Monster in the Closet

Lady Koneko

Duo sighed as he laid sprawled out on his bed. He looked up at the ceiling for the umpteenth time. Same old, same old. To put it plainly, he was bored. Very bored. Heero and Trowa were out on a mission together, and Quatre was due back from one any time now. Wufei was at the safe house, but he had told Duo an hour ago not to bother him again that day. Since Wufei had been polishing his sword at the time, and had a slight homicidal gleam in his eyes the moment he had bounced into the room, Duo decided to heed the warning. No reason to take a chance in becoming a pincushion. He had spent all day yesterday tinkering around with Shinigami, and Shinigami was all ready for the next mission. There was nothing on TV, and he wasn't in the mood to read. So now here he was, bored out of his skull, with nothing to do, waiting for Heero to return.

"This ~sucks~!" Sitting up, he glanced over at the closet. Maybe he would take a shower. That would pass around an hour's worth of time. Then another hour or so working with his hair . . . It was something. He swung his feet off the bed and went to the closet. Just grab some clean cloths, and off he was to hot water bliss. Duo shivered in anticipation. Very few things could beat a hot shower. He turned the knob and opened the door.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

*****

Quatre sat on the sofa across from Wufei, setting his tea on the coffee table before him and relaxed. It was nice to be back home where it was safe. He loved using his houses as safe houses, safety and the added bonus of familiar security and comfort. He looked over at Wufei -he had given Quatre a curt nod of his head as a greeting as he walked into the room- and sighed knowingly. Wufei's nerves seemed a bit strained today. Duo must not have gone out on a mission while he was gone. That would have meant that Wufei would have been left alone with Duo for at least two days. Shaking his head, he picked up his cup of tea, and promptly spilled it across his lap as a piercing shriek echoed through the house.

Both he and Wufei were out of the room, up the stairs and racing down the hall before the echo ended. Halfway down the hall they encountered Duo, doing his best 'bat out of hell' impression. His wide violet eyes were startling in his absolutely white face. He saw them running toward him, and launched himself at Quatre, sending them both tumbling to the floor.

"MAXWELL!!!" Wufei reached down and peeled the panicked American off of the blond Arabian he was intent on gluing himself to and set him to his feet. "What is the meaning of this?"

"There . . . there . . . " Quatre gave Duo a worried look as he climbed to his feet. It wasn't often that they saw Duo having problems speaking. "There is a . . . a MONSTER in my closet!!!"

That stopped both Wufei and Quatre cold. They both stared silently at Duo, who seemed to be shaking from fright, for a moment. Then Wufei spoke.

"What?" he asked flatly. "You have a ~what~ in your closet?"

"A monster," Duo repeated. He glanced fugitively behind him, just in case something was trying to sneak up on him. "There is an honest-to-God monster in my closet. I was going to take a shower, so I went to the closet for some fresh cloths, and there it was! A monster!"

Wufei and Quatre exchanged long looks. There was something wrong here. "And I suppose it was eight feet tall, covered with coarse fur with fangs dripping poison."

Duo, so shaken that he missed the sarcasm in Wufei's voice, shook his head. "Actually," he looked a little sheepish, "It was around my height. And its fur wasn't long and coarse. It was very short, except on its head."

"And the fangs?" Quatre couldn't resist asking.

Duo shook his head. "Didn't see any fangs, its mouth was closed. But it did have curled horns."

Wufei and Quatre exchanged looks again. Okay . . .

"Duo," Quatre asked gently. "You are feeling okay, aren't you? No staying up late, no drinking . . . "

Duo scowled at Quatre. "No, I am perfectly fine, and I haven't drunk anything stronger than coffee for over two weeks!"

"And how much coffee have you had today?" Wufei asked dryly. Duo's love for coffee was legendary.

Duo got defensive. "Hey! There is nothing the hell wrong with me! And I am telling the truth, there is a damn monster in my closet!" He couldn't believe this! An unknown creature, a monster of some sort, was in his closet, reason unknown, and all they wanted to do was make smart comments about it!

"Fine." Wufei started down the hall, his sword clenched in his hand. "Then I want to see it for myself."

"Ano, Wufei . . . " Duo started worriedly, sure he wanted them to do something, but confront it? Quatre put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Duo, Wufei can take care of himself." <Besides which,> Quatre added silently to himself, <Monsters do not exist.> They watched as Wufei entered the room that Duo shared with Heero and waited. They didn't have long to wait.

"Maxwell!"

Duo, with Quatre hot on his heels ran to the room and looked in. He was almost afraid of what he would see. Had Wufei caught the monster? Had it attacked Wufei, and was now waiting for him and Quatre to enter. What he saw was almost anticlimactic. Wufei was standing in front of the closet, a scowl on his face and his sword resting on his shoulder. "Come here."

Duo cautiously entered with Quatre behind him. Wufei pointed into the closet with his sword. "What is that?"

Duo peeked in. "My overcoat."

Wufei snorted in disgust and closed the door. "You have a coat in your closet, not a monster. Foolishness!" With that, Wufei stalked out of the room, muttering something about crazy Americans and the lack of Justice in the world under his breath. Duo turned to Quatre, a pleading look in his eyes.

"You believe me, don't you Quatre?"

Quatre's eyes dropped to the floor. "Monsters in closets are not something I have had much experience with Duo. I have never seen one, so I can't say they exist or not."

Duo gave Quatre a steady look. "You don't, do you." Not meeting Duo's eyes, Quatre shook his head.

"Gomen nasai."

"Hey, it's okay," Duo slapped Quatre on the back. "If someone ran up to me and told them this, I wouldn't believe them either." While he was talking, Duo maneuvered Quatre to the door. "So don't worry about it. It's okay." Quatre gave Duo a worried look right before he closed the door. He could tell that it hurt Duo that he and Wufei hadn't believed him, but then, monsters in closets? Quatre sighed and went off to his room to change out of his tea drenched slacks.

On the other side of the door, Duo turned and faced the closet. They didn't believe him. That meant it was all up to him. Slowly he walked over to his bed and pulled his gun out from under the pillow and kicked the safety off. Like heck he was opening that door unarmed. With slow, steady steps, he approached the closet, and with the gun pointing straight ahead, opened the door. Nothing. Cautiously he pushed his overcoat aside and looked around. Besides a few other articles of clothing, and a couple of duffle bags, the closet was empty. It had disappeared. Backing away silently, he closed the door and sat on his bed. He kept the gun pointed at the closet the entire time.

*****

Things were quiet for the next week or so. Heero and Trowa came back from their mission with only a few scrapes and cuts, their missions a success. Duo was sent out on two quick missions that he completed with no difficulty, which put him in good cheer and helped him burn off a lot of excess energy. Wufei did not mention the monster incident again, not considering it something to waste his energy on thinking about. Quatre had told Trowa, late at night, and Trowa had just shook his head. Leave it to Duo to make such an outrageous statement. No one thought to mention it to Heero.

Heero had left the night before on a mission, and Wufei had returned two days earlier from an encounter with Treize, when it happened again. Once again, everyone save Duo was in the family room. Wufei was polishing his sword, a rather pensive look on his face. His encounter had not gone the way he had expected it to, and he was still trying to figure out just what had happened. Quatre was curled up next to Trowa as they watched a video. Quiet time. Duo, they all assumed, was in the kitchen. It was generally a good place to find him. That assumption was broken when a piercing scream came from upstairs. The three Gundam pilots gave a start and jumped to their feet. Before they could do anything, Duo came pelting into the room.

"It's there again!!! In my room!!"

Wufei gave a disgusted snort and fell back onto the chair he was sitting on. Quatre gave him a puzzled look. "What is?"

