In the term of my absence, I have not attained rights to any of the
characters in the following. (This includes a minor reference to Yu-Yu-
Hakusho at the end.) The only thing I own is Phazer Wars. If by chance a
place with such a name exists, well.I've never heard of it. But if there
is, I don't own that either.
I'm afraid I must start this update with a LARGE apology to all people who have been reading my story. No, I'm not discontinuing. I'm apologizing for the really, really long time it's been since my last update. After I got through with finals, I fully intended to get a lot done during my vacation. However, life wasn't so kind to me. The second day of my break, I went on antibiotics for a respiratory infection, which lasted until Christmas. Meanwhile, I was working, we had company up until New Years, and lately my mom has been feeling bad so I've been helping her around the house. Needless to say I haven't gotten any of my projects updated. However, I did come up with a rather interesting idea for later in the story. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that sometimes help comes from the most unlikely places..
A great BIG thank you to all those who have read and especially to those who have reviewed! As a thank you for your continued support and your tolerance of my rather untimely updates, I offer you a longer then usual chapter. ^_^
Enjoy!
The passage of a few minutes found the group inside the shrine, splitting up their own ways. Rei and Lita were waiting for the pilots in the "study room", so named because the girls always studied in that particular room when meeting at Rei's for a group study session. After Quatre changed the hotel reservation to four people for one night, the guys went and congregated outside Lita's room, trying to decide who would sleep where.
"I'm not sharing with Wufei," Duo announced.
"As if that was hard to guess," Heero said. "I think it would be best if you shared with Quatre in the room across the hall. Trowa can share the room next door with Wufei."
"Is that an order?"
"No, but your only other choice is to share with Trowa."
"Well that's no good. I need to room with someone I can talk too."
"Yes, we know Duo," Heero sighed. "So is everyone agreeable to these arrangements?"
Everyone nodded.
"Say.what about you?"
"What about me?" Heero asked, rather annoyed.
"Well, where are you sleeping? As if we didn't know.." Duo grinned, elbowing Heero.
"That is none of your business," he glared back.
"Well, I for one don't think it's a good idea."
"Duo, hard as it may be for you to believe, there are more important things on my mind then that."
"Oh, you mean like picking a date for the wedding hmm?" Duo grinned.
"What is there to decide? We'll get married when my services are no longer needed."
"Um, Heero," Quatre ventured, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Yeah, really. You could be an old man by that point!" Duo exclaimed.
"And you have a better idea?" Heero asked.
"Uh, yeah. Like maybe get married as soon as possible."
"No."
"Well gosh darn it Heero, why not?" Duo demanded. "You love her don't you?"
"What a ridiculous question. Of course I do."
"Then why can't you get married sooner then retirement?"
"It isn't as if I want it that way, but I don't see any choice," Heero shrugged. "I won't marry her only to get called up to go on a mission a week later and get myself killed."
"Well, that is a valid point," Quatre said.
"Yuy's a coward, that's what," Wufei said.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. I said you're a coward."
"How am I being a coward by trying to protect someone?"
"He's right you know," Duo said. "I mean, you could be called up on a mission and die next week. Not that your dying is very likely.. After all, it would probably take 25 atomic bombs to even put a dent in your hide."
"Very funny," Heero retorted.
Trowa straightened up from where he'd been leaning against the wall. "I understand your point of view Heero. You think she'd hurt less if she was left a grieving fiancé rather then a grieving widow."
"Exactly."
"But look at it from her point of view. If you were to live as an engaged couple for a period of time, then you died on a mission leaving behind the fiancé, how would Lita see it? I believe that all of us would feel duty bound to tell her why you kept putting off marriage. The question is would she view it as you do, as a form of protection. It is also quite possible she might wonder whether you ever intended to marry her or whether you even loved her at all. Both are quite valid questions to ask to oneself in the light of such events actually taking place."
"Very true," Quatre agreed. "Think about it Heero. If you were her and she was you, wouldn't you wonder about love if the marriage was, well to be frank, postponed indefinitely?"
Heero frowned, thinking for a minute or two. "I hadn't thought of it that way," he finally admitted grudgingly. "But at the very least, you have to give me until after this mess with Relena's death has been cleared up. I have too much think about without adding wedding plans in on top of it."
"I think that is a fair request," Trowa said.
"Hey you guys....You trying to hide from us scary womenfolk?" Lita asked with a grin after poking her head around the corner.
Heero shook his head. "Just trying to make sleeping arrangements. You know how hard it is to get certain parties to co-operate," he said, looking pointedly at Duo.
"Hey, what are you looking at me for? All I said was you'd be an old man.." He was quickly interrupted by a glare from Heero that said quite plainly 'leak any more of the previous conversation and you'll be subject to sudden, instant, and even immediate death' (not necessarily in that order). Duo coughed nervously. "I mean, you'd bean old men if you threw clipboards at them during mission briefings."
