[Log, Finished] - We looked the enemy straight in the eye

[dreaminginhues]

Who: Duo Maxwell devine_braid and Quatre Raberba Winner dreaminginhues
Where: Duo's apartment, Terra
When: Saturday evening
Summary: Duo has invited Quatre over, and the blonde takes him up on it...
Rating: G
Other: If nothing in this is allowed, please inform us.


Duo checked the time. He'd given in to the long shot and invited Quatre down to his apartment in Terra for a small get together and some playing of video games. He wasn't sure if the blond would be into it, but, what the heck? He might as well try.

Quatre ran up the steps to Duo's place, checking the time as he did so. Great, he was running late. Duo probably would think he wasn't going to show up! Adjusting the bag that hung off one shoulder, the blonde hurried down the hall. Reaching Duo's apartment, he knocked on the door.

The brunette jumped slightly. With all the weird things going on that involved exploding red boxes possibly filled with human soup, he was a bit nervous... especially after they'd gotten on down at the station and he'd been summarily 'questioned' about it. He walked over and peeked through the peephole. There was no mistaking the platinum blond hair that stood on the other side. He smiled a bit, in double relief that Quatre had no only showed, but that it was actually Quatre standing out there. He opened the door to let him in. "Hey," he said, giving him a quick smile.

He smiled back, aqua eyes bright. "Hello Duo. I brought some snacks." he said. A couple of his sisters hadn't been too thrilled with the idea of him going down to Terra, especially with the going ons lately.

"Aw... ya didn't hafta," Duo said with a small chuckle, closing the door after Quatre had entered. "I made sure I had stuff." He smiled. "Thanks, though." He waved for the blond to get comfortable.

Quatre slipped off his shoes and brought the bag into the living room. He set it down on the table and then sat neatly on the floor next to Duo.

Duo flopped down cross-legged next to him, leaning against the couch. It wasn't a very large apartment, but he was lucky he had a bedroom instead of a studio. There was a small kitchenette with a counter to separate it from the living room. The couch was against one wall, the TV on the other, and in between was a small coffee table where they now sat.

"It's comfy here." Quatre said looking around, "Better than the cold of my house."

"I got the carpeting about a month ago," Duo said sheepishly. "It wasn't as warm with the wood floor."

He chuckled a bit and smiled at Duo.

Duo smiled back a bit nervously. "So... whadja bring?" he asked.

Grabbing the bag, he moved it so it was between the two of them. "Chips, soda, some homemade cookies..."

"Homemade cookies?" Duo asked.

Quatre nodded. "Is that a problem?"

"Not at all!" he said. "I haven't had homemade cookies since I left the orphanage." He grinned. "I'm not exactly a baker..."

"My sister Ilia taught me." Quatre said fishing the container out of the bag.

Duo watched, pretty sure he could smell them right through the container. Chips and soda he had already, it was the homebaked goods he had trouble with. "I got milk..." he offered.

"That sounds good. I also brought some fresh fruits and vegetables, to make a salad."

"Bah... who needs salad?" Duo said, waving him off. "We've got homebaked cookies." He grinned a bit and got up. He went over to the fridge, pulling out the milk, and then grabbed two glasses before coming back.

Quatre laughed and set the bag to one side. He reached up and took a glass from Duo. "Thank you."

Pouring out some into both glasses, he put the container back in the fridge and then sat back down. "We don't hafta play video games if you don't want," Duo said. "It was just a thought, really... I got movies an' stuff, too, if you'd rather do that, or... I think I might have a Sorry game somewhere."

"I'd like to try and play some video games."

"You ever played before?"

"Nope."

"Well, I gotta bunch..." he said. He crawled the short distance around the table to the TV stand. Inside was the gaming system and a stack of games. He pulled out the stack. A lot of the games were first-person shooters... military style games where you ran around shooting bad guys and blowing things up. A couple were side-scrolling action games where you ran a character across the screen and followed a set path. One had two plumber brothers on the front and a princess in a pink dress. And he had a tournament fighting game.

"Lets try that one." He said pointing at the tournament fighting game.

"Okay." Duo put it in the system and flipped everything on. Hitting a few buttons, the opening sequence of the game came up on the screen. Duo handed Quatre a controller. "You're the guy on the left," he said. "Whoever you end up picking." He flopped on the floor again next to him, popping a cookie in his mouth. His eyes widened. "Damn!" he said around his full mouth. "These are good!"

