Tony and Fer - Stand Without Flinching Behind the Scenes
So I went a lot of different paths in how Tony ended up learning about Duo and who he was and what he’d done in Stand, and one of them was just deciding to go see Jesus’s 2nd in Command, Fernando Garcia. He was a pretty major character in Ashes but never really friends with Duo, and never really trusted him, and he both survived the shoot-out and is stuck in jail, so easy to find.
I absolutely forgot that I wrote this much that I nixed, but this was still relatively early on when I had originally decided to lean away from the story that would become Ashes as much as possible (after all--who wants to read a long fic where I break up the fandom OTP and put them with OCs, one of which is an abusive mess, amirite?).
ANYWAY--I have over 50k of cut or scrapped scenes from the Stars That Have People Names ‘verse, and because I was asked so nicely, here’s a scrapped scene (Spoilers for pretty much the Stars That Have People Names ‘verse).
Tony & Fer
This was probably a terrible idea. Duo would probably happily murder him when he found out--and Tony had no doubt he would. But Tony needed to know more about Reyes, needed to know more about Duo's relationship with the man who was only a couple years Tony's junior and certainly old enough to be Duo's father himself. Duo had loved him, clearly mourned him, but he wouldn't talk about him, and something about the way that he would trail his fingers over the neck tattoo made Tony's skin crawl a little.
So, since Duo wasn't forthcoming and Reyes himself was dead, Tony had to go to the next best source. That meant Fernando Garcia--Reyes's second-in-command.
The lawyers had not been happy about Tony requesting this meeting, especially because he wouldn't tell them what it was about, but Tony was Tony, and he managed to bully his way into it.
Tony had waited over an hour and a half before Garcia was brought in, shackled to the table, then the two of them were left alone.
"Mr. Stark," Garcia said, curious. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Mr. Garcia--"
Garcia waved a hand as far as he could. "Fernando, Mr. Stark."
Tony waited a beat, then said, "Fernando," conceding. He waited another beat before saying, "I want to know about Jesus Reyes."
Garcia scoffed and rolled his eyes, immediately bored. "Gua--"
"Yeah, I know, not terribly original. It's probably all anyone asks you about these days," Tony interrupted before Garcia could call out. He was a good-looking man, clearly tried to keep himself groomed despite the limited resources in a supermax, hair still thick and rich black, no creeping of gray despite being closer to fifty than forty. It was a little overlong, curling around his neck, but he was cleanshaven, showing a strong, fit jaw. He didn't look like you might expect a cartel don's right-hand to. No scars, no deep lines in his face from frowning. He looked... normal. It was depressing how often the monsters looked normal these days. "But I don't want to know about the drugs or the illegal activities--I'm interested in his relationship with his husband."
If Garcia could slouch in the bench seating, he would have. "Of course a man like you is interested in Jesus's whore," he groused.
Before Tony could get up in arms about the insult--and he was more than ready to--the door to the meeting area opened up, and Duo, Duo walked in.
All in black, hair pulled back in an unusually sleek braid, Duo filled the space as if he was a foot taller than he actually was. It was a neat trick that Tony hadn't seen him fully employ since the night he saw Duo put his foot on a mook's throat and mock them for failing to be tough enough to be a bad guy. He flicked a brief glance behind him as he was locked in with Tony and Garcia.
Garcia visibly cringed away from Duo and the sinister grin he sported.
"Hola, Fer," he greeted, rolling the r in Fer and all but purring the man's name out. Tony was a professional superhero, it was still one of the most threateningly innocent greetings he had ever heard.
"How are you even here?" Tony demanded, unwilling to let them dive into this conversation.
Duo's eyes, lidded and lazy and terrifying, shifted to Tony. "You should really avoid trying to go around me," he said, cheerful on the face of it, but with an undercurrent of steel. "If you wanted to know about Jesus that bad, you should have just asked me.”
"I have asked," Tony snapped, uncomfortable with this cheerfully threatening facade. "You wouldn't talk about it."
