A/N: Yep, I wrote another chapter. This is pretty much just fluff and my attempt to give Duo and Wufei the attention they deserve. But god, I wish wasn't so censored, otherwise this would be a lot more fun. ;)

"We are not stopping here."

"Yes, we are! The animals are all about to drop and if we don't stop, that storm will kill them all."

"Wufei, we've kept going through storms and ended up fine."

"Think back to those storms, Zechs! Was it ever this hot before those storms? No! That's a direct sign of how bad this storm will be."

"We still have miles to go, damnit, we don't have the time."

"We'll have to go far slower and loose more time if we loose half of our mounts to this storm." Wufei leapt down from the buckboard of his wagon and swiftly began to undo the buckles on Shenlong's harness. "I am staying here."

Zechs squeezed Ep's flanks and got in between Wufei and his team. "Like hell you are!"

Hand on Ep's reins, Wufei roughly forced the thoroughbred back. "I am. I already lost a team to a storm like this because the dumbass cattle boss wouldn't let us stop, and I sure as hell won't loose the best goddamned team I ever had!" Wufei narrowed his eyes, saying dangerously quietly, "If you don't stop, you will be signing the death sentence for Epyon. He isn't a range horse, and he will die if you don't let him stop and get some food into him. Do you want to kill a defenseless mount that has all of it's faith in you?"

The glare Wufei received was near to deadly, but Zechs dismounted, sure as shooting. He called the other hands over, though Wufei paid him little mind. Instead he continued to undo the harnesses on his mules, hands working with practiced ease, anger still burning away in his gut.

It didn't take him long before the harnesses were slipped off of the mules and feedsacks were slipped over their noses, filled with a handful of oats. This kept the mules complacent and more than willing to put up with the indignities of being hobbled. After currying both of them quickly to release some of their dried sweat, Wufei took out a few stakes and coils of rope from his wagon. As he began to fasten the rope onto some of the stakes, Duo ran up, holding out his hands. "I finished tacking down Cynthia, what do you need me to do?"

Wufei swiftly hammered a stake into the ground before throwing the attatched length of rope over the wagon. He ducked into the wagon and pulled out a sack of oats, along with a few bundles of rods and canvas. "Give each hand a handful of oats for each of their horses. Then you're done with that, get back here and hand out a tent for Trowa and Quatre, and another for Zechs and Wufei. Got it?"

Duo nodded and went to work, driven to urgency by the oncoming storm clouds. Driven by the very same need, Wufei continued his work. Using the stakes, he kept the ropes taut and firm as they held the wagon down, prepared for the bad weather.

Sweat drenched his shirt and hair and his hands shook with fatigue as he took a long drink of water from his canteen. The heat itself wasn't that bad, really. It was the cloying humidity that stuck to everything in sight which made everything near to unbearable. If the storm didn't break the humidity… Well, Wufei wasn't going to think about that.

Finally, Wufei was finished once he threw a large canvas tarp over his wagon. Tying the ends to the rings he had in his wagon especially for this purpose, he had made his wagon water tight. And he had good timing as well, the torrent of rain beginning as he finished his last tie.

And yet, his tent hadn't even been set up. So, hands slipping on the various wet rods of the once simple tent, he began an almost heroic attempt to get at least some form of protection over his head. However, despite his good attempts, he was grateful to see Duo grab the pole which was apt to collapse the whole tent. With another set of hands the tent was finally tamed and stood firmly.

Wufei slipped into the tent, closely followed by Duo. Struggling to take off his boots, he finally succumbed and let the brunette help to slip them off, running a hand over his sodden face. "I just talked back to my cattle boss. I can not believe I just talked back to my cattle boss."

"Zechs is nothing if not fair." One boot finally slipped off and Duo grinned at it triumphantly. "He wouldn't have given in if he didn't think you were right."

"Perhaps but I still should not have lost my temper like I did. Not to a person who controls whether or not I get paid." Wufei replied matter of factly.

