Smells Like Teen Spirit
By Shannon the Twisted Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 24
Cupid de Locke

(x) X (x)

“Sum, es, est, summus....” Duo trailed off, staring up at the high library ceiling above as he desperately clawed for that next elusive verb form, but to no avail. He growled in frustration, muttering some curse against the ancient Romans and their godforsaken language, recovered his eyes and tried again. “Sum, es, est... summus....” He trailed off again and glared down at the Latin text book lying face down on the table in front of him. “Fucking charts,” he complained in a low grouse as he flipped the book over, eyes scanning the little gray charts fiercely. “...summus, estis, sunt!” He sighed and bent down, forehead pressed between the pages of the book. “What the hell possessed me to take Latin this year!? It was interesting until it turned out to be just memorizing a bunch of fucking charts! I wanna read Cicero or something, not memorize!”

“Well Duo, you should take into account that learning a language--any language--is going to have its fair share of memorizing. There’s no getting around it, really,” Quatre said from his spot on the other side of the table, where he was busy typing like mad on one of the library desktop computers.

“Drop me off in France for a year and I’ll come back speaking French,” Duo said, closing the Latin book with a final groan and pushing it away. “Where’re you going to drop me that they speak Latin regularly?” he groaned, looking around at the bland school library. The place was large and easy enough to get lost in, but was in serious need of some work; the tables and shelves were chipped and the carpet was one of the nastiest shades of puke-yellow Duo had ever seen, the glaring white paint on the walls marred by too many nicks and stains. At least there was a large selection of reading material, and the machinery, such as the computer Quatre was currently using, was up-to-date and of decent quality, giving the place at least some educational worth.

“Didn’t you live in a church at one time?” Quatre asked absently, his mind a little too preoccupied with his computer-work to really think about the weight of the memories he had probably just stirred up for Duo. It wasn’t until he felt the low waves of hostility wafting across the table from Duo’s aura that he even looked up; then he felt guilty.

“They stopped using and abusing Latin in churches in the middle of the twentieth century, Q,” Duo said flatly, trying hard to stifle the mixed emotions he often associated with his times at the Maxwell Church orphanage. “And even if they did still say Mass in Latin, it’s not like I’ve been to one any time in the recent past. Fucking waste of time if you ask me. Who’re they to tell me what God is or isn’t? Like some old stiff in a black and white collar could really grasp such a concept.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Quatre apologized quickly, not wanting Duo to get off on one of his vengeful trips down memory lane. Duo was a lot more bitter than people generally took him for and it wasn’t wise to get him started on one of his rants... especially the religious ones, which could go on forever and a day if one didn’t know how to stop him before he really got carried away. It wasn’t that Quatre didn’t care, but he was pretty sure that Duo didn’t have anything new to say on the matter and he really wasn’t in the mood to listen to Duo’s pissing and moaning about things he couldn’t help.

“Sorry, sorry; you’re always so flippin’ sorry, aren’t ya, Q?” Duo mocked him snidely. Unfortunately for Quatre, it seemed that Duo was in a mood to vent and the closest and most convenient victim to lash out at happened to be poor Quatre. “Don’t you ever take a stand for anything you do? What happened to the kick-ass Quatre who told his dick-weed father to go to fucking hell, huh?”

“That was the one time! He had that coming for a while!” Quatre retorted, his face a bright candy-apple red, which seemed rather unhealthy-looking on a human. “I just don’t want you to be mad at me, Duo!”

“I’m not mad, I’m just....” Duo realized what he was saying and caught himself, figuring that it wouldn’t do anyone any good to keep going the way he was. Quatre didn’t deserve any of his rude commentary. Now where’s that bitch, Yuy, when I need him? Duo thought angrily to himself, telling the inner voice that spoke to smack the others that were protesting against the idea profusely. “Sorry, Q,” Duo hung his head in shame, letting the Heero thoughts drop before they got out of hand and he broke something irreplaceable. “I was doing it again, wasn’t I?”

“Doing what?” Quatre had, in the meantime, gone back to his computer and looked mildly annoyed to be interrupted yet again.

“Being a bastard.”

“Oh. Yeah, you were,” Quatre agreed with a small grin. He glanced back at the flickering screen, large aquamarine eyes scanning it before his fingers descended upon the keyboard again. “It’s okay. I’m immune to the infamous Wrath of Maxwell. They don’t call me your friend for nothing now, do they?” He looked over at a large textbook that was sitting on the other side of him, obscured by the coloured plastic body of the computer. Duo flipped his head around and, though he looked quite ridiculous, was able to make out the title across the top margin of the huge book: The Complete Unabridged Works of William Shakespeare.

“Report? Project?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. He knew Quatre liked books very much (hell, so did he!), but he had never seen the blonde so intent on one before. It seemed like not even hell or high water would tear the blonde from his work.

“Sort of,” Quatre tried to explain as best he could while still going about his business. “My English teacher has this web site with a chat room for her students; she said we’d get extra credit for visiting and writing a short essay on what we learned.”

“And that’s more interesting than me?” Duo pretended to sound hurt, putting a huge, fake pout on his face. “Really, Q, just what kind of friend are you!? I never took you for a cyber-nerd!”

“I’m a good one, that’s what. Who else do you know who puts up with as much of your shit as I do?” Quatre retorted with a small snort. “Besides, they’re talking about Shakespeare here; it’s a little more interesting than listening to you try and hammer Latin endings into your head.”

“So what’s with the book? I thought you knew Shakespeare,” Duo quipped. Despite his casual attitude, the chat sounded interesting to him and he figured he might want to check it out later. Shakespeare could be pretty funny once one got around his somewhat complex language.

“Reference, just in case.” Quatre took a moment to flash a large, almost Duo-ish grin at his friend; “Never hurts to be prepared, right?”

