Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Or
Weakest Link. Or Hallmark. Or anything else that I might've mentioned . . .
although . . . I think that I covered everything!
Authors note: Erm . . . well . . . this is my Halloween 2003 fic. I hope that you all enjoy it. It's Yaoi . . . so, I'm sorry for my readers that are against Yaoi, but . . . I don't think that there are many of you . . . considering that I have like 2 non-yaoi fics out of 15 or so . . . so . . . ahem, yes . . . please enjoy my wonderful, favourite pairing! 2x3 and there's some 1x4. So . . . uhm . . . yeah . . . enjoy!
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: YAOI and WU FEI!
Scare Tactics.
By Bubblegum Thai
It was an unusually chilly October 30th at Preventers HQ as Duo Maxwell, a 17-year-old field agent with nothing better to do on a cold Thursday than jump up and down rubbing his arms, blowing out small mist as he did so,
"Duo," Heero began, "Will you please desist?"
"No." Duo replied stubbornly continuing to jump up and down, "It's REALLY cold in here Hee-chan!"
"Yes. I know." Heero refused to look up from his computer screen for fear of losing focus, "Why don't you go and sit down . . . do something productive for once . . ."
"Productive?" Duo questioned, his brow furrowing in confusion, "What is this word?" He stuck his tongue out at the young Japanese man before skipping away to another part of the large office.
Heero shook his head as Duo disappeared out the door. He promptly shivered, rubbing his arms which were now crossed over in front of his chest, his breath forming mist in front of him,
"Damn heating . . ." He muttered through gritted teeth.
- - -
". . . but . . . why . . .?" Quatre whimpered, frowning up at his best friend who was a great deal taller than him, "I . . . I just don't understand!"
Trowa chuckled, a small smirk tugging at his thin lips as he looked at the mass of blonde hair that had appeared from under a woollen bobble hat,
"Because . . ." Trowa tormenting, dragging out his words before taking a long sip of the coffee that he held in his left hand, "Because I already have something special planned for that night . . ."
"But . . . Heero and I . . . and even Wu Fei have been planning this for weeks now! He's going to be so excited! PLEASE Trowa!"
Trowa glanced down and his heart sank, realising that he had, indeed, lost the battle. Quatre was staring up at him with huge, aqua-marine puppy dog eyes,
"Damn you . . ." He growled, narrowing his eyes to thin slits,
"THANKS!" Quatre chirped and danced away, leaving Trowa sighing heavily. He looked down at his feet,
"And there goes 2 months wages . . ." He muttered sadly,
"TROWA!" Duo yelled from the lift, "I MISSED YOU!"
Trowa turned a deep shade of crimson as the loud American came charging across the lobby,
"Hey, Duo."
"What's up? You look all . . . sad . . .?" Duo pouted, his eyes beginning to water, "What's wrong?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing! Honestly Duo, it's nothing! I was just thinking about something."
"Were you thinking about the war again?"
"Erm . . . yeah . . ."
"Awwww . . ." Duo enveloped the taller teenager in a tight bear hug, "Don't worry man, it's all over now! C'mon! Quatre said he has something important to tell me today . . . where is he . . .?"
"I haven't got a clue."
"Good . . . then we can 'go find him' and end up 'accidentally' getting lost . . . in a stock room somewhere . . ."
Trowa rolled his eyes as Duo tugged on his heavy coat sleeve, dragging him towards the maintenance stairs.
- - -
"Have you seen Duo?"
Heero Yuy jumped five feet into the air at the sudden, high-pitched voice close to his ear. Once he had landed somewhat safely back in his seat and regained a conscious understanding of his surroundings he looked up at Quatre, who was currently hovering over him,
"Pardon?" He asked, shakily grabbing the arms of his swivel chair,
"Have you seen Duo?" Quatre repeated firmly,
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Here."
"I don't see him . . ."
"I saw him here . . . he disappeared about 10 minutes ago."
"Oh. Ok." Quatre paused, "Where did he go?"
"Quatre," Heero sighed, rubbing his temples, "I don't know. He went out that way somewhere."
"Thanks!"
Heero huffed at Quatre's retreating form, burying his face in his hands,
"And to think . . . you find THAT attractive!" A second voice tormented as Heero felt a weight settle on his desk,
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't play dumb with me, Yuy."
At this point Heero looked up to meet Wu Fei strait in his Onyx eyes,
"I repeat. I. Don't. Know. What. You're. Talking. About. Wu Fei." Heero said slowly, narrowing his eyes giving the young Chinese former pilot his patented death-glare at it's best,
"Alright then Yuy . . ." Wu Fei patted Heero's arm gently and slid from the desk top, "I won't say another word . . ." He added with a wink,
"What does Une want in today? Blue or Red forms?" Heero asked, changing the subject quickly as he focussed on shuffling a small stack of pastel coloured papers,
"Reds. Blues tomorrow." Wu Fei replied with a chuckle, "Oh look . . . here comes Winner . . ."
Wu Fei stood up strait,
"Oh! Good morning Wu Fei!" Quatre giggled running up to the two boys, "Heero, I still can't find Duo."
"Is Barton here?" Wu Fei asked casually,
"Yes . . . we came here together."
"Then I wouldn't go looking for Maxwell if I were you."
"What do you mean?" Quatre asked, frowning,
"Yuy . . . perhaps YOU could introduce Winner to what I'm talking about."
"Omae o korosu, Wu Fei." Heero growled,
"Bring it!" Wu Fei said stubbornly, standing his ground. Heero stood, "EEP!"
"Heero . . . please don't kill Wu Fei . . . crimson really isn't your colour . . . perhaps you'd be calmer if you wore pastel shades . . . rather than those dark greens and blacks . . ."
"Don't forget the yellow trainers!" Wu Fei snorted,
"I was 15!"
"He was young and foolish . . ." Quatre agreed,
"I was brainwashed! Are you people forgetting this?!"
"Forgetting what, my man?!"
"DUO!" Everyone exclaimed. Quatre with excitement, Heero with relief and Wu Fei with terror,
"Jee . . . do I feel neglected . . ."
"Awwww . . . I love ya Tro'!"
"Sorry Trowa . . ."
"Looks like I'm the man of the hour!" Duo beamed, "Hey! Wu-man . . . where ya runnin' too?"
"Very far away . . ." Wu Fei called behind him as he disappeared behind the Water Cooler,
"Man . . . that guy really snapped after the War!" Duo sighed; shaking his head, "It's SO tragic . . ." He sniffled as he wiped a single eye,
"Anyway," Trowa sighed,
"Oh! Yeah! Duh! Thanks Tro'!" Duo chuckled, "Q, I've been looking for you!"
"Really? I've been looking for you . . . that's very odd . . ."
"Oh . . . erm . . . yeah . . . really odd . . ." Both Duo and Trowa turned a deep shade as they ducked their heads, "How bizarre!"
"Ahem, yes, well," Quatre giggled looking clueless, "Duo . . . it's Halloween tomorrow, yes?"
"Oh . . . yeah . . . damn . . . too bad we don't celebrate it over here." Duo sighed sadly, "I really miss that Candy Corn."
"Well . . . Duo . . . I'm afraid that you're going to have to come into the office tomorrow night."
"What? Oh man . . . why?"
"For a party, of course!" Quatre said plain faced,
"What party?!"
"Your Halloween party of course!"
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"Are you SURE that you're being serious?"
"Deathly." Quatre answered, a small smile on his lips,
"OH MY GOD! THAT'S SO COOL! THANKYOUSOMUCHYOUWON'TREGRETTHISQ! Promise!"
"Er . . . I think that I understood most of that."
"He said 'Thank you so much, you won't regret this, Q'." Trowa said quietly,
"Thank you, Trowa, and, you're welcome, Duo, but it wasn't just me, it was Heero and Wu Fei too . . ."
"Wu Fei? What did he do?"
"Convinced Une to let us hold a party in the office. So, yes. Go get yourself a costume tonight and after work hours tomorrow, we'll decorate in time for your arrival."
"CANDY CORN?!"
Heero chuckled,
"Yes Duo, Candy Corn." He said smiling.
"YES! THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS!"
- - -
"Duo,"
"Hmm?"
"Could you PLEASE stop bouncing up and down in your seat?"
"Why?"
"Because it's annoying."
"But I'm excited!" Duo whined,
"Yes, Duo, I realise that, but, this is serious."
"For you maybe, but, not to me."
"Why not?"
"Do I look like Mr I'm-so-boring-Yuy? No. No I don't and thank Shinigami that I don't too . . ."
"Duo,"
"Yes?"
"Run."
Heero stood up slowly as Duo bolted out of his comfortable seat opposite him at the board room table. Sadly, poor Duo ended up getting his sleeve caught on the arm of the chair, resulting in him falling flat on his face,
"Bet that hurt." Heero commented, amusement evident in his voice,
"Yes, it bloody well did! Now, will you help me up or are you just going to sit there?"
"Well, one, I'm standing and two, yes, yes I am just going to stand here . . ."
"Heero you bastard! Help me up!"
"No."
"Why not?!"
"Now you know how it feels to have someone deliberately be annoying."
". . . I'm not followin' ya there . . ."
"Duo, you truly are an idiot."
"Yes, I know, now will you help me up?"
"I think I'll just settle back into my seat and wait for Trowa to come in."
"HEERO!" Duo growled into the carpet, "The carpet feels funny . . . I think it might be alive."
"Very spooky." Heero muttered from behind a large newspaper which had appeared from what was traditionally known as spandex space.
The door swung upon and footsteps made their way steadily towards Duo's head, unfortunately for hi, Duo couldn't tell who was making their approach, as his head was turned in the opposite direction,
"Agent Maxwell . . ." Lady Une began, "What is wrong with this picture?"
"I don't really know Ma'am, I can't see anything but the carpet . . . which really needs vacuuming, I might add."
"Alright, Agent Maxwell, you can get up now."
"I would, but I can't."
"Then why isn't Agent Yuy assisting you?" She asked impatiently,
"Because it's more fun to watch." Heero sighed as he placed his newspaper down onto the table top,
"Oh I see," Lady Une chuckled and Duo rolled his eyes,
"Of course she favours HIM." He thought frustrated as he tried once again to get himself up off of the floor,
"Agent Barton . . . I believe that this," Even though Duo couldn't see, he knew that she was pointing at him, "is YOUR responsibility."
Trowa silently knelt down beside Duo, untangled him from his up turned chair and helped him shakily to his feet,
"Thanks, man." Duo said softly as their eyes met for what would have been considered longer than usual for male companionship. Trowa nodded in response, tearing his eyes away to look at Lady Une who was clearing her throat,
"Well, now that THAT little experience is over and done with, onto business, Agent Maxwell, I really don't think that we need you for this meeting." She sighed, looking over the rims of her reading glasses, "Perhaps you should . . . I don't know . . . go home or something . . ."
The aggravated and weary look in her eyes told Duo that perhaps it was time to leave,
"Alright." He said quietly, turning and leaving quickly,
"Oh dear," Quatre, who had been completely silent until now, murmured, "With all due respect, Lady Une, I do think that you were a little harsh on Duo."
"Agent Winner." She began with a sigh, "Would you like to leave this meeting, also?"
"No Ma'am, I was just,"
"You were just minding your own business."
"What's got into her?" Wu Fei muttered under his breath to Heero,
"What was that, Agent Wu Fei?"
"Nothing, Ma'am."
"I thought so. Now, on to business." She shuffled a large stack of paper work and cleared her throat.
Trowa leant his head in his palm and began to stare out of the window which was behind Heero and Wu Fei. Usually Duo sat directly opposite him, but now all he had to stare at were the repulsive sky scrapers and darkening skies. He sighed, tuning Lady Une out as she droned on, like every other Thursday afternoon. Tomorrow's party really would do Duo a whole world of good.
- - -
It was pitch black when Trowa finally got back to his apartment. He opened the door loudly as it hit the wall, thinking into the living room, he kicked off his boots and dropped his jacket somewhere near the clothes peg,
"Duo, are you here?"
"Yeah, man, I'm in the kitchen."
"Ok. I'll be in there in a minute." Trowa closed the door quietly behind him, sliding his boots against the wall as he padded towards the kitchen that was around the corner,
"Heya." Duo smiled slightly as he looked up from his cheese and pickle sandwich, magazine and can of diet cola, "How was your afternoon."
