by: Kracken
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this
Warnings: Guys graphically having sex with guys. Violence. Graphic. Language

After The Rain series + Part 7
Light You Up

"It's the shoes," Duo said with a small smile as he shaded his eyes and stared up at a grim faced Heero Yuy. "Big soles, big feet. I could hear you a mile away."

In the middle of a field of flowers on the side of a hill, the sun was bright and hot on the two young men. Heero's shoulders twitched. He felt uncomfortable being that exposed to so much open sky and maybe observant enemy eyes. Duo at least was wearing his habitual black and hidden among the flowers. Heero was a blatant target, without even a tree to break up the incline of the hill or a single bush for cover.

"I wasn't attempting to be quiet." Heero said tightly and then asked, "Why are you here?"

Duo blinked up at him, purple eyes sparkling, "Just taking it easy, forgetting about the war for a little bit, and trying to soothe a monster headache by baking in the sun. Not much else to do without old Deathsycthe." His eyes became keen and determined. "You do realize that I will go and get him once I can make the hike?"

"You didn't inform anyone where you were going," Heero said as if Duo hadn't spoken. "You are endangering yourself and our base of operations by exposing yourself to surveillance."

Duo scowled. "Without Deathscythe, I'm just a boy without a home or a purpose. A nobody. There are a lot of them on Earth, Heero. Nothing remarkable. Nothing OZ would care about or take notice of. Besides, they can't check out every guy they see lying in a field of wildflowers. Even they aren't that powerful, so don't be so paranoid." He narrowed his eyes. "So, where were you? You didn't inform anyone about where you were going either. You just took off. Doesn't that endanger everyone too?"

There was a difference, Heero thought irritably. He could be trusted to be secretive and to cover every eventuality. He could be trusted to keep his secrets even if he if captured and interrogated. Duo and the others couldn't give any such assurances. Keeping them hidden, and in a lock down situation between missions, was mandatory. Even Quatre, having had to deal with a hot headed Wu Fei, the loose cannon Duo, and the enigmatic Trowa, had agreed to help him keep all of the pilots isolated by choosing safe houses as far from humanity as possible. Though not always convenient to their targets, Heero considered it an acceptable trade off.

"You will return to the safe house at once," Heero commanded.

"Or what?" Duo wondered.

Heero considered the braided young man at his feet and modes of pain that would convince him to obey. The consequences of those actions, though, ended up repeatedly at the same point. Duo would get angry, perhaps angry enough to separate from the group. Heero couldn't chance that. A ghost of a thought, quickly stamped out, was an aversion to his life returning to what it had been before Duo had interjected himself into it. Gray, was the best way to describe Heero's life of before. Gray and driven; his only interest and pleasure, the mission.

Duo was waiting for his reply as if he had endless patience, but Heero knew that was just a mask. He could see the young man's body tensed, ready to respond to any force with all the defenses at his disposal.

Heero chose his words carefully, at first calculating to the ninth degree the effect certain words might have on forcing Duo to return, and then opting for a more tailored approach he felt had greater odds of succeeding due to Duo's particular nature.

"I wish to play a game of chess with you," Heero said simply. "There is not an ultimatum. It is a request."

Duo blinked. He had often tried to get Heero to engage in activities, all overtures that Heero had turned down without consideration. He was understandably suspicious. "If a rabbit shows up with pink polka dots, Heero Yuy," he said at last. "Then you know someone painted them on. Is this a ploy to get me back to the house so that you can drug me, tie me down, or break a leg so that I stay there?"

Heero replied, without subterfuge, "It is an attempt to recover you from this open position and then to convince you, with facts and reasoning, why it is important to remain indoors until either night fall or to carry out missions."

Duo snorted. "Facts and reasoning aren't going to make me want to become a vampire and only come out at night, Yuy."

"Vampire?" Heero frowned.

"It was a sarcastic joke," Duo grumbled.

"I do understand sarcasm," Heero replied. "It is misplaced in this circumstance."

"Heero," Duo said pointedly. "I'm not going to listen to reason or let you drone facts at me while I struggle to play a boring game of chess. I am going out in the sunlight when I feel like it." He narrowed eyes at Heero and smirked as he continued, "but I will be careful about it. You didn't even give me credit for finding an overgrown field to lay down in. You, on the other hand, seem far more careless than me. You, after all, are standing where any Oz satellite or patrol can see you."

Heero's jaw clenched and he persisted. "Will you return to the safe house, now?"

"I suppose," Duo conceded with a sigh, unhappy that his dig hadn't made Heero react.

"Will Raji assist you?" Heero wondered blandly.

