By: Aja Golde

For summary, disclaimer and mild warnings, see chapters one and two.

Author's Notes: The song that Quatre was referring to in chapter 3 was the 1982 hit "Jenny/867-5309″ by Tommy Tutone. I don't own that either. Sheesh.

Camillian was wondering about the time frame of this story. I know Quatre mentioned it a few times, but just to be clear, Duo and Quatre are in Disneyworld for seven days (which means they stay at the hotel for six nights).

Oh, and for future reference, a black box theatre is where the stage is in the middle of the theatre and the audience sits around it on all sides.

Chapter 4

Day 1 5:00 PM

After grabbing a bite to eat, Duo and Quatre were now in line for the last show of the Festival of the Lion King for the evening.

"Lines," Duo grunted, "It seems like all we do is wait in lines."

"That's practically what Disneyworld is Duo: lines."

"Hey, Quatre?"

"Yeah?"

"How many people have we introduced ourselves to?"

"Um, well let's see…Heero obviously knows your name, but I don't think he knows mine. Trowa knows our names, he's the one who recommended the show, and Sally knows us for sure. Why?"

"Because someone's holding a sign with our names on it."

Quatre looked ahead, and near the beginning of the line he saw a Disney employee holding a cardboard sign with 'DUO AND WATSON' written on it.

"That has to be us," Quatre said, feeling a little nervous, "how many other Duo and Watson's could there be?"

"Let's go talk to her, I'm sure nothing's wrong."

Duo sauntered up to the Disney employee, a petit young woman with short dark hair, bangs flopping over one side of her face haphazardly. Her face was heart shaped, and her eyes were wide and blue.

"Excuse me miss," Duo tapped her on the shoulder, "but what's that sign for?"

"I'm waiting for one Duo and one Watson. I was ordered to take them to the best seats in the house if they showed. Why? You them?"

Duo grinned at her and Quatre felt his jaw drop. He knew Disney was famous for spitting out surprises, but he never thought that somehow the Disney magic would affect him.

"Baby even if we weren't, I'd say yes if it'd get us to the front row."

"Well you look like them," she ran a critical eye over their forms, "one with a long, brown braid, and the other with pale blond hair. I was given a description, you know; it wouldn't do to have someone else take your seats."

"But how did you know we were coming to see the show?" Quatre asked, and was beginning to feel nervous again. He wondered if this was some twisted setup, but he couldn't begin to fathom who would go out of their way to do this, especially just on a hunch that they would swing by. This is Disneyworld, Quatre, stop being so paranoid, he thought firmly to himself.

"We've had someone out here with this sign since noon, just waiting for you guys to come see the show. Now you want to go in or not?"

"Of course," Duo and Quatre said simultaneously.

She smiled at them, "Excellent. Duo and Watson, allow me, Hilde, to welcome you to the Festival of the Lion King, a Broadway-esque show based on the movie the Lion King. Featuring the best in song and dance, the Festival of the Lion King showcases some of the most decorative costumes to ever grace a Disney stage, and the acrobatic tricks, fire juggling acts, and audience participation guarantees that every guest experiences one wild half hour. The theatre is divided into four sections, each representing an animal in the story, and the space is air-conditioned with stadium seating that seats over one thousand people."

Duo let out a low whistle, but Quatre couldn't help wondering who arranged this. Hilde led them into the theatre, arranged like a black box and for the next half hour they watched the colorful retelling of the Lion King, Quatre liking the people on stilts the best, while Duo seemed content just to listen to the loud music. Even if it was a Disney soundtrack, Duo could find a beat he liked. When the show was over, Quatre tried to find Hilde again.

"Come on Quatre, can't you simply accept a gift?" Duo asked as he followed Quatre through the throng of exiting people. But Quatre didn't answer, having seen Hilde standing at the exit doors, assisting the departing mass of people.

"So what did you think of the show?" Hilde asked them after having directed an elderly couple to the nearest restrooms.

"Great! The excellent seats were definitely a treat. But we've only been here a day and don't really know who could've arranged this. I'd really like to say thank you, if you know the person who did this for us," Quatre said.

Hilde blinked at them, "Well, Trowa of course. He said you and him were pretty good friends, so he put in a good word for you with the attraction manager. She's wrapped around Trowa's pinkie. She's known Trowa since he was a kid because his parents worked here until they died. She adores Trowa and his sister Catherine."

