Author's Note: One more time, following one ShadowMajin's advice, I am going to advertise a forum that I started back in April of which nobody has responded to. If you can't find it, take the link from my profile and it should lead you straight to it. Honestly, I want as many opinions for this as possible. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing

Warning: language, shounen ai

The Sacrifices We Make

If there was an animal that could be used to accurately describe Duo, Solo was sure that it was a cat.

Even though he was small in stature, he managed to somehow defy the laws of physics by taking up more room than was possible. He knew that since the guy was sprawled all over him, not that he minded, of course. Unresisting to temptation, he allowed himself to indulge and begin to stroke the long, chestnut hair as if the teen was a pet.

If anything, Duo snuggled closer into him, making it all the more worth it. Was there no limit to how adorable this guy could get?

Hearing the low boom of thunder from outside served to remind him that they still had school today and, unfortunately, the storm had not come in time to possibly flood the area and cancel it. He did not feel like getting up and especially in such a comfortable position too. Plus, he didn't want to wake Duo up for something as trivial as a thing like school.

The sacrifices he had to make…

Huh, well that was weird. A few weeks ago, if he felt like ditching school, he would have done so in a heartbeat. Now, he was actually considering going, not because he knew that his uncle was willing to discipline for doing such a thing but because Duo went. Damn, he was really getting soft…but it wasn't such a…bad thing…not really…

Had he really changed? Was that why he was having such a falling out with his old buddies? If it meant giving up Duo to go back to the old way, then fuck it, that was too much of a sacrifice. What was that saying again? Knowledge gained is innocence lost? Eh, it was something like that.

He didn't resist a yawn that decided to free itself from him. That action, however, woke Duo up, the braided one yawning like a puppy as he regained consciousness.

"Morning," Duo greeted groggily, his eyes remaining firmly shut.

"And I was about to wake you up too," Solo whispered to Duo. "Well, we got to get up and all. It's going to be a shitty day, I swear."

"Dun wanna," Duo whined.

A loud clap of thunder tore through the serene silence.

"DAMN IT!" Duo swore, now fully awake.

"This sucks," Solo agreed as he sat up, Duo sliding off his body.

The next half hour was filled with grumbles and complains as the two got ready and tromped down for a cold breakfast. An hour later, along with Quatre, they arrived at school with had a dark, forbidding look about it thanks to the storm clouds above.

No sooner had they gotten out of their transportation when the flood of rain drenched them without warning, causing the three teens to flee into the school building along with anybody else unlucky enough to still be outside.

"Son of a bitch!" Duo swore as he began to twist his braid harshly, squeezing the water that had taken up residency out. "This is just perfect! Fan-fucking-tastic!"

"And you always wondered why I used to bug you to cut your hair," Quatre commented dryly.

"Like you have a right to talk!" Duo retorted, giving his braid a particular harsh twist. "You've never had long hair a day in your life!"

"Do you know why now?" Quatre replied.

"I don't know about that but I do know this," Solo groused. "I'm heading to the can, meet you guys at the lockers."

"You mean you can find your way to my locker?" Duo mock-gasped. "Dear lord he's growing up!"

"Don't fall in!" Quatre called out to him as Solo marched away.

More or less barging into the restroom, Solo made a quick stop at the sinks to make an imitation of Duo as he squeezed the water out of his hair. Getting a good amount of it out, he headed to the can to take care of his business, not in the mood to whistle since the outside weather was really doing a number on his mood today. At least he hadn't lashed out yet. Who knows, he might have hit a kitten…

Finishing up, he made his way to the sinks once again to wash his hands and keep up a good hygiene. However, as he was in the midst of doing that, he felt two arms snake around his waist. At first, he had an idea of who it was and his mind instantly fell at a hundred miles per second into the gutter when he noticed something protruding into his back. Now, unless Duo was hiding something from him, he knew that the no male he had ever known had such a protrusion.

Thus, twisting his head around, he found himself glaring down at Dorothy Catalonia.

"You know you're in the wrong bathroom," Solo spoke up, his voice cold.

"I don't think that really matters right now, do you?" asked the stuck up voice of Chang Wufei who was reclining against the locked bathroom door.

Frowning, Solo scanned the restroom quickly, only to find to his dismay that Heero Yuy was also joining the party as he grinned predatorily at the blond male.

Could things get any worse than this?

Giving Heero another look, he asked, "How's the leg doing?"

Heero's smug look instantly dropped as it contorted into one of fury but he was stopped before he could do anything to purge it.

"We're not here for that, Heero," Wufei reprimanded. "We're just here for a nice chat, that's all."

"What the hell do you three want?" Solo demanded, not in the mood for any kind of game.

"Straight to the point, as usual," Wufei commented. "Since you want to get down to business so badly, we might as well reciprocate. Basically put, whatever relationship you have with Maxwell, we want you to break it off and unconditionally sever it."

"That's the stupidest thing that I've ever heard!" Solo snapped.

"It may not be so stupid once you know that that's the only way you're going to keep yourself out of prison," Wufei replied dryly.

Solo couldn't help but pause and frown. Now what the hell did that mean?

Wufei answered him before he could ask the question. "I have come across some interesting artifacts that could positively link you up to a certain fire that destroy half an industrial complex."

Solo fought to keep himself from paling. How the hell…how did he find out about that? Still, he had to use the golden rule in getting out of trouble: deny, deny, deny.

"I have no idea what you mean by that," he said stiffly, glaring at the Chinese teen.

"I thought you might say that," Wufei chuckled. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small object and held it up for the blond to see. "Does this seem familiar?"

