04-Jun-2000
revised: 12-Aug-2001
It was kind of funny seeing a fic being posted with a 'non-yaoi' warning but just a reminder to all, age restrictions etc. (though, this one is pretty harmless and mostly for laughs). Oh and yeah, it's a repost and I am rewriting it extensively, especially the end part. Previously, it went out as 3 parts but part 3 was a bit mish mash and so far I've had to cut it into 6 smaller bits. And the pairing is my usual... ?x1. I'm a bit short on time so this time I'll go a little more slowly on reposting the other bits (see Tyr, I do listen , it just takes a little while for the wisdom to sink in). Oops, just remembered, I did my usual renaming of the series (gomen Tyr but I'm realising now that it got really messy when I was playing around with all those different names for the parts)
So, it's a AU, OOC, humour, ?x1, yaoi, PG-13 (?, I don't know whether I'm being ageist or not but is any yaoi fic technically suitable for younger audiences, even if it is fairly harmless?)
Here's the fic. (I live for C & C. Enjoy)
'He loves me.'
'He loves me not.'
'He loves me.'
Heero looked down at the last petal on his daisy and heaved a disconsolate sigh, then tossed it carelessly on top of the pile of other daisies. He wondered if someone was trying to tell him something. Still, the pilot of Wing Zero was nothing, if not determined. Heero reached into the basket for his sixty-fourth daisy.
'He loves me.'
'How long is this going to take?' Duo chewed his lower lip anxiously as he paced impatiently outside Heero's room, flinching as he heard Heero's voice firmly counting, seventy-nine, from the other side of the door. 'I don't know if I can take this much longer.'
'Leave him alone.' Trowa advised tranquilly as he held up his tapestry, counting the number of stitches he needed, before selecting the next skein. He looked down at the selection of colours and wondered whether he had enough brown wool, or whether he should think about using more yellow in the colour scheme instead. 'You know what Heero's like, he's not going to give up until he's gone through the entire 100 daisies.'
Duo grimaced as he heard Heero reach number eighty-nine and unconsciously gathered up his braid and started to nibble on the ends, and muttered under his breath, 'yeah, but what if the answer is no....'
Trowa blinked and paused his needle in the air while he thought, his green eyes fixed on the wide, anxious violet eyes of his friend and suggested in a doubtful voice, 'errm... you could try giving up...'
'Never.' Duo snapped back at once, his eyes sparking furiously with battle light. 'That word is not in my vocabulary.'
Trowa nodded and regarded the lined outline of the boy in his tapestry with a faint air of despondency... 'I was afraid you were going to say that...' His hand wavered uncertainly between the brown and yellow wool and finally landed on the black skein.
'He loves me not.'
Heero sighed mournfully as he looked at the empty basket. 'Well, that's that.' He thought sadly. 'I always wondered if I could trust him when he told me that he loved me.' He carefully gathered up the raggedy flowers and dumped them in the rubbish bin. Then he got out his address book and started to look under M.
'So you've decided that you'll accept my offer?' Zechs asked Heero with a glowing smile on his face. 'You won't regret coming to me. I don't suppose you mind if I ask what changed your mind?'
Heero shook his head, 'no, not really. Let's just say that I've realized that I don't have much of a future where I am right now.'
Zechs stared at the solemn youth in front of him curiously before shrugging. 'Oh well, I guess it's none of my business really. Have you decided when you want to leave?'
'Next week?' Heero suggested, 'that'll give me enough time to say goodbye to all my friends before I leave Earth.'
Zechs nodded happily. 'Sure, I'll book us seats on the next flight out.' He picked up the check and grinned at the handsome boy, 'this is my treat, Heero. I'll see you at the space port in one week.'
Heero sighed and looked at the half empty cup of coffee in front of him. He wondered what it would be like to leave all his friends behind. But now that he knew, he thought that he couldn't bear to be around them any more, especially Duo.
'It's just a bloody flower!' Duo screamed loudly, forcing Trowa to lose count of his stitch, again.
'Maybe I should have stuck to tapestries.' Trowa thought glumly as he looked at his messy knitting, 'knit one, purl two, drat, I keep losing count.'