“You are such a dork, Quatre!” Duo laughed, swinging an arm at his friend playfully.

“And you’re such a little hoodlum, Duo! Stay on your side of the table!” Quatre chuckled, batting Duo’s hand away. “I don’t know how you manage to keep friends with the way you constantly are... just... well, you!”

“And what does that mean?” Duo asked in that same sarcastically joking manner as he stood up and rounded the table, plopping down on an empty chair next to Quatre’s. He glared over the blonde’s shoulder, reading the flashing words of the chat as they scrolled down the screen; he knew that Quatre had a pet peeve about people encroaching too much on his personal space, especially when he was wound up like right now.

<Q_Ball> who’s your fav chara in MSND?
<Cesario12> puck, no question.
<40_lcks> well i like the ladies; hermia is best.
<pink-lady> yeah, puck is just a fool.
<Cesario12> had you read any shakespeare, you’d know the fools are rarely stupid.
<pink-lady> what about bottom, then? yeah, he’s real smart, getting turned into an ass.
<Cesario12> because that’s just what he was! bottom is no fool, merely an idiot. there is a difference.

“By Allah, Duo, I don’t know!” Quatre exclaimed, throwing his arms up over his head dramatically, eyes still concentrated on the screen. Duo could tell that Quatre wasn’t in the least pissed or annoyed at him and was just trying to give him a good dose of his own medicine. “You’re just lucky that no one runs around pointing out your every fault, or else you’d be ready to throw yourself out a window!”

“No one else needs to; Heero Yuy does plenty of that by himself,” Duo grumbled moodily under his breath and looked away, totally shattering the jovial banter. He scooted his chair back and slouched low in it, crossing his arms. “Stupid bastard is always the first one to tell me what I’m doing wrong, and then when I give him the royal middle finger, he just glares at me in this... way that he has that’s just so damn confusing, I don’t know what to make of him!”

“Right Duo, if he’s so annoying, then why are you still wearing that shoelace of his in your hair, hmm?” Quatre cupped his chin in one palm and grinned slyly at Duo. “I mean, if you hate him as much as you say you do....”

“Oh and I do,” Duo was quick to interject into Quatre’s trailing sentence.

“Okay then, Duo,” Quatre said with that same smug tone, knowing that he had the upper hand. “Why don’t you tell me what it is about Heero Yuy that so annoys you.”

Duo’s eyes lit up at the challenge, seeing it as the perfect opportunity to vent and possibly reconvert Quatre over to his side. “Oh God, where do I begin!” he started rambling as he watched Quatre’s fingers dance over the keyboard again. “For starters, there’s that damn glare I was just telling you about. Jeez, the guy thinks that just because his eyes are so fucking gorgeous, he can just go staring the shit out of everyone in the wor--”

“I think you mentioned that before,” Quatre commented idly, turning to his Shakespeare book to thumb through a couple of the pages. It looked like they were still talking about A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

“Mentioned what?” Duo growled. “The glare? I know. Like I was say--”

“No, I mean that you thought Heero had gorgeous eyes,” Quatre answered, sounding like he was making only casual commentary though if one listened close, the obvious intent of Quatre’s perfectly timed interruptions was pretty clear. “You’ve said that on numerous counts, once to his face, if I remember correctly....”

“Well there’s no hiding the fact,” Duo rolled his eyes, feeling like if they dwelled too long on Heero’s good looks, he would end up mired in his own swamp of words. This was dangerous ground to be treading!

“Hiding what fact?” Quatre prodded, not even bothering to try and mask the look of sadistic pleasure he was getting out of tormenting Duo this way.

“That he’s got a hot body and--HEY!! No fair cheating like that, Q! I’m not complaining about his face!” Duo cut himself off, realizing where this was going. “Hell, if his insides were as good-looking as his ass, he’d be one damn fine person!”

“How would you know if he was nice or not!?” Quatre argued, doing a fine job of playing the innocent instigator. “You’re no nicer to him than he is to you. Besides, I think he deserves more credit than you give him.”

“So sayeth the mighty Trowa,” Duo quipped sarcastically. “Neither you nor your little boyfriend have seen the way he taunts me! Did you hear about what he did to me this weekend?”

“Are you hungry, Duo?” Quatre asked, his question seeming to generate out of nothing. “Because if this is about that gyro that you lost to him in that chess game, I gotta say it’s just your own fault.”

“He stole it!” Duo protested, his voice loud enough to earn him a sharp glare from a passing librarian. “Then he had the gall to eat the damn thing right in front of me! I was really fucking hungry too! Now he’s got me on this ‘slave for a week’ contract thing because of that stupid game of chess!”

“Well I think it’s cute the way you guys fight,” Quatre said, turning a deaf ear to Duo’s complaints. He almost wished he hadn’t brought it up. “I think you egg him on just as much as he does you anyway.”

“Cute ain’t got nothin’ to do with it, I told you, Q!” Duo snarled back in a low whisper. “I think you and I are going to have to have a little conversation about your definition of cute.”

“Yeah, well I’m glad there’s someone around to give you a good kick in the rear,” Quatre scoffed, rolling his eyes and still typing away. “I’ve never seen you get so worked up over one, single person when all he ever did was start telling you stuff like it is. You know, that stuff I’m too nice to point out. I bet he likes you a whole lot more than you think, Duo. You just don’t give him any leeway.”

“Oh please,” Duo said, finding Quatre’s comments completely ridiculous. “Right, he likes me and he’s dealing with it the way third grade boys do when they like some little girl, putting slugs in her hair or something. I don’t need to be washing slug shit out of this,” Duo snapped, brandishing his braid underneath Quatre’s nose. “It’s enough work as it is, thanks much!”

