Trowa had woken up to the small noises around his room. He usually wasn’t such a light sleeper, but with his injuries it was hard to really sleep deeply. He figured it was probably Sally or someone, so he kept his eyes closed and tried to fall back asleep. He was startled to hear someone speaking to him.
“I’m sorry.” the high, sweet voice said. “I’m sorry.” Trowa’s eyes flew open. It was Quatre, kneeling beside his bed and looking like he was about to cry. He began to hear the strains of a song. It hurt him to hear Quatre singing those things. He could hear the hurt in his friend’s voice.
“Quatre,” Trowa said softly after Quatre had finished singing. After convincing Quatre to stay, he could finally tell him what he’d been trying to since they got back to the house.
“Quatre,” Trowa said, grasping Quatre’s hand, “you must stop blaming yourself.” Quatre began to innturupt, but Trowa put his free hand over his mouth. “Shhh. You told me you’d listen. Will you?” Trowa asked. Quatre nodded slightly, looking defeated.
“Alright. This isn’t your fault. Look at me, Quatre. I’m alive. I’ll be ok. It… it hurts me to see you like this. Hurts me more than anything physical could. Quatre- you know I’m not good at words. I can’t express myself like you can. But if you’d- if you’d open your heart like I know you can, you’d feel it. Please Quatre, allow yourself to know what I’m feeling.”
Quatre stared back at him. Then he closed his eyes and sank down beside the bed. He allowed himself to open up the link between them, something he’d been afraid to do since meeting Trowa, afraid of rejection or hatred. But now, in the middle of a dark room, slumped over on the floor, Quatre found love. Inside of Trowa, directed towards him, there was love and acceptance. He opened his eyes and looked at Trowa again, his eyes filled with amazement and barely contained excitement. Trowa was smiling slightly.
“T-Trowa?” Quatre asked hesitantly, reaching out his hand. Trowa held it tightly.
“I love you, Quatre,” he said quietly. Quatre leaned down and caught his lips in a tentative kiss. When he leaned away from him, Quatre looked relieved.
“I love you too, Trowa,” he said, and smiled for the first time in a week. Trowa gave him a small smile back.
“Trowa, please let me tell you that I’m sorry,” Quatre said after a moment. Trowa reached for his hand again.
“I don’t blame you,” he said, “but I forgive you.”
Quatre smiled at him again and stood up to leave.
“Wait!” Trowa called. Quatre turned towards him. “Can you sleep with me tonight?” Realizing what his request sounded like, Trowa blushed in the darkness. But Quatre understood him and crawled in bed beside him, being careful of his wounds. Trowa laid a protective arm around him and they slept like this all night, regardless of what Duo implied.
Quatre was missing. Duo had woken up to a sense of impending doom. The doom, of course, was coming from Sally, who was standing over him.
Wufei enjoyed his mornings. He would do his morning katas and meditation, then take a long shower before all the hot water was gone. If there was one thing he couldn't stand it was braided Americans running into the bathroom while he was in the shower. Then he heard some baka yell.
Trowa had woken to Duo's screams, but simply tightened his grip on the small warm bundle beside him. After the noise escalated, he could feel Quatre getting up and he breathed a silent sigh. After a moment to gather his energy, he opened his eyes and swung one leg onto the floor. He grabbed the big stick Duo had put beside his bed and used it to help him up. Limping to the door, he could see Duo berating Quatre for his choice of sleeping partners.
Sally was finally getting used to living with the pilots. She knew about their quirks and she was getting used to sleeping on the couch. Duo kept on making jokes about how her getting Trowa's room soon, but Trowa and Quatre were taking it slow and still sleeping in their own rooms. The only problem was the fact that she was living with five male pilots which meant that she was always the odd one out. Case in point, movie choices. Everytime they had to pick a movie to watch Sally got voted out five to one. And she was tired of it. The boys were currently on a short mission, so Sally did the only thing she could think of, call her best girlfriend and invite her over.
Duo always hated when the mission high wore off. Instead of being Shinigami he was back to being that kid with the braid. He felt dirty and hungry and tired. All he wanted was a bath and a nap. And maybe some food.
