Another Version of Events
by Karan Seraph
Chapter 8
They took a taxi to the Gotham Movie-Show Theater. The colony's interior lights simulated night; it was night, so many hour having been spent napping or in front of the TV or dressing. Even after Heero had gotten into the clothing Duo had found little ways to improve the outfit. There hadn't been a second bow tie for Heero to wear, so Duo had put a vinyl collar about his neck. Heero thought it looked like a dog collar, it had spikes on it, but Duo had insisted he looked good. He had also been given a top hat, much like the one Duo was now wearing.
Duo looked like a man in an antique wedding photo. Heero had not been informed why Hilde was wearing some kind of ruffley lingerie and fishnet stockings with a skirt that looked vaguely like something Catherine would wear. All that had been revealed about this boy Yuji so far was that he was Hilde's friend from school, he was going to start working at the garage, his family was in some way conservative or traditional and that he was going to pretend that Hilde was his Prom date for his parents but really a student named Malik had asked him.
Heero was fairly sure a Prom was a school dance. He had attended exactly one school dance and wasn't sure what the exact nature of Prom was, so he said nothing.
Yuji was busily telling his sad sounding story to Hilde. His tone was sad, but it was not as if he or anyone else was in danger of dying or killing. It made Heero feel hurt inside when he listened to Yuji complain how he believed the boy he wanted to date wouldn't be accepted by his parents because his race and his religion and his national background were different that that of Yuji's family. He hadn't even introduced the boy to his family to find out.
Heero didn't want to be rude and say anything, and he was sure that in Yuji's mind these were serious problems that would effect his entire life but he kind of wished he'd only had those problems instead of having to decide whether he could risk allowing Relena to live, or if he got Duo out of the cell, would he be able to get them both out of the base or whether firing one more time might more than break the blast shields and kill everyone in the bunker, including hostages, like Relena.
Heero wished he had a regular family to disapprove of whom he dated. He wished he had a father to say, "I don't want that American boy in the house." He wished he had grandparents and his grandmother told him horrible stories about Catholics. He wished he had a mother to say, "Well, we all like, Duo, and even your father had a young man as a lover before, but what about that Relena? Her family is rich, you could have a big wedding. I know your children would be beautiful... geneticists are so much trouble to go to." And then his father would laugh and say, "The old fashioned way can be fun."
Heero couldn't imagine what Lowe would say if he had lived. He imagined that if J was alive and he walked into the lab and said, "You left me unprepared to deal with sexual relationships and now I feel like my brain is melting whenever I look at Duo," that the old scientist would just cackle and say something about G's weapons always looking like works of art.
Maybe J would say, "He has pretty eyes... that one does," and Heero would fear that J wished to take Duo's eyes from him so he could put them in his own head.
Those scientists were such blockheads.
Hilde paid their driver while Yuji opened the door. Heero moved to leave the car, but Duo held his arm to keep him back. "Listen, knowing you, this may be pretty strange to you, but everyone is just here to have fun. You don't have to worry about being recognized. Entirely respectable, ordinary and dull people come here as well as the occasional celebrity. It's a lot of people's Saturday night escape from whatever gets them down."
Heero recognized that the speech was supposed to calm him, but that he needed warning did worry him. So, there was something here that would seen scandalous or questionable?
Heero stepped out of the taxi. They weren't even inside yet and Heero was sure he was not prepared. Along the stretch of cement walkway before the theater's glass doors and lobby were many costumed people. He had seen in his life and travels various New Years Celebrations and Halloween and Carnival. He had been to a circus. This scene was like all of those things, only more chaotic and... campy might be the word.
There were Wookies and Nazis and the kind of Stormtroopers that wore white armor. There were many different sorts of girls in full skirts, some with aprons as well. He saw gangs of boys in bowler hats and others in motorcycle jackets and jeans. There were men in women's corsets and women in men's suits. There were girls in pink satin jackets and winged monkeys. Jedi were smacking boys in lederhosen with plastic lightsabers. Transvestites were shooting girls dressed like Hilde; Heero supposed now they were French Prostitutes or showgirls of some past century.
Duo took Heero into the lobby, pulling him by the hand. There was more.
There were concession stands, dressing rooms, polling areas to vote for the movies to be shown the next month, prop sales and rental stands, a costume shop, restrooms, coatrooms, advanced ticket sales offices, ticket pick-up machines, video game machines, a gift shop full of posters, shirts and other movie merchandise... and all of it was entirely crowded with more flamboyantly costumed people. It was noisy. It smelled like candy and popcorn.
Heero was fairly close to total sensory overload. Fifty mobile suits coming at him on X, Y and Z planes he could deal with. This was overwhelming.
Duo came into view and grinned maniacally. "So, what do you want to do? Our show isn't until Midnight."
"Ka... I mean, what is this? It is like a movie theater where you dress up as the characters?"
