Smells Like Teen Spirit
by Shannon the Twisted Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 9
Pinball Wizard

(x) X (x)

“Goddammit!” Duo swore as he flew up into a sitting position, the loud and irritating beeping of his black wristwatch jerking him rudely from a lazy nap in the sand underneath the boardwalk. The noontime sun glittered in dusty slits between the wooden planks of the walkway above, illuminating the young braided mechanic in an eerie combination of light and deep shadow. He rose up into a crouch, beating the sand off his clothes as he crept back to the beach from his quiet little hideaway. When he was able to stand up straight again, he stretched and yawned wide, surveying the sandy expanse by the ocean as he did so. The place was pretty much free of inhabitants and safe from the annoying stream of shoe-wearing summer vacationers that attacked their town routinely every year. He stood there plainly, forgetting for a second where he was and what he was doing. A second round of beeping from his watch conveniently gave him a reminder right then, jerking him back from his tired dreamscape and jolting him into action. Duo threw his wrist in front of his eyes and nearly gasped when he saw the time. “Fuck it! I’m so late!”

He dashed across the beach, the sinking sand causing him to stumble quite a bit along the way. A wave of frustration took him when he tripped over his own feet in his haste and he fell flat on his face, getting a big mouthful of cool sand when he hit the ground. Launching from his prone position like a bullet, he exploded forward in a burst of dark particles that sped down the beach and bounced up onto the boardwalk so quickly, it seemed like a black streak was being scrawled through the air by some unknown god. The black mist tightened into the familiar solid form of Duo, which hit the flat planks of the boardwalk with a rather unhealthy sounding thwack, leaving the braided boy gasping for breath like a dying fish on the sand as he feebly took another look at his watch. A slight grin formed on his face as he whispered to himself, “Cool. Saved myself a whole four minutes and twenty seven seconds of walking.” Then he realized that the cut was not going to mean much if he kept up his current pace lying dormant on the ground like that. “Eeyeaaaah! Q’s gonna break my neck if I’m any later!” he screeched loudly, drawing some attention from the people just strolling by. He hopped to his feet and started charging down the wooden promenade towards the arcade where he was to meet his golden haired friend.

He was running so fast and paying so much attention to the glowing digital numbers on his watch that he did not see the equally dazed and confused girl approaching him from the other direction, her face obscured by the tall stack of boxes she was precariously balancing in her arms. Inevitably, they smacked right into each other with another one of those painful sounding thwacks, the noise only adding more to the comic book effect of the whole scene. An endless rain of colourful skateboard wheels and dull silver trucks exploded from the girl’s cardboard boxes as she lost her grip on them with her fall. Duo did not even want to think about the number of bruises he had received in the span of the last ten minutes as a blue wheel bounced off his forehead, knocking him even further off balance and landing him hard on his ass.

“Whoa, home run. That’s the game, folks,” the girl moaned, gripping her forehead with both hands. By the way she was kind of tottering around, Duo figured she was probably seeing those cute tweeting birds flying around her head like in the cartoons. He chuckled at that thought, noting not for the first time how many parallels his life had to comic books.

“Are you okay?” Duo asked as he crawled amid the trucks and wheels towards the groaning girl. He gently pulled her hands away from her head, frowning slightly when he saw the damp pad of blood spatter lightly across her tanned flesh. “God, wow, that looks painful,” Duo hummed as he looked around for something he could use to dab up the blood. Deciding that the shirt he was wearing really was not that important to him, he ripped off a bit of the cotton tee’s sleeve and held it against her wounded head. She was whimpering softly as if she were trying to swallow a pained tear or two. For the first time, Duo got a good look at the girl. She was slim and petite, with pretty Chinese features and shiny black hair that was whipped back in loose spiky pigtails that fell messily down her back. Her dark eyes were obscured slightly by loose strands of that wild black hair falling over her face. “Hey, I think I know you….” Duo started to say, lifting the cloth to fold it over and press a fresh section of it on her head. He was relieved to find that it was not much, just a shallow flesh wound.

