3) Rendezvous at the Arcade

When Wufei pulled up to the arcade, Cheyenne immediately jumped off the motorcycle and kissed the ground. Wufei rolled his eyes as he parked and walked towards the doors. "Come on, silly woman," he commanded. Cheyenne glanced up angrily from her spot on the ground and then shook off his comment, not voicing the various death threats running through her mind.

As the two walked inside, alternative music slapped them in the face. They saw Trowa on a karaoke stage singing his theme song, Ai wa Ryuusei, to a wildly cheering crowd. Cheyenne blinked and smiled at her crush thinking that he was just too, too cute.

"I thought this was an arcade, not a karaoke club," she asked Wufei.

"It's both, get over it," he snapped.

Cheyenne huffed. "Do ya have to be so snappish?"

Wufei only shrugged while Trowa finished his song, leapt off the stage and walked towards them. Some other kid walked nervously to the stage then and began singing a song from Sailor Moon to which half of the crowd encouraged her with cheers, while the other half booed her horribly.

Trowa reached Wufei and Cheyenne and frowned a little. "Hunh, you're not Kaila," he said.

Cheyenne shook her head. "Nope, I'm her best friend, Cheyenne."

"Ohh, so you're the no-show from the café," Duo responded, coming up behind them.

Cheyenne grinned. "Yeah, that would be me, Cousin Duo," she replied. The other two guys looked surprised as Duo grinned back.

"She's your cousin?" Trowa asked slowly. "I don't see any resemblance at all."

"Well, Cheyenne's like my third cousin twice removed," Duo responded.

Cheyenne laughed as she tried to explain. "Yeah, see, my Great-Aunt Shirley had a daughter who knew Duo's mother's cousin Bob who married and had a child with my father's sister's niece, which makes us-"

"Not really related at all," Wufei supplied. Cheyenne rolled her eyes and Duo shrugged.

"Well, we like to think we are," Duo told him and turned to Cheyenne. "I didn't think you were comin' to this school, Cuz."

"I almost didn't, but they accepted me for spring semester, so here I am!" Cheyenne responded cheerfully.

Duo nodded just as Quatre appeared out of nowhere dancing up a storm, doing the running man, the cabbage patch, the Roger Rabbit and then ending with the robot.

"Come on guys, this song is HOT!" Quatre shouted, taking his blazer off and twirling it around his head.

"Wow…" Cheyenne commented.

Duo held a hand to his head. "Uh oh, someone's had a little too much caffeine today," he muttered.

"YEAH!"

Cheyenne giggled and gestured around. "So is this what you guys usually do here?" she asked.

Trowa nodded. "We usually relax with a game of Sizzling Car Pursuit." He gestured toward the car game they were standing next to. "But Heero's not here."

"Well, I can race a little, I'll play," Cheyenne suggested.

"You?" Wufei snorted.

"Yes, me!" Cheyenne glared at him, then turned to the rest. "What do you guys say?"

"Fine with me," Duo told her. "You get to sit in seat #1 since that's Heero's seat. Come on guys, let's do it."

The group sat down at the arcade game and put their quarters in the slots. As Cheyenne sat back she heard a cool R&B song come on and a little Pokémon named "Pick-Your-Car" appeared on the screen. "Pick your car! Pick your car!" it said over and over. Cheyenne scrolled down through the cars and finally settled on a cool yellow Porsche. She pushed in the gas pedal to signal she was ready.

Soon all five of them were waiting at the start line, revving their engines. The screen showed the numbers, "Three-Two-One" and then "Go-Go-Go!" And they were off! A cool techno song popped up in the background as they raced through the countryside.

Quatre was up front with his black Lamborghini. "Yeah! Another win for me!" he laughed and he sped forward.

"Man, how many sodas did you have, Quatre?" Duo laughed as his dark green Ferrari sideswiped Quatre making the Lamborghini crash into a tree. He proceeded to pass Quatre easily. "You know with me racing, you're gonna lose!

"Hey!" Quatre yelled, recovering quickly from his crash and tailing him. Cheyenne didn't say anything as she concentrated on Trowa's dark red Corvette in front of her. She tailed him for a while and then when she saw the chance, passed him and raced on towards Quatre's car.

"Pretty smooth," she heard Trowa comment and she beamed. She then proceeded to pass Quatre pretty easily and was soon neck and neck with Duo.

As the five played, Heero and Kaila walked into the arcade and moved over to the car game to watch.

"Ha, ha! That's my cousin all right! Her first time playing us and she's got all of y'all beat!" Duo laughed. The guys didn't respond but continued to race. After a few more minutes, Cheyenne managed to pass Duo's Ferrari and her little Porsche was speeding towards the finish line.

