Author: Zazu
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: AU, Sap
Pairings: 1+2+1
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, nor do I own the characters. I have borrowed them here for some fun and creativity, and this is not for profit. I do, however, own the plot mentioned here, and any instances that you may find similar to real life events are purely a coincidence.
Notes: Beta-read by Sharon!
Bought With Love
"Hey Heero, can we stop by Sharon's?"
"What for?" Heero asked as he slid into the driver's seat. Their team had just completed a mission with Heero as the tactical ops director, and they had gone in for the last of the debriefing.
The meeting had ended just after lunch and they had been given the rest of the day off.
"I was thinking to pick something up from there."
Heero glanced at him. "You mean you actually had time to think between smearing dirt on your face to blend in and getting into that warehouse?"
"Hey, I didn't want to do the dirt thing. For some reason the dark paint wasn't in my pocket like I thought it would be."
"Why?"
"For some reason, this was there." Duo held up something and Heero pulled to a stop at a red light before looking.
"Do I want to know why you have the travel-size lube in your field uniform?" Heero muttered.
Duo chuckled. "So, Sharon's?"
Heero nodded. "What did you want from there?"
"You'll see."
Fifteen minutes later, Heero had parked the car on the street and paid the parking meter. He walked with Duo towards the shop and stepped in.
Duo immediately turned to the left; Heero blinked, wondering what it was that Duo had wanted to pick up.
Sharon's was a shop that sold all sorts of things one could need. The last time they had been there, Duo had found a book that, when decoded according to the legend, had information on the erogenous zones of any man. Heero had thought it was just a book to be decoded, something that Duo would no doubt enjoy reading, not that decoding it would have been much of a challenge.
It wasn't until Heero had been lying face down on their bed, writhing from sensations he was familiar with while confused as to how Duo was managing to make him feel those things without touching places he usually did, that Heero found out about the book.
He himself had picked up something relatively more normal; a set of sturdy handcuffs, lined on the inside, with adjustable lengths of chain and a voice-commanded lock.
After he'd managed to decode and understand excerpts of the book Duo had purchased, he'd put the cuffs to use as he'd attempted to make Duo feel what he had felt.
Duo was at the counter, speaking to Sharon, the owner of the shop. "It's gone?" he asked.
Sharon nodded. "Sorry, I think the last one was sold yesterday. I'll just take a look through the inventory list first..." She turned to the computer and began a search while Duo waited, leaning on the counter.
Heero browsed through the shop, seeing some things that he had seen before and many more that were no doubt new.
Coming across the books section, he pulled out a dark blue book, hardcover, with a thin purple border and a blank box in the middle. Opening the cover, he realized that it was a scrapbook of sorts.
What surprised him, though, was the picture on the first page. It was a black and white drawing of two men standing on either side of a large window. The man on the right side was dressed in a long white coat, with dark clothing underneath it. His hands were on the window as he gazed into the eyes of the second man.
The second man had a long dark jacket on, his hands in his pocket as he gazed right back at the first man. He had a long braid.
What was fanart doing at Sharon's? Heero flipped the page and found a short poetic verse on the back, written by an author he wasn't familiar with. The next page was blank, but the following one had a drawing of Duo staring off into the distance. He recognized that picture, he realized. It had been in a news article based on a case four months ago. Their discovery had been a few hours too late since their intel had been held up and they hadn't been able to save the young woman who had given the police a tip about a small drug dealer who turned out to be from a much bigger ring. Duo had been standing there, gazing into the distance, contemplating their next move when the photo had been snapped. He flipped on and spotted a sketch of himself holding Duo's braid.
They had been heroes from the war, much of their lives and actions exposed at the end of it all. That had been the start of fanfiction and fanart, or at least, that was the logical answer to it all. But it was the first time Heero had seen a picture drawn as accurately as an actual photograph. He knew that he couldn't let anyone else own it.
"There might be a last copy on that shelf over there." Heero heard Sharon say. Looking up over the shelf, Heero saw Duo turn from the counter and head towards the shelf Sharon had pointed to. He walked to the counter and set the book down.
"Hello," Sharon greeted him. "What have you here?"
"Just a book," Heero said. "Found it on the shelf there."
"Ah," Sharon's eyes were twinkling. "I remember this. A young woman brought it in yesterday, claiming it was an art book. She sold it for fairly cheap since not all of the pages were filled." She tapped the book. Then, she looked up towards Duo. "Oh," she nodded, connecting the dots. "Your partner. The artist had him as the focus of her drawings."
"It appears so," Heero said. "Who was the girl?"
Sharon smiled. "She is an artist from one of the local colleges; at least, I guessed so judging from the sweater she happened to be wearing. I bought the book back actually; she had purchased the blank one from my place first. I figured someone else might pick it up."
