steals his underwear. They seem to disappear every time we play a practical joke on Wu."
Heero's underwear was something else Duo didn't particularly want to hear about. "Can we go now?"
If he didn't know any better (and of course, he certainly did not), Duo could have sworn Dorothy hid a smirk. "Okay. Oh, damn. Would you look at this?" She shook her head sadly and picked up an apparently dirty towel off of the floor. "And he left the water running, too. Will you turn that off for me? I'm going to throw this in the wash."
Courteous Duo did as she asked in an almost absentminded haze, his mind wondering over the assortment of clothes Dorothy had surveyed in Heero's closet. She had even gone so far as to point out a stack of spandex shorts Heero had kept in a drawer somewhere in the closet. Geez, sometimes he wondered about that girl...
He twisted the hot water nozzle all the way off, turning the simple drippings of water into nothingness. Duo was just about to turn around and step down from the pedestal before he froze at what he saw.
Surrounding the Jacuzzi were slightly fogged-over mirrors, covering the whole wall on all three sides. In the mirror, he saw Dorothy standing right behind him, grinning from ear to ear with her hands poised just so. Before he could even think of a reaction, she reached out and shoved him into the hot water.
It took him a second to find which way was up before he broke the surface with his head again. The first thing he did was choke up all the water he had swallowed. The second thing he did was take a dive out of the Jacuzzi in hopes of reaching the door before the laughing Dorothy could get behind it, slam it, and lock it shut. It took a few seconds off his time when he ended up flat on his back due to a slippery floor.
He didn't have a chance. Dorothy already had the door locked before he could catch the breath that was knocked out of him.
"Do-ro-thy!" Duo whined plaintively, managing a limp to the door once he could stand on two feet. "Dorothy, open up!"
"Nu-huh!" Really. Did all movie stars act like this? If they did, Duo seriously wanted to rethink his career change...
"Why not?"
"Because I want you to jump in that Jacuzzi and relax for the next hour. That's how long your clothes will dry, in any case. There's no way I'm letting you through the house dripping wet!" Duo winced. If it wasn't for that little shove, Duo wouldn't have to wander through the mansion soaking wet. "Might as well wash them, too. I'll unlock the door as long as you promise you'll relax in there for an hour. Got me? Or else I'm not letting you out at all."
Duo was silent.
"Promise?"
"Oh, for the love of God, I promise!" Duo said in exasperation, already peeling away the cloth that clung to him like second skin. "I'll drown myself in the Jacuzzi for all it matters!"
"Not until... you're not," he heard Dorothy's muffled reply through the door, but he didn't catch it through the sound of his zipper loudly being zipped down.
"What?"
"Nothing!" There was a click, and Duo was tempted to run through the house naked, viewers be damned. However, he chickened out last minute and decided it wouldn't hurt to relax. Heero wouldn't be home for a while yet, in any case...
Would he?
----------
Heero opened the door to his home, sighing in satisfaction. Howard had managed to use the horrible weather in a scene meant only for he and Wufei, which was a major plus. Otherwise everyone basically had time off until the weather cleared and production could go as smoothly as hoped.
Sometimes acting was just too tiresome.
Dorothy was --oh, no-- merrily skipping down the stairs. Heero cringed when he wondered what exactly she had done. Usually if Doro was skipping, it meant she had pulled something she thought was completely masterful and ingenious.
"Heero!" she exclaimed pleasantly, smiling brightly at him when she reached the base of the stairs. "You're back earlier than expected." She sounded unusually pleased with that fact.
"What did you do?" It was better to cut to the quick when Dorothy was concerned. There was no telling what would be popping out from one's closet, or the strange state of one's bed sheets. He certainly hadn't expected the miniature plastic lawn cows. Hell, he doubted Dorothy had expected most of things she had pulled. That quality was what made Doro 'Dorothy'.
"I don't-- oh. You think I pulled something, don't you?" Her look was hurt, and she actually crossed her arms and stuck her nose in the air. "I'll tell you this, Heero Yuy. Right now you certainly aren't worth my artistic effort!"
Heero was smarter than that. She hadn't denied a damn thing. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly in the mood to dig the details out with a nutcracker.
"You're soaking wet," she observed quite calmly, looking at his dripping attire. "Where's the ice?"
Heero smirked. "The trucks are bringing it around back now."
"And Wu-babe? Is he... busy?"
"Howard understood the need to have Chang away for a while," Heero replied with an almost-there grin. "He'll be busy for quite some time. Howard decided to film those 'questionable' scenes with Milliardo's character during the storm that's raging right now. Take in the major traffic, I'd say Chang's going to be quite busy until this afternoon."
"Perfect," Dorothy murmured. "Plenty of time... Storm will clear up by then, don't you think? He'll want us back at the studio." Dorothy almost seemed worried. Heero had to shake his head. Didn't she ever learn?
"It's been taken care of," he replied. "The tarp should block the heat, and I've disabled the heating system. The ice will still be there for a long while yet."
"Hee-kun, you're a genius," Dorothy cackled. "While Wu is expecting strippers and sex phone telemarketers, we've already planned something different."
"Where are the Lovebirds and the Family?"
"The Lovebirds took the Family to the mall. Duo's around here somewhere," she remarked almost absently, rubbing her chin lightly. "Saw him about to drift off earlier." She grinned.