Quatre blushed. "Oh, thank you Duo." He said with a genuine smile. Picking up the controller, he choose a character who wielded two scimitars.

Duo grinned after he swallowed, then picked a character in all black that had a scythe. "What setting?" he asked as a gallery of arenas came up next.

"How about... A desert?" he suggested before picking up a cookie and taking a bite.

Duo thought about it for a second and then nodded. "Okay." Once selected, it loaded the screen, showed the two characters facing off, and counted down to the fight. Duo muttered the scripted count down to himself, clearly having played quite a few times.

Quatre laughed and familiarized himself with the controls.

Duo let Quatre get the feel for it, picking up the special moves and what not. The combinations could get complicated. He smiled a bit.

"I think I've got the hang of it."

"Right, then..." The brunette smirked, and his character charged in at full tilt. It was a fast character, and Duo's fingers were quick on the controls.

Without even a moment's hesitation, Quatre moved his character back, blocking with the two weapons.

Duo moved to the side, rotating the screen to get a different angle.

He easily moved with Duo's character, being just about as fast as him. He moved his character, ducking and dodging.

The controllers clicked as the two had their characters beat the daylights out of each other, when they got in hits. After two matches, they were tied, forcing the game to run a tie-breaker third match. Duo grinned.

Quatre looked at Duo, a smile on his face. "It's been fun... Breaking your strategy."

"Strategy?" Duo laughed a bit. "I didn't think I had much of one to begin with." Then again, there were a lot of things he was discovering about himself lately... like the odd thing about being able to hack and secure journal entries. He had no idea when he had learned that one. And his wariness of spiders, rats, and other creepy-crawlies? He had nothing he could remember that would make him feel that way. And just forget about doctors and needles. He shook his head slightly.

"To most, it would seem like you're just pressing random buttons and combinations, but there is a strategy under there Duo." He said with a smile.

"Well, I'm definitely not just pressing random buttons," he said with a laugh. The game counted down again and started the tiebreaker match.

"I can see that." Quatre replied with a laugh as he moved his character to charge at Duo's.

Duo chuckled, defending with his character's shield. He slashed at the other one's legs.

He moved his character backwards, catching the scythe between his scimitars.

The character pulled back, and then threw the shield in a frisbee like move. Duo blinked, staring at the screen for a moment. Had he done this before?

Without thinking, Quatre pulled his character back and raised one scimitar, it glowed red as he brought it down against the shield. He set down the controller, bringing one hand to his head. "What was that?"

Duo swallowed hard, dropping the controller. He got up, pacing the short distance to the window. He leaned against the frame, staring outside. "It's us, isn't it?" he asked quietly. "I don't get this with other people here..."

He rose to his feet and looked at Duo. "It has to be Duo... I don't get it with anyone else either."

He looked back at the blond, a worried look on his face. "I don't get it," he said.

"Do you think I do?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Duo said softly. He leaned back against the wall, his hands behind him. "I feel like... like I've played that game with you before... or something similar."

Quatre walked over and put a hand on Duo's shoulder. "I get it... I had a dream the other night... It was similar to the game, only we where on the same side and in... Robots."

"Robots?" Duo made a face. "Sounds like a bad sci-fi movie... or one of those weird cartoons."

"It's what I saw."

Duo rubbed the back of his head, closing his eyes for a second. "I thought, maybe... after the first time... that all this weirdness woulda gone away..." he said quietly.

"I don't know if it is going to... I feel there's something deeper going on."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. I wish I did."

Duo sighed, sagging slightly. The game chimed that time was up and it was a draw as they had even damage on their characters.

Quatre pulled away and contemplated leaving.

"This is more than just coincidence, now, in either case," Duo said finally, ignoring the video game music coming from the TV. "I thought maybe that's all it was when we ran into each other over your car like that... but... I dunno. This is really just bugging me now." He looked up at Quatre. "It's definitely not a coincidence." He frowned. "I'm agreeing with you here... something's going on... but I don't know what, either."

He looked at Duo and then sat down on the couch, putting his head in his hands.

"It's just too weird," he said. He walked over and flopped down on the couch next to Quatre. "You okay?"

"I will be." He replied softly.

Duo sunk down into the couch, putting his head back so he was staring at the ceiling. "Sorry..." he said quietly. "Maybe we should try a different game..."

