Idle Chatter

Chapter 4 Quatre POV

The time we spent at the circus was just amazing! Not only did I get to watch Trowa without having to cover for it, I also got a date out of it. It's true that I had to baby-sit some of my nieces and nephews, but the burden didn't fall solely on me. The best part was that some of my nieces and nephews wanted to go back to the circus next weekend to ride the elephant that they were bringing in, so I'd have an excuse to go watch Trowa again.

As soon as we arrived back home, the vehicles separated and went different ways. The one I was on, took us to the main estate and after I made sure that every last rug rat in my van was safe and accounted for, I headed off to my rooms.

Quickly, I showered and donning a soft terrycloth robe, I began searching for my ensemble. I couldn't be too dressy, since we most likely wouldn't be going anywhere that had a dress code, so I decided on some nice gray slacks, black shoes, a black belt, and a cyan colored shirt. Laying my clothes on my bed, I went to my drawers and pulled out a pair of gray silk boxers, undershirt, and charcoal socks then returned to my bed to put them all on. About fifteen minutes later, I was dressed then went to the bathroom to comb out my almost-dry hair. I put some hair conditioning product on it so that it didn't become overly puffy, which also gave it a silky feel and shine. Walking over to my full sized mirror, I examined my appearance, but I wasn't quite convinced. I unbuttoned the cuffs on my shirt then rolled the sleeves up about a quarter of the way, before scrunching the fabric up to my elbows. Going to my (masculine) vanity, I opened a drawer and pulled out several pieces of leather. I fastened the leather wristbands onto my arms, piling three on one arm, and two on the other, then pulled out a nice necklace one of my nieces had given me for my birthday made of dull silver spikes and black cylindrical beads. Looking at myself again, I was much more satisfied.

"Kitty Quat!" a static-filled voice called from the speaker-box.

"Yes, Alexandrina?" I answered.

"Abdul says that there's a young man at the gate named…" she paused, "Trowa, saying he knows you."

How embarrassing! I had forgotten to tell anyone to add him to the list! "Let him in, and ask Abdul to put him on our entrance list, please."

"No problem, Kitty Quat." The speaker went dead and I hurried out of my room to make it to the front of the house by the time Trowa got there.

Unfortunately for Trowa, I didn't get there in time. The thing about my family was that it was impossible to keep anything a secret. They had seen Trowa into the drawing room and they all seemed to figure out that we were going out.

As I walked in, I saw that no less than eight of them were badgering my date.

"Where are you taking our baby brother?" one of them asked.

Trowa didn't even get the chance to answer when someone else asked, "At what time are you coming back?"

"Do we know your parents, young man?"

"Aren't you that circus boy?"

"What are your intentions?"

"We're sending Rashid out to get you if you hurt our Kitty Quat!"

"Shouldn't you have cleaned up a little before taking our brother out?"

"At least he didn't honk at the door,"

Poor Towa looked like he was ready to bolt when I noticed Shahaerazade scolding them all, "Girls, leave Trowa be! He's a good boy!"

No one seemed to listen.

I cleared my throat, and the babbling ended. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't scare my date away," I said calmly." Everyone turned around and blushed, except for Shahear, who just glared at them all. I held out a hand to Trowa, making him hastily break out of the circle they had formed around him and hide behind me.

"I trust you ladies will behave?" I gave them a pointed look and they all nodded. "Good."

I then took Trowa's hand and led him to the door, but remembered something very important, "Shahear…"

"Yes?" she asked stopping her trek to the kitchen.

"You might want to take care of Rahara's dead fish and look out for her 'stupid bird'," I said, quoting my niece.

"WHAT! Who gave that child- NAMARRE! Who gave your daughter any pets!" She yelled, as she stalked away. "I thought we'd talked about this!"

Hurriedly, I rushed Trowa out of my house and shut the door firmly behind us.

"Sorry about tha-"

"Hey! It's Mr. Lion Tamer!" the high voice of my niece called out, interrupting me. Trowa's face went pale and he took a step back. "Whatcha doin' here Mr. Lion Tamer?"

"Rahara, I think Auntie Shahear was looking for you. Why don't you go find her?" I intervened.

The little girl perked up and immediately forgot about Trowa. "I want to be just like her one day!" she giggled as she hopped away in search of my sister.

Trowa took my hand and pulled me away to his truck. I tried hard not to notice it's condition. It was old, the paint job faded and gray with some dents and a mismatched door. In all honesty, it looked like it was going to fall apart at any minute if it weren't for the mud that seemed to be holding it together.

