DAY 3

Something was going on.

Wufei eyed Duo suspiciously - the braided boy had been surprisingly quiet all day; yet, his manic grin was firmly in place. More than once, he'd seen him just staring off into space, his eyes dreamy. Even Heero and Trowa were getting uncomfortable. Heero hadn't taken his eyes off him in hours, and Trowa jumped every time Duo moved.

"It's almost time to eat!" Duo said suddenly, making all three of them jump. They were all in the little living room; it had been eerily quiet. "My turn to make dinner! What do you guys want?"

"Hn," was Heero's response. They all knew 01 could care less what he ate.

Trowa just shrugged.

Duo turned on Wufei. "Then I'll make Wu's favorite. Let's see... that would be..."

Oh, not again! Wufei braced himself. He'd never eaten his favorite meal in front of the others, there was no way in the universe that Duo could guess...

"Spaghetti!"

...or, maybe he could.

The other two Pilots were looking at him expectantly, so he just sighed and nodded, trying not to look as stunned as he felt.

"With meatballs!"

Well, there went that little idea! He couldn't help but gape at Duo. The boy gave him an impossibly happy grin and vanished into the kitchen.

"How is he doing that?" Wufei asked the others, unable to keep a slightly plaintive tone out of his voice.

"Do you keep a diary?" Trowa asked.

"No."

"Computer journal?" Heero demanded.

"No."

"Do you have letters, or any personal papers with you?"

"No. And there are none in Nataku, or in any other safehouse, either."

"Then he's doing something else. We'll find out." Heero sounded completely calm.

Easy for him; he wasn't the one Duo was freaking out! Wufei huffed and got up; he needed to meditate or something - anything, really - to get his mind off of Duo and how he was finding out all this personal information.

*

*

*

Duo put the finishing touches to his meal and then went to find the others. Heero and Trowa were sitting very close together on the couch; they jumped apart guiltily when he snickered.

"Dinner."

"Hn." was Heero's reply, while Trowa turned slightly pink and gazed studiously at the wall.

Duo snickered again, and went to find Wufei.

The Chinese boy was sitting in the middle of the small backyard, trying to meditate. The safehouse was in a crowded suburb - Heero had thought it was the perfect cover for a few days, Oz would never dream of looking for them there, and they wouldn't stay long enough for the neighbors to start wondering why there were never any adults around.

What none of them had thought of was the fact that the place was crowded with children. There were half a dozen of them hanging on the fence, staring at Wufei. His Dragon was calmly ignoring them.

Duo grinned, and waved at them, then poked the other boy. "Wu, man, dinner's ready."

Slanted black eyes opened and blinked slowly at him; Duo had to restrain himself from pouncing.

"Dinner?"

"Yeah, spaghetti, remember?"

Wufei rolled his eyes and then let them drift over the summer-green yard, still purposefully ignoring the staring children.

"C'mon, Wu," Duo coaxed again, "stop admiring your favorite color and let's go eat."

"How are you doing that?!" Wufei said hotly, leaping to his feet and grabbing Duo's shoulders.

The braided boy gave him a sweetly innocent smile. "I'm psychic."

"You are not!"

"Then you tell me how I know!"

Wufei had no reply for that. He grumbled and let him go, turning and stalking into the house.

Duo gave the gaping kids one more wave and skipped after him, grinning like a loon.

This was so much fun!

And he knew exactly what he was going to ask tonight!

*

*

*

It was good spaghetti, Wufei had to admit. He'd eaten every bit of his serving, and Duo had given him more without him having to ask. Heero and Trowa seemed to appreciate as well - their own consumption proved that. There wasn't a trace of leftovers.

Now Trowa was washing the dishes, while Heero wiped down the kitchen. Wufei had swept the floor and taken the dishtowels and cloth napkins - there were no paper ones to be found - to the laundry. They were switching chores each evening.

Tomorrow was Heero's turn to cook.

None of them were looking forward to it.

Heero's food was... edible. That was about the nicest thing one could say. Plain, straight-forward, nothing fancy. His 'specialty' was baked chicken with no sauce, and mashed potatoes cooked without salt.

Yummy.

Wufei kept his mind firmly on thoughts of Heero's culinary skills as Duo wandered into the basement. He would not pay attention to that baka - he wouldn't! He dumped detergent into the washing machine and closed the lid, listening to make sure the load sounded balanced.

"Wu..."

"Wufei." he corrected, still not looking at him.

"Wufei... you like me, right?"

He blinked. What was the boy going on about, now? He finally turned puzzled dark eyes to Duo, and found him looking oddly serious. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, we argue and stuff, but... we're friends, right?"

