Author's Note:
I hope you all still like this. It's probably a little AU as it's vaguely somewhere during the series, though I did try and keep things in character. Thanks to my best friend Steph for the title
I don't own anything. I'm not worth suing. That said...happy reading!
Chapter 2: Laundromat Shuffle
The Laundromatic was bright, clean, and thankfully empty. A lone employee sat behind the counter, head against her hand, staring through the television showing talk shows with fuzzy reception. Repeated whirring of a running washer could be heard from the back.
Wufei strode in first, scanning the place with a critical eye. "Satisfactory." He stated after a moment of careful scrutiny.
"Now Wufei." Quatre said, his tone mildly scolding as he struggled his handful of clothing through the door Heero had silently held open for him. "It's really quite nice. Good morning Miss." He paused, taking a second to peer at the tag affixed to the woman's chest, "Bradley" Quatre beamed.
"Huh?" The woman, Miss Bradley, drug herself from her doze to smile back, somewhat confused at the blond child in front of her. "Just Denise dear." She added.
`She hasn't been a Miss since before the first Yuy assassination', Duo thought with mild amazement. `Leave it to Quatre. No wonder those dry cleaners were willing to wash his underwear.'
"So is this where we leave the clothes?" Quatre asked, turning his head towards Duo, brow furrowed.
"We wash them ourselves."
Quatre continued to stare, lost puppy stamped all over him.
"Come on." Duo gestured towards the washers and started walking, hoping the others would fall in line. When reaching the washers, Duo pulled out four rolls of quarters, placing them with a clunk on top of a washing machine. "First you sort the clothes", Duo said, reaching into his bag. "Darks, whites and colors, got it." He demonstrated, placing them into separate piles.
"I know how to wash clothes Maxwell." Wufei stated acerbically before stalking off to find his own machine.
Heero proceeded to carefully remove each musty item from his bag, scrutinizing them individually before putting choosing a pile: black, white, or green. Quatre had a bit more trouble as he was trying to sort his colors into separate subsets by gradation: black, dark gray, gray, light gray, white, blue, dark blue, light blue, etc. Gentle prodding soon got him going in the right direction though.
`Good.' Duo thought with relief as the sorting continued with minor incident. They seem to be handling this well enough. Now for the hard part.'
While Heero did his best to pretend he wasn't interested even as he watched everything critically, Duo demonstrated when and how to put the detergent and clothing into the washer and where to insert the change. Setting everyone up with the heavy load machines seemed the best idea; Heero didn't have much clothing but it needed all the help it could get and Quatre was the closest to a clotheshorse a person with no permanent address had a right to be.
Leaving them to pour their detergent with only minor trepidation, Duo then proceeded to start his own clothes spinning.
***
"Umm, Duo." Quatre spoke in a small voice, interrupting Duo's trancelike watching of the spin cycle. Growing up where water was such a scarcity, Duo had a special love of the substance, drips, drabbles or torrents, he enjoyed them all.
He didn't enjoy the slight note of panic in Quatre's voice as the youth began politely tapping his shoulder.
"Yeah, Quat."
"There's something wrong with my washer." Quatre pointed, his finger shaking slightly.
Duo turned, a hard lump of dread settling in his stomach. The inside of the machine was completely white and suds were beginning to fall out onto the floor. "Quatre." Duo said very quietly. "How much detergent did you put in there?"
"Oh, just enough to fill the little well on top." Quatre said, his voice beginning to sound uneasy. "I guess five or six caps full. The level kept falling before I was finished. I was careful not to fill the caps above the line though." He added.
"One cap. One load." Duo said, his body shaking, characteristic grin a little frayed even as his eyes twinkled with....something. "Now go open the door to that washer before it explodes, and then ask the nice lady for a mop. You're going to have to move to another machine. Do you need a hand?"
"That's okay. I think I've got one." Quatre grinned, his gaze turning to a deserted area of the room for a moment, he smiled again before determinedly walking towards the now shaking washing machine.
`To each his own I guess.' Duo thought, turning back to watch his spinning clothes, but the interest had palled. Glancing over at Heero he caught a glimpse of the boy staring intently at his wash, which was thankfully not erupting in a mess of soap. Pulling himself to his feet, Duo ambled over to him.
"Hey man. Havin' fun?" Duo asked with some forced cheer.
"Hn."
"You could have asked me, you know."
"Hn."
"You're my best friend." Half smile stationary on his face, Duo's voice lost any pretension of humor "I trust you with my life and you don't even trust me with your laundry..."
The words trailed off into silence and they stood side by side, watching the clothing whirl.
"Duo."
"Yeah."
"Injustice!" Tranquility was crushed with sledgehammer force.
Both whirled around to watch in horror as Wufei drew his sword.
"It ate my change!"
Time dilated. Duo threw himself forward, attempting to vault over two laundry-folding tables and move between the offending dryer and Wufei's blade.
Too long. Quatre was frozen, holding the mop almost serene. Heero was behind him, somewhere. The blade started to fall, then stopped, seized by something outside of Duo's field of vision.
"You break it, you buy it." The voice was familiar, and as Duo rolled to his feet he caught the impression of a single green eye.
"Trowa?"
Trowa gave a slight nod, removing his hand from Wufei's arm.
Wufei quietly dropped his katana to his side before placing the blade back in its spinal sheath. "My apologies." He mumbled almost under his breath.
"Trowa?" Duo asked again, completely stunned. "What are you doing here?"
"He was sitting in the back." Quatre inclined his hand towards a shadowed corner. "He does this washing machine cleaning also." Quatre explained.
"Oh."
"We really should apologize to Miss Bradley." Quatre added, looking pointedly at Wufei. "It's the only honorable thing to do."
"Where is she?" Duo looked towards the counter but the woman was gone.
"We should leave." Heero said softly, his monotone more grim, if possible, as his eyes scanned the counter.
"But my clothes aren't dry?" Quatre complained, folding his arms, "They're barely done washing. Wufei just needs to say he's sorry for almost skewering the dryer and everything should be fine."
"What is it Heero?" He might be paranoid, but Heero had good instincts. Besides, Duo could feel the hair on his neck rising.
"The phone cord is reaching behind the counter and her foot is visible underneath. She's calling the police." Heero stated, matter of fact.
"Let's go." Duo grabbed his bag and began heaping damp clothing into it. The rest followed suit. Scrambling with military speed, they were out in barely a minute with a "Sorry Miss Bradley" from Quatre as the door closed behind him.
"Maybe we can get that Ice Cream now?" Quatre suggested as they ran in the cold light of the barely risen sun.
"Naah." Duo said, with the faint hint of a grin. "Can't take you guys anywhere."
***
"Duo."
"Yeah." The boy paused, brutally tossing a pair of pants over the shower curtain to dry. "What is it?"
"Thank you."
Heero spoke quietly, his back turned, but the words still almost made Duo drop the rest of his wet clothing in shock.
"No problem." Duo responded, for a moment just as serious, exorcizing a weight he hadn't even realized was there. "Of course," He added with a hint of mischief, "if you really want to thank me, you can go buy yourself a pair of jeans."
End.
