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"Puppy Love"Written By: Waterliliylf Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. All rights
remain with Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. No profit being
made here. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: sap, angst, fluff, Alternating Trowa/Quatre
POV, AU Pairings: 3x4 get together, Background 1x2, 5x6
Summary: quatre gets a new puppy and has ot take
it to the vet. "Puppy Love" Trowa's POV: Chapter 33: 'It was like a miracle, Trowa,' Wufei told me dolefully. He took a sip of his twig-flavoured boiling water but it didn't seem to cheer him up. 'When I went to collect her yesterday evening, she was actually sitting on his lap! I'd be terrified to have her anywhere near my lap! The gods know what she'd decide to do to me!' Nataku, straining at her leash in an attempt to escape and kill an apricot poodle walking toward us, turned her head and gave him a brief look of contempt. I yawned into my own coffee. Ugh. Seven o'clock on Saturday and we'd already done two circuits of the dog park. And I'd been up 'til two with my work party. Very stupid, to agree to meet Wufei for a brisk walk the morning after a big night out. But he'd sounded pretty despairing on the 'phone and I had the rest of the day all planned out. Surgery from ten 'til one; then Quatre was calling over at two and hopefully staying for the rest of the weekend. 'I wouldn't worry,' I said, trying to cheer him up. 'She was probably just nervous in a totally new environment, and felt she had to behave.' He shook his head. 'I don't think so. Other people have offered to look after her - never more than once!- and she was her usually destructive self. But she was lying in his lap, and she even licked his finger at one point!' 'Well, he's an experienced dog trainer, isn't he? He's probably just used to problem dogs.' Another head shake, and a brief interlude where the poodle's foolish mistress allowed her to get close to the 'cute little Peke' and had to be rescued. 'No. He said he's only used to Sanque working dogs, and he has no experience with oriental breeds.' I hid a grin at that comment, remembering something Quatre had said about how his friend liked oriental humans. 'Maybe she just clicked with him. Anyway, it doesn't matter, does it? You've finally found someone she likes; maybe he'll be willing to dog-sit again?' 'He can't. Apparently, his butler,' he pronounced the word like it was an exotic species, 'is badly allergic to dog hair. And Nataku also chased his sister's cat. I feel terrible about that; she actually ripped out a chunk of the animal's fur.' He hauled Nataku to the side of the path to avoid two approaching Dobermans. 'Besides, I don't want to be dependent on someone else; she's my dog, for the present anyway, and I'd rather not be under an obligation. It's my problem, Trowa. I think I'd just accepted that she was unmanageable, and I'd just have to cope with that, but apparently she is capable of behaving well. That's why I want you to help me to train her. If you don't mind?' 'You know, I'll help.' I took a deep breath, looking at the two of them; the dog dragging at a too-tight leash, and the man clinging to it for dear life. 'The thing is, Zechs seems like a pretty laid-back guy.' Well, pretty for sure. And with those looks, he must get laid a lot. Ahem. And he's only laid back when he's not salivating over you, and jumping through hoops to get your attention. OK, Barton. Concentrate. Subject under discussion. 'Nataku probably liked the fact that he felt relaxed; if their humans feel confident and relaxed, dogs sense that and they feel that their environment is safe and secure.' 'What are you saying?' he demanded. 'That I have to learn to relax?' 'You need to learn to relax around her,' I specified, thinking that a little bit of general relaxation wouldn't hurt either. 'Dogs are incredibly good at picking up on emotions. If you come home stressed or irritated about something, she can sense that, but dogs can't verbalise this stuff; they only react to it. If she feels you're tense, she'll think that maybe there's a threat, and then she gets worried and stressed.' 'That's ridiculous, Trowa. She's only a dog.' I shrugged. 'What's that got to do with it? Most animals are way more aware of moods and emotions than we are. Listen, remember when we first walked into the park? She was fine then; we were talking and she was happy sniffing around. Then those girls came by with that Australian Shepherd, and you tensed up. You pulled her leash really tightly and you told her to come to heel. All that tells her that the other dog was a threat that you were worried about. If you'd ignored it, she mightn't have paid any attention. But she thought you were scared, so she started barking.' 'So all of her bad behaviour is…my fault?' he asked sadly. 