Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Denial ❯ Chapter 11
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: priscel 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.19.2006 | Updated On: 06.05.2006 | Pages: 4 | Words: 9.6K | Visits: 259 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.19.2006 | Updated On: 06.05.2006 | Pages: 4 | Words: 9.6K | Visits: 259 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimers: Gundam Wing and the g-boys aren’t mine. I gain no profit from this fic, but the story is mine and unfortunately so is Quin. ‘nuf said.
Warnings: POV shifts, shonenai, naughty poetry, nudity, my odd sense of humor, see first chap for full spiel.
Pairings: burgeoning 1x2, 3x4, 5xS. . .
feedback keeps us going.
- - -xXxXxXx- - - means transition or scene change
Denial
by priscel
ten- getting to know you
After Wu Fei had given them their envelopes and shown them to their rooms, they were pleased to know that they were all in the same hall, Damin G. Wung hall. They considered themselves lucky that they didn’t end up in the huge single sexed dorms across the field, they were sure the commute to meet each other would have them missing each other constantly especially how their classes were arranged for the up coming semester. In their dorm there were three floors, the first floor had the lounge, a small kitchen area linking the hall way to the lounge and their Resident Life Coordinator’s (RLC) apartment style dorm room- this was where Solo was staying with Sally Po. The second floor had one double where Duo and Heero roomed and two singles - one that was a storage space and the other Wu Fei’s room. In the basement, Hilde and Tabitha doubled while Quatre and Trowa had singles.
They dumped the last of the girl’s things in their rooms and went with Wu Fei on a tour of the campus grounds. It was midday when they returned to rest in the lounge and Duo got restless and unfortunately for Wu Fei he was closest to Duo. Ten minutes later, chuckles were heard at the exit of a fuming Wu Fei from the lounge. Duo held his head to side trying to catch what Wu Fei was muttering and although some of it was Chinese, he made out a line that he could have sworn was English because it sounded like ‘I will not strangle the loud mouth idiot.’ He smiled brightly and Wu Fei pointedly ignored him, a twitch in his brow the only evidence that he had noticed him and Hilde heading toward him.
“Hey Wuffers! We’re not interrupting 'quiet time' are we?”
Wu Fei exhaled, sparing a quick glare at Duo before his brow twitched. He sighed as he headed for the stairs, hopefully to his room alone.
Duo grinned manically. “You might wanna get that twitch there looked at Wuffers. Maybe you should get some rest buddy, you look a bit beat.”
Wu Fei closed his eyes and took calming breaths, they were going upstairs too, much to his dismay. He pulled himself together with a couple more breaths when Duo began a limerick.
“There once was a man named Wung
Who boasted on how well he was hung.
A lass took him to her stead.
He woke the next day and said,
‘you can make a fortune with that tongue!’”
“MAXWELL!” Wu Fei blushed to his roots, stopping mid stride on the steps to glare at the braided youth behind him.
“What?”
“...”
̶ 0;We called a truce and I didn’t say anything about you Wuffles.” He said innocently and Hilde snickered as they went through the door minus one irate Wu Fei, who’d mumbled something about disrespectful Americans as he made a hasty retreat to his room.
“Hey Fei-cakes its not all Americans, just me!” Duo called out as he went to his own room with Hilde in step. He didn’t have a problem being called American even though L2 was as diverse in culture as the world itself, but he thought it made sense considering that most of the people who founded L2 were from the US and his Mother was originally from Washington DC. He shared his mischievous smile with Hilde when they heard the door slam a little ways down the hall. He was positive he was going to have fun bugging Wu Fei. “Shesh, that guy needs to loosen up and pull that stick out of his ass.”
“Well not all people like nicknames or limericks, maybe he knows this Wung guy.” Hilde added with a shrug as she bounced on his bed and looked around his shared room. ‘Much nicer,’ she thought, ‘he definitely has a lot more room than me and Tabby.’
“Yea guess you’re right about that, Hil. But did you see him!? Gah, that was priceless.” He smiled.
Hilde snickered. “Oh you can’t tease the poor guy all day.”
“Damn, I have to remember that you must read my mind. Ok how about every 10, no 20 minutes?”
Hilde smiled through her glare.
“No? Damn, what about every hour? Hil, you’re no fun.” He half whined at her arched brow and disapproving-smiling look. ‘He’s more game for it than my roommate.’ He really didn’t like the idea of having a roommate who was a smart ass and probably wouldn't talk to him. Yea, he had the others but they wouldn’t be around him as much as his roommate would. It was something about the silence that irked him, that got under his skin. He walked about 10 paces to his closet, checking it out and thinking about when they had met up with Heero at the PEC. Heero glared at him and stared at his trapped braid with a look that said ‘you idiot,’ more or less confirming the kind of communication he could expect from him- none, zilch, zero. And damn it if that didn’t open up another bag potatoes that he didn’t want to start in on -- Solo had stopped laughing and started glaring at Heero who babysat them while Wu Fei went off to find the guy with the keys. The two were having some sort of pissing contest and he was the marking territory.
Duo pouted, which effectively hid his irritation and confusion with his roommate and his brother, making him look like a kicked puppy. “Yanno you ruined my plan to irritate the hell out of Wuffers over there by reading my mind.” He continued to pout, ‘though it would more like filling in the silence.’ “You made me see what a pain in the ass I woulduve been, but he started it when he criticized my braid on the tour. Hil he said that it was ‘unconventional,’ ‘a danger’ and ‘needed to be cut’! Did you hear him?!”
Hilde mimed the very words that Duo quoted from Wu Fei and shook her head. “Nooo, but you could use a trim.” She said with a sarcastic smile before laughing when Duo glared at her.
Duo paced at the end of his bed, crossing and uncrossing his arms over his chest. “Cut my braid, hell no. I couldn’t help it that the automatic doors decided to try and eat me alive.” He tossed his backpack onto the unoccupied desk under the window then moved the desk so it was next to his closet door.
Hilde smiled in thought, they had to turn off the power to manually open the door to get Duo free and the guy with the key had to unlock the door because autolocked when the power was cut. “I'm not a mind reader, I just know you too well. I call it an occupational hazard.”
“You know me- a what?”
Hilde snickered and dropped back onto his bed. “You know, being a friend and all, I bet one could make money off of that. They’d be employed full time, get lots of benefits.”
“They call that by another name, several actually if you define what kind of ‘friend’ for hire you are.” Duo’s glare melted as he stalked over to Hilde’s prone form. “And what kind of ‘friend’ are you?” He leaned in close as Hilde snapped one dark blue eye open, then soon the other joined. Wisps of his chestnut hair framed his face from a hastily redone braid. She swallowed, her lips felt so dry that even her tongue wetting them seemed parched. Dammit, she needed to get a hold of herself. But it was so hard, Duo was sex personified even if he didn’t know it and she found it hard to resist those tempting lips a scant foot away. Then all the reasons why it wouldn’t work, including that they were as close as siblings could be, flooded her hormone addled brain and she grinned at him before she lunged up and pulled him down to the bed.
“Ep!”
“The kind that kicks your ass every time and anytime I feel like it.” She laughed from where she had him pinned beneath her. She let out a startled sound when she suddenly found their positions reversed.
He smirked down at her and then messed up her hair. He knew how much she hated that. “Right. Maybe I should go get my receipt and see if I can return you.” He said laughingly as he scooted back, then hopped off the bed when she made a grab at his braid in retaliation.
He laughed again and danced out of her reach. She pouted and muttered, “No refunds, returns or exchanges. You’re stuck with me.”
“Damn, I knew I should have gone with the red head with the nice butt.” He said with a beatific grin, trying hard not to laugh.
“Oh you!” She growled, trying to fix her hair to no success and settled for chasing Duo instead.
A little while later, they stopped chasing each other when his roommate, came in and left again without so much as a word or hint that they existed.
“Damn he’s colder than he was earlier I wonder what got-” Hilde heard a noise and listened as two different grunts, Yuy and Chang, issued before they heard the Chinese teen storming down the hall muttering how he would have to sound proof his room against noisy, braided bakas before they heard his door close again. Hilde laughed. Duo sighed, thinking about the words he exchanged with his hall mate and lack of any with his roommate.
Hilde was still giggling when she tapped his shoulder, “Lighten up.”
“I guess I can’t hide it from you that it ticked me off a little when Wuffles made that comment that me and Heero oughta make sure we kept it down at night.” Duo grouched as they left his shared room and Hilde finger combed her short hair back into place.
“That was uncalled for, but you shouldn’t have made that jab at him about having a sword up his butt and then asked if that was the reason why he walked so stiffly.” Hilde smiled and Tabitha chuckled as she walked in on their conversation from the stairwell.
They were at the lounge door when she decided to speak, “Sorry to interrupt but there’s so much to do around here that I’m itching to go and well DO something. Did you see the pool over by the PEC? The doors are still open and man I can’t wait to go swimming.”
Duo silently listened to Tabitha and Hilde tradeoff on the water games they could play. He added his two cents on who he’d have on his team and suggested what he thought would be appropriate battle cries for each sport when he thought he had been quiet for too long. He hadn’t thought much about the pool and knowing the girls he was sure that they would find away to get him and Solo to go but he didn’t know how to tell them about his fear. He was unsure, was to put it lightly, fucking scared out of his wits was a better way of describing how he felt about going into a big pool of water like that. He and Solo didn’t know the first thing about swimming. He smiled at his brother when they saw him leave his and Sally’s room and made a note to look into swimming lessons or ask one of their friends, Quatre maybe, if they could teach them.
It was almost six and they were surprised to find Quatre fast asleep on the couch with the TV on. They crowded around the sleeping blond, before moving off to the other sofas and sofa chair in the lounge. Duo took up the task of finding the remote.
Solo plopped down on the arm of the one-seater pissed that because of his age, he had an earlier curfew. Sally smoothed out some of his upset by offering him the option of calling her, telling her where he was spending the night and when he’d be back on the weekends but during the week she extended curfew to eleven. But that was conditional; if he came back late she’d put him back on the ten o’clock curfew they had set for him. He had agreed and she smiled at him, making him blush and earning a glare from Wu Fei.
