Yes! I've actually finished another chapter! It's amazing!
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is owned by people far more rich and powerful than I am (for whatever that's saying). Warnings: AU, shounen ai (1+2)
Welcome Distractions By Rapunzel
Chapter 13: Hurtful Exchanges
Heero had no idea whether or not Dorothy accepted Wufei's innocence in the matter of the fish, but he suspected not. That just gave him one more excuse to be out of the dorms and either in the library or at Duo's apartment. Together they discovered that the fourth floor, while not heavily populated most times, was still a little too crowded for their purposes, but that the scientific periodicals room was a great place to make out.
Duo's apartment, on the other hand, was not a suitable place, since Hilde and Quatre were liable to walk in on them. Quatre usually just ignored them if he caught them kissing, or blushed and left them alone if he caught them making out. Hilde was not nearly so polite. She would make catcalls or commentary. When she broke out the score cards, Duo finally snapped.
"Now Duo," Quatre said soothingly, patting his twitching roommate on the back as Hilde wailed in the background and tried to put out the fire that was consuming her score cards, "you know she doesn't really mean anything by it. She did the same thing to me when Trowa and I started dating. Eventually, she just got bored and stopped."
"That was different. You weren't living in an apartment with her then," Duo snapped. "She didn't even live on the same floor. You could always get away from her."
"Still," Quatre said, "burning the cards seems a little extreme. What if you'd set off the fire alarm?"
"That kiss was not an eight," Duo said irritably. "That kiss was a ten. Wasn't it a ten, Heero?"
"Uh," Heero said, thinking that it would be a good idea not to get involved in this one.
"See?" Duo said. "What does she know about it anyway?"
Quatre sighed. "I'm not saying you shouldn't be irritated with her, but please don't burn down the apartment."
"If you do," Hilde called, still tossing water on the ashen remains of her cards, "I'll make you explain to the fire department and the landlord just how the whole thing started."
Duo glared, but had nothing further to add on that score.
~*~*~
"I'm sorry."
Heero looked up from the sidewalk to glance at Duo, who was plodding along beside him on their way back to the dorms. "For what?"
"That whole mess with Hilde. I know we both kind of went a little overboard. You don't need that; between Dorothy and Wufei, you've got enough insanity to deal with already."
Heero shrugged. "That's okay. I'm starting to get used to it. And it least you and Hilde aren't swearing to extract revenge on each other and start a war that will last all of eternity."
Duo smiled. "That would be very bad, seeing as how we have to live together at least until our lease runs out. It's generally not a good idea to declare war on someone you live with."
"That doesn't seem to have stopped Wufei or Dorothy," Heero snorted.
"True."
They walked along in companionable silence until the dorm buildings came into view. Then Heero turned to Duo. "Stay for dinner?"
"Sorry. Can't," Duo said apologetically. "It's my night to cook; Quatre and Hilde will never forgive me if I ditch my duty for dorm food."
"Maybe tomorrow night," Heero said hopefully.
"Maybe." Duo smiled as he leaned in for a goodbye kiss. Then, with a wave and his usual call of, "See you tomorrow!" he was off.
~*~*~
Heero entered the dorm and moved down the hall, surveying the area around his room carefully. Dorothy had been suspiciously quiet lately, and Heero was ever on the lookout for evidence that she had been in or around his room. Finding nothing, he proceeded carefully into his room.
Wufei was waiting for him.
"Out with Duo again?" Wufei said, his voice sounding unnaturally hard. "Funny how you seem to be spending so much time with him."
Heero blinked, surprised. Wufei had never before bothered to make an issue of where he spent his days. "We're friends; of course we spend a lot of time together."
"Friends, huh?" Wufei sounded scornful, as though Heero was insulting his intelligence by expecting him to believe that.
Heero swallowed nervously. "Wufei, what's the matter with you?"
"I was looking for a magazine in the library today," Wufei said. "I wanted to prove to you that your accusation was unjust; I couldn't have been the one to get you sick since you came down with it at almost the same time as I did. I went to that place on the third floor where the scientific magazines are kept."
Heero's mouth went dry. That had been where he and Duo had spent most of their afternoon, sometimes stacking magazines, sometimes doing... other things.
"Funny," Wufei said. "I didn't know that friendship extended to sticking your tongue down someone else's throat."