“Mm, yeah,” she managed in a warbled voice, pushing Duo’s hand away. She tried to stand up but failed at the attempt. She smacked the ground in frustration and looked forlornly around her at the scattered wheels and trucks as she said, “You visited our art class yesterday. That’s where you know me from.” She shook her head and stuck out her right hand expectantly. “I’m Meilan,” she went on. “But I like to be called Nataku, if you don’t mind. Nice to meet you, Duo,” she finished as Duo shook her hand firmly.

“You remembered my name? Brownie points for you,” Duo replied, his wide grin settling back on his angelic face. There was a pause as Duo took the time to follow Meilan’s eyes as she looked around her at the skateboard parts again with a disgruntled sigh. Then his eyes lit up as a realization dawned on him. “Nataku! You’re the one who owns that board shop a little further back?”

“Yeah,” Meilan sighed, returning her gaze to Duo as she lifted herself up onto her knees shakily. “Used to be my dad’s and then he kicked the bucket so that pretty much left me, my cousin, Sally, and mom to….”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be,” Meilan said in a snappy tone that begged to be obeyed. She amended with another shake of her head and said softer, “He was sick with that old virus that used to stick around here. It’s not like anyone could have done much for him anyway. They stopped producing the antidote after the disease calmed down. I’m surprised he even got the stupid dumb thing in the first place.” She scowled and spat rudely to the side, crossing her arms angrily. “Stupid weak old man,” she growled to herself, “just dying like that. Pathetic and weak. Tch….” She spat again and fell to silence.

“Well you have plenty of help with your mother and your cousin, right?” Duo said, trying to fill the awkward silence with some kind of noise. Despite what people said, he liked to hear the sound of his own voice when there was no other real noise. It comforted him when he was alone. He had completely forgotten the time and the fact that he was supposed to have met Quatre at the arcade over a half-hour ago. It would have seem ridiculously awkward of him to have just sped off after such a collision anyway, he justified himself. “And plenty of people go to your shop. It’s the best surf shop in town from what I hear….”

“Well, yeah,” Meilan sighed in agreement. She finally got the strength to stand up and pulled herself to her feet, spreading her arms out akimbo for balance. “But still, with Sally off at college and my mom too friggin’ old and lazy to do jack shit anywhere, it’s kind of all on my shoulders. I got a little help here and there so I guess it’s not that bad….” She trailed off and bent down to pick up one of her now empty boxes.

“Here, let me help you,” Duo insisted in the most gentlemanly manner he knew how. He quickly grabbed one of the other boxes and started to load the trucks into it.
They were serenaded by the ocean’s quiet lulling hum for a few minutes as they scurried across the boardwalk, repacking all the dispersed skateboard parts into the boxes. After another strange silence, Meilan spoke up, her voice a little bitter and distressed. “But I’ll be damned if I can’t keep the godforsaken shop up!” she growled bitterly, giving Duo the impression that she was under a lot more stress than she was letting on. She stopped packing her box for a moment, her quivering fingers curling tightly around a bright neon green wheel as she ground out, “I mean, I have school, plus all this. Sally was the one who used to do all the skateboard work anyway and now she’s gone overseas for school. I don’t know why I even bothered to order in a new shipment of this kind of stuff. I can’t do skateboard repairs! I know surf, not skate!” She started rambling faster as her unintentional shaking started to quake her entire body. “And Wufei has been so damn busy lately, he’s hardly ever around to help out. No matter how much I try to bug him, he just never has any time for me. It’s always… always something else! And I’m so nice to him too! Then, Heero can only come by so much for me. That poor guy is stressed out enough. I can’t constantly be begging him do petty chores and errands for me all the time….”

“Oh, Meilan, don’t be sad” Duo heaved softly as the violent torrent of her sudden distress, deciding that making a comment about Heero would not be the most appropriate thing right then and there. Though he had not been aquainted with Meilan for very long, he sincerely felt bad for her and wanted to console her. It would be a bastard thing to do to just ditch her when she was practically in tears. Besides, he had this strange feeling in his gut that he and Meilan could get to be very good friends in time. She seemed like a genuinely nice person, even if it turned out she was not a mutant. “It’s okay,” he went on soothingly as he settled down beside her and patted her back reassuringly. “I know it’s hard when you have to be the adult before you’re really grown up. I’ve got that problem too. You can always talk to me about it.”