Quatre had told them earlier that there were conditions when they were in the van before they all fell asleep again before he could go into any details. Sally was one of those unsaid details and the other was named Lucrezia Noin. Noin was sipping tea with Sally when Duo and the gang went to visit Solo’s room before getting their luggage. Solo couldn’t help but laugh when Hilde did a double take at the older version of herself. Duo laughed at the twitching smile on her face.
Noin was Solo’s parental guardian and he had wanted to protest it and ask that Duo vouch for him but he stopped mid rant. He didn’t want to put anymore stress on his brother. The ladies arranged it so that he got a stipend every week in his mail box at the campus post office. He groused at how they were treating him; at least one woman, his mother, had thought him responsible enough to manage a bank account on his own.
As for rooming arrangements, Solo sighed as he slid down the armrest and into the comfy seat, he let his head drop back against it when he thought about the second glare he got from Wu Fei when Noin and Sally told them that he would be staying with Sally. Sally’s apartment like dorm room was built with two separate bedrooms and a lock on the doors, so at least he knew he would have some form of privacy. When he received news of this arrangement, he couldn’t stop himself from complaining. Though Noin was quick to shut him up when she threaten to take away his options and have him live with her in her apartment on the other side of the Sanc palace, seven miles away. Fearful of the barely veiled threat, he begrudgingly accepted and muttered, as he put his things away, about how he preferred to room with his brother and the need to be cautious around guys like Yuy.
Solo closed his eyes, letting his head loll toward the sound of the television. Duo sat in the unoccupied space above Quatre’s head as he happily channel surfed, his eyes getting wider when he realized they had digital. They all decided on a horror fic, ‘IT’, which had them all enrapted as the suspense mounted. Earlier on, Quatre gave them a tired mumble to stay and watch whatever they wished when they had first crowded around him and promised them that it wouldn’t disturb him. Despite their varying degrees of disbelief, he remained asleep, undisturbed by the screams that occasionally came from the movie.
Duo started at a mumble in the silence, chuckling quietly to himself when he realized it came from Quatre. Quatre was curled toward the couch and didn’t have much of a jacket on. When he saw him shiver with another mumble, Duo yanked down the afghan from the back of the couch to cover him looking back up to the tv when darkness engulfed the room. He had been watching the flashing ring of light from the TV so intently that he had forgotten about Quatre sleeping next to him. After a few minutes of complete silence from the TV, Duo jumped when the side of his thigh was nudged. He peered down at his leg and he released his grip on the armrest as he watched Quatre stretch out and nudge his thigh again. Duo let out a quiet chuckle and tucked the afghan down over Quatre’s shoulders and returned to the movie.
At some point, Hilde had brought in popcorn at the third half of the movie and Duo found his lap occupied. He blinked down at Quatre as he settled his forehead against his stomach with his arm pillowing his head across Duo’s lap. He smiled in contentment and fell into a deeper sleep.
Duo nudged him a few times, only to get a grumpy mumble. A devious smirk crossed his face as he looked down at the unprotected cheek, it was something Sister Helen had taken to doing since he and Solo were teens when she felt the need to discipline them in some small way. Though, he quickly decided not to try pinching Quatre’s cheeks ever again because he had almost lost a finger to the snap of those pearly whites. At Duo’s sigh of defeat, Quatre wrapped an arm around his waist and pressed his face into his stomach with a pleased murmur. Duo blushed and sent a glare in both directions of the snickers he heard from either side of the room.
He tugged on a lock Quatre’s hair, a faint smile playing on his lips as a fragment of a memory spoke of something similar happening between him and Solo. “What is it with blondes and my stomach?” He muttered, munching on some popcorn and hoping his blush would fade quickly.
Catching wind of Duo’s comment, Solo’s snickering stopped. His eyes became unfocused as he slipped into memory. If anyone were looking in his direction they would wonder why he was shaking in his seat, his arm came up to stem the chill that that went through his body in the warm room. His eyes darted anxiously around the room, wondering if he could just leave. He doubted that he could control his steps long enough to look like he was walking and he didn’t want the attention he would draw from his friends, especially his new ones, if he ran out of the room for the privacy of the closest bathroom. He bit his bottom lip when he felt it quiver. His eyes settled on the blond using his brother as a cuddle toy. He envied him and wondered if he would have been able to sleep so serenely if he hadn’t been who he was. If he had never been... He squeezed his eyes tight, the depression was seeping back in with the memories of his abuse. He didn’t want it to spoil such an eventful day and cursed himself for slipping, letting down his block. He took deep breaths as he sank deeper into the sofa chair, turning away from thinking all together and forced himself to focus on something else, anything else. The movie. He latched onto it and dug his nails into the sensitive flesh on the inside of his arms.
Duo snickered at the thoughtful expression that took over Wu Fei’s face when he related to them about his Professor, G. He was a funny greying, mushroom-shaped haired man who had immediately taken a-liking to him and told him that his full name was Ghislain Baum. The man talked a lot and Duo told them he found out that G knew Howard when they were discussing the option of him getting a part time job. Being fifteen didn’t leave a lot options open for him and he couldn’t see himself in a burger joint, but if that was all he could get then he’d do it. He didn’t share with them that the scholarship he and his brother got partially covered their expenses because of the money their money Mother had painstaking saved for them, but G knew and took him over immediately to meet a man by the name of Otto who owned an auto shop. He smiled at the looks of incredulity on his friends faces and ignored Solo’s glare. They didn’t knock that it was clever of the owner to play on the word and Duo’s bright smile and hopeful expression put further doubt aside, except for Solo. He didn’t want Duo to overwork himself and the semester hadn’t even begun yet... so to appease his brother Duo restricted himself to work a few days a week. At the mention of this, he saw Solo’s glare lessen.
The day went by swiftly and soon the weekend was over and a new routine began. Every morning, Duo was awoken by Solo and each time he would find that his enigmatic roommate had already left. When he came back, Heero would already be sleeping, his things tucked away and his clothes for the next day set out meticulously on the back of the chair at his desk across the room. They’d hardly seen each other, but Wu Fei was just down the hall. It wasn’t like he couldn’t go down stairs and bug the hell out of everyone there but he liked his hall mate, he couldn’t say the same about Heero. His aloof roommate was just that, aloof and he had already forgiven him... to an extent.
He found out that the girl, that he had named banshee when describing her to Quatre and earned a laugh, was none other than Relena Peacecraft and she had a crush the size of the Alaska on one Heero Yuy. Quatre had further explained that the girl lived one dorm down from them and made it a habit of showing up in their dorm unannounced. The girl had been more or less stalking the poor guy for nearly a year since he returned from visiting his relatives in Okinawa. Apparently, he had made a hasty decision to get her off his back for the summer. Duo wouldn’t hold a grudge over something like that, not when he had some idea where Heero was coming from. So Duo got to see Wu Fei more than anyone because Wu Fei would either come down the hall to bang on his door and complain about his obnoxious music or come bang on his door and complain about him being in his room.
It was always a good laugh to piss off Wu Fei, and at the end of the first week they met Trowa at the circus. Well what was left of it: three mobile homes, some horses and a large speciality truck to carry them in. That much had remained behind because they refused to leave without Catherine and Catherine ‘please call me Cathy’ Bloom refused to leave without spending some time with her brother and seeing where he roomed. Cathy had treated them all to some experimental soup that Trowa kept oddly quiet about, well more quiet than usual. Quatre smiled his usually bright smile when Trowa did an infinitesimal nod in the negative about eating that particular soup and Cathy pinched his cheek. Duo had opened his mouth to warn her of those deadly whites and nearly fell off the sofa in laughter when Quatre bore it with a long suffering look and a tight smile. Cathy fitted right in with her motherly disposition as she pulled her curly, toffee colored hair into a high pony tail and probed them for information. Trowa nudged her to let her know he knew what she was doing and gave her the ‘I’m not a kid anymore’ look.
Trowa was the oldest among them and to Duo, not as stolid as Wu Fei and Heero. He talked and had some pretty damn funny things to say but seldom spoke when he didn’t feel the need to. He was taller than Solo, five foot nine. Duo found himself smirking when he overheard Quatre’s comment that Trowa must have grown two inches when Solo stood beside him. Duo couldn’t help noticing the sulky mood Solo was in the entire time Cathy was with them. He tried to placate him by telling him they could go to the circus in September, making funny faces and sticking by his side. In effect cheering Solo up a little and wrangling a few smiles out of him. They walked Cathy back to the caravan and Duo found Solo admiring the horses as Trowa groomed one of them in the small stead they had set up. Duo smiled when Trowa nodded his head toward Solo and Duo nodded pushing him to stumble toward Trowa.
Solo glared at him but smiled immediately when Trowa helped get up on the horse’s bare back. Apparently, Cathy got attached to Solo and as soon as he got off the horse and onto unsteady feet, he was more or less kidnapped by her and asked a flurry of questions are centering on his well being. They all laughed at his blushing face as she looped her arm through his and dragged him off to her home as she gave Trowa the 'you know better' look. Trowa gave them a half smirk and told them since Cathy has all but adopted Solo, he was going on vacation. They all smiled and joked a little more before Trowa and Duo dutifully went off to rescue Solo. There were peals of laughter when they all met up again and Solo complained about her trying to feed him more soup.
During the last hectic -hellish- week of June Duo had gone through mounds of papers to get a permit for his staff. Someone had informed the administration that he had an unregistered weapon. Duo tried to control his huffs of agitation, Scythe was a weapon but he didn’t intend go out beating people upside the head with it. Well not without a good reason. It had never been a problem when he was on L2. Then he reasoned with himself that this was Sanc, not L2 and as a pacifist nation permits with explanations were required if he didn’t want his staff to be confiscated and be thrown in juvie for illegal possession.
Completing form after form after form, he wondered who it could have been. He thought of his roommate. He didn’t want to accuse him of anything especially since the guy didn’t seem to care that he was sharing the same room. Duo usually saw his roommate fencing because he would be there practicing with his staff or watching Quatre practice. Quatre priacticed with two beautifully crafted swords, that were sickle shaped with inscribed Arabic and Aramaic script that started in the center of the blades and stopped four inches from the tip(1). He completed the last form and threw his pen on the desk. It occurred to him, as he gathered the forms and Scthye, that it could have been anyone in the PEC.
