Smells Like Teen Spirit
by Shannon the Twisted Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 25
Under My Thumb

(x) X (x)

“...And he says ‘no’! Can you believe that, Cathy?” Relena slumped forward on the kitchen table, hardly noticing the consoling pat Catherine laid on her back. She moaned forlornly into the lacquered wood tabletop, sounding much like a dying cow in a lot of pain. Head snapping up and honey-brown hair flopping this way and that, she groaned: “He said no! I went through all that trouble for no! What kind of boy says no to me?”

“Well he can’t have just shafted you for no reason,” Catherine supplied, cupping her dainty chin in both palms. “Did he say why?”

“That’s the worst of it!” Relena groaned, burying her face in her hands again, practically in tears.

Catherine personally thought that her best friend was making a bit too much of a production about the fact that Heero had refused her offer to go to prom together. Catherine liked to credit herself with at least being able to tell when a person clearly wasn’t interested; Heero Yuy clearly wasn’t interested in Relena. At least, not in the ways Relena wanted him to be interested in her. Still, her duty as a friend called. “What made it worse?” she asked softly, reaching out to tap Relena’s back again.

“That... That....” Relena struggled to put the words together, more than a little angry and frustrated at even just the memory. “He’s already going with that.... Arrghhhh!” She clutched her forehead and tugged at her neatly curling bangs.

“That what, ‘Lena?” Milliardo asked jovially as he sat down at the other side of the table with a grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. “Cat got your tongue?”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Milliardo,” Relena snapped, glaring across the table at her brother as he bit into his sandwich. “Talk to your own friends,” she added bitterly as Dorothy and Noin followed their silvery-blonde-haired friend to the table, each taking a chair on either side of him.

“It’s okay. Just ignore them,” Catherine said, drawing Relena’s attention away from the cheerfully munching trio opposite them. Truth be told, she was really curious as to what had impeded the almighty Relena Darlian-Peacecraft from having her way. Such a rare feat had to be studied and documented well. “Now tell me what he said.”

“Apparently he’s going with that bratty slut with the braid!” Relena growled, her long, pink fingernails clawing painfully into her palms. Milliardo started choking on his sandwich when he overheard Relena say this; Dorothy spewed out a mouthful of juice onto her lap, her eyes wide with shock. “What’s with you people?” Relena snapped her hurt and anger back down the table.

“You wouldn’t... uh... happen to be talking about Duo Maxwell, would you?” Noin asked Relena in as calm a voice as she could, one hand hammering the still-choking Milliardo on the back. She wheeled her arm up high and slammed him even harder than the times preceding it, finally managing to help her boyfriend cough up the rebel piece of food.

“Yeah, that’s him!” Relena practically squealed, banging both hands on the table roughly enough to make everything on it jump. “The little weasel stole my boyfriend!”

“I didn’t know you were dating,” Milliardo commented cynically, rolling his eyes at Dorothy, who smirked in response. He took another large bite of his sandwich and chewed it.

“Are you sure about that?” Noin pressed, still finding the whole story more than a little fishy. “I thought Heero and Duo hated each other. They fight all the time!”

“Of course I’m sure!” Relena cried, throwing her arms up over her head dramatically. “He’s the one who said it in the first place!”

Milliardo choked again.

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same person, Relena?” Noin asked, still not totally buying it. She delivered a ferocious blow to Milliardo’s back, saving him from suffocating on his sandwich yet again. “Big purple eyes, dopey, devil-may-care grin, long, long, really long braided hair....”

“....Wears Heero’s shoelace in that braid,” Dorothy threw in casually, which earned her the shocked and astonished glares of the four other people sitting at the table. “Wha-at? It’s true!” she shrugged, slapping the table. She pointed accusingly at Milliardo and Noin. “You two geniuses should know! You were there!”

“So Quatre really isn’t insane,” Milliardo mused quietly, stroking his chin in thought. “He was right about it the whole damn time!”

Meanwhile, Relena’s mood had gone from bad to worse. “He what?” she shrieked, jumping to her feet, the combined sound of her voice and wood scraping against the tiles creating one nasty-sounding noise. “What other sick little things does that... that brat... make my poor Heero do for him?”

“She says Duo’s a brat?” Milliardo whispered sarcastically to Noin, rolling his eyes at his sister. He spoke up louder, addressing Relena: “I dunno if it’s so much Duo making Heero do things. I rather think it’s the other way around, sis.”

“No way Heero would want to spend time with a piece of trash like him when he could be with someone like me!” Relena complained, getting far more worked-up and stressed out than even Catherine considered normal and safe.

“Apparently, that’s not the case, love,” Dorothy piped up with a sly lick of her lips. “You should just take a deep breath and calm down. All that jumping up and down doesn’t become a lady like you.”

Relena’s face scrunched up and loosened up a few times before she calmed down enough to sit down. She sighed yet again and said in a much more controlled voice, “I’m sorry. I just... I just like having things go perfectly my way. I’m not used to... to....”

“...To the word ‘no’? Sounds like Heero just popped your perfect, pink bubble,” Milliardo supplied, polishing off the last of his grilled cheese sandwich and chasing it with a long swig of milk. He wiped the creamy, white smear the milk left on his upper lip away with the back of his hand and grinned across the table at his sister. “I have to hand it to you, Sis, you are damn tenacious. Very headstrong.... I suppose it can be a good thing, depending on how you look at it. But you know, you have to be able to accept things once in a while. The world ain’t a perfect place, and things aren’t always gonna fit together just right all the time.”

“Heero is headstrong and tenacious too,” Relena informed her brother flatly.

“Yeah, I know,” Milliardo answered glibly. “You can tell by that look he’s always got in his eyes. Even if you don’t know him, you can tell that he’s a damn stubborn individual. He’s not going to change his mind if you just nudge and cajole him long enough. If anything, that’ll just make him angry.”

“I could make things between Heero and me work perfectly, so I’m not worried,” Relena said resolutely. “He’s a perfect young man, and we’d make a perfect couple. You know, the princess and her white knight.”