'Are you listening to me Trowa?' Duo yelled into Trowa's ears causing the tall redhead to scream out loud in shock and pain as he accidentally stabbed one of the knitting needles into his finger.
'I'm telling you that Heero's leaving me because some stupid flower told him that I didn't love him and all you can do is bleed all over that damned tangled piece of wool.'
Trowa closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten, trying not to dwell on images of Duo; strangled with wool, or pierced in the heart with one of the knitting needles.
'Look, if you want to stop Heero from leaving, do something about it. Tell him that you do love him.'
'But I have told him. Over and over. That's why he picked those damned daisies! And they all said I didn't love him!' Duo wailed disconsolately as he started to suck on the end of his braid. 'He's tried picking over a hundred flowers already. If I give him another daisy and he gets the same answer, he'll be even more convinced that I don't love him.'
Trowa sighed impatiently as he applied a bandaid to his finger, while silently resolving to give up knitting forever, 'so try something different this time.'
'Something different?' Duo brightened up immediately. 'Of course, why didn't I think of that? All I have to do is to come up with another brilliant plan to show him that I do love him. Gee, it's so simple.'
Trowa gave the disappearing boy a sour look and swallowed the obvious retort that rose to his lips.
'What about tying a yellow ribbon around a tree?' Quatre offered absently as he dipped a spoon into the bubbling stew and carefully nibbled and the piece of potato, and wondered whether he should add another teaspoon of salt.
'That's only for people who's already left, you idiot. The whole point of this conversation is that I don't want Heero to leave me. Isn't there something that you can think of?' Duo scowled crossly as he grabbed a spoon from the drawer and started scraping the remainder of the chocolate cake batter in the bowl. 'Something that's sure to convince Heero that I do love him?'
'Have you ever thought of just telling him that?' Quatre asked tartly as he pulled the oven door open and tested the chocolate cake carefully to see if it was done.
'Well, gee. What'd you think? Of course, I've tried that.' Duo muttered impatiently and he walked over to the range and started to stir the stew slowly, savouring the yummy smell that floated up.
Then he quickly swallowed the mouthful of stew that he had grabbed while Quatre was busy with the oven, and flashed a guilty grin at Quatre, who glared at him.
'But it doesn't work. Heero thinks that I'm not serious enough. I've tried my best soulful look and everything.' Duo fluttered his eyelashes at Quatre who rolled his eyes and shook his head disapprovingly.
'Okay, so telling him isn't going to work.' Quatre admitted grimly, as he tapped Duo's hands away from the quiche that he had left on the bench to cool, with the wooden spoon. 'So what else have you tried?'
'Well, Heero's tried the flower thing but even after a hundred daisies, it kept on coming out all wrong.' Duo sniffed dismally, 'so I told him that if I really loved him, I'd be able to tell what he was thinking. Since true love allows you to read each other's minds. So we tried that too.'
Quatre groaned out loud. 'Don't tell me, that's what was going on yesterday when you and Heero kept on yelling at each other.'
Duo swallowed a chuckle as he remembered how he and Heero had tried to communicate with each other by guessing what the other was doing and wanting.
'Yeah, it didn't really work. I kept on thinking that he wanted my company so I would go to him and after I interrupted him in his bath, he got really narky about the whole thing. I kind of enjoyed interrupting him in the bath but... Heero was feeling a bit cranky because earlier, I had erased his work files thinking that he wanted to have more space available on his hard drive.' He started to giggle as he remembered the outraged look on Heero's face before he got a face full of soap.
Quatre eyed the giggling boy in front of him and thought he couldn't blame Heero for not taking him too seriously. He sighed, 'okay, okay. I got the picture. So what you need is something that can let Heero know that you really love him. Hmmmm. What about flowers?'
'Again?' Duo squealed indignantly, 'weren't you listening when I told you that this whole mess started with flowers?'
'No, no. I mean give Heero some flowers. As a token of your love. Like Roses.' Quatre rolled his eyes again as the violet eyes widened with delight. 'Don't tell me you've never given him flowers before this.'
