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Chapter 5

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"Duo, phone."

Duo looked up from his morning cereals and accepted the cell phone that was handed to him by a grumpy looking Solo. He would most likely stay that way for a while. Running out of coffee in the morning would do that to his brother.

"Yeah." He answered, expecting Quatre since he was the only one he knew who would call his brother to get a hold of him. Wufei might have the number , but the look on his face when Duo had written it down for him made it clear that it would be a beyond freezing day in hell before Wufei called Solo for any reason short of death.

It came as a cold shower when Duo recognized the greeting coming through the phone. He considered himself to be a good friend, but a good friend did not treat old friends like he had. He realized in shame that he had barely thought about his friends from back home in weeks.

"Hey man, what's up?" One of his best friend since the age of eight asked , but didn't wait for a response "Cousin of mine is getting married in your new town, I thought I'd drop by."

Like a light switch being flipped, Duo's grin got impossibly big, relieved that his friend didn't seem cross with him, despite having unintentionally ignoring him for the last couple of weeks. "That would be great, when?"

"This weekend, I know it's short notice , but I wasn't paying attention to where we were going."

"No problem, I'm free." Duo said quickly, not sure f he was lying or not but he would make sure that he wasn't going anywhere.

"I'll let you know when we get there. And Duo… we are going to have words about not answering your phone and shit, got it?"

Duo's shoulders sank. "Sure Howie, I'll see you soon."

He hung up and handed the phone back to his brother.

"So what did he want?" Solo asked, dropping the phone back into his shirt pocket with the frozen food logo on it.

"He's going to drop by this weekend." Duo replied with a happy grin. He could hardly wait to see his friend, someone who knew him and who he didn't have to hide anything from.

"Is he staying the night?" Solo mumbled, rubbing a tired hand over his eyes as he sat down.

"Don't know, didn't ask." Duo answered around the spoon he put in his mouth, milk dribbling down the edge of his lips.

Solo released an annoyed sigh. "Well is he having dinner with us?"

Duo shrugged.

"How long is he staying?"

Duo shrugged again.

Solo fished his phone back out off his pocket and pushed it across the table. "Call him back and check."

He heard Solo mutter something about teenagers as he got to his feet, but he didn't pay him any mind. His best friend was going to come visit and it was going to be great.

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Later that day, Duo didn't know if he wanted to curse out loud or drool until his shirt got wet. Wufei was wearing low hanging pants with ribbons and chains dangling off them. They were so low that his hip bones were poking out. Duo felt like the world was working against him, or maybe Wufei was. How was he going to be able to pretend to be unaffected by Wufei's presence in school when his boyfriend looked like that?

Wufei didn't do more than nod in his direction as he strode past with his friends. He didn't seem to be having any problems pretending that they weren't together. It was all Duo could do not to hurry over to him and wrap himself all around his boyfriend. His eyes landed on the bushy haired girl walking next to Wufei who was looking at him like he was the scum of the universe and Duo kind of felt like it too. They were hiding because of him after all.

"Are you seriously going to be friends with Chang?" Brian asked, glancing over at the group of dark clad people walking away.

Duo looked away, turning back to his locker. "Yeah, why not?"

"Besides that he's a freak? He's a fag man, a total fag."

Duo had on the tip of his tongue to bark out that so was he so Brian should just shut the fuck up. But he was a coward. He didn't want people to know. He didn't want them to treat him differently.

Instead he just shrugged. "Being friends with someone who's gay doesn't make you gay."

"It's still weird." The wide shouldered boy grumbled, giving the distant group a sour look, like he was tasting something bad.

The disapproval and the pointless, narrow minded aggression stabbed him like a knife. How could anyone disapprove of something that was so right? The injustice of it all burned inside of him and Duo just wanted to see Wufei. He had to see him.

Looking away from Brian he mumbled something that might have been 'see you later' but might as well have been something on the line of ''fuck you loser' if you listened carefully. He put a hand in the pocket of his jacket as he started walking. With his eyes straight forward, his fingers blindly found the smooth shape of a hair band. It was one of Wufei's that Duo had… borrowed. He hadn't really known why he had taken it in the first place, but he had been carrying it around for a while now and he found that he liked having it with him. He would twist it around his ring finger and feel like he belonged to someone, that he was Wufei's.

