For about five minutes I felt sorry for myself, then told the world to screw itself and I stopped crying like a wuss. I emerged from the stall, washed my face and checked to make sure there was no snot on my chin before stalking out of the bathroom with an air of (fake) confidence.

A fake confidence that was shot to hell, though, when I saw Heero and Wufei standing just outside of Fei’s cubicle in an intimate embrace. Then they kissed, and my heart began to hurt all over again.

But it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

After all, the hurt I was feeling now paled in comparison to the hurt I’d felt when, one year ago, I’d found my boyfriend, Heero Yuy in bed with Chang Wufei.

. . .

. . .

Oh, man, that was really dramatic! But that’s what happened, I’m just tellin’ it like it is.

So I just stood there, staring as they parted, their cheeks tinted pink (yep, even Heero’s) and looking kind of embarrassed. Hmm. Reminds me of when I walked in on them having a go at it on the bed that I’d shared with Heero every night. Yep, pink faces, embarrassed looks . . .

Uhhh, I can’t believe I’m thinking about this again.

My savior, my best friend, came swooping down to save me. Quatre quickly came by, took me by the waist and dragged me away. I was on the verge of breaking down again, so it was a good thing that he took some action when he did.

“Thanks, Q, I really didn’t need to see that.”

“Hey, what are best friends for?”

I sniffled and smiled. Yeah, what were they for? What had I done to deserve such a good buddy? “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything in the bathroom.”

“Naw, we were done anyway,” Quatre reassured me. “But after all of that . . . activity, I’m hungry. And I know that you’re always hungry, so let’s take an early lunch break.”

Ummm, food. One of the few things that could lift my spirits at a time like this one. I hope they’ve got hot dogs today . . .

We walked into the cafeteria which was pretty empty since most of the workers too their breaks at noon. Ha! Noon, that’s so overdone. We approached the steaming hot dishes at the serving center and . . .

Damn! Today was just one fucking bad day. No hot dogs. I grumbled under my breath and filled my plate with French fries and chicken tenders and watched as Q stood there, staring at the food. This was something he always did, stared at each and every dish as if he could just see the number of calories and grams of fat the various foods had. I guess this was something someone had to do when they had a boyfriend to please. Me, I didn’t really care.

Quatre got a little pasta and a little bit of salad before moving down to get a bottle of water. I got some 7-Up, duh, and winked at the lady at the cash register as I went by. Yep, WITHOUT paying hahahaha! I’m just too darn cute.

Quatre had to pay, though, and Heero . . . well, the cash register lady (and everyone in the office and their DOG for that matter) had gotten wind of Heero’s . . . infidelity and had taken it upon herself to charge him for things he hadn’t bought. He never complained. Oh, well.

Q and I took a table in the back of the cafeteria, in a quiet corner where we could talk without being overheard. We ate in silence for a while before Quatre decided that it was time to have our little one-on-one.

“So . . . Heero again.”

“Yep. I hate it. Why do I always let them get to me?” I asked, stabbing a funny shaped chicken tender with my fork, pretending that it was Heero’s . . . well, ahem.

Quatre sighed and gave me a sympathetic look. “Because you still love him, and deep down inside, you still want to be Wufei’s friend.”

Damn. Didn’t I? These guys . . . we’d been to hell and back together during the war, blowing stuff up and hiding out in creepy old houses. . . That was something that I couldn’t just let go of , no matter what happened, no matter how much I might have wanted to say ‘fuck them’ and walk away.

I smiled weakly and ate the weird piece of chicken. “Hey, we’re the Gundam Five. I mean, there’s a bond there that’s . . .”

“Yeah, I understand.”

“But I’ve got to get over it,” I growled. “I came to the realization a while ago that I’m not getting him back, and that I need to move on.”

“That’s right, you need to move on.” Quatre got that look in his eyes again. Oops, I guess I said the wrong thing. He leaned over the table and looked me straight in the eye. “You need to move on, and that’s why you’re going to go on the blind date I arranged for you.”

I choked on the bubbly 7-Up. “WHAT?!” I felt totally betrayed. My best friend had done this to me?! A blind date? How desperate was that!