'Well no. Heero's not exactly the type that you think of giving flowers to. Guns maybe but flowers...' Duo rubbed his hands gleefully. 'I can do flowers. That's easy. Thanks Quatre.' He beamed sweetly, then quickly grabbed a slice of the quiche and ran out of the kitchen before Quatre could stop him.
Quatre glared at the mess on his table and wondered if Heero would thank him for this.
'I told you not to trust the blond.' Wufei sniffed disdainfully at the sobbing mess in front of him.
Duo lifted teary eyes and blew his nose loudly on the Kleenex before collapsing back on the bed.
'Just what happened anyway? Why is Yuy so annoyed with you?' Wufei asked as he gingerly poked at the wailing boy who was messing up his doona.
'It's all Quatre's fault. I only did as he told me to. How was I to know that the colour was important?' Duo gulped and hiccuped as he wiped his face with the Kleenex that Wufei handed to him hastily.
'I didn't know that white roses meant dead love. I just thought they looked pretty. And everyone gives red roses. I wanted mine to be more special, different. Waaaaaaah.'
He clutched at the alarmed Chinese who looked down at him with dismay as he slobbered all over his shirt. 'Do something Wufei. I have to convince Heero that I really, truly love him. Otherwise, he's going to leave me.'
Wufei felt his head start aching painfully as Duo continued to sob loudly into his chest. 'What if I told him that you loved him.' He offered desperately at last, as he tried to disengage himself from Duo who continued to dribble tears down his shirt.
Duo looked at him with wide violet eyes, instantly beaming. 'Would you? Really? I knew that I could rely on you Wufei. I'm sure that you can convince Heero that I really love him.' He hugged Wufei tightly before blowing his nose really loudly on another piece of Kleenex, and leaving the room.
Wufei looked down at himself, at the drenched shirt front, then at his bed where his doona remained mussed up and a bit damp in places, then shuddered as he saw the white pile of scattered Kleenex on the bed and below it.
'And who the hell do you think is going to clean this up, you, you... come back here!' He yelled out, a little too late as his door slammed shut before he managed to get the words out of his mouth.
'I thought you were going to talk to Heero. Not get into a duel.' Quatre tsked as he continued to dress Wufei's arm.
'Shut up Winner, as soon as I get better, you're next.' Wufei spat furiously as he glared at the weeping boy who was sitting next to them. 'You and your stupid ideas. I'm beginning to think that Heero's better off without you.' He winced as the sound of sobs started to get even louder. 'Oh be quiet for god's sake.'
Quatre bit back a grin as he looked at Wufei, who was now bandaged from his right arm, shoulder and over his neck and head. 'It could have been worse. Imagine what it might have been like if you'd been fighting with a weapon instead of just hand to hand.'
Wufei shot Quatre a dirty look as he moved stiffly off the sickbay bed. 'Next time, someone asks me to help their love life I'm going to leave the country.'
'So what happened anyway?' Quatre couldn't resist asking as he lent Wufei a friendly shoulder to help him steady himself on his feet. 'I never found out exactly why you and Heero were fighting, and he's gone off with Trowa to get his leg x-rayed.'
Wufei sighed mournfully as he looked accusingly at Duo who hadn't stopped drizzling ever since the fight.
'Well, as soon as I started to mention that Duo was in my bed, Heero got angry and accused me of having an affair with him. And I lost my temper,' he admitted ruefully as Quatre snickered, 'and challenged him to a duel. And that's about all that happened, except now I've got bruises all over and my shoulder is killing me.'
'That's not exactly what happened. Heero was already upset before Wufei said anything. Of course it didn't help when Wufei screwed up and blurted out the wrong thing first.' Duo lifted tear reddened eyes and sniffed dourly, 'I was reminding Wufei to tell Heero that I loved him and Heero overheard me and got confused. He thought I was saying that I loved Wufei and I don't!' Duo wailed loudly, much to the dismay of the two boys who winced in concert. 'I don't love Wufei. He's stupid. I want Heero!'
Wufei turned scarlet with rage even as Quatre started to choke with laughter. 'Well I don't want you either Maxwell. You are too noisy and messy. And I don't blame Heero for not wanting you. And what's more...'
Quatre gave a sickly grin to Trowa and Heero who were coming out of the hospital.
