Chapter 1: Stranded and Bored
"Come on, guys," Duo whined, "It'll be fun, I swear! You know I never lie." Duo gave the broadest, most charming smile he could manage, which was quite impressive but not enough to convince the four others to partake in what he had in mind.
Evening had just settled over their little bunker and the incessant rain was still pounding at the high tin roof over their heads. Five ex-pilots were scattered around the smallish space trying to make the best of what was undoubtedly a very frustrating situation.
Just the other day, the five Preventer Special agents had finished a mission that had been complicated, lengthy and stressful. They had kept weeks of non-stop surveillance over a group of mercenaries running an illegal arms trade under the protective canopy of the tropical rainforest. Yesterday morning the five finally got the break they needed to close this case and be done with it. Top members of the mercenary organization, as well as several foreign buyers, had shown up at the rundown base that the mercenaries were using as their operation headquarters. The mercs and buyers then proceeded to set up a deal for dangerous arms right within view and earshot of the Preventers' audio and video surveillance devices. Less than one hour later, four-dozen Preventer troupes and Lady Une herself were swooping down on the sorry mercs and had them, and the buyers, detained and arrested. Mission Complete.
The hubbub created by the detainment of the mercs was over as abruptly as it had started and the jungle that was once bursting with hidden activity was now entirely devoid of human life forms.
Save for five young Preventers.
Apparently, in the midst of all the activities, all five young men had forgotten to arrange means of escaping the wild jungle.
The Preventer troupes that had been sent in had been ordered to clear the jungle of all evidence of the enemy mercenaries and the Preventers' presence there. They had not been ordered, however, to evacuate their agents. And said agents only realized this minutes after the final helicopter lifted off.
In short, the enemy base had been cleaned out. Any and all electronic and surveillance devices used by their Special agents during the mission had also been removed, which included but were not limited to phones, transmitters and computers.
This meant that five high-strung ex Gundam Pilots were stranded in the middle of the humid, uncivilized jungle with nothing more than their personal belongings and without any means of contacting their head office to request transportation out of said jungle.
Admittedly, their small bunker was stocked well enough to allow them to survive there for at least another week. But 'stocked well' covered only the bare necessities.
Meaning food.
Nothing else.
There were no books.
No T.V.
No games.
No exercise equipment.
Nothing!
No possible way for any human beings to keep themselves from going absolutely nutters.
Needless to say, the five male teens stranded there were not happy. Actually, they were downright furious but too exhausted after the lengthy mission to bother.
At first they had each remained to themselves, keeping their minds occupied however they preferred. Heero had typed away on his laptop, which he would never relinquish to anyone let alone the clean-up crew. He didn't have an internet connection so he wrote out the mission report in excruciating detail. Wufei had practiced his katas. Quatre had played a tiny harmonica he usually took to missions. Trowa had practiced his circus routines. And Duo had talked … non-stop.
Now, however, Heero's laptop had run out of battery and promptly died. Duo swore he heard Heero whimper at that moment. Wufei had practiced every single form he knew … thirty-eight times. Quatre had stopped playing the harmonica when he noticed the twitch some of the others were developing from its sound. Trowa had also practiced enough times that he was sick of his routines. And Duo – well, the katana that missed taking his ear off by an inch was enough warning, especially since seconds before, he had seen Heero's hand twitch towards his gun.
All this brought them to their current position.
Each boy had been sitting on his bed either bored or annoyed when Duo, who had been rummaging through the bunker, found a sizeable case of whiskey amidst numerous boxes piled high against the far wall. The last time this bunker had been used it had been by a Colonel who very much liked to indulge in a glass or two every hour of the day.
Upon making the discovery, Duo had promptly decided that they should all join together in getting completely and utterly shit-faced.
"No way, Maxwell. I have no desire to get drunk with you and make an ass of myself, as I'm sure you will," Wufei uttered while pushing away at the bottle of whiskey Duo was waving in front of his face to tempt him. He was reclined on his bed and Duo was leaning over him.
"What's the matter, Wuffers, can't hold your liquor?" Duo teased.
"I hold my own just fine, Maxwell. Probably better than you," Wufei sneered.
"Wanna bet?" Duo's customary grin took on a devilish glint. But Wufei didn't take the bait.
"No, actually, and it's Wufei!"
"Aww, common, Wufwuf, are ya' scared?" Duo teased further, leaning more so over Wufei until his lengthy braid rolled from his back to swing hypnotically over his shoulder.
Wufei batted at the braid as it swung towards his face.
"I am never scared, Maxwell."
