"I thought we were going to Home Depot," Wufei said.
"We are, but only after we go to the arcades," Duo explained patiently.
Wufei shook his head and looked longingly in the direction of the said hardware store.
Duo sighed. The only times Wufei ever went to the mall was when he had to go to Home Depot to get supplies for his gundam. Other than that, the mall was an alien place to Wufei.
Wufei looked uneasily at all the people walking around. How could so many weak people be in the same place at one time? It was�preposterous!
He shivered, and reached down to his waist where his sword was normally strapped. Quatre had forbidden him to bring it to the *ugh* mall, so that now he was on an equal to these ordinary people. Would that mean that he was weak, too? A moment of horror flashed through Wufei. "No!" he said out loud. Several people turned to look at him. Wufei ignored them and continued walking with the group. He refused to believe that something so impossible could possibly happen. He silently muttered a prayer to his ancestors and continued to the video-arcades, Duo leading the way.
Duo could find the way to arcades, even if there was a black-out at the mall and it was midnight on the darkest day of the year. He whistled a little tune and smiled to everybody as he walked past, and they all smiled back until they saw his incredibly long braid: then they would gawk. This would also be about the time when they noticed Heero and his murderous gaze, Trowa and his magical hair, and the smothering waves of disdain emanated by Wufei. It was also about this time that they would quickly look away and pretend that they were never there.
Duo was confused. Everybody seemed to be acting strangely, today. Duo carefully looked into the people�s eyes, and saw where they were looking.
Ohhhhh.
Duo stopped, turned around, and glared at the boys. "Can�t you guys act a little more�normal?"
They all stared back at him, looking confused. Duo sighed and gave up. Then he walked into the arcades, the boys following obediently behind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Wow, what do you think of this?" Bianca asked, holding a pink sweatshirt against Quatre and sizing it up.
Quatre, looking at all the teddy bears imprinted loudly on the front, said, "Uh�I don�t think it fits."
"Really?" she asked, fingering the teddy bears. "Let me go ask for a larger size."
Quatre quickly shook his head "no" but Bianca had already went up to a sales lady to ask about the sweatshirt.
"Excuse me," she called, leaning over the counter.
"Yes?" said the saleslady.
"Hello, I was wondering if you carried this sweatshirt in a larger size?"
"Hold on, let me go and check," she answered and went back into the storerooms. Quatre crossed his fingers, hoping against hope that she wouldn�t find any.
"Aaaah, here we are," the saleslady said, holding out an exact same sweatshirt a size larger. "This item is very popular among the girls, so it is not always in stock. Today is your lucky day."
"Oh, thank you," said Bianca. "Oh, Quatre, why don�t you come over and try it on?"
Quatre was trying his best to hide behind a rack of clothes. But since they were in the children�s section, he was quite unsuccessful.
The saleslady looked at Quatre in shock for a second, then made a quick smile to hide her surprise. Quatre could feel his ears turning red.
Bianca handed the sweatshirt over to him and shooed him into the changing rooms. Quatre immediately grabbed it and ran into the changing rooms, not wanting anyone to see him with the sweatshirt.
"Wow, he must really like it," the saleslady commented as he ran past.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duo, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei had occupied an entire corner of the video-arcades to themselves, since nobody wanted to go near them. They were motorcycle-racing.
Each boy was sitting in his own mock-bike and it swayed from side to side as they turned, watching the screen.
Duo was having some problems. Since Heero, Trowa, and Wufei each owned a bike at one time or the other, driving a simulated one was a cinch. They raced ahead while Duo steadily lagged behind.
"What�s the matter, Maxwell?" Wufei taunted him. "Is this sport too challenging for you?"
Duo pouted. "The god of death can accomplish anything!" he insisted stubbornly.
Wufei snorted and raced ahead. So far, he was in first. Duo fumed and continued along, driving carefully. He had the whole road to himself, since the professionals were far ahead. Duo raced against the timer. 10�9�8�. He went around a curve and smashed into a wall, but his virtual character seemed unhurt by all the abuse it was taking - which was why Duo loved these games so much. 7�6�5�. Duo could see the halfway mark up ahead. 4�3�. A virtual woman with an incredibly disproportionate figure cheered him from the sidelines. Duo�s eyes goggled. He braked and stopped the bike and continued staring at the lady in the cowboy hat, doing the exact same computerized wave, over and over and over�.