'Why are you here?' Trowa asked curiously as he helped Heero with get down the stairs with his crutches. 'We could have gone home by ourselves.'
'I'm not here to pick you up.' Quatre grimaced as Trowa and Heero stared at him, 'I've got to get to the emergency room. Wufei got here in the ambulance before me and,' he sighed, 'I've got to organize the paperwork for him before I go to the police station and pay bail for Duo.'
'Duo's been arrested?' Heero asked sharply, a look of concern on his face.
'Well,' Quatre reddened and tried to avoid looking at Heero. 'Wufei's a little upset right now. I'm sure he'll change his mind about pressing charges once he calms down. Look, I have to go. I'll see you later.' He fled into the hospital, leaving behind two confused boys who stared after him.
'That dishonourable cur attacked a wounded man and without any prior warnings. Now I've got a broken leg on top of the dislocated shoulder. I want him hung, drawn and quartered.' Wufei muttered balefully as he drew a hangman on his cast.
Quatre fought the urge to hit him with the bedpan as he drew a deep breath and tried again to convince him to drop the charges against Duo. 'They don't do that anymore, Wufei.' He started gently.
'Well, that's probably what's wrong with the world.' Wufei glared furiously at the wilted blond, before starting to draw a large axe next to the hangman on his leg cast. 'We've become too soft. That's why no one understands the importance of justice. Love. Pah!' He snorted crossly, 'as if I ever wanted to fall in love with that idiot Maxwell. How dare he say that I'm stuffy! I'm not stuffy. I'm going to make him pay for what he did to me. And I'm glad that Heero's leaving that barbaric savage. I'm sure he'd have ended by beating him up too eventually. That wife beater.'
Quatre rubbed the back of his neck trying to ease the strain of having had to argue with Wufei for over an hour. 'Just try to understand that Duo's feeling a little sensitive right now. It wasn't really a good idea to tell him that Heero would be better off without him you know. Or to suggest that you always thought that Heero and Trowa would make a good couple. Especially when you knew that they were together at the hospital. Duo's not exactly all that stable at the moment. Come on, you can't possibly press charges against your friend.' He wheedled carefully.
Wufei stared at the earnest green eyes and felt his resolve soften slightly. 'Maybe, I'm being a little hard on Duo.' He admitted at last.
Quatre felt beads of sweat form at the sides of his temple even as he tried not to sag with relief. 'Oh, I'm sure that Duo is very, very sorry for what he did to you. Now, please, why don't you tell the police that you've changed your mind and want to drop those charges.' He held out the phone to Wufei who scowled before taking it reluctantly.
'He deserved everything he got.' Duo muttered rebelliously as he scraped the bars of the restraining cell with his tin cup. The other occupants of the cell were giving him nasty looks which he totally ignored as he continued to scrape on the bars and mutter to himself. 'I refuse to apologize to that pompous twit. And he is too, stupid. Heero would never ever give the time of day to boring old Trowa.' He sniffed dismally and scraped the bar again.
The policeman on duty gave Duo a pained look. He gave the sergeant a look of total desperation, sighing despondently when that worthy shook his head regretfully. 'God how I hate these domestic cases.' He thought to himself in agony as the cup scraped across the bar again.
'What about peeling the skin off an apple on a full moon and throwing it behind you to see if it spells the name of your true love?'
Heero shrugged, 'we've tried that already. Not to mention it took about thirty apples before I finally managed to take the entire peel off without breaking it. Not that it worked. The only thing that happened was that this old lady started to yell at me for littering. Don't ask me what she was doing walking around the park in the middle of the night either.'
Quatre frowned and picked up the next book, 'okay, hmmm..... what about putting a piece of the wedding cake under your pillow and see if you dream of your true love during the night. And it says that you have eat some of it as well.'
Heero rolled his eyes. 'That was the first one we tried. All I got out of it was a stomach ache from eating too much rich food before I went to sleep, not to mention not getting a lot of sleep from the damned crumbs that went everywhere, including into my ear. Bleah.'
Quatre closed the last book and shoved them out of the way. 'Well, I think you guys have tried pretty much everything. I'm not sure what else you can do. Except you could just accept that Duo really does love you, you know. Or is that too easy?' He added sarcastically, his patience definitely fraying after the hours of fruitless research.
