The Lucky One
    It was getting cold again.
    Duo sank down in the seat of the car, running his hands over his face. He wasn’t sure what Quatre was doing half the time anymore. He’d started running around with Heero and Trowa, and while Duo had no real qualms with Heero, Trowa caused him problems. Trowa could get damn petty damn fast…and Duo knew he was owed one from the other teen…big time.
    Aside from that, their relationship was fine…enough. They spent the evenings together, but Quatre was getting distant…and not the dreamy kind when you’re thinking about forever.
    There were several factors running through Duo’s mind on the matter. One of which was that he might just be paranoid…or maybe it was his own emotions being put off on the other…which might work, except that he loved being with Quatre when the blond wasn’t being distant.
    What were they doing?
    Duo glanced toward the mall and sighed again. He didn’t want to go chase them down, he didn’t want to give Trowa the chance of saying shit to him.
    If he wasn’t going in to find them, and they weren’t coming out until they were done, that kinda gave Duo a while to sit back and stew. Seeing as he’d already gotten a fairly good start on that, Duo turned the ignition so the radio started up, flicking through the programmed stations until he found the oldies one he normally listened to. He folded his hand behind his head and stared out at the clouds coming in over the mountains.
    He did it to himself…that’s what everyone would tell him. All the shit was from holes he dug himself. His guilt now was because he’d slept with not one, but two people after deciding not to cheat on his guy anymore.
    It was all a thing of the moment….it was all just crap.
    Trowa’d been so upset…
    He loved how cheating on Quatre was making him feel guilty about Trowa.
    That made sense in backwards land.
    The song changed on the station, and Duo closed his eyes tightly together as his stomach knotted.
    Fiend.
    It was almost an uncontrollable impulse to turn the damned song up.
    Trowa looked to the car as he followed Quatre along the parking lot with Heero behind them.
    “He’s so weird sometimes,” Quatre noted happily…though Trowa and Heero both knew that Quatre loved Duo’s eccentric music taste. They got to hear all about it sometimes.
    The bitterness bit Trowa deep, along with the feeling that he’d wanted to break the pair up at one point, and now he didn’t want to hurt Quatre.
    But Duo was pulling the same shit.
    …this is you…
    Trowa tore the back door open with a lot more violence than could be accounted for as Duo jumped and turned to look at him. “Create a new fantasia, ‘cause it beats hating yourself, hating yourself…” he sang the words through clenched teeth as Duo’s expression registered anger sharp and clear.
    “Hey…Duo,” Quatre muttered at the same time, sitting in the passenger seat. The expression was gone just as fast, but Quatre had seen it.
    Why did Duo hate Trowa?
    “Hey, Quatre,” Duo returned in a voice full of chipper cheer.
    …it was fake.
    Quatre stared at Duo in disbelief.
    Heero leaned forward between them to turn the music down. “Sorry,” he apologized for all of them. “We meant to get out here on time but I saw another game I wanted.”
    Duo accepted the out, focusing on the Japanese teen as he sat back properly. “You haven’t even finished the one I got you.”
    “You got him a game?” Trowa asked blankly.
    “At the end of summer,” Quatre agreed.
    Trowa gave Heero an almost betrayed look, which made Duo frown at them in confusion.
    “I got you something,” Quatre noted before Duo could ask. “You want it now or later?”
    “Now…and…later?” Duo asked sweetly.
    Quatre sniggered and hit him in the leg. “You’re so perverse…why can’t you take anything seriously?”
    “Who said I wasn’t taking it seriously?” Duo protested innocently, smiling at his lover. “You usually get me more than one thing when you think about me.”
    “I think about you all the time,” Quatre noted, leaning forward for a kiss.
    “You’re not alone in the car,” Heero noted pointedly.
    Duo laughed, kissing Quatre again and actually starting the engine.
    “I’m choking on your sweetness…” Trowa sang with the song pointedly.
    Heero rolled his eyes as the chorus repeated. Trowa listened to the song when he was feeling morose, and the Japanese teen wasn’t so sure he was glad he knew the words or understood their connotation in regards to the two males present…aside from the blond.