Solo couldn't stop himself from paling this time. In Wufei's hand was an old-fashion lighter that was blackened from what could have possibly been a fire. Normally he could have pointed out that the lighter could have belonged to just anybody except that Wufei had the lighter's bottom facing up, miniscule words that were barely there engraved into it.

Property of Solomon Winner.

Damn it, he always knew that thing would come back some day to haunt him! He didn't even need to be up close to it and squinting to see the engraving. Fuck!

"Of course, that's not all, my friend," Wufei continued smugly. "You see, not only must you rid yourself of Maxwell, you must also accept Ms. Catalonia here as your new significant other."

Solo could bring himself to say anything to that, the weight of his past arson firmly set on his shoulders. If Uncle Raberba, or even his father, found out about this…

FUCK!

"Can I have some time to think about this?" he asked suddenly.

"Sure you can," Wufei replied. "You have until the end of the day. If you refuse or don't do anything, then I'm afraid you're going to need to acquaint yourself with the local prison population."

Dorothy looked as if she wanted to protest and demand an answer right then and there while Heero was just enjoying the show. Payback was so sweet…

"Alright, you'll have your answer after school," Solo said, his insides twisting as he spoke each and every word.

Pulling up close to him, Dorothy said, "See you soon, my little tiger," and pecked his check.

Soon enough, the blond was alone in the restroom, Heero's hobbling form the last thing to disappear out the door.

--

"Something wrong?" asked Walker, his arm wrapped affectionately around Relena's waist.

"You know, I thought I saw the oddest thing this morning," she answered as they headed towards their first class.

"What was that?" Walker asked.

"I saw Dorothy coming out of the boys' restroom," Relena said, her confusion obvious. "I wonder what it is she could be doing in a place where she shouldn't even be."

"Yeah, I wonder if she came out of the one that smells rotten from high heaven," Walker groused.

"That's something I didn't need to hear or know," the girl muttered.

"Hey, it's that Winner kid!" Walker suddenly exclaimed. "You think he might want to know about that? He's has something going on with that girl, doesn't he?"

Obviously referring to the incident at Homecoming, Relena thought that perhaps Walker was right, that Quatre should know about this odd occurrence. After all, girls weren't allowed or suppose to be in the boys' restroom.

--

"Something wrong?" Duo asked.

"Nothing you should be worried about," Solo muttered in reply.

Duo frowned. It wasn't that he objected to Solo wanting to be near him all the time but the guy had suddenly gotten all clingy, sticking to side in-between classes and now at lunch. Something was on the guy's mind but he hadn't breathed a single word about it. It was really trying the braided one's nerves.

A loud clap of thunder was audible, even above the sounds of teens chatting and gossiping.

He was getting a bad feeling about this, and it wasn't just the fact that it was pouring and raining cats and dogs outside. He had caught the smug looks of Dorothy, Wufei, and Heero whenever he looked around. There was really something off about those looks but he didn't know what it exactly was except that it meant trouble.

So, when Quatre joined them for their midday meal, Duo was more than willing to draft his best friend's services.

"I was told something really interesting this morning," Quatre said right off the bat before anybody could say something. "Somebody caught Dorothy coming out of the boys' restroom this morning."

Upon hearing this, Solo immediately stiffened.

"What business would Dorothy have in the guys' bathroom?" Duo pondered aloud. "Well, at least besides the obvious but wouldn't she have to be in the girls' bathroom for that? I can't see her using one of the urinals to save her life."

Much to Duo's irritation, though, Quatre wasn't paying him any mind. Instead, the smaller blond's eyes were boring into Solo, as if the taller blond knew something about it.

"What are you looking at?" Solo snapped defensively, glaring at his cousin.

Quatre continued to watch the long haired blond as if he was some fresh piece of meat. Duo didn't like it.

"What is going on?" Duo demanded.

Another boom of thunder made the windows shudder before all the lights in the building shut off, plunging everybody into darkness. Silence reigned throughout the cafeteria for only a minute before other teens began to take advantage of the unexpected turn of events and began to make immature 'ooh' noises, as if trying to scare the other students.

Sighing, Duo placed his forehead on his propped up hands, muttering, "This is just great…"

As the noise level slowly began to rise as more and more teens got back into their social moods, the lights began to flicker on and off continually. Seems like the school's technical support was incompetent.

Finally, the intercom went off, the principal announcing that school would be canceled for the rest of the day. Solo paled as soon as the announcement was finished. He had told Wufei that he would give him his answer when school was over…

"So what do you say to my ultimatum?" Wufei's voice came from behind, right on cue.

It was too soon. Solo found that he couldn't think, couldn't say anything. Wufei must have been reading his mind because his smile was spreading, becoming a hungry grin.

"And what is that suppose to mean?" Duo demanded, glaring at Wufei.

"You'll see," Wufei replied.

"Well, it's just going to have to wait," Quatre interrupted. "We have to be getting home now and Father said he needed to see us immediately after school."

"Did your father foresee us getting out early?" Wufei inquired.

"It's best to take him literally," Quatre stated humorlessly. "So, if you don't mind, we'll be taking out leave now, Chang."

"You win," Wufei said, holding his hands up in mock-surrender. "But, I will expect an answer first thing tomorrow morning, Solomon," he continued.

"Let's go," Quatre cut in, placing his hands on his cousin and best friend and proceeded to drag them away. "It's best not to keep Father waiting."

"Indeed it isn't," Wufei murmured to himself as his onyx never left the three teens' retreating forms.