Title: Writing Lines
Author: Apple QB
Rating: PG-13
Summery: What the heck is Duo up to?
Pairing: 2+5
Warnings: Yaoi, PWP, TWT, mild language
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters within. All properties belong to their respective owners, which is not me. No money is being made from this story and harm is intended.
Author's note: This is a step out of my OTP (1+2+1) But I do like Wufei and Duo so I thought I'd give it a shot. Originally, I had an idea to writing a series of plausible/implausible pairings but I kind of wanted to stay as close to the show as possible with those stories and since this is Timeline? What Timeline? (Meaning it doesn't really fit into the show at any point) I don't think this will be part of that, but only time will tell.
I didn't want to do anything to serious or dramatic and I wanted to avoid angst at all cost. Dunno how well I succeeded. Also, this was supposed to be a Lemon but I like where it ended so I left the smut out ^_^. I might still write a lemon for it but that would be added separately.
Basically, this was just something I wanted to have fun with. So, here it is.

For the third time in two days Wufei entered the room to find Duo furiously scribbling on a piece of scrap paper only to have the writer quickly snatch it away as soon as he saw Wufei. It was annoying.

This particular time Wufei had just returned from a light workout and wanted to do some reading before taking a shower; a task that would be impossible with the constant prattling Duo had been doing for the past few days. So, knowing Duo would make a quick exit if he made any sort of inquiry about what Duo was writing, Wufei asked, "What are you doing?" His voice was startlingly loud in the near silent room.

Or, at least, it startled Duo.

With a little too much satisfaction, Wufei watched calmly as Duo jumped up and spun around, frantically trying to hide the paper and pen. When Duo finally froze Wufei thought he was doing a remarkable imitation of a deer caught in the headlights.

After a long second of silence Wufei asked again, "What are you doing?" He was actually interested in hearing the answer. The previous two times Wufei had asked that question Duo had produced a different answer, "Trying to write the Great American Novel" and "Composing a musical masterpiece." Wufei was wondering if the third would be equally phony.

For a boy who tells no lies, Wufei thought solemnly, he surrounds himself in many falsehoods.

"Oh, this?" Duo answered finally as he waved the half sheet nonchalantly in the air. "I was just making a grocery list."

Wufei stared at his roommate incredulously, "We're at a boarding school. We don't need groceries."

Duo smiled broadly. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Well, I don't need this then," he said and tore the scrap into tinier scraps. "Don't know WHAT I was thinking. Must be slipping," Duo continued as he left the room like Wufei had predicted.

But, in his rush to get out of the room Duo dropped some of the paper. Unable to resist, Wufei went to pick it up. Only to throw it in the trash, of course. But something caught his eye on the slip. His name.

Not just once, but also several times in a line all the way down the length of the slip. The longest line of solid writing revealed "are at Wufei" somewhere towards the center of the scrap. The same thing appeared to be written repeatedly down the length of the paper but the rips Duo had made while tearing it apart compromised its entirety. The only word that was clear all the way down was Wufei's name.

Wufei felt ridiculous, not for himself but for Duo. He was having a hard time wrapping his brain around the deed he held proof of in his very hands. Duo was writing lines! The very idea of it seemed totally outlandish.

Of all the stupid things he could be doing, Wufei thought fiercely.

All thoughts of reading slipped Wufei's mind. He wanted to know, needed to know, what Duo was writing about him and why. Of course, it was only a matter of security. It had absolutely nothing to do with Wufei's personal curiosity or feelings on the matter.

Wufei looked around the room, there had to be a way of figuring out what Duo was writing without letting him know. Then he got an idea.

"This will be too easy."

**********

Duo came back to their shared room after about a half an hour, figuring he had himself under control again. That was until he heard the shower running. Smacking his forehead, Duo briefly considered leaving, but decided against it.

Besides, he thought, I'm a glutton for punishment.

Attempting to distract himself, Duo tried reading a book, listening to music and even a couple of push-ups. But his attention was always drawn back to the bathroom door, which had tendrils of steam curling out from underneath of it. Finally, Duo's resolve cracked.

There was a paper sitting neatly on the desk and, conveniently, there was a pen sitting right next to it. He snatched up the paper and the pen with the intent of running out of the room and finding some solitude in the library or something, because he wanted to be anywhere but in the room when Wufei finished with his shower. However, his plans were foiled. The pen was one of those stupid pens were chained to the desk.