Heero shrugged helplessly as he thought of the way Duo would look at him, one minute adoring, next minute wild and teasing, and still next, totally indifferent and self absorbed.
'I don't know. It's not even that I don't trust him. I just can't tell when he's being sincere and when he's not. For that matter I'm not even sure if I love him. I don't know what I feel towards him.'
Quatre blew his fringe off his face impatiently as he gave Heero a cross look. 'Don't tell me that we're going through all this when you haven't even made up your mind yet. Just why are you making such a big deal about this anyway?'
Heero blushed and ducked his head, hiding his eyes behind the heavy fringe, 'I haven't had a lot of experience with falling in love before.' He admitted at last, 'so I've been trying to find a manual that can tell me what I should do and how I know what it feels like. But so far, nothing that I've read or seen seems to help very much.'
He twiddled his thumbs a little and looked up at Quatre, with an uncertain expression. 'It's just too confusing when Duo keeps on telling me that he loves me one minute then is screaming that he hates me, the next. I don't know what I'm supposed to do and we're always fighting, about everything. It's strange, when we were friends he wasn't like this. Okay,' Heero grimaced when Quatre gave him a highly sceptical look, 'so he was always very voluble and highly excitable. But this is different. Now I don't know what to expect when I talk to him, it's making me feel very jittery and nervous. And I feel really strange whenever I see him laughing and chatting to other people, I don't know why.' The corners of his mouth drooped slightly as he finished.
Quatre took a deep breath and tried to remind himself that Heero didn't exactly have a normal childhood and couldn't be expected to understand that such things were all part of a normal relationship.
'The whole point of being in a relationship is that you aren't in control Heero. You care about how the other person feels and sometimes, like Duo, you can over react. Though,' he couldn't help adding to himself in a mutter, 'he does specialize in taking things to extremes. Anyway,' his tone turned brisk, 'it's only natural that you feel more anxious when you depend on the other person's reaction and it sounds to me like you've got a mild case of jealousy too. All these are just symptoms of insecurity and the best way to deal with that is if you and Duo work out what you feel towards each other and what your future intentions are.'
Heero gave Quatre an exasperated glare. 'Thank you Dr Freud. Just what do you think we've been doing? We are trying to find out if we truly love each other. And we don't. At least not according to all the signs.' Heero sighed morosely. 'Isn't there a way you can tell if some one really loves you?'
Quatre stood up and started to walk off, having decided to wash his hands of the relationally challenged. 'Can't you tell when he kisses you?' He shot off as he left the room in a huff.
'Have you ever kissed Duo?'
'What!' Wufei roared as he leapt to his feet then sank back on the sofa with loud curses and black looks at Heero who simply waited patiently for him to settle down again. 'How dare you imply that I would kiss that ridiculous moron who has,' he frowned at Heero, 'extremely bad taste. I've already explained the only thing Duo did in my bed was to leave a truly disgusting mess, eh... of tissues,' he added hastily as he thought about what he was saying for once, 'which he'll pay for as soon as I get out of this cast.'
'So you haven't kissed Duo.' Heero replied absently, as he crossed off a name on his chart. 'What about Quatre? Have you kissed him?'
Wufei choked on the orange juice he had started to drink, spraying it all over his front, and turned a baleful glare on Heero who had managed to move just enough out of the way to avoid being hit as well. 'No.' He growled sourly, 'I haven't. Why the hell are you asking me if I've kissed our friends?'
Heero hummed as he crossed off yet another name. 'Well you haven't kissed me,' his voice turned speculative as he added, 'yet,' not noticing that Wufei had gone red at his last word, 'and from what you've just said I gather you haven't kissed Trowa yet.'
Wufei shook his head numbly, feeling too confused to protest any further.
Heero went down the list and leaned forward confidentially. 'What about Treize? Did you kiss him? Duo thought that the two of you looked a little, you know...' He jumped hastily out of the way to avoid the orange juice and glass that flew his way.
'Out. Now.' Wufei screamed, almost purple with rage. 'I didn't kiss Treize. Or Zechs, Noin, Sally, Relena or anyone. Except my wife!'
