The last one to survive gets a million dollars.
What do you get?
Survivor
Everything was calm for a few days after Heero left.
Until Duo's hair elastic broke.
"OW!" he cried when the hair elastic slapped his butt.
After the whole hunt-or-be-hunted episode, Quatre and Duo decided to make their campfire (actually, Quatre made it) out in the open, where no one could sneak up on them. So they chose the beach.
Quatre shook his head in his hands as Duo unselfconsciously scratched his butt in front of probably countless video cameras hidden in the trees. His face was scrunched up as he did it, trying to scratch and hold his braid closed at the same time. When he did that, he looked really, REALLY weird.
Of course, now that Heero wasn't a problem, Wufei had left to strike out on his own again. They hadn't seen him since.
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have an extra elastic, would you?" Duo asked as he continued scratching.
Quatre checked his pockets. Out came medical supplies, pencils, a notebook, a hat, bug spray, sun block, sunglasses, diary,... (this went on for several minutes).... Finally, "Sorry," he said. "No elastic."
Great, Duo thought, the kid brought everything that you could possibly think of BUT a single rubber band.
Oh, well. It's not like he thought of it either.
"Well, did you bring an icebox?"
Quatre shook his head, not getting the joke.
Now that Duo's hair was untied, it was beginning to splay rapidly.
"Why don't you try washing it?" Quatre suggested. As it unraveled, all manner of things started dropping out of it, buried in there for who knows how many centuries? When some of the things dropped, they started to crawl away.
"Wash my pride and joy?" Duo cried, stroking his hair like it was a mink coat. "You must be crazy!" His hair was really beginning to get everywhere now. Pretty soon, if he didn't do anything about it, he would look like a Chia pet.
"Well, I do have a pair of scissors if---"
"I'm washing it! I'm washing it!"
Duo had been at the oasis for an hour and he was still washing. More stuff came out and, thankfully, they sunk to the bottom, never to be seen by human eyes again. Quatre, not surprisingly, brought shampoo.
Now for the final, final rinse, Duo thought to himself. Maybe this washing hair business wasn't so bad after all.
When he was done, he flung his hair back to get it out of the way. Sparkling water droplets fell past his face and into the sky, making the world all shimmery.
Quatre, who had been by the ocean the entire time to put his belongings back in his pockets, now walked back to the oasis to see how Duo was doing.
When he got there, he stopped. He was entranced. Never in his life had he seen anything so beautiful.
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a towel with you, would you?" the beautiful creature asked.
Quatre quickly searched his pockets but the beauty just laughed, shaking its head, spreading droplets everywhere. A few landed on Quatre's face and he touched his cheek, awed.
"May I give you my handkerchief?" he asked instead, eager to please.
The creature actually accepted his gift and even thanked him. After wiping down its long tresses with graceful movements, it gave back Quatre's handkerchief. Quatre held it to his face and smelled. The scent was absolutely gorgeous.
After giving back Quatre's handkerchief, Duo paused and looked around. Now, what to do about his hair? He couldn't just leave it dangling. That just wouldn't be right.
He was about to ask Quatre for a comb when.... Quatre was holding his handkerchief against his face and rubbing it against his cheek. Okaaaaaaay. He didn't want to tell Quatre that there were still some bugs stuck in it. He seemed to be caught in a trance.
And why was he staring at him like that? What, so he's never seen him with his hair down before? Then again, Duo didn't think that he did, either.
He looked at his reflection in the water and grinned. A little strange-looking, but he would get used to it. He tried combing it out with his fingers.
"Allow me," Quatre said in his ear.
Woah! Surprised, Duo cart-wheeled his arms and nearly fell into the water but Quatre tugged on his belt and pulled him upright, putting them face to face. "Gee, thanks," Duo said.
Quatre smiled, his eyes slightly unfocused.
He was a little too close for comfort.
Of course, Quatre didn't notice. He was still smiling at him in that weird, Pillsbury-Dough-Boy kind of way.
"Well," Duo cleared his throat.
That seemed to snap Quatre out of it. Seemingly embarrassed, Quatre took out his comb. But he wouldn't give it to him.
"The comb?" Duo asked, holding out his hand.
Instead, Quatre pushed him down and started combing his hair for him. Okaaaaaaaaay. Well, he couldn't blame Quatre for wanting to comb his hair since Quatre did have twenty-nine older sisters and he was probably influenced by them. Poor boy.
Quatre was being as gentle as he could. The creature seemed scared by his approach and so he tried to make up for it by smoothing down its locks. It seemed to be humming a beautiful tune as he did it and, once again, Quatre smiled, and got lost in the moment.
When he was done, the creature stood up. It looked even more beautiful than ever, the sun shining on and highlighting its auburn hair in nice golden streaks.
"I'm hungry," it said.
Wow, Quatre was actually picking coconuts for him. He had been climbing up trees for the past half hour and Duo had to muffle his laughs with a quick clamp to the mouth, because Quatre wasn't very good at it. He watched as Quatre struggled up his most recent tree, hands carefully looking for holds while his feet clumsily brushed the bark away. After what seemed like forever, he finally made it to the top. He asked, "Which coconut would you like?"
