Howdy, y'all! ^_^ Some of you may know that I recently hit 40,000 on my GWA page. Megan K. was my 40,000th visitor, and her request for a gift fic was a flufflet with Wufei and Duo. Now, I really did intend to write a brand-new story for my gift-fic, but... Tzi and I had this one already mostly done and collecting cobwebs. So! I dusted it off, and we tweaked it a little, and here it is - one genuine fluffy Duo and Wufei-type thingie! Megan, I hope you enjoy it, and thank you!
I guess I should go ahead and mention that we don't own Gundam Wing, and this fanfic is not meant to be taken as a claim to copyright of the characters or situations which were not created by us. Also, we're not making a penny off of this, and no offense or disrespect is intended towards the creators and rightful owners. There are characters from other anime series making cameo appearances later on, and we don't own them, either, nor is any offense intended by our misusing them the way we have. *^_^*
Chang Wufei opened both the windows in his new dorm room, threw the blinds up high, and smiled. He was rather glad to have a first floor room, as much as he would have liked one on the third. There was something pleasing about being able to look out of one's window and see the trees and the flowers just outside that he had missed since the explosion of his colony at L5. He would just as soon indulge his senses in those things with opened windows without having to look out at the sky and the tree-tops all the time.
He chose one of the twin beds, tossing his duffel bag on it as a preliminary claiming; the rest of his things were still crammed in the back of Sally's jeep. She had gone to find parking closer to the lower floor of the building, and Wufei supposed that he would have to step out a door and wave to her to show her where to go, but first things were first.
"There," he said to himself with some satisfaction, peering outside as Sally drove into the small parking lot. "Just right."
An hour and a half later, he had the room arranged to suit him, he'd sent Sally home, and all but the last of his things had been put away in their proper place. Not that they would stay there long, he knew; Wufei had never been very good at the particulars of a thing's proper place. During the war, the only things he'd ever needed to have a place for were his extra socks, pants, tank and long over-shirt.
It wasn't like he was in danger of misplacing Nataku.
With a sigh, he glowered at the last of his jeans and shoved the recalcitrant things deeper into the fourth drawer, shutting it. The damned dresser was as tall as he was, and full of clothes that Sally had bought for him.
"Stupid onna," he muttered. "Like I can't buy clothes for myself!"
A sound at the door caught his attention and he turned, eyes widening at the sight framed therein.
"No way!" Duo Maxwell cried, stepping back to double-check the room number before a slow grin crept across his face. "I can't believe *you* have a roommate, Wu-man! Let alone that it's me!" He sauntered into the room, casually dumped his duffle bag onto the nearest bed, and then began rearranging the furniture.
"Yanno," he continued, grunting as he shoved the bed into the position he wanted, "they always arrange these rooms in the weirdest ways. I've never seen a dorm room yet that didn't need reorganizing. Oi, you just gonna stand there all day, Wu-man? Because I could *oof* use some help with this desk."
"Maxwell!" Wufei cried, breaking loose from the shock he'd gotten upon first seeing Duo standing in the doorway, "You leave that alone! I've got it right where I want it!" Quickly, he moved forward to shift it back into place. Duo was still applying pressure to the other side, though, and that was frustrating. "Maxwell!"
Duo just grinned at him and kept pushing. "C'mon, man. You can't seriously want this thing there, right?"
"Kisama!" came the grouchy response as Wufei continued to push.
For all that Duo had gained in height by a few inches (and Wufei had not), he still had the advantage of weight. His own steady pushing was backed more by muscle than Duo's, and he was now barefoot, which gave him considerable leverage against the other young man, allowing him to push harder.
On the other side of the desk, Duo's slick-bottomed shoes slid, making him look almost as though he was running every time he shifted positions to try and push again. If Wufei hadn't been so cranky of a sudden, he might have laughed.
Or maybe not.
