They worked on different teams, they all did. It wasn't smart to put all of your best agents together. Spreading them out was the best way to make certain that all the 'fires', on Earth, and in Space, were put out.Having a renovation of the offices, though, and some of the training areas, had put them together once again, and Heero never expected to be sharing his office with Duo Maxwell.
They weren't compatible. Wu Fei would have been the best choice, with his solid manner, and meticulous ways. They wouldn't have had to voice their respective boundaries, Heero thought, like he was doing now.
"Those two are my drawers." he said as he pointed to the left side of the desk. "The top three of the drawers on the filing cabinet are also mine.
Duo looked older. They had sat in meetings together, or passed each other in the halls, but they hadn't been given many chances to stand so close in years. The wide, smirking smile was gone, replaced by a thoughtful frown, and a crease line between his expressive eyebrows.There was a thin, white scar along one jaw and another that started at the top of his eye, and continued down to his jaw below it. Both were paper thin, and hardly noticeable, not like the thick one on his wrist, that appeared, and disappeared, under his cuff, as he tried to balance all of his discs, and laptop, in his arms.
"Paper is dead," Duo snorted as he managed to get a drawer, on his side of the desk, open. He titled his laptop, until his discs poured into the drawer with a noisy clatter, and then he closed it with one hip as he put his laptop on the desk top. "So, do we tape a line down the center of the desk. This side mine, that side yours?"
There was a livid bruise, on one of Duo's cheeks, and a peppering of smaller ones, that were fading along his other one.Nothing violent, implied in their small size, or consequential, really. It wouldn't have taken much force to cause them. His braid was shorter, only coming below his shoulder blades and tied off with a black ribbon. The end looked frayed, as if someone had cut it off with something not made for cutting hair. He had shaved the sides close, only his unruly bangs still very much the same.
"Done staring?" Duo asked abruptly.
Heero blinked and then decided to speak honestly. "You've changed."
Duo chuckled and it was dark. "Haven't we all? I'm twenty five. I've seen and done shit, in that short time, that should have made me one f'd up soldier. I still have my marbles, though, and that's saying something, right? So, no practical jokes, loud talking, or much in the way of unprofessional behavior, on my part, okay? You can get the 'OMG, I'm sharing with Maxwell!' look off your face. I'm hardly ever at headquarters anyway."
"Good," Heero replied simply and sat down. "You will need to get another chair."
Duo booted up his laptop as he looked Heero over. "I don't need to sit much. Hey, don't you freakin' eat at all? You look like muscle stretched over bones. And you look older, too. No more baby faced, Yuy."
Heero glared and then concentrated on his work."I have a case..."
"We both do," Duo replied as he began punching keys on his laptop. "So, stop all the chatter, okay? I have to concentrate."
Heero glared again, but he didn't turn that glare away from his screen. Duo still had his sense of humor, it seemed.
Duo's cell phone rang, a short, dirge like tune, and he answered it, almost reluctantly. "Maxwell, here." He listened to the caller, the line between his brows growing more pronounced. "I've changed offices, that's why," he said in reply to whatever the caller asked him. He sighed in exasperation. "Yeah, that is so likely! I spend ten hours at work, every minute on cases, and I still have time to screw around. I should really bottle that kind of energy and sell it. I'd make a fortune. I'll talk about this when I get the hell home." He rubbed that line hard, took a deep breath, and then tried, in a calmer voice. "Sorry. Yeah, I know. I'd be weirded out to, if I called your office and a complete stranger answered. It was probably one of the workmen.Stop getting so angry. I have to work, now. Please, let's talk about this later? Okay."
Duo pocketed his cell and looked apologetic. "Sorry. The little guy at home gets all bent out of shape when I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Having a room mates sucks. I swear it's like being married, only without any sex. Better than being alone, though. potted plants, and fish, don't worry about you."
"I wouldn't know," Heero grumbled. "I don't have any of those things."
