Te Amo
by Akuma
Part 15
"Damn, shouldn't have taught him to drive." Duo cursed as he entered
his bedroom. However, the cursing soon stopped when he saw Heero
curled up on the floor. "Heero!" He knelt down quickly and looked down
at the Japanese boy worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine.." Heero answered weakly. "I stumbled..."
"You shouldn't move too much." Duo lifted the Japanese boy up and put
him back on the bed.
"How is Solo?"
"I can't catch him. He took my car and shot out of the house right
away. Don't worry, though. I can guess where he's heading to. He
usually runs to Wufei or Quatre." Duo sat down on the edge of the bed,
next to the boy. He put his hand on Heero's and caressed it gently.
Heero was trembling slightly and if he weren't a soldier before, he
wouldn't detect it. But Duo did detect it and because of it, he knew
Heero was hurt by what Solo had said. "Gomen ne, Heero. I never
thought Solo would react like that."
The Japanese boy was silent for some time before shaking his head
weakly. "It's .... okay..."
"No, it's not." Duo tightened his hand on Heero's. "You're not a slut
and you're not the one who separated me and Hilde. We weren't
well-matched from the start. Solo has no right to say something like
that to you."
"He is only fourteen years old, Duo..." Heero spoke softly. "He only
wants his father and his.... mother... to be together and shower him
with their love...."
"You're so understanding." Duo sighed again and leaned against the
headboard. "I do care for him. I love him. I'll do anything he wants
unless he wants me to leave you. That's the only thing I can't
fulfill."
Heero was silent and it was okay for Duo for he didn't expect any
answer. He released Heero's hand and caressed the boy's cheek. "I have
spent fifteen years looking for you and I won't let you slip away from
me again. No one will separate us, not even my own son. He has had my
undivided love for fifteen years and now he has to learn to share."
"But Duo..."
Duo put his forefinger on Heero's lips. "No but's. Solo has liked you
from the start and that feeling can't just be thrown away. He is just
disappointed right now. Given time, he'll accept you as my ....."
Beep... beep
The videophone beeped on the nightstand next to bed. Duo growled at
the interruption but he reached for it nonetheless. Only a few people
knew his bedroom's number and he was sure this was either Wufei or
Quatre, whichever one Solo had run to and explained the situation. He
put the videophone on his lap and punched the button to answer the
call. An image of a black haired man with glasses appeared on the
screen, looking angry. "Hi, Wufei. I take it that Solo is with you."
"Indeed, Maxwell." Wufei said with barely restrained anger. "What the
hell do you think are you doing, hitting your son like that? Solo came
here with red cheek and told me that his father had a lover as young
as he is."
"Solo deserved it because he called my lover a slut..." Duo answered
flatly. His face was dead serious.
"Kisama! You really have a lover? A male lover, no less? Don't
you have any shame, Maxwell?" Wufei shouted angrily. "You have a
son and a wife! Do you want to ruin you and your family's happiness
just to fulfill your lust?"
"This is not lust, Chang." Duo growled angrily. "I've searched for him
for fifteen years and I'll be damned if I'll let you or anyone else stop
me from being with him."
Wufei was stunned. "Fifteen... years.......? Him?"
As the answer, Duo turned the videophone toward Heero who was propping
his upper body up on his elbow and looking at the videophone. Wufei's
eyes widened as his videophone's screen showed an exact image of Solo,
save the eyes and the hair. He blinked in disbelief but the image
didn't waver. Only one other boy he knew had a face like this and it
was fifteen years ago. It was impossible but yet... the image was
real... The boy in the screen widened his eyes slightly and Wufei
heard a long unheard familiar voice echoing in the speakers. "Wufei."
The voice broke his surprised trance and Wufei croaked in disbelief,
looking at the face on his screen. "Yuy?"
The boy on the screen nodded and then the screen turned to show Duo's
face. "I don't want to talk through the phone and Heero still needs to
rest. Let's meet in my house at 5:00 PM, tell Quatre and Trowa to
come as well." With that, Duo disconnected the phone and left Wufei
staring dumbfounded at the now blank screen.
"Duo.."
"You knew that someday this was bound to happen and as I said to
Wufei, you need to sleep to regain your strength, Heero." Duo pulled a
blanket up to Heero's chin. "Sleep now, we'll confront the others
together later."
"..... it'll be difficult...."
"But we'll make it." Duo said with determination.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ten to five, Duo carried Heero down into the living room, ignoring
Heero's protests to let the boy walk by himself. He had detected
Heero's fatigue after the boy walked down the stairs earlier that
afternoon and he wouldn't make Heero tired now after managing to get
the Japanese boy take a nap. He lowered Heero onto the soft couch and
settled down next to Heero, entwining his fingers with the Japanese
boy's ones. From the boy's tenseness, Duo knew Heero was nervous about
the situation and he kissed Heero's cheek soothingly. "Everything will
be okay."
