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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" Quatre's POV. Chapter 20: 'Let's get started, shall we?' Zechs shakes back his long silvery-blond hair and jumps on to a convenient log at the start of the paintball course . Honestly, it's not like he even needs the extra height, but he's never happy unless he's in the limelight. And of course he wants to take charge of everything. He starts to explain the paint-ball rules and I let my mind drift off for a moment, looking at Trowa, who's listening intently. We'll he's never played before, so I suppose he has to. I do hope he isn't going to fall for Zechs, though. 'If you haven't played this before,' Zechs states, glorying in the fact that everyone is paying attention to him, 'the rules are printed on the reverse of your laminated map. We'll hand those out in a minute. Basically, if you're shot five times, you're officially dead and you're out of the game. If you've been shot four times, you have the option of surrendering to your opponent, and you'll be taken to their base. You may be exchanged for another prisoner or for extra ammo. You can take a person prisoner if you tap him or her on the right shoulder three times, and you can free them by tapping the left shoulder.' He glances down at the list he has in one hand. 'There are two teams; five people on each. I'm the leader of the green team, which consists of Otto, Noin, Heero and Trowa and everyone else is with Quatre on the blue team.' He throws me a little smirk. 'Oh, dear. Sorry Quatre. I know you wanted Trowa on your team, but the girl in the office must have made a mistake when she typed up the lists.' 'That's quite all right,' I give him my sweetest smile. Negative psychology never fails with him! I knew he'd try to poach Trowa, just so he can find out all about him, and that's fine. If he's busy interrogating my boyfriend, he'll be that much easier to beat. Zechs looks slightly confused by my response. 'Well, I think that's everything so we can probably get started.' 'Not yet, I'm still waiting for one of team members to arrive,' I object. 'Wufei should be here any minute now.' Precisely on cue, a car pulls up and Trowa's friend Wufei gets out. As Trowa goes over to meet him, Zechs is practically drooling. Eureka! I knew Zechs wouldn't be able to resist someone like Wufei. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Wufei is wearing some sort of loose Chinese tunic and trousers. With his dark colouring, he looks utterly exotic on a cool Spring evening in Sanque. 'Hey!' Duo says into the sudden silence. 'How come Heero and I can't be on the same team, Zechs?' 'Oh, you can swap,' Zechs says without missing a beat, or taking his eyes off the gorgeous young Chinese man. 'Heero, why don't you swap with…Wufei, is it?' Duo flicks me a grin and a thumbs-up sign as Heero walks over to us. Excellent. The first part of my 'Distract Zechs' plan is working very nicely indeed. Although Duo's theory that Wufei and Zechs will immediately fall for each other seems rather one-sided, so far. Zechs is obviously smitten, but Wufei is already edging away from Zechs, who's trying to 'help' him put on his green arm-band. Everybody heads off to get suited up and collect their weapons, and Zechs and I collect maps, a compass apiece, and a small first aid kit, just in case. When I catch up with my team, Duo is lying on the ground with his head in Heero's lap, Relena is making a daisy chain and Dorothy is taking the paint balls from Relena's gun. 'All right, everyone!' I try to sound bright and motivational. 'Ready to go?' No one pays me the slightest attention, except that Duo groans loudly. 'Can't we just stay here and chill for the hour? I don't feel up to running around for hours.' 'Oh, that sounds like a good plan,' Relena enthuses. 'As Duo suggests, we could organise a peaceful protest instead. You all know how much I disapprove of these silly war games.' 'She's right,' Heero agrees. 'This game and its rules are ridiculous. A direct hit to a major organ should mean a kill! And these so called 'weapons',' he glances down at his disparagingly, 'are little more than toys for children. They don't even have an automatic function.' There are times when Heero scares me a little. 'Well, it is just a game,' I say brightly. 'It's going to be fun. And Relena, no one actually forced you to come, you know.' 