The smile faded, and Tony almost wanted it back. It might be terrifying, but the weighted, weighing silence was almost worse.
Duo sighed, and an oppressive chill Tony hadn't even noticed lifted as Duo somehow went back to being just a person, tucking his hands in his pockets. Tony didn't miss the audible sigh of relief from Garcia.
"I fucking hate it when you do that," Garcia complained, straightening up.
"Bitch, bitch, bitch," Duo singsonged, walking over to stand at the end of the table between both Garcia and Tony. "You know you miss me."
"Like a toothache," Garcia replied, but it wasn't nearly as biting as it should have been. "Was it really necessary to turn us all in when Jesus died?" he asked, sounding tired.
If Duo were at all surprised that Garcia knew he'd been the snitch, he didn't show it. "You're not actually surprised," he said instead of directly answering, a statement, not at all a question.
Garcia rubbed his eyes, then admitted, "No. The cartel was never yours. It was always Jesus's. You just... tolerated it while he was alive."
"Should you even be discussing this?" Tony asked. "What if he puts a hit out on you or something?"
Both Duo and Garcia snorted at that. At Tony's blatantly incredulous look, Garcia reluctantly elaborated. "Waste of money. While I probably know a few who are stupid enough to take the bait, he'd just kill them."
Tony looked appealingly for sense from his son, but Duo just shrugged. "What he said." Whatever the look on Tony's face, it made Duo roll his eyes and add, "You do remember me taking out whole teams of Hydra agents, right?"
"But they were trying to kidnap--not kill!"
"Maybe at first," Duo said, but he sounded like he didn't entirely believe it. "The second team were definitely in search-and-destroy mode."
"I wish I could be surprised by this," Garcia muttered. "You could test the patience of a saint."
"And you never knew me anywhere near my most obnoxious," Duo told him, grinning. This one, at least, was teasing. He shifted his attention back to Tony. "As fun as it might be catching up with Fer, I think it's time you to leave," he said.
"I am not the child here."
The raised eyebrow said Aren't you? loud and clear.
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but I'm curious--how do you know Tony Stark?" Garcia asked Duo. "Seems like he can afford better than you."
Duo narrowed his eyes, but Tony wasn't going to let that go twice. "That's the second time you've called Duo a whore."
Garcia looked confused for a moment before his eyes cleared. "I forget," he said, turning to Duo. "You just wiped away Gemelo and Jesus like they're nothing, I guess?"
Rather than answering directly, Duo pulled out his wallet, pulled a card out of it, then tossed it in front of Garcia. Garcia, bemused, picked it up.
"Duo Reyes-Maxwell?" he asked, startled. Tony was too. He didn't know that Duo had changed his name. When the hell had he done that? "Is this real?"
“I know a judge who owed me a favor," Duo said, flat and unimpressed. "I don't fucking care what you think about me. I never have, and I never will. I may have started sleeping with Jesus because it was an easy way to get close to him, but I married him because I love him. I will not listen to you or anyone else imply otherwise." He reached out, taking his ID back, and the threat in the words rang clear in the mostly empty room.
Garcia glared, hard and angry. "If you loved him, why weren't you there?"
Duo's eyes softened and grief filled them, but not guilt. "Because I was where he told me to be. Because he didn't want me there."
"You sure showed up when it was convenient."
"I came as soon as I realized what he'd done. It was already too late."
"I'm supposed to believe that?" Garcia sneered. "Jesus didn't like letting you out of his sight."
Crossing his arms over his stomach, Duo met Garcia's eyes. "I know," he said, soft, sorrow pouring off him so dense Tony thought he'd choke on it.
Instead of getting angrier, Garcia paled. His eyes went from Duo's arms, up to Duo's eyes and back as if trying to make sense of it. Duo moved his head in only the barest nod, and Garcia looked him over again, face falling.
"It didn't...?"
Duo curled in on himself, just a little, but he shook his head. "No one... No. One wishes it worked more than I do."
