The Betrayal of Duo Maxwell

-----part 1-----

The war was finally over.

"So, what are you guys planning on doing?" Quatre asked as he packed his clothes, preparing to return to his family.

"Heero and I are moving in together." Duo replied. "We've found a nice apartment in town. I love him, you know."

Quatre nodded. "I know."

Heero walked in and kissed Duo. "Its time to go, Duo-kun." he told the braided ex-pilot.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around." Duo waved cheerfully as he departed with Heero.


After three weeks, with rent due and both he and Heero still trying to find a job, Duo was getting worried.

"We're low on money and we've got to come up with some way to pay the landlord next week."

Heero nodded. "Yeah. You thirsty?"

"Thirsty and hungry." Duo replied. "I haven't eaten anything all day."

Heero went into the kitchen and made some dinner for them. "Forgive me, Duo." he whispered as he opened two capsules and mixed the drug into Duo's soda.

"Here you go." He said, handing Duo his lunch. He sat down near Duo and ate his own lunch while Duo ate his.

After a while, Duo fell into a drugged sleep. Heero checked his pulse, then, when he was sure Duo would be okay, he carried him into the bedroom, undressed him and placed him, face down, upon the bed.

Heero went into the hallway and nodded to a group of men he had been approached by the week before. "He's ready." he told them. "Please, one at a time. And be gentle. I don't want him to ever know about this."

He took the money from each man, then let them into the bedroom to have their way with Duo. When they were finished, and all the men had left, Heero carried Duo into the washroom and ran a warm bath. He cleaned Duo off, making sure to eliminate any evidence of what had happened, then he dried Duo off, dressed him, and put him back to bed.


Duo woke late the next day. By then any residual soreness was already a thing of the past, and Duo had no idea of what had happened to him.

"I guess all this job hunting's made me tired." he yawned. "I'm sorry I fell asleep on you like that."

"It's okay." Heero told him.

Duo snuggled up to Heero and kissed him, softly. "I love you, Heero." he whispered. "I will always love you."

-----part 2-----

Duo moaned with the gentle passion of a young man in love as Heero moved within him that evening, whispering words of love into the Perfect Soldier's ear.

//Heero no baka,// Heero thought to himself, //how can you make love to him like this after what you did to him?//

"Hee-chan?" Duo asked, sensing that Heero was troubled. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Heero shook his head. "I just had something on my mind."

"Other than me?" Duo frowned. "So, what is it?"

"I'd rather not say." Heero told him. He turned his attention back to Duo and resumed making love to him.

Duo, glad to feel Heero's body moving within him once more, decided that whatever it was, Heero must've resolved it already and put the question aside.

It was quickly forgotten during the next several weeks as they paid their bills, Heero ingeniously evading Duo's inquiries as to where the money had come from. Finally as the money began to run low, Heero found himself once again drugging and pimping the braided ex-pilot who loved him beyond all measure.

"What are you doing?" he asked himself that night as Duo slept, blissfully unaware of what was being done to him. He sighed. "We need the money." he said. "And as long as he doesn't know, it's not really hurting him, right. It's certainly better than him living out of the street." 

"As long as he really doesn't know what?" Duo asked.

-----part 3-----

"It's nothing important." Heero replied. "Just um..."
//Just what, you idiot?// he thought //What are you going to tell him?//

"Is it some embarrassing little tidbit about your past you don't want people to know about, like you sleep with a teddy bear or you're afraid of mice or something?" Duo guessed.

"Yeah. something like that." Heero replied, with a nervous grin.

"Oh, well that doesn't matter. You're still my Perfect Soldier." Duo kissed Heero softly and snuggled up even closer to him and pulling Heero down on top of him.


"Where are you going?" Heero asked as Duo climbed out of their bed and got dressed.

"To the store." Duo replied. "We need to get some groceries. I'll be back in about half an hour." he put on his coat, then headed out of the apartment and down the road to the supermarket.


He was loading some boxes of cereal, the kind with marshmallows, into his cart when the conversation in the next aisle, which he could hear just fine, caught his attention.

"Why does he put up with that?" A woman asked her shopping companion. "If it were me, I'd have left that jerk a long time ago."