"Oh," Quatre said, trying to make sense of this wealth of information.

Hilde glanced at him suspiciously, "You do know which Trowa I'm talking about, right? The way he was talking, I thought you guys were long lost friends."

"Um," Quatre felt his cheeks flush, and couldn't really think of anything to say.

"Oh," Hilde thunked the side of her head, "you're that kind of 'long-lost friend'. I get it. Shh…I'll keep it quiet."

"What?!" Quatre backed up suddenly, ramming into Duo who looked like he was enjoying watching his discomfort.

"I'll tell Trowa you enjoyed the show, if you don't get to him first, that is. Now go on, I've got other visitors to annoy, ok?"

Hilde turned to a large family who was waiting for her attention. They glared at Quatre and Duo as they left.

"Wow," Duo said, "talk about the Winner charm. My charm has never gotten me front seats to a show."

Quatre was still blushing furiously, "I bet he does it all the time. Cast members are usually helpful and friendly, aren't they?"

"Yeah, okay, no one gets a person front seats to a show they might see unless they really, really like them."

"We can't like each other, we've barely even met."

"Looks liked you hooked Trowa within just a few short minutes, then. Damn you're good. Heero gets me a stuffed animal and Trowa gets you front seats."

"I don't understand why he'd go through the trouble, I mean, it's not like we talked about anything interesting, just animals and such. Nothing really scintillating or soul-revealing if you ask me."

Duo hooked an arm around his neck, drawing him in for a noogie, "Well maybe Trowa's gotten tired of his animals and has decided to study the human species instead."

"Or I could look like his favorite goat," Quatre joked.

"He did seem pretty attached to them; but come on, let's get some dinner. After that we can go back to the hotel and see if Heero is a man of his word. I don't know about you, but I'm beat."

Day 1 7:00 PM

Duo and Quatre lay on their beds, giddy and tired, excited that their first day had gone off without a hitch, disappointed because no stuffed animal had been discovered. Well, Duo was disappointed. Quatre was ambivalent.

"What were you expecting?" Quatre asked as he clutched his pillow to his chest, "A huge fluffy animal when you opened the door?"

"Well, yeah," Duo sighed, clad only in his boxers.

"You know deliveries can't be made when the guest isn't in the room for security purposes."

"Then why didn't he send it to the front desk?"

"Because he was joking, Duo. He's not going to spend money on someone he just met."

Duo buried his face in his pillow, "Yeah, yeah, I was just hoping, you know? Nothing to top off a covert vacation like a summer fling. Oh well, I guess I can live vicariously through your love life, then."

"What love life?"

"You know: tall, antisocial, has a fetish for animals. Starts with a T and ends with an A?"

"Antisocial? He works at Disneyworld! He can't be antisocial. And as for that fetish…he's just knowledgeable-"

"You're cute when you're defending him."

"-and there is nothing between us. Honestly Duo, I don't know where you get these ideas."

"I base them off of reality."

"Clearly not the reality me and the rest of the world live in."

Duo and Quatre lapsed into silence before Quatre decided to bring up a topic that had been eating at him since they left the Festival of the Lion King.

"Duo?"

Duo turned on his side and the two friends faced each other, each resting on a feather pillow, the mellow lighting giving their eyes a misty look.

"Did Hilde say Trowa's parents were dead?"

Duo frowned, rolling his eyes to look at the ceiling as he answered softly, "Yeah, I guess she did."

In the distance they could hear kids shouting and giggling in the pool; a light, sparkling tune was playing through the speakers.

"Do you remember anything about your parents?" Quatre asked. Duo kept pretty tight-lipped about his past, but Quatre knew he had been through several foster homes before being adopted in sixth grade, a year before he and Quatre met at the private school.

"Nah. Don't know happened to them. They probably just ran off, might have ended up in jail. As far as I know, no one has come looking for me. And I don't go looking for them. What'd be the point?"

Duo brought his braid around his shoulder, almost cradling it to his face in a protective gesture. Outside their door a few pairs of small feet tumbled past, high-pitched voices talking in babble. Seconds later a woman came walking down the hall, whispering. A low laugh answered. Quatre felt his eyes moisten. Children. A mother. And a father.

