"Are you sure you wanna come in here? I mean, I could get your stuff by myself." Trowa said turning to his friend.
Quatre had been living with the Bartons for three days since the mishap. Tom and Iria left the next morning after making arrangements about Quatre's expenses. Catherine returned to Mark the day after that and promised Quatre that it would be fine for him to stay in her room. Now, Trowa and Quatre were walking back to the Winner residence in an attempt to take Quatre's things back to the Barton residence. Quatre remembered that his father had hidden a key somewhere outside just in case Quatre was ever locked out as a child. Luckily, Mr. Winner had decided to go to work this day, leaving the boys the whole day to clean out Quatre's old room.
"I'll go. It's not like I'm gonna faint or anything." Quatre reached down and pulled up a little board on the porch to reveal the key to the house.
"Wow. I've never seen that there before."
"That's the point. Why would we want a big huge sign telling everyone where a key to the house is hidden?"
"Yeah, yeah. I get your point."
Quatre got up and inserted the key. "Good thing he didn't decide to change the locks." He opened the door.
The house was a disaster area. Tables were turned, pots were shattered, pictures were torn and there were empty food cartons everywhere.
"Geez...your dad really did a number on this place."
"Come on. The sooner we hurry, the sooner we can leave."
The two made their way up the stairs to Quatre's room. The second story wasn't trashed like the first story was with an exception to a torn painting.
"Whoa..." Trowa's eyes turned to Quatre's door. It had been boarded up pretty hastily.
Quatre turned to follow Trowa's gaze. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "This makes things harder."
"It's okay. Let's get going."
Just then the doorbell rang. The two friends looked at each other.
"Go answer it." Trowa nudged Quatre to the stairs.
"What if it's for my dad?"
"Then check before answering."
Quatre tiptoed down the stairs and to the front door. The doorbell rang again. Quatre looked through the peephole. Standing on the porch was Duo, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. Quatre sighed and opened the door.
"Hey, Duo."
"Hey Q-man. You sure like to take your time to answer the door."
"Sorry about that."
"Whoa...what happened to your face?"
"Uh...I had a little accident."
"Little, my ass. You got a beating. Who was it? I'll kill him for you."
"Duo, calm down. It's nothing to worry about."
Duo sighed. "Are you sure? I don't like knowing that someone hurt my friend and got away with it."
"I'm sure. Thanks, Duo."
"Anytime, Q." Duo grinned. "So are you gonna let me in or am I just gonna stand here all day?"
"Oh yeah. Sorry." Quatre stepped aside and let the boy in.
Duo took one look around and let a low whistle. "Geez, Q. You redecorating or something?"
"I-uh. I don't exactly live here anymore." Quatre said turning to go upstairs.
Duo cocked an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Come on. I'll tell you later."
The two proceeded upstairs to see Trowa pulling away at the boards blocking off Quatre's room.
"Hey Tro...wow...major redecorating..."
Trowa turned and looked at Duo. "Oh, hey Duo. How's it going?"
"Great...I can't say the same for Q though..."
"I'm having family problems. I'm moving in with Trowa's family."
"Wow. I wish I could do that with Heero." Duo winked at Quatre. "I'll give you guys a hand."
"Thanks, Duo. I really appreciate it."
"No problem."
By this time, Trowa had finished pulling off all the boards. He opened the door to see that Quatre's room had not been touched. Everything was still in its place and, much to Quatre's relief, in its original condition.
The three boys spent the day loading boxes with Quatre's clothes and belongings and carrying them to the Barton's house.
"So Duo, where's Heero?" Quatre asked as they walked between houses.
"Uh, his mom took him away from me for the day. Though she adores me, she thinks that even lovers need a break every once in a while. She says it helps them realize how much they really are in love or not." Duo grinned. "I guess she's right."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, today without Heero makes me want to be with him tomorrow." Duo chuckled. "I just hope he feels the same way."
"Probably does. You two are head over heels for each other. Though sometimes Heero doesn't show it as much as you do."
"Oh well. I like the strong silent types anyway. At least he doesn't yell about injustice."
Quatre snickered.
"Speaking of Wu-man, have you heard from him?"
"Nope. He's not supposed to come back until the weekend. We probably won't see him until vacation's over."
"And even then, we won't see him much cause he'll be off with Sally."
"Not like that's a problem. I think they're cute together."
"Except when they're at each other's throats."
Quatre chuckled. He made his way up the stairs and placed the box in his hands on top of another box. A scrap of paper fell out from the bottom of the box.
Duo stooped down and picked it up. "What's this?"
"Huh?"
Duo flashed the boy the paper that fell. It had Quatre's writing from when he was smaller. Quatre took the paper and read it. It had directions to something in the Winner's backyard.