Duo narrowed his eyes and a young man suddenly sat up in the field of flowers a few yards away. He was one of Quatre's desert warriors, tall and slim, with large, dark, expressive eyes outlined by lashes so black they looked drawn on with eyeliner. His hair was shoulder length and bronze, high lights glinting in the sun. He was not handsome, he was beautiful. He was also shocked and completely embarrassed. He scrambled up and ran back to the safe house with his Arabic style robe hitched up above his knees.

Duo continued to glare at Heero. "So, did you get an eye full before you LET me know you were there?"

Heero remembered the scene he had happened on, how he had stopped, staring, seeing a pair of sandaled feet bobbing skyward and the black clad shoulders of Duo Maxwell between them, moving in a distinctive rhythm as he thrust in and out of the body beneath him.

"Your sexual activities are not of any interest to me," Heero grated, using irritation and anger to disperse the physical reaction he could feel beginning in his groin, "but endangering our cover is."

Duo stared and then he grunted. "You really don't care that I was just screwing Raji, do you? Don't you feel ANYTHING? You're a teenager for God's sake! You should be trying to screw anything that will hold still long enough!" His eyes flicked down to Heero's black clad groin. He went a little tight around the eyes as he wondered. "They, uh, didn't do something to you during your training, did they Yuy, because that would be just... yeah, just like those rat bastard doctors."

"No, they did not operate on my genital area," Heero replied as blandly and as unemotionally as if he were talking about fuel ratios. "I am an unaltered male."

"Really?" Duo smirked then, relieved. "Then you MUST have developed an iron rod in your pants watching me give it to that pretty, little piece of ass." He made a crude thrusting motion with his hips. "He was good and tight, Heero. If you swing that way, I could set you up with him. He's hot enough to spread his legs for anyone who talks sweet."

Heero heard another level of questioning. Duo wanted to know something about Heero. He had been trained to recognize subtleties that might arise in an interrogation that would trick him into inadvertently revealing information. Since Heero didn't know Duo's motivation behind such questioning, he remained silent.

Duo rubbed at his own crotch and licked his lips. "He gives good head too, Heero. You shouldn't pass up the opportunity. He's a real artist with that pretty mouth and tongue. He swallowed me whole and I am not small." He smirked as he rubbed at a renewed erection, eyes never leaving Heero's. He was looking for something, trying to see a certain reaction. "Of course, if you like to have guys do you instead, I know someone who would be happy to oblige you."

Heero felt a jolt of pain. It spread through his brain, mild, but enough to bring his attention away from the growing heat in his body and how it pertained to the motion of Duo's hand on his cloth covered erection, and back to the priority of getting Duo Maxwell under cover of the safe house again.

"I do not participate in sexual activities," Heero stated coldly and the pain receded like a wave on a shore as his body cooled along with his voice.

Duo left off touching himself and came to a conclusion he didn't like. He sighed in defeat. "Can't blame a guy for trying," he said cryptically. "Okay, okay, back to the house. I guess I'm done here. You'll have to help me though. Raji had to almost carry me-"

Heero bent and picked Duo up like a child without strain. Duo gasped, clutching at Heero's neck uncertainly. His mouth quirked. "Jeez! You're strong, Heero! I guess being asexual gives you a lot of extra time to work out, right?"

Heero ignored the jab and easily carried Duo down the hill, across a field, through a narrow line of trees, and into the safe house, where he deposited him on the threadbare couch in the main reception room. Turning, he then opened a worn cabinet and pulled out a chess game. On the low table in front of the couch, he methodically began to set the game up.

Duo grimaced at his aches and pains and something else. "Uh, Heero," he said tentatively, scratching his head in some embarrassment. "Not having any sex and all, you probably don't know... but a guy can get pretty, uh, well... after being with Raji, I really need to clean up, if you get my drift. Besides, I didn't think that you were serious about the chess game. I'm not very good at the game. I didn't have much of a chance to learn games like that on L2."

"Your proficiency is not required," Heero replied as he leaned over Duo and picked him up again. Heading for the stairs that led to Duo's room, he concluded, "The game was only a vehicle for convincing you to return. Since you often expressed frustration and boredom, and tended to wander and engage in activities that endangered our cover, I was seeking to offer-"

"Aww!" Duo cut in with a grin, "You felt sorry for me being bored and wanted to help out?"

"Not precisely," Heero replied.

Duo made a face. "I know, I know! You never do anything without a purpose, I think, and sympathy isn't in your vocabulary. For future reference, offering a game of chess suits Quatre and Trowa best. To entice me, you have to be much more basic."

"Explain," Heero asked.

