When Duo and Quatre finally filed up the stairs, everybody was asleep. Which was a good thing. Duo found to his disappointment that Quatre’s sisters locked their doors before they went to bed. Wufei usually locked his, too, but since he now had no door, Duo and Quatre just waltzed inside.
Duo was unfortunate enough to go in first so he didn’t see the body lying across the doorway. Obviously, he tripped over it.
It was Trowa. Trowa snorted and turned himself over, still asleep. His humoungous trampoline lay beside him, safe from harm.
Duo’s hands had brushed a few of the door’s splinters still lying on the floor and he cried out but Quatre hushed him and pointed to the big oak bed. Duo got the picture and quietly stood up, but then his foot brushed against another splinter.
Quatre clamped a hand above Duo’s mouth as Duo gasped in pain. Duo bit down to prevent himself from screaming.
Quatre made a soundless cry as Duo bit his hand. Duo quickly clamped his own hand over Quatre’s mouth and Quatre bit down to stop from crying out. They continued biting each other’s hands for a moment, then finally, in an odd shuffling movement, made their slow way towards the bathroom, Duo hobbling along on one foot. When they reached the bathroom, they slammed the door.
“Aaaaaah,” Duo gasped, cradling his bleeding hands and a bleeding foot.
“Aaaaaah,” Quatre sighed as he held his bleeding palm towards him. There were two puncture holes where Duo’s tiger teeth had bit.
Duo lay on his side on the floor, moaning in pain. “I’m sorry,” Quatre told him.
“I’m sorry too,” Duo said. They both forgave each other, then Quatre began searching through Wufei’s cupboards for some medical supplies.
He was in luck. Wufei’s vigorous self-training required him to keep a large stock of bandages and such so Quatre carefully pulled out a few, all the time remembering Wufei’s rule of not touching his stuff. Then he started thinking of what punishment went with that rule and he shivered but this was unavoidable. He told Duo to go wash his hands and his feet and Duo groaned but obeyed.
When Quatre and Duo were all patched up, Quatre told Duo to go out because he needed to use the bathroom. Duo more than happily agreed and crawled his way towards his little corner. But, for some reason, he wasn’t sleepy.
Where was Heero? The part of the room where he should have been asleep was empty. Duo shrugged. Probably off on one of his imaginary missions again.
He knew he shouldn’t have, but he was really curious as to how Wufei slept so he hobbled his way to the foot of the large, oak bed.
Woah! Was that Wufei or was that a corpse? Wufei was lying on his back on the hardwood bed, legs together and arms crossed above his chest, wearing his silky red pajamas. He was absolutely still, to the point of almost not breathing. He looked like a vampire in a coffin. Duo shivered.
Quatre came out of the bathroom wearing his pink pj’s.
“Pink?” Duo whispered, raising an eyebrow.
“My sisters,” Quatre said automatically, then prepared to go to sleep. Quatre looked at all the unfolded shirts around him. They had become messed up again. Quatre sighed, unrolled his neat little sleeping bag, and prepared to catch some winks before the sun came up. Then he could start refolding again.
Duo went into the bathroom and was about to start on his hygienic duties, then realized that his stuff wasn’t there. Toothbrush, towel, they had all been left in his own room. To be put on display. Duo shrugged. It was worth it.
Randomly grabbing someone’s cup and toothbrush, he started brushing his teeth. Then he washed his face and looked in the mirror. Darn! Was that going to be a zit on his chin? He considered poking at it, but Quatre said that poking left scars so he just left it as it was and changed into his darth vader pajamas. Then he lay down in his corner amidst all his junk and fell asleep, hugging his braid.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wufei woke up at the crack of dawn, as he usually did. He raised himself by a sit-up, the way he always got up from bed, then stretched, popping several bones with a satisfying snap. He looked around. He had almost forgotten that his room was now a host to a bunch of weaklings. Of course they were still asleep so he rolled out of bed and walked over to his shrine. If he felt anything at all stepping on those splinters, he didn’t show it. He kneeled down and prayed to his ancestors in his early morning ritual.
That done, he glanced around his room in disgust. That idiot Maxwell was lying all over his precious silk draperies, contaminating them with his presence. He walked over to him and began pushing the lug away from the wall but Duo was hugging the silk tight, refusing to let go. Wufei gave up, as he didn’t want to tear down his silk hangings, and went into the bathroom.
Everything looked just about right, and he grabbed up his cup and toothbrush and started brushing…then stopped. Something seemed odd.
He looked at the toothbrush in his hands, baton-twirling it around and inspecting it. Was that a bristle out of place? He gave it a little sniff, then shrugged and continued brushing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duo woke up when someone kicked him.
“Time to get up, lazy-bones, and enjoy the new day!” It was Wufei.
Duo groaned and rolled over. He tried to go to sleep again but he was too hungry and Wufei was still kicking him. So he got to his feet and…whoops! Was that a drool mark that he had left on Wufei’s silks? Duo looked at the darker patch against the dark hangings and wondered if Wufei would notice. He glanced at him in worry.
Wufei was already in his workout clothes and now he was vigorously pumping his arms with his little springy tool. Duo got scared, watching Wufei’s muscles bulge.
“So,” Wufei asked, pumping right in Duo’s face, “did you enjoy your little expedition last night?”
“Um…,” Duo glanced down at the little dark stain, then quickly looked away to divert Wufei’s attention. Wufei didn’t seem to notice. “How about that dragon?” Duo asked instead.