"Ok, Ok, you win, man! Sheesh!" Duo carefully kept his cheerful smile in place, but inwardly he sighed in resignation. How had this happened? Those 'compatibility tests' they'd all had to take must have been a crock... because he sure didn't understand how any compatibility standard would place him with Wufei, of all people. He and Heero had never been terribly close, but they'd been good roommates and partners all throughout the war. So why hadn't he been assigned a room with Heero? Oh, no~oo, he just had to end up with Mr. Justice!
"This," Wufei pronounced firmly, "is never going to work."
"Heero?" Quatre asked, surprised. "You're my roommate?"
"Hn," Heero agreed, silently thanking his lucky stars that the compatibility tests had spared him a semester of Life With Duo. He pitied the poor sap that ended up rooming with that long-haired, skinny moron. Good fighter, great pilot... but damn, he'd been a horrible roommate! His eyes widened slightly as he turned to face Quatre... who had grown quite a bit since the last time they'd seen each other! Heero had topped out at 5'5, but Quatre now towered over him by more than half a foot!
A brilliant smile lit the blond's face as he beamed down at the former pilot of Wing Zero. "What a surprise! I hadn't expected to see anyone I knew here, and do you know, you're the second person I've met so far? I saw Wufei at registration!"
"Duo's enrolled here, too," Heero commented, recovering from his brief surprise and turning to set up his battered laptop with a series of brisk, practiced movements. He hesitated, wanting to express some socially-acceptable sentiment, but unsure as to how socially-acceptable statements were formulated. "... I'm sure you'll be an adequate roommate," he said finally.
"Wonderful!" Quatre sighed, settling himself carefully into one of the hard-backed chairs that came as standard furnishings for the room. "That's all of us but Trowa." The green-eyed ex-pilot, unlike the other four, had chosen to return to the life he'd learned to love with the circus. "I just know we'll have a wonderful time, Heero!"
"Hn," Heero replied eloquently, booting up his computer and efficiently running a search through the school's records for Duo and Wufei's dorm assignments. His eyes widened, and then the corners of his lips started twitching, and then before he knew it...
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
"I don't know why you'd say that, Wu-chan," Duo answered, his grin widening at the Chinese boy's reaction to the nickname. "We're gonna be roomies! You know, best buddies! We'll party together, man! Twenty years from now, we'll meet at a coffee shop or something and reminisce about our wonderful college years! This is gonna be great!" With that, he flung himself onto the nearest bed, bouncing slightly and tossing Wufei one of his most infectious smiles.
The sheer amount of tension Wufei was throwing off was almost surreal.
"Maxwell," he said slowly, teeth gritting together, "if you don't remove your carcass from my bed posthaste, I shall be forced to hurt you."
After a momentary pause, he added, "A lot."
"Yeah, yeah," Duo said, his impish grin still intact as he rose from the bed. "Didn't see 'Wu-chan' written on it anywhere, so I didn't know." He plucked his duffel bag from the rumpled bedspread and flopped cheerfully on his own as-yet unmade bed. "Ooh, firm," he said, bouncing a little. "So, Wu-chan, you checked out the cafeteria yet?"
"No," Wufei answered warily, still glaring at him. The fact that his bed was the only one made up hadn't been a clue!? "I unpacked and put things away first."
"Gah! Unpacking on an empty stomach? Nope, can't do it. C'mon, man, let's go scrape up some grub!" With that, Duo bounded up from the bed, grabbed Wufei by the wrist, and started dragging him to the door.
"Maxwell!" Wufei practically dug in his heels as Duo tried to carry him out into the hall with that tug on his arm. "You don't have anything to get other than that duffel!? Shouldn't you at least bring stuff in even if you aren't going to unpack!?"
"First things first!" Duo answered, grinning broadly as one good pull dragged his unwilling roommate into the hallway. Now if only Wufei would let go of the door frame... "Wu-chan, you gotta get your priorities straightened out. Food always comes first! Besides, aren't you curious to see what the cafeteria is like? This is gonna be our sustenance for the next couple of years! The quality of food in the cafeteria will determine whether we'll be happy little students or starving college boys who eat junk food out of the vending machines!"
