Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Matchmaker ❯ The Word for the Day is Meddlesome ( Chapter 4 )

Title: The Matchmaker
Author: Makoto Sagara
Series: Gundam Wing
Archive: The usual suspects; anywhere else, please ask first.
Category: Supernatural, Angst, Romance, Sap

Pairings: Eventual 2x5x2, 3x4x3, and 1xRx1
Rating: T
Warnings: Shonen ai, language, angst, sap, het, supernatural dealings
Disclaimers: Yeah, like I own Gundam Wing. (Goes off to cry, but not before turning out pockets) I am poor as well. Flames will be used to amuse my muses. They are easily entertained, but highly obnoxious.

A/N: Yeah, my updates suck. My timing for them is even worse. Can't help that, though. I am a victim of real life. I have to deal with that and four fickle muses. Hence, you get an update. Review, okay?

Chapter Four: The Word for the Day Is Meddlesome

Duo blinked at the Asian man slowly woke up after his outburst, avoiding eye contact as the images in Wufei's head flashed through his own. After a few moments of awkward silence between them, it donned on the American that from what he'd gathered from everyone else's thoughts, Wufei had been with him nearly every day since his accident. He knew the other four were supposed to visit during normal hours, but Wufei almost never left. With a mischievous grin, he decided that today would be the day to pump Relena for information and to corner her about why she and Heero weren't married with five children yet.

Sadly, as the patients in the rooms nearest to his started to wake up, so did their thoughts. And that was when realized that his new gift wasn't limited to just his friends and those in the immediate vicinity. The thoughts began to crash into one another inside his head, making Duo wince in pain at every little sound. This odd behavior wasn't lost on the hawk-eyed ex-pilot of Shenlong, but neither mentioned it. So, it was with a strange mixture of relief and annoyance that Duo greeted Relena and the other pilots.

`Looking better, Duo,' Trowa's distinctive voice sounded through the American's mind. Duo looked over to find the banged pilot giving him a private smile.

“Thanks,” he replied, ignoring the strange looks from Wufei and Heero. “So, Q, you left me this Chinese guardian…”

“I am not s-.” Duo's hand on Wufei's left leg cut off the rest of what he was going to say.

“It needs a shower and a decent meal and to sleep in a real bed. Take it away, please.”

- WHAT??? I SPEND ALL THIS TIME TAKING CARE OF HIM AND THIS IS WHAT I GET?!' Wufei's face remained stony, despite the murderous look in his eyes and the angry thoughts flashing through his mind. The others took minor glances at Wufei and took three steps back, waiting for the fireworks. When none came, Relena moved to the other side of Duo's bed and gave the men her most charming smile.

“Heero, Quatre, would you be dears and take Mr. Change out for a little bit? I need to speak to Duo alone,” she said sweetly. `Before Wufei kills him,' she mentally added. The two men shared a look before moving back to avoid being trampled by their very upset comrade and followed him out. Trowa gave them a very knowing smile before joining the other pilots.

“You obviously have a death wish, Mr. Maxwell,” she said when they were alone. “Otherwise, you wouldn't have dismissed Wufei the way you just did.”

“Sister, everyone I call comrade has threatened or attempted to kill me in the last few years. Kinda immune to it now.”

“Well, it's no wonder if that is how you treat the person who told Une that if she didn't let him come to L2 to take care of you, he'd send her to Treize in the afterlife personally.”

“He did that?” Duo asked incredulously. The girl nodded and primly sat on the bed next to him. “I… never…”

“I know. However, I get the feeling that you wanted to talk to me about something else.” The slight nod she received made her sigh heavily. Luckily, Doctor Golf (as Duo referred to him now) showed up and all personal conversation ceased.

“Good morning, Mr. Maxwell,” the man said, looking up from his clipboard. “What a surprise. Misters Chang and Winner are not here?” He did a double take when he noticed Relena. “Your Majesty.”

`I never want to hear that title again so long as I live,' the girl thought all the while keeping a sweet smile on her face. “Doctor, my friend here is very antsy. I believe he would enjoy some fresh air.”

`Thanks, `Lena,' Duo thought and was rewarded with a startled jump from the most powerful politician in the world.

