Author: Rae
Warning: Started as PWP and only has enough plot to get from one lemon to another. 1x2, 13x5, and other assorted couples as I see fit. I've introduced angst and an element that is only partially explained here (keyword: pills). There's a better explanation in the next part.
Feedback: I love it! Write to me, talk to me, feed me! You'll be my new best friend (or not).
Disclaimer: I don't own it, them, or me.
Summary: After a bad day, Duo meets a stranger who seems able to make it better. What happens when he gets both less and more than what he expected?

Contact at Pub in a Tub + Part 4

Sunday afternoons the Pub in a Tub received its regulars, older gentlemen who sat and watched sports on the television after church. Normally, Duo spent Sundays at home going over work, or with his cousin and her roommate, guy watching. This Sunday, however, he wasn't feeling in the best mood to be alone or with his men-obsessed family, so he opted for a median: the Pub in a Tub.

As expected, Tayles was behind the counter, drying glasses that were probably already dry and running a commentary on the game to one of the patrons on a stool. Duo slid into a booth and let his head bang on the table. He knew that she'd see him eventually and come over to talk. She was just what he needed: a friend who didn't expect anything from him but his company on the occasional evening.

"Bloody hell, Duo! What happened to bring my chipper little man so low?" she asked, her accent more pronounced than when she normally greeted him. She pushed him over and sat next to him wrapping one arm around his shoulder in a half-embrace.

He looked at her, his normally violet eyes turned cobalt, the irises darkened with emotion. "What is wrong with me? Why can't I just find a normal guy?" He sighed and looked down at the table. "It never fails. Just when things start to look good, something happens and I'm left feeling more lonely than ever before."

"Ah, Duo." She sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Eventually, you'll find someone who makes you happy. Just because this guy didn't turn out that way-"

"Most guys would be so happy that they're getting laid, and I think I would be too, if it wasn't for him."

"He's not good in bed?" she asked, curious.

"Actually, he's wonderful. Very skilled."

"But that's not the problem, is it?"

"No. You know, I used to jump in bed with anything that walked, and then I made Fei wait because I thought Q-man was right when he said that celibacy would be good for me. But I took one look at Heero and remembered why I used to like having sex, but I'm thinking that it wasn't just physical."

Her brows creased together for a moment in concentration. "I don't understand," she admitted finally, squeezing his shoulder.

"I don't either." And therein lies the problem, Duo thought.

+

Monday dawned gray and miserable, and Duo got up to go to work like he always did. He got dressed in his suit and tie, tucked his braid in, ate a quick and un-tasted breakfast of oatmeal, and then left to find his bus. The ride was uneventful other than getting there, as were the walk to the elevator, the ride upstairs, and the walk to his office.

Of course, nothing can happen for only so long before something happens. On his door was a note from his supervisor, informing him that he had less than an hour to prepare for a surprise presentation with some hotshot exec. Duo ripped the note down and threw it away, mumbling "Same shit, different day" as he got to work.

Forty-five minutes later, a woman knocked on his door to inform him that he was thirty seconds shy of being late. He groaned, picked up his briefcase and files, and shuffled into the hallway after her. "Bad weekend, Duo?" Noin asked calmly. He rolled his eyes, doubting that she really cared. She was one position away from having his job and he knew that she'd like nothing better than to step onto his rung and knock him down.

"It was peachy. Like a mini-vacation with a side trip to hell." She looked at him sharply, her lips pressing together. Tiredly, he grinned back. She frowned when she noticed that most of his usual charm was missing. He shrugged. "Don't worry yourself. Another few days of this and you can have any job you want, because I'll have snapped and killed all of the senior executives."

She looked at him sharply but let it slide as they walked into the conference room. Une held the door for them, but didn't shut it once they were inside, signaling that she was waiting for someone else. Duo took his seat and let his briefcase thump down beside him as he waited, not bothering to take out the reports he would be asked for. Let the bastard vice-president that ran the meeting know that he was unprepared. He couldn't care less.

Until a familiar man walked into the room and shocked everyone into silence. Heero strode purposefully to the chair at the front of the room and sat in it, instantly taking control. Une sat on his left after shutting the door and everyone else held their breaths.

