Smells Like Teen Spirit
By Shannon the Twisted Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 28
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant

(x) X (x)



“Stellar! Stellar! Romefeller! Go-o-o Romefeller!”

Duo groaned loudly and tore at his hair in annoyance, just inches away from leaping off the sideline bench and killing each and every last girl on the cheerleading squad. They were practicing their routines for the next game on the grassy area beside the grandstand, just behind the bench where Duo sat with Wufei. For once in his life, Duo actually found himself trying hard to pay attention to the lacrosse scrimmage on the field in front of him, but was failing miserably. “I swear,” he grumbled darkly to himself, shaking a threatening fist, “if I hear one more peppy cheer, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

“Me, oh my, don’t you cry,” the cheerleaders shouting in unison behind them, “when you lose to Romefeller High!”

“Holy crap, who thinks up these cheers? They suck!” Duo went on complaining out loud, even though it seemed like Wufei had hardly noticed his presence. Wufei always seemed to slip into this undistractable mode when it came to lacrosse, and not hell, high water nor Duo Maxwell could draw him out of it. Duo just looked at Wufei as an even bigger challenge at practice.

“Slide to the left! Slide to the right! Romefeller High! Fight, fight, fight!”

Duo spun around and glared over one shoulder at the cheer leading squad. They were all outfitted in the school’s standard, white, gym tee-shirts and short shorts as they bounced, cartwheeled and pranced with their large, poofy red and black pompoms. Relena seemed to be in the head position on the squad, but it looked to Duo like she was a little more worried about making herself look appealing to the lacrosse players than actually practicing the routines as Catherine seemed to be taking charge instead. Duo personally thought they all looked extremely silly and sniggered to himself, thinking that they would just end up looking foolish if they strutted around like that in front of the fans who came to the next game.

“Just ignore them, Maxwell,” Wufei drawled, startling Duo back to lacrosse practice. “They’re like bored pigeons. Eventually, they’ll just go away.”

“Yeah, like when Peacecraft back there figures out that Heero’s been waving his middle finger at her since they showed up,” Duo muttered sarcastically, the piercing sounds of female cheering echoing in his ringing ears.

“Yuy’s been what?” Wufei snapped up and stared intensely at the field, quickly picking Heero out from the other players. Seeing that Heero was not doing anything out of the ordinary, Wufei whipped his black stare at Duo. “He’s not doing anything of the kind!” Wufei huffed, a little indignant that he’d taken Duo so literally.

“Man, I dunno how he can play and tune them out at the same time,” Duo sighed, watching as Heero snagged the fumbled ball and started taking off for the goal, cradling like mad all the way. “He’s like Superman or something.”

“Pretty damned close,” Wufei agreed, barely reacting as Heero scored again. After a while, it became so natural to see Heero dominate the field that it Wufei hardly even lifted an eyebrow to it anymore. “He’s got to be with a one-woman fan club like the one he’s got following him around. Hell, I’d have killed myself if she were following me around,” Wufei announced, crossing his arms. “Women are so irritating.”

“Aw, but you lo-o-ove ‘em,” Duo said with a lopsided grin, punching Wufei amiably on the shoulder. “Such a ladies’ man, ain’tcha?”

“Maxwell, don’t be fresh with me!” Wufei snapped, his eye twitching a little. “You’re treading a thin line.”

“Right, so explain why half your friends are girls, ‘Fei,” Duo grinned, looking very much like a mischievous leprechaun who’d just rigged a master trick. “And how come Meilan is coming with us to dinner after practice?” Duo wriggled his eyebrows suggestively, his grin threatening to sever off the top part of his head when Wufei blushed at the comment.

Wufei quickly saved face and shot back, a little ashamed he was sinking down to Duo’s level, “Yeah, well, thanks for choosing to grace us jocks with your presence at dinner, Maxwell.” A very wicked grin crossed Wufei’s face as he added, “Oh, right, you’re just gracing Heero with your presence. Sorry, Maxwell. Forgot you have a crush.”

“That is not true!” Duo was lost somewhere between anger and embarrassment. “Kissing him’s one thing, but spending time with him? Nuh-uh, ‘Fei. Do I look stupid?”

“Quite frankly, yes,” Wufei smirked. Duo had set himself up for that one. “The more denial there is, the more love there is... or something like that.” Wufei chuckled darkly as he stood up and walked over to the box where substitute players could enter the field to switch positions. He called to a guy Duo didn’t know who was hanging out with a few other players on another bench, ogling the cheerleaders as they scampered and flipped about. The guy came over, pounding his helmet onto his head as he neared and gripping his stick tightly. Wufei whispered to him, the player nodding as the Chinese boy spoke, and then gave the boy a reassuring pat on the shoulder. The player signaled Heero as he bolted by, and the Japanese boy nodded, running towards the box and off the field. The other player dashed on to take Heero’s place as soon as he had legally left the lacrosse pitch.

Duo sat on the bench, gritting his teeth, sure that Wufei had called Heero out of the game just to make a point. Glaring out of the corner of his eyes, he watched as Wufei and Heero spoke in low voices to one another, slowly making their way towards him. Heero removed his helmet, the simple action causing Duo to suck in an involuntary breath of cool air as Heero’s tousled bangs fell free and messy over his glittering, sapphire eyes. Damn those eyes, Duo growled mentally. It should be a crime to be so fucking gorgeous--shit, I’m thinking dirty thoughts about him again. Goddamn you, Heero Yuy....

“Hello, Duo. Having fun?” Heero said casually as he approached, Wufei a few steps behind. Duo was not fond of the horrible smirk Wufei wore on his face, confirming that the Chinese boy had definitely pulled Heero out for the sole reason of torturing Duo.

“What’s it look like, pal?” Duo said with a large, forced, cheeky grin. “Oodles and oodles of fun.” His voice was dry and dripping with sarcasm, which actually caused Heero’s pouting lips to spread in a little smile.

“Promise you any kind of pizza you want when we go out for food afterwards,” Heero said, sitting down next to Duo. “Would that make up for this heathen suffering?”

Heero set his helmet and his stick down on the grass beside his feet. Duo found his eyes following Heero’s slim hands as they went through those actions, settling on Heero’s finely sculpted, bare calves. His questing eyes crept up those hard calves, trying to peek at the muscled thighs that hid inside loose, mesh shorts. It was a little surreal when Duo found himself struck with a sudden urge to straddle those powerful thighs and press up close to Heero’s hard torso, wondering how it would feel in the circle of his arms. He was so distracted, he was only dimly aware of Heero starting to speak again and it wasn’t until Heero placed a hand on Duo’s shoulder that the longhaired boy startled back to reality.

“A-a-ahhh!” Duo yelped, bouncing off the bench and scooting away from Heero when he felt five slim fingers gently touch his back. “Holy cow, you scared the shit outa me!”

“You were in a zone,” Heero said with a shrug. “I was just wondering what kind of pizza you’d want, that’s all.”

Duo turned red, not about to admit what he’d been thinking about Heero. “Yeah... uh, yeah, sorry,” Duo mumbled smartly. It was one thing to admire from afar, but now Heero was warming up to him, and much to Duo’s horror, he was also warming up to Heero. It was a complete and total turnaround of events, and Duo found himself extremely confused. He wasn’t sure he liked it, though at the same time, he found himself intrigued by the mystery of not knowing what would happen next.

“What’s this about dinner? I heard something about pizza,” a new voice cut in as another hand fell on Duo’s shoulder, causing him to jump out of his skin for a second time. Duo knew it wasn’t Heero because he was staring at the Japanese boy’s hands, which were folded loosely in his lap.

Whipping around to give the intruder a piece of his mind, slapping Heero in the nose with the heavy tail of his braid in the process, Duo growled, “Look here, buddy. I oughta just... oh....” His words trailed off into bitter silence, rolling his eyes when he saw none other than Dorothy standing there, exploiting her Zechs guise to its fullest. He had been pretty ticked at her when he found out that she’d been posing as a guy to join the team, and to a point, he still kind of was. Sometimes he wondered if Dorothy had scrambled the whole lacrosse scheme together just to constantly get on his back. Dorothy seemed to have practically made a sport of making Duo’s life very trying at times. “Not funny, Do-o-Zechs,” he huffed, thankful he was able to catch himself before slipping up on her name. Certainly, he may have been annoyed with Dorothy for the Zechs scheme, but that didn’t mean he’d go out of his way to screw her over. At the end of the day, Dorothy was still a friend, no matter how insane she made him.

Heero chuckled lightly, the nasal sound calling Duo’s attention away from Dorothy as the Japanese youth said, “You’re awfully jumpy today, Duo. Quiet too. Got something on your mind?”

“Hmm?” Duo turned to face Heero, who he found to be staring intently at him in return with that intense, fixed gaze of his.

“I said, you seem distracted,” Heero reiterated, furrowing his brow slightly. “What are you thinking about?”

You.... Duo thought dreamily before mentally smacking himself roughly for daring to think such a dangerous thing. Dangerous, because Duo found that every time he glanced at Heero, he wanted to kiss him a little more than the last, to touch him and be close to him like Trowa and Quatre were. His eyes wandered to Wufei for a moment, who was standing a few feet away, watching the whole scene with a very perplexed look on his face. Duo might have laughed at the expression on his face if he wasn’t distracted by Heero’s voice calling from far away.

“Earth to Duo....”

