Author: Enchantress101
see part 1 for warnings, disclaimer

WARNING: Some bad language near the end of the chapter.

Shades of Obsession + Chapter 10
Just Call Me Daddy

Now it was time for my favorite part of the day--lunch! I tried to put the depressing information that I'd learned a few hours ago behind me for the welfare of my digestive system. I hooked my arm in Quatre's and, along with Wufei, Heero, Zechs and Trowa, we went down to the cafeteria.

I was successful in getting Quatre to buy something other than a plate of lettuce, and the six of us sat down at a large round table near the far wall. Once again I found myself seated between Heero and Zechs, which, I'd learned very quickly, was not really a nice place to be.

I had to hand it to Zechs, though. He handled himself very well even though Heero was doing nothing to make him feel welcome. It took Wufei about five smacks on the leg to get his boyfriend to stop glaring Zech's way every five seconds, but I don't even think that the man in question noticed, or cared.

About ten minutes into the meal, Wufei said to me, "Duo, can I speak to you in private?"

The spaghetti noodle that I'd been slurping up slid out of my mouth and hit the table. Quatre giggled. "Er, me?"

Wufei looked annoyed. "You are the only Duo at this table."

"Right, of course you meant me." I coughed and took a looooong swing of my 7-Up. "We'll go over to the next table, is that fine Zechs?"

The man considered it briefly before nodding. Together we sat down at a table not too far from the others, and I looked up at Wufei a little nervously. "Okay, what is this about now?"

"Heero."

"Isn't it always?" I grumbled underneath my breath.

"I feel that I should apologize for his . . . unusual behavior. We had a discussion about that last night."

I grinned. "Oh, yeah? Man, how was it?"

" . . . Interesting, to say the least. He promised me that he would not be so hostile to Merquise. I just--" Then he got this strange look on his face, as if he was feeling a little insecure or something.

"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I worry that he may . . . well, that he may still have feelings for you." Wufei looked me straight in the eye.

"Still have feelings for me?" I laughed loudly. "Look, Fei, for him to still have feelings for me, he'd have to have felt something for me in the first place, which I can assure you that he did not. Not that way, at least."

"You can assure me?"

"Hell yeah. I heard him say it himself. Besides," I leaned forward and gave him a wink, "even if he did want me, I wouldn't take him back. So he's all yours, I don't want him anymore."

Wufei sat back in his seat and smirked. "Of course not, it wasn't you that I was worried about. Not after I saw the way you panted after Merquise like a dog in heat."

I blushed and waved my hands around frantically. "SHHHH! Jesus, Wufei, don't be so freaking loud about it, okay! I mean, what if Heero found out? He'd go ballistic! Twenty Heero-darts wouldn't be able to stop him!"

Wufei was looking way too smug for my liking. "I thought so. Thank you for confirming my suspicions. I wasn't entirely sure, but . . ."

I deflated. ". . . Oh. You tricked me. Jerk. And don't say it like that; I'm not a dog in heat. Zechs Merquise is a very . . . that is one fine man . . . he's just--"

"A man that you've known for a day or so," Wufei said bluntly.

"Oh, not you too! Look, spare me, Trowa and Q already gave me the lecture, I've heard it all."

"I'm just saying . . ."

I glared at him. "Yeah, you'd better be glad that I'm in a good mood, or else I would've--I really don't want to have to hear it from you, too! C'mon, you stole my boyfriend from me!"

Oops. By the look on Wufei's face, I could tell that I said that a little too loud . . . yep. The others, including Zechs (to my absolute MORTIFICATION), were staring at us. I gave them the finger and slumped down in my chair. "Sorry."

"No--I, I deserve that." He snickered. "With all of that justice and honor spiel, you'd think that I would've had a little more consideration."

"Damn straight."

"I cannot apologize enough for it," he said solemnly. "I think I'll be apologizing for the rest of my life to you."

"Nah. See, if things go my way, I'll have a much hotter guy than Heero, ya know? And . . . I'm still trying to figure that out."

"What, what happened between me and Heero?"

"Yes."