"It's even more than that." Duo took Heero's hand again. "Let's see if we can get you some props." Duo led Heero to the boot providing props. "I apologize if anyone mistakes this for a Transylvanian costume," Duo said, "If someone asks you that, just tell them no and that you had to borrow the suit just to come here."
Duo was pointing out a bag to the vendor and handing over cash as payment. Heero continued to look around. He saw signs over the entrances to some theaters now. A Clockwork Orange. Grease.
Hilde found them. Heero had lost sight of her outside. She smiled at Duo, catching her breath. "Christie's here. Oh, and the Sound of Music is in Theater 4 again."
"We're in Theater 5 still?"
"Yes, in 5," Hilde said.
Duo handed Heero a clear plastic bag. There were various items and other small containers inside, a vial of green glitter, bag of rose petals, a piece of paper, some plastic diamond-like jewelry, some copper coins. Heero scried at the paper through the plastic and the writing on it. It said:
-during Children of the Revolution, when the green fairies appear, toss green glitter into air.
-during Sparkling Diamonds put diamonds on a female in the audience.
-during Hindi Sad Diamonds throw rose petals into the air.
-during the movie whenever you hear the phrase "penniless sitar player" throw pennies toward the stage.
The list continued, but Heero stopped reading when Duo slipped an arm about his shoulders. A group of nuns nearly careened into them except that Duo side-stepped quickly, pulling Heero with him. "Are they...?" Heero started.
"Just costumes," Duo said, "If those girls are married to Christ, they cheat!"
"If Christ is what some people believe, I can't imagine him allowing wives to cheat," Heero said.
Duo laughed loudly.
They spent some time in the lobby, looking at the shops and talking to people that seemed to know Duo. Several people, upon seeing him, started singing out the words, "Come what may..."
They found Hilde and Yuji with another young woman. She was also in some manner of lingerie, but she did not have a puffy skirt, she was all in black and she wore a top hat. She smiled at Duo and sang, "Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen."
"That's my line!" Duo insisted.
Her eyes fell on Heero and she laughed, "Oh, Duo, you brought along a green fairy!"
Hilde apparently found this very amusing and giggled while Duo pressed his lips together in attempt not to laugh and gave Heero an apologetic look. He sighed, blowing hair away from his brow. "Christie, this is my friend, Heero."
"We get all kinds," she said. She offered a gloved hand, palm down. Heero took her hand and kissed the black satin fingers. He knew kissing hands like he knew offering arms. Christie seemed charmed when he had straightened. "I play Satine."
"Heero's a virgin," Duo told her.
"Virgins are fun," Christie grinned.
"I want to get him a good seat," Duo said.
"We can go inside," Christie said.
She gestured to theatre 5, the sign over the doors read: Moulin Rouge. Hero knew some French. Rouge was red. "What does 'moulin' mean?" he asked.
"Windmill," Christie answered, "We're going to take you to the Red Windmill!"
It sounded like the title for a dark slow paced French film, or maybe a very surreal anime. Heero saw a large hand-written sign beside the doors as they approached. It said: There will be ABSOLUTELY NO throwing of cans anywhere in this theatre! Individuals who threw half-full cans of soda and beer at the players lost this privilege for everyone. Play nice!
A large man dressed as a ringmaster of sorts winked at Christie and then opened the doors. Heero walked inside with Duo and was nearly overwhelmed again by the heady scent of roses. The theater was like those where movies were shown, with stadium style seating, only there was a stage at the front of the theatre as well as the screen. Several costumed figures were sweeping the dark resin surface of the stage free of the film of glitter and rose petals that covered it. Others were sweeping the floors of the terraces into open trap doors beneath the chairs, to send the litter down to another level.
Music was playing. It sounded Hindi.
As they walked down the stepped aisle Heero noticed smaller screens each side of the large one. Currently the large screen showed still slides that depicted a plays acted out on the same type of stage as the one here. Heero wondered what show had Nazis, nuns and boys in lederhosen, it seemed a strange combination.
On the small screens words were projected: Welcome to the Moulin Rouge Movie-Show.
They reached the front row and Duo offered Heero a seat on the aisle. Heero brushed a thick coating of glitter from the vinyl seat covering and then sat. Duo flopped into the chair beside him. "Can you dance?"
"Yes... what kind o dancing do you mean?"
"Could you just sort of move around and look cool during a trippy rock song?"
"In front of people?"
Duo laughed. "Yeah. But you wouldn't have to do it alone, you'd have dancing girls in skimpy green costumes all over you!"
"Dancing girls..." Heero did not think he could do this.
"Christie's right. You do look like a green fairy." He flipped a lock of Heero's hair with his fingers and then touched his stomach. Heero noticed that his vest was woven partially of shimmering green thread. "It would be an excellent sort of initiation. We can't let people come to the movie show and not join in. The beauty of the show is that it is interactive! That's why we put the virgins in the front and pick on them for stunts or whatever. That way everyone leaves with all their inhibitions lost ad they'll come back and be even more obnoxious the next time. Hopefully, they are also clever."
"What do I have to do exactly?" Heero sighed.