"Boring," Trowa sighed, moving around the counter towards him, "Thought of you."
"Oh yeah?" Duo raised an eyebrow, looking sideways at the uni-banged teen, "And what was I doing in these thoughts?" Trowa stayed silent and smirked, "Pervert."
Trowa leant forwards, placing a soft kiss against Duo's left temple as his arms wound around his waist,
"I had nothing to look at."
"If you'd turned right slightly, you could've looked at Wu-man."
"Oh . . . how . . ." Trowa struggled for a word, ". . . nice . . ."
"Nice? Tro, are you feelin' alright? I mean, usually, you're full of intellectual words . . ."
"I'm tired."
"Awwww . . . poor Tro-Chan."
"Yeah, poor Tro-Chan . . ."
"Hungry?"
Trowa raised his eyes to the ceiling in thought,
"A little, why?"
"I can offer you cheese on toast."
"That's alright; I think that I'm going to go have a bath . . ."
Duo smirked cheekily,
"Oh really now, can I rub your back?" Duo asked as he moved behind his taller lover, making soothing circular motions,
"Would you?"
"Yeah, man." Duo leant up and gently patted him atop of the head affectionately, "Go get ready and I'll run it for ya."
"Alright. Thanks." As Trowa padded off, head hung and zombie-like, Duo gently patted him on the behind. Trowa turned slightly and smirked as Duo winked.
Once Trowa was inside of his bedroom, he shut the door, leaning back against it, casting a glance over to his chest of drawers. Slowly, holding his head in his right hand as he did so, he moved towards it, pulling open the top draw with force. Riffling around for a few seconds, he finally reached his goal, a small envelope at the bottom, underneath a mountain of black socks. Trowa Barton, the only teenage boy in the known universe who organised his socks by colour. It was completely irrelevant that all of his socks were the same colour. He lifted the flap of the envelope, pulling out a pair of tickets really quickly,
"2 months wages and Quatre blows it all away . . ." He sighed, preparing to rip the pair of tickets in half before pausing. He made a dive for the phone, quickly typing out a number from memory, "Hello, Cathy?"
"Hey Trowa, what's up?" His older sister, Catherine Bloom beamed,
"Erm, I was wondering, do you like, Opera?"
"Opera? It's alright, why?"
"Well, I bought a pair of tickets for Phantom Of The Opera for tomorrow night, but we can't make it, would you like them?"
"Ooh, well, yes please, if you don't mind!"
"Of course I don't." Trowa chuckled, "It's better than wasting them."
"Oh, thank you!" Catherine gushed,
"Well, that's settled, I'll bring them round to you in my lunch break tomorrow."
"Great . . . but, why can't you go? Did some dumb girl cancel on you Trowa?"
"Er, no, not some dumb girl, Cathy."
"Oh, Trowa, I'm sorry, I know that who you go out with is your decision, I just wish that you'd go out with someone who's as intellectually equal to you . . ."
"Cathy . . . I have to go, I promised Duo that . . ."
"Oh, Duo, how is he?"
"Duo's fine, Cathy."
"Y'know, I'm so glad that you and him are such good friends these days! It's good that you have someone other than Quatre around,"
"What's wrong with Quatre?" Trowa demanded,
"Nothing's wrong with Quatre . . . it's just that, well, he never really seemed all that . . . confident . . . and, well, you being yourself, Duo's much better for you . . . he'll help you find a nice girl,"
"Erm, that's unlikely," Trowa thought to himself, "Cathy, I really have to go now. We'll talk tomorrow, alright?"
"Alright. Take care. Bye."
CLICK
Trowa sighed, placing the phone back down onto the bedside table,
"When are you gonna tell her?"
"WHAH!" Trowa, startled, exclaimed, his leg jolting and hitting the bedside table, the cordless phone sliding off of the edge, falling and hitting him square on the foot, "AH! GOD DAMN IT!" Trowa grabbed his foot, standing up quickly in a panic, dropping the tickets to the floor, "FUCK!"
"Are you alright?"
"Yes."
Duo rushed to his side and helped him settle back down onto the bed,
"I'm sorry that I scared you, I'm just . . . worried that if you don't tell her about you and I, then . . ."
"Then . . ."
"Something very bad is going to happen?"
"It's a teen slasher movie in the making . . ." Trowa muttered sarcastically,
"Laugh all you want . . . but, you know what's going to happen, don't you?"
"No. I honestly don't, please enlighten me . . ."
Duo stared at him blankly for a minute,
"You must be tired . . . could we at least speak the same language now and again?"
"Ok, Duo, please elaborate." Another blank look, "Uhm . . . explain . . ."
Bingo! Duo's face was full of life again, this time; concern filled his young, curved features,
"Well, you see, if Cathy accidentally finds out then she's going to be mad. And hurt, but of course, anger is going to hit her first, she's going to grab the nearest thing to her and throw it at you, or me, but more likely you,"
"Oh, great."
"Well, anyways, if my estimate is right, then she's going to be standing THERE when she finds out," Duo motioned towards the bedroom door, "She'll walk in on us doing the horizontal mambo, or, something, but, yes, and she's going to grab THAT vase, right there, on top of the dresser and throw it at your head. I bought you that vase, and it wasn't that cheap, y'know, so I'd appreciate it if she didn't smash it over you head."
"You're worried about the damn vase?"
"In short, yes."
"How affectionate of you . . ." Trowa muttered, tugging at his tie clip, muttering something about 'infernal modern contraptions',
"Tro', it's a tie pin, it's not plotting against you, it's not leading a rebellion of male jewellery, it's just a tie pin."
Trowa glowered at his love, ignoring his teasing and finally unclipped the small piece of metal, dumping it down onto the chest of drawers,
"Are you going to stay the night?" Trowa asked slyly as Duo began to un button his olive green work shirt,
"That all depends,"
"On?" Trowa asked as he un-tucked the shirt at the back,
"If you want me to."
"I do."
"Then I will." Duo whispered softly, helping Trowa out of the remainder of his clothes, "Bath time!" He giggled.
- - -
Wu Fei turned around to face his two friends as they stood in front of the large glass sliding doors on the ground floor that faced out onto the main street. In the darkness, they could see heavy drops of rain thundering down onto the public that walked the streets. Wu Fei straitened a crease in his beige trench coat,
"It's raining," He said, looking at the pair, "Did you two bring an umbrella?"
"No." The said in unison,
"Well, I'm getting a lift, so, here, you can have mine." He handed Heero his large, black golf umbrella. A white car pulled up outside and beeped its horn, "Well, there she is."
"Go get her, you ol' dog." Heero teased, nudging his friend in the ribs.
Wu Fei made a strange sound which Quatre thought sounded like a dying cat, but found out when Heero informed him later on that night, it was in fact a tiger growl.
Wu Fei ducked his head as he left the warm and dry building jogging round to sit next to Sally Po in the car before speeding away,
"Well, it looks like I have the umbrella." Heero said dryly, "Come on, I'll walk you back home."
"Really, it's no trouble, if I was worried about getting wet, I'd call for a lift."
"Quatre, you'll get sick."
"I'm stronger than you think, Heero."
"Quatre, I'm walking you home, like it or not."
"Fine." Quatre grinned, "Let's go then, before it gets later than it already is."
- - -
The pair huddled together under the umbrella as the scurried along the street towards the large, Winner family mansion,
". . . so, yes, I let Iria take care of the business and I decided that I was best suited for the Preventers rather than sitting at a desk all day,"
"Quatre, we do sit at desks all day, Une hardly ever lets us go and blow things up."
"You sound like Wu Fei."
"I know, but, it's true, isn't it?"
"I suppose." Quatre sighed, inching closer to let a large group of giggling teenage schoolgirls pass by, whispering and pointing at them, all blushing as the strutted past, trying to make eye contact. Heero's hands tightened against the handle as Quatre moved even closer to let a group of smaller school children and some mothers with push chairs go past, "Brrr, it's so cold out here."
"Really? I hadn't noticed." Heero squeaked,
"Yes, it's freezing."
Suddenly, a large gust of wind ripped the umbrella clean from Heero's hands,
"Fuck! Wu Fei's umbrella!" Heero yelled starting to move after it,
"Heero, don't!" Quatre instructed, grabbing the taller boys arm, "Come on, my house is only a couple of minutes away, if we run, we won't get too badly wet."
The pair began to run, Quatre leading the way. The turned a corner, darting out of the way of people huddling umbrellas, also rushing to get home.
Soon, the Winner Family Mansion began to loom ahead. The pair sped up and within seconds, they were at the large electric gate. Punching in a security code, the gates creaked open and the pair run up the drive way to huddle under the porch. Quatre reached into his pocket for his security key and stopped as he looked up at Heero. He was hunched over, breathing heavily, his soaking wet hair dripping into his eyes, the trails of water trickling down the sides of his face and nose, dropping from the tip. Quatre giggled and Heero looked up, taking a step forwards,
"What's so funny?"
"You're drenched, Heero."
"So are you!" Heero snorted, taking another stop forward and brushing Quatre's wet bangs behind his ear causing them to plaster to his forehead, "You're really wet."
Quatre blushed, his eyes widening and Heero smirked,
"So you're not as innocent as you like people to think, are you?"
Quatre opened his mouth to speak, but Heero took a final step forward, closing the gap between them and gently pressing his lips to Quatre's. The pair became vaguely aware of a light flashing on to their right but neither acknowledged it as the kiss became deeper and more heated. Hands fumbled to get a grip of the other without slipping on rain-slicked clothes,
"Would you like to come in?" Quatre asked, breathlessly as they parted.
Heero pressed his forehead to Quatre's and smiled slightly,
"I would love to."
- - -
"H . . . H . . . Heero?" Quatre whimpered, pulling at the leather belt that he found easily as his shaking hands fumbled for the teenage boy who had him pinned against the bedroom door.
Heero made a slight 'mewling' sound as he placed a gentle hand on Quatre's inner thigh,
"Quatre," Heero whispered close to his near-future-lover's ear, "I . . . maybe we should stop . . . we're going . . . too fast . . . I don't want to hurt you."
Quatre raised an eyebrow gently, leaning forwards to lick at Heero's lips,
"Heero," Quatre began sliding a hand down to stroke Heero's hip through the uniform strait-leg forest green trousers, "You won't hurt me, I promise."
"But you're inexperienced . . ."
"Am I?" Quatre asked slyly, biting his lower lip, "How do you know that"
"Well, you are, aren't you?"
Quatre shook his head slowly, warranting an extremely please grin from Heero. Leaning forwards, Quatre began to back Heero up towards the bed. Stumbling over Quatre's discarded shoes, jacket and shirt in the middle of the floor, Heero feel backwards, landing on the bed. With a growl, Quatre straddled his lap, assaulting his slender neck with gentle nibbles, kisses, licks and sucks.
- - -
The next morning, bright Autumnal light flooded Trowa's bedroom. The sudden flash awoke the sleeping occupants of the large double bed,
"Mmmmmmmmmmorning . . ." Trowa slurred, tightening his fingers in Duo's hair,
"Good morning. How're you feeling?"
"Better. Thanks to you."
"Heh, well, take your time, I'll make you some breakfast."
"Thanks.
Meanwhile . . .
"Want you."
"Heero . . . what if my sisters hear?"
"What, you're not aloud a sex life?"
Quatre decided against commenting, snuggling down into Heero's arms,
"Did you like last night?"
Heero gently ran his hand over a smooth buttock,
"You're full of surprises, Quatre."
Quatre giggled, moving a hand under the covers,
"Oh, you have NO idea . . ."
Heero suddenly yelped as a cold hand grabbed a rather delicate pat of his anatomy.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING.
"Phone Heero . . ." Quatre murmured as Heero ran his fingers delicately through Quatre's fine, golden locks.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING.
"Hello?" Quatre mumbled,
"Hey Q."
"Duo! How're you?"
"Hey, erm . . . I don't suppose that you know where Hee-chan went after work last night do you? I called our apartment and he wasn't home all night according to Hilde,
"Hold on a second, Duo." Quatre answered nervously, "Heero, "Quatre hissed, "Duo's on the phone and he wants to know if I know where you are!"