The other boot finally came off and Duo gave him a wry grin, tossing the muddy shoe back at him. "Yer gonna get paid, Fei. Even if Zechs throws a fit, it ain't Zechs payin' you, it's Treize." Throwing his bedroll down ont the floor of the tent, he flopped down beside Wufei, limbs mush. "Even if this storm ain't as bad as you say, I'll be mighty glad for some rest." He threw his jacket down on the floor near his head and made a face, turning to his companion, "Mind if I use you like a pillow again?"

Wufei rolled his eyes, which was answer enough for his friend, who curled up next to him like a cat. "I swear Maxwell, it never fails to amaze me how you can be so comfortable with hanging all over people."

Duo murred, face resting quite contentedly on his chest, legs and arms thrown over the cook. "'Suppose it's just the way I grew up. Trowa and I always slept like this."

The cat metaphor proved to be a powerful comparison and he found himself running his fingers over Duo's hair. "You miss him."

"Yep." He sighed. "He was everything I had for a while. Brother, friend, first love, all of that important stuff. And I was everything to him too. I guess people just aren't meant to stay like that."

A hand pinched his ear, Wufei saying sternly, "Just because that's how it happened that one time for you doesn't mean it'll happen everytime."

Duo sat up and scowled at him, rubbing his poor earlobe. "Yep, but didya really have ta' pinch my ear to tell me?"

"You were acting like a woman."

Rolling his eyes, Duo flopped back onto Wufei, resting his chin on one of his shoulders. "And that's a bad thing?"

Wufei turned his head, giving him a look. "Of course. I don't like women."

"So you like men?" Duo brightened, laughing over the sound of rain hitting their tent. "That's good. You really do fit in with all of us on the drive then."

Blushing quite thoroughly, Wufei threw a hand over his face. "I-I didn't mean it like that necessarily-"

"Horse shit. Of course you did. Otherwise you'd be yellin' at me about how you aren't. That and you wouldn't let me hang all over you." Duo said bluntly.

"Well…" Wufei sighed, looking up to the roof of the tent, setting his jaw.

Duo, interest piqued, ran a hand over his chest and asked innocently, "You ever done anything?" Oooo, he liked the blush that question got.

"Of course not. It's not proper behavior."

"That's why you're so wound up!" Duo crowed in triumph, "You've never had sex, that's yer such a prude! Well, we can take of that, no problem."

Wufei watched with painfully wide eyes as Duo straddled his thighs, swallowing in fear as the Texan leaned down. With his elbows down by either side of Wufei's head, Duo said far too impishly, "Whaddya say, pardner?"

Wufei's fingers snarled in the hair at the nape of his neck and pulled him down for a damned good kiss by a first timer. Granted, he had no idea what to do with his tongue, but he'd learn quick if Duo had anything to say about it.

And to add to the awesomeness, Wufei had already pulled Duo's shirt up from his pants, hands sliding underneath the fabric to run calloused fingers over the lines of the hand's back. In return, Duo coaxed Fei's tongue out of hiding, giving it a slow suck and eliciting the cutest darned whimper he'd ever heard.

Wufei broke the kiss, lips tracing down the tendons of Duo's neck instead. The cowhand let out a groan, asking breathily, "Where the hell did you learn how to do that?"

"During the winter, there isn't much else to do but read, and all I had to read were dime store novels last winter."

"You learned to do this from dime store novels?"

"Yes."

"Damn, you're a genius."

The temperature had dropped by twenty degrees by the end of the day, hail stones the size of baby crabapples laying around the grass. Duo crawled out of the tent, rosy cheeked and quite content, and let out a low whistle. "Damn, Wufei. You were right, that was one hell of a storm."

Smoothing back his hair, Wufei slipped out of the tent. "I've been working in this area for a while now, I know my storms." Sneaking a look around, he laid an open kiss on the crook of Duo's neck. "I enjoyed that."

His smile sunbright, Duo leaned back against him. "Yeah. Me too."