Together Paz Enai

Part 4

Duo just stared at Hilde, he was too afraid of his other options, for instance, looking at Wufei. His hands found each other and managed to weave themselves together without his consciousness and he slowly poked his thumbs together.

Wufei was silent as well. From what Duo could tell out of the corner of his eye, he was looking out the window. He looked so cute with his tie like that. Wait, when did Duo turn to look at him? He watched Wufei for a moment until Wufei turned to look back at him and directed his attention back to Hilde, then let out a sigh, as Wufei did likewise.

"Duo I-"

"Wufei -"

Silence. Duo sighed again and Wufei turned to look out the window again.

"Wufei, look, I'm really sorry for blowing up like C4 the other day. I was just… You know, it's hard, and all. I get a little stressed out sometimes and…yeah." Duo turned back to Wufei with a rather sad look on his face.

Wufei had a similar look on his face. He nodded.

"Yes, I was concerned, I shouldn't have pried. You just seemed…like you were hiding something. I have a bad habit of doing that, prying, when I think any of you guys are hiding something. Heero was mad at me for a long time for a similar reason, actually, so was Trowa and Quatre. Yeah, I got Quatre mad, that's how great of a friend I am… I'm sorry" He said and bowed again.

Duo felt bad for him. He really cared for all of them and ended up always hurting them. Kind-of reminded him of someone else he knew, someone with an incredibly long braid.

But he did that for all of them. He felt himself drown in that. Jeff's encouraging 'You think maybe he likes you?' torn to shreds. He knew this already. Wufei was as straight as a line. He had survived so far. Everything was ok, wasn't it?

"No… augh… Wufei, don't apologize, I should have told you. Hilde's like, my second digit… anything that happens to her happens to me, I should have told you, it was part of the promise we all made." Duo looked back at Wufei who seemed slightly surprised, but nodded.

Damn, looking at him and talking to him were two totally different things. He had changed a little, his voice was just a little deeper, and he was quite a few inches taller, not colony-stock like Duo was. Even so they were pretty close to the same height, Duo liked to think that he barely fit into that margin anyway. Exactly 3 cm too short to break it, he though to himself, it shouldn't even count, that was hardly over an inch.

Duo smiled lightly at the randomness of his thought. He was in a hospital, an awful thought to begin with, with his apartment-mate in severe critical condition and no diagnosis, and his almost-three-year crush with a loose tie and his first button undone. Duo cursed mentally...several times.

"Hey, Duo, uhm. I have a mission to do, but uh, if you want we could get together some time or something, while I'm here. I don't really have any work waiting for me at the office…and I have to wait for my flight anyway…"

"Oh yeah, Sally told me, I called this morning. I was going to apologize but you had already left. She said that there was a shortage of available staff so you got stuck with a kiddy job. What cha got to do?" Duo said and his face lost all sadness and instead turned more neutral then Wufei could ever remember it being.

"The? Oh yeah, some shipment inspection, nothing to elaborate, I should be done with both it and the paperwork by tomorrow sometime, but my return flight isn't for a few days. I guess they just wanted to keep me away from the office. I tend to be there, uh, a lot…"

Duo nodded. He was kind of the same way, give him something to take his mind off of everything else and he devoted his time to it. Though, Duo couldn't help but notice that Wufei was stumbling through his sentences, like there was something wrong. Duo tried to ignore it.

"Hey, you busy right now Wufei? I mean, do you need to do anything particular today? Or is it an 'at your leisure' type of job?"

"I can be free if you'd like. Why, is something wrong?" He said and shifted a little bit and looked to Hilde quickly before looking back at Duo.

"Well other than this, nothing's wrong. I was just, Heh. I was just concerned about you. Is something wrong?" Duo replied and also looked to Hilde. He leaned over and brushed some of her shoulder-length hair from her face. He kept his gaze on her and straightened up, ignoring the fact that as she shifted in her sleep more of her hair fell into her face.

