Warnings for this chapter: Can't think of anything.. Uhh. Allusion to bestiality? (though it wasn't, they're humans underneath, but... uhhhh... damn.)
(merde is french for shit ;P someone has a potty mouth... )

A bird was singing somewhere over his head, and he could hear leaves rustling softly all around. A cool breeze was tickling his skin, on his ribs and belly, and Trowa frowned a little. He was naked...?

Slowly, sleep left him. He opened an eye, curious. He was resting on his side, in a sort of green room made of bushes for walls and trees for roof, and of soft grass under him. He felt good there, at ease...

He closed his eyes again, squirmed slightly to burrow a little tighter against the warm presence at his back.

And then, an arm moved, tightened its hold around his waist, and he tensed up.

"Awake?" asked a soft, low whisper. He could feel the words against his nape.

Trowa's eyes widened. There was a warm, masculine body spooning him. He wondered if maybe he should jump.

"It's Heero, stupid," the Japanese boy added, his tone somewhat amused.

Trowa stopped breathing. Everything was coming back, a jumbled mess of memories. The transformation, his wolf body, the exploration of the forest, the other wolf, that he had known, somewhat, to be Heero; the chase, and then...

There the memories got jumbled and blurry again... but more because they were more about feelings than about facts.

The European squirmed a little to try and catch a glimpse of his comrade. Heero's breath hitched for a second, then he tightened his hold on Trowa's waist.

"Careful," he advised in a slightly strangled voice. Some sparkles of that particular heat were awakening. Cautiously, the Japanese boy moved to leave some space between his groin and his comrade's butt.

"Sorry," Trowa whispered, and Heero saw his nape turn pink.

Trowa managed to twist around enough so that his upper body was nearly flat on the ground, and looked at the other boy. Heero leaned over him, propped up on an elbow, and they stared at each other in silence.

"How do you feel?" the messy-haired boy finally asked, breaking the weird silence that had fallen between them.

"M-mm. Very good..." the acrobat answered pensively, sounding slightly preoccupied.

"Too good?" Heero continued, arching an eyebrow.

Trowa didn't answer right away, searching for words that had deserted him. He was trying to sort his memories of the previous night, but it wasn't easy. He had... They had... Heero and him...

"I just have trouble believing that... This could have happened, just like that..."

"I'm sorry," answered the blue-eyed teen. "From what I gathered, I was... in heat the night before."

"That's what I thought," Trowa shot back, sarcastically.

"Did I... are you in any pain?"

Trowa took his time to answer, searching for the slightest twinge of that overwhelming pain that had engulfed him for so long. But the soreness he found was, strangely, not a bad pain at all. It was... just proof that he was still alive.

"No, I'm not." He didn't react to the sigh of relief that passed Heero's lips.

Trowa closed his eyes and relaxed. It was calm here; he liked it. Like a small corner out of the way of the world, out of the ugliness of the war... Beautiful, pacific, intact. He was safe in this clearing. Even the presence of the other teen wasn't an intrusion, wasn't a problem.

The smell of fresh grass was rising all around him, the potent scent of the earth below, the traces left by small rodents which had crossed the clearing soon before their arrival... The scent of his comrade. Alive, ever-changing, those changes small but captivating because they told him so much... He couldn't really understand what it said consciously, but somewhere in his head the unsorted information formed a very precise feeling, a strange awareness.

But that was only Heero's personal scent. There were other smells, in layers around it. Amongst all, the strongest was the one that had taken him by surprise the night before, the one that had invaded his brain and his senses... Luckily, it was a dead scent, no longer active. There were only traces left and they didn't truly affect him, or barely, like an echo. Heero wasn't emitting it any longer; it was only remnants. Over this one scent, Trowa's own scent, as human and as wolf, was that of another person... A predator, but not a wolf... One that he remembered from his illness, at his side, even though he hadn't been in any state to analyze what his senses sent him back then.

He decided to analyze it now.

"Is that Wufei I smell on you?" Trowa asked after having smelled Heero's hands for a few seconds; his expression that of pure perplexity.

Heero gave him an awkward little smile.

"... No?" Trowa said finally, trying to keep stoic.

"Yes."

The European teen fell back in the grass and stared at the top of the trees, shocked more than he liked to admit.

".. Wufei?"

"Yes."

"... Oh. Ah."

But no one else, the scents would have told him. That was something at least.