"Wow. I don't know. I don't remember writing this." The blonde furrowed his brows and tried to think of what this paper was describing.
"This is the last of your stuff." Trowa said, placing the box on top of the bed. "What's that?"
"He doesn't know." Duo smiled. "Hey! Let's go on a treasure hunt. I've never done that when I was a kid and now I get a chance to."
"But what if nothing's even there?" Quatre asked, still trying to remember if he had in fact placed something into the ground.
"Well there's only one way to find out!" Duo grabbed Quatre's wrist and pulled the boy down the stairs. Trowa shook his head and followed his friends.
"Hey, Tro! You got a shovel?" Duo asked turning to the taller boy.
"In the garage."
"Great!" Duo dashed down the hall and opened a door. He stepped though and shut the door behind him.
"Uh, Trowa? Isn't that a closet?" Quatre smiled.
Trowa smiled. "Yup."
Duo stepped out flashing his friends an embarrassed grin. He opened another door, checked that it was in fact the garage and stepped in.
Quatre laughed and began walking back to his former home with Trowa behind him. Duo soon caught up with them with a shovel on his shoulder.
"We're going on a treasure hunt!" Duo sang. "On a treasure hunt is where we're going!"
Quatre and Trowa looked at each other then looked at Duo.
"That's not even a real song." Trowa said matter-of-factly.
"Yes it is. It's a good song." The braided boy defended.
"On what planet?" Trowa countered.
Quatre just laughed at the two. The three found themselves in the Winners' backyard. The familiar willow still stood off to the side, it's branches scraping the floor in a slight breeze.
"Where to?" Duo asked, glancing over Quatre's shoulder to look at the "map."
"I think it's over there..." Quatre glanced up at the willow. He walked over, pushed apart the braches and walked in, Duo and Trowa following his lead.
"Where? Where? Where? Show me! Show me! Show me!" Duo jumped up and down.
"Calm down, Duo!" Trowa barked, giving Duo his death glare.
"Right..." Quatre walked around the willow. "...Here." He pointed at the ground.
"GRRREAT!" Duo immediately began shoveling at the spot the blonde had pointed at. Soon enough, Duo had reached a small wooden box and pulled it up and handed it to Quatre.
"Here you go!" Duo grinned.
"Thanks..." Quatre shoved the "map" into his pocket and took the box from Duo.
"Open it, open it, open it!" Duo squealed with anticipation.
"Duo..." Trowa warned, flashing the energetic boy his death glare again.
Quatre opened the box to see a bunch of pictures and other little keepsakes.
"Now I remember! I put this here when I first moved in! Geez, I haven't seen these in nine years, I think." Quatre stepped out from under the willow and began walking back to the Barton residence.
"You're not gonna go through it?" Duo asked a bit disappointed.
"Of course I will. It's just that I'd rather put those boards back up before my dad gets back and knows that I've been there." Quatre said, placing the box on the countertop.
"Oh yeah. Right."
The three walked back to the Winner residence and began to replace the wooded boards after Quatre took one more look around to see if he had left anything. Duo and Trowa hammered the boards back in place as Quatre held it up for them. When they had finished, Quatre locked the door and hurried back to Trowa's house. There, the three sat around the counter to see what it was Quatre had decided to bury nearly a decade ago.
Most of the keepsakes were pictures of Quatre, his family, and friends.
"Is this Heero?" Duo asked, holding up one of the pictures.
Quatre took the picture from his friend and looked closely at it. "Yup. This is him." He said handing the picture back to Duo.
Duo grinned. "Awww, look how cute he is." Duo cooed. In the picture, Heero had just woken from a nap. His mouth was slightly opened and he was rubbing the sleep out of one of his eyes. One of the straps of his traditional green tank top had slipped off of his shoulder.
"Am I to assume that I'm not gonna get that picture back?"
"Uh, can I keep it?" Duo asked hopefully.
"I guess so. But I don't think you should show it to Heero. You might not get it back."
"Thanks man! I'll make copies!" Duo grinned.
"Who's this?" Trowa asked, showing a picture to Quatre. On it was a girl with dark purplish hair with blue eyes to match. She was winking at the camera while blowing a kiss as well.
"Oh. Her name's Hilde. She was one of my good friends from Maine. Man..." Quatre ran a hand through his hair. "I haven't thought about her in a looong time."
Trowa cocked an eyebrow. "Did you two have a fling or something?"
Quatre elbowed Trowa in his stomach. "Of course not. She was...my female best friend. Yeah. I wonder how she's doing."
"Hey, she's kinda cute. For a girl of course." Duo said, taking the picture from Quatre. "Don't tell Heero I said that."