Lifting his chin in the air defiantly, Heero looked Wufei straight in the eye and asked, "So? What's it to you?"
"If that's your definition of friendship," Wufei said rather coldly, "I would just as soon not be friends with you."
Heero opened and shut his mouth a few times, but he couldn't think of a thing to say to that. Reaching down, he snagged the book bag he had dropped, and fled the room.
~*~*~
Someone was banging on the door.
"Geez," Hilde muttered irritably, "Right in the middle of dinner too."
"I wonder who it is," Quatre said, rising from his place at the table.
"Don't worry, Quat, I'll get it," Duo said, jumping up and heading for the door. As the pounding continued, he muttered, "All right, all right, have a little patience, will you? I'm coming as fast as I can." Throwing open the door, he paused in surprise at the sight that awaited him.
Heero stood outside his door, book bag in hand, face pale, and eyes slightly wild.
"Heero!" Duo exclaimed. "Back already?"
"I need to spend the night here," Heero said without preamble.
"Sure," Duo said, stepping aside automatically to admit him. "What's up? Has Dorothy decided to do something terrible?"
"No, Wufei has." Heero didn't have the note of half amused, half resigned suffering that was usually present in his voice when he spoke of the antics of his roommate and his rival.
"To Dorothy?" Duo asked.
"No. To me."
Duo's face hardened. "What's he done?" he demanded.
Pacing angrily around the room, Heero repeated the conversation he had had with Wufei. Duo's face grew progressively darker and darker, but he didn't speak until Heero was finished.
When Heero was done with his account, Duo took him by the arm and led him over to the table where Quatre and Hilde sat, watching the two with interest. They had been able to see but not hear the conversation, and were anxious to find out what was going on.
"Heero's sleeping here tonight," Duo said firmly. "We have an extra set of clean sheets for the couch, don't we?"
"What do you need the couch for?" Hilde asked. "Just let him share your bed."
The glare Duo gave her told her in no uncertain terms where she could shove that suggestion.
"I think we have an extra set of sheets in the hall closet," Quatre said. "I can check if you like."
He started to rise, but Duo waved him back down. "It can wait until after dinner," he said.
The rest of dinner passed in a rather sullen manner. Duo went and got an extra place setting and a chair for Heero and gave him some of the casserole he had made, but Heero seemed more inclined to glare at the table than actually eat. Nor did his mood improve once the meal was finished. He sat on the couch, brooding quietly.
"Don't look so down, Heero," Hilde said. "Whatever happened, it can't be that bad. Anyway, sitting and glaring at the carpet is not going to help. Why don't you do something to take your mind off things?"
"Like what?" Heero asked rather scathingly.
"Well, if you're not doing anything else, you could help me do dishes," she said.
"He's a guest, Hilde!" Duo said. "You don't make guests do dishes."
"You could help me with my Valentine's Day poem to Trowa," Quatre suggested.
"That's right," Duo said. "Valentine's Day isn't very far away. Maybe we should plan something to do then. What do you say, Heero?"
Heero shrugged.
Seeing that no answer was forth coming, Duo turned to Quatre. "I can't believe you're still working on that poem. How many weeks ago did you start it?"
"I can't seem to get it right. I need something to compare his eyes to."
"Dichlorobis(ethylenediamine)cobalt chloride," Hilde suggested.
"What the hell is that?" Duo asked.
Hilde shrugged. "Some compound we had to synthesize in lab. The point is, it's green."
"How would I spell it?" Quatre asked.
Duo shook his head. "You'd never find anything to rhyme with it. Plus, it would totally throw your meter out of whack."
"What do you think, Heero?" Quatre asked, trying once more to draw the sulking young man into the conversation. "What should I use instead?"
Heero shrugged. Despite his best efforts, it seemed that he was not to be allowed to wallow in misery. "I don't know. I've never met Trowa."
"Yes you have," Hilde said. "You were probably too drunk to remember it though."
Heero thought back to the night of that rather unfortunate incident. It was hazy, but he thought he could vaguely remember a green eyed young man kneeling next to him and telling him to go sleep it off. "That was Trowa?"
"Yup," Duo said. "Ask Quatre to introduce you two properly some time."
"Hn," Heero said, returning his gaze to the carpet.
