Disclaimer: I don't own the GW characters and write about them purely for fun.

Note: Many thanks to the wonderful Kaeru Shisho for editing and to Dyna and Wolfje for laughing.

Chapter 1/2:

As usual, I was the only one to turn up for breakfast, which at the Winner/Barton mansion was served on the terrace overlooking the Italian garden. Just me and a buffet that could have fed most of L2 – assuming they'd recognised half the stuff as edible – and a couple of white-jacketed flunkeys to hover discreetly in the background.

Happy couples apparently didn't turn up for breakfast. They ate it lounging on pillows in their four-poster beds, probably naked, sensuously licking stray croissant crumbs from their beloved's lips, sharing kisses that tasted of freshly squeezed exotic fruit juices, and feeding each other chocolate-dipped strawberries and peeled grapes.

OK, rewind.

Even my imagination boggled at that one. I couldn't imagine Chang Wufei peeling a grape, much less hand-feeding it to anyone, although he and Zechs had been all over each other since they'd arrived. They'd been doing weird couply things for the past two days; tenderly brushing stray strands of hair from each other's cheeks, and whispering sweet nothings.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

But it hadn't been easy being the solo guy staying with a blissfully engaged, about-to-be-joined-for-all-eternity couple, and it hadn't got better when Zechs and Wufei turned up. They'd only been together for a couple of months; short enough that they were still at the glowing stage where they couldn't keep hands – or other bodily parts – to themselves. I'd started knocking before I went into any room, since the morning I'd walked into the library and found Wufei dry-humping Zechs. Yeah, that had been kind of weird.

So I'd got used to having breakfast alone; me and my laptop and my lists of the day's tasks. I hadn't been expecting company.

Certainly not Heero.

It wasn't like I'd forgotten he'd arrived; more that I'd buried the knowledge under layers of things I needed to sort out. Quat's sister Aurora had mentioned last night that her outfit for the ceremony was kingfisher blue, and I happened to know that Cathy's dress was in that same shade. Women care about this stuff.

And there was some hitch with the shipment of snow-white doves Q wanted to be released. God knows why. Doves are just pigeons with fancier feathers. They still shit over everything.

So I'd managed to sublimate Heero under a thick layer of pigeon shit. Sorry. That's a pretty gross image.

He'd turned up just in time for dinner the previous night, looking like an assassin who was on his way to a Vogue photo shoot. Black suit, black silk shirt; black tie with a slightly darker black pattern.

We'd been seated at opposite ends of the table, so we hadn't had to talk, and after dinner he'd been snaffled by a couple of Quat's sisters, so I hadn't needed to make nicey-nice conversation with him. I'd thought he'd be too jet-lagged to come down for breakfast this early in the morning.

Wrong.

'Good morning, Duo.' He was in casual clothes this morning; jeans and a red shirt. He'd always looked amazing in red; it set off his skin tone and all that dark, dishevelled hair to perfection.

'Hey.'

We made little bits of small talk for a few minutes; me recommending the chocolate almond pastries and Heero asking my opinion of what juice to try. We could do that; make meaningless conversation about food.

Like we were still best friends, who could bicker for hours over the relative merits of burgers and sushi.

'So…..how's the garage going?' Heero finally ran out of complimentary things to say about the platter of carved tropical fruits, and the baked goods, and settled for our other staple topic of work.

'You know. Still standing.' It was my standard reply when I got asked that question. It was even true, pretty much, if only because I had so many engine parts and tools stacked around the four crumbling walls, that there was no way they could collapse.

With Tro, I sometimes did elaborate a bit, because he liked to tinker around with engines just as much as me, but the others were never that interested.

Well, why would they be? Heero had given up saving the world in favour of starting his own stunningly successful security firm; Wufei was a shining light in the Preventers, who'd snagged a handsome prince. Quatre had WEI, of course, and Trowa was heading up a foundation that helped endangered animals and their habitats.

It wasn't like they'd be all that interested in a back-street, one-man garage.