With steps that suddenly felt lighter he walked past the black clad group. Making a show out of stepping out of the way for a couple of girls, he pretended to accidently bumping into Wufei. He had wanted to stroke a hand down Wufei's side to get to touch one of the smooth hip bones but he didn't have the guts to do it, instead he just brushed against his arm. Without looking back he continued towards the stair case, hoping Wufei would get the hint and follow him.

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"What's up with Maxwell anyway?" Brian asked, giving Duo's back a strange look.

Quatre shrugged, pretending to be really interested in Simon's rant about the 'Stink ass Bitch' that he had so charmingly named one of their teachers. He silently cursed Duo's complete lack of discretion where he couldn't even sneak off without looking suspicious, the guy was just the worst actor in the world and he couldn't lie worth shit. It sure didn't help that Chang then started stalking him like a ghost down the corridor. He felt more than a little sorry for Duo. Not only because of the gay thing. because he wouldn't wish that curse on anyone. but also for having the bad taste to get stuck in the net of someone like Wufei Chang. Duo was new here and he hadn't been here the last few years and experienced the evolution of that evil. And the guy was evil, Quatre knew. Chang had beaten up enough of his friends to prove that. Duo might not take the Satanist thing seriously, but Quatre himself had overheard a conversation between Chang and a few of his friends last year where they had been talking about how they were going to butcher some animal during the full moon. They had been laughing about it like it was one big joke and he had made damned sure to stay as far away from those freaks as he could from there on.

He glanced over at Brian as the other guy once again brought up Duo and his sudden friendship with Wufei. He seemed to think the whole thing was insulting to their gang of friends and just wouldn't stop talking about it. Quatre had a very bad feeling about it and what it might lead to.

He let his eyes wander over the rest of his friends hanging out with them, trying to take in their reactions. Heero and Tim seemed like they couldn't care less while Simon seemed to think that the whole thing was funny and started making jokes about Duo mistaking the 'thing' for a girl. Quatre listened with a cold heart to a few more insulting lines about Duo before the subject moved on to something else.

He glanced down at his watch. Duo had been gone for twenty minutes now and the next class started in ten minutes.

The last time Duo had disappeared like this he had missed class all together. Maybe that was part of Chang's plan? To slowly destroy Duo's life until he was one of them. No, he wouldn't allow something like that. He had to find his friend and be the voice of reason. Friends were there for each other and saved them from themselves and people out to do them harm. But the question was how he was going to find him. The school was big and he didn't have much time.

There was only one thing to do. He had to go to the most logical source for information.

Leaving the safety of his circle of friends to find Chang's minions was simply terrifying, but he did it. Quatre swallowed nervously as he carefully turned his steps towards the group of gloomily dressed people over by the bench that was conveniently enough nick named "The goth bench."

A tall boy in a striped shirt stood with his back towards him, listening to two of the girls who were arguing over something.

"E- excuse me." Quatre said

The tall boy slowly turned slowly towards him, looking down at him in disinterest. "Yes?" Half his face was hidden by his long bangs that were hanging almost all the way down to his chin.

Quatre licked his lips as he nervously glanced over at the rest of the group who were now eying him curiously. They didn't appear hostile, but that might as well change fast.

God, these people were so fucking scary.

"I- um, was just wondering if anyone had seen Duo?" He asked.

The boy hilted his head. "Who?"

Cold sweat was making its way down Quatre's back. Damn, he did not want to be here. He wanted to turn around and run as fast as he could. These people might not be as bad as Chang, but they were all, most likely, Satanists and druggies and- and god knows what! But he had to find Duo. He took a deep breath. "Duo Maxwell, Chang's boyfriend."

The boy just stared down at him with his only visible eye.

Quare felt like a bug about to be squashed.

A blue haired girl sitting on top of the backrest of the bench sighed and threw a small white plushie at the tall boy's head. It bounced comically against his hair without dissrupting it. "Trowa, for gods sake stop teasing him!"

A small, barely there smile twitched on the boy's lips. "Sorry little one, I just couldn't help myself."

Quatre squirmed uneasily, not knowing how to respond.

Trowa curled a finger, motioned him to follow. " Come on. I'll take you to him." He said, walking past Quatre down the corridor and over towards the stair case. Quatre followed him nervously as they started climbing. Further and further up the stairs.

The sound of people were growing distant thigher they got and Quatre found his panic rising. Oh god, the guy was going to kill him. There were no witnesses around, no place to run. No one knew where he was. The guy was going to throw him off the roof and-

"Wufei!" Trowa called out, stopping to look up to a platform on top of the elevator shaft.