“Eh!?” Duo jumped again when two different hands touched each shoulder. “Hey, will you two stop that!?” he snapped, causing both Heero and Dorothy to speedily recoil their hands. “I was just thinkin’ about that pizza, that’s all,” Duo said quickly, hoping the excuse would stick. He would damn himself nine times before he admitted aloud that his feelings for Heero had progressed from hate, to acceptance and were beginning to head on to something quite beyond just lust for his physical looks. “D’ya think we could order one with everything on it?” Duo started rambling when no one said anything right away. “You know, the yummy kind with extra cheese, and onions, peppers, pepperoni, sausage, olives--”

“Way to smooth over the lie, Duo. I almost believe you,” Dorothy said plainly as she glanced over at the cheerleaders, who were currently working on a series of coordinated flips, cartwheels and kicks.

“Of course, Duo. Anything you want,” Heero said with a little smile, which, Duo noted, elicited a highly amusing look on Wufei’s face. Mixed with his wide-open jaw of disbelief at the friendliness between Heero and Duo was a definite look of apprehension, like the Chinese youth was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Obviously, this hadn’t been the flustered, sexually-tense battle he’d been expecting to break out between the two. Wufei apparently noticed Duo sniggering at him and quickly made a show of calling Dorothy away so he could sub her in.

“Why isn’t he putting you back in?” Duo wondered aloud as he watched Dorothy and Wufei walk away, Wufei gesticulating wildly to Dorothy as she pulled on her helmet. “Aren’t you Mr. Ass-Kicking-Lax-Star?”

“I play offense. Zechs is a defender,” Heero shrugged, as if the explanation should be more than enough.

“I know that!” Duo scoffed, daring to give Heero a playful punch in the shoulder. His knuckles connected with Heero’s steely arm, corded with an amazing amount of strength for someone as slim and small as Heero. Even though Duo had known that Heero was built extremely well despite his size, it still amazed him just how powerful the Japanese teen actually was.

“Then why did you ask?”

“Well I just thought it was weird that ‘Fei-cakes pulled you out so early, or even at all, ‘cause you usually play the whole game,” Duo said, curling his hands around the back edge of the bench and leaning his weight on them. “So I was just saying that I thought it was funky that he’s putting old Zechs in before you.”

“It’s just practice,” Heero justified with another shrug. He wasn’t quite sure why Duo was making such a big deal about it, even more so why Duo was rambling. He’d come to learn that Duo talked about seemingly random things when he was trying to draw attention away from something else. But what Duo could possibly be trying to cover up was beyond him, as the only logical reasons he could come up with seemed extremely farfetched.

“Yeah, well, you could play defense, couldn’t you?” Duo suddenly jumped up and switched positions on the bench, sitting back down with his legs straddling the narrow strip of metal, an inward-turned hand planted on each thigh. “I mean, I know Zechs usually does, so it makes sense, I suppose, but it’s just surreal seeing you off the field.”

“Yes, I suppose I could,” Heero agreed, hoping he didn’t sound too pretentious. Not being a very open person, he hated flaunting his skills and preferred people to just notice things about him on their own. If they weren’t sharp enough to pick up on his various talents or personality traits, too damn bad for them. He found that the ones who took the time to learn about him on their own were the ones who ended up understanding him best. Sometimes it was a little much to expect people to be as observant as he was about them, but since he generally didn’t associate with the rest of the world, he could have cared less what they knew or didn’t know about him. As far as he was concerned, the less, the better.

“So why not pester ‘Fei to let you go back in?” Duo leaned towards Heero, glaring hard at his profile and trying to catch a throwaway glance from those smoldering, midnight blue eyes. “I thought you liked lacrosse more than anything.”

“Yes, but,” Heero turned to face Duo, surprised to find their eyes level with each other, “I like you too.”

Heero certainly seemed to have discovered another talent: shocking Duo to unpredictable and sputtering wordlessness. A pregnant silence weighted the air between them, the yells and grunts of the scrimmage like a low, dull roar in the backs of both their minds as they stared at each other, Duo still flabbergasted and Heero looking rather smug.

“You aren’t kidding, are you?” Duo whispered at last, his eyes wide with realization. “You aren’t trying to make a fool of me or nothin’. You really... just want to be my... friend?”

“Do I have to kiss you to prove it?”

Duo’s breath hitched as Heero said this, even though his tone sounded joking. Still, Duo wasn’t sure if he was meant to over read too much into Heero’s words or not, and his mind was still pretty divided on how to approach comments such as that one, which Heero seemed so fond of letting out every now and then. “Dunno. P’rhaps,” Duo said casually, casting a sly look in Heero’s direction.

The shrill tweet of Treize’s whistle cut off anything that Heero might have had in mind to say. Heero stood up and offered another one of his small shrugs and half-smiles to Duo before quickly jogging back out to the middle of the field where the rest of the team was gathering around Treize for some quick last words before he called the end of practice. I guess we’re... really not that different after all, Heero Yuy, Duo thought wistfully as he watched Heero jog off.

Suddenly, he felt an extremely painful tug at the nape of his neck, where his hair started to weave into its long plait. Almost falling off the bench with the force of the pull, he angrily grabbed his hair and yanked it out of the intruding hands of whoever was standing behind him, whirling about to face the unwelcome hair-puller with a murderous look in his eyes. No one touched his hair without permission, whether it was the coach of the lacrosse team or the Queen of England. “What the fuck’s the big idea?” he growled, eyes narrowing into dastardly slits when he found none other than Relena Peacecraft standing there.

“Sounds like the question I should be asking you,” Relena sneered, a very unbecoming look crossing her pretty features. “What are you doing, sitting so close to Heero and whispering to him? Don’t think I didn’t notice the way you were shamelessly trying to flirt with him.”

“Flirt!” Duo’s eyes rounded with shock when he realized what Relena thought he was doing. He was tempted to make some droll comment about how all Relena ever did was flirt with Heero herself, but the idea that he had, indeed, been flirting with Heero took more precedence. “Yeah, so what’s it to you?” Duo finally settled on, a little surprised at the words coming out of his mouth. There, another step in that mysterious direction, Duo thought languidly. The less platonic my relationship with Heero gets, the scarier it is... and the scarier Relena gets!

“Yes, that’s right. Flirt!” Relena snapped, her large, cheerleader’s pompoms rustling as he put her hands on each hip. “This has gone far enough, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll put an end to this game right now!” Relena threatened in as calm a voice as she could muster. “You’re not taking Heero to prom; you’re not even his friend; you’re not anything with Heero Yuy, you got that!?”

“Oh yeah, what’re you gonna do to me? Sick your cheerleading squad on me to beat me to death with batons?” Duo rolled his eyes and twiddled his hand through the air like he was twirling one. “Look here, missy,” he went on, his voice frank and bordering on dangerous, “Heero ain’t got a stamp on his forehead that reads ‘Property of Relena Peacecraft’ or nothin’, so just back the fuck off. If he wants to hang out with me, fine. I’m not gonna stop him, and neither should you. My friendship with Heero concerns two people: me and Heero,” Duo held up a pair of fingers and shook them in Relena’s face. “I don’t recall you being either one, so just let it drop.”

“I’d watch what I say, if I was you,” Relena bit sharply. Her expression darkened as her lips curled into a smile that certainly didn’t belong on the face of a cute young lady like her. “Or maybe you would rather that I let everyone know what a queer freak of nature you are!”
“What do you mean by that?” Duo hissed. The fact that Relena was female and he had a personal thing about hitting ladies was probably the one factor keeping Duo from strangling the pretentious girl right there. Then again, the way she was treating him was making the prospect extremely tempting.

“I mean, if you insist on being friends with Heero, you had better keep it that way,” Relena shot back, looking positively ghastly in her petty fit of jealousy. “If I ever catch you kissing, touching or even looking at him in a way that displeases me, you will not be a happy camper, Duo Maxwell.”

It dawned upon Duo that she had probably heard about or even seen Heero and him that one night when Heero had been piss drunk and kissed him. On the one hand, he was glad that it got her so worked up, but on the other hand, he was pretty sure that she wouldn’t be afraid to exact some kind of revenge on him. “I’ll kiss and touch whoever I damn well please,” Duo wrote her off snidely. “But at least I’ll make sure someone wants me kissing and touching first,” he quickly added, knowing that Relena had a nasty habit of throwing herself at boys, particularly Heero, in an embarrassing and unabashed manner.

“Like hell!” she swore, throwing her pompoms to the ground in a huffy rage. Tugging the large, navy blue bow that held her hair tied back behind her neck, she said, “You kissed my Heero when he was drunk. I saw you!”

Well, that answers that question, Duo thought morbidly, worried as to what that could possibly mean she had in store for him. Duo was privately seething, though his face portrayed the perfect image of someone who could have cared less if she was yelling at him or not. “If you have to know, Relena,” Duo said flatly, hoping he didn’t sound smug, “Heero kissed me.”

“I sincerely doubt it.” Relena’s facial expression tightened. “You probably seduced him with your god awful mutant spells,” she accused. “Why else would someone like Heero kiss a boy... especially you!”

“I dunno. Maybe he was drunk,” Duo spat, really starting to get sick of this useless banter. “Come on, even you admitted he was. People do stupid things when they’re drunk and not thinking. Jeez, leave the guy alone.”