Tony looked between the two men, knowing something important was going straight over his head.
Garcia put his elbows on the table and bowed his head into his hands. Neither said anything for several minutes, and Tony opened his mouth to say something, when Garcia said, "You could have taken his place."
It startled a humorless laugh from Duo, and he waited until Garcia looked up at him. "No," he said. "I'd have stayed at Jesus's side until the day he died, but I would never have taken over the Kings."
"We could have made you love us--"
But Duo was already shaking his head. "Jesus would never have allowed it. He would never have willingly shared my affection, not even with the cartel."
His chest heaved with his sigh, but Garcia didn't argue or dispute it. His eyes shifted to Tony, older than they'd been when Tony arrived. "So how do you know our Gemelo? How has he gotten mixed up with your kind?"
Tony blinked, opened his mouth to lie, but Duo said, "Apparently I'm not an orphan."
Garcia stared while Tony glared. "I had a great cover story," he informed his son.
Duo shrugged.
"He hates you for turning over his cartel."
"No, he doesn't," Duo said simply.
"He could put a hit out on you."
"He won't."
"He could tell other people."
"You want to tell the world anyway."
Tony choked down the undignified scream that crawled up his throat, and managed to ground out, "You don't start with the bad guys!"
"Few people are all one thing," Duo said, and the words held the weight of an old man's wisdom. He wrapped a shockingly strong hand around Tony's upper arm, and managed to manhandle him to his feet without looking like it was an effort. Tony lived with people he expected that strength from--his son was not one of them. "Time to go."
"I haven't gotten to talk to him at all."
"And you don't need to."
"I do if you won't talk to me!" Tony snapped, pulling away.
Duo met his eyes, unflinching. "Do you really think he'll talk to you now?"
"Dammit, Duo!"
Oddly, that made Duo's lips quirk in a smile. "Come on, Stark," he said, but it was gentler now.
Knowing when he was beat, Tony stomped to the door and banged on it. Duo hesitated and looked back at Garcia.
"Adios, Fer," he said, and it carried finality with it.
"Adios, Gemelo," Garcia said, turning as much as he could in his seat. Their eyes met, and then Duo turned and followed Tony out.
---
They didn't speak till they made it out to the parking lot. Duo followed him to his car.
"How did you even get here?" Tony asked.
"A cab."
"And how would you get back if I left you here?"
Duo rolled his eyes. "This is hardly the worst place I've been stranded. I'd figure it out."
Tony sighed. "Should I ask how you knew I was here?"
An eyebrow lifted and he crossed his arms--this time across his chest. Something about that change drew Tony's attention. He tucked it away, let his brain start working at it. "Someone owes you a favor," he said, letting his irritation show. "Is there anyone you don't know?"
"Sure. Plenty."
"So, are you actually going to tell me about Reyes?" Even to his own ears, he sounded defeated.
To his surprise, Duo cocked his head to the side and considered him. "Why is this so important to you?"
"Because you're my son and I know... God, I know so little about you. About your life. I want to know about the man you loved enough to marry. I want to know if he was worthy of you. From his letter, I know he loved you, but did he treat you right?"
With a sigh, Duo leaned against his car. "When I went undercover, I found an underground fighting ring. Jesus liked 'em, so I worked my way in and after a couple months, I caught his attention, and he asked to meet me face to face." He looked up, staring into the sky. "He didn't come onto me then, exactly, but I could tell I piqued his interest. The next time I fought, he brought in someone I couldn't get away with just kicking the shit out of. Someone I had to kill or he would have killed me." He sighed again, kicked at a pebble. "It pissed me off, being manipulated into killing someone like that. Half the reason I took the job in the first place was because I thought there was a good chance it'd get me killed."
He paused, and Tony didn't push him, not wanting to risk stopping it.
