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. *^_^*
It was three a.m. before Duo finished arranging his part of the room to his satisfaction. Wufei had refused to bend on the arrangement of the furniture, very firm about which half of the room was his and which half was Duo's, but Duo wasn't worried about it. He gazed up at the walls, which were plastered with posters on his side of the room. Books and knickknacks from Earth and the colonies stood in ordered display on his furniture, and his little portable television sat silently on his dresser next to his CD player and a stack of CDs, all alphabetized. Oh, yes, college was going to be a blast, if only...
"Wufei, turn off the light. I'm trying to sleep over here."
"No." The answer was short and most to the point. He was still angry. After being forced to sit in the cafeteria for hours, he'd gone for a walk to bring himself back to something resembling an equilibrium. Once he'd felt calm enough, he'd returned to his room, hoping to be capable of more reasonable discourse with his new roommate.
Fat chance.
Several pieces of furniture had been shifted! Admittedly, he'd returned them to their proper place when Duo had gone to the bathroom, but... THAT argument had only been the beginning. The current one was proving to be even more entertaining than that one. "I will *not* turn off my night-light, Maxwell! As if that's anything to complain about," he muttered grouchily. "I can't sleep for you and that damned tick-tock clock!"
"Wha~at? There's nothing wrong with my clock! It's very comforting and it has a nice, loud alarm! What more you could you want?" Duo sighed in exasperation. Honestly, he was *trying* to get along with his new roommate, but Wufei was just *IMPOSSIBLE*!!!
"Silence and an LED display?" Wufei asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, well, I'd like to sleep without the light shining into my eyes, but we don't always get what we want, do we?" Duo huffed. "LED display, hmph." He turned over on his side, facing away from Wufei in tacit dismissal, and glared at the illuminated wall. "Hmph."
/I,/ Wufei thought, sighing and stuffing his fingers in his ears, /am going to have to buy earplugs./
"Hmph," Duo said once more, and then closed his eyes, and slept.
At 5:30, the alarm clock started an ear-splitting ring. Duo groggily sat up, shook his head to clear the cobwebs, and slid from his bed to stagger over to the alarm and shut it off.
Wufei, on the other hand, was another matter entirely.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" he shrieked just as Duo managed to shut off the ringing bells. "ATTACK! ATTACK! It's Khushrenada again! Kisama! I won't win this time! I swear! I...!"
"Uh? Mornin', Wu-chan," Duo murmured, smiling sleepily. "Half an hour 'til breakfast. If you get dressed now, we can claim our table for the breakfast crowd, too."
Panting, heart racing, nerves on edge, Wufei looked at Duo as if he'd blown some very important circuit. "What?"
"Breakfast. You know... food?"
"Food?" Wufei asked, dumbfounded. "Not Khushrenada?"
"Food. Like, in, eggs and toast and cereal and bacon and pancakes and waffles... Heero and Quatre will be there," Duo said hopefully. Just in case Heero and Quatre were late (fat chance!), he didn't want to be stuck sitting alone. And maybe if the breakfast was good, Wu-chan wouldn't be so cranky with him this morning. Maybe he'd even get to arrange the furniture in a way that made SENSE!
"...you woke me up at *FIVE-THIRTY* for *FOOD*!?" Wufei cried. "We *just* went to bed, Maxwell!"
"Only because of that whole night-light thing... look, man, it's a whole new day. Let's just... uh.... wipe the slate clean and start over, okay?" Duo rubbed at his eyes and gave Wufei a smile, feeling very magnanimous for offering to forgive the prickly Chinese boy.
"Mmph," Wufei answered, falling back into the bed and sighing. He was beginning to understand why Heero always seemed so uptight. "If I don't get up, you'll drag me there, won't you?"
"Nah, I guess not," Duo said, his shoulders sagging in disappointment. "I'll just come back and make sure you're up in time for your first class. Clean slate, right?"
With another sigh, Wufei said, "I'm already awake, Maxwell. I'll go."
"Cool! I'm gonna go wash up!" Duo said, and, in a whirlwind of sudden energy, he scooped up towel, toiletries, and a change of clothes, and swept out of the room.
"Mph," Wufei answered, pulling his pillow over his head.
By the time Duo got back, Wufei was solidly asleep, pillow clutched protectively to his chest, golden limbs, torso (and everything else) bared for God and everyone to see.
