AN: Sorry I haven't updated for like... a week. But we authors can still have lives right? Still on the rainbow. I love these boys so much. I love to torment them so. One wonders what time it is in the fic at the mo though... I mean, what time did they have the dinner? But I don't suppose you care much about the chronology of this. I'd tell you but I can't be bothered. Blah blah blah. Enjoy!
Chapter Three:
Duo woke about an hour later to Wufei's cry of, "Tower straight ahead, where next, Maxwell?" His heart raced from the sudden shock. He worried: it shouldn't have been that easy to rile up his nerves. He swallowed groggily.
"Uh, third turning on the left past the tower." He sat himself up and leant forward between his knees, disturbing Quatre in the process. The blonde moaned softly.
"Are we there yet?" He whimpered and yawned like a cat.
"Not quite." Trowa answered him.
"Oh, that's right!" Duo sat up, "Party!" he added and threw himself into the back of the car to pull out his minimal luggage. The other four groaned, "Oh don't be such prudes!"
"I remind you that I have to be sober tomorrow. At. All. Costs." Heero iterated in a berating tone.
"'Ro, you couldn't get drunk if you tried." Duo huffed, chucking a package at him over his shoulder, "Second turning here, Fei."
Wufei merely growled and Duo threw another package in his lap.
"Alright then, I don't want my best man with a massive hangover!" Heero said pointedly. Duo merely waved a hand in disagreement.
"I never get hangovers. I have a brilliant constitution. Left again here." He said smugly and threw another two packages at Quatre and Trowa, who was fiddling with the radio controls again to find something a little more uplifting. A high-pitched voice sang out crying something about the alphabet and being easy. Duo pulled himself back from his precarious hanging point over the back seats, another package for himself in tow.
"Do we want to know what these are?" Trowa voiced all of their concerns. Duo sniggered suspiciously.
"Tanoshimu!" He cried happily, "The theme is... Mardi Gras!"
Groans of disdain followed.
"You love it really." Duo said offhandedly, "Besides..." he pulled out a very long brimmed purple hat with a green feather sticking out of the orange band, "Yo' ma biatches!"
"Maxwell, you look ridiculous." Wufei said coldly, looking in the rear-view mirror.
"You should see what I picked out for you... Precious." Duo hissed in his ear, "Third on the right around this roundabout."
"Duo..." Quatre was whimpering as he pulled out something suspiciously furry and leopard spotted.
"Oh, don't worry. It's not real fur!"
"That is not what I'm worried about."
"I don't think lime green is really my colour." Trowa said.
"You'll look fabulous!" Duo waved a limp hand in his direction in a very camp manner as he pulled out his own crushed purple velvet overcoat, "Not opening yours 'Ro?"
"..."
"Don't give me that look. You haven't given anyone the silent treatment for years so don't start reverting to old habits now."
"I'll wait until we get to our destination."
"Much better."
Heero blew the feather out of his face and continued to brood silently out of the window. Duo smiled to himself and turned to Wufei.
"The next street on the left, two blocks down."
"Maxwell, this is a city, where am I going to park?" Wufei said through clenched teeth.
"Not my problem." Wufei looked about ready to hit Duo before he added, "Chill! There's a multi-storey right next door if you don't want your precious car handled by a parking attendant..."
"Where are we going?" Quatre said worriedly, fiddling nervously with the button on his cuff.
"Seriously, would you all just cool it?! We'll be there soon enough! Don't you guys trust me at all?" Duo said with a smile on his lips, predicting the response.
"No." Came the chorus of agitated male voices. Duo pushed out his bottom lip in a mock pout and sat back huffily, crossing his arms. This was good. This was like old times. Duo sighed not quite contentedly.
"Left hand side, Fei.105, Eugene Street."
Quatre looked at Duo, recognition creeping onto his features, "Duo, isn't that...?"
"Saint Georgia's?" Heero removed his glare from out of the window to fix Duo with a mixed look of excitement and horror, "Oh god, Duo, this wasn't worth that!"
Duo shrugged, "Best man's duties."
Saint Georgia's was reputedly the classiest hotel in the country, complete with evening bar, restaurant, various fitness facilities including a pool, designer boutiques, luxurious rooms with stunning views across the city and, on a clear day, the surrounding towns and sea that would make every room feel like the penthouse suite, or at least this is what the brochure said. The brochure that most people flick through to fantasise about what it would be like to be important enough to be able to afford such "luxury and comfort at their fingertips". The brochure also included prices of rooms, towards the back in a small royal purple box. The people who fantasised would sigh and put away their dreams in a drawer. This hotel never offered any deals for families of four.
