Part 5

            The next morning, Wufei was still asleep when he felt something furry touching his nose.

            “Wake up, sleepy head!” somebody was whispering very close to his ear. The hot breath tickled him.

            Wufei smile slightly; it felt good to wake up next to the person you love. Without fully awaken, Wufei cuddled closer and felt the other boy nuzzling his neck, and the furry stuff moved to tickle the back of his neck.

            **FREE ME!**

            “What?!” Wufei opened his eyes wide in panic and reflectively pushed against whomever that had been snuggling close.

            TUMB!

            “Ah~” Duo groaned as he sat up from the floor, rubbing his head. He stared at the boy on the bed unbelievably.

            “Wufei~ What’s gotten into you! Even if you didn’t like me touching you with my braid, you don’t have to PUSH me down from the bed.” Duo grunted, massaging the bump that was beginning to form due to the impact of the hardwood floor.

            “What? Who…? Oh, I am so sorry, Duo… “ Wufei finally noticed his mistake. He reached over and pulled Duo up from the floor. Duo threw himself onto the bed beside Wufei, staring at the other boy.

            “What? What are you staring at?” Wufei exclaimed innocently.

            “Oh, drop that! Tell me what’s wrong. You were relaxed and then all of a sudden you tensed up and your fighting instinct kicked in. Something must have triggered it.”

            “Nothing.”

            “Nothing?” Duo repeated skeptically.

            “Just a stupid dream.”

            “Oh, nightmare, huh?” Duo nodded in understanding. They all had nightmares of wars and their horrible pasts. In a quiet voice, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

            “No. It’s not about … No. I already said that it’s nothing.” Wufei shook his head and got out of the bed.

            Duo sighed. Sometimes he hated his boyfriend’s culture, which condemned expression of feelings. **A warrior has to be tough, independent, never showing any signs of weakness, bla bla bla. And admittance that you are having nightmares and the need to talk about your feelings is one of the biggest weaknesses! Psychologists and counselors must get very low pay if they worked at L5! Hm… How can I get Wufei to be more opened?**

            Duo remained on the bed, thinking for a solution to this problem, until he heard the sound of shower being turned on. **Hehe. I have an idea.** Grinning wickedly, he tiptoed to the shower room. Closing the door behind him soundlessly, he walked towards the shower curtain, admiring the slender masculine body hiding behind it.

            “YEAK!” Wufei was enjoying his hot shower when suddenly the shower curtain was pulled back. For the second time in the morning, his reflex kicked in before he could stop himself.

            Duo laid on the floor, blinking water out of his eyes, and feeling the lump at the back of his head. **Why do I have an edgy boyfriend with martial arts training? Why do I even think of sneaking on him? Oh dear, but it’s all worthy just to see him naked in the shower. Of course he is naked in a shower. Everybody is…**

            With his eyes still closed, Duo licked his upper lips. A shameless expression on his face as he recalled the beautiful body he saw just now. **Yum yum! What a great body he has! The bronze skin that always hid under his long sleeves traditional outfit, the well-built chest, muscular thighs and … … don’t go there! I am going to have a nosebleed! I wish Wufei would be naked around me all the time. But then I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off him, would I?** Grinning sheepishly, He seriously doubted that he could.

Several hours later, Duo was feeling less than amused. He couldn’t believe the other boy was still sulking over what he did this morning and refused to talk to him.

“Oh, give me a break!” Duo finally had enough, “What are you so mad at?”

Already in a bad mood from lack of sleep and haunting dreams, Wufei was very unhappy about the incident this morning. Duo acting like he did nothing wrong only infuriated him. Wufei turned his head away and continued to ignore Duo.

“Oh please! It’s not like you have something different than I do!” Duo exclaimed with wide eyes.

“Wh…at? I can’t… can’t believe you just say that!” Wufei growled in indignation. “There’s such a thing called MODESTY!”

“Yeah yeah, well you have an UNNATURAL level of it if you ask me! I am your boyfriend and you never take off your pants in front of me!”

“Why should I take … … you dirty minded!” Wufei started yelling.

“I’m dirty minded? You are a tease then! We ‘sleep’ in the same bed, but we don’t ‘sleep’ together! You let me kiss you, but anything further is prohibited! You are such a tease!”

Very soon they were shouting insults at each other. And their quarrels swung far from the original conflict.

“… … You eat too much! You are a food burner, and you eat without closing your mouth! Disgusting; food flying everywhere from your big mouth … ”

“Now you are accusing me of no manner? What about you? You are hyper vigilance. You nailed me twice today without thinking! Or maybe you are just abusive? I bet you are into S&M!”

“S&M?! @#*%fuck$^@&*# ……” Wufei started swearing in 3 different languages.

“What? Did you just insult my grandmother? I might understand very little Chinese but swearing words were the first I learned!”

“Ya, I did. I just said ‘fuck your grandmother’. Now, FUCK YOU!”   

“FUCK YOU BACK!” Fueled by a sudden outburst of an aberrant anger, Duo shoved vigorously against Wufei. They both fell onto the bed.

Trapped underneath Duo, Wufei abruptly shut up.

“Sorry.”

“Hn?” Wufei looked at the boy on top of him. An apology?

“Men, don’t get me started again, and don’t you start talking like Heero. I… I am sorry for being a peeping Tom this morning. I was just trying to get your mind off your nightmare by playing a little joke on you. I didn’t know you would be so offended. I am sorry.” Duo buried his head against Wufei’s chest.

“Duo…I am not angry.” The irrational anger that made him yell insulting words at Duo was nowhere to be found now. Adding a little shyly, “Did you like what you see?”

“Hn?” Duo was surprised to hear that.

“Now who is acting like Heero, huh?” Wufei gave Duo a quick kiss, before trying to get up. “Duo, let me up.”

“Why not just lay like this??” Duo didn’t want to move. He liked the feeling of having the Chinese boy trapped under him. Wufei gave him a stare and Duo sighed. **Alright. I will not rush you. I will wait until you are ready.**

“What happened just now? I can’t believe we throw all those nasty words at each other!” Wufei sat up and tapped a finger at his bottom lips.

Giving it a thought, Duo was puzzled himself, “Yeah. I don’t know where did all those angers come from. We never quarrel like that.”

“Something must be affecting us.”  

In a dark corner outside of their room, Li tried to stifle his anger.

“I can’t believe their love is that strong!” Li blew away the last of a greenish dust on his palm.

“This has never failed before. Who could guess it being an exception today!” Gao tried to comfort his lover. The green powder was called ‘Lover’s spat’. It was used to stimulate quarrels and arguments between lovers. Always, the ones affected by it ended in break ups or worse, fights; one would attack another in murderous rage.

“Fine! You can continue to love your braided baka there. In the end, it won’t make any difference, and the one suffering would be you!” Turning to Gao, Li hissed, “Maybe it’s time we quick the foul play and cut right to the chest!”