Duo grinned at him. "It's toward the beginning, so you'll be able to get it over with. I'll tell the girls to draw you onto the stage at the right time. Then you just dance with them until you are put back in your seat."
"I will try."
"Cool! You'll see, it's fun! It's just like a movie, only you don't have to be quiet or polite and you can even spoil the ending for everyone."
"Give away the ending?"
"Most people saw it before anyway. Satine dies. But it's not a big spoiler, in the beginning of the movie you know that she's going to die, because it's told through a flashback."
"Oh."
"It's easy," Duo said, pointing up at the side screens, "We even have it se up so that directions for the most common actions and lines for the audiences are prompted."
"You mean, during the movie, we play along in some way?"
"You'll see. There's a few things you can always do, like, every time Satine goes pale of coughs shout out something like 'There's always necrophilia!' or 'She dies!'"
Heero laughed, a little. "Necrophilia?"
"It's just a joke," Duo warbled. "Every time you see a lot of the show girls together, bark at them, because they are the Diamond Dogs. Every time they say 'penniless' throw some pennies at us and say something like, 'Now he's just a sitar player,' or whatever. They used to let us throw cans during one song, but some idiots didn't empty and wash cans before they came to the show. Some people just don't get it! Spontaneous is good, but not if it means the theater has to hose down the theater during the night or a cast member gets hit in the head with a full beer can. Our Toulouse had a knot on his head for days!"
"You do this often?"
"Now and then. I used to do it more. I called to ask if I could play Christian tonight, so you could see. Good thing, they actually needed someone, John was on some kind of school trip to Earth."
"Then you get to be up on the stage?"
"Yep. Hilde too in a few parts. She gets this cool tango number to do. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on you. Yuji will sit behind you, so you can ask him questions."
Heero didn't even know Yuji, he wasn't sure he wanted to rely on him for information.
"Or you can just read the screens."
"I'll do that."
"Good! I'm going to go talk to the others about the staging. It won't be long now. Have fun."
Heero gave a nod as Duo left him alone in the front row. The stage was cleared and some simple props were brought out. There was a large glittery elephant and some chairs, elsewhere a bed and an old typewriter on a desk. Heero wondered where they had found a typewriter.
The songs changed. The slides changed. The theater began to fill and became noisy.
The house lights flashed and the slides were replaced by the usual requires theater notices about fire exits and what to do if the Death Hole Alarm sounded.
Christie came to the front of the stage, now wearing a headset microphone, as the other cast members did also. "Bon Soir!" She said, "Welcome to the Moulin Rouge! Send all the virgins to the front!"
This caused some screaming and protest, as it seemed some people coached their first time friends to resist and others were just embarrassed.
Soon there was a girl in plain clothes beside Heero and much of the front row was filled.
The lights dimmed completely a few minutes later. Members of the cast ,presumably dressed as particular characters took their places on the stage. Duo was at the typewriter. A Little Person was center stage. On the side screens the words "Where's the dancing girls?" were projected. In the audience many people shouted, "Where's the dancing girls?" and "Bring out the girls already!"
The movie started. Through the audience many things were shouted and there was cheering. The little man soon sang along with the sad soft song and the little man on the movie screen. The movie's soundtrack was mixed with the input from the cast's mics.
Heero watched as Christian was introduced. On the screen he was played by that same actor Heero had seen in Velvet Goldmine and the Start Wars movies, on the stage he was played by Duo. Duo mimicked the actions of the other actor. When the ceiling broke through in the movie several cast members on stage crashed through a paper screen near Duo.
They were in the upper apartment there. The narcoleptic Argentinean was on the bed. The little man, Toulouse and his comrades were talking about a play they were trying to write.
In the audience a lot of people started shouting. "One door down, Buddy!" Others said, "Theater four!"
"Music!"
"It'll flop without Nazis!"
The actors on screen and on stage were toasting each other with absinthe. A flock of girls in revealing green costumes rushed down from the upper section of the theater and forcibly dragged Heero from his chair. He felt so horribly embarrassed but he supposed it would be worse if he resisted. He tried reminding himself that outrageous behavior was expected here and if he could manage to look remotely sexy or silly everyone would be entertained.
Heero danced with the fairy girls and then they all danced with the group of revolutionary Frenchmen and their new friend Christian, who had traveled from abroad, as they green fairies represented the effects of the absinthe and they were to be intoxicating the men.
"You know that one's bi!"
Duo bowed then took Heero's hands and spun him around. Zero g to many in an accelerating Gundam while in a spin and Heero remained cool, Duo spun him and he felt dizzy.
The girls returned Heero to his seat and he rubbed his chest as this would stop the ache there.
Christian and his new friends were to go to the Moulin Rouge to meet with the courtesan Satine, who they hoped would help them in getting their show produced. Satine did have plans regarding a show, she wanted to be a real actress and not a courtesan. She wanted to turn the night club into a real theater, but they needed money. She was expecting to meet with a Duke, who hopefully would give the club a lot of money for their show if she did favors for him.