Chang Wufei... slept naked!
"Oh... my..." Duo whispered, then carefully dumped his dirty clothes and towel in the little plastic hamper, and put his toiletries away. His braid slithered across his back as he leaned over to wake Wufei, and the heavy rope of hair flopped over his shoulder to land on Wufei's face with a cold, wet, SPLAT!
"ACK! SNAKE!! ATTACK!!! Khushrenada! Kisama!" Wufei howled, flailing wildly.
"Just me, man," Duo said, stepping back and addressing Wufei in the slow, quiet voice one would use with a cornered wild animal. "Breakfast. You remember? Breakfast time?"
Panting, Wufei looked at him, wild-eyed. "Breakfast? You... woke me for breakfast?"
"You *said* to wake you for breakfast."
"I did?"
"Well, you said you were gonna go! Clean slate, man! Remember?"
Blankly, Wufei looked at him. "I said that?" he asked with some surprise.
"You did. So come on! We'll miss the good stuff!"
"...." said Wufei as he dragged himself out of bed, and stumbled naked in search of clothing while Duo all but danced in impatience.
The cafeteria was nearly empty in the early morning, but Heero and Quatre were already eating when Duo snuck his ID out for the cafeteria lady to see and just as surreptitiously returned it to his pocket. The cafeteria lady smiled at him, and he wished her a good morning in his laid-back, mellow tone of voice before heading over to greet his friends.
"Good morning, Duo!" Quatre said cheerfully, lifting his coffee cup in greeting. "I just knew we'd see you here!"
"Ohayo," Heero said, and Duo's eyebrows lifted. For Heero, that wasn't just a morning greeting. That was an outright giddily *cheerful* greeting!
"Ohayo, Heero, Quatre! Didja save some food for me? I'm starved!"
"Mph," Wufei added.
"Sure, there's plenty for you, Duo," Quatre said, smiling as he picked up a slice of toast and nibbling at the edge.
"Cool," Duo chirped, and hurried to the line, returning a few minutes later with eggs, toast, bacon, pancakes, waffles and a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal. "Man, I'm starving!" he announced, and without any further ado, he dug into the mountain of food.
"You shouldn't eat right before swimming," Heero commented indifferently.
"Swimming?" Wufei asked sleepily, head wobbling slightly with the desire to lay it on the table.
"Heero and I have water aerobics!" Quatre replied.
"Oh, yeah, I'm in that, too," Duo said. "Doesn't start 'til one, though, right?"
"Hn," Heero said. "It got rescheduled for eight a.m."
"EIGHT A.M.!?' Wufei asked, blinking sleepy black eyes. "Not one!?"
"They only had enough registrants to fill one class, so they canceled the one p.m. class. The only water aerobics class is at eight a.m."
"Bummer," Duo said in between mouthfuls.
"I CAN'T HAVE AN EIGHT A.M. CLASS!" Wufei screeched.
"If you're in Water Aerobics, you have an eight a.m. class," Heero asserted.
"It's only an hour," Duo said, somehow managing to speak without either choking or sounded garbled. With a moan, Wufei dropped his face to the table again, muttering, "I wonder if it's too late to drop it..."
"Oh, but Wufei!" Quatre said. "You can't drop it! That would make all four of us in one class!"
The muffled answer came, almost inaudible. "It's before ten o'clock, Quatre. I don't FUNCTION before ten o'clock!"
"No worries, Wu-chan! I'll be sure to get you to class on time!" Duo stopped eating just long enough to give Wufei a reassuring thumbs-up. "I'll look on it like a mission."
"Hn. Be afraid, be very afraid," Heero intoned, and turned his attention to his own breakfast, studiously ignoring Duo's affronted gasp.
"See?" Quatre said with a smile. "Please, don't drop it..."
"Mmmmph..." Wufei answered, head on the table once again, dead asleep.
"Heh. Don't worry, Q, he'll probably sleep through drop/add week."
Still mostly asleep, Wufei stumbled along towards the gym with Duo. "Why does morning have to be so bright?" he mumbled with a frown.
"Because if it was dark, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between day and night," Duo answered. "Duh. You really *aren't* awake, are you?"
