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"Standing Outside the Fire"Written By: Honor Disclaimers: Mine! Mine! Mine! Pairings: 2x5, 3x4 Warnings: AU, language, twisted humor, lime, lemon,
some angst, significant OC, brief moments of sap, romance, a bit of
violence Archived: On Gundam Wing Diaries Betas: Velvet *huggles* Author’s Notes: You know those dreams that
you keep dreaming over and over again for weeks? The ones that don’t
go away until you write them down? Yeah, that’s exactly what
happened. I passed the idea by one of my betas, to see if it was worth
putting on paper. Her response was “Write it. NOW.” So I
wrote it. The rest is…ah, what follows after my insane notes.
Feedback is my diet…and I’m getting
pretty lean so send me something to munch on, okay? Flames will result in me tormenting you for your
inability to read warnings. And I’m good at tormenting. Just
ask the boys. *emphasized* /thought/ //phone// "Standing Outside the Fire"
Listen. Don't explain or justify. The first day of school is usually considered to be boring and a complete waste of time. This particular school year, however, several girls in the Junior class were of the opinion that coming to school that day was the best decision that they had made all year. There were three new guys, obviously friends because they walked in with each other, and they were all drop-dead-gorgeous-can’t-I-take-him-home-with-me-HOT. Duo of course noticed the attention he and his brothers were getting, and was eating it up. Heero rolled his eyes and tried to ignore it, and Trowa kept a firm hand on Duo’s braid so that he couldn’t get into trouble. They sat in the back of the class, Heero in the end corner with Trowa in front of him and Duo next to Heero. The girls didn’t have long to drool, for the teacher came in and reigned them into order. Mr. Johnson took a look at the situation and sighed. “Right. I can see right now that about half the class isn’t going to pay attention to a word I say until some introductions are done.” The door opened at this point and another student walked in, smiling a little sheepishly. The girls upped their Hotty Alert from three to four at his entrance. Trowa drew in a sharp breath as the blond’s face came into view. Duo caught the sound and snapped his eyes in his brother’s direction. Trowa looked as if he had just been bonked on the back of the head. “Sorry I’m late,” the blond boy shrugged, smiling a little sheepishly. “That’s quite alright. You are?” “Quatre Winner, sir.” “Sit down, Quatre.” Duo took the initiative and snagged Quatre’s arm as he walked past, gesturing for him to sit in front of him. “Might as well keep all the new guys in one spot, right?” Quatre stumbled a little at the move, head tilted in question. “You’re new as well?” “Yup. Me and my brothers.” Mr. Johnson gestured for all four to stand. “On your feet, please. Just tell us your names and where you’re from.” “Quatre Raberba Winner. I’m from Arabia originally but I’ve been moving all around America for the past six years.” Quatre flushed a little under all of the attention and quickly sank into his seat, letting his backpack thump to the ground beside him. “Duo Maxwell. I’ve been livin’ all around. Just moved here.” Duo flashed the room in general a smile and sprawled back into his seat. “Heero Yuy. Originally from Japan.” “Trowa Barton. Born in France, everywhere else since then.” Mr. Johnson frowned a little at them. “I was told you are brothers.” “We are,” Duo informed him cheerfully. “We just started out with different parents, that’s all.” “Oh. Hm. Welcome to Hillsboro High. Now let’s get the rules out of the way and we’ll get down to the good stuff.” Everyone in the class groaned, knowing that the ‘good stuff’ meant a very long lecture on history. As soon as the bell rang—to the class, it sounded like the bells of sanctuary from Notre Dome—Duo leaned forward in his seat and tapped Quatre on the shoulder. “Hey, since we’re all new here, you wanna hang out with us at lunch?” Quatre beamed at him. “I’d love to. Where do you want to meet?” “Heh…um…what class do you have before lunch?” Quatre pulled out his schedule to double check. “Geometry. The teacher is Mackie.” “I have that one too,” Trowa put in quietly. “Cool.” Duo flashed his brother a smile. “Then bring him with you. We’ll meet outside the soccer fields, alright?” Trowa nodded, but as he got up from his seat, the quick glance he gave Quatre was…worried. Which in turn worried Duo. He exchanged a look with Heero, but it was obvious that he didn’t understand either. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the place to dig into that and they certainly didn’t have the time. /Later. I’ll find out later./ With that promise to himself in mind, the boys split up to the various classes. + As they walked out of the school after their last class, Duo could barely restrain himself from grabbing his brother and shaking answers out of him. During lunch, Trowa had acted almost painfully normal. Duo knew that he was attracted to Quatre, and it was just as obvious that Trowa was fighting that attraction tooth and nail. Slinging an arm around his shoulders, Duo leaned in close and murmured, “What’s with you, man?” “Nothing,” Trowa muttered back. “Don’t give me that BS. You like blondie. It’s written all over your face. So why aren’t you making a move? And don’t give me a ‘I’m not sure how he swings’ line cause I