A Fortunate Misunderstanding
Part 3
Heero was sitting on a couch and contemplating suicide. Relena's party was even worse than he had ever expected it to be. The minute he had entered the house, Relena had attached herself to him and had not left his side since. She was currently sitting next to him, practically on his lap, and discussing various things that he had no interest in. A few of Relena's friends were sitting on another couch near-by and they kept looking at him and Relena while whispering and giggling behind their hands. Heero was almost positive that they were talking about the future marriage of him and Relena or something horrid like that. Heero had been suffering through this intolerable situation for over an hour; the previous hour had been spent at a dining room table eating a frightfully dull and healthy five course meal. Heero figured that at the rate things were going, he would be dead by the end of the night.
To make matters worse, Duo had completely ignored him all day. Heero was not sure how to handle this, which really frustrated him. He figured this silent treatment had something to do with the little incident after their pillow fight. Yet Heero could not figure out what Duo's problem was since nothing really happened. Heero wanted to set things right again; he really missed the normal Duo. The Duo who always bothered him, who was always smiling and laughing, who had made Heero feel things he had never experienced before. Heero corrected himself as he watched Duo, who was on the other side of the room. Duo was acting normal. He was laughing, smiling, joking, having fun and being his usual social butterfly self. Except it was not with Heero; it was with five of Relena's girl friends, who were all flirting outrageously with Duo. It was not supposed to be this way, it never had been before; Duo had always paid attention to Heero the most. Now that his attention was directed elsewhere, Heero missed it and was becoming incredibly jealous of those with whom Duo spent time.
Heero consoled himself by observing that he was not the only one in a state of jealousy. Trowa was sitting in a chair and positively glowering at the group of girls surrounding Quatre. At least Quatre seemed aware of Trowa's feelings and kept giving him apologizing and rather desperate glances. Yet Quatre was too nice to try to escape the girls in order to relieve Trowa's jealousy. Heero sighed, realizing he was now becoming jealous of Trowa and Quatre, wishing he had a relationship with Duo that resembled what those two had.
Just then Heero noticed that Duo was walking over to where he was sitting. He felt his stomach flutter and his heart beat rapidly in anticipation of Duo finally paying attention to him. However, his heart turned cold when Duo completely ignored him and talked to Relena instead. Heero had never felt so invisible, so rejected, so hurt. He felt like curling up and crying, something he had never done before. However, Heero refused to allow anyone, especially Duo, see how hurt he was, so instead he casually listened to Duo's brief conversation with Relena.
"Hey Relena, can I use your phone?"
"Sure, how come?"
"I wanna call Wufei and see why he isn't here yet."
"Oh! That's definitely a good idea. He said he'd be here by six, yet that was an hour ago! You better make sure he comes!"
"Oh, don't worry, I'm not gonna give him any other choice," Duo replied, grinning maniacally as he walked off to use the phone in a different room.
Heero briefly wondered what Duo meant by his last comment before his thoughts once more focused on his feelings for Duo and how the boy had treated him all day. Heero was rather surprised with himself that he was so bothered by Duo's change of character. He had always known he liked Duo a lot yet never realized until now how much he really cared about the boy and how much he wanted Duo to like him as well. Heero gave himself a mental shake, determined not to think about Duo anymore, knowing that if he did he would get seriously depressed. So instead, he focused all his attention upon Relena and attempted to converse with her.
Heero was so successful at doing this that he had not noticed Duo was back in the room until twenty minutes later when the boy went charging across the room to greet Wufei, who had just come in. Heero was at first relieved that Wufei had come in because it allowed him to stop talking to Relena. However, Heero immediately became resentful of how adamantly Duo was talking to Wufei and also how close they were standing to each other. The two pilots eventually came over to where Heero and Relena were sitting
"Hey Relena, great party!" Wufei said with a little smirk directed towards Duo, who returned it, causing Heero to wonder what they were up to.
"Oh I know, isn't it splendid?!" Relena replied, "It's the best one I've had yet! I can't believe that so many people came and I'm really glad you finally showed up. It means we can start playing some games soon!"
Heero wondered what kind of games she wanted them to play; probably scrabble or something dull like that.
"Relena, do you have anything to drink?" Wufei asked, "I've been running around for a few hours doing stuff and I'm really thirsty."
"Yeah sure! I'll go tell the servants to bring out the juice and snacks," Relena said and then bounded off to go talk to the servants.
Duo and Wufei started to snicker, prompting Heero to ask "What are you two up to?"
"You'll see," Wufei said as he patted his coat pockets, which looked like there was something in them.
"Yeah and I think you'll like it!" Duo said to him while giving Heero his monkey smile.
Heero gave Duo a slight smile in return, thrilled that Duo was paying attention to him again.
"So Heero, enjoying the party?" Wufei asked.
Heero was about to make a snide remark when Duo cheerfully answered for him, "Of course he is! Wouldn't you just love to have the complete and undivided attention of Relena for almost two and an half hours?!"
Heero just rolled his eyes as Wufei laughed. Just then there was a lot of commotion as the food and drinks were brought in and set out on a long table. Everyone went over to the table to help themselves, except for Heero, Duo and Wufei.
"Have to wait until no one is around the table," Wufei said, causing Heero to wonder again what the two pilots were scheming.
After about ten minutes their wait was over so the three pilots got up and went over to the table. As Heero helped himself to some cheese and crackers, he watched Duo and Wufei head over to the punch bowls. Once there, Wufei looked around covertly and then pulled two bottles out of his coat and grinned wickedly at Duo. He poured the contents of the bottles into the two bowls and then shoved the empty bottles back into his coat.
Heero walked over and asked "What was that?!"
"Vodka!" Duo said excitedly as he poured himself a large glass, "I told you I'd liven up this party if it needed it and it certainly does!" With that said, Duo bounced away to join his group of female admirers again.
Heero stared after him, not particularly surprised that Duo had come up with this little scheme. However, Heero began to feel abandoned and hurt again as he watched Duo enjoy himself with people other than him. Just when he thought Duo was going to start paying attention to him again, the boy goes off to give his attention to those unworthy of it. Heero sighed and stared down at the 'punch' bowl.
"Here ya go Heero," Wufei said as he handed Heero a cup full of the 'punch', "After a few cups of this you won't even care if Relena starts talking to you!" Wufei then left and went over to Trowa and Quatre to give them some 'punch'.
Wufei had a point, Heero realized. If he got drunk he'd become oblivious to everything that was around him, even to the fact that Duo was not paying any attention to him. With that thought in mind Heero began to drink, determined to get drunk as fast as he possibly could.
End Part 3
