(no subject)
Pairing(s): 13x6x13 (pre-established), 2+1, more to come
Warnings: none, really... they're still majorly OOC... Oh. This was written between 3 and 4 am yesterday, So I'm not sure how coherent it is.
Link to Prologue
Link to Part I
Link to Part II
Part III
[New York]
Sitting in traffic just north of the City limits, Duo was once again reminded of his intense dislike of New York’s traffic, be it inner-city or on the main highways in and out of the city. These people were insane. And a good half of them never should have been given a license, they were that incompetent.
Impatient to finally get to Trowa’s apartment, he turned up his radio and rechecked his directions. Thus far he’d managed to find everything ok, but he knew the outer boroughs of New York City were confusing as rabbit warrens, with their one way streets and oddly placed exit ramps.
Trowa’s place was likely not going to be that hard to find once he finally got to the right part of Queens. Duo snorted. What kind of a name is Queens for a part of New York City? Who came up with these ridiculous names?
At last the traffic snarl began to move again, and Duo gratefully took the chance to take his exit and get the hell out of there. Twenty minutes later he was pulling into the parking garage Trowa had recommended, pulling out his cell, as he cruised looking for a space, to let Trowa know he’d arrived.
“Honey, I’m hooo~~me.”
Trowa’s dry voice answered, “Hello to you too, Duo.” Trowa was almost audibly rolling his eyes.
“You don’t sound happy to hear from me. Maybe I should just turn back now.”
“What, and miss out on meeting someone new to torment?”
“Tro, I’m hurt. You’ve replaced me so soon?”
“Replaced? No… forgotten.”
Pulling into an empty spot, Duo mock swooned, “Trowa, you wound me. You’ve cut me to the quick. Oh, happy dagger, here is thy sheath.”
Trowa chuckled. “Quit being so melodramatic, Juliet. Now. I managed to convince my friend Heero to join us, so behave.”
“Me? Behave? You must be joking.”
“I never joke.”
Duo about fell over laughing at that one. “Nice try, Tro,” he said, shutting his car door, and locking it, “I think I’ll just bring my things with me rather than leaving them in the car…”
“I don’t have overly much storage space in my glorified shoebox, but that would be wisest. The elevators in the back of the garage will take you to street level. I’ll meet you there.” With that, Trowa hung up.
Duo stared blankly at his phone for a moment before opening the trunk of his car and pulling out a battered black duffel bag. “Fresh meat, eh? Meeting this ‘Heero’ ought to be interesting…”
Taking the elevator down, as he’d been told, Duo sat down on a nearby planter to wait for Trowa. He didn’t have to wait long.
“There you are, Tro! I thought I was going to die of starvation before you showed!”
Trowa rolled his eyes and pulled his friend into a hug. “Good to see you, too.” The greeting over, Trowa turned and began walking in the direction of his apartment, motioning to Duo to follow.
“Man. The traffic into the City was horrendous as always. I’ve once again decided I’m not making that drive again if I can possibly avoid it.”
“Well… you could have taken the train in. I’d have picked you up.”
“That’s beside the point.”
“Riiight. Duo-logic again, I presume?”
“Exactly. I always knew you were a smart one.”
Drily, Trowa replied, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Leading Duo in the front doors of his apartment building, and ignoring the elevators, Trowa headed straight for the stairwell.
Duo groaned. “Troooowa…”
Trowa turned to face him. “What? Afraid of a few stairs? They don’t bite, I promise.” Trowa patted the handrail as he spoke.
“You frighten me at times, you know that, right?”
“Of course. You’ve said so many times. It’s part of the reason we get along so well. Now, come on. It’s only two flights. It’s good for you. You just spent the last three and a half hours sitting on your butt driving.”
Duo sighed. “Fine, fine. You win,” he grumbled, “you slave driver.”
Trowa raised an elegant eyebrow, “A slave driver, am I? You’ll just love to hate Heero, then.”
“Anal?”
A nod.
“Perfectionist?”
An emphatic nod.
“Silent and moody?”
Another nod.
Duo groaned. Today was not his day. He started climbing the stairs after Trowa, grumbling something less than complimentary about slave drivers and their pain in the neck friends. Trowa merely smirked at him and kept climbing.