'How's work going for you? I hear you're opening a branch in Sanque.'

'That's right. Next month.'

'Cool.'

Odd, how we'd all somehow gravitated to Sanque. For Wufei, it had been a given. It was where Preventer HQ was located. After a year or so on L4, Quatre had decided it was time for WEI to go global and set up subsidiaries on Earth. He claimed he'd set up the head office in Sanque because of its location – right in the middle of Europe – and because the country had a young, well-educated workforce, but I think there'd been a bit of sentiment in there too. Plus he'd always admired Relena, and Trowa just happened to be doing a zoology course at the Royal Peacecraft University so it was nice and handy.

After my not-so-successful attempt to set up a salvage business on L2 – during which I'd lost all my savings (OK, money I'd hacked during the war and my ESUN pension) and almost my friendship with Hilde (we had never been meant to live together) it had seemed logical to head for Sanque and my other friends.

Heero, to date, was the only one who'd resisted the magnetic pull of the place. Guess why? Still, just because he was setting up offices here, didn't mean he'd actually be spending all that much time around.

Our little conversation dwindled to a silence that wasn't really comfortable but wasn't screaming agony either, and was then annihilated by my 'phone ringing.

Distracted by Heero's presence, I answered without looking at the number. Ooops.

I took a deep breath, listening to the voice at the other end. 'Hey, Chris. Look, I'm sorry, OK? I promise, I'll be there this morning. Yes. Eleven o'clock. And I'm sorry about yesterday; something really important came up. Yeah, I know, I am taking this seriously. I'll see you later.'

'Who was that?' His eyes were suddenly focused on me, all on me.

I shrugged, licking one finger and using the tip to pick up the little crumbs I'd scattered by my plate, before one of the minions could dart in and do it for me. 'Um, just this guy I've been seeing for a few weeks now. He likes to call me first thing.'

And if Heero wasn't comfortable with me rubbing my sexuality in his face, that was just too bad. He didn't have issues with Trowa and Quatre. I knew he'd been thrilled when Wufei and Zechs had finally hooked up.

I was the only one he had a problem with. Of course, that was possibly because I was the only one who'd kissed him, and declared undying love.

Just a random guess.

'Are you asking him to the wedding?'

'No.' To signify the subject was closed, I flipped open my laptop, checking for new emails.

Heero's eyes widened as he saw the screen saver; something I'd doodled in a rare moment I'd had to myself. Grim reapers and bats chasing each other through the gothic letters.

'Duo, what on earth is Code Black?'

I had to laugh at the look on his face. 'It's my list of the most terrible things that could happen at the wedding. From terrorist attacks to the champagne not being correctly chilled or Trowa having a panic attack and running away to the circus.'

He blinked. 'Is the last a remote possibility?'

'No way. I've got Auda and Rashid keeping tabs on him. Just in case.'

He obviously hadn't a clue whether to take that seriously or not; once upon a time, he'd been able to tell when I was joking. 'I hadn't thought all this fuss would be Trowa's style.'

'It's not. He wanted something small, but Quat wants all the frills. I think it's partly to do with his sisters; they're not all in favour of the wedding and they expected him to have a very low-key, discreet ceremony so Quat's going all out instead. Plus you know Quat, he loves having people around and Tro would go along with anything to keep him happy.'

'They're very lucky, I think.'

'Yeah. Me too. And it's been fun getting involved in all the planning.'

Hero blinked, casting his eyes over sub-headings on the spreadsheet. 'My God, I've been on missions that weren't planned this thoroughly. What are emergency flower petals?'

'They're for Quat's two little nieces to sprinkle as they walk in front of him. I've got extra supplies in case they drop them or something.' Or start a fight, as they'd done at the rehearsals. Trowa had thought it was funny; two angelic-looking little girls in ringlets and princessy dresses, pelting each other with rosebuds. I think Quat had called his lawyer to have the kids taken out of his will. After he'd calmed down.

'Where are the others?'

