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 several hours later that Duo woke, dragging himself into consciousness by sheer will. He forced achy, sleep-deadened limbs to move, and slowly sat up, reeling with dizziness. So horrible... it had been so horrible, and he wanted, needed physical contact, to reassure himself that he was *here* and not still frozen in drugged insensibility...
Woozily, he staggered across the room and crawled onto Wufei's bed, stumbling over the small pile of clothes that lay where the Chinese boy had shucked them off. He curled up against Wufei's side, stifling the soft whimpers that wanted to work their way through his lips, and buried his face between Wufei's shoulder and the pillow.
"Duo?" The sound was sleep-riddled, half mumbled. "You're awake. I was worried.... I'm so sorry, Duo..."
"Wufei..." Duo sighed. "Please... hold me? I just... I need..." Tears welled up in his eyes again, and he hastily blinked them away. "Please?"
Arms wrapped tightly around him, Wufei moving in close to Duo's still-clothed body. They were both deliciously warm, almost too warm, but Wufei tucked his head against Duo's shoulder all the same. "I've got you," he whispered solemnly. "It will be all right..."
Duo relaxed into the embrace with a sigh, the drugs in his system still pulling at him relentlessly. Wufei's hair smelled like coconut and sweet patchouli, and Duo breathed in the fragrance gratefully, banishing the alcohol-and-chrome scent of the infirmary from his senses. This was no drug haze; the arms holding him so securely were real. The body pressed against his was warm and solid and *real.*
"Just... don't let anyone do anything to me," he whispered, closing his eyes. "I trust you, Wufei."
"You were so upset today," Wufei murmured, the way that the two of them were held so tightly together a relief to him. "Why, Duo? Why is it that bad? It's not dangerous, these things..."
"... I... Wufei..." Duo sighed again and started over. "I don't know how much you know about how I grew up... but where I come from, kids are a dime a dozen... and there are some people, sickos, who... well, I knew a kid once who got a shot and was taken away, and you don't wanna know what-all happened to him before he was let go. Most of the kids who disappeared were never seen again... I just... On the streets, you know that Bad Things happen if they get a needle in you. That's all." The security and warmth of Wufei's presence made him feel relaxed and tactless; he would never have told so much, had he not been drugged.
"Oh." Wufei's face lifted, pressing lightly to his. "If I had known, Duo, I wouldn't have... I would have done things a little differently. These aren't bad shots, though. They're good for you, and they'll keep you with me for a long time, maybe," he whispered, hiding a suddenly heated face against Duo's throat. "I want that."
"Don't... don't trick me any more," Duo pleaded hoarsely, blinking back more tears. "I can't... I can't handle it. Obviously, I guess," he added, glad that Wufei wasn't looking directly at him to see how ashamed he was -- he, Duo Maxwell, the eternally competent survivor who had met Death with a grin... and had completely fallen to pieces at the thought that his friends, especially Wufei, had deceived him.
Fingers lightly stroked the back of his head, Wufei rocking slightly with him. "If... if we tell you, next time, that we're going to do it, will you mind? There are only a couple of more, and I promise I'll stay with you the entire time..."
Duo paused for a long moment, not wanting to lie. "I don't want to," he said honestly, wincing at the thought that he sounded like a whiny child, then reluctantly he added, "But, yeah. If it's that important to you, I'll go along peacefully."
/Even if it kills me./
Stroking Duo's face, Wufei heaved a sigh -- one that definitely sounded like relief. "Duo, on your colony, shots meant disappearing. On *mine*, they were the difference between life and death. The year I was fourteen, the Federation dropped plagues on the colony. Not all of them were dropped, and the most deadly didn't rupture, but the ones that *did* could still kill you if you hadn't been vaccinated..."
"Wufei..." Duo whispered sadly. "We had a plague, too... I was the only person I ever heard of who *didn't* have a shot, and didn't get sick. But... If you swear to me, on your honor, that you won't let anybody do anything bad to me while I'm out, I'll do whatever you want me to. I trust you. Ok?"
"I swear to you." The exchange was solemn, serious, and Wufei pressed Duo's hand in his own. "Now sleep. I know you're probably still tired..."
"Mm," Duo agreed, and snuggled comfortably in Wufei's arms, almost immediately slipping into a deep, contented slumber that was only partially due to the drugs still in his system.
"Good night," Wufei whispered, closed his own eyes, and went to sleep.
