Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not my property. But then again not much is, so don't sue, I haven't got a dime.

Story: Building a Better Mousetrap 101

Being a Mouse doesn't mean you're helpless or weak.

Current Pairings: 1xR, 2+OC, 3x4, 5xS, H+OC, 6xN

Chapter 5 – Late night phone calls

The rest of the Gundam pilots, along with Hilde and Sally who had arrived earlier that day were going clubbing. Duo had called Mouse earlier, but he'd only gotten her voice mail. He already knew she had plans tonight. He found out last night while they were talking that one of her numerous male cousins actually went to the same College as them, he was two years older and captain of the soccer team. Another was in town on a business trip and was taking both of them out to dinner.

Duo ran his fingers thru his almost dry hair after he flipped it back over his head. He'd found over the years that it was a lot easier to dry the majority of it while upside down. Unbraided his chestnut locks were over four feet long, he grabbed a handful and looked at the split ends. Hm, looks like it might be time for a trim. He had a tendency to chew on the end of his braid when he was either thinking hard about something or very nervous. And just because he refused to cut it all off didn't mean he didn't take good care of it, regular trims were necessary. Fortunately he had his own pair of shears, and only took off the barest minimum. Right like he would trust anyone else to do this for him, they might be tempted the cut off too much, like say a whole inch or something. He figured as long as he was snipping he'd do his bangs too. That took about 5 more seconds. There done, all except for the braiding, and with ease born of years of practice he quickly had it braided and tied off with a black hair band.

He, Q, Trowa and Hilde meet Wufei and Sally, who had gone to dinner first, at the club they had chosen to check out. The Cat's Meow, an upbeat dance club that they'd heard was all the rage right now. Duo liked the place, the music was loud, it was crowded, (always a sign of a good club) and the drinks reasonable. Duo spent most of the night drinking and dancing with Hilde, Sally and Quatre, and whoever asked him, for some insane reason Trowa and Wufei didn't like this fast stuff. Duo loved it, he loved dancing, trim, lithe and agile he was a excellent dancer, he was asked to dance by several of the bolder men and lots of the women in the club that night. Duo didn't care what sex his partner was when it came to dancing. As for the slow stuff he liked that too, plus it was how he usually ended up with the occasional bedmate. Hey, a guy has needs, and if the gal was willing, he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. What did you expect, he wasn't a saint. And to be honest, up to this point, sex was nothing more than a release, not the intimate act it should be.

But tonight he just wasn't interested, several of his previous dance partners had asked him to slow dance and he'd turned them all down, it wasn't that he felt off or weird tonight, he just felt well, nothing really. Even after all the hot sexy dancing earlier no one had caught his 'attention' so he was like…eh, why bother. Instead he headed to the bar and downed a couple of shots before buying 2 beers and heading back to join Hilde at the table and giving her one of them. She was talking to petite blonde girl Duo thought he recognized from school.

It was almost 3 am by the time he stumbled into his dorm room. He-he, no Heero, looks like Soldier Boy is getting laid tonight. Not that it would have stopped Duo from flinging his clothes all over the room as he made his way to his side. Wearing only his favorite black silk boxers he flopped on the bed and flipped open his cell phone.

Mouse was sound asleep when her cell phone rang. Startled into wakefulness she knocked her alarm clock to the floor as she reached for her phone. Checking the ID she saw it was Duo, again. She did a little chuckle thing and shook her head and mentally rolled her eyes. He was absolutely impossible, adorable, funny as hell, sweet as sugar, but impossible. Answering the phone and picking up her alarm clock she saw it was 2:57am. She didn't even bother saying hello, with a smile in her voice she lit into him. Eyeing the other bed she saw that Gloria had passed out in bed fully clothed, well at least she wouldn't have to worry about waking the other girl up with her talking.

"You're drunk aren't you?"

"Ohhhhhh maayybeee. Whatcha doing? Huh, huh, huh?"

"I'm sleeping you Moron."

"No you're not, you're talking to me, so you can't be asleep." Well she couldn't argue with his logic there. She rolled onto her back and settled into her pillows, getting comfy. Neither of them knew he had done the exact same thing at the exact same time.

"Okay then, I 'was' sleeping. Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Nope, not a clue, the clock is blurry for some reason."

"Blurry? Damn Duo, how much did you drink and who drove?"

"Trowa drove, he always drives, that ole stick in the mud almost never drinks with me." He sounded like a petulant child, she sighed.

"Duo, You should be trying to get some sleep, you're gonna really regret this in the morning. Did you want anything in particular, like a bed time story perhaps, or for me to come over there and tuck your little drunken ass into bed?"