“Really, can you please call me Nataku? Meilan sounds so… so weak….” She sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand as she scooted back a little so she could meet his eyes. “But that’s… That’s a nice thing to say,” she said, calming down a little as she laid the green wheel into its box. “Do you really mean that? It’s so hard to find people to talk to anymore….”

“Yeah,” Duo agreed. “People suck.”

Meilan laughed a little at this, which made another happy grin play across Duo’s lips. He may have been a right punk asshole, but in his heart of hearts, he was a very soft individual. Once you got underneath all the hard packaging, Duo was really just a big squishy teddy bear inside. Seeing Meilan smile would be enough to fuel him for the rest of the day with a cheerful note in his step.

“So you don’t have to be sad,” Duo smiled, helping his newfound friend to her feet. He grabbed her hands and bounced cheerfully, like a little schoolboy who had just been offered the world’s largest lollypop. “With me around to fix up your skateboards for you, you’ve got constant entertainment!”

“With you… to… what?” She sounded hopeful, like what Duo had just said had only been a figment of her imagination.

“To fix skateboards,” Duo repeated, slower this time, as if to make sure that his words sunk into her head. He cleared his throat and announced proudly, “I like fixing things. Comes like second nature to me, tools and gadgets and all.” He grabbed her around the shoulders, taking her by surprise as he went on, dragging his hand across the air in front of them to further dramatize his point. “You’ll never pine over your traveling cousin again! I’d love to help your shop out. I hate seeing people like you struggling to get by. You’re a real person. Don’t want those to die out from stress overload now, do we?”

“You’re an actor, aren’t you,” Meilan deadpanned as she wrested herself from Duo’s grip, picking up the box of wheels at her feet. She moved across the boardwalk to collect the rest of them, tossing in the random missed part here and there as she went.

“Why does everyone always ask me that?” Duo wondered aloud, rubbing the back of his head as he started to follow after Meilan down the boardwalk, his fingers woven into the thick sweep of braided chestnut hair that hung down his back. “I’m a techie!”

“Gee, I wonder,” Meilan rolled her eyes, though Duo could not see it because she was walking a few paces ahead of him. “You should act, I think.”

“That’s another one I always—holy SHIT!” he glanced down at his watch, which was beeping at him to signify a new hour. “I’m an hour and a fucking half late to meet Q!” He panicked and started to jitter, worried what kind of crazy punishment the seemingly innocent blonde would have in store for him when he finally got to the arcade. “Sorry Meilan, I really gotta jam!” He grabbed her hand for a farewell shake from under the boxes, threatening to send them all tottering to the ground once more. “We’ll talk more later. See ya!” he chirped over his shoulder with an exaggerated wave as he took off in the opposite direction down the boardwalk, leaving a very confused, yet highly amused Meilan standing alone on the wooden pathway.

(x) X (x)

The arcade bustled with the usual weekend gamers as Duo rushed inside, passing the thick crowd of people amassed around two young guys engaged in a very heated Dance Dance Revolution competition out front. He was not sure where he would find Quatre in the huge arcade or even if his lithe blonde friend was even still there a good two hours after their appointed meeting time. The thought of what Quatre’s reaction to such tardiness would be caused a slight tremor of fear to prickle Duo’s skin as he wandered aimlessly through aisles of loud and flashy game machines. Maybe it would be safer if I don’t see him, Duo thought to himself as he took a breather beside a long row of interconnected racing consoles. That guy might be small, but he’s strong. He’s scary when he’s mad! Memories of their recent fight plagued his mind relentlessly as he turned to watch the gamers settled behind the wheels of the adjacent racing consoles as they took each other on. He shook his head sympathetically at them. Amateurs…

“Whoa, rematch, rematch!” a familiar boyish voice yelled above the arcade’s clamour. Duo looked away from the screen of gamer sitting closest to him at the end of the row in the Player Eight seat. Just a bit further down the row, sitting in the Player Four spot, was Quatre, who was at present too busy fishing through the pockets of his baggy khakis in search of more change to pay any mind to anything else. Finding a handful of quarters, he dumped them unceremoniously onto the console’s dashboard, quite unlike the usually organized Quatre who, in all of Duo’s arcade experience with him, always made a disgusting habit of stacking his change neatly in piles of seventy-five cents whenever he laid it out. Duo quirked an amused eyebrow as he moved to stand behind Quatre’s spot as the blonde boy fed the machine the required amount of coins with a very pronounced jab of his hand and a low mutter. “There’s no way we’re ending this with a tie, let me tell you!”