Heero started to busily scratch out names on his chart as he dodged a cushion, a remote and a crutch and smoothly exited the room, writing down 'wife' carefully on his list. Then outside the room he stopped and turned around with a puzzled look, 'wife? He's married?'
'No.'
'No.'
'No.'
'No.'
Heero sighed as he scratched out the last name on the list before turning to Trowa who was regarding him with a faint amused smile as he continued to stitch his crochet. 'Haven't you kissed anyone yet?'
'No.'
Heero widened his eyes at that and leaned forward, his eyes holding Trowa's. 'Would you like to?'
'Yes.'
Trowa answered simply and stared steadily into Heero's deep blue eyes.
'Thank you.' Heero answered happily and quickly added another section to his chart, then got to his feet and started towards the kitchen.
Trowa sighed softly, sounding slightly regretful, before turning his attention back to the crochet.
'Go away Heero. I'm not your bloody love counsellor and I refuse answer any personal questions. I'm a bit busy right now.' Quatre started to chop the vegetables, wielding the knife with a little more vim than was usual.
Heero simply sat down on the stool and waited silently until Quatre gave in and with a resigned sigh, he came round to the other side of the counter.
'What?' He said shortly.
'I've asked all our friends but they don't have a lot of experience with kissing either. So I haven't been able to get to the second section of my survey where I was going to ask how to compare the different kisses so that I could tell the kiss from my true love from just a kiss.'
Quatre grinned suddenly, 'there's no such thing as just a kiss. Or there shouldn't be.' He amended quickly when he saw Heero taking notes and remembered how literal the Wing pilot could be sometimes. 'The problem with you is that you think too much. And you are in a relationship with Duo. Who doesn't think at all before he acts. Why don't you try just doing for once, instead of trying to figure out the perfect strategy all the time?'
Heero looked at him with a worried face as he clutched his precious chart to his chest. 'What do you mean?' He asked cautiously.
Quatre laughed and leaned forward suddenly, pressing his lips to Heero's gently, before pulling back to see the round eyed amazement on Heero's face as he touched his own lips wonderingly with his fingertips. 'There you go. Kiss number 1. Now go and try out some others. Then you'll have something to compare with when you kiss Duo. Which you haven't yet, have you?' He added shrewdly, shaking his head when Heero nodded. 'You guys act like you're in kindergarten. So when Duo steals a bite from your vanilla fudge sundae, it means that he loves you. Okay?'
Heero left the kitchen in a daze, his heart hammering wildly even as he swiftly recorded everything that happened and that Quatre said.
Quatre sat with a grin, and sounded to count down on his fingers, by the time he reached 7, Heero stuck his head back with an indignant look on his face. 'Does that mean that I have to let him steal my favourite CD and walkman from now on?'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'Because.' Wufei's face was scarlet with embarrassment as he tried to avoid looking at Heero who was sitting a little too close to him.
'Because why?' Heero asked curiously, his head held on a slight incline as he tried to keep eye contact with the blushing Shenlong pilot. 'Don't you want to kiss me?'
Wufei started to cough, alarming Heero who quickly poured him a glass of water. 'I've never kissed a guy before.' He said at last.
'That's okay. This is my second time.' Heero answered quite smugly, 'I'm pretty sure I know what to do.'
'Second time?' Wufei asked, his black eyes widening largely, 'didn't you, eh... you and Duo...' he started to stammer, going redder and redder as Heero simply stared back blankly, 'you know, you haven't.... eh... you haven't done.... I mean... you've only kissed him once?' He said at last, deciding on the least inflammatory option.
'I haven't kissed Duo yet.' Heero said calmly.
'What? Who?' Wufei blustered in confusion as he tried to sort out the way he had always seen Heero from this stranger in front of him now. 'There's someone else?' He sat up on the bed indignantly. 'Are you saying that you are seeing someone else? That you want to experiment with... eh....' He collapsed back on his pillows, feeling very flushed.
Heero blinked slowly, trying to understand why Wufei was getting so excited. 'I kissed Quatre. Or is that he kissed me?' He thought a little about that, remembering how Duo would always insist that he wanted to be the alpha male, whatever that meant. 'He thought that I should get some experience. He told me to try out you guys before I kiss Duo so that I have a means of comparison.'