"Aa...." Heero nodded and relaxed a bit, but soon, he grew tense again
when two men entered the room. One wore glasses and had long black
hair, bound into a tail while the taller one had his reddish bang
covering half of his face and his visible eye widened as it rested on
the Japanese boy. Both were the adult version of two boys Heero once
fought together with in the war. "Wufei, Trowa."
"He... Heero?" Trowa stuttered and sat down in the nearest chair,
looking very surprised for the usually expressionless man. "You're
Heero? You look as young as we last met."
"Now you believe me, don't you, Winner?" Wufei grunted as he sat down
on the other chair next to Trowa and looked at the messy haired boy
suspiciously.
Heero frowned. "Winner?"
"I told you he married Quatre, didn't I? He changed his last name to
Winner on the wedding day, Heero." Duo explained and then looked at
Trowa. "Where's your other half?"
"Quatre is attending a meeting." Trowa answered and then looked at
Heero. "How come you look so young, Heero...."
Wufei, however, was not one to beat around the bush. "Are you sure
this boy is really Heero Yuy, Maxwell? Not just a boy who's trying to
trick you for your money and break apart your family?"
"Chang." Duo shot a deadly glare at the Chinese man as he felt the
Japanese boy next to him tense at the accusation. "I found Heero in
J's lab, bloody and dying. Don't you dare doubt his identity."
"Bloody? Dying?" Trowa prompted sharply.
Duo took a breath and then told the two ex-Gundam pilots the summary
of how he found Heero. At the end of his story, any doubts about Heero
had evaporated. Wufei was now giving Heero an apologetic look. "I'm
sorry, Yuy."
Heero nodded his head slightly. "It's okay, Wufei."
Trowa had one hand on his chin. His habit if he was thinking deeply.
"You're a trained assassin and soldier, the best of us. What kind of
person could injure you like that, Heero? And don't tell me
there was only one person. I know you never lose in one on one combat.
And from what Duo told us of your wounds, I'm sure you saw your
attackers. Who were they?"
"I don't want to talk about that." Heero averted his eyes. Trowa was
about to prompt the Japanese boy more when Duo shot a warning look at
him.
"I have been asking him the same question, but Heero refuses to answer."
Duo told Wufei and Trowa while he caressed Heero's tense hand. "I
have promised not to prod further about it until he feels ready to
tell me and I hope that you will respect my decision and not question
Heero further about this."
Trowa and Wufei frowned in disagreement but then they caught Duo's
eyes and from the blazing fury on the violet eyes, they knew Duo
wouldn't let Heero's attackers go unpunished. So they nodded their
assent and received a grateful nod from Duo. Wufei then remembered his
original intention of coming here and his face turned instantly grim.
"I'm glad you found Yuy, Maxwell. But you can't just take him in and
announce him as your lover. Although we used to all be the same age,
but Yuy's now as old as our children."
Duo looked at Wufei sharply. "Chang, I don't care if this is against your
honorable principles but I won't let Heero go. I have searched for him
for fifteen years and I won't let him go ever. The age difference means
nothing to me."
"Maxwell, it's not the same as fifteen years ago. Think about your son
and wife, you have responsibilities as a father and a husband."
"I know that. I'll continue loving Solo as my son. Nothing can change
that. All I want is for him to accept Heero as my lover."
"It's hard for Solo to accept the fact that his father is involved
with another guy." Wufei spoke in irritation. "And how about Hilde?
Don't you have a responsibility to her? You're cheating on her,
Maxwell."
Duo's face darkened as he dropped the bombshell. "I'll divorce that
cheating slut."
BANG.
All four of them were surprised as the door flew open and Solo stood
there, his violet eyes glaring furiously at his father. "Don't you
dare call mother that!"
Duo found it ironic at how similar Solo's glare was to the ones he
often received from Heero a long time ago. Quickly recovering from
his surprise, Duo smiled bitterly as he looked at his son. "Now you
know how I felt when you called Heero that."
Solo sputtered angrily, obviously taken aback with his father's
answer. He was about to storm out again when Duo stopped him. "Sit
down and let's talk, Solo. Running away won't solve the problem."
Solo hesitated for a moment before entering the living room and sat
down on a sofa, far from Heero.
"Were you following me, Solo?" Wufei asked the boy who answered with a
nod.
"Wufei and I will wait outside" Trowa stood up, followed by Wufei.
Duo nodded his thanks to the men and seized Heero's hand when the
Japanese boy wanted to leave as well. "You stay with me, Heero." Duo
pulled Heero back to sit down on the couch and then looked at his son.
"I love you as my son, Solo and I want you to be happy always..."
"If you want me to be happy, leave him." Solo cut in, glaring at Heero
who quickly looked away, not meeting Solo's glare.
Duo's face darkened. Solo's words had hurt Heero again and also hurt
him in the process. "That's one thing I can't fulfill."
"You don't love me then!"
Duo looked at his son in hurt this time. "You really think like that?
Just because I deny your request, you think I don't love you?"
Solo bit his lower lip as he saw the hurt in his father's eyes.