Duo swallowed a laugh and bit his lip to keep it down. Quatre was rarely so competitive and had never been as focused on winning a game like he was now, especially one as simple as an arcade racing game. In any case, Quatre seemed to be too worried about choosing a vehicle for the new race to pay Duo the slightest bit of attention, whether he had felt his presence with his Sense or not. “Hey Q,” Duo said, clearing his throat none too discreetly to announce his presence as soon as Quatre had settled on a car.

“Not now Duo,” Quatre brushed him off with a brief wave of his hand and a surprising amount of uncaring attitude towards him as he gripped the wheel and focused on the countdown to the race’s start. “I’m currently engaged.”

Duo was about to retort something about how an arcade game could never hope to compare to a real car in a real race when he noticed who was sitting on Quatre’s far side at the Player Three console, the silent smirk on his face just noticeable in the shadow cast by his odd sweep of cinnamon streaked bangs. “Oh,” Duo dotted his thoughts off with a monosyllabic grunt. He walked past Quatre and his competitor and slid behind the wheel of the Player Two console to watch them race, a sullen expression on his face.

As Trowa and Quatre sped neck and neck through the eight simulated laps, Duo found his mind’s focus alternating between cursing the asshole hogging up the preferred Player Five console, which forced him to sit closer to Trowa, and actually watching the game. They were pretty evenly matched, Duo was loathe to say; he sorely wanted Quatre to kick Trowa’s ass, to be perfectly frank. Though Quatre had a better handle on the actual game, the fact that he had selected to use automatic transmission stunted his steering ability. On the other hand, Trowa, though slowed somewhat by the fact that he had to brake and use the clutch, had the advantage of cleaner steering and a bit faster top speed with the manual shift. Duo glanced at Trowa’s screen just as an alert played across it, signaling that Quatre was coming up close behind him. Duo let out a hiss of victory as Quatre’s car shot ahead, marked on Trowa’s screen with a yellow arrow and a blinking number three floating over it.

Duo’s excitement was short lived, for as soon as Quatre was just about out of Trowa’s line of sight, the slim goalie downshifted into fourth and throttled forward, overtaking Quatre with ease. Duo clicked his tongue in annoyance. There was no way Quatre would ever be able to match that speed now, he noted as he stared over at Quatre’s screen, whose speedometer was totally maxed out.

“Cripes! Third place!” Quatre moaned at the race’s end, smacking the wheel in frustration. “I was so close too!”

Trowa just smirked wider as he crossed his arms and leaned back, satisfied with his second place performance. One of the computer’s cars had managed to totally dust everyone else in the race by a whole lap. “Let’s go again then, if you’re not satisfied with that.”

“Ha, bet I could totally whip both of you and the game,” was all Duo had to say about the race, his focus boring heatedly at Trowa in particular. “Q, give me some quarters so I can join in!” he called down to his blonde friend, who sighed and begrudgingly complied with the request.

“I’ll see that bet,” a now much hated and too familiar voice wafted from behind.

Though Duo really did not have to turn around to know whom this new challenger was, he looked over his shoulder anyway just in case the sadistic voices in his head were out to get him. And though he really did not have to groan when he found none other than Heero Yuy and Chang Wufei standing there, he did anyway, just to make sure they knew just how he felt about seeing them on a weekend. Even though Wufei wasn’t such a bad guy in Duo’s book, he still wasn’t exactly at the top of his list either; Duo found the guy kind of uptight and cranky. He whirled completely about and rose up on his knees, backward in the seat as he gripped the chair’s headrest in annoyance. “What are you doing here, Yuy? Arcades are for fun. You’re not fun.”

