Title: Everyone's Dream
Author: Mair
Pairings: Og... 2+1, 4+3 (visible anyway)
Genre: BTSOOM (beats the sh-- out of me)
Warnings: Uh... none?
Disclaimer: This is FANFICTION! I own nothing! If I did I'd be very rich but I'm not!!!

Everyone's Dream + Part 6

Quatre watched as Dorothy, Trowa and Relena worked on a song. They should've been resting but they kept some weird hours. Quatre yawned.

"What do you think Quatre?" Relena asked.

Quatre snapped back to the conversation and looked over at the three. "About what?"

Dorothy smiled, picked up her guitar and looked over for the cue from Trowa. Trowa played a couple of notes on his base then Dorothy jumped in. Relena sang a couple bars then stopped and fussed with the wording. Dorothy and Trowa kept playing, and after a moment Relena came back into the song with the chorus.

Quatre listened as the music trailed off and Dorothy looked displeased at the notes on the sheet of paper between them. Quatre sighed, "It sounds familiar."

"I still think it sounds like 'Marzipan' but the others don't agree." Dorothy said softly as she ran through the fingering again, double time. She paused briefly as she fumbled a bit of the fingering, then picked it back up again.

Quatre nodded. "True..." He watched Relena get up from the chair next to the bed and walk around holding the lyric sheet.

"It's missing something." She said suddenly. "The flow of the words is off with the music." She sang the tune really quickly, turning at the wall to pace back. "The cadence of the words stops here..." She made a check mark with the pencil in her hand. "While the music moves here." She set the sheet back down on the bed between Trowa and Dorothy.

Relena looked over at the clock on the nightstand. "It's 12:42 am, we should get some rest. Concert tomorrow on L1."

Dorothy nodded, getting up from the bed. "I'll toss these notes around back in my room. I'm sure something will work."

Quatre watched as Trowa stretched his arms above his head in an effort to get his muscles to relax. Trowa didn't wear a shirt when he didn't think he'd be going anywhere and Dorothy, inspiration having struck, grabbed him and Relena and dragged them to his room. Quatre fought the urge to giggle and sigh like a school girl as he watched the toned body move.

Dorothy returned the guitar to the case and looked over at Quatre. "So how do you like working with us Quatre? You've been with us for two weeks now, is it anything like you expected?"

Quatre looked over at her and blushed. "Not quite. I still wouldn't trade any of it. It's fascinating seeing everything from this side of the stage. Here I can see and learn about the real people behind NeoAero, instead of seeing and believing in the people you show your fans."

Dorothy smiled, picking up the guitar case. "I don't believe you ever truly bought into the construct the band presented."

Quatre looked back at Relena and Trowa. "I suppose not. But it is nice to see the real people."

"I'm glad you're here to remind us that we're real people." Relena said walking toward the door. "Goodnight Trowa, Goodnight Dorothy." The door closed softly behind her and Dorothy smiled. She walked over to Trowa and gave him a kiss. "Goodnight Trowa. Remember we leave at 8 tomorrow morning."

"I don't think I could forget. Goodnight." Trowa said quietly. He packed his base away wordlessly as Dorothy blew Quatre a kiss goodnight and left.

"Trowa?" Quatre asked hesitantly. "About that song..."

Trowa looked up questioningly.

"What do you think if you took out the base line and put in a flute line counterpart to the melody?"

Trowa blinked, reviewing the music in his head. "It might work, but we need to get the lyrics sorted out... And I think we'd have to shift the guitar part down a little lower." He nodded his thanks to Quatre.

"Your welcome." Quatre said, grinning at Trowa. He yawned as Trowa made a notation on a spare sheet of paper.

"You're tired. Go to sleep."

Quatre nodded. "You, too... goodnight." He rose from his chair, gave Trowa a warm smile and left. Once outside the door he sighed, leaning his back against it.

"You like him." Relena stated.

Quatre started and turned toward her.

"It's alright. Really." Relena said unlocking the door to her own room. "He's lonely and needs someone. Though he and Dorothy flirt a lot, he doesn't go for women."

Quatre blinked. "I... I never, Dorothy flirts with everyone but I've never seen Trowa flirt back..." He finally got out.

Relena smiled a small smile as she opened the door to her room. "That's because Trowa flirts quietly. Really watch him sometime. See how he responds to people instead of just watching him, Quatre." Her smile grew a little more and she went into her room, closing the door behind her.

Quatre watched her go, a little stunned. He needed to talk to Duo. He walked down the hall toward the room he shared with Duo to hear arguing from Heero Yuy's room. He paused, set his ear against the door, listening to the muffled voices within.

"Look. Heero. That doesn't follow the mood of the piece. You've got this nice quiet ballad going and then you up the tempo just for a guitar bit? You can't have it in there it ruins the mood of the piece. It makes it sound sarcastic and jaded when you do that then try and return to the nice mellowness."

Quatre listened as hard as he could but couldn't hear Heero's response. He was surprised to hear Duo tell him to shut up though. Heero must have told him to shut up and get out because Duo started talking again along those lines.

"You can't ignore what I'm saying by telling me to go away Heero, it doesn't fit and you know it." There was a pause. "I'm not saying that. The guitar part is good and it is original but I think that's a different song than the one you're writing here! Take it out and move on with this one. You can ask Dorothy or Trowa if they know of anything that would fit in here instrumentally wise but I know that a kick ass guitar part doesn't, now give it up!"