Gods - was Duo coming to cry on his shoulder over losing Heero to Trowa?! Wufei wasn't sure he could handle that, but he knew he couldn't deny Duo when he looked so lost. "I guess so."

"Great!" Just like that, Duo's face went from earnest to delighted. "I just wanted to make sure!"

"...why?"

"'Cause there should always be friendship first!" Duo said, then glomped him. Before Wufei could recover, he had vanished up the stairs, leaving the other Pilot to stare after him.

Duo was so weird.

What did he mean, 'first'?

NIGHT 3

Duo thought Wufei would never fall asleep.

Every time he peeked, the other boy was gazing at the ceiling, eyes wide open. He didn't seem the least bit tired. He wondered if he'd gone to far with the 'psychic' bit, because Wufei definitely seemed to have something on his mind.

Finally, about an hour and a half after they had gone to bed, Wufei drifted off.

Duo forced himself to give the boy another hour, so he would be deeply asleep.

Then he was hovering over him again. "Wufei..."

"...wha'...?"

"Did Duo make good spaghetti?"

"...yes!" Wufei smiled softly in his sleep, and Duo had to restrain himself again. Damn, that boy was too cute for his own good! Too bad Wufei would kill him if he ever said so.

...or said so while the boy was awake.

"Wufei... you're really cute, do you know that?"

"Am not..."

"Yes, you are." He paused for a moment, trying to remember what he wanted to ask next. The list of questions he'd come up with had flown right out of his mind when Wufei smiled. "Um... do you like... what would you want for a pet?"

"Cat."

Figured. Wufei reminded him of a cat, the graceful way he moved, the unconsciously dainty way he ate and kept his clothes neat. The cute way he snarled when he got angry. Duo could almost imagine him with laid-back ears and a fluffed-out tail when he did that.

Maybe he shouldn't imagine him that way. It started a sweet ache in his groin. Before he realized what he was saying, another question tumbled out of his mouth. "Are you a virgin?"

"No."

Well, that wasn't what he expected to hear! Who had Wufei been sleeping with?! Duo nearly snarled, himself, at the thought of one of the other Pilots with his Dragon! "Wufei! Who did you have sex with?!"

Before he could slap himself for asking that, Wufei was answering.

The words that came out of that pretty mouth shocked Duo so badly that he collapsed on top of the smaller boy.

*

*

*

Wufei was startled awake when a heavy weight landed on his chest. For a second he panicked, then he recognized the wide violet eyes staring down at him. Before he could demand to know what the boy was doing on top of him, Duo cut him off.

"Wufei?! You were married?!"

Rage flooded his soul. "How do you know that?" he nearly shouted, grabbing Duo's arms in a painfully tight grip. "Damn it all, how do you know that?!"

"You talk in your sleep!" Duo replied hotly, not caring if he was giving himself away. "Why didn't you ever tell us?! Where's your wife?"

"I never told you because it didn't matter! And she's dead!"

Duo's face went blank. "Oh... I... I'm sorry, Wufei."

Wufei sighed, his anger fading as rapidly as it flared. "Don't be. I'm sad, but I'm not heartbroken."

"Didn't you... love her?"

He wondered for a second about the lost tone of Duo's voice, then answered. "No. It was an arranged marriage, when we were fourteen. We hated each other."

"Fourteen's pretty young to be getting married!"

Wufei smirked. "Not in my culture. You're considered an adult when you're fourteen."

"Oh... That kinda sucks. Doesn't give you much chance to be a kid."

"I never got that anyway." Wufei didn't know why he was spilling all this to Duo, but he couldn't seem to shut up. "I was in training to be the leader of my clan; there was never any time for me to be a child."

"That really sucks. So... what was her name? If you don't mind me asking..."

"Meiran. Long Meiran."

"Was she pretty?"

"Yes... in a tomboy sort of way. I used to tell her she needed to be more womanly; she used to tell me I should be more of a man."

"Sounds like a lot of marriages I know."

Wufei snickered; he couldn't help it. "Maybe. So... I talk in my sleep?"

"Yeah," Duo's face went back to grinning, amusement sparking in his amethyst eyes. "You'll talk about anything, man. That's how I learned all your favorite stuff."

"I should have known," Wufei grumbled, "no wonder Meiran always knew everything. I couldn't figure out why I could never keep a secret from her."

It was Duo's turn to laugh.

Wufei scowled at him. "So, you're not psychic?"

"Nope, just psycho! It's fun to talk to you, though. And admit it - you would never have told me when your birthday was."