Opening the door at the top of the second flight of stairs and holding it for Duo, Trowa walked confidently down the hall and pulled his key out of his back pocket… or tried to. He gave Duo a look that said ‘you-have-it-give-it-back-or-I’ll-sic-something-bad-on-you’, and calmly held out a hand, palm up.
Duo gave him an insouciant grin and produced the key with a flourish. “There you are, my good man.”
“Duo, one of these days…”
Duo grinned. “You say the sweetest things. Treize beat you to it though. Threatened me with a long and painful death the other day.”
Trowa’s mouth twitched as he hid a grin. “That so?”
Duo nodded. “I don’t lie. You know that.”
Opening the door, Trowa quipped, “No. You don’t. That’s true. But you have been known to be selective with details. Oy! Heero? Where are you?”
“Hn. Right here.”
Duo couldn’t help it. He stared. Trowa smirked. “This is Duo. He’s staying for the weekend unless something horribly pressing comes up.”
Heero nodded, looking Duo over slowly, then he walked over and shook Duo’s offered hand. “Trowa’s said a lot about you.”
“How sweet of him. Good things, I hope.”
“Duo, you and the word good rarely fit together in the same line,” came Trowa’s reply.
“It’s part of my charm.”
“Hn. What charm?”
“Oy! We’ve barely met and he’s already making fun of me?! Trowa, you put him up to this, I know it!”
“Who? Me?” Trowa put on his most innocent face. “You think I would do such a thing?”
“I certainly wouldn’t put it past you.”
Trowa smirked at him. “Call it pre-emptive revenge for your picking my pockets on the way up here. Heero, beware your possessions. This lightfingers will lift things for amusement and to ‘keep his hand in’, as he rather accurately puts it.”
Duo buried his face in his palms. They were ganging up on him. Now what?! He sighed. Not only did Heero tease him from the moment the door opened, he also had to look like something out of Duo’s dreams. With my luck he’ll turn out to be straight as an arrow and taken. Best not to get my hopes up. Someone that gorgeous is almost certainly not single. Wait, what the Hell am I thinking?! This is Mister Anal-Perfectionist. I can’t stand people like that. Why would… Someone was clearing their throat. Realising that Trowa had asked him a question while he wasn’t paying attention Duo looked down, embarrassed.
“Uhm, what was the question?”
Trowa sighed. “Duo, you’re impossible. I asked what you wanted to do this weekend.”
All Trowa got out of his usually eloquent loquacious friend was a shrug. “Dunno. I was actually hoping to just get away from things for a coupla days and relax.”
“Hmmm. I think we can manage that. Any specific requests?”
“Maybe a trip to the bookstore and the cool place near here that sells used records?”
An approving gleam in his eye, Trowa smirked. “I don’t see why not. Heero, would you like to tag along?”
An apathetic shrug. “Hn. Perhaps to the bookstore, but I have no use for records.”
“That’s settled then. I’d suggest we do that tomorrow, as it’s getting dark now, and I’m sure you’re hungry, Duo.”
As if in response Duo’s stomach growled. Trowa laughed. “I guess that answers that question. Come help me cook, Duo.”
Grumbling yet again, but good-naturedly this time, Duo followed Trowa into the kitchen. “I swear, you only invited me here to make use of my cooking skills,” he trailed off as they entered the kitchen and the intervening walls muffled his voice a bit.
Heero sat down in the small livingroom, though whether it could be called such was debatable, and mused quietly on this friend of Trowa’s. There’s something strange about him I can’t quite put my finger on, the programmer thought to himself. He’s just tooo… beautiful? No… Fey… to be real. I wonder……
Trowa’s voice floated out to him. “Hey Heero? What do you want for dinner? We have the supplies for lasagna, Thai peanut pasta, or eggplant parmesan.”
Heero only had to think a moment before replying succinctly, “Thai.” Trowa’s Thai peanut pasta was so good it was nearly legendary in the neighborhood. Everyone wanted the recipe and had at some point tried to imitate it, but Trowa wasn’t giving out his secret recipe, and thus far, at least to Heero’s knowledge, no one had succeeded in replicating the dish.
Duo laughed, the sounds floating out to Heero clearly and cleanly and seeming oddly multitonal. As though he were laughing with more than one voice. “I guess he really does know you, Tro.” Duo added, “Only someone acquainted with you for quite a while would know about this famous dish of yours.”
Trowa rolled his eyes. “You are incorrigible and a bird of harlequin feathers.”