"YOUUUURE OUT!" said the announcer�s voice.
Duo just continued staring until the screen blanked out and went back to the title page. As soon as that happened, he immediately shoved some more coins into the slot and eagerly awaited for the game to load. Then he randomly picked a race car (a volkswagon beetle), continued on the same racetrack, and started driving. When he reached the same cowgirl, he stopped and began staring at her once again.
It was a competitive race between Heero, Trowa, and Wufei. Sometimes Heero inched ahead, sometimes Trowa, but most of time it ended up being Wufei. They went around a hairpin turn.
Trowa was smashed in between the other two boys. He couldn�t move. They dragged him along for awhile, and finally when the road widened, he was released. But, by now, Trowa�s bike had lost its balance and now it skidded along the road, mowed down a fence and continued on driving off a cliff. Seeing this, Trowa (the real Trowa) jumped off his bike and did an amazing somersault twirl into the air. He landed perfectly on top of his arcade machine. Heero and Wufei didn�t even look up.
Duo took some time off from gazing at the woman to glance up and see what was the matter.
"Sorry," Trowa said from on top of his machine. "Bad habits."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Come out, Quatre, and let me see how you look."
Quatre bit his lip, and opened the changing room door. Bright light flooded his eyelids for a second, and then everything became clear.
Bianca was standing in front of him, hands clasped together and smiling sweetly. "Why, it looks perfect on you! I think we should buy it."
Quatre couldn�t refuse his happy sister so he just nodded and went back into the change rooms to take his shirt off.
"No, wait," Bianca called after. She tugged on his sleeve and looked at him again. "Mmm, something looks wrong."
Quatre endured his sister�s inspection for awhile, all the time aware of other people walking past and gazing at him weirdly.
"I know!" Bianca snapped her fingers. "Pants!"
Bianca scrounged around the racks for awhile, then pulled something out and gave it to Quatre. Quatre looked.
A teddy bear smiled up at him from the leg of a matching pair of pink jogging pants, elastic banded at the waist and the ankles.
Bianca smiled at him and said, "Go, try it on." She pushed him into the changing rooms and waited outside.
Quatre changed hurriedly, not wanting his sister to have to wait so long. Also, the sooner he could get this over with, the better.
When he came out, Bianca said, "Perfect!" and dragged him over to the cashier counter.
"Wait, but---"
The sales lady demagnetized the barcodes while Quatre was still wearing the outfit. Then Bianca asked for a pair of scissors and when the lady handed them over, she cut off the price tags.
"But�"
Bianca went back into the changing rooms, brought out his old clothes, and dumped them into the donation bin. Quatre didn�t tell anyone, but those were his favourite pairs of pink shirt and purple vest. Quatre was about to go to the donation bin to dig them out but Bianca hooked her arm through his and dragged him away.
"Now, onto accessories," she said.
Quatre looked back longingly at the donation bin, then shyly followed his sister into another department, wearing his pink sweatshirt and jogging pants with the matching teddy bears on it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wufei had won the race easy. Now, they were onto shooting games.
This was Heero�s forte. Holding the plastic gun, Heero steadily aimed and shot, aimed and shot. Watching him shoot down the monsters, Duo shivered. Heero was a monster.
When Heero was finished the game five minutes later, he held the barrel of the plastic orange gun against his mouth and blew. Even though no smoke came out the barrel, he still looked really cool.
Everyone gathered around to see. The machine added up his points. It took a very long time.
Finally, the score came out: 87,150,789,020.
"Woah", all the boys said. Heero smiled, was about to tuck the gun into his spandex shorts, then thought better of it and placed it back in the machine�s holder. Then he walked away, looking for more challenging games.