won’t buy it. We both know he doesn’t do girls. That was obvious.” “It’s not him,” Trowa refuted quietly, hiding his eyes. “Then what?” Duo demanded in exasperation. “I’m…not sure of how Jamie would react. I don’t want to blow what we have.” This shocked Duo enough to where he actually froze in place for a second. A female student jostled him on the shoulder, jolting him back into movement. “Tro…I don’t think you have to worry about that. We can trust Jamie about everything.” “I’m not chancing it,” Trowa told him firmly. “Tro—” “No, Duo.” Duo growled low in his throat, but Heero’s glare told him plainly to drop it. But he couldn’t. There had to be a way to find out one way or the other. He stayed quiet until they had found the Titan in the waiting line of parents and climbed into the truck. “Hey guys.” Jamie pulled out of the waiting line of vehicles. “So, how was it?” Duo’s eyes lit as a rapid plan bloomed in his head. Without pausing to think it through he gave his mouth full rein. “Great! We already made friends with this one guy. You should see him, Jammi, he’s SO hot.” Duo could literally feel Trowa freeze in the backseat, but he couldn’t risk giving him a ‘stay cool’ look. Not if this was really going to work. Jamie gave him an amused glance. “Really? Is this a mysterious-and-cool kind of hot or the boy-next-door kind of hot?” The tension in the truck, which could have been sliced with a machete and served up on toast, evaporated like so much smoke. Duo out-and-out grinned at her. “Nah. More like the innocent-and-yummy kind.” “Does this paragon of beauty have a name?” Jamie continued dryly. “Or should I just refer to him as His Hotness?” “Quatre,” Trowa said softly. A lot was answered for Jamie when Trowa said his name. /Oh-ho. So its Trowa that is interested in…wait a minute, did he say Quatre?/ “Quatre? As in, Quatre Winner?” All three boys exchanged looks. “Yes.” Heero scooted up and put his head between the two fronts seats so that he could hear better. “You know him?” Jamie started laughing. “You *could* say that, yes. I forgot to mention to you guys that I have about four scholarship programs going. One of them is for writing. The top seven authors every year that win that scholarship are asked to the house for a week of writing and having fun. Quatre won the scholarship three years in a row, until I asked him to stop competing. He did come this year, however, as a personal invitation. He’s one of my favorite people.” “What did he write?” Trowa was steadily realizing that Duo was right about Jamie. It made him feel rather guilty for doubting her in the first place. “One fantasy and two sci-fi short stories. The boy has an incredible imagination, not to mention a wicked sense of humor. I have them in a private file at home if you guys want to take a look.” ‘Want to take a look’ was a very pale way of putting it. Once they were home, Trowa nearly dragged her to the study he was so curious. Jamie pulled out the folder she kept Quatre’s stories in and handed it to him, strangling her laughter as she did so. She was barely able to hand it to him before he started walking to the back patio, head already buried in the folder. Jamie crooked a finger at Duo, making sure that Trowa was out of hearing before demanding, “Duo, what was that earlier? I had the strangest feeling as if you were choreographing the entire conversation.” “I was,” he admitted, also making sure that Trowa couldn’t overhear. “Tro wasn’t sure how’d you react if you discovered that he didn’t like to play with girls.” “OH.” She gave another glance at Trowa’s back, glad now that she had responded the way she had. “Well, I hope that I’ve made it clear that it doesn’t matter to me what your preferences are.” She reconsidered that for a moment before saying, “Just no flying hippos.” “No problem,” Duo assured her. “They always insist they’re on a diet, which drives me crazy.” “Good. Now that we have that cleared up…” Jamie winked at him and linked her arm with his, heading toward the kitchen. “What shall we have for dinner?” “I don’t suppose you know how to make homemade pizza…” + Now that Trowa was sure there would not be any repercussions at home, he was more than willing to get closer to Quatre. The blond was friendly and very physically affectionate, and Trowa soaked up every ounce of attention. Duo was subtly (and not so subtly) pushing the two of them together, which neither of them minded in the least. Trowa couldn’t understand why Quatre seemed to enjoy his company so much, but he wasn’t willing to question it either. Looking down at the folder in his hands, he swallowed a little nervously. He had asked Jamie what was the one thing that all authors liked and she had responded promptly, “Feedback.” Then she had copied Quatre’s stories and told him to make comments in the sidelines. What he liked, what he didn’t, what made him laugh, and so forth. He had taken her words to heart and given as much commentary as possible. It had seemed like a really good idea at the time, but now he was kind of nervous. Would it seem more like meddling to Quatre? They’d only been friends four days. Would it be presumptuous? He waited until fourth period was over, and they were walking to meet the others for lunch before giving the folder to Quatre. “Here.” “What’s this—” Quatre automatically flipped the folder open. “T-this is my story!” “I know.” “How did you get a hold of it?” He was