“Why, thank you Tro, I didn’t realize you cared.”
Heero interjected, “I doubt he cares beyond making certain you don’t blow up his kitchen.”
“HEY!” Duo shot out of the kitchen, indignant, and fully intending to make his ire known. Heero simply smirked at him. Something in the smirk must have said, ‘I-don’t-care-what-you-do-to-me-I-can-do-as-bad-or-worse’, because Duo’s dangerous glare softened into incredulity. He’s not afraid of me?! Well. That’s a first… No one else I’ve met in the last hundred or so years has had the guts not to be afraid of me during the first meeting. But, of course, they all knew what I was… Hm. I wonder what else he has hidden beneath that stoic exterior besides nerves… and, from the looks of it, muscles… of steel.
Heero watched the emotions flit across Duo’s expressive face, and hid his smug satisfaction behind his infuriating smirk. “What’s the matter Duo? Cat got your tongue?” He teased, watching Duo grow angry again at the blow to his pride, however slight. He stuck his tongue out at Heero and turned to rejoin Trowa in the kitchen… and heard Heero call after him, “Don’t stick that out if you don’t plan on using it.”
“Oh, I’ll use it. Don’t you worry Heero.” If only I could use it to… No. Not going there.
Trowa listened to his guests bicker and squabble, knowing it was all only play. What intrigued him was that Heero had taken such an immediate liking to Duo. He only showed this side to his closest friends. Among others it was rumored he had all the emotions and sense of humor of a rock.
Duo walked back into the kitchen, and sat down heavily at the tiny table for a moment, burying his head in his hands. “What have I gotten myself into?”
“A mess, as usual. I’m not cleaning it up for you.” A snort. “Hell, I think he likes you, Duo.”
“Him? Like me? Tchyeah. Right. When Hell freezes over. He’s barely said one kind word to me since I arrived, and that was his greeting. If one can call that a greeting.”
Trowa snickered. “Still judging people by their façades, are you, Duo? I thought you’d learned better.”
“Tro, I would think you know quite well why.”
“No, in fact I don’t.”
Duo sighed. “I’ll tell you later, then.”
“Fine. Later, then. But in the meantime I expect you to give me some news of Trieze and Zechsy.”
Duo grinned. “So you agree he should be called Zechsy, eh?” A short laugh. “Well, they’re both fine, and about as into one another as ever. They quite literally nearly ignored me in favor of tearing off one another’s clothes last time I visited.” Duo snickered.
“Yare yare. Some things never change, and those two are about as shameless as they come.”
“Shameless as they come, indeed.”
“Duo!” Trowa spluttered before doubling over laughing. “That was terrible.”
“But funny.” Duo grinned, mock-buffing his nails on his shirt.
Trowa could only shake his head sadly as he turned back to his cooking. “There are no words, Duo.”
“Good! The day someone has the words to label me and stick me in a box, will be the day I die and they can label me dead.”
“That’s morbid, Duo.”
“Maybe, but it’s true… or, rather, as true as I can make it.”
Trowa silently wondered about that change in wording, but let it slide, concentrating instead on serving up the finished pasta and bringing it out to the livingroom. “Duo, would you grab us cutlery?”
Without waiting for an answer, Trowa walked out of the kitchen and handed Heero a plate. Duo shrugged and did as asked, partly because it seemed he had no choice if he wanted to eat, and he was hungry.
The other two were seated on the floor around Trowa’s coffeetable, waiting for him. Duo presented the cutlery to host and guest and then sat down. Heero eyed the tiny golden cross Duo wore. Raising and eyebrow he asked, “You religious?”
Duo laughed. “Nah, I keep it for sentimental reasons. Let’s eat.”
Dinner was a fairly quiet affair, relatively speaking, with Duo cracking jokes at the others’ expense, and the other two quietly eating and ignoring the cracks.
Once they finally tired enough to sleep, Trowa dug out the sleeping bags he kept stashed away for precisely this kind of quasi-sleepover, and invited his two guests to make themselves comfortable. Heero wryly accepted, wondering aloud that he could just go home and sleep in his bed, and being promptly overruled. Having no other option that would offend someone he rolled his eyes and gave in, laying claim to most of the available floor space. Trowa watched, amused as the two of them started to bicker and squabble over just how precisely the floor would be divvied out, and snickered a little before turning and wandering off to brush his teeth and pull his pyjamas on. Let them squabble. It means I can have the bathroom to myself.
