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 awful," Wufei told Quatre morosely, eating another bite of mint chocolate chip ice cream. "It was beyond awful. Even..." He seemed to consider it for a moment. "No. No. It wasn't that bad, but it was pretty close. It was awful."
Earnestly, Quatre looked at Wufei and Heero both. They were drowning their sorrows in ice cream, and he found it *terribly* cute of them! "Surely he'll forgive you. He doesn't REALLY hate you!"
"He seemed to mean it," Heero said, and though his customary bland expression revealed none of his feelings on the matter, his voice was bleak. "I have good news, though. The nurse gave me some sedatives to give him before next time."
"I don't know if I can LIVE through a next time," Wufei said, taking another bite of ice cream. "That was terrible. And what if he really *does* hate us?"
"Have to go through with it," Heero said around a mouthful of frozen vanilla goodness. "I'm sure as hell not starting all over again."
Quatre raised his tea cup to his lips. "Besides," he informed them, "Duo doesn't really hate either of you, no matter what he *said*. He's probably very peeved with you, but he doesn't *hate* you."
"Easy for you to say," Wufei muttered, "you don't have to sleep with him!"
"You're sleeping with him?" Heero asked, eyebrows raising in surprise.
Wufei's face turned absolutely scarlet as black eyes became huge and his mouth dropped open in shock. "No!" he squeaked out as Quatre began to laugh.
"Heero!"
"He said it," Heero said blandly, taking another mouthful of ice cream. "I was curious."
A strangled moan parted Wufei's lips and he dropped back onto Quatre's pillows, hands careful not to spill the cafeteria glass full of ice cream. "I can't believe you asked me that!" His face was still a perfectly LOVELY shade of crimson, and that certainly didn't help to stop Quatre's fit of laughter.
"Oh, DEAR, oh, dear," he said, finally catching his breath. "Ah, Heero. That was a wonderful question! Just wonderful!"
"Why wouldn't I ask?" Heero was genuinely puzzled now. "You brought the subject up."
"I DID NOT!"
Quatre tried to choke back another snicker. "According to polite society, it isn't well done to ask such questions. Amusing, yes, but inappropriate. Still, Heero," he said with warm regard, "I think it was cute."
"You mean *that* was rude?" Heero asked, crestfallen. "But he started it!"
A strangled sound broke from Wufei as he hid his face with a hand. "Yuy...."
"I wasn't trying to be rude," Heero grumbled, and took another big mouthful of the by-now gloppy vanilla ice cream.
"It was cute," Quatre reiterated. "Wufei, it's not the end of the world. Sit up before you drip ice cream on my bed!"
"I'm *trying* to die of embarrassment," he noted with a scowl, sitting up. Little strands of black hair had escaped his ponytail, but he didn't fix them, going back to eating ice cream instead. "You are *so* literal, Heero!"
"Am not," Heero answered, then turned to Quatre. "Do I have to apologize?"
"Mmm, no," Quatre said, smiling angelically. "He brought it on himself!"
Wufei groaned.
"Thank you," Heero said happily, almost smiling at Quatre before digging into his ice cream again.
Quatre shook his head. "Well, the point is that Duo is *angry*, but he doesn't hate either of you. You'll just have to stick it out, Wufei."
"If he doesn't try to strangle me in my sleep," Wufei muttered.
"Always wondered what the braid was good for," Heero commented. "He won't do that, though; he'd be more likely to leave the school."
Silence reigned as Wufei ate another mouthful of minty ice-cream before he sighed. "I suppose," he grumbled, "I should go and apologize."
"What for?" Heero asked. "It was a mission."
Wufei looked guilty. "He thought I was going to drop it... let him get by without any..."
"But he needs them," Quatre pointed out. "He'll get over it."
"Gonna drug him next time," Heero said. "The night before. Make the mission easier."
The sheer fanatical devotion inherent in that statement made Wufei's black eyes widen. "I think I'll go next door now. Pay the piper."
"Just don't tell him anything about the drugs," Heero warned. "I'm gonna slip 'em into his food."
"Probably a good idea," Quatre agreed, even as Wufei sputtered out, "That's dishonorable!"
"Is not," Heero replied with the beginnings of a scowl. "It's a mission. And I'm not *lying* to him, I'm merely relieving his anxiety before it has a chance to get started. It's humane. Like putting an animal down when it's suffering."