“I will not have you telling me who I may or may not socialize with!” Relena scoffed. She stooped and gathered her pompoms, glared roughly at Duo once more and then stalked away. Duo watched through passive eyes as Catherine and a few of the other cheerleaders who had been hanging back and waiting for Relena quickly dashed after her as she walked past them.

Shaking his head, Duo decided he felt nothing but bad for Relena’s poor friends. Certainly, she had to have some qualities that kept them around her, but for some reason, Duo got the distinct feeling he wouldn’t ever get a chance to see those qualities, judging by the way Relena generally tended to treat him. “I feel like I’m stuck in some overly-melodramatic soap-opera,” Duo muttered to himself, glancing over at Heero’s lacrosse equipment, which was still sitting beside him on the bench. “Ha, I’m the other woman and I’m not even seeing Heero that way! Hell, she’s not even his girlfriend to begin with! Funky....” Duo figured that the high school drama was something way out of his league and congratulated himself for successfully managing to stay out of it for so long, as well as praying for a way to fall back into those good graces.

“What was that about?” Heero’s voice said flatly from behind Duo.

Duo spun around on the bench to face the lacrosse captain, who was standing there with his arms crossed and a very unhappy expression on his face, like he was plotting something very bad for Relena’s future. “Whoa, ease up there, cowboy,” Duo reached up and waved his hand in front of Heero’s eyes until they were darting back and forth, tracking his hand’s every swish.

“What did she say to you?” Heero asked as he went to gather his discarded helmet and lacrosse stick, his voice still a little clipped.

“Oh, nothing too extraordinary,” Duo brushed it off casually. “She basically just threatened my life for daring to breathe your oxygen, that’s all.” He grinned impishly and jumped to his feet with his typical, flamboyant energy. “Think she’s pissed her widdle jocky-kins likes widdle Duo more’n’ her,” he said, making ridiculous kissy faces at Heero.

“She’s right about that,” Heero grumbled bitterly under his breath. Resting his stick on one shoulder, he said in a louder voice, “Hang out here for a moment while I go get my things. Then we’ll get that pizza, okay?”

“Yessir, captain!” Duo saluted him, licking his lips a few times as visions of a pizza overly-laden with various toppings flipped through his head. As Heero walked off towards the locker rooms, leaving Duo by himself on the sidelines again, Duo jumped up on the bench and started pacing up and down it like a wary cat while he waited impatiently for Heero to come back. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the extremely efficient Heero was returning with his brother, motioning for Duo to follow Trowa and him to the jeep.

Duo caught up with the pair of lacrosse players in time to catch the sideways glance Trowa cast at Heero, which Heero elegantly deflected with nary a glance. Duo’s eyes darted between the two of them curiously, wondering what the odd looks on Trowa’s face were all about. The silent brothers were starting to unnerve him a little.

“Do you remember what kind of pizza I wanted, Heero?” Duo asked, breaking that insane quiet before he went nuts. Stiff hand gestures and glances might have been enough for Trowa and Heero to communicate, but the method was totally lost on Duo. He needed words if any ideas were going to be exchanged.

“Yes, Duo,” Heero answered as they approached Trowa’s beat-up jeep. “Everything on it. Extra cheese, onions, peppers, pepperoni, sausage and olives, if I remember correctly.” He rattled all of it off quickly and easily, like a memorized list.

Both Trowa and Duo were staring at Heero strangely, Trowa open-mouthed at their whole amiable exchange and Duo with a surprised, wide-eyed expression that Heero had somehow managed to remember all those toppings. Soon Duo’s shock was replaced by a wide grin. “Heh heh, good one, Heero,” he laughed, hefting himself up into the back of the open-topped jeep and tumbling inside. Popping up on the side, he leaned out and rambled on as Heero started to climb into the passenger seat of the car. “But also anchovies, ham, mushrooms, maybe even some pineapple if you guys are up for it....”

“Pineapple? On a pizza?” Heero twisted around in his seat so he could look at Duo, a very apprehensive expression on his face.

“Don’t knock it ‘till ya try it, pal,” Duo admonished, grabbing the back of the driver’s seat and resting his cheek against the headrest as he smirked at Heero devilishly. “Come on. Think of it as a culinary adventure... or are you scared of a little, prickly fruit?”

Trowa, by this point, was sitting in the driver’s seat and slamming the door closed as he started up the loud, sputtering engine. He was going to say something about how pineapple wasn’t as bad as one might expect on pizza, but opted to remain silent, finding Heero’s and Duo’s banter far too amusing to interrupt. Now that they weren’t at each other’s throats, Trowa found their conversations very entertaining to eavesdrop on, especially with both of them giving the other a real run for his money. He chuckled privately at the thought as he backed his jeep out of its parking spot in the school lot.

“Something funny, Tro?” Duo’s voice cut through Trowa’s amused chuckling like a dull knife. “’Cause if you’re gonna laugh at my pizza, I’ll be damned if I share any of it with you. Me ‘n’ Heero can take care of one large pizza on our own, can’t we, ‘Ro?” Duo stuck his head between the two front seats, trying to catch Heero’s eye.

Still laughing softly, a small grin on his face, Trowa shook his head, glancing up in the rear-view mirror to check out the look on Duo’s face as he spoke. “It’s nothing. Just you two morons, that’s all.”

“That’s it! Heero! Pizza’s just for me and you, okay?” Duo reached around and tugged Heero’s sleeve in a pleading manner.

“Alright,” Heero agreed, doing very well to smother the little grin that was beginning to fester on his face as well. He never noticed how little he actually smiled until he started doing it more. There was something about the mood that Duo brought with him, even when he was at his worst, that never failed to cheer Heero’s usually somber personality.

Duo stuck his tongue out at Trowa, but quickly shoved it back into his mouth when Trowa threatened, slowing the car down, “Fine. Then you two can walk to Grotto’s for all I care.”

Duo quickly jumped Trowa’s seat, wrapping his arms around both chair and driver from behind as he said, “Aww, Tro, you know we were just messin’ with ya.” His eyes were squinted shut, causing him to miss the venomous look Heero was shooting their way. “Drive on! I’m famished!” he commanded, punching the air.

What would have probably been a bland and silent drive had only Trowa and Heero been in the car was livened up by Duo’s mere presence. The incident with the radio when Duo had almost fallen into Heero’s lap as he tried to adjust the station plus the various faces he had been making at Trowa in the rearview mirror substantially peppered up the fifteen minute drive to Grotto’s Pizzeria.

“Thank God we’re here,” Trowa sighed, gripping the steering wheel once he had safely stopped the car in a parking space just around the corner from their destination. He turned around in his chair, regarding the upside-down Duo sprawled across the back of the jeep with as stern an expression as he could muster. “One more minute of driving with you, and I swear I would have purposely run us off the road.”

“Damn, Tro, you’ve been spending way too much time with Sir Laughs-A-Lot over there,” Duo grinned cheekily from his odd position, scrambling to sit up right again.

“Do you want that pizza or not?” Heero asked, sounding serious as usual, though Duo was pretty sure that it was just the stoic youth’s odd idea of a joke.

“Oh yes,” Duo practically gushed, scampering out of the car in a fashion that reminded Heero frighteningly of an over-excited puppy. He really was not a pets person, though he couldn’t help but find Duo’s joy strangely endearing, not to mention entertaining. “I’ll go get us a table, okay?” Duo decided, bounding down the sidewalk and around the corner, his braid sailing behind him like a banner announcing, ‘Duo was here’.

Duo was really pumped up for this meal and he was pretty sure the seating hostess who greeted him just inside the door was all too aware of the fact as well, especially judging by the look on her face when he’d come barreling in through the front doors. He and his other friends often ordered from Grotto’s when they were hanging out with nothing to do or banging around in the garage, but it had been ages since he had actually come to the restaurant to sit down and eat. It was a typical chain establishment, with bright, beachy colours and tacky lighting, but the pizza was damn good, if horribly Americanized. “Table for five,” Duo told the red-haired hostess, remembering that there was a good chance Wufei and Dorothy would show up as well.

The seating hostess left him at a large booth for six near the big, front windows of the restaurant with a stack of menus and a promise that someone would be there to take his order shortly. Looking around the establishment, Duo realized that Grotto’s had become quite the dinner hangout for the younger population of the town, mostly of the preppy, jock variety Duo would have previously shot himself over if forced to spend too much time in their presence. Still, glancing around, he could see the foundation as to why that particular crowd could be so infuriating. For instance, at the table nearest to his, a group of three other boys Duo recognized from the lacrosse team and their girlfriends were all sitting, complaining about, of all things, an article that had just been published in the school paper about homosexuality. Duo fought hard to keep himself still; bigotry was high on his list of things that drove him mad with rage. If it wasn’t for Heero’s sudden appearance by the table, Duo might have done something drastic and possibly illegal.

“You order yet?” he asked, sliding onto the bench opposite Duo and scooting all the way to the end by the window so they were sitting across from each other.

“What? Oh, uh, no,” Duo said, sliding one of the menus to Heero, who wordlessly picked it up and started scanning the plastic-covered sheet with methodic sweeps of his dark, Prussian blue eyes. “What happened to Tro? You lose him already?” Duo asked, realizing that Heero had come alone. “What’re you trying to do? Make this a hot date?”

Heero lowered his menu slightly and glared at Duo with that indiscernible look of his, before going back to look over the food choices. “He ran into someone,” Heero said simply when he realized the glare wasn’t going to cut it.