"He doesn't know." the other woman replied. "The bastard drugs him so he's asleep for the entire time. What gets me is that the bastard has the nerve to make love to him after he's gone and done something that despicable. Poor Duo."

"He has no idea that Heero's been pimping him like that?"

Duo felt a wave of nausea overwhelm him. He staggered out of the store, horrified by the words that now echoed in his mind

"Poor Duo."... "He has no idea that Heero's been pimping him...?"

Duo stormed into the apartment and began packing several items into a set of luggage.

Heero walked in and saw him. "Duo?" he asked, then he noticed what Duo was packing. "Those are mine!" he exclaimed.

"Yes." Duo nodded, coldly. "You're leaving."

"Nani?!"

"You were selling me all this time. Drugging me, and then ... "

Heero slumped. "Duo, please don't leave me."

"You should've thought of that before you had me raped for profit."

The words shook Heero to the very core. "Duo, please forgive me?"

Duo shook his head. "You let me cuddle up to you, offer myself to you every night, knowing that you were treating me like a whore. I can never forgive you."

"I'm sorry." Heero muttered, dejectedly.

Duo pointed at the door.

Heero walked through and closed it behind him.

A moment later, he heard it open. Duo was standing there with something Quatre had gotten made for them. It was a small glass bubble with one of those scenes inside that looks like there's a blizzard when you shake it. Standing outside the little house were tiny figures of Duo and Heero with Heero's arm around Duo's waist, both sculpted to look as if they were waving cheerfully to some unseen new guest.

"Duo?" Heero asked.

"Keep it." Duo told him, quietly, "as a reminder of what you've lost."

Heero took the snow-bubble and resumed his departure.


Heero was sitting on a bench in the park several days later, when Quatre spotted him.

"Heero?" he asked. "What's up?"

"Hn...."

"You should start heading home." Quatre told him. "There's a thunderstorm approaching."

"I am home." Heero replied.

"Excuse me?" Quatre asked.

"Duo threw me out." Heero explained.

-----part 4-----

"Why?" Quatre asked. "What happened? Did you two have a fight?"

"No." Heero shook his head. "I... I can't tell you what happened."

"Why not?" Quatre sat by Heero and opened his umbrella, shielding Heero from the falling rain.

"If I told you, you'd retract your umbrella and your friendship." Heero told Quatre. "And you'd probably punch me in the mouth. I know I would."

"Why? What happened that was so bad?"

"I sold something I had no right to sell." Heero replied, turning away.

"You sold something of Duo's and he's mad at you for it?" Quatre shrugged. "Easy. Just tell me what it was and I'll buy it back. I'm loaded, remember?"

"His body." Heero whispered, barely audibly.

Quatre blinked. Surely he hadn't just heard...

"What did you say?"

"I sold his body." Heero whispered, shamefacedly.

"Tell me you mean you volunteered him as a guinea pig for some human research lab." Quatre's voice held a dangerous edge.

Heero shook his head. "I prostituted him." he confessed. "I don't know how he found out."

"Well, I assume he knew when that first person got on top of him." Quatre snapped, angrily.

"No." Heero shook his head, again. "He was drugged when he was being taken. He was completely unconscious. I made sure of it."

Quatre considered this for a moment, then stood up. "Goodbye, Heero." he said. "I'd rather not speak to you any longer. By the way, if I ever see you go anywhere near Duo again, I'll kill you."

Heero watched Quatre walk away then slumped over dejectedly. "You deserved that, Heero." he told himself.



Wufei picked up his phone and turned down the volume on his TV. "Hello?"

"Wufei, " the voice on the other end was heavily laden with tears, "Wufei, it's Duo."

"Duo. How are you?"

"Terrible, Wufei." Duo sniffled. "I wish I'd been stillborn."

"I'm glad you weren't." Wufei became concerned. "Duo, what happened? Did you and Heero have a fight?"

"I kicked him out." Duo replied.

"Listen, Duo, hang on. I'm coming over." Wufei didn't want Duo to be alone. 

"Okay." Duo hung up the phone and Wufei raced over to Duo's apartment.

Wufei stared at the apartment in shock. All the pictures that had been taken of Duo and Heero had Heero's picture scribbled over in black felt pen. It was as if Duo had intended to leave no evidence of Heero's ever having been there.

