Just a bit of world and relationship building in a pre-game moment for the whole group.

"No, Barton! Cereal does NOT count as soup! Just like ketchup is NOT a smoothie!"

If anything, Wufei yelling at Trowa for saying something 'world breaking' (as Duo had dubbed it) wasn't that unusual. In all honesty, Heero, Duo, Relena, and Hilde tended to keep a running bet on when the next occurrence would be and how bad the blow-up from the martial artist would also be...and so far, Heero kept winning those bets to the point that Hilde had voiced the collective suspicion that the former pilot in question was in cahoots with Trowa just to win, to which Heero had denied any such 'cheating'.

Did anyone believe that he was telling the truth? No, not really. Relena and Duo had a similar suspicion, but it wasn't as if the 'prize' for winning the bets was anything too important beyond who got to pick the first movie for 'movie date night' or that the winner got a box of 'winner's choice' of baked goods from that fancy little bakery downtown that Relena and Hilde were both pretty certain was being mostly supported by their boys, and themselves to be honest, being addicted to the bakery's products.

The "thank you for putting my kids through college" card that they'd received over the summer was all of the evidence that they needed of that.

"Technically it does count as it is a combination of edible things, is dominantly liquid, is typically served in a bowl, and you tend to eat it with a spoon." Trowa said as if he were imparting sage wisdom and not just doing all of this just to screw with people (i.e. dominantly Wufei) because it amused him. "In the same vein: tomatoes are fruits, smoothies are made from fruits with other edible ingredients creating a mostly smooth semi-liquid, ergo ketchup is a smoothie."

"No! It is not on all counts! Do you even listen to the insanity coming out of your mouth or is it just a roaring sound in your ears?!"

"I can hear myself just fine, and what I say is not insanity. It is fact."

"It is stupid!"

Relena and Hilde just watched this display from the game table where Hilde had been assisting her in spreading out the new town map and setting out everyone's miniatures for the new side quest. After a moment, the former freedom fighter looked over at the diplomat who was rolling her eyes fondly at the argument while arranging her notes and setting up her screen. "So...should we intervene yet?"

"Does Wufei look like he's about to have a stroke?"

Hilde looked back over, tilting her head to one side in thought as she watched the two ex-pilots as Wufei seemed to be just starting to get some color in his face from his anger while Trowa remained as cool as a cucumber...though she could swear that she saw a very faint quirk to his lips signaling his amusement over winning another round of his personal game. "He's getting there...ooh. I don't know what Trowa just said, but he made it worse."

Relena looked up at that, noting how Wufei's face had taken on a color fast approaching 'puce', and... "Okay, that's enough. Neutral corners boys, or you have to hug it out and kiss and make-up."

Wufei choked on his words mid-non-English ranting while Trowa made a strangled sound that vaguely reminded Relena of steam escaping from a kettle; both boys looked over at Hilde and Relena in a way that made it abundantly clear to the girls that the pair had fully believed that they were alone in the room. Relena shook her head some at the guys' versions of the "deer in the headlights" look. "Can one of you two please set up the chairs? Quatre and Duo should be back any minute now with the snacks and drinks."

At that, Wufei turned sharply and started grabbing chairs two at a time, placing them around the table while Trowa wandered over to take the folders containing everyone's character sheets and place them next to everyone's sets of dice at their respective seat. After a moment, the sometimes-clown ventured to ask... "Where's Heero?"

"Heero is currently with Doctor Po." Hilde answered since Relena was too busy shaking her head in fond exasperation at the reminder of her boyfriend's whereabouts. Trowa and Wufei shared a confused look with one another before Trowa pressed two fingers to his forehead as if to ward off a headache, while Wufei huffed out a breath with an expression of resignation and irritation. "What did Yuy do to wreck himself this time?"

"Tried to shove my brother down the stairs, but got grabbed, causing both of them to go tumbling down the stairs while fighting like kindergartners in the dirt of a playground...at least that's what the security footage showed." Relena deadpanned, trying her hardest to keep her expression blank...but she lost her battle when Hilde let out an amused snort at the reminder of the video that Une had sent them in her daily complaint about the boys. "Heero threw the first punch, to be completely fair, when my brother grabbed him mid-fall, my brother returned the hit, and it escalated quickly...as these things do."

"Again, how badly injured is he this time?" Wufei asked, even if he were dreading that knowledge...especially since both Trowa and Duo had shared many horror stories with the group about the trials and tribulations of dealing with an injured Heero who refused to acknowledge that he was human and that human bodies had certain limitations.

"Aside from plenty of bumps and bruises, Heero also came out of that with a dislocated shoulder, so Doctor Po's having to take care of that."

