Edge of Seventeen

Edge of 17- part fourteen

Contents: YAOI, AU, slight sap, angst, Duo POV, a few OC'S
Pairings: 2x4
Rating: PG-13
Author: Luna
Notes: felt like going back to my other favorite pairing. The title to this ficcie is a Stevie Nicks song. The lyrics to the song will be presented at the end of this fanfic.
Disclaimer: I don’t own GW or any of its characters. This is for entertainment purposes only. So please don’t sue. Thank you. ^_^

##Due to budget cuts the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off##
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My alarm went off. Yes! It’s party time! I got out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom. I must look good for the guests, especially those who I’ve never met yet. Oh, won’t they all be surprised to learn the truth finally?

Finished with my shower and doing my hair, I look in the mirror. “Hot damn, I look good!” I wiggle my eyebrows at myself. I hope Quatre will like what I’m wearing. It’s not very formal, and it’s not too casual either. I’m wearing a nice black button up shirt with a white turtleneck underneath. I have my best pair of slacks on with my leather belt, and my polished up boots.

“I’m spiffy!” I grin. I run downstairs and notice that Mrs. Winner already had stuff baking in the oven. It smelt heavenly.

“Good morning, Duo dear. My you’re looking rather handsome.”

I turned red. “Aww, garsh… thanks, mum. You’re sweet.”

“But it’s true, dear. Oh, and everyone will be here in about a half an hour. Quatre is still getting ready upstairs. I think he needs help with picking out a tie. Would you go up there and help him?”

“A tie?” I almost laugh. “Alright. I’ll go help Richie Rich.” I zoomed out and climbed the stairs again. Once at his door, I knock. I heard a faint ‘come in.’ so I opened the door.

The sight was divine. Quatre was in mostly white with a periwinkle blue vest. But that wasn’t the best part. He also had his shirt halfway buttoned and his belt undone. I ogled him for a while, and then finally got up behind him. He was looking in the mirror, trying to decide which tie would go better: the white one, or the periwinkle one.

“Wear the blue one.” I tell him, making him jump.

“Are you sure? I kind of like the white one.” He held it up in the air and inspected it with one eye.

“You’ve got plenty of white on right now, and besides that it goes with your vest. Here.” I take the periwinkle colored tie from him and wrap it under his collar. “See? It looks nicer.”

“Yeah, ok… you’re right, it does.” He brought his fingers down to start buttoning up his shirt. I halt his hands from continuing with their work. “Duo?”

“Hold on there. I want to examine the material first… and be the first one to ever touch the main attraction on his birthday.” I slip a hand inside of his shirt over his bare chest. I find what I’m looking for and begin to softly play with it.

“Duo… I have no time to be doing this right now… I need… ohhh… to get ready for…” he gasped.

I leaned my head down and sunk my teeth lightly where the neck meets the shoulder. Quatre hissed. I wrap my free arm around his skinny middle and pull him more taut next to me.

“So, is it my turn?” I ask.

“Huh?” he was half out of it.

“Is it my turn?”

“Your turn to what?”

“To please you.”

“Oh, Duo! You don’t always have to do THAT to please me. You’re already pleasing me by being with me.” he began to button the rest of his shirt up, “And I need you to behave yourself today. A lot of my relatives are coming over and some of them are real snobs. Especially my aunts and cousins. You must be nice to them. Understand?” he started to do his tie.

“Yeah, I understand. But it will be very hard to try keeping myself at bay around them. I can’t stand being formal for very long. I might lose my cool.”

“I think you’d be cool being formal to my relatives, love.”

“Ya think?” I smile. Quatre sighed loudly. “What?” I blink.

~~**~~

The party is in full swing! Well, it’s not necessarily swinging. Everyone here is as entertaining as a bag of rocks. I’m being myself and yet trying to be decent. I want to show them all what I’m like so they know what will be getting added to the family. Yeah, I know… I’m getting ahead of myself, but I can’t help thinking that I might soon become part of his family. I should try getting along with them then, right?

“Hello.” I smile, “I’m Duo Maxwell. I may not be very proper, but I’m no fool.”

“Oh, a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Maxwell.” The guy held out his hand, expecting me to shake it. “I’m Richard Fingerhead.”

I finally took his hand and shook it, hard. “Pleasure.” I smirked. Fingerhead?

“This is my dearest wife,” he said, finally getting his hand back, “Cardeena.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Duo Maxwell.” She held out her hand. I took it gently and then kissed the top.

“Bonjour, mademoiselle.” I wiggled my eyebrows. She blushed furiously and giggled. Her husband didn’t look too happy. “So then, you’re Quatre’s aunt and uncle?”

“That’s right.” Cardeena said, still blushing. “You’re smart as well as handsome.”

“He’s a long haired weirdo.” Richard sneered.

“Why, thank you, Dick.” I grinned.

“Don’t call me that, please.”

“What? Dick?”

“Yes!” Mr. Fingerhead growled.

“He’s sensitive about that, dear.” Cardeena said.

“Ah, I see.” I chuckled, “Ok then. Sorry about that Mr. Finger. See ya around.” I began to walk away.

“That’s Mr. Fingerhead!” he shouted. I could hear his wife laughing with amusement and then sigh loudly. I’ve still got it.