staring up at Trowa in frank amazement. “Jamie,” Trowa said simply. He was waiting for the same kind of reaction Jamie had given him on hearing Quatre’s name. “Jamie? Jamie Dragonmanovich?!” Quatre almost danced around him in excitement. “How do you know her?” “She’s—” a soft smile came over his face, “—she’s my mother.” “That is *so* unfair,” Quatre lamented. “I was born in the wrong household. I want to be her son too.” The blue ink scrawled all over the page distracted him from the rest of his rant and he looked at it more carefully. Once he made sense of what he was seeing, he almost started bouncing. “This is so cool! I never had someone give me feedback like this before.” His eyes started to hungrily devour the commentary, and he started to pay less and less attention to where he was going. Trowa was torn between flattery that his gift was so well received and amused exasperation that Quatre had almost run into a garbage can without even realizing it. He shifted about until he was behind Quatre and dropped his hands onto the blond’s shoulders, acting as a guide. Quatre murmured a distracted “Thanks” then started laughing. “You found that funny? Really?” “It was just the image it conjured up,” Trowa explained after a brief glance over his shoulder to see what he was talking about. “Wow. I wasn’t even trying to be funny.” He lapsed back into silence as he continued reading. /Jamie was right. This was a good idea./ By the time they reached the others, Quatre had gone through one story and flipped the page. “Did you do all three stories?!” He looked over his shoulder at Trowa, blue eyes shining with excitement. Trowa’s heart clenched a little at the expression. /My god, but he’s beautiful./ “Yes.” “*Yes*!” He promptly went back to reading. Trowa rolled his eyes, mouth twitching. But at least Quatre wasn’t moving now, and if he wasn’t moving, then he wasn’t in danger of tripping over anything or anyone. He decided to leave him standing. Duo leaned over, elbowing Trowa a little in the ribs to get his attention. His eyes flicked to where Quatre was standing, smile bright and mischievous. “I take it he liked it.” Trowa nodded, eyes crinkling in delight. “I had to steer him here.” Quatre looked up at this point, a vague pout on his mouth. “I’m finished.” “You read too fast, Q,” Duo told him loftily. “I know.” Quatre bit his lip, meeting Trowa’s eyes hesitantly. “If I gave you more stuff, would you do the same to them?” “Yes,” Trowa shrugged, deliberately casual. “It means free entertainment for me.” Quatre tackled him, arms flung around Trowa’s neck, nearly knocking them both over in his exuberance. “Good! And thanks, by the way. This was such a cool thing to do.” Trowa wrapped both arms around him, indulging himself for a moment by hugging Quatre back hard. “I’m glad you liked it.” Heero watched the two embrace, feeling an undeniable sense of rightness about the scene. They were picture perfect together. He had been hoping, when Jamie took them in, that his brothers would find someone special. Duo had been egging Trowa on, trying to get him to ask Quatre out, but Trowa was too shy to do that. Perhaps they needed something more on neutral ground… “Quatre. What are you doing this weekend?” Quatre pulled back, a little flushed from the embrace. Holding Trowa was such an enjoyable experience that a part of him felt a little guilty at hugging ‘just’ a friend the way he did. “Ah…probably avoiding my father as much as possible. Why?” “Come over,” Heero commanded simply. Duo perked up. “Hey, that’s a great idea. Jamie wants to see you anyway. Come spend the weekend with us, Q. It’ll be a blast.” Quatre almost blurted out ‘yes’ before his good manners kicked in. “You sure she won’t mind?” “Hell no!” Duo shook his head. “You worry too much.” Trowa knew that Quatre wouldn’t be derailed by that and pulled out his cellphone. It was another thing that Jamie had gotten them, part of the ‘toy’ package. He pressed speed dial 2 and waited for her to pick up. //Yes?// “It’s Trowa. I have a question.” //Four.// Trowa’s mouth quirked. “Nope.” //Michigan.// “Try again.” //Maybe? One of those has to work.// “Can Quatre come spend the weekend with us?” //Of course! Heck, he can move in permanently as far as I’m concerned.// “Good. Tell him that.” Trowa handed his phone over to Quatre who took it eagerly. “Jamie?” //Quatre, you idiot, of course you can spend the weekend with us. Just be warned that the boys usually tend to crash all piled up together.// “I don’t mind,” Quatre told her softly. And truly, if he could snuggle in with Trowa without arousing anyone’s suspicions, then he *didn’t* mind. //Good. Then I expect to see you tonight. Is that it?// “Yes.” //Then I’ll get back to editing. Bye.// “Bye.” Quatre handed the phone back to Trowa, expression deliberately wistful. “Do you think we can talk her into making some fudge?” Duo looked at Heero. “You were the last one to help her make it. Do we need to pick up more stuff?” “Hn.” “Right. Q, you drive don’t you?” “Ah…yes. I have a Triumph.” “A Triumph?” Duo’s eyes went dreamy. “Those things are SO sexy… What color is it?” “Yellow.” “Figures.” Duo remembered his original point. “Oh, right. Why don’t you and Tro get some stuff from the store on the way back to the house?” “Good idea.” Quatre approved. ~*~*~*~ Honor: Welp…it doesn’t look like Wufei is
going to make it.
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