Lita laughed, picturing the scientists Heero had told her about being assailed by clipboards. "You do talk about the weirdest things sometimes. Anyway, if you guys are done then you can follow me. Rei and I are trying to make arrangements so the rest of our friends can meet the rest of you."
Heero nodded and motioned everyone to follow him. "Lucky for you she bought that lame story about clipboards," he muttered under his breath to Duo.
Duo sweatdropped. "Hey, it was the best I could do on the spur of the moment," he whispered back.
"That's why you're an idiot," Wufei mumbled.
"I love you too Wu-man." Duo turned around and stuck his tongue out at Wufei.
"Cut it out," Heero hissed under his breath before Wufei could give his customary shout of injustice.
"Hey Rei, I found the lost boys," Lita called out, leading the troop into the "study room".
"Good. Now we can get on with our plans," Rei answered.
"What plans?" Quatre asked politely as they all sat down around the table.
"To get together and do something so everyone can meet everyone else," she said.
"Why do we have to do anything?" Heero asked.
"Well.um.." Rei paused a moment to think, wondering how she could answer his question without making a comment about his anti-social behavior.
"We're soldiers, not social butterflies," he said in his typically flat voice.
"Stop teasing Rei," Lita said.
"Who's teasing?"
"You are Heero Yuy," she answered, poking his nose. "Now stop being such a trouble maker."
"Me, a trouble maker?"
"Yes you." She directed her attention back to Rei. "Ignore him. He's intentionally being difficult."
"You sure about that?" Rei asked unsurely. "He seems pretty serious to me."
"I'm positive." Shaking her head, she looked over at Heero, who was sitting on her right. "Think you're being funny do you?"
"Funny? I'm never funny."
"That's true enough," Duo said. "I'm surprised he even knows the word.didn't think it was in his vocabulary."
Wufei snickered, despite himself. "I have to admit that was funny Maxwell."
"Why thank you," Duo grinned.
"Please," Heero said, rolling his eyes.
"Please what?" Lita asked.
He raised an eyebrow. "Now who's teasing?"
"Me, tease? I don't know what you're talking about." She did her best to look serious, but she wound up giggling anyway. "Now you either behave or I'll kick you out myself."
"You wouldn't."
"I most certainly would.not. But I'll tell you what I would do."
"And what's that?"
"I'd make you share a room with Duo.and Wufei."
Heero cringed.
"Aww, it's not that bad buddy," Duo said, slinging an arm around Heero's shoulders. An arm which was immediately shrugged off.
"I have two choices: act sociable or face a fate worse then death. How not bad can that be?"
"At least you have an easy choice," Quatre offered helpfully. "I'm sure everyone would prefer you act sociable rather then threatening Duo and Wufei endlessly."
"Oh alright," Heero said in an annoyed tone. "But don't blame when we have to play tea party because I had to be sociable."
"Heero! We don't play tea party!"
Heero's laughter was interrupted by a thwack to the head from the cushion upon which Lita had been sitting.
"You take that back this instant!"
"Ok, ok.. My apologies lady."
"Lady, as in singular?"
"Well, Rei isn't the one who hit me with the pillow now is she?"
"You.you.take that!" Lita gave him another sound thump on the head with her cushion. "You are hopeless Heero, you know that? You are totally hopeless."
He ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to make sure it was back to normal. He then waited until she had resituated herself on her cushion before leaning over in her direction. "That isn't what you said the other night," he whispered in her ear.
Lita felt her face turn a bright red while her jaw dropped in disbelief. Such talk from the Perfect Soldier.. "I have half a mind to hit you again."
"I don't know about everyone else, but I'm lost," Duo said, pouting. "I don't wanna be left out. Share?"
"I'm not good at sharing," Heero said bluntly. "So don't ask."
"Aww.please? Can't you tell what's going on, pretty please?"
"That is none of you business Duo Maxwell," Lita said, attempting to look aloof by fixing her eyes on the upper right corner of the wall she was facing.
"Nuts," Duo sighed. "I think I liked Heero better when he was laughing."
"This is no laughing matter Duo," she said, a quite serious expression on her face.
"Oh not you too!" he groaned. "Heero's a bad influence. Takes all the fun out of people."
"If that's true, then how come you still have those jokes that pop up all the time?" Wufei asked.
"Unfortunately, fun was so rooted in him I couldn't kill it. Believe me, I tried," Heero said.
"Geez.don't have to be serious all the time," Duo complained.
"No, but we do now," Lita said. "It's not easy to find something that a group of diverse people will actually all participate in. Not to mention finding space for 14 people."
"Fourteen people?" Wufei yelled.
"Pipe down you turkey. And yes, 14 people. Me and Rei, Ami, Serena, Mina, Hotaru, Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru. Plus all five of you," she answered, counting off on her fingers. "Nine of us plus five of you equals 14 unless I'm mistaken."
"No, you're right," Rei affirmed. "Fourteen it is."
"Hmm," Quatre said, thinking out loud. "Have any ideas yet?"
"To be honest, no," she sighed. "More like ideas on what we shouldn't do."