"So?" Heero shrugged, "Pass me the phone." Quatre nodded, handing Heero the phone, "Hello Duo."
"Heero?!"
"Yes Duo, what do you want?"
"Erm . . . well . . . I need your help?"
"With?" Heero huffed impatiently,
"I . . . well . . ." Duo began,
"Duo, spit it out!"
"Trowa asked me to move in with him!" Duo blurted out,
"Duo, that's great!"
"Is it?!"
"Yes!"
"I dunno . . ."
"Would you like to talk about this in person?"
"Please."
When?"
"Tonight? At the party?"
"Alright."
- - -
"Breakfast is served!" Duo announced as he burst into Trowa's bedroom as Trowa slipped on a tight black t-shirt, "Eggs and bacon!"
"Smells good." Trowa commented, nodding gently,
"It does . . . your lucky that I ate mine whilst cooking this, otherwise I'd probably be forced to eat it for you. Now, eat up and hurry up and get dressed or you'll catch your death!"
"I thought I already had!"
"Huh?!"
"Shinigami . . ."
". . ."
"Never mind Duo. It's obviously too early for you."
"Ok!"
Duo beamed, brushing strands of chestnut from his violet eyes,
"Thank you so much for this Duo. I appreciate it."
"No worries."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"Well . . . erm . . . I need to get going, alright, I'll see you tonight . . . ok?"
"Alright." Trowa nodded as Duo leant forwards, gently placing a kiss against his lips, "Have a good day, love."
"You too."
"Oh yeah . . . work . . . fun . . ."
"Haha! It's my day off!" Duo sang happily as he left the apartment.
- - -
"Are you sure, Q?" Duo asked, anxiously,
"Absolutely positive. I have everything that we'll need for a completely terrifying party!" Quatre said proudly, patting a large bag of extra Halloween decorations,
"BALOONS?!" Duo exclaimed, holding up a pack of pumpkin shaped balloons, "Sorry man, but they don't exactly strike terror into my heart!"
"Shush you! I didn't use them . . . they just . . . kind of came . . . now . . . I've got to go and get into my costume go and enjoy the party . . . Trowa's already in there."
"Oooh . . . goody!" Duo grinned, rubbing his hands together as he scuttled towards the large main office.
Opening up the large main door into the office, Duo gasped as the dark room hit him full on. No desks or chairs remained in the centre, it was completely cleared. An eerie sort of music was coming from somewhere at the back of the office, near where the water cooler stood. The dance floor was packed with fellow Preventers, slowly dancing, all in costume. Duo, his hair down, sweeping against the backs of his knees. He wore tight black leather pants and a dark purple t-shirt that was tight against his body. He scanned the dancers, remembering that Trowa would rather style his hair into a normal style than dance. All of a sudden, a pair of slender bronzed arms wrapped around his waist,
"Evening, love."
"Evening." Duo whispered, leaning back against Trowa's chest, placing a hand on what he had originally thought was Trowa's hip, but got a nasty, rounded surprise. He huffed, "Trowa," He began dryly, "Did you wear your circus outfit?"
"Errrr, can I get a 50/50 on that one?"
"No."
"Phone a friend."
"No, enough of 'Who wants to be a Millionaire, Tro'."
"Then I am the Weakest Link, goodbye!" And with that, Trowa had disappeared back into the crowd,
"Trowa!" Duo growled, whirling around. As he did so, the sudden movement sent his plastic fangs flying off into the punch bowl, where they were promptly scooped into a plastic cup by one of the computer nerds that Wu Fei considered a 'friend', "Oh . . . erm . . ." Duo began, making small hand gestures towards the confused man,
"What is it, you moron?!" He snapped, glowering at the long-haired teen,
"Fine. Drink my spit! Forget you" Duo growled, turning away and sauntering off, "He hates me because he wants me." Duo told himself reassuringly,
"Who does?"
Duo turned around to see Heero Yuy standing next to a large fountain of candy corn. Duo began to suppress a giggle, then he giggled aloud beginning to laugh and finally he began to guffaw, doubling over and landing on his knees in the middle of the dance floor,
"Nice outfit!" He managed to gasp, pointing at Heero with his right hand whilst holding his side with his left,
"What?" Heero asked looking down, "I'm a pirate."
"You have a pink bandanna!" Duo began to splutter again,
"Erm . . ." Heero began, scratching the side of his head, "Who spiked the baka's punch?"
"No one . . . I just find the long stripy socks, baggy batty-boy trousers and pink bandanna hilariously funny!"
". . ." Heero stared at Duo blankly, an eyebrow raised as if questioning Duo's sanity, "If you think my outfit's funny, wait til you see Quatre . . ."
"Oh no!" Duo groaned, slapping his forehead, "I knew that I should've proof- checked his costume!"
"Well, it wasn't entirely his fault," Heero began, "He originally wanted a realistic looking Werewolf outfit . . . however . . . there was a mix-up at the costume shop . . ."
"So what is he now, if I dare ask."
"A bunny."
". . . please," Duo began, rubbing his forehead, "Tell me that you're joking."
"Nope."
"A white rabbit?!"
"Well . . . not exactly," Heero chuckled, "You see, obviously, when it was washed, they put it in with a confederate army uniform from the civil war because it's no longer white."
"Oh dear god . . . pink?! PINK?!" Duo fumed, "Quatre's wearing a PINK bunny outfit?!"
"Yes . . . but you should've seen what he originally got stuck with."
"What . . .?" Duo asked warily,
"A belly dancer outfit . . ."
"Was that pink too?"
"No, it was blue."
"That's more masculine than what he's got now!"
Heero raised an eyebrow,
"Duo . . . just . . . don't . . . the costume shop had nothing else . . . he settled for the bunny because he though it'd be better than dressing up in a thong and veils . . ."
"He would've done that?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Heero sighed heavily, shaking his head,
"Because he organised this party for you and didn't want to let you done."
"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Duo gushed. Going all starry eyes, twinkling in the dim light as he melted into a puddle on the floor, "That's SO sweet of him! I need to give him a HUG!"
"Well . . . err . . . yes . . ."
"Oh yeah!" Duo suddenly remembered, "Speaking of hugging," He said with a wink as he nudged Heero in the elbow, "Ol' Hee-chan spending the night at Q- man's . . . something going on there?"
"Duo. Didn't you want to talk about this whole Trowa thing?" Heero asked, quickly changing the subject as he turned bright crimson,
"No, no, no, Hee-ro!" Duo scolded, "Let's talk about you and Q!"
"There's nothing to talk about."
"So . . . what's the situation with you two, huh?!" Duo winked again, nudging Heero for a second time,
"Do I have to explain everything I do?"
"When it involves Quat you do."
"Why?" Heero demanded, his forehead wrinkled in confusion,
"Because he's my buddy. So are you . . . besides . . . I need to know if I should start saving for a new hat . . ."
"New hat?"
"Yeah. Old ladies have to buy a new hat for every wedding that they go to."
"You are such a strange individual, you know that, right."
"Ah, forget about me! Let's talk about you and Q!" Duo suddenly grinned,
"What?" Heero asked, confused,
"Hehe," Duo giggled, "That rhymes!"
"Oh brother . . ."
"You don't have a brother!"
"Duo, are you drunk?"
"Perhaps, I do not know . . ."
"Well, answer me this, have you consumed any alcohol this evening?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"Uh . . . only one cup . . ."
"Duo . . ." Heero said sternly, "This cup, were they refilling it . . .?"
". . .YES!" Duo suddenly yelled as loud as he could. Everyone turned and stare, except for Trowa who shook his head and muttered something under his breath, "Anyways . . . are you and Q an item now . . .?"
"If I give you an answer, will you shut up?"
"Yes."
"Then, yes, we are."
"Oh!" Duo gushed, enveloping Heero in a tight bear-hug, "THAT'S MAGICAL HEE- CHAN!" He sniffled, "THERE'S GOING TO BE A WEDDING!"
"Uhm, I think that you're rushing into things here, don't you . . .?"
"NO!"
"Y'know, you're the only person that I know that gets dunker as the night goes on. Most people tend to sober up the later it gets, you, you're just getting more mashed by the minute!"
"Hehe."
"Duo. Seriously. We need to talk about Trowa."
Duo turned stone faced and serious. He nodded solemnly and Heero frowned,
"Are you a selective drunk?"
"I guess." Duo said with a shrug, "There were more than 1 word in that sentence that was too long for me."
"Duo no baka! Serious!" Heero growled, slapping Duo round the back of the head,
"Ok, alright." Duo cleared his throat, "Erm, well, last night, after we had,"
"Duo, skip the details, just tell me the story without that bit."
"Last night, when we were drifting off to sleep, Trowa asked me to move in with him."
"And you said what . . .?"
"I don't remember . . . I was half asleep . . . in fact . . . scratch that . . . I think that I WAS asleep . . ."
Heero sighed heavily, rubbing his temples; he knew that this was going to take all night. All of a sudden, Wu Fei popped up along side of them, wearing clothes similar to those that he had worn in the war, except these trousers were of a rich blue and his jacket matched with gold fastenings. His tank top could not be seen, but it was black. He gave them a blank look and a small one sided wave,
"Bringin' out ya glad rags, eh, Wu-man?"
"You could say that." Wu Fei answered in a dull tone,
"Where's your costume, Wu Fei?" Heero asked, raising an eyebrow,
"I don't do that dressing up thing. That's something little girls do when they're learning to walk and something that women do to make themselves feel better. I am neither a little girl, or a woman, therefore, for me to dress up would be inappropriate and an,"
"Yeah, yeah, we know, an injustice . . ." Duo finished,
"Precisely." Wu Fei commented snidely, looking Duo and then Heero up and down, "I see that the pair of you have come dressed like Barton."
"In fancy dress, of course!" Duo beamed,
"I meant as clowns." Wu Fei muttered, turning his back on them,
"Why you . . ." Duo began, rolling up his sleeves as he advanced on the retreating Wu Fei,
"Duo, leave it." Heero instructed, "It's just not worth it . . . forget about him."
"SCRUGE!" Duo yelled after him,
"Bah humbug." Wu Fei muttered,
"Err, I'm not really up with Western holidays, but isn't that Christmas?" Quatre commented, waddling up in a gigantic pink bunny costume. The ears, which had once been starch strait, were flopping down, the tips falling into his large aquamarine eyes, "Oof." He commented as he slipped on a napkin and bowled, head first onto the floor, where he teetered on the huge rounded stomach of the costume, "Duo, Heero . . . please help me rather than just standing there . . ."
"Sure thing!" Duo agreed, playing with the large toes of the colossal rabbit, grabbing on of Quatre's bunny-soft pink arms whilst Heero grabbed the other, "1, 2, 3, UP!"
Soon Quatre was back on his feet again and Trowa was now approaching,
"I didn't realise how hard it was to walk in this thing!" Quatre sighed breathlessly, his face puffy and pink, "Until I tried to get up three floors worth of staris."
"Ooh, I bet THAT was fun!"
"Actually, it was quite interesting. One of the technicians from the ground floor helped me up. He practically carried me. So nice they are, down there . . . and tall . . . and strong . . . they have nice hair . . . and eyes . . ."
"Quatre!" Duo blurted as Heero began to turn green with envy,
"Uh, oops! Sorry!"
"Perhaps if you hopped?" Trowa suggested, slipping his hands into Duo's side trouser pockets,
"Erm, why, my good man, are you putting YOUR hands in my pockets?" Duo asked casually,
"Because I don't have any."
"Why do you need a pocket at all?"
"I need two."
"Why?!"
"Because I do. Now, shhh."
"Perhaps . . ." Quatre cut in, musing over Trowa's suggestion, "
"Go on, try it!" Heero teased, "See if you can get over to that bowel of . . . spiders . . .?" Heero looked worriedly at Quatre,
"They're not real." Quatre said dryly, giving Heero an 'you're an idiot' look,
"Sorry," Heero murmured,
"Alright, I'll try it." Quatre said determined. Tightening his fists into balls he crouched, preparing to hop.
