*Based on the song 'Animals', by Nickelback
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make any money off of them.
Warnings: Male/Male sex, graphic, language, violence.
"This is all mine?" Duo asked as he looked at the one room dorm with it's bathroom. He sat on the bed, and smoothed a hand over the Preventer issue blankets and sheets. The laptop caught his eye, then, and he was up and going to where it had been placed on a small work table. He hit a few buttons and then glared at Mr. Hutch. "No Net?"
"No Net," Mr. Hutch replied coolly. "We understand, fully, what you are capable of, Mr. Maxwell. The only connections this computer can make, is with your class work.It does print out in full color, though."
Duo narrowed eyes at the older man, suspecting a joke at his expense, but then the older man motioned under the table and Duo spotted the printer unit.
"You're harsh," Duo grumbled.
"We're adults," the man replied. "We may seem harsh, on occasion, but it is for your benefit."
"You don't give a flying fuck what happens to me," Duo sneered as he sat on the bed again with a bounce, "so cut the 'we' act."
"On the contrary," Mr. Hutch replied. "I do care very much how your future develops. Everyone agrees that you can be a very dangerous person. It is in my best interest that you learn not to be."
Duo snorted,suppressing a grin of pride to reply, "If you want me to behave, all you have to do is let me see Heero. Otherwise, things are going to get... tense."
"Is that a threat?" Mr. Hutch asked with a raised eyebrow.
Duo backed off just a little."No, not a threat, just the truth. I came here to see him. If I don't, I'll get pissed.It's human nature."
Mr. Hutch stared at Duo for a very long time, until Duo was tempted to squirm, or shout, or-
"You must understand your position," Mr. Hutch replied at last. "You have been tried and sentenced for crimes involving Mr. Yuy. It is often the case, that a molester will repeatedly attempt contact with a victim. You can see how your behavior supports that finding?"
Duo balled his hands into fists. "That's crap and you know it!"
"We will have to work on your language, Mr. Maxwell," Mr. Hutch replied dryly as he moved to the doorway. "As it is, you will be receiving punishment for your verbal threat.You will remain in your room until morning assembly."
"That's such a load of shi-," Duo began, but then stopped when Mr. Hutch smoothly left the room, the door clicking closed behind him. Duo didn't have to check to know that it was locked.
Duo paced in frustration, hands opening and closing as if he wanted Mr. Hutch's neck between them. He had spent too long on the street. The windowless, locked room closed in on him like a coffin.He told himself that it was okay, that as soon as their guard dropped, he'd find a way to meet with Heero. After that, nothing they could dream up would keep him there any longer.
A scratching at the door made Duo start. He whirled in a tense crouch as he saw something quickly slide underneath the door. There was silence, then, and Duo approached the thing cautiously. When he recognized what it was, he snatched it up and turned it on. The little vid recorder, as thin as a wafer, lit up and showed Duo Heero's face.
Older, Duo thought, and liked the changes. Heero's chin had hardened and his baby softness had turned into lean planes. The rakish hair had been partly tamed and it had darkened. The blue eyes were the same, though, as intense as laser beams.More time had passed than Duo had realized.
Duo hit the playback on the selected file. Heero's voice was the same, speaking calm, measured, and thoughtful. "I saw you on the security monitors when you arrived. I knew that you would come, when you heard about my induction into Preventers.We've had to wait a long time, Duo, and we will have to wait longer, but I want you to know that I don't feel any less about you. I still want a future together. If we both enter Preventers, and do well, we can..."
Duo listened to Heero outline, in detail, a four year plan of training, career, and life building. For someone Duo's age, it sounded as if Heero was talking about waiting a lifetime. He frowned bitterly and turned off the recorder. He erased the message and recorded his own, not knowing, really, when he would have the chance to return it to Heero.
"Hey, Heero, while you were being the good little boy, I was eating out of the garbage and living in a rat hole. It gives a guy a different perspective on life. I was waiting for you to find me. Now I see that you never bothered, that you just trusted that I would hang around until you were ready to plan our lives together. I've got a two word response to all your carefully detailed plans. Fuck You!"
Duo turned off the recorder viciously and jammed it into a pocket. His heart constricted and he crossed arms over it tightly. Heero still wanted him, his heart told him, while his head was seething and already making plans to escape.The two were conflicted. He hated being controlled, but he hated the thought of being without Heero even more.
Duo threw himself, belly down, onto the bed, face into the pillow as if he planned to smother himself. He stayed that way until he saw red and then turned his face to get air. Snagging the recorder out of his pocket, he erased his message and tried again.
"Hey, Heero. I'm not sure I can follow your plan. I'm no t... I'm not that kind of guy... you know?Maybe you can think of something else that isn't four years long? I need to see you... I missed you."
Duo clicked it off and pocketed it again. Love, he said to himself, You love him. You want him. You should just say it.
Duo didn't try to record the message over again, though. There was too much time that had separated them to make declarations like that now. He would know for sure, he thought, when he saw Heero again, whether he was still the man that he had fallen in love with, and whether he was still worth waiting for.
TBC