    “I took fifteen from you,” Duo picked up in a deep and wicked sounding voice as he put the car in gear. “…and you’ll never get this back, truly disgraceful, don’t you know?” He glanced briefly at Trowa as he started forward, “you’re not the lucky one.”
    “Wow,” Heero noted loudly and pointedly before anyone could react, “I really don’t like this song.”
    Duo laughed an evilly wicked sound as he pulled from the parking lot. “You and me both.”
    Quatre’s tone was forced laughter. “Then why do you listen to it?” he hit the button to change the station, then looked out the window.
    No one said a word.

- -

    Wufei watched Quatre walk by wordlessly and met eyes with Duo. There was an expression of anger in the American’s eyes, and Wufei wondered if Quatre might have told Duo. There was no mistaking that Duo would understand the pettiness of the act, and that at the time Wufei’s entire point had been to hurt and piss Duo off–all in playing with his warning the guy to watch out about his boy…but that’d been a long time prior, and he was a lot more nervous now about the fall out than he had before.
    The longer it lasted, the worse it would be.
    “What are we doing for Halloween?” Hilde asked them all before Quatre could disappear into the bedroom.
    “Halloween?” Heero echoed blankly.
    “We’ve been invited to about twenty parties,” Hilde noted, pulling out a handful of cards.
    “Where did those come from?” Quatre asked her in confusion.
    “The mail box…or the front porch…or between the door and the jamb.”
    “There’s usually someone home,” Heero suggested hesitantly.
    “Yes, it’s something like drop and run,” Hilde returned. She grinned at the guy. “Come on, we’re cool because we’re young and kicked ass in wars…but we did kick ass in wars and we are cool. Normal high schoolers won’t want to offend us on any level, but don’t want to bother us while they’re at it.”
    Relena giggled from where she was snuggled into Wufei’s lap. They’d been sitting there watching TV while they waited for the others to come home and Zechs to show up.
    “So those are fear invitations?” Trowa asked in a tone that seemed to hint at revulsion.
    “No…they’re ‘you’re-cool-but-I’m-angsty’ invitations,” Hilde replied.
    Relena started laughing, sitting up to look at the group. “Come on, we have to pick which ones we’re going to.”
    “You weren’t invited,” Wufei teased.
    Relena clicked her teeth at him. “I have all the same invitations, plus a legal one or two.”
    “We got those,” Hilde noted, indicating the more formal envelopes at the bottom of the stack. “They just came later.”
    “How about we don’t do any of them?” Duo muttered, turning to start away.
    “Haha, get over here,” Hilde ordered without missing a beat.
    Duo sighed and moved to sit on the couch next to Wufei, grabbing Relena’s foot playfully so she squeaked and kicked at him. The game turned into Duo tickling her foot, which Wufei really didn’t like, but didn’t seem to bother Quatre. The blond moved to drop on Duo’s lap…by which he was incorporated into the game because Duo hooked him closer on his lap so his left arm still reached the girl’s foot.
    “Damn it, Duo!” Wufei snapped, knocking his hands away.
    Relena’s giggling stopped as she blinked blankly at the Chinese male…but Duo just laughed his evil laugh and wrapped his arms around Quatre properly.
    “Wow, tetchy,” Trowa noted, sitting in the final open spot as Heero paused to look at them all in confusion…until Trowa pulled Heero onto his lap.
    Quatre was laughing as he covered his face with his hand, and Heero looked briefly wild-eyed before meeting Trowa’s eyes…and Trowa kissed him.
    Duo was moving to stop the fight he could see happening in about three seconds, which upturned the coffee-table since Quatre’d hooked his feet under it to stop the rise…Hilde was moving her feet from that while trying to stare at Trowa and Heero in astonishment…as Heero started laughing.
    “Oh…man,” Quatre muttered, burying his face in his hands.
    “What the hell?” Wufei demanded a moment later…because Heero and Trowa were still kissing. Aside from that moment of ‘oh shit’ that had registered on Heero’s face, there had been no fight from him at all.
