Same as always.

Warning: Yaoi, ooc, language, some violence, other random crap.

Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing or the characters.

Plead: Reviews!

-Kate

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Chapter Four ; Ground Rules

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"Let the games begin!" Duo shouted in triumph with one arm raised above his head. The occupants of the room stared blankly at him for a few moments.

"Uh, Duo? What games?" Wufei questioned.

Duo dropped his arm back to his side and moved to speak, but stopped. It hadn't dawned on him that he didn't tell everyone what he wanted to play.

"Oh, it would help if I told you huh?" He flashed an innocent grin. Everyone smirked and nodded. "Well, I was thinking we could play a good ol' game that everyone always loves, spin the bottle. Then we could play some poker, either strip or normal doesn't matter, and we could end the night on a high note with some sort of drinking game. How's that sound?"

Silence abound. Each person shot each other a look, seeking approval before they spoke up. Heero was the first to say anything. He was presently being eyed by everyone else in the room. He felt like his soul was being pierced from all angles, not the greatest sensation in the world.

"Even though you're first two suggestions aren't all that unique, actually they're pretty cliché, they still sound quite fun." Heero stated. "But I have to worry about what drinking game you have in mind."

Zechs looked to Heero for a second before he decided to speak. The normally bronzed tone to his flesh turned very pallid.

"I agree with Heero. The first two games sound great, cliché, still great though. But last time we played a drinking game I ended up in Wufei's car with no clothes on and a baby blanket that I had never seen before wrapped around me. Not to mention Noin had a temporary tattoo on her butt that read 'To Infinity and Beyond!' , Quatre dyed Trowa's hair neon pink, Wufei thought he was a cat and started to lick himself clean, and Heero ended up running out to the pool butt naked screaming something about monkeys flying out of your ass."

Treize's eyes lit up as he listened to Milliardo, Heero blushed, Wufei looked like he was about to vomit on himself, Quatre giggled, Trowa glared, Noin muttered, and Relena looked at everyone as if they were crazy. She, just as Treize, had never taken part in one of Duo's famous drinking games, and right now she was very glad for that fact.

"Huh, that explains why Trowa wore a hat for two weeks huh?" Relena smirked.

"Hn." Trowa seemed to have momentarily reverted to his quiet self. The memories of having that horrid color in his hair for nearly three weeks was quite traumatizing. Thankfully Quatre had used a wash out dye that was left over from the previous Halloween.

Duo stood with a toothy smile. He was always so proud of the things that happened during his games.

"So are we going to play or not?" He questioned.

Once again everyone looked at each other with hesitation before agreeing on anything. They all knew that they would be bored out of their skulls if they didn't do something soon. Even if it meant waking up in weird positions with odd sayings scrawled on their backsides. In the end they all nodded and muttered 'hn' quietly. It was like the room was suddenly full of Heero clones.

Duo continued to hold his ground while resting his hands on his hips. He was waiting intently for them to take action and suggest which game to play first. Once again, unknown to himself, everyone else was waiting for him to make the first move.

"Duo?" Zechs piped in.

"What?" He replied.

"Um, what are we playing first?"

"Uh, I was waiting for your suggestions." Duo replied.. again.

"I see. Well personally I think we should start off with poker, then move onto the drinking game, then do spin the bottle. Seems like the logical course of action." Zechs finished before smiling widely at everyone else.

His suggestion was, of course, logical. Being that the poker game would be the most innocent game out of the three, it was the best to start with. Since spin the bottle could cause conflicts between the group of nine, Zechs figured that the drinking game would loosen nerves enough to allow them to enjoy the game fully. Boy was he under estimating how loose everyone would become.

They all agreed that they would play all three games in the order Milliardo had suggested. Everyone was given a task to complete to get the parlor, and themselves, ready for a long night of amusement The coffee table in the room was the perfect size to play on, but it was a bit too low to the ground. Heero and Milliardo, since they were the strongest of the bunch, were recruited to move it up against the TV and move in the round table from the kitchenette. Relena and Noin had disappeared into the walk in pantry to scour for snacks and a set of fold out chairs. Trowa was sent off to grab cups and some non-alcoholic beverages from the kitchenette. Treize and Wufei were sent up deck to grab the already soiled linen from the dining table to protect the somewhat expensive kitchen table. Duo had disappeared up deck as well to try and find Pagan. He knew Pagan would be able to show him where the poker chips and playing cards were.

Quatre held the task of lighting a fire in the very small fireplace against the wall in the corner. The group had figured it would keep whoever had to strip down to their skivvies warm enough to not complain or chicken out. Quatre sat staring into the flames with a look of lust in his eyes. For once he was not lusting for Trowa, he was lusting for the time when everyone would be delightfully drunk and giddy. When they would leave one by one to their rooms to retire for the night. They would then sneak out one by one to indulge themselves with each other. It would be perfect. Then, it hit him. Quatre found a giant flaw in his plans. He had already moved the cards meaning that everyone would in fact go to the wrong room, but it wouldn't matter because they would know where everyone was supposed to be. Quatre slapped his forehead as he dropped a piece of kindling into the now raging fire. He should have swapped the cards after everyone had gone to bed. The coupling between the nine may have been obvious, but Quatre knew no one wanted to admit what they did with each other. He muttered to himself before his koi came up behind him to wrap his arms tightly around the blonde pilot. 'I'll have to sneak out before everyone else and swap the cards. Somehow I have to be the last one to go to bed!'. Easier said than done. Quatre was a light weight by heart. Duo always took advantage of this by devising a game that would get the poor Arabian drunk before the rest of the gang.