They left let a semi-comfortable silence fall on the clearing for a few minutes.

"Are you alright, Trowa? Generally, I mean."

"... Physically or mentally?"

"Both."

"Physically... I'm fine. I'm very fine. Especially knowing that I spent... one week? two weeks in the throes of agony?"

Heero winced at remembering those atrocious times, hopefully finished for good.

"How do you feel now?"

Trowa gave a tiny sigh, which didn't go unnoticed by his comrade. Heero frowned. Trowa seemed to be disappointed not to feel worse, not to think he was cursed. It was to the point Heero wondered if he didn't have a martyr complex somewhere.

"Very good. It's as if the world is sharper, cleaner... Brand new. And I can smell and hear things... My body is aching in some places, but it's nothing exercise wouldn't cure. It's not a bad aches, you know...?"

Heero nodded. "Mentally?"

The ex-mercenary took a few minutes to analyze that question. It was surprising, but... he felt good. And the contact with his.../pack leader/ wasn't triggering any of the landmines he knew were there, that he usually could nearly feel waiting every time he was intimately close to someone. Hell, they were naked and Trowa wasn't in the least bit nervous!!

Though, that could be explained by the fact that they had just spent half a night going at it like rabbits. The wolf part of Trowa didn't see what there was to fear now.

He'd always been nervous when men got interested in him that way, even Quatre, who seemed so safe. He had never been able to let himself even consider their offers, even less relax enough to appreciate the fact that someone liked him. Not that he found the idea of being with a man inherently repulsive, but ... Being with a man was... being vulnerable. Trusting someone he wasn't sure of with something very precious. Putting himself in danger. 'Roberts -- all Roberts' fault'

But the night before, he just hadn't gotten a say. The wolf in him had not even thought about those nauseating memories of abuse. Hadn't thought at all, in fact. As for getting interested... It felt like his body had used the occasion to spend a whole adolescence of held back sexual impulses. He had wanted to do it, and he had liked it.

Way easier to be a wolf. Less headaches. Less problems to trust, to stop being afraid.

He closed his eyes, trying to remember the question. Ah, yes, his mental health. Well, may as well be honest. Anyway he saw it, if he lied or hid things, Heero would know. And he didn't feel the need to hide from Heero. He knew that the other teen was used to keeping things bottled up most of the time. Heero wouldn't judge him; their reasons were probably similar. They understood each other. They were too much like each other not to.

"Calm. Relaxed. Remarkably so, considering that I'm nude and have another nude guy plastered against my backside."

Heero wondered if he should move away, but Trowa sounded very matter of fact about that affirmation and didn't seem to be that bothered by their intimacy. Quite the contrary in fact, he smelled serene, relaxed and not like he minded the contact skin-to-skin any. Furthermore, he wasn't even trying to get away by himself, so Heero figured he may as well stay where he was.

"So, you feel bad for not feeling bad?"

"...sort of."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Trowa sighed, vaguely annoyed.

The facts were there. He was snuggled up to another boy, said boy being glued to his back and in a good position to.. well... do whatever he wanted, and he couldn't do anything if Heero decided to... And the only need he felt was to press closer to fill the cold place where their skins had been touching before.

His whole adolescence, he had been sure that if a man ever touched him, he'd go berserk... His whole adolescence he had done everything to avoid situations where he could be trapped.

And he had enjoyed Heero jumping him without even thinking twice; it wasn't even bothering him. Nearly.

"Why didn't you feel bad yesterday?"

"... I don't really know... I didn't think about it , I guess. It was.. the wolf who was directing me... And..."

"Hm?"

"It seems ridiculous to me to be afraid of you. You are... my...pack leader. If it had hurt me, you would have stopped. I trust you..."

Heero tightened his hug briefly to thank him, even though he wasn't as sure as Trowa that he could have stopped.

"And before? When you were a wolf and we hunted together? What do you think of that?"

The green-eyed teen thought about it at length.

"... magical. No other words."

Heero rested his chin on his comrade's shoulder and gave him a little smile.

"Do you understand now?"

Trowa nodded. Yes, now he knew exactly why Heero had finally decided that becoming a Were was more a benediction than a curse. Because he felt similarly. A whole new world was offered to him. A world full of incomprehensible and frightening things, but also full of surprises and wonders. And he wouldn't be alone if he decided to explore, not as Heero had been.

It was new, frightening. But thrilling, too.

"It's great, isn't it?"

