Fandom: Gundam Wing
Title: School Tales (Senior Year #51) To Tell the Truth
Pairings: 1x2x1, 3x4, 5xD
Warnings: AU, Duo POV, angst, humor, sap, fluff, shounen-ai/yaoi,
Rating: R for language
Archives: http://www.kiyasama.com/gw_schooltales.html

Chapter 51: To Tell the Truth

“I guess what I’m saying is that I need a new job.”

Eleanor tosses the salad and says nothing, although the thinning of her lips is a dead giveaway.

“I need something to do before the trip,” I muse, leaning against the counter as I watch her make dinner. Heero’s at work tonight and insisted I visit my mother for a while. With all the wedding preparations going on, I’m surprised she’s not lost her mind yet. The apartment looks like a mad house with all the invitations and bouquet samples, drawings of possible wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses and cake designs…oh, and did I mention that she’s planning to move in with the Teruos’ by the end of the month? Hence, the cardboard boxes mingled in with the existing chaos.

“Maybe I could go back to working at a shop…”

She slams the bowl on the counter and takes a deep breath. “After everything, Duo Maxwell?”

I shrug. “Sid’s fine now. They released him from the hospital and he’s moved out of the city with his gal.”

“That’s not the point!” she all but screeches. “What about that man that you said is after you? That Greek whoever.”

“He hasn’t seen our faces,” I counter back with a wave of my hands. “He doesn’t know who we are. To him, we’re just a bunch of snoopy kids who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Besides, Detective Parker said it’s cool. He might have left the country already since he knows the cops are on his tail. Problem solved.”

I chuck another olive into my mouth and leave to set the table. Thankfully, it’s going to be just the two of us tonight. Saito’s got a lot of work to catch up with at the office, and Kamui’s at home doing goodness knows what. Not that I care.

“I still don’t know why you want to work,” she grumbles as she places a bowl of risotto on the table. “With everything Daniel left you…”

Her voice trails off and we both look away, shivering a little as the ghost of my father seems to drift into the room. I don’t know if I resent him for what he’s done – leaving me in charge of such a huge company at so young an age. Well, technically I don’t begin to run the darn thing until I’m 21, but I have to make room for a crash course in business once I’m 18 in a few months. Harold and his father will be waiting for me once I return – eager to teach their young protégé all that they know.

“Still a long ways away,” I whisper, blushing as Eleanor suddenly leans close to place a soft kiss on my forehead.

“You’ll do just fine, baby,” she says, smiling through the tears that fill her eyes. “Daniel must have known what he was doing when he handed things over to you.”

“That or he was really smoking something,” I reply, laughing as my mother giggles. As we eat, I bring up the topic of her wedding, watching in amusement as she regresses to a teenage girl on her first date or something. She even leaves the table to fetch a few sketches she thinks I might like to see.

“What do you think of this one?” She holds up the picture of an off-the-shoulder cream-colored gown, with dots that I assume are sparkles and not polka dots. Sheesh, what do I know about fashion? She’ll look good in anything!

“Looks great, mom,” I begin, only to be interrupted as she holds up another picture.

“But what about this one? It will make me look like a princess!”

Or an inflated Barbie doll, I think to myself, shoveling more pasta in my mouth to prevent me from saying the words out loud.

Two hours later, knee deep in clothes she plans to donate to the Salvation army (and after deciding on no wedding dress at this time), my cell phone rings.

Heero.

“What’s up?” I ask, chucking another pile of pink cashmere sweaters into the box.

“On my break. How’re you doing?”

“Testing out how good I look in a fuchsia feather boa.” I snicker as he chokes on his sandwich, his laughter good to hear since the guy’s been under his self-induced pressure the last few weeks. The whole situation with Akira is mind-boggling. So yeah, the guy’s been a little cocky, but I can’t help thinking it reminds me of Heero when I first met him. Heero was sure he was going to get the role of president and all but flaunted it whenever he could. Seeing someone else acting like him – in a way – must be irritating the hell out of him.