Heero had a bad feeling. First there was that strange woman at the safehouse with Sally and now they were waiting for the woman's boyfriend to show up. All in all, Heero had wanted more than anything for the woman to leave, or maybe everyone but Duo. On that thought he started walking towards his braided lover who was sprawled across the ratty old armchair in the corner.
"Duo!" she shrieked,"Where the hell is Quatre?"
Shinigami blinked at her for a moment before sleepily replying, "In his bed."
"You idiot, you think I haven't looked there? Now get up and find HIM!"
Duo mumbled as he pulled himself off his cot on the floor. He ran into the doorway as he bumbled around. Behind him Sally continued to fume.
"She must've gotten up on the wrong side of the bed," Duo grumbled. He started out by looking in his and Heero's room, the bathroom, then Wufei's. All he found was his sleeping lover and a pissed off Wufei, since Duo had inturrupted his shower by sticking his head inside the curtain.
"What the..." Wufei started as he ran out of the bathroom in only his pants.
"Wufei," he heard a voice grunt beside him as he ran towards Duo's yell.
"Heero," he answered back as they stood in front of Trowa's room where they were met by a hysterical Duo and a stern Sally.
"Sally," Wufei stated as he took in the scene.
"Duo! What is wrong with you?" She all but yelled, ignoring Wufei and Heero. Duo was laughing too hard to answer so he just pointed into Trowa's room.
Wufei and Heero stuck their heads inside where they saw two bundles under the covers. They shared a look as Sally pushed them aside.
"What's so fun...oh. We better leave them," she began backing out of the room.
Duo kept laughing until he started chocking. Wufei decided to help him out by slapping him on the back, which made Duo hit the wall, which made Sally start laughing, that is until they heard a timid voice call, "Can you guys be quiet, Trowa's sleeping." The four out in the hallway turned wide eyed to the sleepy-eyed Quatre.
"You know, I was the one who suggested it." Trowa said quietly. Everyone spun around to look at him except Heero, who'd already seen him and was smirking slightly.
Quatre smiled at him. "Morning koi," he said quietly. Duo blanched.
"Koi? So you guys are really... together?" he asked, running up to them. Trowa nodded. "Wow!" Duo yelled, "Well, it's about time, but congratulations anyway!"
Quatre grinned. "Thanks Duo." He turned to Trowa. "I'll make breakfast this morning. You want me to help you to the kitchen?" Trowa shook his head and they began down the hallway. Sally walked up beside them.
"How 'bout pancakes for breakfast?" she asked.
Quatre groaned. "Not pancakes! They take so much work!" Duo laughed and ran in front of them.
"You lazy bum!" He yelled, then whooped, "We get a real breakfast!"
"You know, I was just going to make you guys oatmeal or something," Quatre grumbled as he walked behind Duo.
"Hey Sally, you got anymore of that, whoa, who'd that?"
Duo stopped short as he entered the house, seeing an unknown woman sitting beside Sally.
"Duo, what's wrong?" Quatre called as he walked into the house. "You sounded suprised and, oh, hello, who are you?" Quatre asked the new woman.
"Oh, this is my friend, Luc..." Sally started until a loud voice came from outside.
"Woman! Why is there a car sitting outside the house?" Wufei ranted as he walked in the room.
"Wait, I know that voice," The stranger stated. "But when and where?"
Sally was about to begin introductions when Heero and Trowa walked in the room. Trowa went and sat beside Quatre, who was sitting on the other couch, while Heero went to stand next to Duo, who still had his mouth open. Meanwhile, the woman beside Sally kept on mumbling to herself.
"Hey, I remember you now. You're that Gundam pilot from Victoria," the woman said, looking proud of herslef. "Hey, and there are five of you, so you must be the Gundam pilots, Sally, why didn't you tell me?"
Sally groaned while Wufei looked more than a little peeved. Trowa and Quatre just looked shocked, and Duo held Heero back, who was ready to kill. Sally got up, determined to stop the bloodshed she knew could come at any moment.
"Everyone, this is Lucretia Noin. You can call her Noin," Sally began as she pointed to the woman beside her who gave a little wave. "And this is Heero, Duo, Wufei, Trowa, and Quatre, my roomates."
Duo waved and Quatre smiled as Sally pointed to them while Heero and Wufei glared and Trowa looked indifferent.