~+~+~+~
[Trois-Rivières , breakfast]
Blinking sleepily, Wufei wandered downstairs, homing in on the smell of coffee perking. Quatre watched, amused, as he veered off at the last moment, and pulled his usual green tea out of the cupboard instead.
“Good morning to you too, Wufei.” He got an unintelligible mumble in reply, as Wufei set about sleepily making his morning tea.
“Did you sleep well?” Another mumble. Quatre interpreted this one to mean, ‘Yes, thanks.’ “Good to know.” Taking another sip of coffee, Quatre stared meditatively at the wall for a minute, letting Wufei get his bearings.
Once his friend was a little more awake, Quatre asked, “Soo… how do you think we should go about finding out if vampires exist?”
Wufei nearly choked on his tea. “You still hung up on that?” He asked, now more or less fully awake.
Quatre simply nodded. “You know me. I can’t stand loose ends.”
Wufei sighed. He did know. Such things drove Quatre up the walls. It was inevitable. “I would suggest simply asking him.”
Now it was Quatre’s turn to choke and splutter for a moment. “You think he would answer?”
“He would be bound by honour and honesty to answer. He lacks neither of those two qualities. And I have a feeling he would appreciate the candour of such an approach.”
Quatre nodded thoughtfully. “You might well be right.”
Smugly, “Of course, I’m right.” Wufei laughed outright when Quatre made a face at him.
The matter decided, they finished a leisurely breakfast, and then parted ways to begin their separate routines, Quatre sitting down to begin his day’s work, and Wufei making his way outside to practice his katas.
~+~+~+~
[Charlottetown]
Treize and Zechs had spent the day relaxing, alternately swimming in their indoor pool, wrestling, and doing other quasi-related things. They stopped their enjoyment of the waters, and each other, to eat and to wash the chlorine residue out of their hair.
However, unbeknownst to them, excitement and a flurry of activity awaited them once they woke the next morning, and checked their e-mail… There was a message from Duo…
~+~+~+~
Comments, suggestions, and critiques always welcome.
... And now... Bed. I'm tired. *falls over* Hope y'all liked the part.
Warnings: none, really... they're still majorly OOC... Oh. This was written between 3 and 4 am yesterday, So I'm not sure how coherent it is.
Link to Prologue
Link to Part I
Link to Part II
Part III
[New York]
Sitting in traffic just north of the City limits, Duo was once again reminded of his intense dislike of New York’s traffic, be it inner-city or on the main highways in and out of the city. These people were insane. And a good half of them never should have been given a license, they were that incompetent.
Impatient to finally get to Trowa’s apartment, he turned up his radio and rechecked his directions. Thus far he’d managed to find everything ok, but he knew the outer boroughs of New York City were confusing as rabbit warrens, with their one way streets and oddly placed exit ramps.
Trowa’s place was likely not going to be that hard to find once he finally got to the right part of Queens. Duo snorted. What kind of a name is Queens for a part of New York City? Who came up with these ridiculous names?
At last the traffic snarl began to move again, and Duo gratefully took the chance to take his exit and get the hell out of there. Twenty minutes later he was pulling into the parking garage Trowa had recommended, pulling out his cell, as he cruised looking for a space, to let Trowa know he’d arrived.
“Honey, I’m hooo~~me.”
Trowa’s dry voice answered, “Hello to you too, Duo.” Trowa was almost audibly rolling his eyes.
“You don’t sound happy to hear from me. Maybe I should just turn back now.”
“What, and miss out on meeting someone new to torment?”
“Tro, I’m hurt. You’ve replaced me so soon?”
“Replaced? No… forgotten.”
Pulling into an empty spot, Duo mock swooned, “Trowa, you wound me. You’ve cut me to the quick. Oh, happy dagger, here is thy sheath.”
Trowa chuckled. “Quit being so melodramatic, Juliet. Now. I managed to convince my friend Heero to join us, so behave.”
“Me? Behave? You must be joking.”
“I never joke.”
Duo about fell over laughing at that one. “Nice try, Tro,” he said, shutting his car door, and locking it, “I think I’ll just bring my things with me rather than leaving them in the car…”
“I don’t have overly much storage space in my glorified shoebox, but that would be wisest. The elevators in the back of the garage will take you to street level. I’ll meet you there.” With that, Trowa hung up.