However, it seemed that the three occupants of the apartment were still determined not to let him sulk in peace. "I know what we should do," Quatre said. "Let's play a game."
"Don't you have homework you need to be doing?" Hilde asked.
"It can wait," Quatre said dismissively.
Duo clutched his chest in shock. "This coming from the workaholic himself!"
"I'm not that bad," Quatre protested. "Anyway, homework can always take a backseat to a good game of Risk!"
"No!" Hilde wailed. "Not Risk!"
"What's wrong with Risk?" Heero asked.
"Nothing, unless you play with him," Duo said, gesturing at Quatre. "He's mercenary."
"I say that the guest should decide," Quatre said. Turning to Heero, he added, "What about it, Heero? Do you feel like conquering the world?"
"Sure," Heero said, thinking that it couldn't possibly be any worse than the rounds of Scrabble. "Why not?"
"I'll go get the box!" Quatre cried, jumping up from the couch.
Hilde and Duo shared a despairing, "Why us?" look. "Heero," Duo began, "have you ever actually played Risk before?"
"No," Heero said. "But I've heard about it."
Duo shook his head. "I hate to say it, buddy, but you're doomed."
Duo dire predictions about Heero's fate in the game did not, as it turned out, come true. After the first few turns, Heero could see why the others were reluctant to play with Quatre. He set his sites small at first, concentrating on one continent at a time, but when he wanted a country, he could be ruthless.
Hilde was the first to drop out of the game. After her cards and countries had been submitted to Quatre, she got up from the table. "Have fun, suckers," she said.
Heero was the next to go down. He struggled valiantly, forming several alliances with Duo, but in the end, Quatre surrounded his troops and wiped them out. After admitting defeat, he sat at the table to watch the rest of the game. He could tell it wouldn't last much longer. Duo held only the southeast corner of Asia, and Quatre was already redistributing his troops along the border.
"You won't take me down without a fight!" Duo cried. "I'll retreat into Australia and hold out against you! I'll take you down with me! I won't be defeated so easily!"
"Defend yourself, Duo," Quatre said, smiling sweetly as he handed his roommate the dice. "I'm attacking with thirteen."
"I'm screwed," Duo muttered.
"Yes, you are," Quatre agreed amiably.
Cupping his hands, Duo brought the dice up close to his face. "Come on, babies, I need a bunch of really good rolls. Preferably sixes, but fives will do too. C'mon, don't let me down!"
"You do realize that talking to the dice won't save you," Quatre said.
Duo glared at him. "It's all I have left. Let me talk to the dice if I damn well want to!"
"All right," Quatre said, still smirking slightly as he watched Duo trying to talk the dice into doing the improbable.
When Duo finally rolled, the dice both came up as ones.
"That's what you get for trying to sweet talk the dice," Hilde said, as Duo wailed and Quatre gleefully removed two of Duo's troops from the board.
Almost in spite of himself, Heero found himself smiling at their antics.
~*~*~
"Heero? You still awake?"
Heero grunted.
Apparently, that was answer enough for Duo, who moved over to the couch where Heero was laying. Heero sat up to make room for him, and Duo seated himself next to his boyfriend. Reaching out, Duo slid an arm around Heero's shoulders and pulled the other to rest lightly against him.
"Look," he said. "I know you're still upset about Wufei, but try not to let him get to you. The world is full of jerks. Anyone who has lived in it for any great length of time will tell you that. But you can't let them get you down. There are lots of likable people in the world too, and if you stick with them, you can ignore the jerks."
"Hilde's straight, isn't she?" Heero asked.
Duo nodded. "Yeah, she is."
"But she doesn't mind. Why does Wufei have to make such a big deal about it?"
Duo sighed. "Sometimes men are funny about that kind of thing, especially if it's another guy who's gay. I guess it threatens their manhood or something."
"But I would never hit on Wufei. I don't even find him attractive."
"Glad to hear it," Duo said dryly.
Heero ignored that. "I'll have to go back," he said. "I can't stay here indefinitely. But I really don't want to live with someone who hates me."
Duo sighed and tightened his hold. "It'll work out somehow, Heero."
"I hope so," Heero said.
tbc
Okay, I know I made Wufei look like a total jerk in this chapter. But don't worry. He will be made to see the error of his ways... ::smiles evilly::
Wufei: Why do I think this cannot bode well for me?
