6
They trooped back to the basement. Cat flopped down and Trowa slid down next to him.
"We don't have to if you don't want to, but you should really read that article. I cut it out. You can see it in the morning." Quatre patted the space next to him. Duo dubiously lay down. Cat wiggled a bit to get comfortable, propped up against Trowa. Duo breathed deeply trying to settle himself a bit, and then snuggled closer to Cat, burying his head in the crook of Cat's elbow.
"I think we've found another cuddle bug." Cat's giggled, his stomach muscles jarring the side of Duo's head.
"Mphm." Duo protested. Cat chuckled again. Heero lay down next to Duo. Duo immediately went taut.
"Easy." Quatre whispered in his ear, patting Duo's head, "You're just fine, this is a cuddle puddle. Remember when we all did this, Solo too when we were little?" Duo thought of Solo and began to relax. He turned a bit to face Heero and grinned like a child, opening his arms. Heero looked at him a little oddly hesitating only a moment, and then accepted the offer. Duo snuggled a little closer to Cat, wrapping his fingers so that rested lightly on Heero's arm.
"G'nite." He mumbled.
"Good night." Cat echoed.
"Hmm." Trowa breathed.
"'night Duo." Heero whispered. Duo raised an eye lid but could not see Heero's face in the dark. He shut his eyes again and drifted off to sleep snuggled close with his friend is pile of pillows and sleeping bags covered by a few blankets.
The next morning came around eleven forty; Duo woke up to late morning sun streaming through the windows and buried his face into his pillow. His pillow sighed and shifted. Duo's eyes snapped open onto Heero's neck. Duo blinked, once, twice, confused as to how he had got there. Then Cat's words came back to him and he smiled, snuggling back into Heero's shoulder. Thinking about Quatre made Duo wondered where the boy was, but he decided to ignore that. He tried to fall asleep again. That plan was thwarted by the fact that Heero was lying rather painfully on his arm. Duo sighed, wriggling. He eased his arm out from underneath the other boy just as Heero sat up.
"I thought you were awake." Heero commented.
Duo wrinkled his nose. "That's debatable," he yawned.
"Cat's up and about, making breakfast I think. Trowa's still sleeping, but he woke up earlier for a while. He'll get up soon. We were waiting for you."
"Why didn't you wake me up?" Duo prodded.
"You sleep like a stone angel." Duo didn't know how to take that comment. "Cat said to let you sleep in." Heero explained.
"Ah, kind of him." Duo stretched. "So when is this breakfast?" he asked. As if on cue Quatre poked his head into the basement.
"Anybody ready for breakfast?" He called. "Rise and Sh-" he started to shout, but then caught sight of Duo surrounded by blankets and looking very sleepy. "Oh. Sleeping Beauty hungry yet?"
"Starved." Duo responded.
"So am I." Trowa sat up. "By the way, which of us were you talking too?"
"Both, since you're both beautiful, of course. Are you coming, it'll get cold!" Cat disappeared back up the stairs and they rose to follow him.
They sat around the breakfast table happily tucking away breakfast, at least Duo and Cat were. Trowa was eating a slightly smaller portion, not being a major morning eater, and Heero was eating even less, content to nibble on an orange and a bagel. After breakfast they cleared their dishes and put away the pile of blankets in the basement. They trooped up to Quatre's room to wait till parents arrived.
Cat's door was decorated with various pictures of friends and pieces of art. Duo stood and read all the quotes stuck hither and thither over its face.
"Cool huh?" Cat asked. "Trowa and I did it a while back." Duo nodded. He liked it all.
"These are really neat; do you have a list of quotes I could steal from you?"
Cat grinned, "Sure." They pushed into his room, "Ignore the mess." Cat said slightly self consciously. Duo looked around and shrugged.
"Don't worry my room's worse." He said with a note of wry amusement. They all plopped down on Cat's bed and Cat sat in his computer chair, nudging the machine into life with his foot. Heero had picked up a book from the floor and was reading it. Trowa was watching Cat and Duo found himself a bit at a loss.
"Com'ere" Cat motioned and Duo knee marched over to peer at the screen.
"Here's the list of quotes, I have two versions." Cat explained scrolling, "Ones my favorites, the other is the full blown list. Which one do you want?"
"I'll take the one in full." Duo offered.
Cat nodded and asked, "Do you have a memory card…I mean flash drive…or is it a zip drive…you know those thingymagummies?" Duo laughed at Cat's confused flailing. He did have one, but he hadn't brought it with him. "How about I email this to you?" Cat decided. Duo agreed looking at the list.
"Where'd you get all these?"
"Oh" Cat seemed a bit beamish, "I'm a major fanfic fiend." Cat said with a self-deprecating smile. Duo raised an eyebrow. He knew what fanfic was but had never found any of it to be good or anything more then pointless graphic junk.
"You mean there's some worth reading?" He asked genuinely. Cat's eyes widened.
"An Innocent!" He crowed. "Oh you poor deprived dear, we must remedy this at once." His eyes were sparkling and Trowa, leaning over Cat's other side tried not to wind up beside himself with laughter.
"What should he read first?" Quatre considered, his expression grew concentrated and he listed off a few titles and authors. He nodded to himself. His fingers meanwhile, frisked over the keyboard and creating a new file and dropping the documents in. Duo was bemused, getting to see this thing about his friend he hadn't noticed. Heero and Trowa even offered a few titles.
"You should really enjoy this one. Okay, I won't give you anymore. But you have to tell me what you think." Cat finished, saving the file. Duo nodded.
"He likes to know details." Trowa chimed in. Wrapping an arm around Cat's shoulders and sliding into his lap as the boy tried to turn off the computer. "What you particularly thought was amusing. He can go on for hours about a specific scene. Don't ever laugh or say something when you're reading and he's around unless you want to give a full explanation, and if you're his friend and he laughs at something be sure to ask about what or else he gets sad." Trowa smirked.
Cat playfully glared at him, "I'm not necessarily like that you generalizer, you."
"Don't trust him. He really can be that bad." Heero said a hint of a smile in his voice. Duo looked over to where he was sprawled on the bed. Heero propped his head up on his hand, book laid out before him, but neglected, his eyes almost grinning at the protesting Cat and smirking Trowa. Within the past few hours he saw more emotion from Heero then he had ever before. Maybe he was just getting to know him better; maybe this was what Heero was like around his friends. Whatever it was Duo hopped it would carry over to Monday.
His hopes however, though not thoroughly dashed, were laid to rest. Heero seemed as detached on Monday as he had been so far that school year. He wasn't unfriendly, but he didn't go out of his way to create a conversation. They compared notes on the Piper Cub and started to format a speech they could easily rattle off to people interested in the plane. Duo flipped his last note card over and looked at the blank underside. "Lunch?" he asked. Heero nodded, stacking his note cards in a neat pile on the table, standing up and stretching. Duo watched out of the corner of his eye, there was a faint hint of a pleased expression that made him hopeful.