Silence, then a face heavy with makeup looked over the edge of the roof. "What?" Wufei asked, sounding more than a little annoyed.

"If you could rip yourself away for a second, your boy toy has someone looking for him." Trowa said, flicking his head towards the squirming Quatre standing a few steps below.

Wufei sighed and disappeared again. Then there was the sound of a few more kisses, that Quatre listened to in awkward silence next to the boy in the stripped sweater who seemed totally undisturbed by the situation.

Duo looked a little too happy and his eyes were shiny when he climbed down to the stairs. For a second he wondered if Chang had managed to talk Duo in to taking drugs.

"We need to get to class." Quatre said weakly, inching away from the teen whose one eye visable was still watching him closely.

"Yeah, sure." Duo said brightly as if he hadn't heard a word he said. His eyes stuck on his boyfriend who was sitting on the platform, legs and chains dangling over the edge.

What followed was an awkward retreat where Duo tried to walk down the stairs backwards so he wouldn't have to look away from his boyfriend.

"Are you all right?" Quatre asked worriedly when they reached the second floor with the door closed behind them and they were finally out of hearing.

"Great, I'm great, never better." Duo answered a bit too quickly, a big goofy grin spread over his face.

Quatre decided that if it wasn't so terrifying to see, it would have been kind of… cute.

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Wufei had not been pleased when Winner had come along and interrupted his Duo-moment. They didn't get enough time together as it was, not between Duo's baseball, his karate classes, family and random friends wanting attention. Wednesdays were one of the few days when they usually didn't have anything planned and when they made a habit of spending time together. They met up after school and from there they would spend more or less the rest of the day together. Since Duo always was faster out the door, he had taken to waiting for him a few streets away. It was just easier that way. People were always going to talk, but the less they saw, the less they had to talk about. Wufei didn't particularly care. It made no difference to him in the long run since he deliberately attracted so much hostile attention with the way he acted and the way he dressed. In a way, he welcomed it as much as he hated it. The alternative would be to have people talking behind his back and that was one thing he could not stand. He would rather be given the chance to defend himself. Not that he enjoyed the fights, not really. He just considered it to be a more honest and straightforward way to take care of narrow-minded idiots.

So far their 'friendship' had not resulted in any violence, but Wufei considered it to be just a matter of time. The blow up would come and when it did, he hoped he would be able to keep his boyfriend out of it. Because while Duo was pretty big and had lots of muscles, Wufei had come to learn that he was not a fighter. He was more the type to run and hide than to be forced to hurt someone, or be hurt for that matter. He wondered if he should teach Duo some self defense, just so that he would have something to fall back on when shit hit the fan. It might be a good idea, if Duo was up for it.

He was brought out of his mussing as he saw a familiar tall shape round the corner with long legged steps.

He took a quick look around as Duo approached, making sure that no one was looking their way before turning his face up to receive a soft kiss.

"Had a good day?" Wufei asked, running a hand down his boyfriend's thick winter jacket. He kind of wanted to do more but it would be just as well if he didn't. They didn't want to be seen after all, plus that Duo seemed to have this thing about touching that Wufei couldn't get a hang of. It was like it was okay for him to touch Duo, but it was never the other way around. With the exception of one single hug, Duo had never taken the first step. He never really reached out for him. Wufei tried not to think about it too much, hoping that Duo was just shy, hoping that it wasn't because of him.

Duo shrugged with a sigh. "It was okay, just long."

Wufei made an agreeing noise. Aside from their little escape up on top of the elevator shaft, not much had been worth mentioning that day. Just another day, in a long line of others filled with classes and bored people waiting for the weekend.

Arms brushing lightly they started walking, heading towards Duo's apartment. They usually ended up there since Solo worked until late and they had the place to themselves. Besides, Wufei's family was nosy and he didn't want them asking stupid questions and embarrassing him.

"Oh, I forgot to mention it." Duo spoke up suddenly after walking a few blocks. "A friend of mine from back home is coming to visit on Friday."

"Oh?" Wufei flicking the collar of his coat up to protect himself from the cold wind. This damned winter just felt like it was giong to last forever and he could hardly wait for spring.

Duo grinned. "Yeah, he's a really nice guy. We've known each other forever and we were on the same basketball team for years."

Wufei glanced up at his happy looking boyfriend, liking the way his eyes light up.

"He's got a cousin here in town somewhere who's getting married so he's going to get away from most of it and hang with me instead."