"Good for you," Duo grunted. "They're a lot of trouble."
Heero had questions, suddenly. He didn't want them. He had a great deal of work to do and Duo's personal life was none of his business. It was exactly the distraction that he had been afraid of.
Duo suddenly snapped his laptop closed and tucked it under his arm. "Later, Yuy. Don't get in my drawers while I'm gone." He snickered on the way out of the office.
The returning quiet was welcome, but a scent was in the air, some sort of spicy after shave and a maleness that wasn't him. It was just as distracting as having the man still there and bothering him. Heero frowned and tried to concentrate on his work. It was going to be a long month until renovations were finished and Duo was out of his space.
______________________________
Sitting cross legged on the desk, laptop, on his lap, and a powdered donut between his teeth, Duo was busily tapping keys. His serious frown was in stark contrast to the comical position. He made agreeing noises to the cell phone stuck between his shoulder and cheek.
Heero moved around Duo and pulled his chair out. He didn't sit down immediately, as he leaned in and turned on his own computer.
"Srry, H'ro," Duo mumbled, and then reached up to remove the donut from his mouth. He was powdered with white sugar. "Outta here in a minute, promise."
Duo continued to eat, nodding unnecessarily to who ever he was listening to.
Heero sat down gingerly, annoyance plain on his face, as he moved his computer away from the man's knee, as Duo swung it wide and then down so that he could stand up. Duo then closed his laptop, tucked it under his arm, and gave Heero a goodbye wave with his donut as he left the room.
"Hang on," Duo was saying, "Don't want to bug Heero. I'll come to your office and we'll pow wow, okay?" and then he was out of earshot.
Heero stared after him, perplexed. He'd never known someone with that much energy to put into totally useless motions. He had to admit, though, that Duo was being more than polite.
Sifting through his inbox, Heero saw his and Duo's paperwork and schedule updates. He separated them, but couldn't help looking over the stats for Duo's last mission. Duo had been gone from meetings for weeks, he recalled, but that hadn't been so unusual in their line of work. It was unusual to see that his mission had been infiltration into a terrorist cell, and that it had ended with a reprimand and a large body count on the side of the terrorists. Something, Heero thought, had pissed Shinigami off. Nothing about the reported deaths sounded tactical or necessary. The ordered down time and stint of normal, civilian, policing, must have been hard for Duo to swallow, but it told it's own tale. Someone had decided that the terrorists had deserved their fate.
The list of recorded times on the practice ranges made Heero feel a momentary bite of his competitor spirit. Duo was undisciplined, but he was strong, fast, and damned accurate. Only Trowa Barton was more accurate with a gun. Heero, himself, had only been going through the motions. He determined to take it more seriously next time.
"Yuy? A word with you?" Wu Fei asked politely from his doorway.
It felt odd for Heero to see yet another former Gundam pilot so personally. Heero couldn't remember the last time that he had exchanged more than passing words.
"What is it?" Heero wondered.
"They forced me to guest a green rookie in my office," Wu Fei growled. "The man is impossible! He chews gum, constantly, and pops it, even when he speaks! He is a pig as well. He leaves garbage and papers everywhere. Rather than gut him, like the fool that he is, I considered a trade. Perhaps we can convince Maxwell to share offices with my rookie, while we share this office together? I think, that we can both agree, that it would be a more suitable arrangement."
Heero considered it and then replied, "Maxwell, actually, has been very considerate and he's rarely in the office. I don't think that a change is necessary for me."
Wu Fei scowled in frustration, "You do realize that you may have signed my rookie's death sentence? I'm not sure how much longer I can tolerate him."
"I'm sorry, but I don't have a problem with Maxwell," Heero insisted, and was surprised at his own statement.
"Yet," Wu Fei added. "When you do, as I suspect that you will, you may come and initiate the trade, then."
