Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, have any relation to Gundam Wing, have no permission from those who created Gundam Wing to write this. This is purely for fun, to waste time, and to make other people happy reading and to spread the joy of slashy literature to all those poor unenlightened Fellow Man out there. I am making no profit from this.

Pairings: 2x1x2, side pairing 3x4

Summary: Heero was perfectly happy as a workaholic recluse, but then Quatre declared War on him and suddenly there's a sugar-high American at his door, messing up the house and showing him that maybe, he hadn't been that happy after all...

IMPORTANT: please, if you're an old reader who's read the previous chapters before - do go back and reread them. Partly to refresh your memory, of course, but also because I've made quite a few changes to the previous chapters. Nothing too big, but I did add a few details in. If you're a new reader then, uh, ignore this. And welcome.

Roommate: Unwanted

Chapter Five: Laws of Science

It had to be something good.

Something with style.

Something… spectacular.

If only Maxwell has a house that I can blow up, things would be easy.

Growling to himself, Heero glared at the computer screen and the blank Word document that occupied its centre, with the type-line flashing serenely at him, vistas of empty, white, wordless space after it. He hated blank documents. It bespoke unproductivity.

He jabbed the full-stop key, and smirked at the dot that appeared on the screen in satisfaction. Feeling slightly cheered, he back-arrowed the flashing line to before the dot, centred the alignment of the sentence, and then typed a title to the document:

Opening counterattack.

He considered that for a moment, and then decided that he might derive more inspiration if he bolded it and capitalized both words, so he did:

Opening Counterattack.

The full-stop was superfluous. It would go. An underline would add authority. Technically this was also the first part of a possibly long war. He made the appropriate changes, so now the document was titled:

Phase One: Opening Counterattack

Staring at it, he felt the twitching of a hatchling idea being needled into existence, and to give it help, he turned to bore holes with his eyes through the sturdy door of his supposedly sound-proof study, through which, for reasons only God-who-hated-him-and-bent-the-laws-of-the-universe-solely-to-annoy-him knew, the voice of one Duo Maxwell penetrated like sniper bullets to fill the room.

Sniper bullets are subtle.

Oh yes. Hand grenades, then.

Better.

He couldn't understand it. He'd had this room specially built, and he'd personally supervised its construction. He'd chosen the materials himself, and tested it there and then; after that he'd taken samples back to his labs and examined them. He'd set up a preliminary test cubicle, and his actual room had weathered years of Quatre's doorbell ringing and installing and all other noises. Science had ensured he'd have the most soundproof room possible of being built. And somehow all the laws of science couldn't stand up to one, only one reedy, irritating, relentless, piercing, shrill voice –

Well now, no need to lie to yourself, you always know when you do.

Alright, so one irritating, relentless, piercing –

Hey, no need to be so nasty.

Fine, one relentless, not-too-bad-actually, quite melodious tenor voice, are you happy now?

No need to be so grumpy with yourself either.

He choose to turn back to his screen and tried to focus not on Maxwell's singing but on his Phase One: Opening Counterattack.

He needed something… spectacular.

Tanomi mo shinai no ni asa wa yatte kuru mado o…

Something with style.

…akete chotto fukaku shinkokyuu…

Something good.

…fukuret tsura no kimi omoi dashite warau…

Something... quite catchy, actually,was being sung in Japanese.

…kenka shita yokujitsu wa rusuden ni shippanashi daro.

Maxwell knew Japanese? …Wait. What was that line? Kenka shita yokujitsu wa rusuden ni shippanashi daro…

The day after we fight, you always leave your answering machine on?

I am going to MURDER that Winner brat and his new pet TEN TIMES OVER!

Savage inspiration hit him, and his fingers flew over the keyboard.

In the kitchen, ostensibly cleaning up but mostly just flitting about randomly dusting clean corners, Duo cast a quick glance at the apparatus carefully constructed at the side of Heero's study door, confirmed that it was working fine, and continued to sing his song as loudly as possible, happily oblivious to the fact that it was leading to his own downfall.

I didn't even ask for it, yet morning comes;
I open my window and take a deep breath.
I remember you, looking mad, and I smile:
The day after we fight, you always leave your answering machine on…

As the song outside ended its second repetition, Heero sat back and enjoyed the sight of a three-page, word-filled document, neatly organized. Deciding the underline at the top was actually quite tacky, he undid it, and then scrolled to the end of the document. With a flourish, he typed:

End Phase One

He had a plan, and he would begin tomorrow. Life was good.

He realized he was humming along with that dratted song, and made himself stop.

Hi everyone! Sorry this is very late. Had a rough time in the GW fandom lately because of… things… and slipped out of it for a long while, but I'm back! To people's joy or disappointment, I wonder. But anyway, it's because I swore never to abandon a fic. I very strongly disapprove of anyone who does that. And I kinda have quite a few left in GW…

Hope you enjoyed this chapter (albeit short)! If you haven't realized – this chapter starts just a few minutes after the last chapter ended, so Duo's still supposedly cleaning up the kitchen, only as you can see he's not really doing it. Heero's going to be upset, but not as badly as you'd think, because he has a plan! (Rawr.)

This didn't have a lot of plot in it, I know – but it had a point. I did drop a few hints here and there as to the boys' unusual background. Can you catch them? Like the mention of Odin and smokescreens in the previous chapter. And the contents of the bucket… (did no one wonder at all? I wibble.) Many bits and pieces, basically. But no one seemed to notice...

Oh, and note the song – it's from the anime HunterXHunter, sung by Keon and titled Ohayou, and it's really a very upbeat, catchy song that always gets stuck in my head. Its lyrics are very fitting for the story, too. I beam happily.

Thank you lovely reviewers for the reviews for the previous chapter, and all the notes telling me to hurry up and get off my lazy ass in writing. It did help! Sorry I can't reply individually to thank you… dratted FFnet policy.

Ashen Skies
"He needed something… spectacular."