WuFei sat down just outside the bedroom door, balancing his food on one outstretched leg as he slowly munched on a cookie. It would be obvious to anyone who passed by that he was in deep thought.

He had overheard the conversation between Trowa and Quatre, and it had him slightly confused and extremely curious. He knew that their comments on Duo's behavior near Heero were true without a doubt, but what about the rest of what they had said? WuFei knew that he wouldn't necessarily notice such a reaction on Duo's part, but why would the American pilot be interested? He had Heero, after all!

That simple statement brought up an entirely new flurry of uncomfortable thoughts. It had him truly surprised that Heero had lowered his guard enough to sleep that deeply in his presence. In fact, he actually felt quite honored.

Before the Chinese boy could follow his train of thought any further, the bedroom door opened slightly and Duo poked his head out.

"What's taking ya so long, Wuffie?" he asked. His smile widened. "Hey, cookies! You've gotta share the wealth, man!" he exclaimed happily, pouncing onto WuFei and grabbing one of the sweet treats.

"Where's Heero?" the dark haired pilot asked his friend.

"Eating." Duo replied, pointing back into the bedroom. "Come on, come on! You have cookies, and he might want one too!"

"Fine, Maxwell, fine." WuFei handed the cookies to Duo and stood up gracefully, brushing off any non-existent crumbs from his legs and hands. Then, stretching slowly, he followed Duo into the room.

Heero was seated cross-legged on the bed, slowly eating his sandwich. His face lit up as Duo entered the room and sat next to him; he merely nodded slightly to WuFei as he closed the door behind himself.

WuFei hesitated momentarily, unsure of what to do with himself. Duo saw the look on his face and grinned. "Come sit." He said, patting the bed.

"Did you sleep well, Yuy?" the Chinese pilot asked as he folded his legs under himself and sat behind Heero.

The Japanese boy nodded. "Yes... thank you." he replied. Finishing his sandwich, he reached for the cookie on his plate; Duo got to it first.

The cookie was halfway into Duo's mouth when Heero quickly leaned forward and took the other half into his own mouth. Duo's eyes widened as WuFei stared, on the verge of laughing. The Chinese boy almost fainted as Heero distinctly winked at him over Duo's shoulder.

"That wasn't fair, Hee-chan!" the American boy pouted, crossing his arms in front of him and thrusting out his bottom lip. WuFei couldn't help it; he began to snicker softly. The expression on Duo's face was absolutely priceless...

Duo whipped around to face WuFei and stuck out his tongue. "Shut up, Chink! Shut up! Whose side are you on, anyway?!?!?" he demanded.

"Heero's." WuFei deadpanned.

A frustrated... well, shriek, erupted from Duo's mouth as he balled up his fists and glared at the two other boys. WuFei was laughing rather loudly by now, and Heero was actually smirking.

Duo stared in shock at this. Heero was actually smirking in front of someone? And WuFei, no less! He began laughing despite himself as he realized that he was outnumbered this time. He certainly hadn't expected that!

"No fair ganging up on me like that, guys!" he whined, punching each of them playfully.

"I accomplish my goal no matter what." WuFei replied, looking serious.

"Ninmu kanryou. By whatever means necessary." Heero added, once more putting on his emotionless mask.

Duo pouted, then grew thoughtful. "Wait a second... What is the mission, anyway?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

WuFei frowned slightly, his mind racing. Just exactly what was the mission this time? He really wasn't sure... Fortunately, he didn't have to come up with an answer; Heero got to it first.

"Hn. Objectives: Get Duo Maxwell to shut up for five minutes. Prevent the American from eating the house's entire supply of food." the Japanese boy announced, his face blank.

WuFei burst out laughing again; he'd never heard Heero make a joke in his entire time of knowing him! The look on Duo's face made him laugh even harder. He fell back on the bed, mirthful tears streaming down his cheeks. Soon Duo started to laugh as well; the emotion was contagious, apparently.

As the two boys finally calmed down, they were quite surprised to see Heero's back shaking. A muffled, almost choking sound emerged from his mouth. It took a few seconds, but it finally struck WuFei that he was trying to keep himself from laughing.

WuFei's jaw dropped down as he stared at Heero wide-eyed. He managed to tear his gaze away for a split-second to look at Duo; his reaction was almost identical to his own.

After a few moments, Heero stilled and quieted, looking up. His eyes were shining with laughter, a grin wide enough to rival even one of Duo's plastered on his face. The stunned looks on Duo and WuFei's faces were enough to make him start chuckling again.

"You're... laughing!" WuFei stammered disbelievingly. Heero's grin widened. The Chinese pilot turned to Duo. "Does he get like this often?" he asked.

"Usually just when he's drunk. Reeeaally drunk." Duo replied, looking a bit confused. "You haven't been hitting my supply of Cherry Puckers again, have you?" His gaze drifted temporarily to his closet, then went back to the Japanese boy.

Heero shook his head. "No, no, not after what you did to me last time I did that."

Duo winced. "Oh, come on... I've already apologized for that. I mean, how was I supposed to know that your skin is so sensitive to alcohol?"

WuFei stared and looked completely lost. "I... don't want to know... do I?" he asked weakly.

Duo grinned predatorily. "Oh, I don't know..." he drawled, leaning forward. "You might..." He was leering now. WuFei squirmed uncomfortably. Heero surprised him again by coming to his rescue.

"Duo," Heero said warningly, doing his best to scowl through his grin. "You shouldn't tease WuFei like that."

"Why not? It's fun!" Duo protested.

The war between scowl and grin came to a compromise as a smirk appeared on the Japanese boy's face. "Because... He'll get a nosebleed. You don't want to risk having him bleed to death, do you? Especially not on the bed." So much for `rescue'.