"I hope the word mall appears on that list."
"Don't worry Heero, we decided against the mall. Lita and I thought I would be too crowded and everybody would want to look at different things, which totally defeats the purpose of getting together."
"That and we didn't want to be embarrassed by anything Wufei might say or do," Lita added.
"I am offended you think I'd make a scene about anything. However, since we're not going to that onna infested mall, I guess I can forgive you."
"You're so generous Wufei. I'm overwhelmed by your apology," she said, rolling her eyes.
"We thought about maybe doing some sport," Rei continued. "You know, go the park and play volleyball or basketball or something. Problem is, we couldn't decide on something everyone would want to play. That, and Serena is such a klutz she'd probably end up causing the game to go awry after tripping over her own two feet."
"At least you know some things to avoid," Quatre said. "But it's nice that you're trying to find an activity that includes everyone."
"I've got it!" Lita exclaimed. "Phazer Wars!"
"War? You won't play basketball but you'll engage in a war?" Heero asked. "And I thought Duo was weird."
Lita laughed. "No, no. Not a real war silly. It's sort of a laser tag place. It opened about three months before I left Juuban. It's prefect because we can leave two people out for part of the fight."
"Just what are you talking about?" Rei asked.
"Well, guess I better start at the beginning. The cooking club catered a breakfast for the school council, so as thanks they took all of us Phazer Wars right after it opened. They have a whole ton of rooms, each with a different set up. At the beginning, one person from each team is chosen to be the 'prisoner'. After getting their equipment, they're placed somewhere in one of the rooms. The two teams then have to make their way through the rooms. The goal is to find the person captured from your team and get out without getting 'killed'."
"Hey, that sounds great!" Duo grinned.
"I admit I wouldn't mind it," Rei said. "But what about the others?"
"I think all of us would be agreeable to that," Heero said.
"I know Haruka will go for it, and if she does it then Michiru will come too. Setsuna would probably like a chance to just 'act like a kid' for a day and Mina won't care about being in the dark where she might run into a guy. Serena will want to prove she can do as well as you, so I figure that Hotaru and Ami will be the two that get to be prisoners.that is if they don't mind," Lita said.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Rei said. "Now all we have to do is set up a day and time. Only problem we have is to convince Mina that our resident porcupine's quills aren't all that prickly."
"Oh yeah.forgot about that for a minute," Lita sighed. "She's not exactly his biggest fan."
"I would certainly hope not," Heero said.
They were interrupted by the sound of the phone. "Excuse me," Rei said as she stood up. "I'll be right back so don't tear this place up ok?" She smiled and went to go answer the phone. Upon re-entering the room a few minutes later, she found Lita being smooshed between two cushion wielding warriors. "Hello.if you can stop your match here for a minute?" Rei asked. Shaking her head, she handed the phone to Heero. "It's for you."
"Me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Hello?..Yes..(long pause while person on the line babbles)..Accepted..So I've been told..No. I hear it quite frequently..That's right..Yes..Bye." Heero handed the phone back to Rei.
"What was that all about?" Lita asked.
"It was Mina. She apologized."
"It took all that for her to apologize?" Duo asked incredulously.
"That and she asked about my friends."
Rei rolled her eyes. "She would.as boy crazy as ever. Now then.I'm going to go make some calls and set up our little 'war'. When I come back, I sincerely hope that everybody is still in one piece." She made a point of staring at Duo and Wufei, who were both trying to act innocent. Mumbling to herself she left the room.
"Time in!" Duo cried, attempting to whap Wufei with his cushion. Only he missed, and hit Lita instead.who was still between the two.
"Oh dear," Quatre fretted. "This isn't going to be pretty."
"DUO!" she yelled, grabbing Wufei's cushion out of his hands and thumping him quite soundly.
"INJUSTICE!" Wufei yelled back. "That's my cushion!"
"Oh shut up," she said, continuing her pummeling of poor Duo.
"Heero, help me!" he said, doing his best to find off the attacks.
"Sorry. I'm busy."
"BUSY?!?! Doing what?"
"Trying to keep Wufei in his place."
Lita and Duo looked at each other, pausing in their struggle to turn around, or sit up as the case may be, to see just exactly what Heero meant. What they saw was an irate Wufei failing wildly. "Um, Wufei.what's your problem?" Duo asked.
"YUY WON'T LET GO OF MY SHIRT. MY CUSHION GOT STOLEN AND I'M MISSING OUT ON GIVING YOU A GOOD THUMPING. WHAT DO YOU THINK MY PROBLEM IS?"
"I think Wufei's the one that needs help," Lita whispered to Duo. "Keep Heero distracted for a second will you?"
"Well, sure.but why?"
"You'll see," she grinned. Stretching a little, she moved over closer toward the wall.
"Where do you think you're going?" Heero asked.
"Out of the line of fire. You wouldn't want me to get hurt now would you?" she asked in nice, sweet voice.