Duo stared blankly at his phone for a moment before opening the trunk of his car and pulling out a battered black duffel bag. “Fresh meat, eh? Meeting this ‘Heero’ ought to be interesting…”
Taking the elevator down, as he’d been told, Duo sat down on a nearby planter to wait for Trowa. He didn’t have to wait long.
“There you are, Tro! I thought I was going to die of starvation before you showed!”
Trowa rolled his eyes and pulled his friend into a hug. “Good to see you, too.” The greeting over, Trowa turned and began walking in the direction of his apartment, motioning to Duo to follow.
“Man. The traffic into the City was horrendous as always. I’ve once again decided I’m not making that drive again if I can possibly avoid it.”
“Well… you could have taken the train in. I’d have picked you up.”
“That’s beside the point.”
“Riiight. Duo-logic again, I presume?”
“Exactly. I always knew you were a smart one.”
Drily, Trowa replied, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Leading Duo in the front doors of his apartment building, and ignoring the elevators, Trowa headed straight for the stairwell.
Duo groaned. “Troooowa…”
Trowa turned to face him. “What? Afraid of a few stairs? They don’t bite, I promise.” Trowa patted the handrail as he spoke.
“You frighten me at times, you know that, right?”
“Of course. You’ve said so many times. It’s part of the reason we get along so well. Now, come on. It’s only two flights. It’s good for you. You just spent the last three and a half hours sitting on your butt driving.”
Duo sighed. “Fine, fine. You win,” he grumbled, “you slave driver.”
Trowa raised an elegant eyebrow, “A slave driver, am I? You’ll just love to hate Heero, then.”
“Anal?”
A nod.
“Perfectionist?”
An emphatic nod.
“Silent and moody?”
Another nod.
Duo groaned. Today was not his day. He started climbing the stairs after Trowa, grumbling something less than complimentary about slave drivers and their pain in the neck friends. Trowa merely smirked at him and kept climbing.
Opening the door at the top of the second flight of stairs and holding it for Duo, Trowa walked confidently down the hall and pulled his key out of his back pocket… or tried to. He gave Duo a look that said ‘you-have-it-give-it-back-or-I’ll-sic-something-bad-on-you’, and calmly held out a hand, palm up.
Duo gave him an insouciant grin and produced the key with a flourish. “There you are, my good man.”
“Duo, one of these days…”
Duo grinned. “You say the sweetest things. Treize beat you to it though. Threatened me with a long and painful death the other day.”
Trowa’s mouth twitched as he hid a grin. “That so?”
Duo nodded. “I don’t lie. You know that.”
Opening the door, Trowa quipped, “No. You don’t. That’s true. But you have been known to be selective with details. Oy! Heero? Where are you?”
“Hn. Right here.”
Duo couldn’t help it. He stared. Trowa smirked. “This is Duo. He’s staying for the weekend unless something horribly pressing comes up.”
Heero nodded, looking Duo over slowly, then he walked over and shook Duo’s offered hand. “Trowa’s said a lot about you.”
“How sweet of him. Good things, I hope.”
“Duo, you and the word good rarely fit together in the same line,” came Trowa’s reply.
“It’s part of my charm.”
“Hn. What charm?”
“Oy! We’ve barely met and he’s already making fun of me?! Trowa, you put him up to this, I know it!”
“Who? Me?” Trowa put on his most innocent face. “You think I would do such a thing?”
“I certainly wouldn’t put it past you.”
Trowa smirked at him. “Call it pre-emptive revenge for your picking my pockets on the way up here. Heero, beware your possessions. This lightfingers will lift things for amusement and to ‘keep his hand in’, as he rather accurately puts it.”
Duo buried his face in his palms. They were ganging up on him. Now what?! He sighed. Not only did Heero tease him from the moment the door opened, he also had to look like something out of Duo’s dreams. With my luck he’ll turn out to be straight as an arrow and taken. Best not to get my hopes up. Someone that gorgeous is almost certainly not single. Wait, what the Hell am I thinking?! This is Mister Anal-Perfectionist. I can’t stand people like that. Why would… Someone was clearing their throat. Realising that Trowa had asked him a question while he wasn’t paying attention Duo looked down, embarrassed.
“Uhm, what was the question?”