Duo quickly signed his name for him, a simple "Yuy", and quickly followed after. Unknown to him and all the other boys, countless players would come onto that machine in later weeks and ponder over the mysterious Yuy who had compiled all those points and whom nobody could ever beat.
Then they moved onto fighting games, one called "Streetfighter Ultimate", or something along the lines of that unending series.
First, it was Duo against Trowa. Duo, of course, picked the American fighter named "Ken" while Trowa picked a mysterious looking guy with a �phantom of the opera mask� with the name of "Vega". They started.
Duo began his attack with some sort of strange, glowing ball of fire. While Duo�s character, on the screen, screamed out some indecipherable words, he hurled the ball of blue flame towards Trowa�s character. At the last minute, Trowa�s character, Vega, did this amazing flip thingy and bounced off the walls and reached his metal claws towards Duo�s character, Ken. Ken defended himself and did an uppercut that bashed into Vega�s chin. Vega slowly got up with stars rotating around his head and Ken took this chance to quickly finished him off with hard punches and kicks. Duo won, but Trowa didn�t seem to care. He shrugged and passed the controls over to Heero.
Once again, Duo picked "Ken" while Heero picked a Japanese guy named "Ryu". They started.
The fight began with two simultaneous balls of fire which flew from each of the characters at the same time. The flames cancelled each other out. Duo and Heero did it again, and again they cancelled each other out. Then again and again and again�.
"Can�t you guys think of anything more original?" Wufei asked, looking bored.
"NO!" they both yelled and continued hurling fireballs at one another. Wufei shrugged and began watching some other people play.
The fight ended as a tie when the time ran out. Duo and Heero glared at one another, then began round two.
"Round Two!" the announcer announced. This time, Duo tried something different. As soon as Heero hurled a fireball, Duo�s character, Ken, did another indecipherable scream and began flying across the screen with an inhumanly impossible jump-rotate-kick combo, which looked something akin to a ballerina�s pirouette with a leg sticking out. Heero�s character, Ryu, was bashed in the head several times with Ken�s foot, then defended himself with his fists but Ken was unstoppable. He pirouetted again several times back and forth across the screen until Ryu finally fell over in defeat.
When the victory screen finally came up, Heero�s alias, Ryu, had his face beaten to a bloody pulp while Duo�s Ken leered evilly, still looking as bright as new. Duo cheered. Heero walked away and went back to his shooting games.
"My turn," Wufei said, rubbing his hands. He looked over the characters, inspecting them one by one, reading through the stats and analyzing their weaknesses. He was taking a very long time to choose. "So, which fighter�s the one from China?" he asked, flipping through the faces.
Duo rolled his eyes, then pointed to a girl which looked like she had meatball buns stuck on her hair. "Try Chun Li," he said, already picking Ken and waiting impatiently.
"What?! A woman?" he cried, staring at the girl in disbelief. "How could this be possible?!"
"Hey, she�s a fighter, she�s from China, what more do you want?" Duo asked.
Wufei grumbled, "Very well," and reluctantly picked her. They began.
Duo started off with another one of his fireballs but Wufei�s Chun Li jumped high into the air and passed over it.
Duo�s eyes widened. That Chun Li was wearing a very revealing dress which slit up the sides to reveal her nice thighs. Duo wondered if she was wearing any underwear under there.
"Hie-ya!" Chun Li cried as she bopped Ken over the head with her spiked wrists.
Ken just stood there and took the abuse.
"Well, do something," Wufei said, wanting more challenge.
"Oh, okay," Duo answered, snapping out of it and going for a leg sweep. Chun Li tripped and fell on her bottom. "Oh, I�m sorry," Duo said to the virtual Chun Li.
Wufei, thinking that Duo was feeling pity for him, got quite angry. Making a complicated finger-jab-pressing-button move on the controls, he made Chun Li attack. She jumped upside-down, did a split, and twirled towards Ken, her legs spinning around like a helicopter blade.
Duo just stared at the sexy Chun Li, mouth hanging open.
Ken was beaten to a bloody pulp. Chun Li jumped up and down in her victory dance and made a peace sign with her fingers.