“You’d be rather surprised how much Heero dislikes perfection,” Catherine suddenly spoke up, which earned her the honourable four stares of everyone else at the table. “I mean, yeah, he’s amazing at everything he does, but I hear him telling Trowa all the time that he’s damn tired of keeping up appearances.”

“Duo says the same thing,” Dorothy muttered. “You know, for two people who are so completely different, they’re the exact same.”

“Duo, Duo, Duo,” Relena moaned, that annoyed tick returning to her facial features. “Why is it that whenever anyone brings up Heero, that stupid rat’s name isn’t far behind.”

Milliardo came back at her in a cheerful, almost singsongy voice: “’Cause they’re like two peas in a pod, Jack ‘n’ Jill, one and two....”

“Romeo and Juliet,” Dorothy threw in with that sly grin of hers.

“Oh stop that! It’s not like they’re... together!” Relena sputtered, her face flushing bright red. “You said it yourself that they... they hate each other!”

“Just keeping up appearances, that’s all,” Dorothy said, her smirk quirking up at the corners as her shifty blue eyes narrowed slightly. “And we all know how much they like those, right?”

Milliardo and Noin joined in her laughter easily, while Relena sat brooding silently to herself.

(x) X (x)

Bright and cheerful sunbeams permeated through the thick glass of the window over Duo’s futon mattress. The shadow of the circulating fan overhead cut through the shafts of golden radiance, gently stirring up the dust that floated lazily in the rays of sunlight as they played over the still lump beneath the futon’s thick purple comforter. Somewhere in the depths of all the clutter building up on the small night stand next to the bed, an old, homemade alarm clock rattled its loud copper bells in a futile effort to rouse said blanket-shrouded lump. However, the clock was only able to ring for about ten seconds before a gangly arm snaked out from underneath the purple comforter and groped around on the night stand, finally wrapping its hand around the offending alarm clock and flinging it into the nightstand’s open drawer with the cell phone that had committed a similar offense earlier that morning. The drawer was promptly slammed shut, locking the jangling bells inside and granting the sleepy Duo more blissful silence.

Of course, some higher power with a sadistic sense of humour still seemed to get a kick out of toying with Duo, so inevitably, that wonderful quiet was short-lived. Duo was soon very aware of a loud clattering noise just outside his window, like something was hitting the glass. Frustrated and desperate for some more shuteye, he snatched one of his extra pillows and molded it tight over his head in an effort to muffle the periodic clacking sound against his window.

“Christ!” Duo swore, sitting bolt right up in bed when a particularly loud noise fell against his window. Hair mussed and sticking out of his braid in ever which way, he groggily dragged himself over to the window, his eyes sleepy and still sagging with lethargy. He pressed his hands and face against the glass, straining to see what was making such an irritating racket. Suddenly, a white ball smacked against the glass, startling Duo with the loud thump it made. Throwing the window open, he moodily stuck his head out and shouted down at the person standing in the small lot behind his garage. “Get the fuck away from my house with that goddamned lacrosse stick of yours, Heero Yuy!” he hollered down at him as Heero was winding his arms back to let the ball fly against the window again.

“Ohayo, Duo,” Heero called back, the sunlight dancing in his eyes; they looked cobalt today, Duo noted blandly in the back of his mind.

“What are you doing awake at this hour!?” Duo answered, wincing as Heero’s lacrosse ball rebounded off the siding next to the window. “And would you cut that out!? You’ll chip the paint!”

“Suimasen... baka,” Heero said with a little smirk that Duo could make out even from his high-up, second-floor vantage point. He caught the ball easily on its return-trip back down to earth and sent it flying back up towards Duo in the same fluid motion. Only this time, instead of hitting the siding, as it had done before, the ball sailed up and knocked Duo squarely between the eyes. Heero’s smug expression immediately transformed into one of worried concern, dropping the stick and cupping his hands around his mouth as he called out Duo’s name, waiting for an answer. He was a little frightened when there was a painfully long silent pause without any movement from inside the now-empty window.

Heero was ready to run around to the front of the garage and break in when a sudden stream of curses, all strung together in one long word, came roaring from the room above. “Shitpisscuntmotherfuckingdammit,” Duo’s voice roared as a slim hand appeared on the windowsill, groping around for a bit before its partner rose up to join it. Heero couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief when Duo’s head emerged in the window, even though he was not all that pleased with Heero. “Crap on a stick, Heero! Look at this huge-ass shiner I got on my face now! Way to fucking go!”

“It was an accident. I’m sorry,” Heero apologized, not sounding anywhere as sincere as he felt. “Now get dressed and get down here!”

Duo stuck his tongue out at Heero and made a big show of slamming the window closed again. Heero sighed and stooped to pick up his discarded lacrosse stick. Scooping up the nearby ball, he pulled back his arms and flung the ball up against Duo’s window again. He may have won the battle of friendship, but he had a long way to go before the war was finished.

“Christ, what do you want?!?!” Duo flung the window open again, this time only after one ball against the side of the house. Heero had been flinging his lacrosse ball at Duo’s window for almost an hour before he’d opened the window the first time.

“To hang out,” Heero stated simply, letting his stick slide through one fisted hand until it caught at the neck. When he got no immediate response from Duo, Heero was suddenly afraid he’d said something wrong and made a fool of himself, something he considered among the greater of humiliations. “That’s what you would say, right? To do what... friends... do?”

“Why does that sound suspiciously like something your slinky brother told Q a while ago?” Duo demanded flatly. “Now look at them, always staring at each other all googly-eyed.”

“Does it?” Heero said, arching an amused eyebrow as he usually did when he found something intriguing, trying to think back to how Trowa had managed to get Quatre on a date in the first place. He shook it off though, figuring he’d probably end up standing there all day with the way his mind tended to function, calculating days and minutes and routinely going through each and every word exchanged during them. “Would you like me to court you like Trowa did with Quatre?” Heero called, his smirk widening into more of a devious smile.