After he took the papers into the Court administration building and they gave him his temporary license, he decided he need to work off some of his tension and headed for the PEC. As he walked in, he saw people playing tennis on the far end of the court, basketball, and to far right - a level down- some people fencing. He thought about the pool in the next room over, he gripped Scythe and shook his head that wouldn’t do, he had barely gotten down the doggy paddle even with Quatre’s enthused help and sparing alone today just wouldn’t cut it.
A few paces away he spotted Quatre beginning his practice on the mats in the center of everything. Quatre looked deceptively meek wielding blades that seemed more lethal to the little blonde than anyone else. Duo wouldn’t let that image fool him, Quatre was dangerous and agile. He slipped out of his flipflops as he followed Quatre flowing through each movement as he turned, jabbed at an invisible opponent, rolled and slashed. He rocked from foot to foot, catching the rhythm inherent in Quatre’s moves before stepping in. He rolled across the mat and brought his staff up as he crouched to block and deflect the force of the downward stroke of the twin shotels.
The blond blinked a few times before his eyes met Duo’s narrowed ones that reflected his excitement and challenge. He smiled at Duo in acceptance and Duo in turn smiled a catlike-mischievous one as they both jumped back from each other and began again. Before long, their bodies moving in a counter rhythm to each other, they rushed toward the other and met with a clang at the center of the mat.
Heero who had been ignoring the braided teen since his arrival, quickly finished off his partner who had more interest in the dueling teens a little ways away from them than their own match. Heero took off his helmet and tilted his head toward Trowa who had glanced his way in a silent greeting. He eyed the bokken on the wall and looked to Trowa in invitation when a particularly loud clang brought both their attentions to Duo and Quatre. Quatre had both his swords braced against Duo’s staff and Duo kneeled before him, his back arching backward.
Heero could see the strain in Duo’s black clothed form and thought the boy would give up from the pressure and that Quatre had the upperhand. It surprised him that Quatre was using so much force, anyone who saw him wouldn’t be able to see where it was coming from. Trowa only smirked knowingly at Heero’s examination of Quatre.
Duo began to lean back toward the mat, still balanced on his feet as Quatre pressed forward. Heero started to turn his head away when he caught Duo dropped back in the corner of his eye. ‘Like in the lounge.’ He snorted as he watched. The sudden lack of resistance caught Quatre off guard and he struggled to keep his balance and swords from cutting the mat on either side of Duo’s head. Duo did a tight back flip keeping his legs tucked to avoid upsetting Quatre’s tenuous balance further. Duo stood beside Quatre with a cocky grin on his face and turned to face their spectators without really acknowledging them and unintentionally swatting Quatre across his rear with Scythe.
“Duo!” Duo’s name was all Trowa heard, he couldn’t tell who had shouted it but he saw Duo look on in concern as the law of gravity came into effect. They both tensed when they saw Quatre falling forward.
Trowa’s eyes trailed down the blades in Quatre’s hands and realized the tips of the blades were angled toward Quatre’s shoulders. Then it was over and Quatre was smiling beatifically. Trowa’s tensed shoulders relaxed as he exhaled shakily, it was the only outward sign that he had been afraid for Quatre. Quatre had turned his fall into a roll, just as effortlessly as Duo had flipped from under him, and had both blades sheathed in the scabbards on his sides when he finished the roll into a low crouch, ready to pounce.
“Don’t you just admire my technique?” Duo said, that cocky grin still in place though his concern laced his voice. He extended his hand to him and Quatre squeezed it as he stood, reassuring his boasting friend with the pressure and a kind smile. Quatre saw Duo’s whole body relax with that action and he bumped shoulders as the started to walk off the mat. Duo gave him an embarrassed smile when he spoke again, “Quatre, yanno you’re pretty impressive. When-”
At that moment, their enwrapped audience came to life with thunderous applause, cutting Duo off and startling them both. Voices soon intermingled with the clapping, their audience was telling them how daring they were because in fencing they at least had protective padding while the two were only clothed in loose yoga type pants and tank tops.
Duo gave a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of his head before he swung an arm around Quatre’s shoulders and returning his friends' attention back to him when he caught sight of the scabbards along Quatre’s sides. Leaving their audience to entertain themselves, Duo enthusiastically asked Quatre questions about the shotels and his practice moves. He found out that they were heirlooms of Quatre’s family, although pacifists, their ancestors weren’t always such and neither was Quatre. Quatre had gotten as far as the pointing out the one of the inscribed names was pronounced ‘Ghaa’ib’ as he went to unsheathed the blade on his left when gasps brought their attention to the matted floor a foot down from them.
“Come kill me Heero... Try and kill me.” At the sound of her voice Heero winced and Trowa, who had been watching Duo and Quatre with questioning eyes, was now turning amused greens on Heero. The girl was dressed in fencing attire, holding a saber to her helmet covered face as she bowed and took a ready stance.
‘It was good while it lasted.’ Trowa thought sympathetically. Heero had nearly two months of peace with only the occasional, cordial ‘hello’ to the girl when they crossed paths.
“Relena.” Heero’s usual monotone was peppered with his annoyance as he faced his childhood friend now turned love sick fool. He hadn’t changed much during his year abroad; he’d filled out a bit and let his hair grow an inch more but that was the extent of it. ‘Hn, maybe she hit her head while I was away?’ He gave her his death glare when she batted her lashes at him.
“Heero, I will prove to you that I have become more than the silly girl you grew up with. That I am a worthy companion.” She glanced around the room looking for the girl that had tricked her Heero into a relationship by being deprived enough to use her body. She was sure that was the only way the girl could have gotten to her Heero so quickly. She knew Heero wasn’t the type of person to fall for that but the seducer was probably a professional.
‘Kissing my Heero when I have yet to do so.’ She thought bitterly. She glanced over the room again, she was sure she’d be here to watch Heero practice, that’s what she did at every opportunity.
“If that’s what you want.” Heero’s voice brought her attention back to him. “Ninmu ryoukai.” Relena saw the small, devious smile that didn’t quite reach those cold cobalt blues and she felt her heart flutter. “Omae o korosu.” He placed the helmet on with one hand and stepped forward.
Duo quirked a brow at the obvious disdain his roommate was showing the girl who just smiled in her infatuation and looked more determined. “Damn. She just doesn’t get it.” He’d seen his roommate avoid her as much as possible, exchanging quick words or head in the opposite direction on campus if he saw her. His brows furrowed as he thought back to the rash kiss and the voice that squeaked. Heero went to that extreme and the girl still didn’t get it.
“Don’t they have an AA group or self-help books for that shit?” Duo hadn’t expected an answer but with a sad chuckle, Quatre shook his head no. “She’s the one you were hinting at when we asked about obsessed people back on L2?”
Quatre nodded with a small smile, “She is infatuated with him.” Duo snorted, but Quatre continued, “Heero has always treated her like a sister and even acted as her bodyguard on several occasions. He probably knew that kiss... um... display wouldn’t keep her away for long.”
“Hmm, he could’ve arranged it with somebody he knew.”
“I think you handled it pretty well.” Quatre teasingly.
“Yep that's Maxwell skill for ya!” He jested with a big grin thinking about the skirmish between Heero and him when they had first met. ‘He deserved it,’ but he knew how hollow that sounded, it was more like he was trying to convince himself then anything else. It confused the hell out of him, because he’d seen Heero in practice, kicking the ass of any opponent he had and then thinking back to that day and how Heero really didn’t fight him back.
Quatre gave him a knowing smirk and Duo groaned.
“Aw shut it, Kat.” Duo ignored the heat he felt rising in his face and watched the two dueling with mild interest before a yawn broke free. He stretched and patted Quatre's shoulder. “It’s been a long day. Hey, Q-ball, me and the girls are cooking how ‘bout you get Trowa to come and I’ll get Wufflupagus. And of course,” He gestured toward the sparing teens, “cold ass is welcomed, I’ll write a note on his board. He looks pretty busy.”
Duo glimpsed the tall, willowy teen down below stealing glances at them while watching Heero duel with Relena. Trowa’s quiet and calm demeanor made Duo ramble off at the mouth when he would visit him but Quatre wouldn’t be too far away to save him from talking himself to death. The tall teen with his uni-bang hairdo didn’t mind him talking though and he wondered if that was because of Quatre. It was interesting, really, how Quatre lit up like a light bulb around Trowa.
“Hm...” He watched as Quatre stole glances at Trowa who was now focused fully on the dueling teens, ready to act as referee if Heero meant to skewer her.
He tapped Quatre on the shoulder who smiled and mumbled a nervous “Ok.”
“Later Kat.” Duo affectionately ruffled the other teen’s hair as he left. Duo found himself more frequently checking in on him, almost as much as he did with Solo. He had noticed that he felt the need to look after him. He walked out and headed toward the dorms.
Duo left a trail of clothes as he closed the door to the bathroom and took his hair out of his customary braid. He sighed in bliss as he stepped under the spray and closed his eyes, letting the water rain down on him. He soon tilted his head back, the water splashing and running over his face and down his neck. He open his mouth to the water and lifted his hands to slick back his hair.
He had never taken such long showers back on L2, but there they didn’t have a shower that used real water. In the slums and on other poorer colonies, water was a precious commodity and only the rich, and some middle class families could afford to waste water in showers or to wash their cars. He shivered in pleasure, committing to memory the feel of the water washing over him, cascading down his body. He put some shampoo in his hair and worked up a lather.
Ten minutes into his shower, the door to the bathroom opened while Duo finished washing away the last of the soapy foam from his body. A slight draft was his only warning when he was suddenly face to face with his roommate.
They stood stock still before each other. Duo was staring blankly at Heero, but Heero didn’t return the stare right away. Instead he let his eyes roam over the shocked form in front of him before returning to those violet pools. His own body seemed calm and more than happy to be standing in front of a very naked Duo. All the while his face remained passive.
Duo shivered, a flush spreading across his cheeks as his hands dropped to cover himself, moving back toward the shower wall. This gave him a view that had his eyes widen comically when he realized that Heero’s bare chest was well muscled as the showerhead sent rivulets of water down his body. Duo’s eyes came up to a stop on brown nipples, hard brown nip-
‘Fuck!,’ he thought of how odd it was that the word was becoming a permanent part of his vocabulary in reference to said roommate as he flushed at the realization that Heero was standing before him in only a towel and that he was staring.
