ACK! Gomen nasai! *bows multiple times* I am so sorry! I know I
had promised to get this chapter out sooner, but quite frankly,
I was having some personal issues and a lot of crap going on
with school and crap. Yes, excuses, excuses...but still. I
haven't had time to just sit and write. So much stress and very
little stress tolerance does NOT mix. Please forgive the DVG.
And as for the reviews now that I've finished my bitching and whining...
Avenged Suffering: *sweatdrop* It's gonna be all right there...*pat pat*
Lady Rune: Lol. Don't worry, there will be nakedness. Lots. There always is when it comes to me and my hentai thoughts. Just keep on reading. ^.~
Lexington: o0;;; Breathe! Here's the next chapter!
Hybrid Fairy: Me? A common trollop? I do believe that's the first time I've ever been called a common trollop. Woo hoo. Kudos to me. I'm a trollop. See? Humor! So don't cry! *sweatdrop* Next chapter! See? *points*
Smiley-person: *confusion settles heavily* Kill Heero? I think you misread the dream sequence. Duo was -trying- to kill him, but Heero turned into Wufei. So technically...He killed Wufei. Not Heero. But yeah...*ahem*
Mars: First and foremost- I bow to you. I grovel at your feet. That website was pure heaven. *glomp* I LOVE YOU! That website is beautiful! *tearful sigh* Now- Please don't cry!!!! I am not good when it comes to crying people! *nervous* Here's the next chapter, so please don't cry!
And last, but certainly not the least in my favorite reviewers...
SHELLA!: Holy Sweet Jesus. Yes I definitely believe that is the longest (and most emotional) post I've gotten from you yet. o.O;;; I appreciate you bunches and bunches! That is why you are my first-ness coolest reviewer-person!! ^^ And I'm not gonna say anything about Orlando Bloom...*squeak* Oh yesh, and thinking of Wufei and Duo getting down to business...*glazed look comes over her face as she retreats into her hentai mind for a moment* Eh? What? Oh yeah...Now about the websites...Er...I'll have them by next chapter, promise! I swear I thought I had bookmarked the addresses, but when I went to check, all I found was my 1x2x1 sites and the loverly 3x4/4x3 site Mars gave me. So I swear by all things 2x5 holy, I'll get those sites up in the next chapter's Author Notes! And...You really think my 3+4 scenes are good? I try. ^^;;; I'm trying to go more in depth with them, since in my past two stories they didn't get much attention. Poor Quatre and Trowa. One day I'll dedicate a fic just for them. Eventually. This chapter nearly came out entirely dark and angst-y, but I decided to let Wufei and Heero have some more picking at each other. I dunno, I just seem to see nothing but sarcasm between them whenever I try to write a scene with them interacting. It just works. I dunno. I'm babbling. And yes, the evil bit was all a dream. *sweatdrop* It's gonna be all right...For now...*evil grin* Wow, we're both setting records here! I think this is the longest review reply I've ever written!
Screw the disclaimers and warnings, if you're coming late into the game plan, then tough luck. That's your own problem, not mine. So nyah.
And now for the looooooooong delayed chapter that everyone's been -dying- to read! (Haha, yeah right. One's ego can hope, eh?)
Read! Read and be...er...pissed off at the author again? *blink blink*
***
Wufei bolted upright in his bed, cold sweat drenching his body as he gasped for air.
It had seemed so real, the nightmare. He could almost still feel the pain through his heart where the stake had penetrated.
'Maybe going to him was a bad idea,' Wufei thought regretfully, running a hand through his damp hair. 'This is only making things worse.'
Why he had dreamed that Heero was kissing Duo was beyond his comprehension, as far as he knew, the two had never seen each other except for that brief instant outside the 'Oasis'. But to have himself ending up Heero's place and getting killed...It had to be a sign.
Pulling off his wet tank top, Wufei considered the past couple of days. Everything had been turned upside down by just one moment under the moonlight in the alley. Beginning with Heero's suddenly suspicious behavior towards him, the whole new situation with the slayers, and ending with last night's little weakness 'attack', the only good thing that had come from him approaching Duo was the braided boy himself and the fact that there -may- be a chance out of eternal damnation.
If only he knew the whole truth behind it all.
'Perhaps he's right...' Wufei's train of thought ended abruptly as he heard footsteps out in the living room. It appeared that he wasn't the only one having difficulty sleeping.
***
Cold hands gripping his bare shoulders brought Duo instantly out of his troubled slumber with a sharp hiss of inhalation.