Wufei absolutely paled at that thought. "I'll be going next door now," he said firmly, standing up with his ice cream in hand.
"Goodbye, Wufei!" Quatre replied cheerfully.
"Bye," Heero echoed, because it seemed to be the polite thing to do. As soon as the door had closed behind the Chinese boy, he put his empty ice-cream cup down and flopped bonelessly on his bed, exhausted. Being polite sure could take a lot out of a guy; he didn't know how Quatre managed it.
Tentatively, Wufei crossed the hall after the door shut and opened his own, peering into the utter lightlessness within with a certain sense of paranoia.
Duo sat abruptly as light from the hallway spilled in through the cracked door, and he turned to glare at Wufei suspiciously, deliberately stifling the wistful sort of pain this silence caused him. He hated being at odds with his friends... but what they had done to him was horrible! When the violation of the needles was over, he'd pulled his pants back on and staggered back to the dorm room, fuming and silently refusing offers of help. He didn't dare raise his hand to Wufei or Heero, because that was just plain suicidal... but he could, and would, use the Silent Treatment. It wasn't like they'd cared to listen to him, anyway. Self-pity and fury drowned out the queasy unhappiness, and violet eyes narrowed as the glare intensified.
"Ahh... Maxwell?" Wufei asked uncertainly, turning on the lights and moving to turn on his nightlight, as well. "Are you... still angry?"
Duo crossed his arms and continued to glare. /What the Hell does he think? I'm supposed to just let them stick *needles* in me and not mind?/
Unhappily, Wufei turned around and looked at him, scowling. It was just like Meiran, that look, and it hurt him, reminded him of terrible things... "Look, Maxwell, you have to have them, or you'll get sick and die," he rationalized.
Duo drew breath to argue, then remembered that he wasn't speaking. With an angry huff, he turned his back on Wufei, pounded his pillow into submission, and lay back down, his stiffly rigid spine clear evidence to the fact that he wasn't really sleeping. Wincing, Wufei slipped into his own bed, stomach roiling. Maybe the ice cream hadn't been such a good idea...
The problem now, though, was in how to say 'I'm sorry' without saying 'I'm sorry'. He knew Maxwell needed the shots. He just did! But... he hadn't wanted to upset him so badly...
"Maxwell," he said quietly, "I... feel regret that you were so upset."
/You don't even know the half of it,/ Duo mused furiously, gritting his teeth. Wufei wasn't going to bait him into talking by implying the whole thing was *his* fault. After all, he wasn't the one who had forcibly dragged a friend into that pit of Hell they called an infirmary!
"You're terribly angry," Wufei said, recognizing what was happening with misery. Meiran had been like that, too, silent at first when she became too angry, and then, later, taking it out on him. He had not let her hit him unless he thought that he deserved it; that would have been stupid, and Chang Wufei was not stupid. He *had* let her wear herself out, though, as often as she liked. He supposed he'd have to do the same with Maxwell...
Duo sat abruptly, glared at Wufei with suspiciously wet eyes, snatched up his pillow and blanket and stormed out of the room. With a sigh, Wufei buried his head under his pillow.
This was NOT going to be a good day.
In fact, it had not been a good WEEK.
"He's still not talking to me," Wufei moaned, forehead pressed to their lunchroom table.
"He'll get over it," Quatre said, sipping from a coffee cup.
"It takes time," Heero added. "The record so far is thirteen days."
"I CAN'T TAKE THIRTEEN DAYS OF THIS!" Wufei bellowed.
"Could be longer," Heero replied calmly. "He seemed really angry."
Wufei whimpered, face not moving. "Longer?"
"He'll get over it," Quatre assured.
"But when he gets over it, will he speak to us again?" Heero asked. Duo walked in just then, and Heero's dark blue eyes followed the slender young man as he made his way through the line, joking and chatting with the cafeteria staff, then, tray in hand, turned and walked to a table full of girls. Duo was, to all appearances, thoroughly enjoying the warm welcome the gaggle of females was showering on him. "He's sitting at the wrong table," Heero added with a frown.
Looking up, Wufei took note of where Duo was sitting, allowed his unhappy frown to spread even further, and dropped his face back onto the table. "Would one of you just slit my wrists and get it over with?" he mumbled.