"Wah!" With a yell, Wufei came unattached and Duo began to drag him down the hallway. "Maxwell! I am not amused! Isn't dinner soon enough for you to indulge your fiendish appetites!?"
"But it *is* dinner-time, Wu-chan!" Duo toyed with the idea of letting go, but as appealing as the idea was of allowing the loudly-protesting Chinese boy to fall on his ass, Duo really didn't want to know what Wufei would do to him after he got up. Instead, Duo tightened his grip securely and started dragging the reluctant boy with him. His feet, still encased in slick-bottomed shoes, scrambled on the smooth floor... but he was slowly, surely making headway. "Besides... *huff* you haven't even *puff* BEGUN to see my fiendish appetite!"
"Max-WELL!" Wufei cried prudishly, trying to plant his own feet and only being dragged farther along the hardwood floor still. "I don't WANT to know about your 'fiendish appetite'!!!!!"
"Fine *wheeze* by me, Wu-chan. You're the *huff* one who brought the subject *puff* up! I'd almost *pant* think that you DO *huff* want to know about my *gasp* fiendish appetite!" Duo paused, scooped Wufei up in a fireman's carry, and resumed walking. Carrying Wufei was harder work, but easier aerobically than dragging him -- he'd probably run a mile's worth, just trying to get down the hall!
"You sure are heavy, Wu-chan," Duo commented, his voice slightly strained. "Is that why you don't want to eat? Trying to lose weight? Or are you just trying to make sure I work up a good 'fiendish appetite' before supper?"
Surprised, Wufei stared down at the floor as they continued down the hall, flushed and flustered. "M...axwell, if you put me down, I can walk!"
"Huh. All the way back to the dorm, or are you coming to supper?" Duo asked, setting Wufei down lightly and rotating his shoulders.
".....supper," Wufei muttered, frowning hard at Duo. "If I went back to the dorm, you'd just do that to me again, wouldn't you?" he asked suspiciously.
"Only because I hate eating alone," Duo answered cheerfully. "All that fiendish appetite, don'tcha know."
Wufei's scowl intensified. "Come on. It's probably sludge," he muttered. "Don't know why you're so excited. Maybe even as bad as the food on Peacemillion." THAT had been legendary. Wufei sometimes thought that if they'd only threatened all of the soldiers with cooking from that cafeteria, everyone would have given in peacefully and no one would have fought at all!
"Ugh," Duo said, grimacing expressively. "Don't even *think* it, man! You ever wonder what the hell that orange goop was?" He shuddered, then grabbed Wufei's elbow and hurried him toward the innocent-looking cafeteria. "Bleah. Anyway, if it's gonna be bad, it's better to know about it up-front. I noticed some pizzeria flyers in the lobby, so if push comes to shove we'll still be okay."
"I think," Wufei replied, "that the 'orange goop' was some form of pasta. At least, I'm hoping that the swirls of white things in there were noodles, and not worms. They LOOKED like noodles," he said hopefully as they trudged outside and up the stairs to enter the next building. "I hope you've got more money than *I* do, if you're talking pizza, Maxwell."
"I have some," Duo answered blithely. "And I can as steal some more if I have to. But I'd rather see if the cafeteria's food is edible, first."
Wufei's lower lip stuck out slightly at that. "No thievery while we're roommates, Maxwell! Did Yuy put up with that? If you do that, you can just go live with Quatre! He's here..."
"Now, man, I don't wanna steal from Quatre!" Duo cried loudly. "Where the hell do you get your ideas?" He paused for a moment and inhaled deeply as he pulled the door open. "Smells ok."
Shaking his head, Wufei sighed. "You didn't hear a word I said!" he accused as they moved into the cafeteria. "Did you bring your ID, Maxwell? They won't let you in without it!" His own was prominently displayed upon the white shirt he wore, plastic card showing the ugliest little scowling picture of Chang Wufei imaginable.