'I'm not saying that it's you specifically. The thing is, she was brought up by your grandmother and spoilt rotten, right? Then Granny Chang went off travelling and Nataku probably sees you as the person who took her away from her lovely home. Pekes form very strong attachments to their owners and they're really stubborn as well. She was used to getting lots of attention all day, and now she's left by herself in your apartment and she's bored so she makes noise and she wrecks things.' 'I do my best! I take her out every morning and evening; she has exactly the recommended amount of exercise for a dog of her size. And I feed her from a special diet sheet. I spend hours brushing her!' 'I'm not saying you're not taking perfect care of her. She's in excellent condition, but maybe she needs a little bit of attention. You two need to bond properly and then she'll want to win your approval, so she'll start to behave. Right now, she's acting up to get you to notice her.' He pulled a face. 'You sound like some sort of canine psychologist.' 'You should be glad I'm not. They charge a fortune. No, she's just confused with all the changes in her life, aren't you sweetie?' I held out my hand to her, and she growled. 'You see what she's like? People always want to pet her, especially children and all she does is growl at them.' 'Yeah, well, we'll work at that. Tell me one thing; when you're grooming her, does she behave herself?' 'Actually, yes.' He sounded surprised. 'It's the about the only time she does. I think she likes being brushed.' 'What she really likes is the contact with you; the fact that you're concentrating on her. How do you like grooming her?' 'I..quite like it. It's oddly soothing.' 'There you go! What we need to do is to work on bonding the two of you. And, Wufei, that's not going to happen if you leave her alone for twelve hours every day and then come home exhausted.' 'My career is important to me. You know that.' 'Sure. But I bet your boss doesn't actually expect you to live in the office. You're going to have to start cutting down on your hours.' 'I'm not going to sacrifice my career for a dog!' 'Oh, come on. It would do you good to leave work during daylight occasionally. And try doing something fun with Nataku; just play with her in the park instead of worrying about her getting the exact amount of exercise she needs. A pet is meant to be fun. Sure I know you got lumbered with her, but she's a cute little thing. She could probably be a really good stress-reliever.' 'I am not stressed!' he spat, loudly enough that Nataku turned her head to look at him. 'So that's your advice; I need to start having fun with her? I thought you'd teach her to obey simple commands or something.' 'Well, I could. But she won't be responsive to you telling her to sit unless she wants to win your approval.' 'Psychobabble,' he snorted. 'Common sense. Look, just give it a try, OK?' 'Oh, fine,' he huffed. 'I'll try to concentrate on having fun with her.' I grinned at his expression. 'So, speaking of fun, you looking forward to your date with Mr. Tall, Blond and Handsome tonight?' He gave me a hard stare. 'What do you think?' 'I think I could just about cope with a guy like him taking me out. I mean, assuming I didn't have Quatre. Obviously.' 'Obviously,' he echoed dryly. 'No, I'm not particularly looking forward to it. And it's most definitely not a date or anything of the sort. I'm merely repaying him for taking care of my dog. Nothing more.' Ah. 'Right?' 'You don't like him at all, then?' 'That's immaterial.' He was walking faster and faster; poor Nataku's little legs were having to run to keep up with him. 'I have no intention whatsoever of getting involved with the Sanque aristocracy again. None! I've made that mistake already and I don't make the same mistake twice.' 'Maybe Zechs is different,' I suggested, not quite sure why I was even defending the man. I hardly knew him; what I had seen didn't really add up to him being Wufei's type. But I'd seen the way they looked at each other, back in the cinema. There was something there. He snorted. 'Oh, please. I guarantee, he doesn't want anything more than another notch on his bedpost. After tonight, I'll never see him again, once I make it perfectly clear that that isn't going to happen.' Right so. Oh, well. I'd tried. Quatre was just going to have to live with the fact that his matchmaking attempts had fizzled out before they'd even had a chance to spark. Well, I could keep him distracted with his own relationship…. 'How is Quatre, anyway?,' he asked, a blindingly obvious attempt to change the subject. I could happily talk about my cute blond. I could talk about him for hours. Still, Wufei probably wouldn't want to listen. 'He's fine.' Very damn fine, actually. Oh, yeah. I could still get hard just thinking of him on Thursday morning. I loved how that coolly demure image could vanish like smoke if I touched him a certain way. And the look on his face when I'd sucked him off, like no one had ever done that for him before…. OK, not the best time to be thinking about those things. 