Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Chapter 6: Raising the Dead

There he stood, upon his friends' doorstep, his fist raised to knock, and something wanted to make him stop. Trowa sighed and his hand slipped back down to his side. His other hand was still clutching the cross Duo sent him, which was hanging around his neck. Suddenly, the door swung open to reveal the form of Heero Yuy.

"That was sooner than I expected."

"How did you know I was here?" Trowa asked after catching his breath.

"My office is on the second floor, I saw you coming out of the window. I figured I should have come down her, since you didn't look all that thrilled to be here." Heero was looking him over, especially the right side of his face, which was starting to become a bit discolored.

"No, no it's not that." But before Trowa could explain himself, Duo came in from the small backyard. Upon seeing Trowa he lit up a bit.

"Wow, here already? I see you got our package." He pointed to the cross that was still in Trowa's grip. Trowa gave a sigh of defeat.

"I have a lot to explain."

"We figured," Heero said casually and grabbed Trowa's suitcase, "come in and make yourself at home first though." Trowa walked in and shut the door behind him while Heero disappeared into another room with his belongings. It was a really nice apartment; the furnishings were all modern, mostly white, the carpets were eggshell white, and the rooms were done in either white or a deep blue color. It was a small two-story in a very nice area. Duo explained that he hardly even noticed their neighbors since they were so quiet. A long, rectangular fish-tank served as the divider between the kitchen and the dining and living room area. There were all sorts of colorful saltwater fish populating the tank.

"Heero picked up a new hobby a little while ago."

"So are they all his?" Trowa asked while watching the beautiful creatures.

"All except for that one." Duo pointed to a crevasse in a piece of coral. Closer inspection revealed a small black eel with green eyes and white spots all along its body.

"Just your style." Trowa straightened up and grinned at Duo.

"Exactly, and he is a perfect gentleman," Duo smirked suddenly, "well, unless he decides to snack on one of Heero's fish before we have time to feed him."

"I'm going to kill that damn thing one of these days." Heero walked back into the room.

"You will do nothing to it."

"I will make sushi out of it, how about that?" An evil little flicker flashed across his face. Duo just punched him hard on the shoulder, which only threw Heero slightly off balance.

"I just hope that someday he will get big enough to eat you. Bastard." Duo mumbled.

"I uh..." Trowa started, gaining the full attention of both of his friends, "I don't know how to thank you for taking me in."

"Taking you in? What are you talking about?" Duo asked, offering Trowa a chair at the dining table, "We wanted you to come for a visit."

"I know, but you guys are the ones I have to go to anyway," Trowa dropped heavily into the chair and folded his arms in front of him, "I am on disciplinary leave for at least a week."

"What did you do?" Always clear-cut Heero asked with a concerned gaze.

"Lots."

"Does this have anything to do with Lucrezia Noin?" Duo asked with a serious expression, "The fact that she came here and dropped off that address book says something is up there." Heero took a seat next to Duo across the table from Trowa. The piercing gaze of the two was getting to Trowa.

"All right," Trowa sighed and looked up, "I did go off base the other day. I ran into Andrea and she told me about a party, but she needed someone older to be a chaperone. I agreed to go, since I was bored enough anyway. We went to a nightclub, and I ran into Noin there. Andrea was out of my sight and managed to get herself smashed, so she went and stayed with the Briars."

"The Briars? You mean manager of the Nightshade, Briars?" Duo asked.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"No reason, keep going."

"Well, Mr. Briar managed to get me to stay while Andrea rested up at their home with his wife and kids. I ran into Lucrezia again, and she bought me a drink. We talked, and we danced, and uhh... she brought me home with her." Trowa forbid the blush that was building from showing on his skin. A smile snaked across Duo's face.

"Who would have thought you and Lucrezia," he marveled, "you're a lucky man."

"Duo." Heero snapped.

"Well, lucky in one sense I guess," Trowa smiled sadly, "but unlucky in another. Zechs and Lucrezia had only recently gone their separate ways, and Zechs found out about us."

"Did he do that to you?" Heero had become his deadly serious self. Trowa touched his face, which was now terribly tender and stinging with pain. Duo looked grave.