"My name is Heero Yuy. Your company is merging with Gundam Enterprises, a subsidiary of Winner Corp. Your president and vice- president have agreed to our buy-out and have left the bulk of their employees in the hands of our company, which means that you all now work for me. Anyone that has a problem with that will be offered a buy-out at the end of the week, but -everyone- is expected to fulfill the requirements of their jobs until then."

Duo stared at him in stunned fascination as Heero began to methodically go through a list in his hands.

+

The meeting was ended shortly before the scheduled lunch hour, and Duo was only too happy to run to the sanctity of his office, shutting and locking the door behind him before he curled into his chair in the darkness.

The meeting had been a total disaster. Heero had informed everyone, including Duo, that they're work wasn't up to par with GE standards and that they'd all have to improve their quality, suffer a demotion, or take the buy-out.

Now Duo had to redo his work to satisfy his new boss, who also happened to be his weekend lover, who also happened to be the man he'd complained about work in front of, who also happened to be the man that Duo was afraid he was falling in love with. All in all, Heero would not have been his first choice for a boss.

A knock sounded on the door and he looked up to see the shadows of two people in the light spilling under it. He kept quiet and waited for them to go away, but the people on the other side of the door murmured something and then a key scraped in the lock, making him realize that he wasn't getting away that easily.

He stood up and stomped across the small space, throwing the door open as he flicked the light on. He stared defiantly at Heero and Une, who stood on the other side. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Une looked at him with surprise, but Heero seemed undaunted. She regained her composure and said authoritatively, "Mr. Yuy has informed me that you know each other, and with your knowledge of the company, I think it would be best if you showed him around."

"Yeah, sure," Duo agreed easily enough. "But after I eat."

She gaped at him, taken aback with his attitude. Heero simply nodded. "I'll bring the car around."

Then he was gone, and Une was left standing outside Duo's door as he shut it, her mind trying to figure out what had just happened. Her new boss, who she had accepted at once as having nerves of steel and a dislike of taking orders, had just complied with Duo Maxwell, the young man she -knew- would always be more of a follower than a leader.

Somehow, something seemed seriously wrong, but she didn't think that she wanted to know what it was.

+

"Well, well. If it isn't the happy couple," Dorothy crooned sarcastically the moment Duo and Heero entered the pub. "I'm surprised, Heero. I don't think any of your other toys have lasted this long."

"Probably because he isn't a `toy', you delusional wench," Tayles called almost cheerfully from behind the counter. Duo blinked at her in confusion and she gave him a jaunty wave. "Afternoon, guv. What's your pleasure?"

Duo started for the counter, but Heero steered him for a booth in the back corner. "We'll have two club sandwiches and two ice waters, please."

"Um, yeah," Duo sat down in the booth and leaned across the table to stare at Heero as the other man sat across from him. "I can order for myself, you know."

"Which would you prefer to do, Duo? Argue or talk?" Heero asked calmly. Tayles brought them their water, spared a dark, suspicious glance at Heero, and went back behind the bar. Dorothy was sitting at the far end of the bar on a stool, a red drink in a fluted glass in front of her.

Duo looked at Heero and shrugged. "I guess I'd rather talk, since we didn't manage that once all weekend." He reached across the table and held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Duo Maxwell."

"Yuy Heero," Heero shook his hand with a small smile. "It's nice to meet you, Duo."

Determined not to be charmed, though that smile hit him straight in the gut, he withdrew his hand and leaned back. "My biggest secret is that I used to be a whore, and then I was celibate, and this last weekend, I picked up a strange guy that falls asleep almost immediately after sex."

"My biggest secret is that I've been taking a drug that is supposed to increase a man's sex drive, but just this morning I was informed that any physical exertion could cause me to lose consciousness."

"You're on a drug that makes you pass out?" Duo asked skeptically, though he leaned a little closer to the table. Heero nodded, but refrained from comment as Tayles set their plates on the table. She looked at Duo and raised an eyebrow.

"Everything okay, guv?" He nodded and smiled slightly. She seemed to relax and even offered Heero a smile. "Since you two seem to be getting on, I'm going to go deal with the saucy wench at my bar." She paused and asked Heero quietly, "Any idea how I can get rid of her?"