The morning sunlight spilled in through the crack in the curtains, hitting Duo's face from a startlingly different angle than he was used to. One violet eye cracked open, and peered weakly at the tangled black hair directly in front of him; his own hair was hanging over the edge of the mattress. Slowly, he opened the other eye, and even more slowly he realized that he was spooned up against a very naked Wufei, his morning erection pressed against the Chinese boy's rounded backside.
Both eyes opened comically wide, and he scooted away as if he had been scalded. Unfortunately, he hadn't realized how cramped his muscles were, and the result of his sudden movement was that he landed on the floor on his backside, hard.
"Ow, shit!" he hissed, thinking that this was no way to start a day. For several long moments he waited for his doom to come from on high, but Chang Wufei hadn't so much as batted an eyelash. The idea that he could have stayed like that, pressed up against Wufei, was just about enough to give him a nosebleed, so he turned his head to look in the other direction, noted that his clock hadn't been wound, and thought fixedly about clocks and their gears until he had pulled himself together enough to attempt to pull himself together.
Getting up off the floor was more of a challenge than he would have thought; his limbs ached sharply whenever he tried to push beyond a very limited range of motion, and as he slowly and carefully started removing the clothing he'd slept in, he noted that there were huge bruises on his arms and legs, dark mottled splotches where the needles had gone in.
/Doesn't that just figure?/
Shambling like an old man, Duo managed to collect toiletries and fresh clothes, and slowly hobbled to the bathroom. The place was empty; he judged from the angle of the sunshine that had wakened him that it was pretty late in the morning, possibly after breakfast hours. His stomach growled as he grimly contemplated the prospect of no breakfast, but he nevertheless stayed in the shower a long, long time, just revelling in the relief the pounding hot water brought.
By the time he had dried off and bound his freshly-washed hair in its customary braid, he was feeling much better aside from the fact that he was starving. He decided to try to wake Wufei up, and if that didn't work he'd try to find Heero and Quatre. He hated eating alone.
"Wufei?" he asked softly, stepping into the room and tossing his dirty clothes in the hamper. "Wuffie-channikins? Are you hungry?"
That brought a certain amount of stirring; luckily enough, it was about the time that Wufei rose, anyway, on the days when they didn't have water aerobics. Black eyes blinked open sleepily, Wufei's face turning up to look at Duo. He was just a few steps away and he seemed to be a bit better this morning. With a vague smile, Wufei closed his eyes again and kicked off his covers, turning towards the right side of the bed and revealing every inch of his flesh in the motion, cock half-hard, legs parted slightly, an arm under his head and one reaching to scratch a hip. "Morning," he mumbled, yawning slightly.
"Um... yeah, 'morning," Duo replied, blushing as he deliberately concentrated on the window, studying the pattern on the drapes in intimate detail. He'd almost think Wufei was doing it on purpose...
"I'm hungry, Wufei, are you hungry? Because I'm starving to death, and I can't really afford to lose any weight, yanno, and I think my stomach is gnawing a hole in my backbone, I'm so hungry. Will you come to breakfast with me? Please?" Duo was still staring fixedly at the window, and his blush deepened a little as his stomach growled audibly. He had missed lunch and dinner... and he could just about eat the pillows at this point. He made a mental note to get some crackers or something to keep in the room for emergencies, if he could find a sealable plastic container that would prevent them from attracting bugs.
His efforts to distract himself from the image burned into his mind's eye, of Wufei naked and wallowing on the bed were completely ineffective, and it was for that reason that he found himself completely flustered.
Wufei stretched slowly, sitting on the edge of his bed and rubbing an eye. He'd never had any modesty at all, and he doubted that would ever change, but the sudden realization that Duo was cherry red and looking anywhere *but* him was sort of fascinating. "Are you all right?" he asked, standing up and moving towards the closet and his shower bucket. A five minute shower, and dressing quickly, and they'd probably still be first in line for lunch!
Duo's stomach growled again, and he turned to face Wufei. Against his volition his eyes dropped to rake over Wufei's compact, muscular body, and if anything Duo's blush darkened further as he closed his eyes. "No, I'm... hungry," he said, wincing at the unintentional double entendre.
The object of his gaze seemed totally oblivious to it, though, as he slid on a robe and brushed through black hair quickly. "Give me five minutes for a shower and two to get dressed, and we'll still be first in line for lunch," Wufei noted. "It's only 11:25."
