Getting On, Along, With You

The whole concept of love is a stupid thing. People are willing to go through such stupid lengths in order to be with the one that they "love", but in all honesty in going through with such outrageous things they do more harm then good. Love is an obsession, that is why when I finally choose to be with someone it won't be out of love. Loving someone will only bring about physiological problems that are unneeded. In all actuality, and I'm sure no one has mentioned this to anyone before in simple passing of conversations, but love creates activity in the same part of the brain that hunger, thirst, and drug cravings create activity in. See, to love, will do no good.

-Heero

XXX

Duo found that the best way to spend a blackout was to go for a walk. At first Trowa had protested, partly because he was terrified, the rest was due to his paranoid fear that someone might break into his car and steal stuff or worse yet, it. Duo had found someway to console his fear and they headed down the street. Streetlights flickered and hummed as their feet slid across cement and the distant sound of people yelling came floating in and out. Duo had his hands behind his back as he stared up at the sky humming to himself smiling. Trowa seemed to tense at the smallest of sounds. Duo really wondered how the guy was going to make it out in the read world. For that matter how was the guy going to take it when he finally decided he was gong to actually start outright hitting on him. The thought made him smile. God, the boy was going to freak...or analyze the hell out of the situation, who knew.

Duo smiled, might as well start, "So what's with the whole, I'm not gay, speech?"

"It wasn't a speech and I hadn't meant to say that," Trowa pulled his coat tighter to himself.

"You see one naked guy in a photo and it just pops out your mouth. I was only asking for an opinion," Duo started walking around the block.

"It would be weird."

"What you can't appreciate beauty?"

"IT WAS A NAKED MAN!

"Whoa, okay, chill! Honestly. I'll phrase it better for you, gender is a human invention like say language and family, religion even."

"I can't brush things like that off so easily."

"Trust me, it's not easy," Duo smiled at him.

Their walk led them to the more artistic side of the city located more or less near the Lower East side, but just a few blocks up. Duo smiled and headed towards an arch covered in ivy, Trowa followed and stared in awe as the alley came in full view. The walls had been painted with an extravagant mural of people playing a variety of instruments. Sound poured out of the instruments in a melded rainbow of colors weaving around every player. They all wore suits of dark colors of black, brown, and smoky gray the background behind them was of the city and painted almost exactly how it looked. The upper parts of the city were cast in light, while the lower half of the city in shadow. At the bottom corner of the mural were the names of the people who painted it, both Duo's and Wufei's were among them.

"You did this?"

"Actually, I came up with the concept. I couldn't paint to save my life," Duo kept walking down the alley and stopped and sat at the embedded window.

"Still pretty amazing."

"Us Lower East side kids have dreams and talents too you know."

"I didn't mean it like that," Trowa snapped.

Duo laughed, "I know, is it bad that I just want to ruffle your feathers?"

"I don't have feathers to be ruffled," he stood in front of the other boy.

"My dear uptown boy you do, lets keep walking now."

They made their way around the block and Duo led them in and out of shops for the better duration of an hour. The were inside another shop when it started to rain. Duo stared out the front windows then headed out the door. There was something about rain that just made him so happy. He outstretched his arms and smiled as drops of water hit him. He looked towards the shop to see if Trowa was still inside. He arched an eyebrow as the other boy walked out carrying an umbrella he'd just purchased.

"What're you doing?" Duo continued to stare at him oddly.

"I don't want to get wet, and you're going to catch a cold," said Trowa as he opened the umbrella.

"Damn it, Trowa! I swear to God, if you don't put that umbrella away!"

"It's freaking raining!"

"That's it!"

Duo stalked over to Trowa, grabbed the umbrella from his hands and ripped the fabric off it and then threw it on the ground. Trowa stared wide-eyed at his broken umbrella. Duo was smiling at him, like the violent action against his umbrella had not occurred. Then Duo held out his hand to Trowa.

"Enjoy this while you still can."

"You want me to enjoy the rain?" Trowa looked at him skeptically.

"You're in it already aren't you? Besides, once your older, you won't have another chance to act this age again."