He hesitated before answering and then waved her closer, so that he could whisper in her ear without Duo overhearing. When he was done, she pulled back and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Bloody hell! Do you think I'm that much of a loon? Gah!" she huffed and stomped away.

One of Duo's eyebrows rose. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing much. If she's smart, she'll do as I said," he answered cryptically. Duo turned to watch the bartender as she stalked behind the counter. She stopped at the sink and picked up a washcloth, her head down. Slowly, she looked up and glanced at Dorothy. The other woman was watching her and their eyes met. Tayles threw the rag down and walked towards Dorothy, her face set.

Tayles said something and Dorothy looked stunned, but then she smiled and nodded. Tayles nodded and turned and stomped away. Shortly after, Dorothy placed her money on the table and left.

"Okay, now you have to explain that, "Duo said, turning back to face Heero. He swallowed hard: the blue-eyed man was leaning across the table, his eyes dark, lips twisted upwards. "Heero?" Duo exhaled the name breathlessly. A smile slowly crept up his face. "You didn't take any of those pills today, did you?"

"Nope." Heero shook his head, his lids half-closed over his eyes.

"Want to take our lunch back to the office? I heard that the vice- president's office is soundproof."

"Really? What a coincidence. I just took over that office." He smirked as he said it. "Shall we hurry with our lunch and head back?"

Duo was quick to agree.

+

They walked back into the office building side-by-side. Heero looked much the same as when they had left, but Duo was wearing a big grin. Noin took one look at them and kissed away her hopes for Duo's job. Une actually blocked their way to ask if they'd had a chance to tour yet.

"No. Maxwell and I were just going up to my office to look over his report. We agreed that it would be easiest to form a -working- relationship," he lightly stressed the second to last word, but Une wasn't sure if she'd heard it, "if he knew exactly what I wanted from him."

Duo smothered a chuckle behind a cough and tried to look as innocent as possible. What they were really planning on doing was christening Heero's office in the most unprofessional of ways. They got into the elevator, and he waved goodbye to Une. When the doors closed behind them, Une looked at Noin.

"Is it just me?"

The dark-haired woman shook her head. "No."

Une sighed. "I'm going to get a drink. Office policy be damned. I haven't seen Maxwell that happy since the last time he replaced my white out with glitter nail polish."

"He grinned at me like that the day he ordered lunch for everyone on the fourth floor in my name."

+

They stopped the elevator on the third floor by accident. Heero had pressed Duo against the control panel, and their activity had caused Duo to press into the `stop' button. They broke apart, laughing in amused frustration as they restarted the elevator.

The top floor of the office building was reserved for the president, vice-president, and the peons directly beneath them on the executive ladder. Heero and Duo walked towards Heero's office with single- minded intensity, but were thwarted by Dorothy's presence.

"Ah, here come the happy lovers now. Heero, I've talked to Relena and she agrees that you can stop taking the hormones now. Since they're not going to do her any good, she doesn't care what you do with them. I told her that the side effects would be enough to counter any happiness the pills could bring you, but the thought of the runt there enjoying her secret weapon was just too much."

"Secret weapon?" Duo asked, confused. Heero simply stood there, staring at Dorothy for a moment before he sighed.

"My office, please. Dorothy, you are not invited."

She shrugged, taking no offense to his attitude. "Have fun, stud."

He ignored her and followed Duo into his office, shutting and locking the door behind him.

He was instantly besieged by Duo, who pinned him against the door with his body. "Talk later, play now." Duo kissed him as he pulled him down. They lay out on the floor, Heero leaning over Duo and looking down at his lover. Duo looped his arms loosely around Heero's neck, smiling up at him.

Heero placed his left hand on Duo's chest and gently smoothed the material of his shirt, his fingers playing with each of the buttons without undoing them. Duo crossed his right leg over Heero's left and brought their hips and thighs together.

They kissed again, smiling into each other's mouths. Duo rested his right hand on Heero's shoulder, his left on Heero's hip. A hand tangled in his braid, holding his head down as Heero invaded his mouth with a gentle tongue, the muscle dancing playfully with his own.

They made love slowly, peeling their clothes off in layers. Heero pulled Duo's braid free and trailed it out so that it lay coiled on the floor. For the first time, they took the time to learn the other's body, kissing and licking at their own leisure as the workday wore on. Duo laved at the sensitive area on Heero's side that he had found once before, while Heero's hands rubbed erotic patterns into the skin of his hips, thighs, and buttocks.