“You just don’t like that maybe his way of liking you is smacking you in the face with the things you try and pretend don’t exist!” Quatre snapped back, his voice getting a little uncharacteristically cold. “Ignoring them isn’t going to make them go away, just like ignoring him isn’t going to make him go away!”

“Quatre, he doesn’t like me at all! Not even a little!” Duo hissed back, smacking his hand suddenly on the table and making Quatre jump. “Why do you have it in your head that he does!?” He glared hard at Quatre, eyeing him up and down and adding: “And why do you think that I’m in... what’d you say... denial, was it? About him? Are you sane, Q?”

“Are you?” Quatre asked flatly, his finger slamming down on the return key at the end of his question as he turned to look Duo straight in the eye. He pointed at Duo’s hair, gesturing to the dirty, white shoelace knotted at the base of his braid. “Need I really say more?” he said, reaching back for his jacket and rooting through one of the pockets. He withdrew a pair of crisp dollar bills and stood up; “I’m going to get a soda. Want one?”

“Caffeine please!” Duo grinned wide, forgetting the hostility he and Quatre were starting to encroach upon in exchange for the promise of a sweet carbonated beverage, chock-loaded with enough sugar to keep him bouncing off the walls all afternoon.

“Probably a bad idea,” Quatre sighed as he started to walk away from Duo and the computer, which was still logged onto the chat, “but as long as it shuts you up from all your bitching and moaning, I’ll do it. Be back in five, okay?”

“Okay... Q-Ball,” Duo grinned, glancing at the computer screen just as Quatre’s nickname and last comment scrolled out of the window. “I’ll hold the fort!” Had Duo been watching Quatre from the other side as he walked away, he would have seen the blonde boy roll his eyes with an extremely exasperated flair and issue a huge sigh from his mouth. Rather though, Duo was too interested in the chat Quatre had just left behind; by the way the conversation had turned, it was easy to see why Quatre had just suddenly elected to abandon it for a soda-spree.

<pink-lady> don’t you think hermia is silly? had she just gone with demetrius to begin with, none of that trouble would have even happened.
<Cesario12> she didn’t love him, that’s why.
<pink-lady> but he was the perfect man!
<40_lcks> actually, puck’s screwing around kind of matched everyone up right.
<Cesario12> you see? not dumb at all. yeah, he messed up, but he fixes it.
<pink-lady> shakespeare’s women are so stupid! they never want the prince in shining armour!
<40_lcks> well, that’s kind of the general idea
<Cesario12> he’s trying to explain true love, that it could spark between the queen and the pauper who plays the king. his good characters are rarely superficial.
<pink-lady> well all i know is that if i knew a prince, i’d want him to sweep me off my feet and carry me off into the sunset.

As Duo was reading this, he felt that he just had to say something. He may not have been the Shakespeare scholar that Quatre was, but he knew enough to carry on a decent conversation and that a certain lady in that chat room was bastardizing those plays to no end. Besides, he had the urge to meddle in Quatre’s affairs, especially after all the grief he’d been giving him about Heero.

<Q_Ball> oh please. i’d rather be fed to sharks.
<pink-lady> !?!
<40_lcks> i thought you said you were going to the machines. you can’t have gone all the way there and back to the library already!
<Q_Ball> i’m a man of many talents
<40_lcks> seems that way.
<pink-lady> you can’t be quatre; he sounds far smarter than you.
<Cesario12> and what does that say about you?!
<Q_Ball> what are we doing here? reenacting the 12th night, cesario!?
<pink-lady> idiot.
<Q_Ball> kindly tell pinky to shut up!
<40_lcks> shut up!
<Cesario12> you really aren’t quatre, are you?
<Q_Ball> no
<Cesario12> kind of figured that.
<40_lcks> alright then; what do we call you?
<Q_Ball> uhh, how about...
<Cesario12> orsino? lord orsino?
<Q_Ball> gee, i wonder what cesario’s fav shakespeare play is?
<Cesario12> do you not like the 12th night?
<Q_Ball> that’s not it at all! i love the 12th night. ok, orsino it is. *lord* orsino! don’t any of you forget the lord part!
<40_lcks> you sure act the part, orsino.
<Q_Ball> *lord* orsino!

Duo entertained himself with Quatre’s chat room friends for a couple more minutes while he waited for the blonde to come back with his cola. The one girl was kind of annoying, but she never really said much, and when she did, it was fun for Duo and the other two in the chat room to come down on her hard and make fun of her. He was more than willing to bet that it was Relena sitting behind that screen name, or someone who was grossly like her. He wondered how someone like her had ended up in Quatre’s English class, and then ending up figuring that it was just another flawed loophole in the school system; he could think of plenty of kids who were plain stupid and on the honour roll while there were a good deal of underachievers who were a zillion times more clever and hardly maintained a C average. School never did anything for intelligent people; that was something Duo had figured out a long time ago and was eternally spiteful for. What a waste of time!

“Hey, uh Duo! I got you a soda!” Quatre’s voice broke his train of thought. Duo leapt up from the chair, like a kid who had been caught with his grubby hand in the cookie jar, his hands clasped behind his back as he rocked innocently back and forth on his heels. “Have fun with my chat?” he asked, offering a twenty ounce bottle of Coke to Duo, not even having to look at the screen to know what Duo had done. He resumed his spot, setting his own twenty ounce bottle of cola, which was already about a third of the way finished, next to the computer. “My, my, you make friends fast.”

“They’re okay,” Duo shrugged, twisting the bottle cap off and taking a long swig of the fizzy soda. “Make sure you tell ‘em it’s you again, and that the great Lord Orsino has taken his leave of the chat room.”

“Is that what you had them calling you?” Quatre wasn’t sure if he should laugh or shake his head in despair at Duo. The boy just could never be one thing at a time! Always two different things at once, things that were usually total opposites, making Duo one of the most interesting and infuriating people Quatre knew. That assessment in itself proved his point that Duo was the crowned ruler of paradoxes.