Diamonds were thrown and exchanged. There was barking. Satine collapsed. People shouted, "at least she'll leave a beautiful corpse!"
A comic twist was introduced when at the club, Satine asked her manager, the man dressed like a ringmaster, to point out the Duke and when she looked where Zeigler pointed she saw Christian who had been sitting close to the Duke and who now seemed to be the man Zeigler described.
Christians friends sent him onto the floor to talk to Satine about the play he had helped them write and mistaking him for the Duke she invited Christian to her rooms, inside an elephant shaped building outside the club.
So, while the actors on the screen met in the elephant Christie and Duo spoke in front of the prop elephant. Christian kept trying to fight his attraction so he cold talk about the show and Satine kept trying to seduce him. "Go on! Fuck Her!" the audience shouted. Several of the players climbed steps leading to the screen and their silhouettes fondled the projected image of Satine. It became apparent that he was not the Duke and that the Duke was right outside.
There was a comic scene in which Satine had to hide Christian from the Duke and when he was found, she made up an excuse about him being the writer of their new play and being there to go over lines. Suddenly the Children of the Revolution burst in and utterly confused the Duke and soon they were singing a song about the show they had written, except they were making it up as they went.
For the Satin, Christian, the revolutionary French acting troupe and the showgirls were all obliged to stick to the story that had made up in front of the Duke and so they were to put on a play about a courtesan in India who fell in love with a penniless sitar player, of a sitar that magically could only speak the truth, even though she was promised to the Maharajah. As Satine and Christian fell in love with each other the story they were writing became disturbingly close to their own story. Everyone saw this, it was obvious, except for the Duke.
The Duke was convinced that Satine was his, but that she would not have sex with him until Opening Night. Though, she was clearly having sex with Christian, the penniless play writer, behind her patron's back.
Heero followed the story, he threw pennies, but mostly he just sat, slightly shocked and quite enthralled. As it turned out Duo's voice was a close match for that of the actor Ewan McGregor that played Christian, and whenever they sang, for it was a musical, Heero felt like his heart was soaring.
It seemed a cliché and silly phrase, even as he thought it. He had thought that people had made it up, "heart soaring." But, there was an ache in his chest approximately about his heart and it could only be described by words like fluttering, floating, gliding or soaring. He wondered if he might actually love Duo.
When Duo belted out such lines as, "We should be love~rs," or, "why does my he~art cry~?" he felt choked and shivered and felt his penis go erect in the annoyingly tight vinyl jeans and generally felt a mess of racing blood and tortured nerves. When Duo sang, "Come what may..." Heero almost ran from the theater.
Hilde played the show girl who hinted to the Duke that the sitar player was very much like the writer Satine spent so much time with. This began the Duke's insistence that Satine give herself to him fully and that the ending of the play be changed. Satine had promised to meet Christian and on the same night she was supposed to meet the Duke in the Gothic Tower. She had a coughing fit and remained sick in bed and both suitors suspected she was with the other man. Zeigler and the Duke performed a disturbing rendition of Like a Virgin, which Heero knew was a Madonna song. Satine was convinced she should lie to Christian and tell him she didn't love her so that he would not care when she had to have sex with the Duke. Christian was convinced he should sell his typewriter and take the money to pay her off like all the other men did when she pretended to love them.
All through the plot and musical numbers the audience continued their shouts.
"Why for art thou Romeo?" Whenever people were at windows or on the balcony.
"She dies!"
"Just get your lightsaber from two doors down and on the left!"
"And it will be that day really soon!" When the line, "until my dying day," was sung.
"Above all!" when the word love was said.
"I'll give you something in the end!" When the line was sung, "We all loose our charms in the end."
"We think her end is very charming!" Or sometimes it was, "his."
"Gundams are a girls best friend!"
"What about her Magic Wand?"
There was quite a bit of action at the end of the movie as the narcoleptic collapsed, Christian was in his costume trying to pay off Satine, the play was under way, the Duke's henchman was chasing Christian with a gun and the little man dressed as a guitar was trying to warn Christian while he was having difficulty with the stage set and controls.
Rose petals were falling on Heero, skirling through the air. He threw them into the air himself.
There was a fight over a gun.
Christian got to sing the secret song he had written for Satine.
Duo held Christie's limp body and cried over her.
The theater slowly emptied and Heero remained seated, wondering, trying to calm himself. He felt so needy. He felt vulnerable. He had though tit a weakness that he had let Relena live and then risked his life to protect her, but his was worse... more. He was so distracted by Duo that anyone could have killed him and he would have just collapsed thinking about Duo all the while.
He was on the stage with Christie. She had in her hand a riding crop. Heero had been taught the names of the various tack and accessories used in horse riding. Christie was smacking Duo's leg lightly with the loop at the end of the crop and he was smiling for her.
Heero stood and walked onto the stage. Christie was asking Duo if she was going to play in any of the star Wars movies again.