"And...?" Trowa asked only for Relena to shrug. "Heero won by technicality since he was the one in control of the fight by the time someone broke it up. I think it was Noin who broke up the fight, actually. I don't remember exactly, so we would probably have to watch the footage again."

Hilde snickered at the thought of Wufei heavily critiquing the pair's "rolling down a staircase and fighting" tactics. Trowa, despite the powerful urge to say it, wisely decided to not speak aloud the snarky comment that he had been thinking in regards to every past fight between Heero and Zechs. "Anything else?"

"I'm pretty sure that my brother is in the same boat injury-wise, though Une did say something about a possible concussion, but I'm sure it's fine." Relena said as she checked over her notes to make certain that she had everything that she needed. "Besides, Noin is probably keeping an eye on him, and who knows...maybe the concussion finally knocked some sense into him."

Wufei rolled his eyes because yeah, that was highly unlikely in his opinion...and no, he was not being biased about that thought. Well...maybe he was being a little bit biased since he couldn't stand Zechs any more than the rest of the former pilots could. "So...is Yuy going to be on pain medicine for this, because, out of morbid curiosity, I have been wondering what he's like when he's high...more so after we saw how he is when he's drunk."

Relena covered her face with both hands at that reminder, not out of second-hand embarrassment mind you...but to muffle her laughter.

No one knew, to this day, where exactly that bottle of vodka had come from (though everyone had given Duo dirty looks despite his protesting that he wasn't at fault) only that after consuming half of said-bottle, while under the impression that it was just "bad water", Heero had become extremely "hands-on" and cuddly towards all of them, as well as spontaneously developing a bad case of "I no longer desire to wear clothing". Duo had wanted to record everything "for future generations", only to change his mind when Relena had calmly, and scary-sweetly, promised to shave his head in the middle of the night should he not put his phone away right then and there.

Of course, the fact that Trowa had far-too casually offered her one of his knives to "add credit" to the promise may have helped as well.

Thankfully, after using "Quatre hugs" as bait, they had succeeded in capturing Heero and (thanks to Trowa and Wufei both being surprisingly skilled at tying rope, though it made sense in retrospect because of Trowa's circus background) restraining him long enough for him to pass out, sober up, and be ready to fully enjoy the horrors of his first hangover.

"I really hope that he's not the same high that he is drunk." Hilde said, trying for serious...but unable to stop herself from grinning at the memory. She had thought that a "Drunk Heero" would be an "even more morbid than normal Heero" so the cuddly, mostly naked, "I love you guys" kind of Heero had been both hilarious and slightly terrifying in a way that had made her curious about what each of the guys would be like if they were drunk...but she had no intentions to even consider trying to encourage everyone to see their "drunk selves" for at least a few more years, just to be safe.

Especially after hearing that Quatre, of all people, had quite the terrifying 'dark side' that none of the guys ever wanted to see unleashed again.

"For what it's worth, he just seems to say weird things like how he once told me "what if trees are not actually green, but we just perceive them that way" while he was recuperating with me after he blew himself up." Trowa said with his arms crossed over his chest as he thought back on that particular memory. "Though that may have had more to do with the pain medicine that I was giving him at the time."

"What were you giving him?" Hilde asked as Wufei and Relena both shot the brunette suspicious looks...only for Trowa to immediately ignore all of them in favor of turning towards the door just as Duo and Quatre entered with their arms full of bags of chips, pretzels, assorted dips and 'toppings', and sodas. "What do I need to help with?"

"The pack of bottled water in the hallway." Quatre said while Hilde and Wufei shared a minute to grumble about Trowa "conveniently side-stepping the question again". Duo set the bags of soda, dips, and 'toppings' down on the counter next to the game room fridge, looking at Relena over his shoulder. "I ordered the pizzas on the way back like you asked us to. Should be here in another twenty minutes or so."

"Thank you, Duo. Did you guys remember to get my Reese's cups?"

"Yep. Got a bag of the single-serves for you this time, 'Lena." Duo said as Quatre fished the bag of candy out of one of the bags of chips and pretzels, and handed it over to the diplomat who leaned over and placed a kiss of thanks on the pair's cheeks. Duo looked over at Hilde. "So, what'd we walk in on or what'd we miss?"

"Heero's probably gonna be high as a kite."

Quatre looked over as Wufei opened the refrigerator so that Trowa could shove the pack of water inside. "What happened? Why is Heero going to be as high as a kite?"

"I'm not high." Came Heero's irritation-laced voice as he came in through the doorway...only for Quatre to immediately make him sit down while the blond proceeded to check over the split lip, the bruise forming on Heero's right cheek, and the sling currently bracing the former-pilot's left arm to his body beneath his denim jacket. Relena raised a brow. "Are you sure that you feel able to play tonight, Heero? If you want, we can just postpone the session and you can go rest or we can just settle in for a movie night-"

"I'm fine. I've dealt with worse."