Duo was about to answer "any old one", then stopped. Now might be a good time to have some fun.
"Um, can I have that one over there, the one by that brown-looking frond?" It was way on the other side of the tree.
"Okay, uh, I'll see what I can do," Quatre replied and started shuffling his slow way towards it. Quatre carefully reached out an arm but he missed it by a hair. He tried again, and the whole frond swayed dangerously under his weight.
Duo was betting with himself on the odds that Quatre would make it. He betted against it.
He was right.
"Got it," Quatre said triumphantly, looking to Duo in approval.
Then the branch he was under snapped.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeh!" Quatre squealed as he came plummeting towards the earth. He clung tightly to the palm frond as he fell. Luckily, the branch didn't completely break and he was left dangling on the tip, hanging on for dear life. He was still very far from the ground.
Duo, feeling a little guilty for getting Quatre into that situation, ran underneath him and held out his arms.
"Jump, Quatre! I'll break your fall!" He couldn't believe he just said that.
Quatre hesitated. "But..."
"Just jump!" Duo encouraged. He was afraid that if he waited any longer, he would chicken out and run.
Quatre gave him no time to prepare as he let go. Duo could only stare as Quatre's back grew larger and larger.
"Uh, oh."
He was knocked to the ground while Quatre landed on his chest like a sack of potatoes.
The last thing Duo saw before he fainted away was Quatre's head hovering over him and mouthing the words, "I'm sorry".
Duo opened his crusty eyes. The first thing he saw was a big Quatre head. "Where...?"
"Shhh," Quatre replied and put a finger to his lips, preventing Duo from saying more.
He tried to get up but all his bones seemed to hurt. Lying down was much easier.
The sky overhead was a nice red-purple, moving onto sunset. He tried to look around.
They weren't in the trees anymore. Instead, they appeared to be on the edge of a grassy cliff overlooking the sea below.
"Isn't it beautiful up here?" Quatre asked. He was sitting beside Duo, eyes closed and face to the wind.
"Um, yeah," Duo lied. It was hard to see lying down.
Quatre turned to smile at him and Duo shuddered.
"How did I get here?" Duo asked cautiously.
"I carried you," Quatre said dreamily, then left.
"Hey, wait!" Duo said, but Quatre didn't hear him. Instead, he was off somewhere picking flowers.
Duo didn't know what to do so he just lay there. At times when Duo was as weak as a baby and Quatre was lifting his friends like it meant nothing, things were definitely going wrong.
When Quatre had picked a bunch of wildflowers, he came over to Duo and held them out for him.
"For you," he said.
Duo just looked at them like they were poison ivy. He appreciated the sentiment but he wasn't exactly dead, yet. He shook his head.
Quatre didn't seem to mind. He started humming a little tune and knelt by Duo's head, picking the stems off the flowers one by one and arranging the blooms in Duo's hair.
Finally, Duo couldn't take it any longer.
"What in the world do you think you're doing?" Duo cried, shaking the flowers off his hair. He sat up and immediately regretted it as that action made him go dizzy.
"Oh, no, you musn't strain yourself like this," Quatre told him and tried to get him to lie back down but Duo just rolled away.
He rolled and he rolled, he didn't care where.
He rolled himself right off the cliff.
Duo was hanging onto the edge of the cliff with one arm. Then Quatre reached down and grabbed it. Duo screamed.
"Let go of me, you crazy lunatic!" he cried, not even thinking.
"I'll never let go, my dear, I'll never let go," Quatre said. They both stopped. How did the Titanic scene get in here?
Duo continued wrestling against Quatre. A few loose pebbles skittered off the edge and Duo watched them go.
It was the first time that he looked down.
"Aaarrgh! No, no, get me up, get me up!" Duo cried, instantly changing his mind.
Quatre effortlessly dragged him up and in the back of his mind, Duo was thinking, he was only waiting for my permission? and then he was up and over.
Safe, Duo thought.
Until he realized he was in Quatre's lap and Quatre was stroking his hair.
"Aaaaaaaahh!" He pushed Quatre away and ran into the forest.
"I'm coming for you, my sweet!" Quatre called and began chasing after him.
"Noooooo!" Duo cried when he tripped over a rock and fell. Duo tried to get up but an intense pain shot up his right leg.
Oh, great, he thought. Now, he couldn't walk.
"There you are," Quatre said when he found him.
Quatre reached out a hand to help him but Duo flinched away.
"I'm sorry," Quatre said. Then he knelt down and started digging through his pockets again. Out came his medical kit.
Duo snatched it from him and started rummaging through it while Quatre waited patiently, just inches away.
Duo found more or less what he was looking for, a beige tube unlike the other beige tubes stacked in there. He unscrewed the lid.
"No, wait, that's...."
He poured a big gunk of the stuff onto his palm. A slight tingling sensation occurred. He could do this without Quatre. He'd better.
He applied the gel all down his leg, rubbing it in. Everything was fine. "Ah," Duo sighed when his pain disappeared.
To be replaced by a new one.
"Owwwww!" he howled, cradling his burning leg. It felt as if his whole leg was on fire! "What is that stuff?" Duo cried, howling all the way. "I thought all medicine was good!"