"I'm awake," Wufei insisted as he tried to hold his eyes open. "We didn't get any sleep last night! How can you be so bloody cheerful at ten 'til eight in the morning?"
"We get to SWIM, man! All that water!" Duo was starry-eyed at the prospect; growing up on an impoverished colony with severe droughts had left him with a near-fanatical love of water. The idea of actually being in enough water to fully submerge himself... well, it was practically orgasmic!
Wufei absolutely shuddered at the thought. "Water..." Despite having also grown up on a dying colony, Wufei's clan had always had water, at least for baths and the occasionally wade. Not that Wufei had cared; he hated to be wet, outside of bathing.
He should have been born a cat.
"C'mon, man! I see Heero and Quatre! Tell me, are you *surprised* that Heero's wearing the spandex?" Duo laughed, and, grabbing Wufei by the hand, tried dragging him toward the building and their two friends -- tried being the operative word. Once again, Duo found himself lunging forward like a dog straining at the leash, while Wufei followed one grudging inch at a time.
"Morning people should be stomped on by big mechs," Wufei muttered under his breath. "Preferably mine."
"Hii!" Quatre carolled, waving a hand. The other hand and arm was neatly covered by his towel.
"Oi! Quatre! Nice swimsuit!" Duo said breathlessly as he finally (!) met up with Quatre and Heero. "But Heero, I don't think they'll let you wear spandex in the pool, man."
"Most swimsuits are made of the same material," Heero answered, scowling. "Besides, I was under the impression that swimming naked would be frowned upon."
That caused Wufei's almost-closed eyes to pop open again. "Naked!? What!?"
"Hn. You're awake after all."
"It liiiiiiives!" Duo cried, doing a fair Dr. Frankenstein impersonation.
"Naked?" Wufei said again. "In front of women? There ARE women in this class, I'm sure. There are women everywhere. That would be sordid. That would be..."
"Heh. FUN!" Duo finished, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"Hn," Heero commented. "And of course we all know that 'fun' is your middle name."
Duo gawked at him for a second. "Holy shit, you have a sense of humor after all! I mean, it wasn't much of a joke, but it was an attempt! Do you feel Ok, Hee-chan? I mean, I know it hurts the first time."
"Omae o korosu," Heero replied.
Wufei looked at Duo in confusion. "I don't think I understand..."
Flushed, Quatre smiled cheerfully and began herding them towards the door. "Class is waiting, gentlemen!" Under his breath to Duo, he muttered, "No sex jokes!"
"You want me to tell jokes about not having sex? What's the fun in that?" Duo teased.
Quatre blushed even more brightly as they moved into the gym. "Duo!"
"Ye~es?"
"Behave yourself," Heero snapped.
"But that's no fun, either!"
"I DON'T want to know," Wufei sighed, shaking his head so that his little ponytail wriggled.
Quatre put his hand over Duo's mouth as it opened once again. "Look, there's the pool!"
"All right! Last one in's a -- Ok, I won't say it, Q, but only because I don't want to offend your delicate sensibilities. Let's just say it's a bad thing! Woo-hoo!" With that, Duo took off, shedding shoes and towel along the way and jumping into the water feet-first. Somehow, Heero had beaten him there, but Duo wasn't too surprised. The war might be over, but Heero was still the Perfect Soldier.
"Whatever the bad thing is, I'm not it," Heero pointed out with a slight smirk. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea, after all, having all four of them in the same class.
Duo stared up at the ceiling and sighed. Across the room, his obnoxious roommate was merrily snoring and occasionally mumbling in his sleep, but Duo had no such luck. Frustrated, he sat up, pounded his pillow mercilessly, then turned it so the cool side would be against his cheek.
The sound of another low mumble came, incomprehensible conversation with a dream companion as strong legs kicked off the covers, Wufei sighing and sprawling across his mattress. An arm flung itself out, head full of tangled black hair shaking back and forth slowly across the pillow, face scrunching up into something quite unlike his usual scowl, a frown that seemed almost frightened.
Duo turned to face his roommate, astonished at first by the sight of Chang Wufei sprawled out naked, all sculpted limbs and golden skin. Duo swallowed hard, and was seriously contemplating a cold shower when he noticed the pained expression on Wufei's face. Whatever the Chinese boy was dreaming, it wasn't pleasant... but how did one go about waking up a sleeping Wufei? Touching him was out of the question -- that was likely to earn a fellow a broken neck!