XXX

Wufei was ecstatic, not only had he just got a pay raise regardless of the fact it was only a few cents, but also it looked like he'd be able to get things closed a little early. He picked up another cup and wiped off the water marks left from the automatic dishwasher. All he had left to do now was to wipe down all the tables and sweep and mop both the front and back and do the bathrooms. He'd long ago sent the rest of the staff home, so it was just him and the manager. The one thing he hated about this place was when there were five or six people working and the person at the register decided one customer warranted a call to the rest of the staff to make one damn cup of coffee and grab a freaking scone. Which was why he sent everyone else home. He reached into the bucket of hot sanitizer water and started in on the round tables. He did about four tables and had started on the fifth when he heard the front door open, he turned, a smile on his face. That was till he saw who it was and well, still smiled, just to annoy the guy.

"Welcome to Café Coffee Pairs, we'll be closing soon so I hope you know what you want," he finished up the table and headed for the register.

"Refrain from hitting on my boyfriend, you Lower East side trash," Heero retained the glare he'd been wearing for more then half the day.

"We're having a special on all iced coffee today," Wufei continued to smile.

"Don't brush this off Chang!"

"I had no idea you even knew what my last name was," Wufei grabbed the rag from the bucket and closed down the register for the night and went back to closing.

"Trust me, as much as you get around, who wouldn't know your name," Heero watched as Wufei locked the front door and turned the closed sign.

"I think you just called me a slut," said Wufei in a musing manner as he continued his closing tasks.

"Why are you doing this to begin with?"

"The sad part is, you seem to get around as much as I do, isn't that strange. What with you having a boyfriend, right?" he finished up the last of the tables and started placing the chairs on top of them.

"I don't cheat on him!" Heero yelled.

Wufei stood up properly and arched an eyebrow at Heero, "My mistake, must be some other guy I see hanging out at those nightclub raves flirting with other guys," he mock laughed and taped his forehead, "silly me."

Heero glared, "Stay away from Quatre."

"Only if he wants me to," Wufei smirked and headed for the front door and opened it. "Now do me the favor of leaving, it's been a long day and the poor Lower East side trash needs to rest his bones for the night."

Heero opened his mouth to say something but Wufei shoved him out the door.

"Your point is completely across, now good evening," he waved Heero off, smile on his face and locked the door promptly.

He turned out the lights and decided the morning person could damn well do the bathrooms themselves. It had been a damn long day followed by a damn long night, and he honestly hadn't felt particularly in the mood to deal with a territorial boyfriend. He almost forgot how troublesome it was to break people up. Deep down he didn't feel he was a bad person for the things that he did, but sometimes he felt guilty, to be honest this was not one of those times.

That blond boy was dating a bitch bastard of a guy, whatever he saw in this guy was beyond him. Well, if he was going to be completely honest, he'd always wanted to take a swing at the guy, not in the literal fist to face context, but you know. The jerk was hot. Every time he saw the other Asian boy he couldn't focus on the person he was with, his eyes would follow his every move. He was down right fuckable looking. He paused in thought, no, he shouldn't be having these thoughts again, he was trying to score with the hot jerks boyfriend. That guy really had something good on his hands and he was screwing that blond boy over royally.

Wufei sighed and and unlocked and took out the register, collecting the credit and debit recites he'd paper-clipped together earlier in the night. He made his way to the back and knocked on the managers door. One day he'd get to be in that position. Sometimes he really wished school wasn't a factor. The manager looked up and opened the door for him. He put the cash drawer down on the desk and sighed.

"The drawer was short fifteen dollars and change. Stop putting Casey on the register, he can't count for shit," Wufei handed him the recites.

"I could have sworn we put a calculator up there for him," he took the recites from him.

"It's been a long day, I can hardly wait to get home."

The manager raised an eyebrow and blew smoke from his cigarette he knew he wasn't supposed to be smoking inside, "Bad day?"

"Something like that," he untied his apron and tossed it on the free chair.

"Trust me, that'll be the least of your problems, go on an' head out," he turned his chair towards the cash drawer and went about recounting it like he always did, even though he knew Wufei was always right.

Wufei paused at the door, a slightly confused expression donning his features, "What do you mean?"

The manager shook his head and waved him off dismissively, "Nothing."

Wufei shut the door behind himself and for the briefest of moments wondered if the owner was hinting at something. He shook his head, no, if something was up Ray would tell him. He grabbed his coat off the hanger in the break room and left out the back door.