"Of all the.... God! You'd think this place was a bank or something!" He yanked at the chain and the pen came free easily. He immediately started writing on the paper, his previous plan of escaping the room, forgotten. He had to start writing right then and there or his head would explode. That or he'd do something really stupid.

Even as his furious scrawl across the across the paper caused the pressure he was feeling to decrease, there was an incessant voice in the back of his head that was telling him how ridiculous he was being. "It's not as if this is actually doing anything in the way of helping you," the little voice insisted. "As soon as you stop writing, you're going to be right back in the same predicament so why do it in the first place? You haven't had to do this sort of thing in years so why the hell would you fall back into this habit willingly? Besides, you must look like a damn fool!"

He deftly told that part of his consciousness to shut the hell up even though he knew it was absolutely correct in it's assessments.

Of all the things he wanted to do, writing lines was the one least likely to get him killed. And to think, he hated writing lines. Right now, it was probably saving his life. He risked a glance at the bathroom door then turned back to the paper and pen with renewed vigor. Nope, it was definitely saving his life.

He was so involved with writing lines he never heard the shower stop. Of course, that could have been because the shower never actually stopped running.

"Maxwell, what are you doing?" Wufei asked from the threshold of the bathroom door. The steam from the room was pouring out all around him, surrounding him in a dreamlike mist. His hair was loose and drenched, dripping rivulets of water down, caressing his sculpted shoulders and chest, until they soaked into the threadbare towel that was slung low over his hips.

Duo turned around, spotted Wufei, and fled the room with a strangled gurgle, clutching the paper and pen.

Wufei snorted. Duo wouldn't even look him in the eye. He hadn't really expected Duo to stay in the room. He'd only come back into the room to make sure the pen had been operating correctly.

Chuckling slightly, Wufei went back into the bathroom to shut of the shower. Duo's reaction to his presence was becoming steadily more intriguing. At first it had been fairly annoying, as Duo had been ceaselessly babbling to the point of distraction. Whether Duo had been trying to distract himself, or distract Wufei, was unclear. But truth be told, even the nature of Duo's feelings was unclear to Wufei.

After two and a half days of Duo's prattling Wufei had been ready to tape Duo's mouth shut. But then, suddenly, it wasn't necessary anymore; Duo had just shut up. At first, Wufei had just assumed that Duo had talked himself hoarse, which was fine as far as Wufei was concerned, he could do with the peace and quiet. Then it became apparent that there was something else going on.

He noticed Duo was stealing glances at him and becoming agitated for, it seemed, no reason. Then he had started his secretive writing project. Wufei hadn't really thought anything of it until his saw his name on that slip of paper. Then it was all too obvious what was going on, though Wufei found it a little hard to believe, understandably. That had been the reason Wufei felt it was necessary to get solid proof. That had been when he had rigged the pen.

After Wufei had finished drying off, dressed into some pants and went over to the desk. He ran a hand lightly across the padded surface and shook his head. The pen that been chained to the desk had been a creation of his own making. It was rigged to record the pen strokes and feed the information directly back to his laptop, which was leaning innocuously against the dresser beside his bed. It was a simple plan and the pen had been ridiculously easy to make, but it seemed as if he had gone through all the trouble for nothing.

Duo had sat right down at the desk to write, pressing hard enough to leave a clear indentation in the pad that covered the desk. Wufei produced a second sheet of paper and a pencil and took a moment to shade over the pad.

After he was finished, he read the words on the shading. Then read them again.

"Well, that's unexpected."

**********

The door to the library annex shut with a loud click, the sound of the lock sliding home. Duo's shoulders stiffened. He turned slowly, not in any rush to see what he feared was behind him.

Wufei was leaning calmly against the doorframe. As if his relaxed pose could fool Duo. He knew that Wufei could probably leap across the room with the twitch of a muscle. Not that Duo was particularly worried about Wufei leaping across the room to attack him. He was sort of expecting it, so he would at least be able to defend himself. Not that Wufei would have any reason to attack him in the first place. And now Duo was babbling in his own head. He wanted to smack himself on the forehead but he didn't want to make any sudden movements.

Forty-five seconds.

"Yes?" Duo asked.

"One of the first things I learned was never to write anything down; it's a very old adage. My clan is very old. They keep extensive records of almost everything, for posterity and history's sake. Master O sought to divest me of that practice. He was more concerned with electronic information. With electronic information, even the most carefully protected data can be exposed. 'Be mindful of what you write,' he said, 'and of how you store it.' If it's not absolutely necessary to record it, don't. Otherwise it will almost certainly be found by the wrong person.