"WUFEI!" Quatre gasped. "Don't SAY things like that!"
"It's an act," Heero observed. "If he was really having a good time, he wouldn't keep looking at us." Sure enough, Duo was at that moment sneaking a glance at them before turning back to his dining companions with forced gaiety.
"He's looking at us?" Wufei whispered, black eyes peering up and over the tray before him.
Quatre took another swallow of coffee. "Trying to hide it for all he's worth."
"Don't look at him," Heero cautioned. "We're supposed to suffer. If he knows that we *know* he's not really having a good time over there, it'll just make him... uh... feel worse," he finished a little lamely, as he realized that he, of all people, was out of his element in this emotional arena. He sighed softly, wishing for a nice, simple mission, something he could understand.
"I'm suffering," Wufei mumbled against the table. "How much suffering is necessary before he goes back to being insufferable?"
"Until he thinks we've had enough," Heero replied glumly. "Or we apologize, whichever comes first." He stole a half-guilty glance at Quatre, hoping that apologizing wouldn't be the polite thing to do in this instance.
"I apologized!" Wufei protested. "I told him I was regretful that he was so upset!"
"And we *aren't* sorry he got the shots," Quatre replied. "I mean, he DID need them!"
"Hm." Heero quickly averted his eyes as Duo snuck another glance at their table. "The apology doesn't work unless you assume responsibility. But it's not like we lied to him, or gave him any false assurances. He should have known we'd do it."
"Mmm," Wufei agreed mournfully.
"Besides," Heero continued, "it was a mission." Duo and the group of girls got up, carried their trays over to the washing station, and walked out together, and Heero's eyes followed them on their way out the door. A flurry of giggles, punctuated by Duo's deep chuckle, echoed back just before the door shut behind the group. Maybe Duo wasn't as unhappy as he'd thought...
With a sigh, Wufei picked his head up and poked a fork vaguely at the vegetables on his plate. "But what if," he said softly, "he really ISN'T going to forgive us?"
"He will," Heero said doubtfully. "If he wasn't going to forgive us, he'd have gone to another school by now... I think."
"Stop WORRYING, Wufei," Quatre said, shaking his head. "Both of you! I swear, he's not REALLY angry! Just... well. Angry."
"Angry enough not to speak to us." Heero glumly returned to his food with little appetite.
Wufei sighed and plopped his head down on the table again. Finally, he grunted and rose from his chair. "I've got class," he said quietly. "See you guys later."
"Bye," Quatre said, watching him go.
"Ah, back again, I see." The doughnut shop attendant was a bright-eyed teenage boy with thick auburn hair, working to bring in an extra buck or two while attending college. He smiled warmly at Heero, Wufei and Quatre, and if there was a little extra warmth in his smile for Quatre, well, what was the harm in that?
"Hello," Heero said, politely refraining from his standard "hn" greeting. He did, however, strain the bonds of etiquette just a tad by inching closer to Quatre with a possessive glare. Not that Quatre needed protecting, but still.
"You want your usual?" the attendant asked with a cheery grin, recognizing the 'hands off' warning for what it was.
"Plain glazed doughnuts," Heero answered with a nod.
"And half a dozen cream-filled," Wufei prompted afterwards, sighing heavily. Half a dozen would be more than enough. After all... Maxwell STILL wasn't talking to him, and probably wouldn't eat his doughnuts for the same reason!
"And a mix of two-dozen," Quatre added cheerfully, so pleased with Heero's show of possession that he was absolutely beaming. Heero basked in the warmth of Quatre's smile, assuming that the Arab was proud of his efforts to be polite. The corners of his lips lifted, briefly, then he focused his attention on the plain glazed doughnuts as the attendant started filling the order.
"That's not as many as you usually get," Heero observed, as Wufei collected his paltry half-dozen doughnuts. "You ok?"
"I can't eat more than this," Wufei said, voice quietly tinged with... something. "Maxwell usually eats the other half dozen..."
"He eats anything that isn't nailed down," Heero replied. "It's a wonder he's so skinny. He ought to be a regular Butterball, the way he eats." There was a brief pause, then he turned to face Quatre. "I guess that wasn't polite of me to say..."