Five minutes later, the three, un-mamel-dressed former Gundam Pilots had finally stopped laughing at the sight of their fourth member struggling as he sat, upside down against the far wall, blood rushing to his head and legs swinging in the air,
"Are you QUITE finished?" He snapped,
"Yes." Trowa stated calmly before the three burst into tears of laughter again,
"NO!" Duo laughed, leaning against Heero for support as they began to fall over from their laughter,
"Glad to see that you four are having a good time." Wu Fei commented, leaning against the wall next to Quatre,
"I would hardly call this 'having a good time'." Quatre growled, "Help me up please Wu Fei,
"Nope. That's alright. Isn't that what lover-boy over there is for?" He asked, motioning towards Heero who was now hugging Duo to stop him from falling completely onto the floor,
"He's slightly indisposed at current. Please, Wu Fei."
Wu Fei huffed,
"Fine." He pulled Quatre away from the wall by the ears and promptly lifted him to his over-sized bunny-feet,
"Thank you."
"It was your own fault for wearing such a ridiculous costume, but, it was no problem."
Wu Fei turned and walked away, calling for the aforementioned Computer Geek,
"Good evening, Wu Fei. This party's awful, isn't it?! You'll never guess what I found in my punch!"
Duo turned bright pink and ducked his head, trying to hide his face behind one of Trowa's large trouser legs,
"Trowa,"
"Yes love?"
"Why couldn't you have worn that one circus outfit that I like so much . . .?"
"Which one . . .?" Trowa asked, frowning slightly,
"The one, that you hardly ever wear, with the suspenders and ahem, no shirt . . ."
"Oh! THAT one . . . well . . . I didn't want all these people to see that one . . ."
"Trowa," Duo said blankly, "You perform in front of audiences wearing it! What difference does it make?!"
"Well, I only wore it one time. Right before the Mariemeia incident, all the other times, it's been specific to Duo Maxwell, in a way, you own it."
"Dude, that's like the lamest thing that I've ever heard!"
"Eh,"
"You should sell it to Hallmark!"
"I'm not sure who should be more insulted me or Hallmark . . ." Trowa muttered darkly, scratching his head.
All of a sudden, the music stopped and the lights went out. The room had been plunged into total darkness,
"EEP!" Quatre squealed grabbing a hold of Heero's arm, "Heero! The lights went out!" He gasped,
". . ."
"Awwww, now ya talkin'!" Duo cheered, punch the air, "Now the REAL scary stuff starts happenin'! I knew that you guys wouldn't let me down!"
"Uhm," Trowa began, "I don't think that Heero and Quatre planned this, did you guys?"
If Trowa could've seen in the dark, which he couldn't (surprising though with all of his feline qualities) then he would've seen Quatre shake his head, mouth open and eyes wide with terror,
"Quatre, are you shaking?" Heero asked, looking down into the darkness where is estimated Quatre's head was,
"Yes . . ." Quatre murmured meekly, "I don't really like the dark . . ."
"Don't worry Q-man!" Duo cheered, stumbling through the dark towards Quatre's voice, "It probably just a power failure. I think that the four of us should go down to the basement to check."
"Duo," Quatre began, "Have you ever seen a horror movie?"
"Yes . . . have you?"
"Yes!"
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"Wow . . . I'm shocked!" Duo said genuinely surprised,
"Anyways!" Heero interjected, "What was your point, Quatre?"
"Well . . . whenever someone says 'let's go check it out', almost everyone dies! Except for the sexy virgin heroine!"
"Well . . ." Duo began, chuckling, "I know for a fact that Trowa and I aint,"
"Please spare us." Heero snapped, "None of us are female."
"But, we're all sexy!" Duo grinned,
"Maybe in YOUR universe!" Quatre joked.
Trowa cleared his throat, indicating that he had something to say,
"We're talking about a horror-movie scenario . . ." Trowa sighed, "It's fiction . . . things like that never happens!"
"Yeah . . . they always say that!" Quatre whined,
"They do?" Heero asked,
"YES!" Both Duo and Quatre shouted together, "We're doomed now!" Quatre finished.
Heero and Trowa sighed heavily, shaking their heads,
"Fine," Trowa finally muttered, "Heero and I will go down and have a look and when we come back upstairs after fixing the problem, will you both admit to acting like children?"
"We'll see who acts like a child when you're begging for your life at the feet of a crazed psychopathic killer!"
"Yikes!" The other three said together, "Isn't that a little extremist?!" Heero muttered,
"Duo, the closest thing that we have to a crazed psychopath is Miss Relena." Trowa added calmly, "Nothing is going to happen to us down there."
"I'm not so sure! I'll have to come with you to protect you!" Duo tightened his grip on Trowa's waist,
"Me too!" Quatre agreed, balling his fists in determination,
"Hmmm," Heero murmured, "Quatre, perhaps you should stay up here . . . you're somewhat immobile in that . . . thing . . ."
"I'll change."
"To go and switch the lights on?"
"You never know what's going to happen!"
"Fine." Heero huffed, "Just hurry up, alright?"
"Will do!"
- - -
Five minutes later, Quatre was tucking something in round his back underneath his jacket. It went unnoticed by his fellow former Gundam pilots who now all had torches, which, for some odd reason, they'd found in Wu Fei's desk draw,
"I tell ya man, some of the things that I found in there . . . just . . . frightening!" Duo could be heard loudly telling a group of young women,
"Oooh, is he into all that kind of stuff then?" Asked a blue eyed, toothpick blonde with vibrant red lipstick dressed as a devil,
"Huh? What stuff?" Duo asked confused,
"Well," She blushed, lowering her voice to a whisper, "Kinky stuff . . ."
"Whah?!" Duo snorted, "Wu-man?! No way . . . he'd have so many nosebleeds he pass out from lack of blood! I'm talking about the food he had in there! I mean . . . cucumber and mint cottage cheese sandwiches! Bluergh! Enough to put a food-lovin' man off his grub!"
The group of women 'hmphed' and walked away, looking entirely disappointed and unimpressed,
"Duo, what did you say?" Quatre asked, frowning as he crouched at Duo's feet, lacing up his uniform boots,
"Nothing!" Duo cried defensively, holding up his hands as Quatre stood, taking the fourth torch from under Duo's arm,
"Let's go!" Quatre announced looking at Heero and Trowa who were hovering around checking to make sure that all the other party guests were still alright.
They turned and nodded with determined looks, walking smartly from the large office with Duo trailing at the back, his torch in his mouth and finger laced in his hair,
"URGH!" He growled as they reached the stars causing Trowa to stop, which meant that Heero crashed into his back and then Quatre into him,
"What?" Trowa asked, frowning,
"I can't find my hair tie!" He growled, fumbling in his pockets,
"That sounds like a perfectly good reason to chop it all off!" Heero snapped, "Stop worrying about your hair and let's get this over and done with!"
"What's YOUR problem?"
"Nothing!"
Duo stuck his tongue out at Heero's back, but he soon made a triumphant sound, pulling the small black hair tie from his back pocket,
"Found it!" He called up ahead to the other three who'd carried on without him.
Soon the group had found themselves in the basement doorway, their torches scanning the frame,
"So," Heero gulped, "Who's going first?"
"You can!" Duo chuckled nervously pushing the Japanese teen forwards,
"Uh, really, that's alright!" Heero mumbled, "Trowa can go first!"
"Hn." Trowa growled, narrowing his eyes at Heero,
"Do you think that I'm scared of you?" Heero asked, raising en eyebrow,
"You should be!" Duo broke in, standing in front of Trowa.
Suddenly, the basement door opened and closed. The three turned to look,
"Did Q just go in?!" Duo asked, biting his lower lip,
"I think so." Trowa answered.
Heero quickly followed.
Inside . . .
"Err, hello?" Quatre called out into the darkness, "Is anyone in here?!"
Quatre scanned his torch light over the basement surroundings, finding nothing but rusty pipes and boilers. He sighed with relief, moving towards the switch box. As he did so, something rolled across the floor, hitting his foot,
"Who's there?!" He demanded, whirling around, narrowing his eyes as he focussed the torch shakily into a patch of shadows. Something moved behind him and he turned once again, "Come on! Duo . . . stop playing around! This isn't funny!"
Shoes scuffed against the concrete floor, this time from another direction. Quatre followed the sound, grabbing the item from earlier from the back of his trouser, shakily he held his gun in his right hand, the torch with his left and moved faster than the Shinigami on a sugar rush to head off the mysterious shadow,
"Who are you?" He growled as he placed the barrel of his gun to the forehead of the dark figure.
The figure began to laugh and Quatre began to struggle to hold his confidence,
"Give me an answer!" He demanded, glancing around as identical figures appeared dotted all around him, "WHAT ARE YOU?!" He growled. Suddenly the lights flashed on and the figures were revealed to be gigantic mounds of cloth, "I . . . I'm not going to ask you again!"
In one swift movement, the cloths were thrown to the floor,
"HAPPY HALLOWEEN!"
"ARGH!" Quatre stumbled backwards in shock, landing on his behind and dropping his gun, staring up at 5 of the scariest things he'd ever seen.
Staring down at him, grinning psychotically were Wu Fei, Sally, Hilde, Dorothy and Relena. Wu Fei still wore his outfit from the party and Sally was dressed as a play boy bunny. Relena, Dorothy and Hilde all wore see- through plastic clown masks. Quatre was breathing heavily, glowering at the five,
"You scared me to death!"
"I told you that Halloween was just an excuse for cheap scares!" Wu Fei snickered, helping the quivering Quatre to his feet,
"I could've killed you!" Quatre gasped, looking at the gun,
"Unlikely." Wu Fei said blankly, "That's a fake gun, Winner." He narrowed his eyes at Quatre who as still as white as a sheet,
"Y'know . . . that wasn't funny, Wu Fei."
"We think it was." Dorothy commented snidely,
"Were you even invited to the party?" Quatre asked, looking at Dorothy, Relena and Hilde,
"No!" Relena snorted, "How rude of you not to invite me when you KNEW that Heero was going to come!"
Quatre rolled his eyes, dusting himself off. He scowled before turning to find the others.
- - -
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Duo. It isn't funny." Quatre whined, stamping his foot,
"AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
"Duo . . ." Quatre continued,
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Trowa . . . do something about him please!" Quatre whimpered, pointing at Duo who was doubled over on the floor,
"Awwww, man, I'm sorry Q, but . . . you gotta admit . . . that's pretty lame!" Duo snorted, "I mean . . . I know that Wu-man's face is pretty terrifying but you were as white as a sheet! You looked like you'd seen a ghost!"
"It's not funny Duo! Heero, tell Duo it's not funny!"
"Huh?" Heero asked, looking up from the game of cards that he and Trowa were engaged in, "What's not funny!"
"That Wu Fei and the others scared me!"
"Oh," Heero chuckled, "But, it is funny!"
"Trowa?!"
"Sorry Quatre." Trowa shrugged, dropping three cards onto the table,
"Omae o korosu!" Heero growled, narrowing his eyes as he through his cards down in a huff,
"Don't be such a sore loser!" Trowa instructed.
Duo began to snicker again, shaking his head at the thought of Wu Fei jumping out and scaring Quatre,
"Duo . . ."
". . ."
"Duo, it's not funny!"
". . ."
"Duo! Stop that!" Quatre growled, flinging his arms up into the air before storming off.
Duo wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes before reaching out blindly for the punch bowl and a glass. Suddenly, a hand landed itself on his shoulder,
"ARGH!" Duo jumped, running across the room before turning to see Wu Fei standing there giving him the victory sign, "Dear god! Wu you scared the crap outta me!"
"I know, it's a talent!" He said smugly,
"Talent? Nah, I wouldn't say that . . . but don't be too upset . . . plastic surgery does wonders these days!" Duo grinned, charging across the room again to escape Wu Fei's wrath. Trowa and Heero exchanged weary looks before Trowa picked up the cards again and shuffling them,
"Fancy another?" He asked,
"Sure, bring it on clown boy!" Heero said, narrowing his eyes.
"Arrrgh, matey!" Trowa snickered.
- - - Owari!
Thai: Happy Halloween!
Duo: Dude . . . I don't find Wu-man scary what so ever! I mean . . . come on . . . you made me look like a wuss!
Wu Fei: BOO!
Duo: ARGH! ::runs and hides behind Trowa, shaking with fright::
Thai: You were saying?
Duo: Shut up! I'll get my revenge one of these days!
Thai: Uh huh! Well . . . thanks everyone for reading! Here's hoping that you have a truly terrifying Halloween! ::winks:: Please RnR!
