Prodigy
Chapter 14
Trust
Wufei Chang found himself staring out the window.
There wasn’t really anything to see- a parking lot took up most of the view, half-full as expected at 10 PM at an inpatient clinic. He would have asked Trowa why the fuck they got to stay, but Wufei wasn’t stupid enough to wake up a pissed-off gay millionaire’s mortally wounded boyfriend. Especially with said pissed-off gay millionaire right next to him, the happy couple cuddling on the hospital bed in ways that were NOT making him jealous. So he was silent and brooded as he stared out at dark cars on dark, cracking asphalt, waiting for the OTHER happy couple to come barreling through the door and bickering like the idiots they were.
But it was 10 PM. And they hadn’t shown up.
While Wufei hadn’t ever really attended high school (he was tutored until he ‘graduated’ at fifteen), he was pretty damn sure school hours didn’t extend past 8 PM, at the very latest.
…and no, he WAS NOT worried about them.
Or Duo’s virtue (if it had even existed in the first place).
Not one bit.
RREEDDLE REEDDLE RRRRRING!
“The FUCK-?!” Wufei jerked upright at the noise, hand reaching for a gun right along with Quatre, and Trowa, interestingly enough. But unlike the other two in the room, Quatre’s hand actually latched onto something and pulled out a cell phone. Shit, he hated those things…
“Yes?” Quatre stated into the phone, sending an apologetic smile at Trowa and a sheepish one to Wufei. “Ah! I’m glad to hear from you so soon!”
Nope, not them.
Quatre walked out the door with another reluctant smile towards Trowa, and shut the door firmly behind him.
“Talk,” Quatre’s business voice snapped out sharply.
“I did the background check for you, and…it’s definitely weird,” the man’s deep voice said, obviously reluctant. “Sir, I think maybe you should avoid this guy-”
“Enough.” He knew he was glaring at a wall, but didn’t much care. “Define weird.”
“Catherine Barton doesn’t exist.” A pause. “And neither does Trowa Barton.”
The cell phone dropped to the tile, shattering.
x---x
“Stop it.”
“I don’t think pizza’s gonna be enough to apologize for being this late, do you? I mean, I know Quatre’s all about the Hawaiian Pineapple pizza and would kill for it, but I don’t know about Wufei – he seems like the sausage type though, wouldn’t you say? But Trowa-”
“STOP IT.”
“- I don’t think he’s really ready for solid foods, would you? I mean, yeah, his jaw didn’t get shot but still with all that medicine he’s gotta be as sick as a panda on a mountain slip and slide. Fuck, I don’t think I’d even be able to TAKE the smell of food-”
“DUO!”
Silence devoured the car. Exits and lights and trucks blurred across the windows, flashes of movement against the hazy night sky. Duo stared out the windshield, and Heero stared at Duo, lips dangerously close to shaking.
“What the hell do you want me to say, Heero?” Duo finally asked, voice eerily smooth. “Do you want me to scream at you? Maybe laugh it off? Maybe you want me to hate you, blame you, make you feel even shittier?”
Heero didn’t say a word.
“ANSWER ME,” Duo shouted. “What the FUCK are you looking for from me right now?!”
“I don’t know,” Heero snapped back.
“LIKE FUCK YOU DON’T-”
“Tell me, then,” Heero sneered. “I told you the truth, didn’t I? So what do you think? Do you really SEE?”
Duo found himself laughing bitterly, wishing he’d bothered to turn the radio on. Angry music tended to soothe him, ironically.
“Oh, I see, Heero.” Duo was grinning now, the car speeding up. “I see PLENTY. And you want to know what I think, is that it?” A van honked frantically as they swerved past it, parallel to a semi with a chipper calculator with a clever slogan painted onto the side. “I think you’re just as fucked up as me.”
Heero was eerily still, like some elegant ice sculpture propped against his passenger seat.
“I can’t say a damn thing without being a hypocrite.” The semi grew smaller in the rear-view mirror. “I don’t pity you.” More speed. “I don’t HATE you.” The traffic was getting worse, but the car just kept going and going, racing over black and white, practically flying over pavement and paint.
“Duo-” Heero said quickly, and Duo swerved, avoiding a head-on collision with a cement truck.
“I CAN’T hate you.” Funny, how Heero seemed to be clutching at his seat. It was the first time Duo had ever seen him even remotely scared. “And you know why? Do you know why the FUCK I can’t hate you, can’t blame you, can’t even fear you?”
Duo’s eyes latched on to Heero’s.
“Because we’re exactly the same.”
He let go of the wheel.
x---x
Well then. Might as well get out of this rain, eh?
You need to eat something. And my sister’s an excellent
cook.
My son.
Yuy.
You really shouldn’t be worth this.