“I didn’t think it up!” Duo cried defensively, laying a hand on his chest. “Leave me alone, Q!”


“I gotta make sure these boys don’t say anything else that’ll go to your head,” Quatre grinned to himself, back into his typing-frenzy.

“Aww, I’m getting sick of this ‘Making-Fun-of-Maxwell’ game,” Duo groaned, pausing to take another swig of soda. “That Trowa fella’s really getting to you, do you know that?”

“Maybe you don’t like his influence, but I sure do!” Quatre said with a private smirk, his usually cheery blue eyes taking on an alien look of a much darker nature. “I don’t complain about your love life, so leave mine alone!”

“And just what love life would you be referring to, Q?” Duo huffed, raising his voice as loud as he dared in the stifling quiet of the large library. “I don’t have anybody! ...And I don’t have any crushes, either!” He quickly threw on the last bit, anticipating what Quatre had been about to open his mouth and say.

“You know, I heard from Trowa that a certain someone is a very good artist,” Quatre said, that evil look in his eyes now spread all across his face. “He showed me a few of that certain someone’s works and it sure looks like that someone has a thing for drawing you.”

“Dammit, just say his fucking name!” Duo growled, clenching his fists and glaring upward with gritted teeth. “You don’t have to sit there and taunt me like I don’t know who the hell you’re talking about!”

“Stressed out?” Quatre asked nonchalantly, ignoring the fact that he probably was a good deal of the reason Duo was acting so high-strung. “Maybe you should go take a walk, vent a little.”

“Jeez, sorry, Q! Didn’t know I was so annoying!” Duo snapped, tossing his soda bottle into his satchel and sweeping it up over his shoulder in one graceful movement. Duo stuck his tongue out at his blonde friend, who just smiled a dazzling, white grin in return, and then stalked off, a stormy cloud raining down over his head.

As he made his way through the library, weaving through the maze of shelves and tables, he felt a vibration in his pocket. It took Duo a couple of moments to realize that it was his cell phone, buzzing away on its silent ringer. Pausing for a moment, he dug around in the large pockets of his cargo pants and withdrew the small, black device, flipping it open to look at the glowing display screen. A text-message was waiting patiently there for him to read it: ‘Yo, what happened to you? --cesario’

Duo had to switch gears in order to figure out what the hell the message meant. Forgetting his annoyance at Quatre, he realized that it was just one of the guys from the chat room. He started walking again, focused on his cell phone as he quickly typed in a reply. ‘Q came back; how’d you get this number?’

No sooner had he sent the message, when the answer came back, the phone vibrating with a life of his own right there in his palm. ‘Q gave it. Where are you?’

‘Library,’ Duo messaged back as he turned down another aisle of bookshelves. He remembered reading some of the comments this guy had made in the chat and knew that he had to be pretty damn clever to say some of the things he had. It consoled Duo to think that there were at least a few people with operational brains in the world. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts and typing another reply on his cell that he wasn’t even paying attention to where he was walking anymore. In fact, it wasn’t until he tripped over something lying right in his path that he even realized how zoned he’d been.

Now sprawled on the floor, his cell phone a good foot or so out of his grasp and the strap of his bag twisted around his body, he looked around, trying to get his bearings and, more importantly, see what the hell he had tripped on. Nothing in hell could have prepared him for either answer. Apparently, he seemed to have stumbled over none other than Heero Yuy, who had been sitting on the floor, leaning up against one of the bookcases with his legs spread out across the aisle and had ended up falling face-down into his lap.

“Well, well, look who dropped in,” Heero said smugly, an odd glimmer sparkling around the edges of his dark, blue eyes as he slipped off the headphones he’d been listening to. “Are you always this klutzy, or is it a special act you put on just for me?”

Duo just stared up at Heero with a defiant pout on his face, slender eyebrows furrowed bitterly over his pert little nose. “What the fuck are you doing in my way?” was all Duo could think of to say, mentally wincing at how damn stupid it must have sounded.

“I thought you said you wouldn’t do me any sexual favours. What are you doing in my lap?” Heero answered smoothly, his voice flat and monotone as always, though there was definitely a certain edge to it this time. It annoyed Duo to no end how he could speak with so much calm about anything; it gave Heero such an advantage over him!

“Nothing!” Duo snarled, scrambling quickly out of the suggestive position he’d landed in, snatching up his cell phone and hopping to his feet as he struggled to pull himself out of the binding strap of his bag. “I wasn’t doing a damn thing!”

“No need to be defensive. I was just asking a question,” Heero stated firmly, looking up at the jittery mechanic, who was still fighting a losing battle with his satchel. “Sit down.”

“You can’t boss me around!” Duo snapped, halfway through the process of lifting the bag over his head. “Just because you’re the stupid captain of the team doesn’t mean that you rule every aspect of my life! If I want to stand, then dammit, I’m gonna stand!” He nodded curtly and finished pulling the bag off, dropping it beside his feet.

“So you’re really just going to stand there?” Heero asked, looking smug, as usual. The almost playful twinkle in his Prussian blue eyes dulled as his expression hardened. “Sit,” he ordered again, pointing to the ground beside him. When Duo still hadn’t made a move to obey, Heero let out an annoyed sigh as he pulled his headphones from around his neck, dropping them and the CD player they were wired to into his nearby bag, which he then zipped shut and moved to his other side. He slapped the ground again, growling: “I said sit, Duo. I want to talk to you.”

“How’re you gonna make me, huh?” Duo stuck out his tongue and spun around on one Chuck Taylor-clad foot, his braid wiggling at Heero with a silent laugh as he moved. “You’re not my boss, Yuy,” he said coldly over his shoulder, bending to pick up his bag as if he meant to start walking away.