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is owned by people far more rich and powerful than I am (for whatever that's saying). Warnings: AU, shounen ai (1+2)
Welcome Distractions By Rapunzel
Chapter 13: Hurtful Exchanges
Heero had no idea whether or not Dorothy accepted Wufei's innocence in the matter of the fish, but he suspected not. That just gave him one more excuse to be out of the dorms and either in the library or at Duo's apartment. Together they discovered that the fourth floor, while not heavily populated most times, was still a little too crowded for their purposes, but that the scientific periodicals room was a great place to make out.
Duo's apartment, on the other hand, was not a suitable place, since Hilde and Quatre were liable to walk in on them. Quatre usually just ignored them if he caught them kissing, or blushed and left them alone if he caught them making out. Hilde was not nearly so polite. She would make catcalls or commentary. When she broke out the score cards, Duo finally snapped.
"Now Duo," Quatre said soothingly, patting his twitching roommate on the back as Hilde wailed in the background and tried to put out the fire that was consuming her score cards, "you know she doesn't really mean anything by it. She did the same thing to me when Trowa and I started dating. Eventually, she just got bored and stopped."
"That was different. You weren't living in an apartment with her then," Duo snapped. "She didn't even live on the same floor. You could always get away from her."
"Still," Quatre said, "burning the cards seems a little extreme. What if you'd set off the fire alarm?"
"That kiss was not an eight," Duo said irritably. "That kiss was a ten. Wasn't it a ten, Heero?"
"Uh," Heero said, thinking that it would be a good idea not to get involved in this one.
"See?" Duo said. "What does she know about it anyway?"
Quatre sighed. "I'm not saying you shouldn't be irritated with her, but please don't burn down the apartment."
"If you do," Hilde called, still tossing water on the ashen remains of her cards, "I'll make you explain to the fire department and the landlord just how the whole thing started."
Duo glared, but had nothing further to add on that score.
~*~*~
"I'm sorry."
Heero looked up from the sidewalk to glance at Duo, who was plodding along beside him on their way back to the dorms. "For what?"
"That whole mess with Hilde. I know we both kind of went a little overboard. You don't need that; between Dorothy and Wufei, you've got enough insanity to deal with already."
Heero shrugged. "That's okay. I'm starting to get used to it. And it least you and Hilde aren't swearing to extract revenge on each other and start a war that will last all of eternity."
Duo smiled. "That would be very bad, seeing as how we have to live together at least until our lease runs out. It's generally not a good idea to declare war on someone you live with."
"That doesn't seem to have stopped Wufei or Dorothy," Heero snorted.
"True."
They walked along in companionable silence until the dorm buildings came into view. Then Heero turned to Duo. "Stay for dinner?"
"Sorry. Can't," Duo said apologetically. "It's my night to cook; Quatre and Hilde will never forgive me if I ditch my duty for dorm food."
"Maybe tomorrow night," Heero said hopefully.
"Maybe." Duo smiled as he leaned in for a goodbye kiss. Then, with a wave and his usual call of, "See you tomorrow!" he was off.
~*~*~
Heero entered the dorm and moved down the hall, surveying the area around his room carefully. Dorothy had been suspiciously quiet lately, and Heero was ever on the lookout for evidence that she had been in or around his room. Finding nothing, he proceeded carefully into his room.
Wufei was waiting for him.
"Out with Duo again?" Wufei said, his voice sounding unnaturally hard. "Funny how you seem to be spending so much time with him."
Heero blinked, surprised. Wufei had never before bothered to make an issue of where he spent his days. "We're friends; of course we spend a lot of time together."
"Friends, huh?" Wufei sounded scornful, as though Heero was insulting his intelligence by expecting him to believe that.
Heero swallowed nervously. "Wufei, what's the matter with you?"
"I was looking for a magazine in the library today," Wufei said. "I wanted to prove to you that your accusation was unjust; I couldn't have been the one to get you sick since you came down with it at almost the same time as I did. I went to that place on the third floor where the scientific magazines are kept."
Heero's mouth went dry. That had been where he and Duo had spent most of their afternoon, sometimes stacking magazines, sometimes doing... other things.
"Funny," Wufei said. "I didn't know that friendship extended to sticking your tongue down someone else's throat."