"Wow, well this is odd. I bet Laird would love to meet them, don't you think so, Sally?" Noin asked.
"Well, um, Luc, the thing is..." Sally mumbled when Duo inturrupted her.
"Who's Laird?" 02 asked.
"Oh, he's my boyfriend. He's a soldier."
"Really. Well, I guess he could come see us. I mean, Sally seems to trust you so I guess we can," Quatre stated, looking at the other pilots.
"Great. I'll call him. Where's the phone?"
"We don't have one, onna." Wufei grunted.
"Alright, I guess I'l use my cell," she answered as she went outside to call him.
"Duo," he stated softly.
"Oh, hey Heero. Something wrong?"
"Hn."
"You're worried about Noin, aren't you? Well, don't be. We'll be fine koi, you know that," Duo said, giving Heero a bright grin of reassurance.
"Hey guys!" they heard Quatre yell from his seat near the window."There's someone here."
Everyone got up and moved to the window where they watched Sally and Noin embrace a tall blonde hairded man who looked strangly familiar.
"Who knows what those onnas have done. We should go out as well," Wufei stated.
"I think you just want to protect Sally in case he's some murderer," Duo answered slyly.
"Well, we must be good hosts and introduce ourselves," Quatre said mildly as he went to open the door. The pilots followed him outside, all at various stages of worry. Heero gave the man a once over. He knew he'd seen this man before. Quatre walked right over to the tall man, stuck his hand out and said, "Hi, I'm Quatre."
"Hello. I am Zechs Marquise," the tall blonde answered.
Shock filtered across all five of the Gundam pilots' faces. Zechs Marquis. The man they had been fighting against for so many months. The Lightning Count of 02. The Enemy.
"Oh, way to break it subtly Zechs," Sally said sarcasticly.
"What," the said man answered,"I decided to be blunt. Come on, Sally, you know me."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Sally replied.
"You two are too alike," Noin said laughingly.
Heero was still in shock as he watched the two women joke around with Zechs. Heero had unconciously moved in front of Duo when they found out who Noin's boyfriend was. He noticed that Trowa was standing beside Quatre and Wufei looked upset. Then Sally turned back to them.
"Sorry about suprising you guys," she said to the five pilots. "Zechs, Noin, and I have been friends for a long time. Don't worry, they won't tell anyone where you live."
She smiled reassuringly as her two friends nodded, agreeing with her statement. The Gundam pilots didn't look impressed.
"A happy lot, aren't you," Noin said sarcasticly. When no one said anything she turned to Zechs. "Maybe we should go."
"That's probably the best thing to do," Zechs answered.
"Fine, fine, get going then. I'll talk to them," Sally replied as she jerked her thumb at the frozen pilots. "I'll call you later Luc."
"Alright. See ya later!" Noin called as she got into Zech's car.
"Bye Luc, bye Laird," Sally called and waved.
"Good-bye Sally," Zechs yelled back as he started the car up and drove away.
"Um, sorry," Sally said meekly as she turned to her angry roomates, all of whom looked like they wanted to kill. Strangly enough, it was the one that invited her to stay that lost it first.
"What were you thinking," Duo thundered. "You brought two of Oz'a top officials to our safe house. I can't hardly call it a safe house anymore since Oz KNOWS WHERE IT IS!" the American pilot stormed out of the room, followed by his Japanese lover. The front door slammed as they left the house. Sally stared at the door for a few moments, until she got up the courage to look at the other three. Wufei looked upset, Trowa looked like a statue, and Quatre had an odd look on his face.
"Sally, why did you invite those two over?" Quatre asked.
"Luc is my best friend and she's been worried about me so she wanted to see who I lived with. Same with Laird, he's been like an older brother to me. Besides, I just wanted some female companionship. I've lived with five guys too long for my sanity. And don't worry, those two won't tell anyone where we live."
"Yeah, right," Wufei snorted.
"No, they won't," Sally shot back. "Besides, you guys, I've got some blackmail. Have ou ever heard of Milliardo Peacecraft?"
"Relena's older brother. I thought he was dead," Quatre questioned, giving Sally an odd look as her face broke into a grin.
"Of course he's not dead. Why today you met him and his lovely girlfriend."
"What!" All three pilots yelled.