“Wh-,” the half formed question was all he could get out before he was picked up, dripping wet and tossed unceremoniously onto his bed.
“Hey!” Duo yelled, his long pale legs bending at the knee as he tried to regain some dignity. Heero remained at the end of his bed, his arms crossed at his torso with a smug look on his face.
“You are a cold-hearted bastard y'know!” Duo grumbled loudly, his face flushing a deeper red as he tried to cover himself with the soaked linen beneath him, but instead ended up becoming more frustrated because he couldn’t pull them free from the now equally soaked mattress.
He sat up, his lips set in a furiously tight pout. He was in a dilemma - Heero was standing there with a gleam in his eyes he didn’t like, it made him blush more; his dresser was on the other side of the room opposite Heero and his clothes were still in the bathroom. He turned away from Heero giving him a clear view of one pale butt cheek and the line of his ass and tried reach for his pillow when a towel hit him in the back of his head.
“You always take too long, Baka. I need some hot water too.” Heero said, the last part sounding like an after thought as he returned to the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
Duo exploded. “You... YOU PRICK! Damn you! I wasn’t finished! And Fifteen-freaking-minutes is not that long. All you had to do was knock to let me know you wanted to use the fucking shower!”
Duo briskly dried his body and then used the same towel on his hair trying to get it as dry as possible while glaring and grumbling at the closed door to the bathroom. At home, they didn’t lock the bathroom door, if it was closed that meant someone was in there and that you should knock. He had forgotten that he wasn’t home anymore, he made a mental note to lock the door next time and jam a chair under the knob for good measure.
“Damn cold-hearted bastard.” He muttered lowly, not really concerned that he was repeating himself as he quickly pulled on a pair of boxers and tried the bathroom door. It wasn’t locked. He smiled. He opened it quietly, ducking inside to snatch his comb, a hair tie and shirt before flushing the toilet and running out of their room and down the hall to Wu Fei’s room faster than a bat out hell.
“KUSO!” Duo had just tripped the lock and closed Wu Fei’s door when he heard the curse. He snickered before walking into Wu Fei’s bathroom to finish getting dressed.
Tabitha came over to stir the stew, she was happy to have something to do, she didn’t know how to cook, honestly and was more than happy when Duo had asked her to put in the vegetable after an hour while he took care of the forms he had been groaning about for most of the day. She had felt embarrassed by the elaborate dishes, at least that’s what they were to her, that Sally and Hilde had made. Sally made apple pie from real apples and Hilde made an herbal rice dish to go with Duo’s chicken.
Heero came down, glaring and Duo ambled over and patted his shoulder. “Hey there buddy, I’m glad you got the message.” Heero glared at the offending appendage, and then at its owner with his double meaning words.
Duo only smiled like an idiot before leaning in close, “Pay backs a bitch, ay?”
Heero shrugged off the hand on his shoulder and wondered what had prompt him to do such a thing in the first place. ‘To get even? But for what?’ he asked himself, was he mad that the braided baka had left and practically showed no interest in his duel with Relena? It was worthwhile and seriously relieved some of the tension the girl caused him on a daily basis when he beat her. Everyone had expected him to go berserk or something. Except for Duo. He shook his head, a very small movement that maybe Trowa would have noticed and wondered again at the disappointment he felt when his roommate wasn’t there. Their free evenings were usually quiet if Sally or Quatre didn’t pester them into doing something, but now with the other four teens, there was always something going on and he could see this potluck diner was going to become a regular thing on Wednesday nights. He blinked when his stomach made a nearly inaudible sound at the delicious smells filling the room from their small kitchen.
Sally passed Duo who was headed back to the small kitchen. “Oh, Duo did you leave-”
“MAXWELL!”
“Oh I guess you did.” Sally chuckled at the mischievous smirk on Duo’s face as she grabbed the bowel of popcorn off their small dinning table and sat down by Solo who feigned interest in the TV while watching Heero out the corner of his eye.
“Maxwell. You’ve been in my room again.” Heero quirked a brow at the accusation, ‘So that’s where he was.’
“Sorry Wufflupagus, Heero here monopolized the bathroom and I needed to finish my hair before it dried and got knotted up. You know how that is Wu.”
“That’s no excuse. My hair isn’t needlessly long so I rarely have that problem.” Wufei scoffed.
Duo gave Wu Fei a tight smile. “I see now why you wear your hair that way; it makes your face so tight that your nose looks like it's sticking out so that it matches your snooty attitude.”
Wu Fei sputtered and closed his mouth with an indignant turn of his head.
“Tit for tat Wu-man.” Duo said laughingly and threw the spoon he had just eaten with in the sink. He smiled mischievously when he saw Hilde put a bowl of mash potatoes on the counter. He ran his finger along the rim of the bowl of mashed potatoes and quickly put it in his mouth when Hilde tried to swat his hand with the mixing spoon.
He danced away with a smile on his face.“Besides, next time lock the door.”
“It was locked Maxwell.” Wu Fei huffed standing at their small dinning table, his pissy mood lightening at Duo’s playfulness in the kitchen. It was really hard to stay mad at the braided fool. Then he remembered his defiled underwear.
“Oh?” Duo said smirking at Wu Fei over his shoulder as he tried to steal more mash potatoes. “Maybe get a better lock next time and besides it was an emergency, Wuffers.”
Sally cut in, stepping into Wu Fei's line of sight. “I’m glad you could come down and eat with us.” She noticed the nervous twitch Wu Fei was developing with a raised brow. Her smile grew when Wu Fei’s glower lessened at her greeting and her smiling face, he gave her a respectable nod before his back straighten and he took a menacing step toward the braided teen.
“You could have just written a note and cleaned up your... YOUR sheddings off of my bathroom floor!”
“Wu Fei, I don’t have fur yanno. And I did write a note. You didn’t like the note I left on your tighty whities? You have very interesting taste in und-”
“Sow seng!(2) By Nataku, Maxwell, Sow seng!” Wu Fei could feel the heat rising in his cheeks at the mention of his now very wordy briefs and boxers. It had been a spur of the moment thing when he’d borrowed the campus van to drive to drive them all to the mall and back. He hastily bought a pack of boxers that had phrases like ‘morning smile,’ ‘love hustler,’ and champagne glasses ‘here’s to you.’ And now he was paying for it dearly.
Wu Fei chased Duo, remembering what Duo had written in permanent marker, ‘I love Sally’ on several of his boxers and wrote the summation of the whole underwear assault on a pair of white briefs in the center of the underwear collage, ‘Come and have some of her pie.’
It was derogatory and downright shameful.
He found himself yelling in Chinese as the braided baka easily evaded him. The lounge was filled with laughter, Trowa and Quatre just walking in couldn’t help but join in with one look at the two. Solo and Hilde were debating who was the Roadrunner and who was Wiley Coyote. When Duo ducked under the dining room table faster than Wu Fei could snatch his braid, they both burst out laughing and decided that Duo was definitely the Roadrunner.
Duo was starting to worry that the determined dragon, ‘yea that’s what he is, a fire breathing dragon,’ was going to catch him. He laughed nervously to himself, ‘well Mama told me not play with fire but I can’t help it.’ He spotted Heero rising up to go into the kitchen and jumped behind him, turning him to face a furiously flushed Wu Fei.
“Move. Yuy.” Wu Fei panted out sternly.
“...” Heero just looked impassively at him while Duo caught his breath. He was sure Heero would let Wu Fei get him, but his roommate didn’t budge. Duo stared at Heero’s unmoving back, wondering why he was still standing there.
Wu Fei harrumphed at Heero in irritation, crossing his arms over his chest. He exchanged looks with Heero again before glaring down at the half squatting form behind him, peeking at him with one violet eye.
“Fine. You need to keep a leash on your shã zi (3) roommate.” He turned and walked toward the others who had brought out the food to the table. “Leave my things be Maxwell.”
“Love you too Fei. Sorry about the leavings, I’ll get them up after dinner.”
“Stop butchering my name Maxwell.”
“Ok Wufflupagus. Maybe when you call me Duo, I’ll return the favor. Oh, I promise I’ll put your journal back, too.”
“Maxwell! This is injustice!”
“Oh so you do have a journal?!” Duo smiled mischievously and Sally winked at him conspiratually. Wu Fei sputtered, it was becoming a nasty habit of his. He turned away from the braided teen seething, the muscle twitching on the side his jaw was the only indication of him gritting his teeth.
“Hmm ... they say that’s not good for your teeth yanno. Well, Wuffles, tell you what. Convince Heero to stop hoggin’ the bathroom and I’ll only come over to visit.” Duo said, turning to get his stew off the stove.
Heero didn’t so much as blink at the casual way Duo hinted at the shower incident. The corners of his mouth upturned as he thought of the gibe, following the braided baka into the kitchen to get the drinks. Wu Fei sat rigidly next to Sally, itching to go to his room to make that the braided Maxwell hadn’t moved his journal from where he put it. He jerked to get up when Sally laid a gentle hand on his arm, telling him to calm down and guided him with a firm grip over to the table to grab something to eat.
Tbc...
(1) www.ancient-east.com/collection/shotel_ptk.jpg
(2) one dialect of Chinese for ‘shut up!’
(3) one dialect of Chinese ‘idiot’
PEC - the acronym for Physical Education Center
AN: oh and my knowledge of the various dialects in Chinese language is not that great, so if it’s wrong feel free to correct me. And I think Wu Fei would know several dialects of Chinese, but use Mandarin Chinese as his primary, what do you think?
One more thing ^_^ Thank you guys for sticking with me.
Warnings: POV shifts, shonenai, naughty poetry, nudity, my odd sense of humor, see first chap for full spiel.
Pairings: burgeoning 1x2, 3x4, 5xS. . .
feedback keeps us going.
- - -xXxXxXx- - - means transition or scene change
Denial
by priscel
ten- getting to know you
After Wu Fei had given them their envelopes and shown them to their rooms, they were pleased to know that they were all in the same hall, Damin G. Wung hall. They considered themselves lucky that they didn’t end up in the huge single sexed dorms across the field, they were sure the commute to meet each other would have them missing each other constantly especially how their classes were arranged for the up coming semester. In their dorm there were three floors, the first floor had the lounge, a small kitchen area linking the hall way to the lounge and their Resident Life Coordinator’s (RLC) apartment style dorm room- this was where Solo was staying with Sally Po. The second floor had one double where Duo and Heero roomed and two singles - one that was a storage space and the other Wu Fei’s room. In the basement, Hilde and Tabitha doubled while Quatre and Trowa had singles.