" 'What is?' " Duo gave a disgusted shake of his head. "The monster, of course! What else! I was going to clean my guns, and it was sitting on the bed! When it saw me, it jumped for the closet and closed the door!"

"Sitting on the bed?" Quatre repeated, blinking owlishly. "Why would it do something like that?"

Wufei gave a snort and Trowa shook his head. Duo glared at both of them. "How'd the hell would I know!" he snapped.

"What do you expect us to do about it?" Trowa asked softly. Duo gave him a quick look, opened his mouth, then paused. He thought for a moment, then started again.

"Help me get rid of it."

"It's your monster, it is your problem. Deal with it." Wufei growled.

"Now Wufei," Quatre protested mildly. "That is the totally wrong approach. There has to be a reason for this." He looked over at Duo. "I had an imaginary playmate when I was younger." Wufei looked up from his sword and looked at Quatre. Trowa placed a hand on his shoulder. "I am sure that this is probably very similar . . . "

"I am ~not~ imagining this! The monster is real!!"

"Of course it is Duo, of course it is," Wufei mocked.

"The hell with this, I'm going out! Don't blame me if it eats you!" With that parting shot, Duo exited the room. A minute later they faintly heard the front door slam shut.

"I don't like this." Quatre shook his head and sat back down. "This is the second time this has happened. Once could be imagination, but twice?"

"Hallucination? Could he have been drugged?"

"Not likely Trowa." Wufei disagreed. "The first time this happened, he hadn't been on a mission for over two weeks. He stayed here the entire time." Wufei shuddered at the memory. He had indeed stayed at the house, driving him crazy with his constant chatter. No way anyone could have drugged him. Now if ~he~ had had something on hand . . .

"He encountered no difficulties on his last two missions either," Quatre added. "So what could have caused him to think he has seen a monster?"

Trowa pulled Quatre back against him. "What does Heero have to say about this?"

Quatre blinked and turned to his koi. "I don't think he knows. Wufei and I haven't mentioned it to him, and I doubt Duo would. Why?"

Trowa rested his chin on Quatre's head. Wufei was paying the couple no mind, his attention once again focused on his sword and his encounter with Treize. "I don't know, but he should know."

"If it happens again, we'll tell him," Quatre whispered, and he and Trowa went back to snuggling and watching their video.

*****

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!"

Wufei, Quatre and Trowa sighed. It had been two days since Duo had claimed to have seen the monster sitting on his bed. Heero himself still had no idea that anything strange was going on. Duo had woken to see Heero asleep next to him that morning, and he was gone on another mission three hours later.

"Do we go and see, or wait for him to come and tell us?" Quatre sighed. This was starting to get a bit bothersome.

"Wait," Wufei said, showing no intention of putting down the book he was reading. "I am not running all over the place because Maxwell is crazy."

"Wufei!" Quatre protested.

"This is too much!!!" the three pilots watched as Duo stormed into the room, fuming. "It was in my room again! Reading my manga!" Wufei, Quatre and Trowa blinked. It was doing what? "And it stole my hairbrush!" Duo stomped his foot to emphasize his last statement.

The three of them looked at the outraged pilot of Deathscythe Hell, and then at each other.

"Do you want to tell Yuy, or shall I?" Wufei asked calmly.

*****

"A monster."

Heero flatly stared at Wufei, Quatre and Trowa. They had waited until Duo had left on a mission to tell Heero what was going on. Heero had listened quietly, without interrupting, while they told Heero what had been going on with his koi. "There is a monster in the closet."

Quatre nodded. "That is what Duo is saying. It has happened three times now. We don't know what to do about it. He is so adamant about it, and he knows we don't believe him."

Heero nodded. He knew how Duo was when he was on to something. Stubborn as anything, and persistent. If he had claimed to have seen something -he was not about to ~think~ that it was a monster- then he would persist until it ran its course.

"Will you talk to him about it?"

Heero nodded curtly, and went to his room to wait for Duo's return.

*****

"Heero!!!" Duo launched himself into the room and at his koi, who was busily typing on his laptop. "I missed you." He wrapped his arms around Heero and hugged him. As was usual, Heero turned and glared at him. Duo just smiled. "How are things going? Your mission go okay? Well yeah, it would have to have been if you are here, ne? Relena been by while I was gone? I swear I haven't seen anyone as persistent as her, and it has been nearly a month since I have seen her . . . "

"Urusai."

Duo blinked. Heero had turned away from the screen and was now looking at him. "What has been going on while I am not here?"

"Eh?" Duo flopped back down on the bed and scratched his head. "What're you talking about? Nothing strange has been going on . . . " Duo's voice trailed off as a sudden thought came to him. "They told you, didn't they? And you don't believe me either."

"Monsters are not real. You did not see one." Heero turned back to his laptop. "I do not want to hear about this again."

"Heero . . . "

*****

Duo threw himself on the bed, wincing as his ankle screamed at him. Stupid OZ soldiers! Them in their Taurus and those Mobile Dolls. The instillation had been destroyed, but his poor Shinigami had been severely damaged. He was going to be grounded for a week while it was repaired. When they had returned to the safe house, Heero had made sure he was okay before he had driven off without a word to any of them about what he was doing or where he was going. Of course, only he had asked. Once inside, Quatre had wrapped his ankle, and he had limped off to his room to sulk.

Well, Duo looked down at himself. He had been knocked around the cockpit severe enough that he had cuts and bruises all over. And then there were all those injuries that he had picked up as he and Heero had . . . exited the instillation. He needed a hot bath. A change of cloths as well. Duo gave the closet a suspicious look. Was it worth the risk? They had moved out of the last safe house the night before last, to another house that belonged to Quatre. At least the pilots knew that they were secure in Quatre's houses. He took stock on how he felt at the moment, trash, and decided it wasn't. He was just not up to the chance of facing off against a monster. Maybe after the bath he would be up to it. With his body protesting, he slowly made his way to the bathroom.

*****

Quatre and Trowa were in the kitchen fixing dinner when a dripping Duo, hair and body wrapped by two towels, limped into the room. Behind him, following out of morbid curiosity, was Wufei.

"Can I have a different room?"

Quatre frowned at Duo. "I thought you liked that room. Is there a problem?"

Duo nodded empathically. "Yes, I know that you don't want to hear it, but the monster is still in my closet."

There was a grating sound as Wufei collapsed on a chair. "Not this again," he moaned.

"It was just sitting there, cross-legged on the floor of the closet, brushing its hair." Duo continued, as if Wufei hadn't said a word. "You know, it still hasn't given me my brush back."

Wufei dropped his face into his hands. He didn't want to hear anymore.

"It looked up at me, and it smiled. I just closed the door and left."

Quatre and Trowa exchanged worried looks. Trowa and Quatre had talked about this several nights ago, and had come up with an interesting theory. As Trowa had stated in a previous conversation, Duo had never seen the monster when Heero was present. Trowa had theorized that the monster represented Duo's unconscious fears and anxieties about Heero not returning from a mission. It seemed rather strange, but the human mind was still more of a mystery than space was, and Duo's mind in particular.

"Sit down Duo." At Quatre's urging, Trowa had Duo sit at the small table across from Wufei. A moment later Quatre had set a steaming cup of tea in front of him. "Here, drink this, Trowa," he gave Trowa a quick look, "will go and remove your belongings. What do you think of the room across from Wufei?"

Wufei gave Quatre a panicked look, he didn't want Duo across the hall from him. Duo nodded mutely, picking up the tea and sipping it. He made a face and sat it down. "I hope it works."

"Hope what works?" A calm voice asked from the doorway. Heero walked into the room and gave Duo a searching look. Fresh out of the shower. Sitting in the kitchen dressed in nothing but towels. Sipping tea. Something was wrong.