“Of course, Your Majesty,” the doctor replied, all thoughts of his upcoming golf game flying from his mind. He gave the American a very thorough examination, thinking about how he'd tell his wife about meeting the former Queen of the World. After twenty minutes of very embarrassing poking and prodding, the doctor moved away from his patient. “You seem to be healing just fine, Mr. Maxwell. I'm going to clear you for supervised walks on hospital grounds, but you will be in a wheelchair for a few days.” He began scribbling some notes on his clipboard. “I'll let the nurses know. They'll be relieved as well.”

“Hey, Doc, what about these migraines I've been having,” Duo threw out offhandedly.

“Ah, yes, we have you scheduled for some scans tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I suggest you enjoy your time outside. It's a beautiful day outside.”

Shaking her head, Relena moved toward the door. She waited for the doctor to leave before she turned around. “I'll find you something more acceptable to wear outside.”

The only reply she got was a very red blush from the usually brash American pilot.

In fact, Duo was very quiet until they got outside and were in a shady corner all alone. “So, Miss Peacecraft, how is the old love life going?”

“Maybe I should be asking you that question, Mr. Maxwell? Since you seem to have Wufei jumping through hoops to take care of you when you go and get yourself all banged up,” Relena retorted hotly before her face fell. “To be honest, Duo, there isn't one.” He watched in horror as tears started falling down her face and reached out to take her hand, but she pushed it away. “I'm too busy to have one, and even if I weren't, who the hell do I date? Politicians? Get real.”

“So, even you don't like them?”

-~-~-~

Duo sighed heavily as he watched the pretty woman leave him, already talking faster than even he accomplished on her cellphone. She was smart, pretty, rich, powerful, and, since the end of the wars, very mature. After talking to her for three hours outside, he realized that he wanted nothing more than to make her happier and that there was something he could do to help her along. Now, if only Heero could be reasonable….

--------------------------

~ Back at the hotel ~

“Wufei, you'll be sharing a room with Trowa,” Quatre said blithely, acting as if he couldn't notice the animosity rolling off the Chinese man in veritable waves as they entered the president's suite. “Why don't you have a decent meal, shower and take a nap? You'll feel like a new man and then we can discuss what we want to do from here.”

“Hn,” he muttered angrily as he walked into the bedroom that the blond man had pointed out to him. `Why did I have to leave? What does he think I am?' He sighed as he stripped off his clothes, dumped them on the bed that wasn't already taken, and walked into the bathroom to take a real shower for the first time in weeks.

He let the hot water pound down on his head as he began to think about everything that had happened since hearing about Duo's accident. It had been right before Christmas, during the busiest time for the Preventers, that the call had come. The nurses from the poorly run Catholic hospital had called him because he evidently was Duo's emergency contact. That had struck him as strange. Wufei really had thought that Duo would have listed Heero or Quatre, someone he was closer to, before himself, but a part of him was really flattered. Then, he'd heard what happened to the American and it was all he could do to make Une see that she would either give him emergency leave, or he'd make her.

Reluctantly, the head of the Preventers caved in and told him to keep her updated on Duo's status. He'd taken the first shuttle out of London - the city nearest to the office he was currently stationed - to L2, and prayed to every god, spirit, ancestor, and fae he could think of that his friend wouldn't die.

Wufei hadn't even bothered checking into a hotel once he reached the colony. He'd gone straight to the hospital and tried to find a doctor to tell him what was going on. The old doctor spoke in vague terms about the ex-pilot's condition, telling Wufei that they were doing all that they could for his friend, but that at that time it was in God's hands if he'd live through the night. Numbly, Wufei asked if there was a chance that he could have Duo moved to a facility on Earth or L1 once he was stabilized. He wasn't surprised when he was told that his friend couldn't be moved from the colony, but that there was another hospital on the colony that was better equipped to deal with `Mr. Maxwell's condition' and that the doctor would be more than happy to arrange a transfer once Duo stopped bleeding.

“Can I see him?” he'd asked. His mouth felt like ashes as he looked at the taller man for any sign that things were worse than he was letting on. “I'm afraid not,” was the reply he received. “He's still too unstable and we have a full team trying to get things in order.” With that, the doctor excused himself and disappeared back into the trauma unit. Wufei'd sunk into one of the hard, uncomfortable waiting room chairs and began making calls to the other pilots to let them know. Quatre had said something about telling Relena, but Wufei hadn't felt the Peacecraft woman was important enough in his mind at that point to be bothered with. “Do what you think is right,” he'd told the blond man before hanging up.

