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Gundam Wing - Lone Wolf and Pilot - chapter 5 part 1
it's a bit short for a whole chapter but i've been sitting on it and cackling and i can't anymore.
So likely once it goes on AO3 it'll have another scene or two after that, but they're not really written yet so i'll post them separately here when they are i guess. >_> see it as an almost 3 k long sneak preview. ♥
It wasn't the closest bar to the Preventers headquarters -- and the other one did see a somewhat regular stream of wolfless agents. It wasn't the closest, but it was big enough inside to allow tables to spread out a bit, and there was a small backyard with an old, gnarled tree the owner didn't mind letting the wolves piss all over and struggling wild grass they were allowed to dig up and roll on.
The one rule was that they were to wipe their paws when they came back in the room. It was pretty insane how fast peer pressure and the owner's firm if you don't then you don't get to go out had trained Killer to do it. Duo barely had to push.
"Left you alone, has he?"
Duo looked over his shoulder, smiled, made space at the counter. Rosca slid in with a little grunt of acknowledgement. His ancient queen lay by the old chimney at the other end of the room -- it was unusable but they'd put a very real space heater in it and everyone knew the spot on the hearthstone was hers.
"Killer? -- Ah, two beers on tap, one black tea, please. Yeah, he's out in the yard with Coyote." He grinned wider. Runty wolf, can't smell! Someone who is not Killer might shove him down and nibble on his ears! Can't be allowed.
The man snorted, amused. "Figures that's what it would take."
He placed his own order -- harder stuff, but then again he didn't go out on the field anymore and Folha was hardly going to lose control and attack someone in the grip of her brother's drunken frolics. And then they waited together. Duo wasn't too sure what to strike up a conversation about, though he couldn't help but instinctively like the old man, to want to talk with him. Folha's health maybe? ... No, that was more worrisome and saddening than something for idle conversation. She was just old, Duo hadn't known animals could live that old.
"Be easier if we could allow him to fight it out," Rosca eventually said, a little gruff. "Once and for all, let the whole pack know where he stands. Only..."
Only Killer deserved his name, and didn't know how to fight, how to injure in ways that weren't either permanent or fatal. "Yeah." Duo sighed.
He didn't commit the mistake of thinking Rosca and Folha had no real authority, for all that their official status in the Preventers was relatively low. Where Folha led, the pack would follow. And Folha listened to her brother's opinions. The guy wanted to hear good thing, and he actually had the right, and... Well, it wasn't all bad news.
"He's started trying to push Glen around some, bodily I mean. Glen allows it, you get the feeling he finds it funny, so..."
"Mnh. Also helps that you actually consider Chang your packmate, I think."
... Ouch.
The barmaid put Duo's order and Rosca's bourbon down before them; Rosca picked his up, nodded. "Gather you lot have things to talk about tonight, but perhaps tomorrow you could come and sit with me for a while. Later, Killersbrother."
(Ozone and burnt wires) what?
Oh. Tomorrow we're hanging out with Folha. And all the people dropping by for a chat. Rosca's table rarely went by ten minutes without someone stopping to say hi. No doubt after that Duo would be encouraged to make his own rounds. It's fine, stay with Coyote.
Wasn't a bad idea, anyway. And Killer liked her, besides. Balancing his drinks as well as he could, he brought them back to the little table in the corner where Wufei and Trowa were sitting.
Wufei had, of course, thieved his spot against the wall. Duo narrowed his eyes at him. Wufei blinked back slowly and held out a hand for his tea.
"Do you want it to go to Glen, Chang? Is that what you want?" he asked, stepping over Glenfiddich's stretched-out form. "Because I can do that, there would be no problem, really." The wolf was sprawled on his side, his back to their table, long fluffy fur picking up all kinds of dust and things from the bar floor. He shifted a little when Duo pulled a chair back to allow him to sit, tongue lolling, eyes half-closed.
"Stop bitching and sit down," Trowa advised, and picked up the beers from Duo's arms. Duo sat, sideways in his chair so he could see at least some of the room, and frowned at Wufei to make sure he knew to keep watch on what was going on behind Duo's back.
"I'm not bitching."
"You're bitching."
"If you're not bitching, I would enjoy a better explanation of what the word entails."
"Oh, fuck you both."
"You haven't got the stamina," Trowa returned casually, and took a sip. Wufei slid him a sideways glance, but declined to comment. Duo unbent enough to chuckle.