"Jesus was fascinated by the fact I looked like a scrawny kid but was so strong. The contradiction amused him, I think. When he came to see me after the fight, I was totally pissed off and ready to blow the whole damn thing to hell. Then he came onto me." Tony tensed up, but Duo seemed amused by the memory. "Must've been something to see. Jesus had like a foot and a hundred fifty pounds on me, but I'm used to everyone being bigger than me. Jesus didn't scare me. I brushed him off, still pissed that he'd gotten me to kill for him." He paused again, clearly lost in memories. He blinked them away, then continued. "I couldn't fight anymore--the ring tacitly condoned killing, but they had to make it look like it was frowned upon, so fighters who killed were usually kicked out, which left me basically unemployed, and Jesus knew it. I told him he didn't pay me to fuck him and I wasn't that hard up yet." He looked at his feet. "I don't know if I was trying to play hard to get or if I really just wanted him to go away. In the end, it didn't matter. I didn't know it then, but I could not have made him fixate on me better if I'd been trying. No one denied Jesus. No one stood up to him. No one let themselves be manhandled without cowering. He'd seen me fight for months--seen me kill. He knew how dangerous I was. It was part of the appeal. He made it clear that he wanted me, then let me go."
When Duo didn't continue, Tony prompted, "And after that?"
"I stopped in and saw Sally, let her know who her John Doe was and that I had an opportunity to get in deep with Jesus. Sally's smart--she knew that if I was getting that far in that fast, it had to be a honey trap scenario. Before you get mad at her or Une, she told me to pull out. That it wasn't worth it. I disagreed. It was too perfect an opportunity to pass up because she was feeling prudish." He put his hands in his pockets and looked back up at the sky, blue and uninterrupted for nearly as far as the eye could see. His next words made Tony's stomach drop. "Fer called me a whore because he knew I was one. I turned tricks on and off from the time I was about eight until I was about eleven, when I got off L2. I don't usually tell people, one--because people hear I'm an L2 orphan and they just assume it, which is particularly annoying because it's true, even if it's an ugly stereotype. Two, I'm not ashamed of it. I was eleven when I stopped turning tricks. It wasn't something I did because I thought it was cool--it's what I did because I was desperate. I would have been raped anyway--at least if I was selling it, I had a little bit of control over the situation."
Duo talked about it like he would about the weather, and the matter-of-fact explanation made Tony's gorge rise. His son had sold himself because if he didn't, he'd be raped anyway. He had stopped turning tricks when he was eleven. Tony had to lean against the car, but his stomach churned so violently, his legs gave out, dumping him unceremoniously on his ass. He was too busy trying not to throw up to care about his dignity. Hadn't he noticed only a week ago that Duo deliberately downplayed his own attractiveness? No small wonder.
When he was sure that he wasn't going to be sick, he noticed Duo watching him out of the corner of his eye. He didn't look upset or annoyed, but he clearly wasn't surprised.
"Do I want to know how Garcia knew?" Tony asked, swallowing hard.
"I told you, I'm not ashamed of it. Besides, I may have been eleven when I stopped, but those are lessons you don't forget. I know what I look like, and I know how to make a man want me. I did it during the war to get close to targets--though I was usually able to kill them before I had to fuck them. Still, I'd slept with worse men for way worse reasons than bringing down a cartel. Being squeamish about Jesus seemed stupid. Once I went back in, they couldn't pull me out without risking my cover--and my life."
"So you slept with him?" Tony swallowed again, wishing he didn't have to ask that question. Part of him wanted to yell that this wasn't what he wanted to know, but he knew deep down that Duo wouldn't be telling him this if it didn't apply.
He could feel Duo's eyes on him for a long moment before he answered. "Yeah. Not without death threats, though--on both sides. Jesus had figured out who I was--but we knew he would." He shrugged. "For, oh, six months or more? We were... violent. Wufei insists Jesus was abusive. That's what he wanted to tell you about--that Jesus was abusive. It's more complicated than that, though. Jesus liked to leave marks--to show the world I was taken, he would say. He also liked to push me, see how close he could come to killing me before I pushed back. Mostly he did that by choking me."
