LaF04: G’Day To YOU, Mate

Somewhere in the Outback:

A sleazy little bar full of cut-throat types and some real rough&tumble Aussies, as well as the local yokels, who didn’t look like someone you wanted to mess with, either. Foster’s cans flowed freely (AN: Am I going for stereotypes or what? Sorry, it’s been a while since I saw Crocodile Dundee). In the corner, Duo spoke with a woman in very very tight clothing.

“You can’t be serious, Eleanor!” he exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, Duo, I just don’t think it’s working out,” she said, tilting her empty, platinum dyed head.

“Why not?!”

“Well… I really do like you, Duo,” she said, twisting her fingers together.

“But?” he prompted.

“But I don’t know if I LOVE you.”

Duo’s voice was hoarse when he spoke again. “That hurts, El.”

“I’m sorry, Duo. You’re still really cute though. Maybe we can still get together sometime, huh?” she kissed him lightly on the cheek and left. Duo followed her with his eyes as he saw her sit on some burly guy’s lap. Dejected, he went back to the table where his friends were sitting, quite calmly, on the covered deck area. He sat and let his head fall forward and hit the table, making the glasses rattle. He didn’t bother to pick it back up.

“The Australian slut finally dump you for somewhere with a bigger beer can?” Wufei said.

“I don’t get it,” Duo put his head on his arms so he could see and talk. “I thought she really liked me.”

“Then you are a fool, Maxwell,” Wufei stated simply.

“Thanks a lot Wufei. You always know just how to mend a broken heart. You know- those Foster’s cans aren’t THAT much bigger.”

“Give it up, Duo. She wasn’t good for you anyway,” Trowa said, never looking away from his newspaper.

Heero sat quietly with his own glass (AN: they’re about 19 here. So yes, they’re allowed to drink, much to Heero’s obvious delight here…). Broken hearts… Was that what he had right now? Over Andria?

“Are you ok, Heero?” Quatre asked, putting down his own piece of the newspaper.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You’ve changed, man,” Duo said, looking at him oddly. “Time was, you would’a answered with one of those ‘Hn’ grunting noise things. What did they do to you there?”

‘They gave me the ability to feel real pain,’ Heero thought to himself, not answering Duo.

“I think it’s time to head home,” Quatre said, folding up the newspaper. The group agreed and they headed back to the residence.

Relena, Hilde, and the Dames arrived at the Winner residence and were welcomed by the staff. Ms. Darlian was always welcome in Quatre’s home. He was out with his friends right now, but would hopefully be returning soon if she cared to wait.

Relena dropped her things in the room given her and then went to pace in Quatre’s office. A very worried Hilde accompanied her, trying to get her lady to stop growling.

The Dames were left to amuse themselves. They spent several minutes staring at everything in the house. It was so HUGE. And so LAVISH. Kyla, who was just getting over a very small cold she had caught in Europe, went to lie down somewhere.

She couldn’t find anyone to help her find a place to do so, so she just stumbled in the general direction she had seen Relena go. She finally found a hallway that seemed to be lined with bedrooms and she chose one decorated in calming, dark colors with large windows that looked onto the garden. She completely didn’t notice the little wooden plaque hanging on the door featuring a chibi-style, braided little figure giving her the peace-sign.

The GW boys returned to the residence, Heero going straight to his teeny-weeny closet-sized office that Quatre had allowed him to use. It made him feel a little more ‘normal’ to be working in a small, bare area on his laptop. (AN: remember, this is Heero’s messed-up idea of normal, poor guy.) The other four decided to head for their rooms.

“My poor, poor, heart,” Duo moaned pitiably. “Will I ever find it possible to love another?”

“You are WEAK, Duo,” Wufei said irritably as they walked through the residence. “You are a Gundam Pilot. You do not need women in your life.”

“Ah, but my friend, then where am I to take solace in this cruel, cruel world we live?”

A maid tried to approach Quatre, but he waved her away. “Not today, Vivian, I want to relax today.”

“Yes, master Quatre,” she curtsied. “but-“

“it can wait.”

Duo and Wufei continued to bicker all the way to their rooms. Trowa simply pulled out the newspaper again. Quatre tried desperately to get them to stop.

They came to Duo’s room, a little plaque of a caricature of himself proclaiming it thusly. “-Well so there, Wufei!” Duo stuck his tongue out, not looking too much different from the plaque. He opened the door and froze.

“Duo? Duo are you ok?”

Lying on his bed, was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She was like some sort of serene Greek goddess.

“Duo?”

“Sorry, guys, I have a date with destiny!” he proclaimed, shutting the door quickly. Once inside, he turned to the woman on the bed. She really was beautiful. And she was on HIS bed. He decided to casually pick up a magazine and sit on the other side of the double bed pretending to read so he’d be there when she woke up.