Hours later, the doctor reappeared and told him that they'd stopped the bleeding and that the American pilot would be okay to move to the other hospital in a few days. Again, Wufei asked to see his friend and was denied. “Mr. Chang, Mr. Maxwell is in a coma. The vehicle that struck him was rather large and didn't decelerate after the impact. The police are currently searching for the driver, but this is the fifth accident of this nature in the last five months on the colony.” The doctor placed a hand on Wufei's arm, and it took everything in the Chinese man's power not to strike out and beat the infuriating man to a bloody pulp. “If he's still stable in the morning, I can let you see him. My suggestion is to get some sleep and come back then.”

But, he hadn't left the hospital. He camped out in the waiting room, attempting to read and failing miserably. His mind kept roving back to what the doctor told him about it being the fifth incident on the colony. He'd called Noin and Zechs, who were both members of the Preventers on the Mars base, and asked them if they'd heard anything like this on any of the other colonies or bases. They said they'd look into it and call him back. Gods, that had been eight weeks ago…

Hm, that was something he'd forgotten to check back in with, and he had to update Une about the current situation here as well. He filed those away as things to do before he slept.

His mind floated back to the first time he'd seen Duo after reaching this ancestors' blasted colony. His beautiful hair was pulled completely away from his face, and his forehead was wrapped tightly with bandages, which were stained in several places red. There were few spots on his face that weren't a shade of black, purple, or covered with bandages. The sheets to the bed were pulled to his armpits, and Wufei could see that his right arm was in a small cast around the middle of his ulna and radius bones. He knew there were extensive bandages covering his ribcage, left clavicle, and another cast on his left leg. The doctor had also informed him that a few disks in his back had been slipped, but that all things considered he was lucky that he'd be able to walk again.

He'd stayed that night in the only chair next to the sleeping pilot's bed, gingerly holding the purple-splotched hand that sadly matched what Wufei could remember of the chestnut-haired boy's eyes. The next morning he'd been joined by the other pilots, all looking way more refreshed than he thought they had the right to do. It had taken exactly twenty minutes to relay all the details to his friends, after which he spent twenty more minutes answering questions. Before Quatre could start mother-henning him, Duo's doctor appeared and told them that Duo was stabilized enough to be transferred to another facility at any time.

After the fiasco of the transfer, in which the EMTs nearly dropped the stretcher Duo was on, Wufei had stated simply that he was staying with Duo and there was nothing the other pilots could say to change his mind. To his surprise, no one said a word about making him go anywhere away from Duo. They came and relieved him so that he could get food from the cafeteria, or to take a shower in the private room's bathroom, or to take a walk in the park next to the hospital, but never once did they tell him to take the night off or to just leave.

In fact, this was the first time he'd been away from the American pilot since he'd reached L2. It felt like a rock had settled in his stomach and he could feel the anger bubbling up in him. Futilely, he struck the wall with his fist and bit back on hot tears and bile. Rationally, he had to behave rationally. He couldn't be emotional. Being an emotional wreck would get him absolutely nowhere at that moment. Besides, his body ached to sleep in a real bed after a meal that didn't come in plastic wrapping or from a giant stainless steel pan.

Slowly, he turned off the tap to the shower, and walked back into the room to dress. Sadly, he realized that all of his clothes needed to be washed and wondered if there were laundry facilities at this rather nice hotel that he could use. He went through his bag and found clothes that were buried at the bottom and pulled them out. They were clean, oddly enough, and then he recognized them. The outfit of black silk pants and matching shirt and tank top were from Duo last year for Christmas. He'd never worn them, and he couldn't remember packing them. `What the hell,' he thought as he slide the stiff silk clothes on before turning to the mirror to comb his hair into his usual ponytail.

A knock on the door stopped him from really examining his unfamiliar familiar features in the mirror before him. “Wufei, we're going down for dinner, if you'd like to join us,” Trowa called as he entered.

“That would be acceptable,” he replied. “Do you know where I can find laundry facilities in this place?”

“Call room service. They'll take care of it and just charge it to Quatre,” the European pilot said with a trace of humor.

“Hm, I suppose that he can spare the cash, no…” Wufei's mouth quirked up into a smile before returning to a scowl. “Do you think that he really wants me to leave him alone?”