“Our bet says I am,” Heero countered almost immediately, though the lazy drawl of his low voice made it seem like was speaking slower than he was. “You have to listen to me for a whole week, and I say I want to talk to you. Now sit!”

Duo turned around, looking at Heero with blank, narrowed eyes. “You planned this, didn’t you?” he said in a dry monotone. “You were sitting here just waiting for me to turn that corner so you could, what did you say, talk to me?”

“In a manner of speaking, I suppose, yes, I was,” Heero ground out as easily as was physically possible for him. He may have gotten a turnaround from Duo, but that didn’t mean that the braided mechanic was any less annoying than he usually was around him. “Why can’t you just accept that maybe I want to! Are you this suspicious of everyone you know?”

“I’m only suspicious of suspicious people,” Duo said plainly as he dropped his bag again. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then back again; he crossed and uncrossed his arms, put his hands on his hips and then behind his head, trying to hold off sitting down as long as possible.

“I’m suspicious?” Heero sounded mildly amused at this accusation and rolled it around his mouth for a while, trying it on for size. “Suspicious, huh?” He glanced up at Duo, that sly gleam returning to his deep, blue eyes, “What makes me so?”

“You can always trust a dishonest man to lie,” Duo growled, tensing his shoulders and balling his hands into tight, little fists. “Liars are always suspicious enough.”

“Oh, and you’re so honest yourself,” Heero replied sarcastically. Inwardly, he was a little annoyed that Duo had yet to sit down, but he was at least pleased that he had managed to keep the impossible team manager from escaping thus far. “How am I a liar? Have I ever lied to you?”

“Any prep like you is bound to be a sniveling little liar,” Duo spit out bitterly, his eyes narrowing and glowing with a strange, violet hue, like they were burning with a purple flame. “You run around school, acting like you run the joint and kissing up to all the damn adults, when really, on the inside, you’re all just the same: bland, unimaginative and boring. Stupid brutes and sluts who only care about sex, popularity, dances and more sex!”

“I’ll have you know, Duo Maxwell, that I have never been on a romantic date in my entire life, that I don’t go to dances and the only thing that makes me ‘popular’ is the sole fact that I play sports. By any other standards, you’d rather think me a loser,” Heero informed Duo so plainly that the longhaired boy had to take a couple of seconds to think about Heero’s words before he could even give a facial reaction. But before he could open his mouth to let out some droll witticism, Heero was already speaking again. “ How can you call me dishonest when I hear you lie, cheat and swindle, that you gamble and have some pretty shady connections. That’s why you’re our manager. That’s why you are the way you are.”

“So what if I do!?” Duo snapped, suddenly falling on all fours and scuttling over to Heero, a hand planted on either side of the Japanese lacrosse player so Duo could get right in his face and glare his damnedest at him. “You may be right about all those things--all of them but one!” Duo kept his face straight and his jaw set as he stated in jerky sentences: “I. Never. Lie. Ever.”

“Is that the truth?” Heero arched one brow, that godforsaken smirk growing on his lips again. “How do I know you’re not lying about lying?”

“Because I never do!” Duo snarled, his snapping teeth threatening to bite off Heero’s nose with each word. “I’m Duo Maxwell! I may run, I may hide, but I never, ever tell a lie!”

“You lie to yourself; why not lie to other people too?” Heero suggested with a small roll of his shoulders, easily shrugging off Duo’s explosive reaction. He had realized, once he’d lowered his shields for a moment, that Duo was hiding and firing shots from behind his own defenses, just as Heero had been. Unfortunately, no matter how loudly Heero seemed to be shouting out for a cease-fire, Duo was still shooting blindly from behind his large shield, too afraid to look around it and see the truce. “You use it to protect yourself, these packs of lies and fantasies you feed yourself,” Heero assessed. “Why would you let go of something that keeps you safe, Mr. Maxwell?”

“You’re acting awful damn clever, considering who you are,” Duo bit back moodily, relenting and curling up in a ball of folded limbs beside Heero. He glared darkly at his companion from behind the safe barrier of his arms. “You’ve been uncharacteristically nice to me lately; since when did you care about me?”

Heero was silent for a moment, just watching Duo with that smoldering stare of his instead. “You thought I was joking,” he said at length, no questioning in his voice, just a plain statement, a fact of life.

“Joking?”

“Yes, joking,” Heero snorted stiffly, his eyes still glued intently on Duo’s skeptical facade. He resisted the temptation to roll his eyes with a dragged-out air of exasperation and settled for sighing lightly and blinking for the first time in a full minute. “I wasn’t kidding when I said....” He trailed off, unsure if he should proceed or not. “...When I said I wanted to be your friend,” he whispered softly, his eyes dropping down to the restless hands in his lap.

“Oh-ho! Is that so, Yuy?” Duo made a noise of amused astonishment. “I never knew you cared, what, with the callous asshole treatment you’ve been giving me since we first met. Aw, gee, I’m so flattered.” There was nothing to mask the dripping sarcasm in Duo’s tone.

“But it is,” came the hushed reply. “I’m sorry I don’t know how to be friendly. I had always thought it would be something you’d be good at, something you’d help me get better at.”

“Nice excuse, lacrosse boy,” Duo deadpanned. “D’ya really expect me to believe that?”

“No, I suppose not,” Heero sighed again, sounding truly dejected. His hands had found their way to the ground on either side of him, the one nearest to Duo toying with the end of Duo’s long braid and the shoelace that was tied there like some kind of mocking trophy. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” he whispered even softer than before, his fingers tugging gently at the shoelace, meaning to take it back.

“Ack, what are you doing!?” Duo suddenly panicked when he felt the tight knot at the tail of his braid loosening slowly, his eyes zooming down to watch in horror as Heero’s slim, deft fingers worked.

“Why do you wear this?” Heero asked, his fingers wrapped around the braid and holding it tight in place, the long digits hung with the tattered shoelace.

