Title: Rainbow Sherbet (4/P+11)
Author: Bronze Tigress
Genre: yaoi lemon lemon with plot plot

For this Part:
Pairings: 5x2, 3+D permanent; 2+3+5
Rating: NC-17 for adult topics of discussion
Warnings: yaoi, language, skin
Spoilers: minor for Duo's Episode Zero

Special Disclaimer: I didn't create the music referred to in this
part, either, but I do own my own copy...

For overall rating, full range of pairings, full warnings, full spoiler
notices, author notes, and disclaimer see Prologue.

~*~*~*~*~
Part 4:

At ten minutes before the main day shift ends, late that afternoon,
Trowa stands up and gets his gear together. This, now, is more unusual
than the silence he has kept through most of the day, since Trowa isn't
known for skipping out of work early. None of the six ex-Gundam pilots
are, really; they have that much in common, as well as being numbered
among Une's top - and most specialized - Agents. "You leaving early
today?"

"Ah, no; I wanted to check over something with Maxwell and Chang before
I go; they brought back that V7-19 file this afternoon."

"Ah, that's fine then. See you tomorrow."

The errand isn't entirely faked; Trowa does want to check something
with the two, but it's more a question of dinner arrangements than cases.
Given Trowa's cooking skills - which according to him will suffice for
either one or forty, but rarely anything in between - they decide on
takeout and agree to meet back at the couple's home in an hour's time,
since they are all familiar with the small size of the single quarters.

Dinner is German - schnitzel, spaetzle, kraut, carrots, and peas - and
the conversation, as might be expected, has turned again to matters
personal. This evening it is Duo's turn to share some of the details of
the less-pleasant times of his life, when he was more or less alone on
the streets after the Church burned down and before he managed to get
himself caught thieving by a Gundam scientist(1). It is easy for his two
listeners to see where some of his idiosyncrasies originate, as the
story unfolds. Wufei, who had heard most of the tale before, is startled
by a few of the more explicit details which had not previously been
shared, but not terribly surprised; he has had to deal with a few odd side
effects of Duo's past already.

Duo's stories continue on through dinner, cleanup, and into the living
room with cups of cocoa. "And, see, that was the thing," Duo says as
they take their seats there. "She told me she didn't think it was
possible, until Tabitha showed her otherwise. She quit the street not too
long after that. Dunno where she went, but Tabs said she'd realized she
was worth more than that. I thought at the time maybe that meant she
moved to one of the more expensive districts, you know? But Tabs didn't
seem to think so, said she'd mentioned finding a job she was proud of.
So who knows where she went? But I can't forget how Liss looked just
before she left - like she had hope, again, and like she was *sure*
something good was just waiting for her 'round the next corner. Never saw
her look like that before, it was always like she was just waiting for
the next *bad* thing to happen. I never did find out what happened -
Tabs wouldn't tell me, said I was too little to have to know stuff like
that - but I've got a few guesses - especially now." He grins at his
partner at that, making it fairly obvious just what those guesses
entail.(2)

"And then just after that," he continues, "things started going right
for me for a change. In the next couple of weeks, I managed to finally
get myself a new outfit, including the surcoat even, to replace the
collection of patches I'd been wearing. And a lot of other good stuff
too, although the circumstances were pretty dodgy sometimes. It hadn't
even been a whole month after that when I got caught by G and the
Sweepers. At first I didn't think getting caught was so good, but then I met
'Scythe, and well... Anyway, you know how it turned out after that.

"And the best part of all, I guess, was getting to know you guys and
work with you all. I named myself for my first two families, but now,
you guys, you're my family now, too. Like you said back in May, Tro,
we're all brothers. There's nobody else who did what we did, who could
know what it's like to be a Gundam pilot, to live through what we did.
And I'm starting to think maybe, just maybe, I can let Shinigami go,
now. Hell, we all damn near died in the war. And we're all still alive
now. Maybe I'm *not* cursed after all, y'know?"

Wufei puts his now-empty cup down on the low table, gently detaches
Duo's fingers from his to put it down as well, and draws his lover into
his lap in a comforting hug. "We all lost our families to the wars, Duo.
It is merely that some of us had them for longer to begin with, or
found replacements earlier and for longer. You and Merquise named
yourselves; Triton and Yui wore the names of others - and Yui still does. Only
Winner and I knew our given families for long enough to count. We are
all war orphans - although I was deemed a man before I lost what family
I had, so perhaps I would not be counted so. We have all paid the
price for the lives we took in the lives of those we loved. Your curse, if
curse it truly is, is shared by us all now. I believe, altogether, we
should end up being only one-sixth dead each, hm?"