Authors note: Erm . . . well . . . this is my Halloween 2003 fic. I hope that you all enjoy it. It's Yaoi . . . so, I'm sorry for my readers that are against Yaoi, but . . . I don't think that there are many of you . . . considering that I have like 2 non-yaoi fics out of 15 or so . . . so . . . ahem, yes . . . please enjoy my wonderful, favourite pairing! 2x3 and there's some 1x4. So . . . uhm . . . yeah . . . enjoy!
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: YAOI and WU FEI!
Scare Tactics.
By Bubblegum Thai
It was an unusually chilly October 30th at Preventers HQ as Duo Maxwell, a 17-year-old field agent with nothing better to do on a cold Thursday than jump up and down rubbing his arms, blowing out small mist as he did so,
"Duo," Heero began, "Will you please desist?"
"No." Duo replied stubbornly continuing to jump up and down, "It's REALLY cold in here Hee-chan!"
"Yes. I know." Heero refused to look up from his computer screen for fear of losing focus, "Why don't you go and sit down . . . do something productive for once . . ."
"Productive?" Duo questioned, his brow furrowing in confusion, "What is this word?" He stuck his tongue out at the young Japanese man before skipping away to another part of the large office.
Heero shook his head as Duo disappeared out the door. He promptly shivered, rubbing his arms which were now crossed over in front of his chest, his breath forming mist in front of him,
"Damn heating . . ." He muttered through gritted teeth.
- - -
". . . but . . . why . . .?" Quatre whimpered, frowning up at his best friend who was a great deal taller than him, "I . . . I just don't understand!"
Trowa chuckled, a small smirk tugging at his thin lips as he looked at the mass of blonde hair that had appeared from under a woollen bobble hat,
"Because . . ." Trowa tormenting, dragging out his words before taking a long sip of the coffee that he held in his left hand, "Because I already have something special planned for that night . . ."
"But . . . Heero and I . . . and even Wu Fei have been planning this for weeks now! He's going to be so excited! PLEASE Trowa!"
Trowa glanced down and his heart sank, realising that he had, indeed, lost the battle. Quatre was staring up at him with huge, aqua-marine puppy dog eyes,
"Damn you . . ." He growled, narrowing his eyes to thin slits,
"THANKS!" Quatre chirped and danced away, leaving Trowa sighing heavily. He looked down at his feet,
"And there goes 2 months wages . . ." He muttered sadly,
"TROWA!" Duo yelled from the lift, "I MISSED YOU!"
Trowa turned a deep shade of crimson as the loud American came charging across the lobby,
"Hey, Duo."
"What's up? You look all . . . sad . . .?" Duo pouted, his eyes beginning to water, "What's wrong?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing! Honestly Duo, it's nothing! I was just thinking about something."
"Were you thinking about the war again?"
"Erm . . . yeah . . ."
"Awwww . . ." Duo enveloped the taller teenager in a tight bear hug, "Don't worry man, it's all over now! C'mon! Quatre said he has something important to tell me today . . . where is he . . .?"
"I haven't got a clue."
"Good . . . then we can 'go find him' and end up 'accidentally' getting lost . . . in a stock room somewhere . . ."
Trowa rolled his eyes as Duo tugged on his heavy coat sleeve, dragging him towards the maintenance stairs.
- - -
"Have you seen Duo?"
Heero Yuy jumped five feet into the air at the sudden, high-pitched voice close to his ear. Once he had landed somewhat safely back in his seat and regained a conscious understanding of his surroundings he looked up at Quatre, who was currently hovering over him,
"Pardon?" He asked, shakily grabbing the arms of his swivel chair,
"Have you seen Duo?" Quatre repeated firmly,
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Here."
"I don't see him . . ."
"I saw him here . . . he disappeared about 10 minutes ago."
"Oh. Ok." Quatre paused, "Where did he go?"
"Quatre," Heero sighed, rubbing his temples, "I don't know. He went out that way somewhere."
"Thanks!"
Heero huffed at Quatre's retreating form, burying his face in his hands,
"And to think . . . you find THAT attractive!" A second voice tormented as Heero felt a weight settle on his desk,
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't play dumb with me, Yuy."
At this point Heero looked up to meet Wu Fei strait in his Onyx eyes,
"I repeat. I. Don't. Know. What. You're. Talking. About. Wu Fei." Heero said slowly, narrowing his eyes giving the young Chinese former pilot his patented death-glare at it's best,
"Alright then Yuy . . ." Wu Fei patted Heero's arm gently and slid from the desk top, "I won't say another word . . ." He added with a wink,
"What does Une want in today? Blue or Red forms?" Heero asked, changing the subject quickly as he focussed on shuffling a small stack of pastel coloured papers,
"Reds. Blues tomorrow." Wu Fei replied with a chuckle, "Oh look . . . here comes Winner . . ."
Wu Fei stood up strait,
"Oh! Good morning Wu Fei!" Quatre giggled running up to the two boys, "Heero, I still can't find Duo."
"Is Barton here?" Wu Fei asked casually,
"Yes . . . we came here together."
"Then I wouldn't go looking for Maxwell if I were you."
"What do you mean?" Quatre asked, frowning,
"Yuy . . . perhaps YOU could introduce Winner to what I'm talking about."
"Omae o korosu, Wu Fei." Heero growled,
"Bring it!" Wu Fei said stubbornly, standing his ground. Heero stood, "EEP!"
"Heero . . . please don't kill Wu Fei . . . crimson really isn't your colour . . . perhaps you'd be calmer if you wore pastel shades . . . rather than those dark greens and blacks . . ."
"Don't forget the yellow trainers!" Wu Fei snorted,
"I was 15!"
"He was young and foolish . . ." Quatre agreed,
"I was brainwashed! Are you people forgetting this?!"
"Forgetting what, my man?!"
"DUO!" Everyone exclaimed. Quatre with excitement, Heero with relief and Wu Fei with terror,
"Jee . . . do I feel neglected . . ."
"Awwww . . . I love ya Tro'!"
"Sorry Trowa . . ."
"Looks like I'm the man of the hour!" Duo beamed, "Hey! Wu-man . . . where ya runnin' too?"
"Very far away . . ." Wu Fei called behind him as he disappeared behind the Water Cooler,
"Man . . . that guy really snapped after the War!" Duo sighed; shaking his head, "It's SO tragic . . ." He sniffled as he wiped a single eye,
"Anyway," Trowa sighed,
"Oh! Yeah! Duh! Thanks Tro'!" Duo chuckled, "Q, I've been looking for you!"
"Really? I've been looking for you . . . that's very odd . . ."
"Oh . . . erm . . . yeah . . . really odd . . ." Both Duo and Trowa turned a deep shade as they ducked their heads, "How bizarre!"
"Ahem, yes, well," Quatre giggled looking clueless, "Duo . . . it's Halloween tomorrow, yes?"
"Oh . . . yeah . . . damn . . . too bad we don't celebrate it over here." Duo sighed sadly, "I really miss that Candy Corn."
"Well . . . Duo . . . I'm afraid that you're going to have to come into the office tomorrow night."
"What? Oh man . . . why?"
"For a party, of course!" Quatre said plain faced,
"What party?!"
"Your Halloween party of course!"
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"Are you SURE that you're being serious?"
"Deathly." Quatre answered, a small smile on his lips,
"OH MY GOD! THAT'S SO COOL! THANKYOUSOMUCHYOUWON'TREGRETTHISQ! Promise!"
"Er . . . I think that I understood most of that."
"He said 'Thank you so much, you won't regret this, Q'." Trowa said quietly,
"Thank you, Trowa, and, you're welcome, Duo, but it wasn't just me, it was Heero and Wu Fei too . . ."
"Wu Fei? What did he do?"
"Convinced Une to let us hold a party in the office. So, yes. Go get yourself a costume tonight and after work hours tomorrow, we'll decorate in time for your arrival."
"CANDY CORN?!"
Heero chuckled,
"Yes Duo, Candy Corn." He said smiling.
"YES! THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS!"
- - -
"Duo,"
"Hmm?"
"Could you PLEASE stop bouncing up and down in your seat?"
"Why?"
"Because it's annoying."
"But I'm excited!" Duo whined,
"Yes, Duo, I realise that, but, this is serious."
"For you maybe, but, not to me."
"Why not?"
"Do I look like Mr I'm-so-boring-Yuy? No. No I don't and thank Shinigami that I don't too . . ."
"Duo,"
"Yes?"
"Run."
Heero stood up slowly as Duo bolted out of his comfortable seat opposite him at the board room table. Sadly, poor Duo ended up getting his sleeve caught on the arm of the chair, resulting in him falling flat on his face,
"Bet that hurt." Heero commented, amusement evident in his voice,
"Yes, it bloody well did! Now, will you help me up or are you just going to sit there?"
"Well, one, I'm standing and two, yes, yes I am just going to stand here . . ."
"Heero you bastard! Help me up!"
"No."
"Why not?!"
"Now you know how it feels to have someone deliberately be annoying."
". . . I'm not followin' ya there . . ."
"Duo, you truly are an idiot."
"Yes, I know, now will you help me up?"
"I think I'll just settle back into my seat and wait for Trowa to come in."
"HEERO!" Duo growled into the carpet, "The carpet feels funny . . . I think it might be alive."
"Very spooky." Heero muttered from behind a large newspaper which had appeared from what was traditionally known as spandex space.
The door swung upon and footsteps made their way steadily towards Duo's head, unfortunately for hi, Duo couldn't tell who was making their approach, as his head was turned in the opposite direction,
"Agent Maxwell . . ." Lady Une began, "What is wrong with this picture?"
"I don't really know Ma'am, I can't see anything but the carpet . . . which really needs vacuuming, I might add."
"Alright, Agent Maxwell, you can get up now."
"I would, but I can't."
"Then why isn't Agent Yuy assisting you?" She asked impatiently,
"Because it's more fun to watch." Heero sighed as he placed his newspaper down onto the table top,
"Oh I see," Lady Une chuckled and Duo rolled his eyes,
"Of course she favours HIM." He thought frustrated as he tried once again to get himself up off of the floor,
"Agent Barton . . . I believe that this," Even though Duo couldn't see, he knew that she was pointing at him, "is YOUR responsibility."
Trowa silently knelt down beside Duo, untangled him from his up turned chair and helped him shakily to his feet,
"Thanks, man." Duo said softly as their eyes met for what would have been considered longer than usual for male companionship. Trowa nodded in response, tearing his eyes away to look at Lady Une who was clearing her throat,
"Well, now that THAT little experience is over and done with, onto business, Agent Maxwell, I really don't think that we need you for this meeting." She sighed, looking over the rims of her reading glasses, "Perhaps you should . . . I don't know . . . go home or something . . ."
The aggravated and weary look in her eyes told Duo that perhaps it was time to leave,
"Alright." He said quietly, turning and leaving quickly,
"Oh dear," Quatre, who had been completely silent until now, murmured, "With all due respect, Lady Une, I do think that you were a little harsh on Duo."
"Agent Winner." She began with a sigh, "Would you like to leave this meeting, also?"
"No Ma'am, I was just,"
"You were just minding your own business."
"What's got into her?" Wu Fei muttered under his breath to Heero,
"What was that, Agent Wu Fei?"
"Nothing, Ma'am."
"I thought so. Now, on to business." She shuffled a large stack of paper work and cleared her throat.
Trowa leant his head in his palm and began to stare out of the window which was behind Heero and Wu Fei. Usually Duo sat directly opposite him, but now all he had to stare at were the repulsive sky scrapers and darkening skies. He sighed, tuning Lady Une out as she droned on, like every other Thursday afternoon. Tomorrow's party really would do Duo a whole world of good.
- - -
It was pitch black when Trowa finally got back to his apartment. He opened the door loudly as it hit the wall, thinking into the living room, he kicked off his boots and dropped his jacket somewhere near the clothes peg,
"Duo, are you here?"
"Yeah, man, I'm in the kitchen."
"Ok. I'll be in there in a minute." Trowa closed the door quietly behind him, sliding his boots against the wall as he padded towards the kitchen that was around the corner,
"Heya." Duo smiled slightly as he looked up from his cheese and pickle sandwich, magazine and can of diet cola, "How was your afternoon."