'He's coming over for dinner tonight.' And he's staying the night. I didn't say that; I'd only get a big lecture on taking things too fast. It wasn't likeWufei and I had ever really talked about relationships. When he'd first hooked up with Treize - bastard - he'd bored me and Sally to tears talking about how noble, intelligent, idealistic, visionary and honourable the man was, but he'd scarcely mentioned any of the men he'd dated since then. 'Well, have a nice time,' Wufei told me, looking at his watch. 'I'd better go. I have to go into the office for a couple of hours.' 'Yeah, I've got a shift starting at ten. I'll see you next week. Good luck with Nataku. And have fun tonight!' He pulled a face and they walked off. My 'phone rang as I was walking out of the car park. 'Trowa? This is Zechs.' 'Hi. Listen, this really isn't the best time. I'm in my car and I…' 'I'll just be a moment. You do know that I'm taking Wufei out this evening? I need you to tell me about his preferences.' 'You need me to tell you what?' 'What sort of food does he like? Does he have any allergies? He's not a vegetarian, is he? Has he any religious dietary requirements?' Oh, those preferences. 'No, nothing like that. Don't worry. He likes pretty much everything, really. He's not a picky eater.' 'Does he have a favourite food?' I had to think about that. 'No, like I said, he's not really fussy about food. He hates gherkins though, but he can just leave them on the side of his plate.' 'I'm not planning to take him somewhere that serves gherkins.' He sounded appalled at the very idea of it. 'Does he have a favourite restaurant?' Hmmm. That was tricky. Wufei's favourite restaurant - and mine - was Lek's, but there were so many reasons why it wouldn't be great for a first date. Wufei knows everyone who works there. The Leks are good friends of his family and he'd actually worked there occasionally when we were teenagers. Once Wufei walked through the door with a strange guy, the Leks would be straight on the 'phone to tell every member of his extended family. Mrs. Lek was almost like a second grandmother to him, and quite likely to remind him to use a napkin or to wash his hands after using the bathroom. Really not good on the first date. Plus Quatre had said that Zechs had been banned from there, for hitting on one of the waiters. OK, definitely not Lek's. 'He loves seafood,' I said finally. 'The other night, Duo actually gave me the name of a new restaurant down by the harbour. I think I have the card somewhere if you want.' 'Thank you, but assuredly not,' he snorted. 'Duo's idea of fine dining is emphatically not mine! I know a lovely little French bistro downtown; does he like French food?' 'Um, I think so. Look, Zechs, just take him somewhere with good food, where there won't be a dozen waiters hanging over your table and waiting to pounce if either of you drops your napkin or needs your glass to be refilled. He hates that sort of thing and trust me, he's not going to be impressed by how much it costs or how long the wine list is.' He made an non-committal sound on the other end of the line. Well, it was his funeral; I was only trying to help. 'Another thing; it's probably best if you keep the whole evening low key. You know, nothing too romantic.' 'But it's our first date!' he burst out. Hmm. Not according to Wufei. 'Yeah. It's just ..he's not really into compliments or anything like that. You'll just piss him off if you try flattery, and it's probably better off not to open doors or hold his chair or that sort of thing. He'll get offended.' 'What does he like?' Zechs sounded a little forlorn; OK, that was good. At least he was trying. 'For a start, don't talk any more about trees! I don't know, it's the first time you guys have gone out together. Maybe you should just try to get to know each other a little bit; see if you actually have anything in common?' 'It would be easier if I had some idea of his interests,' he muttered. 'At least, then, I'd have a place to start. What sort of things does he do for fun?' That wasn't a bad question. The thing was, I didn't really associate Wufei with fun. In the equation of our friendship, he'd always been the serious one, who'd had to be thrown out of the library when it was closing, and I'd been the outgoing one, who'd dragged him out to clubs and parties. It wasn't that he didn't like those things, just that he was shy with strangers, and he always felt guilty for going out to enjoy himself, when he should have been home studying. He took his martial arts training way too seriously for it to be just fun; most of the books he read were massive tomes on history or law. 'He loves outdoorsy stuff,' I said finally. 