"Nothing's wrong I just-"

"Wufei I've known you long enough to know when something's wrong. Your voice alone is a hint, your body language too. You can tell me now, or we can go somewhere and talk. Up to you, Jeff wouldn't mind driving us, trust me, he's a nice guy." Duo said quickly and slowly spun to face Wufei. He had a determined look on his face, it wasn't angry, but it was commanding, even with the demanding voice taunting at Duo from the corners of his mind.

Wufei nodded. "All right, we'll go talk somewhere, it doesn't matter. I guess I'm still just concerned about you two though. Maybe that's all it is."

He said and looked over to Hilde again who seemed to be having some mild chills.

"My place, your place or where? We can go eat if you haven't done that yet, or was the aircraft food good for once," He said with a slight smile. "If you don't say anything then it's my place," He said with an even bigger smile"

"Fine, your place it is, I've never had a protest to aircraft food anyway."

"So this is your place huh? It's pretty nice for an apartment." Wufei complimented as they walked into the sitting area.

"Thanks, it cost practically nothing when we got it and our contract with the landlord said that the payment terms were set unless you happened to not read the contract and didn't ask for it to be set. We pay pretty much the same thing now, which is awesome 'cause our neighbors pay their souls to live here." He replied as he walked into the kitchenette. "Want anything to drink or eat?" He offered looking through the wide window in the wall between the two rooms.

"Uhm, no, not really." Wufei replied as he stirred uneasily. This is sure one hell of a way to find out if I was right about him being gay, he thought. Should have gone somewhere with people.

"Ok, you don't mind if I drink right? I mean, you won't arrest me or anything will you?" Duo said with a chuckle.

"Duo! You're underage!" Wufei protested spinning from the slightly messy but well furnished room to look at the other boy.

"Ah, only for one more year! Who gives a shit! Besides, we haven't been ID'ed yet, and we always go to the same place. It's not like I get drunk all the time either. In fact, I haven't since I got a job. That's two years." The other boy said with a firm nod.

Wufei didn't like the idea of letting a minor drink, but he knew nothing he said would stop Duo. In fact, he feared it would merely convince Duo to make Wufei drink as well.

Duo walked back into the room with what Wufei at first thought was a beer and they sat down across from each other, as Wufei noticed two bedrooms. Two occupied bedrooms. They were not together. Wufei felt even more uncomfortable now. He looked back to Duo who was taking a swig of his drink and put it on the table.

"Duo, Ai Ya! what are you doing?"

Duo stared blank faced. "Huh? Doing what?"

"I thought that you were drinking a beer, shen! You're underage to begin with, don't drink wine coolers!"

"Uhm, Wufei, have you ever had beer?" When there was no response Duo continued, "They taste kinda bad. These at least taste good. 'Sides, its not like I'm gonna have a six-pack in under, oh, eleven minutes. Calm down," he said as his hands pushed down the air in front of him.

Wufei just gave him a inquisitive glare and then slowly sat back, looking harshly at Duo who made a 'Hey I didn't do anything that wrong' defensive face and gently waved his hands in front of him to try to convince Wufei to calm down.

The car ride over had been nice Jeff seemed like a nice man, talking about all the things Wufei should do before he went back to earth, gladly listening to Wufei's input on happenings on Earth and that he had, in fact, come from a colony. Wufei wished they were still in the car, or that Jeff was here. In Wufei's mind, Jeff was clearly not gay, and having at least one other straight person around would make him feel a lot better right about now.

"So what's going down Earth-side?" Duo asked, clearly just wanting to extricate the awkwardness Wufei was emitting.

"Not much, literally actually. Work been slow, we pretty much spend time going over reports. Other officers have been sent off to help regular police activity because there is a shortage of cops and an abundance of Preventers. It's actually rather pathetic." He said and closed his eyes thinking of all the redundant work he'd been assigned for the past few months. Thinking about work did get his mind off of the current situation, however, so he was happy to go into further detail about Sally and Noin and how he thought there was a secretary on his floor who fancied him.