The noises woke her. She stirred. Kyla’s eyes opened briefly as she rolled over. She barely registered the figure dressed in black, hastily opening a magazine as she closed them again. Wait a minute. Her eyes flashed open. Instantly, she was in a defensive pose.

“Why, hello there, gorgeous,” Duo said smoothly.

One good kick launched him off the bed and into a chair. Kyla stayed in her ready position. “Who are you and what are you doing in the Winner residence?”

“Hey, was that really necessary,” Duo said, straightening himself out and rubbing his sore parts. “I’m not trying hurt you- and besides, you’re in MY room.”

Kyla froze. Uh oh… “I’m really terribly, terribly, sorry. I didn’t mean anything-“

“Hey, hey, it’s ok,” Duo went back to Casanova mode. “Why don’t you just relax?”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll just be going now-“

“hey! I don’t even know your name! And what are YOU doing here?” he grabbed her arm before she could go anywhere.

Kyla studied his face. “I know you.”

“You look familiar too,” Duo frowned, trying to remember.

“Hang on,” she pushed him backwards so he landed on the bed.

“Woah! Now this is more like it!”

“Shut up,” she climbed around behind him so she could look at him upside down. “It IS you!”

“Hey- you’re that girl!” Duo exclaimed.

“So you’re… Duplo… Duomo… umm…” Kyla tried to remember the name.

“Duo. Maxwell. I don’t believe we’ve ever been formally introduced.”

“Duo, then,” she said, shaking his hand. She liked the name. It was different. “I’m Kyla Addison.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you Kyla.”

“Likewise.”

“Has he got- a girl in there?!”

“But he just got dumped an hour ago!”

“Duo works fast.”

“That is because Duo has no honor. It is injustice!”

“Oh shut up, Wufei…”

“Make me, Barton.”

“Guys! I can’t hear!”

Estelle, toweling her hair after a shower, though fully dressed, walked past the hallway. She backed up to have a look. Three young guys her age trying to listen at someone’s door. “Can I help you?” she asked.

All three pilots froze. They turned slowly. Quatre’s heart began to thump. She was beautiful.

“It’s your house, Quatre,” Trowa and Wufei pushed him forward, Duo forgotten.

Quatre couldn’t speak. How could they not be affected by her radiance? Wufei poked him. “I- I live here.”

“Oh, so you must be Quatre Winner,” Estelle smiled, extending her hand, both to help him up and to shake. “I’m Estelle Brownlow.”

“N- Nice to meet you, Estelle,” Quatre got up shakily.

Trowa and Wufei exchanged glances. What was wrong with Quatre?

“Do you make a habit of listening to people’s doors?”

“Pardon?” Quatre was lost looking into her brilliant green eyes.

“I said do you make it a habit of listenting at people’s doors?” she said again.

“Huh?” The question sunk in. Quatre’s cheeks turned pink. “Uh- uh- uh-“

“May I ask what you’re doing here, Miss?” Trowa said from the floor.

“I’m here with Ms. Relena- Oh, she’ll be so glad that you’re home,” Estelle said happily. Quatre detected a slight accent there… she spoke so well… and she carried herself so well… Wait a moment.

Three jaws dropped again. “R- Relena?”

“Yes, Ms. Darlian is here to speak with you, Mr. Winner-“

“please, call me Quatre,” Quatre was lost again, looking at goldenness of her hair…

Wufei stood and banged loudly on the door. “MAXWELL! WE HAVE A CRISIS!”

Dup angrily opened the door. “What, Wufei? Do you MIND? I was just-“

“Relena’s here!” Trowa told him.

Duo went a few shades paler than normal. “Where is he?”

“We don’t know. But we have to get to her before she finds him. We owe him that.” Trowa said, speaking quickly.

“So let’s go-“ Duo began.

Kyla peeked out around Duo. “Um, hi. Duo what’s-?”

“Kyla?” Estelle blinked.

“Estelle? Oh my god- it is SO not what it looks like! I swear I didn’t know!” Kyla could just imagine what her friends would say…

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Wufei cried, grabbing Quatre and heading out at a run.

“Bye, Estelle! See you later!” Quatre called back gleefully.

“Sorry, Kyla gotta run!” Duo and Trowa took off.

“Where do you think they’re going?”

“Let’s find out, shall we?”

At a main hallway, the pilots stopped. Quatre was still waving dumbly back the way they had come. The others looked at him in disgust.

“Alright, she wants to speak with Quatre, so I’ll take him to Relena,” Trowa said, taking charge. “Duo, you and Wufei go find Heero. We’ll make contact in twenty minutes give or take. Got it?” They split up.

Estelle and Kyla entered the hallway as they left. “Hey! Duo!” Kyla called.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered.

“New girlfriend?” Wufei said dryly.

“I can’t stop Kyla, I’m sorry!”

Kyla and Estelle overtook them. “What’s wrong? Maybe we can help.”