"You were in Star Wars?" Heero asked as he slipped an arm about Duo's waist.
"A few times," Duo admitted.
"Who?"
"Can you guess?" Duo asked as he pulled the end of his braid from under Heero's arm and toyed with it.
"Han Solo? or Obi Won?"
"Uh uhn," Duo said, he smacked Heero's chest with the end of his braid.
He couldn't mean... could he? Heero swallowed and pictured it in his mind. "Leia?"
Duo threw his voice higher and said, "Darth Vader, only you could be so bold. The Imperial Senate will note sit still for this, when they hear you've attacked a diploma-"
"Aren't you a little tall for a space princess?" Heero whispered at Duo's ear. He had this picture of Leia in her slave costume. In his mind Duo replaced the actress that had played Leia. "You didn't wear the slave costume...?"
"I did," Duo whispered through a soft laugh.
Wretched twinges of arousal came over Heero. He moaned, unable to stop himself. Duo with that long brown hair in intricate braids and a gold bikini like garment with a loin cloth. Heero could barely breathe. Heero said, without singing at all, "Why does my heart cry feelings I can't fight?"
Duo's voice dropped lower than usual. He said Heero's name.
"I need you," Heero confessed. He tried to draw Duo toward him by putting weight into his arm where it crossed Duo's back.
"Heero." He was resisting coming closer.
"Don't think about it. Let me."
"Oh," Duo moaned. "Damn. I want it too." He stepped in toward Heero as if to kiss him, but he only touched his fingers to Heero's lips. "Can you... if I said I would at least do something for you... could you wait a few minutes?"
Well, Heero hadn't envisioned they would strip and have sex here on the stage, but he had hoped to at least get a kiss. Heero swallowed again. "Kiss me," he whispered very quietly.
Duo sank, his knees were turning I toward each other and bending. "I feel insane... it's you... fuck... if I start now I don't know if I could stop."
That soaring was back. Heero didn't speak. He let Duo lead him. They practically ran. Out the emergency exit, down an alley, across the street to the stairs and down into the train station. On the platform Duo encouraged Heero to follow and ran toward one end of the station. Heero followed, walking. Duo was hopping and pacing when Heero reached him. Lights were flashing to say a train was coming in, but the tube was still sealed of course.
"Chew this," Duo said, handing Heero a stick of gum.
Duo thought his breath was bad? Great. Heero chewed the gum and avoided looking at Duo. The lights were lit solid and the hatches in the tube opened to allow access to the train inside. Duo leapt into a car and looked to each side, quickly. He beckoned for Heero to follow.
Heero walked into the train car. It was empty but for them, but Heero supposed now Duo had known that the cars at the back of the train were not boarded so often as at the middle. Duo was holding out his hand, Heero took it.
"I want the gum," Duo said and rolled his eyes.
Heero shrugged. He removed the gum and put it in Duo's hand. Duo popped the gum into his mouth, chewed and made a yummy sound. He grinned then, removing the gum, and danced toward the front of the car as the train began to move.
Heero watched as Duo hopped up onto a bench and reached for a dark panel in the wall. A camera, he was covering the surveillance camera. Heero hadn't thought of that.
Duo turned. He grasped a rail near the ceiling and leaned so that his body was angled about 30 degrees from the interior wall. "Come here," he called.
Heero knew he wanted Duo very much, but now it seemed he could have him, he was very nervous. He was very afraid that Duo wouldn't think he did things very well. Heero tried to smile as he walked through the car. He tried to sing and his voice came out in a low breathy sing-song, "Never knew I could feel like this... Like I've never seen the sky before." Heero saw Duo smile at him, so warmly. "I want to vanish inside your kiss... Every day I..." The whispered song was silenced the second Heero felt Duo's lips on his.
This already felt like dying. It wasn't like eating any sort of food or like talking, it wasn't like anything Heero had ever done with his mouth before. It wasn't just pressing lips, there was movement, like a dance, there was a sort of geometry to be understood in the tilt of a head or the degree lips were parted and in every other motion, but Heero could not understand it because Duo was kissing him.
There was a sort of feeling that Heero was the one being kissed and that Duo led but at the moment Heero couldn't say what about it made him feel that way. He was still too shocked that he was being kissed.
They had both gone silent. There was a hum from the train. There was air being drawn through nostrils and very soft sighs exhaled and the barely perceptible sound of Duo's hands opening Heero's vest.
When he felt Duo's hands slide over chest through the thin fabric of the dress shirt Heero shivered violently with pleasure.
Their lips parted from each other. Heero practically gulped saliva and some of it would be Duo's. He thought he was sweating. Duo was seated on the bench and Heero was leaning over him, though any second he felt his legs would give out.
Duo wasn't unaffected. His chest was heaving. His pupils were dilated. His pale skin had an overall pink color. "We..." Duo's voice broke and he started again, "we have just a few minutes on the train. Then we can get off at my house." He smiled at his little joke.