"Never," Wufei agreed, and they both drifted into silence for a moment.

Then Duo went back to the subject that had startled him so badly.

"So... you're not a virgin?"

Wufei blushed bright red and squirmed. "Why did you ask me that?"

Duo had the grace to look slightly ashamed. "Sorry - it just kinda slipped out. I was wondering because... well, never mind. But wait - you said you and Meiran hated each other! Did that change?"

"Not for a long time," Wufei snorted.

"Then..."

His companion sighed. "We did our duty. Neither of us wanted to... but... the Elders were threatening to 'examine' Meiran. To see if she was still... you know."

"A virgin?"

"Yes," Wufei flushed miserably. "So we had sex, once. She hated it, she said it hurt and told me I was clumsy; she never wanted to do it again."

"It does hurt the first time, but it gets better. Lots better. And anyway - not wanting to do it again was probably just because you guys didn't get along."

"Maybe."

"And I doubt if you were any clumsier than any other guy at his first time, so don't worry about that."

Wufei was pretty sure his face was going to be permanently red. "Can we change the subject, please?"

"Sure, Wu! What other embarrassing things do you want to talk about?"

"Well - if you must discuss embarrassment - what else did you ask me?"

"Mmm... just who you liked."

Wufei sat upright sharply, and stared at him in dismay. "W-what?!"

"I said I asked you who you liked," Duo purred at him. "I must say, the answer was very interesting..."

"Maxwell!"

"Oh, c'mon, Wu! You call me 'Duo' in your sleep!" That was stretching the truth a bit, but he didn't care.

"I... I..." Wufei couldn't think of a thing to say. There was no way he'd told Duo he liked anyone else, because he didn't. Not in the way Duo meant.

He wished that the bed would come to life and eat him, to save him from this embarrassment.

"Hey, Wu..." the voice was alarmingly close to his ear, but he refused to look. He stared steadily at the window.

"Wuuuufeeeeiiiiii..." Something warm and wet touched his ear and he jerked around, eyes wide.

Just in time for Duo to kiss him.

His mind went completely blank.

Duo pressed against his lips firmly, his tongue gently prying them apart. It wormed its way past his teeth and into the warm wetness of his mouth, stroking gently along his tongue and coaxing it into playing along.

When Wufei's mind finally woke back up, he was flat on his back on the bed, with Duo looming over him, smiling even though he was every bit as breathless as Wufei.

"Damn, Wu, you're a good kisser. I thought you would be..." His smile grew unutterably sweet. "You know I'm crazy about you, right?"

"Y-you are?!" Wufei was amazed. Duo Maxwell liked him? "I always... I thought you liked Heero."

Duo sniffed. "Nah - buddies. He's always been loony over Trowa; I never had a chance even if I wanted one. Which I didn't. Not once I saw you."

Wufei blinked at him in a way that reminded him of a confused kitten - Duo had to kiss him again.

Then he sighed, and curled up again. Neither of them was really ready to go further - he wouldn't deny he was turned on, but he'd just told Wufei that he liked him. They could have wild monkey sex later, when his... his koi! ....wouldn't be freaked out about it.

That didn't stop him from pulling Wufei tight against him, of course.

Wufei just sighed and snuggled a little, not caring if Duo teased him for that. He liked snuggling, always had. He was surprised he hadn't already cuddled up to Duo in his sleep - it was one of the things he'd been dreading.

Now he didn't have to worry about it anymore.

But there was one thing he did have to worry about...

"Duo?"

"Yeah, Wu-chan?"

"No more nighttime conversations, okay?"

"...okay. If you promise to talk to me when we're awake."

"I promise."

"Deal."

And he sealed it with one last kiss.

*

*

*

A tall figure slipped away from the door and went back to the living room, snuggling on the pull-out couch with a slightly smaller figure.

"So?"

"Wufei talks in his sleep."

"Security risk?"

"Negative. Shared a room with him before. No talking. Seems to do it only around Duo."

Silence.

"Should we tell him?"

"No need. Duo already did."

"Oh."

"Right before he kissed him."

"?! Those two idiots finally got together?!"

"Yes."

More silence.

Then snickering.

"...Heero?"

"Mmpf! Our Baby and our Baka!"

The snickering was suddenly doubled.

"H-heero?" The taller boy wiped tears from his eyes.

"Hn?"

"Don't say that around Wufei, all right?"

"Why?"

"Because," soft lips brushed against his cheek, "I prefer you alive."

And Heero 'hn'd his agreement.

~owari~