"I don't really know." Wufei blushed. "I, we were talking one night, and then one thing lead to another, I couldn't resist him--"

It was my turn to snicker. "Oh, yeah, it's real hard to resist Heero's seductive man-powers! Not."

"I--"

"Whatever, Fei. It happened. The heart is a strange thing, so . . ." Wufei looked immensely relieved that he was seemingly off the hook, and that inspired me. I leaned forward, and when he leaned in too, I whispered, "You owe me, dude."

"Owe you what?" He hissed, distrust apparent in his eyes.

Hehehe! This was brilliant! "You owe me, damn it! You have to help me."

"Help you with what?"

"Getting Zechs, of course."

"Oh! No! I don't think so!" He leaned back so far in his chair that it rocked back . . . and fell over, taking him with it. I laughed loudly as he hit the floor, and instantly Heero was on his feet.

"Heero, I'm fine!" Wufei reassured him, climbing to his feet and glaring at me ruthlessly. He sat back down in his chair and grabbed me by the front of my shirt, pulling me close to him. "Are you insane?"

"No, I'm a genius!" I exclaimed, wiggling out of his grasp. This was absolutely ingenious of me, if I do say so myself. The perfect payback. "You fucking owe me, and you know it."

Wufei just sat there with his arms crossed, looking as if he'd just bitten into a lemon.

"I won't tell Heero, he'll never know. And if he somehow does, then I'll tell him I blackmailed you into it. You owe me."

"You are so . . ." he growled and scowled.

"I know!" I grinned at him and reached over the table to slap him on the back. "What a guy! Thanks for agreeing, this is gonna be just great!"

Wufei grumbled all the way back over to the table.

Quatre raised both eyebrows at me. "What was that all about? And why are you looking like that?"

"That was personal, and I don't know what I look like, so you'll have to clarify on that bit." I began to eat my spaghetti with renewed vigor.

"You look as if you just, I don't know . . . help me out here Trowa."

"You look incredibly pleased with yourself," Trowa said. "And when you have that look on your face, it spells bad news for one of us."

I waved my spork/foon at him. "Yeah, well, just be glad it doesn't spell bad news for you, buster."

"Ain't that the truth," Quatre muttered into his Styrofoam cup.

I just cackled evilly, and relished in the fact that Heero scooted away from me just a bit.

+

After we were all done pretending to be adults for the day, it was decided that we would go out to dinner again, by none other than Heero as a matter of fact! Probably to show his boyfriend that he could indeed be on his best behavior. So we were going to meet up at a sports bar later that evening.

I drove back to the mansion with Zechs, and I said my last goodbye to the car before I went inside. The four of us sat in the living room and watched TV. Well, Zechs had his face in a book as usual, but to be honest, I don't really think that he was reading anything. Every time I passed behind him to get some more candy out of the jar on the bookshelf (and in an attempt to get him to notice me, damn it) I saw that he was still on the same page--123. Now, either he's a really slooooooowreader, or . . .

I didn't ask him what he was thinking about. It really wasn't any of my business, even though I was dying to know. Was it me? Or this London thing? Or me? Maybe his sister? Or me?

Well, I think you know which one I was rooting for.

We'd been sitting there for about three hours, Quatre with his head in Trowa's lap, me sprawled out on the floor in my best seductive pose, accentuating the buttocks and all, and Zechs burning a hole in the book that he was fake-reading when I heard the intercom crackle. Some dude said, "Hello? Anyone there?"

Quatre got up and went over to the intercom. "Yes, who is this?"

"I have orders to deliver a car to this residence."

I squealed and leapt to my feet. A new car, sweet! I could not wait to see what it was.

Zechs finally set aside the damn book and stood. "Tell him to wait outside the gate."

Quatre did, and then we all went outside to see Zech's new toy. The blonde hottie got into his sports car (bye!) and drove it outside the gate where he spent a little time talking to the tow guy. Then the tow man lowered a big (giant, humongous, gargantuan--you get the idea) black SUV onto the street and took up the sleek sex machine. Zechs drove this one back into the gates and the tow truck drove off with the other car.