"Ummm . . . " Duo looked away from Heero. "Nothing, nothing at all."

Heero's eyes narrowed. He gave the others a cold look.

"Monster in the closet." Trowa calmly stated. Duo glanced over and glared at him. Traitor. "He wants to move to another room."

"No." Heero glared at Duo. "There is no monster."

The four pilots watched as Heero stalked out of the room. Quatre and Trowa looked at each other over Duo's head. Trowa shrugged. If his theory was right, things were bound to get worse before they got better.

*****

Duo didn't say anything about monsters or closets for several days. His ankle healed, Heero and the others went on several missions, Shinigami was repaired, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Heero put the entire monster thing out of his mind. The others, however were not so quick to do so. So when Duo came walking onto the porch with a strange gleam in his eyes two days after Heero and Quatre left on a mission, Wufei was instantly suspicious.

"Something wrong, Maxwell?"

"Hmmm . . . " Duo looked at Wufei, and shook his head. He gave the pilot of Shenlong a smug grin. "Nope, everything is just fine."

Trowa walked out onto the porch, and the first thing he saw was Duo grinning wildly at Wufei, who was gazing back in suspicion. He silently leaned against the doorframe and watched.

"We made peace! Isn't that great! I no longer have to worry about Yoshi!"

"Yoshi?" Trowa asked. Duo turned to him in surprise. He hadn't noticed him come out of the house.

"Yep, Yoshi. The monster. I was sleeping in really late, and apparently it thought I had left the room, so it left the closet. I woke up and caught it off guard. We ended up talking, and it turns out that its name is Yoshi, and that it is very shy. It's scared of Heero for some reason, so Yoshi won't leave the closet while he is around. We don't have to worry anymore. I am going to go check on Shinigami now! Ja!"

Wufei and Trowa watched in silence as Duo disappeared from view. Wufei sighed and turned to Trowa. "Trowa, we have a serious problem here." Trowa nodded solemnly.

*****

"He said what?" Quatre demanded later that day. Trowa and Wufei had met him and Heero at the hanger, which had caused them both to be instantly suspicious. Then Wufei had informed them that Duo had seen the monster again, and that Duo was getting worse.

"He made friends with it." Trowa softly repeated. Quatre moaned softly, that was what he thought he had heard. He glanced over to see how Heero was taking the news. Heero's blue eyes were frosty.

"Your constant reactions to this are encouraging him. Ignore it."

With that, the Wing pilot stood up and marched out of the room. The other three pilots watched Heero leave, then continued to talk.

"As far as I am aware of, Duo's piloting has yet to be affected by his . . . " Quatre paused, looking for the right word to use. ". . . visitations. But if things continue like this . . . " Quatre shook his head. They had enough problems with the Zero System screwing with their minds without Duo losing his grasp on reality. Though sometimes it seemed as if he had lost it years ago . . .

Wufei was nodding his agreement. "We should seek medical help for him. The doctor."

Quatre and Trowa nodded.

"How?" Trowa asked. With Heero's current mind-set on the situation, bringing Duo in for an examination was not a feasible option.

"We have to convince Yuy that this is the best thing to do." Wufei stated. "Then that woman can see what she can do for Maxwell."

"But how?" Quatre demanded

"We wait." The pilots of Shenlong and Sandrock turned to the pilot of Heavyarms. "Duo will have another visitation. Then we do what we can."

*****

But Duo did not speak of the monster, Yoshi, again. Heero gave the other pilots a look that stated the problem was over. The others were not nearly as sure. For the last two weeks, Heero and Duo had been teamed up together on all their missions. As they all knew, Duo never claimed to see the monster when Heero was in attendance. They knew, were absolutely positive, that the first time that Heero went out on a mission without Duo, that Yoshi would be making an appearance again. It was just a matter of time.

Then Heero was sent out on a mission with Wufei. As they left, Wufei gave Quatre and Trowa a look of mixed pity, because they were going to have to deal with this latest visitation, and relief, because he wasn't going to have to deal with it. Given a choice of working with Heero, and possibly dying in the name of the Colonies, and dealing with Duo and his monster in his off time, he would take Heero any day.

Since the mission was estimated to last three days, Quatre and Trowa decided that they should keep close watch on Duo. There was no telling what could happen. Duo, naturally enough, knew something was going on. He had no idea of the conversation that Wufei, Quatre and Trowa had, but he would have to have been blind not to notice that whenever he entered the room, Quatre and Trowa were watching him. It wasn't obvious, and if he wasn't trained as he was he probably wouldn't have noticed. Okay, so there was also that itchy feeling between his shoulder blades that he always felt when someone was watching him that helped to clue him in on what was happening. By the time day three rolled around, he was sick of it. He ~didn't~ like being under surveillance. And that itchy feeling was starting to cause him to tense up. A tensed up terrorist was not a safe thing, especially if they were gun happy like he was. He couldn't wait until Heero got back.

*****

Duo sighed. Heero and Wufei's ETA was sometime in the early morning hours. At the moment it was -he turned and looked at the clock- a quarter after eleven. He missed his koi. During the last two days, because he missed Heero so much, he had told Yoshi everything about his relationship with Heero, and about Heero in general. It was nice to have someone to confide in, someone who you knew wasn't going to run off and tell the world everything or use the information against you. It was like going to Confession, but without all the Holy Marys.

He glanced over at the love seat, where, naturally enough, Quatre and Trowa were. Quatre was leaning back against Trowa, who had wrapped his arms around the smaller boy. A spurt of envy swept through Duo. He wished that he could be snuggling with Heero right now. He looked back at the TV. The movie, one of his personal favorites with a huge body count and more explosions than he could manage in two hours, wasn't catching his attention as it usually did. His eyes roved back across the room. Quatre had let him pick it out, and he would bet his Gundam that neither he nor Trowa had any idea what was on. It was nearly over.

<Well, that's it. I can't take it any more.> Being in the same room as the two sweethearts, when his koi had been gone for three days, was just too much for him. <I'll go see if Yoshi wants to talk.>

He stood up and left the room. Quatre and Trowa didn't seem to notice. A minute later, Duo came back in the room, and exited through the other door, heading away from his bedroom. Quatre looked up at Trowa, an eyebrow arched. Trowa elegantly shrugged. Their unspoken question was answered several minutes later when Duo came back into the room, now holding a bottle of Scotch and two glasses. Without looking at the couple, he exited the room and headed to his room.

Two sets of eyes, one baby blue and the other emerald green watched him.

"Two glasses Trowa," Quatre sighed in resignation. "You don't think . . . " Trowa tightened his hold on his koi and rested his chin on Quatre's golden curls.

"Yes," he simply said. Quatre closed his eyes, and turned his head so he could rest his face against Trowa's face.

"He is getting even worse, Trowa. If this keeps up . . . "

Unseen, Trowa frowned. Quatre was right. If this kept up, who knew where it would end. He would talk to Heero, convince him that Duo needed more help than they could give. And if Heero wasn't convinced, Trowa's eyes darkened as he looked at his distressed koi, Duo would still get the help he needed.

*****

It was close to five when Heero finally reached the door to his room. He indulged himself with a long yawn, he hadn't slept more than four hours since this mission started, and reached for the knob. Now all he had to do was send Dr. J the information, and he could spend the next four or so hours sleeping next to Duo. Heero turned the knob and pushed open the door. Hopefully that braided baka wouldn't insist on stealing all the covers this time. Sure, he was use to hardship, but that didn't mean he didn't deserve his share of the covers. And since Duo always slept as close to him as possible, he didn't understand why every morning Duo had all the covers, and was snuggled against his back. It defied logic. He started to step into the room and stopped.