They dumped the last of the girl’s things in their rooms and went with Wu Fei on a tour of the campus grounds. It was midday when they returned to rest in the lounge and Duo got restless and unfortunately for Wu Fei he was closest to Duo. Ten minutes later, chuckles were heard at the exit of a fuming Wu Fei from the lounge. Duo held his head to side trying to catch what Wu Fei was muttering and although some of it was Chinese, he made out a line that he could have sworn was English because it sounded like ‘I will not strangle the loud mouth idiot.’ He smiled brightly and Wu Fei pointedly ignored him, a twitch in his brow the only evidence that he had noticed him and Hilde heading toward him.
“Hey Wuffers! We’re not interrupting 'quiet time' are we?”
Wu Fei exhaled, sparing a quick glare at Duo before his brow twitched. He sighed as he headed for the stairs, hopefully to his room alone.
Duo grinned manically. “You might wanna get that twitch there looked at Wuffers. Maybe you should get some rest buddy, you look a bit beat.”
Wu Fei closed his eyes and took calming breaths, they were going upstairs too, much to his dismay. He pulled himself together with a couple more breaths when Duo began a limerick.
“There once was a man named Wung
Who boasted on how well he was hung.
A lass took him to her stead.
He woke the next day and said,
‘you can make a fortune with that tongue!’”
“MAXWELL!” Wu Fei blushed to his roots, stopping mid stride on the steps to glare at the braided youth behind him.
“What?”
“...”
̶ 0;We called a truce and I didn’t say anything about you Wuffles.” He said innocently and Hilde snickered as they went through the door minus one irate Wu Fei, who’d mumbled something about disrespectful Americans as he made a hasty retreat to his room.
“Hey Fei-cakes its not all Americans, just me!” Duo called out as he went to his own room with Hilde in step. He didn’t have a problem being called American even though L2 was as diverse in culture as the world itself, but he thought it made sense considering that most of the people who founded L2 were from the US and his Mother was originally from Washington DC. He shared his mischievous smile with Hilde when they heard the door slam a little ways down the hall. He was positive he was going to have fun bugging Wu Fei. “Shesh, that guy needs to loosen up and pull that stick out of his ass.”
“Well not all people like nicknames or limericks, maybe he knows this Wung guy.” Hilde added with a shrug as she bounced on his bed and looked around his shared room. ‘Much nicer,’ she thought, ‘he definitely has a lot more room than me and Tabby.’
“Yea guess you’re right about that, Hil. But did you see him!? Gah, that was priceless.” He smiled.
Hilde snickered. “Oh you can’t tease the poor guy all day.”
“Damn, I have to remember that you must read my mind. Ok how about every 10, no 20 minutes?”
Hilde smiled through her glare.
“No? Damn, what about every hour? Hil, you’re no fun.” He half whined at her arched brow and disapproving-smiling look. ‘He’s more game for it than my roommate.’ He really didn’t like the idea of having a roommate who was a smart ass and probably wouldn't talk to him. Yea, he had the others but they wouldn’t be around him as much as his roommate would. It was something about the silence that irked him, that got under his skin. He walked about 10 paces to his closet, checking it out and thinking about when they had met up with Heero at the PEC. Heero glared at him and stared at his trapped braid with a look that said ‘you idiot,’ more or less confirming the kind of communication he could expect from him- none, zilch, zero. And damn it if that didn’t open up another bag potatoes that he didn’t want to start in on -- Solo had stopped laughing and started glaring at Heero who babysat them while Wu Fei went off to find the guy with the keys. The two were having some sort of pissing contest and he was the marking territory.
Duo pouted, which effectively hid his irritation and confusion with his roommate and his brother, making him look like a kicked puppy. “Yanno you ruined my plan to irritate the hell out of Wuffers over there by reading my mind.” He continued to pout, ‘though it would more like filling in the silence.’ “You made me see what a pain in the ass I woulduve been, but he started it when he criticized my braid on the tour. Hil he said that it was ‘unconventional,’ ‘a danger’ and ‘needed to be cut’! Did you hear him?!”
Hilde mimed the very words that Duo quoted from Wu Fei and shook her head. “Nooo, but you could use a trim.” She said with a sarcastic smile before laughing when Duo glared at her.
Duo paced at the end of his bed, crossing and uncrossing his arms over his chest. “Cut my braid, hell no. I couldn’t help it that the automatic doors decided to try and eat me alive.” He tossed his backpack onto the unoccupied desk under the window then moved the desk so it was next to his closet door.
Hilde smiled in thought, they had to turn off the power to manually open the door to get Duo free and the guy with the key had to unlock the door because autolocked when the power was cut. “I'm not a mind reader, I just know you too well. I call it an occupational hazard.”
“You know me- a what?”
Hilde snickered and dropped back onto his bed. “You know, being a friend and all, I bet one could make money off of that. They’d be employed full time, get lots of benefits.”
“They call that by another name, several actually if you define what kind of ‘friend’ for hire you are.” Duo’s glare melted as he stalked over to Hilde’s prone form. “And what kind of ‘friend’ are you?” He leaned in close as Hilde snapped one dark blue eye open, then soon the other joined. Wisps of his chestnut hair framed his face from a hastily redone braid. She swallowed, her lips felt so dry that even her tongue wetting them seemed parched. Dammit, she needed to get a hold of herself. But it was so hard, Duo was sex personified even if he didn’t know it and she found it hard to resist those tempting lips a scant foot away. Then all the reasons why it wouldn’t work, including that they were as close as siblings could be, flooded her hormone addled brain and she grinned at him before she lunged up and pulled him down to the bed.
“Ep!”
“The kind that kicks your ass every time and anytime I feel like it.” She laughed from where she had him pinned beneath her. She let out a startled sound when she suddenly found their positions reversed.
He smirked down at her and then messed up her hair. He knew how much she hated that. “Right. Maybe I should go get my receipt and see if I can return you.” He said laughingly as he scooted back, then hopped off the bed when she made a grab at his braid in retaliation.
He laughed again and danced out of her reach. She pouted and muttered, “No refunds, returns or exchanges. You’re stuck with me.”
“Damn, I knew I should have gone with the red head with the nice butt.” He said with a beatific grin, trying hard not to laugh.
“Oh you!” She growled, trying to fix her hair to no success and settled for chasing Duo instead.
A little while later, they stopped chasing each other when his roommate, came in and left again without so much as a word or hint that they existed.
“Damn he’s colder than he was earlier I wonder what got-” Hilde heard a noise and listened as two different grunts, Yuy and Chang, issued before they heard the Chinese teen storming down the hall muttering how he would have to sound proof his room against noisy, braided bakas before they heard his door close again. Hilde laughed. Duo sighed, thinking about the words he exchanged with his hall mate and lack of any with his roommate.
Hilde was still giggling when she tapped his shoulder, “Lighten up.”
“I guess I can’t hide it from you that it ticked me off a little when Wuffles made that comment that me and Heero oughta make sure we kept it down at night.” Duo grouched as they left his shared room and Hilde finger combed her short hair back into place.
“That was uncalled for, but you shouldn’t have made that jab at him about having a sword up his butt and then asked if that was the reason why he walked so stiffly.” Hilde smiled and Tabitha chuckled as she walked in on their conversation from the stairwell.
They were at the lounge door when she decided to speak, “Sorry to interrupt but there’s so much to do around here that I’m itching to go and well DO something. Did you see the pool over by the PEC? The doors are still open and man I can’t wait to go swimming.”
Duo silently listened to Tabitha and Hilde tradeoff on the water games they could play. He added his two cents on who he’d have on his team and suggested what he thought would be appropriate battle cries for each sport when he thought he had been quiet for too long. He hadn’t thought much about the pool and knowing the girls he was sure that they would find away to get him and Solo to go but he didn’t know how to tell them about his fear. He was unsure, was to put it lightly, fucking scared out of his wits was a better way of describing how he felt about going into a big pool of water like that. He and Solo didn’t know the first thing about swimming. He smiled at his brother when they saw him leave his and Sally’s room and made a note to look into swimming lessons or ask one of their friends, Quatre maybe, if they could teach them.
It was almost six and they were surprised to find Quatre fast asleep on the couch with the TV on. They crowded around the sleeping blond, before moving off to the other sofas and sofa chair in the lounge. Duo took up the task of finding the remote.
Solo plopped down on the arm of the one-seater pissed that because of his age, he had an earlier curfew. Sally smoothed out some of his upset by offering him the option of calling her, telling her where he was spending the night and when he’d be back on the weekends but during the week she extended curfew to eleven. But that was conditional; if he came back late she’d put him back on the ten o’clock curfew they had set for him. He had agreed and she smiled at him, making him blush and earning a glare from Wu Fei.
Quatre had told them earlier that there were conditions when they were in the van before they all fell asleep again before he could go into any details. Sally was one of those unsaid details and the other was named Lucrezia Noin. Noin was sipping tea with Sally when Duo and the gang went to visit Solo’s room before getting their luggage. Solo couldn’t help but laugh when Hilde did a double take at the older version of herself. Duo laughed at the twitching smile on her face.
Noin was Solo’s parental guardian and he had wanted to protest it and ask that Duo vouch for him but he stopped mid rant. He didn’t want to put anymore stress on his brother. The ladies arranged it so that he got a stipend every week in his mail box at the campus post office. He groused at how they were treating him; at least one woman, his mother, had thought him responsible enough to manage a bank account on his own.
As for rooming arrangements, Solo sighed as he slid down the armrest and into the comfy seat, he let his head drop back against it when he thought about the second glare he got from Wu Fei when Noin and Sally told them that he would be staying with Sally. Sally’s apartment like dorm room was built with two separate bedrooms and a lock on the doors, so at least he knew he would have some form of privacy. When he received news of this arrangement, he couldn’t stop himself from complaining. Though Noin was quick to shut him up when she threaten to take away his options and have him live with her in her apartment on the other side of the Sanc palace, seven miles away. Fearful of the barely veiled threat, he begrudgingly accepted and muttered, as he put his things away, about how he preferred to room with his brother and the need to be cautious around guys like Yuy.