Once Zechs pulled up to the front of the house, I bounced up to the SUV and stood on my tip toes to get a look inside. Ohhh, more black leather, plenty of gizmos and buttons for me to spend an entire car ride pressing.

"Wow, I cannot wait to ride this one!" I exclaimed, face still pressed against the window.

Behind me I heard a lot of snickering, and I turned around to see Quatre doubled over with a hand over hhis mouth and Zechs lip twitching.

"What?" I demanded.

Trowa shrugged his shoulders. "I don't get it either."

"You . . . haha! You want to ride the car? You're going to have sex with this one too?" Quatre fell onto the ground. "Did you even . . . hahahaha! Did you break up with the other car, or are you going to mess around with both of them? Hahaha!"

I blushed. "I meant, ride in the car, okay? Man, you are so perverted! I really don't want to know what you and Tro get up to in that bedroom of yours."

Trowa sighed. "Am I the only one that doesn't get the whole "sex-with-cars" joke?"

Quatre regained control of himself. "Haha, okay, let's (snicker) go inside and I'll tell you all about it."

By the time Quatre was done telling the story with me chiming in and giving examples, Trowa was shaking like a leaf on the couch and trying not to laugh. "Duo, you are so . . ."

"I know!" I said for the second time that day. "All of this laughing is making me hun--oh shit, we're supposed to meet Heero and Wufei at the restaurant in twenty minutes!"

We were out of the door and into our cars in the blink of the eye, and we were only five minutes late. Of course the two anal-retentive twins were on time and waiting for us to arrive. We slid into the booth and once again I was in between Zechs and Heero. Damn.

"Sorry we're late," Quatre huffed. "We . . . ah, there was an unexpected delivery and we got a little sidetracked."

"Let's just order," Heero grunted, gesturing to the menus that sat before us.

I opened mine and peered over the top of it at Zechs. "What looks good to you, Daddy?" I asked.

"Daddy?" demanded Heero, Wufei and Trowa at the same time.

"The southwest chicken looks interesting," Zechs said as if he hadn't heard the cries of outrage. "You?"

"Oh, I'm a burger-and-fries kind of guy . . . Daddy," I added. "But you'll let me taste some of it, right?"

"Of course."

"Wait, I'm confused again," Trowa said. "Just where did this ‘daddy' thing come from. I mean, first it was car sex, and now--"

Oh really. Did he have to mention that in front of Heero? But, surprisingly, Heero remained calm, but it was obvious that he was taking deep breaths and clenching his fists.

"Inside joke, perfectly harmless and PG-13, well, okay, maybe R rated, but most certainly not X, kay?" I returned my attention to my menu. "Maybe I'll get that southwest stuff too . . ."

Heero turned to me. "What does X rated mean?"

I choked on my spit and stared up at him wide eyed. "Oh, come on. Surely you and Fei have watched a little . . . you know . . ."

Wufei began sputtering. "Maxwell, how dare you insinuate--depraved--not like that--you--!"

"I'm sure it is much better that you don't know, Yuy," Zechs replied, his face totally straight.

Heero considered this, then looked at his boyfriend who was making the sound of a busted muffler or something, and nodded. "Yes, I think you're correct. Never mind." Then he returned to his menu.

Quatre and I gapped at each other.

Wow, I guess Wufei and Heero really were made for each other--whatever he'd said the other night worked wonders.

+

Dinner was actually pretty enjoyable after that, and we went our separate ways when we were all done, but not before I was able to pull Wufei to the side and say, "Hey, I'm gonna call you tonight. Answer the phone, okay?"

He looked as if he didn't want to, but he nodded anyway.

I was anxious to get back to the mansion and put Operation "Snag The Sexy Blonde" underway, and the first thing I that I did when we got into the house was head for my room, grab the cordless phone, go into the bathroom, turn on the fan and call Wufei. Whew!

As the phone was busy dialing, I could hear Zechs moving around out there. Well, if I could hear him, then he could probably hear me, so . . . I turned on the shower radio and sat on the toilet seat.

"Hello?" someone said grumpily.