"Boring," Trowa sighed, moving around the counter towards him, "Thought of you."
"Oh yeah?" Duo raised an eyebrow, looking sideways at the uni-banged teen, "And what was I doing in these thoughts?" Trowa stayed silent and smirked, "Pervert."
Trowa leant forwards, placing a soft kiss against Duo's left temple as his arms wound around his waist,
"I had nothing to look at."
"If you'd turned right slightly, you could've looked at Wu-man."
"Oh . . . how . . ." Trowa struggled for a word, ". . . nice . . ."
"Nice? Tro, are you feelin' alright? I mean, usually, you're full of intellectual words . . ."
"I'm tired."
"Awwww . . . poor Tro-Chan."
"Yeah, poor Tro-Chan . . ."
"Hungry?"
Trowa raised his eyes to the ceiling in thought,
"A little, why?"
"I can offer you cheese on toast."
"That's alright; I think that I'm going to go have a bath . . ."
Duo smirked cheekily,
"Oh really now, can I rub your back?" Duo asked as he moved behind his taller lover, making soothing circular motions,
"Would you?"
"Yeah, man." Duo leant up and gently patted him atop of the head affectionately, "Go get ready and I'll run it for ya."
"Alright. Thanks." As Trowa padded off, head hung and zombie-like, Duo gently patted him on the behind. Trowa turned slightly and smirked as Duo winked.
Once Trowa was inside of his bedroom, he shut the door, leaning back against it, casting a glance over to his chest of drawers. Slowly, holding his head in his right hand as he did so, he moved towards it, pulling open the top draw with force. Riffling around for a few seconds, he finally reached his goal, a small envelope at the bottom, underneath a mountain of black socks. Trowa Barton, the only teenage boy in the known universe who organised his socks by colour. It was completely irrelevant that all of his socks were the same colour. He lifted the flap of the envelope, pulling out a pair of tickets really quickly,
"2 months wages and Quatre blows it all away . . ." He sighed, preparing to rip the pair of tickets in half before pausing. He made a dive for the phone, quickly typing out a number from memory, "Hello, Cathy?"
"Hey Trowa, what's up?" His older sister, Catherine Bloom beamed,
"Erm, I was wondering, do you like, Opera?"
"Opera? It's alright, why?"
"Well, I bought a pair of tickets for Phantom Of The Opera for tomorrow night, but we can't make it, would you like them?"
"Ooh, well, yes please, if you don't mind!"
"Of course I don't." Trowa chuckled, "It's better than wasting them."
"Oh, thank you!" Catherine gushed,
"Well, that's settled, I'll bring them round to you in my lunch break tomorrow."
"Great . . . but, why can't you go? Did some dumb girl cancel on you Trowa?"
"Er, no, not some dumb girl, Cathy."
"Oh, Trowa, I'm sorry, I know that who you go out with is your decision, I just wish that you'd go out with someone who's as intellectually equal to you . . ."
"Cathy . . . I have to go, I promised Duo that . . ."
"Oh, Duo, how is he?"
"Duo's fine, Cathy."
"Y'know, I'm so glad that you and him are such good friends these days! It's good that you have someone other than Quatre around,"
"What's wrong with Quatre?" Trowa demanded,
"Nothing's wrong with Quatre . . . it's just that, well, he never really seemed all that . . . confident . . . and, well, you being yourself, Duo's much better for you . . . he'll help you find a nice girl,"
"Erm, that's unlikely," Trowa thought to himself, "Cathy, I really have to go now. We'll talk tomorrow, alright?"
"Alright. Take care. Bye."
CLICK
Trowa sighed, placing the phone back down onto the bedside table,
"When are you gonna tell her?"
"WHAH!" Trowa, startled, exclaimed, his leg jolting and hitting the bedside table, the cordless phone sliding off of the edge, falling and hitting him square on the foot, "AH! GOD DAMN IT!" Trowa grabbed his foot, standing up quickly in a panic, dropping the tickets to the floor, "FUCK!"
"Are you alright?"
"Yes."
Duo rushed to his side and helped him settle back down onto the bed,
"I'm sorry that I scared you, I'm just . . . worried that if you don't tell her about you and I, then . . ."
"Then . . ."
"Something very bad is going to happen?"
"It's a teen slasher movie in the making . . ." Trowa muttered sarcastically,
"Laugh all you want . . . but, you know what's going to happen, don't you?"
"No. I honestly don't, please enlighten me . . ."
Duo stared at him blankly for a minute,
"You must be tired . . . could we at least speak the same language now and again?"
"Ok, Duo, please elaborate." Another blank look, "Uhm . . . explain . . ."
Bingo! Duo's face was full of life again, this time; concern filled his young, curved features,
"Well, you see, if Cathy accidentally finds out then she's going to be mad. And hurt, but of course, anger is going to hit her first, she's going to grab the nearest thing to her and throw it at you, or me, but more likely you,"
"Oh, great."
"Well, anyways, if my estimate is right, then she's going to be standing THERE when she finds out," Duo motioned towards the bedroom door, "She'll walk in on us doing the horizontal mambo, or, something, but, yes, and she's going to grab THAT vase, right there, on top of the dresser and throw it at your head. I bought you that vase, and it wasn't that cheap, y'know, so I'd appreciate it if she didn't smash it over you head."
"You're worried about the damn vase?"
"In short, yes."
"How affectionate of you . . ." Trowa muttered, tugging at his tie clip, muttering something about 'infernal modern contraptions',
"Tro', it's a tie pin, it's not plotting against you, it's not leading a rebellion of male jewellery, it's just a tie pin."
Trowa glowered at his love, ignoring his teasing and finally unclipped the small piece of metal, dumping it down onto the chest of drawers,
"Are you going to stay the night?" Trowa asked slyly as Duo began to un button his olive green work shirt,
"That all depends,"
"On?" Trowa asked as he un-tucked the shirt at the back,
"If you want me to."
"I do."
"Then I will." Duo whispered softly, helping Trowa out of the remainder of his clothes, "Bath time!" He giggled.
- - -
Wu Fei turned around to face his two friends as they stood in front of the large glass sliding doors on the ground floor that faced out onto the main street. In the darkness, they could see heavy drops of rain thundering down onto the public that walked the streets. Wu Fei straitened a crease in his beige trench coat,
"It's raining," He said, looking at the pair, "Did you two bring an umbrella?"
"No." The said in unison,
"Well, I'm getting a lift, so, here, you can have mine." He handed Heero his large, black golf umbrella. A white car pulled up outside and beeped its horn, "Well, there she is."
"Go get her, you ol' dog." Heero teased, nudging his friend in the ribs.
Wu Fei made a strange sound which Quatre thought sounded like a dying cat, but found out when Heero informed him later on that night, it was in fact a tiger growl.
Wu Fei ducked his head as he left the warm and dry building jogging round to sit next to Sally Po in the car before speeding away,
"Well, it looks like I have the umbrella." Heero said dryly, "Come on, I'll walk you back home."
"Really, it's no trouble, if I was worried about getting wet, I'd call for a lift."
"Quatre, you'll get sick."
"I'm stronger than you think, Heero."
"Quatre, I'm walking you home, like it or not."
"Fine." Quatre grinned, "Let's go then, before it gets later than it already is."
- - -
The pair huddled together under the umbrella as the scurried along the street towards the large, Winner family mansion,
". . . so, yes, I let Iria take care of the business and I decided that I was best suited for the Preventers rather than sitting at a desk all day,"
"Quatre, we do sit at desks all day, Une hardly ever lets us go and blow things up."
"You sound like Wu Fei."
"I know, but, it's true, isn't it?"
"I suppose." Quatre sighed, inching closer to let a large group of giggling teenage schoolgirls pass by, whispering and pointing at them, all blushing as the strutted past, trying to make eye contact. Heero's hands tightened against the handle as Quatre moved even closer to let a group of smaller school children and some mothers with push chairs go past, "Brrr, it's so cold out here."
"Really? I hadn't noticed." Heero squeaked,
"Yes, it's freezing."
Suddenly, a large gust of wind ripped the umbrella clean from Heero's hands,
"Fuck! Wu Fei's umbrella!" Heero yelled starting to move after it,
"Heero, don't!" Quatre instructed, grabbing the taller boys arm, "Come on, my house is only a couple of minutes away, if we run, we won't get too badly wet."
The pair began to run, Quatre leading the way. The turned a corner, darting out of the way of people huddling umbrellas, also rushing to get home.
Soon, the Winner Family Mansion began to loom ahead. The pair sped up and within seconds, they were at the large electric gate. Punching in a security code, the gates creaked open and the pair run up the drive way to huddle under the porch. Quatre reached into his pocket for his security key and stopped as he looked up at Heero. He was hunched over, breathing heavily, his soaking wet hair dripping into his eyes, the trails of water trickling down the sides of his face and nose, dropping from the tip. Quatre giggled and Heero looked up, taking a step forwards,
"What's so funny?"
"You're drenched, Heero."
"So are you!" Heero snorted, taking another stop forward and brushing Quatre's wet bangs behind his ear causing them to plaster to his forehead, "You're really wet."
Quatre blushed, his eyes widening and Heero smirked,
"So you're not as innocent as you like people to think, are you?"
Quatre opened his mouth to speak, but Heero took a final step forward, closing the gap between them and gently pressing his lips to Quatre's. The pair became vaguely aware of a light flashing on to their right but neither acknowledged it as the kiss became deeper and more heated. Hands fumbled to get a grip of the other without slipping on rain-slicked clothes,
"Would you like to come in?" Quatre asked, breathlessly as they parted.
Heero pressed his forehead to Quatre's and smiled slightly,
"I would love to."
- - -
"H . . . H . . . Heero?" Quatre whimpered, pulling at the leather belt that he found easily as his shaking hands fumbled for the teenage boy who had him pinned against the bedroom door.
Heero made a slight 'mewling' sound as he placed a gentle hand on Quatre's inner thigh,
"Quatre," Heero whispered close to his near-future-lover's ear, "I . . . maybe we should stop . . . we're going . . . too fast . . . I don't want to hurt you."
Quatre raised an eyebrow gently, leaning forwards to lick at Heero's lips,
"Heero," Quatre began sliding a hand down to stroke Heero's hip through the uniform strait-leg forest green trousers, "You won't hurt me, I promise."
"But you're inexperienced . . ."
"Am I?" Quatre asked slyly, biting his lower lip, "How do you know that"
"Well, you are, aren't you?"
Quatre shook his head slowly, warranting an extremely please grin from Heero. Leaning forwards, Quatre began to back Heero up towards the bed. Stumbling over Quatre's discarded shoes, jacket and shirt in the middle of the floor, Heero feel backwards, landing on the bed. With a growl, Quatre straddled his lap, assaulting his slender neck with gentle nibbles, kisses, licks and sucks.
- - -
The next morning, bright Autumnal light flooded Trowa's bedroom. The sudden flash awoke the sleeping occupants of the large double bed,
"Mmmmmmmmmmorning . . ." Trowa slurred, tightening his fingers in Duo's hair,
"Good morning. How're you feeling?"
"Better. Thanks to you."
"Heh, well, take your time, I'll make you some breakfast."
"Thanks.
Meanwhile . . .
"Want you."
"Heero . . . what if my sisters hear?"
"What, you're not aloud a sex life?"
Quatre decided against commenting, snuggling down into Heero's arms,
"Did you like last night?"
Heero gently ran his hand over a smooth buttock,
"You're full of surprises, Quatre."
Quatre giggled, moving a hand under the covers,
"Oh, you have NO idea . . ."
Heero suddenly yelped as a cold hand grabbed a rather delicate pat of his anatomy.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING.
"Phone Heero . . ." Quatre murmured as Heero ran his fingers delicately through Quatre's fine, golden locks.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING.
"Hello?" Quatre mumbled,
"Hey Q."
"Duo! How're you?"
"Hey, erm . . . I don't suppose that you know where Hee-chan went after work last night do you? I called our apartment and he wasn't home all night according to Hilde,
"Hold on a second, Duo." Quatre answered nervously, "Heero, "Quatre hissed, "Duo's on the phone and he wants to know if I know where you are!"
"So?" Heero shrugged, "Pass me the phone." Quatre nodded, handing Heero the phone, "Hello Duo."
