One Down
    “Wufei, why did you sleep with Quatre?”
    Wufei froze, turning his head to look at the vid screen and meet Trowa's eyes. He had not told a single soul of his petty revenge on Duo, who had seduced him a little more than a week before.
    “Why did you sleep with Duo, at that,” Trowa added, studying his friend. “My goodness, you're turning into a regular little man-slut.”
    Wufei glared at him a moment, then went to hit the disconnect button.
    “I wouldn't do that if I were you,” Trowa muttered, “because Duo happened to tell both Heero and I that it happened, and Quatre told both Heero and I what happened. If you hang up on me, Relena just might find out.”
    Wufei sat back slowly in his seat, staring at Trowa.
    Trowa smiled happily in return.
    There were just some days when it wasn't worth waking up.

- -

    Quatre stared at the ceiling of his darkened room and closed his eyes tightly. Sarah had been very concerned when she found out what had went on between he and Wufei, and she'd been utterly shocked that Wufei had actually…slept with Quatre. The idea that Wufei might be gay or even bisexual had never once crossed his sister's mind, and truth-be-told; it had never crossed Quatre's, either. He hadn't been homophobic or even against gays. It really hadn't made a difference to him, and so no one would have seen it coming until it was sitting in their lap.
    Of course, there was the one day that Wufei had been making come-ons to Quatre. He remembered that with another blush.
    He couldn't tell if Wufei was truly attracted to him, or if Wufei had just been drunk. Hell, Quatre didn't even like other guys. Duo was his one and only…
    He rubbed his eyes, his head starting to hurt. It was easier to deal with Duo from a distance. He didn't feel such a crushing guilt when Duo couldn't touch him. He didn't feel dirty when Duo wasn't there to cuddle with him. That didn't mean it would be any easier to deal with Duo when they were together for Relena's tour.
    His vid started beeping and he groaned, grateful for the voice-activated controls that surrounded him. “Answer.”
    “Quatre?”
    Quatre sat up sharply, staring at Wufei with huge eyes.
    “I…just…wanted to talk to you,” Wufei muttered uncertainly. “I…” he took a deep breath. “I'm sorry.”

- -

    “So Duo's not telling Quatre and Quatre's not telling Duo,” Heero muttered, eyes distant. “Duo doesn't know about Wufei, and Quatre doesn't know about you or Wufei…”
    “Yeah,” Trowa muttered.
    “Are you trying to kill him?”
    Trowa met Heero's eyes, struck.
    “Or maybe…just put him into an asylum? I can talk pretty fast, but if Quatre goes berserk again, it's not exactly like I can get him out of it. Before it was war. Now…what? He's living in a badly written soap opera. That excuse doesn't fly in court.”
    Trowa started to massage his temples.
    “Fuck, Trowa. I haven't done shit and I'm in the middle of this.”
    “You kissed Duo.”
    “What?” Heero asked, remembering the incident with something like guilt.
    “You did!” Trowa repeated. “Quatre told me that he'd told you that if you could take Duo away, he'd let you have him.”
    Heero stared at the other in stunned amazement.
    “And you know, you were acting really mature there for a while…and then you and Duo were hanging off each other. You are not innocent in all this bull-shit.”
    “I'm not trying to take Duo anymore,” Heero muttered, his brow furrowed. “I was hurt back at the house, but Quatre and I worked out our issues before Duo and I did the same. Besides which, I had nothing to do with Duo fucking around.”
    Trowa shook his head, standing and pacing toward the bar in his room.
    “Where are you going?”
    “I need a drink,” Trowa replied. “You know how that goes.”
    “Don't even start with that,” Heero muttered.
    “If you're going to call me on my vices, then I'm gonna call you on yours.”
    “Duo is a vice?” Heero was wondering if Trowa had thought that particular statement out.
    Trowa paused in pouring himself some scotch, grinning slightly. “No, he's an addiction.”
    Heero frowned.
    “You know I'm right,” Trowa muttered, moving to sit in front of the vid again. “Because you yourself have experienced it. What it is, is that Duo accepts us as we are. He would never reject us, and seeing as so few people are like that, we want him to pay attention to us. We weren't raised right, none of us. We all have our issues, and…”
    “You've really thought this out, haven't you?” Heero demanded, mildly disbelieving.
    “I've had years of trying to understand why I couldn't get over him,” Trowa said, narrowing his eyes. “The sex was an added bonus.”
    Heero blinked, studying Trowa's eyes. “You're gay?”
    “Mm-hmm,” Trowa admitted easily as he swallowed his drink. “Very much so.”
    Heero wasn't sure how to respond to that.
    “As a matter of fact, I've had about three boyfriends since Duo.”
    Heero remembered the three guys very clearly. He'd wondered why Trowa had only hung out with one friend at a time. This sudden understanding was disturbing.
    Trowa studied Heero. “What about you? What's your kink?”
    “I…” Heero thought about it a moment before shaking his head. “I don't have one.”
    “Hm,” Trowa finished the glass off and stood again. “I think you're lying.”
    “You're changing the subject,” Heero accused.
    “So are you,” Trowa agreed, glancing back to the vid before pouring some juice into the glass and adding liquor. “We aren't getting anywhere, but you're finding out all sorts of interesting information.”
    “Interesting is not exactly the word I'd use for it.”
    “If I were interested, would you give me a chance?” Trowa asked, ignoring that and moving back to sit on the couch again, drawing his legs up to his chest as he sipped at the glass, studying Heero. “Could you and I get something going?”
    Heero blinked, feeling suddenly embarrassed, avoiding Trowa's eyes.
    “I mean…we have a lot in common. There's Duo, and alcohol…and…” Trowa couldn't actually think of anything to add to that.
    “I don't want to talk about this right now,” Heero decided.
    “Why not?” Trowa asked. “I'd rather you just said no than play around.”
    Heero blinked, then blinked again. His mind was remarkably blank. He'd prefer it if he could tell how serious Trowa was…
    “Of course, I wouldn't be comfortable with you alone with Duo, but that's understandable…or so I'd think.”
    “I…I'm…speechless,” Heero decided, still blinking at Trowa. “I…can't think of an answer.”
    Trowa smiled at him. “Just some food for thought. You can get back to me on that any time. I won't pester you with it.”
    “You're absolutely impossible,” Heero noted, blinking at the guy in amazement as exasperation set in.
    “And I don't even try,” Trowa smiled at Heero, taking another drink and shrugging.
    Heero laughed, looking away again. “What were we talking about?”
    “How much I'd enjoy your company?” Trowa offered.
    “My company, or my bed?” Heero asked, giving Trowa a level look.
    “Slow down, Cowboy! I said nothing about sex!”
    Heero couldn't help but grin at that. “Neither had I.”