“Why do you think? To keep my hair together!” Duo answered raptly, thinking that the response should have been that obvious. Duo’s eyes widened slightly with fear as Heero started to loosen his grip on his hair, slowly drawing away the shoelace and the only thing keeping his braid from falling freely around him. “Hey! You can’t take that back after you gave it too me!” he cried desperately, not realizing how open he’d made himself with those words until he was halfway through saying them.

“You want to keep it then?” Heero asked, sounding almost sly. In one fell movement, he swept his hand away from the rough, brownish-yellow carpet they were sitting on and sent it taking off for the airspace over his head. “You’re sending me mixed messages, Duo.”

“Stop being a jerk-off and give it ba-ack!” Duo whined, making a grab at the dangling lace while still gripping his hair tightly. He’d been able to keep it in its braid since his childhood and he wasn’t about to let it slip up now. He’d always felt like letting his hair out was on about the same level as being naked, and both at the same time the ultimate in freedom and vulnerability for him. He liked keeping his memories tied back and out of his face, but always at the back of his mind, so he would never forget. Letting it out was simply that: letting his worries and problems out and letting go, which was something he wasn’t quite sure he was ready to do just yet.

“Be my friend and I’ll let you have it,” Heero taunted. He felt only slightly guilty that he was using such a cheap maneuver to get Duo to stop pushing him away, but he was at a point where he was just desperate enough to try. He was tired of fighting the braided mechanic every step of the way, when all he really wanted was to be nearer to him. Heero hadn’t been exaggerating in the slightest when he’d said that he didn’t know how to be friendly; it was a skill he’d never really had time to perfect during his rather rough and terribly lonely childhood years. And, unsure of how to deal with other people, he’d reacted to Duo the way he’d been reacting to everyone for most of his life by digging the trenches and preparing for war. It had never occurred to him that he was only helping to drive Duo away; proof of that could be found with Duo’s current attitude towards him.

“What are you, five?” Duo stabbed, making another grab for the shoelace, which always seemed to be just out of reach. Then again, maybe Heero was blaming himself just a bit too much for Duo’s hostility. It was a situation neither one was doing a very good job of getting out of. “Just let me have it to tie my hair!”

“Just say it. In regards to our bet, I’m ordering you to say it!” Heero snapped tersely, his short-fused temper starting to get the better of him. He had really been trying hard to keep himself under control, but Duo had this magnificent talent for getting the largest rise out of him, even when they were doing nothing more than breathing each other’s oxygen. No one had ever been able to make his emotions blow and quell quite like Duo managed to, his mood of his mere presence sometimes being enough to dictate Heero’s every mood for an entire day. “I’m trying damn hard here, Duo!” Heero growled, his voice wavering on the danger line. “What more would you have me do!?”

“Hair tie!” Duo complained, finally leaping up quick enough to grab an end of the shoelace. Unfortunately, Heero still had a pretty good grip on the thin strip of cloth, forcing them to sit in a mutual stalemate, each one tugging hard on his end of the shoelace.

“It was mine to begin with,” Heero said calmly, hand fisting roughly around the shoelace and jerking hard. “Why should I let you keep it if you don’t want to be friends? I gave it to you hoping you would.”

“You must think I’m some kinda stupid,” Duo drawled with an upward flick of his large violet irises. “You’ve got something stuffed up your stupid, lacrosse-junkie sleeve, don’t you? If you think I’m moronic enough to just throw myself prostrate on the ground at your feet, you’ve got another thing coming, Yuy.”

“Fine then; let your hair flop all over the place. See if I care,” Heero gave a powerful yank on the shoelace, almost dragging Duo face-first into his lap again. “What if all I really want is you, Duo? No strings, promise.”

Fingers still pinched around his end of the shoelace above his head, Duo leaned in and peered hard at Heero with a rather amusing look of scrutiny twisting his features. “You’re not sane. Something is wrong with you,” he diagnosed flatly after a few moments of curious staring. “You been chasin’ the dragon, Yuy?”

“I don’t do drugs! I hate that shit!” Heero exclaimed with such sudden fervor that it surprised Duo back a few feet and startled his grip on the shoelace loose. “I’m aware of what I’m asking you--why is this so hard for you?”

“Oh, so the day Heero Yuy wakes up and decides to be my friend is the day that I just do a little dance and say ‘Hey, yeah, let’s be chummy with the guy who’s been driving me nuts with his hot ass and his hot ass attitude for almost a month!’ Oh, yeah, that’d be a good one,” Duo sneered with his trademark cynicism.

“You keep saying that,” Heero mused, drawing the arm above his head down and touching the tip of the shoelace against his plush lower lip, chewing on both idly, as if in thought.

“What?!?” Duo looked livid, his pout scrunched up on one corner of his face and his eyes wide open and flickering with a dark indigo flame.

“That you think I’m... I’m hot,” Heero stammered, thinking it sounded a little awkward to announce something like that about himself. Contrary to popular belief, Heero was not anywhere as pretentious as he seemed. Sure, he had a lot of self-confidence, but that was a little bit different than self-esteem, something he sorely lacked.

“That’s because you are, okay!? Does it make you happy to hear me say it!?” Duo snapped, jerking his hands up and down in tandem as he leaned in towards Heero again, braid flipping behind him like a panther’s tail. “You’re the fucking most gorgeous, beautiful fucking human I’ve ever seen, which just makes you even more fucking annoying than you already fucking are because when half of me is contemplating whether or not to deck you in the face, the other damn half is thinking about how many ways I could fucking kiss you!” Duo gasped desperately for air once he was through that little profanity-laced speech. He knew he’d admitted to Heero that he thought he was good-looking before, but Duo wasn’t quite sure if he had exactly told Heero just to what extent that was. Well, he thought with an air of self-loathing, he sure as fuck knows now, doesn’t he? Smooth, Maxwell; real smooth.