"Fine! I'm leaving! You obviously don't want to make the song as good as it could be so don't come crawling to me for help." Duo's muffled voice got closer and clearer. A second later there was a opening door causing Quatre to backpeddle out into the hallway fast.

"Duo!" He said, startled.

Duo looked around the door to see Quatre in the middle of the hall and very close to the door. "Oh, sorry Q-man." He slammed the door as best he could.

"Trouble?"

"Just one stubborn guitar player that doesn't want to take perfectly good advice." Duo muttered darkly, setting off down the hall.

Quatre watched the figure stalk down toward the room. "Duo!" He hurried to catch up. "I need to talk to you."

"Well lets get into the room before the neighbors come out pissed." He muttered, unlocking the door and barging in.

Quatre followed him in, flipping on the lights. They lucked out on a room this time. They were two doors down from the band, which beat the rooms on separate floors they'd had for the past two weeks. That didn't mean they weren't paying for it though. He closed the door behind them quietly and flipped the lock. Quatre turned around to see Duo curled up in a ball, sitting on his bed.

"Duo?"

"I know he doesn't want my help but he's screwing with that song! He's using a bottle of JD to help the notes come but all it's really doing is calling up past songs in his head. And when I try to help he just tells me to get out, which is really confusing cause I've caught him looking at me a couple of times!" Exasperated, he unfolded himself and flopped back on the bed. "I don't know what I should do and everything he does takes this more and more beyond the crush it started as and I don't know if I can handle that."

Quatre watched his friend, a little stunned.

"He doesn't want help but he's practically screaming for it. He creates the pretense of hating me and I'm pretty sure he does except... he must just be thinking of ways to kill me. I told you he pulled a gun on me that first day right?"

Quatre's jaw dropped. "How does he manage to carry one? Laws alone on half the colonies prohibit it!"

"He got the permit for it on Earth and Earth law over rules the colony law in the case of protection. Anyway, I checked up on his gun and apparently he had a really nutty fan about two years back who decided to kill him so they could satisfy the urge of necrophilic sex with him. Obviously that failed but since then he's carried a gun." Duo sighed, simmering down.

"He pulled it on you?" Quatre still couldn't believe that. He sat down on his bed and started removing his shoes.

"Yeah, that was his first threat. Don't worry, I introduced him to the fact that I carry knives."

"Duo you didn't!" Quatre stopped fussing with his shoes and looked over at Duo.

Duo laughed, the darkness fading from his voice. "Yeah, had it practically touching the top of his foot right where the veins are. Proved that if I couldn't move fast enough I would still do damage on the way out. Not like I ever could." He sighed.

Quatre was silent for a few minutes, watching Duo. He took off his shoes and set them down next to his bed. As he started on his shirt he started speaking again. "You know... Relena told me something that surprised me."

"Oh?"

"Trowa... he's gay."

"Well there you go, at least you have a chance."

"Duo..."

"What? You do... Look... Tomorrow we head for L1. I say we all go out, have some fun and ease up before the show."

"But it's a night time show! They have to conserve their energy." Quatre protested.

Duo frowned. "That shoots that idea... I kinda figured I might be able to use it to open Heero on up. L1's his home colony."

Quatre watched as Duo sat back up and started undressing. "You know... for a couple rumored to be together, Heero and Relena never share any more time together than they have to. Kind of funny is it not?"

Duo gave him a sharp look. "Yeah... it is. You know, when I've been onstage acting like a roadie taking Heero's guitars, I've noticed that Relena will hang on the other members of the band but never Heero... She'll nudge up against him and put her hand on him but she never actually puts her arm around him. You say she told you that Trowa was gay?"

Quatre nodded. "She said he needed someone."

"She's acting like a mother hen. I wonder... Do you think she's telling the truth about Trowa?"

Quatre pulled on his p.j.'s, thinking. "Well, lonely band members can make for a sour disposition. A sour disposition can lead to strain on the band."

"Which can lead to the stagnation in their music. Like what Rashid was saying about their newest album." Duo replied, absently fiddling with the end of his braid. He pushed himself up from the bed and dug into his suitcase, looking for something. "I packed my c.d. of their best stuff. I made it myself just before I went to the concert last year." He pulled out the c.d. and scanned the song list. "I thought about making one this year but nothing really struck a chord with me off of their new album. Check this out." He stood up and walked over to Quatre's bed.

Quatre leaned over and held on to the edge of the c.d., studying the list. "All older songs from their first three albums, except for 'Magic Child', that was on their fourth... That was... two years ago."

Duo sat down on his bed and stripped off his unbuttoned shirt. "You know, if we don't help them somehow, I think NeoAero may break up from the tension. Heero seems half way there, Relena doesn't help any... What about the others?"

"Trowa's quiet. I think he's frustrated that the songs aren't working out but it's hard to work on songs when on tour... Everything from the concerts keeps popping into your head. The girls are the only ones that seem to want to work on the music really... Wufei, he just seems..." Quatre hesitated, searching for the right word.

"Distant. Willing to go along for the ride but not truly excited."

He nodded. "I think that's it. It would certainly match up with what Relena's said.

Duo nodded. "But if Heero hates me, and Trowa and you don't hook up and just remain acquaintances, what happens then?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ominous eh? *grins*

[part 5] [part 7] [back to Mair's fic]