"Ah," Heero nodded, shaking his head. He never knew a human being could sleep so long. It seemed that every time he came in, he found Duo napping. Sometimes he found the braided American napping in the strangest places.
"I'm going to soak," he told her, passing her by. He didn't miss her eyes flashing in excitement, and he stopped to stare at her critically. "You should give Duo something to do when I'm not around. I don't want him to be bored to tears and feel left out."
Dorothy snickered. "Sure thing, Hee-kun."
Sometimes this was just too easy.
----------
Duo wanted to kill Dorothy. Violently. Gleefully. Slowly. Many ways of achieving this goal floated through his mind as he moodily slumped into the glorified bathtub's steaming, bubbly water. So many methods of torture and only -he glanced at the golden wall clock in the corner- fifty-five minutes to choose between them.
This is the most difficult problem I've had to face for sometime nearing a week, a moody voice quipped sullenly in his conscience. I'm such a mooch.
Then it hit him.
I'm sitting naked in Heero's glorified bathtub. This realization brought a startled 'meep!' out from his lips. Heero possibly bathed in this thing before he left two hours ago. This thought, admittedly, brought forth more than a meep.
Oh, God.
"Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito-- oh, to hell with it!" Duo cried fanatically before dunking his entire body under the steaming liquid. Finding himself aroused in Heero's jacuzzi was hardly a misfortune.
It was a fatal train wreck.
----------
Heero thought he heard something odd when he came into his personal bathroom, soaked shirt pulled over his head and away from his shivering torso with a malicious glare toward the offending article of clothing. He threw it in the direction of the laundry room without a glance in that direction before shedding his jeans and treating them with the same courtesy.
He hadn't seen Duo. Anywhere. The braided beauty had been MIA when Heero made a passing glance into the living room, the kitchen, the guest bedrooms, and the hall bathroom. He wasn't angry with Duo -more like he was upset that he couldn't find Duo.
He shed the remainder of his clothes on his brisk journey to the small laundry room to the side, slinging his articles into the wash before walking toward the Jacuzzi to take a quick bath before lunch.
He froze at the top step. The bath had been run recently, the water still steaming. He saw a peek of chestnut strands through the liberal amount of bubbles...
Duo surfaced, his head thrown back, amethyst orbs hidden behind closed eyelids. Head, face, neck, well-shaped shoulders, smooth, bare chest glistening with water and decorated in suds. Hair plastered to ever crevasse of his upper body, down that smooth, lined spine and defined shoulder blades. Thick locks clung to his face, and he absently wiped them away as he slowly blinked the water from his eyes.
The long-haired man froze, violet eyes wide as the color drained from his face, staring at the dazed Japanese man in a moment of blind panic. As if completely possessing a will of their own, his eyes flickered down to the rest of Heero before Duo gasped slightly, his eyes flying back to Heero's lustful face. Two faint spots of pink appeared high on Duo's cheeks.
"H-heero..."
With a strangled moan, Heero abruptly leaned over the rim of the Jacuzzi and planted his lips firmly over Duo's, needy and lustful and gentle all rolled into a single package. For a moment, Duo didn't move at all until finally he relaxed into the soul-searing kiss. Heero gently threaded his fingers through the thick strands of hair at the nape of his innocent lover's neck, vainly attempting to pull Duo even closer, if at all possible. It was... magnificent. Innocuous and indigence and heat tying them tightly together in one glorious moment before Heero reluctantly drew back, pressing his forehead against Duo's breathlessly.
"Duo..."
"Heero, I-" Heero put a finger against Duo's lips, quieting the man with a soft smile.
"Would you mind if I joined you?" His stomach felt as if everything was in knots, and he could hardly breathe at all in Duo's hesitation. He feared that the long-haired man would say no, would feel as if everything was going too fast. He waited with baited breath for the answer, dozens of heartbreaking scenarios playing through his head...
"I... I wouldn't mind," Duo said shyly, meeting Heero's eyes bashfully.
Heart hammering in Heero's chest, he smiled and joined Duo in the Jacuzzi, smile softening when Duo timidly averted his eyes in the process. He wrapped his arm around Duo's waist and, with his other hand at Duo's chin, tilted the face with those bejeweled eyes toward him. He rubbed his thumb absently at the violet-eyed man's bottom lip.
Duo's breath hitched.
"You're so beautiful," Heero murmured huskily.
"I... thank you..." Heero held back his amusement. Duo was hardly without words; finding that such a state could be achieved was close to miraculous. His amusement fled when Duo bravely pressed his lips to Heero's, and the Japanese man lost himself in a haze of wet lips and teeth and flesh...
----------
The phone rang. Dorothy snatched the phone from its cradle before checking the caller I.D. with a small groan. Heero's publicist. Wonderful. Resisting the urge to ignore it, she answered with a stilted, "Hello?"
"Dorothy, hon! Is Heero there? We simply must talk about arranging public appearances before Gundam Wing comes out, and-"
"He's busy, Lyle."
"I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I spoke to him for-"
"He'll mind. Call back tomorrow."
Click. Almost as an afterthought, she picked up the phone and left it on the table, the dial tone barely audible as she left the room with a skip to her step and humming a jaunty tune.
TBC...
I'm TERRIBLE :grin: Comments and criticism, ladies and gents -it's what the author craves.
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