“I don’t have to be fun to have fun,” Heero snapped back, clambering into the Player One seat and dropping some change into the machine’s slot. He called back to Wufei, his tone not much different from the one he had used towards Duo. “Chang, go take number Five and we’ll all race.”

“If you’re just trying to find yet another competition to best me at and gloat over, well you can forget it, Yuy!” Wufei growled just as bitterly. “I refuse to play into your hands yet again!”

“Shut up and stop whining!” Heero practically shouted at him, sending a very dirty-looking glare in Wufei’s direction. “You just don’t want someone to catch you in an arcade, losing a video game to someone like him.” He jabbed a thumb in Duo’s direction, who snorted indignantly and waved his middle finger scathingly back at him. Heero ignored him as he went on with his monotone berating of Wufei. “Meilan told me to make sure you do something that has nothing to do with school for once, and I intend not to allow either of us to be in her presence until I’ve carried out that mission.”

“You see how he baits me!” Wufei yelled at the other four players, pointing accusingly at Heero. “Injustice!”

“Don’t push me, Chang,” Heero said, his voice suddenly very low and dangerous. “You know what I’m like when I’m mad.”

“Oh, like you’re not always mad!” Wufei cried sarcastically, throwing both his arms over his head in frustration, oblivious to Heero’s threat, despite the fact that he was now at the wrong end of a very dark narrow-eyed stare.

Great, Duo complained to himself when he realized that Quatre was more of a neutral than an ally, Just when I thought it was bad enough seeing Barton here, Dumb and Dumber decide to show up. Duo looked back at Wufei, who was finally moving in the direction of the Player Five machine beside Quatre, his eyes resting finally on Trowa as he sighed. He did not even want to look in the other direction at You-Know-Who. Barton may be a trendy-ass poseur, but at least he’s a silent trendy ass-poseur. Better than those other two schleps, I’ll give him that….

After Wufei fed the console his money, the group waited in tense silence for anyone else to join the race. Heero was glaring down the row at his four competitors with an expression on his face that was rather hard to dissect and could be read as either extremely pensive or extremely angry. Duo was sitting in his seat with his arms crossed and his eyes locked unwaveringly on his screen, determined not to look at anything (or anyone) else. Trowa was amusing himself with one of his extra quarters, making it seem to flip itself back and forth across his knuckles. The trick seemed to be just as entertaining for Quatre as it was for Trowa as his large aquamarine eyes were riveted by the silver coin as danced across Trowa’s skillful fingers. Wufei was off in his own world, gripping the wheel of his console as he muttered a low string of discernible Chinese words that could be interpreted as curse words by anyone whether they knew the language or not.

When the game decided that no one else was going to join in, it started the race for the five boys who were waiting to play. The moment the simulated cars flew off the starting line, the attitude of the race was set. Both Heero and Duo slammed their feet so hard on their own respective throttles at the green start signal that a slight tremor shook the entire row of machines. After stealing a glance at the pair to his left, Trowa decided that it would be in his best interest to cruise moderately in the middle of the pack. Quatre, the only one in the group who seemed to take the game for what it was (old fashioned fun), focused only on trying to beat Trowa. Meanwhile, Wufei’s swearing seemed to have quieted itself for the time being and offered the rest of them peace from his Chinese profanities.

But where Wufei’s cussing ended, Heero’s and Duo’s began, and, unfortunately for all the virgin ears in the nearby vicinity, unlike Wufei’s, their rather colourful language was in English. While this caused a few appalled mothers to gasp and escort their young children away from that particular area, it also caused quite a herd of older gamers to flock towards it. Like anything in an arcade, if it made a good show, such as good DDR players or extremely good crackshots, then it was more than likely that there would be an equally good audience guaranteed to be drawn to it like a magnet. And Heero and Duo locked in mortal combat, cursing like sailors the entire way, were no exception to this standard.

“You fucker!” Duo actually took his eyes off the screen to yell at Heero for slamming purposefully into the side of his car and causing him to flip totally out of control. The couple of lost seconds gave allowed Heero enough time to shoot ahead of Duo, the blinking red Player One indicator over his car taunting Duo relentlessly. “I’ll teach you to fucking flip me over, asshole!”