    “Heero?” Relena asked in amusement.
    Heero pulled away, still laughing as he licked at his lips. “Mm, you should do that more often.”
    “I thought you’d get upset with me,” Trowa retorted.
    “I thought you kept your relationships under wraps.”
    “I do when they don’t matter,” Trowa’s tone was mildly flirtatious.
    “Then maybe we should back off,” Heero noted.
    Trowa laughed happily, kissing him again.
    “What the hell?” Relena persisted.
    “So that explains that one,” Hilde noted happily, then pointed at Quatre. “You join them often?”
    Quatre guffawed at her, then reached backwards to fluff Duo’s hair some. “I’m quite fine as I am, thank you.”
    “I believe that,” Wufei noted sardonically.
    “Good thing your believing doesn’t matter,” Quatre snapped waspishly.
    “Quatre,” Relena protested at him.
    “You’ll just let me make out with him without telling us to go to the room?” Trowa demanded over the noise. “If we really started making out would you keep bickering?”
    “Probably,” Quatre noted in amusement.
    Duo was looking between Wufei and Quatre uncertainly, then focused back on Trowa.
    Trowa smiled sweetly at him, shoving Heero off his lap. “Come fetch with me, come fetch with me…”
    Duo’s eyes narrowed sharply.
    “Stop it,” Heero snapped at Trowa, pulling him up.
    “Wait, the invitations!” Hilde protested at them.
    “What the hell is with that song?” Quatre demanded of the two in an angry tone.
    “It was our break-up song,” Trowa noted, moving toward Heero’s bedroom.
    “Break-up?” Quatre and Wufei asked in unison.
    “Yeah, Duo couldn’t stay faithful if his life depended on it,” Trowa agreed.
    “I know where you sleep,” Duo threatened him in a dark voice.
    “So do I,” Trowa noted flippantly. “Think about that one, huh?”
    Duo receded.
    Quatre had stood, and he focused on Duo, his expression a demand.
    “Fuck this,” Duo snapped without meeting Quatre’s eyes, vaulting the back of the couch.
    “Why not? That usually works,” Wufei noted pointedly.
    “Wufei,” Relena protested at him.
    “What is that supposed to mean?” Quatre demanded of the Chinese man.
    Wufei laughed wickedly, though there was no mirth in it. “You know exactly what I mean.”
    Quatre glared him, then stormed toward the bedroom himself.
    “…invi…tations,” Hilde noted hesitantly. She looked to Relena.
    “I’m making supper,” Wufei muttered, shoving Relena from his lap. “You should probably call Zechs or Hilde’s going to keep trying to cram those invitations down our throats.”
    That stung. Hilde stared at him with wounded eyes as he disappeared into the kitchen.
    “What…just happened?” Relena asked blankly.
    Hilde rubbed at her eyes. “I don’t think I want to know.”

- -

    “So were you ever going to tell me?” Quatre snapped at Duo.
    “About what?” Duo retorted from where he was laying on his bed.
    “About Trowa,” Quatre retorted.
    Duo’s stomach fell about thirty stories as he mouthed at the blond.
    “I mean…he’s your ex,” Quatre added.
    “Quatre…” Duo couldn’t think of anything to say, wondering when he’d found out about it…
    Quatre stared at him a long moment as he continued to mouth…and while he’d only been asking about them having been together at all…
    “What did you do?” Quatre hissed, feeling betrayal along every line of his body.
    “What?” Duo asked, almost breathless.
    “I…I just…you did something with him!” Quatre snapped, feeling everything he cared about starting to crumble around him. “You…what did you do?”
    “Don’t yell,” Duo breathed quickly, jumping up and moving to him. He wanted to get in close and cut the explosion off…but found himself hitting the wall instead as the now pissed blond glared at him.
    “Quatre?” Heero asked from the hallway.
    “Tell me,” Quatre ordered Duo, ignoring the other male.
    “I…”
    “Tell me now,” Quatre snapped.
    “It’s just…”
    Quatre moved across the room and wrapped his hand around Duo’s throat as he slammed his boyfriend against the door.