'I thought Milliardo said we were going painting,' she informs us. 'I brought my easel and everything.' Oh, wonderful. 'Come on, Quat.' Duo wheedles. It's not like we're going to win or anything. Can't we just concede or something and go for dinner early?' 'No!' No way am I letting Zechs win by default, even I have to drag Duo around the course by the hair. 'We're going to play and, what's more, we're going to win! It's a matter of honour.' 'I don't have any honour! And no way are we going to win, anyway. I mean, you're the only person who's ever done this before, and Zechs is like the paint-ball champion of the universe.' 'Nonsense! Zechs probably thinks just that, so he'll be overconfident. That's going to make him sloppy. Plus he's going to be a little…distracted, shall we say?' 'Whatever do you mean, Quatre?' I do sometimes wonder how anyone get to be Relena's age and still be so naïve. 'It's pretty obvious,' Dorothy tells her. 'He's got the hots for that Chinese guy who arrived late. Plus, he obviously wants to grill Quatre's new squeeze.' 'Um, yes.' I suppose that did sum it all up succinctly. 'Anyway, all of that gives us some advantages. I don't see why we should be the losing side.' 'Sheeh, that competitive side of yours is really unattractive,' my best fried mutters. 'Anyone ever tell you that?' 'I'm not competitive, Duo. I just want to beat Zechs, that's all.' Fortunately, Heero seems to feel the same way, getting to his feet and pulling his partner up, despite his groans. 'Are you OK, Duo?' I ask, suddenly concerned that something is wrong. 'You don't really have to play if you don't feel well.' He gives me a faint smile. 'I guess I'll live. I spent all day painting this really high, elaborate ceiling though; ten hours on my back on hard wooden scaffolding.' 'I thought gay guys liked spending time on their backs,' Dorothy chips in snidely, and falls down flat when Heero shoots her in the chest. Duo falls in beside me as we start the short hike to the woods to our base. 'That really sucks that you don't get to have the HVG on your team,' he sympathises. 'Still, I guessed Zechs would try to poach him. He's been dying to know what Trowa's like.' 'Well, it's only for an hour or so,' I say calmly. To be honest, I'm rather glad that Heero and Trowa ended up on different teams. Heero's been muttering darkly about how much he wants to do a DNA test on my boyfriend, on the grounds that if Trowa has nothing to hide, he shouldn't have a problem with it. I quite like the idea of keeping them apart. By the time we reach our 'fort' in the woods, Relena has made us all garlands of wild flowers, Dorothy and Duo have shot each several times 'by accident' and Heero has done something to his gun so it has the capacity to fire several balls at once. 'OK, here's the plan.' I spread my map on the ground and point to our location. 'Heero, I want you to concentrate on taking out Zechs. He'll probably have back up with him, so be careful. We need to neutralise Zechs as soon as possible; they'll be lost without their leader.' 'Hey, how come he gets to fight Zechs?' Dorothy complains instantly. Duo makes a face at her. 'Maybe 'cause he's the only one who knows how to shoot, Catalonia.' Well, that isn't quite true. I'd love to take out Zechs myself, but Heero needs an incentive to take part. And he and Zechs have always had a bit of an alpha-male contest between them. It doesn't help that Zechs went out with Duo first. 'I know how to shoot! I've been pheasant shooting lots of times on Uncle Dermail's estate.' 'Oh, that's so cruel! Poor innocent little birds!' Relena looks like she's going to cry. It's hard to believe she and Dorothy were close friends for years. I have to admit, my plan of trying to get the two of them back together isn't working very well so far. I thought if they were on the same team, they'd have to support each other. Well, it's early days yet…. 'They're just birds.' Dorothy shrugs. 'You eat chicken, don't you? It's not like they have feelings or anything.' Relena gasps in horror. 'They can feel pain!' 'Oh, go hug a tree, why don't you?' 'All right,' I put in quickly, before my team starts attacking each other again. 'So, Heero, I want you to focus on Zechs. He'll probably try to storm our base to start with; he always favours a full frontal assault.' 'Oh, man! Poor Wufei's in for a rough time of it!' 