"Go 'head girl! You're in first! You're gonna win!" Kaila cried as the finish line got closer and closer. Cheyenne nodded eagerly, but right before she crossed the finish line, a candy red Viper zoomed past her and crossed it first, landing her in second place at the last minute.

"Wha..?" Cheyenne gasped, her mouth dropping. She could hear Wufei's arrogant laughter from seat #5. "It figures," she muttered. Duo was right after her coming in third.

"Ah, man," Quatre sighed as he came in fourth. Trowa muttered something unintelligible as he crossed the finish line last.

"As if a woman could defeat me in anything," Wufei laughed. "Did you hear that, woman? Huh?" he added. When Cheyenne didn't respond, Wufei leapt out of his seat and came over to her side. "Too bad, but you never really had a chance," he sneered. Cheyenne only rolled her eyes as everyone else piled out of their game seats.

"But still, you raced really good, Cheyenne. Where'd you learn to drive like that?" Duo-the only one still sitting in his seat-asked her.

"My brother. He's an expert at these things," Cheyenne replied.

Duo nodded. "I'm impressed."

Cheyenne smiled and bent over to tap Duo's nose. "I knew you were my favorite!" she gushed.

Wufei snorted. "Better watch how you bend over, woman. You don't want to show us your lacey underwear again, do ya?"

Cheyenne's cheeks felt hot and she straightened to turn swiftly to Wufei. "Shut UP, you big-headed, arrogant, chauvinistic..." She stopped abruptly when she looked up into Wufei's eyes for truly the first time. It was something she hadn't really noticed before, but Wufei was, well, fine…and she was sort of attracted to him. 'Dagnabit,' she thought angrily to herself. 'HIM of all people?'

Wufei raised an eyebrow at Cheyenne as she stood there staring at him. "Go on," he told her. "You were at "chauvinistic"."

Cheyenne only rolled her eyes and turned away from him. "I refuse to humor you anymore," she huffed. Wufei only shrugged in reply.

"Hey, do you guys want to come to the movies with us?" Quatre asked out of the blue. Cheyenne looked at Kaila, who nodded immediately.

"Yeah, sure," Kaila grinned. They told the guys their dorm names and Kaila gave Quatre her phone number. "Call me and let me know when you're gonna pick us up, okay?" she asked. Quatre smiled and nodded.

Wufei stretched and yawned. "I guess I have to take you home now, huh?" he asked Cheyenne, who shrugged.

"You really don't have to. I can catch a ride home with Duo."

"Umm," Duo blushed. "Uo-day As-hay no Ar-cay," he whispered in Pig Latin.

"Oh."

"But I do," Quatre piped up. "You can head home with me, Cheyenne." Cheyenne nodded but Wufei shook his head.

"Go home with slow-poke Quatre? You won't get back until eight tonight!" he snapped.

"Better than riding with a speed demon like you," she replied.

Wufei looked at her. "I don't speed. My motorcycle is the safest thing around."

"And yet you don't have a helmet!" Cheyenne snapped. Wufei rolled his eyes at her.

Quatre grabbed his keys. "Ready, Cheyenne?" he asked in a friendly tone. Cheyenne opened her mouth but didn't have the chance to answer as Wufei suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her out after him.

"Come on already," he mumbled. "Just to prove you wrong."

Cheyenne's eyes widened in surprise and she hid a smile. "Um, okay," she told him and waved good-bye to everyone as they headed out to Wufei's motorcycle.

Heero and Kaila followed them out and Wufei let go of Cheyenne's arm.

"I'll make sure to call you later and let you know what time everyone decides on, Shy," Kaila told her friend.

Cheyenne raised an eyebrow. "And where are you going?" she asked. Kaila only smiled. "Great, neither one of you are talking. Fine, call me, okay Kaye?"

Kaila nodded and got behind Heero on his motorcycle. Heero threw a deuce and Kaila waved as they sped off.

Cheyenne sighed wearily as she sat behind Wufei on his bike. "You really should get a helmet for this thing," she told him for the third time that day. Wufei revved his engine and roared off without answering. When they were on the highway headed back to the campus, he turned his head slightly.

"Are you that worried about me?" he asked.

Cheyenne couldn't tell his tone of voice and shrugged. "More worried about me, actually. If you had a helmet, than I could wear it."

"Why would I want your greasy head in my helmet, woman?"

"I don't have a greasy head!" Cheyenne shouted at him. She could tell he was laughing at her by the way his back shook and she rolled her eyes. How could she ever have been attracted to him?