"Wufei," he whispered, and when there was no response, he raised his voice slightly. "Wufei!"
The response was a louder speaking voice, a quiet cry that turned to anguish as the Chinese boy flung himself onto his side, a pillow flying to the floor.
Duo hesitated for a long moment, a worried frown creasing his brow as he contemplated his options. Touching Wufei would get him killed. Yelling wouldn't wake Wufei, but would probably disturb Heero across the hall, and that would get him killed. Eventually he drew a deep breath and did the only thing he could do.
The pillow landed on Wufei's face with all the force Duo could manage from across the room. With a yelp, Wufei came awake, sitting up violently in bed, one hand reaching for a gun that wasn't there. Half-open eyes took in the rest of the room in a state of panic before finally catching sight of Duo across the way. At first, Wufei said nothing; he could think of nothing *to* say, through the panic that he felt. Finally, however, he did get over it and opened his mouth. "Maxwell.....!!"
"You were having a bad dream," Duo said. "Can I have my pillow back now?" He very much wanted to ask if Wufei was all right, but knew with a certainty that the question wouldn't be appreciated. Then again, he'd always enjoyed living dangerously.
The pillow came back to him much more sedately than it had made its original trip, placed in his hands as Wufei leaned down to lift his own from the floor, pulling the sheet back over his limbs and up to his hips.
"Are you Ok?" he finally asked.
"Fine," Wufei answered faintly, turning to bury his face against the pillows. "I'm fine, Maxwell."
"Yeah, right," Duo muttered under his breath, giving a sour glare in the general direction of the blasted night light. He'd never get to sleep at this rate!
The next words spoken were quietly hesitant. "You won't turn off the light, will you, Maxwell?"
"Why not?" Duo asked, masking his irritation. "Why is it such a big deal?"
"Just..." Wufei scowled. "Just don't," he finally snapped, turning over and wrapping his pillow around his head.
"You are one cranky little Chinaman, you know that, Wu?" Duo asked, turning to face away from Wufei and his night light. "You should work on controlling your temper more, or you'll have a heart attack at the ripe old age of nineteen. It was just a simple question."
"Just... don't turn it off." The sound was almost quietly pleading, strange in that darkness.
"I'm not turning it off, cranky-Wu-chan. But you do realize I'm going to have to tease you about it, right? I mean, it's a moral imperative," Duo said, flopping back over to give Wufei an impish grin.
Wufei, however, remained with his back towards his roommate. "...thank you."
"... no problem, man," Duo said, a little surprised. "But you know, the 400-watt bulb is a bit much. Couldn't we tone it down just a little? I mean, how am I supposed to get my beauty sleep when it's as bright as daylight in here, you know? And do you have any idea how hard it is to attract chicks when you haven't had any beauty sleep?"
"I'll buy you a sleep-mask," Wufei murmured.
"They give you wrinkles," Duo groused light-heartedly. "You'd have a roommate who looks like Tsubarov, and if *that* didn't give you nightmares, I don't know what would!"
"I don't have nightmares," Wufei denied before pausing. "...though that might be scary."
"You don't have nightmares? But you just... uh, yeah," Duo said, ignoring Wufei's nightmare because it seemed to be important to the Chinese boy. Duo was not entirely without tact, after all... just mostly. "I know *I'd* sure as hell be scared if I looked in the mirror and saw Tsubarov's oyster-face looking back! Bleah!"
"I hope you don't ever look like Tsubarov," Wufei agreed sleepily. He was tired. It had been an awfully long day and he'd spent more of it wound up than he would have liked. To add to that, he'd been dreaming about Meiran's death, somehow mingled with killing Treize, and he could feel the tension riding him even as he closed his eyes again and snuggled back into his pillows.
"Thanks, Wuffie-chanikins," Duo replied, grinning cheekily. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. You're fast asleep, aren't you?" The last was more of a statement than a question, and Duo, not expecting a reply, folded his arms under his head and gazed up at the ceiling. He couldn't understand why he felt so wide-awake and jittery in Wufei's presence, but it was a fact he was ruefully growing to accept. "At least one of us will get his beauty rest."
And the night light glowed on in the tick-tock almost-darkness of their room.
End Part 2
Yoiko
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