“I suppose you should be standing there shouting ‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair’,” Duo quipped cynically. As he spoke, the gears in his mind were cranking around at some ridiculous speed as he went over what Heero had just said. He was making a joke when he said that thing about courting, Duo’s stubborn subconscious decided, ignoring the other subordinate voices inside his head. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to sleep.”

“But it’s almost noon!” Heero responded, unsure how anyone could bear to sleep that long. He was up at six every morning, no matter if it was the weekend or a school day. “Please, Duo?” he begged earnestly, looking somewhere between desperate and forlorn. “I... I don’t have anyone else to....” He trailed off, staring down at his shoes, which, Duo noticed, were the same ugly, yellow ones the infamous shoelace had come from. “What I mean is... I....” Unable to string the words together the way he wanted, he just settled for another last ditch effort. “Please, Duo?”

Duo felt something in his proud heart splinter at the truly genuine expression on Heero’s face. All at once, just because of that one little nick in his facade, the entire thing came crashing down on top of itself, leaving Duo to stand naked in a pile of rubble that was once the impressive fortress he’d barred himself behind. “I’ll... Let me get dressed,” Duo said quickly before closing the window again and disappearing from view.

Heero nodded curtly in response and resumed banging his ball against the side of the garage, though with Duo’s promise to finally come down, he no longer had the need to throw the ball up so high.

“Hey Mister, where you heading?
Are you in a hurry?
Need a lift to happy hour; say oh no....”

Heero looked up, suddenly very aware that he could hear Duo coming around to the back of the garage, singing as he stepped into the back lot from the alleyway that ran between his home and his neighbour’s. Duo himself appeared moments later wearing a pair of faded, dirt-stained jeans and a black, cotton button-up underneath his favourite jacket, which fell in leather folds against the backs of his thighs. An old, professional camera was slung over his shoulder, bouncing lightly against his hip as he moved in an odd sort of improvised dance step with the tune in his head, like he was doing the cha-cha with an air guitar.

“Do you brake for distilled spirits?
Need a break as well,
The well that inebriates the guilt,
1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4!”

Heero was still, unwilling to move lest he make some noise that would disturb the gorgeous noises pouring out from Duo’s lips as the longhaired boy came closer. There was something very haunting about the way Duo’s voice sounded when he sang, almost like there was someone else inside of Duo’s skin. Yet somehow, Heero knew for sure that this singing creature was Duo; he could almost feel it in the air around him.

Duo paused long enough to pretend like he was hitting a set of drums, tailing it off with a tap on an imaginary cymbal and a slight flick of his hips before he started moving towards Heero again.

“Cold turkey’s getting stale;
Tonight I’m eating crow.
Fermented semolina poison; oak no!
There’s a drought at the fountain of youth
And I’m dehydrated.
My tongue is swelling up,
I say 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4!

Duo suddenly flew into a frenzy, his movements resembling a punk band’s excited, jumping performance instead of the animated movements he’d been sidling through before. Heero supposed that if he could hear the beat and the music that went with the lyrics Duo was singing, he’d find the longhaired mechanic’s antics less random. Still, he couldn’t deny that watching Duo in his own, happy place was a highly amusing thing and quickly forgot the fact he didn’t know the song.

“Troubled times! You know I cannot lie!
Hop off the wagon and I’m
Hitchin’ a ride.”

“You sing well,” Heero said as Duo came to stand beside him, which drew Duo’s act to a close. He didn’t want to come off as so desperate for Duo’s friendship that he would sink so low as to give him meaningless, empty compliments, but there was no other way to say that he thought Duo had a marvelous voice, both for singing and speaking. “You really should be on the stage, Duo, not behind it.”

Duo’s face blanched at the suggestion. “Me? Standing on stage, with all the lights, and the audience, and the costumes, and the sets?” he curled his lip, pointing to himself with some denomination of disbelief glowing in his violet eyes. “Nuh-uh, that’s rule number one. Duo Maxwell does not act.”

“Could have fooled me,” Heero said, his face taking on such a subtle expression of jovial cynicism that if Duo had not been paying as much attention to such details as he was, he would have totally missed it or gone oblivious to the fluctuations of Heero’s face. “Come on,” Heero said, grabbing Duo by the wrist and dragging him out of the yard. “We’re taking a trip to Nataku’s.”

“Oh so that’s it, eh?” Duo made a face at Heero as he quickly trotted after the retreating Japanese boy. “Let’s wake up the pretty boy because we’re not creative enough to think of anything else to draw?”

Heero stopped, one hand resting on the wire fence that ran along the edge of Duo’s yard, separating it from the narrow alley on the other side. “I’m more creative around you,” Heero said plainly, his dead eyes catching an odd glimmer in the bright midday sunlight. “Just having your energy around gives my work so much more life.” He didn’t look to Duo for a response and simply stooped down to pick up his backpack, where he had discarded it upon entering Duo’s yard earlier. He got back to his feet, swinging the aluminum gate open and stepping out into the alley. He held it for Duo, though the longhaired mechanic seemed to opt that jumping over the fence was a far more productive way to get where he was going. “You’re so full of life, Duo,” he added as Duo landing on his booted feet with a loud thump and the rustle of buckles.

“Since when were you a poet?” Duo shot back automatically. He still wasn’t quite used to this whole ‘friends-with-Heero-thing’.

“Since I first....” Heero opened his mouth to finish his sentence, but found no words were coming out. Shaking his head and continuing down the alley, he figured that was just as well, lest he set himself up for yet another comment from Duo. Amusing as Duo was to Heero, sometimes his verbal lashings could be a little unnerving. “Forget it,” he ended up saying instead, his voice flat and monotone. “Come on, Maxwell. Pick up your feet.”

“Hey, do you want to at least pretend to be friendly if we’re gonna spend time together?” Duo said, marching moodily ahead of Heero.

“I’m not....” Heero cut himself off and let the retort die. He just didn’t want to start another verbal battle with Duo; he wasn’t in the mood, which was a sure sign he would lose. But after a few moments of silent walking, just as they were turning onto the street that ran in front of Duo’s home, Heero reached forward and grabbed Duo firmly by the wrist. Jerking the longhaired mechanic backwards. “Why do you always do that?” he asked, his dark blue eyes riveted up on Duo’s violet ones. “You keep fighting, even when you’re falling down.”