"Hn." I know better then that, he said to himself. She's up to something. He got distracted by his thoughts when he felt someone poking him. "Duo, what is it now?" Sighing, he turned to face the poking pilot.
"I'm missing out too you know. Wu-man and I have a score to settle. Our match got interrupted."
"AND YOU CALLED ME WU-MAN AGAIN!" the still flailing pilot screeched. "INJUSTICE!"
"Wufei.if you don't shut the hell up I'm going to do it for you before you destroy my hearing," Heero threatened.
"I'd like to see you try," Wufei scowled, followed by a muttered string of curses.
Meanwhile, Lita had managed to sneak up behind Heero while he was busy with Wufei and Duo. When she was quite sure he was paying no attention to her, she pushed up against him, throwing her arms around his neck. "Surprise!"
Now, Heero knew she'd been up to something.he just hadn't been expecting that. The end result was that he let go of Wufei's shirt. "What was that for?" he demanded.
"I'm not allowed to say hi?" she asked.
"You can say hi all you want. But what exactly did you intend to accomplish by doing this?"
"Help you?"
"Me? I think you're confused. Wufei's the one that got free." He pointed to said pilot, who was currently engaged in a wrestling/cushion thumping match.
"Well, yeah...but I freed your hand too. I'm sure it was getting cramped with all that work of keeping Wufei in check."
"Maybe, maybe not. It's not really that important. But thank you for caring."
"Silly. Of course I care." Lita smiled and kissed his cheek before disentangling herself. Which she did none too soon I might add. For at that very moment, a large fluffy cushion went sailing across the room and smacked right into Trowa.who fell over into Quatre.
Trowa, in a rare moment of participation in a childish indulgence such as a cushion fight, picked up the cushion and tossed it back. Unfortunately, Trowa did it with one hand while he was helping Quatre to sit up. Given the size of the cushion, throwing became rather awkward and so it went smack into Heero's head. The next thing you know, everyone was engaged in all at war.
Cushions went flying across the room. People got slammed, thumped, whacked, smooshed.anything you could do with a cushion, well.it got done. Along with cushion weaponry, there were also bouts of tickling, scrambling, wrestling, and of course, laughing. It was this kind of general chaos Rei found when she re-entered the room.
Wufei was face down on the floor underneath a cushion on which was seated on Duo Maxwell. Trowa was in the process of trying to thump Duo with a cushion, but was experiencing difficulties due to the fact that Lita was tugging on the cushion from behind him. While she was tugging, Heero was going after her feet. As for Quatre, well, he was thumping Wufei on the head with his cushion. "What has been going on here?" Rei demanded from the screeching, laughing gaggle on the floor.
"Um.having fun?" Lita asked, grinning nervously.
"It was my fault," Duo said. "I sorta re-started the um...bout.after you left and I accidentally hit Lita and then.and then, well you know. One thing led to another and soon we were all over the place. So um.you know.we didn't really mean to make a mess.."
Rei desperately tried to keep her stern expression on, but the harder she tried, the less it worked. Duo's apology sound very much like something Serena might say after getting caught reading Rei's latest comic book rather then studying. Not to mention how utterly ridiculous they all looked. They were a tangled mass consisting of guilty looks, wrinkled clothes, flushed faces and messy hair. This last applied quite well to Trowa, whose bangs had somehow gotten even weirder looking then normal. They were now split on either side of his face, sticking out like they had been starched. Finally, Rei couldn't hold it in any longer and she burst out laughing.
"What a minute.I thought you were mad.," Duo asked, confused.
"Well, I was.until I saw that." Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing and then proceeded to join Rei in her laughter.
"What's so funny?" Trowa asked, noting that everyone was looking at him. "Wait.don't tell me.it's my hair isn't it?"
"How'd you guess?" Duo asked.
"Maybe because I can actually see out of both eyes. I suppose I better fix this before you all die laughing." So excusing himself, he disappeared to find a mirror and readjust his hair. Meanwhile, everyone else was tidying up the room, as well as giving themselves a quick tidying up.
When Trowa came back, Rei made her announcement. "I set it all up. Saturday afternoon at 1:00."
"That is if we live that long," Heero commented.
"Stop being such a pessimist," Lita said. "You wouldn't want to die before your time now would you?"
"Of course not. However, you have to admit going through this every day is going to bring one near death by the end of the week."
"I'm beginning to agree with you," Rei laughed. "At the very least, the shrine might collapse on us."
"And what if we do die Heero? At least we'll die happy," Duo said, grinning.
"You are entirely too happy to be a god of death," Wufei grumbled.
"Aww.but what about that one girl, in that one show.you know, the blue haired girl who rides the oar thingy.Button, Boatin, no that's not right.Botan! That's it, Botan! She ferries around the souls of dead people and she's happy."
"Damn cartoons. She's not real you stupid, braided.monkey."
"Maybe so, but at least I'm a cute one."
Lita rolled her eyes. "You asked for it Rei, and you got it. I just hope you can live with two older 'little' brothers...along with 3 older 'big' brothers."
