Title: Catching Duo
Author: Mistress Tsunami
Warnings: AU, OOC, school-fic, angst, 1x5 LEMON in part five, limey in part six (cont. from five), drug-use, Duo-torture (no NCS or BDSM, though), yaoi, shonen-ai, het, get-together fic (is that a warning?).

Opportunity knocked. My doorman threw him out.
-Adrienne Gusoff-

Duo wasn't feeling very well, he decided as he collapsed in a boneless mass on the bathroom's dirty floor. He wasn't very feeling well at all. In fact, he was actually feeling kinda sick. Scratch that, he was feeling VERY sick.

Heero Yuy had kissed him, Duo Maxwell, ignored busybody artist of the school, and he, Duo Maxwell, had almost enjoyed it.

Trowa and Quatre exchanged nearly identical worried glances over the top of his head, still standing and ignoring the need to lock the door in favor of comforting their friend. "Duo," Quatre prompted, "What's wrong?"

Duo slowly shook his head no, as if just digesting the fact that something was wrong himself. "It's not right," he supplied almost absently.

"What's not right?" Quatre prompted gently when it became obvious that Duo wouldn't continue without help. He kneeled down so he could be at eye-level with his friend, and gave him a sympathetic look.

"Heero kissed me. Heero KISSED me. HEERO kissed ME." At first Duo sounded like he couldn't believe the action, that Heero had kissed him. But it slowly changed to disbelief, Duo denying that what had happened had happened to him as he repeated the same phrase over again. Whether it was because he felt himself to be straight or because he just couldn't believe that Heero had been the one to kiss him, the blonde did not know, but he had his suspicions. "Quatre, I almost liked it. Is that wrong?" Duo asked forlornly, looking more than a little lost.

"Duo, you know better than that. It isn't wrong for a guy to like another guy," Quatre admonished his friend gently. Trowa nodded, sitting down on the floor next to Quatre to add his support to what he knew Quatre was about to do. Revealing that little secret could be risky, and they could loose their friend because of it, but it was worth it if they could show Duo that what he felt hadn't been exactly wrong. Feeling encouraged himself, Quatre took a deep breathe to steady himself and then plunged on. "You like me, as a friend, right?" He asked first, just to be sure. Duo nodded. "You like Trowa, again, as a friend, right?" Once more, Duo nodded. "You support us in nearly everything, right?" Duo nodded again, getting more than a little concerned. "If we were in deep trouble you would do what you could to help us, right?" Duo nodded once again, his attention peaked. Quatre sighed. "Duo, we have a secret to tell you. Do you want to know a secret, Duo? I like Trowa, too. As more than a friend."

"You...you do?" Quatre nodded surely, his face reflecting his happiness. Trowa encircled his hands around the blonde's waist, his face oddly softened as well. Duo would have never believed it if he had not seen how much happier they were together himself.

"We don't tell a whole lot of people because most people are uncomfortable with the fact that we like each other, and we're both guys. Even being quiet about it, we still get jeers," Trowa put in, explaining the situation at the school, and why they had never told him before. "Not many people who know about us like us, because it makes them question their own sexuality. Do you mind, Duo? Do you still like us?"

Duo, who had never heard Trowa say so much at one time, took his time to formulate his answer. He didn't want to loose or offend his friends, but he wanted to be sure of his answer as well. He couldn't lie about something this important. Duo never wanted to lie period. "No, I don't mind," he finally answered, certain he had at least sorted out the important facts in his mind. "I still like you guys. I mean, you're still the same people you were before I knew about...that, and I liked you then, so why shouldn't I like you now, right?"

"Duo, are you sure you're all right?" Quatre asked, concern lacing his voice. Duo had sounded so different. There was almost a sarcastic tone to it, but Quatre and Trowa knew better than that. Duo wasn't like that. He had been sincere, but he had spoken to them like he had spoken to his mother when he was coldly angry with her, or at least very unhappy.

"Yeah...yeah, I think I'm okay, at least with you guys," Duo said with a sigh, his voice returning to normal. "I mean, with you it makes sense, I guess 'cause I can't really see you guys with anyone else, especially not with any of the girls around here, but ME and HEERO?" Duo shook his head, almost as if to rid it of the totally insane thought that had just entered, apparently without his permission. "It just doesn't compute, Quat. I can't see myself with any guy, much less HIM."

Trowa nodded, understanding the dilemma that the boy was going through. He had just accepted the fact that he could be into guys, accepting that he could be into Heero was pushing the limits a bit too far for a mere two-and-a-half hours into the school day. It had seemed like longer. "Even so, he seems to have his sights set on you, Duo," Trowa warned. "He wants something from you, either that or he sees you as his new toy."

"Toy?" Duo eeped, rather mouse-like. He had never heard that term before, at least not in relation to Heero Yuy, and he wasn't sure that he liked it very much.

"Every year Heero picks one person out of the whole entire school to annoy and terrorize. At least, that's what my sister tells me. When Sena graduated from here last year, she heard all the rumors about Heero Yuy from her underclass friends. He picks one person for the year or until he grows tired of him or her, and they took to calling the victims 'toys' because of how he treated them. It's also rumored that he...well, to put it bluntly...he...well, he..." Quatre blushed a slight pink as he stammered, unable to finish the sentence.

"What Quatre's trying to say is that he fucked them," Trowa supplied, sounding rather cold, but then again, he was talking about Heero. Quatre turned beet red, but nodded, indicating that yes, that was what he had meant.

Duo leaned back, banging his head harshly against the wall as his eyes slid shut. "Duo, are you okay?" Quatre asked, afraid his friend had fainted from the shock of hearing the news, or at least earned himself a rather large bruise.

"Q-man, I am FAR from okay. I'm scared stiff of the guy," Duo replied rather excitedly.

"Maybe you'll feel better if you eat some," Quatre offered, pulling his friend up by his hands so that the three of them were once again standing. Food always made Duo feel better, and comfort food - chocolates, or in this case, a good sandwich and milk - was always good in a rough situation. "Come on, let's go to the café, I'll buy you another lunch."

For a split second, Duo thought Quatre was hitting on him, and then he got over himself. He fervently reminded himself that this was QUATRE he was talking to and thinking about, and Quatre already had Trowa. And Quatre was his friend. Friends didn't hit on each other. At least, not the last time he checked. Things might be different now, he had seen Heero and Wufei kissing before, after all, and he thought that they were friends. But they were Wufei and Heero, they were different. "This is so weird," Duo commented aloud to himself.

Trowa smirked at the inadequacy of the comment. It was the understatement of the year, so far. He followed along calmly behind the other two, watching for their new foe. "And it's only the first day," he commented dryly.

"Yeah," Duo complained. "It's not even lunch yet, how are we EVER going to get through this year alive?"

"Simple," a much familiar yet, at the same time, much hated voice spoke up from behind the three. "You ditch your friends for the day, hang out with me, let me buy you lunch, and let me take you home with me."

For what felt like the millionth time that day, Duo collapsed in a heap on the floor, his face buried in his hands as if he could hide from the world, or at least Heero Yuy. "I've died and gone to Hell, haven't I?"

He wasn't really expecting an answer, so he was surprised when Heero spoke up, replying: "No, not yet, but I can arrange that if you're going to be stubborn."

Duo slumped even further into a dejected heap. "This day could NOT get any worse." Heero merely smiled to himself as he picked up the moping boy and carried him off, heading towards the cafeteria to buy that lunch that Quatre had mentioned, hoping that Duo WOULD let him take the sulking boy home and ravish him.