“Duo? I doubt it, Wufei. He probably just wanted to speak to Relena alone. Besides, do you know what you looked like before? It's just as well that you spend a night away from the hospital so that you can actually rest.” Trowa's one visible green eye searched Wufei's face thoroughly before he moved away with a satisfied smile. “You can go back in the morning and yell at him for whatever you want then. Quatre will worry if we tarry too long.”

“Gods, who even says the word `tarry' anymore?”

“I do, when I feel like it.” They left the room and heard the phone ring throughout the suite. Wufei picked up the nearest receiver. “Yes?”

“'Fei-bear!” Duo's voice sounded like he was forcing himself to be chipper and the Chinese pilot couldn't help but wonder what had happened between him and Relena Peacecraft. “Can I talk to Heero, please?”

“I believe that you are quite capable of speaking to whomever you wish, Duo.”

“Alright, let me rephrase that then, Mr. Grammar Nazi. May I speak to Heero?” Wufei couldn't help but smile at their old banter.

“Of course, Maxwell.” He held the phone out to Heero, who was looking at him with one eyebrow quirked. “He's requesting to speak to you.”

“Duo,” Heero said tersely. His shoulders, even through his jacket, looked tense and ready for battle. “I can.” Wufei could hear Duo say a few other things. “Understood. I'll see you in the morning then.”

Heero hung up the phone and looked at the rest of the room's occupants. “He told me to say that he wants to talk to Quatre in the afternoon and me in the morning. Oh, and he says for us to enjoy our dinner.”

Wufei felt his left eye twitch and hissed through his teeth. “Whatever,” he replied as he exited the room, the others following him reluctantly.

--------------------------

Duo grimaced as he tried to get comfortable in the hospital bed and gave up. There was just no way he was going to be able to feel like a human being again until he was out of this Gods-forsaken place and in a large tub of bubbles and hot water, preferably with a certain hot Chinese man attending him. `Whoa! Damn boy, better control those thoughts!'

`But he sounded so much better over the phone,' he thought placidly. `I wonder if he was able to get a real shower…' That thought, unfortunately, took his brain to places that involved him and Wufei in the shower together and then other fun scenarios. “Hm, Fei and water lead to trouble….”

“Oh, Mr. Maxwell, you're alone,” an orderly said as he rolled in a cart with Duo's dinner in the room. “Where is Mr. Chang?”

“Out with our friends,” Duo said sadly, hoping that he wasn't blushing. “I wish I was with them and not in this bed.”

“I understand that perfectly. When I had my leg shattered in a football accident, being in the hospital was the worst part. I could even deal with the pain. But the boredom!” While the man talked happily, he set up Duo's meal on the roll-away tray.

“Hey, um… Sorry, I don't know your name…”

“Markus, Markus Jones,” the orderly said, sticking out a hand for Duo to shake.

“Hey, Markus, I got a question. How long has Wufei been here since I arrived?”

“Dude, you think he's left?” The orderly smiled. “Mr. Chang took up permanent residence in your room from the second you got here and would only leave if Mr. Winner, Mr. Barton, or Mr. Yuy were here to let him go eat or shower or take a walk.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I heard the nursing staff is jealous of how cute your boyfriend is. Those that aren't trying to figure out a way to talk to your other friends, I mean.” Duo's lips quirked into a sad smile and his mind began to process what the orderly had told him while he picked at his tray. “Well, I'll be back later to get your plate. Enjoy your dinner, Mr. Maxwell.”

“Thanks, Markus,” he said absently. “Wufei was here every day… Why does that surprise me? Didn't Q and Lena tell me that already? But… That implies something I just don't want to think about now.” He choked down the entire meal and turned on the room's television before passing out for the night.

--------------------------

The flowers were AMAZING. They were bright red, pink, orange, blue, and yellow. The leaves were a vivid shade of green that made Trowa's eyes look brown. The smells… He'd never smelled anything like this. It was like all the best potpourri, candles, food, and flowers all jumbled together. It should have been overwhelming, but there was something mouthwatering and peaceful about where he was.

“Wait… Where am I?” he asked out loud as he took a better look at his surroundings. Dense vegetation that hinted at a jungle, but there were no animal sounds, no rushing water to confirm that. Besides, while it was hot, it wasn't humid like a jungle should have been. “Is this someone's greenhouse?”

