Chapter
Six:
The
Apartment
Since the only pilot with any money and
with an actual home was Quatre, the Gundam pilots had no choice but to live in
one of Quatre's many houses. The problem wasn't finding a house, or even living
in it. The problem was living in it together. Every day, the Gundam
pilots left a very large mess in the house, but the minions would always clean
it up. Until one day, when the minions went on strike.
"It's not you, Master Quatre! It's your
friends, we can't stand them anymore, so we've got no choice but to throw them
out. You can stay, of course, just not them!" The minions told Quatre.
"But I want to stay with them! I'm sorry
for all of the trouble we've caused you… we'll all be moving out as soon as we
find an apartment, then. Okay?" Quatre suggested.
"Sounds good," the minions agreed with
Quatre and all the pilots needed now was a place to live.
"Look, I didn't do anything! In fact,
they were only going to throw you guys out, but I don't want to live in this
house without you, so I decided to go with you. It won't be that hard, but we
have to agree on one thing: We split the rent between the five of us. Got it?"
Quatre said.
"What
about everything else? We need food, furniture, electricity, repairs, and
probably even more than that," Wufei argued.
"I've
already come up with a little arrangement for those problems. Here's my plan:
When we find an apartment, I'll take care of the bills, Heero and Wufei will
pay for accessories (such as furniture and towels), Duo can handle the repairs,
and Trowa can pay for the food. What do you think? Does anyone disagree?"
Quatre asked, holding up a little chart.
"Works
for me," Duo said. Everyone else agreed. "Now we just need to find the
apartment…."
After
about one whole week of non-stop apartment searching, they found a suitable
home. It was the cheapest apartment that was big enough to hold all the Gundam
pilots, but it was still a little pricey for their standards.
"Quatre,
come on! You're rich, can't you just pay a little extra rent? This is the only
acceptable apartment we've found and none of us has gotten any sleep all week
just because we were searching for something like this! PLEASE?!" Duo was
begging Quatre out of tiredness to pay the part of the rent that everyone else
couldn't handle.
"Wait,
I have an idea! If we get someone else to stay with us, we can split the rent
six ways! Surely we can handle that!" Quatre suggested.
"Who?"
asked Trowa.
"It
doesn't matter… how about Releena? I'm sure she needs a place to stay as well.
Has anyone seen her lately?" Quatre asked.
"The
last time I saw her was on that colony where the scientists were hiding out,
but I doubt she's still there." Heero replied.
"That's
right, she's supposed to have a big meeting in Chicago this week; it was on the
news. Where's that apartment, again?" Duo agreed with Heero.
"It's
in Chicago, actually," Wufei said, looking at the ad in the paper.
"Great
then, let's go!" Quatre smiled and stood up, heading for his personal jet.
"Follow me, guys!" he said.
It
was two days later when the Gundam pilots finally met up with Releena. She
agreed to their plan and offered to help pay the bills as well as her share of
the rent. She was rich, after all.
"Great!
Thanks, Releena. Wait 'till you see the apartment!" Quatre said gratefully to
Releena as he led the way down the crowded street to their new home. "The other
pilots and I have already moved in, but there's still room for you, trust me!"
he reassured her.
"I'm
just glad to have a place to stay," she laughed.
"Hi,
Releena." Duo and Heero said plainly at the same time. Wufei and Trowa didn't
bother to greet her. Quatre showed Releena the room she was intended to stay in
and then showed her where everyone else's rooms were.
"There're
only four rooms, so we all have to share with someone except for you and Heero.
You because we thought you wouldn't want to be roomed with a guy, and Heero
because he refused to share a room with Duo, as we had planned. It kinda' makes
you feel sorry for Wufei, since he now has to room with Duo… Oh well," Quatre
smiled at Releena and then left to unpack some of his own belongings.
Duo
and Wufei's room was across from Quatre and Trowa's room and next to the
bathroom, Releena's room was across from the bathroom and next to Heero's,
which was at the end of the hall, and once you passed Heero's room, you would
reach the stairway to the lower floor. The stairway ended at the kitchen, which
had a doorway to the dining room, but no actual door. There was also a bathroom
next to the kitchen. Next to the dining room stood the living room, which
wasn't separated from the dining room at all. And finally, the front door led
from the living room to the parking lot outside. None of the bedrooms was
bigger than another, and Wufei had already gone out and bought a couch for the
living room.
After
Releena was unpacked and back in the living room, she noticed that Heero was in
a tux.
"Why
are you dressed up, Heero?" she laughed as she approached him.
"I'm
going for a job interview down the street. I'll be back in a couple of hours,"
Heero replied.
"Okay.
Good luck!" Releena called after him as he walked out the door. "What do you
guys wanna do?" she turned to the remaining Gundam pilots in the room with her
question.
"I
dunno… how about a game?" Duo grinned. "As long as Heero's gone for a few
hours…" his grin turned into a smirk. "Can we invite Hilde?"
"Great!
We can play truth or dare! Where's your phone, I want to invite Dorothy,"
Releena said, standing up. "We'd better hurry, though. What if Heero comes back
early or something?" Releena worried.
"We'll
give him something to do on his way home!" Quatre held up a grocery list.
Everyone looked at him.
"He'd
never agree to that, besides, he knows Trowa's supposed to be in charge of
food." Wufei said.
"Well
you got the couch, but he's in charge of accessories, too. We could just ask
him to buy a table or something," Trowa suggested.
"That
wouldn't take very long, though…" Releena shook her head and began to think.
"Maybe we should just hurry up and invite everyone anyway before we change our
minds. If he gets here during our game, maybe we can persuade him to play!"