The light from the hallway flowed into the room, and fell upon a blanket-covered form in the middle of the room. Frowning, Heero pulled out his gun and flicked on the lights. Nothing. Cautiously, still holding his gun, he entered the room. In the middle of the floor, sleeping under the blanket, was Duo. Several feet away from him was an empty bottle of Scotch and two shot glasses, one full, one empty. He puzzled over it for a moment then put his gun away. His first priority would be to put Duo to bed properly.

"He needs help," a soft voice came from the doorway. Heero swung around, his gun pointed at the speaker. Trowa was casually leaning against the doorframe. He scowled at him and tucked his gun back in his shorts. "Duo is just getting worse Heero. He came up here and had a drinking party with the monster." Heero's eyebrows jumped up. Trowa pointedly looked at the two glasses and the empty bottle. "Each incident is worse than the last, Heero. When Quatre and I went to sleep, Quatre wanted to check on him. When he entered the room, Duo was sitting on the floor with one glass, and the other was in front of him. He said that the monster bolted to the closet when Quatre knocked." Trowa lowered his head. "Ignoring this is not going to help. If things keep on as they are, you are going to lose him."

With that parting statement Trowa straightened and left. Heero looked at his koi, curled up, holding onto his braid, then to the bottle. His face tightened with emotion, then he bent down and gently picked up Duo and deposited him on the bed. After taking off Duo's cloths, he tucked him into bed. A moment later he was at the computer. After sending Dr. J the information he needed, he typed a short, curt message and sent it. Nimun ryoukai. Nodding, he shut off the laptop and stripped off his cloths. Then he slid into bed next to Duo, who immediately turned and snuggled into him. Heero closed his eyes tightly and instinctively found and wound Duo's braid in his hand. Nothing was going to take Duo away from him, nothing.

*****

"But I don't wanna go!" Duo yelled as Heero pulled him down the hall. "There is nothing wrong with me! Why won't you believe me?"

"Duo," Quatre said gently, "this is for your own good." The look Duo shot him over his shoulder quite plainly showed Quatre what his opinion on ~that~ was.

"You are going to see a doctor Maxwell, and that is that!" Wufei gave Duo a scowl of his own. He did not appreciate being woken up that morning, having gotten only four hours of sleep. He didn't know why he had to be there, but that woman had insisted that all four of them accompany Duo.

Heero came to a stop in front of the hotel room and knocked. Less than a minute later they heard a bolt slide, and the door opened. Sally Po looked at the five pilots before her, and nodded.

"I am glad to see that you made it. Please come in."

Duo shot the others a look that he wouldn't even bestow upon Treize, and defiantly marched into the room. The effect wasn't quite as impressive as he intended it to be, because Heero still had a firm hold on his braid, correctly assuming that Duo would make a break for it if he let go. As soon as Wufei entered, Sally closed the door.

"So, what is the emergency. When I read Heero's letter, I expected the worse." Her eyes roved expertly over the young men before her. "You all seem to be in good health."

"We are," Duo chirped. "Nothing wrong with us at all, so we should be leaving now . . . " He took a step toward the door, and Heero yanked on the braid. Before Duo was aware of it, he was sitting in a chair with Heero's hand on his shoulder.

Sally gave them a puzzled look. Duo seemed anxious, and the others were very quite. "Is there something wrong?"

"Maxwell is what is wrong Onna. He is seeing monsters."

Sally was torn between arching a brow at his assessment of what was wrong with Duo, and scowling at him for calling her onna again. She decided on the one most likely to achieve results.

"Please explain."

The next twenty minutes went by fast, as Wufei, Quatre and Trowa took turns explaining what had been happening to the mouthy American. Heero was silent, mostly because there wasn't much he could say. Duo just squirmed under Heero's grip and wished he was anywhere else but there.

<The way they are saying it, it sounds as if I am crazy!> Duo thought. Which, upon reflection, is probably why they hauled him in to see Sally.

She nodded once they finished their explanation, "I see . . . " she murmured and turned to look at Duo. Her eyes roved to the possessive hand holding Duo in the chair. "I do believe that I should speak to Duo, alone." She stood up, and arched a delicate brow. "Heero, I think that you and the others should wait here, Duo, please come with me."

With obvious reluctance, Heero released Duo. He gave a relieved sight and gladly followed Sally to a side room, which turned out to be a bedroom. She motioned for him to sit on the bed, which he did. She pulled up a chair and sat herself.

"So Duo, is there anything you wish to add?"

"I'm not crazy!"

Sally sighed. "No one said you were, Duo." He arched an eyebrow at her, and she smiled. "Okay, I haven't said you were crazy. And I don't think you are. What do you have to say about what the others told me?"

"It sounds like I'm crazy."

Sally smiled and shook her head. "Troubled, maybe, but not crazy. Tell me about the monster."

Duo blinked. This was the first time anyone had asked him about Yoshi. "What can I say? I have a monster living in my closet. It moved in, and it won't leave." Duo was silent for a moment. Then peered at her, his violet eyes bright. "You really want to hear about Yoshi?"

Sally nodded.

"Okay . . . "

*****

Wufei glanced up at the clock. It had been nearly two hours since Sally and Duo had entered the smaller room. He and the others had been patently waiting. During the first half hour or so, they made idle talk, except Heero of course. But as time went by, the talk died down. Now they were all silent, keeping their own thoughts, and hoping that Sally would be able to help their comrade.

The door opened and Sally walked out. Duo was not in sight. She closed it behind her and took a seat in front of the other pilots.

"How is he?" Quatre asked. "Is he going to be okay?"

Sally gave them all long looks. "His recovery will depend on you four. We talked, and I do believe I have found out what the problem is." They looked at her expectantly. "Duo is having security problems, much like young children occasionally go through." She looked at Heero. "For some reason, he associates your presence with security. When you are not around, he starts to feel insecure, so his subconscious has invented a type of replacement, a security blanket if you will. Yoshi, the monster. Yoshi represents someone who he can talk to without inhibitions, someone who will never leave him, someone whom he can depend on."

"You are saying that ~Yoshi~ is a replacement for ~Heero~?" Wufei said incredulously. He, Quatre and Trowa all looked at Heero. The way she had described Yoshi was totally opposite of what Heero was like.

Sally shook her head and sighed. "I have never heard of this in a teenager, but given what stress you five are under, it is not surprising."

"What do we do?" Heero asked, plainly ignoring the other three.

"Reassure him. And go along with what he says about Yoshi."

"Wait, Sally-san, Duo knows that we don't believe in Yoshi. What good will going along with it do?"

"The more you deny Yoshi's existence, the more he will insist that Yoshi exists. You have to remember that, to Duo, Yoshi really does exist. Your denial of Yoshi existence threatens the security that he finds with Yoshi."

"So we pretend that it exists, and it will go away?" Wufei asked. Sally nodded.

"In short, yes. Just go along with it and support him. After a while, he won't depend as much on Yoshi. Also," She turned to Heero, "try not to be so possessive of Duo. That is part of the problem. The more you hover over him, the worse it will get. You four need to get Duo to realize that he has to depend on himself for his own security, not on an outside source."

Wufei, Quatre and Trowa all turned to Heero and looked at him. What were the odds of Heero not keeping a close eye on Duo? Not good enough for them to want to bet on it, that was for sure. Heero gave a curt nod of his head, either acknowledging that he had heard Sally, or that was agreeing not to be as possessive. No one was sure.

"I left Duo in the bedroom so that I could talk to you four alone." She flashed them a smile. "You can gather him up and be on your way now."