“Oh, come on, Duo! It’ll be good for you to start dating again! And finding someone else is the best way to forget about Heero, and to show him that you don’t need him anymore.”

Hmm . . . yeah. Yeah, I didn’t need him anymore. And I needed to show him . . . maybe make him jealous? No. Just show him.

“ . . . Is he hot?”

“Well . . .”

“Quatre!”

“He’s not a monster, but he’s not Heero-hot or anything.” He sat back in his chair and thought. “Well, I guess he’s pretty cute.”

Cute? Better than ‘monster’ I suppose. I could deal. Besides one date didn’t equal a life long commitment. If he was cute enough, then maybe . . . “Where’d you meet him?”

Quatre grinned. “He works in the office. I’ve known for a long time that he’s had a crush on you. He wanted to chew Heero out for hurting you like that, but, well, you know.”

Yep, I knew. Heero had been in such a fowl mood after I’d uncovered his cheating ways that if anyone besides me had tried to confront him about it, they wouldn’t have lived to tell the tale. “Aww, that’s cute, he wanted to stick up for me. I guess I could give it a try.”

“That’s good, because I already told him that you would do it.”

Was this guy really my best friend? Sometimes I wonder. “Fine. I’ll let you get by on this one, but do it again and your bunny slippers are history.”

He laughed and pretended to look scared. “Oh no, not my bunny slippers!”

I stuck out my tongue and continued to munch on my food. My mind wandered off.

A date. Jeeze, how long had it been? Even when I was with Heero, we didn’t go on many dates, only if we were going out with the rest of the guys. And now here I was, going out with some guy I didn’t even know. Baby steps, Duo, baby steps.

“Don’t look, but here come Wufei and Heero,” Quatre said tensely, looking somewhere over my shoulder.

Well, now I just HAD to look since he said not too. I turned in my seat and there they were, making their way through the line. Had they spotted us? I hope not, then they’d feel obligated to sit next to us. Oh, and in comes Trowa. Good. He’s on MY side. When the shit hit the fan a year ago, he’d been pretty pissed at Heero and Wufei for what they did. That had surprised me a lot, and ever since then, we’d been making progress in our relationship. Yep, he actually SPOKE when I was around. Amazing.

Darn, here come Wufei and Heero. They’re gonna try and sit here, and I’m going to say yes just because.

Quatre and I watched as they came over, a tray in each of their hands. “Can we join you?” Wufei asked, sending me a skittish glance. Heero’s face was blank. Jerk, couldn’t he ever be nervous?

I wanted to tell them off (really, I did) but instead I told them to pull up some seats. It’s that damn heart again, giving me trouble. So they sat at the table, and a few seconds later Trowa came and sat down too. Three against two, how do you like that baby!

The table was quiet and tense. The only sound was the sound of people eating or drinking, which is a sound that I really hated (I mean, I don’t want to hear you eat, eww) so I filled the void with the best sound in the world—my voice!

“Ahem. Sooo, thanks to Quatre, I’ve got a hot date on . . . um, when is it?” I asked, carefully watching Heero out of the corner of my eye.

His fork paused in mid air, and he looked up from his plate to stare at me. Yes! Haha, he cared. I knew he would.

“Oh! Next Friday. I hope that’s fine.”

“Perfect. Hey, Q, that means we can go out and buy some stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with me going out on a date and say that it does to ease our conscience. Tonight?” I said grinning wildly. We always needed an excuse to go out shopping together—together, mind you, not alone. When we were together in a store . . . well, we’d usually end up buying a whole bunch of random stuff that we don’t really need. But we might need it sometime in the future. You never know.

Quatre returned the grin. “Sure! We’ll take my SUV just in case we get something big. I’ll pick you up at six.”

“Wait. A date?”

That was Heero. I knew it. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before he opened his mouth and said something. I turned to him. “Yep, a date. It’s been a whole freaking year since we broke up. You see, I think that I should move on, try to see what else is out there, try to be happy, try to get laid—”

Trowa laughed quietly and Quatre grinned. I only got a shocked look from Wufei and an evil glare from Heero.