"I think I can manage," she grinned. After all, having five "brothers" so far didn't seem to be much different then have eight "sisters".
I'm afraid I must start this update with a LARGE apology to all people who have been reading my story. No, I'm not discontinuing. I'm apologizing for the really, really long time it's been since my last update. After I got through with finals, I fully intended to get a lot done during my vacation. However, life wasn't so kind to me. The second day of my break, I went on antibiotics for a respiratory infection, which lasted until Christmas. Meanwhile, I was working, we had company up until New Years, and lately my mom has been feeling bad so I've been helping her around the house. Needless to say I haven't gotten any of my projects updated. However, I did come up with a rather interesting idea for later in the story. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that sometimes help comes from the most unlikely places..
A great BIG thank you to all those who have read and especially to those who have reviewed! As a thank you for your continued support and your tolerance of my rather untimely updates, I offer you a longer then usual chapter. ^_^
Enjoy!
The passage of a few minutes found the group inside the shrine, splitting up their own ways. Rei and Lita were waiting for the pilots in the "study room", so named because the girls always studied in that particular room when meeting at Rei's for a group study session. After Quatre changed the hotel reservation to four people for one night, the guys went and congregated outside Lita's room, trying to decide who would sleep where.
"I'm not sharing with Wufei," Duo announced.
"As if that was hard to guess," Heero said. "I think it would be best if you shared with Quatre in the room across the hall. Trowa can share the room next door with Wufei."
"Is that an order?"
"No, but your only other choice is to share with Trowa."
"Well that's no good. I need to room with someone I can talk too."
"Yes, we know Duo," Heero sighed. "So is everyone agreeable to these arrangements?"
Everyone nodded.
"Say.what about you?"
"What about me?" Heero asked, rather annoyed.
"Well, where are you sleeping? As if we didn't know.." Duo grinned, elbowing Heero.
"That is none of your business," he glared back.
"Well, I for one don't think it's a good idea."
"Duo, hard as it may be for you to believe, there are more important things on my mind then that."
"Oh, you mean like picking a date for the wedding hmm?" Duo grinned.
"What is there to decide? We'll get married when my services are no longer needed."
"Um, Heero," Quatre ventured, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Yeah, really. You could be an old man by that point!" Duo exclaimed.
"And you have a better idea?" Heero asked.
"Uh, yeah. Like maybe get married as soon as possible."
"No."
"Well gosh darn it Heero, why not?" Duo demanded. "You love her don't you?"
"What a ridiculous question. Of course I do."
"Then why can't you get married sooner then retirement?"
"It isn't as if I want it that way, but I don't see any choice," Heero shrugged. "I won't marry her only to get called up to go on a mission a week later and get myself killed."
"Well, that is a valid point," Quatre said.
"Yuy's a coward, that's what," Wufei said.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. I said you're a coward."
"How am I being a coward by trying to protect someone?"
"He's right you know," Duo said. "I mean, you could be called up on a mission and die next week. Not that your dying is very likely.. After all, it would probably take 25 atomic bombs to even put a dent in your hide."
"Very funny," Heero retorted.
Trowa straightened up from where he'd been leaning against the wall. "I understand your point of view Heero. You think she'd hurt less if she was left a grieving fiancé rather then a grieving widow."
"Exactly."
"But look at it from her point of view. If you were to live as an engaged couple for a period of time, then you died on a mission leaving behind the fiancé, how would Lita see it? I believe that all of us would feel duty bound to tell her why you kept putting off marriage. The question is would she view it as you do, as a form of protection. It is also quite possible she might wonder whether you ever intended to marry her or whether you even loved her at all. Both are quite valid questions to ask to oneself in the light of such events actually taking place."
"Very true," Quatre agreed. "Think about it Heero. If you were her and she was you, wouldn't you wonder about love if the marriage was, well to be frank, postponed indefinitely?"
Heero frowned, thinking for a minute or two. "I hadn't thought of it that way," he finally admitted grudgingly. "But at the very least, you have to give me until after this mess with Relena's death has been cleared up. I have too much think about without adding wedding plans in on top of it."
"I think that is a fair request," Trowa said.
"Hey you guys....You trying to hide from us scary womenfolk?" Lita asked with a grin after poking her head around the corner.
Heero shook his head. "Just trying to make sleeping arrangements. You know how hard it is to get certain parties to co-operate," he said, looking pointedly at Duo.
"Hey, what are you looking at me for? All I said was you'd be an old man.." He was quickly interrupted by a glare from Heero that said quite plainly 'leak any more of the previous conversation and you'll be subject to sudden, instant, and even immediate death' (not necessarily in that order). Duo coughed nervously. "I mean, you'd bean old men if you threw clipboards at them during mission briefings."
Lita laughed, picturing the scientists Heero had told her about being assailed by clipboards. "You do talk about the weirdest things sometimes. Anyway, if you guys are done then you can follow me. Rei and I are trying to make arrangements so the rest of our friends can meet the rest of you."