*****

Duo lifted his head from the door. He had known that Sally wasn't going to believe him, if his closest friends didn't, why should she? Well, at least she had listened to him, really listened, as he spoke about Yoshi. And she didn't act as though he was on his way to the loony bin. Having her think that he was having some kind of childish problem with security wasn't that much better, but with her assessment he wouldn't be going to a nice little room with white padded walls. Definitely a bonus.

<Wonder if she would have come to the same conclusion if she knew that Heero and I were lovers?>

Sally had to have noticed how possessive Heero had been acting earlier, and that it went further than what was normal for close friends. Heero was a very possessive person, not having anything of his very own as he grew up as the perfect soldier. Possessions made you weak. He had two things that he considered his now, and heavens help anyone who messed with either Duo or Wing. Sally's diagnosis had one itsy-bitty flaw in it also, Duo had noticed. He had never looked to Heero for security, not like she was saying. Sure, he liked being with Heero, he was in love with the guy after all, but Heero did not inspire feelings of security. Now Heero, on the other hand, Duo had a feeling that Heero looked to him for security. One of the few constants in his short life. That was why he always made sure Heero knew how he felt for him, how much he loved him. Even if Heero didn't do anything that showed that he felt the same, Duo ~knew~ that Heero needed the reassurance that he was loved, that he would always be there, for as long as he could. Sally had given the correct diagnose, but to the wrong person. Maybe he should clue Sally in . . . nah. It really was none of her business, and it didn't have anything to do with Yoshi.

Speaking of Yoshi -Duo grinned- the advice Sally had given to the others on how to act the next time he spoke of Yoshi was interesting. Very interesting. <Go along with it. Humor him. I do believe that I can have some fun with that.> A full-fledged Shinigami grin split his face in two. So no one believed that a real monster was living in his closet, and they all thought that he was crazy. Well, lets see how long it took them to snap from the constant strain of acting as though they thought Yoshi was real.

The door opened, and Duo saw that Heero was on the other side. "Lets go."

Duo nodded and quickly sped out of the room, malicious little thoughts circling through his mind. Oh he was going to have so much fun.

And Yoshi would get a kick out of it too.

*****

"He shall die the most painful death known to mankind. His suffering shall know no bounds, and all shall tremble when they hear of his fate. JUSTICE SHALL BE SERVED!"

Quatre gave Wufei a pained look. "Now Wufei, what makes you so sure Duo was behind this?" He cringed back from the black fire in the Chinese man's eyes.

"Who else would do such an insufferable act?" he bit out. "Maxwell will pay for this!"

Trowa looked up at Wufei's Gundam. Shenlong was liberally decorated with paper streamers in a wide variety of colors and hundreds of little smiley stickers. To make things worse, if that was imaginable, Shenlong was holding a huge sign, much like protesters used in the twentieth century. It proudly proclaimed, in black paint, 'JUSTICE BE DAMNED! I QUIT!' Wufei had a point. Only Duo had the verve to pull a stunt like this, but he didn't think that Duo would ever go this far.

"WUFEI!" Trowa's head snapped up at Quatre's cry. Wufei had exited the hanger at a dead run, heading toward the house. Quatre gave him a panicked look, and the two tore after him. Sure Heero was in the house with Duo, but could even Heero save Duo from an enraged, vengeance minded Wufei?

Wufei nearly tore the door of its hinges as he opened it. "MAXWELL! COME OUT AND FACE ME!"

"Ehh . . . " Duo entered the room and looked at Wufei. If it was possible for a human to breath fire, then he would be needing a fire extinguisher. "Something wrong?" he asked in confusion.

Wufei pulled out his sword and rushed Duo. "DIE!" Duo eeped and threw himself backwards.

"For your sacrilege, death!" He lunged toward Duo, just to have his sword roughly pulled out of his grasp. The next thing Wufei knew, he was lying face down on the floor, his arm pinned behind his back. Duo scrambled away from him, eyes wide in a pale face.

"Hell man! What is wrong with you?" Duo got to his feet. "Have you gone crazy or something?"

"Duo!" Quatre and Trowa rushed in the room and stopped short. Wufei was pinned to the floor by Heero, and Duo was just staring at him. "Are you okay?"

Duo nodded, looking up at Quatre. "Yeah, just fine. What the hell is up with him?" He motioned to Wufei. "He came in here screaming that he was going to kill me."

Quatre and Trowa gave Duo a steady look. "What you did to Shenlong was a bit extreme." Trowa stated softly. Duo blinked, then awareness crept into his eyes. Uh oh.

"Something happened to Shenlong? What?"

A low growl came from the direction of the floor. "Don't plead ignorance on this Maxwell. I know you are responsible."

Heero looked up at the pilots of Sandrock and Heavyarms. "Explain."

Quatre looked at Heero nervously and leaned against Trowa for comfort. "Well, it seems that Shenlong was liberally decorated with no less than six different colors of streamer paper, several hundred smiley face stickers, and a . . . rather offensive sign . . . "

Heero turned and gave Duo an accusative look. "Duo . . . "

Duo backed off, hands held in front of him. "I didn't do it! I was with you all night, I couldn't have done it!" He edged toward the far door. "Yoshi did it."

Wufei buckled under Heero. "Urusai! Do not blame that . . . mhmm!" Wufei turned his head and glared at Quatre. "Mhmmm mmhm!"

Quatre gave Wufei a faint smile, glad that he could not hear what Wufei was saying, it would probably turn his ears red. "Duo . . . " he looked up just in time to see the end of a long brown braid snake around the doorframe. "Duo . . . " he sighed. Then he turned to Heero. "I do believe that you can release Wufei now."

Wufei squirmed under Quatre's hand. "Mhmmm!"

Quatre blushed. "Gomen nasai!" He quickly removed his hand and backed up against his koi for protection.

Wufei glowered at Quatre. "Are you going to move Yuy?" he growled. Heero shot him a glare of his own as he released Wufei's arm and stood up. Wufei was to his feet a moment later and turned to Quatre. "Why did you do that?!" he demanded.

Quatre gave him a stern look and crossed his arms. "What were you about to say to Duo?" he demanded softly.

Wufei glared at the small blond. "He cannot continue to hide behind the claim that a ~monster~ has been doing these things. He ~desecrated~ Nataku!"

Quatre sighed. "Wufei, please remember what Sally-san said. If we humor him . . . "

"He laughs behind our backs." Wufei spat out, beyond caring. "He is using this monster excuse to protect himself. What he did to Nataku . . . "

"Duo was with me all night. He did nothing to Nataku."

The other three pilots paused, and turned to Heero. "Nani?"

Heero frowned at Wufei. "When did you leave your Gundam?"

Wufei tilted his head. "I finished working on Nataku after one. Why?"

Heero nodded. "Duo and I were up until three, when we went to sleep. He did not leave the room for the rest of the night."

"How do you know?" Wufei demanded. "He could have slipped out while you were sleeping."

A faint smile twitched across Heero's lips, so faint that Trowa, the only one who noticed it, almost thought he had imagined it. "No. He did not leave."

"Then after he awakened . . . " This time Trowa interrupted.

"No, Duo would not have had the time. It would have taken several hours to accomplish what he did to Shenlong."

Wufei clenched his fists. "I know that Maxwell is behind this!"

"Yes, but as long as he is blaming Yoshi for it, we can't do anything about it." Quatre gave his fellow pilots a strained look. "We must be patient. Duo will get better."

"Hmph!" Wufei turned and picked up his sword from where it had fallen. "I am going to clean Nataku. Keep him away from me for the rest of the day."

The others watched as he stalked out of the room. Heero, eyes unreadable, turned and left out the same door that Duo had escaped through, leaving Quatre and Trowa alone in the room.