“Three guesses who: Quatre, Quatre or... Quatre,” Duo grinned sadistically, turning to look out the window. Sure enough, standing just outside was Trowa, talking amiably to none other than the said blond. “Aw, man, the sexual tension around here is killing me,” Duo said jokingly as he watched the two outside. “Kiss already, you dorks!”

“I thought you forbade Quatre to spend time with Trowa,” Heero commented casually from behind his menu. A glance at him wouldn’t have betrayed that he had spoken, but Duo had started to notice the signs of that telltale smirk.

Duo turned to glare at him. “Just as long as Tro keeps his toes in line, I suppose it’s okay,” he said a bit sharply, almost as if he was warning Heero to make sure Trowa didn’t to anything to jeopardize his potential relationship with Quatre. He went back to spying on Trowa and Quatre like an over-protective big brother. “Uh oh,” he grunted under his breath when he realized that Trowa was escorting Quatre inside.

“He’s already done something?” Heero queried idly, still absorbed in the menu. “I pity your future children or anyone who gets stuck having to live with you. You’ll run a tight household.”

Duo scrunched his nose and made a face at Heero, his cheeks red at the thought of a personal future aspect like having kids and someone committed to him for life. Heero ignored Duo and pored over the menu still, making Duo wonder if Heero was really reading it or just pretending to for heaven knew what reasons. “It has nothing to do with that!” Duo snapped. He knocked the back of his hand against the window, gesturing to the spot where Trowa and Quatre had just been standing. “Dude, it’s just that it looks like brother dearest invited Q to eat with us.”

“...And?” Heero’s eyes flicked up as he raised his stern brows in question. “Pizza’s easy to share.”

“And,” Duo huffed with a wave of one hand, a little annoyed that Heero was failing to pick on what he saw as the obvious, “that means that Q’s gonna come over here and see me... with you... alo--”

He was cut off as Trowa and Quatre arrived, sliding into the booth opposite each other, Trowa next to Heero and Quatre next to Duo. Hand still poised in animated protest, Duo froze up, his large, violet eyes surveying the newcomers with a nervous look of embarrassment. He slowly lowered his hand and flippantly crossed his arms to sulk, his heavy rope of hair almost nailing Quatre in the side with his jerky movements. His pouty mood was doubled when he caught sight of the snigger Quatre was sending his way. The sly little empath could be so infuriating sometimes!

“Having fun?” the blond asked, wheedling Duo conspiratorially in the side with his elbow. With the way Duo never failed to make fun of everything around him, Quatre had to take every opportunity to get back at him when they presented themselves.

“Shut up, Q. I hate you.”

“It’s okay, Duo,” Quatre smiled and patted Duo on the back. “I love you too.”

“Hello,” a female voice interrupted their exchange of hostilities. The quartet looked up to see a young woman with wavy, blonde hair standing at their table, ordering tablet and pen in hand. “I’m Sylvia, your server. Anything I can get you guys to drink?”

“Water... with a lemon,” Heero spoke up immediately without even thinking. He was still staring blankly at that goddamned menu and Duo doubted he had even looked up to see what their waitress looked like.

“Orangina for me,” said Trowa, at least turning to address Sylvia when he asked for his drink, though he still spoke with his usual controlled calm.

“I’d like an iced tea,” Quatre requested with one of his winning smiles. Duo noted that Trowa looked like he’d died and gone to heaven as he caught Quatre’s face lighting up. It was almost cute how Trowa acted like a drooling, love-sick puppy whenever Quatre was around.

“And for you, hippie-boy?” Sylvia looked at Duo expectantly.

“Why does everyone call me that!?” Duo exclaimed a little more angry than he’d intended. He successfully managed to startle Sylvia into looking very wary as she asked Duo again what he wanted to drink.

Duo was about to open his mouth and ask for a Coke, when Quatre cut him off for the second time in five minutes. “Hilde! We’re over here!” Quatre called, waving his arms over his head to attract the girl’s attention.

Duo groaned and hit his head against the high, padded back of the bench before looking over Heero’s head to see that Hilde was indeed standing in the restaurant’s front entrance and starting over towards them. “Why me?” he whispered at the the ceiling as Hilde almost bowled over Sylvia, bouncing onto the end of the bench beside Trowa.

“Ehm, drinks?” Sylvia casually reminded them with a small, irritated cough. “What’ll it be, cutie?” she addressed Duo for a third time.

“Something with a lot of caffeine and sugar,” Duo demanded in a dead, cynical voice. “A Coke’d be nice, though maybe if you have something like Mountain Dew, that’d be better... or even that Surge stuff, if it’s still legal to consume that much caffeine in one drink. Just make it quick and make it lots.” He folded his arms on the table and buried his face inside them, muttering something about needing protection from his evil friends. Then he noticed something on the menu, and pointing to it, he said, “Actually, on second thought, I want one of these five-dollar shakes.”

“Ri-i-ight,” Sylvia hummed, scribbling on her pad. After she took Hilde’s order, she sped off, obviously thankful to get away from the table with the insane hippie-boy.

“Duo, did you just order a five-dollar shake?” Heer asked with bewilderment in his voice.

“Yeah, so?” Duo shrugged. “I need the comfort.”

“Five dollars? For just a cup of blended milk and ice cream?” Heero protested. “And they don’t put any rum or anything in it?”

“Have you ever had a shake from this place? They’re damn good,” Duo said, leaning forward on the table and meeting Heero’s eyes evenly.

“No,” he said. “But it had better be good, if you’re paying five dollars for it.”

Duo just rolled his eyes and looked elsewhere, his gaze settling on the end of the table, where Hilde was sitting.

“Hey, Duo,” Hilde grinned, shooting a look at Trowa and Heero as she adjusted the pink beret sitting atop her dark, purplish-black hair. “Fancy seeing you here. Hope you don’t mind that Q and I join you and your friends for pizza.” She was being decidedly sinister with her words, emphasizing ones that were sure to make Duo turn bright pink.

A faintly audible whisper of “Kill me now,” could be heard from the recess of Duo’s arms.

“Duo, sit up.”

Duo snapped up to see Heero glaring pointedly at him, menu laid down at last as he eyed him. “Yes, Master,” Duo cooed sarcastically, missing the slightly dazed look that crossed Heero’s features as he said that. “Anything else, Master?” he added in the same tone, this time catching the flicker that shot through Heero’s eyes at the name.

“Don’t slouch or cross your arms. Apologize to your friends,” Heero said in his usual monotone, a flat, even note that wouldn’t have betrayed anything regarding that mysterious flash in his eyes moments before. Once Duo had satisfied those requests, he gave just one more. “Now smile.” Heero’s tense commanding demeanor changed noticeably, even when Duo did nothing but flash him the biggest, fakest grin he had in his arsenal.

“And stop trying to kick Quatre under the table,” Trowa added. “You keep banging me in the shins with those heavy combat boots of yours.”

“I’m not trying to kick Quatre,” Duo drawled with a roll of his eyes. “I’m trying to kick Hilde. If your legs weren’t so damn long, then it wouldn’t be a problem, Tro.”

“Duo!” Heero barked, his nasal voice cutting through the inane banter. “Stop abusing your friends. Stop kicking and act your age.”

“As you wish, Master,” Duo relented. Though his voice sounded forced and exasperated, he wasn’t really trying to be a jerk. Not too badly, anyway.

“They’re so cute,” Hilde whispered loudly to Trowa through cupped hands. Trowa nodded solemnly.

“Shut up, Hilde. I heard that.”

“Duo!”

“You aren’t smiling, Duo,” Hilde tacked right onto the end of Heero’s snapped warning. “You’re making him upset again. Awww....” Hilde stuck out her bottom lip and turned on the cute expression, learned from none other than Quatre himself.

“Hilde, you’re next,” Duo threatened, shaking a fist at his friend. She just laughed at him and straightened her blouse.

Any further confrontation was thankfully averted by the return of Sylvia, a tray laden with big cups of their various drinks balanced carefully on her arm. With the amazing skill only waiters have, she doled out the drinks to their rightful owners and then asked for their order. Heero gestured to Duo with a small sweep of his hand, which Duo took as his cue to order his dream pizza. After telling Sylvia what he wanted, having to only repeat it once, she walked away, leaving the table in a strange, testy place somewhere between hilarity and moody silence.

Duo immediatly took a long, hearty sip of his vanilla shake and sighed blissfully. Heero was watching him carefully with that unreadable expression on his face. At last, he asked, “Duo, can I have a sip?”

“Sure,” said Duo, arching a brow at Heero as he slid the tall glass across the table.

“I just have to know what a five dollar shake tastes like,” Heero said as he stirred the shake with the straw and then moved it out of the way, preparing to just take a sip from the side of the cup.

“You can use my straw,” said Duo. “I ain’t got cooties.”

“Yeah, but I might,” said Heero. His dark blue eyes caught Duo’s for a fire-filled second, before he shrugged it off and went to take a sip from the straw.

Duo grinned as Heero drank. “Cooties I can handle.”

As Heero and Duo were talking, they were joined by both Wufei and Meilan, who apologized profusely for being so tardy and refused to pay any mind or vouch any comments about what they’d been doing to make them so late. Meilan sat down next to Quatre on the bench and Wufei snagged a vacant chair from a nearby table, pulling it up to the head of theirs. The addition of two new people did a little to ease the odd mood, but they were all still staring at each other strangely, waiting for someone to make a move.