"Yeah..." Trowa closed his eyes, "he confronted me in the hostel while the rest of the group had left early for dinner. He pinned me against the wall and struck me. I got to my senses after he left, pulled myself up off of the floor and followed him. I confronted him in the cafeteria, and he threw me off base for at least a week. After all, he is my senior officer, and nobody was witness to the attack. My word and this bruising is all I have to back me up. I know Andrea would fight for me, but she doesn't have legs to stand on to testify that he was the one who struck me."

"Leave it to Zechs to make the best situation for himself." Duo grumbled.

"It doesn't matter," Heero softened his expression a bit, "we will document the injuries and take a report, that way if Trowa wants to press charges then he can. Somehow, I think this will just blow over though. For now, let's just enjoy the fact that we have an old friend in town to visit." Duo and Trowa brightened up a bit at Heero. Duo suddenly got up from the table.

"Trowa, I am going to make you a dinner that is so good, you will be begging to stay before you have to go back and eat the cafeteria food on base." With that he left to the kitchen and heard a clamor of pots and pans being taken out. Trowa chuckled and Heero made eye contact with him, a slight smirk on his lips.

"Why do you think I live with him? I would probably starve otherwise." Heero said in a whisper. Trowa burst out laughing, and ended up having one of the most enjoyable evenings for quite some time.

Trowa slept quite well, and when he awoke in the morning, both Heero and Duo had left for their respective jobs. Duo had left him some breakfast and a note telling him that they would probably not be back until later in the evening. Heero had left Trowa's mangled address book and a house key on the kitchen counter as well. Trowa spent the next hour or so having his meal and salvaging the old address book into the new one. He ran across Lucrezia's note with her phone number and wrote that down as well. In a moment of silent deliberation, he finally decided to call her. Nobody was home of course, but he left a message and told her where he was, and that they needed to talk. After putting the phone down, it rang again suddenly. To his surprise, Duo and Heero didn't have caller ID installed yet. He picked up the phone anyway and figured he could take a message for them. He soon wished that he didn't decide to be a good houseguest.

"Yuy residence." He said politely.

"T-Trowa?" The response came from an all too familiar source. Trowa suddenly felt sick.

"Heero and Duo are not in right now." He finally managed to choke out in a cold tone.

"Well that's fine, that doesn't matter, you are there, and I've been wanting to talk to you." Quatre sounded exhilarated, almost triumphant to be speaking to Trowa.

"Have you?"

"Well yes, but I was told you weren't too keen on talking to me." Trowa bit his tongue to keep from snapping at Quatre.

"Well, do you really blame me?" He said as nicely as he could. He heard Quatre sigh.

"No, I don't," he finally said, "Trowa, I would really like to get in contact with you. Go out for lunch, spend some time together, is that too much to ask?"

"I guess not."

"How long are you staying with Heero and Duo?"

"For at least a week."

"Well, why don't I pick you up now, and I won't bother you for the rest of the week, okay?"

"Where are you?"

"On L2, I am taking a business vacation." Quatre was sounding more and more relaxed, like he used to be around Trowa.

"Oh... well..."

"Well, I will be over there in about 15 minutes. See you soon." The phone clicked in Trowa's ear and he put it down. Suppressing an urge to scream to the heavens, Trowa merely strode into his room, pulled on some casual clothes, and waited like a zombie in the living room, not thinking of anything in particular. Sure enough, 15 minutes after he hung up the phone, the doorbell rang. Trowa found it hard to pick himself up off of the couch, but as it rang again, he got to his feet and opened the door. Quatre had moved to the more trendy set since he moved back to the colonies; his hair was still platinum but always done in a messy way that flattered him greatly, some bits of it covering his striking blue eyes. He stood in the doorway wearing casual black slacks and a dark blue button-down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Trowa was immediately angry with himself for realizing, yet again, how handsome Quatre was. Quatre seemed to notice the same thing about Trowa, and it was a moment before he said anything.

"G-good to see you." He blushed at his fumble.

"Yeah."

