I realized, while walking through the third store in three hours, that Duo was the most obnoxious, irritating, annoying, spoiled brat I had met in my comparatively short life. He had looked at more than two hundred articles of clothing, picked up at least fifty, and tried on twelve. And, if that wasn't enough for one trip, he refused to stop harassing Wufei, who was steadily moving closer to decking the braided idiot. I was so busy standing between Duo and Wufei, in fact, that I didn't notice Trowa had gone.
Trowa and I had started off... rocky, at best. We were both very aware of what normal rules of conduct would have required, and we were suspicious of each other because of them. I was the alpha, he was the omega. I would try to belittle him, while he would attempt to knock me out of my seat. And, for a time, it seemed to me as though he was having more luck rocking my place than I was holding him in his. The addition of Wufei and then Duo allowed me to see things differently, as he was suddenly propelled upward from his place at the bottom, while I remained firmly seated beside Master. Meanwhile, neither Duo nor Wufei remained at the bottom, because neither were truly Master's slaves, and because Wufei had prestige from being the Owner's slave, and Duo was the Shinigami. In any other situation, Duo and Wufei would have been above the three of us, but instead they seemed to be beside. The pressure of the hierarchy was removed. It began to feel as though I would not need to be defensive around any newcomers, which was what Master had told me all along.
I think that splitting my time between Master, Quatre, and Trowa had made me analyze the relationship too much. With the addition of Duo and Wufei I did not have the time to worry so much about Trowa. Without the time to worry about it, the threat disappeared, because it had never really been there in the first place.
Which is much of the reason that, upon ditching Duo and Wufei and finding Trowa surrounded by his aggressive former-peers, I jumped to his defense.
They were idiots, much as I had expected them to be. And not even the fun-loving, reckless idiocy that Duo exhibited. They were merely lacking for common sense, or any sense for that matter. They were cowardly and power-hungry, which was a fairly common mix at Collar. But their stupidity set them aside from the rest of the cowards, who were at least smart enough to pick on the right people. They, instead, decided to pick on Trowa, who they assumed was still weak and submissive toward them. There was nothing they could possibly hope to gain from abusing him save perhaps a short heightening of their own egos. That heightening, however, would come at the cost of Trowa's confidence, so I decided it was my place to step in and protect Master's property.
They proved their lack of brains though their words several times during the argument, then again when they decided to initiate physical violence. The three slaves were obviously more interested in staying soft and pretty than getting in shape, for they had almost no muscle tone. Trowa and I easily dispatched them, and I wondered for a moment why he had not done it before. But, in his last household, the master had probably played favorites, and Trowa would have gotten in trouble even for defending himself. But I was as certain the master would defend us as I was that he would not harm Quatre.
Once the fight was over, I revealed many of my changed feelings to Trowa. He must have believed me, because he seemed to relax suddenly. As though he no longer felt that I was threatening him.
My answer to his last question took me more by surprise than the question itself. I had somewhat anticipated a question about the tension between us because of Quatre, but I hadn't thought far enough ahead to plan out my answers. So when my eyes caught on Duo, who was laughing uproariously and dancing around with a stack of clothes in either hand, I simply allowed my feelings to flow from my mouth, and was shocked at what came forth. I wasn't even sure I liked Duo, so how could I so quickly become attracted to him? But there was no denying the vibrant energy that came from the boy, or the way he could command all the attention of a room to himself. How he was open and happy even in the most repressive situations, like being enslaved. And I admired him for being brave enough to stand up to his masters, even if he was so stupid that he would stand up to our Master. And, too, there was something weak inside him, so well hidden that I only first glimpsed it in the bath, when he was certain that Master would cut his hair. It was something hidden deep and dark, but it seemed more real than the smiling face he wore now. Merely another piece of the boy who had so captured me already.
It was around that time that Wufei stormed over, dragging Duo by the arm, and demanded that we, "Control this lunatic!" I obliged by sweeping him into my arms and carrying him into the dressing room, too be certain that he actually changed.
"Hey! Get the hell outta here! I'm getting changed!" Duo snapped as I set him down inside and closed the door behind me.
"Firstly, you offered to change in the lobby, so it shouldn't be a problem for me to be here. Secondly, I've already seen you naked," I told him reasonably. Duo grunted unhappily, but began to take his clothes of anyway.
"You just wanna stare at my ass," he grumbled as he slipped on a pair black leather pants. I merely grunted something I hoped sounded vaguely negative. In all honesty, the constant nudity at Collar had made me somewhat immune to becoming aroused by naked bodies doing anything short of erotic. Not that Duo and his ass weren't gorgeous, simply that being around so many gorgeous naked bodies all the time had made it the norm instead of a turn-on.
"Well, what do you think?" Duo asked, showing off a black robber costume with small black wings that resembled something out of Zorro. Or what Zorro would have looked like if he were a demonic porn star.
"It's perfect! Buy it and let's go!" Wufei snapped from outside the door. Duo huffed in an offended manner.
"You didn't even see it!"
"I don't care! You could be wearing a paper bag! If I had my way, you'd be wearing a plastic bag! Over your head!" Wufei shouted. I expected Duo to snap something snide back, since they were arguing, but instead he merely laughed and turned back to me.
"So?" he asked.
"It's a good look for you. Accentuates your mysteriousness and remains less than feminine."
"You're not just saying that because you want to get me out of the store?"
"Duo, by your thinking I should be telling you that they're all ugly, so that I can see you butt again. If I say yes, I mean it."
"'S a good point, Hee-man."
"Besides, you obviously like it or you would have thrown it off again like all the rest," I pointed out.
"Yeah," he said, grinning sheepishly ,"I knew I was going to get this one for the last twenty minutes. I just wanted to torment Wufei."
"You what!" came a shout from outside our door. Wufei began to bang on it shortly before Trowa led him away to cool down. I sighed, but I couldn't help when a chuckle slipped out with it. It made Duo pause as he hung back up his shirt.
"You laughed," he said, only part statement, part question. As though he couldn't believe it.
"I am capable, you know," I replied, smirking.
"For a while there I wasn't sure," he said, removing the last of the costume. "But it's nice to know that I'm funny enough to make even a stone wall laugh. You're cuter when you smile," he said with a wink, then finished dressing and walked out of the stall.
I followed casually after, knowing that they couldn't go very far without me, because I had master's credit card. Duo's was our final, and most aggravating purchase of the day. Wufei had been the first to choose a costume, a green dragon costume that required us to glue many jeweled scales to his body. In our second shop I still had my angel costume, which I decided I would wear to the party. Trowa had gotten a demon costume with flowing black clothes, a cape, and long black wings. With Quatre having worn his angel costume only once, and with Duo's purchase of a demon costume, we were set for the party. Two demons, two angels, and a dragon.