Heero nodded, politely, but wasn't in agreement. If Duo kept out of the office this much, then he didn't foresee any problems at all until the new offices were renovated.
________________________________________
"Don't touch anything!" Duo's voice barked. It startled Heero and he paused before going into his office, sensing the presence of many people.
A man snickered, "Hey, I touched a paper in Yuy's in box. Do I get demoted? Maybe then I won't have to go on this suck ass mission."
"Can it, Peters!" Duo retorted. "You're not getting out of this unless you plan on a sudden death in your family, namely yours."
"I hate swamp missions," another voice groused. "I end up with leaches on me, every freakin; time."
"I told you not to touch anything on the desk!" Duo barked again.
The first man snickered again. "Is Yuy that much of a bastard that he has you peeing in your fatigues over office supplies?"
"He doesn't like things screwed with and I don't like screwing with Yuy," Duo replied acidly. "If you do, then maybe that sudden death in the family's won't be so hard for you to get."
"He that much of a hard case?"
There was a pause and then Duo replied,"No, not really, but it's called respect for a man's space, Peters. You should learn it."
"I didn't know that you ever learned it," Peters pointed out. "I guess we won't be partying at Peacecraft's beach bungalow any more."
"He has twenty of them, and he never visits any of them," Duo snapped back. "So, that's kind of different."
"Sure, sure," Peters said knowingly. "I guess your 'room mate' isn't the love of your life any more. Now it's Yuy?"
"What the fuck, Peters?" Duo snarled. "This is a mission brief, not 'Let's question the commander's life' time, get straight or you're out!"
"I am straight, unlike you," Peters laughed outright, "and I thought I had to be dead to be out of the mission?"
"I can arrange that," Duo retorted.
"Okay, okay!" Peters said in surrender. "I'm all ears. Let's hear about how we'll be spending the next week up to our eyeballs in mosquitoes, leaches, and terrorists."
Heero felt a hot flush. There were many things in that conversation that deserved his interest; Duo's respect for his office, and him, the mission Duo was about to undertake, or even the kind of men who were with him. Instead, Heero found himself latching on to the part of the conversation that had to do with Duo's room mate, being more than just a room mate. The sense of disappointment that it generated in him was confusing. Duo's men knew that Duo was gay. One of them, at least, knew about Duo's room mate. That told Heero that Duo wasn't keeping his life secret. It was like him, not to care what others thought of him. Heero was different, though. His private life was minimal, but he still liked to keep it just that, private. No one knew him, outside of work, and no one knew that he was gay.
Not that being gay mattered much in his life, just then. Outside of a few, failed attempts at intimacy, he had never explored his orientation fully. He had listened to men enough, to know that they rarely cared about who they were with, as long as it felt good. Heero had never found that same casualness in himself. He was simply too particular, needing a level of trust and comfort, for that type of intimacy, that was far from the norm in most men. That meant that he was still a virgin, still looking for that person who he could let his defenses down with. It was another thing that he kept private. Virginity, at his age, was ridiculed, he knew, and he couldn't afford the loss of respect in a position like his. Men, who trusted his every command, and looked up to him as an ideal, couldn't learn that he had never done what the least of them had probably accomplished a few years after puberty. It was something, that he suspected, that Duo would laugh about as well. For some reason, that man's loss of respect would hurt much more.
Heero turned his steps away from his office, leaving Duo and his men to finish their briefing without his interruption.
"Agent Yuy?" A harried secretary hurried up to him, but stopped several paces away, giving Heero respectful space. Everyone knew not to crowd a hair trigger agent, especially not a war veteran.
"What is it?" Heero asked.
"Sir, could you please deliver this message to Agent Maxwell?" she asked. "He's had his cell off, for most of the morning, and his room mate won't stop calling."
"He must be worried," Heero surmised.
"Nuts, you mean," the woman exclaimed. "I don't know why Agent Maxwell doesn't toss him out on his ass. The man harasses him all day at work."