"Wake up!" It was Quatre.
His aquamarine eyes were full of worry and his expression furrowed in deep concern as he released his hold. Duo shook off the leftover chill and sat up carefully, if the empath hadn't woken him up, he would have fallen right over onto the floor in his tightly wrapped cocoon of bed linens. Beads of perspiration collected along his brow were wiped away as he rubbed his face and heaved a tired sigh.
"What were you dreaming about? Trowa and I could hear you thrashing and calling out all the way down the hall in our room." Quatre reached out to touch him again, but he shied away.
"I- it was nothing," Duo lied lamely, staring down at his fingers as they fell into their usual habit of playing with the end of his braid whenever he was nervous.
"If it were nothing, then why are you so upset?" Quatre replied intently, taking in all his fidgeting give-aways and the almost suffocating wave of unease and anxiety that filled his aura. He had refrained from looking into the dream himself when arousing him out of respect for privacy, and that he would open up on his own without having to be pried into.
Duo kept quiet for a moment, but knowing the blonde wasn't going anywhere until he had an explanation; he bit his lower lip. "...I killed him Quatre. In the nightmare."
"Wufei?" he asked, startled.
He nodded mutely, still keeping his gaze fixed on his fingers, which had moved on to wringing the hem of his black muscle shirt. "B-but I didn't do it on purpose, it was supposed to be Heero...yet when I- I looked, he had turned into Wufei. A-and I couldn't do anything to stop it once I realized what had happened- then you woke me up."
Quatre tentatively put a hand on the distraught boy's shoulder, but this time he did not flinch away, so he pulled him into a full comforting embrace. Which was something, since the empath was prone to completely absorbing such raw emotions as Duo's in unblocked contact. "It wasn't real though, it was just as you said it was. Only a nightmare. Everything is fine..."
"It felt so real-" Duo shivered involuntarily, even though the blonde was radiating warmth in the hug. Out of nowhere, the image of Heero kissing him surfaced in his mind and he suddenly jerked back, shaking his head hard to make the picture go away.
Somewhat caught off guard by the abrupt movement, Quatre studied him briefly, but he had closed himself up once more to him and it was better not to try and push it any further, it would only make things worse. "It's going to fine, Duo. Trust me," he smiled pleasantly, getting up from the edge of his bed. "Why don't you try and get back to sleep? We've still got a few hours before duty calls."
Duo nodded again silently as he left, untangling himself from the blankets and getting readjusted, but he was too awake by then and going to sleep was the last thing in his thoughts.
***
Running his hand through his damp hair a second time, Wufei slid out of his bed and crept soundlessly to the door, peering out into the living room.
Heero was slouched down on the farthest end of the couch, his elbows propped on his knees while his chin rested on top of his laced fingers, his expression concentrated yet trance-like, as if he were off in some other realm.
Slipping into the room, Wufei noticed a half-healed bruise on his left cheek that he hadn't seen earlier when he was too exhausted to care about anything except for the security of his own bed. Obviously, whatever Heero was doing at the moment radically slowed the normally automatic healing process vampires possessed.
"What are you doing?" Wufei asked, inching towards the inert Japanese vampire cautiously. There wasn't even the slightest muscle twinge that indicated any sign of acknowledgment; he merely sat there like a statue off wherever his mental deliberation was focused on.
"Hello? Heero?" He now stood over him, starting to feel unsettled by the lack of responsiveness.
There was still nothing.
Just as Wufei was tempted to smack him in the back of his head and return to bed, Heero appeared to be slowly coming to his senses, the glazed look ebbing away to alertness.
"...what are you doing out here?"
"Well aren't you the quick one today? I've only been standing here for the past five minutes trying to get your attention," Wufei answered cynically, narrowing his onyx gaze.
Not a single trace of the unwelcome apprehension remained from before. Go him.
"Hn."
His irritated stare was met by Heero's incomparable glare that promised great pain and death if provoked. It did not intimidate Wufei at all, being one who had been met with this glare enough times to know when he would seriously kill him or not, so being him, he decided to provoke his highly dangerous roommate.
"So what -were- you doing? You seemed pretty engrossed in whatever little world you were lost in," Wufei prodded with a trace of his usual smugness. Somewhere deep in his subconscious, his brain began to wonder if he was turning suicidal with his sudden, impulsive urge to aggravate the hell out of Heero.