"Is that so?" Duo cocked his head to the side, a move he knew infuriated The Chinese Dragon otherwise known as Wufei.
"Fine!"
Wufei jumped off the bed. Duo smoothly stepped back at the same time.
"I'll take you up on that offer," the Dragon announced. "And I'll still be standing long after you've passed out in a puddle of your own drool."
"Hah! Don't make me laugh, FeiFei," Duo countered.
"It's Wufei!" said boy growled.
By this time the two boys were facing each other off, practically nose to nose. Duo opened his mouth to retort, probably with some other variation of Wufei's given name, when voices from the behind them drew their attention.
Quatre and Trowa were sitting on one bed and Heero on the next one over. They were eyeing their fellow agents with amusement. Or, well, as amused as Heero and Trowa could get. Quatre, though, was grinning from ear to ear.
"Twenty Creds says Wufei will outlast Duo," Heero bet, speaking in his usual monotone.
Duo spluttered.
"Hmm, I'll take that bet," Trowa said thoughtfully.
Wufei 'hmphed' arrogantly.
"I bed they'll both be singing medleys before midnight," Quatre chuckled and so did Heero and Trowa.
Both Duo and Wufei spluttered. Then they regained their composure.
Wufei crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his chin defiantly.
"I will not be your entertainment for the evening. If we're drinking," he indicated Duo and himself, "then you're drinking," he ran his finger over the three other boys.
Beside him, Duo nodded his head vigorously.
"Hey, we weren't the ones who were making big claims about our drinking abilities." Quatre was as always the first to voice reason.
"Hn."
Trowa nodded in agreement.
"And I can tell you here and now that I'm very much a lightweight so I'd lose your competition anyway. I might as well just stay out of it."
Trowa looked at Quatre speculatively then turned his attention back to the two standing agents.
"Aww, that's no problem, Q," Duo affectionately ruffled Quatre's shimmering blond hair and ignored his indignant squeak and the glare sent his way not by Quatre, but by Trowa's single visible eye. He continued speaking, completely unaffected.
"We don't have to compete."
"What would we do instead?" Quatre spoke as he patted down his mussed hair.
"We could play drinking games," Duo suggested.
The blond agent visibly brightened at that suggestion.
"Like Truth-or-Dare?" he chirped, kneeling on the bed like an excited puppy. Duo couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"Sure, Curley-Q, Truth-or-Dare it is!"
"Excellent! I've always wanted to play Truth-or-Dare. My sisters played it but I was always too young to join. How is it played? We'll need to set some additional ground rules of our own too, of course. I'll find some glasses for us to use."
The hyperactively speaking blond quickly bounded off the bed and bound about the bunker. But came to a halt when he realized no one else was following him.
"Won't you play?" he asked of Heero and Trowa. However, Wufei was the one who answered.
"Absolutely not!"
"Huh?" Quatre looked at him with a confused pout.
"I refuse to play!"
"But you're already playing," Quatre and Duo said in unison.
"I may have taken Maxwell's challenge but I never agreed to play a child's game."
Quatre looked crestfallen at his friend's words. His bottom lip even trembled. Wufei, like any wise man, determinedly turned away from what was undoubtedly the most convincing bargaining tool known to man, The Quatre Winner Pout of Doom.
Quatre and Duo exchanged wry grins. Quatre redoubled the pouty-ness of his pout and Duo joined him with his own patented version of the Pout of Doom. But this time the pouts were not aimed at Wufei but at the other two boys.
Heero and Trowa both 'gulped', knowing they had been defeated. In unison, they rose from the beds, marched to the unaware Chinese agent and grabbed him under the arms before he had a chance to escape.
"He's playing," Heero spoke for the spluttering boy.
Eventually, after a lot of growling, glaring, and arguing, the five boys set about preparing to play. They decided on a set of rules for the game that reflected their particular irregularity as teenagers. No strenuous dares, because they had to always be mission ready. No questions about their pasts, because those could become depressing.
Further rules of the game were that each person could refuse a total of three truths or dares. And you had to drink a shot of alcohol each turn, three if you refuse your truth or dare.
Next, they'd rummaged and found shot glasses in the Colonel's boxes. Lastly, they pushed all their beds together to form a Super Bed, and then sat in a circle at the center of the conjoined beds. 'Waaay more comfortable,' was Duo's reasoning.
"Now," the aforementioned boy said when they'd all settled down. A wicked grin played on his lips, "who wants to go first?"
Note: Didn't know what to use for money so I used Creds, short for Credits