“I’d love to see you go ahead and fucking try!” Heero snorted back with a triumphant grin tugging at his pale rose coloured lips. “You drive like a goddamned eighty-year old woman!”

“Does an eighty-year old woman speed around your ass like this?” Duo ground out between clenched teeth as he slapped the gear shift into third and then into fourth, riding right up on Heero’s rear bumper and nudging him closer to the track’s wall, soon causing him to spin out and freeing the first place spot for Duo to sail right into. “Yeah, you sure know some spry old ladies, crap face!”

They went on like that for the entire circuit, ramming into each other and cussing each other out at every chance they got. As if that was bad enough, when they got around to the eighth and final lap of the course, things really started to get ugly.

“You fucking bastard! You fucking cut me off!” Duo shouted, offended by Heero’s transgression. Keeping one hand on the wheel and both eyes on the game screen, Duo landed a pretty sound punch on Heero’s bicep with lightning speed that could belong only to California’s best thief. The action was enough to colour Heero’s flesh a pretty nasty bruise shade and to send him veering out of control.

“The hell do you think you are?!” Heero snarled as he fought to regain his former place. His eyes flicked over at Duo, who was smirking devilishly at his little accomplishment, and took revenge on him before the braided boy even knew what hit him. “Don’t ever fucking hit me like that!” he growled angrily as he decked Duo firmly in the jaw, laying much more pain on him than he had received. He replaced his stray hand on the wheel and returned his eyes to the game screen, reclaiming first place once again while Duo spun for a few dazed moments beside him.

But as soon as Duo managed to shake off his surprise and the shooting pain smoldering on the side of his face, his darker, shadowy side came out to play. On Trowa’s other side, Quatre noticed the sudden silence between the murderous pair and realized that Duo had finally gotten serious. In addition to the thumping anger that was beating off of Duo, Quatre could tell by Duo’s lack of response to Heero that he was extremely angry. If anyone knew about Duo’s body language, it was Quatre, and right now he knew all too well that Duo was starting to get more than a little serious about the game. While often very idealistic and noble, sometimes Quatre worried that Duo could get rather passionate about rather mundane and unimportant things. It was frightening that up until now, Duo had only been playing at half his usual skill. And now, game or not, Duo was ready to kick some ass.

No longer having to worry about thinking up droll comebacks to shoot at each other, both Heero and Duo focused all their attention on the race, each refusing to let the other beat him out. It had definitely been a wise choice on the other boys’ parts to hang back as far as possible and leave the two warring combatants to duke it out alone in first and second place as they sped into the home stretch. The only noises around them came from the game; even the crowd around them had fallen to a tense hush after Heero’s assault on Duo.

They were close, the checkered finish line slowly growing larger as the simulated track neared its end. They were locked in a Ben Hur-style battle for the win, little yellow and orange flecks of digital sparks jumping up between the two cars as they ground scathingly against each other, each one trying to shove the other off the road and out of the way. Duo pulled off of Heero for a second, causing Heero’s car to waver a bit, before smashing right back into it, crunching the passenger-side headlight right into his opponent’s hood. The Player One car flew out of control, flipping over a few times with a bit of hindering videogame fanfare while Duo’s vehicle, meanwhile, squealed excitedly into the place where Heero’s car had just been.

“Yesssss!” Duo screamed at last, as his car rolled across the finish line, jamming his hands vertically into the air, his hands balled up tight in fists. “Victory is mine!”

“I... lost...?” Heero stammered as the race automatically came to an end with Duo’s finish. A set of red letters flew across his screen to read ‘Second Place’. All sounds were lost on him. He did not register Duo’s mindless gloating nor those in the crowd behind him, grumbling as they dug through their pockets to pay their lost bets on Heero. “...How can that be...?”

The words ‘First Place’ adorned Duo’s screen in large blue letters, his times and stats all lined up beneath it as the machine totaled up his final score, which ended up being good enough to make it onto the top ten winners’ list. “Just another one for the record books,” Duo preened, cracking his knuckles before he set to work entering his name into the console. “At the rate I’m going here, next thing you know, all ten spots will have my name!”

