Um…hi? looks around sheepishly Geez, I barely recognize this place anymore. Well, anyway, I got a lovely review today from StarFox21, and I started thinking about this old story that I effectively abandoned ages ago. Then I rifled through my hard drive, pulled out the draft of this chapter, finished it and tidied it up, and here we are. It's shorter than the other chapters by quite a bit, but it effectively ends the story. (In other words, I might write a few more chapters, but don't count on it.) Enjoy, guys.

Chapter Five: In which Heero is made to see sense with the help of everyone (and possibly a few gods)

Heero didn't know whether to be furiously angry, confused, or homicidal. Zechs Merquise, THE Zechs Merquise, the Lighting Count, Heero's very own personal nemesis, was sitting on the lawn of the Gundam boys' safe house, playing laser tag, of all things, with Heero's boyfriend. If pilot 01 had been in any state to notice, he might have worried a little at the amount of emphasized words in that mental sentence, but he wasn't. He had settled in an emotional state that was somewhere between the three aforementioned options, mostly the first and second ones, but the third was likely to rear its head at any moment if he didn't get an explanation right now. As he was taking a deep breath to begin yelling, Wufei's harness went off.

---

"Damn," Wufei sighed, resignedly. "Oh, well. I knew better than to think I was getting out of that one alive."

"Naturally," Treize retorted smugly. "I am, after all, the best shot I know. And that's saying something, seeing who the list of my acquaintances includes." He glanced over his shoulder at the field containing the first two fallen, spotted a third figure who was looking more outraged by the minute, and grimaced. "Oh, look. Yui's back."

"Great. Lovely. Just what we needed," Wufei groaned. "I was hoping Trowa and Quatre would get back first so we could bring them around and gang up on Yui, but it looks like we're going to have to tough it out on our own."

"You mean on your own," Treize corrected, with just a hint of a smug smirk. "I'm still injured, remember? I'm going to stay right here. You can go talk to him."

"You're evil," Wufei informed him, glowering, then sighed and leaned over his boyfriend. "Do I get a goodbye kiss before I go let Yui murder me?"

Treize pulled him down the rest of the way with his good arm, kissed him thoroughly, then released him. "Of course. Don't let him murder you, all right? Put up at least some resistance."

"Deal." Wufei took a deep breath, straightened up, and strode over to where Heero was currently screaming at Duo, who was looking somewhere between exasperated, hurt, and just plain upset. Zechs was receiving his fair share of abuse as well, but the tall blonde had folded his arms over his chest and put on a blank expression, and was seemingly untouched by whatever Heero threw at him. Wufei could tell that he was on the verge of exploding, and intervened hastily.

"Look, Yui…" He didn't get any farther into what he was planning to say; in a way, this was a good thing, since he didn't really have anything planned.

"YOU!" Heero wheeled on him instantly, changing targets with ease. At least Zechs and Duo will have a chance to recover, Wufei thought, then braced himself. "I thought YOU at least would have better sense!! Just because they say they've switched sides, or been kicked out, or whatever, doesn't mean we should just take their word for it!! I mean, they're the ENEMY!!"

"They're my boyfriends." Wufei almost winced instinctively as the words escaped his mouth. That was definitely the wrong thing to say, Heero was going to kill him, this was bad, Heero…wasn't yelling? Wufei blinked, then gulped mentally, keeping his face impassive. No, Heero wasn't yelling, but, from the looks of things, the only reason was because he was too shocked to even breathe; he was staring at Wufei in utter disbelief, eyes bulging. Quickly, Duo took advantage of the momentary silence.

"They're also trustworthy men, Heero! Even at their worst, when have Zechs or Treize ever lied? Never! So…" Heero cut him off, seemingly without realizing it. His voice was about an octave above its usual range.

"YOUR WHAT??"

"My BOYFRIENDS!!" Wufei was suddenly yelling too, without quite realizing how it had happened, but releasing months of built-up tension and frustration with Heero felt very cathartic. He continued. "And I KNOW we can trust them, so you can just DEAL WITH IT!!!"

Zechs, although half mesmerized by the impressive sight of Wufei tearing into Yui, caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye, sighed, and went to help Treize. The older man was looking upset, and trying to struggle to his feet, probably to come and sacrifice himself on the altar of Yui's wrath in a misguided attempt to save Wufei. Zechs gently pushed him back down, almost grinning as he caught anger in Trieze's eyes along with guilt. At least he had the sense to blame some of this conflict on Heero!

"Zechs, I have to go over there! They're fighting because of us. I should…"

"You should sit here and let Wufei have it out with Yui," Zechs told him firmly. "From the looks of things, he's rather enjoying screaming at him. When they've calmed down a bit, then I'll help you up and we can go over."

This took a while. After a few minutes, Duo gave up trying to get a word in edgewise and strode over to throw himself down on the grass next to Zechs and Treize.

"I'm never getting laid again," the braided boy announced despairingly. "Never!! Hell, I'll be lucky if Heero ever speaks to me again!"

"I'm sorry," Treize apologized. "This is all my fault, and…"

Duo rolled his eyes, and cut him off. "Don't blame yourself! It's Heero's fault for being so damn paranoid, if it's anyone's. Besides, I wasn't really serious about never getting laid again. If we manage to pound some sense into him, Heero'll prob'ly forgive me in a few weeks or so."

"Speaking of pounding sense," Zechs put in, watching the fight still in full swing across the yard, "are they ever going to wind down?"