Wufei left to wash up, and Duo practically deflated with a sigh of relief. Five minutes... He quickly started the cold water running in the sink and, biting his lip in discomfort, took care of the unfortunate side-effects of Wufei's presence in the most wretchedly effective way he knew. At this rate, he was going to need to sew an ice-pack into his shorts.
"Dear God," he whispered under his breath between chattering teeth. "Please do something here. I know you don't like gay boys, but if I don't suddenly get the patience of a saint, I'll be a gay boy *and* a rapist, and I'm thinking that would be worse. So please either make this work, or make me impotent or something so I won't care about what I'm missing. Ok?"
There was no immediate answer, so Duo put himself to rights again, shivering all the while. At least Wufei would be wearing clothing when he came back.
Well, Wufei *was* wearing clothing when he got back -- his robe -- but he promptly stripped it off and was naked again as he started to get dressed. Once he had underwear and socks on, he turned around and looked at Duo. "Are you all right?" he asked.
"Fine," Duo replied, glaring at the window so intensely it was almost surprising that the thing hadn't shattered. /Thanks a lot, God.../ "I'm just really, really hungry. It's been more than 24 hours..."
"I heard they were having pizza in the lunch line today," Wufei said, pulling jeans over the bony points of his hips before tugging on a black tanktop and tucking it in, fastening the buttons up the front quickly. "That should make you happy. I won't even make you eat anything green today."
"Only 'cause you don't want to have to try tying me down and getting Heero to help sit on me," Duo said, grinning and feeling much more at ease now that Wufei was decently covered up. Not that he really minded seeing Wufei naked... "'Cause that's what it would take to make me eat green stuff. Are you ready yet?" This last was accompanied by an almost frantic hand gesture, indicating that Wufei should hurry. "Because I'm *starving.*"
"I'm ready, I'm ready!" Wufei told him, tying his shoes quickly. "We can go now, Duo!"
"Oh, thank *God!*" Duo said, leading the way. Wufei was at least kind enough to walk quickly, and it was only a few minutes later that they arrived at the door to the cafeteria... in time to wait in front of the locked doors.
Duo peered in the glass windows, trying to pretend that his stomach *wasn't* growling.
"Oh, man, when do they open?" he muttered, annoyed with himself at the slight whine that crept into his voice. "I'm starving!" If there was one thing Duo hated more than being dirty, it was being hungry; he'd had more than enough of both to last him a lifetime. He sat on the wooden bench by the door, trying to focus on the beautiful scenic view and the lovely weather.
His stomach growled again. Loudly.
Both of Wufei's black brows rose slowly and then lowered again, a fight to keep himself from smiling. Instead of sitting with Duo, he remained right in front of the doors and waited for them to open as the lobby filled with chattering students and even a professor or two.
"Wufei!"
That was Quatre, hurrying in from a side door and waving, a smile on his face as he hurried towards them, skittering to a halt as he looked at Duo. "I see you're up! You look hungry!" he said.
"I'm starving to death!" Duo replied. "Just look at me!" He sucked in his cheeks and tried to look pitiful.
"You always look like that," Heero said as he stepped around a cluster of students to join them.
"Your powers of observation have really deteriorated," Duo shot back, grinning. "Maybe we should get you some glasses -- hey, I'd pay to see that!"
"Hn. You seem to have recovered."
"Yeah." Duo sagged back against the bench casually. "I ache like hell -- it feels like you people took turns hitting me with sticks while I was out."
"We wanted to, but Wufei thought we should wait till Cinco de Mayo to have a pinata," Heero replied, deadpan.
"What's Cinco de Mayo?" Wufei and Quatre said simultaneously, looking at Heero for a moment before it truly sunk in: Heero had made a joke! With a laugh, Quatre reached over and hugged him, lightly ruffling Heero's already messy hair. "Oh, Heero," he said with a sigh, making Wufei roll his eyes slightly before turning and smiling at Duo.
"Two more minutes," he said. "You want to come over here?"
Heero blushed, terribly pleased with himself. Duo rose creakingly to his feet, clapped the Japanese boy on the shoulder and crossed over to where Wufei was standing.
"If they don't open those doors soon-" the sentence broke off as the door Duo had been leaning against suddenly swung out from behind him. He staggered a half-step and came face to face with a grinning lunch lady.
"Oi, thank you, Ma'am!" he said, grinning cheerfully. "I thought I was gonna starve to death on the doorstep!"
"Not a chance of that, Mr. Maxwell." The reply was met with a smile as the lady waved Duo through, not needing to see his I.D. Wufei, on the other hand, was stopped and asked in a very suspicious tone to show his card.