"Hey, Fei, what's shaking?"

"Oh, it's you . . ."

"Yep! You know you love me!"

"What the hell is all of that noise in the background?" Wufei demanded.

"I don't want you-know-who to hear us, alright? Okay, this is what we're . . . I'm sorry, you, hehehe, are going to do. You are going to try to get him to talk about me, what he likes and doesn't like, that kind of stuff and then you will relay what he says back to me."

" . . ."

"Hello? Fei, if you hung up the damn phone on me, I'll--"

"I'm still here! Look, that'll never work. Why the hell would he talk to me? I don't have seductive man-powers either, okay?"

"I don't care how you do it, just do it. Please."

"Duo . . . and what if he tells me something that you wouldn't want to hear?"

"Tell me anyway. That way I won't get my hopes up."

"Yes, well, don't get your damn hopes up either way. He will be able to leave and put this behind him if he rejects you, but the others and I will still be here and we will have to deal with your heartache."

"I know, I know, I've heard it twice now, once from Quatre and now once from you. So . . . you'll do this for me?"

" . . ." He swore in Chinese. "Fine, Maxwell. But if you tell Heero--"

"I said I won't tell! Why would I? Then you'd stop doing what I asked you to do, and that wouldn't help me at all."

"Right. We have a deal then."

"Great! This is so cool. Okay, start tomorrow. I want to know what his favorite color is, what his first impression of me was, and what he thinks of me now that we've spent some time together."

"Color . . . first impression . . . opinion of you now, got it. Bye." Before I could say anything else, he hung up.

I sighed happily and turned off the fan and radio and emerged from the bathroom.

Quatre was sitting on the bed, and apparently he'd been talking to Zechs. No! He would talk to Q, but not to me! The injustice of it all! "Hey, what's going on, what did I miss?"

Quatre turned to look at me. "I hope you weren't doing anything improper with that telephone, Duo. Cars are one thing, but a phone . . ."

I made a face at him and put it back on the charger. "Haha. What's up?"

"Want to watch a movie?"

"Of course! Where--your room?"

"Yep, let's go."

The three of us went into Q's room and settled down. Just as Trowa was about to pop the DVD into the player, one of those special news reports came on.

About Relena Peacecraft . . .

Making a surprise visit to London.

I tried my best not to look over at Zechs and failed miserably. His face was controlled, showing no apparent emotion.

I wonder how he felt about being away from his sister. Why had he left her if he wasn't getting paid? And what about her conveniently being in London where that e-mail had been tracked to? Was it possible that Relena could have done it, or at least could have ordered someone to do it?

She and I had never really gotten along. She was too prissy and annoying for me, and I was too loud, un-classy, and gay for her. Plus I'd gotten Heero and she'd gotten nothing--he even turned down her offer to be a bodyguard.

But she was a big person in the world, why would she take the time to send lil' ol' me a nasty e-mail?

And did Zechs suspect his sister?

By the time I was done asking myself a million questions, the DVD had already started. But I wasn't paying it any attention--Relena, for the first and hopefully the last time, was the most important thing on my mind.

+

"Sooooo . . ." I watched as Zechs began brushing his hair later that night after the movie was over. "Ah, so, your sister, how did she feel about you coming here to be my bodyguard?"

The hand holding the brush paused for a moment before returning to work. "I don't know. I didn't ask."

"Oh. Maybe that was for the best."

"Yes, probably."

Damn the man for being harder to talk to than Heero Yuy! Why couldn't I get him to say more than a couple of words about himself at a time? How else was I going to figure out whether or not Relena had a problem with Zechs being here with me?

"I'm sure she bitched about me a lot, didn't she?" I asked as I sprawled out on my bed, stretching my body out in a very cat-like way and sighing lazily.

There we go, that caught his attention. In the mirror I could tell that he was watching me move about on the bed, and I grinned. "She did, didn't she? S'okay, tell me."

" . . . I will admit that she did say some things . . ."

"Thought so."

"Although I could never figure out what it was about. I'd never met you before, and had only heard rumors--very interesting rumors though," Zechs added, giving me a look through the mirror, "but just rumors none the less."