"That's not comforting." Hilde muttered at the same time that Trowa and Duo shared an exasperated look as they both knew very well what 'worse' was; had the two former pilots 'bonded' one night over Heero's clear lack of any kind of basic self-preservation instincts? Yes, yes they had. That 'bonding night' had also been when they had told the rest of the group about Heero's..."Heero-ness", as Duo referred to it, and made Wufei openly, and loudly, question where exactly evolution had gone wrong.

"It really is not." Wufei rolled his eyes to the ceiling as if he were asking whatever deities and/or higher powers that there might be, for the patience that he had not been born with so that he didn't just give in to the often overwhelming urge to just start throttling every one of the former pilots except for Quatre...because Quatre is an angel whom everyone is grateful to have around.

"Did Doctor Po give you anything?" Relena asked as she moved to stand next to Heero's chair as Quatre finished checking him over; the blond headed over to the freezer and fished out one of the ice packs from the collection inside and wrap it in one of the hand towels from a drawer, before bringing it over and carefully placing the pack on Heero's shoulder.

"I think ibuprofen?" Heero said after a moment of thought. "She said that I already have too many problems and that she didn't want to add a Vicodin addiction to them."

Duo's laugh was cut short into a barely heard snort as Trowa suddenly covered his mouth from behind in a hold that Hilde had to gesture for Wufei to help her with untangling because she wasn't sure if it wouldn't turn into an accidental murder...not because she didn't trust Trowa, but only because you just can't be too careful, especially with Duo's tendency to try to push both his luck and the other pilots' respective buttons at the worst possible moments.

"Okay then...well, everyone get your snacks and set up and we'll start." Relena said, running her fingers through Heero's hair...and trying to pretend that she didn't notice how he leaned his head into the touch, though she was now suspecting that any kind of pain relief medicine might have a similar affect on her boyfriend as alcohol...and helped to explain why he avoided said-medicine like it would give him a plague of some kind.

"I just got the message on my phone that the pizzas are here, so Trowa and I will be right back." Quatre said with a small smile as he grabbed the other's hand and tugged him out the door...while Hilde patted Duo's back since he was now able to breathe properly without Trowa's hand covering his mouth and, on accident, nose, while Wufei just supported his fellow-pilot's weight, all the while sporting an expression not unlike that of a greatly displeased cat. "...Get off me, Maxwell."

"Nah...you're comfy. Chilly, but comfy."

"Maxwell."

Ignoring Hilde's snickering at Duo's antics and Wufei's nigh-eternal irritation with said-antics, Relena leaned down and kissed Heero's unbruised cheek. "Heero, please...don't push yourself, alright?"

After a moment of silence, the former pilot gave a short nod and turned to look at his girlfriend. "I will tell you if I need to stop."

Would he really? Well...Relena hoped so, but at least her boyfriend saying that he would inform them was a big step up from his usual methods for dealing with pain...i.e. ignoring it until it got to the point that he could no longer move and the guys had to rock-paper-scissors for who had to haul him to bed or, if serious enough, to Sally and hope that she was willing to help them with the minimal amount judgment towards their poor life choices. "That's all I ask."

The moment was broken by Wufei, who had finally freed himself from Duo, setting a bottle of water in front of Heero before he took his usual seat with his own bottle. "The seal's already broken."

Relena couldn't help the smile on her face at the small gesture of care from the martial artist...and his attempt to now play it off as 'no big deal' as Duo would put it. Speaking of...Duo and Hilde wandered over with their sodas, taking their own seats just as Quatre and Trowa returned...with Trowa just balancing the three pizza boxes on his head, probably because he had decided to do it to see if he could and wanted to show off to Quatre.

At this point, everyone had learned to just not ask whenever he did certain things.

Once pizza on plates was passed out and everyone was settled, Relena took her seat behind her screen with her own bottle of water. "Is everyone ready?"

"Let's find what we need so we can cure the rogue before he starts chowing down on us!" Duo said with a wide grin and, thankfully, without a mouthful of pizza this time. "I know I'm a snack, but still."

"My character is turning into a vampire...not a zombie." Trowa said firmly, arms looped around Quatre's waist as the blond offered him a bite-size piece of pizza from their shared plate. Wufei glanced at Relena. "Can I hit the bard?"

"What?! Why do you wanna hit me?" Duo exclaimed at the same time as Relena said: "We're not playing yet."

"My question remains."

"No, Wufei."

This idea wouldn't leave me alone if only because of the first part with the argument between Trowa and Wufei, and the bottom part between Wufei and Relena.