“This is weird,” Quatre chuckled at long last, breaking the tension. “We all know each other, are some denomination of ‘friend’ to one another. Come on! Loosen up, people!”

“Says you,” Duo grumbled, hoping that he was only imagining the heat rushing to his cheeks as he caught a glimpse of Heero out of the corner of his eye. He quickly made a point to turn his head and look out the window, distracted only by the flicker of Heero’s reflection on the glass. Suddenly, he saw something that not only was very surreal, but also completely disturbing. “Holy crap!” he shouted, smacking both hands on the glass and practically smashing his nose into the translucent pane.

“Where’s the fire, Duo?” Wufei asked casually, looking up to stare down the table and out the window, wondering what was causing Duo to make such a commotion.

“There!” he exclaimed, glancing briefly at the flabbergasted teens sitting at the table with him and pointing outside. The entire party leaned over the table and towards the window, straining to see what Duo was gesturing at. And when they finally registered it, Duo’s earlier cursing certainly seemed to be the general, all-around, most appropriate reaction for the other six as well.

Standing on the sidewalk, not but three feet from them on the other side of the glass window, was Relena, chatting amiably with a tall, ratty-looking youth with scraggly blonde hair and many scars on his face. The boy was easily four or five years older than Relena, and something about the way he held himself, the look in his hard, green eyes, told each and every one that he had some ulterior, probably unholy, motives and a taste for trouble.

“Who is that guy?” Heero demanded to know, frowning at the display.

“Solo...” Duo answered simply, bitterly. “Gang brat who practically runs the streets around here,” he explained when he got a series of blank, confused stares aimed his way.

“And how do you know that?” Trowa wondered aloud, his lip curling a little as Solo put an arm around Relena’s slim shoulders and pulled her close to his chest, callused fingers toying idly with one of the little braids Relena wore in her dark, honey-blonde hair. Relena may not have been his favourite person in the world, but she was his sister’s best friend and a fairly innocent schoolgirl at that. He would never wish harm on her and he could tell that this acquaintance of hers was up to no good.

“He attacked Duo recently,” Heero put in, his eyes now trained solely on Duo. The longhaired boy was thankful that Heero had the tact to leave it at that, not mentioning that Solo and his gang had been out to molest and probably rape him. On another, more personal note, he was also somewhat glad that Heero didn’t mention that he had been the one to come to Duo’s rescue. He, himself, read into the incident way too much; heaven knew what the others would glean from that information.

“Oh Allah, Duo!” Quatre exclaimed, grabbing Duo’s nearest arm and squeezing hard. “You moron! You know this is why I hate you and your racing! Why the hell did you go and do something so stupid!?”

“It wasn’t my fault I lost!” Duo protested incredulously, wrenching his arm away from Quatre.

“Lost?” Meilan arched a quizzical, onyx black eyebrow, leaning on her elbows so she could get a better look at Quatre and Duo. “Lost what? Duo, do you know that guy?”

Quatre, never one to miss a chance to riot against Duo’s drag racing, launched into his rant about the one thing that the blonde wished he could change about his friend. “You know the whole reason he’s so in love with his Deathscythe Hell is because of these races he goes up against Solo in!” Quatre paused to take a long drink from his cup, a moment which Heero chose to grab for himself.

“You’re telling me that they nearly screwed you in some back alley because you lost a drag race!?” Heero wore an expression that was somewhere between shock and pure anger, somehow managing to display these two emotions very clearly with hardly a change in his usual stern look. Duo wasn’t even sure why it was enough of Heero’s business to be angry with him at all, but there it was, written all over the Japanese boy’s face.

“They nearly WHAT!?” Quatre squealed, getting extremely worked up. His nervous attitude quickly changed into an ireful one as he growled fiercely at Duo, “You are such a dumbass, Duo! Should teach you not to have so much goddamned pride! What if they’d gotten away with it? Duo, how could you even think of letting them touch you like that!? Idiot! I swear on everything holy, Duo, if you ever let anything like that happen again, you’re biggest worry will not be White Fang; it’ll be me!” For such a little, seemingly frail boy, Quatre sure packed a lot of punch when he was in foul spirits. Sometimes it seemed like he had morphed into a complete stranger when he was most angry.

“Oh shut up and just save it, Q,” Duo groaned, not at all in the mood to hear one of Quatre’s mother-hen lectures. He sighed and then commanded with a slight nudge into Quatre’s side, “Shove down, people. I gotta go to the bathroom.” Meilan and Quatre begrudgingly obliged, standing up so Duo could get out of the booth. They both watched as Duo made a bee-line for the restrooms, hands shoved in his pockets as he sped off and braid flapping about behind him like a nervous tail.

“You’re just going to let him run away like that?” Heero ground out in a surprisingly forced-sounding voice. He was staring straight ahead, glaring holes into the back of the bench where Duo had just been sitting across from him. “He’s going to have to face his demons one day.”

“I don’t think he’s quite ready to face you yet, Heero,” Trowa joked quietly, the comment making Heero’s expression darken even more, despite the pinkish hue tinting the tops of his ears.

“They’re gone,” Wufei commented, nodding at the window straight ahead of him. Solo and Relena were no longer standing there, the implications somewhat alarming the youths at the table. “I hope she’s not getting mixed up in anything over her head,” Wufei added once his last observation had sunk in. “I noticed that Ms. Peacecraft has a tendency to get rather immersed in certain causes to a point of unhealthy obsession, even if she doesn’t wholly understand what she’s involving herself in.”

“I agree,” Heero said tersely.

Wufei blinked his slanted, black eyes at Heero in surprise. “You... do?”

“Hai.”

“Oh my God, they agree!” Trowa shook his hands with false drama, as if he were praising the heavens. “The world is coming to an end! Chang Wufei and Heero Yuy agree!” Both Asian boys glared hard at Trowa, each silently willing something dastardly to happen to him for daring to make fun of them.

But any misfortune Heero and Wufei had been secretly wishing on Trowa ended up crashing down on all their heads when it came looking for Duo. Solo, the ragamuffin teen who had been with Relena, suddenly appeared beside Wufei, giving him a rough shove. “Where’s the slut?” he growled, his fingers digging into Wufei’s shoulder as he held him out of his way. “I saw the little mutant creep in here a minute ago! Where’re you fuckers hidin’ the Maxwell brat?”

When Solo said these words, Quatre squinted his eyes closed and mouthed a silent curse, thinking: Brilliant. The cat’s out of the bag. Now what? He glanced around the table, looking for reactions. Wufei seemed to be too concentrated on breaking free of Solo’s steel grip on his shoulder to pay any mind to his words, while Meilan glared scathingly at her fiancé’s tormenter. Hilde was gnawing her lower lip in worry and apprehension; Trowa looked as unreadable as ever, while Heero’s aura turned black and stormy as his brooding became more sinister. Crap, Quatre mentally swore as Heero’s aura brushed his Sense. Is he disgusted about finding out Duo’s secret? Why, of all times, can’t I see what you’re thinking, Heero? It seemed that the violent aura around Heero was acting like a barrier, blocking out any gentle prodding Quatre tried to do with his Sense.

Trowa, the only one able to keep his cool and gather the voice to talk, spoke up. “What do you want with him?” he asked calmly, folding his hands on the table and looking at Solo directly. Even though one of his glittering green eyes was covered by his long, spiky, cinnamon bangs, it seemed like both of them were boring right into Solo’s flat, toneless ones.

“None o’ your fucking business,” Solo snapped once he got over the shock of being addressed so placidly. By this point, a hush had fallen over the entire pizzeria, every eye in the restaurant trained on the booth table in the corner, by the window and the commotion brewing there. None of the employees had the guts to break up what was bound to become ugly, afraid that the punk kid off from the streets might mark them, possibly hurt them. He hadn’t seemed so bad when he’d walked inside with Relena Peacecraft on his arm just moments before.

“I’d say it is my business, all of our businesses,” Trowa answered in that same, unwavering tone, gesturing to the others at the table. “Now if there’s something you’d like to say, please say it or kindly leave. You’re interrupting our meal.”

In his rage, not used to being spoken to in such a way, Solo pounded the table with one fist and knocked Hilde’s glass off the table in anger, a cascade of ice and soda spilling all over her skirt and blouse. “Fine, rich-boy, I’ll indulge ya,” Solo sneered, ignoring Hilde totally. “Me’n’ Duo have a bet that he’s got yet to pay off. I want m’reward for winning our last race!”

“How much does he owe you?” Heero spoke up at last, still staring straight ahead.

“You! What the fuck’re you doin’ here!?” Solo’s nostrils flared when he realized who had spoken. “It’s on account of you that I ain’t collected any of my winnings!”

“I said, how much does Duo owe you?” Heero repeated, turning his burning, midnight blue eyes towards Solo, the heat of those intense Prussian pools rippling with anger, scalding Solo with an inexplicable fear.

“Three thousand dollars,” Solo spit out, adding an extra thousand to the amount he actually sought from Duo. Though still on guard, he was intrigued by this new prospect in the boy with the angel wing tattoo.

“Hnn,” Heero grunted as he reached down into one pocket and produced a roll of green dollar bills that he tossed down the table to Solo, who quickly snatched up the wad of money when it was within grabbing distance. “That’s only a sixth of it, but I’ll get you the rest by the end of tomorrow,” Heero said, watching as Solo greedily counted the bills.