And they wondered why he was always so crabby!
Once their cards were shown, it was easy to be first in line. Wufei, as always, chose a balanced meal including *two* green vegetables -- it was enough to make Duo queasy, but since he was concentrating on getting his own lunch, it wasn't really a problem at that moment.
Duo was, in fact, completely absorbed in the prospect of lunch at the time. "I'll take some of that, and that, and that, and that," he said, grabbing up a roll and taking a huge bite of it while the lunch line attendants slapped food onto his plate. "Mmm... chicken looks *good!* Ne, Wufei? Oh, and a burger, too. And some potatoes. And biscuits. Oh, yeah, man... that'll do for a first course." The expression on Duo's face as his heaped plate slid onto his tray could be compared to that of a child at Christmas time. Wufei only shook his head as he gathered his own plate, watching Duo with a definite gleam in his eye.
"Tomorrow, you have to eat green beans," Wufei told Duo as they both got glasses and Wufei filled his with milk, "but today, I'll let you off the hook."
Duo looked at him woefully. "Man, don't spoil my appetite *now.* I'm starving!"
With a laugh, Quatre moved along behind them. "Come on, you guys, let's go get our table, okay? No more talk about green beans, Duo. We promise. Not until tomorrow!"
Duo pulled a face at Quatre for mentioning the vegetables again, then led the way to their table, grinning as the four of them sat down. It was good to be with his friends, and especially Wufei. He could worry about shots and vegetables later; for now, life was good.
"We'll get that Winner guy first," Ranma said, leading the way. "And the skinny one with the long hair."
"Because the other two look tougher?" Vegeta asked, thumping Gourry's head because he looked like he was about to speak.
"That little Chinese kid won't be much of a problem," Yamcha sneered, thumping Gourry's head because he had opened his mouth.
"He looks tougher than the long-haired sissy!" Vegeta snarled in reply, thumping Gourry's head on general principle.
"Stop that!" Gourry cried, wrapping his arms around his head protectively.
"Look, be cool, Ok?" Ranma snapped. "Geez. We're going for Winner and the long-haired kid because I spotted them on their way out of the Library."
"Geeks," Vegeta said under his breath.
"And this way we'll warm up before we instruct the other two on not blowing the curve!"
"You sure are smart, boss," Gourry said admiringly, and didn't even mind when Ranma thumped his head.
"I'm glad we're getting to do the history project in pairs!" Quatre told Duo cheerfully. "It's even better that we got to choose partners. I know you're pretty good in the class, and I really want an A..."
"Yeah," Duo agreed. "Man, it's nice to be paired up with someone who's actually willing to do the assignment for a change. I get so sick of being stuck with a partner who's like, 'Ok, Maxwell, you do all the work, and then we can put both our names on the paper.' And then I'm up the creek, yanno, because *I* want an A."
"I HATE that!" Quatre cried with a laugh. "Or, even worse yet, they complain after the fact that you 'didn't allow them to participate' even though you made every effort and practically begged for help!"
"Well, well, well," a voice interrupted before Duo could reply, and he turned to see Ranma Saotome and his football buddies all gathered together into one big hulking mass of testosterone- laden, muscle-bound stupidity. "What have we got here?"
"I thought these were the two queer boys we were gonna beat up," Gourry supplied helpfully. Naturally, Ranma thumped him, and with a muffled, "Ouch!" Gourry slunk back out of harm's way.
"Queer boys?" Duo asked, unable to keep his lips from twitching into his trademark smirky grin.
Quatre's huge tourmaline eyes narrowed slowly. "I do believe that's what he said, Duo," the tall blond agreed with a disarmingly soft voice, one that would have warned anyone with good sense.
"Now, I wonder why he would go and say a thing like that," Duo replied, and anyone who knew him could tell that the gleam in his violet eyes meant trouble.
Cracking his knuckles, Yamcha gave a vicious smile. "You and your little faggot boyfriends are fucking up our grade curve. We intend to do something about that."
"Don't be stupid," Duo said, his own grin equally vicious. It had been a long time since he'd had a good fight... "And watch your fucking language, while you're at it."
"Oh, yeah!?" Ranma said, itching for a good fight as he stepped forward.
Quatre's reply was low and suspiciously *not* savage as the others'. "Yeah."
"Let's show these creeps how we do things here," Ranma said. "GET 'EM, BOYS!"
End Part 8
Yoiko
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