(fic) Gundam Goes TV - Gundam Wing
Sep. 15th, 2009 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katikatCharmed
AU, Fusion, Parody-Humor ~ 1+2, 3+4, 5+6 ~ A parody fusion with the TV show Charmed.
"Thank you for the wonderful evening, lover," Zechs purred as he leaned over to Wufei, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his truck and nuzzled his ear. "You sure I can´t come up with you?"
Wufei leaned into the touch for a couple of second before pulling away with a sigh. "Yeah, I'm sure." He looked out of the car window at the old house where his family was living. "It´s not that they wouldn´t accept you... us. But... well... we - me and my step-brothers - are a really... unusual family."
"I can do unusual," Zechs answered with certainty as he leaned back in his seat.
Wufei turned to look at him in the darkness of the car. "Yeah, I know," he whispered and intertwined the fingers of his left hand with his lover´s. "But I´m afraid, that we are too unusual even for you."
Just when he ended his sentence, a big ka-boom could be heard coming from the house. They both turned to the house immediately, seeing the windows on the right side of the house explode.
"Shit!" Wufei exclaimed and tore his hand out of his lover´s.
"What the..." Zechs started but was interrupted by Wufei who threw the passenger door open and sprang out. Not giving the strangeness of seeing his lover´s house almost explode a second thought, Zechs jumped out of the car too and pulling a gun from his shoulder holster, he started after the Chinese man.
Wufei ran up to the house and threw the front door open, revealing a chaos of broken or overturned furniture. Cursing silently, he moved further into the hall before someone stopped him from behind. He turned around to see his cop lover halting his progress and cursed again.
"Zechs, what are you doing here?" he asked, exasperated.
Zechs looked at him incredulously. "I am a cop. When I see a house explode, I go check it out."
Wufei rolled his eyes. He didn´t have time for this. He had to find his brothers and help them. "Look.. there is nothing for you to do here and I would prefer if you left right now." His voice was filled with impatience. For a moment he really wished he had Trowa´s powers to stop time now to keep his lover from seeing what he would surely see if he moved further into his devastated house.
"I don´t think so. Now, you wait here and I will check the house," Zechs told him and stepped around him.
Wufei turned around, trying to stop the blond man when he saw someone fly through the air with a shriek that tore at his ears and land heavily among the shards of their grandmother´s mirror which he took down as he hit the wall. Zechs stopped dead in his tracks and Wufei peered around him to see the black figure move. Black, lots and lots of black. And hair. Yup, that´s Maxwell.
"Oh man, I will kick it´s ass all the way down to hell," the young braided man swore as he scrambled back to his feet. He started back to the living room from where he came flying just a moment ago, when he noticed the men standing at the door. "Wu, you brought a visitor," he exclaimed cheerfully. "Nice to meet you. I am..."
"Duo!" came the shout out of the kitchen. Yeah, Heero was on the war path again.
"Sorry, but my fanclub is calling. By the way, we could really use your help here, Wu. This is a tough little bastard." Then he turned and ran back through the living room to the kitchen.
"Who..." Zechs started incredulously. Did he really just see a man fly through the air, hit the wall and then stand back up and walk away as if nothing happened?
"That... that was my brother´s lover," Wufei explained. "He... he isn´t from here." Yeah, hell is really not anywhere near here- thank God. "Look. I have to go help them, please go."
"No way!" Zechs argued.
"If I have to, I will knock you out, Marquise. So just fuck off!" Wufei shouted. Oh god, he was really picking Maxwell´s language. The demon would be so proud.
Zechs opened his mouth to say something when suddenly a shout for someone called Quatre could be heard. Not even a second later blue light appeared in the hall, and a young blond man materialized in front of the arguing pair. Zechs´ jaw hit the floor.
"Oh shit," Wufei cursed while hiding his face in his hands. He really didn´t want his lover to find out the truth about his family like this.
The blond man - Quatre obviously - froze seeing the unknown visitor. "Oops," he squeaked and ran off to the kitchen from where a really strange growling and hissing was heard.
"Ehm, that... that was Quatre. My other brother´s lover." Wufei sighed. It really didn´t matter now what Zechs would or would not see in their house and nothing short from knocking the blond man out would keep him away from their house. "Just stay behind me, okay?" He stepped around him and ran to the kitchen too.
Wufei stopped at the open door and peeked into the disaster area that had been their kitchen just this morning. It would do him no good to run in unprepared for what he would see. He could feel Zechs press himself against his back and he was really glad that the blond man was listening to him for once.
He looked around and saw Trowa lying on the ground among the rest of what used to be their kitchen table. Quatre was leaning over him healing the bleeding wound on his forehead. Heero was puttering around the stove cooking some sort of really smelly elixir, unconcerned about the mess he was creating on the stove, floor and every other place that was still in one piece. A rare thing for Mr. "Clean Freak". Not seeing Duo or the object that caused their house to almost fall down in ruins, he figured out that the struggle moved back into the living room again.
Finally, Heero turned around and spotted his brother. He gave him a very pissed off look and waved a dripping spoon in his direction. "Where the hell have you been? We have tried to call you for hours!"
"Sorry, my cell phone died on me. What happened? Does Duo need my help?"
Heero took a small bottle and started to pour the smelling, ugly green substance in it. "They set Cerberus on us! The Cerberus, would you believe it? The dog is more interested in chewing on our furniture than in killing us - well.. if you don´t try to take a toy away from him. You will have a fit when you see the mess in the living room. And Duo doesn´t need our help. He likes to play with animals."
At the same moment, Duo came flying through the door leading into the living room and slid across the tiled floor to Heero´s feet. "Heero, I thank you for your trust in my abilities to tame the beast, but could you please hurry up? It started sniffing at the fireplace and you don´t want it to piss on the polished wood, do you?" Duo ranted as he pulled himself up again. "Oh, our visitor again. Hi." He reached his right hand. "I am Duo Maxwell."
"Zechs Marquise," he answered as he took the offered hand automatically.
In the back of the kitchen Quatre finally managed to get his lover back on his feet and hearing the name he turned around and smiled at the cop. "Oh, so you are Wufei´s lover. Nice to meet you," he answered and took his hand too, shaking it enthusiastically.
Trowa only nodded to him, carefully leaning against his lover. The wound on his forehead was gone but he had a headache of the size of Manhattan.
"Finished!" Heero cried out, holding the small bottle up victoriously. "Duo, you will hold him down, Quatre you will throw the elixir and the three of us will read this spell. I found it in the Book of Shadows while Duo was playing in the living room."
"What..." Zechs started to ask but Duo waved him off.
"Later, dude." He turned around and headed back into the living room. "Here, doggie, come here boy." The only answer he got was a enraged snarl. "Touchy aren´t we?" The scratching, screeching sound started again making the house shake in its foundations.
"It´s better if you stay here, Zechs," Wufei said as he turned around and patted his lover´s chest. "You can´t do anything to help us in there."
With that, Heero pushed the bottle into Quatre´s hands and the three brothers to the living room too.
"Don´t worry. You will get used to it. Or you might run screaming," Quatre said to the gaping policeman as he passed him.
"Stay here?" Zechs said to himself. "To hell with staying here!" Raising his gun, he followed the blond man but stopped dead in his tracks at the door to the living room. Well, there was not much left of the living room. And among the ruins of antique furniture, a big black beast with red glowing eyes was wrestling with the black clad braided man. Duo was sitting on it´s back, trying to choke all of its three heads at once but failing miserably.
"Y... you sh... should h-hurry up," Duo stammered as the beast tried to jump up on all of his four feet to shake him off like a wild horse. "He cou... could de... decide that I... I tas... taste go... good af..f..fter allllll."
"Quatre!" Heero called and the blond man threw the bottle on the ground in front of the beast. Immediately a grey, awful smelling cloud appeared.
The three brothers then started to read from the piece of paper Heero held in his hand:
"Beast from hell,
hear our spell.
To hell you return,
in fire you burn."
In a moment, red flames appeared from nowhere and engulfed the howling beast a moment later after Duo jumped down from its back. In a couple of seconds it was over. Zechs´ jaw hit the floor once again.
"Oi, oi, oi," Duo moaned as he scrambled to his feet once again. "I am too old for this shit."
"Duo, watch your language," Quatre exclaimed, horrified.
Wufei walked over to the fireplace and picked up the destroyed katana sheath. "Hey, it chewed on my sword! Injustice! I hope it cut its tongue on it!"
The others walked around the room picking up a thing here, kicking a shard there. From their unhappy, but not shocked looks, it was obvious that this wasn´t the first time something like that happened.
"I don't think the insurance will pay for it this time," Trowa sighed as he poked at the shards in the broken window. Everybody nodded. It was getting really expensive to keep saving the world these days.
Heero helped Duo dust his clothes off. "You okay?" he asked, lifting his chin.
"Aww, Hee-bunny. I knew you cared," exclaimed the dirty young man and threw his arms around his lover, sending them both crashing to the floor among the rest of some plants and dirt.