XXX

Quatre sighed as he stared up at his ceiling. Heero had once again bailed on him, all his stuff was still in Trowa's car and he didn't feel like heading over himself to get it. He'd probably just call him tomorrow, what he really wanted was for Heero to stop dropping him off so that he could run off and party and covertly flirt with his obvious preference. Quatre knew he was not in Heero's preference scale. Heero liked tall lean tanned guys, guys with money, guys who liked to waste their money on strangers. Quatre was really starting to wonder why he liked Heero anymore sometimes. Yeah, he was different, but somewhere between being the jerk he was and the person who use to help people, he turned into this guy who wanted to just party. Far be it for him to tell Heero that he couldn't do those things, but the fact that Heero liked to think that he could just run off all the time without him really upset him.

Things really weren't how he'd thought they would be, then of course there was Wufei. He was extremely attractive and as an added bonus he pissed Heero off. Mainly because he was constantly trying to hit on him, but that was...weird actually. He never once thought there'd be another person he'd come to look at in such a way. He hadn't had much time to actually talk to the other boy, but he could tell that he was a good person.

He reached over to his dresser and grabbed his cell phone and paused for all of two seconds before hitting send.

"Hello?"

"Uh, hey, this is Quatre, Trowa gave me your number so I thought I'd call and, let you know I got it," Quatre couldn't believe what he was doing, well nothing bad, just talking.

"That's good to hear, you doing anything right now?"

"Uh, no, why?"

"Do you want to be?"

Quatre glanced over at his clock then shrugged, "Um, sure. Do you want me to meet you somewhere or..."

"Meet me at midtown, bring an umbrella."

"Um, we're going to hang out in midtown this late in the night?"

"Go for a walk in the rain, maybe find a place to hang out. Sound fine to you?"

Quatre knew he should say no, but he was so tired of staying at home and doing nothing. Besides there was no harm in hanging out. Wufei seemed like a nice enough guy and well if he flitted just a little there was nothing wrong with that.

"Yeah, I'll see you in fifteen."

"I'm glad. See you then."

The phone went silent and Quatre hung up his cell phone. He couldn't stop himself from smiling. Glancing around he smiled even more and got off his bed and ransacked his closet. He was actually going out somewhere, he was more then excited. He was going to find his favorite outfit and enjoy himself. It wasn't because it was Wufei, at least that's what he was telling himself, but really it was for himself. Honestly the only problem he had at all was that they would be going to midtown. It had it's own reputation, but he'd already said he was going and so he was.

He quickly changed and called his driver to pull the car around to go and drop him off.

XXX

Duo smiled as Trowa toweled his hair down, his bangs sticking out at odd angles.

"You wanna do me next?"

Trowa jerked his head in Duo's direction, "What ?!"

"My hair, you pervert, but I like the way you think," Duo quirked a smile at him.

"I don't think the way you think," Trowa just stared at him as Duo undid his hair water dripping.

"Would you like to?" Duo looked him dead in the eyes, offering him the towel to dry his hair for him.

Trowa took it hesitantly and tried to look unhappy about drying Duo's hair, "Not really."

"There's nothing wrong with the way I think. I'm a very open and honest person, I like to think it's one of my selling points," Duo smiled happily as Trowa continued to towel dry his hair.

Trow felt himself shrugging, "I suppose in the grand scale of things, you're not that bad to be around. A little much for me, but not bad."

"Right back at ya," Duo took the towel from him and tossed it aside headed to the bathroom for a brush.

"I know it isn't my business, but, why don't you go home?" Trowa watched as Duo walked back out of the bathroom, hair done.

"I'll go if you come with me, I need to pick up a few things as it is, starting to realize I randomly put clothes in my bag and half of nothing matches."

"Right now?"

"Yeah, right now, you have a car don't you?"

"Yeah, but I'm not going to the Lower East side in that car, are you insane?"

"It's not that bad a neighborhood, come on, before it gets way too late," Duo grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of Wufei's place once again, a plan strictly in mind.

"That instills little faith in me about the location of your home, exactly were in the Lower East is your place?"

"You know central? Yeah, a couple blocks up from there. Our death count is so much lower then people think," Duo waved his hand dismissively in the air as they got into Trowa's car.

"Oh God," Trowa looked over at Duo, clearly worried for his life.

