Convincing Relena... Again
by Persephone
"...and then we can gather the flowers, lilacs of course, for the party afterwards and of course, the cake will have to have ten tiers with all of our hundreds and hundreds of guests coming..."
He sighed inwardly as Relena continued chattering about her perfect wedding. She conveniently forgot about her pretend groom. Heero was still struggling to find a way to convince Relena that he didn’t love her, had never loved her and would never, ever (could he stress it anymore?) love her. Ever. She just wasn’t his type.
For one, she was overbearing and conceited. Two, for all her speeches on equality and pacifism, put her in a room with people having incomes below the standard and she comes up with any excuse to knock them down or threaten them with bodily harm in order to maintain her position in her perfect circle of friends. Three, she certainly could talk for hours on end but she never seemed to say anything remotely important or interesting. And finally, four, she-
"Heero! Heero Yuy, are you even listening to a word I’m saying?! Goodness me, what am I ever going to do with you once we’re married? What will people think of us; of me! A woman who can’t control her husband...it will turn down to not controlling her employees and then servants and then finally her children!! We need to have a talk right now about what I expect from you so we can begin to fix this little habit of yours of staring off into space and then-"
Heero pushed back his chair from the overly-large mahogany dining table located in the center of the flamboyantly decorated dining room in which one would go insane trying to eat a peaceful meal. He stood and placed his hands flat on the table to keep from fisting them. It was now or never, he thought grimly.
"Relena, we need to talk." she stopped her ranting and blinked at him from her seat across the table.
"Well, isn’t that just what I said? I swear, Heero, you drive me insane. How can I marry a person who..." she trailed off as Heero turned the full force of his anger and frustration on her in one single stare.
"That’s just it, Relena. I don’t want to marry you; I never have! I was coerced into doing this by your devious brother so that you would stay obliviously happy and leave him alone so he could put the world back together after he tried to destroy it. But I can’t take it anymore! You’re driving me insane with your inane chatter and your single-mindedness. For Christ’s sake, how can you talk about a cake like it’s the most important thing in the world? Do you know how many starving children or families you could feed with that stupid, stupid ten-tiered cake? No! Do you know why? Because people like you," he paused for a breath and pointed a finger under her nose, "don’t think!"
Heero shoved his way around his chair, knocking it over in the process, and began to pace. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe, I don’t want hundreds of people to see me married? Or that I don’t even like cake? And I’m allergic to lilacs? No? Maybe because you never took the time to get to know me. You just see what you want to see, not what is really there." He stopped his pacing and whirled to face her.
Heero threw his hands out to the sides and planted his feet. Tilting his chin unknowingly in a defensive angle, he finished, "Look at me, Relena. Just look. This is who I am. You can’t change me, you can’t keep on pretending I’m something I’m not. I like who I’ve become, who I’ve always been. You can’t calm my hair down and you can’t get me to wear tailored suits every day just for the sake of looking good for your friends. You can’t make me grow a beard or put on weight so you can’t see so many muscles because it looks cheap and middle-class." he let out his breath in a rush and shoved his hands through his hair, further musing it out of place, his shoulders slumped and in a whisper he concluded, "I’m just me..."
Relena sat in shock, her mouth open while she collected her thoughts. Finally, she stood up, too and walked to stand within a few feet of Heero.
"Well, Heero. I never knew you felt that way. But I have a great psychologist who will help you work through this...problem and then it will all go away and.." her sentence slid away when he let out a low, angry sound and walked towards the door. She followed him, half-running to keep up.
He stopped in the foyer and grabbed his coat to block out the rain falling outside. He took a deep, calming breath. One final thing left to say.
And four... she just wasn’t...
"Relena, the main reason I don’t want to marry you is that I’m gay."
...a man.
A small, surprised sound followed by a thud was his only answer and he glanced over his shoulder to find her collapsed on the floor in a dead faint. He heard pounding steps, knew Pagan was running to his mistress and opened the door.
One last look at the grandiose mansion that had never come close to a home and he was off, out the door.
Two days later found Heero outside of a small but cozy looking house beside what appeared to be a large amount of scrape metal not really hidden by a tidy looking fence. At first glance, the house looked completely normal...until you saw the tiny little devil statues playing in the flower beds, the little doggy door over which was engraved, Deathsycthe, and the silver trim on the otherwise black as midnight house. It was blatantly marked as Duo Maxwell’s house. It belonged to him body and soul. It represented him, for just as the house was normal at first glance so was Duo. Plain, ordinary on the outside, but completely unique where it counted; on the inside.