"Rosca just decided to take an active hand in our socialization."
"Hm." Wufei's eyebrows went up. "Well. He certainly has experience in matters of pack dynamics. I'd accept it gladly in your place." Never was that bad for us, Glenfiddich already knew it all (Kushrenada to the tip of his claws.)
Duo carefully ignored the thought of Treize. The man was dead and gone and Duo really didn't miss him. Fuck him for making Wufei and Glen and Une dance to his tune even from beyond the grave, anyway.
"Wasn't saying I was gonna say no." Bleah, his beer tasted of Glen's scent name now, hanging in the metaphysical air. Which would have been fine if Glen's name was only made up of whiskey, but sweaty, lathering buck deer wasn't really his favorite drink. "I'd have to be stupid to. Shut up, no comment."
Wufei snorted, and Trowa pointedly redirected his own attention to his drink. They sipped in silence for another minute or two.
"So," Wufei said. "Yuy."
"Mnh." Duo glowered at the table. He'd been chewed out by Une for wandering off and arresting people by himself but he didn't even give a shit compared to Heero's disappearing act.
"Physical status?"
"Healthy, uninjured. From what I could see, anyway, but you know how much that matters with him, that bastard walks on broken legs when he feels like he has to and if you didn't see him align the break himself you'd never have a clue."
Trowa snorted, a tickle of amusement dancing through the pack sense. Duo kicked at the leg of his chair. He'd stop bringing it up it when he stopped hearing the wet crunching noise in his mind, okay.
"Anyway he looked pretty well-fed, and he's grown to maybe two inches taller than I am, and Mary's coat wasn't dull or anything. And man did she look solid, so he probably still exercises enough for ten reasonable people. No low-grav diseases there."
"Behavior?"
"Bland and cryptic, so let's go with 'normal'."
"Might even dare a 'fine'," Trowa added, expressionless. Duo kicked his chair again.
"What I don't get," he started, lowering his voice -- if he let it go as loud as it wanted the next tables would soon know quite a bit, "is why the fuck he even showed himself and contacted me! There were just two drug runners left, only one of them had a gun, and they were built more like chemistry nerds than like muscle, anyway, the muscle was the guy we chased. He could have taken them alone, easy. So why...?"
Wufei's eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Yes, there's very little reason to do so. Unless he suddenly felt the need to pass on the message to Une that he was her mystery informant..."
Grumbling, Duo swallowed a long mouthful. Yeah, no other reason, huh.
"He didn't need to let you see him in order to check on you," Wufei said, not as sharp somehow. Duo twitched, looked up.
"Why would he want to check on anyone physically, anyway? I mean, if he wants to keep track of us, he can do it online. Still getting his salary, not touching his healthcare, must be in working order and ready to be deployed. Right?"
"Hm. Barton? Thoughts? You've been around him longer than any of us."
Trowa snorted, a faint smile on his face. "I mostly learned that his logic was beyond any mortal ken."
"Maybe he knew we would like an update on his continued aliveness status," Wufei suggested. The three of them scoffed as one.
"No but seriously." Duo sighed, patted Killer's head, which had suddenly inserted itself under his arm. Done digging? he asked, and was answered with a sense of deep satisfaction, the smell of overturned earth. Well, that was one of them who got to be satisfied. "Why the heck would he want to meet in person otherwise, I don't get it."
Coyote blinked at him over the table with his moon-pale, eerie eyes. Mary said.
"... Mary said?"
Needs good smell, Killer added with a duh.
The three pilots stared at the wolves, blinking long and slow.
"Coyote. Did you know Mary was there when we were hunting?"
No. Coyote blinked again, and stretched his neck and lapped at the condensation pearling on Trowa's beer bottle. Hot-asphalt-and-rust-on-steel knows.
Okay. What. Obviously Duo should have questioned his wolf more deeply over what he and Mary were chatting about. "... Killer. When the heck -- what -- did she tell you that? What?"
Cordite-and-nitroglycerin-and-blood sees him hurt, summer-wind-in-the-city knows. Killer looked at him, confused. Wants a smell. Te-le-vi-sions lie.
"She wanted to make sure Coyote was alright?" Trowa asked, quiet and slow, almost cautious.
Killer replied with vague confusion that they cared so much what had happened in the past; it was done now, she knew he was fine, all was good.
