Idle Chatter

Chapter 6: Quatre POV

Warnings: not many, just a schizoid Quatre

My world seemed to stop when he called me Kitty Quat. No one other than my sisters had ever been so informal with me. I looked up at him with wide eyes before whispering dumbly, "What did you call me?" I just had to be sure I wasn't hearing things.

"Kitty Quat." Trowa answered, "Would you rather I not? I heard it from your sisters… and I thought…" he trailed off.

NO! I don't want you to call me that! Part of me screamed; the part that was always fighting to have some semblance of masculinity on the surface.

"It's okay, you can call me Kitty Quat if you want to…" I said rather shyly, blushing slightly. But he's the only one! My mind yelled at me. If anyone ever calls you that besides your sisters and Trowa, you hurt them. Bad. I nodded to myself, the issue decided. That's when I noticed Trowa's warm smile.

In all honesty, I loved our date on Saturday. True, I owned the place, but I'd never been there before and he showed me so much that day. I hadn't realized that he could actually speak to just about every animal until that day. Sure, there were rumors about him being close to his animals… some even said that he slept with them… in more ways than one… but I knew the truth.

I kissed his cheek as we parted ways after agreeing to meet after school.

I floated through my classes for the rest of they day. Other than this morning when Duo and Heero made their appearance, nothing interesting had happened. Now, I was looking forward to my Trowa-full afternoon.

I practically skipped over to the parking lot after the end bell had rung, hurriedly calling my chauffer not to come pick me up. I had a date. My breath caught when I saw him, leaning against his truck. He washed it… and he's trying too hard to impress you, my mind teased, but I ignored it. Truth was, he actually looked like he was trying to impress me. What happened to the guy I met at the circus?

Shaking my head of those thoughts, I walked over to him and was surprised when he opened my door for me, What do you think I am? A porcelain doll! My brain shrieked, but I just nodded my thanks. We drove for a bit in an uncomfortable silence. There was something wrong, but I couldn't quite get a grasp on it. I was too lost in my thoughts that I didn't even notice that we'd come to a stop until Trowa opened my door for me.

I sighed, this wasn't going the way I'd hoped… he wasn't being the guy I knew… he was acting like all those… butt-kissing-money-grubbing low-lives, Evil Quat supplied, that always surrounded me. This wasn't right.

Fortunately, in the theatre, things began to look up. We'd gone in to see a horror film that I didn't really care for. I seriously dislike anything of the kind, but I figured we could at least cuddle or something. I mean, that's the only reason to take a date to a scary movie, isn't it?

Do it now! The voice in my head hissed, you'll never get anywhere with this guy if you don't make the first move.

Smirking to myself, I raised the armrest between our seats and made myself comfortable cuddling against him. Too bad for me, the situation didn't last very long. The music in the background was taking an ominous tone and at the climax of the composition, almost everyone in the room screamed. The group of kids in front of us were so startled, that one of them threw their bucket of popcorn into the air so that the entire contents went flying through the air.

I watched in morbid fascination as the bucket flipped a couple of times and landed squarely on Trowa's head. The popcorn rained on my head and I got some down my shirt, as did Trowa. Everyone around us, including me, started to laugh at the poor girl's lost popcorn and the fact that she had showered everyone in our section with it, but unfortunately, Trowa didn't see it that way.

He promptly got up, tossing the popcorn bucket off his head and left the theater, myself in tow.

"Trowa, stop!" I called after him and he hurriedly made his way through the hallways toward the exit. He was dusting off some of the kernels, but a few stray pieces of popcorn were stubbornly lodged into his hair and sticking onto his clothes.

"Trowa!" I caught up to him as he walked through the exit doors and was standing outside.

He looked at me with vacant eyes, looking hurt. You idiot! He thinks you were laughing at him.

Shyly I look his hand and smiled at him, "I didn't want to finish watching that movie anyway." I winked at him and he blushed. Good, you still have a chance, Quat.

He led me down the city walk, letting me look at all the window displays I wanted. I was having so much fun, when all of a sudden I felt Trowa tense up next to me and pull me out of the way.

Startled, I looked around, blinking when I saw the gaggle of Asian tourists all getting off a bus and all wearing the same bright green windbreaker jackets… and they were headed in our general direction. What is he so afraid of?

"Are you okay?" I asked.

He nodded hesitantly, and seemed to relax when they all split up and went into different stores. Much to my surprise, we were drenched from head to toe from one second to the next.