Heero nodded and motioned everyone to follow him. "Lucky for you she bought that lame story about clipboards," he muttered under his breath to Duo.
Duo sweatdropped. "Hey, it was the best I could do on the spur of the moment," he whispered back.
"That's why you're an idiot," Wufei mumbled.
"I love you too Wu-man." Duo turned around and stuck his tongue out at Wufei.
"Cut it out," Heero hissed under his breath before Wufei could give his customary shout of injustice.
"Hey Rei, I found the lost boys," Lita called out, leading the troop into the "study room".
"Good. Now we can get on with our plans," Rei answered.
"What plans?" Quatre asked politely as they all sat down around the table.
"To get together and do something so everyone can meet everyone else," she said.
"Why do we have to do anything?" Heero asked.
"Well.um.." Rei paused a moment to think, wondering how she could answer his question without making a comment about his anti-social behavior.
"We're soldiers, not social butterflies," he said in his typically flat voice.
"Stop teasing Rei," Lita said.
"Who's teasing?"
"You are Heero Yuy," she answered, poking his nose. "Now stop being such a trouble maker."
"Me, a trouble maker?"
"Yes you." She directed her attention back to Rei. "Ignore him. He's intentionally being difficult."
"You sure about that?" Rei asked unsurely. "He seems pretty serious to me."
"I'm positive." Shaking her head, she looked over at Heero, who was sitting on her right. "Think you're being funny do you?"
"Funny? I'm never funny."
"That's true enough," Duo said. "I'm surprised he even knows the word.didn't think it was in his vocabulary."
Wufei snickered, despite himself. "I have to admit that was funny Maxwell."
"Why thank you," Duo grinned.
"Please," Heero said, rolling his eyes.
"Please what?" Lita asked.
He raised an eyebrow. "Now who's teasing?"
"Me, tease? I don't know what you're talking about." She did her best to look serious, but she wound up giggling anyway. "Now you either behave or I'll kick you out myself."
"You wouldn't."
"I most certainly would.not. But I'll tell you what I would do."
"And what's that?"
"I'd make you share a room with Duo.and Wufei."
Heero cringed.
"Aww, it's not that bad buddy," Duo said, slinging an arm around Heero's shoulders. An arm which was immediately shrugged off.
"I have two choices: act sociable or face a fate worse then death. How not bad can that be?"
"At least you have an easy choice," Quatre offered helpfully. "I'm sure everyone would prefer you act sociable rather then threatening Duo and Wufei endlessly."
"Oh alright," Heero said in an annoyed tone. "But don't blame when we have to play tea party because I had to be sociable."
"Heero! We don't play tea party!"
Heero's laughter was interrupted by a thwack to the head from the cushion upon which Lita had been sitting.
"You take that back this instant!"
"Ok, ok.. My apologies lady."
"Lady, as in singular?"
"Well, Rei isn't the one who hit me with the pillow now is she?"
"You.you.take that!" Lita gave him another sound thump on the head with her cushion. "You are hopeless Heero, you know that? You are totally hopeless."
He ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to make sure it was back to normal. He then waited until she had resituated herself on her cushion before leaning over in her direction. "That isn't what you said the other night," he whispered in her ear.
Lita felt her face turn a bright red while her jaw dropped in disbelief. Such talk from the Perfect Soldier.. "I have half a mind to hit you again."
"I don't know about everyone else, but I'm lost," Duo said, pouting. "I don't wanna be left out. Share?"
"I'm not good at sharing," Heero said bluntly. "So don't ask."
"Aww.please? Can't you tell what's going on, pretty please?"
"That is none of you business Duo Maxwell," Lita said, attempting to look aloof by fixing her eyes on the upper right corner of the wall she was facing.
"Nuts," Duo sighed. "I think I liked Heero better when he was laughing."
"This is no laughing matter Duo," she said, a quite serious expression on her face.
"Oh not you too!" he groaned. "Heero's a bad influence. Takes all the fun out of people."
"If that's true, then how come you still have those jokes that pop up all the time?" Wufei asked.
"Unfortunately, fun was so rooted in him I couldn't kill it. Believe me, I tried," Heero said.
"Geez.don't have to be serious all the time," Duo complained.
"No, but we do now," Lita said. "It's not easy to find something that a group of diverse people will actually all participate in. Not to mention finding space for 14 people."
"Fourteen people?" Wufei yelled.
"Pipe down you turkey. And yes, 14 people. Me and Rei, Ami, Serena, Mina, Hotaru, Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru. Plus all five of you," she answered, counting off on her fingers. "Nine of us plus five of you equals 14 unless I'm mistaken."
"No, you're right," Rei affirmed. "Fourteen it is."
"Hmm," Quatre said, thinking out loud. "Have any ideas yet?"
"To be honest, no," she sighed. "More like ideas on what we shouldn't do."
"I hope the word mall appears on that list."
"Don't worry Heero, we decided against the mall. Lita and I thought I would be too crowded and everybody would want to look at different things, which totally defeats the purpose of getting together."