Tony closed his eyes, pulled up his knees and put his head between them, breathing shallowly through his nose to avoid throwing up.
"Are you really sure you want to hear this?" Duo asked. "It really isn't pretty. I was a mess."
"I need to know," Tony insisted, even as he swallowed all the saliva generated from nearly heaving.
Duo sighed. "On your head be it," he said. "Wufei thinks that I let Jesus hurt me because I hoped he'd kill me. He's right, even if it took me a long time to admit it. My throat was a rainbow of bruises for months, but I could have stopped it at any time, which is why I don't really consider it abuse. Self mutilation with an unusual instrument, maybe, but not abuse. I gave nearly as good as I got, only I used blades--the threat of them was usually enough to get him to back off. I'd end up bruised, but it was a minor nuisance. He was always aware that if he killed me, I was taking him with me."
Tony's brain made the connection, because of course it did. "Your tattoo."
Duo hmmed in agreement. "He suggested it for the first time, oh, a month into our relationship? I held him off for more than nine months. For the record, I finally got sick of looking like a beat wife after about six months. If nothing else, the craziness of our relationship helped ground me. I knew it wasn't healthy, but the whole situation, having a mission, something that needed me on my toes and focused long term, I won't say it got me over losing 'Ro. I don't know that I'll ever be over it. But it did eventually push me back into deciding I wanted to live again, or at least didn't want to die. Not exactly the same thing, but it was good enough. I put my foot down, told him he wasn't allowed to keep choking me or I'd leave him. By then, he was pretty much obsessed with me. Fer wasn't exaggerating--Jesus didn't like to let me out of his sight. It was useful because it meant that I quickly got access to everything. He was also almost psychotically possessive. There were maybe four people in the cartel he was okay with me spending time one-on-one with."
"What changed? Something must have changed."
"I don't know if it was him or me," Duo admitted. "But once I made him stop marking me up, he... opened up. It stopped being just the push and pull of sex and possession. He... wasn't kind, exactly, but it was clear that somewhere along the line, I stopped just being a prize or a trophy--he started to care about me, wanted to know about me. In turn, he told me about himself."
When Duo didn't continue, Tony managed to pull his head up. Duo was staring directly ahead of him, fingertips trailing over Jesus's name on his neck. "You fell in love with him," Tony guessed.
Duo nodded, dropping his hand and crossing his arms again. "I'm... I'm not like other people. I don't know if it's because of turning tricks or what, but I only have a sex drive when I'm in love with someone. I can have sex, sure, but I don't ever want it or need it, and outside of the physical, it doesn't really do anything for me. I don't experience casual attraction. I know what it looks like on others, and I almost always know when someone's attracted to me like that, but I'm not wired that way. I never look at anyone--man, woman, whatever--and think 'wow, they're hot' or 'I'd hit that.' I need the emotional investment first."
"Demisexual," Tony said, because his brain had to fill in the blanks. Duo blinked at him, curious. "From your description, you're demisexual. You only experience sexual attraction when you have an emotional romantic connection to them."
"I guess. Anyway, Jesus had gotten up one night, and I'm a light sleeper, so I followed him. He nearly burnt down the fucking kitchen trying to make french toast." The words, said in another tone, may have been disparaging, but Duo spoke of it with warmth and affection. "I made him sit and cooked for him, and we just talked. We were just talking, and he realized that I'd been raped as a kid." He shook his head, still bemused, apparently blind to the cold horror settling in Tony's gut at the careless mention. Tony had known, deep in his gut, he had known, but it wasn't the same thing as hearing Duo admit it. "His sister was raped when she was a teenager, and it gave Jesus a bit of a complex about it, which is not typically a complex I associate with organized crime. Jesus about had a panic attack when he thought he might have raped me." Duo shook his head, still smiling. "I told him he was an idiot and I would never have let him do that. He should have known he couldn't force me--I'd have killed him first. He had to know that. But... he was honestly terrified that he'd forced me. That I didn't want to be with him." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, lifting his face to the sun, but even though he looked sad, the memory still made his mouth soften in a smile.