'Oh he did, did he?' Wufei seethed, as at last he realized the source of this situation, 'why that conniving little Casanova. When he comes in with my lunch I'll tell him what I think of him for taking advantage of Heero. That rat, that sneak, that...'
'Um, Wufei?' Heero interrupted, 'are you going to kiss me or what? Because I want to check out Trowa before Duo comes home and I've only got 15 minutes left now.' He leaned forward, his face only inches away from a deeply flushed Wufei who gulped, before putting his arms around Heero's neck and pulling him down for a long, deep kiss.
Heero looked carefully at Wufei whose face was as bright as a tomato when they finally parted. 'I didn't know that kissing was so different with different people.' He said at last. He hesitated a little longer, then when Wufei burrowed down under his doona and refused to come out, he stood up and walked out of the room, slowly.
'I hate Quatre. I hate Duo. I hate Quatre. I hate Duo....' Wufei grounded his teeth as he dug in more deeply, curling into a little ball, in the soft darkness of his doona.
'....'
Heero sighed as he finally got off Trowa' lap. 'I think that was more like the way Wufei kissed me.'
Trowa had a rather wicked glint in his eyes as he reached up and grabbed Heero's hand. 'Well, you still haven't experienced what it's like to have me kiss you. You've shown me the way Quatre and Wufei kissed you, so it's only fair for me to show you what I can do. Right?'
Heero sank back on top on Trowa's lap, cupping his hands around the other's face. 'So it does make a difference between where you are kissing someone or being kissed?'
Trowa shrugged, as he wound his arms around Heero's slender waist and pulled him in closer. 'I don't know. Remember, I have even less experience than you. So why don't we try to find out together?'
'For god's sake, stop arguing with the cab driver Duo.' Quatre scowled as he looked at his half emptied purse, he had to increase the tip significantly to get rid of the angry man who wanted continue his tirade about how Duo had insisted on tapping on the window between the driver and himself, the entire time he was in the cab, because he said it made him feel claustrophobic after his experience in the restraining cell.
Duo kicked angrily at the front door that remained stubbornly closed. He was furious that no one, or rather, that Heero hadn't come to pick him up. On the phone, Heero had mentioned something about being too busy with some research. He was still furious with Wufei over having had to endure the indignity of being arrested and then being held in custody while Quatre arranged his bail. In the end, since Wufei agreed to drop the charges, the police had been only too happy to just let him go but then when he very reasonably told them that he wanted the arrest record expunged, they got very uptight and all legalistic. It had taken a little longer before Quatre's lawyer managed to convince the police that it was in their interests to just let him go.
Duo felt cross and he felt unloved. That stupid Wufei, this was all his fault. And where was Heero anyway. 'I knew it. I know that cold hearted bastard never really loved me. If he loved me, he would have been there for me, to hold my hand while I was in custody.' Duo sulked out loud as he scratched at the door.
'What do you think you're doing to my door?' Quatre yelled indignantly as he finally finished dragging Duo's suitcase up the stairs.
Despite misgivings, he had finally agreed to pack all his essentials (at least everything that Duo thought he had to have, like his hair dryer, favourite hair products, several changes of underwear and outer wear because he thought that he should have a choice, the damned high boots, mirror and so on) and send it along with the lawyer when he got sick of hearing Duo screaming at him through the phone. Quatre hadn't been impressed by the police who were obvious extremely lax in allowing their prisoner so many phone calls. He conveniently forgot that he didn't have to be on the other end, where Duo was slowly driving them all mad.
Quatre stared at the scratches and dents left on the door by Duo's fingernails and boots and swallowed the impulse to throw the heavy suitcase at him. For one thing, it was too damned heavy. He dug out the key from his pocket and kicked the suitcase towards Duo, who still had a sullen look on his face.
'Do you have any idea how must you cost me today? From the hospital bills for Heero, who didn't even have a fracture after all that fuss, just a slight sprain which he's already ignoring, to Wufei, who still has to go in for more treatments, to your bail, to my lawyer's fees which by the way, he's doubled after the kick you gave him at the station! I'm the sucker who's had to pay for all that. And now look at what you've done to my door!'