"he-he-he, Aw could ya, plleeasssee!"

"Very funny."

"Hey Mouse?"Huh? He sounded different, a little sad even.

"Yeah?"

"No one understands me. They always tell me to shut up, and never listen to what I have to say. I know I babble a lot, but sometimes, I wish they'd just listen to me. Will 'you' listen to me Mouse?" Mouse blinked in the darkness of her room, it's amazing what people will reveal when their sitting in the dark. He'd told the others this before, more than once in fact. But she was the only one who heard what he was really saying. What she heard was that he was…lonely. And that she understood all too well, cause she was lonely too.

"Duo."

"Yeah."

"I'll listen, you can tell me anything you want, anything at all. I'll always listen to you Duo. Always"

That was what he needed to hear. He just talked about the Nite club and how cool it was, nothing earth shattering that night, but it was a start. In the end Duo managed to stay awake for only about 10 more minutes. Mouse smiled when she heard his soft even breathing that told her he had fallen asleep, and right in the middle of a sentence too. She mentally wished him sweet dreams and hung up the phone, before he started snoring in her ear. With all the experience she had with her idiot cousins she knew drunk guys snored.

-
Heero got back to their dorm room around 6:30am, he planned to grab his work out stuff and head to the gym. He'd talk Duo into sparring with him later on that day the slacker had it coming to him. When Duo went clubbing he often didn't return until late the next day. The 02 pilot never had any trouble finding a willing bed partner for a night. So Heero was a little surprised to find the braided menace curled up in his own bed, and alone. A quick scan of the room, told Heero's highly trained senses that no one else had been here either. Sighing heavily, Heero went over to pull a blanket over the braided Baka, he had fallen asleep before getting under the covers. As he bent over the bed he noticed Duo's cell phone lying next to his head, still open. Picking it up Heero realized that the moron had actually fallen asleep while talking on it. Heero was going to just close it, and set it on the table next to the bed when his curiosity got the better of him. He checked Duo's recent calls, and sure enough there was the number he had expected to find. Mouse's, not only that, but the call had lasted 16 mins, which meant she hadn't hung up right away after the fool had called her, again. Smirking Heero pulled the blanket over his best friend, gently brushed a few loose strands of hair out of his mouth, and quietly left the room. Maybe he wouldn't beat the crap out him later after all, just give him a few bruises to keep the Baka on his toes.

-

That weekend started a trend of Duo calling Mouse every night (sometimes more than once). Even though they had all their classes together, that didn't mean they sat next to each other in them. Their seats had already been assigned by the time they had officially met in psych class and they were actually seated rather far apart. Psychology was the only class where they sat together and were 'supposed' to talk to one another. There was homework to do, and papers to write, as well as activates that they didn't do together, like Mouse sang in the choir and Duo had joined the track team. Also let's not forget Mouse had ALL those damn cousins, seemed like they were always popping into town and would take her out to dinner or something (come on, we all know they were checking up on her). And the one that went to the same school as she did was captain of the soccer team, so she was basically required to go to all the home games.

And then there was Relena, who also claimed a good portion of Mouse's time. The one time Queen of the world, ex-monarch of the now dissolved Sanc Kingdom, Blah, blah, blah.... Titles are so tedious. Especially to Relena, who had always really just wanted to have one best friend who didn't fawn all over her and play fake fake nice to her just because of what she was. It's why she fell so hard for Heero, he had never treated her like she was somehow better than anyone else just because of a name. That he treated her like she was gold now was only because he cared. Heero would never be one to tell her lies or play games, it just wasn't his style. And it wasn't Mouse's either. They went shopping a lot. Mouse had introduced Relena to discount stores, ragged blue jeans, no name clothing, cheeseburgers, ice cream sundae's and fun. Relena shared with Mouse the joys of the opera, French cuisine, and designer clothing and how to run practically 'anything' from a kingdom to a household.

Mouse's family wasn't poor, but they weren't rich either, each child (namely her and the Cousins) had always been expected to make their own way in the world. Thanks to 'Mousetrap' that little ole computer game she had created, Mouse wasn't hurting, so she never felt like Relena was giving her charity. It was a beautiful friendship and it seriously cut in on Duo's time with her. Which as the weeks went on started to piss him off a little. After about 2 weeks he started dragging her outside after they ate lunch weather permitting, to sit under an old cherry tree that dominated the front grounds of the University campus, at least until their next class. The other odd quirk Duo had recently developed was that when he called Mouse at night he did it from what he 'thought' was the privacy of his dorm room closet.

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AN: Come on you didn't think 'I' was going to make this easy on them did ya?