"Oh." A faint smile flicked over Trowa's face, quickly gone. Duo swallowed another long mouthful, scanned what he could see of the room.
Preventers and their wolves everywhere. Some wolfless men, even a local fireman with his sister, being given a cautious but willing welcome as representatives from the neighboring pack.
"Heh," went Wufei. Duo's eyebrows twitched.
"So he only hangs out with any of us when his wolf makes him. Awesome. That asshole."
He finished his beer in one long gulp and got up to get himself another one.
--
Security and Wufei's passcard let them back in the compound way past curfew, but Duo was tipsy enough not to want to attempt stealth in a dorm room full of wolfbrothers. Especially wolfbrothers who didn't like him very much as it was.
Also... Damn it, but Rosca was right. Trowa and Wufei were pack in a way no one else around here was.
"Hey, Wuffster."
"If you want a favor from me this is a bad way to start," Wufei cautioned him as he navigated their way through the corridors. Duo followed, one hand on each wolf to keep himself balanced.
"Who said I wanted a favor from you," he grumped back.
Wufei's mind tapped his, wordless but wryly mocking even so. Duo pursed his lips and scowled.
"Yeah okay shut up. Can I crash on your floor?"
Stupid Trowa and his pocket apartment off campus. Why did he get to yeah, okay, right, he wasn't a trainee anymore. Blargh.
"You're aware it's heavily discouraged for a higher-ranked member to let a trainee spend the night, right?"
Duo stared at him for a few seconds, and then started laughing. Whoops, shit, he was making too much noise; he tried to muffle his amusement and only partially succeeded. "Oh no, my virtue."
"Your what?"
"Pfff. Fuck you."
"I thought that was what we were trying to avoid," Wufei replied, one eyebrow up. Duo cracked up again.
"No but who the hell would believe you can tell me to do anything, anyway."
"That's a fairly good point," Wufei replied, in a way that meant it likely shouldn't have been and Duo ought to be ashamed. Bwahaha, as if. "I suppose you'll spend the night in a corridor if I don't let you in, anyway..."
He unlocked the elevator, let Duo and the wolves stuff themselves in before he followed, and didn't even pretend to press on the dormitory level.
Thanks, man.
Don't mention it. I mean that quite literally it never happened.
Woo reality rewriting.
Wufei's room was pretty big, as those things went -- a bed for him, a blanket that was almost as large as the bed itself for Glenfiddich, a rather wide desk, a couple of armchairs and a TV in the corner.
"The TV came with."
He even had a handkerchief-sized bathroom tucked away, which Duo investigated as Killer was snuffling at Glen's blanket. "Goddamn, I want to be an officer."
"Who in their sane mind would ever let you, though, is the question."
Like Wufei was any more reasonable than he was. He just looked calm and serious. The guy had a temper the size of an active volcano, and, once flowing, just as easily dammed.
Glen walked in a tight little circle on his blanket and laid down; Killer drank in his water dish and then joined him, flopping against his back and propping his head on Glen's fluffy side. Sleepy wolves, d'aw.
Wufei took the first turn in the bathroom, and then when Duo came out afterwards the ceiling light was off and only a bedside lamp was still on and he was in bed already, reclining against the headboard. Duo went to the blanket and sat between Killer's front and back legs, made himself comfortable against his barrel.
Click. Darkness.
"I would have let you have the foot of my mattress," Wufei said in the dark. Duo chuckled, eyes closed.
"Fine here, thanks."
"Until they move in their sleep and you end up at the bottom of the pile."
"At least I ain't gonna die cold."
"Just crushed into paste."
"Mmh."
He was tipsy, and warm, and the way Killer's ribs expanded with his breath should have rocked him to sleep, but when he came close he couldn't help but think about Heero again, why he'd appeared and left so quickly, whether Duo ought to be grateful that at least he had proof of life. It hurt a bit, how little he seemed to care. Was Duo a peer or just a convenient tool to use, that Heero knew could take the rough handling he needed?
"Do you always think so loudly?"
Duo flinched, opened his mouth to retort, said nothing, because Wufei was thinking me too.
"It's rather strange, isn't it," Wufei mused, "how he manages to make people want to... prove themselves to him, somehow."
"Mmh." Duo sighed, opened his eyes to stare at a ceiling he could barely guess at. "Weird Heero magic. The guy has the social skills of dead roadkill and the emotional range of an unfriendly skunk, but you just..."