"... Hell yeah."

More comfortable silence.

"Do you still resent Quatre a lot?"

"What?"

Trowa disengaged from the embrace and stared at him, leaning back on his elbow.

"During your first fit," Heero told him in a carefully neutral tone, "you informed him that you considered what was happening his responsibility and didn't want him to ever appear in front of you. I'd like to know if it's still valid and if you intend on forgiving him one day, because I'm tired of having to guilt-trip him into eating in order to avoid a repeat of that passing out episode. The corridor in front of your bedroom isn't really the softest place to faint."

The green-eyed teen started as if Heero had punched him, staring at him in silence, eyes wide.

".. shit."

"Exactly my opinion."

Trowa rolled away from his comrade, sitting up in the grass a few feet away, and began to pluck grass blades nervously.

"I don’t remember that... Did he really stay the whole time?"

"In the corridor. He even got a mattress. It was the closest he felt like he could go."

Trowa gulped, feeling his throat tighten slightly.

"It was still his fault... I never asked to be turned into a Were," he argued.

"Neither of us did," Heero shot back, sitting cross-legged in front of him.

"Yeah, but yours was an accident," Trowa growled, annoyed. "Quatre KISSED me. It was definitively NOT an accident."

Heero blinked. He had suspected that it was something like that, but now he had a proof. He wouldn't have thought that Quatre would ever have the courage to do it.

Visibly, Trowa still felt like bearing a grudge. Heero caught himself wishing for Duo to be here to help. He didn't know shit about that sort of relationships-related problems. He didn't even know if Trowa liked Quatre that way. If he didn’t, there wasn't much of a chance that their friendship would ever recover.

He could still try to patch things up a little. He knew the way Trowa thought. What Trowa was unable to forgive was that Quatre had put his life and integrity in danger without worrying about anything else than his own wants...

Perhaps it would be better not to do anything and let them untangle their problems alone, but between Quatre's remorse and Trowa's glumness, it would be a while... Heero would tell Trowa a few things and let him decide, and hope that he would be helping things along instead of just making the break irreparable.

"Trowa... He was drunk."

"What?!"

"That evening, he was drunk. He and Duo found one of the Sweepers' reserve of booze and decided to help themselves."

"Quatre doesn't drink alcohol; he's Muslim," the European teen shot back dryly, as if he was accusing him of lying.

"Quatre didn't know it was alcoholic; it was whisky and coca," Heero answered patiently. "The taste of the alcohol isn't discernable under the rest, you know that."

Trowa blinked, remembering the bottle that the blond pilot had made him finish. Had there been alcohol in it and he hadn't even realized it?

"Duo was so wasted, he found it funny to drench Wufei and me in pink paint before running away, laughing hysterically. We had to run through the whole carrier to stop him, and then he couldn't stop hitting on us both and describing, in detail, the three-way he was thinking about. He was so totally plastered that he couldn't even stand up. And from what he told us, Quatre drank more than him."

There was only one word to apply to the situation.

"Merde."

The Japanese teen fell silent to let his comrade think about what he had said.

"Now that I'm thinking about it, he was talking... you know, slurring his words. And he was laughing a bit too loudly," Trowa admitted pensively. "... How did I manage not to see that?"

"Well, to your defense," Heero countered in a nearly indifferent tone, "you weren't expecting Quatre to be drunk, and from what Duo told us, he nearly doesn't change behavior until he falls over."

The European frowned, bothered by the fact that he hadn't noticed that his friend hadn't been in his normal state.

"I should have realized anyway. I mean, he would never have done that if he had been sober. I should have realized. It's probably why he avoided me; he didn't know how to tell me that it had been a mistake..."

Heero shook his head vigorously, his bangs flying around his face.

"It was definitely not a mistake."

"Pardon me?" Trowa growled, suspicious.

Heero realized that Trowa thought he was saying that Quatre had wanted to change him.

"I don't mean that he had intended to force himself on you... In fact I was sure that he had intended never to say anything at all. But..."

"But...?"

"I don't know if I should tell you, it isn't my secret after all," Heero answered, frowning, annoyed with himself about his own indecision.

"You’ve said too much and not enough already," Trowa shot back coldly.

"Quatre has been interested in you for months."

There was a moment of silence while the green-eyed boy stared at his comrade, incredulous.