“You can help by staying out of our way, weak woman!” Wufei said, blocking Kyla and pushing her against the wall.

“how dare you!” she exclaimed. “No one calls any of US weak!”

Estelle blocked their path. “You’re going to apologize for that.”

“I do not need to apologize!” Wufei said angrily. “You are nothing but weak women. You cannot possibl- ee! Ow!” Estelle had him in some kind of complicated headlock that really did look painful.

“Woah,” Duo stopped, backing off a little. “Nice girlies…”

“What’s going on here?” Heero stood at the end of the hallway. The noise had disturbed him. “Kyla? Estelle?”

“Heero!” Kyla said joyfully, running to give him a friendly hug. For some reason, jealousy washed over Duo. He fought to swallow it. “How did you get here?”

“Heero!” Estelle loosened up on Wufei. “Wonderful to see you again! How are you?”

“Uh, I’m ok,” he said, still very startled.

“How do you weak wom- ow! I mean, uh, just, women, know Heero?” Wufei said hesitantly.

“They lived at the Keep,” Heero said. “They’re my friends. Have- have you found Relena yet?” he asked Kyla, not sure what he wanted the answer to be.

“Oh, she’s here,” Estelle said.

“That’s what we were coming to find you for,” Duo said less than helpfully. “Heero? Heero?”

Hilde had removed all sharp and pointy objects from Relena’s reach. She didn’t quite trust her mistress that much. Relena was still pacing, though she had a semblance of control now.

“I’ll kill Quatre… No, wait, I CAN’T kill him that would go against my morals… but what’s for my morals these days?… I’ll KILL Quatre for not telling me…”

A knock came at the door and Trowa entered, steering in a dreamy-eyed Quatre.

“QUATRE RABERBA WINNER!” Relena shouted.

Quatre’s little bubble burst very suddenly. “Uh, Relena?”

“WHY DID YOU NOT NOTIFY ME IMMEDIATELY?!”

“Huh? What?” Quatre cringed with each syllable.

“He’s all yours…” Trowa muttered, quickly slipping off to the side with Hilde.

“Relena what are you-“

“YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WELL WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!”

It dawned on Quatre. “You mean about Heero?”

“YES, I MEAN ABOUT HEERO!” Relena took a few deep breaths. Finally. She had been wanting to really yell at someone like that for months. It was very therapeutic. “I’m sorry for yelling, Quatre, thank you. But why didn’t you tell me when you found Heero?”

“Uh…” Quatre had no answer for this. He looked to Trowa and Hilde. They backed away, hands in the air. No help there. “Because… he… is… in… a coma,” he said slowly. ‘No! Stupid Quatre! Stupid!’ “Yes, he was injured when we found him and he’s been in a coma…” ‘Quatre, you fool!’

Trowa smacked himself in the forehead. ‘Quatre you are so bad at lying…’

But it worked. Relena gasped. “Oh no! Heero! Is he alright? Quatre is he ok? Can I see him?”

“Uh, no. He’s, um, in a very delicate state right now,” Quatre started making for the door. “In fact Trowa and I were just going to see about that- Bye!” he darted out, Trowa wasting no time in following. “We are so screwed!” he wailed as they ran.

“No, you are screwed,” Trowa said sensibly.

“Shut up.”

“What?” Heero was VERY confused.

“Quatre stupidly told Relena that you’re in a coma,” Trowa explained.

“Right…” Duo nodded and smiled. “Um, no. Heero, just go talk to her.”

“No- no- I can’t!”

“Why not?” Kyla said. She and Estelle were a little lost. “You know Relena? She’s nice. Why can’t you just talk to her?”

“Because Heero and Relena have- A PAST,” Duo said in a weird voice.

“A past?” Kyla blinked, looking at Heero.

“Long story,” he tried to fend her off.

“No, Heero, what is this? Is she an old girlfriend?” Kyla asked.

“not exactly…”

“You could have said something. You knew this whole time that we would someday meet her, didn’t you?” she accused. “Does Andria know?”

“No…”

Duo gave a whistle. “Heero you are so screwed.”

“You’re not helping again, Duo,” Heero glared at him.

“Come on,” Kyla Heero’s hand. “I can’t believe you’ve done this. You’re going to go talk to both of them right now.”

“no!” Heero tried to yank his hand away but couldn’t. Kyla was strong.

“yes! You can’t do this, Heero! It isn’t right!” she held firm.

Estelle finally let Wufei go. He fell to his knees, able to breath freely again. “You better do it, Heero. She’s good friends with both of them. She’ll kill you if you hurt either one.”

Heero looked at all the friends surrounding him. What else could he do? “Alright,” he gave in.

__________________________________

Isabel, Raisa and Andria were relaxing on the lawn.

“This is the life, eh, muchachas?” Isabel sighed.