She sighed and then smiled to herself as she watched the scenery go by. It was only her first day of school and her social life was already getting complicated. She had a crush on one guy who had yet to show any interest in her and she was attracted to another who treated her like dirt. She wearily laid her forehead on Wufei's back as they rode along. 'I really need to get my priorities straight.'

"Um, are you alright?" Wufei asked suddenly.

She looked up and over his shoulder. "Why do you ask?"

He studied her face from his side mirror. "Because you don't look good at all."

"I am feeling a little dizzy," Cheyenne agreed.

He immediately pulled off an exit ramp and drove up to a hilly park. He parked rather quickly then and shooed her off his ride. "Get off now before you throw up all over Nataku. I just washed her, you know."

Cheyenne hopped off and turned back to him. "You named your motorcycle?" she asked. Wufei shrugged in response and she sighed, beginning to walk up to the edge of the hill.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To see the view," she replied. "Don't worry, if I have to throw up, I'll run right back to ya." Wufei smirked a little and then got off of his bike to follow her. When Cheyenne reached the top of the hill, she took in a deep breath of the fresh air surrounding her. She immediately began to feel better and closed her eyes, continuing to breathe in the air.

Wufei reached her side and stared at her for a minute, then squatted on the ground to look over the hill. A couple of birds flew past them chirping happily and cars roared away on the freeway below. For a while, those were the only sounds to be heard.

"Feeling better?" he asked abruptly.

She opened her gray eyes and looked down at him, wondering when he had followed her. "Yes, I am." She sat on the ground next to him to look down at the cars below. "Nice view," she added.

He shrugged. "It's all right. But you should see the view from space."

"Oh yeah, I bet you and your friends hang out there all the time, huh?" Her tone was highly sarcastic.

Wufei continued to look out at the cars and the forest beyond. "I don't really have many friends," he said quietly.

"What about Heero, Quatre, Duo and Trowa?" she asked. "I thought you guys were like brothers or something?"

"More like distant cousins," Wufei smirked and turned to her. "Like you and Duo."

She caught his eye for a minute. "Wufei, what made you pick me up on your motorcycle back at the parking lot?"

He blinked and turned his gaze back out over the hill. 'Why did I?' he asked himself. 'Was it just because she was in the way? Or was it…crap. What was it?' "I overheard Kaila telling Heero to give her a ride and I assumed you needed one, too. That's all," he answered finally.

"Oh," Cheyenne replied, looking out at the cars and wondering just how he could have heard Kaila and Heero's conversation over the loud motorcycle engines.

He glanced at her. "What did you want me to say? Because you were cute or something lame like that?" he smirked.

"It'd be nice to hear that once in awhile," she muttered. "In general…"

He shook his head. "You shouldn't need someone to tell you you're cute. If you are then you know it and people don't need to remind you of it every minute. You must be really insecure."

"I guess I am a little," she responded, looking shyly up at him. "So…do you think I'm cute?"

"What I think doesn't matter if you don't think you are," he replied, avoiding the question. After a moment, he glanced over at her. "But if it's any consolation, Trowa thinks you are, so that should make you happy."

"What?" Her eyes widened but then she tried to act nonchalant. "Um, why should I care if Trowa thinks so?"

Wufei closed his eyes and smirked at her. "Humph. Woman, please. It's so obvious."

Cheyenne blinked. "Wufei…"

His eyes fluttered open suddenly. "So are you in pain, yet?" he asked.

"What?" she asked, not comprehending.

He shrugged. "Are you in pain yet?"

"Uh, no?"

"I'm surprised, what with all those red ants running up and down your legs."

"WHAT?" Cheyenne leapt off the ground and started to jump around. "Get them off me, get them off me, get them off me! Ants, get off me!" she yelped, brushing her legs and arms and shaking the ants off. Wufei fell on his back and started to laugh at her. After several minutes of checking herself and brushing her clothes, she glared at him. "You could have told me that sooner!" she snapped. Wufei couldn't answer through his laughter and eventually she smiled helplessly at him. Once he got his voice back, though, he jumped up and started walking towards his motorcycle.

"You're obviously feeling better now. I'll take you home," he told her.

She shook her head at him. "I'll get you back for this, Wufei, you'll see."

"Whatever woman," he smirked though he found himself watching her as she walked ahead of him to Nataku. No doubt about it, Cheyenne was cute and funny, and sweet and intelligent…for a girl anyway…

Wufei quickly stopped that train of thought. 'Don't tell me you're falling for her, Chang. Get a hold of yourself,' he told himself firmly as he reached the motorcycle. 'She's nowhere near as strong as Nataku.'

(Of course not, Wufei! BTW, he's referring to Nataku the person and not the motorcycle!)