"Well, shall we be off then?" Quatre turned and pointed to the short limousine waiting out front. Trowa nodded and locked the door behind him before stepping into the car with Quatre.

"Where are we off to?" Trowa asked as he looked out of the window for a moment.

"A small bistro in town," Quatre looked at him and smiled, "I figured you would want to go someplace casual." Trowa nodded back at him and there was silence yet again.

"Quatre..."

"Trowa, I know you didn't want to see me, so don't even tell me that." Quatre closed his eyes and shook his head, "You can't keep running from your friends forever though, especially from me."

"I know that, Quatre," Trowa looked at him, "but you have no idea how much the word friend hurts me." They rode in silence until they got to the bistro; Quatre was still in solemn thought. They went inside and grabbed a table, both ordering something modest.

"Trowa, you better say what you want to say." Quatre said to him finally.

"That is a lot to say."

"Then stop avoiding it." Trowa looked up and directly into the ice-blue stare pelting him. He suddenly felt anger rip through his veins.

"I wouldn't avoid it if it didn't hurt so fucking much. Quatre, you left me cold, just up and dropped me. You never even told me why, but don't bother, because I know why. You were afraid, and you let people push you around like you always do. Damnit Quatre," Trowa sighed, "I loved you, and you threw it all away because you were afraid of what other people would think."

"Do you really think that is an insignificant thing to worry about?" Quatre countered, "Sure, it wasn't a problem for you. You are low on the radar; you keep to yourself, you are happy to live life as a normal person. I don't have that luxury! I have to run a company that touches almost every place on Earth and the colonies! I am the only male in my family; I have to keep the line going. They call me a modern-day king, and everyone expects me to find a princess to be by my side, not a prince! I had to give up on us Trowa, because I have to be a certain person in order to survive. I have to live my life this way, and I am happy."

"Then why did you look so shocked when you saw Lucrezia and I at the Nightshade?" Trowa looked at Quatre darkly. Quatre looked away sharply and shut his eyes, his brow furrowing in anger, but finally softening again.

"Not every mask is unbreakable, Trowa," Quatre sighed, "you know that."

"You've missed me."

"Just shut up." Quatre plastered a smiling face on a moment later when the food was brought to the table. For the rest of the meal they had good conversation, and the mood picked up slightly. It was like their days as pilots when they could just sit and talk. It was like before their realizations of how they felt for one another, before anything transpired, and it felt so right to talk that way. They left the bistro two hours later, talking and laughing about lighter memories of wartime. They ended up spending the day together, and wound up in one of the parks on the outskirts of town when the artificial evening was coming on.

"I keep forgetting how real it seems up here, how much it is really like Earth." Trowa looked up at the artificial sky, which was turning shades of orange, red, and purple.

"They do a great job." Quatre shivered suddenly. Trowa chuckled and took of his leather jacket, and then draped it over the shorter man's shoulders.

"The last thing you need to do is get sick." Trowa smiled. Quatre smiled back at him as they stopped to rest on a park bench. Trowa let his head fall back and stared into the false sky above.

"Do you love her, Trowa?"

"Hm?"

"Lucrezia." Trowa lifted his head up to see Quatre staring at his feet with a sad expression.

"I don't know... I have not even heard from her since that night at the Nightshade."

"So, are you going to see her again?"

"With any luck, yes," Trowa looked ahead with a thoughtful expression, "I would like to know if that night was just a fluke or if she actually cares for me." Quatre's gaze snapped up to Trowa.

"So you did sleep with her?" He almost demanded.

"Well, yes I did." Trowa blinked and looked back at Quatre.

"But did it mean anything?" There was desperation flickering behind Quatre's steady eyes. Trowa's brow furrowed as the question really hit home. Did it mean anything, or was it his body and his anger trying to find an outlet for all of the emotions he had pent up for so long.

"I-I don't know."

"I wish you did." Quatre sighed, his eyes closing again.

"Quatre... why?"

"Because maybe I could get some closure if you said you love her," Quatre confessed, "maybe I could move on, maybe I could really love Dorothy. Maybe I wouldn't have to lie to myself every time we make love."

