5-Nov-2000
Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor any of its characters belong to me.
Warnings: Some language.
C & C Most Welcome
This is the sequel to Payback
Quatre was fed up. He'd had enough of the feud between Heero and Duo and it was time to do something about it. What had started out as innocuous but aggravating practical jokes had escalated into an all out war.
The war had started when Duo came back from a mission and found all his doujinshis glued together. Heero had freely admitted doing it. Payback, he'd said, for all the pranks Duo had pulled on him. The problem was, Duo still swore he wasn't the one who had pulled those pranks. Of course no one believed him, but Quatre had seen something in Wufei's face that made him think Duo had been telling the truth about his innocence.
Quatre had started fearing for Duo's safety when he'd hidden Wing's buster rifle. He then feared for Heero when he'd replaced all of Duo's clothes with nun's habits. He still wouldn't tell anyone where Duo's clothes were hidden and Quatre was getting tired of Duo complaining about having to wear his pink shirts.
When Duo had `leaked' the `news' of Heero's and Relena's engagement to the local radio station, Quatre had feared for Duo's life. Luckily he had talked Duo in to calling the radio station the next day to retract the announcement. But that had not satisfied Heero.
Things escalated from bad to worse when Duo had awakened them all with his blood curdling screams, yells and cursings that morning. Quatre and Trowa had ran into his room, to discover him sitting up in bed surrounded by long strands of chestnut colored hair strewn all over the sheets and covers. He had pulled out his gun and had threatened to kill Heero, even though he knew Heero hadn't really cut his braid. He took it as a message from Heero that the next time it would be real. He had been almost to the point of hyperventilating before Quatre and Trowa could calm him down.
Wufei had been standing in the doorway, watching, with the
faintest of smiles on his lips before he turned and went back to his
room. That faint smile jogged a memory Quatre had of something Wufei
had said after the glue incident. Wufei had made a comment days
later about superglue and fingernail polish remover. Quatre, Trowa
nor Heero had known what kind of glue that was when they had
painstakingly pried Heero's hands from the controls. How did
Wufei know, unless he was the one who had applied the glue in the
first place?
(*writers note: I know superglue is fast drying, I used it cause it
sounded funnier and if you've ever glued your fingers together
with it, you know how hard it is to unglue `em*)
After getting Duo settled down enough to listen, Quatre said, "You and Heero need to stop this, before one of you gets hurt."
"I know."
"Duo, did you pull those pranks, in the beginning?"
"You mean the glue, the screen saver and the shorts?" Duo had to admit, those were good ones, he almost wished he had thought of them.
"Yes, did you do those?" Quatre had to ask, but he already knew the answer.
"Like I've told everyone all along, it wasn't me."
"I believe you, Duo, because I think I know who it really was but I need to talk to Heero first."
"Who was it, Quatre?" the sudden chill in Duo's voice served to confirm his innocence.
"I'm not telling you yet, but I will, after I talk to Heero." Quatre promised.
"Quatre,"
"What, Duo?
"Would you tell Heero I'm sorry? Especially for the engagement prank. I didn't know practical jokes could get this out of hand,but when I found all my doujinshis glued together, I just lost it. I've had them for a long time, they were like old friends. I had them memorized from cover to cover. Father Maxwell gave them to me, after someone had donated them to the orphanage. He thought they might inspire me to want to read, and he was right, they did."
"I'll apologize to him on your behalf, for now. If my plan works, the two of you can apologize face to face later."
"And, Quatre…", Duo hesitated before he continued,"Don't tell Heero how important those were to me, ok?"
"Ok."
Quatre walked across the hall and entered Heero's room, he did not show the same courtesy as he had to Duo, because Heero would have told him to go away.
Heero was laying on his bed, reading. "Leave my room, I don't want to talk to you," he said with a measured coldness.
"You don't have to talk, but you're going to listen, Heero. These pranks are going too far and I am afraid of what is going to happen next," the concern was evident in Quatre's voice.
"If Maxwell would have resisted pulling those practical jokes, in the first place, there would be no reason for this conversation now," Heero pointed out.
"He says he never did those things, and I believe him."
"Quatre, you'd believe someone if they told you the sky was purple." Heero sneered.
"That's not fair, Heero. Unlike you, I have faith in people and I know Duo's not lying."
"What makes you think he's telling you the truth? Because he looks at you with big, sad, puppy-dog eyes?" The sarcasm in Heero's voice hid the hurt.
"No, I believe him because I know the truth when I hear it," Quatre replied in a matter-of fact tone, "Besides I know who the real culprit is."
Heero sat up when he heard this. "Who?" the curiosity got to him.
"I will tell you if you promise first you will not seek your own revenge. I have a plan and you must agree to follow it."
"You have no idea, how tired I am of stupid practical jokes and seeking revenge. I agree to follow your plan, now who is it?"
"Wufei."
Upon hearing Wufei's name, Heero stared at Quatre for a few seconds, his disbelief was evident by the doubt he showed on his face.
"What would make you think it's him? He's more somber than you accuse me of being."
"It's more of a feeling than any real proof."
"I prefer proof."
"The only thing I have to go on is a comment and a smile,but think back Heero, weren't there any reactions or comments by him that you thought were odd?"
Heero thought for a few minutes, picturing Wufei after the glue incident, seeing Wufei's face after the screen saver caper, Wufei's reaction when he exposed his ass to the household, each time there had been this funny little smirk on his face, like he was enjoying a private joke. Everyone else had laughed their heads off.
