Chapter 3: With You (Jesus, I have weird tasteFive Iron Frenzy, Rammstein, Weezer, AND bits of Eminem and Ludacris. AND now Dil has given me taste, so add Pink Floyd.)
(I don't own GW, I just make the characters screw each other silly on occasion. And I don't pay a cent! Pretty good deal, neh?)
"Wu-man, we've GOT to stop meeting like this!"
"I assume you meant that as a joke, ben dan, as at this late hour I imagine you need all the help you can get in your never-ending quest to stay awake."
Duo finished opening the door and ushered Wufei into his room, seeming all the darker than the corridor outside because of the single contrasting point of brightness in the gloom.
The monitor glowed with an almost unholy aura of radiance with the digital sun's reflection from the digital sand in the digital desert, where real people fought with digital weapons to the digital death.
Duo, needless to say, had digitally lost this round, otherwise Wufei might have spent quite a while waiting at the door.
"Actually I don't NEED any help tonight, somehow I dropped off yesterdayand that's a very cute puppy-dog face, 'Fei, but no fear, I'm not kicking you out."
"I have no such fears! I just feel the need to play that blasted game again"
Duo grinned widely, his night of sleep obviously a big boon to his waning sense of humor. "Addictive, ain't it? Well wait your turn, Woofles, good things come to those who wait. In the meantime, I need to introduce you to the wonders of rap."
"First off, call me 'Woofles' again and I'll rip your throat out with my bare hands. Next: what's 'rap'? And please don't tell me it's that crap you're always driving Yuy insane with, I hear ENOUGH of that."
"No no, rap is meant for headphones. Here!" Duo dangled a shiny pair of ear pieces at the reluctant Wufei, who resignedly slid them on and waited as though a death sentence had been placed on him.
"Alright, start the 'rap'. I'll take it like a man."
Duo laughed. "Just for that, let's start you off on some of this"
We don't do drive-by's
We park in fronna houses an shoot!
And when the po-lice come we fuckin' shoot it out with em' too!
That's the mentality here, (here!)
That's the reality here! (here!)
Did I just hear someone say they wanna challenge me here!? (here!?)
When I'm holdin' a pistol with this many calibers here?! (here?!)
"Duo, this is sad. And here I was beginning to have hope for your humanity."
"It'll grow on ya. Just listen for a bit, while I dust some bitches."
"Hmph." Truth be told, as contemptuous as Wufei was of the pathetic music, the lyrics did evoke a strangely rythmic feel. He would have tapped his feet if he didn't regard such childish displays as puerile and unnecessary.
So Wufei sat still and quiet and watched Duo rip through hordes of terrorists with his usual weapon. He even managed to hold in a few choice comments about compensation and said weapon, if only because he had hopes of using the computer that night.
The music changed, slowly. Damn Duo and his eccentric tastes in this retro crap! At least he has the decency to mix his CDs, so as to avoid staying on ONE bad artist for to long. Instead, he spreads his songs among MANY terrible artists
Like this! Silly disc-scratching noises and that bloody bass, and the lyrics!
I woke up in a dream today (To the cold and the static)
Put my cold feet on the floor
Forgot about yesterday (Remembering)
I'm pretending to be who I'm not any more
A little taste of hypocrisy
And I'm left in the wake of the mis-take (Slow to react)
Cause even though your so close to me (You're still so distant)
And I can't bring you back
Meiran came to mind so quickly Wufei couldn't keep her out. No matter how he tried. Fucking song, I don't WANT a terrible piece like THIS to bring back memories of the only person I've ever loved.
Of course I don't want those memories to come back at all
It's true the way I feel
Was promised by your face
The sound of your voice
Painted on my memories
Even when you're not with me
I'm with you
Wufei's vision narrowed, then blurred ever-so-slightly. FUCK SHITTING SONG!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!! SHE'S FUCKING DEAD!! PLEASE-
You (You)
Now I see
Keeping everything inside
With you (You)
Now I see
Even when I close my eyes-
Wufei ripped off the headphones and threw them like tiny and completely useless bolos across the room.
"Hey! Those were my good-Wu-dude?"
The black-haired boy buried his face in his hands, clutching at his scalp, and gave one loud, dry sob. He sat, hyperventilating and holding in tears for as long as he could, then stood suddenly and stalked from the room with all the dignity he had left.
Duo stared at the door, wondering if his music was really that bad. Then he dove for the headphones to find out which song had set his new-found friend off.
I hit you and you hit me back (The rest of the day stands still)
Fine line between this and that (When things go wrong)
I pretend that the past isn't real
Oh. Duo's mind spun. Despite outward appearances he wasn't really a tactless fool. He knew that Wufei was hurting. He knew he wanted to know why.
He started to plan
*
Wufei forced himself to sit still and quiet, cross-legged on the bed. He didn't even bother to hold a book and turn the pages, he knew nothing would get through. If his head had been fogged last night now it was clouded.
And it was raining.
It's completely unreasonable to obsess as I have over Meiran. I THOUGHT I had put that all behind me until the dreams
Fuck. Fuck Treize, fuck the war and the gundams and OZ, and just about everyone else too. Sleep deprivation and acute emotional pain had a marked effect on the already touchy Wufei. Fuck Yuy, and Barton, and Winner, and Du-
Wait! I can't fuck-well I could fuck-NO I COULDN'T!! And why did I call him Duo?!