"I've said it before, Wufei, and I'll have to say it again - you *are*
a strange one... but probably correct. I wonder which parts of me are
gonna die?"

"Silly," notes Wufei, swatting playfully at Duo's arm, "I am trying to
be serious here!"

"I know! I know..." Duo wriggles away from the swat, not quite
incidentally managing to squirm enticingly against Wufei's lap. "Anyway,
Tro," he says, turning towards their guest again, "that's why you're here.
I couldn't help Tabs get out, or any of the other walkers, but I can
use what I learned from them to make things better for someone else. And
what I've learned from Wufei, too - not just about going on from here,
but what he finally figured out about righteous justice. It's not
about revenge. It's about setting things right again, and how to do
that... Hmm... jussec..."

With that, he squirms out of Wufei's lap, stands, and walks over to the
AV system in the corner, flicks it on, sets it to audio, and then flips
quickly through a few screens before finding what he is looking for.
Soft guitar chords and a raspy male voice starts to sing, words that
speak startlingly close to home for both Trowa and Duo, and then the
singer breaks into a more melodic chorus that enjoins the listener to "kiss
the past goodbye".(3)

"Very end of the 20th AD - you're sure not the first, and I doubt
you'll be the last, Tro, 'cause it's just the same thing over and over, in
every time period. But you've gotta let it go, because the alternative
is to lose yourself."

"And you can help...?"

"Have we not already begun to?" is Wufei's answering query. "You spent
the day locked in your own thoughts, according to Merquise. What did
your contemplations gain you?"

"A heck of a blush and a few other problems, actually."

Duo snorts with laugher. "Okay, aside from the wood, what'd you get
out of it? I think we already decided that you'd seen something
unprecedented. The question is, knowing it's possible, what do you want to do
about it? What's next, Tro?"

"I guess, really, that depends on what you're offering..."

"Whatever it takes, I think; right, Dragon-baby?"

"I will not be answering that unless you stop with the nickname..."

Duo kisses Wufei on the nose, eliciting a sputter, and then presses a
soft kiss to his lips in apology, before turning back to Trowa. "How
about, you tell us what you think will help, and we see from there? You
need to talk? Great, we can do more of that, in as much detail as you
like. You need to see? um... This *really* isn't a theatre, but...
You need to do? We've already discussed that between us, and we can do
that. It's why we'd originally suggested the weekend. Regardless, I
believe you get the detailed lecture on the anatomical differences and
how those work from Wufei..." Wufei nods at that.

"Ah... hm. All of the above?" Trowa sounds hopeful, but hesitant, as
if he is afraid he is asking for far more than he is entitled to.

"Okay. You need to do - which role?"

"Ah..." Trowa is lost for words at how easily the request is granted.
"Okay?" Disbelief clearly tinges the word.

"I run, I hide, but..."

"You never lie. 'Okay' it is then. Fah..." More disbelief, shading
into surprised acceptance.

"Triton." Wufei leans over and takes Trowa's chin in one hand, turning
his face and looking directly into his eyes. "You are our brother. We
love you. Not in the same way as each other, of course, but that is as
it should be, since you have someone already who does. We would not
have offered were we not willing, nor had we not believed you were worthy
of the gift. Do not question that; ask yourself, instead, what you are
willing and able to accept of it."

"And what you can live with," Duo adds, "and what you're going to tell
Dorothy - which, by the way, you might want to think about doing
sometime real soon. I know what they say about forgiveness and permission,
but it doesn't work that way with this sort of thing in relationships.
Trust me on this one."

"Ah, yeah. True." Trowa thinks for a moment. "Can we try for both?
Roles, that is? I think that would probably help, having a better
experience to look back on. That assumes it *will* be one, mind." Glances
at both of his friends' faces, however, show him only the certainty
that it will be. "I know I want to have *some* idea of what I'm doing
with Doro. And you're right. I'm going to see about talking to her about
this tomorrow or Friday. She deserves to know - not just what I'm
going to be doing this weekend, but why, and why I was putting her off
before, since it's become obvious that distancing myself wasn't really
keeping her from hurting."

"No, it was not. Good. In fact, if you like, you can call her now?"
Wufei waves towards the phone with one hand.

"Hmm. Thanks, appreciate it." That said, Trowa quickly makes use of
the vidphone to place a call to his girlfriend, making a date for the
following evening. "Okay, all set. And, I told her the three of us had
something for the weekend, so she knows not to tag us for Saturday's
Tea party. So, now what?"

"Well, either you go home and sleep on it some, or you stay for a while
and practice a bit."