“We’ve kissed before,” Heero informed him, just in case Duo had forgotten those few accidental touches of their lips. “Are you telling me you’d like to kiss again?”

“I... well, it was... you kissing... me....” Duo trailed off, suddenly realizing that he and Heero were a lot closer than he had previously thought they were. Duo found himself focusing on how he could make out each, individual, long, black eyelash that flecked out over Heero’s slanted oriental eyes, that shocking taint of Prussian blue giving him the most unique and sexy look. Duo had never noticed the flecks of cerulean and cobalt inked into those dark blue orbs, and for the first time, realized why the exact shade of Heero’s eyes seemed to be constantly shifting.

“Let’s try and be friends, Duo,” Heero whispered in that husky purr of his, his breath ghosting over the little tongue of chestnut stained hair that curled down in front of Duo’s ear, making Duo shiver unconsciously. Duo gripped his hair tighter, feeling that sinking, frightened feeling in his gut that scared him even more than things like White Fang or mutant hate-crimes.

“Oh He-e-ero! There you are!” came a sickeningly cheerful voice from afar. Duo wasn’t sure if he should have been disappointed or relieved at the sudden and not-so-surprising appearance of Relena at the end of the aisle, which caused Heero to suddenly jerk away, though he was still sitting hip-to-hip with him. She was dressed in her preppy finest, a hot pink Playboy shirt molded around her torso and a short white skirt clinging to her thighs as she strode down towards the two boys, chattering to Heero and doing a damn good job of ignoring Duo’s existence all the while. “I’ve been looking for you for almost all of lunch, and I’m so glad that I managed to find you before the bell because I have a very important question to ask you....” By this point she had reached them and was now standing in front of them in such a way that both boys had to tactfully avert their eyes so they wouldn’t have to see up her skirt. She gave a hot glare at Duo, questioning why he dared to sit in the same vicinity as Heero. “What are you doing here?” she practically spat on him.

A decidedly sinister grin played across Duo’s devilish lips as he cast his eyes up at Relena, even though she was still standing in a bad position (though perhaps that was her intent). “Oh, nothing much, Miss President-of-Hell,” he said to her, doing nothing to hide the obvious disdain in his manner. He inclined his head at Heero; “Just spending time with my... friend....” Duo’s grin was nothing short of wicked now, even more so when Heero wordlessly dropped the shoelace into his lap. Duo wasted no time in retying it into his hair, finally allowing him to let go of the braid without fear of it falling out. “Why, is there something wrong? That illegal all of a sudden?”

“It damn well should be,” Relena snarled before she had a chance to think about it. She realized just a moment too late how vicious and unladylike she must have just appeared to Heero right then and that she had almost let on that she knew about Duo’s mutation. She wasn’t quite sure that it would be too brilliant to play that card just yet; Relena may not have been the smartest person in the world, but she was manipulative as anything, and it sort of made up for her lack of experience... to a point.

“Well, Relena, if you could just make it quick, whatever it is you have to say,” Heero said. “Duo and I were in the midst of a rather important conversation ourselves,” he added with a wary glance at his longhaired companion. He still wasn’t quite sure if Duo had been sincere in what he’d just said, though Heero did have a tendency to be a little doubtful on most things when it came to human-relations.

“Well, if you insist,” Relena sighed, doing an extremely good job of resisting the urge to drag Duo by the hair out into the street and scream ‘Look at this freak!’ at the top of her lungs. She then launched into a speech about prom, a not-so-subtle hint that she wanted Heero to ask her laced into all the shameless plugging she was doing for the event.

Heero appeared to be giving her his full attention, though Duo thought it seemed to him that Heero’s actual thoughts were nowhere even close to prom. Duo’s own head, on the other hand, most certainly wasn’t focused on prom either. He was instead wondering, with a thundering heart and racing brain, what would have happened if Relena had not come by when she did. Would he have... kissed me...? Duo mused, not sure if he wanted to answer to that question or not. No, no, Duo shook his head firmly, totally drowning out the world around him. Heero’s not that kind of dude... the kind that likes other dudes, that is. No way Mr. Super-Jock would kiss me, a guy, all on his own! A mutant guy, to boot!

“No,” Heero’s firm voice sliced through his thoughts, jarring Duo back to reality. He quickly gave himself an update, trying to figure out what he’d missed while he’d been zoned out, and judging by the looks on Heero’s and Relena’s faces, Heero was through being polite and Relena sure didn’t like it.

“W-What? You must be joking, Heero, aren’t you?” Relena stammered, bending into a crouch so she could look straight into Heero’s eyes. They weren’t swimming with all those magnificent blues Duo had noticed before and actually looked much blanker than even the most flat stare Heero had ever directed at him. “What’s wrong? Do you already have a date to prom? W-Who is she? Go tell her you can’t go, that you’d rather go with me! I’m a much better date, yeah?”

“I said no, Relena,” Heero said for what seemed to be the third or fourth time (Duo wasn’t sure how much of their conversation he’d missed). “I’m sure there are many other boys you can ask who would love for you to go with them. I’m not interested.”

“But.... But I’m the school’s president! I can’t show up to senior prom stag!” she whined, nibbling on her lip and practically in tears. “You have to be my date, Heero! Me and the lacrosse team’s star captain: it’s the perfect match! Why can’t you go with me?”