- -

    The rest of the week passed easily, though the speeches were heavily guarded. None of the pilots were looking forward to the tour with Relena, but Relena was clueless. She was in her own little world.
    Quatre was pissed, sharing angry looks with Heero. The blond sat with or on Duo as much as any situation would allow, and before noon the pair had disappeared. Wufei was made even more uncomfortable by the fact that Quatre's glare was at him as the door to their room shut.
    Trowa was in all-round good spirits, he even laughed and patted Wufei on the shoulder when the music started loud in the other room.
    “You fixed your hair,” Heero noted to Trowa, considering him a moment.
    Trowa directed his smile at Heero. “I do that once and a while…when I feel someone will appreciate it.”
    Heero laughed, then gestured with his head toward the kitchen.
    Trowa watched Heero go, then looked back to Wufei with raised eyebrows before smiling again. “Here, go entertain yourself,” Trowa muttered, tossing a wad of bills on Wufei's lap before disappearing after Heero.
    Wufei blinked at the kitchen entrance in amazement as a loud thud echoed around, followed by Duo's laughter. A few moments later, Heero and Trowa bounced back across the living room, talking animatedly as they disappeared into Heero's room. Trowa followed Quatre's lead and met Wufei's eyes with an extremely evil smile before shutting the door as well.
    Wufei was at a loss, looking around the suddenly empty room. Relena, Hilde, and Zechs had gone into town because they were bored. No one expected that trio back until around suppertime…which left Wufei with a wad of bills in his lap and no one to talk to.
    Heero hadn't been angry when he'd finally called and talked to Wufei about what Duo had admitted. He hadn't tried to argue for or against Duo himself, and in the end, the conversation had been about a new game that Duo had bought for Heero.
    Wufei didn't understand anything else of what was going on around him. Relena was indifferent to his presence and Quatre was pissed. Duo avoided him at all costs if he could get away with it, and obviously Trowa was completely normal. Hilde hadn't even invited him to go shopping with them.
    Feeling dejected, rejected, and depressed, Wufei rose to his feet. He tucked the money he'd been given into his pocket and stopped at the door to the hotel. He had his key in his pocket, and the late August air was warm.
    Moving slowly from the hotel onto the street, Wufei wondered what might happen if he were accosted by a group of pacifists. There had been no further incidents with any of them, and there was expected to be no issues with Relena's end of the tour. Relena was still a popular leading figure, though she was kept out of the spotlight by strict restrictions. Only if she were intending a public show could anything be published about her. Since she was only seventeen and not highly interested in public show, the people ate up anything they could get on her. Like-wise, the five former Gundam pilots were given the exact same treatment–as well as a few other notable young people who hadn't been allowed to grow up.
    Wufei's thoughts were somber as he wandered into a park. He wasn't sure what to do. The guy at the Caribbean had ended what relationship he'd had with Relena, and they hadn't been able to restart their friendship.
    Certain as he was that Hilde didn't know about the dirt he and the other guys had swept under the carpet, he was beginning to wonder if Duo might have told her. They seemed to tell each other everything, after all. Hilde had much the same personality as Duo. She didn't care what you'd done or how you'd done it–or even if you were still doing it. Of course, she was more upfront about her amusements than Duo was. Half of Duo's supposed acceptance was the fact that he'd be laughing his ass off internally at any problem offered to him.
    Or was that just Wufei's anger at the guy?
    “Fuck,” Wufei whispered, wandering into a rose-garden. He normally wasn't attracted to such things, but today…
    “Wufei!”