Something akin to wounded pride flickered across Duo’s expression. “That’s only because you kept tripping me,” he said defiantly, wrenching his wrist free and crossing his arms moodily across his chest as he turned his nose up in the air.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t really make it easy for either of us,” Heero began, shoving his free hand deep into one pocket, his shoulders hunching a bit as he turned away, nervously rolling the shaft of his lacrosse stick across his shoulder. “But to tell the truth, I can hardly remember what we started fighting about in the first place, and I want that to end, Duo.”

“Well I can remember, Mr. Lacrosse Star,” Duo snapped with a short jerk of his head. “You were just a cocky asshole from the beginning, and I wasn’t about to sit back and let you push me around!”

“Oh, and you don’t have any pride either,” Heero answered softly, his voice even and plain, knowing full-well that he was right in saying so. “If anything, you are even prouder than I am, Duo Maxwell.”

Duo’s face turned bright red with annoyance, partly because he knew Heero had a point, and partly for the reason he blasted Heero aloud for: “D’ya have to tack my name at the end of everything you say!?” Duo demanded with a small growl rumbling in the back of his throat.

“Yes,” Heero answered with a dark grin. “Because people always listen when one uses direct address.”

“You think I don’t listen?” Duo arched one brow and gave Heero a dumb-looking expression.

“Yes.” The answer never failed to be quick, flat and smooth, rolling off Heero’s tongue like it was programmed to come out that way.

“Yes, you do, or yes, you don’t?” Duo was quick to retort, his own responses coming quick and clean. Sarcasm was practically second-nature to Duo, and the fact that he never thought about what he said sometimes got him in big trouble despite being highly entertaining.

“Yes, I do,” Heero clarified. Duo was sure he imagined the amused gleam buried deep under those many layers of blue in Heero’s eyes. They were silent for a few moments, staring each other down like two cowboys standing on an empty street and waiting to draw weapons on each other amid the tumbleweeds. “Come on, let’s go,” Heero finally broke the silence, nodding his head down the street as he started walking.

Duo stood still for a couple of moments, even as Heero started walking away. He blinked a couple of times, realized that he was alone, and quickly sprinted after Heero to catch up. “Hey, not so fast!” he panted, slowing down at Heero’s side, glaring at the ground as he gasped for breath. He soon fell into stride with the Japanese boy, noticing how it took three of Heero’s quick and evenly calculated steps to equate with just one of his own. Duo wondered idly if it had to do with the fact that his legs were just much longer than Heero’s, or maybe because Heero’s movements tended to be very efficient and fast, not anything like Duo’s own gallivanting lope. Despite Heero’s small stature, the messy-haired boy was extremely sturdy, which even Duo had been surprised by, given his almost too slim form. He didn’t even realize that he was counting Heero’s paces aloud to himself, just to see how regular they were.

“You know, for someone who talks as much as you do, you’re pretty observant,” Heero suddenly spoke up as he came to a stop at the end of the block, waiting for the red light to change in their favour. He leaned on his lacrosse stick and looked Duo up and down, rearranging his backpack on one shoulder as he did so. “Do you think that if your mouth is always moving, no one will pay attention to what you notice?”

Duo was tempted to look up, just to make sure that the sky wasn’t falling or that an army of winged pigs wasn’t soaring overhead. He screwed up his face, squinted at Heero and opened his mouth to make so glib retort, mildly surprised when he found no sound came out.

“So when you’re silent, does that mean you’re just paying extra attention to whatever you’re watching?” Heero went on, turning to face the crosswalk and only glancing at Duo a little bit. “Or does it simply mean that you want someone to notice you?” A small grin ghosted across Heero’s lips as a wry chuckle escaped them. “It’s amusing that someone is able to actually hide behind so much bravado,” he commented, glancing up and noticing the change in the lights. He started across the street, calling almost teasingly back at Duo, who was still lingering on the street corner, dazed; “I suppose they’re right when they say that it’s sneakier to just walk in the front door than climb in through the window.”

Realizing that he had been left daydreaming again, Duo quickly hurried across the street. “What are you trying to say?” Duo asked shortly, a little angered by the ambiguous way that Heero had been conducting his conversation. He hated playing into things he didn’t quite fully understand and he wanted to know the full story before he dug himself any deeper. “You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”

“Paranoid, aren’t we?” Heero commented idly. He said nothing more as they continued down the street towards the sandy mess that lay strewn about the wooden steps climbing up to the boardwalk.

Duo watched in fascination as Heero walked right by the stairs and tossed his lacrosse stick and bag up onto the boardwalk, which was about six inches above his head. He then jumped up, grabbing onto the edge and hoisted himself up, scuttling onto the wooden walkway after his belongings. “Showoff,” Duo grumbled under his breath as he lingered at the bottom of the stairs, glaring up at the smug figure above him.

“Bet you couldn’t do it,” Heero challenged, that grin of his more apparent than ever.

“Like hell I can’t! Just you watch!” Duo snapped, stomping down the stairs and pulling his camera over his head and setting it down on the boardwalk by Heero’s feet, just as the Japanese boy had done with his own belongings before he’d attempted the leaping climb. Though the few extra inches he had over Heero helped him with the jump, Duo had to admit that hoisting his entire body weight up was much harder than Heero made it seem. But Duo wasn’t a weakling by any account and eventually managed to pull it off, though he ended up dragging himself onto the wooden planks with a lot less grace than Heero, who had neatly vaulted and clambered up with a gymnast’s ease. “See,” Duo murmured against the cool wood, “I did it. Eat that, fucker.”

“You cuss like a sailor,” Heero said, squatting down by the still prone Duo, who simply rolled his head to the side so he could look at his companion. “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth of yours?”

“If I had a mother to kiss, yeah, I would,” Duo snarled bitterly. “If my damned swearing has anything to do with who I kiss or don’t kiss, then the only one who’d be kissable would be motherfucking you!”