Heero couldn't think of what he might say. He couldn't think very clear. Duo was like a virus in his mind. He just acted. He bowed again and this time he tried to be the one that kissed Duo.
It was hardly higher brain function. It was more like instinct. Heero would move his lips and if it felt good, he moved like that again. If it did not feel quite as good he tried something else. When Duo moaned loudly Heero repeated with greater force.
Heero came upon slipping his tongue between Duo's lips naturally and it caused a string of positive response. All these things that seem so stupid viewed with logic, like wanting your tongue to twirl about another, felt so intense and good.
Heero liked the kissing... a lot, but he knew there were other things. Heero wanted to get to that. He climbed into Duo's lap, saving himself from collapsing in front of Duo because his legs felt as if they'd been liquefied. Heero continued a particularly forceful kiss and pressed his body against Duo.
Duo moaned and then turned away from the kiss. Heero was left looking down at his neck. "You have to back up off my dick," Duo said sharply.
"But I think I want to up on your dick," Heero said, attempting the same slang. He pressed his lips to Duo's neck.
Duo moved his hands from Heero's back to his hips and pushed Heero away. "I'm not a tease, I said I'd do something for ya, but you can't joke about this. If I say 'back off' you do it!"
"I..."
Duo tipped his head up and kissed Heero. Heero was well above him, now he was in the awkward position of kneeling with on knee either side of Duo's legs. "Fuck... I knew you wouldn't... force me... I just don't... play around with ... that kind of stuff... I can barely... control... myself... your ... cooperation... would be appreciated," Duo said, kissing Heero all the while.
Heero was afraid he couldn't control himself much longer. He didn't think he had it in him to be that forceful... but he might end up embarrassing the both of them somehow. Heero didn't have practical experience with this. He wasn't sure what to do or when to do it.
Duo liked the kissing, and his hands had roamed Heero's back and chest. Heero took hands from the wall, knowing he would have to trust his sense of balance to save him if the speeding train met with any disturbance. Heero reached beneath Duo's vest and felt for Duo's nipples. He could feel the flesh and the rings through his shirt and Heero applied pressure with his thumb.
A gorgeous low moan came from Duo. "No fair..." he rasped.
Heero fumbled with the small buttons on Duo's shirt, thinking that under other circumstances his fingers would have no problem with delicate circuitry.
"It's our station coming up," Duo whispered, "Get the gum."
Heero didn't want to move, but he slowly climbed up to the panel and removed the gum. Duo was on his feet and near the door, but he was shaking all over. "You are so mine when we get to the house," he said, voice shaking as well.
Heero flicked the gum from his fingers as soon as they were at the station. Walking to the house faded from memory. As soon as they were inside Duo crowded Heero against the mailboxes and kissed him. But then, before Heero could hold him close Duo darted away and ran up the stairs.
Heero didn't know how Duo did it, up all those flights of stairs. He could barely walk, and here Duo expected him to climb stairs aroused and disoriented and weak-kneed. Heero cursed the pants Duo had put him in. He cursed Duo.
The door was open when Heero reached it. He walked inside. He wasn't upset about the stairs anymore. Duo was completely naked and sprawled on the red velvet covered couch. Heero almost climaxed then. He felt so close to it. This was more than he had ever felt before.
He tripped just trying to walk across the floor.
Duo laughed a little, but then he reached out and offered a hand. Heero took the hand and let Duo draw him onto the couch. He fell to the cushions between Duo's legs and then stared at Duo's erection. He hadn't ever seen it before, except as a shape behind fabric or a small segment of it bared by small clothing. Heero thought it was gorgeous, not in that way that if it was a piece of art he would want it in his apartment, but in the way that he was incredibly drawn to it.
Heero thought it might be bigger than his, not by a whole lot, but enough that he could tell. He told himself that this wasn't bad, Duo himself was bigger than Heero was.
Heero licked his lips.
"I thought you wanted to get all up on me, Heero?"
He did. Heero threw his weight toward Duo and knocked him flat on his back. Duo then drew his legs up and dug his heels into Heero's calf muscles. Heero looked into Duo's eyes for a moment and then he kissed him. He kissed Duo and let his hands touch Duo's skin everywhere that he could reach. He was warm and he smelled of vanilla and Duo's skin tasted of salt.
Duo tugged at the clothes he had dressed Heero in, peeling them off such as he could from beneath Heero's body. The jacket went, the vest, the shirt.
Heero felt his eyes wanting to roll and his lids wanting to close. He couldn't even sort out what his body felt, it just felt good. Duo. Gorgeous. Naked. Beneath me. It was like his dream.
Heero ached and felt close to climax but he didn't know how to communicate that to Duo. He wanted so badly to please Duo. He wanted to understand how to make his body do that. He wanted to know what Duo wanted, but he didn't know the right words to ask.
Duo was straining and arching his body. Every time he moved it teased Heero's erection right through the layers of vinyl and silk.
"Duo."