“Kamui there?”

“No, sir.” I toss in a rather sexy looking pair of black high heel shoes. Wow, the Salvation Army folks will drool at all this stuff. “Just me and Eleanor tonight.”

“What’s she making you do?”

I tell him about our discussion about wedding gowns and now my job in clearing out her closet full of unwanted clothes. It’s a bit sad in a way, I soon realize, as I notice how empty half of the walk-in closet looks. In a few days, most of this stuff will be gone, the apartment will be cleaned out and someone new will move-in with dreams of a happy future. Although I don’t have many happy memories here, it was still a home for me – something I have lacked for most of my life.

“Duo?”

“Hmm.”

“Spacing out on me?”

“No, I’m not. Just…I’ll just miss this place that’s all.”

He remains silent, but I know he’s nodding in understanding.

“Things are moving fast, aren’t they, Heero?” I ask quietly, sitting on the floor and crossing my legs in the relative silence…besides Eleanor banging plates and pans in the kitchen as she washes up.

“Yeah, it is.”

“My mom’s about to move out…start a new life…”

“We’ll be graduating soon…”

“Although it doesn’t seem like you want to,” I tease, laughing as he snorts in derision.

“Guess who I saw today,” he says, burping unapologetically in my ear.

“Dude!” I cry out in mock disgust.

“Shut up and listen to me,” he replies. “Guess who I saw today.”

“You said already.”

“Akira and some guy.”

I wait for the punch line, and when nothing else is forthcoming, I roll my eyes and wait for it. “Yeah, so?”

“So!” Heero sounds pleased with himself for some reason. .”So, I found him making out with this guy in the alcohol and beer aisle.”

I burst out laughing. I can’t help it. It’s too ridiculous to comprehend.

“Everything okay, baby?” my mom asks as she sticks her head into the room, smiling at me as if wanting in on the joke…or wondering if I had lost my mind. However, seeing me on the phone allays her fears and she moves away with a thumbs up sign of comprehension.

“Akira’s humping some guy…in public.”

“Well, not exactly, but you could see they were up to something.”

“Did he see you?”

“Sure he did! He actually smirked a little and then gave me that ‘aww shucks, senpai’ look. Little fucker.”

I laugh again, now wishing I had been there to see it in person. “No way!”

“Way.” Heero crumples up something in the background. “Still has a black eye from my punch, which was good to see.”

“You sadistic bastard.”

I can ‘hear’ him smirk. “Learned from the master after all. But anyway, he ran off pretty quickly with his new boy toy. I wonder what his girlfriend would think.”

“You think he cares?…but wait a minute…he was never really into guys before, was he?”

That stumps Heero for a moment and I can almost hear the wheels churning in his head. “I wasn’t really into guys before you showed up,” he states flatly.

Oh oh. I can see where this is going.

“Hey, Heero…” But I’m too late.

“I knew it! He’s really trying to copy me, Duo! Next thing you know, he’s going to broadcast to everyone that he’s suddenly happy in a relationship with another guy!”

“Calm down, tiger.” I’m trying to sympathize with my paranoid boyfriend, but it’s becoming hard to do. Maybe I should talk to Akira myself. “He just…worships you, and since you punched his lights out, he’s got a whole new respect for you.”

“Hn.”

“What’s that saying? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?”

“I don’t want anyone imitating me, Duo. One of me is enough thank you very much.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Gotta run. Break’s over.” And before I can say anything else, he hangs up on me. I stare at the phone for a long second, tempted to yell something crude at his sometimes insensitivity. Here I am trying to make him feel better, and he’s more concerned about his lousy job and Akira.

“Duo! I need your help with the books!”

“Coming!” I yell back, just as a thunderous sound of said books crashing to the floor, fills the apartment. Sighing at the workload ahead of me, I scramble to my feet to help, ignoring the slight pang of worry about just how deep Heero’s new obsession with the junior had become.