"No way. I won't accept that. There's no way you could have afforded it!" Heero was saying in frustration, concern etched across his brow.
"No, you're right. Fortunately the owner owed me a "favour" from a while back so I took the opportunity to arrange this for us!" Duo beamed, "He wasn't too happy about me bringing some certain details up and was all too glad for us to sponge off him for tonight. Mini bar included!"
Wufei shifted lanes as a tall silver skyscraper loomed into view, pillars adorning the portico, white up-lighting casting long fingers of illumination up the walls. If it were tacky enough to have neon lighting it would read, 'Businessmen only." But that in itself was an oxymoron. He pulled into the lobby at the front of a wide fleet of steps leading up to the glass-door entrance. Two attendants approached the vehicle and Wufei got out to greet them. The others got out to pull out their luggage but the second attendant was hovering distractingly.
"I'll do that for you, sirs." He said cheerfully. He was barely eighteen but seemed confident in his duty.
"Ah, yeah sure." Duo replied, bewildered a moment at having been addressed as 'sir'. He pulled down the bag he was holding all the same as the boy came over to take down the rest and put on a trolley.
Wufei returned to them and they trailed off into the marble-floored foyer to check in. Duo flashed a grin at the woman behind the desk and she smiled a spurious smile as if her job was the most interesting thing in the whole world and she was absolutely delighted to serve someone such as himself.
"Five suites under the name of Maxwell, ma'am." He had saved his friends the embarrassment of ordering four. The woman typed it into the computer beside her.
"Your name again, please, sir?"
"Maxwell, and I believe the tab goes to Mr. Balking?"
She nodded, still looking at the screen as she checked the details, her eyebrows were raised in a slight arc of surprise, "Anything you use in the hotel tonight is taken care of, but only tonight." She picked off the cardkeys from the back wall and handed them to Duo, "Seventeenth floor. Elevator five." She gestured down a corridor to the right.
"Thanks." He grinned again, and winked before turning back to the others.
"Sir." He muttered to them, "Don't think I'll get used to that. Makes me feel like some OAP!" He handed them their keys in no specific order. The bellboy was hovering near them again and followed as they took the corridor to the right.
Having located their rooms, they locked themselves away to prepare for a long night. Duo made sure none had "accidentally" lost their parcels on the way from the lobby to their room and received some murderous looks and grunts, which he laughed off before slipping into his room, kicking his luggage in with him.
He tugged at the buttons on his shirt and checked his reflection in the huge framed mirror that covered a large portion of the wall. A tired face greeted him with dull purple eyes; he had not slept well for the past few months. He imagined the others gossiping about his dishevelment right now, "Duo's really let himself run down." "Maxwell's really living his self proclaimed title, he looks like Death!" He sighed and pulled at his bangs disapprovingly.
A knock came at the door so Duo stumbled over his bags to reach the door and unlock it. He pulled it open, pushing his abandoned baggage further back and looked up to meet those eyes again. He swallowed and fixed another smile.
"Yes?" He raised an eyebrow.
Heero eyed him with amusement, "I thought you might want your shirt back. I guess I was wrong."
Duo felt his cheeks burn as he realised he had only just discarded his own and not reached for another when answering the door. Heero placed his hand on the door and leaned in but looked past Duo.
"You got me the better room." He said matter-of-factly.
"Uh, yeah." Duo recovered himself, "It's your night, 'Ro."
"Mm." Heero murmured distractedly. He stood there for a moment looking blankly past Duo before saying, "Let me in."
"Heero, I don-" Duo started, fear tingeing his voice.
"I just wanted to talk to you about a few things, your speech being one of them." Heero frowned at him.
"Look, I was just going to have a shower, I'll speak to you at nine, ok?" Duo pleaded, taking his shirt out of Heero's hands and taking a hold on the door. But Heero continued to hold it open. He looked at him silently for a moment that was hardly bearable.
"Alright, thanks for the shirt."
Duo closed the door as Heero took away his hand and turned to leave, his hair falling in his eyes the way that Duo loved, sliding forward in a mahogany veil. He leant against the door heavily and breathed deeply, clutching onto the shirt tightly. In a sudden anger with himself he threw it on the bed and stalked to the bathroom to take his shower. He ran the water boiling hot and steam curled out into the rest of the room, clouding up the mirrors. He swiped a hand angrily across the condensation and glared at his visible reflection, willing himself to do something inane like the fool he was: A simple king's jester.
He pulled his braid over his shoulder and began to unwind it. It soothed him mildly to be able to run his fingers through something so lifeless, to be able to pretend it wasn't his own. He bit the sides of his tongue purposefully.
"Baka. Bakayarou."
He left the shower at its original temperature as he got in.