"About paper he simply said that only the most careless of mistakes would expose you. He advised me not to make careless mistakes."

"Wufei?" Duo said slightly concerned, hand itching to ball up the paper on the desk.

"Allow me to finish, Maxwell."

"Umm...?"

"When I saw you writing, and so blatantly lying about it?"

"I don't lie!"

"The Great American novel?"

"Well," Duo said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "I never said I was any good at it."

"Please. You were avoiding the question," Wufei offered as a concession. "I naturally assumed you were writing something so sensitive you felt it was unsafe to put it on a computer where I could easily discover it."

"Okay...."

"Or that you were doing something very stupid."

"Hey!"

"I know you to be intelligent, Maxwell, or at least not as foolish as you attempt to appear. Anything stupid you would be doing would have to be intentional. I thought, perhaps you were being traitorous."

"What are you- WUFEI! You thought I was selling out to OZ!" Duo shouted, jumping out of his seat in outrage. "Why would you even think- I would never!"

"Obviously, I wouldn't be able to take your word for that at face value," Wufei stated calmly, without reaction to Duo's outburst. "So, I bugged your pen."

"Gah!" Duo shouted, startled. He tossed the pen he still held in his hand.

Wufei smirked, "I did put a bit of effort into making that, I would appreciate it if you didn't throw it away."

Duo, completely unconcerned with the pen, crossed his arms. "I suppose you know what I've been writing now."

"You would suppose correctly. 'I will not ravish Wufei in the shower.'"

Duo glared at the pen he had thrown to the floor and considered all the different ways he could dismantle it piece by piece.

"Oh, no. I didn?t use the pen for that." Wufei pulled out the shading he had taken of the desk, letting it go so it would float gently to the floor at Duo's feet.

"What the-" Duo said, bending to pick up the paper; it only took a moment for the implication to sink in. "Oh," He said in a pained voice, "I'm so going to burn that desk."

Wufei's shoulders shook slightly as he tried not to laugh.

"So, you went through all that trouble with the pen for nothing."

"I didn't say that. I used the pen to locate you."

"Ah! It's got a tracer in it, too?"

"Of course, by that time you were back to writing lines again. 'I will not offer to wash his back. I will not think about tackling Wufei and lick him clean.'"

"Okay, okay. Enough already," Duo said, mortally embarrassed.

"I have one question."

"Sure," he said, avoiding Wufei's eyes. "It's not like I can stop you before you murder me in the privacy of this room. Oh and the walls are soundproof, ya know? Of course you know."

Wufei ignored that. "Why write lines?"

"I don't know!" Duo said throwing up his hands in aggravation. "I used to hate doing it. Sister Mary-Katherine used to make me write them every time she caught me doing something naughty, which was like every other minute. Then Sister Helen saw the calluses on my fingers and told me I didn't have to anymore. I thought I'd never do it again." He finally looked at Wufei to gauge how deep in it he was.

Wufei was watching him intently; he looked completely unaffected by anything Duo was saying.

Oh well, Duo thought. If I'm gonna die, I might as well make it worth it. "Being around you destroyed my resolve. It's like... I can't explain it. Writing lines was about the least destructive thing I could think of doing to stop myself from jumping you..."

No reaction.

"Ripping off all your clothes..."

Still, no reaction.

"And making you scream with unbridled passion."

"Fine."

"Fine? God Wufei, you suck!" Duo looked sour, "I still can't believe you bugged me. I can't believe you thought I was spying for OZ!"

"Writing lines is a very ancient way of passing coded messages. For example, changing one minor thing each time the line is written." Wufei looked thoughtful, "But when I saw that you were simply writing the same thing over and over again, I stopped suspecting you. Before then, what else could I have thought?"

"How 'bout that I lusted after your body and needed to find another outlet so you wouldn't beat the crap out of me?" Duo shouted.

"Why would I hit you?"

"That's it!" Duo marched across the five and a half feet of space that separated them, grabbed Wufei's face and kissed him.

It wasn't very finessed. Duo wasn't trying to be very smooth about it. In fact, it was more to prove a point, and was powered by no small amount of frustration. Still, it was very satisfying. After all, it's not everyday that you get to kiss your secret crush. Furthermore, it's not everyday your secret crush kisses you back.

Wufei was chuckling slightly when Duo pulled back, "What?"

"You could have saved us both a lot of trouble if you had just done that in the beginning."

Duo had just enough time to glare at him before Wufei kissed him again.

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