Duo drew his heels higher, wrapping his legs around Heero. He reached for Heero's buttocks, one hand inside the pants, against skin, the other hand above the slick vinyl surface. He pulled at Heero, it seemed he wanted Heero to be pressed against his buttocks.
Maybe this was how Duo said that he did want that, Heero thought. He lifted his head from Duo's chest and sucked at his mouth. Just thinking about Duo offering himself that way sent pleasure signals to Heero's brain. Duo drew Heero toward him again. Heero closed his teeth over Duo's lower lip.
Both Duo's hands were inside Heero's pants and his knees were drawn up nearly to his shoulders. For one second Heero thought it must be uncomfortable for him to be so bent, but then thought left him.
It felt like involuntary movement when his pelvis snapped rapidly back and forth, sending jolts of pressure and friction to his penis, sending pleasure to his brain. The climax came. It felt so good. Heero could not describe. And then it was gone.
He didn't feel very good like he had wanted. Heero felt cold, like the way he did when he masturbated. He hadn't even gotten undressed. He hadn't pleased Duo. All the pleasure and heat was sucked away and replaced by a dark cold feeling.
There was a taste of salt and metal on his lips.
Duo whimpered.
Heero blinked and looked down. Duo's lip was bleeding.
Heero ran away. He ran down the hall and into the bathroom and locked the door. He opened the pants and shoved them down off his legs. He kicked off shoes and the pants. Heero pulled down his underwear and then used a dry part of the cloth to clean himself.
He felt... just awful. He hadn't wanted this. Well, he had. Heero had absolutely longed for the orgasm. But more than that, he had longed to be with Duo and to please him and he had failed miserably. He didn't even know how he could face Duo again. This was bad. This was like accidentally killing pacifists because he was careless and too destructive.
There was a knock at the door.
Heero didn't say anything.
"Heero? I'm going to come in."
Heero verified that the door was locked, but as he looked the lock turned. The knob turned. The door opened.
"I need to leave!" Heero said before Duo could speak.
"What?" Duo asked. His eyes fell.
"I can't stay. I just need to leave." Heero didn't know why he'd said that, exactly. He didn't want to deal with this. It hurt. He didn't know how. He wanted to be somewhere else.
"Are you serious?" Duo demanded, eyes glaring right at Heero now. Heero tried to not see the glare.
"Let me leave."
Duo realized he was blocking the doorway. He made an annoyed sound like "'Ck," then stepped out of the doorway. Heero threw his underwear in the trash compactor and then picked up the pants and shoes and left the bathroom. "Fine then!" Duo called after him.
Heero winced at the tone, but he continued looking for his things. He needed something to wear and he needed his satchel. Heero found the clothes he had arrived I were clean and in the dryer. He had been too distracted much of the time to continue the chores by folding them. Heero picked out his underwear and pulled them on.
"You're really just going to leave like this? You freak!"
Heero clenched his fists and picked up the rest of his clothes from the machine.
"That's what you like? You just get off and then bail?"
Heero didn't even know how to answer these questions. He just wanted to be gone. If there had been a weapon, he might have just tried to kill himself, because at the moment he did not feel his life was very valuable. He shook his head but he didn't say anything.
"Irokichigai!" Duo shouted. "Golubóy durák. Baka!" Duo stomped to the door and pulled it open. He found Heero's Sake jacket near the door and tossed it out onto the landing. After that he came into the kitchen and picked up the crate of clothing. He threw it all the way into the hall from the kitchen doorway. It hit the floor, opened and clothes fell across the floor.
"Duo!" Heero shouted as he pulled on the pants he had in his hands.
"I'm just helping you leave!" He then went to the living room and picked up the jacket vest and shirt there. Of course these went into the hall.
Heero pulled on his shirt and did not bother to button it.
Duo had the satchel in his hands.
"Duo! Not my computer!"
Duo turned his head and glared. He made a show of placing the satchel very carefully onto the floor, then he straightened and kicked the satchel so that it spun across the flooring and into the hall, stopping when it hit the railing.
Heero hopped into his shoes. "Duo. I do not understand. Why is it OK when you say 'back off' and when I tell you I need to leave I am the freak?"
Duo pointed out the door. He made heavy footfalls as he moved down the hall. Heero was near the door searching for anything he had left. When Duo came back he had a pet carrier and Koi was being dragged on his leash. "Take Satan too, he's your dog!" The carrier was dumped into the hall. Duo kicked Koi, not hard, but his foot did make sudden contact with the little dog's flank.
"Duo! Stop! I don't understand!"
Now Koi was in the hall Heero saw Duo had his soiled underwear in his hand. "I won't have this shit in my house either!" The damp shorts flopped to the floor.
"Duo!"
"Let's not forget your bagels!"
"Keep the bagels!"
A bag of bagels came flying into the hall.
Heero sank to the floor. There was a huge mess in the hall and he thought he could hear neighbors creeping up the stairs. "Please, Duo."
"It's because you're such a freak you don't even know how to be with people!" Duo cried.