"To be honest," Quatre looked up at Trowa. "I do not know how much longer I can take this myself." Trowa nodded, understanding perfectly. The last two weeks had been more trying than the previous two months had been . . .

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ two weeks earlier ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the week after their visit with Sally Po, things seemed to have gone back to normal. They had destroyed an OZ instillation that was manufacturing a new power source for the Mobile Dolls, Heero failed in self destructing once again, and there were no more monster sightings. Life was good. Then it happened. Late one night, when Wufei was preparing to retire for the night, they discovered things were not going as smoothly as they had thought. Wufei had pulled back the covers and climbed into bed, freezing in the process of sliding in. Slowly he stood up, then pulled the covers off of his bed. His sheets went down only halfway. Someone had short-sheeted his bead. Only one name came to mind.

"MAXWELL!!"

Two doors opened and closed. A moment later there was a soft knock on his door. "Wufei? Is something wrong?"

Wufei tore open the door, revealing a startled Quatre with a yawning Duo behind him.

"You know, some of us are trying to sleep."

"Maxwell, how can you talk of sleep after what you did?" Wufei hissed. Duo and Quatre blinked at him.

"Huh?" Was Duo's response.

Wufei reached past Quatre and hauled Duo into the room and over to his bed. "This!" he motioned to the bed. "You short-sheeted my bed!"

Duo blinked at him sleepily. "Wufei, I was asleep until a couple of minutes ago. I came back from my mission twenty minutes ago. When did I have time to do this?"

Wufei opened his mouth to protest, then stopped. Maxwell did have a point. He had left the day before, and had barely returned. He had been in his room the entire time. When had Maxwell the time to do this?

Duo snapped his fingers. "You know, I bet I know who did it. Someone who had plenty of time."

"Who," Quatre asked.

"Yoshi."

Wufei collapsed onto his bed with a low moan. Mindful of what that woman had told them several days ago, he carefully phrased his question. "And why would," he winced, "Yoshi short-sheet my bed?"

"Dunno. Probably bored. Well if that is all this is about," Duo yawned, "I'm going back to sleep. See you in the morning."

Wufei and Quatre watched as Duo left the room. A moment later a door opened and closed. "He is blaming the monster for this?" Wufei looked at Quatre. "You know he was the one who did this!"

Quatre nodded. "Yes, but according to Sally-san, we must humor him. It won't last long."

***

Wufei and Quatre did not mention the incident to anyone, so Trowa was more than a little surprised when he came out of the shower two days later and looked in the mirror. He blinked, frowned, ran his hand through his hair, frowned even more, and then went off in search of a certain American who sported a long brown braid. He found him in the family room playing checkers with Quatre. Heero was sitting on the sofa, several guns in various stages of assembly laying on a cloth on the coffee table in front of him.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked in a dangerously soft voice. All three turned and looked.

"Trowa!!!" Quatre squeaked. His eyes grew wide, and he motioned vaguely with his hand. Duo had taken one look, and had collapsed on the floor laughing hysterically. Heero just looked at Trowa, eyebrows almost up into his hairline.

"Your hair!" Duo gasped out. "What happened?"

Trowa gazed steadily at Duo. "I believe that you would know more about that than I." Duo sat up and wiped the tears out of his eyes.

"Why would I know why you changed your hair color to orange?"

Quatre, who had been trying to adjust to the sight of his koi with neon orange hair, turned to Duo, a thoughtful look in his eyes. He hadn't . . .

"Duo . . . " Heero was now also looking at Duo.

"Hey, I didn't do it. Why is it whenever something goes wrong like this, everyone looks at me?"

"Because you are most likely to blame," Heero responded. "Did you do this?"

" 'I may run, I may hide, but I never lie,' " Duo quoted. "I did not do anything to cause Trowa's hair to turn," he snickered, "orange."

"Well then, who did?" Quatre asked, feeling he knew what the answer was, but needing to hear it for himself.

He was not disappointed. "Probably Yoshi again. Boredom, I tell you." Duo shook his head. "It will get you into trouble every time."

Trowa blinked. He was blaming his ~monster~ for this? Heero was thinking similar thoughts. Neither said anything, Sally's words still fresh in their minds.

Duo shook his head. "Yoshi was talking about livening things up here, but I had no idea that this would happen."

"No, of course not," Quatre replied, his smile a bit strained. "How could you have?" Trowa and Heero were staring strangely at Quatre. He gave them quick looks, then stood up. "I am going to prepare some tea. Would you like some?"

Duo shook his head, and with one last look at Trowa, went back to examining the checker board. Quatre walked out of the room, followed by Heero and Trowa. None of them noticed as they left for their little conference the little smirk that followed them out of the room.

***

The next practical joke occurred two days later. For a change, all five pilots were at the safe house at the same time. Trowa had finally managed to dye his hair back to the proper color, but not until after Catherine had seen it, and taken pictures for her scrapbook. She thought it was adorable.

On this find day, while the Gundam pilots were enjoying a day to themselves, a limo pulled up in the front drive. Duo, who was upstairs at the time, glanced out the window just as the limo came to a stop.

"Shimatta!!" he cried out and bolted to the door.

Downstairs, the other four had no idea that something worse than imaginary monsters had invaded their current sanctuary. So when the door rang Quatre had no reservations about answering it. Just as he reached for the knob, a panting Duo rushed into the room, heading straight for Heero.

"It's the Hell Spawned! We've gotta get out of here!" He grabbed Heero's arm and tried to haul him out of the room. His actions came too late.

"HEERO!"

Everyone in the room winced. Quatre had opened the door. Standing on the porch was Relena. She beamed at Heero, glared at Duo, and ignored everyone else. "I found you!"

"No shit," Duo muttered. Heero glared at Relena, and was about to say something, when something surprising happened. Relena took a step to enter, and was liberally covered with bright green paint that rained down on her from above. Everyone was shocked into silence, even the Queen of the World.

"Oh my . . . " Quatre broke the silence. He could not believe what just happened.

"I . . . I . . . NOOOoooooo!!!" Relena wailed, distraught. She had just found her Heero, and she was bathed in green paint. Relena, being Relena, knew who was responsible. "You!" she hissed, wiping paint-covered hair out from in front of her eyes as she glared at the young man standing next to her Heero. "You did this!"

Everyone turned to Duo. He had rushed down from upstairs, and had known that Relena had arrived. His and Heero's room was over the door. Had he set up some kind of booby trap?

"Will you guys quit blaming me for everything!" he protested. "I was standing right here!" He pointed down at the floor. "I didn't do it!"

Everyone looked at him for a moment, then Quatre held his had out to Relena. "Come, you really need to wash the paint off before it dries. I am sure that my sisters have some cloths that fit you somewhere around here." As Quatre exited with Relena, everyone else looked back at Duo.

"Are you sure you didn't set something up before you came down?" Wufei asked suspiciously.

"Cross my heart and hope to die." Duo made crossing motions across his chest. "Besides, why would I keep paint in my room?"

The other four gave him a steady look. If the paint hadn't been meant for Relena, it had probably been meant for one of them. Heero turned and left the room. Duo gave a disgusted snort.

"He isn't going to find anything," he muttered. "Yoshi would have cleared away all evidence." He turned and started after Heero.

"I liked it better when he was just talking about it. It was just his problem then."

Trowa just nodded."

***

"AAHHHH!!!!!"

Trowa wandered out of the bath to see what was wrong with his koi. Quatre was kneeling on the bed, staring at his pillow. He was also swearing in Arabic, something that Trowa had never heard before.

"Quatre . . . "

Quatre turned, his blue eyes flashing dangerously. "PUDDING! Someone put pudding in my pillow!"

