Heero woke up with a start as he heard the bedroom door swing open. He opened his eyes and was met by the sight of a blushing Quatre.

"Oh, I'm... sorry... I didn't mean to interrupt! Uhhm... Breakfast is done when you're ready to eat..." the Arabian pilot stammered, looking terribly uncomfortable all of a sudden. He bowed and quickly left the room.

Heero heard a sound coming from the other side of Duo. He looked over and found WuFei reading his book and chuckling.

"Poor Quatre." The Chinese boy laughed, shaking his head.

"What did he think was going on in here?" Heero asked his friend, raising one eyebrow.

"You probably wouldn't want to know." WuFei replied.

"Why not?" Heero looked confused.

A few drops of blood dripped out of the Chinese boy's nose.

Duo stirred between them, then sat up. "I was trying to sleep, but you two have succeeded in making that impossible! Anyway, I heard your question, Heero, and I've got a better answer than ol' Wu-Bear."

"What is it?"

"Eh, he just thought that we were screwing around. Literally." He explained cheerfully, pulling on his braid.

Blood came gushing out of WuFei's nose in a steady flow. Duo stared at him and laughed loudly.

"Aww, poor Wuffie!" the American crooned sarcastically, leaning forward a little so that he was only a few inches away from the panicking Chinese boy. "You don't like me talking about stuff like that?"

"Shut up, Maxwell!" He shouted, wiping the blood off his face.

"I don't understand." Heero said softly, looking even more confused than before. Duo laughed even harder.

"Don't worry about it, Hee-chan." He finally managed to gasp. Heero looked inquisitively at WuFei, who nodded vigorously in agreement, causing drops of blood to fly through the air.

Heero shrugged slightly and stretched, closing his eyes. Duo cuddled up next to him, purring. WuFei continued to read, but this time out loud, though very quietly. It really was altogether quite relaxing for everyone in the room.

That's when it hit Heero. Before now, he had never let down his guard around anyone but Duo, not even any of the other Gundam pilots, and he had just lowered it in front of WuFei. He was even more surprised that he was unbothered by that fact.

"What's wrong with me? Why am I letting my guard down with him here?" he asked himself. The question was completely rhetorical, so he didn't bother to give himself an answer.

Heero found himself slowly drifting back to sleep, lulled by Duo's warmth and steady breathing, as well WuFei's melodic voice. He was definitely getting the much-needed rest that he had been hoping for.

* * *

After a while, WuFei noticed that Duo and Heero had both fallen asleep again. He smiled and closed his book, his voice going quiet. Apparently Heero didn't much mind his being in the room.

The Japanese boy stirred restlessly in his sleep as WuFei stopped reading. WuFei frowned and began talking in Chinese; Heero settled back into a more peaceful slumber.

"Ahh. Interesting." the Chinese pilot thought to himself. He stopped talking; Heero stirred again. His suspicions were confirmed. Having thus realized the problem, WuFei settled into a comfortable position and, with a slight smile and an almost silent sigh, he began to talk again, reciting every poem and story that he could think of.

An hour later found WuFei with his throat quickly getting sore and his supply of poems and stories quickly dwindling. He stopped again experimentally; Heero's response was the same as earlier.

WuFei groaned quietly, hitting his head with his hand. Now what was he going to do? He knew that he would feel guilty if he just let Heero lose sleep, but what else could he do? If he kept this up for much longer, he would lose his voice!

Not knowing what else to do, the Chinese pilot turned and, still reciting a poem, shook Duo awake gently. The American blinked once or twice, then was fully awake and alert.

"What's wrong?" the braided boy asked, looking around. WuFei continued with his poem and pointed at Heero. Duo cocked his head to one side, looking confused. WuFei stopped talking for a moment, causing Heero to frown slightly and toss his head. As soon as he was sure that Duo had seen the reaction, he resumed talking.

The American's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh, I'm sorry, he must be having nightmares again." He said apologetically. "He gets restless like this when he does." Here Duo paused and raised an eyebrow, looking curious. "Just how long has he been like this? A few minutes?"

WuFei shook his head and held up one finger.

"An hour?" Duo asked incredulously, his jaw dropping down as he stared in half-respect, half-disbelief. The Chinese boy nodded.

"Wow..." the braided boy said shortly. He was shocked. "That's a long time. Why didn't you just wake him up?"

WuFei smiled warmly and shook his head, pointing at Heero again. Duo turned to look at the sleeping boy and immediately understood what his friend meant.

Heero looked completely peaceful when he was asleep. All traces of The Perfect Soldier disappeared, except for the fact that his features were sleek and strong. Adding to the beauty was a slight smile on his face, something Duo didn't see all that often and WuFei had never seen before.

"Oh... Okay. I'll tell ya what. I'll take over for an hour or so, then we'll switch; if we do that, we should both survive with our voices more or less intact." Duo suggested. WuFei nodded his thanks and stopped talking, grateful for the chance to rest his weary vocal chords.

"Should I go get breakfast?" he inquired as Duo cleared his throat.

"More like lunch by now, but that's a great idea. I'm starved!"

WuFei grinned. "When are you not feeling that way?" he asked jokingly, getting off the bed. Duo looked hurt, but then an evil grin appeared on his face.

"Actually, I'm never hungry when Heero and I are-"

"Maxwell!"

"What, what? I was just going to say talking!"

"You actually talk? You have actual conversations? With both of you speaking?"

Duo grinned. "Yeah. Not that often, but it happens occasionally. Scary, isn't it?"

"Indeed, it is... I'll return with food soon." He opened the door.

"Okay." Duo replied. "Oh yeah... Thanks, by the way."

"There's no need to thank me; I'm hungry as well, after all."

"I'm not saying that just about the food, WuFei. What I mean to say is... Thanks for everything."

The door closed and Duo began to sing quietly, his husky alto voice caressing the notes tenderly. Heero slept on, perfectly content.