'Duo! And Dorothy, you'll just encourage him if you laugh. Doro, you and I will go here and here,' I point to the map, 'and try to pick off anyone else. Duo and Relena, you guard the fort and we'll all meet back here in thirty minutes, OK? Then we'll plan an attack on their base. Try to take prisoners so we obtain get information from them.' 'Torture them!' Dorothy's eyes gleam. 'Cool!' 'No torturing!' I say quickly over Relena's wails about human rights and the Geneva Convention. 'All right, everyone. Be careful, and try not to get shot!' The next twenty minutes or so are rather chaotic, as I pick my way carefully through the woods, looking for enemy targets. As luck would have it, the first enemy I find happens to be my boyfriend, and we have a few fun minutes dodging about and firing at each other. I do have a few slight advantages, though. Either Trowa is a terrible shot, or else he's purposely trying not to hit me for some reason. It's also much easier for me, being smaller, to duck under branches and squirm under bushes, so he loses sight of me at one point as I crawl around. When I resurface, for some reason, he is blazing away at a holly bush. He's also covered in bright splodges of paint. He looks amazing. I lurk behind my tree until I figure he's out of paint. 'You know, I think that bush is dead. It's stopped fighting back anyway.' Trowa spins around as I step out into view, gun slightly lowered, but with my finger on the trigger, just in case. 'Hi, Trowa. Haven't you had enough of all this by now? It just doesn't seem right for the two of us to be fighting each other.' He hesitates, and I give him a pleadingly hurt look. 'Don't you trust me?' I take a couple of steps toward him; ready to fire if he makes the first move. 'I was the first one to come out and surrender, wasn't I?' 'Of course I trust you, Quatre!' He drops his gun and lets me wind both arms around his neck. 'I'd have had to give up anyway. I'm all out of ammo.' Oh, Trowa, you shouldn't tell me things like that. I reach up to kiss him, and I tap three times gently on his shoulder. 'Caught you!' 'Hey! You tricked me!' 'All's fair in war and paint-balling,' I beam at him happily. 'Now you're my prisoner, you'll have to do exactly as I tell you from now on.' 'Oh, really? And what exactly is that?' 'I'm sure I'll think of something.' I give him another little kiss on the lips, and then pull him back into the trees. Oh dear. It's very tempting just to forget the game and enjoy being with my boyfriend in this lovely place. 'Later. But we have to get back to my base now to meet the others.' If we don't get back, they'll only come looking for us, and I don't want that…. Everyone else is assembled outside the blue team's fort, with the addition of Wufei, who is sitting on the grass between the girls and not looking too happy about the fact. 'Hi Wufei!' Trowa grins at his friend. 'What happened to you?' 'She did!' He points at Relena. 'It was super, Quatre,' Relena bubbles. 'I got bored waiting here so I went for a little walk and I saw Wufei about to shoot Dorothy, so I sneaked up on him, and pretended I was lost, and then I tipped him on the shoulder, the way Zechs said we would to take a prisoner.' 'I was getting ready to aim at the blonde one,' Wufei elaborates, 'and Relena just strolled up with a handful of flowers and pulled this little helpless girly act on me. ' My boyfriend bursts out laughing. 'I can't believe you fell for that, Chang!' 'Anyone would have fallen for it,' Wufei mutters sourly. 'Women shouldn't be allowed to play these sort of games. Besides, I see you got captured as well, Barton.' Trowa grins. 'Not by a girl who didn't even have a gun with her! I can't believe you fell for that one!' 'To be honest,' Wufei admits, 'it was something of a relief to be captured. At least it got me away from Zechs or whatever he's called. I've never met such an insufferably arrogant, conceited person in my entire life.' 'That's my brother you're talking about!' Relena gasps. 'Yeah, and he is pretty full of himself,' Duo puts in. 'C'mon, 'Lena, you're always complaining about him being big-headed.' 'Well, he does have a lot of good qualities,' I say, feeling someone should defend Zechs in his absence, as Relena informs everyone that her brother was terribly spoilt as a child. Duo glances at his watch. 'Shouldn't Heero be back by now? You don't think he got captured, do you?' 