"That's vitamin A acid cream," Quatre replied sadly. "Too much is bad for you."
"No, duh!" Duo cried. Tears were coming to his eyes but he fiercely held them in.
Too late. Quatre already saw.
"Oh, my," he said, shaking his head. He was undecided on whether he should give Duo a tissue first or some soothing ointment. Seeing Duo's glare, he opted for the ointment.
Duo grabbed it away before Quatre could do anything more and splashed it all over his leg. He sighed. Much better. Now the pain was just a dull throb.
"Can you get up?" Quatre asked, concerned.
Duo ignored Quatre's outstretched hand and tried pushing himself to his feet but his right leg felt like jelly.
"Oh, that's one of the side effects for mixing acid cream and ointments at the same time," Quatre told him belatedly.
Duo looked at him suspiciously, wondering if Quatre had done that to him on purpose. Just to...just to what?
Quatre offered him his shoulder and Duo gladly took it, despite his suspicions. They hobbled their slow way back to the beach. Quatre was holding him just a tad too tightly, Duo thought. Or maybe he was just being paranoid. There was that.
But Quatre was staring at his face the entire time, so maybe he wasn't.
They blessedly arrived at the beach and Quatre slowly let him down, much to his annoyance but there was nothing he could do about it.
They sat for awhile by the fire, Quatre staring at Duo and Duo trying his hardest to be looking somewhere else.
After a meal of berries and coconuts, Duo lay down beside the fire and prepared to get some sleep but he just couldn't. For one thing, Quatre was still staring at him.
"Don't the stars look beautiful tonight?" Duo asked, trying to get Quatre to be looking somewhere else.
Quatre looked up at the sky, on hearing the word "beautiful".
"Yes," he agreed, "but they are not as beautiful as you."
Duo grimaced. "What's up with you today?" he asked, frustrated as heck.
Quatre didn't seem to understand his question or he just chose to ignore it. "You cannot sleep," he said instead.
Well, of course not, Duo thought, not with him staring at him like that.
Quatre was about to move closer but Duo quickly asked, "You got any good bedtime stories?"
A thoughtful look moved across Quatre's face and he began digging through his pockets. Finally, he held out something that looked akin to an encyclopedia.
By the fire, Duo could just make out the words on the cover. 1001 Arabian Nights (condensed version). But of course.
"Where would you like me to start?" Quatre asked, eagerly flipping open its pages.
"Oh, why don't you decided?" Duo suggested.
"Okay," Quatre said. "I know a really good story on the four hundred and thirty-first night, if you like."
Duo waved his arm in acquiescence and Quatre began.
"On the four hundred thirty-first night...."
Duo began to nod off.
He was asleep before Quatre even finished the sentence.
Quatre looked down at his sleeping angel and smiled. It must be really tired after the long day and everything that they had went through.
He lay down close beside it and snuggled against its hair. My, what a nice scent.
He fell asleep dreaming about wonderful creatures in the trees and, in the center-most, his lovely angel.
Duo found, to his advantage, that he could order Quatre around now. The boy was practically following his every whim. Sure, he had to put up with Quatre's odd behaviour now and then but he basically sat when Duo told him to sit, and went away when Duo told him to, though never for very long. Duo always had the odd suspicion that Quatre was spying on him through the trees.
This went on for several days and Quatre very slowly went through 1001 Arabian Nights each time it got dark so that was okay. As long as he wasn't bugging him. Duo was stalling for time.
Duo could see the ship in the distance. Duo anticipated its arrival and with every moment that passed, Duo became more and more frantic.
Quatre, oddly enough, had no idea what was going on and when the little boat arrived to pick one person off their island, he put an arm around Duo's shoulders and started waving at in in welcome.
Wufei was there, too, and he was looking at Quatre and Duo's close contact with raised eyebrows but chose not to say anything.
"So, your vote?" the man asked briskly when he arrived.
"I would pick Trowa but I don't know where he is," Wufei replied. He looked to Duo for suggestions.
"I pick Quatre!" Duo said quickly, before Quatre could have any idea what was going on.
Quatre seemed to take his words the wrong way.
"You...you really pick me?" Quatre asked, sounding a little bashful. Uh, oh.
"Oh, my love!" he continued. "I knew we were meant to be together!"
Then Quatre started hugging him and putting his slobber all over Duo's face while the video cameraman zoomed in for a closer look.
"Get...get him off!" Duo cried, face as red as a tomato. The whole world was practically watching! There went Duo's reputation down the drain.
It took Wufei, the man, and the cameraman to pry Quatre's arms from Duo's neck and haul him to the boat.
"I...I love you!" Quatre called loudly as they rowed him away. The cameraman caught every word live on tape.
Quatre almost jumped out of the boat to swim back to him but Duo had given the men explicit instructions not to let Quatre do just that.
Quatre was getting farther and farther away. No doubt he was still proclaiming his undying love for Duo even as the cameraman continued taping, eager to get something into the tabloids.
Duo sighed and shook his head.
"What happened to your hair?" Wufei asked, tilting his head.
"Nooooooo, get away from me!"
Duo ran into the trees.
Fire!