Solo closed his eyes, letting his head loll toward the sound of the television. Duo sat in the unoccupied space above Quatre’s head as he happily channel surfed, his eyes getting wider when he realized they had digital. They all decided on a horror fic, ‘IT’, which had them all enrapted as the suspense mounted. Earlier on, Quatre gave them a tired mumble to stay and watch whatever they wished when they had first crowded around him and promised them that it wouldn’t disturb him. Despite their varying degrees of disbelief, he remained asleep, undisturbed by the screams that occasionally came from the movie.
Duo started at a mumble in the silence, chuckling quietly to himself when he realized it came from Quatre. Quatre was curled toward the couch and didn’t have much of a jacket on. When he saw him shiver with another mumble, Duo yanked down the afghan from the back of the couch to cover him looking back up to the tv when darkness engulfed the room. He had been watching the flashing ring of light from the TV so intently that he had forgotten about Quatre sleeping next to him. After a few minutes of complete silence from the TV, Duo jumped when the side of his thigh was nudged. He peered down at his leg and he released his grip on the armrest as he watched Quatre stretch out and nudge his thigh again. Duo let out a quiet chuckle and tucked the afghan down over Quatre’s shoulders and returned to the movie.
At some point, Hilde had brought in popcorn at the third half of the movie and Duo found his lap occupied. He blinked down at Quatre as he settled his forehead against his stomach with his arm pillowing his head across Duo’s lap. He smiled in contentment and fell into a deeper sleep.
Duo nudged him a few times, only to get a grumpy mumble. A devious smirk crossed his face as he looked down at the unprotected cheek, it was something Sister Helen had taken to doing since he and Solo were teens when she felt the need to discipline them in some small way. Though, he quickly decided not to try pinching Quatre’s cheeks ever again because he had almost lost a finger to the snap of those pearly whites. At Duo’s sigh of defeat, Quatre wrapped an arm around his waist and pressed his face into his stomach with a pleased murmur. Duo blushed and sent a glare in both directions of the snickers he heard from either side of the room.
He tugged on a lock Quatre’s hair, a faint smile playing on his lips as a fragment of a memory spoke of something similar happening between him and Solo. “What is it with blondes and my stomach?” He muttered, munching on some popcorn and hoping his blush would fade quickly.
Catching wind of Duo’s comment, Solo’s snickering stopped. His eyes became unfocused as he slipped into memory. If anyone were looking in his direction they would wonder why he was shaking in his seat, his arm came up to stem the chill that that went through his body in the warm room. His eyes darted anxiously around the room, wondering if he could just leave. He doubted that he could control his steps long enough to look like he was walking and he didn’t want the attention he would draw from his friends, especially his new ones, if he ran out of the room for the privacy of the closest bathroom. He bit his bottom lip when he felt it quiver. His eyes settled on the blond using his brother as a cuddle toy. He envied him and wondered if he would have been able to sleep so serenely if he hadn’t been who he was. If he had never been... He squeezed his eyes tight, the depression was seeping back in with the memories of his abuse. He didn’t want it to spoil such an eventful day and cursed himself for slipping, letting down his block. He took deep breaths as he sank deeper into the sofa chair, turning away from thinking all together and forced himself to focus on something else, anything else. The movie. He latched onto it and dug his nails into the sensitive flesh on the inside of his arms.
- - - xXxXxXx- - -
The next day after meeting their advisors, they all came to an agreement that their professors were strange. Their professors -G, H, J, O and S- preferred to be addressed by their initials and all the plaques that decorated their offices reflected the same. They couldn’t understand their need for anonymity like that and considered it was possible that the five had unpronounceable names to spare themselves the pain of mispronunciation. Wu Fei voiced his agreement with a grunt, he could understand the need to let the knowledge of ones name be known to a few. He sympathized greatly because he had a braided, what had Yuy called him when he met him outside their room yesterday... a baka, yes, who mutilated his name on a daily basis, he had found it so hard to believe that it had only been two days. Two days in which the braided teen had come up with several monikers for him... his torment seemingly endless. He seriously thought about just going by his family name, Chang and then his initial.Duo snickered at the thoughtful expression that took over Wu Fei’s face when he related to them about his Professor, G. He was a funny greying, mushroom-shaped haired man who had immediately taken a-liking to him and told him that his full name was Ghislain Baum. The man talked a lot and Duo told them he found out that G knew Howard when they were discussing the option of him getting a part time job. Being fifteen didn’t leave a lot options open for him and he couldn’t see himself in a burger joint, but if that was all he could get then he’d do it. He didn’t share with them that the scholarship he and his brother got partially covered their expenses because of the money their money Mother had painstaking saved for them, but G knew and took him over immediately to meet a man by the name of Otto who owned an auto shop. He smiled at the looks of incredulity on his friends faces and ignored Solo’s glare. They didn’t knock that it was clever of the owner to play on the word and Duo’s bright smile and hopeful expression put further doubt aside, except for Solo. He didn’t want Duo to overwork himself and the semester hadn’t even begun yet... so to appease his brother Duo restricted himself to work a few days a week. At the mention of this, he saw Solo’s glare lessen.
The day went by swiftly and soon the weekend was over and a new routine began. Every morning, Duo was awoken by Solo and each time he would find that his enigmatic roommate had already left. When he came back, Heero would already be sleeping, his things tucked away and his clothes for the next day set out meticulously on the back of the chair at his desk across the room. They’d hardly seen each other, but Wu Fei was just down the hall. It wasn’t like he couldn’t go down stairs and bug the hell out of everyone there but he liked his hall mate, he couldn’t say the same about Heero. His aloof roommate was just that, aloof and he had already forgiven him... to an extent.
He found out that the girl, that he had named banshee when describing her to Quatre and earned a laugh, was none other than Relena Peacecraft and she had a crush the size of the Alaska on one Heero Yuy. Quatre had further explained that the girl lived one dorm down from them and made it a habit of showing up in their dorm unannounced. The girl had been more or less stalking the poor guy for nearly a year since he returned from visiting his relatives in Okinawa. Apparently, he had made a hasty decision to get her off his back for the summer. Duo wouldn’t hold a grudge over something like that, not when he had some idea where Heero was coming from. So Duo got to see Wu Fei more than anyone because Wu Fei would either come down the hall to bang on his door and complain about his obnoxious music or come bang on his door and complain about him being in his room.
It was always a good laugh to piss off Wu Fei, and at the end of the first week they met Trowa at the circus. Well what was left of it: three mobile homes, some horses and a large speciality truck to carry them in. That much had remained behind because they refused to leave without Catherine and Catherine ‘please call me Cathy’ Bloom refused to leave without spending some time with her brother and seeing where he roomed. Cathy had treated them all to some experimental soup that Trowa kept oddly quiet about, well more quiet than usual. Quatre smiled his usually bright smile when Trowa did an infinitesimal nod in the negative about eating that particular soup and Cathy pinched his cheek. Duo had opened his mouth to warn her of those deadly whites and nearly fell off the sofa in laughter when Quatre bore it with a long suffering look and a tight smile. Cathy fitted right in with her motherly disposition as she pulled her curly, toffee colored hair into a high pony tail and probed them for information. Trowa nudged her to let her know he knew what she was doing and gave her the ‘I’m not a kid anymore’ look.
Trowa was the oldest among them and to Duo, not as stolid as Wu Fei and Heero. He talked and had some pretty damn funny things to say but seldom spoke when he didn’t feel the need to. He was taller than Solo, five foot nine. Duo found himself smirking when he overheard Quatre’s comment that Trowa must have grown two inches when Solo stood beside him. Duo couldn’t help noticing the sulky mood Solo was in the entire time Cathy was with them. He tried to placate him by telling him they could go to the circus in September, making funny faces and sticking by his side. In effect cheering Solo up a little and wrangling a few smiles out of him. They walked Cathy back to the caravan and Duo found Solo admiring the horses as Trowa groomed one of them in the small stead they had set up. Duo smiled when Trowa nodded his head toward Solo and Duo nodded pushing him to stumble toward Trowa.
Solo glared at him but smiled immediately when Trowa helped get up on the horse’s bare back. Apparently, Cathy got attached to Solo and as soon as he got off the horse and onto unsteady feet, he was more or less kidnapped by her and asked a flurry of questions are centering on his well being. They all laughed at his blushing face as she looped her arm through his and dragged him off to her home as she gave Trowa the 'you know better' look. Trowa gave them a half smirk and told them since Cathy has all but adopted Solo, he was going on vacation. They all smiled and joked a little more before Trowa and Duo dutifully went off to rescue Solo. There were peals of laughter when they all met up again and Solo complained about her trying to feed him more soup.
During the last hectic -hellish- week of June Duo had gone through mounds of papers to get a permit for his staff. Someone had informed the administration that he had an unregistered weapon. Duo tried to control his huffs of agitation, Scythe was a weapon but he didn’t intend go out beating people upside the head with it. Well not without a good reason. It had never been a problem when he was on L2. Then he reasoned with himself that this was Sanc, not L2 and as a pacifist nation permits with explanations were required if he didn’t want his staff to be confiscated and be thrown in juvie for illegal possession.
Completing form after form after form, he wondered who it could have been. He thought of his roommate. He didn’t want to accuse him of anything especially since the guy didn’t seem to care that he was sharing the same room. Duo usually saw his roommate fencing because he would be there practicing with his staff or watching Quatre practice. Quatre priacticed with two beautifully crafted swords, that were sickle shaped with inscribed Arabic and Aramaic script that started in the center of the blades and stopped four inches from the tip(1). He completed the last form and threw his pen on the desk. It occurred to him, as he gathered the forms and Scthye, that it could have been anyone in the PEC.
After he took the papers into the Court administration building and they gave him his temporary license, he decided he need to work off some of his tension and headed for the PEC. As he walked in, he saw people playing tennis on the far end of the court, basketball, and to far right - a level down- some people fencing. He thought about the pool in the next room over, he gripped Scythe and shook his head that wouldn’t do, he had barely gotten down the doggy paddle even with Quatre’s enthused help and sparing alone today just wouldn’t cut it.