Finally turning around, Wufei realized that his lover was there. That he saw everything, the hell dog, the spell. Oh god. It was good that he was a buddhist for he had used the God´s name one time too many today.
He stepped closer to his lover and coughed a little unsurely. "Well, I think... uhm... I think I should introduce you properly."
Zechs only looked at him and blinked.
Wufei moved to stand in front of Zechs and looked up to meet his eyes. "Well, you wanted to meet my family, right?" he asked.
Zechs nodded. There was nothing he could say. If he opened his mouth, he would start babbling. Yeah, something along the lines of "there was a three headed dog in your living room". But if his lover stayed cool he would too, right? A Cerberus in your living didn´t mean the end of the world, right? Right?
Wufei stepped to the side and caught Zechs´ arm tightly as if afraid that his lover would bolt any moment. "So.... Guys, this is Lt. Zechs Marquise. Zechs, this is my family." He waved his arm at the four men who didn´t listen to him at all.
Zechs trailed his eyes from Duo who was sprawled on top of his lover, to Heero who was trying to push himself up from the pile of leaves, dirt and water he was currently lying in thanks to the overenthusiastic hugging of the braided demon, to Quatre who was looking unhappily at the shards of a broken ballerina statue. He lastly looked at Trowa, who was still poking at the shards in the broken window.
Zechs sighed. This would take some time to get used to...
"Well, you didn´t lie."
Wufei frowned. "Huh?"
"Your family is really unusual."
Somewhere in the house something heavy crashed to the ground. Nobody noticed...
The End.
===
Pretender
AU, Fusion, Angst ~ 1+2 ~ Angsty fusion with the TV show Pretender.
When the phone rang, he picked up the reciever. "Doctor J," he announced himself.
"J, it´s me," said the quiet voice on the other side of the line.
J´s face brightened and he leaned back in the armchair in his office. "Heero. It´s good to hear from you, boy."
"Yeah... you too."
There was an awkward pause. "How are you?" asked J in the end. He was really happy to hear from him.
"Good. I... I just wanted to call and wish you Merry Christmas."
J swallowed, feeling a painful pang in the vicinity of his heart. "Thank you." He knew it was useless to ask, but he had to: "Won´t you come back home?"
There was a sigh on the other side of the line. "I don´t have a home, J."
"But the Centre..." J protested.
"The Centre is NOT my home," Heero interrupted his mentor, a sharp tone in his voice. "It was my prison and I won´t come back. Ever. I would rather die."
Now it was time for J to sigh. He was still convinced that the controlled surrounding of the research centre was the best place for the young Pretender but he couldn´t
deny that some of the methods that were used in the past to force the subject that was Heero to reach the necessary results were beyond inhuman. He couldn´t blame him for wanting to stay away.
"I... I think that´s all..."
"Wait!" J called before his pupil could hang up.
"Tracing the call won´t help you, J."
"I´m not tracing it. Mr. Maxwell is not here," J answered quickly.
He could hear the snort on the other side of the line. "Really? Well that´s a surprise. And where is he? Don´t tell me he is spending Christmas with his family? His brother and Maxwell Sr. are more than one can take and stay relatively sane." There was so much sarcasm in his voice that J frowned.
"No. I think he is spending Christmas alone. I suspect his family didn´t even think about wishing him Merry Christmas," J said, sadness in his voice. He remembered Heero and Mr. Maxwell as little children, how happy they were, how they used to play together. They were the best of friends. He knew even though they tried to keep it a secret. With pain in his heart, he wondered what had gone so terribly wrong between them.
There was a long pause on the other side of the line, and J almost feared that Heero hung up. "I... I have to go," Heero said finally.
J felt regret well up in him. "I understand, boy. I won´t ask where you are or what you are doing, but... are you safe and warm?" he couldn´t help but ask. He always considered Heero his son.
A quiet laugh sounded through the distance that separated them. "Yeah, J. Don´t worry about me. I can take care of myself."
"Yes, you can," J agreed. If someone could then it was the Pretender - a man who could be anyone he wanted too be, changing everything but his looks, slipping into the wished role like a new skin, living a new life every day. He had abilities others couldn´t even dream about. But that didn´t mean that he was happy. Instead of using his abilities for the profit of the Centre - a secret research institution - he chose to help people. Heero was the first person that escaped from the impenetrable headquarters of the Centre and now he was out there in the wide world. Alone. And with Mr. Maxwell and his "cronies" on his heels. Heero was just too precious for the Centre to let him
go.
"So... goodbye." And with that Heero hung up, leaving J in the dimly lit room alone again.
Suddenly the door to J´s office burst open, revealing a young man dressed all in black, a long rope of brown hair hanging down his back. "I heard that your trained monkey called again," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Yes, he did, Mr. Maxwell," J answered, hanging up the receiver.
"And why didn´t you call me? You know the drill. When that monster of yours calls you, you contact me immediately, Frankenstein." The young man leaned against J´s table and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He picked one and lit it. He took a deep breath and released the smoke through his nose.
J frowned at him in displeasure, pointing to the "NO SMOKING" sign on his table. Maxwell took the sign and threw it in the waste bin not the least bit concerned about it.
"So what did he say? I hope it wasn't some strange psychobabble again. I think we have already gathered tons of tapes with you two discussing Nietzsche." He took another drag off his cigarette.
J reached with his hand, and flipped the climatization in the windowless room a degree higher. "He just wanted to wish me Merry Christmas."
"Oh." That seemed to startle the longhaired young man. "I almost forgot it was Christmas again," he whispered, suddenly sounding sad and forlorn. But then he shrugged it off, slipping into his bad ass persona once again. "Well, that gives us not much to work with. I hope you taped it."
J sighed and opened the small tape recorder attached to his phone, throwing him the microcassette. Maxwell caught it and looked at it with mild interest.
"Is that all?" J asked impatiently.
Maxwell smirked at him. "Why? You have plans for tonight?"
"As a matter of fact, yes, I do," the doctor said standing up.
The longhaired man looked at him with surprise. "You have plans for Christmas Eve? I didn´t know you had family."
"I don´t. But I have friends. They invited me to spend Christmas with them. So if you would excuse me?" He walked over to the open door to his office, making it obvious he
wanted the other man to go.
Maxwell took another drag off his cigarette before putting it out and throwing it in the waste bin. "You surprise me all the time, J." He shook his head and walked over to the door. He then stopped in front of the old doctor, opening his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but deciding against it in the end. Shaking his head again, he crossed the threshhold and headed for the elevators.
"Mr. Maxwell," J called after him.
The other man stopped and turned around. "Yes?"
J´s eyes softened. "Merry Christmas."
Maxwell blinked and looked at him as if he didn´t understand a word he had said. Then he nodded. "Merry Christmas, doctor," he answered quietly and J had to wonder if he had been the only one who wished the boy Merry Christmas.
Maxwell walked down the corridor, playing with the tape. He thought about the Merry Christmas doctor J wished him. He had noone to spend the holidays with. His father and his brother were somewhere in Africa and even if they weren´t he wouldn´t spend the Christmas Eve with them. Suddenly he realized that he hadn´t had one happy Christmas Eve since his mother died almost twenty years ago. And since Heero hadn´t been his best friend anymore. He shook his head. Better not to think about that.
He stopped in front of the elevators and pushed the call button. The corridors were empty, all the scientists were at home with their families, probably eating dinner right
now. Maxwell shrugged. Well, at least he would get some work done.
The elevator door opened and he stepped in, pushing the button for the fifth sub-level. The cabin started to move up when suddenly it stopped and all the lights - even the
emergency light – went out.
"What the fuck!" he cursed. That was the last thing he needed right now. To spend the Christmas Eve not only alone but stuck in the elevator too.
He moved across the cabin to where he suspected the emergency phone was but before he could reach it the lights went on again. The cabin still didn´t move though.
"Good evening, Mr. Maxwell."
Hearing another voice in the previously empty cabin the longhaired man whipped around, the gun that was until now hidden in the holster on the small of his back in his hand.
"I don´t think you will need that," the other man in the cabin chuckled. He was of Japanese origin and was dressed all in black just like Maxwell.
"Heero?" the braided man asked with surprise. "What the fuck are you doing here? Oh, wait. It doesn´t matter. Hands up so that I can see them."
Heero laughed but raised his hands.
"Turn around. Hands on the wall and spread your legs," Maxwell ordered him.
Heero did as he was told, but when the other man stepped closer to him with and incredible speed he turned around, caught the hand with the gun and twisted it behind the other man´s back.
"Let me go!" Maxwell shouted.
Twisting the gun out of his hand, Heero pushed him away. Maxwell turned around, facing the man he hunted for the last couple of months. He watched him empty the gun and throw it on the ground.
"What do you want?" the braided man snarled.
Heero sighed. He was used to the animosity his ex-best-friend showed him, but it still hurt every time. He reached inside his black jacket and shook his head when the other man tensed. "Don´t worry. I don´t want to kill you. If I wanted to do it, I wouldn´t make it so complicated. I could just wait for you when you go for your morning run, every day at 6:30 am." Seeing Maxwell´s eyes widen at Heero´s knowledge of his schedule, he added: "6 miles, to the lake and back."