I got grabbed by the elbow and ushered to a private part of the house. I was a bit surprised to see whom it was that had the strength to pull me.

“Duo!” Quatre said in a quiet huff, “What do you think you’re doing??”

“I’m mingling with your relatives.” I smile. “Isn’t that what you wanted me to do?”

He brought a finger to each temple and started to rub them, “I didn’t mean for you to rile them up. I wanted you to behave yourself, remember?”

“Of course. That’s what I’m doing. This is the way I behave to snobs like this.”

“Duo, please… this is family. I know that you don’t like a lot of the rich folk, but please don’t try anything that will… get me in trouble, ok?”

“I just want to be myself. Besides, they should get to know the real me and know what to expect instead of putting on a fake mask for them to see. Quatre…” I sighed. I might as well tell him a bit about my past. “I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with the upper class. I’ve always been the rebel or street rat wherever I went. I was mocked and laughed at a lot by the rich. They never took pity on me, never cared enough to help me when I needed it… so why should I be polite to them when they’re never polite to us poor folk?” There, I said it.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Quatre didn’t look too happy.

“I see. Well, sorry to have wanted you to make a good impression on my family. I see that your pride and ego is bigger than your love for me and my feelings.” He started to walk away, “See you after the party.”

“Er… uh… wait a second!” I didn’t have time to think much; I just grabbed his elbow like he did to me and pulled him back over. “You ‘know’ how much I love you! So, don’t even start! I’m trying very hard to get along with them just because they’re your family.”

Quatre looked away and sighed heavily. “Duo, there’s a place and time for everything. Now isn’t the time to be bickering about this with me, and now isn’t the time to be holding onto some old grudge that happened to you when you were little. They aren’t the same people who mocked you. They’re my family and I love them all. Please try to start over with your feelings towards the upper class and see my family for who they really are.”

“A bunch of rich, stuck up snobs?” I raised an eyebrow.

“No! They’re my only friends and family that I’ve had since grade school, and they love me to pieces. That’s why they’re here, and that’s why they’re all giving me tons of gifts and money. They want to help me get a start in life and start saving for college.”

“Oh! Speaking of which… I got you a present too!” I smile.

“You really didn’t need to, Duo. You’re the only thing I need from you.”

“I’m sure you’ll like it.” I winked. “Not only that, but I get to give you your birthday spankings, don’t I?”

“Huh?” his eyes flashed open.

“Later tonight, I mean. Not in front of everyone.” I grin. “Oh yeah! And I get to give you this too!” I pressed him up against the wall and attack his mouth eagerly. He seemed to tense up but then slowly began to melt into the kiss and rub his hand up and down my chest. I release his lips.

“Duo, not now.” He blushed, “Someone might see…” I cut him off with another kiss, wanting to show him how much I need him. I slip my tongue into his searing mouth and play with his.

Suddenly we hear gasps coming from our right. We halt the kissing and peer over to see that a small group was staring wide-eyed and open mouthed at us. Quatre wasn’t looking too good so I took a hold of his shoulders and held him steady.

“You ok?” I ask.

“Well,” he said, after getting the color back in his cheeks, “I was going to make an announcement today about myself anyway.” He was shaking. I held onto him tighter.

“You gonna be ok?” Now I’m concern.

“Yeah. I will be. Maybe I should make my speech now.” He lifted himself away from the wall and walked over to the front of the room. He got on a footstool and balanced himself easily, looking around at the crowd in the room. I saw that his mother was in the kitchen looking on with worry in her eyes.

“May I have your attention?” he already had half of the room’s attention just by getting up on the stool. “I have an announcement to make.”

The crowd quieted down. All eyes were upon him as he cleared his throat.

“First off, I’m very pleased to see that all of my loving and dearest family members are here, and I’m very grateful for the gifts.” All applaud. I felt like gagging. “I’m hoping that you all will not think ill of me as I am about to tell you a big secret of mine that I’ve kept for years now. My parents found out about 6 months ago about my secret, so I don’t think it would be fair to keep it from the rest of you.”

Quatre waved a hand at me to come over to him. I was a bit nervous, but I happily obliged and walked over to stand next to the man I loved.

“Those who don’t know, this is Duo Maxwell. He has been with me for about 6 and a half months. I am unashamed to say, that I love him and I always will love him.”

Gasps and murmurs surround the whole room. Quatre looked down at his feet, slightly embarrassed.

“Yes, you probably guessed it. I’m gay. I have been my whole life, but I’ve always been afraid to say anything. I’m sorry if this is bad news for some of you. But I hope that you will not love me any less and learn to accept the fact that I have accepted Duo into my life. He may not be as genteel or as urbane as one might wish, but he’s very sweet to me and he loves me for who I am. And I love him… very, very much.”

The crowd started to talk amongst themselves, and others have come over to ask Quatre some questions when the phone rang.

“Quatre! Could you come here, please?”

Quatre excused himself from his family and walked over to the kitchen where his mother was standing. I followed him there, being very curious.

“What is it, mother?” he asked.

“It’s…” Mrs. Winner had tears in her eyes, “Your father… there’s been an accident…”

I could see his heart being crushed by the weight of those eyes.

~TBC~