Duo was lost in his thoughts, and Quatre had nothing else to do but stare at the ceiling. Children. What had Duo and Trowa been like as children? How much of a childhood did they have? Did Duo ever wonder what it was like to have a mother? He only had a father – a priest. Father Maxwell. There had been a nun, somewhere down the line. Duo sometimes alluded to her, but Quatre didn't know the details.

"Duo?" Quatre asked again, "What do you think it's like to have a mother?"

"Asking all the tough questions tonight, aren't you?" Duo smiled softly. Quatre wondered if he had gone too far. Duo didn't answer for a while.

"Man, Quatre, I don't know. We're both not in the position to answer that question. Frankly, you can't miss what you've never had, right?"

"But do you ever – imagine?"

Duo fell quiet again and Quatre ran his fingers over the bedcovers, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"That Heero didn't get you that stuffed animal."

At that, Duo cracked a smile, "Just one more disappointment."

Then suddenly Duo picked up his braid, playing with the end of it, looking at some point past Quatre's head, "I'd like to think that I'm worth it. The money. That I'm worth the money."

"I'd buy you a hundred stuffed animals. A thousand if you had the space to put them."

"What about ten thousand?"

Quatre sat up and stretched out his arms, "Ten thousand of the biggest stuffed animals in the world."

"What about one hundred thousand?"

Quatre stood up on his bed and bounced; "Now you're being greedy."

"Not greedy, just needy. What're you-"

Quatre leapt across the gap between their beds and landed on Duo, grabbing a pillow to stuff in his face, "One hundred thousand, one million, one billion, I'd get you all the stuffed animals in the world!"

"My one true love!" Duo gasped, reaching behind him to get a pillow and whacking Quatre with it.

"And this how you treat him?"

"It's called tough love baby!"

They hit each other with pillows, bouncing back and forth between beds, hollering even though they knew other people were probably resting in their rooms. They ended up on the floor, tangled up in the space between their beds after running into each other in mid air.

"I can't believe your father wants you to go into politics," Duo said as he pulled out his braid from underneath Quatre's bottom, "you should run a kid's camp."

"Oh you know," Quatre waved his hand in the air royally, "must continue the mighty and noble family tradition. My father's a senator, my grandfather was a senator, my great-grandfather was a senator, and my great-great-grandfather was a senator. All of us Winner men end up as senators. Well, except for great-grandfather's brother. He ended up as a congressman. But we don't talk about him."

"Oooh the family scandal," Duo rolled his eyes.

"More like the family black sheep. I guess I'm going to be the black sheep too. I want to study music, and my father wants me to study politics."

"It's a good thing you have Rashid on your side."

Rashid was Quatre's uncle from his mother's side. The fact that Rashid was the brother of Quatre's deceased mother was the singular reason Winner Senior allowed him contact with Quatre. Rashid was a tall, muscular man with a deep voice. He was the one who made memories with Quatre, because Quatre and his father disagreed on almost everything. They were too busy fighting to make any good, happy memories.

"Rashid supports me, yes, but he's not enough to sway my father," Quatre sat up and leaned against the bed.

"You know," Duo said, "maybe we need to get your father a stuffed animal."

"What?"

"And we'll attach to it a heartfelt letter, from you, explaining why you want to study music, why you love him, that you've always loved him, and other such platitudes. Butter him up real good. Maybe that'll suck some of the fire out of his argument, hmm?"

"What stuffed animal would we give him?"

"A cow. He births them all the time. Remember when you brought me home? He took one look at my braid and ripped jeans and I swear his water broke."

"Oh God," Quatre covered his face with his hands, "I remember that. He wouldn't stop giving you those glares. After you left he took me aside and questioned my sanity for befriending you. Oh, and he also gave me the Public Image speech. You know, 'make friends with people who'll make you look good'."

"Good thing he doesn't know which way I swing."

"He'd have twins!"

"And if you told him which way you swung, he'd have triplets."

"What if I brought Trowa home and introduced him as my boyfriend?"

"You'd probably have to pack."

They collapsed into giggles, laughing at the absurdity and the truth of the situation. They then climbed into bed, having talked the night away.

"Hey Quatre?" Duo asked after they'd turned off the lights, "We're going back to Animal Kingdom tomorrow, aren't we?"

"Well of course. I have to thank Trowa and then I have to go and kick Heero's ass."

There was pause.

"Can you buy me a stuffed animal too?"

"The biggest, heaviest one they got."

They fell asleep grinning.

Author's Notes: Mwahaha, get some rest boys…while you can.