“Is that so,” Heero said, his voice back to that even, controlled tone of his, the one that made Duo want to slap him across the cheek. The smile had disappeared too, and in its place was a very mundane line that was twisted in neither anger nor cheer.

Duo’s face turned crimson again, but this time, it was red with an embarrassed blush instead of scarlet annoyance like before. He quickly stood up and grabbed his camera, looping the strap over his torso again. “Say, is that Meilan down there?” he said suspiciously fast, quickly brushing past Heero and walking in the direction of Nataku’s.

Heero grabbed his own things and twisted around to look the way Duo had just went. “I don’t see her,” he said, scrunching his eyebrows over his gently sloped nose, perplexed. Now finding himself the one who had to catch up, Heero quickly followed Duo, the other boy’s snaking braid calling luring him like a cat chasing a play toy.

About twenty feet further down from where they had climbed onto the boardwalk, Duo had jumped up onto the thick guardrail that ran along the beach-side and was standing there, one arm wrapped around the green-tinged pole of one of the street lamps as he looked out at the sea. Heero came up behind Duo so quietly, he nearly startled the longhaired boy into falling from his perch when he spoke. “Are you sure you saw Meilan?”

“Yeah, out there,” Duo answered, pointing out to the curling waves once he had gotten over the shock of being sneaked up on. “That’s her, right? With the purple surfboard? She looks mad.”

Heero’s eyes followed Duo’s finger out to the ocean and, sure enough, there was Meilan, paddling aggressively out to catch another wave. The ocean wasn’t extremely wild that day, but it was moody enough to present a challenge; despite that, Meilan seemed to be able to brave all the buckets of water the sea was chucking at her, like she could care less if the entire thing rained down on her head. “I hope not,” Heero said slowly, his eyes still focused on his Chinese friend. “Meilan’s a good carver, but if she’s in a bad mood, she might not be as focused as she should be.”

“What’s your point?” Duo asked, casting a quick glance down at the top of Heero’s head. The blue-eyed Japanese was now leaning on the guardrail with crossed arms, staring fixedly out at Meilan, like he was playing lifeguard or something. When another one of their infamous silences began to fall upon the pair, Duo sighed and went back to watching Meilan as well. At this point, she had gotten up and was currently ripping through a wave with such intensity, he was surprised she hadn’t already beaten the damn thing out already.

“Guess,” Heero said simply. Duo turned to look down at Heero again, finding it amazing how he could stand there like a breathing statue, moving only his lips when he spoke and perhaps the occasional blink. The sea roared loudly in the silence between them until Heero’s voice climbed above it. “Meilan’s like you when she’s angry,” he finally explained with a sigh.

“And what’s that mean?” Duo narrowed his eyes, glaring holes into the top of Heero’s skull, just daring him to make another iffy comment.

Heero seemed to be fully aware of Duo’s dirty stare and looked up to meet it, that ambiguous sparkle lighting the blues of his eyes again. “She doesn’t think about what she’s doing and does irrational things, just like you,” he told Duo matter-of-factly. “She yells, she swears, she acts like a child and goes off in a huff.”

“Are you saying I do those things when I’m mad?” Duo scowled at the tone in Heero’s voice. Heero had originally struck him as someone who was plain and straightforward, with absolutely no deviation from the beaten path and very uncreative thinking. However, the more he heard Heero say, and the more he caught that irritating smirk and that practically devilish gleam in his eyes, the more he realized that there was much more to Heero Yuy than what was on the surface. For someone as calculated and predictable as Heero seemed to be, Duo found the Japanese boy to be infuriatingly unreadable. “I don’t act like a fucking child,” Duo informed Heero snidely. “I’m anything but a child.”

“You’re doing it now,” Heero replied.

Gripping the light post tighter, Duo glared out at the ocean once more, refusing to look down at his new friend and constant tormenter. Meilan was coming back now, her purple long board tucked under one arm as she trudged across the beach towards them. It was even more obvious by the way she was walking that she wasn’t in the best of spirits; her movements were jerky as she slammed her feet into the sand with each angry step, her muscles tense beneath her dark blue and gray wet suit. Duo wasn’t sure if she had noticed them, but he intended to head her off before she vanished, just to prove to Heero that he was wrong about how he acted when he was upset. “I am not acting childish!” Duo snarled at Heero, stomping his foot, threatening to send him spilling down onto the beach in a mess of black clothes and chestnut hair.

“I thought you said you never lie,” came the glib retort. “You’re lying now.”

“Ooooh, damn you, Heero Yuy!” Duo’s face became red again as he tensed up with irritation. He was even more annoyed when he realized that Heero wasn’t even paying attention to him anymore and was instead calling out to Meilan as she neared the boardwalk.

Meilan was now standing just in front of them, down on the beach. “Getting along nicely?” she called up, her attempt at friendly sarcasm lost in the obvious disgruntled air about her. Heero was currently leaning between the rungs of the guardrail, taking Meilan’s board from her and dragging it up onto the boardwalk before offering a hand to help her jump up. Using every nerve in his body to mask his awe, Duo watched as Heero effortlessly hoisted Meilan up enough for her to clamber the rest of the way with just one hand. “Surf’s nice today,” she said to Heero as she slid underneath the bottom rung, dragging the rest of her body behind her like a wet seal. “Wanna come out with me?”

“Maybe later,” Heero answered, standing up again. He climbed up onto the guardrail and settled down next to Duo’s booted feet, his back facing the water. “We’re having lax practice later today.”

“Right, finals are coming up,” Meilan grumbled. It was plain that she was disappointed and even a little angry at Heero’s decline of her offer.

“Sorry Nataku,” Heero said, purposely using her preferred nickname in an effort to cheer her up a little. “Promise I’ll ride with you tomorrow, ne?”

“How can you people surf on a day like today!” Duo exclaimed, throwing his hands out at the pair of them. His precarious movements threatened to have him toppling over once again as he danced around to face Meilan on the boardwalk. “It’s friggin’ January and you guys are out surfing! Nuts, all of you!”