Everyone doubted he would play, but it wasn't as if Heero would actually do
anything to them for playing an innocent game…
Half
an hour later, everyone had arrived. Releena had invited Milliardo, Noin, and
Dorothy. Duo invited Hilde and Trowa invited Catherine. Noin had asked if she
could invite Sally Po, and they said she could, so she did.
After
the decision had been made to let Duo go first, the game began. Duo picked on
Quatre and asked him, "Truth or Dare?"
"Uhh…
Truth?" Quatre replied weakly.
"Aww,
come on! Truth is lame! What am I supposed to ask you that'll actually
embarrass you?" Duo said, pouting.
"I
have an idea!" Hilde shrieked and moved up next to Duo and whispered something
in his ear.
"Oooh!
Good one!! Okay, Quatre! When was the last time you changed clothes?" Duo asked
with a grin.
"Uhh…
probably the same as you… It's been about three weeks since I wore a pilot
suit, and I've been wearing this outfit since then (he waves a hand towards his
pink shirt and purple vest)." Quatre answered.
"THREE
WEEKS?!" Everyone yelled.
"Well
it's not like I haven't cleaned my clothes, unlike some people… (Quatre
points to Duo as he says this to draw attention away from him)"
"WHAT?!
You… LIAR!!!!!" Duo's face turned bright red.
"Actually,
the only one's of us that are actually cleaning our own clothes are me and
Releena." Quatre stated matter-of-factly. "We've been cleaning our clothes and
everyone else's, thankfully." He continued. There was a group 'sigh of relief'
as Quatre finished speaking. "So anyway, I'm next! And I choose… Wufei!" Quatre
pointed to Wufei.
"Is
this an all guy's game or what? Does anyone mind choosing a female?"
Noin said, frowning.
"Sorry!
Wufei, truth or dare?" Quatre asked evilly (as if he could… Just go with
it…)
"Well
I, for one, am no weakling. I choose dare." Wufei answered.
"Okay!
Let's see… um… I dare you to… kiss… hmm…. Releena!" Quatre shouted.
"Yeah!!
And if you don't, you have to do the consequence dare! Duo added.
"WHAT?!
HER?!! What's the consequence?" Wufei asked.
"The
consequence dare is… is that you have to watch Thunder Cats for
at least three days in a row!" Quatre told him, while on the verge of cackling
like an evil maniac.
"UGH!
This… this doesn't mean anything, though, okay?!" Wufei shouted at Releena.
*giggle*
"Of course not! Besides, you have Sally Po and I have Heero!" Releena agreed
cheerfully.
"Oh
please!! That woman is not my partner! And Heero isn't
yours! But either way, I'd rather do even this than watch Thunder Cats
for three days straight!" Wufei was steaming with anger, but a dare was a dare,
and he wasn't about to show a weak point. So he leaned forward and softly
kissed Releena on the cheek.
"Aw
come on! On the lips!!" Duo shouted.
"That's
as far as I'm going. The dare was only to kiss her, not on the lips."
Wufei sat back down and fumed for a few minutes before selecting his victim.
"Okay, this one's gonna be good! I choose… Catherine!" he said.
"M-Me?!"
Catherine said worriedly. "Uh… okay… I choose… *thought: If I choose dare, I
know he'll give me a really mean one, but if I choose truth, then I'll get a
long lecture about being weak and afraid…*
Before
Catherine could decide, Heero walked in the door.
"Hey.
Why's everyone here?" Heero asked Quatre in his usual tone as he walked by.
"We're
playing truth or dare! Why are you back so soon? How did the interview go?"
Quatre wondered.
"They
won't give me a job. They say I need a high school education." Heero replied,
making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the kitchen. "The only job
we can get is probably as repair guys. It's because we didn't ever go to
school." Heero said.
"Oh…
well that's okay, as long as we're paid!" Quatre said cheerfully. "Would you
like to join us, Heero?" he asked.
"No."
Heero replied plainly. "In fact, they should probably leave."
"Why?"
Releena asked.
"Do
not make me bring up the last time we played truth or dare." Heero
answered. "You all know it's not going to end well, so you decide. All I know
is, I'm not getting involved." Heero said as he took his sandwich into his room
along with a can of soda.
"Well
he does have a point… but we haven't done anything together since the
Mariemaya incident. Why don't we eat dinner or something before you guys
leave?" Quatre suggested. The group agreed and the game was ended. After
dinner, everyone left and the apartment was quiet once again… well, it was only
as quiet as it could get with Duo. Releena was in the shower and
everyone else (not including Heero) was getting ready for bed. Heero was in his
room, typing away on his laptop. Suddenly, a voice caught his attention.
"Heero!"
Releena shouted from the bathroom.
"Hn…?"
Heero got up and walked to the door of the bathroom. "What?" he asked.
"Could
you get me a towel? They're on top of the dryer!" she pleaded.
"Yeah."
He replied, already on his way. He chose a suitable towel and brought it to
Releena.
"Thank
you! …Heero… This towel's way too small… Heero?" Heero smirked on the other
side of the door, pretending not to hear her. *Oops* he thought to
himself. *Oh well…* Heero then walked calmly back to his room. "Oh
great… he didn't hear me… It's okay, my room's right there, across the hall… No
one'll see me as long as I hurry…" Releena then began to tiptoe silently across
the hall. But of course, just as she did, Duo came out of his room in his
pajamas and caught her in that small towel.
*whistle*
"Hey, Releena! Nice outfit!" *giggle*
"Shut
up!" Releena yelled. She smacked Duo across the face and ran to her room.
"Geez…"
he said, rubbing his cheek.
And
all the while, Heero was watching this incident from his room.