God, Duo during the war. His whole interaction with Heero could be summed up as oh my god you're ballsy and badass and oddly hilarious let me show off how much I can match you and then we can be friends.
"He's exceptional."
Duo snorted, tried not to think 'he's cool, man.' "Exceptionally insane."
"Heh. That too."
There was a pause, both of them contemplating things just below the intelligible threshold. Maybe a little beer-wavery still -- he and Trowa had managed to badger Wufei into joining in at the third beer, so it wasn't just him at least.
"It's interesting how our most honest conversations only happen when we're mentally altered."
Duo blinked. "Uh?"
"Well. Last time we were dealing with oxygen deprivation..."
"Wufei?"
"Hm?"
"Go to sleep."
He snorted. "You first."
"No, you," Duo replied maturely.
"Guests first, I insist."
Duo pushed himself up against Killer's side, pouted into darkness. "Do you always get this bratty when you drink?"
"Maxwell, I am turning nineteen next month, I believe I can be as bratty as I wish." I've been in two wars, to hell with this it's ridiculous and I want it.
--ah. "Do you want a pillow fight next?" Duo asked, a little dubious. "I think it's the next step" --I'm not sure-- "but I'm pretty sure my pillows would annihilate yours."
A rough chuckle. "I don't think you could throw Glenfiddich without using a crane, but good luck."
They settled down, quiet falling again. It was a nice quiet, though. Duo realized he was smiling a little, and wondered if maybe Wufei was smiling too. It was ridiculous, he felt like -- like a normal teenager, at a normal sleepover. It was -- just nice.
At least they had that.
Duo was more than halfway asleep when his Preventers-issued cell phone started vibrating. He was sitting up in a leap, digging it out of his back pocket and making Killer kick him in his sleep. Behind him Wufei's sheets were rustling -- it wasn't just his phone, it was both of theirs, and --
-- and there was a message with Trowa's name in the sender field, a message titled "Guess who," and when Duo clicked it open it was nothing more than a photograph of Trowa's ratty puke-brown couch, with a ball of yellow fur tucked in tight over one half of it and Heero with his long cyclist's legs thrown across his sister, his head on the armrest and one of his eyes cracked open to glare malevolently at the camera.
"Son of a bitch. How am I supposed to sleep now?!"
So likely once it goes on AO3 it'll have another scene or two after that, but they're not really written yet so i'll post them separately here when they are i guess. >_> see it as an almost 3 k long sneak preview. ♥
It wasn't the closest bar to the Preventers headquarters -- and the other one did see a somewhat regular stream of wolfless agents. It wasn't the closest, but it was big enough inside to allow tables to spread out a bit, and there was a small backyard with an old, gnarled tree the owner didn't mind letting the wolves piss all over and struggling wild grass they were allowed to dig up and roll on.
The one rule was that they were to wipe their paws when they came back in the room. It was pretty insane how fast peer pressure and the owner's firm if you don't then you don't get to go out had trained Killer to do it. Duo barely had to push.
"Left you alone, has he?"
Duo looked over his shoulder, smiled, made space at the counter. Rosca slid in with a little grunt of acknowledgement. His ancient queen lay by the old chimney at the other end of the room -- it was unusable but they'd put a very real space heater in it and everyone knew the spot on the hearthstone was hers.
"Killer? -- Ah, two beers on tap, one black tea, please. Yeah, he's out in the yard with Coyote." He grinned wider. Runty wolf, can't smell! Someone who is not Killer might shove him down and nibble on his ears! Can't be allowed.
The man snorted, amused. "Figures that's what it would take."
He placed his own order -- harder stuff, but then again he didn't go out on the field anymore and Folha was hardly going to lose control and attack someone in the grip of her brother's drunken frolics. And then they waited together. Duo wasn't too sure what to strike up a conversation about, though he couldn't help but instinctively like the old man, to want to talk with him. Folha's health maybe? ... No, that was more worrisome and saddening than something for idle conversation. She was just old, Duo hadn't known animals could live that old.
"Be easier if we could allow him to fight it out," Rosca eventually said, a little gruff. "Once and for all, let the whole pack know where he stands. Only..."
Only Killer deserved his name, and didn't know how to fight, how to injure in ways that weren't either permanent or fatal. "Yeah." Duo sighed.