    Wufei jumped, turning to look at Heero. The guy was jogging up to him with a curious expression. “What are you doing here?” Wufei demanded. “I thought you were with Trowa.”
    “I was, but Relena came back a few minutes ago. What's wrong?” Heero caught up to him, looking around the roses.
    “This isn't good.”
    Heero blinked at him. “What?”
    Wufei shrugged, turning up a cement-tiered…thing. There was a fountain at the center of it.
    “Wufei?” Heero pressed, amazed.
    Wufei sat down on one step, staring over the roses with empty eyes. “I fucked up, Heero.”
    “Yeah, so?” Heero squatted just behind him, following his gaze and wondering if Hilde'd seen the garden yet. “We all make mistakes.”
    “This wasn't just your everyday average fuck-up,” Wufei muttered. “I…betrayed a trust.”
    “If you're talking about Quatre, he'll get over it,” Heero muttered. “If you're talking about Duo than this has gone over my head–and if it's neither of those, then you've really gotten around.”
    Wufei smiled slightly, focusing on a blood red rose bush at the edge of one bed. The thorns were large and the entire thing was healthy–as if all the blood Wufei had spilled had fed that plant…
    “Fei?”
    Wufei sighed, turning his head to look at Heero a moment before shaking his head and moving to stand. He changed his mind, however, focusing on the bush again. “Have you ever fallen on a rose-bush, Heero? A big healthy one with large thorns?”
    “I'm delighted to say that I'm not a klutz,” Heero tilted his head at Wufei. “I can tell you that this isn't healthy. I don't even know what you're doing, but it's not healthy.”
    Wufei ripped his eyes from the plant and looked at Heero. “I fell in my mother's rose-bush once or twice. It was at the edge of the training-field.”
    Heero frowned, realizing that his words hadn't penetrated.
    “It hurts when you're only wearing a wife-beater and pants. My arms were ripped to shreds,” he indicated a thin-line of a scar on his upper arm, meeting Heero's eyes again. “They sting, too. When you take a shower, that kind of thing stings.”
    “Wufei, are you okay?” Heero asked, trying to think of someone he'd be able to call if Wufei was really having mental issues…
    “No, Heero, I'm not okay,” Wufei muttered, turning to meet Heero's eyes a moment before focusing on the rose-bush. “When the thorn looks attractive…”
    “Wufei,” Heero muttered, frowning at him–also having spotted the bush.
    Wufei sighed, rising to his feet and meeting Heero's eyes again. “I suppose if you came to get me, we have somewhere to go.”
    “No, we just wanted to have supper together,” Heero replied. “Quatre suggested one of us go after you.”
    Wufei didn't know what to say to that.
    Heero studied him a moment. “I told you Quatre would get over it. Yeah, you fucked up. We all make mistakes. Nothing is black and white…it's like that damned coin of Duo's…the one he flips when he's preoccupied. One time its heads, the next its tails.” Heero shrugged slightly, uncomfortable with the idea of giving serious support. “I don't know what to tell you, Wufei. Things will work out.”
    “Relena isn't even interested in being with me anymore.”
    That took Heero by surprise and he shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
    “She and I…well, you know. I thought we really had something.”
    “You realize that she was pouting to Hilde about you, right?” Heero asked. “That you'd become distant–she feels really bad about the Caribbean, whatever that means.”
    Wufei focused on Heero and narrowed his eyes. “You have all the answers.”
    “No, I just eavesdrop when I shouldn't,” Heero smirked slightly. “Bad habit I picked up.”
    Wufei blinked, starting to shake his head.
    “Just come have supper,” Heero muttered, grabbing his arm and pulling at him. “Let's just get back to the house for a while…we can talk again tonight over a round of oblivion.”
    Wufei realized suddenly that he'd distanced himself from Heero–that before this shit had come down, he and Heero had really been friends.
    “Okay?” Heero asked, sincere curiosity in his voice.
    Wufei nodded slowly, starting to follow when Heero lead. “All right.”