“Well there’s no surfing in the summertime, if that’s what you mean,” Meilan muttered, picking up her board and leaning it against the guardrail, next to Heero. “Damn tourists hog the water.”

“If you haven’t noticed, Duo,” Heero spoke up to the longhaired mechanic like he was addressing a small boy, “we live in southern California, land of eternal summer. It’s really not that bad.”

“Not that I surf or anything,” Duo grumbled grouchily. He sighed and finally plopped down in a sitting position on the guardrail, tucking his booted feet behind the top rung. “Man, who’da thought the great Heero Yuy was really nothing more than a hippie artist and a shameless boardie.”

“I thought you preferred such people,” Heero said, turning his head in Duo’s direction. His exotic, oriental, blue eyes raked over Duo’s fine profile, slipping down the gentle curve of his nose, over his shapely lips and underneath his finely sculpted chin, his firm jaw and long neck. “Or have you lied about that too?”

Duo suddenly turned and grabbed Heero by the scruff of his shirt, jerking the Japanese boy closer as he spoke to him with a scathing tone burning on his tongue. “I don’t ever fucking lie!”

“Oh just shut up, both of you!” Meilan suddenly shouted from the side, glowering at the blossoming argument before her. “All you two ever do is bicker, bicker, bicker.”

“It’s HIS fault!” they both yelled at the same time, pointing accusing fingers at each other. When they realized what they had done, they flipped their attentions from Meilan back at each other, staring each other down.

“Duo, stop being so damn stubborn; Heero, quit yanking Maxwell’s chain!” Meilan said, stepping between them. Her eyes were blazing, hot with fury that had only been rekindled by Heero’s and Duo’s squabbling. “The last thing I need to hear is... is the old war routine! It’s the same bullshit every single time you idiots decide to start rattling each other and it’s friggin’ annoying after about eight zillion times!” The death glare she was shooting them was scary enough to rival even one of Heero’s best.

“And I thought Wufei had a pole up his ass,” Duo whispered to Heero, his nerves a little shaken by Meilan’s apparent bad mood.

“AND DON’T YOU DARE MENTION THAT ASSHOLE IN MY PRESENCE!!!” Meilan screamed, shoving past Heero so she could grab Duo by the collar and get right in his face. Her breath was coming in sporadic bursts, hot gusts of air billowing across Duo’s face and rustling his bangs. He turned his face so he could avoid the venomous stare Meilan was cramming right down his throat.

“Fei-cakes do something?” Duo asked sheepishly, daring to glance back at Meilan. As his eyes traveled around, he managed to catch Heero giving him a strange look, even odder than some of the other weird ones the Japanese boy directed at him. He looked torn between consoling Meilan and ripping her face off, though why these two things would be the case, Duo had absolutely no idea.

“Do something!? Hell yes, he did something!” Meilan roared, tightening her grip on Duo’s jacket and wrenching him closer so they were practically nose-to-nose.

“And that would be?” Duo wondered curiously, discreetly raising his hand and using one finger to nudge their faces a few inches apart. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Meilan (far from it), but the proximity was making him nervous. It was a little strange when he thought about it though; he had always been a pretty touchy-feely person and human contact never set him off before as he rather craved it to get by. But for some reason, it just didn’t feel right that time. It’s ‘cause Meilan is Wufei’s girl, Duo told himself with a solemn nod as Meilan backed off, realizing Duo’s sudden discomfort. That’s it. I just don’t want Wufei kicking my ass for pawing his lady.

“Sally’s home,” was all Meilan said in response to Duo’s question, finally letting go of him and stepping back a bit so she would have room to pace back and forth, acting much like an agitated kitten. Or a violent dragon, Duo thought as he watched her move, her entire body bristled and upset.

Heero’s eyes were tracking her, following her every step like a wary eagle as if it would somehow reveal what was wrong. “What’s wrong with that?” he finally asked. “I thought you liked your cousin.”

At last, Meilan stopped, threw her arms up in the air and let out an agitated yell. Then she plopped down onto the boardwalk, lying back spread-eagled on the wooden expanse. “I do like her. She’s really cool and funny and smart... which is exactly the problem,” she moaned.

“How’s that a problem?” Duo wondered aloud, swinging his long legs forward so they were extended out in front of him. “Don’cha miss your cousin?”

“The problem is that Wufei thinks so too,” Meilan groaned as she threw a still-damp arm over her eyes to block out the bright sunlight beating down on them. “Ever since she walked in the door, the stupid moron has been following her around like a love struck puppy, melting on her every word.” Her voice became sarcastic as she took on a prissy voice that was meant to impersonate Wufei. “Oh Sally, let me carry that for you. Sally, you don’t have to walk all that way by yourself. Sally this, Sally that. It’s damn annoying!”

“What?” Duo’s eyes were wide with shock, swinging his legs back down and tucking them into their former position. “I thought you and Wufei were practically married!”

“Doesn’t mean he likes me. My ma and Wufei’s family had it all set up since we were toddlers,” Meilan said with something that sounded suspiciously like sniffling. She dragged her arm over her eyes, acting like she was just taking it off of her eyes, though Duo was able to catch the quick movements she made with her wrists to wipe at the moisture accumulating on her cheeks. “But even though we fight a lot and we’re paired because of our families, that doesn’t mean I don’t like him. He’s grown on me a lot since we were kids and I... I wouldn’t really mind being married to him....” Her voice had fallen into a barely audible whisper by the end of her sentence, her words made even more garbled by the choked sounds that were escaping her throat. “I just wish he didn’t feel like it’s such a pain in his ass to have to be.”