Duo opened his eyes and looked back down at Tony. "I didn't always want to be with him, but it was my choice." He looked away, back into the distance before continuing. "I was looking him in the eyes when I told him that. I saw this... incredible relief wash through him. Here was a borderline sociopath, and the very thought he might have raped me could have broken him." He took a deep breath, chest expanding. "I had probably been falling ever since he stopped choking me, but that was the moment I realized it. I'd seen the man in the monster, and... muerte mio." Duo's voice hitched, and it was his turn to swallow. "I loved him. I wanted to be with him, for as long as he'd have me. I wanted to protect him." He looked down at his palms, those scarred palms, and closed his eyes as he closed his hands again. He sniffed softly and gathered himself visibly. "Things were different after that. I got the tattoo because it made him happy, and that was enough for me."
His hand had crept up to trail over his neck again. Even though Tony knew the tattooed skin didn't feel any different than the blank skin, Duo's fingertips unerringly traced each letter. "He was still a monster. He still did terrible things for stupid and selfish reasons. But few people are all one thing, and I got to have the very best of him."
Tony absorbed that for a minute while Duo pushed off the car, standing. He took the few steps to stand in front of Tony. "Was that everything you wanted to know?" he asked, curious. "Or did you want more particulars? Like he probably couldn't cook to save his life but was always willing to help do the dishes if I cooked for him. He preferred to have me in sight, but it wasn't because he didn't trust me. He just liked having me there. He was fascinated by my tattoos and could spend hours tracing them."
"That's enough," Tony interrupted, not wanting to hear more intimate details. He already knew way more about his son's sex life than he ever wanted to.
Duo stuck a hand in his pocket and sighed. "He loved me--as much as he was capable of loving anyone. That's really all you needed to know, and the letter told you that," he said. Really, it would have been much easier to take the rebuke if he sounded even a little upset, rather than resigned.
"I don't want to apologize for wanting to know more about you," Tony said.
Rather than replying to that, Duo held out his hand. Tony stared at it for a moment before taking it. Duo pulled him easily to his feet, then held out his hand again. "The keys?" he prompted. Tony opened his mouth to protest, but Duo interrupted him. "You're still about three shades paler than I like. I'm not letting you drive like that."
"I have--"
"Done must stupider things under much worse circumstances, I'm sure. But I'm here and there's no emergency. I'm not convinced you're not going to throw up."
"How do you expect me to feel? Finding out... that you had to... that you were..." The bile rose in his throat again.
Duo sighed and pushed him back against the car. "Breathe," he said. "Keep it shallow--through your nose."
"Why aren't you... more upset?" Tony asked between breaths.
"I've killed every man who has ever raped me. I've had shrinks tell me that's not a healthy coping mechanism, but it works for me," he said, voice tinged with a morbid humor Tony was sure Natasha would echo. "As for whoring myself, I never did it for myself. I wouldn't have bothered. If it were just me, I could steal enough to survive. I took care of a bunch of other kids when I was young--littler than me. I couldn't provide for all of us on what I could steal, so I turned tricks instead. It was the only work that anyone wanted to give a pretty boy like me anyway."
Tony could feel Duo's eyes on him as he struggled to keep his breathing shallow, struggled against the bile burning the back of his throat. "God... I should have..." He closed his mouth. If he opened it again, he was going to throw up.
Duo sighed, loud enough to make Tony look at him. "Look, you need to stop this. You didn't know. The shit that happened to me... unfortunately, my story isn't that much different than a lot of L2 street kids. The biggest difference is that I survived it."
"My..." Tony choked, but he was going to get this out. "My son has been raped and beaten and had to sell himself just to survive. Had to kill to survive. I can't even tell you who your mother was because I slutted it up better than any whore. You... you should have had everything--"
He was cut off as Duo grabbed his shoulders and pushed him hard into the car. "Listen to me," Duo snapped, low and dangerous. "You. Did. Not. Know. What happened to me isn't your fault, and you need to stop trying to take blame for things you had no part in. You didn't knowingly abandon me. You didn't rape me. You have got to stop this 'what if' game you're playing with yourself. You didn't know, and you can't condemn yourself for things you never did."
