When We Were Young 2

[kaigou]

rating: Pg-13 for Trowa's potty mouth
pairing: gee. guess. no, really. fine. 3=4.
warning: go somewhere else if you want blissfully happy.

Not necessarily chronological. Not beta'd (nothing new there), and barely even reread before posting. Just mostly dabbling.

----

When Heero set the coffee mug down before him, Trowa poured in two spoonfuls of sugar, then half the milk. Heero winced, and Trowa waved him away. "I'm not drinking Duo's coffee without something between me and the acidic levels. I'm halfway to a stomach ulcer as it is."

"We're going to the gym later." That was Heero: not really an offer, or a question. Just a flat statement, but Trowa knew what he meant.

"No. I'd probably break the damn' punching bag."

He managed a tight smile for Duo, wandering into the apartment's kitchen with some unknown gadget in his hands. Duo nearly walked into the fridge, then squinted at it, then the gadget, before setting the thing on the countertop and digging around in the fridge for an apple. He started to leave, but Heero snagged him by the shirt. When Duo looked surprised, Heero jerked his head toward the little piece of machinery, which Duo picked up, giving Heero a casual shrug. He left, and Heero returned to giving Trowa his full attention.

"See, that's what I mean," Trowa finally said. He stared down into his coffee, nearly white with milk, and still undrinkable. "Quatre leaves his shit everywhere. I'm not a maid service, I tell him. But we have a maid, he says. And she's not your personal slave, I say. It's not just that she shouldn't have to do everything, but that I don't like living in a pigsty." He grimaced. "Why can't he just pick up his stuff and put it away, without fussing about it for ten minutes?" He stirred another teaspoon of sugar into his cup. "I just wish we could be...more like you two. You always get along, and you're always so--" He stared at the coffee Heero had just spit out across the countertop. "Heero?"

"I'm okay." Heero coughed, thumping himself on the chest, and set the mug down with a solid thunk. "What gave you the notion Duo and I always get along?"

"I..." Trowa glanced over to see Duo leaning against the doorjamb; he now had a gadget in each hand, and a screwdriver behind one ear. "I've never seen you argue," he finally replied, uneasy at Duo's amused look and Heero's bewildered stare.

"Oh, we argue." Duo shrugged, and held up the item in his left hand, frowning at it closely.

"We don't argue," Heero retorted, half to Duo, half explaining to Trowa. "I say something, and Duo goes off for twenty minutes. When he runs out of steam, that's it. I'm not sure that's how normal couples argue." He raised the mug, and mopped underneath it, then wiped the bottom. "Like you and Quatre. You can each get in a word edgewise."

"Hey!" Duo rolled his eyes. "I let you get in plenty of words."

Heero grumbled something inaudible, and shook his head at Trowa. "Tell him you like the place clean."

"I do. Every ten minutes." Trowa leaned back, crossing his arms. He couldn't help feeling uncomfortable, with Duo's even stare practically poking holes in the back of his neck. "Then I just feel like I've turned into my sister, nagging him. And he says we have enough room that if he wants a messy study, he can. But we have too much room! It drives me batshit insane, frankly."

"You're used to small trailers." Heero shrugged.

"It's not like I wanted to live in a shoebox," Trowa retorted. "But I didn't exactly think a three-story penthouse was necessary, either. We have a room dedicated to nothing but watching television, which is ridiculous considering there's a television in the bathroom, one in the bedroom, one in the living room, and another in the kitchen! We have three guest rooms which are nothing but guest rooms. The rest of the time they gather dust."

"Maybe you should rent them out," Duo suggested. He yelped suddenly, and disappeared down the hallway, reappearing a minute later, hastily pulling a coat on. "Late to see Hilde." He swatted Heero on the head from behind, and dashed off. A second later the front door slammed, and Heero gave Trowa a glum look.

"He always slams the door, he's always late, and he never kisses me in front of other people." Heero recited the list in a flat tone, and got up to pour himself more coffee. "At least his coffee is somewhat decent."

"Your scientist did something to your tastebuds, then." Trowa shoved his cup away. "My sister makes better coffee."

"I make worse coffee," Heero pointed out.

"Right." Trowa picked up his mug again. "Maybe we should go for couples' counseling, because I've lived with this for two years. I want to be with him, but I'm not sure I want to be married to him. Not if this is what it'll always be like."

"Get a smaller place, with just one guest bedroom. Make him keep his mess behind a door you can close." Heero glanced toward the empty hallway. "That's what I do with Duo, or we'd be knee-deep in unidentifiable things that haven't worked since the colonies were built."

"It's not just that. It's..." Trowa sighed. "He makes so much fucking money! I know it doesn't bother him that I don't, and I know he sets his salary lower than most of his peers anyway, but it's still quadruple what I make. I feel like I'm some kind of damn kept man."

Heero snorted.

"I do! We go to business dinners and those people treat me like I'm just dallying with the Preventers, passing time before..." Trowa stared intently at nothing in particular, remembering the previous weekend with a scowl. "Like I should stop working and become a house-husband."

"You'd have more time to clean up after him," Heero replied.

"I'd have more time to plot his death for not cleaning up," Trowa shot back.

Comments

[kalilung.livejournal.com]

I would like to say, for the record, I love this. I didn't, at first, because, well, who wants to hear everything isn't okay in paradise? But it rings true, to anyone who's spent any length of time with another human being, let alone the one you're in love with. It's just all the more significant when you storm out angry. I know I've asked myself if putting up with the "little things" is worth it, and I wonder who hasn't?