WuFei glared at his friends, both of whom were busy laughing their heads off. He eventually relented and joined in as well.

A knock sounded at the bedroom door. "Guys?" a hesitant voice said.

"Come in!" Duo managed to gasp, rolling around on the bed, trying to control himself.

The door opened to reveal a wary-looking Quatre. "By Allah..." he breathed, staring in shock.

"What's wrong?" came a second voice as Trowa poked his head into the room. "Oh. What the f*ck's going on in here?" Leave it to Trowa to be blunt; he didn't speak all that often, but when he did, he certainly didn't hide his meaning behind his words.

"It's their fault!" Heero, Duo, and WuFei exclaimed in unison, each one pointing at the other two. They collapsed into a pile of laughing hair, skin, and clothing. And, considering who they were, probably hidden weapons as well.

"Uhhm... Are you three... okay?" Quatre asked slowly, looking as though he was going to bolt out the door at any second.

"Yeah, man, I'm great!" Duo crowed enthusiastically, grinning widely and still struggling to control his laughter.

"Indeed, everything is fine." WuFei agreed, nodding seriously.

Heero giggled. Trowa turned slightly to stare at him. "Heero, did you get into Duo's alcohol stash?" he asked. Heero shook his head. "WuFei's opium?" Heero shook his head again.

"How'd you know about my stash?" Duo and WuFei shouted in unison, jumping off the bed and taking a step towards the door. Heero reached out just as quickly and pulled them back onto the bed.

"Run, Trowa, run!" Heero called jokingly. Trowa and Quatre blinked stupidly as WuFei and Duo struggled to get away; Heero's grasp didn't falter even the slightest bit. "Where do the two of you think you're going?" he asked the squirming boys.

"Y-y-y... Yuy! What are you doing?!? Let go of me!!!" WuFei roared indignantly. "Injustice! Dishonor!"

"Hn." Heero smirked.

"Maxwell? Some help here?" The Chinese pilot practically begged.

"Don't do it." Heero warned.

"Why not?" WuFei and Duo questioned at once.

"If you do, then I'll cut your braid off!"

"You wouldn't!" Duo gasped, a shocked look on his face.

"I don't know, Duo... Look at the way he's acting..." Quatre said warningly, frowning slightly. He looked utterly adorable.

"Good point, Q-Man... Sorry, Wuffie, no can do!"

"We're going to the store. Need anything?" Trowa asked.

"Ice-cream, chocolate, coffee, sugary cereal, whipped cream, and chips!" Duo shouted, looking excited at the prospect of finally getting some junk food into the house. WuFei had been the one to stock food for the last safe house, and they had ended up having to live off of mostly-disgusting health foods.

"And tranquilizers. Very strong tranquilizers!" WuFei moaned.

"I'm not sure If we can get our hands on tranquilizers, WuFei, but we'll try!" Quatre beamed. "Heero?"

"No, nothing else... Only, make sure that you get chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream."

Quatre smiled and nodded; Trowa's visible eyebrow quirked ever so slightly, but, of course, he remained silent.

"All right. We'll be back soon." The Arabian pilot said, bowing and leaving the room. Trowa followed his friend, but not before taking one long, last look at the three other pilots and shaking his head.

Heero, WuFei, and Duo immediately erupted into giggles again as soon as their comrades had left. It took several minutes for them to finally calm down enough to actually talk again, but once they had, it was WuFei who spoke first.

"Yuy, I'm not exactly complaining about the change, but why are you suddenly acting like this?" he asked, shifting his position so that he was sitting cross-legged. Duo also made himself more comfortable and flipped over so that he was lying stomach-down on the bed, looking up at Heero's face.

Heero frowned slightly, his eyebrows furrowing. "I'm not quite certain..." he began slowly. "I just woke up and felt... Happy."

Duo smiled and moved a few inches closer to Heero, resting his head on the other boy's lap. "Well, that's a good enough explanation for me." he stated, looking quite happy. WuFei nodded his agreement.

For several minutes, the room was actually quiet. No giggling fits or justice rants or clacking computer keys. Just silence. All three young men found the silence to be rather nice, even Duo, which said a lot.

Then again, with Duo in the room, silence can never last too long. "Oi... I haven't had a day this good in forever." he proclaimed happily.

"Neither have I." WuFei agreed. "In fact, I haven't had a day where I've been this happy ever since..."

Duo looked up, curious. The look in WuFei's eyes worried him a little. "Since when?" he asked after a few seconds had passed and the statement still hadn't been completed.

"Ever since Meiran died." The light hit the Chinese pilot's eyes just then and bounced off the tears that were beginning to form. WuFei quickly blinked, ridding himself of the accursed tell-tale signs of sorrow.

"Sorry." Duo whispered, regretting the fact that he had asked.

"It's okay." the black haired young man shrugged.

The silence came back; not quite as pleasant as before, but still nice enough. Peaceful. Duo's eyes fluttered slowly shut, and his breathing took on a slow, steady rhythm. Despite his best efforts not to, WuFei fell asleep not long after the braided boy. His upper body soon slumped forward in a display of horrible posture that would never have occurred had he been awake to control himself.

"His back will cramp if he stays that way for very long." Heero thought to himself, eyeing the black-haired boy critically. He reached out with one hand and gently pulled the Chinese boy towards him so that he was leaning up against his shoulder. "That should be more comfortable. I only hope he won't mind when he wakes up; I'm in too good a mood to listen to another rant about `dishonor' and `injustice'."

Having done his best to make his companion comfortable without accidentally waking him up, Heero leaned back against the headboard and let himself fall asleep as well. After a long, hard mission like the one he had so recently finished, there was no such thing as too much sleep.