Title: A Question about Love
Author: May Chang
Warnings: shounen-ai, POV
Pairings: 2+5
Disclaimers: "Gundam Wing" is the property of Bandai.

Of all the things that could have been done, it was Quatre's horde of nephews and nieces that finally made Wufei laugh.

If Duo had been thinking coherently, he would have been insulted by the fact that the little monsters had accomplished something he could not after four years. As it was, Duo could only sit there in the snow and just stare at the Chinese lying beside him laugh out loud towards the sky. It was really hard to just comprehend the fact that one of the toughest bastards Duo had the pleasure to work with would be laughing his ass off when it came to a bunch of Quatre clones.

And, damn, did he have a beautiful laugh.

Wufei suddenly stopped laughing and turned to give Duo a look of surprise.

Oh crap, had he said that out loud?

Wufei just looked at him then stood up and walked back to the manor. Duo just sat there in the snow and watched as the Chinese walked away before the mini Quatres came back to torture him.

Duo hadn't had a chance to apologize to Wufei for his comment that day. When he had returned to the manor, the monsters had dragged him into the dining hall where half of Quatre's sisters were and had hot chocolate with them. At dinner, through fate or coincidence, Wufei was sitting at the opposite end of the table from Duo. Finally, the next day, Duo woke up to find out that Une had called Wufei up early in the morning for a mission that required his expertise.

He could swear that Father Maxwell and Solo were up in Heaven right now laughing their asses off.

So Duo decided to seek out an old friend and ask her for some advice. It was also a good opportunity to see how she was doing after the war. He had expected her to be swamped in paper works, but when he had arrived he hadn't been prepared to the sight of a group of people who were trying to get the girl to command them or the group of suitors off to the side. Deciding that the poor girl needed to be rescued – and Heero wasn't anywhere to do that – Duo walked over, and in a matter of minutes had Relena clinging onto his arm and dragging him to her office, thanking him profusely.

He related to her what had happened at the manor and Relena listened. A smile lighted her face at the end and she asked if Duo liked Wufei. Duo shrugged and nodded his head. Her next question nearly made the ex-Gundam pilot fall out of his chair.

"Do you love him, Duo?"

The question ran through Duo's mind for a long time. Did he love Wufei? To be honest, he wasn't sure himself. Duo knew that he liked Wufei as a friend and as a partner. While he wasn't in Preventers like the Chinese, he was occasionally called upon by Une to help in some situations, sometimes partnering with Wufei.

It wasn't like he was falling heads over heels for Wufei; he didn't feel any butterflies in his stomach when he was with Wufei or any sort of strange feelings. He was pretty sure that those romantic authors were barking up the wrong tree with all their "butterfly feelings of love."

Nope, Duo was not in love with Wufei.

Well, he thought so anyways.

It was a few weeks after his talk with Relena that Duo found himself on a mission with Wufei and Sally. They were to infiltrate a rebel base and seize both information and the leaders of the faction. All through the shuttle ride, Sally kept looking between him and Wufei, a strange look on her face.

Duo wasn't sure if it was amusement or annoyance. Quatre did it all the time whenever he did something stupid.

As it was, Duo was sitting a couple rows away from Wufei and, damn it, he was positive that Father Maxwell and Solo were laughing at him now. With a groan, Duo sat back and closed his eyes.

Sally pulled him over after the shuttle ride. Duo was rather surprised by the move and even more surprised by the question she asked.

"Duo, is there something going on between you and Wufei?"

"No," he replied. "Well, maybe, I'm not sure. Maybe it's just me being stupid or something, but… Well, remember a few weeks ago when Quatre invited us to his estate?" He launched into a quick explanation of what had happened as he and Sally followed Wufei and in the end, Duo deemed that strange look on Sally's face as amusement.

Did everyone think that his predicament was that funny?

Sally just pats his head and tells him to talk to Wufei tonight.

That night, Duo sat on his bed, twisting his braid nervously as he looked at Wufei. The Preventer was sitting on his bed, reading the information in hand, his glasses slipping slightly on his nose and his full attention on whatever was written in the folder. So it came as a surprise when Wufei, his attention is focused on the folder, asked Duo what was wrong. Duo couldn't help but stutter a bit in surprise before sitting up and looking at Wufei fully.