Fortunately, all the lovely grotesque images that the little pondering voice in his psyche was expecting to follow his comment didn't take place. For now. But the utterly unexpected -did- happen.
Heero just smirked. Smirked. "And you don't seem to notice the fact that you've been 'standing there for the past five minutes' completely shirtless."
Touché.
A light pink tinge spread over Wufei's face, but he didn't falter. "So? I was hot." That was it, he didn't care to divulge into the reasoning behind why he was, what was he supposed to say? 'I had a nightmare and woke up drenched in sweat'? Yeah, sure...If he wanted to sound like a goddamn five-year-old who thought he saw the bogeyman in his closet.
Not.
"Hn...Hot, eh?" Another smirk. Boy was this going to get dirty. And very soon. "You should walk around shirtless more often."
"W-what?!" There was no stopping the stammer this time and the pink was an all out tomato red now.
The diversionary tactic had performed flawlessly, with one simple remark Heero had discreetly turned their bantering to work in his favor. "You heard me."
"I wish I hadn't." Wufei could practically feel the heat from his blushing raising the room temperature by ten degrees.
"Oh really?" Heero raised his eyebrows in amusement, not taking his watchful eyes off of the Chinese teen. "You make the complement sound like a bad thing."
"Coming from you it is." Wufei was caught off guard when his features abruptly changed to suspicious and annoyed again the second he said that.
"So who -would- it sound better from?" The inquiry was supposed to come off as playfully hurt, but it just didn't work. Even under the false easiness every syllable was dripping with mistrustful insinuations.
The first person that popped up in his head was the absolute -last- to say aloud. Unless he wanted that 'Do not pass Go and do not collect two hundred dollars' card along with a permanent resting place in a coffin.
Wufei wouldn't reply. He always had all the wrong answers at the wrong times. Lovely. So he simply won't respond to the question.
"I'm getting tired of this game," he snorted, crossing his arms and adverting his gaze. "Come and get me when it's time to go out." With that, he whirled around on his heel and walked briskly back into his bedroom.
Now was Heero's turn to smile smugly, even though Wufei couldn't see it, it was there. He had nearly given himself away, if he had pushed him a bit farther, he would have slipped up. But he could wait.
Besides, their arguments were fun and he didn't want to ruin the fun while it still lasted.
***
Yes! I am -attempting- to redeem Heero a bit in this story! I'm -attempting-! But yeah...anywho...
Off to work on the next chapter!
And as for the reviews now that I've finished my bitching and whining...
Avenged Suffering: *sweatdrop* It's gonna be all right there...*pat pat*
Lady Rune: Lol. Don't worry, there will be nakedness. Lots. There always is when it comes to me and my hentai thoughts. Just keep on reading. ^.~
Lexington: o0;;; Breathe! Here's the next chapter!
Hybrid Fairy: Me? A common trollop? I do believe that's the first time I've ever been called a common trollop. Woo hoo. Kudos to me. I'm a trollop. See? Humor! So don't cry! *sweatdrop* Next chapter! See? *points*
Smiley-person: *confusion settles heavily* Kill Heero? I think you misread the dream sequence. Duo was -trying- to kill him, but Heero turned into Wufei. So technically...He killed Wufei. Not Heero. But yeah...*ahem*
Mars: First and foremost- I bow to you. I grovel at your feet. That website was pure heaven. *glomp* I LOVE YOU! That website is beautiful! *tearful sigh* Now- Please don't cry!!!! I am not good when it comes to crying people! *nervous* Here's the next chapter, so please don't cry!
And last, but certainly not the least in my favorite reviewers...
SHELLA!: Holy Sweet Jesus. Yes I definitely believe that is the longest (and most emotional) post I've gotten from you yet. o.O;;; I appreciate you bunches and bunches! That is why you are my first-ness coolest reviewer-person!! ^^ And I'm not gonna say anything about Orlando Bloom...*squeak* Oh yesh, and thinking of Wufei and Duo getting down to business...*glazed look comes over her face as she retreats into her hentai mind for a moment* Eh? What? Oh yeah...Now about the websites...Er...I'll have them by next chapter, promise! I swear I thought I had bookmarked the addresses, but when I went to check, all I found was my 1x2x1 sites and the loverly 3x4/4x3 site Mars gave me. So I swear by all things 2x5 holy, I'll get those sites up in the next chapter's Author Notes! And...You really think my 3+4 scenes are good? I try. ^^;;; I'm trying to go more in depth with them, since in my past two stories they didn't get much attention. Poor Quatre and Trowa. One day I'll dedicate a fic just for them. Eventually. This chapter nearly came out entirely dark and angst-y, but I decided to let Wufei and Heero have some more picking at each other. I dunno, I just seem to see nothing but sarcasm between them whenever I try to write a scene with them interacting. It just works. I dunno. I'm babbling. And yes, the evil bit was all a dream. *sweatdrop* It's gonna be all right...For now...*evil grin* Wow, we're both setting records here! I think this is the longest review reply I've ever written!