"Well," Duo replied slowly, watching them with a critical eye, "I've never actually seen 'Fei have a screaming argument with anyone, but Hee-chan usually can't keep it up for more than fifteen minutes or so. Then he tries to stalk off and do his version of pouting, which is messing with Wing. Ah… there he goes now."

They watched as Heero growled in frustration. It was easy to hear him; neither pilot was exactly modulating their volume.

"I can't believe this!! You're insane!!" Apparently considering this a fitting end to the conversation, Heero turned firmly and walked away. Wufei, however, had other ideas, and his black eyes narrowed as he grabbed the blue-eyed boy by the shoulder and spun him back around.

"You've still failed to provide me with a reason for your mistrust of Treize." The Chinese boy's voice had gone cold and flat; Duo, Zechs, and Treize knew this for the bad sign it was, and all three flinched instinctively. "Aside from near-obsessive paranoia. Give me logic. Give me proof. And in the meantime, leave my boyfriends ALONE!!"

Heero jerked himself out of Wufei's grip and stalked off, without looking back. Duo, however, looked somewhat relieved. Treize raised a curious eyebrow at him as Wufei glared at the Japanese boy's retreating back, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"What is there to be relieved about? I'd say that went rather spectacularly badly."

"It did," Duo admitted, looking rueful, "but it's not as bad as it could have been. And 'Fei got the last word in. When you're fighting with Hee-chan, that's important, 'cause if he gets the last word, then he'll assume he won, and he won't think about a thing that you actually said."

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me," Zechs, a veteran of many more violent fights with Heero, sighed. Treize was more concerned, however, with Wufei, who was making his way back over towards the other three, shoulders tight with anger and frustration which was working its way out in little shivers.

"Are you okay?" the former general asked, gingerly. Wufei flung himself onto the grass next to his boyfriends and punched the ground, viciously.

"Great. Fine. Splendid. Ter-riffic." Zechs put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and Wufei sighed. "It wasn't really bad- at least I got to let out some of my frustration at Heero –but I'm still so…he's so STUBBORN. Not to mention unreasonably paranoid and single-minded."

"I think he'll come around, actually," Duo put in, watching the set of Heero's shoulders as he walked away. "He's not stupid. I'll talk to him later, after he's cooled down."

Wufei shot him a cautious look. "You sure? He seems pretty angry…"

Duo shrugged. "So? I'm used to it. Heero's mental punching bag, that's me." He grinned at them, a little rueful, but not bad. "So, how are we going to spend the hour or two until it's safe to approach within ten feet of Mr. Perfect Soldier?"

"We could play poker," Treize suggested, a faint twinkle in his eyes the only thing betraying his apparent seriousness. Duo gave him a dirty look.

"No. I already owe you five hundred dollars from the day before yesterday, Treize Take-Advantage-of-the-Fact-that-my-Boyfriends-are-too-Loyal-to-Warn-the-Newbie-that-I-am-a-Card-Shark-Kushrenada."

Treize gave him an innocent look. "What? It's not my fault that I have the most appalling good luck."

"Su-ure it's not." With a mock-aggravated sigh, Duo threw himself backwards to lie in the grass. "So cards are out. Hmm..."

---

Treize smiled, catlike and utterly predatory. Duo groaned. Wufei and Zechs looked on in amusement, but said nothing.

"I believe that's two hundred dollars you owe me, Maxwell. Pay up."

Duo grudgingly handed over the slips of fake money, pouting. "You're evil."

"At least its not real money this time," Wufei pointed out practically.

"But…but," Duo moaned tragically. "My beautiful properties! My houses! I'll have to start selling them, and then where will I be!"

"Out." Zechs's statement was brief and to the point as he counted out spaces. "Hmf. Free parking. I'm saved."

"Heero's coming back," Wufei observed, peering out the window at the figure approaching jerkily across the lawn.

"Perhaps I spoke too soon," Zechs murmured, craning his neck to try and see the Japanese pilot. He ducked back down and everyone busily focused on their cards as Heero stalked through the door, letting it swing shut behind him without actually slamming it, and stood with his fists clenched, glaring at Wufei. The Chinese boy studiously ignored him for a few seconds before looking up.

"What do you want, Yui?"

"I…apologize." He sounded as though every word was being ripped out from between his teeth, and his fists clenched tighter as everyone at the table stared up at him in disbelief. "Unless, and…until…Mr. Kushrenada gives me a…reason to mistrust him, I'll try to stop acting like a…" here he looked up, meeting Wufei's eyes for the first time, and actually managed a tiny rueful smirk, " 'paranoid asshole'."

This said, he turned and strode quickly across the room and up the stairs, leaving everyone gaping after him. Wufei blinked, incredulously.

"Well, that was…unexpected. Did Yui just admit to being wrong?"

"That's…what I heard." Zechs stared after the Japanese pilot. "I think."

Duo broke into a relieved grin. "I knew he'd come around!" Three heads swiveled to stare at him with as much incredulity as they'd turned on Heero, and the braided boy coughed sheepishly. "Eventually." He glanced over towards the stairs, then narrowed his eyes speculatively and got up.

"What about the game?" Treize asked as Duo started after Heero.

"I fold," Duo called back over his retreating shoulder. " 'Fei can have my stuff."

"What little of it there is," Wufei muttered, collecting the abandoned cards. "Well, we won't be seeing them again for a few hours."

"Oh?" Zechs asked, then realization struck. "Oh. Oooh."

"Let's just go back to Monopoly," Treize suggested. "I'm trying not to think about it."

Smirking slightly, Wufei handed over the dice. All was right with the world.