“—so I need to start looking for a suitable guy.”

“Who is this guy?” Heero demanded, his head whipping around so that he could focus his glare on Q. Whoa. He was angry. I could tell, because his muscles were bunching up beneath his t-shirt. Apparently, Wufei noticed too, because he placed his hand on Heero’s arm, and I could see Heero relax a bit. Damn, not fair. Every time I’d tried that to calm him down I’d gotten my braid yanked on.

“Someone from the office,” Quatre said calmly, “and no, I’m not telling you his name so that you can scare the poor guy away.”

“I’m not going to scare him away,” Heero insisted. Ha! That was pure bullshit.

Trowa snorted at that. “Of course you are, Heero.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” Heero asked, clearly annoyed.

I gave him a look. “We all know you well enough to know what you’d do.”

“ . . . Fine. So I want to talk to the guy, so what?” He turned back to me, frowning. Man, even when he frowned he was totally hot. Curse him. “I don’t think you should do this. You’re just angry at me, you’re trying to get back at me--”

Ohh no he did not just say that! Like my world revolved around him? It’s on now!

“Heero, we aren’t dating anymore, remember? You stopped having any kind of say over what I do when you decided to screw Wufei behind my back, which, by the way was a pretty rotten thing to do to a friend.” I addressed the end to Wufei, raising an eyebrow at him, something nasty in my voice.

Silence.

“Don’t talk to him like that,” Heero said, his voice deadly calm, his breathing a little faster than it had been before.

“Sorry.” Not. “I’m just telling the truth, and I’m sorry if you don’t like it. You made the choice to do what you did, not me, and you have to live with it.”

There.

Trowa cleared his throat. “Duo’s right. You can’t control him, Heero. If he wants to date, you should be encouraging him. Things will be better for all of us that way.” Ahh, I knew he had my back.

And then Wufei surprised me. He turned to Heero, took him by the chin and stared squarely into his eyes. “Trowa and Duo are correct. You cannot continue to be possessive where Duo is concerned. He is his own man, let him do what he wants.”

He was probably just saying that so that I would stop pinning over his man and get my own, but that was a nice thing to say. Again, baby steps.

“Hn.” Heero grunted. “Fine, do what you want, Duo.”

“Thank you.” Like I needed his permission. Honestly . . .

“You’re very important to me, Duo,” Heero confessed, not looking at me at all. What was this? “I know that I hurt you, but you were my first friend and . . .”

Jeeze, just rip out my heart, why don’t you! “Its okay, Heero. I understand. Come on, Quat, I want to show you my new wallpaper on my computer.”

We got up and left a little faster than was normal. I was ready to get out of there before I broke down again. I wouldn’t do it, not in front of them.

“You know what the hardest part is, O?” I whined, resting my head against his shoulder as we walked back to our cubicles. With my brain feeling like scrambled mush, it felt really good. “The worst part is that they’re totally in love. I mean, if they were just fucking each other just for the hell of it, then it would be so much easier to hate them.”

Quatre supporting wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. “No one’s saying you have to hate them . . . but that doesn’t mean that you should let them off easily, either. Give ‘em hell for a while.”

I really loved Q. Have I mentioned that? We’d be best friends forever. “Give ‘em hell, huh? Does that mean I can use Heero’s credit card number to order the latest Tekken game off of the internet?”

He burst out laughing and inside I began to feel much better. I loved to make Quatre laugh. The muscles in his face would relax, his eyes would light up and then he’d smile this dazzling smile . . .

Er . . . no. Oookay, no! I am not crushing on my best friend. I ain’t that desperate!

Man, now I’m really looking forward to that date.

*~*

When six o’clock rolled around I was already waiting outside of my apartment building for Quatre’s bright red SUV to roll up. I was so excited. Secretly, I loved to shop for any and everything, from groceries to electronics. Secretly, okay? Because I don’t want everyone to think that I’m flamboyantly gay. Nope, that ain’t me. I’m a manly man’s man.

Spending oodles of money would surely keep my mind off of Heero (the dirty cheater) and Wufei (the boyfriend stealer).