__

Things only got from bad to worse.

And Heero didn’t really have anything to do with it.

In school, Akira became more ‘visible’ even though he made no attempt to ‘flaunt’ his new status as the ‘IT’ boy. The familiar sight of girls with hats or buttons with his face plastered upon it was more evident, and as the days passed by, Heero revealed to me that the list of possible candidates was dwindling by the minute. Akira was sucking the life out of the party.

“Nothing you can do about it,” Wufei says with a shrug as we eat lunch in Heero’s office. “If I remember correctly, only you and Kenzo were the front runners…before this fellow here.” He points to me as if I’m a parasite. “No one else stood a chance, it was all but a given.”

“The new crop of Press Club girls are ruthless,” Relena confides in us, sucking absently on her orange juice from a straw. “They’ve been publishing things about Akira’s good works and his positive impact around the school and community. I had nothing to do with it!”

“I thought you were the president,” Quatre asks with a puzzled frown.

“Not anymore,” Relena replies with a shrug.

Hilde chimes in, “We handed over power last Friday. It was a small affair.”

The boys nod, but the enormity of the situation hits us like a ton of bricks. We are slowly severing our ties with Fujisaki. Trowa and Quatre had their final encore as members of the school band with their performance at the Christmas Concert. They are only required to attend meetings if they want to, since everyone expects them to be too busy to focus on the extra curricular activity. Dorothy and Wufei will have to hand over the reigns of the Kendo Club to their juniors – something Wufei (like Heero) seems a bit reluctant to do. As for me, our final game is this weekend and besides feeling incredibly nervous at leaving on a high note, knowing that our juniors will be the ones in charge now – not us – it really is a sobering thought. We are now relegated to being part-time students.

“Fuck,” Trowa mutters, pretty much summarizing how we all feel at this time.

The rest of lunch is a silent affair, neither of us feeling up to talking about anything. Eventually we part ways, and as I look back at Heero behind his desk, I get the feeling he must be the loneliest person on earth.

__

“Great practice, senpai!”

“Thanks.”

“Great job, Duo. Let’s knock ‘em dead tomorrow!”

“Sure,” I mumble, wiping my sweaty face with a towel, just as the other players all leave the locker room with excited chatter. I sink to the bench with a low sigh, knowing I had delayed going in by practicing a few more solo shots from the three-pointer line. I need the time to think, to enjoy the solitude before my last game, to have some sort of romantic interlude with the room of ‘dreams’. Hell, it’s the way it always happens in movies, right?

However, as I begin to peel out of my jersey, someone else stumbles out of the shower. Damn. I thought I was the only one left here.

“Duo senpai!”

Oh, geez.

“Hey, Akira,” I reply, nodding towards him as I shove my uniform into my bag. What’s he sounding so happy about? Oh yeah, it’s likely he’ll become the new captain of the team. And let’s not forget the number of points he scored today in the mock game between Team Red and Team Blue. He was on the other team and just about caught up to my point total.

“Great practice, huh?” he’s saying, yanking off his towel to reveal his naked form to me. Well, darn, I’m a guy…a healthy guy with raging hormones (half…okay more than half of the time) and as much as I’m devoted to Heero, I’d be a moron not to notice how hot Akira’s body looks.

Goddamnit.

I turn away to peel out of my shorts and boxers quickly, reaching for a towel to wrap around my waist. A quick shower, and I’m out of here, but I swear it feels like he’s –

“Is that a tattoo, senpai?”

I blink and gawk at him. He’s still naked, a smile on his face as he takes his sweet time pulling out his uniform from the locker. Tattoo? What…oh!

“Yeah, it is.” I nod and try to make my way past him. No time for small chitchat. Heero’s waiting for me in front of the school by now –

“I’m thinking of getting one too,” Akira continues. Jesus! Is he following me?! “What kind do you think I should get?”

Fuck the stalls not having doors! I could do with some privacy right about now.