When everyone had completed their tasks, they returned to the parlor. Trowa had found substantially sized cups and a variety of sodas for everyone, Relena and Noin had brought out a wide variety of snack foods, Treize and Wufei returned with the table cloth, Milliardo and Heero had of course moved the table over to the couch, Quatre got a fire the size of Hades going, and Duo returned with a mint condition set of poker chips and playing cards. Relena set out bowls of the food she had retrieved from the pantry. There truly was something for everybody. Pretzels, gummy bears, M&M's, skittles, mini marshmallows, graham cracks, chocolate bars, chips of all shapes and flavors, and last but not least a giant box of gold fish crackers. She knew these people's tastes a little too well.

The table had been stationed in front of the couch, but it could only hold six of the nine people. A mad rush, much like the stairwell incident earlier in the day, took place. People stepped on each other, poked out eyes, and even dared to crawl over one another to take their rightful place on the most comfortable piece of furniture in the room. Since the love seat and the over stuffed chairs were too large to haul over to the table, the three left off the couch would have to sit on unbearably hard metal fold out chairs. In the end the ones that made it to the sanctuary of the sofa were: Duo, Heero, Trowa, Quatre, Treize, and Relena. Relena refused to sit any farther away from Heero than she had too. No one had the balls to try and stop her as she dashed for the couch. In the chairs were the last three; Wufei, Noin and Milliardo(1). Duo dubbed himself dealer since he had the most knowledge of the game. Chips were divided amongst everyone and they all decided that they were only using them for fun. This of course caused Wufei to whine about how it was pointless to use them if they weren't going to give up their money to the rightful winner. He found himself being pelted with various snack items. A gummy bear got lodged in his ear from Duo, a pretzel or two went down his shirt from Trowa, and a piece of chocolate chewed into the shape of a heart got chucked down the front of his pants from.. who knows where. Much eye twitching from the poor Chinese boy ensued.

"All right, are we playing strip poker or just boring ol' regular?" Duo was so subtle sometimes.

"Well, strip poker. But I think we should set down some rules." Wufei replied. Everyone took their turn staring him down in awe. Wufei wasn't normally one to want to strip in front of his friends. He noticed their stares and huffed. "If we're not going to play with real money, then I thought it might as well be best to liven it up with something."

Everyone agreed.

"I guess I should tell you the basics behind the game, since I know a few of you haven't ever played." Duo was mostly speaking to Relena, Treize and Wufei. Every time they'd tried to play the game before Relena would always wimped out. Wufei was always too high and mighty to play strip poker. He said it was pointless. Ah, how things change when money is taken out of the picture. When it came to Treize, Duo just didn't know if he had ever played or not. "You have to remove one article of clothing when you lose. You are considered a loser when you.. well... lose. Folding doesn't count as losing so you don't have to strip then. We're going to play five card draw with jacks wild. Rules surrounding what can and can not be done will be determined by you guys."

"To make it simple and quick, I think the rules should be set by each of us writing down on thing and putting it in a hat." Once again Milliardo was the logical one of the group.

"All right, we'll just use my cap then." Duo pulled his black cap from the back pocket of his shorts. "I'll read them off when we're done."

Everyone took their time thinking of something to write down. Once all of the small pieces of paper, which were actually parts of the napkins Noin had brought out of the closet, were placed in his cap Duo shook it around to try and make it anonymous.

"Here it goes.." He pulled out each piece of paper one by one and read them off for Heero to write down on what he thought was a napkin, but in reality was the table cloth. "First, jewelry doesn't count as clothing. Second, if caught cheating you're automatically forced to strip two things off. Third, hair ties count. Fourth, no putting back on clothes for any excuse until the game has ended or everyone is naked. Fifth, no jewelry.. already said that. Sixth, if you run out of chips you must sacrifice your money to stay in the game. Obviously that was Wufei's remark. Seventh, argh.. we get the jewelry thing! Eighth, no peeking. Relena? What's the point if no one can peek? And lastly, no one can chicken out at any point in the game. That means you Quatre." Duo shot Quatre a glare accompanied with a small smirk. Quatre blushed a bit.

"Do you think we could change?" Treize asked. He was only in a black tank top and his khaki shorts. He wasn't really up for being naked in two turns.

"Yeah, fine. Just no jackets or multiple pairs of socks/underwear!" Duo commanded. Everyone bolted for the hallway, grabbing their luggage off of the kitchenette bench on the way, and made for their bedrooms. Quatre stayed behind.

Once everyone had gone into their rooms, he stealthy removed the cards and replaced them on other doors. He figured they weren't going to remember exactly where they were supposed to go once they were inebriated. The Zero look returned to his eyes as he burst out in an insane laughter. He stalked into his room to put on a few more articles of clothing. His plan seemed to be back on track. 'Revenge shall be mine! MUAHAHHAHAH-oww!' Quatre promptly tripped over himself as he tried to pull on a pair of long johns and landed face first onto the floor.

Soon the true chaos will begin.

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This chapter was more for set up then anything else. I should be putting up the next few chapters in a couple of days. Don't forget to review. ^_^

(1) The couch is L shaped so their arrangement is interesting. Going clock wise from the shorter section of the couch to the last chair they sat: Duo, Heero, Trowa, Quatre, Treize, Relena, Wufei, Noin, Zechs.