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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"
Chapter Six: Friends Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts.
Wufei repeated the invitation as if Heero was speaking Greek. “Lunch?” “Hn.” Using some of the people skills that Duo had hammered into him, he smiled slightly. “I want you to meet my brothers and a friend of mine. I think you would deal well with them.” Wufei considered this for a long moment. Unlike what most people assumed, he liked company just as well as the next person. The problem was he wasn’t normally in association with people that he wanted to spend any time with. With a shrug, he nodded his acceptance. /Why not? If we don’t get along, then I will only have wasted one lunch period./ Heero led him to the edge of the soccer fields, where the other three were already waiting, wrappers spread out around them in mute testimony of their already devoured lunches. “Hey, Ro!” Duo bounced to his feet, moving away from the other two to meet them. “Who’s the hottie?” Wufei blinked. /Is he referring to me?/ “This is Chang Wufei.” Heero turned to Wufei, carefully *not* smiling at the other’s surprised expression. “Wufei, this is Duo, and Trowa—” the tall brunette nodded in greeting, “—my brothers. And this is Quatre Winner.” Quatre beamed up at him with a ‘hello~!’ kind of smile. “Nice to meet you.” Wufei bowed slightly in acknowledgement. “A pleasure to meet all of you.” “Sit down,” Duo waved him to the grass. “Take a load off.” A little uncertain of how to respond to these four admittedly attractive young men, Wufei settled on the grass in front of them. And even though they were attractive, three of them were clearly NOT related by blood. “Yuy. You said the three of you are brothers?” “Hn.” Duo casually smacked Heero in the back of the head. “*Words*, Ro. Use actual *words*.” Heero turned a glare onto him, which was blithely ignored. “Yeah, we don’t really look like brothers. But that wasn’t our doing. Our parents just got visited by the wrong storks, that’s all.” Wufei was more confused by this explanation, not less. Quatre sighed and set about to clearing the matter. “They have lived together for the past several years, and consider themselves to be brothers because of that. Legally, they now are because they have the same adoptive mother.” “Ah.” *That* made sense. “Actually, you might know her.” Quatre had a mischievous glint in his eye as he continued. “Her name is Jamie Dragonmanovich, but she writes under a few pen names. DC Baca, for one.” /Are there no end to the surprises I will have today?/ Wufei shook his head in bemusement, smiling. “Yes, I know her. I’m actually a fan of Baca.” “I felt the same way when I found out,” Heero grunted. “Which book is your favorite?” “Hm…I think it would be ‘Reflections’.” Wufei canted his head in thought. “I’m not quite sure why, but I’ve always related to the main character better in that book than the others.” “I think it’s the dry sense of humor,” Heero offered after a moment. “The way he thought about things is very similar to how I think about things sometimes.” “Perhaps that’s it. Or it could be—” As the other three watched in amusement, Heero and Wufei started to analyze Jamie’s books. They started in English but ever so slowly they slid into Mandarin. For about five minutes, Duo found this highly entertaining. Then he decided it would be even more entertaining if he knew what was being said. Scooting over to Heero, he took his shoulders in both hands and shook him like one would a television set. “Man, how do I get subtitles here?” Heero rolled his eyes, turned slightly, and grabbed the end of Duo’s braid. He gave it a soft yank. “Off.” Duo collapsed sideways like a martinet with its strings cut, then slowly (with soft whirring sound effects) lifted himself back into a sitting position. “Good afternoon, ladies and gents! It is now 12:03, with beautiful 70 degree weather outside and five drop dead gorgeous males spread on the grass near the soccer fields of Hillsboro High. Stay tuned for more updates.” “I think you hit his reset button,” Trowa informed Heero, smirking. “Hn,” Heero sighed. + Wufei stepped out of the Science Building—why he had been insane enough to choose something as simplistic as Earth Science, he would never understand—grateful that the day was over. Now all he had to do was find Meiran and they could go home. /Actually, I think I would prefer to spend the rest of the day with Duo, Heero, Trowa and Quatre. I wonder if it’s too late to catch th—/ Someone’s hand closed over his right arm, and another’s caught his left. His head whipped from side to side, eyes widening as he saw Duo (grinning) on his left, and Quatre (grinning) on his right. “Uh…hello.” “Hello.” Duo started tugging him toward the front of the school. “We decided to kidnap you,” Quatre informed Wufei, also tugging. “Kidnap?” Wufei parroted, feeling more confused by this than not. “Yup. We have a party at my house on the weekends, and we decided that you should come too.” Duo slanted a wink at him. “We’ll give you back Monday. Maybe.” “I don’t have any clothes—” Wufei protested. Even to his own ears, the protest was weak. In truth, he wanted to spend the weekend with the other four. “Got that covered,” Quatre informed him cheerfully. As they passed the front gate, he raised an arm up high and started waving. “MEIRAN! OVER HERE!” Wufei mentally started spluttering. /Meiran?! How does she come into this?