A few paces away he spotted Quatre beginning his practice on the mats in the center of everything. Quatre looked deceptively meek wielding blades that seemed more lethal to the little blonde than anyone else. Duo wouldn’t let that image fool him, Quatre was dangerous and agile. He slipped out of his flipflops as he followed Quatre flowing through each movement as he turned, jabbed at an invisible opponent, rolled and slashed. He rocked from foot to foot, catching the rhythm inherent in Quatre’s moves before stepping in. He rolled across the mat and brought his staff up as he crouched to block and deflect the force of the downward stroke of the twin shotels.
The blond blinked a few times before his eyes met Duo’s narrowed ones that reflected his excitement and challenge. He smiled at Duo in acceptance and Duo in turn smiled a catlike-mischievous one as they both jumped back from each other and began again. Before long, their bodies moving in a counter rhythm to each other, they rushed toward the other and met with a clang at the center of the mat.
Heero who had been ignoring the braided teen since his arrival, quickly finished off his partner who had more interest in the dueling teens a little ways away from them than their own match. Heero took off his helmet and tilted his head toward Trowa who had glanced his way in a silent greeting. He eyed the bokken on the wall and looked to Trowa in invitation when a particularly loud clang brought both their attentions to Duo and Quatre. Quatre had both his swords braced against Duo’s staff and Duo kneeled before him, his back arching backward.
Heero could see the strain in Duo’s black clothed form and thought the boy would give up from the pressure and that Quatre had the upperhand. It surprised him that Quatre was using so much force, anyone who saw him wouldn’t be able to see where it was coming from. Trowa only smirked knowingly at Heero’s examination of Quatre.
Duo began to lean back toward the mat, still balanced on his feet as Quatre pressed forward. Heero started to turn his head away when he caught Duo dropped back in the corner of his eye. ‘Like in the lounge.’ He snorted as he watched. The sudden lack of resistance caught Quatre off guard and he struggled to keep his balance and swords from cutting the mat on either side of Duo’s head. Duo did a tight back flip keeping his legs tucked to avoid upsetting Quatre’s tenuous balance further. Duo stood beside Quatre with a cocky grin on his face and turned to face their spectators without really acknowledging them and unintentionally swatting Quatre across his rear with Scythe.
“Duo!” Duo’s name was all Trowa heard, he couldn’t tell who had shouted it but he saw Duo look on in concern as the law of gravity came into effect. They both tensed when they saw Quatre falling forward.
Trowa’s eyes trailed down the blades in Quatre’s hands and realized the tips of the blades were angled toward Quatre’s shoulders. Then it was over and Quatre was smiling beatifically. Trowa’s tensed shoulders relaxed as he exhaled shakily, it was the only outward sign that he had been afraid for Quatre. Quatre had turned his fall into a roll, just as effortlessly as Duo had flipped from under him, and had both blades sheathed in the scabbards on his sides when he finished the roll into a low crouch, ready to pounce.
“Don’t you just admire my technique?” Duo said, that cocky grin still in place though his concern laced his voice. He extended his hand to him and Quatre squeezed it as he stood, reassuring his boasting friend with the pressure and a kind smile. Quatre saw Duo’s whole body relax with that action and he bumped shoulders as the started to walk off the mat. Duo gave him an embarrassed smile when he spoke again, “Quatre, yanno you’re pretty impressive. When-”
At that moment, their enwrapped audience came to life with thunderous applause, cutting Duo off and startling them both. Voices soon intermingled with the clapping, their audience was telling them how daring they were because in fencing they at least had protective padding while the two were only clothed in loose yoga type pants and tank tops.
Duo gave a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of his head before he swung an arm around Quatre’s shoulders and returning his friends' attention back to him when he caught sight of the scabbards along Quatre’s sides. Leaving their audience to entertain themselves, Duo enthusiastically asked Quatre questions about the shotels and his practice moves. He found out that they were heirlooms of Quatre’s family, although pacifists, their ancestors weren’t always such and neither was Quatre. Quatre had gotten as far as the pointing out the one of the inscribed names was pronounced ‘Ghaa’ib’ as he went to unsheathed the blade on his left when gasps brought their attention to the matted floor a foot down from them.
“Come kill me Heero... Try and kill me.” At the sound of her voice Heero winced and Trowa, who had been watching Duo and Quatre with questioning eyes, was now turning amused greens on Heero. The girl was dressed in fencing attire, holding a saber to her helmet covered face as she bowed and took a ready stance.
‘It was good while it lasted.’ Trowa thought sympathetically. Heero had nearly two months of peace with only the occasional, cordial ‘hello’ to the girl when they crossed paths.
“Relena.” Heero’s usual monotone was peppered with his annoyance as he faced his childhood friend now turned love sick fool. He hadn’t changed much during his year abroad; he’d filled out a bit and let his hair grow an inch more but that was the extent of it. ‘Hn, maybe she hit her head while I was away?’ He gave her his death glare when she batted her lashes at him.
“Heero, I will prove to you that I have become more than the silly girl you grew up with. That I am a worthy companion.” She glanced around the room looking for the girl that had tricked her Heero into a relationship by being deprived enough to use her body. She was sure that was the only way the girl could have gotten to her Heero so quickly. She knew Heero wasn’t the type of person to fall for that but the seducer was probably a professional.
‘Kissing my Heero when I have yet to do so.’ She thought bitterly. She glanced over the room again, she was sure she’d be here to watch Heero practice, that’s what she did at every opportunity.
“If that’s what you want.” Heero’s voice brought her attention back to him. “Ninmu ryoukai.” Relena saw the small, devious smile that didn’t quite reach those cold cobalt blues and she felt her heart flutter. “Omae o korosu.” He placed the helmet on with one hand and stepped forward.
Duo quirked a brow at the obvious disdain his roommate was showing the girl who just smiled in her infatuation and looked more determined. “Damn. She just doesn’t get it.” He’d seen his roommate avoid her as much as possible, exchanging quick words or head in the opposite direction on campus if he saw her. His brows furrowed as he thought back to the rash kiss and the voice that squeaked. Heero went to that extreme and the girl still didn’t get it.
“Don’t they have an AA group or self-help books for that shit?” Duo hadn’t expected an answer but with a sad chuckle, Quatre shook his head no. “She’s the one you were hinting at when we asked about obsessed people back on L2?”
Quatre nodded with a small smile, “She is infatuated with him.” Duo snorted, but Quatre continued, “Heero has always treated her like a sister and even acted as her bodyguard on several occasions. He probably knew that kiss... um... display wouldn’t keep her away for long.”
“Hmm, he could’ve arranged it with somebody he knew.”
“I think you handled it pretty well.” Quatre teasingly.
“Yep that's Maxwell skill for ya!” He jested with a big grin thinking about the skirmish between Heero and him when they had first met. ‘He deserved it,’ but he knew how hollow that sounded, it was more like he was trying to convince himself then anything else. It confused the hell out of him, because he’d seen Heero in practice, kicking the ass of any opponent he had and then thinking back to that day and how Heero really didn’t fight him back.
Quatre gave him a knowing smirk and Duo groaned.
“Aw shut it, Kat.” Duo ignored the heat he felt rising in his face and watched the two dueling with mild interest before a yawn broke free. He stretched and patted Quatre's shoulder. “It’s been a long day. Hey, Q-ball, me and the girls are cooking how ‘bout you get Trowa to come and I’ll get Wufflupagus. And of course,” He gestured toward the sparing teens, “cold ass is welcomed, I’ll write a note on his board. He looks pretty busy.”
Duo glimpsed the tall, willowy teen down below stealing glances at them while watching Heero duel with Relena. Trowa’s quiet and calm demeanor made Duo ramble off at the mouth when he would visit him but Quatre wouldn’t be too far away to save him from talking himself to death. The tall teen with his uni-bang hairdo didn’t mind him talking though and he wondered if that was because of Quatre. It was interesting, really, how Quatre lit up like a light bulb around Trowa.
“Hm...” He watched as Quatre stole glances at Trowa who was now focused fully on the dueling teens, ready to act as referee if Heero meant to skewer her.
He tapped Quatre on the shoulder who smiled and mumbled a nervous “Ok.”
“Later Kat.” Duo affectionately ruffled the other teen’s hair as he left. Duo found himself more frequently checking in on him, almost as much as he did with Solo. He had noticed that he felt the need to look after him. He walked out and headed toward the dorms.
- - - xXxXxXx- - -
By the time he got to his room he was sweating. He used the edge of his tank to wipe the sweat off his face. The late June sun was harsh, he knew it would take some time to get used to Earth but the heat wasn’t anything new to him, not after working in the torturous heat of the scrap yard. He felt fine. He scribbled a note to Heero and made a mental note to ask Solo if he was feeling ok.Duo left a trail of clothes as he closed the door to the bathroom and took his hair out of his customary braid. He sighed in bliss as he stepped under the spray and closed his eyes, letting the water rain down on him. He soon tilted his head back, the water splashing and running over his face and down his neck. He open his mouth to the water and lifted his hands to slick back his hair.
He had never taken such long showers back on L2, but there they didn’t have a shower that used real water. In the slums and on other poorer colonies, water was a precious commodity and only the rich, and some middle class families could afford to waste water in showers or to wash their cars. He shivered in pleasure, committing to memory the feel of the water washing over him, cascading down his body. He put some shampoo in his hair and worked up a lather.
Ten minutes into his shower, the door to the bathroom opened while Duo finished washing away the last of the soapy foam from his body. A slight draft was his only warning when he was suddenly face to face with his roommate.
They stood stock still before each other. Duo was staring blankly at Heero, but Heero didn’t return the stare right away. Instead he let his eyes roam over the shocked form in front of him before returning to those violet pools. His own body seemed calm and more than happy to be standing in front of a very naked Duo. All the while his face remained passive.
Duo shivered, a flush spreading across his cheeks as his hands dropped to cover himself, moving back toward the shower wall. This gave him a view that had his eyes widen comically when he realized that Heero’s bare chest was well muscled as the showerhead sent rivulets of water down his body. Duo’s eyes came up to a stop on brown nipples, hard brown nip-
‘Fuck!,’ he thought of how odd it was that the word was becoming a permanent part of his vocabulary in reference to said roommate as he flushed at the realization that Heero was standing before him in only a towel and that he was staring.