Duo was about to open his mouth and say something else when Heero did something that completely shocked the words out of his brain. He watched, surprised, as Heero leapt off of the guardrail and fell on his knees by Meilan, slipping a hand underneath her back and helping her up into a sitting position. He patted her gently on the shoulder and used his other hand to gently wipe away her tears with his index finger, flicking away the salty droplets as if he were helping her get rid of her sorrow. “Don’t cry over an idiot,” he said, his voice rumbling deep in his chest. He brought his other arm around Meilan’s slim form and clasped her in a warm hug against his muscled chest, ignoring the fact that her soaked wet suit was making him wet too. “Wufei’s being stupid. Just give him some time,” Heero whispered to her, stroking one of her spiky, black pigtails. “Believe me, I understand that it’s hard having to wait for him to understand his feelings when you already know what yours are. But he’ll figure it out one day, I promise.” He pulled away and held Meilan at about arm’s length, a hand planted firmly on each of her shoulders. “As soon as he gets over himself that is,” he added with a tentative smile, a charming effort to lighten her spirits.

Duo wasn’t sure what was wrong with him as he watched the bittersweet scene before him, but there was a definite clamping sensation in his chest as he did. It wasn’t the kind of squishy, cute constriction he sometimes felt when he saw something particularly heartwarming or sappy, but the kind of stab he felt when he saw something that made him feel left out or even jealous. Duo wasn’t even aware of the growing intensity of this feeling inside until Meilan leaned forward to hug Heero again. Duo’s hands tightened into fists and his brows melded bitterly over his nose, shadowing darkened, purple eyes, his lips drawn downwards at the corners. He can be all nice and friendly to her, Duo found himself thinking bitterly. The fuck can’t he hug me like that? Friendly issues my ass; he just has Maxwell issues, plain and simple as fucking day.

“Are you going to be okay?” Heero asked Meilan, holding her at an arm’s distance again. “No more crying over tight-asses with stupid crushes, alright? Just laugh at him and he’ll be the loser.”

“W-What makes you so sure?” Meilan asked nervously, not completely believing him. Though she still seemed a little upset, it was apparent that Heero’s words and embrace had been enough to cheer her up, which only did to made Duo even angrier.

“Does Sally like Wufei?” Heero asked seriously, his midnight blue eyes focused steadily on his Chinese friend.

“I don’t think so,” Meilan answered with a loud swallow. “She’s almost four years older than him. Besides, I think she has a boyfriend or something back at school,” she added the last part with a small chuckle, a noise which brought a similar expression to Heero’s face.

“There, see?” Heero assured her resolutely. “What’s there to worry about if she doesn’t even like him back? He’ll just look foolish when he realizes that Sally has no romantic interest in him, even after all his pitiful swooning.”

“Hehe, you make him sound like Relena Peacecraft,” she giggled, her usual cheerful gleam starting to return to her. “Oh, he’d be so insulted if he found out you were paralleling him to a girl, especially one like her.”

“That was the general idea,” Heero said with that sadistically cynical smirk of his as he stood up, offering a hand down to Meilan. Helping her to her feet, he said, “Now if you’ll excuse us, but the baka over there and I have a date.” He snapped his fingers at Duo, indicating that he wanted him to follow, walking away from Meilan and her purple board and towards the nearby shop.

Apparently such an open-ended comment wasn’t going to sit well with Duo. “What the hell did you just call me? And what do you mean by ‘date’?” he demanded as he jogged after Heero. “It’s not like we’re boffin’ each other or nothin’; we were over that!”

Though part of him was still a little annoyed about the open display of comfort and affection Heero had shown to Meilan, Duo was glad that now he was the one getting Heero’s attention. He hadn’t realized how much he missed it until it was gone, even when that attention was just a lot of hits against his character and ambiguous sarcasm.

“Nickname for you,” Heero answered, not even bothering to stop or turn around when he spoke. He was already crossing the walkway leading from the boardwalk to Nataku’s front stoop, stepping with those quick, short strides of his. Duo thought that Heero’s motions reminded him of an extremely well-oiled machine, perhaps like his beloved Deathscythe Hell.

“Yeah, and what’s it mean? Idiot? Moron?” Duo asked drolly. Once again, he hated being left in the dark, especially with things like that. If he was going to be made fun of, he at least liked to know what the joke was. “I don’t appreciate you always calling me names I don’t understand. I like to know when I’m insulted, thanks.”

“Maybe I’ll tell you one day, but for now, it’s a secret,” Heero replied as he started up the front steps taking the creaky, wooden stairs two at a time.

“What, like how this is a secret date?” Duo growled as he bounded up the stairs, his heavy boots making the wood creak loudly underneath his weight.

When the Japanese boy got to the front door of the shop, he finally gave a reply to Duo’s question while he waited, one hand resting gingerly on the handle. “You know, I think you read too much into these things,” he said, pausing for a moment with a thought before going on. “Unless, that is, you really want to be... how did you say it? Boffing?”

Duo turned so red, he could have sworn that the ground had opened up beneath him and sent a column of fire and brimstone shooting up all around him. Gathering his attitude about him, he quickly buried his flustered self and slipped back into his rough harlequin’s costume as he stormed across the walkway and up the stairs, getting right up in Heero’s face as he glared. He probably would have said something, but surprisingly, he actually thought about the situation at hand and figured that silence was more intimidating than any wry comment he could think up on the fly. Still sending that warning glare at Heero, Duo reached down and grabbed the doorknob, visibly jumping at the shock that ran up his arm when his fingers latched onto warm fingers instead of the brass handle. “Move it, Yuy,” he growled, slapping Heero’s hand away. Sneering at the impassive Japanese boy, he pushed the door in and stepped inside, letting it swing partially closed behind him.

Inside, sitting behind the counter, was a tall, young woman with golden blonde hair twisted into two plaits that hung over her ears and fell upon her shoulders. Though she didn’t look Chinese, her blue eyes were shaped very much like Meilan’s, suggesting that one of her parents was oriental. Duo was guessing this was Sally, judging by the way Wufei was leaning on the surfboard countertop, staring at her with adoring eyes, an amusing sight Duo couldn’t help but snap a photograph of. “Smile for the birdie and say cheese, ‘Fei,” Duo said, popping the cap off the lens and lifting the black Nikon up to his eye. “Wait ‘til Meilan sees this, ya two-timer.”