Heero felt uncomfortable as he said, "Their relationship is none of my business."
She blushed as she handed the note across the distance to Heero. "They don't have a relationship, sir. He's just a very annoying room mate, who doesn't understand professional behavior. If you ask me, Agent Maxwell is too kind hearted towards that nut job."
Heero looked down at the message, confused. The message read, 'I don't know why you're not answering your phone. I'm worried. call me.'
Someone was misunderstanding the situation, between Duo and his room mate, and Heero wasn't sure why he had the strong urge to find out which one. As he had said to the secretary, Duo's life was none of his concern.
"I'll make sure Maxwell gets the message," Heero told the secretary.
"Thank you," she said in relief and then hurried back to her job, leaving Heero standing in the hall with the message in one hand and wondering when he would see Duo to give him that message.
This was just what he had wanted to avoid, Heero thought irritably. His work was important. He didn't need ridiculous distractions and he certainly didn't want to become entangled in Duo's personal problems. Wu Fei's suggestion, to change office mates, was sounding suddenly more attractive. While a large part of him was reluctant to jettison Duo, the professional part of him was strong enough to mount an impressive argument for it, especially when it pointed out that his good opinion of Duo might suffer, if his work was compromised by the man's private life. That good opinion, and, perhaps, a chance, later, to explore it further, was a flirting thought, in Heero's mind.
The thought of approaching Duo, as more than work associates, made Heero flush with nervousness and heat, considering something so out of character for himself. It bordered on fantasy, a fantasy that he had not entertained before for anyone, not just Duo Maxwell. It seemed an impossibility, something never to be realized, yet, the chance that it might, decided his next course of action. He turned his steps towards Wu Fei's office.
____________________________________________________________
"If I was bothering you, Heero, you should have said something," Duo grumbled as he passed Heero in the hallway, cell phone held between ear and shoulder, and a sheaf of training notes, for his new recruits, in his hands.
Heero turned on his heel to watch Duo pass him and then worked up the courage to say, "It wasn't that."
Duo stopped and looked over his shoulder. His cell, released, tumbled towards the floor. Duo caught it with ease, eyes still on Heero. "Then you must like Fei more?"
"He requested the change," Heero replied.
Duo smirked, "Oh, yeah, he was stuck with Kirkpatrick, wasn't he? He must have been driving Fei up a wall." Duo lost his look of irritation. "You and Fei are a lot alike. You probably work better, together, than you and me."
"It wasn't that," Heero found himself repeating.
Duo raised a cinnamon eyebrow. "No?"
Heero struggled with words while Duo watched, a bemused expression on his face. His cell phone rang again and he answered it, still looking at Heero.
"Maxwell. No! I told you ten sharp on field nine, not nine sharp on field ten! I'll be there in just a minute!" He pocketed his cell and gave Heero an apologetic look, "Gotta run. A little scheduling screw up. We can talk, later?"
Heero jumped at that. "Yes. We should talk, later."
"Okay, later it is, then." Duo gave him a salute with a finger off his temple, shuffled his papers again, and hurried down the hallway, short braid swinging.
Heero swallowed hard, feeling foolish. He had experienced a moment of panic, and he didn't like that loss of control. It shouldn't have been hard to tell the man that he simply wanted to talk to him, out side of work. It wasn't a declaration of anything, after all, and it might lead to nothing more, if Heero discovered that the non professional Duo Maxwell wasn't as interesting as he had imagined.
A small part of Heero, deep down, snickered at his denial, but he wasn't a man who went wholly on sexual attraction. He needed that mental compatibility as well.
"Something interesting, Yuy?" Sally Po asked from behind him, and Heero realized that he had been staring at an empty hallway for far too long.
"I had been speaking to Duo Maxwell," Heero told her as he turned to face her. In her doctor's coat, braided hair tied in a bun at the nape of her neck, she looked older than she was; a competent head of Preventer medical.