“Wh-,” the half formed question was all he could get out before he was picked up, dripping wet and tossed unceremoniously onto his bed.
“Hey!” Duo yelled, his long pale legs bending at the knee as he tried to regain some dignity. Heero remained at the end of his bed, his arms crossed at his torso with a smug look on his face.
“You are a cold-hearted bastard y'know!” Duo grumbled loudly, his face flushing a deeper red as he tried to cover himself with the soaked linen beneath him, but instead ended up becoming more frustrated because he couldn’t pull them free from the now equally soaked mattress.
He sat up, his lips set in a furiously tight pout. He was in a dilemma - Heero was standing there with a gleam in his eyes he didn’t like, it made him blush more; his dresser was on the other side of the room opposite Heero and his clothes were still in the bathroom. He turned away from Heero giving him a clear view of one pale butt cheek and the line of his ass and tried reach for his pillow when a towel hit him in the back of his head.
“You always take too long, Baka. I need some hot water too.” Heero said, the last part sounding like an after thought as he returned to the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
Duo exploded. “You... YOU PRICK! Damn you! I wasn’t finished! And Fifteen-freaking-minutes is not that long. All you had to do was knock to let me know you wanted to use the fucking shower!”
Duo briskly dried his body and then used the same towel on his hair trying to get it as dry as possible while glaring and grumbling at the closed door to the bathroom. At home, they didn’t lock the bathroom door, if it was closed that meant someone was in there and that you should knock. He had forgotten that he wasn’t home anymore, he made a mental note to lock the door next time and jam a chair under the knob for good measure.
“Damn cold-hearted bastard.” He muttered lowly, not really concerned that he was repeating himself as he quickly pulled on a pair of boxers and tried the bathroom door. It wasn’t locked. He smiled. He opened it quietly, ducking inside to snatch his comb, a hair tie and shirt before flushing the toilet and running out of their room and down the hall to Wu Fei’s room faster than a bat out hell.
“KUSO!” Duo had just tripped the lock and closed Wu Fei’s door when he heard the curse. He snickered before walking into Wu Fei’s bathroom to finish getting dressed.
- - - xXxXxXx- - -
In the kitchen next to the lounge, Duo didn’t care to tell his friends about how Heero had invaded his privacy. Falling into a good mood instantly when he was welcomed with smiles and delicious smelling food. He gave Tabitha a one arm hug with a thankful smile after checking and tasting his chicken stew, for lack of a better name. He shrugged when he swallowed a spoonful and thought it came out good especially since there was a greater selection of vegetables, fresher ones than those imported to L2. He decided tomorrow he’d make some kind of stir fry with the purplish thing in fridge. He grinned it was Heero’s eggplant, but he preffered to regard it as the purplish thing, he never knew such a plant existed. He was sure that Heero wouldn’t notice if some of it was missing - it was freaking huge!Tabitha came over to stir the stew, she was happy to have something to do, she didn’t know how to cook, honestly and was more than happy when Duo had asked her to put in the vegetable after an hour while he took care of the forms he had been groaning about for most of the day. She had felt embarrassed by the elaborate dishes, at least that’s what they were to her, that Sally and Hilde had made. Sally made apple pie from real apples and Hilde made an herbal rice dish to go with Duo’s chicken.
Heero came down, glaring and Duo ambled over and patted his shoulder. “Hey there buddy, I’m glad you got the message.” Heero glared at the offending appendage, and then at its owner with his double meaning words.
Duo only smiled like an idiot before leaning in close, “Pay backs a bitch, ay?”
Heero shrugged off the hand on his shoulder and wondered what had prompt him to do such a thing in the first place. ‘To get even? But for what?’ he asked himself, was he mad that the braided baka had left and practically showed no interest in his duel with Relena? It was worthwhile and seriously relieved some of the tension the girl caused him on a daily basis when he beat her. Everyone had expected him to go berserk or something. Except for Duo. He shook his head, a very small movement that maybe Trowa would have noticed and wondered again at the disappointment he felt when his roommate wasn’t there. Their free evenings were usually quiet if Sally or Quatre didn’t pester them into doing something, but now with the other four teens, there was always something going on and he could see this potluck diner was going to become a regular thing on Wednesday nights. He blinked when his stomach made a nearly inaudible sound at the delicious smells filling the room from their small kitchen.
Sally passed Duo who was headed back to the small kitchen. “Oh, Duo did you leave-”
“MAXWELL!”
“Oh I guess you did.” Sally chuckled at the mischievous smirk on Duo’s face as she grabbed the bowel of popcorn off their small dinning table and sat down by Solo who feigned interest in the TV while watching Heero out the corner of his eye.
“Maxwell. You’ve been in my room again.” Heero quirked a brow at the accusation, ‘So that’s where he was.’
“Sorry Wufflupagus, Heero here monopolized the bathroom and I needed to finish my hair before it dried and got knotted up. You know how that is Wu.”
“That’s no excuse. My hair isn’t needlessly long so I rarely have that problem.” Wufei scoffed.
Duo gave Wu Fei a tight smile. “I see now why you wear your hair that way; it makes your face so tight that your nose looks like it's sticking out so that it matches your snooty attitude.”
Wu Fei sputtered and closed his mouth with an indignant turn of his head.
“Tit for tat Wu-man.” Duo said laughingly and threw the spoon he had just eaten with in the sink. He smiled mischievously when he saw Hilde put a bowl of mash potatoes on the counter. He ran his finger along the rim of the bowl of mashed potatoes and quickly put it in his mouth when Hilde tried to swat his hand with the mixing spoon.
He danced away with a smile on his face.“Besides, next time lock the door.”
“It was locked Maxwell.” Wu Fei huffed standing at their small dinning table, his pissy mood lightening at Duo’s playfulness in the kitchen. It was really hard to stay mad at the braided fool. Then he remembered his defiled underwear.
“Oh?” Duo said smirking at Wu Fei over his shoulder as he tried to steal more mash potatoes. “Maybe get a better lock next time and besides it was an emergency, Wuffers.”
Sally cut in, stepping into Wu Fei's line of sight. “I’m glad you could come down and eat with us.” She noticed the nervous twitch Wu Fei was developing with a raised brow. Her smile grew when Wu Fei’s glower lessened at her greeting and her smiling face, he gave her a respectable nod before his back straighten and he took a menacing step toward the braided teen.
“You could have just written a note and cleaned up your... YOUR sheddings off of my bathroom floor!”
“Wu Fei, I don’t have fur yanno. And I did write a note. You didn’t like the note I left on your tighty whities? You have very interesting taste in und-”
“Sow seng!(2) By Nataku, Maxwell, Sow seng!” Wu Fei could feel the heat rising in his cheeks at the mention of his now very wordy briefs and boxers. It had been a spur of the moment thing when he’d borrowed the campus van to drive to drive them all to the mall and back. He hastily bought a pack of boxers that had phrases like ‘morning smile,’ ‘love hustler,’ and champagne glasses ‘here’s to you.’ And now he was paying for it dearly.
Wu Fei chased Duo, remembering what Duo had written in permanent marker, ‘I love Sally’ on several of his boxers and wrote the summation of the whole underwear assault on a pair of white briefs in the center of the underwear collage, ‘Come and have some of her pie.’
It was derogatory and downright shameful.
He found himself yelling in Chinese as the braided baka easily evaded him. The lounge was filled with laughter, Trowa and Quatre just walking in couldn’t help but join in with one look at the two. Solo and Hilde were debating who was the Roadrunner and who was Wiley Coyote. When Duo ducked under the dining room table faster than Wu Fei could snatch his braid, they both burst out laughing and decided that Duo was definitely the Roadrunner.
Duo was starting to worry that the determined dragon, ‘yea that’s what he is, a fire breathing dragon,’ was going to catch him. He laughed nervously to himself, ‘well Mama told me not play with fire but I can’t help it.’ He spotted Heero rising up to go into the kitchen and jumped behind him, turning him to face a furiously flushed Wu Fei.
“Move. Yuy.” Wu Fei panted out sternly.
“...” Heero just looked impassively at him while Duo caught his breath. He was sure Heero would let Wu Fei get him, but his roommate didn’t budge. Duo stared at Heero’s unmoving back, wondering why he was still standing there.
Wu Fei harrumphed at Heero in irritation, crossing his arms over his chest. He exchanged looks with Heero again before glaring down at the half squatting form behind him, peeking at him with one violet eye.
“Fine. You need to keep a leash on your shã zi (3) roommate.” He turned and walked toward the others who had brought out the food to the table. “Leave my things be Maxwell.”
“Love you too Fei. Sorry about the leavings, I’ll get them up after dinner.”
“Stop butchering my name Maxwell.”
“Ok Wufflupagus. Maybe when you call me Duo, I’ll return the favor. Oh, I promise I’ll put your journal back, too.”
“Maxwell! This is injustice!”
“Oh so you do have a journal?!” Duo smiled mischievously and Sally winked at him conspiratually. Wu Fei sputtered, it was becoming a nasty habit of his. He turned away from the braided teen seething, the muscle twitching on the side his jaw was the only indication of him gritting his teeth.
“Hmm ... they say that’s not good for your teeth yanno. Well, Wuffles, tell you what. Convince Heero to stop hoggin’ the bathroom and I’ll only come over to visit.” Duo said, turning to get his stew off the stove.
Heero didn’t so much as blink at the casual way Duo hinted at the shower incident. The corners of his mouth upturned as he thought of the gibe, following the braided baka into the kitchen to get the drinks. Wu Fei sat rigidly next to Sally, itching to go to his room to make that the braided Maxwell hadn’t moved his journal from where he put it. He jerked to get up when Sally laid a gentle hand on his arm, telling him to calm down and guided him with a firm grip over to the table to grab something to eat.
Tbc...
(1) www.ancient-east.com/collection/shotel_ptk.jpg
(2) one dialect of Chinese for ‘shut up!’
(3) one dialect of Chinese ‘idiot’
PEC - the acronym for Physical Education Center
AN: oh and my knowledge of the various dialects in Chinese language is not that great, so if it’s wrong feel free to correct me. And I think Wu Fei would know several dialects of Chinese, but use Mandarin Chinese as his primary, what do you think?
One more thing ^_^ Thank you guys for sticking with me.