"He has a crush on you," Heero repeated. "He likes you. Not only like a friend. So you see... He was too drunk to realize the consequences. He didn't think, that's all. ...Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Stunned, the teen fell back on the grass, throwing an arm across his eyes. It was too much to assimilate in one go. Quatre... Nice, loved, adorable Quatre had a crush on him? Him who was so bright, liked by everyone, who was capable of commanding without even trying the fanaticism of a troop of hardened warriors, him whom even seasoned politicians couldn't resist when he smiled at them?

What the hell could someone as exceptional as Quatre Raberba Winner find in an ex-mercenary orphan? Someone so ordinary, so cold, so down to earth? Certainly not the kind of exceptional person who could give Quatre what he deserved...

He had always been glad that the other teen was taking the time to to get to know him. It had been hard at first to believe that Quatre really saw him as a friend, not as the gutter rat he was, in his usual kindness, pitying, when the blond had for himself everything he could want, compassion, kindness, beauty, intelligence, money, that he didn't need to pick up strays when he wanted company... Not that he found himself totally worthless, but what he was didn't meet with what he had thought were Quatre's expectations. He'd had troubles believing that the boy really wanted him as a friend.

He'd never dared to imagine that one day, the other boy would want more. Ask for more.

No, that wasn't honest, in fact. If there hadn't been alcohol, he wouldn't have asked for anything. From what Heero was saying, Quatre had been crushing for months. If he had wanted to get more, he would have made a pass at him sooner... wouldn't he?

"How long, did you say?"

Heero didn't need to ask what he was referring to.

"Months. Since you met, I think. Not sure."

"How do you know?" the European asked, lifting his arm off his face to stares suspiciously at his comrade.

Heero shrugged.

"A discussion with Duo. And his scent changes when he's around you. You'll see yourself."

Trowa groaned and let his arm fall across his eyes again.

"Great, Duo knows..." he grumbled.

"They confide in each other a lot," Heero answered in a neutral tone. "I think Duo has known for a while, at least four months, maybe more."

"Now there is only to tell Wufei," Trowa grumbled, annoyed and pretty embarrassed.

Heero snorted.

"Don't worry about him," he answered. "He'll be so ashamed by what happened between him and me that I doubt he'll try to bother you about Quatre."

"Aren't you?"

"Embarrassed? No. Why should I be?"

"Easy to say, you were on top..." Trowa muttered.

For several seconds there wasn't an answer, only the noise of roots torn out of the soil by nervous hands.

"I... can't. Be... penetrated, I mean. I just can't."

Trowa straightened up and stared at him, surprised to hear his comrade stutter. Heero's head was low and his shoulders were tense. He looked... ashamed.

"It wouldn't embarrass me if I could, but... I can't."

Without saying a word, the acrobat crawled on all four to his friend and slid his arms around his shoulders, hugging him hard in silence. After a few tense seconds, the blue-eyed teen relaxed and hugged back briefly before disengaging.

"So, what are you going to do about Quatre?" Heero asked.

Understanding too well his shame, Trowa let him change the subject without commenting.

"I don't know... I have a lot to think about," he admitted in a sigh, running his hand though his hair.

Heero gave him a microscopic smile, relieved to know that they could do as if his confession had never happened.

"Let's go back to the others, ok? You don't have to find a solution right away, you know... And even if he had extenuating circumstances, Quatre still has to apologize in my point of view."

"Yeah," Trowa answered absently, lost in thought. "...Just a problem," he added grumpily.

"What?"

Trowa glanced at his naked body, then stared at Heero, one eyebrow elegantly arched.

"Ah, yeah, I suppose it's a problem to you..." Heero answered, falsely indifferent.

"Pardon?"

The Japanese teen smirked and began to transform.

"If you can't do that yet, jut wait here and I'll get you clothes. Ok?"

Trowa frowned.

"Quitter."

"Have fun," Heero shot back, trying to look innocent.

"You asshole," Trowa grumbled.

A snicker was his only answer, and Heero dropped on all four, already more than half a wolf.

"Hurry up then," Trowa whispered, eyes half-closed.

Heero wagged his tail once, then disappeared in the bushes.

* * *

Duo opened his eyes on a roof that was definitely NOT his own room's.

Besides him, a feminine voice was complaining about aching muscles with a surprisingly vast vocabulary. He looked on his side. Cathy was trying to stretch her muscles, yawning, and Sally was leaning against the wall, her back visibly stiff. She was also swearing like a Maguanac.