Duo chuckled. "Oh, I won't make it that easy! I like surprises. You'll have to surprise me, make my life interesting, if you want to keep me from wandering. " He glared at Heero. "I'm still going out in the sunshine, though, but you did see that I was being careful about it?"

Heero nodded, giving him that much.

"So," Duo wondered, changing the subject as they entered his room and headed into the bathroom. "Where were you all of this time?"

"Information gathering," Heero replied as he helped Duo to sit on the edge of the tub. He wasn't winded. He wasn't sweating. His voice was level and untroubled by having had to carrying a young man, nearly his own size, all of that distance.

"What kind of information?" Duo prompted with a raised eyebrow.

"The area and the troop movement around Deathscythe," Heero replied as he straightened. "Estimated materials needed for repairs, estimated time necessary to accomplish those repairs, and likely plans for retrieval of Deathscythe."

Duo was relieved. "Then they haven't found him."

"Obviously," Heero replied as he walked towards the door.

"Uh, thanks, Heero, for checking on him for me," Duo felt the need to say.

Heero didn't pause in his stride as he left the bathroom. He said, without turning, "It wasn't done for you."

Duo laughed, "You are such a hard ass!"

Heero thought about that as he returned to the reception room and sat on the couch by the chess board. He sat stiffly, as if he were at attention, hands deceptively lax, but ready to spring into action and grab whatever weapon was necessary. He waited, unused to the inaction, mind going over his findings in his head, trying to formulate a plan that would save Deathscythe.

"I understand, Raji, but please be more discreet in the future," Quatre was saying as he came close to the door leading into the reception area. "You were supposed to watch Duo and keep him occupied. I will admit that bedding him was an odd choice of diversion, but it would have been more effective at keeping him indoors, if you had actually stayed indoors to engage in it."

"Sorry, Master Quatre," Raji stammered in acute embarrassment. "I won't fail you again."

Quatre's warm voice replied softly. "I know you won't, Raji. You're the best."

"Thank you, Master Quatre."

Quatre came in to the room then, balancing a cup of tea on a saucer and several small books, as he made his way towards the couch. He didn't notice Heero sitting there until he had carefully placed his burden on the low table. Then, Quatre, noticed the chessboard and Heero's knees beyond it. Looking up, he blinked at the rare sight of Heero Yuy sitting down and doing nothing.

"Well, hello, Heero," Quatre greeted uncertainly. "Do you mind if I sit here and read?"

"Specification manuals?" Heero wondered, trying to look at the one book that Quatre had picked up from the table.

Quatre blushed and pressed the book against his heart as he slowly sat down. "Well, actually, one is an English romance and the other is poetry."

Heero frowned. "How does reading material like that further the war effort?"

Quatre put the book beside him on the couch and then bent to retrieve his tea. He sipped at it cautiously, thinking of a suitable reply. "It helps me to relax after a mission," He replied at last. "Improving my mental state also improves my readiness to complete another mission successfully." He eyed Heero, trying to read beneath the granite like expression on the young man's face. "What do you do to wind down?"

"Four hours of exercise and two days downtime," Heero replied promptly.

"Oh," Quatre said in surprise. "I didn't realize that you were sleeping in your room during that time. You really sleep for two entire days?"

"It is necessary, since sleep during missions is usually unacceptable," Heero replied stonily.

Quatre frowned. "You don't sleep during a mission?"

"No," Heero replied and then fell silent.

It was like sitting next to a statue. It made Quatre uncomfortable enough to change his plans. "Well, I think I'll go out back and sit on the porch to read-"

"Shit!" A voice said above them on the landing. "Heero! Crap! Quatre! Somebody! Get me down these damn stairs!"

Heero was up like an uncoiled spring before Quatre could put down his tea. Quatre watched, with wide eyes, as Heero took the steps, two at a time, until he had reached a limping Duo. Without hesitation, Heero picked Duo up and carried him back down the stairs effortlessly. Duo smirked at Quatre as Heero placed him on the couch by the chess board and next to the blonde Arabian.

"You are freakin' determined to play this game, aren't you Heero?" Duo laughed. "I was just coming down for a snack. I didn't expect to find you waiting."

Duo's hair was glistening from his shower. It hung in wets strands all around him, unbound and drying on a towel he had placed over his shoulders. He had changed into black shorts and a black tank top. His wiry limbs were pale, bruised, and knotted where they were still healing. They were stark against the black, making him appear abused. His grinning face was at all odds with that appearance.

Heero grunted. "I informed you that the game itself was not of importance. Giving you factual information, that will give you understanding about the importance of being undercover at all times, is. There is also the matter of Deathscythe. We must set up a schedule of planning and training exercises that will assure our success in recovering your Gundam."

Duo looked pointedly at Heero's empty hands. "I don't see any pencils, laptop, or maps."

