Author: Jei
Warnings: Shounen ai, AU
Pairings: 1+2+1
Rating: PG-13
Summary: And not in the good way. =p Duo's mouth and good intentions trip him up again.
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.
Notes: Hey, looks like I found some lint at the bottom of my pocket after all. (slim pickings down there, though.
A Slip of the Tongue
"No?"
"...No." Given half an opportunity and a little less surprise, maybe Duo could have found a less point-blank way to respond to Heero's question. But now that he'd sort of said the first thing that came to mind, he was stuck playing catch up with trying to soften the blow. "I... find you hard to work with."
"...Oh."
Ack, was Yuy looking... disappointed? Maybe some mad handwaving could clarify his excuse. "Um. Like, not in a bad way. Just... yanno. Like, um, different styles and all that. You're all hard-working and intense and stuff..."
Heero looked at him a bit skeptically. "You aren't?"
"Well, okay, I'm not exactly a total slacker, and I could totally keep up with you." Alright, now that pride had made him backpedal, he was left floundering for another answer. "But, you know, you, uh..."
"It's okay, Duo. I'll find someone else. Just... thought I'd ask."
His failure to complete his sentence seemed to make Heero's shoulders slump ever-so-slightly, or perhaps Duo imagined it. Real or not, it was just alarming enough to send him into hasty reassurances. "No, really. I mean, it's not your fault you're, you know, you've got a strong work ethic and you could run most people into the ground and maybe it's hard for other people to keep up sometimes and it probably doesn't help that you believe in actually working when you're at work or that you're highly connected or that I have a total crush on you or that you're hard to read, or that..." Waitaminute. Did he really just say...? Oh bloody hell. He tried to step in front of that little slip of the tongue and suggest that no one pay any attention to the words behind the curtain. "Um... you're not one for idle conversation, and, uh. Yeah. Totally not your fault at all." Oh please tell me you didn't hear that. Please tell me your ears just glazed over as soon as I started babbling like an idiot...
Heero blinked at him, his expression typically neutral. "...You have...?"
For just a second there, Duo had thought he was safe. But it wasn't over yet until Heero finished the sentence. Duo plastered a hopefully not-nervous 'nothing-wrong-here! move-along!' almost-smile on his face and waited for his fate to befall him.
Heero stared at him for a few seconds more before shaking his head slightly. "That's not why most people have difficulty working with me, right?"
Saved! Well, sort of! Heero obviously heard the words, but maybe the move-along strategy had worked. Duo stuck with it. "Of course not! I mean, not that you're not... Well. Okay, I think Janey in reqs might have the same problem. And maybe Cherry, too."
"...Brighton's secretary?"
"Yeah."
"Isn't she... forty-something?"
Duo shrugged, feeling just a little more relaxed about this whole thing. Maybe he could disturb Heero with everyone else, and then maybe Heero would forget to be disturbed by him. "You just have that effect on people, I guess."
"How many other 'people' are there?"
"Not like tons of people. Just some." Of course. Duo wasn't and would never be a mere follower.
"Who else?"
"Uh, well, possibly at least one of the kids working in the commissary. But not everyone."
Heero processed this slowly, a faint wrinkle on his brow. "You... are not like the others."
"Um. Nope, guess not." He tried another shrug coupled with another attempt to sweep it under the rug. "But yanno, even without that whole nonsense, you're still... you still have that effect on people, I guess."
"Oh. I'm not sure whom I can ask instead, then."
"Aw, come on, I'm sure you can find someone who'd be great to work with."
"But if even you..."
Plus one to pride, and he could definitely use it right about now. "Bah, it's no big deal. Guy's entitled to his hobby crush, right?" Aha! The words ran like a revelation through him. He could totally sell it as a casual thing. That's all it was anyway, right? He almost sighed in relief. Yep, ol' Maxwell was getting out of this one. "No problem. You shouldn't have any trouble. It's definitely not a hobby for everyone."
Heero looked at him with a steady regard for an oddly long amount of time before laughing abruptly. It lasted only a second or two before he cut it off with a small cough. "Sorry."