"I wasn't there," Tony choked out, and this time, it was tears that fueled the knot in his throat. "You can't... you can't know that I wouldn't have left you to that, even if I had known. You don't know what I was like--"
"And you're not listening. I know people. I know what they're like, I know what drives them, I know how to hit their buttons, got it? I know people. The only person I know who is a better judge of character than I am is Quatre, and he fucking cheats. Stop assuming that you would have made the worst decisions if you'd known, all right? So you were a schmuck when you were in your twenties. Most guys are, and you had more reason to be than most. That doesn't mean that if you knew about me, you would have shut me out or consigned me to my life on L2."
"You can't..."
"I can know that," Duo said, nearly snarling. "I get that you were a prick before Afghanistan. News flash--you're still a prick most of the time, so honestly, it didn't change you all that much. No matter what you or the news or anyone else thinks--the man you were before and the man you are since getting out of that cave--you're the same man. You didn't have a personality transplant--you went through a paradigm shift and realized you weren't the center of the world." He let go of the lapels of Tony's jacket, and stepped back. "You care about people. That didn't come out of nowhere. If I handed you a kid--an infant--right now, and told you it was yours, you'd do anything in your power to protect that kid--to make sure it grew up happy and healthy and they knew that they were loved. Why in empty space would you believe that if someone had handed you me as an infant that you would have done any different?" He met Tony's eyes, refused to look away. "That empathy didn't come from nowhere--it was always part of you. Stop taking blame for shit you didn't do and stop hating yourself for decisions you didn't get a chance to make."
"I--"
"Get it through your head--you didn't know," Duo said, starting to sound angry. "You are not responsible for all of the evils in the world. Maybe if you knew about me, none of it would have ever happened. Maybe I'd have been kidnapped because I was your kid, and it all would have happened just the same. There's no way of knowing, so knock it the hell off."
Even if everything Duo was saying was true, it didn't make Tony feel any better. He opened his mouth, paused, then closed it. He didn't have words to explain how much knowing what Duo had gone through ate at him--how it horrified him.
Duo put his hands on his hips and stared up at the sky as if praying for patience. After a moment, he looked back down and rubbed between his eyes. "You know, it's a little irritating that you seem to think I've been some hapless victim my whole life," he said. "And more than a little condescending." He took Tony's elbow and manhandled him over to the other side of the car. When he stepped away, he was holding up Tony's keys. "Get in," he instructed, and his tone brokered no argument. Tony got in, but only because he had to agree--if only privately--that he was in no shape to drive.
Duo went back around, got in, adjusted the seat and mirrors quickly, then turned on the car, putting it in reverse to back out. "You know, for someone who hasn't known me for very long, you now know more about me than pretty much anyone knows--at least in broad strokes. Even the other pilots didn't know most of it until after the war."
"Why not?" Tony asked, curious.
Shrugging before he put the car back in drive to start out, Duo said, "It was war. None of us really expected to survive. We also didn't spend nearly as much time together early in the war as people think. We didn't know about each other when we came down--even attacked each other on some of our first meetings--hell, I shot 'Ro twice the first time we met. Most of our backgrounds are varying levels of nightmare-inducing, so they're not something we like sharing. Fighting together like we did--we bonded, sure. Just like any good unit should. But we didn't individually build relationships much until after the war was over."
"You and Yuy..."
"Well, some of us clicked more than others during the war. Me'n'Ro, Tro' and Quat. Some people just do," he replied, eyes on the road. He drove the manual so smoothly, someone could be convinced that it was an automatic. "I... have been told repeatedly that I am not a reliable judge of me'n'Ro. You're better off asking one of the others for a more unbiased view."
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