Maxwell´s eyes narrowed. "So, you came to gloat about how well informed you are?"
Heero frowned at the sarcasm that dripped from every word Maxwell said. He remembered the happy boy he once had been. Seeing the hardness he developed during the years in the care of his father, he ached for the little boy that used to love cold sweets and white bunnies.
"No. I came to give you this," he answered, pulling a small box from the inside pocket of his jacket.
Maxwell eyed the box suspiciously. "What is it?"
Heero rolled his eyes. "Don´t worry. It´s not a bomb. It´s a Christmas present."
Maxwell blinked, his eyes switching from Heero´s face to the box and back. After a few moments, he reluctantly took the offered box. Slowly, he opened it and gasped. "That´s... that´s..."
"The cross that belonged to your mother," Heero whispered.
Reverently, Maxwell took the glistening jewelry into his hand and stroked a finger down the diamond studded gold. He blinked again, trying to get rid of the sting he felt on the backside of his eyelids. "Where did you find it?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
Heero smiled a little. "I followed a clue. Your father didn´t want to have anything of your mother´s in his home. He sold it to an antique dealer. It was damaged and the clasp was broken, so nobody wanted to buy it and he was reluctant to sell it. I managed to repair it though, and thought that you would like it."
Maxwell kept looking down at the small cross in his hand. His mother wore it on the day she died. They said she committed suicide but he didn´t believe it. His mother wouldn´t leave him alone. He asked his father about the cross. He remembered his mother telling him once that one day it would belong to him. But his father told him that it got lost after she died. He hadn´t believed that he would see it again.
He closed his hand around it tightly, and pressed it to his chest. He swallowed painfully and had to force his tears down. He wouldn´t fall apart now. Maybe later, when he was alone... But not right now.
"Why?" he asked finally, and looked up.
Heero shrugged. "I know how sad you were when it got lost. I thought it would make you happy."
The longhaired man blinked again. "Don´t think that it means that I won´t hunt you down, Heero." His voice was still hoarse, and try as he might, he couldn´t bring back the
sarcasm and hardness into it.
Heero smiled. "I know." He then leaned closer and before the other man could react, he kissed him on his lips gently. "Merry Christmas, Duo," he whispered. He gazed in his eyes for the longest of moments and deep, deep inside, hidden underneath the pain and loneliness he found the little boy he had kissed once in one of the Centre´s dark corridors. The little boy he still loved so much.
Duo froze, hearing his first name for the first time in years. He remembered the day Heero kissed him. It was his first kiss and the only kiss he had ever recieved that was
filled with love. He remembered how he whispered his name to him then. For everybody else in the Centre he was Mr. Maxwell even though he was eight years old. To Heero, he was Duo. He had never told his name to anybody after that, remaining hidden behind his Maxwell surname. Even his lovers called him Max.
It had been a long time since Duo felt so vulnerable. That´s why he didn´t even react when the lights went out and then back on again, lighting up the cabin that was once
again empty except for him. The elevator started to move again, and if it weren´t for the cross he clutched tightly to his chest, he wouldn´t have even believed that it wasn´t just a dream.
Duo smiled. It was such a rare thing to see. For the first time in years he felt important. There was someone out there in the world for whom he was important enough to walk into the lion´s den just to give him a Christmas present. Even though that someone was the prey he had to hunt down.
But not tonight.
The End
===
Superman
AU, Fusion, Humor ~ 1+2 ~ Fusion with The New Adventures of Lois and Clark.
Heero Yuy braced himself against the dashboard as their car flew into another curve at the speed of light and with squeaking tires. He didn´t release his breath until all four of the wheels met the road again. Only then did he push the glasses up his nose and look at the driver - his working partner Duo Maxwell. Maybe he should get used to him driving like that. They had worked together for almost a year already but every time they had to use a car to reach their destination – which happened quite often - and Duo forced his way behind the steering wheel - which happened quite often too - with an explanation that Heero drove like an old arthritic lady - it was a new experience for him.
Duo must have felt Heero watching him because he spared him a glance. "What?" he barked.
"Do you *have* to drive like that?" Heero couldn´t help but ask.
Duo looked at him, genuinely puzzled. "Like what?"
Heero rolled his eyes and waved his at him. "Nevermind."
The braided young man just shook his head. "You´re a weird one, Yuy."
Heero turned away from Duo and kept watching the city blurring behind his window. Metropolis wasn´t a beautiful town per se. It was full of industry and dirty streets and really weird criminals but he liked that. He liked to work here and live here although he missed his Dad and Mum and the farm terribly. But Smallville wasn´t that far away after all. And when the homesickness got really bad he had the phone after all. Heero had to smile when he remembered Duo´s disbelieving look when he told him that "yes, even such a backwater place like Smallville had more than one phone."
Heero´s smile grew bigger every time he thought about Duo. The other man was hot headed, had an awfully bad temper and was almost impossible to work with. He noticed the admiring looks his other co-workers were giving him because he managed to stay partners with Duo for so long. What they didn´t know was how sweet Duo looked when he fell asleep on his couch, files strewn all over him or when he tried to make coffee and managed to burn the pot - after that Heero decided it was cheaper if he bought himself a coffeemaker. They didn´t know that Duo´s weak points were children, puppies and chocolate, and that he sniffled while watching romantic movies. For the other reporters of Daily Planet, Duo Maxwell was just a hard professional with no feelings whatsoever. Heero Yuy knew
better.
It took them another five minutes - five horrible, life threatening minutes - before they reached their destination - the headquarters of the OZ corporation and one of the most powerful men in the world - Treize Kushrenada. It wasn´t every day that the multi-billionaire allowed reporters to enter his fortress of power and give them a press conference. This was a chance for Duo to play the interrogator to Treize Kushrenada and he decided to make the best of it and enjoy it.
Spotting an empty parking place in the nearly full parking lot in front of the steel-and-glass building that belonged to Kushrenada, Duo sped to it and heedless of another car that showed every intention of backing into it, he drove in. Tires screeched and they stopped just milimeters from a cement wall. They were thrown against their safety belts and with a low "oof" they landed back in their seats. The other car that was now left with no parking possibility honked at them like crazy
but Duo only opened his window, poked his head out of it and screamed "stuff it loser." Heero groaned.
"I think I´m gonna be sick."
That sentence, said in a faint tone, drew their attention to the third person sitting with them in the car. As one they turned in surprise to the blond young man sitting on the back seat. They were so used to working alone that they´d completely forgotten that they had a guest.
"Tough luck, kiddo. No puking in my car," Duo said in a stern voice before getting out of the car.
Heero looked at the somewhat green looking boy with compassion. Quatre Winner was their new photographer and they should "show him around" as Howard called it. He was pretty adamant about it. Heero didn´t mind but Duo protested pretty loudly. The shouting match could be heard through the whole news room. But in the end, Howard was the boss and Duo had to back off. Even now Heero could hear the braided man´s gritting teeth as he burst out of Howard´s office.
Heero smiled just a little. "Don´t mind him. He isn´t that bad. And don´t believe anything the other reporters tell you about him. I´ve been partnered with him for months now and I´m still alive."
"We don´t have all day!" Duo barked at them tapping his foot with impatience.
Quatre smiled shakily at him before he took a deep breath and opened the door to step out.
After Duo locked the car, they ran across the parking lot and into the OZ Headquarters. There was no need for the rush but Duo wanted to find a good place in the auditorium. In the hall he kept pressing the call button for the lift impatiently, as if that could bring the car down sooner. As soon as the lift door opened, he waltzed in and pressed the button for the 8th floor where the conference would take place.
"Where do you think Mr. Kushrenada is now?" Quatre asked, finally holding his camera ready.
Duo looked at him. "Not there yet. That´s for sure. He will probably let us wait a while to show us that it´s his good will to organize this conference and that he doesn´t feel obliged to answer any of our questions even though the chemicals that escaped his factory in the suburbs endangered the whole population there. He is an arrogant bastard," Duo ended his tirade.
Heero smirked. He knew that Duo really didn´t like Treize Kushrenada. He heard something about the multi-billionaire having the hots for Duo in the past, but Duo wasn´t in the least interested in him which turned these two into mortal enemies.
Quatre raised his eyebrows. "It was you two who discovered the pollution, huh? I read the story. It was good."
"Good? It was excellent. And what´s most important - we were the first with the story. No one even suspected that something like that could happen. I still can´t believe that people could be really convinced that Kushrenada is the "good guy". How blind they could be?" In that moment, the door opened and they stepped out on the 8th floor. The hall was half full of reporters. Some of them greeted their small group with a short hello or a wave. But most of them watched them with jealousy though. They knew that the Maxwell/Yuy team was the best. Their Pulitzer prize was the proof.
They reached the reception table and Heero smiled at the young woman sitting behind it. "Maxwell, Yuy and Winner. Daily Planet," he said to her and with a thank you, he took the name tags from her. He handed Duo and Quatre theirs before pinning his own to his green shirt.