Screw the disclaimers and warnings, if you're coming late into the game plan, then tough luck. That's your own problem, not mine. So nyah.
And now for the looooooooong delayed chapter that everyone's been -dying- to read! (Haha, yeah right. One's ego can hope, eh?)
Read! Read and be...er...pissed off at the author again? *blink blink*
***
Wufei bolted upright in his bed, cold sweat drenching his body as he gasped for air.
It had seemed so real, the nightmare. He could almost still feel the pain through his heart where the stake had penetrated.
'Maybe going to him was a bad idea,' Wufei thought regretfully, running a hand through his damp hair. 'This is only making things worse.'
Why he had dreamed that Heero was kissing Duo was beyond his comprehension, as far as he knew, the two had never seen each other except for that brief instant outside the 'Oasis'. But to have himself ending up Heero's place and getting killed...It had to be a sign.
Pulling off his wet tank top, Wufei considered the past couple of days. Everything had been turned upside down by just one moment under the moonlight in the alley. Beginning with Heero's suddenly suspicious behavior towards him, the whole new situation with the slayers, and ending with last night's little weakness 'attack', the only good thing that had come from him approaching Duo was the braided boy himself and the fact that there -may- be a chance out of eternal damnation.
If only he knew the whole truth behind it all.
'Perhaps he's right...' Wufei's train of thought ended abruptly as he heard footsteps out in the living room. It appeared that he wasn't the only one having difficulty sleeping.
***
Cold hands gripping his bare shoulders brought Duo instantly out of his troubled slumber with a sharp hiss of inhalation.
"Wake up!" It was Quatre.
His aquamarine eyes were full of worry and his expression furrowed in deep concern as he released his hold. Duo shook off the leftover chill and sat up carefully, if the empath hadn't woken him up, he would have fallen right over onto the floor in his tightly wrapped cocoon of bed linens. Beads of perspiration collected along his brow were wiped away as he rubbed his face and heaved a tired sigh.
"What were you dreaming about? Trowa and I could hear you thrashing and calling out all the way down the hall in our room." Quatre reached out to touch him again, but he shied away.
"I- it was nothing," Duo lied lamely, staring down at his fingers as they fell into their usual habit of playing with the end of his braid whenever he was nervous.
"If it were nothing, then why are you so upset?" Quatre replied intently, taking in all his fidgeting give-aways and the almost suffocating wave of unease and anxiety that filled his aura. He had refrained from looking into the dream himself when arousing him out of respect for privacy, and that he would open up on his own without having to be pried into.
Duo kept quiet for a moment, but knowing the blonde wasn't going anywhere until he had an explanation; he bit his lower lip. "...I killed him Quatre. In the nightmare."
"Wufei?" he asked, startled.
He nodded mutely, still keeping his gaze fixed on his fingers, which had moved on to wringing the hem of his black muscle shirt. "B-but I didn't do it on purpose, it was supposed to be Heero...yet when I- I looked, he had turned into Wufei. A-and I couldn't do anything to stop it once I realized what had happened- then you woke me up."
Quatre tentatively put a hand on the distraught boy's shoulder, but this time he did not flinch away, so he pulled him into a full comforting embrace. Which was something, since the empath was prone to completely absorbing such raw emotions as Duo's in unblocked contact. "It wasn't real though, it was just as you said it was. Only a nightmare. Everything is fine..."
"It felt so real-" Duo shivered involuntarily, even though the blonde was radiating warmth in the hug. Out of nowhere, the image of Heero kissing him surfaced in his mind and he suddenly jerked back, shaking his head hard to make the picture go away.
Somewhat caught off guard by the abrupt movement, Quatre studied him briefly, but he had closed himself up once more to him and it was better not to try and push it any further, it would only make things worse. "It's going to fine, Duo. Trust me," he smiled pleasantly, getting up from the edge of his bed. "Why don't you try and get back to sleep? We've still got a few hours before duty calls."