“Duo plays this game a lot,” Quatre explained the comment to Trowa, choosing not to make a big fuss over the fact that he had managed to beat him as well. Not that it was even the foremost thing on his mind, because soon he leaned forward in his seat so he could see what Trowa was staring with so much interest at. No big surprise it was only Duo, who was currently doing a rather ridiculous looking dance in his seat, oblivious to any and all stares he was getting. “He’s got a permanent place in the winners’ circle.”

“WHAT!!! LAST PLACE!? INJUSTICE!” Wufei’s angry yell cut Quatre short. “Someone call the manager and tell them this game is rigged! I was winning! I lapped both Yuy and Maxwell multiple times!”

Trowa and Quatre turned their attentions from the flamboyantly celebrating Duo to Woof as his Chinese swears returned for an encore performance. Quatre had trouble deciding which was funnier: Wufei’s antics or the dry look crusted upon Trowa’s face as he surveyed his Chinese friend.

“Wufei, you were still on your second lap while everyone else was on their seventh,” Trowa said, that bored expression still on his face like he had seen this sort of thing from Wufei before and had grown sickeningly used to it.

“So that’s what that--oh goddammit!” Wufei swore, pounding his fist onto the metal center of the wheel and then recoiling and wringing it in pain. “I hate goddamned arcades!”

“...I lost...” Heero whispered again to himself, still staring dumbly at the screen even though it had reverted back to the startup animation some time ago. He was still unaware of everyone around him, lost in his own private daze. “I never lose. It’s impossible!”

“Ehh, is someone upset?” Duo mocked, noticing Heero’s lack of movement and the glazed over look of shock in his eye. “Worried that maybe you’re not as perfect as you thought or more worried that someone else will find out, hmm Yuy?”

“Yamero! Urusai!” Heero suddenly whipped around and snapped in Duo’s face with such venom that even Duo was hushed to silence and sprung back. “Doshite...? Makaranai,” he was muttering to himself as he left, his words incoherent babble to Duo’s ears. “Masaka...”

Even though he had no idea what Heero had just said, the meaning was conveyed pretty well enough and Duo kept off, suddenly feeling almost a little bad for the poor guy. Perhaps it had been the tiny shining flecks of moisture gathering on the tips of Heero’s thick eyelashes that had sent a twang through Duo’s chest, somehow paining him more than the bruise on his jaw. “God, it’s no big deal,” Duo tried his best to amend, though somehow it fell flat, though whether it was the lack of sincerity, ill word choice or both, Duo was not really sure. Not that he even cared much really, but he suddenly felt like all the glory of besting Heero at the game had suddenly been sapped dry for heaven knew what reason. “It’s not the end of the world if you lose a stupid game!”

“Trowa, I’m going home.” Heero said crisply as slid out of the chair and started to storm off, completely ignoring Duo as he continued to walk away. He paused behind his best friend long enough to say, “Make sure Meilan doesn’t beat the crap out of Woof for failing to have a good time. Ja.” He threw a small jerky wave in the direction of Trowa, Quatre and Wufei before pushing his way past a few people and becoming lost in the crowd.

“I don’t know what his problem is,” Duo huffed, skulking low in his chair, suddenly in a bad mood. He hated it when things backfired on him like this. Now he felt like a complete and total asshole for some reason and he was not even totally sure why. There was something that had just sat strangely with him when he had noticed those tiny droplets of salty tears forming in the corners of Heero’s eyes. “It’s just a stupid racing game.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Wufei said, suddenly appearing behind him. “Heero’s just very competitive, that’s all. Just his nature, nothing anyone can do about it.”
A sharp intake of breath beside Wufei and Duo caused the pair to turn their heads. Trowa was sitting sideways in his chair, arms crossed as he drove a heated glare up at Wufei.
“You know perfectly well that it’s never ‘just a game’ as far as Heero is concerned.”

