"Heero-kun might be the most infuriatingly stubborn, annoying man on this or any other planet," she hissed under her breath, pacing back and forth across the room, nearly silent on her socked feet. "I have never met anyone anywhere who was so damned determined to be utterly miserable."
On some level, she knew that she shouldn't be letting this get to her so badly. After all, she would prefer to leave the swearing quota up to Duo-kun, since he was a lot better at it than she was. Honestly, though, Heero-kun was frustrating her to no end. She couldn't understand wanting to be sad all the time.
Okay, maybe that was entirely fair. Maybe he didn't want to be depressing. Maybe it was that lonely was what Heero-kun knew; it was a lot easier to stick to what you knew than try for something new.
She could understand that. She could understand all of that. But what she could not understand was why he refused to see what was right in front of his face. Duo-kun was obviously in love with him, and based on that dream of hers, she would almost be willing to gather that Duo-kun had been for quite some time. She was fond of him, as was Trunks-kun, or else neither of them would have agreed that to the possibility of eventually adding him to this... well, to this, whatever it was they were going to call it.
"That might be the first time I think I have ever heard you swear, Usagi-san." Trunks-kun at least sounded amused. That was good. At least somebody here was. Under ordinary circumstances, she might have found it amusing as well. Right now, though, she was fed up.
Actually, no... Now that she thought about it some, it actually was a bit funny. A grin broke across her face, followed quickly by a giggle. "This is what Heero-kun has driven me to: swearing badly." She tried to sound stern, but the laughter might have given away the illusion of that.
"Horrors." The deadpan response brought another round of giggles out of her. "I can't believe you actually confronted him about it."
She shrugged. Now that she was feeling a bit calmer, she sat down from her pacing to settle next to Trunks-kun, sliding easily into his side. She liked that: it was almost like that spot was made for her and her alone. "He's just so lonely, Trunks-kun. I want to fix that."
"You can't fix everything about everyone, Usagi-san."
And that was very sage advice. Too bad she was lousy at following advice. "I can try. It's a simple fix: he just needs to admit that at least Duo-kun likes him."
"Duo-san is mad about him," Trunks-kun corrected gently, and yeah, she could most assuredly concede that point.
"True, but Heero-kun can't seem to see that. He think Duo-kun... puts up with him, that Duo-kun only sees him as a work partner, and that's just willful obliviousness." She snorted in a completely unladylike manner. "I mean... I'm oblivious to a lot of stuff, but I'm not doing it on purpose like Heero-kun is here."
"Sometimes it's easier to just keep being alone, to keep people at bay. That way you don't get hurt." And that sounded like Trunks-kun was speaking from experience. She didn't really see that with him, so maybe someone he knew?
"Maybe so," she conceded the point, "but then you're all alone. No one should have to be all alone." And if she wasn't sitting down--and a little worried that the floor might give out from under her for trying it--she might have even stomped her foot to punctuate her point.
"I don't disagree, Usagi-san, but I don't think this is going to be the way to get to Heero-san. He's not the kind of person to just accept... affection for affection's sake. He needs reasons and rationalizations, and 'because I like you' will not an acceptable answer."
Maybe Trunks-kun had been giving this as much thought as she had. It was something that tended to stick on the mind. "What do you suggest then, Trunks-kun?"
"Let Duo-san be the one to persuade him. Duo-san has known him the longest, after all, and he would be the best qualified to the job."
"It'll be years then," she predicted direly.
But Trunks-kun shook his head slowly, a small smirk building on his face. "I think what you said this afternoon shook him up some. He's going to watching Duo-san more, and I think he's going to start noticing some things that have slipped by him before now." He paused, giving her a second to think that over--and find herself in agreement. "And in the meantime..."
"'In the meantime'?" she repeated when he did not continue.
"In the meantime, I think the two of us should focus on us."
Now that she liked the sound of--and quite a lot at that. Glancing up at him in the near total darkness of the room, she could just barely make out that his cheeks were slightly darker than the rest of his face. God, she hoped he never lost that.
"I can get behind that," she murmured, leaning up to press a light kiss to his lips. Despite that, it quickly deepened, as Trunks-kun tightened his arm around her, pulling her up close against him. She could feel him hard against her, and God, that was something she was never going to get tired of.
She was never going to get tired of Trunks-kun in general: the way he felt against her body, the way he tasted, the way he made her feel. Even if nothing else changed, as long as she still had Trunks-kun, she was going to be happy.
She pushed herself up on her knees, dragging Trunks-kun up too, so she could start working on getting to more of his skin. She kept getting her arms tangled in his as he tried to work her borrowed shirt over her head, and she couldn't hold in the laugh that came. Trunks-kun chuckled briefly and even more so when she finally got his vest off him.
"Just don't throw anything out the window this time, Usagi-san."
The giggles struck again, but this time she found them silence by a kiss. If she was still smiling during it, that was okay. Trunks-kun was too.
"You started without me, I see."
The sudden sound of Duo-kun's voice should have been like a bucket of ice water over the two of them. Instead, she found herself turning in Trunks-kun's lap to offer the other man a smile. "Not by much," she offered.
Duo-kun's eyes twinkled briefly with amusement, before they turned serious as he glanced up at Trunks-kun. "Does the offer still stand, Trunks?"
At that, she too turned to look up at Trunks-kun. Everything here depended entirely on his answer.
After a moment's silence, Trunks-kun nodded.
So that was it: this was really going to happen. Okay. Wow. She had known it was a possibility, but now that it was actually happening, it was a little mind-blowing.
Duo-kun lowered himself to kneel to their side. "Nothing more than everyone here is comfortable with, right?"
She waited until she saw Trunks-kun nod before she did the same.
This is really happening, she reflected to herself. And that was something she hadn't considered: she had a front row seat to watch Duo-kun carefully draw Trunks-kun into a kiss. It's really happening, and it's a damn good thing.
25 October 2012
And I'm back on my regular schedule. Get this posted before breakfast even, so there's no weird discussion of the day to take me away from posting.
Just a couple more days to go until NecronomiCon. If I were selling this year, I'd be heading down today or early tomorrow. Alas, the funds for selling are not there. Selling means buying up copies of my own books from Lulu, both hardcover and soft of the two of them, getting up all kinds of promo materials (including, but not limited to, bookmarks, business cards, postcards, and possibly a DVD including the two trailers for the books), buying a table, and hoping to sell more than a single copy (which stands as my record at a con). Yeah, kinda depressing actually.
But I'm not selling this year, so instead I'm just going to be dropping off business cards. I had had plans for dropping off postcards, but they really have vanished without a trace, so that plan is a bust.
Anyway, see you all in the next chapter!
Apollymi