Quatre adjusted the way he was sitting so he was partially against Duo. It felt comfortable, right...

Duo blinked, glancing at Quatre for a second. It wasn't that he minded, he was just a little surprised. In fact, it didn't really feel odd for the blond to lean on him like that.

"I'm sorry..." he said quickly before sitting up.

"No, no... It’s okay..." Duo said. "I uh... I didn't mind... so much..."

Quatre looked at Duo and then settled back against him.

Duo settled back as well, sighing a bit. "Hey... you got anything goin' on tomorrow?" he asked.

"No, why do you ask?"

"You wanna stay over?" he asked. "The couch pulls out... and..." He fidgeted slightly. "Well... I just... I think we should try to get to know each other more."

Quatre looked up at Duo. "I'd like that." he replied with an honest smile.

Duo smiled back. "Hey, if we do that, we might be able to figure out where it is we think we know each other from... or see if we're just really strange and have the same weird dreams." He chuckled a bit sheepishly.

The blonde nodded as he remained close to Duo. It was familiar being like this with the braid toting teenager.

"If you need clothes or something, I think we're about the same size..." Duo offered, not sure if Quatre had a change of clothes with him.

"I have some overnight stuff in my car. I keep it there incase I end up staying the night in my office." He laughed.

"Okay then," Duo said with a smile. "That works." He managed to reach a cookie without disturbing their position too much and munched on it. "So... I know about the public you... then again, who doesn't? That must kinda suck." He gave a sidelong glance at Quatre. "What doesn't the public know about you? Other than the psychic thing?"

"There's a lot that the public doesn't know about me Duo."

"Well?" Duo said. "Like what?" He smiled.

"Where should I start?"

"Wherever you want." He smiled.

Quatre shrugged a bit. "I'm not sure where start..."

Duo rolled his eyes. "Okay... what do you wanna know about me?"

"Why a mechanic?" he asked curiously.

"'Cuz I like doing it," Duo said. He smiled. "It's something I'm good at... fixing stuff up, making it run."

"It sounds interesting."

"It's fun..." Duo said. "Maybe 'cuz it's a bit of instant gratification. I mean, you know the results of your work as soon as you're finished."

He nodded, resting comfortably against Duo. Idly, he traced patterns of the jeans on Duo's leg.

"Why stick with the family business?" Duo asked.

"It's what my Father wanted me to do." He replied.

"And that's it?" he asked. "No other reason?"

"I want to change business. I want to use it as a platform to get to politics."

"You want to get into politics?" Duo shook his head. "It's pretty messed up."

"I know. But, I want to change it... Show people that the system is broken, but not beyond repair."

Duo frowned a bit. "I guess..." he said. "Not really my thing."

He chuckled a bit.

"Why old cars?" he then asked.

"They have more heart and spirit than anything on the road today. I also prefer their build. It lasts longer."

"Don't make 'em like they used ta," Duo said with a laugh.

He shook his head. "Nope."

"How many sisters you got? You said had a few," Duo said.

"Four older sisters. We're all adopted."

Duo nodded. "Lucky," he said.

"What about your family?"

"I don't remember them," he said quietly. "Been in the system as long as I can remember."

The blonde nodded a bit.

He sighed. "Almost out, though... soon as I turn eighteen, I'm on my own."

"If you ever need help, feel free to ask."

Duo smiled a bit. "Thanks... but I think I'll be okay once I'm full-time at the shop."

"Are you going to college?"

"Nah... I'm tired of school," he said.

"School's fun."

Duo shook his head. "I'm not that good at it."

"I can help you if you want."

Duo shrugged. "I gotta pay for it, too, Quatre," he said, then shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I like bein' a mechanic."

"Promise?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "I really don't like school..."

Quatre nodded and settled against him. "I'm quite comfortable."

"Well, at least you're not making my arm go numb," the brunette teased.

The blonde poked Duo.

"Hey."

He laughed and then poked Duo again.

"Quit that!" Duo yelped, poking him back.

The blonde let out a squeak.

"Hmph... you started it," Duo said.

Quatre pouted at Duo.

Duo stuck his tongue out.

He stuck his tongue out in retaliation.

"Dork."

"I thought that was you." He teased.

"You started it!"

"Did not!"