Quatre pulled out a small bag from the box. He untied the knot and exposed its contents. From the bag, marbles of all kinds spilled onto the counter.
"Whoa!" Quatre tried to keep the marbles from falling off the edge.
"Man! What a haul! I love marbles!" Duo exclaimed, picking up a steely.
Trowa picked up a glass one and looked through it.
"I used to play all the time in Maine." Quatre said picking up a clear one with a green swirl in the middle. "I won all the time, too."
"What's this?" Duo asked. He put the marble back with the others and picked up an envelope. "It's for Trowa."
Trowa turned his attention from the marble to the envelope in Duo's hand. Trowa took it and began to open it.
Quatre's eyes bulged out of its sockets as he remembered the letter. "No!" He grabbed the letter out of Trowa's hands and shoved it in his pockets.
"What's the deal, Q?" Duo asked.
"Uh, it was just a little kid thing to do. You know. Kinda like writing to Santa."
"But Santa's fake and you chose to write to Trowa."
"Well...I wanna read it before anyone else does. Is it getting hot in here?"
While the two talked, Trowa carefully made his way to take the letter back from Quatre. The letter was nearly out of the blonde's pocket when he turned.
"Trowa, don't!" Quatre made a grab for the letter.
Trowa stepped back and raised his arm in the air.
"Give it to me!"
"But it's addressed to me." Trowa smiled.
"It's a misprint!" he jumped up and tried to get the letter but Trowa pulled away before he could take it.
Trowa looked at the writing on the envelope. "It doesn't look like a misprint to me."
"That's cause you aren't used to my writing." He jumped again.
"Eight years of knowing you, I think I'd know it by now."
"I don't," he jumped again. "Think so." Frustrated, Quatre stopped his attempts in retrieving the letter and stepped back.
"Good boy." Trowa winked. He began to open the letter once more.
Quatre sighed before lunging at the green-eyed boy. The two toppled to the floor, Quatre landing on top of Trowa. "Give it to me!" The blonde grabbed the letter out of Trowa's hands before scrambling up, dashing up the stairs and locking himself in his room.
Trowa picked himself up and looked up the stairs. The sound of laughter caused him to turn to look at Duo. The braided boy was rolling with laughter, on the floor, clutching his stomach. Trowa rolled his eyes.
"Man, that was close..." Quatre mumbled, collapsing onto the bed. He tossed the letter into one of the open boxes by his bed. He collapsed onto his bed and buried his face in his pillow.
Down the stairs, Duo had finally calmed down from his fits of laughter.
"Geez, you guys kill me." He said with a wave of his hand. "You shoulda seen your face when Q tackled you. It was a picture perfect moment!"
"Duo..."
"Yes?"
"Shut up."
"Gotcha."
"What was in that letter that me couldn't show me?"
"I don't know about you, but now I'm pretty curious about it."
"But there's nothing we can do about it."
"Sure there is. Just sneak into his room and find it. Take it to your room, read it and then put it back. He'll never know."
"It's not that easy."
"Then take it while he's asleep. You know he's knocked out when he's sleeping."
"No he's not. Who're you talking about?"
"Oh. Heh. I musta been thinking about Heero. Can I use your phone? He might be home by now."
"Go ahead."
"Oh and I still think you should just sneak into his room while he's sleeping if you're that curious about that letter. Who knows what he thought of you when he was younger?" Duo winked before disappearing into the other room to call Heero.
'What did he think of me? Especially since I was a jerk when he first moved here.' Trowa had decided to take Duo's advice and sneak into Quatre's room and find the letter.
"Hey, Tro!" Duo called. He appeared from around the corner with his usual grin on. "Heero's home so I figure that I should head on over to him cause he probably misses me from being away from me for so long."
"Duo, I don't see how you do it."
"Do what?"
"Talk so much just to say that you're gonna leave."
"And I don't see how you do it."
"Do what?"
"Hardly talk."
"Hm."
Duo barked with laughter. "By the way, it's good to know that you two won't be alone so much now that you live together. I mean, if you like all the time you spend together now, what's it gonna be like knowing that you can turn to your best friend who's just down the hall?" he smiled. "Well, I'll see you later. Bye, Tro."
"Later Duo."
Duo left as Trowa contemplated the boy's words. 'It is gonna be nice, isn't it...'
Author's Notes/Disclaimer: I've always wanted to go on a treasure hunt but I never got a chance to bury anything due to the fact that the soil in my backyard isn't very deep. Plus, I think I would dig it up again in a few days anyway. The part where Duo is singing a "song" and Trowa states that it isn't really a song was taken from the movie "Vertical Limit" or at least the idea of it is. Don't owe, don't sue.