"What do you say to that?" Wufei asked, giving a smug smile. He was proud at Chun Li despite himself.
"Duh�." Duo continued to drool over Chun Li.
"Can we go to Home Depot now?" Wufei asked when Duo didn�t say anything.
The game went back to the title screen and Duo quickly dug in his pockets for more coins�but he had used them all up staring at the cowgirl. "Awww, man!"
Duo reluctantly turned away from the machine. Putting two fingers in his mouth, he whistled sharply.
Out of thin air, Trowa and Heero appeared. Duo�s heart skipped a beat. Even though this wasn�t the first time they�d done this, he still got freaked out as heck.
"We�re leaving," he told them, his voice cracking. Heero and Trowa nodded and all four of them walked out of the arcades, Duo looking back longingly at his Streetfighter Ultimate.
When they left, the arcades became populated again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quatre sat in the make-up chair, looking mighty worried.
A pink plastic hair-band with a flower on it adorned his head while matching heart necklaces and bracelets decorated his neck and wrists. Quatre glanced down at his shoes and sighed in relief. At least he was able to keep those.
"Now, let�s see what kind of skin tone you have," the lady said nicely, taking Quatre�s chin and turning it to face her. The beautician had on purple eye-shadow along with thick mascara gooping up her eyelashes. Her lashes were so thick that when she blinked, it created a slight breeze.
The beautician continued blinking, and Quatre had to close his eyes to prevent them from drying out. Taking one well-manicured fingernail, she ran her finger all along Quatre�s cheek, testing the smoothness.
"My, I have never seen anyone with skin so fine," she said, and swiveled around in her chair, taking out a plaque. Behind the plastic covering, it showed several colours of peach in varying degrees of light and dark. The colours got darker as they moved to the right. Quatre�s skin colour was on the extreme left.
The beautician inspected the plaque, then started opening up bottles of cream, lipstick, and all sorts of other make-up. "I think pink would suit you very well today," she said, smiling at his pink clothing.
Quatre smiled back weakly and squirmed around in the swivel chair. Twyla, Quatre�s sister in charge of this shift, steadied his chair, seeing that Quatre was so nervous. "Exciting, isn�t it?" she asked. "I know that the first time I got a make-over, I was so scared about it but look at me now!"
Quatre looked. His sister was beautiful. For a girl. But Quatre was a boy.
The lady started applying the make-up while Quatre was stuck in the chair. What was he to do? If he didn�t listen to his sisters, they would become angry with him, and twenty-nine angry older sisters was not something that anyone wanted to face, not even Heero. Quatre sighed.
"Hold still�," the beautician told him, putting something on his eyelids.
Quatre obeyed. Then came his cheeks, his lips, and every other possible part of his face. When the lady was done, she leaned back to look at her handiwork. She smiled.
Quatre slowly opened his eyes. Twyla held up a mirror for him. Quatre looked.
What stared back at Quatre was�a very pretty little girl with large, luscious eyes and full, rosebud lips.
Quatre blinked. The girl blinked back.
"Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!"
"I know, isn�t this exciting?" Twyla asked, looking over his shoulder. Quatre really hated to realize this, but he looked even prettier than his sister.
Twyla happily paid the beautician and, grabbing Quatre�s hand, they left the beauty parlor together.
"Now, how about a haircut?" she asked.
"Nooooooooooo!" Quatre cried. He ran.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duo, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei were on their way to Home Depot. On the way they passed by HMV.
"Hey, look, they have our CD!" Duo cried, grabbing up a tacky orange album from the $4.99 bargain bin. Everyone gathered around to look.
On the cover of the CD was Duo standing on a stage with his mouth open wide, holding a mike against his lips with his shirt on the verge of being ripped off. Behind him was Quatre, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei, each playing their own musical instruments and striking a pose. Beside the title of "G-Boys" was the price sticker.
Price sticKERS, actually. The price originally started with $16.99, dropped to $13.99, then $9.99 and so on and so forth until its current price now.
Duo grinned happily and admired their own CD. Wufei, looking at the price tag, got insulted.