"That and we didn't want to be embarrassed by anything Wufei might say or do," Lita added.
"I am offended you think I'd make a scene about anything. However, since we're not going to that onna infested mall, I guess I can forgive you."
"You're so generous Wufei. I'm overwhelmed by your apology," she said, rolling her eyes.
"We thought about maybe doing some sport," Rei continued. "You know, go the park and play volleyball or basketball or something. Problem is, we couldn't decide on something everyone would want to play. That, and Serena is such a klutz she'd probably end up causing the game to go awry after tripping over her own two feet."
"At least you know some things to avoid," Quatre said. "But it's nice that you're trying to find an activity that includes everyone."
"I've got it!" Lita exclaimed. "Phazer Wars!"
"War? You won't play basketball but you'll engage in a war?" Heero asked. "And I thought Duo was weird."
Lita laughed. "No, no. Not a real war silly. It's sort of a laser tag place. It opened about three months before I left Juuban. It's prefect because we can leave two people out for part of the fight."
"Just what are you talking about?" Rei asked.
"Well, guess I better start at the beginning. The cooking club catered a breakfast for the school council, so as thanks they took all of us Phazer Wars right after it opened. They have a whole ton of rooms, each with a different set up. At the beginning, one person from each team is chosen to be the 'prisoner'. After getting their equipment, they're placed somewhere in one of the rooms. The two teams then have to make their way through the rooms. The goal is to find the person captured from your team and get out without getting 'killed'."
"Hey, that sounds great!" Duo grinned.
"I admit I wouldn't mind it," Rei said. "But what about the others?"
"I think all of us would be agreeable to that," Heero said.
"I know Haruka will go for it, and if she does it then Michiru will come too. Setsuna would probably like a chance to just 'act like a kid' for a day and Mina won't care about being in the dark where she might run into a guy. Serena will want to prove she can do as well as you, so I figure that Hotaru and Ami will be the two that get to be prisoners.that is if they don't mind," Lita said.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Rei said. "Now all we have to do is set up a day and time. Only problem we have is to convince Mina that our resident porcupine's quills aren't all that prickly."
"Oh yeah.forgot about that for a minute," Lita sighed. "She's not exactly his biggest fan."
"I would certainly hope not," Heero said.
They were interrupted by the sound of the phone. "Excuse me," Rei said as she stood up. "I'll be right back so don't tear this place up ok?" She smiled and went to go answer the phone. Upon re-entering the room a few minutes later, she found Lita being smooshed between two cushion wielding warriors. "Hello.if you can stop your match here for a minute?" Rei asked. Shaking her head, she handed the phone to Heero. "It's for you."
"Me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Hello?..Yes..(long pause while person on the line babbles)..Accepted..So I've been told..No. I hear it quite frequently..That's right..Yes..Bye." Heero handed the phone back to Rei.
"What was that all about?" Lita asked.
"It was Mina. She apologized."
"It took all that for her to apologize?" Duo asked incredulously.
"That and she asked about my friends."
Rei rolled her eyes. "She would.as boy crazy as ever. Now then.I'm going to go make some calls and set up our little 'war'. When I come back, I sincerely hope that everybody is still in one piece." She made a point of staring at Duo and Wufei, who were both trying to act innocent. Mumbling to herself she left the room.
"Time in!" Duo cried, attempting to whap Wufei with his cushion. Only he missed, and hit Lita instead.who was still between the two.
"Oh dear," Quatre fretted. "This isn't going to be pretty."
"DUO!" she yelled, grabbing Wufei's cushion out of his hands and thumping him quite soundly.
"INJUSTICE!" Wufei yelled back. "That's my cushion!"
"Oh shut up," she said, continuing her pummeling of poor Duo.
"Heero, help me!" he said, doing his best to find off the attacks.
"Sorry. I'm busy."
"BUSY?!?! Doing what?"
"Trying to keep Wufei in his place."
Lita and Duo looked at each other, pausing in their struggle to turn around, or sit up as the case may be, to see just exactly what Heero meant. What they saw was an irate Wufei failing wildly. "Um, Wufei.what's your problem?" Duo asked.
"YUY WON'T LET GO OF MY SHIRT. MY CUSHION GOT STOLEN AND I'M MISSING OUT ON GIVING YOU A GOOD THUMPING. WHAT DO YOU THINK MY PROBLEM IS?"
"I think Wufei's the one that needs help," Lita whispered to Duo. "Keep Heero distracted for a second will you?"
"Well, sure.but why?"
"You'll see," she grinned. Stretching a little, she moved over closer toward the wall.
"Where do you think you're going?" Heero asked.
"Out of the line of fire. You wouldn't want me to get hurt now would you?" she asked in nice, sweet voice.
"Hn." I know better then that, he said to himself. She's up to something. He got distracted by his thoughts when he felt someone poking him. "Duo, what is it now?" Sighing, he turned to face the poking pilot.