“Because he’s going with me,” Duo cut in, despite all those mental wanderings he’d just gone through about Heero and kissing. The words were out before he’d even gotten a chance to think about the cost of what he’d just done. Of course, he had no idea what Relena thought of him, nor what she planned to do with him in regards to sending him to Dr. J and White Fang, but that would probably have been set on a back-burner if he had. More prominently on his mind was the classically annoyed and insulted expression plastered on Relena’s perfectly made-up face, which had been the general aim of the comment in the first place. It wasn’t until Duo noticed to neutral way Heero was staring at the side of his head with a completely unreadable look in his eyes that he realized what he’d just thrown himself into. Too late now, he sighed inwardly. Might as well just run with it. The look on that snotty bitch’s face is too classic to pass up anyways.

“You?” Relena seemed unconvinced, but more like she was in denial as opposed to simply not believing the statement. She turned to Heero, “Is this true, Heero? You’re going to prom with this... this... thing?!”

“Do not call him a thing, Relena; he’s a person, just as good as you or me,” Heero said in that unwavering tone of his. He glanced at Duo for a second, his eyes looking him over for some physical sign as to what he should do. After a pause, he turned and, trying to stifle the evil smirk that was threatening to burst out on his face, said to Relena, “And yes, that is true; I am going with Duo.”

“Yeah, so fuck you,” Duo sneered, pulling down his lower eyelid with his middle finger and sticking his tongue out at Relena. He couldn’t even begin to describe the joy he felt when he did so, which only multiplied when Relena stood, flapping her jaw like a dying fish, trying to come out with some kind of retort. In the end, she just let out a spoiled-girl’s squeal and stalked off in a huff, which just sent Duo over the edge into a fit of laughter. “That was classic!” Duo choked, shaking his head, a curled pair of fingers rubbing one teary eye. He chanced a glance at Heero and, upon seeing the hauntingly familiar smoldering light in Heero’s eyes, stopped his chortling at once. “Uh... Heero?” he ventured, suddenly afraid that Heero didn’t find it nearly as amusing as he did and was about to be made into a nice Duo-soup. “I was just joking about prom, you know? A joke?”

A huge wave of relief swept over Duo when he saw the corners of Heero’s mouth quirk up into a little grin. “You just lied to her, you know that?”

A dark blush overtook Duo’s cheeks as he stammered, “W-Well, it doesn’t have to be a... a lie... depending on how you... uh... look at it, you know?”

“So what are you trying to tell me?” Heero asked softly, turning his body slightly so he could lean against the bookcase on one arm, leaning forward a little bit and trying to catch Duo’s shifting purplish-blue eyes.

“I.... That I....”

“That you would like to try this whole ‘friend’ thing out? You watch my back, I watch yours?” Heero suggested, his voice still quiet, almost sensual. Duo was suddenly very aware of the fingers that were slipping underneath his chin, gently turning his face more to the side, bringing his eyes perfectly even with Heero’s. “That maybe I’m not as bad as you pretend I am?”

“This is a joke, right?” Duo grinned sheepishly, suddenly feeling very stuffy; he had an urge to break free of Heero’s grip to jump out the nearest window and just let himself fall free into his unrestrained form of misty particles, never mind who saw.

“I rarely joke, Duo.” His voice was even and calm, a tone that was just as serious as his meaning. Duo visibly quelled at Heero’s words and tried in vain to avert his eyes, finding that Heero’s grip on his chin, while gentle, was also very firm and unrelenting. “Are you afraid of me, Duo?” he asked in that same austere tone.

Duo had wanted to say something, but found that all he was capable of was nodding, swallowing loudly at the feeling of Heero’s fingers pressing into his flesh with the movement.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Duo,” Heero assured him resolutely. “Especially if we’re to be friends, I don’t want you to be afraid of me.” It was Heero’s turn to let his sincere blue gaze dart away for a moment before he went on. “I... I know I can be intimidating. Wufei has... every right to say the things he does about me.” Duo thought that Heero had never looked nor seemed as human as he did right then, especially when he caught a small gulp dropping down the Japanese boy’s slender throat. “But I... I would never hurt anyone... if I can help it, that is. I... I would never hurt you, Duo.”

“That’s a funny thing for you to say... especially after the way our relationship has been so far,” Duo said with a small, easy grin. It did enough to help lighten the heavy feelings dropping like weights in his stomach.

“I.... We... hurt ourselves as much as we hurt each other, I think,” Heero said, which was something so profound, that not even Duo had ever looked at it that way before. “Let’s stop doing that, okay? I don’t care if I have to order you to do it by means of our chess deal, but we will stop trying to kill each other... before we kill ourselves in the process.”

“I think.... you’re kind of right,” Duo smiled a bit wider now, his eyes squinting closed cheerfully. A strange sensation of contentment, like a humungous burden had just been lifted off his shoulders, overtook him as he smiled the first truly jovial smile he had ever given to Heero.

“So you’ll try?” the chocolate-haired Japanese pressed, his hand dropping from Duo’s chin to clap firmly on his shoulder. Heero gave him a little shake, imploring him with a very earnest look in his Prussian blue eyes. “Call it a draw?”

“Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.” Duo’s grin widened, slapping a hand on Heero’s as he agreed: “Take what’cha can and give nothing back!”

“That’s the way to do it!” Heero smiled a bit more, something that Duo decided Heero should do more often as it not only made him look far less intimidating, but it also gave him a certain attractive charm that his scowl tended to mask. Heero’s voice dropped back down to that subtler tone; “That’s the way we’ll do it.”

The expression on Duo’s face had become so cheerful-looking that it seemed as if he had never felt so good in his entire life. Duo supposed Quatre had been right that he was that transparent; he never had felt so good.

(x) X (x)

a/n: I bet you can all guess what movie I had just watched when I wrote this chappy, hehe. The chappy title is by the Smashing Pumpkins; I know they’re not really classic rock, but the song’s ten or so years old, so I guess it’s good enough. I really would say more, but I just got home from school and it’s 2AM. Yes, that’s right, 2AM. I can’t believe that my teachers actually expect me to function this week. We open tomorrow--today... and I need some sleep... badly.... *snores*