Carefully, he looked around and tried to identify any of the plants around him, but he failed. He'd grown up on L2, which wasn't really know for its plant life, and until he'd reached Earth, he'd never seen a flower that wasn't plastic or in a book. He looked ahead of him and saw a bench, next to a tiny pond. He walked over and sat down, wondering where he'd ended up and how he was supposed to get back home. It was then that he noticed that he wasn't wrapped in bandages and could move everything freely.

“Hell yes!”

“Not quite, little human,” a familiar voice boomed behind him. He turned to find the two angels, Maximus and Thaddeus, standing behind him, wearing polaric yet identical smiles. “This is one of our Master's gardens.”

“This will be the last time we pull you into a discussion, Duo Maxwell,” the one in black, Maximus, told him.

“Oh? Why's that? Did your Master yell at you?”

“Actually…” Thaddeus said with a grimace that made his beautiful face twist in ways Duo hadn't thought possible.

“Are… you… kidding… me?” he asked between guffaws. “Did… he… threaten… to… clip… your… wings?” Neither angel answered, but both were stony. “Wow, sorry guys. That's pretty lame.”

“Anyway, human,” Thaddeus said, pulling up a few of the bright blue flowers to lace them into Maximus' hair. “We'd like to commend you on your progress with Miss Peacecraft.”

“Uh, yeah, whatever. I made Lena cry. That's not exactly progress, Angel Boy.”

“Quite the contrary,” Maximus said, admiring his new hair trinkets. “Think of it as the damn springing a leak before bursting. Although, I think Mr. Yuy will present you with difficulties.”

“Gah! Don't I know it!” Duo sighed and then winced in pain. “Hey, not that I'm not grateful for this mind reading gift thing… It kinda makes me cooler than Q… But, could you do something about the range? Hearing every thought from every person in twenty yards around me is friggin' painful!”

“I guess we could do something about that,” Max answered. He placed a cool hand against Duo's head and the pressure that had been sitting behind his eyes since he woke up from the coma eased. “Now, that should help you out a bit more. Your gift will only work if that person is in the same room as you, but you'll still be able to hear more than one person if they are near you.”

“Got it. So this means no parties, yeah?”

“I suppose so, Duo. As I stated previously, we won't be able to contact you again for a long while, so enjoy your time with your friends and remember your duty.”

“Hey, I have a question! When does this `gift' go away?”

“You don't want a gift from the Master?” Thaddeus asked incredulously. “This is why I hate humans, Maximus.”

“Fulfill your duty and we will talk about relieving you of your gift,” Maximus said soothingly as he wrapped an arm around his counterpart's slim waist. “Oh, and perhaps you should give Wufei a little kiss from us.”

“WHAT?” Duo squawked. A large boom sounded and he cowered under the bench, wondering when the aftershock of the earthquake was going to hit. “What in the Seven Hells is that?”

“That is the Master's voice,” Thaddeus replied quietly. “We have to go.” The two angels disappeared and Duo was glad that he wasn't on the other end of that anger.

--------------------------

Duo woke up, breathing heavily and all awash in cool sweat. The vividness of the dream came back as he took a normal breath. They wouldn't be back. He could finally rest like a normal person, with his normal nightmares and regular torments. And as he came to this realization, it also donned on him that he couldn't hear anyone else's thoughts. He was alone. For the first time since he woke up from his coma, he was truly and wholly alone. Blessedly, he could hear himself think again.

He rolled over and looked at the time on the clock next to his bed. It was six AM, and if the hospital staff's thoughts were to be believed, Wufei was already somewhere on the grounds by now and heading his way. He didn't know if that was what he wanted or feared. Something inside of him quivered in anticipation, but he wasn't sure if he could trust it. He didn't have long to think because the door was opened without a sound, revealing the Chinese man in all black, his silky black hair slipping from the ponytail at the nape of his neck.

“Don't you ever sleep?” Duo said, praying that his voice didn't crack.

“Hm,” Wufei replied, taking the chair next to the bed and wiping his golden hands down his tired face.

“Those clothes look familiar…”

“You bought them for me…”

“…for Christmas last year. Okay, I remember now.” He smiled faintly as the artificial sun began to rise in the window behind his friend. “Do you remember how we got caught under the mistletoe at Quatre's then?”

