Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Midnight Raven ❯ Chapter 5

Blah, blah, don't own, blah, blah, please don't sue, blah, blah, shounen-ai, blah, blah. Do I make myself clear?

~Midnight Raven~

Chapter 6

An hour later found Duo on a high branch of an oak, while Wufei panted and ranted at the roots.

"Dishonorable cur! Injustice!"

"What did I do this time?" Duo called down to the sword-wielding maniac.

"You! You broke the AC! And left me to fix it!" He broke out a series of Chinese words that Duo guessed were probably not very nice.

"Wait a minute!" Duo called down, trying to sound angry. "You mean to tell me that you may have just destroyed all my work because you disapprove of my strategy! You spent less than twenty minutes in that attic and I spent two days planning this! You ruined it! And I swear, if you destroyed anything that I did manage to accomplish, you will regret it!" `Course that would be a lot more threatening if I weren't treed. Stupid Wufei.'

"What the hell are you talking about, Maxwell?"

"Look, I don't like yelling this across the park. If you'll just put the sword down and promise not to hurt me, I'll come down and we can discuss this like rational adults." `So what if technically we're not adults?'

"I don't want to discuss this, I want to cut that stupid braid off of your stupid head!"

"You won't even allow me a moment to defend myself against your accusations! Injustice!" Duo almost managed not to smile when the Chinese man stopped mid-rant at his catch phrase being used against him.

"Fine, I won't hurt you."

"Or my hair!"

"Or your hair," he grumbled.

Duo "gracefully" got down from the tree, luckily with minimal bruising. "Okay, Wu-man, what happened was. . . I needed something to take the fight out of them. And the heat seemed like the only option. I mean, I coulda used booze, but Quat's got the whole religion thing. . . ."

"I didn't think they were doing that badly." Wufei looked genuinely calmer.

"Wu-dear, where did Quatre sleep last night?" Duo gave him an incredulous look. Even the stubborn Chinese scholar had to see what he meant.

"Okay, so I'll admit that it wasn't going well. But just what good did breaking the AC do?" Wufei said, his anger flaring.

"They were too hot to put up a fight. They actually relaxed! Heck, did you see them before you chased me from the room? They were hugging. And smiling!" `Still got to appease him. He won't let me go back to the plan if I don't throw him some kind of a bone.' "Tell ya what. Since you've figured out what's wrong with the AC, and since I still need it broken, why don't you go out for replacement parts? Hang around the nice air-conditioned mall for a few hours. Take in a movie or a poetry reading or something. Have a nice time, while the rest of us work." Wufei seemed to like the idea of a nice cool hangout and didn't take much more coaxing.

Back at the safe house, Quatre looked at Duo, amazed that the braid was still attached. Heero grunted, "What did you do?"

"And how did you get out of it?" Trowa added.

Laughing nervously, Duo thought fast. "I, uh, played with a photo on the computer. Wufei found it. Once I convinced him I hadn't really painted his beloved Nantaku pink, he calmed down."

Wufei mumbled something about getting parts and was out the door. For a split second, Duo wished he were in the air-conditioned mall too. Then he remembered that Heero was here. Sweaty. Shirtless. `Yum.'

"So, what did you guys do while I was away?" Duo asked cheerfully.

Trowa pointed to the kitchen. "Lunch."

As if on cue, Duo's stomach made it's presence known, and quite loudly at that. `Well, running for life and braid for an hour will do that to you.' "You go sit down in the living room, I'll be there in a sec." Grabbing a sandwich and a glass of ice tea, he made his way to where the others were. Heero was sitting in a stern looking armchair, while Trowa and Quatre were sitting on opposite sides of the couch. "Okay, lovebirds, quick, say something cute."

Quatre just blinked, confused. Trowa, on the other hand, was on the prowl. Sliding closer to the blonde, he gently shut the gaping mouth and whispered, "What's wrong, Little One?"

Quatre turned every shade of red in the spectrum. He seemed about to answer, when a little frown formed on his face. "I don't think I like that nickname."

Duo nearly fell over. "Why not? It's cute."

"It makes me sound. . ." Quatre searched for the right word. "It makes me sound like I have a small. . . ."

The boys' eyes widened as they tried hard not to laugh. "Okay, Q-man, we'll change the name," Duo managed. "Bonus points to Trowa though, for being cute under pressure." With that he plopped unceremoniously into Heero's lap.

"Duo?" Trowa asked at his new pose.

"What?" He looked at Heero to see if he was mad. `Nope, not too mad. Not happy. But not mad.' Looking again at the boys on the couch, he asked innocently, "Did you forget? Tro, you're Heero, and Quat, you're me." `Mwahahahaha. So many things I can get away with. How about a kiss-no, damnit, I promised Quat no kissing. But Tro wants to be real too! But I can't tell them that! Grrr!' Somehow Duo found it hard to concentrate on being mad at his promise to the blonde while he was leaning against Heero's naked chest.

`Fun time.' He ran his hand through unruly brown hair and tilted Heero's head slightly. `Yummy, where to start? That ear looks tempting.' He ran his tongue around the edge of his ear, teasingly. Then came some delicate nibbling at his jaw line. He was about to move down to that gorgeous neck, when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

Heero glared at him and pointed at the flustered blonde preparing to sprint from the room.

Duo rolled his eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh. "I'll be right back," he whispered in Heero's ear as he got up and went to the now-standing blonde.

"Quat-man," he said, "this pains me more than it does you." Before he acted, he seemed to think twice about his words. "Well, it hurts Tro more than it does you." Taking advantage of Quatre's confusion, Duo scooped the boy up and dropped him in Trowa's lap.

I know, this is not finished, please don't hurt me. I'm working on it as fast as I can. Honest. You should see the amount of work I get done in social psych. Besides, I still say it's all Kadril's fault for this "plot" business.