Duo looked at his watch. "The conference will begin any minute now. Ah, they are already opening the door to the press room," he pointed to the left where a young woman opened both sides of the expensive oak door to reveal a big and well lit room. "Come on. I want to get good seats."
Duo started to walk towards the press room. Heero and Quatre followed him when something caught Heero´s attention. It was a door just to the right of them. It opened for a moment and Zechs Marquise - Treize Kushrenada´s lawyer stepped out. But that wasn´t what was so odd. It was the man of whom he caught a glimpse in that room behind the door. Heero knew that he had seen him somewhere already. But where...
Duo stopped in the door and turned to Heero, only to find him standing in the middle of the hall staring at a closed door. Duo rolled his eyes and tsk'ed in disgust. He was doing that way too often and this "spacing" of some sort was beginning to be pretty annoying. Duo couldn´t understand that other reporters thought it was impossible to work with him. They should try to work with this lunatic from some backwater town called Smallville.
"Heero!" Duo snapped with impatience.
Heero blinked and turned to his partner. "Huh?"
"Shouldn´t we go inside already?"
"I... I think I forgot something in the car."
Duo stared at him. "Yuy, the conference will beginn any minute. It can wait, can´t it?"
Heero shuffled his feet - he actually shuffled his feet, Duo noticed - and pushed his glasses up his nose. "No, it can´t. Just... just go inside. I will be back in a minute." With that he turned and disappeared in the lift that just arrived.
Quatre blinked. "Uh, he won´t get in the car since you have the keys," he noticed as he turned to Duo.
Duo was beyond being annoyed. This disappearing act was getting old. He would never understand how Heero could write a story about something he didn´t even witness and have all the details. He will find out what mysteries this farm boy was keeping one day. One day, but not today. Not now. A conference awaited him now.
"Too bad for him. I won´t chase after him." With that, he turned and marched into the press room.
*-*-*-*-*
The press conference was going smoothly. Questions were flying through the room - some of them were even answered -, piictures were taken. Treize Kushrenada standing on the small platform in the front of the room was the picture of coolness itself.
"Where is Heero?" Quatre asked quietly.
Duo scribbled the answer to another question - he didn´t believe in dictaphones or any other technical stuff. Nothing could be compaired to old pen and paper. "Don´t know, don´t care. Keep taking pictures." Finishing his scribbling, Duo sprang to his feet. "Duo Maxwell, Daily Planet."
Treize smiled. "Oh, Mr. Maxwell. Nice to see you. I´ve been kind of curious if you would show up here. Do you know that I have every intention to sue your paper? You dirtied my good name."
"You never had a good name," Duo muttered under his breath. "I have a question. Is it true that two enviromental agencies in two years pointed out that your company was breaking the law?"
Treize smiled and opened his mouth to say something when the door flew open, and a man with a gun in his hand burst into the press room shouting "Die Kushrenada". Two of Treize´s bodyguards threw themselves at him and started to struggle for the gun. All of the reporters dropped to the ground. Only Duo was peeking out from his hiding place, taking notes like crazy. Then the gun went off.
But before someone could get hurt, a blur of red, blue and yellow flew through the room and stopped next to Duo, catching the flying bullet just centimeters from his face. All the noise in the room stopped.
"Superman," Duo whispered, his eyes widening, his cheeks turning red - his normal reaction to meeting his beeloved superhero. Duo rose from the ground, dusting his black trousers and coughing nervously. "I... I... I..." he stammered looking at the big red S on Superman´s chest and cursing silently the lack of his self-esteem in the presence of the handsome alien. Thank god Heero wasn´t there. He would have never lived that down.
"You okay?" Superman asked and Duo nodded.
"I should thank you. This... this could have ended pretty badly."
Superman smiled. He raised his hand and touched Duo´s face, lifting it up. The rosy hue on Duo´s cheeks deepened as he looked into his hero´s cobalt blue eyes. "You should be more careful. Next time I may not be there."
Duo blinked, the velvety voice doing miracles to his body. "Okay," he answered faintly.
None of them seemed to notice that the would be killer was led off and that Kushrenada disappeared too. They were just too engrossed in each other. It was the flash of a camera taking a picture that destroyed the magic, and they turned to Quatre who was holding the camera in his hands, while grinning like a fool. Duo´s flush deepened so that he was looking like a tomato. Superman just smirked.
The reporters surrounded them, shouting questions at the superhero but Superman wasn´t paying any attention to them. He leaned into Duo´s personal space, and for a moment the braided young man thought that he would kiss him. But the alien just let his lips touch Duo´s ear as he whispered: "The guy was Mueller. He wasn´t here to kill Kushrenada. I heard him talking with Kushrenada. He was ordered to kill you and Heero."
Duo blinked as Superman moved away, smiled and disappered in a blur of blue, red and yellow again. The professional reporter replaced the infatuated man then. So Kushrenada wanted him dead? And Heero too? Well, he... they will show him who they were and that it wasn´t wise to play with them.
And where the hell was Heero?
As if that was a sign for him, a breathless Heero rushed into the room, looking around in surprise. "The conference is over already?"
Duo rolled his eyes.
"No, but there was this guy who wanted to kill Mr. Kushrenada and then he almost killed Duo and then Superman appeared and saved him and..." Quatre went on and on excited about what happened.
"You almost got killed? Are you alright?" Heero asked, his voice full of concern, as he moved his glasses up his nose again.
"Yeah, yeah," Duo waved him off, scribbling something in his note-book. "But Superman gave me some really interesting information."
"Superman was here?" Heero looked around, curiosity and excitement in his voice.
Duo rolled his eyes again.
The crowd of reporters almost dissipated, acknowledging that nothing interesting would happen now and rushed to their offices to write their stories so that they could appear in the evening newspapers.
Duo moved to the lifts too, still scribbling something down. "I think we should continue our investigation of Kushrenada´s shady business," he said to his co-workers who were following him again. "We should look closely at the would-be killer. Superman said it was Mueller. You remember him Heero? The guy we caught selling guns downtown? And then we should..." he ranted on and on not letting the others get a word in.
They looked at each other. Quatre´s look was surprised, Heero´s amused and tolerant.
"Is he always like that?" Quatre asked in a hushed voice, but Duo didn´t even seem to notice.
"Like what?" Heero answered in the same tone of voice.
"Like... a human hurricane I would say."
Heero smiled. "You should see him on his bad days."
Quatre´s eyes grew big. "Bad days? So this was a good one?" he asked in horror.
"Actually one of the best."
Quatre groaned. "I think that his bad day will kill me."
Heero laughed.
"Are you two even listening to me?" Duo snapped at them, as he turned around and saw them whisper together. "This is important! Stop behaving like children. We have work to do. Damn it. Where is the lift?" he barked out, hitting the call button over and over again. "Finally!" he shouted when the door opened and they stepped in. "And where the hell have you actually been Yuy?" The question was the last thing that could be heard before the cabin´s door closed.
And in the lift a boy with cobalt blue eyes, glasses and tons of secrets smiled to himself.
´If you only knew Duo. If you only knew...´
The End
===
X-Files
AU, Fusion, Parody-Humor, Chat ~ 1+2 ~ A parody fusion with the TV show X-Files.
"Duo, can you please explain to me why you dragged me through the whole country only to show me what? Some sleepy backwater town somewhere in Kansas?"
"Wait, you'll like it."
"Really. There's something weird going on here and I have a perfect explanation for it."
"You and your explanations. May I remind you that it was you and your perfect explanations that actually got us into this X-Files mess? Une will flip out if she finds where you dragged us this time."
"Well... but you have to admit that my theory that Relena was actually a pink alien had some logic in it."
"See? You can´t argue with that!"
"But you didn´t have to accuse her of that at a press conference in front of dozens of journalists from all over the world."
"But I had to warn the world of the danger she poses."
"We're he~ere."
"Finally."
"You don´t have to be so grumpy."
"Duo, right now we could be in our office working on a REAL case and not trotting around the landscape to.... What the hell is that?"
"See? That´s I wanted to show you. I knew you would like it."
"Duo, the field is full of mud. Do we really... Okay, obviously we do."
"Be careful not to step in... Oops."
"Okay, what do you think about it?"
"It´s a cow."
"Just a cow?"
"Okay, a dead cow."
"You're not look~ing. See?"
"Puncture marks. So?"
"So? Do you know what that means?"
"I´m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that."
"Like what?"
"I don´t know. The carcass would have to be checked by forensics first."
"No need. I know what did it!"
"Please, not another vampire theory."
"No vampires. Chupacabra!"
"Doesn´t that beast live in Mexico or somewhere around there?"
"Maybe it moved. Decided to take a vacation. Thought that the cows in Kansas look better. Who knows. But I´m sure - it´s Chupacabra!"
"At least it´s not the alien conspiracy theory this time."
"Wow. I didn´t even think about that. I must be rubbing off on ya!"
"So... Aliens, huh?"
"No. NO ALIENS!"
"And why not?"
"Aliens. Do. Not. Exist. There is no evidence of any extraterrestrial life and without any evidence-"
"Evidence? You've seen the pink harpy! Do not tell me that you still believe that a human being can give out a shriek like that. I just remember the ´He~ero´ cry and it gives me goose bumps."