Wufei looked up and transfixed Duo with his huge, dark eyes. “I do,” he whispered huskily, getting up to stand over the top of Duo. The American's heart began to pound in his ears and his breath caught in his throat as Wufei's thoughts flowed into his mind. `I want to kiss him again. I want to kiss him and make him beg for me to do it again. I want to monopolize all his time and take him home with me.'

“Fei?” Duo whispered nervously, half wanting what he was hearing and half terrified of the possessiveness the man who was his best friend was displaying. He didn't get a reply, neither did Wufei move. “Wufei?”

Before he knew what was happening, Wufei was kissing him, hard. Hands latched into his messily braided hair, tugging gently, making him mewl with desire, and getting him so aroused he nearly started crying. Then, the hands traveled carefully down his still recovering body to the edge of his t-shirt and starting caressing his abs with fleeting fingertips. He didn't fight when Wufei's tongue sought entry into his mouth. Instead, he allowed and counterattacked with his own tongue as he wrapped his arms around the other man's neck.

His eyes popped open, his breathing heavy and ragged. `The fuck… Oh, God, that was… intense.' A knock on the door dragged his attention back to reality. “Come in.” He squeaked uncharacteristically as Wufei walked through the door.

“Maxwell?” His black eyes watched Duo questioningly as he squirmed and gulped in air. “Is there something wrong? Are you having trouble breathing?”

“I'm… fine…” Duo whispered, his face flushing unnaturally. “Um, you're here early.”

“I couldn't sleep.”

“Only able to sleep when you're around me, eh?” The American's voice was joking, but there was a forced quality to it.

He almost regretted coming in that morning, since with as little rest as he got, he was unable to fully control his thoughts. `You have no idea. I wish I'd had anything else to wear here besides this outfit.'

Suddenly, the blue-violet eyes that he had hoped for two months to open were scrutinizing him closely, and he felt self-conscience. “Fei, is that the outfit I got you last year?”

Heat rushed to his cheeks as he nodded. “It seems I've run out of clean clothes and it will be days before the rest are cleaned.” He knew he sounded ridiculous, but there was really no helping it. `Ancestors, let me get through today without embarrassing myself or ruining our relationship by forcing my feelings upon him.'

Duo blinked several times, his face a cool mask as he thought. `Feelings? Ruining our relationship? Oh. My. God. I gotta get him out of here before *I* do something stupid. That damn dream… I wish I hadn't slept now!' Carefully, Duo settled his face into what he hoped was a small, amused smile before he spoke again. “Well, `Fei, I have some business this morning with `Ro and an MRI and CAT scan.”

“How are your migraines?” Wufei asked, his face settling into its normal scowl. He could tell an omission of something was coming up. Duo never lied, but he was the master of not telling everything.

“Hurt, but I'll live, the doctor says.” Duo shifted nervously as he looked into Wufei's dark eyes for longer than a few seconds. `I dunno how to say this to him without hurting his feelings. “Hey Wufei, get lost so I can yell at Heero”? That sounds stupid!' He began tugging on the end of his braid in frustration. “Argh, okay, look, Fei; I'm gonna say something and it's gonna sound bad because I have no idea how I can say it better. I'm sure Q could tell me how to do it, but he's not here. So here I go - I need to talk to Heero and Quatre alone today. It will be awkward and uncomfortable already. With you here, it will be impossible. So, I need you to go.”

“Go?” Wufei's black eyes blinked several times in confusion, and his brain raced too quickly for either pilot to read his thoughts clearly. `Do you not want me here?'

“It's not that I don't love y- your company,” Duo said fast. “There's just something I gotta discuss with them and it's private.”

Wufei nodded, numbed momentarily. `He really doesn't want me here.' Duo swallowed at the self-pity and misery in the other man's inner voice, but he didn't know what to do. He could acknowledge that he knew what Wufei was thinking and that it was all untrue. And possibly scare the hell out of his best friend. Or, he could just let him think that he didn't want him here, and still fuck up their relationship. Or… he could tell him part of the truth and then… Yes…

“Wufei, look, here's the deal. Relena… as if this is much of a shock… is stupidly, hopelessly in love with Heero, and he's like a cyborg, yeah?” When the other man nodded slowly, Duo felt the courage to continue his sloppy explanation. “Well, when I woke up and saw that nothing had changed between them, I got angry. So, I'm going to help Lena out by pointing out to our stupid comrade that he's got an amazing woman before him, who loves him and needs him.”