"Heero?!"
"Yes Duo, what do you want?"
"Erm . . . well . . . I need your help?"
"With?" Heero huffed impatiently,
"I . . . well . . ." Duo began,
"Duo, spit it out!"
"Trowa asked me to move in with him!" Duo blurted out,
"Duo, that's great!"
"Is it?!"
"Yes!"
"I dunno . . ."
"Would you like to talk about this in person?"
"Please."
When?"
"Tonight? At the party?"
"Alright."
- - -
"Breakfast is served!" Duo announced as he burst into Trowa's bedroom as Trowa slipped on a tight black t-shirt, "Eggs and bacon!"
"Smells good." Trowa commented, nodding gently,
"It does . . . your lucky that I ate mine whilst cooking this, otherwise I'd probably be forced to eat it for you. Now, eat up and hurry up and get dressed or you'll catch your death!"
"I thought I already had!"
"Huh?!"
"Shinigami . . ."
". . ."
"Never mind Duo. It's obviously too early for you."
"Ok!"
Duo beamed, brushing strands of chestnut from his violet eyes,
"Thank you so much for this Duo. I appreciate it."
"No worries."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"Well . . . erm . . . I need to get going, alright, I'll see you tonight . . . ok?"
"Alright." Trowa nodded as Duo leant forwards, gently placing a kiss against his lips, "Have a good day, love."
"You too."
"Oh yeah . . . work . . . fun . . ."
"Haha! It's my day off!" Duo sang happily as he left the apartment.
- - -
"Are you sure, Q?" Duo asked, anxiously,
"Absolutely positive. I have everything that we'll need for a completely terrifying party!" Quatre said proudly, patting a large bag of extra Halloween decorations,
"BALOONS?!" Duo exclaimed, holding up a pack of pumpkin shaped balloons, "Sorry man, but they don't exactly strike terror into my heart!"
"Shush you! I didn't use them . . . they just . . . kind of came . . . now . . . I've got to go and get into my costume go and enjoy the party . . . Trowa's already in there."
"Oooh . . . goody!" Duo grinned, rubbing his hands together as he scuttled towards the large main office.
Opening up the large main door into the office, Duo gasped as the dark room hit him full on. No desks or chairs remained in the centre, it was completely cleared. An eerie sort of music was coming from somewhere at the back of the office, near where the water cooler stood. The dance floor was packed with fellow Preventers, slowly dancing, all in costume. Duo, his hair down, sweeping against the backs of his knees. He wore tight black leather pants and a dark purple t-shirt that was tight against his body. He scanned the dancers, remembering that Trowa would rather style his hair into a normal style than dance. All of a sudden, a pair of slender bronzed arms wrapped around his waist,
"Evening, love."
"Evening." Duo whispered, leaning back against Trowa's chest, placing a hand on what he had originally thought was Trowa's hip, but got a nasty, rounded surprise. He huffed, "Trowa," He began dryly, "Did you wear your circus outfit?"
"Errrr, can I get a 50/50 on that one?"
"No."
"Phone a friend."
"No, enough of 'Who wants to be a Millionaire, Tro'."
"Then I am the Weakest Link, goodbye!" And with that, Trowa had disappeared back into the crowd,
"Trowa!" Duo growled, whirling around. As he did so, the sudden movement sent his plastic fangs flying off into the punch bowl, where they were promptly scooped into a plastic cup by one of the computer nerds that Wu Fei considered a 'friend', "Oh . . . erm . . ." Duo began, making small hand gestures towards the confused man,
"What is it, you moron?!" He snapped, glowering at the long-haired teen,
"Fine. Drink my spit! Forget you" Duo growled, turning away and sauntering off, "He hates me because he wants me." Duo told himself reassuringly,
"Who does?"
Duo turned around to see Heero Yuy standing next to a large fountain of candy corn. Duo began to suppress a giggle, then he giggled aloud beginning to laugh and finally he began to guffaw, doubling over and landing on his knees in the middle of the dance floor,
"Nice outfit!" He managed to gasp, pointing at Heero with his right hand whilst holding his side with his left,
"What?" Heero asked looking down, "I'm a pirate."
"You have a pink bandanna!" Duo began to splutter again,
"Erm . . ." Heero began, scratching the side of his head, "Who spiked the baka's punch?"
"No one . . . I just find the long stripy socks, baggy batty-boy trousers and pink bandanna hilariously funny!"
". . ." Heero stared at Duo blankly, an eyebrow raised as if questioning Duo's sanity, "If you think my outfit's funny, wait til you see Quatre . . ."
"Oh no!" Duo groaned, slapping his forehead, "I knew that I should've proof- checked his costume!"
"Well, it wasn't entirely his fault," Heero began, "He originally wanted a realistic looking Werewolf outfit . . . however . . . there was a mix-up at the costume shop . . ."
"So what is he now, if I dare ask."
"A bunny."
". . . please," Duo began, rubbing his forehead, "Tell me that you're joking."
"Nope."
"A white rabbit?!"
"Well . . . not exactly," Heero chuckled, "You see, obviously, when it was washed, they put it in with a confederate army uniform from the civil war because it's no longer white."
"Oh dear god . . . pink?! PINK?!" Duo fumed, "Quatre's wearing a PINK bunny outfit?!"
"Yes . . . but you should've seen what he originally got stuck with."
"What . . .?" Duo asked warily,
"A belly dancer outfit . . ."
"Was that pink too?"
"No, it was blue."
"That's more masculine than what he's got now!"
Heero raised an eyebrow,
"Duo . . . just . . . don't . . . the costume shop had nothing else . . . he settled for the bunny because he though it'd be better than dressing up in a thong and veils . . ."
"He would've done that?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Heero sighed heavily, shaking his head,
"Because he organised this party for you and didn't want to let you done."
"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Duo gushed. Going all starry eyes, twinkling in the dim light as he melted into a puddle on the floor, "That's SO sweet of him! I need to give him a HUG!"
"Well . . . err . . . yes . . ."
"Oh yeah!" Duo suddenly remembered, "Speaking of hugging," He said with a wink as he nudged Heero in the elbow, "Ol' Hee-chan spending the night at Q- man's . . . something going on there?"
"Duo. Didn't you want to talk about this whole Trowa thing?" Heero asked, quickly changing the subject as he turned bright crimson,
"No, no, no, Hee-ro!" Duo scolded, "Let's talk about you and Q!"
"There's nothing to talk about."
"So . . . what's the situation with you two, huh?!" Duo winked again, nudging Heero for a second time,
"Do I have to explain everything I do?"
"When it involves Quat you do."
"Why?" Heero demanded, his forehead wrinkled in confusion,
"Because he's my buddy. So are you . . . besides . . . I need to know if I should start saving for a new hat . . ."
"New hat?"
"Yeah. Old ladies have to buy a new hat for every wedding that they go to."
"You are such a strange individual, you know that, right."
"Ah, forget about me! Let's talk about you and Q!" Duo suddenly grinned,
"What?" Heero asked, confused,
"Hehe," Duo giggled, "That rhymes!"
"Oh brother . . ."
"You don't have a brother!"
"Duo, are you drunk?"
"Perhaps, I do not know . . ."
"Well, answer me this, have you consumed any alcohol this evening?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"Uh . . . only one cup . . ."
"Duo . . ." Heero said sternly, "This cup, were they refilling it . . .?"
". . .YES!" Duo suddenly yelled as loud as he could. Everyone turned and stare, except for Trowa who shook his head and muttered something under his breath, "Anyways . . . are you and Q an item now . . .?"
"If I give you an answer, will you shut up?"
"Yes."
"Then, yes, we are."
"Oh!" Duo gushed, enveloping Heero in a tight bear-hug, "THAT'S MAGICAL HEE- CHAN!" He sniffled, "THERE'S GOING TO BE A WEDDING!"
"Uhm, I think that you're rushing into things here, don't you . . .?"
"NO!"
"Y'know, you're the only person that I know that gets dunker as the night goes on. Most people tend to sober up the later it gets, you, you're just getting more mashed by the minute!"
"Hehe."
"Duo. Seriously. We need to talk about Trowa."
Duo turned stone faced and serious. He nodded solemnly and Heero frowned,
"Are you a selective drunk?"
"I guess." Duo said with a shrug, "There were more than 1 word in that sentence that was too long for me."
"Duo no baka! Serious!" Heero growled, slapping Duo round the back of the head,
"Ok, alright." Duo cleared his throat, "Erm, well, last night, after we had,"
"Duo, skip the details, just tell me the story without that bit."
"Last night, when we were drifting off to sleep, Trowa asked me to move in with him."
"And you said what . . .?"
"I don't remember . . . I was half asleep . . . in fact . . . scratch that . . . I think that I WAS asleep . . ."
Heero sighed heavily, rubbing his temples; he knew that this was going to take all night. All of a sudden, Wu Fei popped up along side of them, wearing clothes similar to those that he had worn in the war, except these trousers were of a rich blue and his jacket matched with gold fastenings. His tank top could not be seen, but it was black. He gave them a blank look and a small one sided wave,
"Bringin' out ya glad rags, eh, Wu-man?"
"You could say that." Wu Fei answered in a dull tone,
"Where's your costume, Wu Fei?" Heero asked, raising an eyebrow,
"I don't do that dressing up thing. That's something little girls do when they're learning to walk and something that women do to make themselves feel better. I am neither a little girl, or a woman, therefore, for me to dress up would be inappropriate and an,"
"Yeah, yeah, we know, an injustice . . ." Duo finished,
"Precisely." Wu Fei commented snidely, looking Duo and then Heero up and down, "I see that the pair of you have come dressed like Barton."
"In fancy dress, of course!" Duo beamed,
"I meant as clowns." Wu Fei muttered, turning his back on them,
"Why you . . ." Duo began, rolling up his sleeves as he advanced on the retreating Wu Fei,
"Duo, leave it." Heero instructed, "It's just not worth it . . . forget about him."
"SCRUGE!" Duo yelled after him,
"Bah humbug." Wu Fei muttered,
"Err, I'm not really up with Western holidays, but isn't that Christmas?" Quatre commented, waddling up in a gigantic pink bunny costume. The ears, which had once been starch strait, were flopping down, the tips falling into his large aquamarine eyes, "Oof." He commented as he slipped on a napkin and bowled, head first onto the floor, where he teetered on the huge rounded stomach of the costume, "Duo, Heero . . . please help me rather than just standing there . . ."
"Sure thing!" Duo agreed, playing with the large toes of the colossal rabbit, grabbing on of Quatre's bunny-soft pink arms whilst Heero grabbed the other, "1, 2, 3, UP!"
Soon Quatre was back on his feet again and Trowa was now approaching,
"I didn't realise how hard it was to walk in this thing!" Quatre sighed breathlessly, his face puffy and pink, "Until I tried to get up three floors worth of staris."
"Ooh, I bet THAT was fun!"
"Actually, it was quite interesting. One of the technicians from the ground floor helped me up. He practically carried me. So nice they are, down there . . . and tall . . . and strong . . . they have nice hair . . . and eyes . . ."
"Quatre!" Duo blurted as Heero began to turn green with envy,
"Uh, oops! Sorry!"
"Perhaps if you hopped?" Trowa suggested, slipping his hands into Duo's side trouser pockets,
"Erm, why, my good man, are you putting YOUR hands in my pockets?" Duo asked casually,
"Because I don't have any."
"Why do you need a pocket at all?"
"I need two."
"Why?!"
"Because I do. Now, shhh."
"Perhaps . . ." Quatre cut in, musing over Trowa's suggestion, "
"Go on, try it!" Heero teased, "See if you can get over to that bowel of . . . spiders . . .?" Heero looked worriedly at Quatre,
"They're not real." Quatre said dryly, giving Heero an 'you're an idiot' look,
"Sorry," Heero murmured,
"Alright, I'll try it." Quatre said determined. Tightening his fists into balls he crouched, preparing to hop.