"It was cute," Quatre returned. The tall blond would forgive a lot in Heero, for the sake of cuteness.
"A-arigato," Heero stammered, and a slight pink tinge stole over his cheeks for a moment.
"He didn't eat the chocolate balls I left out for him two days ago," Wufei said. The longer it had gone on, the more pitiful he had become, until it had reached the point where *he* wasn't talking to anyone, either... well, outside of Heero and Quatre.
"He didn't?" Heero was shocked. "Well, that's just not *normal!*"
"He hates me," Wufei said mournfully. "It's all my fault and he'll never forgive me! I'm so weak and unworthy and..."
"STOP that," Quatre told him firmly. "Stop that RIGHT now!"
"But it's true," Wufei returned. The little bell tied to the shop's door handle jingled, and Heero turned in time to see Duo walk in.
"Speak of the Devil..." he muttered, just loudly enough for Wufei and Quatre to hear. Duo glared at him, and Heero blinked in surprise at the sharp look.
"Did you think I'd forgotten how to read lips?" Duo mouthed, and Heero slapped a hand over his own mouth, eyes comically wide. In spite of himself, Duo felt a smile tugging at his lips, and he tried to discipline his face into stern lines as he approached his friends.
Quatre watched him carefully as he moved closer, aware of Heero's own gaze taking in every nuance of their friend. Wufei, however, now in possession of his doughnuts, simply stared down at the box, head slightly ducked, misery evident in every line of him. "Are you ever going to talk to us again, Duo?" Quatre sighed.
"Yes," Duo replied.
"So you're talking to us now?" Heero asked, pulling his hands away from his mouth and regaining his composure.
"Yes, I am," Duo answered, grinning. "You do have a gift for stating the obvious."
"But are you still angry?" Heero wanted to know.
"I don't want to think about that right now," Duo answered. "Can I eat with you?"
Wufei's box of doughnuts were held out carefully, the slim Chinese man frowning as he gave them to Duo silently, not quite trusting his voice not to shake impossibly as he did so. "Mm."
Duo paused, and carefully plucked one of the doughnuts from the box. "Xie xie," he said softly.
"Let's sit," Heero said bluntly, then paused a moment. "I mean, would you all care to sit down?"
That gained him three glances and a brilliant smile from Quatre. "Yes!" the tall blond agreed. "I'll get milk for us, okay? You three find somewhere to sit!"
"Uh... here's good," Duo said, gesturing to the nearest empty table. Heero waited till the other two had seated themselves before pulling a chair out for himself, then he hesitated.
"I'd better go help him carry the milk," he said, and left Duo and Wufei at the table alone. Duo quirked an eyebrow at Heero's retreating back, doubting that the former Wing pilot was really worried about milk.
"Well, I guess that leaves the two of us," he said, stealing a glance at Wufei to see what his reaction might be.
"Yes," Wufei answered, looking at him. He felt somewhat timid, an emotion gone unfelt since... well, since he'd started behaving the way Meiran believed a warrior should. Or, no, it wasn't that he'd not felt it; it was that he hadn't *shown* it. "You're sure you're not angry anymore?"
"Well..." Duo said hesitantly. "When I think about you guys tricking me and dragging me into that place, I get downright furious. But it's over now, and you're my friends, and I'd like to put it behind us, if it's okay with you."
Solemn black gaze took him in for a moment. That was something of a surprise, though it shouldn't have been. /I've been going about this all wrong. He's nothing like Meiran, nothing at all./ "Yes," Wufei said firmly. "I... don't like it when you aren't yourself," he mumbled, flushing.
"Me, either," Duo replied with a slight smile, then, needing something to do, he took a bite of his doughnut. "Yanno, I think these get better every time I taste them."
Wufei offered him the box again and, God forbid, smiled to boot. "Want another?"
"Thanks, Wu-chan!"
"Milk," Heero said, setting his tray down in the center of the table before sliding into his seat. "And Quatre got an assortment of doughnuts."
"Two dozen!" Quatre replied cheerfully. "I'm glad you're back to being you, Duo!"
"Thanks, guys," Duo said. "I... uh... thanks. It's good to have things back to normal. So does that mean I can have one of your glazed doughnuts, Heero?"
"Omae o korosu."
End Part 6
Yoiko
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