"I'm sure you did. Look, our issue was all about Heero."

"Ah, yes. I remember that she used to follow him around and ask for him to kill her. He was the ex-boyfriend you referred to earlier today?"

Great! Showing interest in my love life was promising. "Yep."

"And he left you? For Chang?"

I loved the way he said that. I really did. The disbelief in his voice was soooo obvious that it made my heart do weird things. I took a deep breath and commanded my chest to settle down. "Yep," I said again. "I know, I know, you're like, what the hell was Yuy thinking?" I got onto my knees and struck a pose. "How could he leave all of this, the beauty, the wit, the sarcastic humor, the super intelligent mind, the--"

"Exuberant self-glorification?" His lips were twitching slightly.

"Hey, if I don't love myself, then who will?" I fell back onto the bed and winked at him.

"You don't seem too upset about it, Yuy, I mean."

"That was a while ago. And besides, I've . . ." Got my sights set on someone else? No, can't say that. "Reconciled with him and Wufei. I got over it."

"That is very noble of you."

"Yes, it is, isn't it? So, errr, what about you, Daddy? You involved with a special girl or . . . guy?" I hoped that I wasn't being too obvious and settled for fiddling with a loose string on my pillow case instead of looking at him.

"No, I'm not."

" . . . oh. Well, why not? I mean, you're a fairly good looking guy."

"Fairly good looking?"

"Yes, fairly good looking. If it wasn't for the fact that your right nostril is a bit bigger than the left, you'd be rating a hundred out of ten, Daddy."

"You're outrageous."

"Thank you." I yawned.

"Sleepy?"

"Yeeees . . ."

"Time for bed, then." The lights were turned out and we got into bed . . . um, separate beds, I meant. Too bad, huh?

I sighed warily and closed my eyes, snuggling into the bed sheets and pillow. "Really, Daddy, if it weren't for that damn nostril . . . hundred out of ten . . ."

He snickered so softly that I almost didn't hear it. "Yes, and if your right butt cheek weren't higher than the left, you'd be a two hundred out of ten, but . . ."

Oh? He'd been looking at my butt? I laughed into my pillow. "Goodnight, Zechs."

"Goodnight."

+

It was the next morning, and Zechs, Wufei and I were in the break room with me all the way on the other side of the room, trying to appear like I wasn't straining my ear to hear what they we talking about. I munched on a donut and stared up at the TV, wincing as a news lady began reporting on none other than David Rankin. Apparently this stalking/kidnapping business was big news. I hadn't realized it, but maybe I should have given the popularity of glanced over my shoulder--Wufei and Zechs were still talking. That was a good thing, I knew, but it bothered me that he would barely even say two words at a time to me, but he would yak away with the others. What the hell was wrong with me?

"--Peacecraft made a surprise visit to London yesterday morning, apparently on a much needed vacation after the conclusion of month-long peace talks in Paris. Notably missing at Ms. Peacecraft's side is Zechs Merquise, the formerly estranged brother to whom she granted asylum after the war." This statement was accompanied by a short clip of Relena entering a restaurant surrounded by guards dressed in black, minus Zechs of course. "However, there have been some reports claiming that Merquise has been seen in the presence of Duo Maxwell, and many experts speculate that he has taken on the job of being Maxwell's bodyguard."

Experts? I snorted--yeah, it too experts to figure that out.

"Our network attempted to contact Ms. Peacecraft for a comment but received no response."

Ohh, bad sign. Guess someone wasn't happy about this whole thing at all. Well, once I got the big fish taken care of, then I could deal with Relena's petty jealousy. In the mean time, any more childish e-mails would be met with--

I jumped as something wrapped in a napkin fell into my lap. I stared up at Wufei's retreating back and cautiously opened it to find a small disk inside. What was this?

"Are you ready Duo?" Zechs asked.

I carefully wrapped the disk up and put it in my pocket. "Yeah, Daddy, let's get back to work."

It wasn't until later that evening when Zechs was in the shower that I had a chance to pop the disk into my laptop. Hmm, an audio file?