“Ah, yes,” Wufei said carefully, relief flooding his mind. `So, that means he doesn't want me to leave him alone.'

“Yeah, so, it's gonna be difficult enough when it's just me and him. With you here, he'd never say anything.” Duo wished he could stop his mouth from running off, but was finding it unmanageable. “I wish you could stay though.”

“What about Winner?” `Why does he get to be around you while you push me away? Why him? He has Barton, doesn't he?'

Duo flushed as Wufei's near accusations slapped him. “I just need to talk to him too. That's all.” He snuck a look at his friend and cringed at the cold look on his delicate features. “You can take the opportunity to rest some more. I promise that I'll behave and not torture the hospital staff too much and I won't run out of here before the doctor says I can go.”

Slowly, Wufei's features moved from ice cold stare to almost giddy with relief. “Good. Then things are how they should be.” He gave Duo a small smile. “I can't believe I managed to get you to promise those things to me without the use of violence.”

“Hey! Now's not the time to get cocky, Wu-man!” Duo shouted playfully. `I can't believe I promised him those things either. I really just want to get the hell out of here.'

A knock on the door stopped them both from saying anything farther, and the appearance of a well-rested Heero brought a string of cursing thoughts to both Duo and Wufei. “Good morning, Chang, Duo.”

“Yuy,” Wufei said tersely. `I wish he'd just disappear so that I could spend more time with Duo awake.' “Well, I will see you later, Duo.”

“'Kay, I'll call you later, Fei,” the American stated, hoping his cheeks weren't as flushed as his mind was with Wufei's thoughts. The Chinese man left and Duo concentrated on Heero's thoughts before trying to begin with his day's difficult mission.

`He looks better. All of the bruises are gone. His coloring is normal. And it looks as if he's no longer in any casts. Overall prognosis is fortunate. His healing rate is nearly at normal human being, but that's not surprising, considering that J told me once we began approaching full adulthood, our Gundam pilot metabolisms would slowly meld into what they should have been.'

“Whoa! `Ro, how come you never told me that our bodies would turn normal?!”

Heero blinked in surprise. `How did he know? The other day… and just now…it's not possible, but it's the only way it fits.' He closed his eyes as he thought, carefully keeping his face completely blank. `Duo, can you hear my thoughts?'

“Yeah, loud and clear as a bell, `Ro.” Duo snickered as Heero's mask cracked and he gaped at him in utter disbelief. “Yeah, I get that. Try living with it. I feel like I'm going crazy! I guess now I can give Q a run for freak of the group now.”

“Hm, that just means you're more dangerous than you were before,” Heero said casually, his mouth quirked up into a small smile. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Relena…” That one word made Heero's face turn to stone and his crossed his arms across his chest defensively. His mind was blank, but Duo could read the anger in every movement of the Japanese pilot. “Look, `Ro, I have no romantic interest in Relena Peacecraft. If you want her, suck it up, find your balls and tell her!”

`What?'

“Okay, I guess I have to say this in plain English, which I know you understand, Heero,” Duo said, pinching the bridge of his nose as the pressure built up behind his eyes. “It's like this. You and Lena are in love with each other, but you're too dumb to realize it and she's too busy to have any kind of love life. So, you're going to have to tell her how you feel, since she's been the one chasing you up until the end of the first war. You. Are. Going. To. Have. To. Confess.”

“C-confess?”

“Yes, as in, `Oh, Relena, you're so beautiful and the only one that makes this lump of coal I call a heart pound. Please be my woman?' That.”

Heero looked as if he was a deer caught in the headlights as he tried to process what Duo was telling him. “Impossible.”

“Well, Yuy, you're gonna have to make it possible. I don't want to see Lena cry again.”

Slowly, the shock wore off, and Heero's thoughts turned as cold as his eyes. “Stay out of this, Duo,” he said calmly. “I don't care what you can or can't do. Stay out of it, or else.”

“Or else what? You'll kill me? Didn't you already threaten me with that? Twice?” Duo scoffed and waved a hand, which Heero snatched and squeezed hard.

“Back. Off,” he snarled before throwing Duo's captured hand away and stomping out of the hospital.