Lifting his chin in the air defiantly, Heero looked Wufei straight in the eye and asked, "So? What's it to you?"
"If that's your definition of friendship," Wufei said rather coldly, "I would just as soon not be friends with you."
Heero opened and shut his mouth a few times, but he couldn't think of a thing to say to that. Reaching down, he snagged the book bag he had dropped, and fled the room.
~*~*~
Someone was banging on the door.
"Geez," Hilde muttered irritably, "Right in the middle of dinner too."
"I wonder who it is," Quatre said, rising from his place at the table.
"Don't worry, Quat, I'll get it," Duo said, jumping up and heading for the door. As the pounding continued, he muttered, "All right, all right, have a little patience, will you? I'm coming as fast as I can." Throwing open the door, he paused in surprise at the sight that awaited him.
Heero stood outside his door, book bag in hand, face pale, and eyes slightly wild.
"Heero!" Duo exclaimed. "Back already?"
"I need to spend the night here," Heero said without preamble.
"Sure," Duo said, stepping aside automatically to admit him. "What's up? Has Dorothy decided to do something terrible?"
"No, Wufei has." Heero didn't have the note of half amused, half resigned suffering that was usually present in his voice when he spoke of the antics of his roommate and his rival.
"To Dorothy?" Duo asked.
"No. To me."
Duo's face hardened. "What's he done?" he demanded.
Pacing angrily around the room, Heero repeated the conversation he had had with Wufei. Duo's face grew progressively darker and darker, but he didn't speak until Heero was finished.
When Heero was done with his account, Duo took him by the arm and led him over to the table where Quatre and Hilde sat, watching the two with interest. They had been able to see but not hear the conversation, and were anxious to find out what was going on.
"Heero's sleeping here tonight," Duo said firmly. "We have an extra set of clean sheets for the couch, don't we?"
"What do you need the couch for?" Hilde asked. "Just let him share your bed."
The glare Duo gave her told her in no uncertain terms where she could shove that suggestion.
"I think we have an extra set of sheets in the hall closet," Quatre said. "I can check if you like."
He started to rise, but Duo waved him back down. "It can wait until after dinner," he said.
The rest of dinner passed in a rather sullen manner. Duo went and got an extra place setting and a chair for Heero and gave him some of the casserole he had made, but Heero seemed more inclined to glare at the table than actually eat. Nor did his mood improve once the meal was finished. He sat on the couch, brooding quietly.
"Don't look so down, Heero," Hilde said. "Whatever happened, it can't be that bad. Anyway, sitting and glaring at the carpet is not going to help. Why don't you do something to take your mind off things?"
"Like what?" Heero asked rather scathingly.
"Well, if you're not doing anything else, you could help me do dishes," she said.
"He's a guest, Hilde!" Duo said. "You don't make guests do dishes."
"You could help me with my Valentine's Day poem to Trowa," Quatre suggested.
"That's right," Duo said. "Valentine's Day isn't very far away. Maybe we should plan something to do then. What do you say, Heero?"
Heero shrugged.
Seeing that no answer was forth coming, Duo turned to Quatre. "I can't believe you're still working on that poem. How many weeks ago did you start it?"
"I can't seem to get it right. I need something to compare his eyes to."
"Dichlorobis(ethylenediamine)cobalt chloride," Hilde suggested.
"What the hell is that?" Duo asked.
Hilde shrugged. "Some compound we had to synthesize in lab. The point is, it's green."
"How would I spell it?" Quatre asked.
Duo shook his head. "You'd never find anything to rhyme with it. Plus, it would totally throw your meter out of whack."
"What do you think, Heero?" Quatre asked, trying once more to draw the sulking young man into the conversation. "What should I use instead?"
Heero shrugged. Despite his best efforts, it seemed that he was not to be allowed to wallow in misery. "I don't know. I've never met Trowa."
"Yes you have," Hilde said. "You were probably too drunk to remember it though."
Heero thought back to the night of that rather unfortunate incident. It was hazy, but he thought he could vaguely remember a green eyed young man kneeling next to him and telling him to go sleep it off. "That was Trowa?"
"Yup," Duo said. "Ask Quatre to introduce you two properly some time."
"Hn," Heero said, returning his gaze to the carpet.