There was a soft knock. Wufei knew who it was and had no intention of answering. He had better things to do with his time than be embarrassed about breaking down like that.
This was fine by Duo, who had no intention of waiting.
"Heya 'Fei! Why no book?"
Wufei facevaulted. Isn't he going to ask? Son of a bitch, he's got more tact than I gave him credit for. Not that that's saying much
"I tire of this translation. Although you might like it. Nice and simple for my favorite ben dan." Wufei realized he was overcompensating, that was almost a joke he had told, but it was either this or show the pain that he was working so hard to hide and Duo, DUO, was actually being rather nice about letting him keep without embarrassing him.
"Pass it here." Duo sat on the bed, stretching his legs and leaning against a pillow in a rather uncivilized, if endearing, manner. Wufei glared affectionately from his cultured lotus position, and tossed him the top book on the low shelf next to the bed.
"Oooh! How many ya got?" Duo scrambled to the small collection, sprawling across Wufei's lap and half off the bed.
"Off, damn you!" Wufei didn't make any move to actively force him to get off, but he assured himself that there was an excellent reason for this that did not involve him enjoying having a lithe, braided young man rather prominently display his ass to him.
"I'm impressed at your restraint! Only five different copies of the Art of War!" Duo ignored Wufei's demands and wiggled slightly, presumably to get a better angle at the books.
"Seven," Said Shenlong's pilot, whose breath had hitched ever so slightly when his new lap ornament rubbed against him. Little hentai, I felt that! Ohdamn, I've got one too "I've got two copies in Chinese."
Duo himself gulped quietly when he felt the warmth straight through his pants from Wufei's enjoyment of the current position, but covered it up. "Figures. What's the rest?"
His victim couldn't help himself. Wufei innocuously 'shifted position' and thrust gently against the braided boy in his lap. Serves him right! And besidesthat was good
"Other Chinese military classics. You've probably got enough on your hands with Art of War for now. Go read it. You'll like it."
"Why spank you, 'Fei! Which reminds me," Duo dug into the back pocket of his pants and extracted a disc player. "Here. Got some stuff you might like a bit more. No icky faces! It's quieter, more complexnot really video-gaming music, but hey, I suppose some if us do other things from time to time, right?" He tossed the disc player and a pair of headphones to the other boy.
Wufei grinned inwardly at the CD player. It said Duo all over, from the scratches and scrapes to the missing battery cover (Duct taped, then cut away, then scotched taped because the duct tape remains were so sticky), and the blazing thermal scythe sticker that covered the manufacturer's logo. Not to mention the emblazoned 'DUO T3H GREAT'.
"Thank youDuo." Wufei really didn't WANT to smile, but he didn't have a great deal of choice about it. So he covered by bodily removing Duo from his lap, book in tow, and setting him on his feet.
"Right. I'm gonna go read this. You listen to that CD and get some sleep." Duo grinned. "Sadly enough, reading Art of War might actually DECREASE the number of people I kill tonight"
"Hmph. I'll sleep or not sleep as I see fit. And don't let me catch you skipping the liner notes. They're important no matter how much you want to get back to your mindless games"
Duo laughed out loud. "I won't, 'Fei. G'night!"
"Good night, Duo."
"Oh, I nearly forgot!"
"Hm?"
"Your goodnight kiss!"
"What? What are you-HEY! DAMN YOU MAXWELL!!"
"Nighty Night, 'Fei-babe!!"
*
Wufei had almost forgiven Duo when the CD finished playing through the first time. The music was, as promised, much quieter, and Wufei's finger hovered over the play button to start it over.
Why the hell not? He though, with a kind of carefree mental flourish, and skipped to by far his favorite track, full of lonely plucking and wailing. Setting the track to repeat, he settled back into his usual position and listened, letting the music enrapture his mind and draw it from worldly concerns to a higher realm of his mind. Where he could think, seriously THINK, about the day's events.
Hey you,
Out there on the road,
Always doing what you're told,
Can you help me?
Hey you,
Out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you,
Don't tell me there's no hope at all.
Together we stand, divided we fall.
Wufei could feel himself being carried by the words, or at least by the meanings, or maybe just by the sounds, and was sure that wherever they were taking him, he would find his answers there.
When he woke up many hours later with a pained back, a magnificent boner, and a vague recollection of a dream about a certain naked, braided boy, he also discovered he needed to go ask Duo for new batteries. The ones he had been using had run out over the night, although after learning them subconsciously he was sure that he would now never be able to forget the words to 'Hey You'.
(Takin my time, takin my timesorry bout the wait. Ub4r-sp3c14l-m4g1c thankies to Dil, 133test beta reader of them all, may his name live in greatness through the rest of time for his coolness and his enemies burn in the fires of their own inadequacy. Garden-variety but still grateful thankies to various reviewers. Oh, and to the Society for Helping Wufei Get Some, to which I believe I now belong, since they liked 'Waffles'. Coooooolnext chapter: eventually. L8r! Love ya' Koishii!)