Trowa walked over and looked at the pillow. Some sort of brown ooze, smelling a lot like chocolate pudding, was coming through the pillowcase in what looked to be a head sized indentation. He glanced over at Quatre out of the corner of his eye. His sweat, gentle koi was seething.

"I will ~not~ stand this!" He growled out and jumped off the bed. Trowa glanced down at the pillow, then at the back of his koi, now exiting the room, and sighed. He wished Duo would knock this off, before someone got hurt.

"DUO!!"

"Hmm?" Wufei opened his door to see what kind of trouble the pilot of Deathscythe Hell had gotten into this time. Upon seeing the state Quatre was in, he debated whether or not he wanted to leave his room. The prospect of Maxwell getting it from Quatre, however, was too much of a temptation and he left his room, following Trowa as they headed to Duo and Heero's room.

No matter how upset Quatre was, he always kept his manners. Politely he knocked on the door and waited until the door was opened before entering. He looked at Heero, then turned to Duo who was laying in bed, wearing his boxers.

"Duo," he said softly, a chill in his voice. "What possessed you to put pudding in my pillow?"

Duo blinked, then pouted. "I didn't do it," he muttered. "I am getting tired of you guys blaming me for everything Yoshi did."

"Duo!" Quatre exclaimed sharply. Duo looked at him. "I don't believe that Yoshi did this." Heero, Trowa and Wufei all stared at Quatre in shock. What was he doing?!? "You said that Yoshi was scared of Heero, so how could Yoshi get to the kitchen, take out the chocolate pudding, and put it in my pillow when Heero was here all day?"

The others were still looking at Quatre, this time in mute admiration. They would never have thought of using that track of reasoning. Duo hadn't either, and was trying to think of a response, when ~all~ of what Quatre said registered.

"Yoshi used my chocolate pudding!" he wailed. Quatre took a step back at the anguish in his voice. It was genuine. "But there was tapioca!"

"You are just saying that to throw suspicion off of you," Wufei accused. Duo rapidly shook his head.

"No way. Would ~I~ use chocolate pudding, one of my favorite foods, in such a manner? I would have used the tapioca. I hate tapioca."

"And what about Yoshi?" Trowa asked. Heero and Wufei gave him a strange look.

Duo sighed. "Yoshi is allergic to chocolate."

"Allergic . . . to chocolate . . . " Quatre started shaking. Trowa quickly stepped forward and placed his hands on Quatre's shoulders. Murmuring softly to him, Trowa escorted him out of the room and down the hall. A moment later they heard a door close, and the muffled sound of someone pounding on something. Wufei gave Heero a shrug, and he left for his room. Heero closed the door and stared at Duo. He had a little smirk on his face. Upon seeing that Heero was looking at him, it quickly disappeared.

"I really didn't do it Heero, honest." Heero gave him a steady look, then turned off the light. He never told Duo whether or not he believed his claim of innocence.

***

The next practical joke by 'Yoshi' wasn't quite in the realm of a practical joke, but it did get a stir out of the intended victim. They were once again going through a period where none of them were on a mission. For a change, they all decided to go out to dinner and a movie together. Dinner comprised of White Castle, Where Duo astonished the employees by downing fifty sliders. It also had the unexpected side-effect of nearly making Wufei sick. After dinner, they had gone to the Cineplex, where they immediately began arguing over what movie they would watch. It ended with Heero hauling Duo off to one theater, Quatre and Trowa to a second, and Wufei happily by himself in a third.

When they returned to the safe house, both Heero and Wufei checked above the door before entering. Duo snickered at their actions, earning two cold glares, but otherwise kept his mouth closed. They were getting ready to wander off to their respective rooms when Quatre, who had entered the family room for one reason or another, made an exclamation.

"Oh! How ~darling~!"

Immediately the other four pilots joined him. At first glace, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but one by one, their gazes were drawn to the sofa.

"I don't believe it," Wufei whispered.

"My," Trowa said softly.

"Kawaii!" Duo squealed.

Heero just stared.

In the middle of the sofa, propped up by a pillow, was a little homemade dolly. Of Heero. It was quite the likeness, down to the mussed hair, blue eyes, and cute little scowl stitched onto its cloth face. It was even dressed like Heero. Tight black shorts, tennis shoes, and the ever present green tank top. The only difference between the little dolly and Heero, in fact, was the little message stitched onto the front of the tank top in bright red letters. At the top was Heero's name, below it a heart, and at the bottom Duo's name.

"That is the most precious thing I have ever seen Heero." He turned to the Wing pilot. "Wherever did you get it?"

". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " was Heero's response.

Duo, in the meantime, had walked over and picked it up. "I can't believe how much like Heero it looks." He held it up at eye level. The dolly scowled at him. He grinned. "Just like him!" Trowa walked over behind Duo and picked up a little white card that had fallen to the floor. He looked at it, then handed it to Quatre, whose eyes widened as he read the message on the card out loud.

" 'A little reminder of what is true,' " he read, " 'to Heero, from Yoshi.' Oh dear."

"Omae o korosu."

"Huh?" A brown braid swung violently through the air, nearly smacking Trowa. "Hey! ~I~ didn't do this!"

Heero took a step toward Duo, and Duo bolted through the far door. Not even a second later Heero was gone as well.

"Maxwell has outdone himself this time," Wufei murmured as he took the card from Quatre so he could look at it himself. "To do something so humiliating . . . " his voice trailed off as he looked at the card. "This is not Maxwell's handwriting."

"Yes," Quatre nodded, "I noticed that myself." He carefully took the card from Wufei. "It looks as if Duo has an accomplis."

In the distance, a voice could be heard.

"No! Don't kill me! I didn't do it! No! Not the doll! If you don't want it, I'll take it! Heerooo . . . "

Wufei, Quatre and Trowa all sighed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ present time ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

. . . Trowa shook his head. At this rate, Duo wouldn't have to worry about being killed in battle. Then something occurred to Trowa. "The writing on the sign matched what was on the card," he told Quatre in a soft voice.

Nodding, Quatre looked up at Trowa. "I do believe that you are right. If we can convince Wufei of that," he and Trowa started for their room, "maybe we can convince him not to kill Duo."

"Exactly."

Trowa opened the door and closed it after he and Quatre entered. While Quatre went to the night stand to retrieve the card that had came with the doll two days earlier, Trowa looked around the room. Something seemed out of place . . . there. The stereo system had been turned on. He walked over and looked at it cautiously. Someone had put the CD player on pause. Trowa frowned at it, then pressed play.

*****

Heero found Duo sitting at the table in the kitchen, a glass of milk in one hand, and a platter of chocolate chip cookies in front of him. Duo grinned at him, then looked passed him.

"Where's Wufei?"

"Cleaning Shenlong." Heero walked up to the table and stared at Duo. "Why?"

Duo took a healthy swig of his milk. "Why what?" he asked after he swallowed.

Heero continued to stare at him. "The monster. Why?"

"Why the pranks?" Heero gave a barely perceptible nod. "Ah . . . well," Duo gave Heero a sheepish look. "I heard what Sally told you guys you know." He shot Heero a cautious look. "You know, the humor Duo thing." Heero started to scowl at Duo. It looked as if Wufei was right. His scowl darkened. Duo noticed immediately. "Maa maa, don't look at me like that! Yoshi did it all, not me! I had thought just to liven things up a bit, but what happened to Shenlong was way too much. Even if it did finally cause someone to break . . . "

Heero frowned as he went over what Duo had just said. "You wanted us to deny that the monster existed."