"Don't judge a truck by it's body," Trowa said to me, making me jump. I blushed and got in while he held the door open for me. Inside, the seats were comfortable, the stereo looked brand new, and everything was clean. I had not expected this at all from looking at the outside. I buckled my seatbelt and waited until we were out of the gate to say anything, but Trowa beat me to it.

"I changed my mind; your sisters do scare me as does your niece. I officially feel sorry for any animal that crosses her path," he said with a straight face.

I blushed a little, "I'm sorry about the attack… and about the gate. I forgot to tell Abdul to add you to the list."

"Speaking of which, do you have your own zip code? You have an entire contained population in there. What do you call it, Winnerville? I wouldn't be surprised if you had your own private army!"

I laughed a little, "No, we don't have our own zip code, but it is a good-sized community. And yes, we do have a small regime of security guards that could be considered an army if the need should arise…" I said, giving him a smirk.

He swallowed, "That explains the swords."

I shrugged, "We're Arabic. We love swords."

"Oh." There was a pause, "You look very nice, by the way."

I blushed, "Thank you. I didn't know where we were going, so I tried to find something suitable for almost any occasion."

Trowa chuckled lightly, and it wasn't until then that I'd noticed his appearance. He was wearing a pair of worn jeans, a faded green tee-shirt, brown work boots, and a light denim jacket. I suddenly felt overdressed.

"Umm… where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see."

Half an hour later, we arrived at a wildlife preserve that I happened to know we owned... although I've never been there. It wouldn't do to tell Trowa that, though. He parked and we walked through the gravel parking lot to the gate then went to the ticket and information booth.

"Hey Trowa!" The man behind the counter called. "I didn't expect you today, your name wasn't on the roster."

Roster? He works here? I didn't know that.

"I'm not working today, James. I was bringing a friend to see the animals," Trowa said as he gestured to me, then began pulling out his wallet to pay for our admission.

The man's eyes widened when he saw me, this was not good.

"Mr. Winner!"

I smiled a little in return, "Hello."

He looked me up and down and shook his head, "We have some coveralls and rubber boots you can put on over that, Sir."

I smiled even more, "That would be wonderful."

"Am I missing something?" Trowa asked, looking between the two of us confusedly.

"Mr. Winner is the founder of this preserve," James said, "I'm not about to charge either of you to come in!"

Again, I felt embarrassed. Trowa looked… well, I couldn't tell.

After I changed, Trowa led me around the preserve, showing me all the different animals and introducing me to his favorites. I was surprised when a giraffe bent down to nibble on his hair before letting us pet her head. At the monkey habitat, one of the spider monkeys even gave Trowa a banana before we moved on. He later told me she had a crush on him, even if she considered him ugly for not having a tail or enough fur. But I think the most nerve wracking experience of the whole deal was when he got in the Tasmanian devil habitat and petted one of the vicious-looking beasts. Even the keepers there never went in and physically interacted with these animals… at least not without a sedative in effect.

It was getting dark and we were walking back to Trowa's truck (after I had given back the borrowed clothes, that is) when Trowa took my hand again. He led me to his truck then pinned me to the side of it. I felt my heart beat faster and my breath hitch.

"I like you." He said, his breath ghosting against my lips.

I swallowed, "I… like you too… a lot…"

I could feel his smile, then his lips fell on mine. We kissed like that for a few minutes, when suddenly something started squirming between us.

"What is that!" I said, alarmed and staring at Trowa's jacket pocket.

He reached in slowly and carefully pulled out a fuzzy little brown rodent that peered curiously at me.

"Quatre, meet Charlie. Charlie is a sugar glider, a type of squirrel." Trowa then made a funny noise in his throat and was answered by a happy squeak from 'Charlie.'

He held it out to me and I hesitantly reached for the furry thing. Immediately, the squirrel ran up my arm and sat on my shoulder, chirping happily at me.

Trowa smiled, "He likes you."

I couldn't help but smile. The little rodent didn't seem so bad. "I like him too."

"Good, it's settled then. Charlie goes home with you," he smirked.

"A present?" I asked, incredulously, "For me?"

He leaned in and kissed me again. "For you… just keep him away from that child… Please."

I smiled, taking Charlie off my shoulder and cuddling him to my chest, "I will. I'll take very good care of him."

"I know," he smiled.