He apologized for what he said that night. Wufei just looked at him.

Wow, he looked pissed.

"I am not pissed," Wufei replies.

Aw man, not again. Duo wonders why his brain was suddenly connected to his mouth and sighs in exasperation. He then looks up at Wufei and scratches his cheek, hoping the gesture would make him look more sheepish than nervous. The butterflies in his stomach seemed to be powered by a nuclear reactor. Wufei just raises an eyebrow.

"You look nervous," Wufei said.

Well, there goes that hope.

"Well… are you mad at me?" Duo asked.

"Maxwell, I told you before that I wasn't mad at you," Wufei replied. "You've been acting rather odd since the start of this mission. Surely it's not about that time at Quatre's estate… is it?"

"Um… actually, I've been thinking."

"So that's what that smoke was," Wufei murmured. "And here I thought you had taken up smoking." Duo stuck his tongue out at him.

"Anyway, well, Relena asked me this question and I've been thinking about it for a while, and then Sally pulled me aside and it reminded me of the question again and, god damn it, I don't like that smirk she's got, it makes me think about Hilde about to do something crazy, like blowing that cake up, which was damn messy but the kids at the orphanage thought it was really cool and –oh shit, I'm getting off topic… Wait, what were we talking about?"

"Relena's question," Wufei replied helpfully. He looked rather amused and Duo was sure that Wufei would have been annoyed with the way Duo was rambling than amused.

"Right, Relena's question, so I was like thinking about it for like weeks and weeks about it and truth be told I'm still kind of unsure about the answer, which is dumb because it's me and I really have to know what the hell I'm thinking about because, y'know it's in my head and, please don't kill me or anything like that, but Relena just springs the question about it I was in love with you out of nowhere and, yeah, I've been thinking about that and I'm pretty damn confused, which is weird and then Sally gives me that smirk, and I did mention the fact that it really reminds me of Hilde right, so yeah."

There was silence in the room.

"Um… Should I get out of the room so you can rant to yourself about the stupidity of women and their notion of romance?"

There was still silence in the room.

Maybe he talked Wufei's ears out. Wow, he'd didn't think that was possible.

"Are you… in love… with me?" Wufei asked slowly. Actually it sounded a bit like he was choking over the words. Then again, Wufei seemed the type to not say love or have anything to do with love.

"Er… I dunno?" Duo replied. "Like I said, I'm still in the confusion stage and I have been thinking about it for a while and, yeah, I really meant what I said about you having a beautiful laugh and—"

Duo suddenly found himself in a lip-lock with Wufei.

Chang Wufei was kissing him. Duo Maxwell was kissing Chang Wufei.

And wow, where the hell did he learn to kiss like that?

Then it ended.

"Well, that makes two of us," Wufei breathed as he pulled away.

"Uwa…?" Duo replied intelligently. He was still pretty befuddled by the fact that Wufei had just kissed him rather passionately and now he wasn't.

"Sally asked me that question after the event," Wufei said.

"Erm…"

"And I've been thinking about it for a while myself."

"Uh…"

"And well, I guess I'm just as confused as you are."

"Wha…?"

"I've rendered you speechless," Wufei said mildly. "Amazing."

"Asshole," Duo growled and went in for another kiss.

There weren't butterflies in his stomach when he finally figured out that he was in love with Wufei. The clichéd birds and flowers and everything in life being better when in love never came into the picture.

The nuclear-powered butterflies didn't count; he was nervous and not in love yet.

Duo did eventually move in with Wufei, but that was after a good two years and after he and Wufei had finally decided that yes, they were in love. Nothing in their life changed drastically, no roses or chocolates to each other – roses were too damn girly and neither of them were that passionate about chocolates – and there were no public displays of affection, unless one counted hugging and those Duo gave out freely to all his friends.

Compromises were made when they were seeing one another and more were made when they lived together. There were fights over minor things and silence for a while before they apologized to one another. In the end, it was just life with Wufei.

And that was all.

End