"'Course I brought my ID! They won't let you in without it, yanno. I think I smell pizza!"
"You just like pizza, don't you?" Wufei muttered. "I'll bet they won't have anything I want..."
"Chicken, I think. And they probably have vegetables and all that healthy shit," Duo answered absently, showing his ID to the cafeteria worker by the entrance and then carefully hiding it away. The cafeteria worker, a middle-aged woman with her hair in a scarf, smiled at the picture and waved Duo through. "Never bother with vegetables, myself. Too green."
Squawking, Wufei tossed his arms up in the air as the cafeteria worker grabbed him on his way past. "I'm wearing my ID! I'm wearing my ID! MAXWELL!"
"Right here," Duo said, tugging Wufei's ID free and showing it to the woman. "Damn, Wu, your picture's funnier than mine!"
"Kisama!" Wufei declared, frowning at Duo. "You aren't supposed to look at that!" He got in a good sullen glare at the woman as well, suppressing a shudder.
/Ick. Women./
"Well, you're wearing it for anyone to see," Duo said. "Here, grab a tray, Wu-chan. This is the fun part!" Duo led the way through the line, and true to his word, he asked for some of everything except vegetables.
"He wants asparagus, too," Wufei informed the cafeteria worker. "Maxwell, you have to eat something green!" he complained, his own plate the recipient of mostly vegetables.
"I am NOT eating asparagus," Duo announced firmly, watching the guy in the white apron dump the spoonful back into the metal container. "That's disgusting."
"You will EAT something green, Maxwell! If not the asparagus, SOMETHING!" Wufei said insistently.
"Who's gonna make me?" Duo asked, grinning impudently. "Not you, Wu-chan."
Black eyes became huge as they paused to get drinks. They narrowed once again, however, as Wufei growled, "Maxwell, do you mean to imply that I'm so weak that I could not force you, you undisciplined vegetable hater, to eat something that is good for you!?!?!"
"Yeah, that's about what I'm saying, Wu-chan. Not calling ya weak, though. That's just your interpretation."
Gasping, Wufei's mouth dropped open. "....!"
"Breathe, man, breathe," Duo said. "Look, I see a good table. We'll have to sit here for the whole dinner hour so everyone will know it's ours..."
"MAAAH!" Wufei finally cried through sheer aggravation. "I'll do no such thing!" he declared, stomping one frustratingly tiny foot. "You WILL eat a vegetable! I will NOT sit for an entire hour!"
Duo set his tray down and turned to Wufei with a dangerous Shinigami smile. "I'm not eating vegetables and you can't make me."
Putting his own tray down, Wufei placed both hands on his hips, arms akimbo. "Maxwell," he began, almost growling.
"Duo! Wufei!"
"Quatre!" Duo cried, instantly shifting from deadly Shinigami to happy teenager and bounding across the room to catch Quatre in a big bear hug. He considered hugging Heero as well, but settled for clasping a friendly hand on his shoulder instead. "Heero! Good to see you guys!"
"Maxwell!" Wufei said again, stomping that little foot once more. "You *will* eat vegetables!"
Heero raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, yeah," Duo said, shrugging a little shamefacedly. "I'd have gotten a green bean or two if he wasn't so overbearing about it."
"Hn."
With a sigh, Wufei wilted into a chair, still glaring as he grumbled. "I was not being overbearing! You must eat your vegetables!"
"Wow," Quatre said, interrupting the continuing argument, "your ID is almost as bad as mine, Wufei!" Quickly, he showed Wufei his, where tourmaline eyes gleamed demon-red and blond hair poked out like little horns.
Heero pushed Duo's tray next to Wufei's and seated himself in the chair Duo had planned on taking, ignoring the long-haired boy's slight frown. Duo paused a moment, then sat next to Wufei, his smile back in place until Heero plucked a handful of green beans from his own plate and deposited them on Duo's.
"Hey!"