"How dare they put the price so low?" he said. People walking past looked at him weirdly, wondering at his strange question.
Wufei grabbed the CD and stormed into HMV.
"Hey, wait!" Duo called after him and ran inside.
Wufei had gone up to the counter. "I demand to see the manager!" he cried at the bored looking guy standing behind the counter. The guy shrugged and said the manager only worked weekdays.
"Then why is the price put so low?" Wufei asked, brandishing the CD like a weapon.
"C�mon, let�s go," Duo hissed, trying to tug Wufei away. People were beginning to stare.
Wufei ignored him. "I demand you raise the price, now!" he said.
The guy looked at the G-Boy�s CD, then said, "I can�t raise the price if the album sucks."
"WHAT? This album does not�" Wufei struggled with the American word, "�suck! Have you no honour in your system?" Wufei reached down to his waist for his sword, then, realizing that it wasn�t there, started to grab at the guy�s collar. Duo quickly dragged Wufei away and out of HMV.
"Remember? Home Depot! Home Depot!" Duo repeated the words over and over in Wufei�s face until he calmed down.
"Home Depot�," Wufei said, slowly remembering.
"Yes!" Duo said and, together, they hurried out of there, not wanting to get sued by HMV�s management. Heero and Trowa followed close behind. They ran around a corner.
BAM! Duo slammed into a girl and knocked her down.
"I�m sorry," Duo said, reaching down to help her up. Of what could be seen of the girl�s face through her mop of blond hair (she kept looking down in modesty), Duo could see that she was very pretty. A cute little flower hair-band adorned her head and she was dressed all in pink, although the style was a little on the baby side.
Duo gently helped her up and the girl started brushing herself off, still looking down. "Thank you," she said quietly, then looked up.
Wow, she was so beautiful, Duo thought. Even prettier than that cowgirl and Chun Li!
"Duo!" the girl cried, grabbing his arm and steering him away.
"Huh?" Duo asked. Usually, Duo was the one who did these things. Then, "How do you know my name?"
"Duo, it�s me!" the girl whispered, hiding behind Duo and looking over his shoulder.
Duo thought for a moment, scrolling through his past dates. He didn�t think he remembered someone who looked like her. He would�ve remembered anyone with looks like that! "Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked cautiously. He sure hoped he did.
"Oh, no, they�re here! I must hide!"
"Well, my friends and I are going to Home Depot. You could join us if you like."
To Duo�s delight, the girl quickly nodded and, together, all five of them went in the direction of Home Depot. As they went, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei eached looked at the girl intently. Duo, seeing them watching her, quickly grabbed the girl�s hand, as if to say "back off guys, she�s mine". Heero and Wufei shrugged while Trowa just snickered.
The girl seemed to stiffen at his touch but she was too much in a hurry to do anything. They ran into Home Depot together.
"So," Duo said conversationally, walking through the aisles and still holding her hand. The girl seemed to be squirming a lot. Maybe she was nervous at being in a hardware store. She didn�t look like she spent much time around mechanics much. He squeezed her hand to reassure her. The girl squeaked. "I don�t even know your name."
The girl looked at him in surprise. For some reason, she was beginning to look very familiar. "Duo�," she said. "It�s me, Quatre."
"Quatre, what a lovely nam---"
Duo did a double-take. Quatre blinked back.
Duo quickly shook off Quatre�s hand and Quatre more than happily took it back, wiping his hands fastidiously on his pink sweatpants. Duo did the same.
"What�what happened to you?" Duo asked, face burning red. Good thing the girl - no, Quatre! - was too busy looking down and tugging on her - no, his! - sweatshirt.
"My sisters have done this to me," Quatre said, looking away in shame.
"I can see that," Duo said, looking him up and down. Duo began walking farther and farther away from him. Quatre didn�t seem to notice.
"I don�t know what to do," Quatre said, clinging his head in frustration.
"Where�re your other clothes?" Duo asked from ten feet away.
"They�re gone." Quatre sighed, stopped, and started inspecting the nuts and bolts. He made a really odd spectacle.
"Well, we can�t leave until Wufei�s got his parts and you know how crazy he gets when he�s in here."