"No..."
"All I want is for you to accept me and Heero. Is it so hard? You know
I have been looking for him since you were a baby. You like him and I
know you both were having a great time together."
"It's wrong for you two to do that." Solo retorted.
"Because we're both males? Uncle Trowa and uncle Quatre are both males
too and they're happy together."
"It's not that."
"So what's the problem with Heero and me?"
Solo glared at his father. "Dad, you're cheating on mother!"
Duo smiled in irony. "As a matter of a fact your mother has been cheating
on me for years."
"What?" Solo widened his eyes in shock. The Japanese boy next to his
father also had the same expression.
"I have lost count how many men your mother sleeps with, actually. It
has been happening for years." Duo said flatly. "She thinks I don't know
about her affairs and she never realized that I have a man following
her everywhere. I believe that she is having fun with her new lover in
one of the colonies right now."
"So now you take Heero as a lover to get revenge on mother?" Solo
growled.
Duo raised an eyebrow. "If I wanted revenge, I would have done it
years ago, Solo. I take Heero as a lover because I love him. No other
reason."
Solo looked lost. "Then why.... Why didn't you divorce mother if you
knew she was cheating?"
"And make you sad?" Duo looked at his son. "I know you love both of
us. I know you were sad when you knew we had separate bedrooms, though
you tried hard to show me that you were okay with it. I didn't want to
make you any sadder by divorcing her, thus separating you from your
mother. So I thought I could bear her cheating as long as you were
happy, after all I had nothing to lose."
"Dad..." Solo said hoarsely. "...so why now? Why do you want to
divorce mother now?"
Duo sighed and leaned against the couch. His hand seized Heero's hand,
causing the Japanese boy to look at him in surprise as he brought the
hand to his lips.
"Duo..." Heero murmured.
"You can call me selfish this time, Solo." Duo kissed Heero's hand
once more before looking at his son pleadingly. "But I do now, I do
have something to lose now. After fifteen years of looking for it, I
finally found it and I will never want to lose it again."
Solo was stunned but his expression soon turned into anger. He stood
up and glared at his father. "You will destroy my happiness because of
him?!"
Duo accepted his son's glare without flinching. "It's fake
happiness, Solo. Sooner or later, you will find out the truth about
your mother. I don't intend to divorce her to destroy your happiness.
I want to divorce her to clear my relationship with Heero."
"How can I be happy if my parents are divorced!!" Solo spat angrily.
"Look Solo." Duo said patiently. "You won't feel much different if
we're divorced. You still can see Hilde anytime you want. And like
these past days, Heero will stay with us and I hope you two will get
along just fine like you have done before. I know Heero would like to
be with you. Tell him how you feel about him, Heero." He nudged the
Japanese boy.
Heero, who had bowed his head since Solo's outburst, looked up in
surprise at Duo. He then slowly looked at Solo and spoke up
hesitantly. "I... I care for you, Solo. You're like a son... ..."
"Well, you may really care for me." Solo cut in and glared at the
Japanese boy. "But you aren't my mother!"
Duo was surprised when Heero squeezed his hand so tightly that it
hurt.
"I want my mother staying with us in the house, not a boy as old as me
as my father's lover and who acts as if he can replace my mother!"
Heero had bowed his head down again in the middle of Solo's speech. He
didn't move, didn't tremble, but he clutched tightly at Duo's hand,
making the older man worry about his condition. But before he could
ask what was wrong, Heero spoke up.
"You hate me that much?" It came as a whisper from the Japanese boy's
lips.
Solo was about to snap back but Duo glared warningly at his son in
full force, stunning Solo at the intensity of the glare. "Say no more,
Solo." Duo growled. He put his hand on Heero's hand, which was
squeezing his other hand tightly, and caressed it. His son looked at
the Japanese boy who had his head bowed and then at his father who was
looking at the Japanese boy worriedly. For a few seconds, guilt and
confusion passed on Solo's violet eyes before they were replaced with
anger.
"Fine, do whatever you want." Solo snapped irritably. "Divorce my
mother if you want. I won't fight you, Dad, but don't expect me to get
along with your lover." With that Solo passed them and went upstairs
to his room. Duo watched his son disappear before turning to his
lover.
"Well, at least he accepted the divorce. We'll work on the rest
later." The older man stood up. "Wait here while I tell Trowa and
Wufei about this, okay."
"...Okay."
"You have to release my hand first, Heero, or I'll end up dragging you
with me."
"Aa." Heero slowly released Duo's hand and watched as the older man
disappeared into the room where Trowa and Wufei were waiting. He then
turned his head and looked at the stairs where Solo disappeared and
then at the ceiling. "Ne Odin..." He whispered faintly as he put his
hand on his stomach. "Should I leave Duo so Solo can be happy? Am I
too selfish for wishing to be able to live together with both of
them?"
The whisper sadly was drowned by the escalating noise in the next
room. The Japanese boy closed his eyes slowly as he blocked out the
noise.
"....... I wish too much apparently..... "
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