Heero cracked a grin as the doorbell chimed, "Karma Killer", and a voice called out from behind the solid wood door. He waited, slightly nervous, and more than a little excited until the bolt was thrown and the door opened.
Duo Maxwell, former Gundam Pilot, stood in his doorway wrapped in an apron with the phrase, "Watch it, Cook with scythe" scripted on it and a spatula in one hand.
"Can I help... Heero? Is that really you, man? Holy shit! You’ve changed. What happened to the spandex? I mean not that I’m complaining but..." he stopped with a sheepish grin and stepped aside to let his best friend in.
"Hey, Duo." Heero stopped beside his former partner and tried to hold back a smile as Duo tipped his head back to meet his eyes. A mock-glare was all he got for his troubles and he followed Duo through to the kitchen where an omelet lay warming on a plate by the stove.
He looked around as he walked in and nodded. The house practically screamed "welcome home" and he felt immediately at ease. He turned slowly in a full circle, trying to take in the perfection all at once. It was amazing, how much having the one person who you cared the most about beside you, could make a house into a home in less than three minutes. This was where he belonged, with Duo. Now all he needed was to convince Duo that-a motion caught his eye and in a hurry, he ducked into a crouch and covered his head as a fist slammed into the wall above him.
"FUCK! Goddamn wall! Jesus, what happened to poor building supplies!"
He peeked up from his crouch to see Duo hopping and jumping around the kitchen, swearing and swinging his un-fisted, bruised hand. Unprepared for the attack, Heero watched Duo cautiously as he stood, waiting for him to settle down.
Finally, Duo turned back to face him, emotions back under control and glared at him. He rubbed his knuckles, "What the hell took you so long, Yuy?"
Heero avoided his gaze and rubbed the back of his neck, tiredly, "It was my job, Duo. I had to be there."
Duo marched over to him and poked him in the chest, "No, dammit! Pretending to be someone’s fiancé is not a job, Heero! It’s a goddamn lie. How could you?"
Heero glared at him, straightening his shoulders, "How could I? I did it for peace, you hypocrite. While you were playing house and home, I was struggling to keep Relena from ruining everything we had worked so hard to accomplish! I was helping Zechs set the world back to order. I cannot believe I’m standing here listening to you berate me for doing what I believed in! Yes, dammit! I lied to her and yes, I would do it again if it meant never having to kill someone or watch Quatre die a little more inside every time someone refused to surrender! Or sit back and pretend not to notice Wu Fei practically killing himself trying to avenge his wife’s death while Trowa fell deeper and deeper under the mask he presented to the world. And you," Heero took a deep, shuddering breath and traced a finger down Duo’s cheek, "I couldn’t bear to see you punish yourself for living; for breathing every breath that your friends couldn’t take. Towards the end, I was losing Duo Maxwell and I can’t ever do that again." He blinked as tears threatened to spill over and turned his head to the side.
Duo caught Heero’s left hand in his, gazed at it thoughtfully, rubbed a finger over the paler ring of skin on his fourth finger and sighed. "My ring belongs on your finger, love." Heero jerked his head back to face Duo and with his hand still held firmly in his, pulled Duo against his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around him as Duo’s wound around his body, "I’m sorry, Heero! I was such a prick, just now. Of course you should have followed your emotions." his voice was muffled from being spoken into Heero’s neck.
"Heero barely raised his head from where it was buried in Duo’s hair, "They led me back to you." he choked out.
Duo pulled away slightly and cupped Heero’s face in his hands, "Marry me." His voice trembled slightly but he ignored it in favor of hearing Heero’s answer.
Heero pulled Duo’s hands from his face, held them securely in his own. "Yes, forever, Duo. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here sooner. Duty called and I just finally managed to put it in it’s place." he whispered huskily, his lips mere inches from Duo’s.
"Will it be calling again anytime soon?"
Heero smiled as his lips drew closer to Duo’s, "Never, the number has been disconnected." and then nothing else was heard as Heero and Duo made up for a lot of lost time.
Two Years Later...
*Beeeep* "You’ve reached Duo and Heero Maxwell-Yuy. We’re not here right now." Duo’s voice broke in, "Or we might be otherwise occupied!"
"Duo! Not on the answering machine, we just changed the last message!"
"Heeeero... we’re still newlyweds!"
"Duo no baka, we’ve been married over a year..."
"Technicalities...technicalities."
A sigh, "Anyway... leave your name and number and we’ll get back to as soon as possible."
"Well, maybe not as soon as that but certainly when we’re not-ow! Heero!-ummm busy!"
*Beeeep: End of Message*
Sometimes... sometimes finding your love is just that easy.
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