'Mountain biking, horse-riding, hiking.' Another prick of guilt; we'd done all that stuff together as teenagers; then we'd gone to different universities. It wasn't that he didn't have other friends, as well as colleagues from work whom he liked, but he didn't have anyone that close. Maybe he'd like going up to Lake Victoria some weekend and we could do something fun? Not the sort of fun I'd had with Quatre, but still….. 'Ah, he likes horses?' the prince asked, and I had a weird feeling that he was making notes. 'So…somewhere low key but intimate, no overt flattery, casual conversation. Is that about it?' 'You'll be fine, Zechs. Honestly. Just work half the magic on Wufei that you pulled on his dog, whatever the hell you did.' 'Ah. Right.' He said uncomfortably. 'I will try. Just as a matter of interest, has he spoken about me at all? Has he implied whether or not he likes me?' 'He said it was kind of you to look after Nataku. Actually he said it was a miracle how you handled her! And he said you have a really cool car.' That last comment was a bit of poetic license; he'd ranted on about how unfair it was that one person could own such an expensive private vehicle while there were children starving in the world, but he'd sounded just a tiny bit wistful all the same. 'I see.' There was a little pause, and then he started again, all traces of the nervous wannabe boyfriend vanished. 'One other thing. Quatre tells me he is staying at your home tonight. I know Duo has already emphasised just how protective we are of him, so I merely wish to reiterate that we are all very protective of your boyfriend. Extremely so. I take it you understand me?' Damn. Not again. I was getting really, really sick of Quatre's friends pulling this crap on me. Even that girl from the florist, Duo's friend Hilde, had told me how much she 'hoped I wouldn't hurt Quatre', and she'd been brandishing a pair of pruning shears as she spoke. Sure, it was great that he had protective friends, but they all seemed to think I was going to pounce on him and rape him or something, the second I got him alone. 'You know, it's great the way you guys all want to look after Quatre. I wonder where the hell you were when that asshole of an ex-boyfriend was messing him up. Didn't it occur to any of you that he might have needed a bit of support back then? Or didn't you care back then that he was miserable?' 'For your information, and not that it's any of your damn business,' Zechs told me, his voice so coldly furious that I'd obviously touched a raw nerve, 'we tried. Quatre is incredibly loyal; he believed that Simon needed him, and he refused to listen to anything we said to the contrary. He and Duo almost lost their friendship over it, and if you ever dare to upset Duo by implying that he didn't do everything in his power to help Quatre, then it'll be Heero you have to deal with, not me.' Ouch. I'd really hit a nerve, hadn't I? 'Sorry.' I swallowed around the apology. Shit. 'I didn't know, OK? Quatre was obviously really hurt over the whole thing, and I just wondered why none of you bothered to intervene, since you're such good friends and all.' 'We didn't know a lot of it.' He sighed. 'Simon seemed fine at first; totally devoted to Quatre, who'd been going through a bad phase with his family.' 'He told me about what happened on his twenty first birthday.' 'Did he really? Well, he'd been so sure that his parents would want to be reconciled with him. He was older; he was doing so well at university, and they just threw him out a second time. He was incredibly vulnerable, and Simon was very attentive, very good to him. Then he just stopped visiting Quatre in Sanque, expecting Quat to fly out to him constantly. There were always excuses about work, but in reality, he just didn't want to have to share Quatre with anyone. We - Duo and the girls and I - tried everything to get Quat to see what was happening, and none of it worked.' 'Yeah. He's pretty stubborn.' 'Ah, you noticed that.' Another little pause. 'Duo seems to like you.' 'And you don't?' 'I hardly know you.' 'True. Zechs, I'm not planning to go and hurt Quatre. Not in any way. And I've no intention of keeping him from spending time with his friends, if that's what you're worried about.' 'I see.' God, this was in no way what I'd had planned for this morning. Give the Prince of Sanque tips on dating my best friend, and then reassure him that I wasn't planning to take his close friend away from him. I'd planned to go shopping before work to get the ingredients for dinner. And breakfast. 'Yeah. And for the record, Zechs, I'm not going to warn
you to take good care of my friend. I don't need to; he's more than
capable of looking after himself. Just in case you don't know, he's
highly skilled in every martial art that you've probably ever heard
of. So you'd really better not hurt him either.'
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