Quatre nodded, then started measuring several pieces of sheet metal. People walking past stared at him strangely.
Wufei walked by. "It looks like your little girlfriend has got some taste in the real things in life, unlike you," he said to Duo, critically eyeing the pieces of metal.
"Wufei, it�s Quatre."
Wufei stiffened. He looked at the supposed girl for a second, then said, "How have you been thus womanized?"
"It�s a long story," Quatre replied, and walked away. He was looking at screwdrivers.
Duo and Wufei shrugged, then did their own shopping around. After a designated time, everyone met at the cashier counter to pay for their things.
Heero had with him some sort of laser-light pointer that he experimentally flashed around along with power cords. Trowa had some odd pieces of stuff here and there that no one could see any use for, Duo had some stolen nuts and bolts hidden in his pockets, and Wufei had an entire shopping cart of stuff piled high to the ceiling. When the cashier asked him if he would like some help transporting it, Wufei gave him a long lecture on weakness and integrity. This happened just about every time.
Quatre carried his own neat little shopping bag full of stuff and, together, they left the hardware store, Quatre trying his best to hide in the centre of the group but it was hard when he was even pinker than Relena.
Somehow, seeing that Quatre was missing, his sisters had started some sort of sentry post, where each girl would stand at a corner of the mall, watching out for their little brother. Quatre huddled himself even smaller and hid behind Wufei�s stuff.
"So, where to?" Duo asked, getting bored.
"Home," Wufei and Quatre said at the same time, then looked at each other.
"Home it is," Duo said for everybody. He started walking away, then stopped. "Hey, wait, what about the girls---"
Each grabbing an arm, Quatre and Wufei hustled Duo to the mall doors and pushed him outside.
Their limousine was being towed away.
"Hey, wait!" Duo cried, nuts and bolts falling out of his pockets. He was about to turn back and pick them up, then changed his mind and ran to the limo. After taking two steps, he changed his mind again, then changed his mind again, then changed his mind�.
Quatre watched Duo run back and forth, getting nowhere. By the time Duo finally settled on the limousine, it had already driven away.
"Nooooooo!" Duo cried, falling to his knees. As a consolation, he surrounded himself with his nuts and bolts and just sat there. A piece of paper fluttered in the breeze and landed right in front of him. Duo, curious, picked it up.
It was a parking ticket.
"Nooooooo!" Duo cried again. He rocked back and forth for awhile, at a complete loss. "Now, what are we gonna do?"
"We walk," Wufei said, looking off into the distance. The breeze blew his hair, making him look like Christopher Colombus, ready to chart out unknown territory. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," he said as encouragement, then started walking away, carrying his piles of hardware with no apparent discomfort.
Everyone followed after, huffing and puffing.
Trowa smiled to himself, secretly glad that there would be no more driving.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the time they arrived at the G-Boy mansion, Duo and Quatre were near death, Heero and Trowa were red to looking unhealthy, while Wufei only had a light sheen of sweat covering his body.
"What a workout!" he cried, pumping his arms and walking to the door.
It opened by itself.
"Hi!" Quatre�s sisters all greeted them, looking as bright as new.
"How did�how did�?" Duo asked, collapsing on the grass.
"Oh, we met these young men nice enough to drive us home," said Valerianna, clasping her hands together. A look of love crossed her face.
"Darn," Duo muttered into the grass. He buried his face into the dirt, refusing to get up.
"Smile, Quatre," someone said.
Quatre looked up. A camera bulb flashed in his face and he blinked, surprised.
"Something to show all our relatives when we get home," said Mia, tucking the instant photo in her purse.
"Nooooooo!" Quatre cried. Following Duo�s example, he fell on the grass and refused to move.
He and Duo lay like that for the rest of the afternoon.
And here ends part five of the ongoing saga of Quatre's Sisters. More horrors await Duo and Quatre in their very own mansion. Will they make it through alive? Stay tuned for part six of...(dramatic music)...Quatre's Sisters!
Onto Part Six: The Plan
Back to "fan" fiction =P