The sound of the shutter clicking soon after sent Wufei flying off the counter and lunging at the camera, which Duo artfully kept just out of the Chinese youth’s questing hands. “Oooh, Maxwell, I’ll slaughter you!” he shouted as he chased Duo around the store, his face pink with embarrassment, even more so when Sally started laughing at the whole scene. “Give me that camera right now!”

“Ah, so we’re worried about what Meilan thinks, eh?” Duo baited slyly as he dove underneath a table sitting in the middle of the small shop, piled with long-sleeved tee-shirts.

Sally, still grinning like a fool, just shook her head with amusement. Leaning out over the countertop, she waved at Duo, who timidly waved back. “Hey, you’re a new face, kid,” she said with a warm smile, her voice a low, lilting alto. “You a new friend of my little cuz? Or maybe a friend of the scaly one over there.” She nodded her head at Wufei, who bristled and became flustered at the comment.

At that moment, the door swung open again as Heero walked into the shop, followed very closely by Meilan and her surfboard. He hardly paid any attention to Sally as he discarded his bag and lacrosse stick just inside the door when she gave him a cheerful greeting. Instead, he swept his stony gaze around the room, zooming right past Wufei and honing in on Duo, who was still crouched on the floor underneath the table. Stalking over, he shoved Wufei rather rudely out of the way and banged hard on the table, causing Duo to jump with surprise. “What are you doing, baka?”

“Or he’s a friend of Heero’s?” she suggested when she saw Heero fly into the room and make a beeline straight for Duo. She cocked an interested eyebrow as she watched Heero grumble something inaudible to the longhaired boy cowering beneath the table and offer a hand to him. Her interest morphed into fascination as Duo quickly darted out and immediately leapt behind Heero, clinging to him like a shield as Wufei cracked his knuckles menacingly. “Oh it’s so good to be home,” she chuckled, so absorbed in the three teenagers’ antics, she didn’t even realize that she’d spoken aloud. “Isn’t that right Meimei?” she grinned as her cousin leaned grudgingly against the counter.

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that. I don’t like my name as it is; calling me ‘little sister’ is even worse,” Meilan murmured, trying hard to sound angry, though she really wasn’t mad at Sally herself. She loved her cousin very much and always liked it when she was able to clear enough time in her busy schedule to come back for a visit, but she couldn’t help but be resentful of how Wufei always stared at her with googly, alien eyes. Funny as it was to watch her fiancé trip over his feet for Sally, Meilan secretly kind of wished that he would treat her that way. Even if they hadn’t been promised to each other in marriage, she would have liked that, she supposed. Wufei wasn’t so bad when he wasn’t acting like a pompous asshole.

“So, who’s Heero’s new friend?” Sally asked, clearly not aware of the whole story concerning Heero and Duo. “I never thought he was the social type. Hell, he works for you, even calls you a friend, and he still barely says much!” She scratched the top of her head in thought, her fingers sliding down her smooth, dark yellow hair to twiddle the end of one coiled plait of hair.

“Um, the whole thing with Heero and Duo is... a long story,” Meilan sighed, shaking her head. She was a little too distracted to try and explain the entire history of Heero vs. Duo to her cousin. “To put it as simply as possible: they want each other to die. Slowly.”

“Looks like Wufei might beat Heero to it with the way things are going,” Sally said, nodding her head in their direction. Currently, Wufei was lunging at Heero, trying to get at Duo, who was still hiding behind the Japanese boy, which was actually pretty funny, considering that Duo had to stoop to make himself more compact than Heero’s smaller form. “I dunno, Meilan. It doesn’t look to me like they hate each other,” Sally said thoughtfully, tickling the side of her face with the tip of one thick twist of hair. “I’ve never known Heero to pay that much attention to anyone, whether he likes ‘im or not.”

“So your point is?” Meilan drawled in a bored tone, alternating between chewing and examining one of her nails.

“Well, what do you think?” Sally said with a private smile, nodding her head at the shenanigans again. Duo was guiding Heero as they slowly backed up towards the stairs, Wufei stalking after them, trying to get a jab at Duo in whenever the braided boy would pop up from behind Heero and make a face. “It’s kinda cute, don’t you think?”

“Oh you say that now,” Meilan rolled her eyes, sarcasm dripping out of her mouth as she spoke. “But just you wait until they start going at it. Neither hell nor high water could save the world.”

“Uh-huh, yeah right,” Sally said in a disbelieving tone. “You know what they say.”

“What do they say?” Meilan asked, exasperated. Sally was obviously missing the point. Sometimes being a romantic could be considered a terrible character flaw.

“Love is friendship set on fire” Sally said, nodding her head in agreement.

“Well,” Meilan replied with a grimace, “they’re certainly setting fire to it, I can tell you that.”

Meanwhile, Wufei had grabbed one of the shirts off the table and was snapping it at Duo like a whip. “Will you stop your infernal dodging about!? I’m trying to attack you!” he demanded angrily, trying to get a grip on Duo’s braid as it swung around Heero and smacked him in the stomach.

“Yeah, we gathered that, Woof-Woof,” the braided one retorted, quickly jerking his head so that his hair would swing back around to the safe region behind his back. By this point, Duo’s booted heels were teetering precariously at the top of the basement stairs. Suddenly, in a move that took everyone by surprise, Duo wrapped his arms around Heero’s waist and lifted him off his feet. “Sorry, gotta go!” Duo declared hastily, stumbling down the stairs as quickly as he could with the hindrance of carrying Heero with him.

“Maxwell, I’m gonna kill you!” Wufei’s voice echoed down the stairwell after the streaming braid that was just disappearing into the dim basement.

(x) X (x)

a/n: Well, the play is done and now I have nothing to do with myself. (It was amazing, by the way.) The chappy title is a Rolling Stones song, one of my favourites, and the insert song that Duo is singing is my favourite Greenday song. I had to cut the chappy in half, actually, so next week you’ll get the rest. Oh, and I hope Sally’s appearence doesn’t seem random, but I like her a lot, and I wanted her to be in there somewhere. Besides, I think it’s an interesting dynamic in there with Meilan and Fei-Fei. ^___^