Duo narrowed his eyes and poked him again. "Yes, you did."

He squeaked and squirmed away.

Duo smiled and then took another cookie, taking a sip of his milk with it.

Without a word, he moved back so he was leaning on Duo. He then made himself rather comfortable.

Duo stared at the screen of the TV, watching the game cycle through its preview.

"What else do you want to know about me?"

"What else do you wanna tell me?"

"Just start asking questions."

"Well, I don't wanna ask something you don't wanna answer," Duo said.

"I tell you if I don't feel comfortable answering that."

"Hm..." Duo thought for a moment. "Well... what do you like to do in your spare time?"

"I read a lot, don't go out much... I play a lot of music."

"What instrument?"

"Violin mainly." Quatre said peering up at Duo for a moment before swiping his cookie.

"Hey... there's a whole container on the coffee table," Duo whined. He grumbled. "What got you into the violin?"

He smiled at Duo, and then took a bite of the cookie. "I liked the sound of the instrument."

"Do you play anything else?"

"Piano and a little flute."

"Wow..."

"What?"

"That's a lot," Duo said.

He gave a small shrug.

"I never got exposed to it," Duo said.

"Music is a wonderful thing."

"Well, I like music... just never learned to play anything," Duo clarified.

He nodded and resumed tracing patterns on Duo's leg. It was just comfortable.

"Anything you wanna ask me? I feel like I'm doin' all the askin' here."

The blonde chewed on his thumb for a moment. Then, almost like it was a question from the past... "Why the God of Death?"

"What?" Duo looked at him. "Where did you hear that?"

"I don't know..."

Duo frowned a bit. "I've only... I mean..." He sighed. "That sounds like something from one of my daydreams." He sighed, staring at an old sketchbook that was tucked away on top of his gaming system.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable Duo... It just popped into my head."

Duo nudged Quatre lightly to sit up. "I wanna show you something..." he said.

Without a protest, the blonde sat up. He watched Duo intently.

Duo got up and grabbed the book. He flipped through it for a second and then handed it over. It was rough sketch, but there were several large robots, some more stylized than others, fighting. He sat down and pointed to one that had batlike wings. "That one I call God of Death," he explained, "along with a couple other names... But I've never showed anyone this. That's why I was wondering how you knew."

He took the sketch book and with one hand, traced his fingers over another robot. "Sandrock..."

Duo nodded. "Sometimes, I have dreams about 'em. Not a lot, but about maybe once a month or so. I try to sketch it out before I forget. That's the most complete sketch I've got so far." The other sketches weren't nearly as detailed.

"Gundam..."

Duo looked at him.

He shook his head. "I don't know... It just appeared in my head."

"It sounds like a good name, though," Duo agreed.

"It does."

Duo smiled a bit, tucking his legs up underneath himself on the couch. "There weren't the ones you were thinking of when you mentioned about it earlier, were they?" he tentatively asked.

He glanced at Duo and then nodded. "They are."

Duo pointed at the one Quatre had called Sandrock. "That looks like the guy you picked in the fighting game."

"It does." Quatre said with a nod. He then pointed to the one in the middle, with angel wings. "Wing Zero."

Duo picked out the other two, one with two large gatling guns and the other with extendable arms, "Heavyarms and Altron..."

He reached up and rubbed his forehead. "I've never seen them in my dreams before... But, I've seen others, teenagers, like us."

Duo shook his head. "I don't think I've seen people... at least... nothing detailed."

"I've never been able to make out faces, they've always been obscured by helmets, sunglasses, or something like that..." He gently took the sketch pad from Duo and slid the pencil out of the ring at the top. Flipping to a new page, he began to sketch something.

Duo watched him sketching, curious.

Five figures began to form as Quatre sketched. All the faces where obscure, but it was obvious that none of them where weak.

Duo narrowed his eyes slightly at the image. "And you see these guys in your dreams?" he asked.

"I do." He said as he began to label numbers above them. "I usually see and together, along with and . Occasionally I see and , or and . is alone a lot."

Duo blinked, then took the pad back. Above the numbers, he wrote the names of the 'Gundams' from his sketch. Wing Zero was , Deathscythe was , Heavyarms was , Sandrock was , and Altron was . "Deathscythe is another name I call that one I showed you earlier..." Duo said, "...God of Death." He frowned a bit. "I've always kinda associated numbers with them, too."