"We'll have to sit here 'til the place closes, so people will know the table is ours," Heero said quietly.
"My thoughts exactly," Duo said, and glumly stared down at his food. Heero knew good and damn well that Duo would have to clean his plate. That was just fighting dirty!
Wufei shook his head bemusedly and looked at Quatre. "Strange," he muttered, sighing. "*Why* will sitting at the table for an entire hour make a difference?"
"Because people will remember that we were here and this is our table," Quatre replied earnestly.
"Hey, guys, after the dinner hour's over, will you help me move my stuff in?" Duo asked, carefully eating everything on his plate that had not been touched by green beans.
"Why didn't you bring it in when I told you to?" Wufei sighed.
"Because you told me to," Duo answered with a grin.
"That's not a legitimate reason!" Wufei cried.
"Well, it's not exactly illegitimate, either."
"MAH! MAXWELL!"
"Yeah?"
Chuckling, Quatre said, "Well, isn't it nice that we all get along so well? Eat your green beans, Ma... er... Duo."
Duo frowned, and, for a moment, looked distinctly pouty. Then, taking a deep breath, he crammed the green beans in his mouth, chewed and swallowed hastily, and gulped down half of his soda in an effort to rid his mouth of the taste.
"There, happy now?"
"You should be eating asparagus," Wufei grumbled.
"Not in my worst nightmares," Duo asserted. "So, you guys'll help me move, right?"
Quatre nodded. "Sure, Duo! I'll get Rashid to help!"
"All right! Thanks, man, you're the best! Hey, do the Maguanacs like vodka? I hate to ask 'em for a favor if I don't have anything to offer in return."
Wufei's mouth fell open. "Maxwell, TELL me there will be no alcohol in our room! Yuy, is he always like this!?"
"Hn."
"I can't tell ya that, Wu-chan," Duo said. "I never lie."
"Kisama!" Wufei declared. "I have sincere moral objections to alcohol!" Those were mostly because he had no head for drinking. "Not to mention the fact that it's against the rules!"
"Rules, schmules," Duo said, grinning from ear to ear. "We're college kids, Wu-chan! We're *supposed* to break the rules!"
"Never follow rules," Heero asserted. "Always follow your emotions."
Quatre smiled at Heero sweetly. "Heero is right," he said simply.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Wufei huffed. "*I* will decide the difference between wrong and right, and in this case, the alcohol is WRONG!!!"
"The alcohol didn't do anything, man," Duo said, eyes wide in feigned innocence. "Yet."
Turning, Wufei looked at Duo. "Don't worry," he said sullenly. "I'm sure it will soon."
"Sure thing, Wu-chan!" Duo cheerfully scarfed the rest of his food and went off in search of dessert.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same," Heero mused and turned to his own dinner with precise efficiency.
With a groan, Wufei dropped his forehead to the tabletop. "This is going to be terrible," he muttered.
"I'm sure it will be fine," Quatre replied cheerfully. "You and Duo seem to be getting along so nicely, Wufei!"
Poutily, Wufei lifted his head and sighed. "He keeps doing things to spite me!"
"I'm sure you'll get past that, Wufei," Quatre said with an earnest smile as Duo returned, new tray laden with dessert.
Blinking, Wufei looked at it. "You brought dessert for all of us, Maxwell?"
"No, but there's plenty," Duo said, grinning as he seated himself in one smooth motion and sampled the first of his desserts. "Mmmm, I recommend the chocolate-chocolate chip cake."
Wufei's eyes once again became huge and almost round. "You can't eat all of that!"
"Sure I can. It's good," Duo answered, surprised by Wufei's vehemence. "No green beans in it, see?"
"You and sugar don't mix," Heero said, raising one eyebrow.
"Nah, it'll be fine," Duo said. "Besides, how could I turn down apple pie?"
With a sigh, Wufei propped his head in his hand. "This is going to be a mess."
"Hn," Heero said, smirking as Duo downed more dessert. This was going to be entertaining.
End Part 1
Yoiko
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