Ten Things

Chapter 2 – The Way You Cut Your Hair

Alternate Title: In Which Duo Talks to a Closed Door

By: Eternal Rose

"Heero." Duo said, knocking loudly on the closed door that stood before him. It was the door to Heero's room at the Sanq Palace. Getting no response, Duo again rapped upon the piece of wood. "Come on man, you can't just hide in there forever!"

A non-committal grunt responded, and the door remained firmly shut.

"Heero! Just because you'll have to be around Relena again when you finally come out doesn't mean that you should spend your entire vacation locked in your room. What's so fascinating in there, your laptop? Seriously, Heero, you can work on that idiotic thing any old time. Now, it's time to finally have a little fun." Duo stood patiently, glaring at the door so much so that he was practically willing it open.

No response.

"This is getting really annoying, man! I've been waiting out here for a while now. You'll have to come out eventually. Even you need to eat every now and then, Mr. Perfect Soldier. All right, granted, you could probably go a few days without anything, but you and I both know that it wouldn't be any good for you to do that."

Silence.

"If you don't open this door, man, I'm gonna break it down. Now listen, you don't really want to have to get a new door, do you? I'm sure it would take a few days – and you know you wouldn't get any privacy at all until the new one was up. Who knows? Relena might not even get a new one until after we leave – just to teach you not to lock us all out."

Once more, no sound leaked out of the room.

"Heero, this is so childish. Look, I know you're upset at Relena still – and don't you try and deny it, you know it as well as I do! You're going to have to face her some time, though. Now look, be a good soldier and come out of that room. I'm ordering you to take a break and have some fun for once!" Duo flicked his braid irritably over his shoulder, paced for a moment, and then resumed his staring contest with the door. He could just picture Heero Yuy standing on the other side, glaring at it. Any moment now, Heero would crack and through the door open to point his gun at him. Then, Duo would have him! He tapped his foot in mild impatience as the seconds dragged on, and eventually grew into minutes.

"What?" Duo finally asked, offended. "I hope you don't think I'm just going to go away. Buddy, you know me better than to ever believe that might happen. I'm like one of those old battery commercials – the one with the bunny that keeps going and going and going and – well, you get the idea. The God of Death does not quit! I will be victorious over you and your wall of silence."

Still no answer.

"Heeeee-rrrooooooo." He whined. "C'mon, do you have any idea how boring it is to talk to a door? You're much more interesting than it. If you're not gonna come out, than just open the door and let me in so I can watch your reaction for a few minutes, you can threaten to kill me, I can make some witty remark and then leave, and everything can go back to the way it was."

The door looked forbiddingly down at Duo.

"Listen, if you don't come out of there, then I'm going to tell all of the others what you said to me after the incident. Seriously, there are times when I think that if you had just told Relena when the whole thing happened, you could have worked everything out. But no, you just had to continue on silently, never wavering from your cruel look of indifference." Duo paused for a breath. "See what you made me do? That actually sounded intelligent."

It must have been a figment of his imagination, but Duo could have sworn he heard the sound of crickets chirping.

"Heero!" He yelled, kicking the door, although not kicking it hard enough to break it down – yet.

"What's wrong, Duo?" Quatre asked, walking towards his fellow pilot. "Is something the matter with Heero?"

"You better believe it." Duo replied. "I've been trying to get him to come out of there for over twenty minutes!"

"Really? Quatre looked astonished. "I'm sure there's a good reason. Are you sure he's in there? He might actually just be asleep, it was quite a long flight here from the colonies."

"Quatre, buddy, I know he's in there, and that he's awake." Duo replied. "He answered me with one of those noises that in Heero – talk means, leave me alone. Besides, when have you ever known Heero to sleep through anything without being heavily sedated – surgery and bone settings included."

Quatre laughed. "I must admit, you've got me there. I wonder why he doesn't want to come out for a little while. May I?"

"Be my guest." Duo said, gesturing gallantly towards the door. Quatre stepped closer to it in a calm manner, and knocked gently upon the door.