He didn't commit the mistake of thinking Rosca and Folha had no real authority, for all that their official status in the Preventers was relatively low. Where Folha led, the pack would follow. And Folha listened to her brother's opinions. The guy wanted to hear good thing, and he actually had the right, and... Well, it wasn't all bad news.
"He's started trying to push Glen around some, bodily I mean. Glen allows it, you get the feeling he finds it funny, so..."
"Mnh. Also helps that you actually consider Chang your packmate, I think."
... Ouch.
The barmaid put Duo's order and Rosca's bourbon down before them; Rosca picked his up, nodded. "Gather you lot have things to talk about tonight, but perhaps tomorrow you could come and sit with me for a while. Later, Killersbrother."
(Ozone and burnt wires) what?
Oh. Tomorrow we're hanging out with Folha. And all the people dropping by for a chat. Rosca's table rarely went by ten minutes without someone stopping to say hi. No doubt after that Duo would be encouraged to make his own rounds. It's fine, stay with Coyote.
Wasn't a bad idea, anyway. And Killer liked her, besides. Balancing his drinks as well as he could, he brought them back to the little table in the corner where Wufei and Trowa were sitting.
Wufei had, of course, thieved his spot against the wall. Duo narrowed his eyes at him. Wufei blinked back slowly and held out a hand for his tea.
"Do you want it to go to Glen, Chang? Is that what you want?" he asked, stepping over Glenfiddich's stretched-out form. "Because I can do that, there would be no problem, really." The wolf was sprawled on his side, his back to their table, long fluffy fur picking up all kinds of dust and things from the bar floor. He shifted a little when Duo pulled a chair back to allow him to sit, tongue lolling, eyes half-closed.
"Stop bitching and sit down," Trowa advised, and picked up the beers from Duo's arms. Duo sat, sideways in his chair so he could see at least some of the room, and frowned at Wufei to make sure he knew to keep watch on what was going on behind Duo's back.
"I'm not bitching."
"You're bitching."
"If you're not bitching, I would enjoy a better explanation of what the word entails."
"Oh, fuck you both."
"You haven't got the stamina," Trowa returned casually, and took a sip. Wufei slid him a sideways glance, but declined to comment. Duo unbent enough to chuckle.
"Rosca just decided to take an active hand in our socialization."
"Hm." Wufei's eyebrows went up. "Well. He certainly has experience in matters of pack dynamics. I'd accept it gladly in your place." Never was that bad for us, Glenfiddich already knew it all (Kushrenada to the tip of his claws.)
Duo carefully ignored the thought of Treize. The man was dead and gone and Duo really didn't miss him. Fuck him for making Wufei and Glen and Une dance to his tune even from beyond the grave, anyway.
"Wasn't saying I was gonna say no." Bleah, his beer tasted of Glen's scent name now, hanging in the metaphysical air. Which would have been fine if Glen's name was only made up of whiskey, but sweaty, lathering buck deer wasn't really his favorite drink. "I'd have to be stupid to. Shut up, no comment."
Wufei snorted, and Trowa pointedly redirected his own attention to his drink. They sipped in silence for another minute or two.
"So," Wufei said. "Yuy."
"Mnh." Duo glowered at the table. He'd been chewed out by Une for wandering off and arresting people by himself but he didn't even give a shit compared to Heero's disappearing act.
"Physical status?"
"Healthy, uninjured. From what I could see, anyway, but you know how much that matters with him, that bastard walks on broken legs when he feels like he has to and if you didn't see him align the break himself you'd never have a clue."
Trowa snorted, a tickle of amusement dancing through the pack sense. Duo kicked at the leg of his chair. He'd stop bringing it up it when he stopped hearing the wet crunching noise in his mind, okay.
"Anyway he looked pretty well-fed, and he's grown to maybe two inches taller than I am, and Mary's coat wasn't dull or anything. And man did she look solid, so he probably still exercises enough for ten reasonable people. No low-grav diseases there."
"Behavior?"
"Bland and cryptic, so let's go with 'normal'."
"Might even dare a 'fine'," Trowa added, expressionless. Duo kicked his chair again.
"What I don't get," he started, lowering his voice -- if he let it go as loud as it wanted the next tables would soon know quite a bit, "is why the fuck he even showed himself and contacted me! There were just two drug runners left, only one of them had a gun, and they were built more like chemistry nerds than like muscle, anyway, the muscle was the guy we chased. He could have taken them alone, easy. So why...?"