"Can you lend me a pen?" Heero suddenly asked.
She offered one to him, then kept politely busy as he scribbled something into it. When he was done, she bagged the book for him.
"Found something?" Duo asked, coming up behind Heero.
Heero nodded. "I'll show it to you later."
"Cool. What I wanted is gone so..." Duo turned to Sharon. "Please email me if you get another one in?"
Sharon nodded. "I'll be sure to do that. Have a great day, both of you."
"Same to you," Duo replied.
As they stepped out onto the street and Duo sighed, Heero nudged his partner. "What did you want?"
"Just a photo frame I had spotted the other time we were here. I hadn't been paying much attention to it at the time, but it keeps coming up in my mind. I thought I had the perfect picture for it so I wanted to come back for it but..." he shrugged. "I guess it wasn't meant to be." He glanced down at the bag Heero held. "So, what did you find?"
"Just a book," Heero said cryptically.
"Another one like the one I found before?"
Heero shook his head. "No. Something very different. Like I said, I'll show it to you later."
"All right," Duo conceded. "So, let's stop by the caf¨¦," he said. "You paid the last time we came by after stopping at Sharon's. My treat this time."
Heero nodded. A minute later they had arrived at the caf¨¦ that they traditionally frequented whenever they parked on this street. Heero took a seat, setting his purchase on the floor beside him as Duo headed for the counter. Ignoring the glances of the other patrons, knowing that they drew unavoidable attention simply because they were wearing their uniforms, Heero watched as Duo stepped up after the last customer left. He held up two fingers to indicate the number of drinks he wanted and Heero couldn't help but smile a little, knowing by heart the exact words Duo would be saying to give their usual order. The barista accepted the money that Duo handed her; he in turn accepted the change she handed back. As she stepped away to fix the drinks, Duo turned, leaning back on the counter and grinning at Heero.
A minute later, Duo was walking back to the table with two cups. He handed one to Heero.
"Bought with love," he said as he sat down. "So, let's see what you bought."
Heero pulled the book out. "I thought it was a scrapbook but it turns out that it's an art book."
"The cover is a little plain," Duo said as he flipped it open. His eyes widened as he studied the first picture. "Is this...this is..."
"Fanart?" Heero murmured. "I think so."
"But why was it at Sharon's?"
"She said a young woman dropped it off yesterday, sold it to Sharon for fairly cheap because it wasn't filled. Sharon guessed that she was a student from a local college, judging from the sweater she wore."
Duo was staring at the picture on the second page. "This was from that photograph," Duo said softly. "From the newspaper." As he flipped the page, Heero realized that the newsprint had been placed on the back.
Beneath it was a single word written in calligraphy.
"Hurting." Duo read. "Yeah, I was. Then."
The next page only had a few lines blocked in, but it was the one after it that Duo paused to stare at.
It was a picture of Duo, kneeling at the gravestone of the young woman from his case, setting down a newspaper in front of her.
Heero knew that image. He had been there with Duo, and Duo had been paying tribute to the young woman, showing her the newspaper that depicted the man that had killed her, and the rest of the drug ring, broken up by both their efforts and that of the local police. They'd found evidence linking some of the men to a terrorist group that worked with drugs that could paralyze victims. It had been the big case they had closed six weeks after that woman's death.
"Did I have a stalker?" Duo half joked. Flipping the page, he read the note on the back.
I saw the newspaper there and this was what I visualized.
That explained the picture. The next page was the last picture, the one of Heero holding Duo's braid. It wasn't something that Heero ever did in public; at least, nothing more than a quick tug.
On the back of it, in Heero's familiar script, were words that made Duo smile.
Always here for you.
"Yeah, you are," Duo said. He closed the book.
"I bought it thinking that no one should have the chance to own these pictures but us," Heero said.
Duo smiled. "But I wonder why she drew me...?"
"You're an inspiration?" Heero suggested.
Duo snorted. "Some inspiration. She only did a couple of pictures."
"She must have had her reasons," Heero shrugged. "Whatever it is or was, the book is ours now." He nudged Duo discreetly under the table with his foot. "We'll fill it up ourselves."
They did that when they got home, printing out pictures they had particularly liked from some of the fanart sites Duo had gone through, and adding some real photographs and some writing into it.
It was the next day when Heero looked at it that he noticed the logo of the coffee shop fitted into place on the front cover. It had been cut from a clean coffee cup, and under it were the words that Duo had used before.
Bought with love.
Heero smiled, wondering if Duo meant the coffee cup or the book, and deciding that perhaps, the statement could be applied to both.
OWARI
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