"Heero?" He called through the door. "I know you're in there, Heero. Duo told me. Are you sure you don't want to come with the rest of us for a picnic in the park? Miss Relena has gone to some trouble to prepare a special lunch, and it looks – "

Quatre abruptly cut himself off as he noticed Duo drawing a frantic line across his throat. Duo then pantomimed something that Quatre caught, and his blue eyes went big as saucers. Quatre had momentarily forgotten all about the incident, but it suddenly came rushing back at him and he shook his head.

"Would you please come talk to us, Heero?" Quatre asked.

"Ne, Heero, we've got a mission!" Duo said loudly. "You don't really want to miss one of those, do you? It must have been at least, what, three months since the last time you almost self – detonated or almost died."

"Duo!" Quatre exclaimed.

"What, it's true!" Duo replied. Suddenly, a mischievous twinkle lit up Duo's eyes. "Heero, if you don't come out of there in the next twenty seconds, then I'm going to tell Quatre all about you know what."

Silence reigned for several seconds.

"Fine buddy, if that's the way you want it!" Duo leaned over towards Quatre and began to speak softly into his ear. "Listen, I want you to count backwards from five, then gasp and say, 'Really? I never would have guessed.' Trust me, he'll be out here in a flash."

"Really? I never would have imagined!" Quatre gasped on cue. The door still remained completely immobile. Quatre leaned over to Duo after a couple of seconds and whispered to him, "I don't think this is working. Besides, is it really fair to him to pretend that you've told a secret he's obviously protecting?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't it be?" Duo asked.

"It just feels… dishonest, I suppose." Quatre replied.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Said Duo. "Listen, you know the drill – I may run and I may hide, but I never tell a lie."

Duo and Quatre continued to argue for several moments as two others stood and watched them.

"Do you think we should tell them?" Wufei asked Trowa. The uni-banged wonder looked back at him and gave a barely perceptible shrug of his shoulders.

"Either way would work. I can't help but think that it will be funny when they finally find out." A small, tiny, minific smirk appeared upon his face.

"Yes." Wufei snorted slightly. "Besides, watching Maxwell make an idiot out of himself is always entertaining. And naturally, it wouldn't be fair to deprive him of a chance to see this for himself."

"What's going on?" A third person joined Wufei and Trowa.

"Duo and Quatre are convinced that Heero has locked himself inside his room and won't come out unless they can talk him into it." Wufei replied. The newcomer looked ever so slightly amused.

"Should I?" He asked.

"Yes." The other two replied.

"Duo, listen to me, I wasn't trying to call you a liar, I merely meant that I didn't feel it was right to pretend to do such a thing to him. Anyway, why are we arguing? Shouldn't we be working on getting him out of there?" Quatre asked.

"Excuse me." Said the latest arrival as he walked up to Quatre and Duo. "Is there a reason why you're standing in front of my door?"

"Heero!" Both of them looked at him and began to stutter incoherently. Heero raised an eyebrow slightly at the two as he opened his door, walked inside, and shut it firmly behind him.

"I thought you said –" "Well I thought that – " "You mean he wasn't even – " Both Quatre and Duo kept trying to talk over one another, increasing their confusion exponentially. Trowa smiled and Wufei laughed out loud at the sight of them.

"Well that was a waste of a morning." Duo finally managed to get out. "Awww man, now he really IS locked in there! I wonder where he was… something seemed different. And I don't just mean the whole thing where he talked, I mean something's really different!"

Duo's eyes lit up as he again began to knock relentlessly on the door. "Hey Heero, if you wanted to get a haircut you really should have just told us!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

End Chapter 2

Author's Notes: Well that was exciting. ^_^ I finally finished it! All right, now it's time for a brief shout out section!

CJ – 17 points!

Lady oasis, lady psycho, and lady darkness – 12 points!

Cheryl (My Beta Reader) – 2 points!

Dark Balla – 2 points!

New Random Question: (from my Physics homework, no less ^^;;;) One paint bucket weighing 40 N is hanging by a massless cord from another paint bucket also weighing 40 N. The two are being pulled upward with an acceleration of 1.5 m/s^2 by a massless cord attached to the upper bucket. Calculate the tension in each cord.

I'm hoping to finish the next chapter soon, but with college applications to fill out, who knows when I'll have the time??? However, I'll try!

That's all for now!

~* Hugs and Kisses (Hershey's, of course!) *~

~Rose