“Done,” Solo grinned with a twisted curl of his upper lip. He stuffed the money into a hidden pocket inside his jacket. “I’ll meet you on Aries Street tomorrow night for the rest.”

“Hn,” Heero nodded, the mere glare in his eyes enough to bid the silent command for Solo to get lost. The blonde grinned again, released Wufei roughly and ambled away, sitting down at a small table for two with Relena on the other side of the restaurant. Heero watched him go as the chatter of the other patrons climbed back up to the dull roar it had been before. “I don’t like that he’s spending time with Relena,” Heero announced with a frown when he saw a waitress approach the table, suggesting that the pair intended to stay for a while.

“Me neither,” Quatre shook his head. “I hope she’s plays it safe. She’ll get burned if she keeps playing with that kind of fire.”

Hilde, meanwhile, stood up and excused herself to go to the ladies’ room so she could clean herself off. She spent about ten minutes trying to dry the huge splashes all down her front, leaving her with large brown splotches in their place when she was done. Supposing it was the best she would be able to do until she got home, she left the bathroom, nearly missing Duo as he peeked out of the men’s room as she passed the door.

“Is he gone?” Duo whispered hoarsely to Hilde, daring to step outside of the restroom so he could talk to his friend without looking too suspicious.

“Yeah, for now,” Hilde nodded, hoping Duo wouldn’t ask about what had happened to her clothes. “He’s off with Relena. Heero managed to scare him away, probably for a while.”

“No joke? He did?” Duo’s jaw dropped with awe. In all his years, not a soul had been able to tell Solo what to do, much less frighten him into doing something. This feat had definitely earned Heero a lot of brownie points in Duo’s book. “How’d he do that?”

“Solo came along, bitching for the cash you owe him,” Hilde explained, grabbing Duo by the wrist and gingerly leading him back towards their table as she talked. “And out of nowhere, Heero just up and offers to pay it off. All three thousand dollars! Can you believe that? You should thank him.”

“I... I will,” Duo stammered, astonished that Heero had done such a thing for him. Mentally, when he realized that Solo was charging three thousand instead of the agreed-upon two, Duo decided that he would reimburse Heero the extra money. It was the least he could do, he figured.

They returned to the booth and sat down to find that the pizza had arrived, as well as Heero and Trowa engaged in a tense disagreement over what had just happened. Meilan and Quatre got up to let Duo sit down in his old spot again, the longhaired boy sliding down the bench to watch as Heero and his brother argued in harsh whispers. Duo wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to interrupt them just yet or not.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Trowa hissed. “Where are you going to get that kind of money?”

“I have my sources,” Heero replied shortly, glaring at Trowa.

“Oh, so you mean you’ll just hack your way into someone else’s bank account, won’t you?” Trowa accused. “Who’re you going to steal from this time?”

“It’s none of your concern how I get the money,” Heero bit back, slapping the table with bottled-up anger. “You can tell me what you want, but it’s not going to stop me from doing what I intended to.”

“Heero, I thought you stopped doing that,” Wufei interjected, causing two Prussian blue eyes and one forest green one to whip around and glare in his direction. “You have a job just like every other kid in town; I don’t see why you need to keep up with that illegal business.”

“I just handed that street brat this month’s payment,” Heero growled at Wufei. He cast a quick, apologetic look in Meilan’s direction as he went on. “Just working part-time at a board shop isn’t enough.”

“It’s enough for most kids,” Trowa snapped. Duo was a little unnerved by Trowa’s display, not used to seeing him get so worked up over anything before. He supposed that Trowa’s beef with Heero’s hacking was a bit worse than Heero had made it out to seem earlier.

“It’s not enough to keep that asshole away from Duo,” Heero argued back, slamming his hand onto the table again, this time with enough force to make all the things on the table jump, the disturbance threatening to upset the pizza. He moodily reached for the rolling pizza-cutter and cut himself a piece of the pie for himself. Dropping it onto his plate, he said, his voice much softer, “Besides, it’s not like I’ve stolen any money lately. It’ll just be this one time, for an emergency.”

Trowa just made a small, growling noise of defeat and turned to Hilde, tersely asking her if she had been able to clean herself off, despite the fact that he could clearly see the soda stain on her shirt. Duo took the moment as a perfect chance to give Heero his word of thanks.

“Thanking me again?” Heero smiled faintly.

Duo’s face had to be burnt to a cinder by then, given all the times he’d caught himself going red when Heero said something to him. “I-It’s just that, well... you keep pulling my ass out of trouble and....” Duo had reduced himself to nervously tapping the tips of his index fingers together as he trailed off, unsure how to word himself just right. “...Yeah,” he finally settled on with a low sigh.

“Good,” Heero nodded curtly, as if to say he was through talking about the subject of Solo. Reaching for the pizza, which was mostly missing by that point, he cut Duo a slice and dropped it unceremoniously onto Duo’s plate with an order to eat as he turned his attentions to his own food. A small grimace wrinkled his brow and he looked up at Duo, who was in the process of stuffing his slice down his throat. “Am I really supposed to eat it with all these toppings?”

“Are you still on about the pineapples?” Duo asked with a shake of his head, transferring his pizza to his left hand. Reaching across the table, he pulled Heero’s plate towards him and lifted the slice off of it, taking the first bite out of it. Returning the pizza to the plate and sliding it back towards Heero, Duo said around his chewing, “See? Perfectly safe. It’s not going to kill you.”

Heero seemed to accept Duo’s taste-test as a legit enough reason to trust the food and, with an almost unnoticed deep breath, he picked up the pizza and took a bite. And then another, and another, until soon, he was finished with the slice and reaching for another. At the same time, however, Duo finished his slice and as he ingested the last of the crust, his other hand was darting out for the same slice Heero was after.

“Oh no, pal,” Duo warned when he found himself engaged in a tug-of-war of sorts with Heero over the pizza. “This slice is so mine.”

Heero grunted in response and pulled harder on the slice, dragging it closer to his side of the pan. It was Duo’s fault for getting him to like the pizza and now the braided villain would have to take the consequences for doing so.

“Give it here!” Duo commanded, bringing in his other hand as backup, both now gripping the crust adamantly for possession. He had to ignore that burning sensation that overtook him when his fingers clamped down on Heero’s, the warm blush licking his entire body this time.

The outcome of their squabble left Heero and Duo each with part of the slice of pizza, Heero’s significantly larger than Duo’s, much to Duo’s envy. The whole incident had managed to lighten the somber mood that had fallen over the table and soon, the whole group of them, even Wufei, was laughing over the battle of the pizza slice. Even though the pizza was finished, they all decided that they were still hungry, so Duo offered to go up and order another one instead of waiting for Sylvia to happen by.

“Be back in a few,” he said, standing up. “What’s everyone want on it?”

“Same thing,” Heero chose for all of them, which was met with nods all around.

“You got it,” Duo grinned, sauntering away from the table towards the large, buffet-style bar at the back of the restaurant, just outside of the kitchen where people usually went to order take-out pizzas. He was almost there when a quick pang of foreboding came over him, just as he felt a rough hand shoot out and grab his wrist, grinding him to a halt. Duo looked down his arm to find Solo sitting at the table just beside him with Relena and was latched firmly onto his forearm. “What the fuck are you doing?” Duo snarled, trying to wrest his arm free.

“Little slut got off easy with his watchdog boyfriend there to save him. You blowin’ him, slut?” Solo cooed in his cold voice, ignoring the indignant sound that escaped Relena’s lips at the way he’d just spoken about Heero. “Prob’ly on your knees all the time for him, ain’tcha?”

“Leave me the hell alone,” Duo growled, trying to tug his wrist away from Solo’s unrelenting grasp.

Solo’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits that glowed green, like a dragon that had just had its scales rubbed the wrong way. He tightened his hand around Duo’s wrist, threatening to crush the delicate bones. “Just know, slut, that I’ve got my eye on you. You may have won this battle, but the war is far from over.”

“I don’t know what you’re after or whose side of the fence you’re playing, old pal, but leave me the fuck out of it,” Duo growled, giving his arm a good, hearty jerk that was powerful enough to free his wrist with just a bruised handprint circling it.

“If you want to know so bad, I’ll bring you right along to a man that’d love to get his claws dug into your pretty skin,” Solo threatened, leaping out of his chair and making a grab at Duo. Fortunately, Duo was able to keep away from Solo’s snatching hands with a series of quick sidesteps and dodges, which all ended up being for nothing when he tripped over Solo’s vacated chair and left himself wide open. Solo was on him before Duo even had time to think, his powerful arms wrapped tight around Duo’s neck in a fierce choke-hold, threatening to make the longhaired boy pass out from lack of oxygen. Relena watched impassively, her lips tightened in a grim line. Silence had fallen over the restaurant once more as patrons either balked into corners and hoped they were being inconspicuous, or just bolted as fast as possible.

Heero immediately clambered up on his knees so he could see over the back of his bench and find out what was going on. When he finally caught sight of Solo pinning Duo and Relena sitting back like she was watching an action movie, Heero’s vision clouded red, splotches of blank marring the crimson haze that tinted the scene. “That fucker! I thought I told him to keep away from Duo!” Heero growled to the others as he spun around to face them again. Without a word of warning, Heero leapt onto the table and scrambled across it with the lithe grace of a cat, the various cups, utensils and plates still scattered on it not hindering him at all.