"Practice?" Trowa looks blankly puzzled by the second option Duo has
just put forth. "What do you mean?"

"Tro, think about it. You're planning to spend Saturday in bed with
us. That means naked, full body contact. Tell me you're ready for
that?"

Trowa blinks. "Eh... no, I suppose not."

"Didn't think so. We can start a little slower than that, okay? 'Fei,
do we still have some of that massage oil, or the body lotion?" Duo is
already working on undoing his shirt buttons as he speaks, and once
again turns to the AV, this time picking some soft instrumental music that
sounds to Trowa like an odd combination of traditional Chinese music
with some decidedly newer and much more Western instruments and themes.
It is softly soothing, little ripples of sound floating gently about
the room.(4) "There, it's set to loop, so if you hate it tell me now
before I get... aloe lotion all over my hands." This last is in response
to the bottle Wufei has just returned with and is holding up for
inspection.

"Back rubs all around, I take it? Good idea. But, perhaps I should do
Triton's first, and then he can do yours? That way he has to pay
attention to what I'm doing, and you will be able to tell if he was. If
that works for you both...?" Getting a nod from Duo, he turns to Trowa,
and waits until he nods as well before continuing. "Good. You will
need to take the shirt off, Triton. Hmm. Are you going to be comfortable
in those pants or do you want to borrow a pair of Duo's sweats? His
should fit you; I am sure mine would be too short..."

Trowa is, once again, caught blinking and feeling rather confused. In
fact, he is beginning to think that he has been in a continual state of
slightly dazed confusion for most of the past 24 hours and then some.
"Ah... isn't the point of this exercise to get the clothes *off*?" It
is notable that even as he is speaking, his hands are moving to undo
his cuffs, and then the front of his shirt.

"No," Duo replies, "the point of the exercise is to get you a bit more
comfortable with - or at least more used to - skin contact. It
wouldn't help to start off by making you uncomfortable. We're already pushing
things *way* faster than we probably ought to be. You say the word, we
stop. It's up to you. Like that juggling trick, I guess; we'll keep
tossing in knives as fast as you can keep working 'em in, but
ultimately, *you* are in charge of how far this goes."

Trowa assesses that statement quietly, fingers still working at
buttons, noting especially that it comes from Duo, and what that implies. By
the time he has pulled the shirt off and folded it, he has evidently
come to a decision, because as he straightens from putting the shirt on
the couch, he reaches for his belt buckle, undoing it. The pants button
and zipper are next, accompanied by a rather startled, "Tro?" from Duo.

"It's okay, Duo. I take my shirt off in front of thousands of people
every time I'm on stage with the Circus; I think I can handle you two
seeing me with no pants, right? Where do you want me, Wufei?" The pants
in question have already been slipped off slender hips and dropped to
the floor, and Trowa steps gracefully out of them, then bends to pick
them up and fold them, putting them neatly atop the shirt.

Wufei waves him towards the tatami - a much-appreciated
apartment-warming gift from Heero - and with a shrug, begins taking his own uniform
off as he heads into the bedroom. He is back inside a minute, dressed
again in the loose red pants he wore the night before. His hair is still
pulled back in its tail, however. In the meantime, Trowa, wearing
socks and skivvies as if it were just another costume, has arranged himself
face-down on the mat, head pillowed on folded arms, legs stretched out,
knees and ankles together and one foot tucked under the other. Duo
manages to close his mouth about the same time as Wufei makes his
reappearance, then shakes his head abruptly, mutters something that sounds
rather like, "Didn't think it'd be *that* easy", and takes himself off to
the bedroom to change as well.

Wufei walks around beside Trowa's face, looks down, and shakes his
head. "Triton? Could you either turn your head the other way, or move
your hair? I need to be able to see your expressions..." Trowa's whole
body stiffens almost imperceptibly, and there is no response for a
moment, so Wufei continues, "It is only that it is usually quicker to tell
if something is hurting you from your facial expressions than by relying
on reading muscle tensions. Triton..." Wufei's voice holds a measure
of concern as he kneels above the young man's head, laying one hand
lightly on his friend's forearm, "Do you need to stop, or wait for a bit?"

The voice and hand draw Trowa's attention, and he draws a deep breath
and holds it a moment before breathing out again and saying, "No, Wufei,
I'm okay. Just... funny what makes us feel most vulnerable, right? I
don't recall ever being really comfortable with showing my face, and I
can't even remember why."

"Surely you are not ashamed of it?" Wufei is more than a little
surprised by the thought. "This is not a face to be embarrassed by!"

"Ahh..."