“Si,” they agreed.

Loud noises came from inside. They turned to see what was up. “Sounds like someone’s dying in there.”

“Yeah, but who?”

“C’mon we better go check it out.”

They entered the building and immediately came upon our crew that’s been wandering the hallways for the last… 2, 3 chapters?

“Heero!” Andria cried happily. She pushed past everyone else to run to him. “Heero, how did you get here? I thought I’d never see you again!” she took his hands. He let her, refusing to look at her. She paused. “Heero? Heero, what’s wrong?”

“I’m… sorry, Andria.”

“Heero, look at me,” she tilted his face up with her finger. His eyes were so, so sad. “What’s wrong?”

Trowa nudged Duo, nodding his head to indicate that they should leave. Duo scowled but nodded agreement. He tapped Wufei on the shoulder. All three of them picked up Quatre and left. Kyla, Estelle, Raisa and Isabel quickly decided to follow.

In another room, far, far away from all explosions, the GW pilots put down Quatre. (AN: Hah hah. You thought I was going to let you see what happens between Heero and Andria. I love being the author- you get to be evil like this. I promise it’ll happen soon, don’t worry!”

“I just hope he comes out of that alive.” Duo said.

“Quatre?” Trowa noticed that Quatre was staring at something down that hallway. “Quatre are you- ok?” he stared, too.

“What are you doing here?” Duo exclaimed when he saw the girls entering the room.

“These are my friends,” Kyla said indicating the other three. “Looks like you have friends as well, Duo.”

“Was there ever any doubt?”

“I dounbt that fact every day,” Wufei said dryly.

“Shut up, Wufei!” Duo knocked him on the head.

“That is injustice, Maxwell!”

“Bite me.”

“INJUSTICE!”

“Woah, woah- muchachos, let’s calm down here!” Isabel stepped between them. “I don’t know about you, but where we come from, you fight your enemies only.”

“Get off me, weak woman!” Wufei raged.

Isabel wasted no time. She punched him in the jaw. He fell to the ground, not expecting it. “For such a muchacho caliente llameante, you’re incredibly stupid,” she said over his still form.

Kyla snorted. Duo looked up at the sound. She was absolutely beautiful. He even forgot to ask what that meant.

Quatre, too, was staring, but at Estelle. Now SHE was incredibly beautiful.

“Um…” Raisa looked around the group. Wasn’t anyone going to do anything but stare at each- oth- er- oh boy. She had just caught sight of a very, very handsome boy with very, very long bangs.

“Um is everyone feeling ok?” Kyla was getting some hectic hormone vibes. “Duo, um, who are your friends?”

Duo blinked rapidly. She was speaking to him. Why hadn’t he noticed the way her hair sparkled before? “Uh, well that’s Quatre looking like an idiot, and Bang Boy over there is Trowa,” Glare from Trowa. “And that’s Wu-man lying on the floor.”

Somehow, this new injustice (name-calling) roused Wufei. “INJUSTICE! I will kill you, Maxwell!”

Trowa moved to stop him, but Isabel got there first. She took Wufei’s face in her hands and kissed him. Deeply. And for quite a while. The others, every single one of them, stared. Duo grabbed Quatre’s wrist so he could read the watch.

When she finally released a stunned Wufei, Isabel looked very satisfied with herself. “You’re a good kisser, Wu-man. Maybe I’ll see you later, hmm?” she strode off happily.

Wufei blinked after her dazedly. “She knows my name…”

Duo did a double take. “Since when is it ok to call you Wu-man?”

“It’s not.” Wufei kicked Duo’s feet out from under him and ran after Isabel.

Kyla neatly caught Duo. “I’m sorry, she’s um, well,” she looked to her friends. “She IS like that, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Estelle said dryly. “I think we’ve had enough of this for one afternoon. I crave tea.”

“Tea? We have tea!” Quatre piped up. “Lots of it! Anyway you want it! Here, let me get you some,” he took her arm and led her off.

“I think Quatre’s got a crush,” Duo remarked.

“A crush?” Trowa blinked.

“Yeh, you know. A crush. An initial infatuation.” Duo tried to explain. He was receiving a blank look. He sighed. Why did he have to be stuck with a bunch of guys who had spent their entire lives in battle and had no real sense of people? “He LIKES her.”

“Well that’s obvious.”

“No, he LIKES her, likes her.”

“I don’t understand you, Duo.”

Duo gave up. “Don’t worry about it.”

Kyla and Raisa had gone a little pink during this conversation. Eh heh… crushes? Who had crushes? Not them!

“I could go for some food, how about you girls?”

“Sure!” Kyla said immediately. He was so smooth… and that braid was sexy… she had TOUCHED him just now.

“I’ll come,” Trowa shrugged.

“me, too!” Raisa said quickly.

“It’s settled then,” Duo gave both girls an odd look. “Food it is.”