“Yuy! What the hell are you doing!?” Wufei shouted angrily after Heero as he leapt off the table and charged through the restaurant towards Solo, Duo and Relena. Heero didn’t even seem to care that he was blindly knocking people, tables and chairs out of his way as he moved.

“It might sound sick, but I almost hope he’s gone nuts again,” Trowa said to Wufei as he hoisted himself up on his knees, much like the way Heero had been just moments before to look around.

“Be careful what you wish for....” Wufei warned steadily, his eyes flicking between Trowa and the tussle behind him.

Meilan finished solemnly, ”Because it just came true.”

The Chinese girl was certainly right, because right at that moment, a loud curse escaped Solo’s mouth as Heero laid a heavy punch on the blonde’s jaw. Duo fell into a gasping mess under the table, watching with wide, confused eyes and blurry vision as Heero proceeded to launch himself at Solo, tackling the street rat onto his back and squeezing his throat to the floor with one powerful hand. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Heero demanded in a dangerously flat voice. He lifted Solo’s head an inch or so off the ground and then slammed it back onto the hard floor. “Tell me before I snap your neck.”

A small whimper from somewhere above fell upon Heero’s ears. His eyes snapped up to just catch Relena, hardly visible from his vantage point on the floor, as she cried, “Heero! Stop this! Let him go!”

“Stay the hell out this, Relena,” he snarled at her in a voice far ruder and colder than he’d ever used towards her before. “You sure as hell weren’t begging him to let go of Duo!”

“Why are you always protecting that little gutter rat mutant?” Relena whined, small tears welling up in her eyes. “What about me? Haven’t I told you time and again that I’d do anything for you?” She scowled deeply as she added, “What’s he ever done for you? If I remember correctly, he’s the one who’s always been a jerk to you!”

His hand still curled violently around Solo’s throat, threatening to crush it at any moment, Heero tried to explain to the now-sobbing girl. “Relena, you are a nice girl at heart, and I’d never want anything bad to happen to you, but these things are wrong. Why would you wish harm on Duo? You hardly even know him!”

“Is it wrong to wish the best for you?” she snapped tone, biting back a sniffle. “That little brat’s going to ruin you for life, Heero. He’s leading you astray.”

Heero froze over again, the slightly kind note he’d just had in his voice snuffed out once more. “As if you would know what’s good for me,” he said briskly, returning his concentration to his victim. “You leave the people I care about alone,” Heero growled menacingly at him, his eyes flickering with a scary flame that smoldered deep, midnight blue. “Do you understand me?”

Solo simply glowered back up at his attacker. He hocked back a wad of saliva and spit into Heero’s face in lieu of a verbal response.

“Real mature,” Heero growled menacingly. He tightened his hand around Solo’s neck, using the other to beat him hard across the cheek with a powerful smack. “I’ll ask you again: are we clear?”

Solo, realizing that he had a choice to either get pulverized or save himself with just one little word, opted for the one that would keep him around to fight another day. “Fine,” he bit out grudgingly.

“You swear?” Heero pressed, wanting to make sure he had plenty to back on if Solo did something Heero deemed as going back on his word. Solo just sneered at him, which enraged Heero further and earned the blonde gang leader another violent punch in the face and a bloody nose. “Say it, fucker!” he ordered, hitting Solo again and splitting his lip with the blow.

Duo was watching the whole scene from under the table with large, confused and slightly frightened eyes. Just hearing Wufei’s story about how Heero had caused that accident was nothing to the real thing. And as frightening as the image of someone as small as Heero beating the living crap out of Solo with just his fists as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Duo, while strong himself, knew that it was his speed that had saved him after going up against Solo a of couple times. Solo was certainly no weakling and had come to be the leader of White Fang for good reason. Part of him was glad that Solo was finally getting the lesson he deserved after so long, but another, smaller portion of him, the part that was deathly afraid of the display before him, kind of felt bad for Solo, the boy who had once been like a brother to him.

“Fine! I swear. I swear, okay?” Solo choked out with a fit of sputtering coughs. He breathed hard, almost not expecting that unrelenting fist to pause in the air when he spoke. He squinted his eyes, waiting for the pummeling to continue, a wetness he hadn’t felt in years sliding down his cheeks. “Just... stop,” he whispered, daring to crack one green eye open. Heero was still above him, his fist hovering in the air by his head and glaring down at him with an impassive stare. It unnerved Solo greatly when he realized that Heero wasn’t breathing erratically with physical strain. He hadn’t even broken a sweat despite the awesome power Solo had felt him leave stinging on his flesh with every punch. “Stop and I’ll leave... I’ll leave the little mutant cock-sucker alone....”

Heero’s eyes flashed with rage when he heard Solo insult Duo like that and his fist automatically started falling down to crack upon Solo’s skull again. He had barely moved it a few inches though, when he felt a rough tension jerk his arm backwards. Looking over his shoulder with morbid curiosity, he found Duo crouched behind him, his hand gripping Heero’s forearm tightly. “You can stop, Heero,” Duo whispered hoarsely, guiding Heero’s arm down to his side. “Leave him alone. Solo’s not as dumb as he looks. He gets it.”

Heero let a small growl rumble in the back of his throat as he slowly stood up and freed Solo. Duo got up with him, his hand loosening around Heero’s wrist as they rose. The longhaired mechanic could feel Heero shaking with adrenaline underneath his touch.

“It’s okay, Heero. Calm down,” Duo soothed Heero, rubbing his back as he started to lead Heero away from the mess, shooting Relena a horrible glare over his shoulder as they went. To Duo’s eyes, Heero looked absolutely shell-shocked and in need of a little support. And honestly, Duo had never expected Heero to go so totally out of control on his behalf. Here, Heero Yuy, captain of the lacrosse team, had just beaten the living shit out of Solo, in the middle of a pizzeria, for laying a hand on him. As far as Duo was concerned, Solo hadn’t even really done anything out of line; physical violence was a social norm on the streets and among gangs.

“Aren’t we going to go back to the table?” Heero wondered aloud in a harsh whisper when he found himself being pushed gently towards the chaotic restaurant’s front doors.

“Umm, no,” Duo admitted sheepishly, pushing one of the glass doors open and holding it open for Heero. “I somehow don’t think it’d be such a brilliant idea to hang around here anymore. Besides, they’re probably gonna leave soon anyway.”

“I suppose you’re correct,” Heero sighed as he stepped out into the warm, breezy night. As Duo walked up behind Heero and started down the sidewalk beside him, Heero spoke up. “Ah... Duo, I’m... sorry,” he said, hanging his head and jamming his hands into his pockets.

Duo stopped walking, moving in front of Heero to block his path. “What? Why?” Duo asked. The subtle, early, spring breeze toyed with the loose tails of his shirt and lifted his braid in lazy coils, like an undulating Chinese dragon. “If anything, I’m the one who should be sorry. Remember who the jerk is?” Duo laughed at his own insult, waiting for Heero to explain what he was apologizing for.

Heero looked away, his eyes tracking something on the other side of the street. “I was out of line,” he said quietly. “I shouldn’t have interfered in your business with that street boy but... I just can’t bear to see him treating anyone... treating you like that.”

Duo grinned and shrugged. “Is that all, Heero?” he asked, reaching forward to clap the Japanese boy amiably on the shoulder. “Aww, no biggie. It was kinda nice seeing someone show Solo the other end of the spectrum.”

“Sou, sou da,” Heero said with a tiny, nasal laugh and the beginnings of a grin. “Demo...” he shook his head, realizing he was confusing Duo, and switched tongues. “He deserved it, especially after what he was trying to do to you that last time.”

“I... uh... oh yeah....” Duo mentally smacked himself, congratulating himself on how intelligent he sounded with all his mindless blathering. “It was... um... part of the deal,” Duo finally managed to explain, turning red and sheepish and feeling the acute need to turn his back to Heero, which he quickly did.

“Deal?”

“The drag race bet,” Duo clarified, still facing the opposite block and not daring to look Heero in the eyes. It was too shameful and embarrassing, not to mention downright degrading, talking about the other half of the ‘usual bet’ he kept with White Fang. “The thing is that if I can’t cough up the dough, then they uh... they’re free to keep me for... for a night....” Duo swallowed loudly and sniffled. He never liked talking about that and bringing it up to light was not something he particularly enjoyed.

“They what?” Heero’s eyes narrowed as he reached forward to grab Duo and violently spin him back around. Holding him fast, he growled, “You actually agreed to those terms?”

“Hey! It’s not like I ever really lose,” Duo said defensively. “I’m too damn good and Deathscythe’s too damn fast. What’s the big deal betting something you’ll never have to pay?” Duo laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck with one hand, his braid flopped over his wrist.

“Apparently not fast enough. You lost this time,” Heero responded flatly. “By some of the things Solo was calling you, I’d assume that you’ve... lost a couple of times before?”

“Yeah,” Duo’s entire being, everything from his shoulders to his eyes to his very personality, seemed to droop. “Don’t talk about too much, okay? Guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do, right?” His head flicked up long enough to flash an almost nonexistent grin at Heero.