"What are you talking about, don't you love her?" Trowa demanded, "You are getting married!"

"Yes, we are getting married, but it is like marrying my best friend." Quatre looked up, "Every time she wants to be intimate, I have to..." Quatre's voice trailed off as he looked away again, a blush coming unbidden to his face.

"You have to what?" Trowa's breath caught in his throat.

"I have to," Quatre swallowed his pride, "I have to think of you if I ever want to perform for her." It was Trowa's turn to blush now.

"Quatre..."

"Don't say anything, I feel bad enough as is, but it is the truth."

"Quatre, perhaps you should be getting home, somehow I don't think spending time with me is good for you right now." Trowa stood up and started to walk toward the park entrance, but Quatre grabbed hold of his sleeve and stood up.

"Damnit Trowa, I can't stop thinking about you." Quatre turned Trowa around and had a hold of him by both arms. Trowa didn't like where this was going, but part of his mind didn't care at all. He tried to pull away but his body faltered. There was just far too much history between the two of them to ignore. Part of Trowa would have liked nothing better than to have kissed Quatre right there, but Quatre took care of that for him. It was possibly the most desperate and savage kiss they had ever shared, and their awkward grip on one another melted into a flush one. For a moment, Trowa had never felt better in his life. He stopped briefly and ran his tongue lightly across his former lover's lower lip, just like Quatre loved. When he heard Quatre's light moan at the action, Trowa shook himself awake and broke away from the blonde.

"Quatre, we can't do this, you know it."

"But we want to."

"We want to right now, but you know you can't be with me, you won't let yourself, and I refuse to become someone on the side for you. I can't handle that Quatre, I can't handle being fucked and then left in the dust. Go home Quatre." Trowa turned and left, forgetting about his jacket, which was still hanging from Quatre's shoulders.

Trowa caught a bus and made it back to Heero and Duo's apartment within a half hour. Upon entering, he was overwhelmed with delicious scents from the kitchen. Heero was sitting in the living room reading part of the newspaper he neglected from his morning coffee. When he saw Trowa, he dropped it and turned his full attention to his friend.

"Trowa, are you all right?" He asked. Duo poked his head out from the kitchen and looked at Trowa as well, who had seemed to lose a little color from his features.

"No, not really." He said and gave a nervous chuckle.

"Where have you been?" Duo asked.

"With Quatre." Trowa looked at his feet, and Heero got up from his seat.

"You don't even have to tell me, just tell me this: did you give in to him?" Trowa looked into Heero's deadly eyes and shook his head no.

"Then you did the right thing." Duo sighed and wiped his hands on a dishtowel, "Quatre may still have feelings for you, but you know it's not right."

"I just wish I could say I was over him."

"We all wish you both could be over eachother, it would make life more manageable." Heero put a hand on Trowa's shoulder.

"But we all know that life just loves to screw with you, and these cases are the ones it loves to screw with most." Duo added in, "Don't worry on it now Trowa, you have a safe place here always."

"Thank you, I am going to go read for awhile though, I think."

"Dinner will be ready in about an hour I think, can I plan on having you dine with us." Trowa felt his expression melt into a smile.

"Of course you can, Duo." With that, he left to his room and grabbed a book from out of his bag. Before he sat down on the bed, though, he noticed a note on his nightstand. It read 'Lucrezia called, she wants to see you tomorrow' in Heero's precise script.

A/N: Oh my goodness. I freewrote this ALL today in about 2 hours (with breaks) in Word. So forgive me if there are some mistakes, they will get edited and fixed soon! I have not even gotten the chance to re-read this, but I was so excited, that I just had to post this up here! With my next chapter, I plan to have more character development with some of the folks who have kind of been shoved away, namely Zechs and Lucrezia. Then again, it will probably be freewritten, so who knows where it will end up. I thank for their "Chillout" streaming radio for the production of this piece. Talk about getting the creative juices flowing. Heck, I may even start on chapter 7 tonight. Until later, thank you for reading, and thank you bunches more for reviews/questions! - Lilly

PS: I know that my chapter titles can be cryptic, but they all mean somthing to the chapter, if you think about it.