Wufei's eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Yes, there's very little reason to do so. Unless he suddenly felt the need to pass on the message to Une that he was her mystery informant..."
Grumbling, Duo swallowed a long mouthful. Yeah, no other reason, huh.
"He didn't need to let you see him in order to check on you," Wufei said, not as sharp somehow. Duo twitched, looked up.
"Why would he want to check on anyone physically, anyway? I mean, if he wants to keep track of us, he can do it online. Still getting his salary, not touching his healthcare, must be in working order and ready to be deployed. Right?"
"Hm. Barton? Thoughts? You've been around him longer than any of us."
Trowa snorted, a faint smile on his face. "I mostly learned that his logic was beyond any mortal ken."
"Maybe he knew we would like an update on his continued aliveness status," Wufei suggested. The three of them scoffed as one.
"No but seriously." Duo sighed, patted Killer's head, which had suddenly inserted itself under his arm. Done digging? he asked, and was answered with a sense of deep satisfaction, the smell of overturned earth. Well, that was one of them who got to be satisfied. "Why the heck would he want to meet in person otherwise, I don't get it."
Coyote blinked at him over the table with his moon-pale, eerie eyes. Mary said.
"... Mary said?"
Needs good smell, Killer added with a duh.
The three pilots stared at the wolves, blinking long and slow.
"Coyote. Did you know Mary was there when we were hunting?"
No. Coyote blinked again, and stretched his neck and lapped at the condensation pearling on Trowa's beer bottle. Hot-asphalt-and-rust-on-steel knows.
Okay. What. Obviously Duo should have questioned his wolf more deeply over what he and Mary were chatting about. "... Killer. When the heck -- what -- did she tell you that? What?"
Cordite-and-nitroglycerin-and-blood sees him hurt, summer-wind-in-the-city knows. Killer looked at him, confused. Wants a smell. Te-le-vi-sions lie.
"She wanted to make sure Coyote was alright?" Trowa asked, quiet and slow, almost cautious.
Killer replied with vague confusion that they cared so much what had happened in the past; it was done now, she knew he was fine, all was good.
"Oh." A faint smile flicked over Trowa's face, quickly gone. Duo swallowed another long mouthful, scanned what he could see of the room.
Preventers and their wolves everywhere. Some wolfless men, even a local fireman with his sister, being given a cautious but willing welcome as representatives from the neighboring pack.
"Heh," went Wufei. Duo's eyebrows twitched.
"So he only hangs out with any of us when his wolf makes him. Awesome. That asshole."
He finished his beer in one long gulp and got up to get himself another one.
--
Security and Wufei's passcard let them back in the compound way past curfew, but Duo was tipsy enough not to want to attempt stealth in a dorm room full of wolfbrothers. Especially wolfbrothers who didn't like him very much as it was.
Also... Damn it, but Rosca was right. Trowa and Wufei were pack in a way no one else around here was.
"Hey, Wuffster."
"If you want a favor from me this is a bad way to start," Wufei cautioned him as he navigated their way through the corridors. Duo followed, one hand on each wolf to keep himself balanced.
"Who said I wanted a favor from you," he grumped back.
Wufei's mind tapped his, wordless but wryly mocking even so. Duo pursed his lips and scowled.
"Yeah okay shut up. Can I crash on your floor?"
Stupid Trowa and his pocket apartment off campus. Why did he get to yeah, okay, right, he wasn't a trainee anymore. Blargh.
"You're aware it's heavily discouraged for a higher-ranked member to let a trainee spend the night, right?"
Duo stared at him for a few seconds, and then started laughing. Whoops, shit, he was making too much noise; he tried to muffle his amusement and only partially succeeded. "Oh no, my virtue."
"Your what?"
"Pfff. Fuck you."
"I thought that was what we were trying to avoid," Wufei replied, one eyebrow up. Duo cracked up again.
"No but who the hell would believe you can tell me to do anything, anyway."
"That's a fairly good point," Wufei replied, in a way that meant it likely shouldn't have been and Duo ought to be ashamed. Bwahaha, as if. "I suppose you'll spend the night in a corridor if I don't let you in, anyway..."
He unlocked the elevator, let Duo and the wolves stuff themselves in before he followed, and didn't even pretend to press on the dormitory level.
Thanks, man.
Don't mention it. I mean that quite literally it never happened.
Woo reality rewriting.