"No... I remember the pilot of Deathscythe went by God of Death.."

"The pilot?"

He nodded. "The robots had pilots. These five."

Duo nodded. "Okay..." That kind of explained why their numbers matched up. "Do my numbers match the ones you thought?"

"They do."

Duo sighed. He tapped the pilot. "For some reason... I think he's like you."

Quatre looked at Duo, eyes wide. "What? Me? No, I could never.... Do what I've seen them do."

"Which is?" Duo asked.

"Killing people, fighting... But, it... They didn't want to. They did it because they knew they had to."

The brunette frowned a bit, but nodded. "I guess..." He shrugged. "I never really thought about it that much. I just kinda associated you with that drawing." He shrugged, then looked a bit more closely, noticing that had a long braid. He pulled back, twirling his own in his fingers.

"Maybe we should stop thinking about this for now."

Duo nodded in agreement.

He took the sketch book from Duo and shut it. Standing up, he walked over to the kitchen counter and placed it on there. The blonde then returned to the couch and curled up next to Duo. "So, do you date much?"

"Not since I started working," Duo said. "That kinda takes up most of my after school time now."

"My sisters are over protective of their baby brother."

"You're the youngest, huh? Last one adopted, too?"

He nodded. "My mother died right after I was adopted." Quatre sighed, "We where adopted because my mother had a medical condition that would cause her to die if she gave birth."

"Your dad didn't adopt anyone else after your mom died?" Duo asked curiously.

He shook his head. "No."

Duo nodded with a small sigh. "I... kept getting sent back," he said quietly. "And... once you hit ten years old, no one wants you."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Duo said quietly.

"I feel bad for you though. I wish you could have found a loving family."

"Don't," Duo said quickly. "I got by okay on my own. And, I've got the support of the system and the orphanage I was at to be out here like this own until I'm eighteen. I'm doin' pretty good."

"That's good..." Quatre said smiling and then rested back against Duo.

He smiled a bit. "It woulda been nice, though," he said softly.

The blonde looked up at Duo from his perch and smiled widely.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Duo shrugged a bit and smiled back slightly.

He snuggled against Duo, quite content.

He sighed, settling back. "You doin' anything for Halloween?" he asked.

"Didn't plan on it. Why do you ask?"

Duo shrugged. "I hadn't planned on anything, either," he said. "I was just curious. I'm probably working, anyway." He chuckled. "All the older guys are probably taking their kids around trick-or-treating."

"I'll come hang out with you, since it is a Friday."

"Hang around the shop?" Duo chuckled. "It's kinda boring sometimes. Especially on Fridays. People don't like to give up their cars for weekends." He shrugged slightly. "But, we close up around ... So I should be home by nine if you wanna stop by then."

"That sounds fine." He said cheerfully, "Maybe we can go out and do something."

"Okay... as long as we don't get egged... and I'd need time to clean up after work."

He nodded. "Alright."

Granted, they didn't have much control over the first part, but Duo knew he was going to need a shower after work. He smiled a bit and yawned.

"Are you tired?"

"A little."

"Maybe we should go to sleep."

"Probably isn't a bad idea. You said you had stuff, right?"

"Yeah, down in my car."

"Okay." He smiled.

"Duo... Would you go down with me? With all that's been going on lately..."

"Okay, sure," Duo said.

Quatre stood up and stretched a bit. He had been very comfortable next to Duo.

Duo stood up with him and grabbed his keys. Like Quatre, he was a little nervous about the way things had been going in the neighborhood lately. He planned on locking the door behind them.

"My sisters would kill me if they knew I was down here." Quatre said as he grabbed his car keys and slipped his shoes on.

"That makes me feel loads better for corrupting their baby brother," Duo said sarcastically as he shoved his feet in his sneakers without tying them. He nudged Quatre in the shoulder.

Quatre laughed and then headed downstairs.

Duo bounced down after him. "You need me to carry anything?" he asked as they walked over to the car.

"No, it's just a bag." He replied unlocking the trunk of the car.

He nodded, leaning on the car and looking it over again. "How's it been running since I replaced that hose?" he asked.

"Oh, it's been running great." He replied grabbing a bag out of the trunk. Unlike the rest of his car, the trunk was a mess, papers and various other things that clued in on the blonde's personality and nature..