'Let's see.' I flicked open their itineraries. 'The plan for this morning is that Quat's working on his vows, Trowa and Zechs are wine tasting and Wufei has an hour off to meditate before an appointment with his tailor. And I've got to show Quat the seating plan I've come up with.'

I winced. That wasn't going to be fun. Quat's sisters are mostly OK by themselves, but en masse they can be kind of intimidating. And rude in a snooty way. I wasn't sure how well they were going to gel with Tro's old buddies from the circus.

The other problem was that Heero and I were the only ones who were attending minus 'plus ones', which meant we'd have to sit together. Unless I could get Quat to scare up a couple of distant cousins who somehow hadn't been invited yet or Tro could be persuaded to borrow a couple of circus chimps and dress them up.

Heero shook his head. 'I can't believe you're doing all this. Quatre must have a dozen assistants and I'm sure there are people who do this professionally.'

I stared at him over my glass of juice. 'He's my best friend, Heero. I'm not going to let some stranger plan his big day. I want to be a part of this, and I know he'd feel the same if I was the one getting hitched.'

Some chance of that happening. Although, on second thoughts, the way things were going I'd probably end up having to find someone on the internet and marry them for money.

Anyway, that wasn't the point. The point was that Quat was my friend, part of my gang, and the most important thing in life was looking after your gang. Solo had dinned that into me when I was just a little kid, and Father Maxwell had reinforced it the very first time I'd heard him preach.

I hadn't been all that impressed with my first church service up 'til then; stories about people with really weird names that weren't really stories at all but something called parables. And then he'd started talking about something called the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat people the way you'd want to be treated, in other words.

It made perfect sense. It was exactly how Solo's gang had operated. If you had food, you shared with the rest, because you didn't know if you'd have anything the next night, and you'd damn well want the others to share with you.

It made me think that somewhere in the middle of all the preachy stuff, there was a germ of sense in religion.

'Anyway,' I shoved my chair back and stood up, scooping my computer under one arm. 'I'd better get going. I told Quat I'd see him at eight. See you later.'

He nodded. 'I thought we could maybe talk at some point?'

'Sure.' I said it far too heartily, already planning talk-avoidance schemes in my head. 'That'd be cool.'

No way in hell. Still, we'd done a pretty good job of avoiding each other for the past seven months, and I was up to my eyes in wedding stuff. I'd be able to keep out of his way. I was the wedding planner; I could just keep Heero planned away from me.

Quatre's desk was covered with lists and the floor was littered with screwed-up pieces of paper and he was wearing a wreath of pink rosebuds in his hair. He looked damned cute. Lucky Trowa.

'Hey, Q. Nice flowers.'

'Aren't they lovely? The florist made this one to show me what Pippa and Louisa would have in their hair.' He coloured slightly. 'Since my hair is the same colour as theirs, I thought I'd try it on to make sure it looked all right.'

'Very sensible. You know, you should wear something like that yourself, on the big day. Brighten your suit up a little bit.'

'Oh, I couldn't possibly. I was just being silly. But the girls will look adorable, won't they? Provided they behave themselves better than the rehearsal. Or I'll disinherit the pair of them.'

'I think maybe they're a bit young to care about that. I mean, they're only four! Couldn't you promise them treats instead if they're good? Charm bracelets or Barbie dolls or something?'

'What a clever idea!' He seized the nearest list and wrote Ponies x 2 at the bottom. 'You know, if you didn't have the garage, you could do this professionally.'

'Well, you never know. Always good to have a trade to fall back on.' If it did come to that, Quat would be a pretty good reference.

'Now, did you have a nice breakfast?' he enquired, in that innocently charming way that means he's up to something. I suddenly remembered his and Tro's room overlooked the breakfast terrace.

'Lovely. Thank you. Now, I've made a rough draft of the seating plan if you want to have a quick look and tell me what you think.'

'I think it's bound to be fine. I wish you'd tell me what's going on with you and Heero.'

'Nothing. Why would it be?' I couldn't match his wholly spurious of angelic innocence, but I did my poor best.