I grabbed a pair of head phones and plugged them in, and then chose to play the file.

Ohhh, Wufei, you are so good!

This is what I heard:

"So . . . Merquise . . ."

"Yes?"

"I . . . well, I feel that I must apologize on behalf of my boyfriend. His actions are not . . . they will not continue, I've seen to that."

"Yuy--Duo's ex-boyfriend?"

" . . . yes."

"Hmm . . . you are not the one who needs to apologize, he does."

"Of course, of course. You--ah . . . damn."

"Sorry?"

"I--your shirt is blue. Do you like blue? Is blue your favorite color?"

" . . . I'm sorry?"

"You heard me."

"Ah, no, my favorite color is red."

"Red, a . . . good color. Duo's favorite color is black."

". . . is it?"

"And since you brought up Duo--"

"I didn't, you did."

"--let's talk about him. What do you think of him?"

"He's an . . . interesting individual."

"And?"

"And what? I think that he's a very unique person--smart, confident, humorous . . . What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to say that you'll stop staring at his ass when he's not paying attention."

" . . . I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't. I'm just warning you--if you want to have some sort of . . . thing with Duo, you'd better be prepared to answer much harder questions that what your favorite color is."

"I have no intentions of having a thing with him at all. This is my job, I will remain professional, and becoming involved with him would be anything but."

"Yes, well, you'd better stick to that, or else."

"Don't worry, I will. Although, after this is all done, I make no promises."

" . . . WHAT! You--if you think--I--"

" . . . just kidding, Chang. Really, you should learn how to relax."

There was some inaudible grumbling from Wufei and that was it.

I sat back in my seat, mouth wide open. Okay, that the fuck was that? The jerk, he wasn't supposed to scare Zechs away! That wasn't part of the deal!

Now I wasn't sure whether to be mad or excited about some of the stuff I'd heard. Had Zechs been serious about "making no promises" about making a pass at me after Rankin was caught? I hoped so, but I couldn't be too sure, since he'd been teasing Wufei at the same time. Damn.

I heard the bathroom door open and quickly yanked off the earphones, removing the tiny disk and shoving it into the desk drawer. "All done in there, Daddy?"

"Yes. Your turn."

Yes, once again, I was taking my shower after him. I'll let you in on a little secret--it was . . . exciting to go into that bathroom in which he'd just been naked, dripping wet with water and muscles firm . . . yummy. What a turn on.

Unfortunately, I didn't even get a chance to get into the bathroom--the phone rang as soon as I got into the door frame.

Zechs, who was standing near the dresser, froze. I reached for the phone, but he shook his head and quickly went over to the wire tap, where he put the head set on and nodded at me.

"Hello?"

". . . Duuuuuuoooo . . ."

Oh, hell.

"Hello, David," I said cheerfully, looking at Zechs warily. He made a gesture that I knew immediately--stretch it out. "How are you?"

"You don't care. You don't give a damn."

"Now, that's just not true. How's your eye? Do you need help? Where are you?" I tried to keep my voice calm as the phone receiver smacked repeatedly against my ear--that's how much my hands were shaking.

"Don't pretend as if you care! I thought you loved me, I thought you cared, but I was wrong, wasn't I?"

"N-no, I--"

"Shut up! What have you done, gone back to that damn Jap Yuy? Are you back in his bed? Are you spreading your legs for him like a whore? Or is it the tall blonde man that I see you with now? Do you let him fuck you? I bet you do, I bet you--"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" I exclaimed, tired of his shit. "I'm not doing anything with anyone, okay?"

"You will pay. I gave you my heart, we were going to be together till the very end, just you and me and Death . . ."

My skin began to crawl. My breath hitched. "What? What do you mean, you and me and death?"

"I had it all planned out. We were going to die together, be buried together, nothing and no one would be able to keep us apart then."

I placed a hand over my stomach as it lurched and rolled. "You sick fuck, I--"

"Don't think that you can get away from me that easily, Duo. I will have what I want, and we will be together in Death as I had planned. No one else will have you if I can't!"

The line went dead.

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