"And if I proved to you that something like an ´Unidentified Flying Object´ existed, would you then believe that aliens exist?"
"Why?"
"Look."
"Well, what do you think is that, Mr. Reasonable?"
"Hn, that´s a space ship."
"And it isn´t o~urs. So that means..."
"That simply means that there is a space ship on the horizon."
"That´s all? What more do you need to believe that there ARE aliens among us? Maybe getting hit over your stubborn head with the ´UFO´?"
"Spaceship or not. That doesn´t mean that aliens really exist. I´m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that..."
The End
AU, Fusion, Parody-Humor ~ 1+2, 3+4, 5+6 ~ A parody fusion with the TV show Charmed.
"Thank you for the wonderful evening, lover," Zechs purred as he leaned over to Wufei, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his truck and nuzzled his ear. "You sure I can´t come up with you?"
Wufei leaned into the touch for a couple of second before pulling away with a sigh. "Yeah, I'm sure." He looked out of the car window at the old house where his family was living. "It´s not that they wouldn´t accept you... us. But... well... we - me and my step-brothers - are a really... unusual family."
"I can do unusual," Zechs answered with certainty as he leaned back in his seat.
Wufei turned to look at him in the darkness of the car. "Yeah, I know," he whispered and intertwined the fingers of his left hand with his lover´s. "But I´m afraid, that we are too unusual even for you."
Just when he ended his sentence, a big ka-boom could be heard coming from the house. They both turned to the house immediately, seeing the windows on the right side of the house explode.
"Shit!" Wufei exclaimed and tore his hand out of his lover´s.
"What the..." Zechs started but was interrupted by Wufei who threw the passenger door open and sprang out. Not giving the strangeness of seeing his lover´s house almost explode a second thought, Zechs jumped out of the car too and pulling a gun from his shoulder holster, he started after the Chinese man.
Wufei ran up to the house and threw the front door open, revealing a chaos of broken or overturned furniture. Cursing silently, he moved further into the hall before someone stopped him from behind. He turned around to see his cop lover halting his progress and cursed again.
"Zechs, what are you doing here?" he asked, exasperated.
Zechs looked at him incredulously. "I am a cop. When I see a house explode, I go check it out."
Wufei rolled his eyes. He didn´t have time for this. He had to find his brothers and help them. "Look.. there is nothing for you to do here and I would prefer if you left right now." His voice was filled with impatience. For a moment he really wished he had Trowa´s powers to stop time now to keep his lover from seeing what he would surely see if he moved further into his devastated house.
"I don´t think so. Now, you wait here and I will check the house," Zechs told him and stepped around him.
Wufei turned around, trying to stop the blond man when he saw someone fly through the air with a shriek that tore at his ears and land heavily among the shards of their grandmother´s mirror which he took down as he hit the wall. Zechs stopped dead in his tracks and Wufei peered around him to see the black figure move. Black, lots and lots of black. And hair. Yup, that´s Maxwell.
"Oh man, I will kick it´s ass all the way down to hell," the young braided man swore as he scrambled back to his feet. He started back to the living room from where he came flying just a moment ago, when he noticed the men standing at the door. "Wu, you brought a visitor," he exclaimed cheerfully. "Nice to meet you. I am..."
"Duo!" came the shout out of the kitchen. Yeah, Heero was on the war path again.
"Sorry, but my fanclub is calling. By the way, we could really use your help here, Wu. This is a tough little bastard." Then he turned and ran back through the living room to the kitchen.
"Who..." Zechs started incredulously. Did he really just see a man fly through the air, hit the wall and then stand back up and walk away as if nothing happened?
"That... that was my brother´s lover," Wufei explained. "He... he isn´t from here." Yeah, hell is really not anywhere near here- thank God. "Look. I have to go help them, please go."
"No way!" Zechs argued.
"If I have to, I will knock you out, Marquise. So just fuck off!" Wufei shouted. Oh god, he was really picking Maxwell´s language. The demon would be so proud.
Zechs opened his mouth to say something when suddenly a shout for someone called Quatre could be heard. Not even a second later blue light appeared in the hall, and a young blond man materialized in front of the arguing pair. Zechs´ jaw hit the floor.
"Oh shit," Wufei cursed while hiding his face in his hands. He really didn´t want his lover to find out the truth about his family like this.
The blond man - Quatre obviously - froze seeing the unknown visitor. "Oops," he squeaked and ran off to the kitchen from where a really strange growling and hissing was heard.
"Ehm, that... that was Quatre. My other brother´s lover." Wufei sighed. It really didn´t matter now what Zechs would or would not see in their house and nothing short from knocking the blond man out would keep him away from their house. "Just stay behind me, okay?" He stepped around him and ran to the kitchen too.
Wufei stopped at the open door and peeked into the disaster area that had been their kitchen just this morning. It would do him no good to run in unprepared for what he would see. He could feel Zechs press himself against his back and he was really glad that the blond man was listening to him for once.
He looked around and saw Trowa lying on the ground among the rest of what used to be their kitchen table. Quatre was leaning over him healing the bleeding wound on his forehead. Heero was puttering around the stove cooking some sort of really smelly elixir, unconcerned about the mess he was creating on the stove, floor and every other place that was still in one piece. A rare thing for Mr. "Clean Freak". Not seeing Duo or the object that caused their house to almost fall down in ruins, he figured out that the struggle moved back into the living room again.
Finally, Heero turned around and spotted his brother. He gave him a very pissed off look and waved a dripping spoon in his direction. "Where the hell have you been? We have tried to call you for hours!"
"Sorry, my cell phone died on me. What happened? Does Duo need my help?"
Heero took a small bottle and started to pour the smelling, ugly green substance in it. "They set Cerberus on us! The Cerberus, would you believe it? The dog is more interested in chewing on our furniture than in killing us - well.. if you don´t try to take a toy away from him. You will have a fit when you see the mess in the living room. And Duo doesn´t need our help. He likes to play with animals."
At the same moment, Duo came flying through the door leading into the living room and slid across the tiled floor to Heero´s feet. "Heero, I thank you for your trust in my abilities to tame the beast, but could you please hurry up? It started sniffing at the fireplace and you don´t want it to piss on the polished wood, do you?" Duo ranted as he pulled himself up again. "Oh, our visitor again. Hi." He reached his right hand. "I am Duo Maxwell."
"Zechs Marquise," he answered as he took the offered hand automatically.
In the back of the kitchen Quatre finally managed to get his lover back on his feet and hearing the name he turned around and smiled at the cop. "Oh, so you are Wufei´s lover. Nice to meet you," he answered and took his hand too, shaking it enthusiastically.
Trowa only nodded to him, carefully leaning against his lover. The wound on his forehead was gone but he had a headache of the size of Manhattan.
"Finished!" Heero cried out, holding the small bottle up victoriously. "Duo, you will hold him down, Quatre you will throw the elixir and the three of us will read this spell. I found it in the Book of Shadows while Duo was playing in the living room."
"What..." Zechs started to ask but Duo waved him off.
"Later, dude." He turned around and headed back into the living room. "Here, doggie, come here boy." The only answer he got was a enraged snarl. "Touchy aren´t we?" The scratching, screeching sound started again making the house shake in its foundations.
"It´s better if you stay here, Zechs," Wufei said as he turned around and patted his lover´s chest. "You can´t do anything to help us in there."
With that, Heero pushed the bottle into Quatre´s hands and the three brothers to the living room too.
"Don´t worry. You will get used to it. Or you might run screaming," Quatre said to the gaping policeman as he passed him.
"Stay here?" Zechs said to himself. "To hell with staying here!" Raising his gun, he followed the blond man but stopped dead in his tracks at the door to the living room. Well, there was not much left of the living room. And among the ruins of antique furniture, a big black beast with red glowing eyes was wrestling with the black clad braided man. Duo was sitting on it´s back, trying to choke all of its three heads at once but failing miserably.
"Y... you sh... should h-hurry up," Duo stammered as the beast tried to jump up on all of his four feet to shake him off like a wild horse. "He cou... could de... decide that I... I tas... taste go... good af..f..fter allllll."
"Quatre!" Heero called and the blond man threw the bottle on the ground in front of the beast. Immediately a grey, awful smelling cloud appeared.
The three brothers then started to read from the piece of paper Heero held in his hand:
"Beast from hell,
hear our spell.
To hell you return,
in fire you burn."
In a moment, red flames appeared from nowhere and engulfed the howling beast a moment later after Duo jumped down from its back. In a couple of seconds it was over. Zechs´ jaw hit the floor once again.
"Oi, oi, oi," Duo moaned as he scrambled to his feet once again. "I am too old for this shit."
"Duo, watch your language," Quatre exclaimed, horrified.
Wufei walked over to the fireplace and picked up the destroyed katana sheath. "Hey, it chewed on my sword! Injustice! I hope it cut its tongue on it!"
The others walked around the room picking up a thing here, kicking a shard there. From their unhappy, but not shocked looks, it was obvious that this wasn´t the first time something like that happened.