"I have perfect recall," Heero replied. "I will supply you with a written, detailed plan after our discussion."

Duo glanced at Quatre. Quatre stared back, confusion on his face. Duo turned back to Heero. "So, if the game isn't important to accomplishing any of that, then why are we sitting here and not in the map room, drawing room, library, or even upstairs in your room?"

Heero felt a flush. Why had he wanted their current position? The pain threatened. He fought with his mind, fought with a strange desire that wanted to ignore training and play a game of chess with Duo for no purpose, but to have the young man in his company. Heero fought with that desire. It was wrong. It wasted time. They had a mission to discuss. Duo's company would be attained either way, but playing the game of chess was more desirable. Why?

Duo waited, not understanding that Heero was on the cusp of torment unimaginable. Heero saved himself with a thought thrown from his subconscious like a life line. He began to speak and relax, knowing that this purpose conformed with his training. "I want to test your sense of strategy," he replied with surety. "Chess is a game of tactics that requires forethought and problem solving. It will help me to tailor the parameters of our missions to better fit your abilities."

Duo nodded seriously to all of that and then he smirked. "And you want to have some fun, right?" Heero began to protest, but Duo dismissed any protest with a wave of his hand. "Okay, Yuy, rack 'em up and I'll show you how Shinigami thinks."

Quatre rose with his tea and books. "I think I'll find a quieter spot," he sighed and began walking upstairs to his room. He glanced back and saw Duo cackling gleefully and Heero glaring at the chess pieces, preparing to make his first move. He could feel an attraction between them as strong as a steel cable. It puzzled him. They were so different, so opposed to each other's personalities. He could see a great deal of sadness ahead and he ached for them.

Quatre reached his room. After going inside and closing the door, he placed his tea and books on the bed side table and then took a moment to stretch languidly. Maybe a nap was more in order, he thought. He felt exhausted after watching Heero and Duo verbally fence with each other.

Hands, strong, long, and demanding, closed around Quatre possessively. He knew instantly who it was, and he wasn't alarmed, as one hand slid down into the waist band of his pants, capturing his cock. That hand worked it harshly as the other held him against a hard, tall body, and an obvious erection pressed against his backside. Bending him over the edge of the bed, Quatre's pants were jerked down and that cock thrust inside of him, the large hand continuing it's torturous torment of his cock.

Quatre wiggled uncomfortably. He kept himself lubed for just these sorts of attacks, long experience making him wise, but his attacker was still large and hard and he was small, narrow, and tight. The cock plundered him viciously, taking up an almost rutting, animalistic thrusting while that hot body stretched out over his back. Teeth grabbed Quatre's pink earlobe, and chewed. A tongue lapped and rasped at his face. That hand on his cock squeezed and then moved to wrap around the base of his balls. Holding him captive by them, Trowa Barton thrust as deep as he could and growled, "Love you," as he came in a spurting, hot gout inside of Quatre.

Without relieving him, Trowa Barton was gone, door closing quietly behind him, and Quatre was straightening, pants about his ankles and cum and lube starting a slow trail down his thighs. He smiled warmly and shrugged as he slipped off his pants completely and then headed for the bathroom to clean up and to relieve a raging hard on. Trowa's brand of love making was always silent and unexpected, but Quatre had found a thrill in that, a great pleasure in being possessed and made submissive to that kind of base lust. Trowa never hurt him, never left without proclaiming his love, but the pilot of Heavyarms was an enigma still, an ever silent, watchful, mystery that Quatre hoped to solve one day. And he did want to solve it, because, he had discovered some time ago, he loved Trowa too.

Quatre paused as he turned on the shower. He thought again of Heero and Duo, sitting in front of a chessboard and struggling to make sense out of what they were beginning to feel for each other. Quatre had thought it a strange, mismatched, perhaps doomed experiment between the two, but, who was he to judge such things? He was entertaining a lover who was a mere lustful shadow that he hadn't traded a dozen sentences with. He did hope for something more in the future. He didn't have any right to deny Duo and Heero that same kind of hope.

"Checkmate!" Duo's voice crowed, rising up even through the floorboards.

Quatre turned off the shower, straining for Heero's reply. "You cheated."

"Yes, I did," Duo replied, "But that's who I am. I'm a cheater. I don't play by the rules, Heero. I don't let people tell me to do things a certain way as if there wasn't another way that might be better. I cheated and I won."

Quatre could imagine Heero struggling with that concept and he smiled as he turned on the water again. He hoped that Duo's inventiveness would see them through their obstacles. He was certain that there was going to be a great deal of them.

[part 6] [part 8] [back to Kracken's fic]