"I hope that there won't be trouble, between you two?" Sally told him with a frown.
Heero replied, in confusion, "Trouble?"
"The poop, around here, is that you two had a big fight," Sally informed him. "That's why, rumor has it, that you kicked him out of your office. People were laying bets on how long that would take, you see."
"Did you bet?" Heero wondered in annoyance.
Sally grinned. "Yes, I did. I won a tidy hundred credits, too."
"We didn't fight," Heero assured her. "He was completely professional."
Sally's eyebrows traveled up to her hairline. "This is Maxwell, we're talking about?"
"Yes, of course it is," Heero retorted.
Sally shrugged. "That doesn't sound like him at all. He either respects you, or you scare him. Since I've never seen Maxwell scared, he must think a hell of a lot about you, especially since he's driving Kirkpatrick up a wall, right now. I never thought that I would hear an unprofessional slob complain about a bigger one."
"I..." Heero couldn't think of a reply, his mind trying to make sense of her words.
Sally's hand squeezed Heero's shoulder and she said, "You know, Maxwell must really have been trying hard to respect your space. Maybe you should take that as an act of friendship and let down some of those Gundanium shields of yours? You could use a friend."
Heero felt a hot blush, but she wasn't staying for a reply as she moved past him and continued on down the hallway. It was good to hear his own feelings on the matter confirmed by someone else. Duo cared, whether out of simple respect, or something more, had yet to be seen. Heero determined to find out which one.
______________________________________
Duo had bruises again, a large one along one shoulder, that rippled with his muscles as he pushed the weights up and down on the exercise machine. His ever present cell phone rang and he let the weights drop to answer it. Sitting next to Heero, who was working on leg weights, didn't allow for any privacy.
"Maxwell," Duo answered, paused, and then nodded as he replied to the caller, "That's good.... It's okay... That doesn't mean that I don't like it... spaghetti is good... It's spaghetti. Look, if you want me to jump and down, about spaghetti, I will, but I don't see.... what are you getting mad about?...If you don't want to cook.... What ever!..." Duo scowled and then clicked off his phone. He looked over at Heero, sheepishly. "Sorry. He's such a freak, some times."
"Your room mate?" Heero asked.
"Yeah. He wanted to cook dinner, and now he doesn't. I'm not sure what's up with that." Duo scratched his head, puzzled, and then shrugged.
Heero tensed, sensing his moment. It had been coincidence that they had both chosen to work out, in the Preventer gym, that evening. It had been a good chance to try and talk to Duo. Now, he was being offered an opportunity that he had to seize, and quickly.
"If you don't have any other plans, perhaps we could have dinner, together?" Heero asked.
Duo had been in the act of lifting weights again. He let them crash back down, eyes wide. He looked at Heero, sideways, and asked cautiously, "Dinner?"
"I don't have any prior engagement," Heero replied, hating how stiff he sounded, even to himself.
Duo blinked at him, chewed on his bottom lip, hard, and then said, "Dinner's fine. Fast food? Restaurant? Preventer cafeteria?"
Heero tried to gauge what would make them both comfortable. He didn't know enough about Duo to make a decision, though. Duo grinned and took it out of his hands.
"I know a diner," Duo told him. "The food's good and the prices aren't bad."
Heero felt relief and he nodded. "That's fine. When should we meet?"
"Now, I'm starved," Duo told him as he stood up and grabbed up a towel. "Get showered and dressed, and we'll take my car."
The shower room was communal. Heero didn't dare join Duo there. "I ned a few more reps," he replied. "Go ahead. I'll catch up in a few minutes."
Heero could feel Duo's eyes on him, thoughtful and unsure, but he kept his own eyes on the machine. Duo said at last, "In a few, then."
Heero sighed, hearing Duo's footsteps across the mats, as he made his way to the showers. It was hard to finish his exercises with the image of Duo, showering, stubbornly invading thoughts.
TBC