Duo stuck out his tongue before dashing inside the house. 'What a nag.' He thought crossly. Then he screeched to a halt as he passed the open doorway of the living room and suddenly recognised the two bodies entwined together on the reclining armchair.
'Heero.' He breathed out in shock.
'Trowa!' Duo screamed in total fury and leapt towards the taller boy as the two bodies disentangled and stood up on his entry.
'I thought you weren't coming.' Zechs said in surprise as he recognized the hobbling figure coming towards him. 'And why are you wearing sunnies? We are indoors you know.'
Heero put up a hand indicating that Zechs should lower his voice. 'Please, don't call any attention to me.' He muttered softly as he pulled the hat down even further on his head. 'I'm sorry I'm so late but it took longer than I thought to avoid being detected.'
'Excuse me?' Zechs asked in puzzlement. 'Being detected by what?'
'More like who.' Heero muttered to himself as he kept on glancing at his wrist chronometer nervously. 'How much longer before we can board the shuttle?'
'Are you running away from something?' Zechs sounded concerned as he too involuntarily started craning his neck, looking around the crowd, though he had no idea, for what or who. 'Can I help?'
'No.' Heero answered quickly, 'no one can help. Not anymore. And I'm not running away.' He sounded defensive, 'I'm just trying to defuse a potentially destructive situation.' He shuddered as a sudden image of furious violet eyes rose in his mind. 'I can't believe he got so upset over a few kisses.'
Zechs blinked in confusion. 'Kisses?'
Heero looked at the tall blond speculatively, then he leaned forward and whispered softly. 'Have you ever been kissed?'
'Heero! Come back here! Where ever you are! Heero! Don't you dare kiss anyone else! Heero!'
Wufei held out a shaking hand to grab more cottonballs. He wished that his leg had healed so that he could run, but unfortunately he had been left, completely helpless, at the mercy of a loud, crazy baka who insisted on taking care of him, since there wasn't anyone else left in the house.
'Quatre, I am going to make you pay for this. If it takes me the rest of my life, I'll make you pay.' Wufei crammed in the cottonballs in his ears, wishing that he could go deaf.
'So how much longer do you think we have to stay here?' Trowa asked blandly as he stirred his cappuccino and smelled the fresh sea breeze coming off the Sydney Harbour.
Quatre shrugged and bit into the creamy croissant with evident enjoyment. 'Who knows. As long as we stay away from Heero, there's no reason to worry about Duo. I feel sorry for Zechs, all he knows at the moment is that he's hired a Consultant for his budding company Marquise Inc. He's in for a world of trouble as soon as Duo figures out where Heero's gone.'
Trowa sipped his cappuccino happily, even as he decided to order another serving of waffles and strawberries. There was something about sea air that definitely wet the appetite. 'And how is he to know that? Heero's erased all trace of his whereabouts didn't he?'
Quatre sniggered as he pulled his ice cream coffee towards him. 'Well, I don't think that he realized that Zechs has done an interview while he was on earth, to promote his company. Or that he was mentioned, by name during the interview, as a new Consultant on the project to make a new microchip.'
'Ooh.' Trowa winced as he dug his fork into the steaming waffle. 'That is bad isn't it.'
'Not our problem.' Quatre said smugly as he savoured the cold sweetness on his tongue. 'Besides which Duo's far angrier with you than me, so if worst comes to worst..'
Trowa's lips twitched slightly as he surveyed his lovely companion. 'You'll just run for cover and leave me behind, right?'
Quatre nodded apologetically as he reached for the platter of fruits. 'Yeah. No offence Trowa but you got to kiss Heero a lot more than me so...' He bit neatly into a slice of melon, as he gave Trowa a long lingering look from under his lashes. 'You know, I never knew that you were so... interested in experimentation.' His voice turned slightly husky as he leaned forward until his lips were just a touch away from Trowa's. 'Are you still... interested?'
Trowa leaned back in his chair, amused by the way Quatre's lips continued to follow him until the blond was perched somewhat precariously over the table. 'Maybe...' He whispered back softly.
End Part One
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