Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and am making no money off of this fic.
AN: Written for the September 28th Cocktail Party prompt found here: gwcocktailfriday . tumblr .com(/)post/178345480540/cocktail-friday-post-responses-on-friday. (Without the spaces and parentheses.)
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Promises by luvsanime02
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They don't all mean to gather in one place. But somehow, in the middle of this black tie event to celebrate yet another post-war event, they all find themselves at the same bar down the street, instead.
The truly remarkable thing, in Wufei's opinion, is that all six of them left the party separately, and yet, all of them still ended up here, like there's some kind of beacon coming from this place that only those sick of fancy shit can hear. Wufei's not paranoid enough to believe that's actually true, of course. He's not even worried, because if it was, Heero would have informed them all by now.
As it is, Relena is left blinking at all of them in shock when she's the last one to walk through the bar's door, and then she laughs softly. "I should have known," she says.
Trowa turns sideways in his seat and stretches out his long legs. "Don't know what you mean," he says, smirking.
Relena only rolls her eyes and sits between Wufei and Quatre, dragging yet another chair over and shoving it up to the table. It's a little crowded, but none of them mind. Wufei knows that he can trust everyone here. Instead, he pulls out his phone and checks the local news, making sure that Relena's escape from the party hasn't been discovered yet. So far, everything looks calm.
"You're good," he informs her. She smiles, looking quite pleased with herself.
Duo looks amused. "Should have mentioned you wanted a jail bust," he says lightly. "Heero and I could have caused a distraction."
Heero nods in agreement, and Quatre laughs. "I think she wanted a quieter exit than that," he says.
"Where's the fun in that?" Duo counters.
"Are we ordering drinks or not?" Relena asks. In answer, Trowa gets up and walks over to the bar.
"We're not celebrating, though," Heero points out. Not that he'll object to a drink, Wufei knows.
"Well," he says, "maybe now we're celebrating getting the hell out of there."
"I can't believe how many people were at that 'small get-together'," Duo says, shaking his head.
"Is that what you were told?" Relena asks curiously. "I was told that it was going to be a 'grand event'. I think both of us were lied to."
"Sounds about right," Quatre agrees, sighing. He's already loosened his tie, and Heero's removed his altogether. Wufei is tempted to follow suit. "I know that we're supposed to be celebrating the disarmament treaty," Quatre continues with a grimace, "but really, a different event nearly every month is becoming quite tedious."
"'Becoming?'" Wufei echoes in disbelief.
"You didn't have to come," Heero says, not unkindly.
"Why did you?" Trowa asks Heero, finally coming back to their table with a tray balanced easily on one hand. He gives a mug of beer to everyone, and then takes the last one for himself, sitting back down and lounging in his chair again, stretching out even more than before. "This isn't exactly your kind of scene."
"I thought the media was going to throw a fit when you walked into the room," Duo agrees teasingly.
"They did," Relena says with another quiet laugh. "It got some of their attention off of me, though, so thank you, Heero."
He nods in acknowledgment. "Quatre asked me to come," he says, answering their question with a shrug.
Everyone turns to look at Quatre, who smiles. "I wanted to see everyone," he says simply. "It's been a long time since we were all gathered in the same place together, you know. Even under these circumstances, I'm really happy that we could all see each other again."
Wufei feels warmed by his friend's earnest words, and knows that everyone else feels it too, the sense of camaraderie between them. Quatre's right, it has been a long time.
He lifts his glass, and everyone else does too, clinking them together in the middle of the table. "I'm not attending another one of these things again this year," Wufei says solemnly, instead of making a toast.
Trowa chuckles. "Agreed," he says fondly. "Let's all meet up instead at another nearby bar whenever these events are going on."
Relena nods. "It's a promise," she declares, and the others echo her words.
Seems like Wufei's going to be looking forward to more of these ridiculous celebrations in the future, after all.