Trowa sighed. “Duo, you’re impossible. I asked what you wanted to do this weekend.”
All Trowa got out of his usually eloquent loquacious friend was a shrug. “Dunno. I was actually hoping to just get away from things for a coupla days and relax.”
“Hmmm. I think we can manage that. Any specific requests?”
“Maybe a trip to the bookstore and the cool place near here that sells used records?”
An approving gleam in his eye, Trowa smirked. “I don’t see why not. Heero, would you like to tag along?”
An apathetic shrug. “Hn. Perhaps to the bookstore, but I have no use for records.”
“That’s settled then. I’d suggest we do that tomorrow, as it’s getting dark now, and I’m sure you’re hungry, Duo.”
As if in response Duo’s stomach growled. Trowa laughed. “I guess that answers that question. Come help me cook, Duo.”
Grumbling yet again, but good-naturedly this time, Duo followed Trowa into the kitchen. “I swear, you only invited me here to make use of my cooking skills,” he trailed off as they entered the kitchen and the intervening walls muffled his voice a bit.
Heero sat down in the small livingroom, though whether it could be called such was debatable, and mused quietly on this friend of Trowa’s. There’s something strange about him I can’t quite put my finger on, the programmer thought to himself. He’s just tooo… beautiful? No… Fey… to be real. I wonder……
Trowa’s voice floated out to him. “Hey Heero? What do you want for dinner? We have the supplies for lasagna, Thai peanut pasta, or eggplant parmesan.”
Heero only had to think a moment before replying succinctly, “Thai.” Trowa’s Thai peanut pasta was so good it was nearly legendary in the neighborhood. Everyone wanted the recipe and had at some point tried to imitate it, but Trowa wasn’t giving out his secret recipe, and thus far, at least to Heero’s knowledge, no one had succeeded in replicating the dish.
Duo laughed, the sounds floating out to Heero clearly and cleanly and seeming oddly multitonal. As though he were laughing with more than one voice. “I guess he really does know you, Tro.” Duo added, “Only someone acquainted with you for quite a while would know about this famous dish of yours.”
Trowa rolled his eyes. “You are incorrigible and a bird of harlequin feathers.”
“Why, thank you Tro, I didn’t realize you cared.”
Heero interjected, “I doubt he cares beyond making certain you don’t blow up his kitchen.”
“HEY!” Duo shot out of the kitchen, indignant, and fully intending to make his ire known. Heero simply smirked at him. Something in the smirk must have said, ‘I-don’t-care-what-you-do-to-me-I-can-do-as-bad-or-worse’, because Duo’s dangerous glare softened into incredulity. He’s not afraid of me?! Well. That’s a first… No one else I’ve met in the last hundred or so years has had the guts not to be afraid of me during the first meeting. But, of course, they all knew what I was… Hm. I wonder what else he has hidden beneath that stoic exterior besides nerves… and, from the looks of it, muscles… of steel.
Heero watched the emotions flit across Duo’s expressive face, and hid his smug satisfaction behind his infuriating smirk. “What’s the matter Duo? Cat got your tongue?” He teased, watching Duo grow angry again at the blow to his pride, however slight. He stuck his tongue out at Heero and turned to rejoin Trowa in the kitchen… and heard Heero call after him, “Don’t stick that out if you don’t plan on using it.”
“Oh, I’ll use it. Don’t you worry Heero.” If only I could use it to… No. Not going there.
Trowa listened to his guests bicker and squabble, knowing it was all only play. What intrigued him was that Heero had taken such an immediate liking to Duo. He only showed this side to his closest friends. Among others it was rumored he had all the emotions and sense of humor of a rock.
Duo walked back into the kitchen, and sat down heavily at the tiny table for a moment, burying his head in his hands. “What have I gotten myself into?”
“A mess, as usual. I’m not cleaning it up for you.” A snort. “Hell, I think he likes you, Duo.”
“Him? Like me? Tchyeah. Right. When Hell freezes over. He’s barely said one kind word to me since I arrived, and that was his greeting. If one can call that a greeting.”
Trowa snickered. “Still judging people by their façades, are you, Duo? I thought you’d learned better.”
“Tro, I would think you know quite well why.”
“No, in fact I don’t.”
Duo sighed. “I’ll tell you later, then.”
“Fine. Later, then. But in the meantime I expect you to give me some news of Trieze and Zechsy.”