    “I don’t want to,” Duo breathed back, anxious. He didn’t know what Quatre was truly capable of doing…because he was pinned to that door.
    “I didn’t ask if you wanted to,” Quatre hissed in his face, glaring directly into his eyes. “I fucked Wufei, what did you do?”
    “What?” Duo shouted back, trying to shove away from the door.
    The door was shoved from the other side, but didn’t give.
    “Hey…” Heero started. “You two…”
    “In the Caribbean,” Quatre explained, still not moving back. “That night I didn’t come to bed. That’s all I’ve done. What did you do?”
    “It was…I didn’t mean…” Duo looked away, feeling his stomach churning even more.
    Quatre’s hand tightened, putting pressure on his wind-pipe.
    “I fucked him,” Duo spat, looking back to Quatre in anger. “I fucked Trowa…at the circus.”
    That made the blond settle back.
    “Wufei figured it out and chased me down,” Duo added almost viciously. “So I fucked Wufei, too.”
    Quatre dropped his hand, stepping back as pain tore through him.
    “So did you fuck Wufei, or did Wufei fuck you?” Duo whispered at him. “Because if it was the latter I wouldn’t get too emotional about it. How about you? You do anything with Tro? He’s petty enough.”
    “You promised me,” Quatre noted, his eyes filling with tears.
    “Trowa said it himself, I can’t stay faithful if my life depended on it…and he would know. We were together one summer and I was with both guys and girls…aside from him.”
    Quatre took a few more steps backwards.
    “Feel better now?” Duo demanded almost coldly. “Intimidation does wonders, huh?”
    “What?” Quatre focused on that, since his mind wasn’t forming around the conversation right.
    Duo almost sneered at him…and kissed him deeply. “I love you,” he noted in a tone that was near to disgust…then shoved by the blond and grabbed the duffel bag he’d packed over the summer. It was down to the last few items…which he spilled on his bed and started to fill with clothing.
    “What are you doing?” Quatre demanded somewhat shrilly as the door opened. “Where are you going?”
    “Duo?” Heero asked, stepping properly into the room.
    Duo turned to glare at Heero…he had tears on his cheeks.
    “What’s going on?” Heero persisted.
    “He slept with Trowa and Wufei,” Quatre informed Heero almost accusingly, gesturing at the guy.
    Heero blinked at him.
    “What’s going on?” Trowa asked blankly, moving into the room.
    “Fuck you!” Quatre snapped in that same shrill voice.
    “Oh,” Trowa settled back some, looking to Heero uncertainly.
    “What?” Relena asked blankly as Wufei followed her to the room. “Duo, what are you doing?”
    “I’m leaving,” Duo retorted bitterly. “I can’t stay here.”
    “What are you talking about?” she asked in a slightly teasing fashion. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    He finished zipping the bag and crossed the room to shove her against the wall and kiss her just as deeply as he’d kissed Quatre.
    “Hey!” Wufei protested as Heero moved between them. Relena was staring at Duo in dismay.
    “Watch your boy,” Duo growled at her. “I done fucked him already, and he fucked Quatre for a laugh.”
    Her jaw dropped as they turned to see Wufei’s reaction.
    He was staring at Duo in horror.
    Duo shoved through the mess of them, starting for the front door.
    Hilde was standing in front of it with her arms crossed, her eyes hurt as she studied him.
    “I’ll write,” he informed her pointedly, stopping directly in front of her.
    “You can’t just leave like this,” she protested at him.
    “I can, I am, and I’m not coming back any time soon.”
    “What about graduation?”
    “I can still go to school,” he noted pointedly.
    “Duo,” she started, reaching for him.
    Heero moved up and grabbed his arm, frowning at his face. “How can you just…leave like this?”
    “Because I can’t control myself,” he spat back. “I can’t stop myself. I can’t get beyond an opportunity, no matter how much I love someone.”
    “Maybe try counseling,” Heero suggested. “That would help more than running.”
    “I run good, though,” Duo noted pointedly.