"So it wasn't just a psychedelic dream then?" he muttered, throwing an arm across his eyes as he remembered the mad dash through the ducts, fleeing Heero.

He shivered when he got reminded of the burning stare his teammate had given him. It had been trippy, to say the least. It was so much not like Heero... Sally said that he could as well have been pumped full of aphrodisiacs, and Duo believed her without a doubt. He had to be borderline overdosing to make him behave that way.

Shaking himself out of his train of thoughts, he turned toward Sally and Cathy.

"You reckon we're okay to go now?" he asked, checking his watch to make sure that the sun was up.

"Well, nothing says that the heat comes and goes with the full moon... But I guess we can't really wait here all day," Sally answered, looking vaguely aggravated.

Duo stepped out of the little room, followed by the girls, and cautiously walked down to the corner. Nothing to his right, nothing to his left.

There was a Sweeper walking down the corridor, and when asked if he had seen either of the other pilots, he shrugged helplessly. He had heard weird noises yesterday, but since Howard had told them to stay put in the dormitories... Duo thanked him and went on his detoured way to the pilots' corridor.

Trowa's room was empty.

"It's... a good thing... right?" Catherine asked, unsure and a little scared.

"Let's be logical. If Trowa isn't in here, it's that he felt good enough to leave. Isn't it?"

The curly-haired girl smiled slowly, relieved, and Duo didn't have the heart to list the possible "excepted ifs". The notion of Trowa walking out of there under his own power was significantly more probable than someone trying to carry him out. Why would they?

Deciding that the danger was past, and if it wasn't it was better that he didn't endanger them, Duo left the women to go where they wished and dragged his feet toward his own room, where he fell heavily on his bed. To sleep on a metal floor was far from being restful.

A short nap would be good, the braided boy told himself as his eyelids dropped. It wasn't as if he had something urgent to do.

He let his eyes close all the way.

"DUO!!!"

"Huh, wha?!"

The boy sat up in a leap, whirled around to face the door he had been too tired to lock ...

... Just in time to see Hilde jump on him, a devious grin on her lips.

"ARGH!!"

Naturally she had landed on his ribs.

"Are you nuts? Bully!!!" he protested as soon as his lungs remembered to draw some air in.

"Tssk, and here I was so happy to see you, big meanie..." she joked, pinching his cheeks.

"I had a very bad night, Schbeiker, so don't bug me," he warned her, giving her a dark glare.

"A bad night? But I smelt Trowa in the corridor and he seemed to be okay, that should reassure you, doesn't it?"

The boy straightened up, grinning widely.

"Seriously? Great!! You're sure he's okay? We weren't sure..."

"Well, I don't really know, I didn't... I didn't concentrate much on the scent..." she coughed, blushing a little. Before he could ask, she continued. "At least he didn't smell like someone dying, and he was moving around under his own power. Oh, and guess which species he is?" she added triumphantly.

"Not a clue," Duo admitted.

"A wolf!! Take that, you dumb cats!"

"Hey, I'm not a cat!" Duo protested, amused.

"You're not a wolf either. So there. So, what didja mean ‘a bad night’?"

He sat up and crossed his arms on his chest, making her fall over on the bed. Laughing, Hilde rolled on her belly and looked up at him.

"So, so, so?"

"First, all the worrying about Trowa... Catherine to comfort because she was crying - not that I can't see why, because what was happening to Trowa was really horrifying ... And then... then..."

He flushed. She raised an eyebrow.

"Hm?"

"You see, we were in the bedroom, by Tro's side and all, and then Heero arrives, already half wolf when I was sure the sun wasn't even down yet, and I could swear that he didn't even try to prevent the Sweepers from seeing him. He looked so..." he added, mimicking someone smoking pot. "And then, he... he... well... he..."

"Yeah?"

"He stared at me..."

"And then?" she asked, beginning to see where this was going.

"You're not getting it, Hildie!! He stared at me as if I was a big helping of red meat!! And then there was that Wufei turning all red business..."

"No shit!!" interjected the girl, leaning forward.

"Then Wu grabbed my arm, and he, Cathy, and Sally pushed me in the other room and threw me in the damn air duct, where we had to CRAWL until we could get to somewhere safe..."

"What exactly are you talking about?" she asked, even though she had a pretty good idea.