"Heh. Let him be, 'Fei. A face that beautiful draws too much
attention, when you're trying to go unnoticed. It's no wonder. I knew the
pants were too easy..." Duo's voice is bright but sympathetic to begin
with, and slides immediately through the slightest touch of appreciative
lust right into slightly disappointed understanding. "It's not so bad,
when the audience can't really see you, nor you them, right?"

Trowa nods, then speaks again. "Thanks... really, Duo. You're right,
it's not the same. Then again, like you said, this isn't a show,
right?"

Duo shakes his head. "Nope. Just us. We're in this together;
nobody's watching, nobody's judging. It's okay to take the mask off, Tro.
This is a safe place; we're here for you..."

Trowa nods against his arms. "Okay..." He lifts his head enough to
brush his bangs down, off his face, before dropping it back down. His
eyes are closed, so he misses the view of Duo back in the black pants
he'd admired the evening before. Wufei doesn't, however, as he turns to
smile his gratitude to his mate for the intervention.

"Very well, then. Shall we begin, Triton? I'm going to move over to
your side here, and... lotion, Duo? Thank you..." He warms it in his
palms before continuing the soft patter of explanatory speech, "We
start at the shoulders, just so..." Wufei's voice continues as his hands
do, always one step ahead of any movement, hands never losing contact
with Trowa's skin, although periodically one turns over. Trowa realizes
that Duo must be giving Wufei more lotion at those moments, although
there is never a difference in temperature, so he assumes Duo must be
warming it as well.

Wufei works his way slowly across the entire expanse of Trowa's back,
gradually moving downwards and outwards, ending at the small hollow
where the top of the hipbone intersects with the spine, and tracing that
line gently outwards, finally resting his hands gently at Trowa's waist
as he announces that he is done, and how is that?

"Mmnnnn..." Trowa seems to almost shake himself out of (yet another)
daze. "And here I thought *I* was the one who's supposed to be good
with skittish creatures..." He rolls each shoulder and then stretches,
oddly without having to get up, but somehow managing to test each muscle
along his spine. He ends by rocking his head in several directions.
"I certainly know where to come when a mission goes strange and I have
to play pretzel to get us out of it, now, that's for sure. Thank you,
Wufei, that was..."

"Something else for the data file?" is Duo's suggestion. Trowa
actually chuckles at that, then blinks his eyes open and begins gathering
himself together to kneel up beside where he had been lying.

"Alright, then, let's see how much of that I can remember. Your turn,
Duo, right?" He indicates the space between himself and Wufei with a
sweeping gesture. Duo accordingly flops himself down in the indicated
space, head on arms and legs loosely laid out, slightly apart. He has,
however, somehow managed to tuck his hair under his neck and has the
end of the braid tucked into his hands. Wufei raises an eyebrow when he
notices that but makes no other comment. "Now, we start with some
lotion, right? Wufei?" Trowa holds out a hand, palm up, and is given a
small amount of the lotion which he is instructed to warm by rubbing it
in his hands before beginning, then moves to start at Duo's shoulders.

At first, Trowa seems hesitant, until a too-soft touch on a ticklish
spot causes a giggled yelp and an almost growled admonishment to use
firmer pressure. Things proceed smoothly after that. As Trowa's hands
move across Duo's back, his focus gradually shifts from the actual
movements his hands are making and the specific firmness of touch required, to
the way it feels, and he begins to realize how pleasant it is to be
able to simply run his hands over that expanse of skin. Too soon, it
seems, he is done.

By that point, it is getting well into the evening, and Trowa, needing
to take care of some of his own household chores, opts to return home
for the night rather than staying in the guest room again. And so, a
few minutes later he is dressed and shod again. This time, however, he
requires no prompting to draw Duo into a light hug before kissing him
goodnight, or to then accord the same treatment to Wufei, before rather
shyly thanking them both, and taking his leave.

"And you, Dragon - your turn now?" Duo's voice suggests far more than
just the returned massage as he turns to lead the way back to the
tatami. Wufei closes the door, then, leaving Trowa to guess at the
remainder of the conversation as he heads down the hallway towards home.

~*~*~*~*~

(1) As far as I can tell from Duo's Episode Zero, there are a good
four years between when the Maxwell Church is bombed and when Duo is
picked up by the Sweepers group.

(2) Tabs and Liss aren't canon, they're mine.

(3) The song is Aerosmith's "Kiss Your Past Goodbye", from the 1997
"Nine Lives" album; as for the online stereo - the technology is already
available for this.

(4) This album is by ShaoRong, titled "Orchid", from 2000; highly
recommended if you can find it.

Next ---> Rainbow Sherbert 5

comments so far? e-mail Bronze Tigress!