“Oh, that?” Wufei asked, beaming at his tapestry in pride and not missing a beat. Wufei continued pumping and started talking about his line of warrior ancestors, starting from cavemen times. By the time he was done, Quatre and Trowa had each already waken up and went to the bathroom and now they were standing around, not knowing what to do.
Wufei was onto the feats of the great Genghis Khan when Trowa finally interrupted and said, “Let’s go eat.”
Duo and Quatre quickly agreed, Wufei shrugged, and they all filed down the stairs and into the kitchen. Duo and Quatre’s stomachs were really growling loudly by now.
Wufei opened the cupboards and started taking out packets of cereal.
“WHAT?!” Quatre and Duo cried.
Wufei looked at them, then said, “What is the matter?”
Duo pointed a shaking finger at the cereal, then ran towards Wufei and grabbed it away from him. He started shoving handfuls of cereal into his mouth on the double.
Quatre opened up the cupboards and looked inside. There was enough cereal to last them through the next autumnal equinox.
“Why didn’t you tell us?!” they both asked Trowa.
Trowa looked at them and shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
“You,” Duo said, pointing to Trowa, “are good.” Then he emptied the entire box and started looking for more.
Wufei stood beside Trowa and shook his head in resignation. “You’d think they hadn’t eaten in days.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Relena was really excited about meeting Heero. She hadn’t seen him all week so she decided to pay a visit to the G-boy’s mansion, just to see how things were going. Stopping in front of the house, she thanked the chauffeur and daintily stepped out of the Barbie-pink limo.
Inspecting her reflection in the side-view mirrors, Relena made last minute adjustments to her already perfect hair and walked up to the door, ready to give Heero a big hug. She rang the doorbell and waited.
And waited.
Why wasn’t anybody answering? She stood around worriedly for a second, then finally gave up and started heading back towards her limo.
Someone finally opened the door. It was Wufei. He was holding a box of cereal in his hands, shoving Lucky Charms into his mouth and chewing with his mouth open. Relena shivered.
“Is Heero there?” she asked cautiously.
Wufei stared at her for awhile, then yelled into the house, “Heero! It’s the woman!”
Relena sniffed and crossed her arms. Heero really ought to teach his friends some manners!
Heero came to the door, looking frazzled. “What do you want?” he asked.
“Oh, Heero! I just wanted to say that…,” Relena stepped closer to give him a hug, then stopped. A very beautiful girl wearing only a bathrobe was walking down the stairs behind him.
“Oh, thank you very much for doing us that favour,” she said as she walked past and gave Heero’s hair a rub. Heero nodded.
Relena stopped in her tracks, mouth hanging open in an “O”. If Duo were there, he would have said it was a Kodak moment. “Heero…who is that woman?”
“That’s Wanda. She’s living with us,” he answered stiffly.
“She’s…she’s living with you?” Relena stuttered. “But…oh, Heero! How could you?” Then she twirled about and ran back to her limousine.
Heero shrugged, then closed the door.
“What were you doing last night?” Wufei asked him.
Heero stared back at him for awhile, then said, “I was buying delicates.”
Wufei thought for a moment, then his face burned red. “Women!” he cried and walked back to the kitchen.
Heero shrugged. It had been a fairly important mission, and now it was accomplished.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Bye!” Quatre’s sisters all cried as they piled into the waiting limo. They each gave Quatre a big hug before they left (and Duo, too, because he insisted) and the boys all watched them first fight to see who would get in the limo first, then Duo came over and became a traffic director so now it was okay.
Mia waved out the window at them. “Thanks for the photo, Quatre!” she called. “I’ll always remember you this way!”
“The photo!” Quatre gasped, then ran over to the limousine. “Wait!” he called. He leaned on the door and said, “About that photo….”
“What, this?” Mia asked holding up a picture. It was Quatre, all right. But it was Quatre the boy, not Quatre the girl. “How…?”
Duo looked at him and grinned. Quatre smiled gratefully and Duo looked into the sky and started whistling with his hands in his pockets. That Duo, sometimes he….
“Bye!” Quatre’s sisters called one last time and they drove off, finally ending their visit and leaving for the airport.
Everyone sighed in relief except for Duo. He just continued whistling with his hands in his pockets, something that he always did when he committed a crime. But this time, one for the better.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mia was sitting in the airplane and rifling through her purse. Running across Quatre’s picture, she smiled, gave it a little kiss, then continued looking for her things. Where was her lipstick?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duo fiddled with the lipstick container in his pocket, then drew it out and gave it a look. It had a nice golden rose on the cover and he pulled off the lid, then gave it a whiff. Aaaaaah, what a nice scent. Now, Kayla would always be with him forever. Or was it Mia? Oh, well. Same thing.
“MAAAAXWEELLLL!!!”
Duo winced. What now?
“MY SILK DRAPES! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”
Ooops! It looks as if Wufei finally figured it out after all. Duo started looking for a place to hide. Some things never changed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quatre was getting deja vu. Again. He watched as Wufei stormed down the stairs, holding his sword above his head and yelling some indecipherable swear words. This time, Quatre stayed where he was. He sighed in weariness. He was getting too old for this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After locking Duo out again for breaking ALL of his rules, Wufei decided that Duo had had enough punishment. Duo was more than happy to move back into his own room.
Wufei never did find out about his toothbrush.
The End
=P
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