"I don't think the insurance will pay for it this time," Trowa sighed as he poked at the shards in the broken window. Everybody nodded. It was getting really expensive to keep saving the world these days.
Heero helped Duo dust his clothes off. "You okay?" he asked, lifting his chin.
"Aww, Hee-bunny. I knew you cared," exclaimed the dirty young man and threw his arms around his lover, sending them both crashing to the floor among the rest of some plants and dirt.
Finally turning around, Wufei realized that his lover was there. That he saw everything, the hell dog, the spell. Oh god. It was good that he was a buddhist for he had used the God´s name one time too many today.
He stepped closer to his lover and coughed a little unsurely. "Well, I think... uhm... I think I should introduce you properly."
Zechs only looked at him and blinked.
Wufei moved to stand in front of Zechs and looked up to meet his eyes. "Well, you wanted to meet my family, right?" he asked.
Zechs nodded. There was nothing he could say. If he opened his mouth, he would start babbling. Yeah, something along the lines of "there was a three headed dog in your living room". But if his lover stayed cool he would too, right? A Cerberus in your living didn´t mean the end of the world, right? Right?
Wufei stepped to the side and caught Zechs´ arm tightly as if afraid that his lover would bolt any moment. "So.... Guys, this is Lt. Zechs Marquise. Zechs, this is my family." He waved his arm at the four men who didn´t listen to him at all.
Zechs trailed his eyes from Duo who was sprawled on top of his lover, to Heero who was trying to push himself up from the pile of leaves, dirt and water he was currently lying in thanks to the overenthusiastic hugging of the braided demon, to Quatre who was looking unhappily at the shards of a broken ballerina statue. He lastly looked at Trowa, who was still poking at the shards in the broken window.
Zechs sighed. This would take some time to get used to...
"Well, you didn´t lie."
Wufei frowned. "Huh?"
"Your family is really unusual."
Somewhere in the house something heavy crashed to the ground. Nobody noticed...
The End.
===
Pretender
AU, Fusion, Angst ~ 1+2 ~ Angsty fusion with the TV show Pretender.
When the phone rang, he picked up the reciever. "Doctor J," he announced himself.
"J, it´s me," said the quiet voice on the other side of the line.
J´s face brightened and he leaned back in the armchair in his office. "Heero. It´s good to hear from you, boy."
"Yeah... you too."
There was an awkward pause. "How are you?" asked J in the end. He was really happy to hear from him.
"Good. I... I just wanted to call and wish you Merry Christmas."
J swallowed, feeling a painful pang in the vicinity of his heart. "Thank you." He knew it was useless to ask, but he had to: "Won´t you come back home?"
There was a sigh on the other side of the line. "I don´t have a home, J."
"But the Centre..." J protested.
"The Centre is NOT my home," Heero interrupted his mentor, a sharp tone in his voice. "It was my prison and I won´t come back. Ever. I would rather die."
Now it was time for J to sigh. He was still convinced that the controlled surrounding of the research centre was the best place for the young Pretender but he couldn´t
deny that some of the methods that were used in the past to force the subject that was Heero to reach the necessary results were beyond inhuman. He couldn´t blame him for wanting to stay away.
"I... I think that´s all..."
"Wait!" J called before his pupil could hang up.
"Tracing the call won´t help you, J."
"I´m not tracing it. Mr. Maxwell is not here," J answered quickly.
He could hear the snort on the other side of the line. "Really? Well that´s a surprise. And where is he? Don´t tell me he is spending Christmas with his family? His brother and Maxwell Sr. are more than one can take and stay relatively sane." There was so much sarcasm in his voice that J frowned.
"No. I think he is spending Christmas alone. I suspect his family didn´t even think about wishing him Merry Christmas," J said, sadness in his voice. He remembered Heero and Mr. Maxwell as little children, how happy they were, how they used to play together. They were the best of friends. He knew even though they tried to keep it a secret. With pain in his heart, he wondered what had gone so terribly wrong between them.
There was a long pause on the other side of the line, and J almost feared that Heero hung up. "I... I have to go," Heero said finally.
J felt regret well up in him. "I understand, boy. I won´t ask where you are or what you are doing, but... are you safe and warm?" he couldn´t help but ask. He always considered Heero his son.
A quiet laugh sounded through the distance that separated them. "Yeah, J. Don´t worry about me. I can take care of myself."
"Yes, you can," J agreed. If someone could then it was the Pretender - a man who could be anyone he wanted too be, changing everything but his looks, slipping into the wished role like a new skin, living a new life every day. He had abilities others couldn´t even dream about. But that didn´t mean that he was happy. Instead of using his abilities for the profit of the Centre - a secret research institution - he chose to help people. Heero was the first person that escaped from the impenetrable headquarters of the Centre and now he was out there in the wide world. Alone. And with Mr. Maxwell and his "cronies" on his heels. Heero was just too precious for the Centre to let him
go.
"So... goodbye." And with that Heero hung up, leaving J in the dimly lit room alone again.
Suddenly the door to J´s office burst open, revealing a young man dressed all in black, a long rope of brown hair hanging down his back. "I heard that your trained monkey called again," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Yes, he did, Mr. Maxwell," J answered, hanging up the receiver.
"And why didn´t you call me? You know the drill. When that monster of yours calls you, you contact me immediately, Frankenstein." The young man leaned against J´s table and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He picked one and lit it. He took a deep breath and released the smoke through his nose.
J frowned at him in displeasure, pointing to the "NO SMOKING" sign on his table. Maxwell took the sign and threw it in the waste bin not the least bit concerned about it.
"So what did he say? I hope it wasn't some strange psychobabble again. I think we have already gathered tons of tapes with you two discussing Nietzsche." He took another drag off his cigarette.
J reached with his hand, and flipped the climatization in the windowless room a degree higher. "He just wanted to wish me Merry Christmas."
"Oh." That seemed to startle the longhaired young man. "I almost forgot it was Christmas again," he whispered, suddenly sounding sad and forlorn. But then he shrugged it off, slipping into his bad ass persona once again. "Well, that gives us not much to work with. I hope you taped it."
J sighed and opened the small tape recorder attached to his phone, throwing him the microcassette. Maxwell caught it and looked at it with mild interest.
"Is that all?" J asked impatiently.
Maxwell smirked at him. "Why? You have plans for tonight?"
"As a matter of fact, yes, I do," the doctor said standing up.
The longhaired man looked at him with surprise. "You have plans for Christmas Eve? I didn´t know you had family."
"I don´t. But I have friends. They invited me to spend Christmas with them. So if you would excuse me?" He walked over to the open door to his office, making it obvious he
wanted the other man to go.
Maxwell took another drag off his cigarette before putting it out and throwing it in the waste bin. "You surprise me all the time, J." He shook his head and walked over to the door. He then stopped in front of the old doctor, opening his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but deciding against it in the end. Shaking his head again, he crossed the threshhold and headed for the elevators.
"Mr. Maxwell," J called after him.
The other man stopped and turned around. "Yes?"
J´s eyes softened. "Merry Christmas."
Maxwell blinked and looked at him as if he didn´t understand a word he had said. Then he nodded. "Merry Christmas, doctor," he answered quietly and J had to wonder if he had been the only one who wished the boy Merry Christmas.
Maxwell walked down the corridor, playing with the tape. He thought about the Merry Christmas doctor J wished him. He had noone to spend the holidays with. His father and his brother were somewhere in Africa and even if they weren´t he wouldn´t spend the Christmas Eve with them. Suddenly he realized that he hadn´t had one happy Christmas Eve since his mother died almost twenty years ago. And since Heero hadn´t been his best friend anymore. He shook his head. Better not to think about that.
He stopped in front of the elevators and pushed the call button. The corridors were empty, all the scientists were at home with their families, probably eating dinner right
now. Maxwell shrugged. Well, at least he would get some work done.
The elevator door opened and he stepped in, pushing the button for the fifth sub-level. The cabin started to move up when suddenly it stopped and all the lights - even the
emergency light – went out.
"What the fuck!" he cursed. That was the last thing he needed right now. To spend the Christmas Eve not only alone but stuck in the elevator too.
He moved across the cabin to where he suspected the emergency phone was but before he could reach it the lights went on again. The cabin still didn´t move though.
"Good evening, Mr. Maxwell."
Hearing another voice in the previously empty cabin the longhaired man whipped around, the gun that was until now hidden in the holster on the small of his back in his hand.
"I don´t think you will need that," the other man in the cabin chuckled. He was of Japanese origin and was dressed all in black just like Maxwell.
"Heero?" the braided man asked with surprise. "What the fuck are you doing here? Oh, wait. It doesn´t matter. Hands up so that I can see them."
Heero laughed but raised his hands.
"Turn around. Hands on the wall and spread your legs," Maxwell ordered him.
Heero did as he was told, but when the other man stepped closer to him with and incredible speed he turned around, caught the hand with the gun and twisted it behind the other man´s back.
"Let me go!" Maxwell shouted.