However, it seemed that the three occupants of the apartment were still determined not to let him sulk in peace. "I know what we should do," Quatre said. "Let's play a game."
"Don't you have homework you need to be doing?" Hilde asked.
"It can wait," Quatre said dismissively.
Duo clutched his chest in shock. "This coming from the workaholic himself!"
"I'm not that bad," Quatre protested. "Anyway, homework can always take a backseat to a good game of Risk!"
"No!" Hilde wailed. "Not Risk!"
"What's wrong with Risk?" Heero asked.
"Nothing, unless you play with him," Duo said, gesturing at Quatre. "He's mercenary."
"I say that the guest should decide," Quatre said. Turning to Heero, he added, "What about it, Heero? Do you feel like conquering the world?"
"Sure," Heero said, thinking that it couldn't possibly be any worse than the rounds of Scrabble. "Why not?"
"I'll go get the box!" Quatre cried, jumping up from the couch.
Hilde and Duo shared a despairing, "Why us?" look. "Heero," Duo began, "have you ever actually played Risk before?"
"No," Heero said. "But I've heard about it."
Duo shook his head. "I hate to say it, buddy, but you're doomed."
Duo dire predictions about Heero's fate in the game did not, as it turned out, come true. After the first few turns, Heero could see why the others were reluctant to play with Quatre. He set his sites small at first, concentrating on one continent at a time, but when he wanted a country, he could be ruthless.
Hilde was the first to drop out of the game. After her cards and countries had been submitted to Quatre, she got up from the table. "Have fun, suckers," she said.
Heero was the next to go down. He struggled valiantly, forming several alliances with Duo, but in the end, Quatre surrounded his troops and wiped them out. After admitting defeat, he sat at the table to watch the rest of the game. He could tell it wouldn't last much longer. Duo held only the southeast corner of Asia, and Quatre was already redistributing his troops along the border.
"You won't take me down without a fight!" Duo cried. "I'll retreat into Australia and hold out against you! I'll take you down with me! I won't be defeated so easily!"
"Defend yourself, Duo," Quatre said, smiling sweetly as he handed his roommate the dice. "I'm attacking with thirteen."
"I'm screwed," Duo muttered.
"Yes, you are," Quatre agreed amiably.
Cupping his hands, Duo brought the dice up close to his face. "Come on, babies, I need a bunch of really good rolls. Preferably sixes, but fives will do too. C'mon, don't let me down!"
"You do realize that talking to the dice won't save you," Quatre said.
Duo glared at him. "It's all I have left. Let me talk to the dice if I damn well want to!"
"All right," Quatre said, still smirking slightly as he watched Duo trying to talk the dice into doing the improbable.
When Duo finally rolled, the dice both came up as ones.
"That's what you get for trying to sweet talk the dice," Hilde said, as Duo wailed and Quatre gleefully removed two of Duo's troops from the board.
Almost in spite of himself, Heero found himself smiling at their antics.
~*~*~
"Heero? You still awake?"
Heero grunted.
Apparently, that was answer enough for Duo, who moved over to the couch where Heero was laying. Heero sat up to make room for him, and Duo seated himself next to his boyfriend. Reaching out, Duo slid an arm around Heero's shoulders and pulled the other to rest lightly against him.
"Look," he said. "I know you're still upset about Wufei, but try not to let him get to you. The world is full of jerks. Anyone who has lived in it for any great length of time will tell you that. But you can't let them get you down. There are lots of likable people in the world too, and if you stick with them, you can ignore the jerks."
"Hilde's straight, isn't she?" Heero asked.
Duo nodded. "Yeah, she is."
"But she doesn't mind. Why does Wufei have to make such a big deal about it?"
Duo sighed. "Sometimes men are funny about that kind of thing, especially if it's another guy who's gay. I guess it threatens their manhood or something."
"But I would never hit on Wufei. I don't even find him attractive."
"Glad to hear it," Duo said dryly.
Heero ignored that. "I'll have to go back," he said. "I can't stay here indefinitely. But I really don't want to live with someone who hates me."
Duo sighed and tightened his hold. "It'll work out somehow, Heero."
"I hope so," Heero said.
tbc
Okay, I know I made Wufei look like a total jerk in this chapter. But don't worry. He will be made to see the error of his ways... ::smiles evilly::
Wufei: Why do I think this cannot bode well for me?