"Apparently he shagged Wufei last afternoon, he nearly screwed Sally against a corridor wall, and he seemed to have decided that I'd be third on his ‘to-fuck’ list! Even demolished a door to follow us... Well, if I believe Sally, to follow ME. Oh fuck, I cant believe it. Why didn't you tell us that it could happen?!"

Hilde was laughing her ass off, the bitch.

"NOOO!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!! He tried to nail you!!!? Too good!!"

"Shut up, Hilde!!! It isn't funny!!!"

"YES IT IS!!!" she howled, still laughing hysterically.

"Stop that!! Anyway, isn't that heat thing supposed to be a females thing?"

She shook her head no, hiccuping with laughter.

"Real wolves maybe, but we are NOT real wolves, only human beings who can shapeshift, that's all... And humans have no mating season. Whatever. You're telling me he shagged WUFEI?!??"

Duo winced. Maybe he had let a little too much information slip. But he was still so confused about what had happened...

"I shouldn't have told you," he growled. "Hilde, please, don't tell anyone that you know!!! Wufei's already taking it badly, he... well, he's straight and all, you really shouldn't laugh at him. I mean, I know I did laugh with Sally, but it's not the same. It was mostly because I didn't know what else to do, you know...?"

"Relax, I won't say anything," the brunette reassured him in a calmer voice. "But anyway, if he thinks about it, he'll know that I know, 'cause even if he's taking a shower now, he'll still smell of sex for a while."

"Yeah, but still, there is a difference between thinking that you know and have you laugh about it in his face. Hey, now that I think of it, how didja not know, if it's that noticeable?"

She grimaced. "Uhh, I caught a whiff of pheromones and stopped breathing through my nose. It's kinda... contagious through smell. Err, well, where's our fearless pack leader by the way?" she added, in a hurry to change the subject.

Duo lifted an amused eyebrow but decided not to grill her on the "contagious" subject.

"Dunno, out with Trowa probly. Howard said that he let the gangway down for them, they probably went to explore the woods..."

"So we can rest assured that he screwed Trotro too..." she answered, laughing.

"What?!"

She made a sound of disapproval and tapped his nose with a finger.

"Duo-babe... He in rut, he no have choice, he full of pwetty lil hormones..."

"Stop baby-talking; I got it."

"In fact, it's totally stupefying that he would stop running after you if he had decided he wanted you... I mean, logically, in that state of mind...

"Enough already!!" he shot back, blushing.

"Don't act as if you wouldn't have liked, I know you're fond of the guy..." she smiled, winking.

"Idiot," the boy muttered. "No, I wouldn't have liked it."

Hilde straightened up and stared at her friend.

"Oh, and why is that?"

"One, he was already halfway transformed, and as Sally says oh-so-elegantly, I don't wanna get fucked by a hairy dog three times as heavy as I am. Two, if anything happens between us, I'll be contaminated, that's something we can't afford. I'm the last one to still be normal, Hilde. If we need a human during a full moon, what will we do? Third, he was in a rut. He wasn't in control of his actions."

"Interesting that you would put emphasis on that, and not on your duty to stay available as a Gundam Pilot."

"Shut up, Schbeiker," he shot back, his voice harsher than he had wanted to.

Duo closed his eyes and turned away, sullenly shutting her out. Hilde fidgeted, playing with the fringe of the pillow, not knowing what to say. She had just wanted to talk about more personal things with her friend, and he had just very clearly signified that the subject wasn't open to discussion. Way to go. How to resume the dialogue? The atmosphere was heavy in the room...

And then Duo's cell phone began to ring.

"Hello, here is Death's answering machine, what can I do for... hey Quatre! Yeah... ...No. No, not yet, but Heero's with him. ... Err... Yeah... Ok, I'm coming... .... You want me to bring you WHAT?!... But wh... oh. Oh!!! Okay. G'bye..."

And to Hilde's surprise, he collapsed on the bed, dropping the phone to better hold his ribs as he laughed.

"What's going on?" she asked, confused, as Duo jumped up and began to gather clothes, wiping off tears of laughter as he searched in his things.

"It was Quatre..."

"Yeah?"

"He wants me to go pick him up. There is a... small situation."

Duo snickered and picked up a clean shirt that he added to the rest in his pack.

"Stop making me tear the words out of your mouth or I'll do it literally!!"

"Okay, okay. He's naked, the only hiding place close by is a barn and the farmer is probably going to go through there to take care of the cows."

Hilde collapsed on the bed, suffocating with laughter.

[Trowa] [Learning to deal]