Twisting the gun out of his hand, Heero pushed him away. Maxwell turned around, facing the man he hunted for the last couple of months. He watched him empty the gun and throw it on the ground.
"What do you want?" the braided man snarled.
Heero sighed. He was used to the animosity his ex-best-friend showed him, but it still hurt every time. He reached inside his black jacket and shook his head when the other man tensed. "Don´t worry. I don´t want to kill you. If I wanted to do it, I wouldn´t make it so complicated. I could just wait for you when you go for your morning run, every day at 6:30 am." Seeing Maxwell´s eyes widen at Heero´s knowledge of his schedule, he added: "6 miles, to the lake and back."
Maxwell´s eyes narrowed. "So, you came to gloat about how well informed you are?"
Heero frowned at the sarcasm that dripped from every word Maxwell said. He remembered the happy boy he once had been. Seeing the hardness he developed during the years in the care of his father, he ached for the little boy that used to love cold sweets and white bunnies.
"No. I came to give you this," he answered, pulling a small box from the inside pocket of his jacket.
Maxwell eyed the box suspiciously. "What is it?"
Heero rolled his eyes. "Don´t worry. It´s not a bomb. It´s a Christmas present."
Maxwell blinked, his eyes switching from Heero´s face to the box and back. After a few moments, he reluctantly took the offered box. Slowly, he opened it and gasped. "That´s... that´s..."
"The cross that belonged to your mother," Heero whispered.
Reverently, Maxwell took the glistening jewelry into his hand and stroked a finger down the diamond studded gold. He blinked again, trying to get rid of the sting he felt on the backside of his eyelids. "Where did you find it?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
Heero smiled a little. "I followed a clue. Your father didn´t want to have anything of your mother´s in his home. He sold it to an antique dealer. It was damaged and the clasp was broken, so nobody wanted to buy it and he was reluctant to sell it. I managed to repair it though, and thought that you would like it."
Maxwell kept looking down at the small cross in his hand. His mother wore it on the day she died. They said she committed suicide but he didn´t believe it. His mother wouldn´t leave him alone. He asked his father about the cross. He remembered his mother telling him once that one day it would belong to him. But his father told him that it got lost after she died. He hadn´t believed that he would see it again.
He closed his hand around it tightly, and pressed it to his chest. He swallowed painfully and had to force his tears down. He wouldn´t fall apart now. Maybe later, when he was alone... But not right now.
"Why?" he asked finally, and looked up.
Heero shrugged. "I know how sad you were when it got lost. I thought it would make you happy."
The longhaired man blinked again. "Don´t think that it means that I won´t hunt you down, Heero." His voice was still hoarse, and try as he might, he couldn´t bring back the
sarcasm and hardness into it.
Heero smiled. "I know." He then leaned closer and before the other man could react, he kissed him on his lips gently. "Merry Christmas, Duo," he whispered. He gazed in his eyes for the longest of moments and deep, deep inside, hidden underneath the pain and loneliness he found the little boy he had kissed once in one of the Centre´s dark corridors. The little boy he still loved so much.
Duo froze, hearing his first name for the first time in years. He remembered the day Heero kissed him. It was his first kiss and the only kiss he had ever recieved that was
filled with love. He remembered how he whispered his name to him then. For everybody else in the Centre he was Mr. Maxwell even though he was eight years old. To Heero, he was Duo. He had never told his name to anybody after that, remaining hidden behind his Maxwell surname. Even his lovers called him Max.
It had been a long time since Duo felt so vulnerable. That´s why he didn´t even react when the lights went out and then back on again, lighting up the cabin that was once
again empty except for him. The elevator started to move again, and if it weren´t for the cross he clutched tightly to his chest, he wouldn´t have even believed that it wasn´t just a dream.
Duo smiled. It was such a rare thing to see. For the first time in years he felt important. There was someone out there in the world for whom he was important enough to walk into the lion´s den just to give him a Christmas present. Even though that someone was the prey he had to hunt down.
But not tonight.
The End
===
Superman
AU, Fusion, Humor ~ 1+2 ~ Fusion with The New Adventures of Lois and Clark.
Heero Yuy braced himself against the dashboard as their car flew into another curve at the speed of light and with squeaking tires. He didn´t release his breath until all four of the wheels met the road again. Only then did he push the glasses up his nose and look at the driver - his working partner Duo Maxwell. Maybe he should get used to him driving like that. They had worked together for almost a year already but every time they had to use a car to reach their destination – which happened quite often - and Duo forced his way behind the steering wheel - which happened quite often too - with an explanation that Heero drove like an old arthritic lady - it was a new experience for him.
Duo must have felt Heero watching him because he spared him a glance. "What?" he barked.
"Do you *have* to drive like that?" Heero couldn´t help but ask.
Duo looked at him, genuinely puzzled. "Like what?"
Heero rolled his eyes and waved his at him. "Nevermind."
The braided young man just shook his head. "You´re a weird one, Yuy."
Heero turned away from Duo and kept watching the city blurring behind his window. Metropolis wasn´t a beautiful town per se. It was full of industry and dirty streets and really weird criminals but he liked that. He liked to work here and live here although he missed his Dad and Mum and the farm terribly. But Smallville wasn´t that far away after all. And when the homesickness got really bad he had the phone after all. Heero had to smile when he remembered Duo´s disbelieving look when he told him that "yes, even such a backwater place like Smallville had more than one phone."
Heero´s smile grew bigger every time he thought about Duo. The other man was hot headed, had an awfully bad temper and was almost impossible to work with. He noticed the admiring looks his other co-workers were giving him because he managed to stay partners with Duo for so long. What they didn´t know was how sweet Duo looked when he fell asleep on his couch, files strewn all over him or when he tried to make coffee and managed to burn the pot - after that Heero decided it was cheaper if he bought himself a coffeemaker. They didn´t know that Duo´s weak points were children, puppies and chocolate, and that he sniffled while watching romantic movies. For the other reporters of Daily Planet, Duo Maxwell was just a hard professional with no feelings whatsoever. Heero Yuy knew
better.
It took them another five minutes - five horrible, life threatening minutes - before they reached their destination - the headquarters of the OZ corporation and one of the most powerful men in the world - Treize Kushrenada. It wasn´t every day that the multi-billionaire allowed reporters to enter his fortress of power and give them a press conference. This was a chance for Duo to play the interrogator to Treize Kushrenada and he decided to make the best of it and enjoy it.
Spotting an empty parking place in the nearly full parking lot in front of the steel-and-glass building that belonged to Kushrenada, Duo sped to it and heedless of another car that showed every intention of backing into it, he drove in. Tires screeched and they stopped just milimeters from a cement wall. They were thrown against their safety belts and with a low "oof" they landed back in their seats. The other car that was now left with no parking possibility honked at them like crazy
but Duo only opened his window, poked his head out of it and screamed "stuff it loser." Heero groaned.
"I think I´m gonna be sick."
That sentence, said in a faint tone, drew their attention to the third person sitting with them in the car. As one they turned in surprise to the blond young man sitting on the back seat. They were so used to working alone that they´d completely forgotten that they had a guest.
"Tough luck, kiddo. No puking in my car," Duo said in a stern voice before getting out of the car.
Heero looked at the somewhat green looking boy with compassion. Quatre Winner was their new photographer and they should "show him around" as Howard called it. He was pretty adamant about it. Heero didn´t mind but Duo protested pretty loudly. The shouting match could be heard through the whole news room. But in the end, Howard was the boss and Duo had to back off. Even now Heero could hear the braided man´s gritting teeth as he burst out of Howard´s office.
Heero smiled just a little. "Don´t mind him. He isn´t that bad. And don´t believe anything the other reporters tell you about him. I´ve been partnered with him for months now and I´m still alive."
"We don´t have all day!" Duo barked at them tapping his foot with impatience.
Quatre smiled shakily at him before he took a deep breath and opened the door to step out.
After Duo locked the car, they ran across the parking lot and into the OZ Headquarters. There was no need for the rush but Duo wanted to find a good place in the auditorium. In the hall he kept pressing the call button for the lift impatiently, as if that could bring the car down sooner. As soon as the lift door opened, he waltzed in and pressed the button for the 8th floor where the conference would take place.
"Where do you think Mr. Kushrenada is now?" Quatre asked, finally holding his camera ready.
Duo looked at him. "Not there yet. That´s for sure. He will probably let us wait a while to show us that it´s his good will to organize this conference and that he doesn´t feel obliged to answer any of our questions even though the chemicals that escaped his factory in the suburbs endangered the whole population there. He is an arrogant bastard," Duo ended his tirade.
Heero smirked. He knew that Duo really didn´t like Treize Kushrenada. He heard something about the multi-billionaire having the hots for Duo in the past, but Duo wasn´t in the least interested in him which turned these two into mortal enemies.
Quatre raised his eyebrows. "It was you two who discovered the pollution, huh? I read the story. It was good."
"Good? It was excellent. And what´s most important - we were the first with the story. No one even suspected that something like that could happen. I still can´t believe that people could be really convinced that Kushrenada is the "good guy". How blind they could be?" In that moment, the door opened and they stepped out on the 8th floor. The hall was half full of reporters. Some of them greeted their small group with a short hello or a wave. But most of them watched them with jealousy though. They knew that the Maxwell/Yuy team was the best. Their Pulitzer prize was the proof.