"Nobody's going to kill you, uh, but if someones trying to mug you just give them everything you've got, word to the wise," Duo happily pushed a tape into the deck and turned up the volume.

Central much like midtown had its own reputation, while midtown was more of a risqué kind of place to be in terms of morality, in a sense. Midtown was a hot place for couples to go and "enjoy" themselves, you didn't go there without knowing what you were getting yourself into. But central, well, some people called it The Belt, really though that was the older group of people. What it stood for basically was the line of homes with the most bullet holes in them. All convicted criminals of some sort lived on that block and once you went past The Belt it just got worse. Drugs, drive-bys, continuous cop sirens, people outright shot right in front of you. Duo only had to be there once to never want to venture back there ever again.

"So, where do I turn now? You know, as I ride into my death," Trowa turned down the volume, finding this particular song annoying.

"You get more and more adorable as we spend time together, second street to your right and straight on till morning!" Duo flung his hand out the window.

"You did not just make a Peter Pan reference," Trowa cast a glance over at Duo.

"I did, and don't pretend you didn't like it," he stuck his tongue out at him.

"Cute, real cute," Trowa rolled his eyes, but was actually really enjoying himself, he found it kind of odd to be honest.

"Just wait till we get to my bedroom."

Trowa just stared at him, then turned his attention back to the road. Duo continued to make references as he gave directions and after a twenty minute drive they were parked outside Duo's apartment building. Duo hopped right out the car and Trowa reluctantly got out and locked his car up. Duo unlocked the door to the apartment building and let Trowa in first and tried not to laugh at the look on Trowa's face.

"What floor do you live on?"

"Not the top, but also not the first four," he smiled having no problem climbing the almost endless set of stairs, it was his favorite thing about the building.

He had so many fond memories of playing on those steps, of trick or treating in the building and getting half eaten candy bars and snack packs. People weren't rich, obviously, but at least they indulged the few kids who had lived there at the time. Talking to the other tenants, or his favorite tenant the guy who had lived on the second floor to the top, he missed it. He probably never would have become the person he was without that guy and his kid. He really hated The Belt.

"You're being really quite, are you ok?"

Duo didn't mean for it to happen, but the expression had somehow found itself on his face, that sad look he tried so desperately to keep to himself, "I'm as good as I'll honestly ever be."

"Duo?"

"Oh look were here!" Duo opened the door to the apartment and immediately noticed all of the lights were off, a very good sign.

"This place is a wreck," Trowa couldn't hide the look on his face.

"This," Duo picked up a rotten banana peel and tossed it in the trash, "is what happens when your drunk father comes home for a day."

"Can you just grab your stuff so we can leave already?"

"Hide your disgust much?"

"I don't need your sarcasm. What the hell is that!" Trowa practically jumped three feet in the air.

Duo stepped on it, a nice crunch accompanying, "A llama, seriously, Trowa, you've never seen a roach before?"

"That's disgusting!"

"Come on, off to my room!" Duo shoved him out the tiny entryway past the tiny living room.

"How do you live here?"

"I ask that very same question, then I realize how awesome a room I have," Duo unlocked his bedroom door and shoved Trowa inside.

Trowa just stared. Duo's room was too much for words. An array of clothes strewn about tons of hats sat on the top shelf of his closet. His drawer was covered in glass bottles and shiny boxes and candles and jewelery. He had two ottomans with multi colored scarfs draped over them, his room was just full of color. Well, if Trowa had any doubts about Duo's eccentricity, all of that and much more were put to rest.

Duo turned to Trowa, "So, I lied about needing stuff."

Trowa didn't have much time to react to the fact that Duo had suddenly turned to face him and was now shoving him down onto the bed. Shock would have been a mild understatement, but Trowa would have been lying if he said he hadn't quite expected what with the way Duo sort of flirted. Or he had to assume it was flirting since he hardly had it happen to him and he never did it himself. He found himself swallowing a hard lump in throat as Duo crawled onto the bed.

XXX

A/N: Don't ask me why, but I'm actually really enjoying the whole Wufei, Quatre, Heero triangle thing. Lol This was supposed to be more Duo Trowa centric and yet they're sharing time with the other guys, I'll work on that and really make it up to you, and I'm sure you will like the way I make it up. Hint hint

ps. Elisa, you need internet! You're supposed to be reviewing!