“Gee, that’s not a very good state of mind to have,” Quatre piped up as he walked around to stand beside Wufei so he could participate in the conversation easier. “Maybe you should try and help him out with that Trowa. I mean, you’re his best friend and--”

“THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS ‘JUST A GAME’ TO HEERO YUY, GOT THAT!?” Trowa suddenly exploded, directing all his tension at poor Quatre. The blonde boy shook visibly at the sudden outburst and took an unconscious step backwards, frightened by this masked stranger wearing Trowa’s face. Trowa seemed to have realized that he had been a little to short and too harsh with Quatre and leapt out of his seat a few inches, shoving Wufei unceremoniously out of the way so he could grab Quatre by the hand and pull him back into their little circle. “What I meant was,” Trowa spoke in a much softer tone, holding both of Quatre’s hands in his own and unconsciously stroking the backs of them with his thumbs as if he were explaining something to a hurt child, “Heero doesn’t understand the concept that games are for fun. That is, he knows that they’re supposed to be, but he never could enjoy them just like that. He’s always had this... this complex when it comes to competition. Well, actually with most things really. He just has this mentality he’s got to be the best, that he’s not worth anything if he’s not. “

“That’s appalling!” Quatre said, though his voice was soft and sympathetic. He was feeling a little sedated by the fact that his hands were still locked firmly in Trowa’s firm grip. “Poor thing, what’s got him thinking that way?”

“Oh boo hoo,” Duo huffed sarcastically from his spot off to the side, drawing too very unappreciative glares from Trowa and Quatre before they returned to their conversation, making sure to tune out all of Duo’s commentary.

“Remember what I told you about Heero and his childhood?” Trowa asked discreetly, sending a quick glance over Quatre’s shoulder at Duo, who was reclining low in the Player Two chair, booted feet kicked up on the dashboard and arms folded behind his head, seemingly asleep. Trowa still chose to word himself carefully; Heero knew how to do the exact same trick and Trowa was not a complete fool when it came to picking up on it. “I just don’t know, and like I said, I don’t think he does either. And if he does, well, he sure hasn’t told me anything that could suggest why he’s got such a mentality. Maybe he’s afraid to tell me.... Heaven only knows what he’s thinking. Maybe I’m the one whose been fooled.”

“Still, you’re his best friend,” Quatre pressed again, tightening his hands around Trowa’s. “You should try and talk to him. Maybe he doesn’t know how to tell you. You gotta make sure he knows you’re there for him, you know?”

Trowa smiled gently at Quatre. “Why can’t there be more of you in this angry world?” he asked softly, followed by a serene pause during which their eyes almost locked. Just as they were about to, however, Trowa seemed to notice the tingling sparks spreading from his fingertips, up his arms and all through his body, quickly jerking away in embarrassment. It had been in that exact moment that he had realized that Quatre was not just another kid who would be in and out of his life, not a five-minute crush. Quatre would be someone worth waiting all his life for. “I think I will,” he covered hastily, standing up and moving away from the racing machines. “I’m gonna go try and catch up with Heero.”

“You should,” Quatre said, not feeling offended at Trowa’s sudden movement away, though he was missing that warm grip of his. “He’s not far. You should be able to hear him sobbing underneath the boardwalk before you get very far.”

Any words of farewell that Trowa had in store were suddenly forgotten at Quatre’s statement. Duo was watching the whole thing from behind half-closed eyes as Trowa slowly backed away, waving dumbly at them before he was lost in the throng of gamers too. A smirk crossed Duo’s lips as he wondered what Unibang Boy would think when he realized that Quatre had guessed right about just where and how Heero was. But the triumphant grin was as short-lived as his victory at the race when Quatre’s actual words really sunk in.

...The great Heero Yuy was crying? Yeah right.

(x) X (x)

a/n: Heh, I feel like I should give you guys an end of the year gift. (Well, that and I just into an argument with my mom; she can say whatever she wants, but it’s so obvious she likes my stupid brother more than me....) Hope you had a good holiday and happy 2004 (may it be better than last year)! Thank you to everyone who’s been supporting this story and anyone who’s been giving me feedback. You all should be happy to know that this story has hardly gotten up off its big, fat ass, so prepare to be entertained for some time! The chappy title is a song by The Who, off their rock opera record Tommy. Gee, my school loves it when we play that one, hehe. ^__^

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