They reached the reception table and Heero smiled at the young woman sitting behind it. "Maxwell, Yuy and Winner. Daily Planet," he said to her and with a thank you, he took the name tags from her. He handed Duo and Quatre theirs before pinning his own to his green shirt.
Duo looked at his watch. "The conference will begin any minute now. Ah, they are already opening the door to the press room," he pointed to the left where a young woman opened both sides of the expensive oak door to reveal a big and well lit room. "Come on. I want to get good seats."
Duo started to walk towards the press room. Heero and Quatre followed him when something caught Heero´s attention. It was a door just to the right of them. It opened for a moment and Zechs Marquise - Treize Kushrenada´s lawyer stepped out. But that wasn´t what was so odd. It was the man of whom he caught a glimpse in that room behind the door. Heero knew that he had seen him somewhere already. But where...
Duo stopped in the door and turned to Heero, only to find him standing in the middle of the hall staring at a closed door. Duo rolled his eyes and tsk'ed in disgust. He was doing that way too often and this "spacing" of some sort was beginning to be pretty annoying. Duo couldn´t understand that other reporters thought it was impossible to work with him. They should try to work with this lunatic from some backwater town called Smallville.
"Heero!" Duo snapped with impatience.
Heero blinked and turned to his partner. "Huh?"
"Shouldn´t we go inside already?"
"I... I think I forgot something in the car."
Duo stared at him. "Yuy, the conference will beginn any minute. It can wait, can´t it?"
Heero shuffled his feet - he actually shuffled his feet, Duo noticed - and pushed his glasses up his nose. "No, it can´t. Just... just go inside. I will be back in a minute." With that he turned and disappeared in the lift that just arrived.
Quatre blinked. "Uh, he won´t get in the car since you have the keys," he noticed as he turned to Duo.
Duo was beyond being annoyed. This disappearing act was getting old. He would never understand how Heero could write a story about something he didn´t even witness and have all the details. He will find out what mysteries this farm boy was keeping one day. One day, but not today. Not now. A conference awaited him now.
"Too bad for him. I won´t chase after him." With that, he turned and marched into the press room.
*-*-*-*-*
The press conference was going smoothly. Questions were flying through the room - some of them were even answered -, piictures were taken. Treize Kushrenada standing on the small platform in the front of the room was the picture of coolness itself.
"Where is Heero?" Quatre asked quietly.
Duo scribbled the answer to another question - he didn´t believe in dictaphones or any other technical stuff. Nothing could be compaired to old pen and paper. "Don´t know, don´t care. Keep taking pictures." Finishing his scribbling, Duo sprang to his feet. "Duo Maxwell, Daily Planet."
Treize smiled. "Oh, Mr. Maxwell. Nice to see you. I´ve been kind of curious if you would show up here. Do you know that I have every intention to sue your paper? You dirtied my good name."
"You never had a good name," Duo muttered under his breath. "I have a question. Is it true that two enviromental agencies in two years pointed out that your company was breaking the law?"
Treize smiled and opened his mouth to say something when the door flew open, and a man with a gun in his hand burst into the press room shouting "Die Kushrenada". Two of Treize´s bodyguards threw themselves at him and started to struggle for the gun. All of the reporters dropped to the ground. Only Duo was peeking out from his hiding place, taking notes like crazy. Then the gun went off.
But before someone could get hurt, a blur of red, blue and yellow flew through the room and stopped next to Duo, catching the flying bullet just centimeters from his face. All the noise in the room stopped.
"Superman," Duo whispered, his eyes widening, his cheeks turning red - his normal reaction to meeting his beeloved superhero. Duo rose from the ground, dusting his black trousers and coughing nervously. "I... I... I..." he stammered looking at the big red S on Superman´s chest and cursing silently the lack of his self-esteem in the presence of the handsome alien. Thank god Heero wasn´t there. He would have never lived that down.
"You okay?" Superman asked and Duo nodded.
"I should thank you. This... this could have ended pretty badly."
Superman smiled. He raised his hand and touched Duo´s face, lifting it up. The rosy hue on Duo´s cheeks deepened as he looked into his hero´s cobalt blue eyes. "You should be more careful. Next time I may not be there."
Duo blinked, the velvety voice doing miracles to his body. "Okay," he answered faintly.
None of them seemed to notice that the would be killer was led off and that Kushrenada disappeared too. They were just too engrossed in each other. It was the flash of a camera taking a picture that destroyed the magic, and they turned to Quatre who was holding the camera in his hands, while grinning like a fool. Duo´s flush deepened so that he was looking like a tomato. Superman just smirked.
The reporters surrounded them, shouting questions at the superhero but Superman wasn´t paying any attention to them. He leaned into Duo´s personal space, and for a moment the braided young man thought that he would kiss him. But the alien just let his lips touch Duo´s ear as he whispered: "The guy was Mueller. He wasn´t here to kill Kushrenada. I heard him talking with Kushrenada. He was ordered to kill you and Heero."
Duo blinked as Superman moved away, smiled and disappered in a blur of blue, red and yellow again. The professional reporter replaced the infatuated man then. So Kushrenada wanted him dead? And Heero too? Well, he... they will show him who they were and that it wasn´t wise to play with them.
And where the hell was Heero?
As if that was a sign for him, a breathless Heero rushed into the room, looking around in surprise. "The conference is over already?"
Duo rolled his eyes.
"No, but there was this guy who wanted to kill Mr. Kushrenada and then he almost killed Duo and then Superman appeared and saved him and..." Quatre went on and on excited about what happened.
"You almost got killed? Are you alright?" Heero asked, his voice full of concern, as he moved his glasses up his nose again.
"Yeah, yeah," Duo waved him off, scribbling something in his note-book. "But Superman gave me some really interesting information."
"Superman was here?" Heero looked around, curiosity and excitement in his voice.
Duo rolled his eyes again.
The crowd of reporters almost dissipated, acknowledging that nothing interesting would happen now and rushed to their offices to write their stories so that they could appear in the evening newspapers.
Duo moved to the lifts too, still scribbling something down. "I think we should continue our investigation of Kushrenada´s shady business," he said to his co-workers who were following him again. "We should look closely at the would-be killer. Superman said it was Mueller. You remember him Heero? The guy we caught selling guns downtown? And then we should..." he ranted on and on not letting the others get a word in.
They looked at each other. Quatre´s look was surprised, Heero´s amused and tolerant.
"Is he always like that?" Quatre asked in a hushed voice, but Duo didn´t even seem to notice.
"Like what?" Heero answered in the same tone of voice.
"Like... a human hurricane I would say."
Heero smiled. "You should see him on his bad days."
Quatre´s eyes grew big. "Bad days? So this was a good one?" he asked in horror.
"Actually one of the best."
Quatre groaned. "I think that his bad day will kill me."
Heero laughed.
"Are you two even listening to me?" Duo snapped at them, as he turned around and saw them whisper together. "This is important! Stop behaving like children. We have work to do. Damn it. Where is the lift?" he barked out, hitting the call button over and over again. "Finally!" he shouted when the door opened and they stepped in. "And where the hell have you actually been Yuy?" The question was the last thing that could be heard before the cabin´s door closed.
And in the lift a boy with cobalt blue eyes, glasses and tons of secrets smiled to himself.
´If you only knew Duo. If you only knew...´
The End
===
X-Files
AU, Fusion, Parody-Humor, Chat ~ 1+2 ~ A parody fusion with the TV show X-Files.
"Duo, can you please explain to me why you dragged me through the whole country only to show me what? Some sleepy backwater town somewhere in Kansas?"
"Wait, you'll like it."
"Really. There's something weird going on here and I have a perfect explanation for it."
"Well... but you have to admit that my theory that Relena was actually a pink alien had some logic in it."
"See? You can´t argue with that!"
"We're he~ere."
"Finally."
"Duo, right now we could be in our office working on a REAL case and not trotting around the landscape to.... What the hell is that?"
"Duo, the field is full of mud. Do we really... Okay, obviously we do."
"Be careful not to step in... Oops."
"Okay, what do you think about it?"
"It´s a cow."
"Just a cow?"
"Okay, a dead cow."
"Puncture marks. So?"
"I´m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that."
"Like what?"
"No need. I know what did it!"
"No vampires. Chupacabra!"
"So... Aliens, huh?"
"No. NO ALIENS!"
"Aliens. Do. Not. Exist. There is no evidence of any extraterrestrial life and without any evidence-"
"Evidence? You've seen the pink harpy! Do not tell me that you still believe that a human being can give out a shriek like that. I just remember the ´He~ero´ cry and it gives me goose bumps."
"And if I proved to you that something like an ´Unidentified Flying Object´ existed, would you then believe that aliens exist?"
"Look."
"Well, what do you think is that, Mr. Reasonable?"
"Hn, that´s a space ship."
"That simply means that there is a space ship on the horizon."
The End