"I'm missing out too you know. Wu-man and I have a score to settle. Our match got interrupted."
"AND YOU CALLED ME WU-MAN AGAIN!" the still flailing pilot screeched. "INJUSTICE!"
"Wufei.if you don't shut the hell up I'm going to do it for you before you destroy my hearing," Heero threatened.
"I'd like to see you try," Wufei scowled, followed by a muttered string of curses.
Meanwhile, Lita had managed to sneak up behind Heero while he was busy with Wufei and Duo. When she was quite sure he was paying no attention to her, she pushed up against him, throwing her arms around his neck. "Surprise!"
Now, Heero knew she'd been up to something.he just hadn't been expecting that. The end result was that he let go of Wufei's shirt. "What was that for?" he demanded.
"I'm not allowed to say hi?" she asked.
"You can say hi all you want. But what exactly did you intend to accomplish by doing this?"
"Help you?"
"Me? I think you're confused. Wufei's the one that got free." He pointed to said pilot, who was currently engaged in a wrestling/cushion thumping match.
"Well, yeah...but I freed your hand too. I'm sure it was getting cramped with all that work of keeping Wufei in check."
"Maybe, maybe not. It's not really that important. But thank you for caring."
"Silly. Of course I care." Lita smiled and kissed his cheek before disentangling herself. Which she did none too soon I might add. For at that very moment, a large fluffy cushion went sailing across the room and smacked right into Trowa.who fell over into Quatre.
Trowa, in a rare moment of participation in a childish indulgence such as a cushion fight, picked up the cushion and tossed it back. Unfortunately, Trowa did it with one hand while he was helping Quatre to sit up. Given the size of the cushion, throwing became rather awkward and so it went smack into Heero's head. The next thing you know, everyone was engaged in all at war.
Cushions went flying across the room. People got slammed, thumped, whacked, smooshed.anything you could do with a cushion, well.it got done. Along with cushion weaponry, there were also bouts of tickling, scrambling, wrestling, and of course, laughing. It was this kind of general chaos Rei found when she re-entered the room.
Wufei was face down on the floor underneath a cushion on which was seated on Duo Maxwell. Trowa was in the process of trying to thump Duo with a cushion, but was experiencing difficulties due to the fact that Lita was tugging on the cushion from behind him. While she was tugging, Heero was going after her feet. As for Quatre, well, he was thumping Wufei on the head with his cushion. "What has been going on here?" Rei demanded from the screeching, laughing gaggle on the floor.
"Um.having fun?" Lita asked, grinning nervously.
"It was my fault," Duo said. "I sorta re-started the um...bout.after you left and I accidentally hit Lita and then.and then, well you know. One thing led to another and soon we were all over the place. So um.you know.we didn't really mean to make a mess.."
Rei desperately tried to keep her stern expression on, but the harder she tried, the less it worked. Duo's apology sound very much like something Serena might say after getting caught reading Rei's latest comic book rather then studying. Not to mention how utterly ridiculous they all looked. They were a tangled mass consisting of guilty looks, wrinkled clothes, flushed faces and messy hair. This last applied quite well to Trowa, whose bangs had somehow gotten even weirder looking then normal. They were now split on either side of his face, sticking out like they had been starched. Finally, Rei couldn't hold it in any longer and she burst out laughing.
"What a minute.I thought you were mad.," Duo asked, confused.
"Well, I was.until I saw that." Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing and then proceeded to join Rei in her laughter.
"What's so funny?" Trowa asked, noting that everyone was looking at him. "Wait.don't tell me.it's my hair isn't it?"
"How'd you guess?" Duo asked.
"Maybe because I can actually see out of both eyes. I suppose I better fix this before you all die laughing." So excusing himself, he disappeared to find a mirror and readjust his hair. Meanwhile, everyone else was tidying up the room, as well as giving themselves a quick tidying up.
When Trowa came back, Rei made her announcement. "I set it all up. Saturday afternoon at 1:00."
"That is if we live that long," Heero commented.
"Stop being such a pessimist," Lita said. "You wouldn't want to die before your time now would you?"
"Of course not. However, you have to admit going through this every day is going to bring one near death by the end of the week."
"I'm beginning to agree with you," Rei laughed. "At the very least, the shrine might collapse on us."
"And what if we do die Heero? At least we'll die happy," Duo said, grinning.
"You are entirely too happy to be a god of death," Wufei grumbled.
"Aww.but what about that one girl, in that one show.you know, the blue haired girl who rides the oar thingy.Button, Boatin, no that's not right.Botan! That's it, Botan! She ferries around the souls of dead people and she's happy."
"Damn cartoons. She's not real you stupid, braided.monkey."
"Maybe so, but at least I'm a cute one."
Lita rolled her eyes. "You asked for it Rei, and you got it. I just hope you can live with two older 'little' brothers...along with 3 older 'big' brothers."
"I think I can manage," she grinned. After all, having five "brothers" so far didn't seem to be much different then have eight "sisters".