“Yes, he does,” Heero agreed, lifting Duo’s chin up with the tips of two fingers. Making sure that Duo was looking straight at him, he continued, “But a guy should still be able to keep his dignity, shouldn’t he? Don’t ever degrade yourself because you feel like it’s your last resort. Do you understand me, Duo Maxwell?”

“Look, tough boy. I dunno if you’re aware or not, but I came from shit doing things the way I always do ‘em, so don’t think you can suddenly appear in my life, snap your fingers and change my entire operation,” Duo snapped, feeling defensive, as he often did whenever he felt that Heero was treading on sensitive ground.

“Yes, well, you don’t always have to go playing second fiddle to everyone,” Heero said, clearing his throat. He dropped Duo’s chin and quickly pulled his hands close to his own body, folding himself into as compact a shape as he could. “Duo,” he said, somehow sounding more serious than he usually tended to. “You’re not the only one who’s had it rough. Get away from it all and live your life for now! If you’ve truly left all your shit behind you, then why do you keep dwelling in it?”

Duo was torn, wanting to jerk away and run off, but at the same time, also wanting to linger, to wait, to hear what Heero had to say. He opted for a mixture of both sentiments in his words, as his commentary usually tended to do. “Shut up. You’re not me. You don’t understand.”

“Incorrect. I rather think I do understand. You and I aren’t as different as you seem to think,” Heero announced smugly. His tone had become like a sharp, steel hook, digging into Duo and holding him fast. “There is something different about you, something that sets you apart from everyone else. I... I don’t know exactly what it is except that it makes you like me.”

“Like hell! You don’t know shit about me, Heero Yuy!” Duo shouted, trembling with a torrent of wild emotions. He could feel his mutation taking over, his rambunctious atoms shrouding him in a translucent, black cloud. “And if you did, you just might not like what you see.”

Heero’s eyes narrowed again, his eyebrows dipping low, displaying his offense for the first time all evening. “How do you know so well? You’re the one who keeps pushing away.”

“I know plenty well,” Duo argued. He felt himself pulling Heero down that old, familiar road of fighting and disagreement, their well-traveled road of self-defense and fright. “And I know best of all that guys like you aren’t supposed to like guys like me!”

“And who set this taboo? I don’t see your point.” There was a hint of exasperation mixed with Heero’s frustration, subtle, but defined enough to make Duo swallow his words for a moment.

“Believe me, it’s there,” Duo growled suggestively, hoping he wouldn’t have to drag out the two-by-four and smack Heero over the head with the fact that mutants and damn prep jocks just didn’t become joined at the hip for any reason, unless both were suicidal. For someone who’s usually quick on the uptake, Heero’s acting damn stupid, Duo thought bitterly, grudgingly awarding Heero his due intelligence credit.

If Heero had had a sudden epiphany, the dawning of it would have never been detected on his cool features in a thousand years. It probably had something to do with the fact that if Duo’s gradual change had been hardly noticeable before, it was hardly the case anymore. “What? You mean that you’re a mutant? Is that what this is all about?”

“Duh, Captain Obvious!” Duo made a motion to smack his head, his hand flying away into a mass of errant atoms just as it was about to connect with his skull. Then the realization of what Heero had actually just said sunk in, “Fuck, where’d you hear that?”

“Look at yourself,” Heero shrugged, gesturing to Duo’s half-solid, half-misty state. It made for a very interesting picture, his body tapering off into wispy tendrils as his particles swirled into their free state.

“Well, what do you know?” Duo ground sardonically out with a bit of spite, waving one rapidly dispersing arm. He was gearing himself up for the worst, though he wasn’t entirely sure just what that would be. A strange feeling like he would have preferred a couple good punches instead of some insulting tirade overtook him. Fights he could survive, run away from with minimal bleeding wounds; words he could not, especially when they left scars.

“But if you have to know,” he went on, readjusting his arms, unfolding and folding them again, “Solo came pounding over to the table demanding to see the little mutant... slut....” He added the last word halfheartedly and sounding a little disgusted, as if he was only saying it because it was what Solo had. “Actually,” he paused, looking up to the sky in thought, “I kind of knew before he even said anything. I’ve known for... quite some time.”

“You knew before?” Duo was pretty sure he just felt his jaw land on the sidewalk. His dislocated atoms gave a nervous scramble, flying around Duo much like their electrons whizzed about their nuclei.

“Yes,” Heero admitted, unsure of how he was going to explain this to Duo and keep his reaction down to a minimum. “You may have only just noticed me, but I’ve been watching you for years,” he started off slowly.

“So... you’ve seen me do this before?” Duo asked tentatively, gesturing to the particles floating lazily around him with his one still-solid hand. “And you still seek me out? Still want to be my friend? You really don’t think it’s... gross or weird or anything?”

“No. I think it’s nothing less than beautiful,” Heero said. There was a simple beauty to his words, despite their bluntness. Somehow, only Heero would be able to make blunt words graceful. The thought in and of itself was enough to keep Duo’s jaw on the ground and incapable of creating a response. “When I first came in the tenth grade, about a week into school, I saw you, ” said Heero, when he realized that Duo wasn’t going to say anything. “I was sitting in the windowsill of one of the second floor classrooms watching the late stragglers rush inside and all of a sudden, there was this black blur and then you running up the steps.” Heero took a long pause to breathe, his cheeks painted a pale, rosy gold in the street light. “I decided right then that you were beautiful. I never thought that I....” He shook his head, decided that wasn’t quite right and tried again. “I’ve never felt that way about anyone before, but I knew it, somehow. I still do.”

Duo blinked stupidly at Heero, the only sign that he was still alive. And, his mouth shaped like a perfect circle, he managed to string together a small chain of intelligent words. “Well... damn. That’s a Shakespearean monologue if I ever heard one.”

“Hardly.” Heero rolled his eyes and scoffed, a small grin tugging at his lips, despite his closed-up stance. For some reason, Duo found himself laughing at Heero’s reaction. “What’s funny?” he asked, clearly confused by Duo’s chuckles, the tremors of his laughter making his atoms quiver like his whole body was shaking with it.

Duo shrugged, though it was a little hard to tell that was what the little jolt that ran through him was since so much of him had become dust, his change dragging on like sand in an hourglass. “I dunno. Just felt like laughing I guess. It’ll be nice to go home and laugh before I sleep,” he said with a wry smile. “Thanks again, Heero,” as the last of him faded into mist. “For the amusing evening, that is.” His atoms swelled and danced, glinting a myriad of grays and blacks in the light cast by the nearby lamp post.

“Hiding again,” Heero stated, his words not a question but simply an observation made public. He reached out a hand and gently sifted it through Duo’s zooming mass, a smile of his own appearing once more on his face as the atoms tickled his fingers and palm. “But you still make me smile,” he whispered as the particles swirled up his arm. It seemed Duo had found sadistic pleasure in tickling Heero this way and was more than willing to pay him back for the incident earlier that day in the backyard. Before Heero knew it, he was completely enveloped in Duo’s black haze, atoms all fighting to brush up against Heero’s skin in an effort to make Heero double over with laughter. Even if Heero had been as ticklish as Duo, the Japanese youth was sure he wouldn’t have been able to disrupt a moment that felt so strangely intimate with his mechanical laugher.

As for Duo, though trying to delude himself that he was only trying to make Heero laugh, he was finding it strangely satisfying and a little erotic to be all over Heero such as he was. Certainly he’d played around with his friends in his mist form, engaging in all kinds of tag and other such harmless games, but nothing quite like this. No, there was definitely something erotic about being able to caress Heero’s cheek and feel its warmth on both the pad of his ring finger and his thigh at the exact same time. Duo was sure he felt an electric shock sizzle through his entire being as Heero took that moment to make use of his hidden sadistic streak and part his lips slightly, eyes closed like he was kissing someone. Everywhere, on his neck, his shoulder, his hip, behind his knees, was alive with the guilty sensation of Heero’s damp lips as every atom in his entire being raced for the chance to caress them. Duo lost control of himself, particles whirling around Heero like a tornado, his vision splattered and all over the place.

“Goodnight, Duo,” Heero whispered, his slowly moving lips sparking more electricity in the storm of Duo’s whirling mass. Then he carefully, almost reluctantly, stepped out of the warm confines of the throbbing cloud and walked down the street, leaving the misty Duo to pulse with adrenaline beneath the street light before also continuing on his own way home.



(x) X (x)



a/n: There, an uber, uber long chappy for you all! I was actually trying to splice this chappy, but I couldn’t find a spot that would be good to do so without making it seem choppy, as everything just flows. So, uh, I hope you all appreciate it! It kind of makes up for the late posting, but hey, I have exams, and on my usual posting day, I was out in Baltimore, cheering on the Yankees (yes, the Yankees) at Camden Yards, so I didn’t get a chance to. And, FYI, just across the parking lot, at the Ravens’ stadium, is where this whole story was inspired. Speaking of which, it looks like I’ll be back there for this year’s NCAA Lax Championships.

And, for all who care, the title is a Billy Joel song, which is about the fast kids in high school. Oh, and I do hope you all caught the Pulp Fiction reference, placed especially for the wonderful Mookie, who’s just been great all around.

Also, a little random note I’ve been meaing to leave for a while about some of the locations in the story. The infamous Gifford’s is actually a small, local chain in Washington DC and the shop that appears in the story is exactly like the Gifford’s near my house. The pizza joing, Grotto’s, that appears in this chappy, is a staple of Delaware beachs. Good, greasy pizza, hehe.