What keeps me reading is wondering if Trowa will think it's all still worth staying with Quatre, and, if so, how will they learn to compromise?

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

I've done my time being attacked by fangirls for keeping their OTP apart. So just assume these two do have compromises, but stress can get to anyone.

[miyabiarashi.livejournal.com]

I felt bad for Trowa before, but I feel pretty frustrated on his behalf now. Maybe it's because Quatre's similar to my brother. >.>

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

I've always seen it as completely possible that Quatre struggles in living with someone; he was essentially an only child, and an extremely wealthy one, at that. He definitely would have an entirely different set of expectations about one's behavior at home.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

I think I like the last line here best - and don't want it to be the last line. It's a definite slice-of-life, and nothing is settled here except that Duo and Heero seem to have found a compromise they can live with and Trowa and Quatre seem to still be working on it.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Yeah; I wanted to highlight that couples -- even when very much in love -- aren't always simpatico, all the time. And what works for one, won't always work for another.

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling a lot more sympathetic toward Trowa now. I think it's because he's talking about problems I can relate to.

I'm not sure that's how normal couples argue.

It is in my house. Jay and I are like Heero and Duo in this story. ^_^

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Everyone has points on which people can sympathize, and points in which any reasonable outside observer would roll their eyes. It's the people who live with those people who have to refrain from eye-rolling and either stay quiet, find a compromise, or leave.

[leorising1959.livejournal.com]

Heh. I didn't know you were going to continue this. Good! I'd like to see how you resolve the conflicts, now that they're dealing with something that isn't life-and-death important.

That's a measure of us, isn't it? The ability to resolve the little, human, everyday things. The ability to compromise for the sake of love and harmony.

Merry Christmas, and thanks for all the fic!


^_^

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

I wasn't exactly planning on continuing it, either, but the insistence on make-up sex has turned my ornery soul into someone insistent that I'll write sans make-up sex. 'Tis the season.

[leorising1959.livejournal.com]

Well, okay. IMO, though, if that's your viewpoint, you're being manipulated either way.

Easier to just write it the way you want it, maybe. I dunno. Just my 2¢.

One more holiday to go, then it's on to Valentine's Day! *ducks and runs*


^_^

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

That's one way to look at it, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm simply not in a lemon-writing mood.

[nataliethompson.livejournal.com]

"You'd have more time to clean up after him," Heero replied.

"I'd have more time to plot his death for not cleaning up," Trowa shot back.

*laughs* That's wonderful!! Completely and totally hilarious, that line was. :)

You did make your perspective so clear in this part--that you as the author intend to side with Trowa--that I just can't see anyone seeing it as otherwise anymore. Unless they're hoping for a twist in the third part, where Quatre gets his say and Trowa is proved wrongwrongwrong...You're right, you can't help what people see or don't see; people are set on these characters being represented in a set way, and change things around in their heads when they're not. But your writing some more on the topic can't help but have cleared up that issue.

But now that that's over with, try to continue the fic without really thinking about the fandom's reaction. That's how you wrote the first part, wasn't it? Could you have imagined then that the reactions would be so firmly on Quatre's side of things? Maybe, maybe not. Forgive me for making any assumptions, but I bet that you just wrote that first part the way you did because you felt like it...because that's what the story demanded, what you as an author was inspired to write. And look at what a success that was!

Really...no sarcasm or anything, but any piece of writing that demands that the audience think things through is a success. You took a pairing and turned it over and exposed the flaws that could be--and it worked. That's what wonderful about your writing. I recall Duo's early portrayal in Drums to have been a little different than the norm, too. :) He was dark and edgy and for a while, such a damn bastard--personally, I fell head over heels, and when he punched Heero in the fourth chapter--that was awesome! Your not sticking with what the fandom expects has, in my eyes, made your fics so damn fun to read.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

But I never said I intend to side with Trowa completely (as you'll see in the next segment, also written off the top of my head). I wrote the first part that way simply because I'd seen so much of the "trowa as psycho," and the whole "trowa should be a babbling idiot after everything he did in the war" crap.

I have a bad habit of shifting mid-stream; the instant I figure out what readers are expecting in the next chapter, I'll do my damnedest to write the opposite. The more the fans insisted for Drums that any minute now, Duo would drop the act and be all happy, the more I wrote him as a bastard, and enjoyed every minute of it. What, me, a spiteful bastard?

Maybe.

[nataliethompson.livejournal.com]

Oh good, the next part is up!

"Shifting mid-stream" is good, though because then you're not being predictable. I'd say more but...I really want to read that next part. :) I think I'll go do that now.

[yanagi-wa.livejournal.com]

I really like this. It's so good to see someone writing about the boys not always getting along. I love my hubbie like crazy, but we fight once in a while. No one can live with someone else and not get on each others nerves from time to time.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, and it seems to be the toothpaste cap that's often the nail in the coffin. Oddly.

[windsorblue.livejournal.com]

^_________^

So, what...three more parts until we get to the make-up sex? Four, maybe?

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Try never. I have all the inspiration to write make-up sex as I do to start mowing the lawn. Maybe you could write it for me? You're a great deal better at it, anyway, so I have no problem relinquishing the field to one with golden fingers for such things.