    “It’s not this simple,” Heero protested.
    Duo leaned down and kissed him…which got Trowa to start a protest. “You’ll appreciate this one,” he noted briefly to Tro before pressing his forehead to Heero’s. “It’d have never worked between us.”
    Trowa tsked.
    “Duo,” Heero protested.
    Duo pulled away, touching Quatre’s cheek briefly…then turned and moved out the door.
    “Hey!” Hilde protested, chasing after him. “Get back here! It’s not that easy!”
    Duo raised a hand to wave at her without stopping, looking back, or turning around.
    “Take the fucking car, at least,” Quatre snapped.
    “I’m done taking what’s yours,” Duo noted, looking at him. “I’ve taken too much from you already.”
    “Now you’re just being cheesy,” Trowa noted sardonically. “Enough with the drama. Get back in here and argue like a normal person.”
    Duo flashed him a very brief grin…and walked away.
    Quatre leaned against the wall, his arms crossed as Hilde gave chase to the end of the walkway, shouting down the sidewalk to the guy. Heero was obviously torn, pacing along the porch as Trowa stood on one of the steps and waited. Relena was somewhere in the house, and Wufei was studying Quatre’s face.
    Hilde’s voice hit a shrill note, and her words were carrying clearly through the cold night air…
    “You gonna be okay?” Wufei asked Quatre somewhat hesitantly.
    The words caught all of their attention…well, not Hilde. Quatre spun on his foot to meet eyes with the Chinese man.
    “I know you don’t feel it now, but that’s gonna hurt when the shock wears off.”
    “Quatre…” Heero started.
    Quatre punched Wufei in the stomach, shoving him toward Heero. “Leave me the fuck alone,” he spat at the Chinese man…then turned and disappeared into the house.
    “Come back!” Hilde was screaming through tears. “Duo!”
    Wufei grunted a few times, trying to catch his breath.
    “He’ll be back,” Trowa said quietly, looking around. “Won’t he?”
    “I don’t know,” Heero muttered, shoving Wufei off.
    “What did I do?” Wufei protested. “Shit, I was just trying to talk to him and he seduced me.”
    “Which isn’t rape, which means you didn’t say no,” Heero noted pointedly. “That also means that you cooperated with him, and boils down to you having a girlfriend and no excuse.”
    Wufei stared at him.
    “We’ve been trying since you fucked Quatre to work the shit out between them,” Heero added irritably to the Chinese man. “We’ve been trying to settle them both down so this shit could just slide by and we could have a happily ever after.” He gestured down the walk at Hilde, who was standing with one hand at her mouth and the other crossed over her chest. “This is not a happily ever after.”
    “I didn’t start this!” Wufei protested at them both in dismay. “You were all pissy when you got home today!”
    “That’s right,” Heero turned to focus narrowed eyes on Trowa. “Why the hell did you have to quote that damn song at him again?”
    “Sorry if I’m bitter,” Trowa noted bitterly. “My own happily ever after should have started as soon as we won that second war. I shouldn’t have had to deal with a promiscuous asshole.”
    “So you’re attacking me when it’s his fault?” Wufei demanded.
    “Oh, just you go look and see what Relena says to you now,” Heero retorted. “You coulda been cleared of the Duo shit because we all know how he is. You chased down Quatre and talked awfully fast.”
    “How do you even know?” Wufei snapped.
    “Because Quatre told me!” Heero half-shouted back.
    Wufei stared at him in disbelief.
    “What’s going on?” Zechs demanded, jumping out of his car almost before it stopped to stare around at them all. “What’s happening?”
    “Zechs!” Relena cried, breaking through the group on the stairs and running to jump into her brother’s arms at the same time as Hilde. Both females started crying.
    Zechs looked between the two girls, then looked up at the three on the porch, uncertain.
    “Yeah,” Heero agreed somewhat loudly, his tone picking up a hint of amusement. “Things went screwy.”

End


E/N: Sorry this took so long to churn out...I never meant for it to take a year or whatever the count is...meh. Song is "Fiend" by Orgy. Anyway, laters.