'We do have prisoners,' Dorothy suggests, tapping a fingernail against her teeth. 'Maybe they can tell us the enemy's plans?' 'Certainly not,' Wufei declares haughtily. 'You can do whatever you like to us, but you can't make us betray our team-mates.' 'Why?' Duo wonders. 'You just said you don't like Zechs, and you don't even know Otto or Noin.' 'I know how we can get them to talk!' Relena says excitedly. 'Dorothy, do that weird thing with your eyebrows!' Dorothy obligingly waggles her eyebrows, which admittedly are at the stage of needing to be plucked, and Wufei caves at once. 'Very well. Zechs was talking about finding Heero and challenging him to a duel. Can you stop her doing that, Quatre? It's terrifying.' 'Cool!' Duo exclaims, jumping up. 'That I want to see.' 'I'll go with you,' Relena follows him out. 'We should be able to persuade them to stop, don't you think?' 'Get real, 'Lena!' Duo tells her bluntly. 'I want to see those two slug it out.' Dorothy sticks her nose in the air. 'You just want to pretend they're fighting over you. As if!' 'Yeah, well, I don't exactly see any guys queuing up to fight over you, missy!' Duo gives her the finger. 'Jealous, much? C'mon, 'Lena, let's go. You coming, Quat?' 'Somebody should stay here and guard the fort, and the prisoners,' I say reluctantly, and Duo just laughs at me. 'Yeah, right. You just want to stay here and make out with your H - with Trowa.' 'Duo!' Drat, now I can feel myself blushing. I'm going to kill him. I hadn't remotely thought of that…and it wouldn't be possible anyway, not with Wufei there. The others are all grinning widely at me, except Trowa, and he has a very slight smirk on his lips, and one eyebrow is raised a fraction. 'Hey, Wufei,' Duo calls, 'how d'you want to come and see Blondie getting blasted to smithereens by my boyfriend? We can leave these two lovebirds to discuss strategy and stuff.' 'I'll make sure he doesn't escape.' Dorothy says loudly, taking a firm grip on her gun and they walk off amid Wufei's protests that he would never do anything so dishonourable. 'So…' Trowa draws the word out, 'I guess I'm totally in your power now. Got any plans for what you're going to do with me?' 'I have a very definite plan,' I inform him smugly, sliding a length of cord out of one pocket, and securing his wrists. 'I hadn't realised you were into bondage,' he gasps as I tie the rope to a convenient tree trunk. Hmm. Nor had I, actually. But there is something about having him tied up, powerless, totally vulnerable. Maybe I shouldn't be so hasty to dismiss Duo's claims of how much fun these sort of games can be. I kiss him full on the mouth. 'Sorry, Trowa. there's something I have to do, and I need to make sure you won't escape.' 'You're going to leave me tied up here by myself?' he demands incredulously. 'Quatre, I could just promise you I'll stay! Don't you trust me?' 'Of course I do. But it's more fun this way! I'll only be a little while anyway. If Zechs and Heero are fighting, that'll mean the green fort is unguarded. No way would Noin and Otto miss seeing the duel. I'll be able to plant our flag and we'll win the game!' I pull back a little to see his expression. 'If you really feel uncomfortable, of course I'll untie you.' 'I'll survive. Just promise me one thing? The next time we do this, I want us to be in bed and naked, OK?' 'Um, OK,' I gulp, suddenly not the one in control any more. Well, it's my own fault for getting carried away and playing with fire, I suppose. 'Hey, chill,' he murmurs, reaching up to stroke my hair back from my face. 'You're the one who started this whole bondage thing, remember? Just let me know if you ever feel like playing around with ropes and stuff.' I give a shaky little laugh, leaning into the caress until I suddenly realise that both of his hands are cupping my face. 'How did you do that?' I blurt. 'I tied you up!' He flicks me one of those little smirks that curl the
left corner of his mouth, and hint at a dimple. 'If you want to get
into the bondage scene, honey, you'll have to learn to tie a decent
knot. I could've got free even if my mother hadn't lived with an escape
artist for a couple of years, who taught me all his tricks.' The smirk
deepens a little bit, accompanied by a definite gleam in his amazing
green eyes. 'Go and win your game, Quatre. I'll be waiting here for
you.'
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