Looking down, I noticed we were standing on a stretch of sidewalk with holes where the corners of the tiles met. The tiles were arranged like the rest of the sidewalk save for those little holes. From those holes, water spouted out to the music playing over the loud speakers. It was a giant fountain, and we were now standing in the middle of it.

Looking up at Trowa's face, I could see horror written all over it. I then noticed that the water was following a certain pattern now, so taking Trowa's hand, I began to drag him with me, jogging to make it seem like we were running away from the water sprouting from the mini geysers in the cement.

I was having the time of my life, and we managed to draw in a crowd. Pretty soon, others were trying to join in on our fun, so that's when we left there in search of a quieter, less populated area.

We walked, dripping, towards a nearby park and stopped at a hotdog stand to grab a quick bite. By now, we had both rung out most of the water from our shirts and were now walking with them unbuttoned, with our undershirts exposed. Trowa looked like he wanted to die when he spilled mustard on his black undershirt. I laughed a little and helped him wipe it off.

I don't know about him, but I'm having a blast, the other me said. I couldn't help but agree this time. I was having the time of my life. Nothing was going well, but it was still fun. I was sipping on a cherry smoothie while walking through the park, Trowa in tow, when he was attacked by a pair of fuzzy rodents falling out of a tree.

What the HELL is that?

Startled, I took a step back and couldn't help but smile when I saw a pair of chipmunks scurrying through his hair and climbing all over his arms and chest. They were chattering happily and leaving little mud prints all over his clothes.

"Uh.. Trowa?" I asked hesitantly.

He managed to grab a hold of the chipmunks, one in each hand as he presented them to me. "Chip," he said holding one up, "and Dale," he said, holding up the other. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere than here

I raised an eyebrow at that, "Chip and Dale? Where- Do I even want to know?"

The one on the right, Dale, I think, started squeaking and scrambled out of Trowa's grip. He then jumped to the tree he came from and scrambled up the branches.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

He shrugged, "They're odd. I took them home with me once and made the mistake of showing them how to use the TV remote control. They stumbled upon an old episode of Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers and renamed themselves. There's a little field mouse around here named Gadget too… or at least, that's what these two call her since she happens to be a pack-rat. No pun intended."

I blinked, that was a long sentence. Actually, it was just about the only thing he'd said on our date.

"So I take it that chipmunks and television don't mix," I commented.

He just shrugged and set Chip on a branch. Just then, Dale jumped on his head again with an acorn in his mouth. Scrambling down, he sat on Trowa's shoulder and waved the acorn around. Trowa made an odd sound in his throat and took the nut, then handed it to me.

"He says it's a present for you."

"Oh," Eloquent, Quatre, I chided myself, "Um… Thank you." I really felt dumb talking to a chipmunk, but I took the acorn and thanked him as graciously as I could.

Satisfied, he jumped back into his tree and scampered off.

"They like you," Trowa whispered.

I blushed and took his hand again. We began walking again, since we still had some drying to do. We were no longer dripping, but we were still wet. I really liked Trowa, but his silence was getting to me. Still… he didn't push me away… and he insisted on paying, even though we both knew I had more than enough to do so.

"I really had fun today," I said conversationally. I sat down on a nearby bench and relaxed, waiting for him to sit with me.

He sat, but didn't say anything.

Just then, a frog jumped on his lap as a bird landed in his hair. Frustrated, he stood and said something to them, causing them to leave quickly, then turned to me.

"That's it! I can't do this!" he growled.

"Do what?" I asked.

"I can't be this person," he said, tugging on his shirt and messing his hair up even more than it now was. "I am an orphaned circus freak and I can't live up to your standards!" His hands were clenched into fists, which he stuffed into his pockets. He tilted his head, making his hair cover all of his face, "I'm not good enough for you," he whispered.

I blinked. THAT'S what his problem is? What was this boy, stupid? The reason I liked him as much as I did was BECAUSE he didn't fit into my world. He was human, he treated ME like a human.

I reached out to him, standing as well, and tilted his head down so that I could brush his hair away from his face. Gently, I leaned in and brushed my lips against his, loving the way his lips felt against mine. I wanted to press the kiss further, but then my phone rang, "Planet Tokyo" as my ring tone.

Sighing I broke the kiss, answering my phone, and hoping Heero had a very good reason for calling me and spoiling the moment.