/ Wufei’s short fiancé caught Quatre’s call and turned. She had two backpacks with her, one of them held near the ground in her hand. She waved back to acknowledge the Arabian, and started maneuvering her way toward them, dodging students as she went. “Here.” Meiran casually tossed Wufei the backpack as soon as she was within range, which he caught easily. “Clothes for the weekend. I don’t want to hear even a peep about you until Monday morning.” Wufei looked from her face, to the backpack, to Duo and at last to Quatre. “This is a very well thought out kidnapping.” “Q-man is good at this sort of thing. I think he’s practiced or something,” Duo informed him cheerfully. “Let’s go, Wuffers.” “Wuffers?” Wufei repeated blankly. Quatre covered his mouth, trying to stifle his laughter. “Looks like it’s started.” Duo bounded away instead of responding, stopping at the red Titan. “Hey Jams! Look what followed me home! Can I keep him?” + Ten minutes after the boys had sprinted through the front door, they hit the pool. Jamie knew better than to go anywhere near the pool when the two water demons—namely Duo and Quatre—were there and stayed safely planted in her study. Quatre was glad to see Wufei there with them. He was currently wrestling with Duo, who was doing his level best to put him under the water. Quatre didn’t think his braided friend would be able to manage it. Wufei was all muscle, and too well trained to get dunked so easily. The blond didn’t think it really mattered to Duo whether he succeeded or not, however. /I think he’s just using any excuse necessary to touch Wufei. His grin right now is a little too…lecherous./ Heero was relaxing in the hot tub right next to the pool, eyes closed in bliss. Quatre sunk down to where only his eyes were visible above the water. Hm…Trowa wasn’t wise enough to join his brother in the hot tub. He was treading water in the deep end, watching Duo’s and Wufei’s wrestling match. Target Acquired. Quatre sank the rest of the way into the water, eyes open so he could see where he was going. Target Locked. Swimming forward, he maneuvered his way forward until Trowa was right in front of him. With a sharp jerk he yanked Trowa down under the water by his hips. Trowa flailed a bit as he went down, which Quatre took full advantage of. He caught Trowa’s head with both hands, pulling him forward and planting a swift kiss on his mouth. Trowa went beet red and shot back up to the surface, spluttering. “Trowa?” Heero gave him an odd look, and Wufei and Duo actually stopped long enough to see what was up. Seeing all the attention he was getting, Trowa panicked, took a deep breath and crashed back under the water. Quatre laughed from his position near the edge. Teasing Trowa was so much fun. + Later on that day, before the last of the light failed, the boys decided to do a round or two of paintball. Since they couldn’t really divide into even teams, it was each man for himself the first round. That didn’t last long, and they decided to make the next round into team-tag. Paper-rock-scissors determined that Duo and Heero were on one team, Quatre, Trowa and Wufei on the other. For nearly an hour they went in circles around the backyard, covering nearly all five acres of land. Shots were fired, but no one was hit directly. Wufei ghosted up into position. He had caught a flash of pale skin, and was sneaking around using rocks, trees, and the small dips in the land to camouflage his presence. After five taut minutes, he came around and saw his quarry (lying next to a fallen log, oblivious to the danger) clearly for the first time. Duo. Grinning tightly to himself he lifted the gun in his hands and fired. Duo felt the impact even through his armor and sprawled sideways. “Death, Death, Death. The night o’folds me. My cause was just, but the Fates have denied me vengeance. Oh woe is me!” Duo moaned theatrically, arm flung over his eyes. Wufei walked closer, brow cocked skeptically. “Dead people can’t talk.” Duo cracked open an eye to glare at him. “You’re ruining my eulogy, man.” Quatre meandered his way over, face innocent. “Perhaps we should give him a funeral?” “A navy one,” Trowa suggested from his position in a nearby tree. His teammates started in surprise, looking up. They hadn’t been certain where he was. “The pool is free…” Duo turned a glare onto his brother. “Ha ha ha.” “We’ll need something heavy to tie on his ankles.” Quatre made his observation clinical. “There are a lot of rocks around here.” Wufei grinned evilly at Duo. The braided teenager wasn’t sure if they were joking or not—well, he was *fairly* sure they were joking—but he wasn’t chancing it. He jumped to his feet and took off. “Dead people don’t move either!” Wufei called after him. “It was a miracle!” Duo called back. “I was resurrected before your very eyes!” “Maybe he’s a cat,” Wufei muttered to himself. “That means you’ll have to shoot him another eight times.” Trowa dropped lightly to the ground, eyes peeled for Heero. Wufei’s smile wasn’t at all nice. “That is within the realm of possibilities.” ~*~*~*~ Honor: Ugh…I’m so tired. |