Duo grinned. “So you agree he should be called Zechsy, eh?” A short laugh. “Well, they’re both fine, and about as into one another as ever. They quite literally nearly ignored me in favor of tearing off one another’s clothes last time I visited.” Duo snickered.
“Yare yare. Some things never change, and those two are about as shameless as they come.”
“Shameless as they come, indeed.”
“Duo!” Trowa spluttered before doubling over laughing. “That was terrible.”
“But funny.” Duo grinned, mock-buffing his nails on his shirt.
Trowa could only shake his head sadly as he turned back to his cooking. “There are no words, Duo.”
“Good! The day someone has the words to label me and stick me in a box, will be the day I die and they can label me dead.”
“That’s morbid, Duo.”
“Maybe, but it’s true… or, rather, as true as I can make it.”
Trowa silently wondered about that change in wording, but let it slide, concentrating instead on serving up the finished pasta and bringing it out to the livingroom. “Duo, would you grab us cutlery?”
Without waiting for an answer, Trowa walked out of the kitchen and handed Heero a plate. Duo shrugged and did as asked, partly because it seemed he had no choice if he wanted to eat, and he was hungry.
The other two were seated on the floor around Trowa’s coffeetable, waiting for him. Duo presented the cutlery to host and guest and then sat down. Heero eyed the tiny golden cross Duo wore. Raising and eyebrow he asked, “You religious?”
Duo laughed. “Nah, I keep it for sentimental reasons. Let’s eat.”
Dinner was a fairly quiet affair, relatively speaking, with Duo cracking jokes at the others’ expense, and the other two quietly eating and ignoring the cracks.
Once they finally tired enough to sleep, Trowa dug out the sleeping bags he kept stashed away for precisely this kind of quasi-sleepover, and invited his two guests to make themselves comfortable. Heero wryly accepted, wondering aloud that he could just go home and sleep in his bed, and being promptly overruled. Having no other option that would offend someone he rolled his eyes and gave in, laying claim to most of the available floor space. Trowa watched, amused as the two of them started to bicker and squabble over just how precisely the floor would be divvied out, and snickered a little before turning and wandering off to brush his teeth and pull his pyjamas on. Let them squabble. It means I can have the bathroom to myself.
~+~+~+~
[Trois-Rivières , breakfast]
Blinking sleepily, Wufei wandered downstairs, homing in on the smell of coffee perking. Quatre watched, amused, as he veered off at the last moment, and pulled his usual green tea out of the cupboard instead.
“Good morning to you too, Wufei.” He got an unintelligible mumble in reply, as Wufei set about sleepily making his morning tea.
“Did you sleep well?” Another mumble. Quatre interpreted this one to mean, ‘Yes, thanks.’ “Good to know.” Taking another sip of coffee, Quatre stared meditatively at the wall for a minute, letting Wufei get his bearings.
Once his friend was a little more awake, Quatre asked, “Soo… how do you think we should go about finding out if vampires exist?”
Wufei nearly choked on his tea. “You still hung up on that?” He asked, now more or less fully awake.
Quatre simply nodded. “You know me. I can’t stand loose ends.”
Wufei sighed. He did know. Such things drove Quatre up the walls. It was inevitable. “I would suggest simply asking him.”
Now it was Quatre’s turn to choke and splutter for a moment. “You think he would answer?”
“He would be bound by honour and honesty to answer. He lacks neither of those two qualities. And I have a feeling he would appreciate the candour of such an approach.”
Quatre nodded thoughtfully. “You might well be right.”
Smugly, “Of course, I’m right.” Wufei laughed outright when Quatre made a face at him.
The matter decided, they finished a leisurely breakfast, and then parted ways to begin their separate routines, Quatre sitting down to begin his day’s work, and Wufei making his way outside to practice his katas.
~+~+~+~
[Charlottetown]
Treize and Zechs had spent the day relaxing, alternately swimming in their indoor pool, wrestling, and doing other quasi-related things. They stopped their enjoyment of the waters, and each other, to eat and to wash the chlorine residue out of their hair.
However, unbeknownst to them, excitement and a flurry of activity awaited them once they woke the next morning, and checked their e-mail… There was a message from Duo…
~+~+~+~
Comments, suggestions, and critiques always welcome.
... And now... Bed. I'm tired. *falls over* Hope y'all liked the part.