“Whatever you feel like getting, Akira,” I reply tightly, hanging the towel on a supplied hook and turning on the shower at full blast. Maybe it will drown out his voice and I can clean myself in peace.

“Yours looks cool. Is that a HY…and DM…? Ah! It stands for you and Heero senpai, right?”

He’s actually- !

“Dude! Some privacy?!” I finally yell in frustration.

“Sorry, sorry,” he apologizes and I can hear him rattling with his locker again. “It’s just that…” He sighs heavily. “I think Heero senpai hates me.”

Here we go.

“I don’t know what I did. He used to like me before and would always ask me to come to his office if he needed help and Kenzo senpai wasn’t around. He just… changed all of a sudden.”

Maybe it’s my imagination, but I swear I hear the guy sniffling. He can’t possibly be crying.

“So maybe I crossed the line by making a few executive decisions, but I’ve always looked up to senpai. If it weren’t for him, we’d still have Mr. Hamida selling those drugs in school. If it wasn’t for senpai, we would still be in that stupid feud with the other schools…and…and it was him that made Teruo change his ways about the school system.”

I fail to mention that I played a part in most of the events he has listed, but I decide to let Heero take all the glory. I wish Heero, himself, would remember all the cool things he’s done, but he seems so adamant on focusing on what he’s about to lose.

“If I can even do half of what he’s accomplished in a year, I’ll consider myself lucky,” Akira confesses quietly.

I turn off the shower and step to see him slumped on the bench, head lowered as he wipes his face again. He really is crying, and my heart seems to break at the sight. For all his stupid mistakes, he’s just a kid trying to please his idol. It happens all the time.

“Hey…” I clear my throat and pat his shoulder gently, holding on to the towel for dear life. My erection hasn’t eased a bit, and it’s not helping that Akira’s only now dressed in his boxers. “It’s okay, it’s a stressful time for seniors and I’m sure once the exams are over…he’ll be cool with you again.”

He looks up with hope in his eyes. “Really?”

“Yeah, really.” What do I know? I’m just trying to keep the peace here. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

I manage a small smile and head to my locker, drying myself quickly and trying to get changed as fast as possible. I can still feel his gaze on me.

“Heero senpai is lucky to have you,” he finally says, his voice sounding as if he wished he were Heero. “I wish I could have someone by my side at a time like this.”

“What are you talking about?” I button up my shirt, staring at him in bemusement. “You have a girlfriend…boyfriend?” Correcting myself as I remember Heero’s story about the store-groping event.

Akira blushes and shakes his head quickly. “No, I do not have a boyfriend, senpai.”

“So who were you with at the grocery store?”

He blinks in confusion, seems to wrack his jumbled thoughts for a moment, before smiling. “Oh…he was no one. Just a friend and we were goofing off. But how…were you there?”

He honestly looks confused about the whole thing and I’m beginning to wonder if Heero had imagined what had taken place. Either that or Akira is one hell of an actor.

“Let’s just say I was passing through,” I finally reply with a smile and reach for my bag. “See you at the game tomorrow.”

He nods, even though the bemused look hasn’t left his eyes. “I will, senpai. You have a good Friday as well!”

I step into the mid-February sunlight with a sigh, gulping a lungful of fresh air as Heero waves to me from the gate.

My Heero. The one I had once looked up to. Maybe Akira and I aren’t really all that different.

“What took you so long?” he yells and for some reason, my heart suddenly seems filled with an emotion that only we both know. He looks impatient, but it’s a look I’ve come to love. He looks stressed out with his hair spiking out all over the place – evidence of fingers probably running through it several times today already – but I love it all the same. He pouts as I begin to run to him, waving my arms about like a crazed man. He suffers my exuberant hug with a light grunt, trying to push me off, even though a smile comes to his face. I kiss him soundly on the lips, laughing as he protests and then reciprocates the gesture with an even harder kiss.

All this we do while sensing that we were being watched, with great envy, from a mile away.

~End Period Fifty-One~