"Duo, what happened?" Wufei asked as he escorted Duo to the sofa and sat down with him..

Talking almost too fast for Wufei to follow, Duo told him everything that he knew, including the conversation in the grocery store.

"Duo," Wufei whispered, horrified, as he took Duo in his arms. "I'm so sorry that happened to you."

"And the worst thing," Duo sobbed, "was that here he was doing this, and I was making love to him as if he still cared."

Wufei noticed that Duo sounded like he was starting to fall asleep. This troubled him. "Duo?" he asked, concernedly.

Duo slumped forward against Wufei.

At first Wufei thought Duo had cried himself to sleep, then he saw the empty bottle on the table. He could only see the first three letters on the label:

BEL

"Oh no..." Wufei felt sick to his stomach. "please don't let it be." he reached over and picked it up, reading the full word:

BELLADONNA.

He phoned for an ambulance and had Duo rushed to the hospital.

-----part 5-----

"Chang Wufei?"

Wufei sprang up from his seat in the hospital waiting room. "How is he?" he asked.

"It was a close call, but he's going to be fine." the doctor told him. "He's awake if you'd like to see him?"

Duo looked over at the door as Wufei walked in.

"You're beautiful, Duo." Wufei said, cause the braided youth to blush. "Heero was a jerk, but I won't be."

"Wufei.. I don't want to get hurt again. I..."

"And I don't want to give you the opportunity to kill yourself again." Wufei countered. "Especially not over that jerk. Duo, promise me you won't take him back."

"After what he did, I'll never ever take him back." Duo vowed.

"Good." Wufei placed an unassuming kiss on Duo's forehead. "I'm going to help you get through this, Duo." he said. "After all, that's what friends are for." He didn't add that he loved Duo. Duo had just been mistreated by someone who'd made that claim, and he was sure Duo didn't want to hear it.


Quatre and Trowa, whom Wufei had contacted while the doctors were treating Duo, walked into the room. They'd been standing in the hall for the better part of ten minutes.


Trowa sat on the edge of the bed, leaned over, and embraced Duo. "We'll be here for you, too, Duo." he said.

Quatre nodded in agreement.

There was a knock on the door and the others turned to see Heero standing there.

"Go away." Quatre growled.

"Leave Duo alone." Trowa added, as he joined Quatre and Wufei in forming a protective human barrier between Heero and Duo.

"You've got some nerve coming here after what you did." Wufei said, darkly.

"I just came to apologize." Heero told them.

"Apology *not* accepted." Duo replied, firmly. "I want you out of my life, Heero. Forever. We're not friends any more. Go away...." he paused, to give the final word he would say to Heero the proper significance, then with no love in his voice, half-whispered, "Judas."

Heero sighed in defeat and trudged away from the hospital room.


Duo was released a few days later. As promised Wufei moved in with him. So did Trowa and Quatre. The four of them rekindled their friendships, which while not gone entirely, had faded slightly because of their separation. Wufei and Duo became nearly inseparable, at first as close friends.

And then, the Celestial Archer struck Duo for the second time.

The four of them were watching TV together some weeks later when Duo leaned over and rested his head on Wufei's shoulder. Wufei put an arm around Duo and leaned his own head against Duo's.

"I love you, Wufei." Duo whispered.

"Wo ai ni." Wufei replied. He turned Duo's face toward his and kissed him softly. Then he stood up and went into his room, asking Duo to wait there until he got back.

Duo looked at Trowa and Quatre in confusion, but they just shrugged.

Wufei rumaged through his belongings until he found what he was looking for. He had just been waiting for the moment when he knew Duo would be ready for this. He hoped he had been right about this being that moment. And he hoped to every benevolent god he could think of that he hadn't misunderstood Duo's feelings.

Duo looked up as Wufei returned to the living room. Wufei caught the look in the braided ex-pilot's eyes and right then, he knew he hadn't been wrong. Taking a deep breath, he got down on one knee before Duo and took his hand. "Duo," he asked, his eyes locked with Duo's, both of them looking a bit scared, "will you marry me?"

Trowa and Quatre both spun around to face them, waiting for Duo's answer with almost as much tension as Wufei.

After barely a ten second pause, which was the result of Duo trying to remember how to speak, Duo gave his answer.

"Yes."

-----OWARI-----