Wufei's room was pretty big, as those things went -- a bed for him, a blanket that was almost as large as the bed itself for Glenfiddich, a rather wide desk, a couple of armchairs and a TV in the corner.
"The TV came with."
He even had a handkerchief-sized bathroom tucked away, which Duo investigated as Killer was snuffling at Glen's blanket. "Goddamn, I want to be an officer."
"Who in their sane mind would ever let you, though, is the question."
Like Wufei was any more reasonable than he was. He just looked calm and serious. The guy had a temper the size of an active volcano, and, once flowing, just as easily dammed.
Glen walked in a tight little circle on his blanket and laid down; Killer drank in his water dish and then joined him, flopping against his back and propping his head on Glen's fluffy side. Sleepy wolves, d'aw.
Wufei took the first turn in the bathroom, and then when Duo came out afterwards the ceiling light was off and only a bedside lamp was still on and he was in bed already, reclining against the headboard. Duo went to the blanket and sat between Killer's front and back legs, made himself comfortable against his barrel.
Click. Darkness.
"I would have let you have the foot of my mattress," Wufei said in the dark. Duo chuckled, eyes closed.
"Fine here, thanks."
"Until they move in their sleep and you end up at the bottom of the pile."
"At least I ain't gonna die cold."
"Just crushed into paste."
"Mmh."
He was tipsy, and warm, and the way Killer's ribs expanded with his breath should have rocked him to sleep, but when he came close he couldn't help but think about Heero again, why he'd appeared and left so quickly, whether Duo ought to be grateful that at least he had proof of life. It hurt a bit, how little he seemed to care. Was Duo a peer or just a convenient tool to use, that Heero knew could take the rough handling he needed?
"Do you always think so loudly?"
Duo flinched, opened his mouth to retort, said nothing, because Wufei was thinking me too.
"It's rather strange, isn't it," Wufei mused, "how he manages to make people want to... prove themselves to him, somehow."
"Mmh." Duo sighed, opened his eyes to stare at a ceiling he could barely guess at. "Weird Heero magic. The guy has the social skills of dead roadkill and the emotional range of an unfriendly skunk, but you just..."
God, Duo during the war. His whole interaction with Heero could be summed up as oh my god you're ballsy and badass and oddly hilarious let me show off how much I can match you and then we can be friends.
"He's exceptional."
Duo snorted, tried not to think 'he's cool, man.' "Exceptionally insane."
"Heh. That too."
There was a pause, both of them contemplating things just below the intelligible threshold. Maybe a little beer-wavery still -- he and Trowa had managed to badger Wufei into joining in at the third beer, so it wasn't just him at least.
"It's interesting how our most honest conversations only happen when we're mentally altered."
Duo blinked. "Uh?"
"Well. Last time we were dealing with oxygen deprivation..."
"Wufei?"
"Hm?"
"Go to sleep."
He snorted. "You first."
"No, you," Duo replied maturely.
"Guests first, I insist."
Duo pushed himself up against Killer's side, pouted into darkness. "Do you always get this bratty when you drink?"
"Maxwell, I am turning nineteen next month, I believe I can be as bratty as I wish." I've been in two wars, to hell with this it's ridiculous and I want it.
--ah. "Do you want a pillow fight next?" Duo asked, a little dubious. "I think it's the next step" --I'm not sure-- "but I'm pretty sure my pillows would annihilate yours."
A rough chuckle. "I don't think you could throw Glenfiddich without using a crane, but good luck."
They settled down, quiet falling again. It was a nice quiet, though. Duo realized he was smiling a little, and wondered if maybe Wufei was smiling too. It was ridiculous, he felt like -- like a normal teenager, at a normal sleepover. It was -- just nice.
At least they had that.
Duo was more than halfway asleep when his Preventers-issued cell phone started vibrating. He was sitting up in a leap, digging it out of his back pocket and making Killer kick him in his sleep. Behind him Wufei's sheets were rustling -- it wasn't just his phone, it was both of theirs, and --
-- and there was a message with Trowa's name in the sender field, a message titled "Guess who," and when Duo clicked it open it was nothing more than a photograph of Trowa's ratty puke-brown couch, with a ball of yellow fur tucked in tight over one half of it and Heero with his long cyclist's legs thrown across his sister, his head on the armrest and one of his eyes cracked open to glare malevolently at the camera.
"Son of a bitch. How am I supposed to sleep now?!"