Heero winced. It was true, and it was what he had been trying to fix... and he'd failed.
"I don't start something unless I know just how far I am willing to go. I don't tease or lead people on. You made me think I could hope! You made me knock down all that stuff that kept me thinking of you as off limits. You made me want you fucking me so bad and I never do that for a first date! But it was all bullshit. Just go back to your Internet porn and that computer you love so much because you don't even know how to treat a lover!"
Heero wanted to die. He seriously wanted to die.
"You broke skin too! On my lip! And you've been traipsing all over Earth... do you know how many diseases they have on Earth?"
As if he'd been having sex with strangers all along the way? Duo wasn't this stupid. He should just figure out that Heero was inexperienced and want to help him. Heero winced again at his own thought. It was not Duo's problem. Heero was weirdly socialized and he had obviously not said the right things to Duo.
"Hanging around for a last look?" Heero hadn't really been aware that Duo was still naked. Not in a sexual sense anyway. He looked beautiful, even when he was making Heero feel so ugly. "Go ahead, take a good look. You sure as Hell won't be seeing this again!"
"If you are kicking me out with all my stuff then you should at least call me a taxi," Heero said coldly.
Duo slammed the door.
Heero started trying to make sense of the mess. He pushed everything he could into the plastic crate. What remained was the satchel, the carrier, Koi, and soiled black silk shorts.
Well, he shouldn't just leave them in Duo's hall. Heero picked up the shorts between his fingers and tossed them into the carrier with the food and bowls and toys. At least Duo had given them that. Koi would have food.
Heero figured he could put Koi's leash on a wrist, hang the satchel from a shoulder and pile the carrier on the crate to carry them both in his arms. If Koi didn't trip him and he did not meet with hoodlums then he should be able to make it to the port and get a flight home.
Heero hastily buttoned his shirt and then assembled his luggage. He walked down the stairs.
When he was halfway down Duo called from above. "And take this too. I don't want it!"
Heero saw the black and white kimono fluttering down the high narrow space between stair rails. His faculties were returning, even if his mood was dark, and Heero understood that there was no way he could reach and catch the garment. He would have to drop the crates. If he did, they would likely spill, or they would land on Koi and maybe kill him or break a leg or give the puppy brain damage.
"Duo, No!" Heero shouted. He knew it was too late, but he had to say it.
Heero watched the black shape fall past him and then continued down the stairs. Heero thought that by any culture Duo was insulting him terribly. He insisted that Heero leave with the gifts he have him, but he returned what Heero had given him. This made Heero indebted to him. This made Heero feel like his gifts were poor.
He felt like shit... basically.
At the bottom of the stairs Hilde was waiting, holding the kimono to her chest. "Is Duo hurt?" she asked.
Heero lowered his eyes and his head bowed. "Not physically," he answered.
"Are you hurt?"
"Not physically."
"I'm guessing you are both hurt otherwise. You don't have to tell me. Let me walk you as far as a train, you'll get off at the port without changes, so you should be fine if you make it into the train."
"You don't have to."
"Yes, but let me. Most people here are totally cool, but there is always the chance that something will happen. It's late. Even a drunk asking you why your hair is green might be more than you can stand right now. Don't worry, I'll come straight back and look after Duo."
"I didn't want to hurt him." Heero said nothing after that. He walked with Hilde to the train. As she said, it was a short straight shot from that station to the spaceport. Heero got the first available shuttle flight to anywhere within S4. Luckily, there was one departing in less than an hour for the capitol.
When he was back in his home colony Heero went straight to his apartment. It was midday on Sunday by that time. His apartment looked like someone had just moved in, and it was true. Heero dropped his recent luggage to the floor with the other containers.
Operating on something like auto-pilot Heero put out a bowl of food and water for Koi and removed the red collar entirely. He went into the bathroom again and put the soiled shorts in the hamper built into the wall. He stripped down to his skin and put the second pair of shorts, the pants, shirt and socks into the hamper as well.
Heero looked through his luggage only enough to locate a blanket and his pillow to sleep with. He did take his phone and computer from his bag also. The computer was opened on the floor beside his bed and attached to a power cord. Heero took the headset vidphone into bed with him. He covered himself with his blanket and then dialed Midii's mobile phone number.
The blind was on until Midii answered, "Heero."
"Is it too early in the day to drink vodka?" Heero asked, "I think I'd like to black out again."
"No tolerance and no appreciation!" Midii teased.
"Could you bring me some?"
"Are you all right?"
"Nyet!" Heero groaned.
"I'll be over there very soon. Vero can drive me. I'll just get a few things then leave, khoroshó?"
"Khoroshó." Heero disconnected.
He had lines of a song stuck in his head. It was haunting him, hearing them I Duo's voice; "You're free to leave me, but just don't deceive me, and please believe me when I say I love you."
It's more than I can stand. Why does my heart cry feelings I can't fight? You're free to leave me, but just don't deceive me, and please, believe me when I say I love you.
"Duo... I love you."
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