Five minutes later, the three, un-mamel-dressed former Gundam Pilots had finally stopped laughing at the sight of their fourth member struggling as he sat, upside down against the far wall, blood rushing to his head and legs swinging in the air,
"Are you QUITE finished?" He snapped,
"Yes." Trowa stated calmly before the three burst into tears of laughter again,
"NO!" Duo laughed, leaning against Heero for support as they began to fall over from their laughter,
"Glad to see that you four are having a good time." Wu Fei commented, leaning against the wall next to Quatre,
"I would hardly call this 'having a good time'." Quatre growled, "Help me up please Wu Fei,
"Nope. That's alright. Isn't that what lover-boy over there is for?" He asked, motioning towards Heero who was now hugging Duo to stop him from falling completely onto the floor,
"He's slightly indisposed at current. Please, Wu Fei."
Wu Fei huffed,
"Fine." He pulled Quatre away from the wall by the ears and promptly lifted him to his over-sized bunny-feet,
"Thank you."
"It was your own fault for wearing such a ridiculous costume, but, it was no problem."
Wu Fei turned and walked away, calling for the aforementioned Computer Geek,
"Good evening, Wu Fei. This party's awful, isn't it?! You'll never guess what I found in my punch!"
Duo turned bright pink and ducked his head, trying to hide his face behind one of Trowa's large trouser legs,
"Trowa,"
"Yes love?"
"Why couldn't you have worn that one circus outfit that I like so much . . .?"
"Which one . . .?" Trowa asked, frowning slightly,
"The one, that you hardly ever wear, with the suspenders and ahem, no shirt . . ."
"Oh! THAT one . . . well . . . I didn't want all these people to see that one . . ."
"Trowa," Duo said blankly, "You perform in front of audiences wearing it! What difference does it make?!"
"Well, I only wore it one time. Right before the Mariemeia incident, all the other times, it's been specific to Duo Maxwell, in a way, you own it."
"Dude, that's like the lamest thing that I've ever heard!"
"Eh,"
"You should sell it to Hallmark!"
"I'm not sure who should be more insulted me or Hallmark . . ." Trowa muttered darkly, scratching his head.
All of a sudden, the music stopped and the lights went out. The room had been plunged into total darkness,
"EEP!" Quatre squealed grabbing a hold of Heero's arm, "Heero! The lights went out!" He gasped,
". . ."
"Awwww, now ya talkin'!" Duo cheered, punch the air, "Now the REAL scary stuff starts happenin'! I knew that you guys wouldn't let me down!"
"Uhm," Trowa began, "I don't think that Heero and Quatre planned this, did you guys?"
If Trowa could've seen in the dark, which he couldn't (surprising though with all of his feline qualities) then he would've seen Quatre shake his head, mouth open and eyes wide with terror,
"Quatre, are you shaking?" Heero asked, looking down into the darkness where is estimated Quatre's head was,
"Yes . . ." Quatre murmured meekly, "I don't really like the dark . . ."
"Don't worry Q-man!" Duo cheered, stumbling through the dark towards Quatre's voice, "It probably just a power failure. I think that the four of us should go down to the basement to check."
"Duo," Quatre began, "Have you ever seen a horror movie?"
"Yes . . . have you?"
"Yes!"
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"Wow . . . I'm shocked!" Duo said genuinely surprised,
"Anyways!" Heero interjected, "What was your point, Quatre?"
"Well . . . whenever someone says 'let's go check it out', almost everyone dies! Except for the sexy virgin heroine!"
"Well . . ." Duo began, chuckling, "I know for a fact that Trowa and I aint,"
"Please spare us." Heero snapped, "None of us are female."
"But, we're all sexy!" Duo grinned,
"Maybe in YOUR universe!" Quatre joked.
Trowa cleared his throat, indicating that he had something to say,
"We're talking about a horror-movie scenario . . ." Trowa sighed, "It's fiction . . . things like that never happens!"
"Yeah . . . they always say that!" Quatre whined,
"They do?" Heero asked,
"YES!" Both Duo and Quatre shouted together, "We're doomed now!" Quatre finished.
Heero and Trowa sighed heavily, shaking their heads,
"Fine," Trowa finally muttered, "Heero and I will go down and have a look and when we come back upstairs after fixing the problem, will you both admit to acting like children?"
"We'll see who acts like a child when you're begging for your life at the feet of a crazed psychopathic killer!"
"Yikes!" The other three said together, "Isn't that a little extremist?!" Heero muttered,
"Duo, the closest thing that we have to a crazed psychopath is Miss Relena." Trowa added calmly, "Nothing is going to happen to us down there."
"I'm not so sure! I'll have to come with you to protect you!" Duo tightened his grip on Trowa's waist,
"Me too!" Quatre agreed, balling his fists in determination,
"Hmmm," Heero murmured, "Quatre, perhaps you should stay up here . . . you're somewhat immobile in that . . . thing . . ."
"I'll change."
"To go and switch the lights on?"
"You never know what's going to happen!"
"Fine." Heero huffed, "Just hurry up, alright?"
"Will do!"
- - -
Five minutes later, Quatre was tucking something in round his back underneath his jacket. It went unnoticed by his fellow former Gundam pilots who now all had torches, which, for some odd reason, they'd found in Wu Fei's desk draw,
"I tell ya man, some of the things that I found in there . . . just . . . frightening!" Duo could be heard loudly telling a group of young women,
"Oooh, is he into all that kind of stuff then?" Asked a blue eyed, toothpick blonde with vibrant red lipstick dressed as a devil,
"Huh? What stuff?" Duo asked confused,
"Well," She blushed, lowering her voice to a whisper, "Kinky stuff . . ."
"Whah?!" Duo snorted, "Wu-man?! No way . . . he'd have so many nosebleeds he pass out from lack of blood! I'm talking about the food he had in there! I mean . . . cucumber and mint cottage cheese sandwiches! Bluergh! Enough to put a food-lovin' man off his grub!"
The group of women 'hmphed' and walked away, looking entirely disappointed and unimpressed,
"Duo, what did you say?" Quatre asked, frowning as he crouched at Duo's feet, lacing up his uniform boots,
"Nothing!" Duo cried defensively, holding up his hands as Quatre stood, taking the fourth torch from under Duo's arm,
"Let's go!" Quatre announced looking at Heero and Trowa who were hovering around checking to make sure that all the other party guests were still alright.
They turned and nodded with determined looks, walking smartly from the large office with Duo trailing at the back, his torch in his mouth and finger laced in his hair,
"URGH!" He growled as they reached the stars causing Trowa to stop, which meant that Heero crashed into his back and then Quatre into him,
"What?" Trowa asked, frowning,
"I can't find my hair tie!" He growled, fumbling in his pockets,
"That sounds like a perfectly good reason to chop it all off!" Heero snapped, "Stop worrying about your hair and let's get this over and done with!"
"What's YOUR problem?"
"Nothing!"
Duo stuck his tongue out at Heero's back, but he soon made a triumphant sound, pulling the small black hair tie from his back pocket,
"Found it!" He called up ahead to the other three who'd carried on without him.
Soon the group had found themselves in the basement doorway, their torches scanning the frame,
"So," Heero gulped, "Who's going first?"
"You can!" Duo chuckled nervously pushing the Japanese teen forwards,
"Uh, really, that's alright!" Heero mumbled, "Trowa can go first!"
"Hn." Trowa growled, narrowing his eyes at Heero,
"Do you think that I'm scared of you?" Heero asked, raising en eyebrow,
"You should be!" Duo broke in, standing in front of Trowa.
Suddenly, the basement door opened and closed. The three turned to look,
"Did Q just go in?!" Duo asked, biting his lower lip,
"I think so." Trowa answered.
Heero quickly followed.
Inside . . .
"Err, hello?" Quatre called out into the darkness, "Is anyone in here?!"
Quatre scanned his torch light over the basement surroundings, finding nothing but rusty pipes and boilers. He sighed with relief, moving towards the switch box. As he did so, something rolled across the floor, hitting his foot,
"Who's there?!" He demanded, whirling around, narrowing his eyes as he focussed the torch shakily into a patch of shadows. Something moved behind him and he turned once again, "Come on! Duo . . . stop playing around! This isn't funny!"
Shoes scuffed against the concrete floor, this time from another direction. Quatre followed the sound, grabbing the item from earlier from the back of his trouser, shakily he held his gun in his right hand, the torch with his left and moved faster than the Shinigami on a sugar rush to head off the mysterious shadow,
"Who are you?" He growled as he placed the barrel of his gun to the forehead of the dark figure.
The figure began to laugh and Quatre began to struggle to hold his confidence,
"Give me an answer!" He demanded, glancing around as identical figures appeared dotted all around him, "WHAT ARE YOU?!" He growled. Suddenly the lights flashed on and the figures were revealed to be gigantic mounds of cloth, "I . . . I'm not going to ask you again!"
In one swift movement, the cloths were thrown to the floor,
"HAPPY HALLOWEEN!"
"ARGH!" Quatre stumbled backwards in shock, landing on his behind and dropping his gun, staring up at 5 of the scariest things he'd ever seen.
Staring down at him, grinning psychotically were Wu Fei, Sally, Hilde, Dorothy and Relena. Wu Fei still wore his outfit from the party and Sally was dressed as a play boy bunny. Relena, Dorothy and Hilde all wore see- through plastic clown masks. Quatre was breathing heavily, glowering at the five,
"You scared me to death!"
"I told you that Halloween was just an excuse for cheap scares!" Wu Fei snickered, helping the quivering Quatre to his feet,
"I could've killed you!" Quatre gasped, looking at the gun,
"Unlikely." Wu Fei said blankly, "That's a fake gun, Winner." He narrowed his eyes at Quatre who as still as white as a sheet,
"Y'know . . . that wasn't funny, Wu Fei."
"We think it was." Dorothy commented snidely,
"Were you even invited to the party?" Quatre asked, looking at Dorothy, Relena and Hilde,
"No!" Relena snorted, "How rude of you not to invite me when you KNEW that Heero was going to come!"
Quatre rolled his eyes, dusting himself off. He scowled before turning to find the others.
- - -
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Duo. It isn't funny." Quatre whined, stamping his foot,
"AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
"Duo . . ." Quatre continued,
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Trowa . . . do something about him please!" Quatre whimpered, pointing at Duo who was doubled over on the floor,
"Awwww, man, I'm sorry Q, but . . . you gotta admit . . . that's pretty lame!" Duo snorted, "I mean . . . I know that Wu-man's face is pretty terrifying but you were as white as a sheet! You looked like you'd seen a ghost!"
"It's not funny Duo! Heero, tell Duo it's not funny!"
"Huh?" Heero asked, looking up from the game of cards that he and Trowa were engaged in, "What's not funny!"
"That Wu Fei and the others scared me!"
"Oh," Heero chuckled, "But, it is funny!"
"Trowa?!"
"Sorry Quatre." Trowa shrugged, dropping three cards onto the table,
"Omae o korosu!" Heero growled, narrowing his eyes as he through his cards down in a huff,
"Don't be such a sore loser!" Trowa instructed.
Duo began to snicker again, shaking his head at the thought of Wu Fei jumping out and scaring Quatre,
"Duo . . ."
". . ."
"Duo, it's not funny!"
". . ."
"Duo! Stop that!" Quatre growled, flinging his arms up into the air before storming off.
Duo wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes before reaching out blindly for the punch bowl and a glass. Suddenly, a hand landed itself on his shoulder,
"ARGH!" Duo jumped, running across the room before turning to see Wu Fei standing there giving him the victory sign, "Dear god! Wu you scared the crap outta me!"
"I know, it's a talent!" He said smugly,
"Talent? Nah, I wouldn't say that . . . but don't be too upset . . . plastic surgery does wonders these days!" Duo grinned, charging across the room again to escape Wu Fei's wrath. Trowa and Heero exchanged weary looks before Trowa picked up the cards again and shuffling them,
"Fancy another?" He asked,
"Sure, bring it on clown boy!" Heero said, narrowing his eyes.
"Arrrgh, matey!" Trowa snickered.
- - - Owari!
Thai: Happy Halloween!
Duo: Dude . . . I don't find Wu-man scary what so ever! I mean . . . come on . . . you made me look like a wuss!
Wu Fei: BOO!
Duo: ARGH! ::runs and hides behind Trowa, shaking with fright::
Thai: You were saying?
Duo: Shut up! I'll get my revenge one of these days!
Thai: Uh huh! Well . . . thanks everyone for reading! Here's hoping that you have a truly terrifying Halloween! ::winks:: Please RnR!