Duo nodded again silently as he left, untangling himself from the blankets and getting readjusted, but he was too awake by then and going to sleep was the last thing in his thoughts.
***
Running his hand through his damp hair a second time, Wufei slid out of his bed and crept soundlessly to the door, peering out into the living room.
Heero was slouched down on the farthest end of the couch, his elbows propped on his knees while his chin rested on top of his laced fingers, his expression concentrated yet trance-like, as if he were off in some other realm.
Slipping into the room, Wufei noticed a half-healed bruise on his left cheek that he hadn't seen earlier when he was too exhausted to care about anything except for the security of his own bed. Obviously, whatever Heero was doing at the moment radically slowed the normally automatic healing process vampires possessed.
"What are you doing?" Wufei asked, inching towards the inert Japanese vampire cautiously. There wasn't even the slightest muscle twinge that indicated any sign of acknowledgment; he merely sat there like a statue off wherever his mental deliberation was focused on.
"Hello? Heero?" He now stood over him, starting to feel unsettled by the lack of responsiveness.
There was still nothing.
Just as Wufei was tempted to smack him in the back of his head and return to bed, Heero appeared to be slowly coming to his senses, the glazed look ebbing away to alertness.
"...what are you doing out here?"
"Well aren't you the quick one today? I've only been standing here for the past five minutes trying to get your attention," Wufei answered cynically, narrowing his onyx gaze.
Not a single trace of the unwelcome apprehension remained from before. Go him.
"Hn."
His irritated stare was met by Heero's incomparable glare that promised great pain and death if provoked. It did not intimidate Wufei at all, being one who had been met with this glare enough times to know when he would seriously kill him or not, so being him, he decided to provoke his highly dangerous roommate.
"So what -were- you doing? You seemed pretty engrossed in whatever little world you were lost in," Wufei prodded with a trace of his usual smugness. Somewhere deep in his subconscious, his brain began to wonder if he was turning suicidal with his sudden, impulsive urge to aggravate the hell out of Heero.
Fortunately, all the lovely grotesque images that the little pondering voice in his psyche was expecting to follow his comment didn't take place. For now. But the utterly unexpected -did- happen.
Heero just smirked. Smirked. "And you don't seem to notice the fact that you've been 'standing there for the past five minutes' completely shirtless."
Touché.
A light pink tinge spread over Wufei's face, but he didn't falter. "So? I was hot." That was it, he didn't care to divulge into the reasoning behind why he was, what was he supposed to say? 'I had a nightmare and woke up drenched in sweat'? Yeah, sure...If he wanted to sound like a goddamn five-year-old who thought he saw the bogeyman in his closet.
Not.
"Hn...Hot, eh?" Another smirk. Boy was this going to get dirty. And very soon. "You should walk around shirtless more often."
"W-what?!" There was no stopping the stammer this time and the pink was an all out tomato red now.
The diversionary tactic had performed flawlessly, with one simple remark Heero had discreetly turned their bantering to work in his favor. "You heard me."
"I wish I hadn't." Wufei could practically feel the heat from his blushing raising the room temperature by ten degrees.
"Oh really?" Heero raised his eyebrows in amusement, not taking his watchful eyes off of the Chinese teen. "You make the complement sound like a bad thing."
"Coming from you it is." Wufei was caught off guard when his features abruptly changed to suspicious and annoyed again the second he said that.
"So who -would- it sound better from?" The inquiry was supposed to come off as playfully hurt, but it just didn't work. Even under the false easiness every syllable was dripping with mistrustful insinuations.
The first person that popped up in his head was the absolute -last- to say aloud. Unless he wanted that 'Do not pass Go and do not collect two hundred dollars' card along with a permanent resting place in a coffin.
Wufei wouldn't reply. He always had all the wrong answers at the wrong times. Lovely. So he simply won't respond to the question.
"I'm getting tired of this game," he snorted, crossing his arms and adverting his gaze. "Come and get me when it's time to go out." With that, he whirled around on his heel and walked briskly back into his bedroom.
Now was Heero's turn to smile smugly, even though Wufei couldn't see it, it was there. He had nearly given himself away, if he had pushed him a bit farther, he would have slipped up. But he could wait.
Besides, their arguments were fun and he didn't want to ruin the fun while it still lasted.
***
Yes! I am -attempting- to redeem Heero a bit in this story! I'm -attempting-! But yeah...anywho...
Off to work on the next chapter!