"Really?" Duo asked, sounding too interested for Wufei's comfort. "What's she like?"

That was odd. Wufei had never really thought about her. He wasn't sure what to say actually. He never said anything about another person unless it was one of the other ex-pilots, like what he had done to get on Duo's bad side just the other day.

"Well… I don't know. I guess she's nice. She's about Sally's age though, so I never gave it a second thought…"

"Dude, don't sell me short, what does she look like, how does she walk, what does she wear, come on! I know you want to give me the details you have 'crush' written all over your face." Wufei thought he heard the slightest bit of reluctance in Duo's words but it could have just been paranoia kicking in.

"Well," He started with a sigh, "She's pretty I guess, I never thought of her like that before, but-"

"Nononono. You're still doing it wrong. Hair color, eye color, slim features, well defined, plump, tall, short. Details, man, not opinions, heh, you're such a rookie!" Duo exclaimed with a smile and sounded interested in what Wufei had to say.

Perhaps he isn't gay, he thought before starting with the facts, "Well, she's about my height, you know, average Earth height. Uh, she has brownish hair… I guess you could say that she's a light brunette? Her eyes I don't know, I've never looked, really, she's not so much from my department, I only see her in a passing for the most part. Well, sometimes she does come to ask me things, but I'm usually buried in something, so… I have a bad habit of not looking at people when I talk to them at work…"

Duo just nodded. "Yeah, we never look at each other when we're working, well, for the most part," he added, "But that's cause our professions are, reaaaaaally different… So what do you think of her, if you don't mind"

Wufei felt awkward again. Duo might just be interested because he's a good friend, but, what if I say something and he gets jealous or something. Damn it, how did I get myself into this mess anyway?

"Uh, well, I don't know. I hardly know her, so it's entirely out of place to say anything like that about her. I mean, yes, she is attractive, but I don't know her well. I'm not going to judge her on her looks."

This made Duo smile. "Gee 'Fei, you're a true gentleman! I'm the same way. That makes me feel better. At least I know you're not some crummy sex fiend!" He ended with what appeared to be a joke. "But really, I think it's good of you not to just like someone for how they look, even if it does help a little" He said and smiled lightly.

In all truth, Duo wasn't a half-bad looking person. His hair was rather neatly pulled back and his bangs had been trimmed to that they were no longer a messy mass atop his face. He was wearing a blue button down tee, probably his work shirt, and a pair of dark slacks, probably to hide oil stains, although the shirt didn't bear any. The top few buttons of the shirt were undone exposing his collarbone. Wufei quickly looked away.

Don't do that, he told himself, it's creepy, and look away. Don't do it. Wufei was starting to wonder if maybe Duo wasn't gay after all, he did, after all, seem very interested in the woman at Wufei's work.

Wufei looked back to Duo and caught his eyes. Eyes, yes there is a reason people notice those. That's why Duo had asked about her eyes. But why was he looking at Duo's. Sure they were an odd blue-ish color, purple even, but why? He looked into his lap trying to figure out what was going on in his head. Duo was perfectly silent, as if he knew Wufei was confused.

"I should be going now. I have work to do," He said and got up, Duo imitated and led him back to the door. "Perhaps we can meet again while I am here. Lunch or something?"

"Sure thing buddy, it's a date." Duo said and, for the umphteenth time today gave his classic chuckle. It was a good chuckle, but Wufei feared what it meant almost as much as he feared the words.

"Yes, a date between friends, I suppose" He said quietly and walked out and back to his hotel room to gather his thoughts.

Notes from Enai: "Ai Ya" is Chinese for "My God!" or similar exclamation while "Shen" is simply "God"

I don't pretend to know Chinese, so if the way I throw the words around is wrong, please let me know. I'm using a Chinese-English on-line dictionary, and there will be a good bit of the language thrown in seeing as Wufei is Chinese, and all. All Chinese will be explained at the end of the part it is in.

FINAL EDITED VERSION!