"He'll be staying with you?" Wufei asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

Duo nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah the wedding is on Saturday and his parents are staying with his cousin and the rest of the family so it was just as well. The house was going to be pretty crowded."

Wufei tried not to think about how the couch in the living room was too short to have a basket ball player sleeping on it. There better be an air mattress around there somewhere or Wufei would not be pleased. Because if that guy ended up sharing Duo's bed…

Wufei sank his chin in deep under his collar, glaring down at the snow covered street. It seemed horribly unfair that some other guy would get to do something that he had never done. There better be an air mattress.

"It's going to great to see him again and catch up, I haven't seen him forever. He's a totally cool guy, you're going to like him, I swear. It's like impossible not to like him."

Wufei held his tongue, not at all looking forward to meeting Duo's friend. He already didn't like him. He listened to Duo talk for a while and when he finally seemed to run out of great things to say about this amazing guy who was going to be staying with him, Wufei took the chance to change the subject.

"It's my birthday next week. You'll come to the party right?"

Duo's whole body seemed to falter before taking a long step to catch up. "Sure." He said softly, his voice hesitating for a moment before going on. "So what do you want for your birthday?"

With a jolt, Wufei realized that he was on very thin ice here. Money was a very sensitive subject to Duo, something that Wufei had only started to understand recently. Wufei never gave money much thought while it seemed to be on Duo's mind all the time. So what could he wish for that wouldn't cost too much money but didn't make Duo feel like he was being cheap because hurting a guys pride like that would be even worse than ruining him financially.

"I don't know." Wufei answered lamely, unable to come up with anything on the spot. "I'll think about it."

Duo nodded, eyes on his new leather boots that had probably cost everything his brother had to give.

They continued on, side by side, heads both filled with incoming problems.

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A/N

Sorry it was so short, but summer is coming and as soon as I get time off from work, my writing should go faster.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has sent me reviews and PM's. You have all been a great help to me this spring when I was so constantly tired that I could barely even think of writing after long stressful days at work. To come home and find your words have been a ray of light for me.

Shinigami-chan – Hehe, no they will not be kind to Duo if they decide that Duo is treating their friend wrong. Duo better watch his steps from now on because there are a lot of things coming for him. suicidal-sinner – 3-4 times? Oh Now I really have to get a move on before you grow hopelessly bored of reading this story. Must not let that happen, must write new chapters. Stratagirl – Glad you like it honey and I promise there will be a lot more of the silly sweet stuff in the future. A lot more ;) And now I might have to let the Goth store woman have a second appearance. Caldyphen – I think I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about the story most of all, for obvious reasons. I wonder if I will manage to stumble over more similarities along the way. craftylily – Yay! Glad you liked it, I'm going to work a bit more on the misunderstandings because there will be a lot more of them. It's just to much fun not to :) HybridPlaything – Did you? Oh you are evil and I adore you. Just for you I'm going to try to work in some kind of similar situation again somewhere. Carla – Believe me, I will never kill my boys off and I never write unhappy endings so no worries. You are very right in thinking, as you said "They've simply decided that Jock Evil which is every bit as biggoted as a jock thinking Goth Evil" I only disagree about Duo, Wufei and Hilde being open-minded because they really are not. They are just as dumb and self-centered as the rest of them, just like teenagers in general :D That might even be my "message" for the whole thing, that no matter who you are, there are no normal people because everyone is a fucking idiot… Or something like that :) P. Cythera - -evil grin- Oh it's going to take a while so Tiddy to see that Duo isn't the bastard she thinks he is, especially since she will get so much evidence supporting her theory. ;) redfairy326 – Glad to hear it, I'm just sorry you had to wait so long :P Hopefully it won't take as long to the next one. Jazzy- Thank you :D Always nice to see your name here. Expect more then a few clouds ahead for them because I do love to torture them. Chicookie – Mahahaha! I think making you late for work is one of my new goals in life ;) Now I really have to make the next chapter a long one, just to make sure you get stuck. Glad to hear you are on Tiddy's side in this because I'm getting my inspiration for her character from myself XD Onidra – Thank you, I'm going to try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. shinigamiinochi – Oooh, so you like the tall submissive, do you? Good for you, there will be a lot of that further along, I promise ;)LionsChild – Thank you :D Happy you enjoyed it. Tiddy will keep on making things interesting but Duos insecurity and Wufei's self-confidence are going to get a bit scrambled soon enough. All for fun.