Naked bodies pressed together finally, Heero supporting himself on his elbows so that he could look down at Duo as he rubbed his erection against Duo's entrance. He watched as Duo's breath caught, his neck arching back in the throes of passion as his hips bucked. His chest rose and fell with each breathless pant as Heero slowly entered him, pushing through the puckered entrance with maddening slowness.

They had no lubrication or condoms, nothing to make the joining less painful for Duo, but the braided man had refused to let go of Heero. Wordlessly, he had pressed his body to Heero's, his legs wrapping around the other man's body to hold him in place as his hands clenched on Heero's shoulders.

It was painful, but Duo stifled the sounds of pain that invaded his throat and instead concentrated on the feeling of the man above him, focusing all of his attention on the sensation of touching him and being touched by him. When finally their bodies were joined, Heero pressed a kiss against his forehead.

"You really are something, you know that?" he asked Duo, his voice soft. A violet eye slitted open and looked up at him before the other followed, until Duo was staring up at him.

"Just know that if you fall asleep on me this time, we're done." He tried to say it jokingly, but Heero caught the undertone of bitterness in his voice. It shouldn't have had a place in their love- making, but it was there in the words, the expression, everything.

He kissed Duo's jaw, his cheek, and his ear. "I'm sorry." Duo opened his mouth just as Heero rolled his hips, and whatever he had been about to say was lost in a throaty moan. He smiled and repeated the action. Duo's nails dug into his shoulders, but he didn't mind. The look of rapture on Duo's face as he flexed his hips for the third time was enough to drown out everything else.

He used one hand to push himself up and reached the other between their bodies to grasp Duo's cock. As he pulled in and out of Duo, he stroked Duo's penis in time to the rhythm, keeping both slow to reduce the abrasive quality of mating without lube.

In a matter of minutes, he brought Duo to orgasm, his own body nearly tumbling over the edge when Duo tightened around him. His hand and chest became sticky with Duo's seed and he smiled at the sight of his lover, replete beneath him.

They snuggled close together, putting off the time that they'd have to find a way to get cleaned up and join the rest of the world. Heero rolled onto his back, pulling Duo with him until the braided man was half-lying on his lover, his head resting on his chest.

"If I tell you something, will you promise not to freak?" Duo asked quietly. Heero grunted affirmatively, his hand playing along the length of Duo's braid absent-mindedly. The pills weren't completely out of his system, but he was fighting their effect as best he could. "You're the first person I've been with in two years, except for Wufei. And Wufei is just a really long story."

"Hm-hm." Heero mumbled when Duo paused, obviously waiting for him to say something.

"Back when I slept with anything that would walk, I didn't even think that sex could be something more. Then Quatre and I had our heart to heart and I decided that I wanted sex to mean something. The first time that Wu and I had sex, I knew he wasn't The One, and that was pretty much it."

"Mm?"

"But the moment I saw you, I wanted you. It was physical, there's no doubt about that, but it went deeper, too. I knew the moment I heard you speak that you were the one I wanted. You were The One."

"... "

Duo growled. "Fucking hell! You fell asleep again, just in the middle of my bloody speech!" He paused to draw in a deep breath. "Now I'm swearing like Tayles. I guess since you're not awake to freak out on me, this is as good a time as any to tell you that I'm in love with you." No response. He lifted his head to look at Heero. "It would figure."

He laid his head back down and decided that a quick nap wouldn't hurt him. He snuggled closer to Heero and closed his eyes. "I -do- love you, Heero. You narcoleptic freak [1]."

+

[1] This is not to offend anyone that has narcolepsy or to offend those that know someone with narcolepsy. Narcs are not freaks, nor should they be treated as such.

End note: Well... that was fun. I wonder what Tayles said to Dorothy... actually, -I- know, but the rest of you have to wait until the next chapter.

A quick note: Tayles is based on the girl that beta-ed this fic. Back when FF.net was still working worth a damn, she was my 500th review and I started Contact as a gift fic to her. It was supposed to be a one-shot *grins*. Her requirements: 1x2. Lemon. OC-insertion (namely her). When I started expanding it, she volunteered to beta it.

+

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