Duo rapidly nodded. "Yep. Despite what Sally told you, humoring me is not going to make Yoshi disappear. She is a great doctor, but she is no shrink." Duo gave Heero a sly glance. "I'll go up and ask Yoshi to stop it with the pranks though. Wouldn't do if someone killed me over them, ne?"

Heero was about to reply when heavy bass from a stereo turned up way too loud vibrated through the house accompanied by two shrieks. A moment later the lyrics began.

~LET'S DO IT

WORKIN' ALL WEEK 9 TO 5 FOR MY MONEY

SO WHEN THE WEEKEND COMES I GO GET LIVE WITH THE HONEY

ROLLIN' DOWN THE STREET I SAW THIS GIRL AND SHE WAS PUMPIN'~

 

A moment later a loud crash came from upstairs and the music, such as it was, stopped. Duo looked at Heero, Heero looked at Duo.

"DUUUUUUOOOOOO!!!" Quatre and Trowa's voices echoed through the house.

"I think that I will wait to talk to Yoshi until later though," Duo said as he quickly stood up and pocketed some of the cookies. "I do believe now is just not the time." Heero stared at Duo for a moment, then nodded. Then, to Duo's great surprise, Heero grabbed his wrist and hauled him out the door.

"Mall." Heero was the master of not-questions.

"Uh, sure. Good idea," Duo babbled out as Heero headed toward the jeep. Hmm . . . maybe go to a matinee while hiding out there? The theaters were always nice and dark in the back . . .

*****

The next couple of weeks went by quietly. Wufei, Quatre and Trowa didn't speak to Duo for several days, which accounted for part of the reason. The other, and main part, was that Duo kept quiet. The glares from his three fellow pilots, all promising a slow, painful death, was a good deterrent. He had also decided that mentioning Yoshi would be a bad idea until they cooled off a bit. It had probably been a very wise idea. Heero had not told the others what Duo had told him in the kitchen. If he had, Duo knew, they would be looking for a new pilot for Deathscythe Hell.

Today no one had any missions. Heero and Trowa had returned from one two days ago, and Wufei had returned after a two-day absence that none of the others knew the reason of. Duo had thought about asking him about it when he had returned, but one look at Wufei had stopped him. Wufei looked angry and confused. The look changed to straight anger when he noticed that Duo was watching him. He had stormed out of the house and hadn't returned until early in the morning. At the moment he was lightly dozing in the easy chair, a thick book laying on his stomach. Quatre and Trowa were paying chess, and Heero had brought his laptop down and was typing away. The last anyone had seen Duo was when he had wandered to the kitchen during a commercial break. That was a half hour ago.

"Guys," a soft voice called.

Four heads turned to the doorway. Standing in the doorway was Duo, looking a bit on the depressed side. "Yoshi is leaving," he murmmured.

It took a moment for Duo's sad, soft-spoken words to register, and when they did, it was all the other four pilots could do to keep themselves from rejoicing. From the way Duo was acting right now, it was obvious to all of them that this was affecting Duo pretty badly. If they screwed this up, Yoshi just might stay forever. That was something that none of them could live with.

"Why?" Quatre asked, getting to his feet. Even if Yoshi was an imaginary friend, Duo was still losing a friend. He would need support right now.

"I am not sure. Yoshi just told me it was time to leave." Duo looked at each of them. "But before leaving, Yoshi wants to say good-bye to you guys."

They stared at Duo. His monster wanted to do what?! Wufei was the first to find his voice.

"What?"

That pretty well summed it up for all of them.

Duo just shrugged. "Yoshi wants to say good-bye before leaving. What's wrong with that?" he demanded, a bit of fire showing in his eyes.

"Nothing," Quatre quickly said, "nothing at all. We will be right up."

Duo nodded, a bit of his usual buoyancy emerging. "Okay, I'll run up and tell Yoshi that you guys are on your way." With that, Duo turned and disappeared out of view. A moment later, they heard footsteps rapidly running up the stairs.

"I do not believe you told him that," Wufei said as he sat up in his chair. He scowled at Quatre. "Go up and say good-bye to an imaginary monster," a quick shake of his head, "utter foolishness."

"It is a closure." They turned to Trowa. "Duo is finally releasing Yoshi, and he needs us there for it." Quatre nodded his agreement.

"Lets go." Heero had already turned off his laptop and was heading to the door. More than any of the others, he wanted this over with. This imaginary monster thing Duo was going through scared him as nothing else had ever scared him before. He had never felt like that, and unlike falling in love with Duo, this was a decidedly unpleasant feeling.

The others followed him out of the room and up the stairs. Halfway down the hall he stopped. Duo was standing outside the open door of their room. He frowned and started walking again. They were almost to the door when Duo stuck his arm out to stop them.

"Yoshi doesn't want you guys to enter the room, still shy, you know. You can say your good-byes from here."

"Say what!" Wufei demanded. "You hauled us up here, and we have to stand in the hallway?"

Duo crossed his arms and scowled at Duo. "If you don't want to say good-bye, you didn't have to come. Of course," Duo looked up at the ceiling casually, "Yoshi probably won't leave then . . . "

A deep growl came from Wufei. "Maxwell . . . "

"Get it over with Duo," Heero demanded. Duo looked at his koi.

"Hey, I'm not the one making things difficult here. I told him ages ago that Yoshi was shy."

"Duo . . . "

While Heero, Duo and Wufei were thus engaged, Trowa sighed to himself and looked past Duo, at the open doorway, and froze. Without looking away from the doorway, he reached one hand out for Quatre. On his third try, he touched Quatre on the shoulder and tugged. Quatre had been watching the little argument with no small amount of trepidation, worried that he would have to step in if things got bad. This Yoshi thing had them on the last threads of patience. The urgent tugging on his shoulder drew his attention away from them to Trowa. He frowned. Trowa was staring straight ahead, face pale, eyes opened wide.

"Trowa? What is it?"

Trowa didn't say anything. Instead, he directed Quatre's gaze to the doorway of Heero and Duo's room. Quatre looked, and gasped softly. The soft gasp grabbed Heero and Wufei's attention from the argument with Duo, and they both looked. They froze.

"Huh? Guys?" Duo looked at the four frozen faces of his friends, then turned, flashing a smile as he saw what had caught their attention. "Hey Yoshi! They are all here to say good-bye to you."

A delicate feminine face covered with dark blue fur looked out from around the doorframe. As Duo had said months ago, Yoshi's fur was very short, except for her long black hair. She had a pair of golden horns, much like a ram's, curling around her head. She smiled softly, crinkling her nose and showing off short pointed fangs, then spoke in a soft singsong voice.

"Yoshi leave now. Bai bai!" She waved good-bye, opening and closing her hand like a small child, and ducked back into the room. A moment later, they heard the closet door close.

Duo sniffled and wiped away a tear from his eye. "I'm gonna miss her. What about you guys?" Duo turned to the others. They hadn't moved, frozen in shock; eyes opened wide, and faces pale. "Guys?" Duo frowned. What was with them? No one moved. Duo bounced in front of them, waving his hand in front of their faces, hoping to get a reaction. None came. "Guys?" Duo asked, a bit more urgently. "Yo guys? Anyone home?"

Quatre's knees suddenly gave out on him and he slumped to the floor. <Real. Yoshi was real. It was all real.> He started to shake his head in denial. No, it could not be. Monsters in closets could not, were not, real.

Duo was starting to get real worried as he watched Quatre collapse. He quickly bounced over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. What was the matter with them? "Come on guys, this isn't funny." Quatre didn't react at all to the shaking. He looked up at Trowa, then over at Heero and Wufei. None of them moved. "Guys? Guys!"


The End

=^._.^=

"GUUUUUUUYYYYYYYYS!!!!!!!!"

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