Minus one to pride. That sucked. "Well geez, me, too," he muttered.
"Don't be. Sorry," Heero appended, the tiniest sliver of a smile hovering on the corner of his mouth. "Don't be sorry. Just ask me out."
"Just...?" Duo blinked at him, but he was sure his expression was far less neutral than Heero's had been and far more poleaxed. "...But... you don't date, do you?"
"I could be persuaded to make an exception." Damn, it was difficult as ever to tell if Heero was being casual for real or if he had taken a page from Duo's playbook. "Unless you would prefer it stay merely a hobby."
"Oh, hell no." Geez, minus another point from pride, and this time, self-inflicted. "I mean, well, not when handed the opportunity. But... are you sure you date?"
"I should probably date someone sometime. You seem like a good candidate for that position to me."
"Oh." Ouch. There went another point. No, wait, was there a chance he'd misinterpreted that? "But... like, there wouldn't be a lot of people in your candidate pool, right?"
"You're the only one so far."
"Oh. That's..." Way too matter-of-fact to be as comforting as it needed to be. "So if I did ask you out, hypothetically, you'd say yes?"
He got a raised eyebrow for his troubles. "Do you think I'd tell you to ask me out and then say no? Do you think I'd be that cruel?"
"Well, no, but... you know."
Heero waited an appropriate length of time for him to complete the thought, but when nothing more was forthcoming, he prompted. "No. What?"
Duo usually had so many things he wanted to say that they jammed up in his throat. Today, he had nothing.
The faint wrinkle on Heero's forehead reappeared. "...If you didn't have a crush on me, would you still find me difficult to work with?"
"What?" The change in topic jarred his thoughts loose enough to yield some sort of response. "Well, I wouldn't say difficult. I mean, you'd still be... but that's the good stuff... but... wait, I totally wasn't implying that. You're not cruel or anything like that." He really needed to start finishing his sentences. And Heero really needed to stop asking him deceptively simple questions that had way too personal answers. "You're just... you."
"What's wrong with me?"
"Nothing! I didn't mean it like that! Augh!" He took a few deep breaths, stared down at his desk for a handful of heartbeats, long enough to gather his thoughts without the pressure of Heero's faintly wounded look pushing him into a careless mistake. When he looked up again, he managed a tentative smile. "Heero. You're just not an easy guy to get to know. Hell, I'm getting the feeling I didn't much know you at all, really, and we've known each other for years now. But I gotta say... the more I talk to you, the more I want to know."
Heero assimilated that information without too much of a frown. "...Do I need to talk to people more? I've noticed some people seem to get uncomfortable when I talk to them."
Duo chuckled. Maybe Heero wasn't ignoring what he'd said, so much as having two entirely different conversations at the same time. "That's got nothing really to do with you, man. You're... you're cut from a different cloth from most people, yanno? And people generally aren't too comfortable around things that are different. That's their problem, not yours."
"What about you?"
"...I don't have a problem with you because you're different. I have a problem because I like the ways you're different."
"...I think you're different, too."
"Ha." He wasn't sure if that was a compliment or what, but it didn't much matter. "That's probably way too true. Well. Maybe us birds of a different feather can flock together and talk about how weird everyone else is. Say, after work tonight? Over dinner?"
Heero looked at him, long enough for all those signs of consternation to fade away from his face. "...That sounds fine to me."
Whatever that curiously light feeling was that was bubbling up from his belly, Duo decided it was much much better than whatever crazy things he'd been feeling in the last five minutes. Back now on solid ground, even if he was looking forward to a delicate conversation on Heero's people skills tonight, he smiled easily. "I'll swing by and pick you up?"
Heero blinked silently at him for a few more seconds, but this time it was as if he was simply attempting to absorb the fact that he was now involved in a courting ritual. It eventually resolved itself with a countenance that was definitely more pleasant than neutral. "You know where to find me."
"Sure do." Duo sent him back to his office with a wink and a wave, but it was quite a while after Heero was gone that he was finally able to properly get back to work.
OWARI
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