Author: Mel

Seven Days + Day 3

Violet eyes blinked at him.

Quatre yelped, instantly awake, and glaring at him. "Don't you ever knock?"

"Nope," Duo cocked his head to the side. "What's up Qu-man? I thought you'd be use to this by now."

Quatre looked a little sheepish and smiled lopsidedly. "You went missing last night, I was worried about you. Where did you go?"

Duo looked a little uncomfortable and was about to speak when there was a knock on the door. Quatre frowned.

"Yes?"

"Master Quatre?" the door creaked open slightly and Rashid stood there. He saw Duo and his eyes narrowed. "How did you get in here?"

Duo grinned. "The window."

Quatre stepped in quickly before Rashid launched himself at the ex-pilot. "What can I do for you Rashid?"

The Mag'ua'nac made a point of glaring furiously at the braided boy but reined in his anger long enough to answer Quatre. "You asked that I wake you up this morning so you could get your work done before lunch." Rashid reminded him.

By now Quatre was up and out of bed, thankful he had thought to wear pyjamas. "Thank you Rashid," he crossed the room, ushering the big man out, and pulling the door along with him.

Duo waved goodbye and the Mag'ua'nac growled at him even as Quatre closed the door.

He then turned on his braided friend. "You don't have to bait him like that, he does happen to be one of my best friends."

Duo was trying not to laugh, "yeah, but did you see the look on his face? It was worth every moment of it."

Quatre rolled his eyes. "But he is right Duo, I have a lot of work to get done today, will you be able to amuse yourself this morning?" Quatre probably should have been watching Duo's face at this moment, but he was to busy going into his large wardrobe and getting his clothes for the day.

If he had been paying attention he would have caught the manic grin on his friend's face. "Yeah, sure... "

Quatre was half way through reading the fifth report when Duo finally gave into his boredom. The Arabian teen sat quietly in his office, tea cooling in the cup beside him. He had missed lunch, again, and if he kept going he would work without thinking straight through dinner.

But of course, Duo had gotten quite bored with waiting for him.

"FORE!!!!!"

The shout came from below his window but Quatre was more then a little busy calculating the figures on the page to pay much attention to the shouted word. The tinkling crash of the hurtling white ball through his window seconds later changed that. At first Quatre wasn't too sure what was going on and ducked beneath the oak desk, looking at the hole through his window. He realised it was too big for a bullet, and the golf ball gave away that Duo was up to no good.

"FORE!!!"

This time Quatre was paying attention and he ducked as the second white ball came sailing through his window, creating another hole directly beside the first. Angry at Duo, Quatre stood and opened the offending window, sticking his head out.

Sure enough, there on the court yard below him was Duo, busily lining up a third shot, straight at his window.

"DUO, What on Earth do you think you're doing?"

"FORE!"

Quatre ducked again and the third ball came through the now open window, narrowly missing his computer. This time Quatre didn't bother shouting at the American, flying quite simply out of the office, slamming the door shut behind him. He ran down the stairs to the ground floor, thinking of the ways he could kill his best friend with that annoying braid of his.

By the time he reached the front door he had come up with fifteen different and creative ways of doing so. Throwing the doors open he stormed out.

"DUO MAXWE -- "

His furious shout was cut off as a spout of water hit him right in the face. He spluttered for a few moments, getting most of the water out of his mouth whilst Duo howled with laughter.

"You should have seen your face, priceless, worth putting a few holes in your window. Do you know how long it took me to find a golf club? I was going to use a cricket bat, but there's no telling what kind of damage those things can cause. And a tennis racket doesn't have the sort of power behind it that I was after. Where talking hours of work here, and it was so worth it. All just to get you outside so I could get you with that hos -- "

Thankfully it seemed that the gardeners of the Winner estate had decided to work on the courtyard today and they had left an extra hose out. Quatre mercilessly picked it up and turned it on, aiming at the laughing Duo. With his mouth open he managed to catch most of the water and fell into a coughing fit.

"Now we're even." Quarter said triumphantly, turning off the water and looking down at his water logged clothes.

Duo got over his coughing and grinned at the Arabian teen, dripping bangs falling into his eyes. "Oh no, Qu-man, we're far from even!" With the old 'God of Death' grin plastered on his face Duo launched himself after the fleeing Quatre, throwing a wild war cry and turning his hose back on...

Neither of them remembered when they got the water balloons, but they were much better then the hoses, they made less noise. And they also caused a lot more problems then they had first thought they would. Quatre had been coming around the corner when Duo jumped out. He threw his balloon and Quatre got out of the way.

And the balloon exploded on Rashid.

Quatre dropped his own balloon. "Rashid, are you all right? Duo didn't really mean to (Duo was on his hands and knees laughing) hit you."

For a moment Rashid glared before breaking into a smile, picking up the discarded hose and turning it on the hysterical Duo. "This will teach you for getting me all wet American scum!"

Much of their afternoon was spent in this way with the other Mag'ua'nacs joining in.
Quatre was even more worried when Duo didn't arrive for dinner again that night. Quatre ended up waiting hours for Duo to get back from where ever he had gone. Eventually he moved into Duo's room, curling up on his bed and falling into a fitful sleep.

It was still many hours later before Duo returned.

Quatre woke the moment the other boy scrambled through the window. He watched in growing alarm as Duo swayed on his feet before turning around and throwing up out the window. Quatre could see the shredded material that had been Duo's shirt, and the scarlet blood that was caught in the artificial moonlight.

For a moment blind fury raced through Quatre. How DARE anyone do this to his best friend? To his Duo? What gave them that right? And then his caring nature took over and he got up silently. At first, seeing Quatre in his room startled Duo and he looked as if he might flee. But Quatre didn't say anything, instead he simply stepped forward and guided Duo by the arm to his bed. After seeing that Duo was comfortable and lying face down in the bed Quatre left for a few moments to get a first aid kit and some hot water.

When he returned still no words were spoken as he surveyed the mess of Duo's back. He bathed the wounds, stitching up the few that required it and then dressed them. Duo had fallen asleep long before the blonde boy was done.

When he was done Quatre cleaned up quickly, not waking Duo. Questions could wait till morning. Surprising himself Quatre planted a soft kiss on Duo's forehead and left, letting his murmuring friend sleep...

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