Duo chuckled. He'd seen a ton of messy trunks in his work. He was used to it and didn't really nose around. "So... is that your other office?" he said. He did, however, tease when he had the chance. He jerked his thumb at the mess.

"No, this is my life. My office is in the building where it belongs." Quatre replied shutting the trunk.

"Anything different about your life from the office?" Duo asked as they walked back into the building and upstairs.

"A lot of things." He replied heading after Duo.

"Like what?" he asked. He unlocked the door to the apartment and let Quatre go in first.

"My personal life." the blonde heir replied stepping into the apartment. He toed off his shoes and unbuttoned the first couple of buttons of his shirt.

"That doesn't answer much." Duo shrugged as he shut the door again, locking it for the night. "Course, if you don't wanna say, I'll back off."

"I've been trying to figure out some things about myself."

"You mean other than the weird dreams?" Duo started pulling the cushions off the couch.

"Yeah." he said.

"Wanna share?" Duo asked. He pushed the coffee table over to the side with the cushions on it and then turned off the TV and the game.

"It's really me just trying to figure out what gender I prefer to date. That's all."

Duo nodded. "Okay." He didn't seem bothered by it either way. "Nothing wrong with a little fun." He smiled a bit as he went to pull the bed out from the couch.

"Where's your bathroom so I can change and get ready for bed?" he asked.

"Right off the kitchen," Duo said.

"Thanks." The blonde smiled and then vanished in that general area.

Duo nodded and put together the bed so Quatre could sleep on it with some linens, a pillow, and blanket.

Coming out of the bathroom, Quatre looked less formal... Dressed in black sweatpants that had seen better days and an oversized light blue shirt that had music notes running across the chest.

Duo gave him a quick smile. "I'll be right back," he said. He headed into his room to change.

Nodding, Quatre set down his bag and the crawled into the bed.

Duo came back a little while later in a plain tank top and a pair of gym shorts. Without really thinking about it, he grabbed the brush from the bathroom and started undoing his braid.

The blob in the center of the bed and then poked his head out of the covers. "Why the braid?" he asked curiously.

"Huh?" Duo turned and looked back at him for a second, then suddenly got a bit shy. He shrugged. "I dunno... 'cuz I can, I guess."

"That's a good enough reason. I think it looks good on you."

"I've never cut it," he said. "Apparently, I gave 'em holy hell over it at the orphanage when they tried.'

Quatre chuckled a bit.

"The priest in charge said I could keep it, so one of the nuns taught me to braid it," Duo said, starting to brush out the thick chestnut waves, though it was only wavy where the braid had been. The top was straight, but still thick. "She complained it was too unkempt loose."

"They sound like they where really sweet."

Duo smiled a bit. "Yeah," he said. "They left the place when I was around eight. New people came in. They didn't make us change much, but they weren't really as nice."

"You know what I find odd sometimes Duo... My father kept my sister's adoption papers on hand, incase something happened... But, I've never found mine."

Duo sat on the bed as he redid the braid. "That is kinda weird," he said.

"I think he just put them somewhere. But, why wouldn't he keep them with the rest of the papers?" He shook his head.

Duo shrugged. "I dunno," he said. "Where all of them in one spot? I mean... I could see him wanting to maybe keep them each in their own safety deposit box somewhere or something so you guys could have them later."

"Locked file cabinet in his office, which is now my office."

Duo shrugged. "I dunno what to tell ya... unless he doesn't have 'em."

"I've probably just not found them and over analyzing things again!" He laughed.

Duo chuckled. "Probably." He wrapped the hair elastic around the end.

The blonde smiled at Duo.

Duo went and put the brush away. "What time do you wanna get up tomorrow?" he asked. "I'll set the clock."

"It doesn't matter to me." He replied with a shrug, "I'm good with anything."

Duo nodded. "Alright." He yawned again.

Quatre smiled at Duo.

"So, I'll see you in the morning, then?" he asked. "Oh.. you want anything in particular for breakfast?"

"Not really... Just cook what you know how to do." Quatre said with a large smile.

Duo chuckled. "You make it sound like I can't cook," he said. "I can't bake, but I can cook." He grinned. "G'night."

"I know you can cook! Or else you wouldn't be living on your own!" Quatre teased before curling up in the bed, clutching the pillow against him.

Duo laughed and headed off into his own bed. Curling up, he snuggled down into the heavy blanket.