I’m proud of you, Heero. Not just what you’ve done, but
what I know you can do. Will do.
You followed me.
Did you hear his poem, Heero? Listen to it when you get
the chance.
Love ya, and have a good day!
A face through the smoke and the fire, ashen and singed and always, always breathtaking
Oh, I see, Heero. I think you’re just as fucked up as me.
Because we’re exactly the same.
Exactly the same.
x---x
Heero grabbed the wheel, wrenching it to the side and up an exit as the hectic horns blurred and warbled around them, steering the car through the traffic as the sedan began to slow, whether from the incline or Duo pushing on the break he didn’t know, and slowly, slowly, the world stopped blurring in front of him, and he could see the buildings and the cars and even the occasional people on the sidewalks, but most of all he could see Duo Maxwell’s brilliant, glorious, true smile, aimed straight at him.
They weren’t the same.
Because nothing could rival Duo.
He wanted to say something. He didn’t know what it was, but it was something very important that he felt down to his soul, if not deeper, but then Duo put his hands back on the wheel, one over Heero’s, and the car stopped, perfectly centered between the yellow lines.
He wanted to say it. But he didn’t know what it was.
So instead he meshed his fingers with Duo’s and leaned over the console, sealing their lips together as his other hand dropped from the steering wheel and threaded itself into Duo’s braid at the base of his neck, drawing him deeper in.
He didn’t know what he wanted to say. But from the way Duo was smiling, that had been enough.
x---x
When Quatre walked back through the door, it didn’t look much like Quatre anymore.
Cold, calculating blue eyes latched onto Trowa, not even sparing a glance at Wufei.
“Chang, get out,” Quatre stated. “Go wait for Duo and Heero in the lobby.”
Wufei wasn’t an idiot. He left.
Trowa simply looked at him, those honest eyes that were gnawing at Quatre, because Trowa was a LIAR. He wasn’t even Trowa. Quatre didn’t know him. He knew nothing.
That was about to change.
“Who are you?” Quatre hissed out, and Trowa was too smart to underestimate Quatre – or at least he THOUGHT, but he didn’t really KNOW Trowa, did he? – but he still looked confused. Maybe it was the drugs, since Allah knows Quatre had paid for the best he could get pumped into this fraud, this FAKE that pretended to care, who didn’t care enough to even say his real name.
Who didn’t even trust him.
“I’m someone who cares about you,” Trowa finally said., those painfully beautiful green eyes still brutally SINCERE. “And someone who thought you could wait at least a month before doing a background check.”
Oh, that was RICH. “Oh, forgive me for not letting you deceive me for another couple weeks-”
“Quatre, I was going to tell you-”
“WHEN?!” Quatre shouted out, his fist crashing down onto the tall plastic table. The pitcher and cup of water jumped, crashing to the ground in a wet mess that neither of them even noticed.
“I told you everything about me,” Quatre hissed out. “EVERYTHING. And you won’t even give me your NAME.”
“It IS Trowa Barton, now,” he said, eerily quiet. “I will live, and probably die, by the name Trowa Barton. I am, in every way, Trowa Barton.” A hurt crept into his face. “All that Triton Bloom had was a past.”
“And you don’t need a past, is that it?” Quatre asked. “What are you running from?”
“Not from,” Trowa Barton said simply. “Toward.” He looked out the window, at the twilight city that stretched out beyond. “And hopefully with you.”
Quatre didn’t have an answer for that, and knew he couldn’t stand in front of the bed for much longer without hurting himself or losing it, so he walked back out the door and knelt next to his shattered cell phone, slowly picking up the pieces one by one.
x----x
x----x
A/N: Quatre, you IDIOT…(shakes head) But I think this actually may be my favorite chapter to date. Rock on. And yay for hyper-mega-symbolism.
FYI- I’m now ravenously addicted to Saiyuki and Hellsing (Integra/Alucard OWNS MY SOUL) so expect me to write that TOO but hopefully I’ll just be sticking to oneshots like I’m trying to.
THANKS FOR READING! FEEL FREE TO REVIEW!! (especially WAY later than I update so then I’ll remember to write/post and yay that makes me haaapppyyyy)
…and holy SHIT, I have 300 reviews…how the HELL do that many people like this?!
OKAY! WHICH ONE YOU WANT:
Seriously, if you ask for Dr. J and Trowa to have a June wedding, I will DO it. You guys are THAT AWESOME OMG.
And you know what? If you want me to write you a drabble or random smut, I will. Seriously. Just comment and request on my livejournal and I am THERE, baby. And I’ll even make a post for it! (Offer PROBABLY ends April 18th because WOW this could get messy) Any fandom (that I know…), any pairing (unless it’s…creepy. And yes, I WILL write het, gaspshock), so long as you don’t expect, you know, ANOTHER epic. Hah.