'I think you've spent long enough avoiding each other and it's time you sorted out whatever's wrong.'

I shrugged. 'Nothing's wrong. We're friends.'

'Used to be friends,' Quat corrected tenaciously. 'Very good friends, until something happened last year. And you both utterly refuse to discuss it.'

'Which just possibly means we don't want to. And that it isn't anyone's business.'

He clicked his tongue against his teeth. 'It's your business, both of you. Did you know Heero almost didn't accept my invitation? I practically had to beg him to come. '

'Well, there you go. He pretty obviously can't stand being around me.' Damn, that hurt. Well, it was my own fault. I was the one who'd ruined it all between us.

'Oh, Duo!' He gave his tongue another exasperated little click. 'Don't be silly! I happen to know that he rang Rashid at 5 am to find out where you usually eat breakfast?'

'You know that how exactly?'

Blue eyes sparkled. 'I like to know what's going on in my own home.' He pursed his lips slightly, frowning at the sheet of paper in front of him. 'I hope I haven't used too many musical metaphors in my vows. I don't want to belabour the point, but it was music that brought us both together.'

'Want me to take a look?'

'Stop changing the subject. This nonsense with you and Heero has gone on long enough. Duo, Saturday is the most important day of my life. I want my two best friends to be happy; I want us all to be friends again. I don't know what Heero did, or didn't do, but you know he'd never have hurt you deliberately.'

'Heero didn't do anything,' I said slowly. 'It was all my fault.' Looking into my best friend's eyes, brimming with concern, I was tempted to tell him just what had happened. But, hell, I'd caused enough problems for Heero; I didn't need to humiliate him by telling anyone else. 'Look, I'll talk to him, OK?'

Apologise and grovel and see if there was some way we could at least put on the semblance of friendship for Quatre's big day.

'I just don't like seeing you sad.' He reached out and touched my arm, very gently. Hell is having an empath for a best friend.

'I'm fine, Q. Listen, I need to head into town this morning. I have to call by the garage and get some stuff from home. I should be back by lunch. You don't need me for anything, do you?'

'No, that's fine. I have a meeting at ten anyway, so I really need to get these written by then. Actually, would you mind looking over what I've done so far?'

'Sure.' I gave the musically-themed vows a quick once over, assured Quatre that Trowa would find every last apostrophe, comma and semi-colon unbearably touching, but that there might be certain dirty-minded persons present who could misinterpret the references to Tro's 'talent for playing the flute' and left him trying to puzzle that out.

Left him to go in search of Heero.

Just get it over with, Maxwell.

He'd ensconced himself at a desk in the library, fingers flickering over the keys of his laptop. 'Hey. If you're not busy, d'you have a minute?'

'Of course.' He rested both hands on the table edge, gazing at me.

Oh, Heero. Don't look at me like that.

'I'm sorry.' I said abruptly. 'I guess I should've said this months ago, but I thought you wouldn't want me bringing the subject up, so maybe it was better just never to mention it. I thought that was what you wanted. Now I'm thinking it might have been a mistake, sweeping it all under the carpet, so we've been stepping all around this huge elephant for ages.'

'Duo…'

'No.' I held up one hand. 'Heero, please. Just let me say this, OK? I totally and absolutely screwed up. I'd had way, way too much to drink, and I think maybe someone had spiked that fruit punch, and I was all excited about Quat and Tro getting engaged, and I just lost it. I'd have grabbed Treize Khushrenada if he'd been handy and given him a big smacker. And said all that stupid shit to him. You just happened to be in the wrong place and got in my stupid mouth's way. In every sense. ' I took a deep breath. 'I'm really sorry and I want us to be friends again. D'you think you can get past me doing one stupid drunken thing and try to forget it ever happened?'

He nodded, uncertainly and I forced a smile.

'Great. Really. All sorted then.'

The great thing about having a reputation for never telling a lie, is that people assume you always tell the truth.

Even when you're lying.