Heero also remembered Wufei saying how much trouble `someone' must have gone through to remove the stitching from his shorts. Everyone else had assumed he had ripped them, only the guilty party would have known the threads were removed from the seam.
"I have to admit, after thinking about it, Wufei is most likely the guilty one."
"Good. Go to my room while I go get Duo. Both of you have to agree to my plan before it will work."
"Oh, and Heero, I'm glad to see you didn't really destroy Duo's doujinshis."
"How did you know that?"
"Wasn't that what you were reading when I came in?"
"Hn."
Heero was waiting in Quatre's room when Quatre entered with Duo reluctantly following behind him. The two feuding pilots felt uneasy with each other, they couldn't even look each other in the eye.
"Come on you two, the feud ends here and now, shake hands and apologize so we can get down to business and teach Wufei a lesson."
"You know, for a guy who acts as though he has absolutely no sense of humor, you did a pretty good job of coming up with some really great practical jokes. If they hadn't been aimed at me, I would have thought they were funny and worthy of my talents." Duo spoke up first.
Heero cleared his throat as he extended his hand to Duo, "I'm `honored' you'd think so, and YOU almost gave me a heart attack when I heard the engagement announcement, and thank you for retracting it."
Duo accepted Heero's hand and they shook, in silent apology "No problem, now would you please tell me where my clothes are."
"In my closet."
Duo laughed, "The one place I didn't look."
"I'm sorry about the doujinshis, Duo. I knew how important they were to you."
Duo looked at Quatre, "I told you not to tell him, why did you do that?"
"He didn't tell me anything, I already knew, you talked in your sleep one night when we were at a safehouse. You were talking about them and Father Maxwell."
"Oh,"
" I didn't really glue them together, I've got them in my room. Those were fake covers I had made and blank paper in between. I was going to give them back to you, but then the whole thing just blew up in our faces. I'm sorry Duo, I am truly sorry."
Duo was overcome with joy, his beloved doujinshis were safe. He grabbed Heero and hugged him hard, almost squeezing the air out of him. "Thanks, man. You have no idea how important those are to me. It's not the doujinshis themselves, it's because Father gave them to me. And Heero, I'm sorry too."
Heero wasn't sure what to do, so he gave Duo a small hug back.
"Thanks guys. This took a lot of courage from both of you. Now, let's have some tea and cookies and get those plans in order." Quatre was holding the tray he'd ordered the cook to send up.
Wufei came bounding down the stairs, and headed for the dining room. Even with Heero and Duo feuding, Quatre had insisted they still all eat together for dinner. It had made for some quiet, uneasy ones the last few days, but it had been interesting to watch the reactions of the others to the indifference Heero and Duo showed to one another when they were in a group. Wufei knew this couldn't last much longer before one of them ended up hurt. He was thinking about confessing his original involvement at dinner and accepting whatever treatment he got from the group. He had to admit it had been a fun ride while it lasted.
He entered the dining room and was immediately grabbed and pulled to the side. Trowa looked at Wufei as he put his finger to his mouth and made jerking motions with his head, indicating for Wufei to look over in that direction.
Wufei's eyes grew wide, Duo and Heero were standing across the room wrapped in a deadly embrace. Duo had a gun pressed upward against Heero's throat, Heero had one hand entwined around Duo's braid, the other was around Duo's neck as if he were hugging him, the blade of the knife at the ready to cut the braid off.
"What's going on?" Wufei whispered to Trowa.
"Shhhh, they got into a big argument." Trowa whispered very quietly into Wufei's ear.
"Why?" Wufei whispered back.
"You know they haven't gotten along lately. Who knows why?"
Heero indicated to Duo that Wufei had entered the room with a tug on his braid, which was Duo's cue.
"Get your hand off my hair Yui, or I swear I will pull the trigger," Duo growled.
"Go ahead Maxwell, I'll have that braid and your throat cut before you finish pulling."
"I warned you Yui," Duo cocked back the trigger and Wufei could see he was getting ready to squeeze it.
"NO! STOP! DON'T!" Wufei yelled, as he broke Trowa's hold on him and starting running across the room. "IT'S MY FAULT! DON'T DO IT!"
"What's you're fault, Wufei?" Quatre stepped out from the side of the room he'd been standing.
"This is! Heero, Duo, please, put the weapons down. Heero, please drop the knife, Duo wasn't the one who was pulling those pranks on you, it was me. Don't hurt him, he didn't do anything."
"Duo, please, ease back the trigger on that gun, it's my fault Heero ruined your books, I swear, I'll replace them, just don't fire the gun."
Duo and Heero looked at each other, then looked at Wufei.
"Ok, " they said at the same time and released each other from their `death holds'.
"It would be kind of hard to kill some one with a cap pistol, " Duo admitted.
"Or a rubber knife," Heero said, bending the blade.
"You KNEW?" Wufei was relieved and shocked, "But how?"
"Quatre figured it out." Trowa said. "Of course you have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do."
"No he doesn't", Heero said, "Duo and I talked about it and we agree, no apologies as long as he takes an oath he will never do this again."
"I swear, never again. I've learned my lesson." Wufei said. "Besides, I could never outdo this, I bow before the new Grand Masters," he said as he bowed low and deep, and passed the `crown'.
End.
KwyckSylver
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