Ummm, yeah. If you can’t tell, I’ve been thinking about the two since our mini-confrontation in the cafeteria. Mini because we’d had some that were way bigger than that. I’m talking colossal. Take my word for it, ‘kay? You don’t want to know.

Right on time Q pulled up and threw open the passenger side door. I hopped in and we sped off.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“First to the mall to get you something nice for your date. Then to Ikea . . . I need a new bed,” he said, avoiding my gaze.

What? A new bed? That’s not something someone goes out to buy in the middle of the day like . . . I dunno, a new pair of panty hose or some junk.

Unless . . .

I laughed so hard that my sides began to hurt. “Oh . . . oh . . . hahaha! Y-you two broke another bed?”

Quatre blushed and jerked the steering wheel roughly to the right. “Shut up! It was an accident, jeeze!”

“Man, you two should just do it on the floor!” I sat back and thought about that. Then again . . . “You know what? Never mind. If you did it on the floor, you might bring down the house.”

We giggled at that together all the way to the mall. Quatre parked close to the entrance and once we’d composed ourselves, we headed into the mall arm in arm.

Our first stop was the women’s lingerie store.

Okay, OKAY, I know what you’re thinking! I can explain! It’s just an ongoing prank that Q and I have—I promise! What do you think I am, some kind of freak?

We went inside the store, trying not to blush and laugh at all of the ‘sexy’ underwear that surrounded us. Not sexy to us, mind you, cuz we’re a couple of gay guys, but more like funny. We were already drawing too much attention from the people working there as we fought back cheesy grins, and it would do us no good to get tossed out before we’d accomplished our mission.

“Oh, let’s get this one!” Quatre exclaimed, grabbing a pink and white thong that with the writing ‘How Many Licks?’ on the front of it.

We giggled. (I swear, we do that waaay to much.) “It’s perfect,” I replied. We went up the register and paid for the skimpy underwear, asking for it to be gift wrapped in shiny red paper decorated with pink heard, topped off with a big white bow. As we exited the store, I took the card attached to the bow and wrote in big box letters FROM HEERO.

We’d send it to Relena’s in the morning.

Yeah, I know. Absolute genius, isn’t it?!

Anyway, with that done, we headed over to a trendy men’s clothing store. I decided that a new outfit was in order for my DATE. I was going out on a DATE! A DATE!

Oh. Excuse me.

I was getting more and more excited about my DATE as time went on. After all, with each DATE there was a chance that one could get laid . . . hmmm.

Once in the store, Q and I went our separate ways. I wandered up and down the isles, thinking about the various outfits that I could try to put together. Let’s see. There was conservative, semi-conservative, casual, kinda fancy . . . not to mention slightly slutty, moderately slutty and full-on slutty. Those last three choices . . . they were my favorite.

There were so many kids of outfits to choose from, but how could I pick out something for my DATE when I had no idea where we were going or what the guy was like? I guess Q saw my confused look because he came over and asked me what was wrong.

“I’m trying to decide what degree of slutty I should go for. Any opinions?”

“Hmm . . . since this is the first date, I’d say only slightly slutty. You don’t want him to think that you’re easy.”

I don’t? Too bad.

“Fine. Slightly slutty. But you know, I’ve got plenty of slightly slutty at home.”

Quatre bit his bottom lip. “True, true. Damn. Well, here’s what we’ll do. Let’s get you a full-on slutty outfit for the future. You never know when you might need one.”

Good point. So we went thought the racks and came out with a pair of form-fitting leather pants that were torn in all the right places, a deep purple undershirt and a see through mesh top, also purple. I argued with Q over the undershirt, saying that if I was going for full-on slutty, I needed to show a bit of skin. He disagreed, saying that that much skin was too slutty, and that I’d be arrested for peddling my ass the second I stepped out onto the street.

We compromised—he would buy the stupid shirt for me and I would get the rest of it. I absolutely refused to buy the thing with my hard earned cash if I didn’t want it.

We took the clothes up to the counter where I commented on the hair of the woman who was ringing up our purchases. “Have you seen a blue like that, Q? It’s so cool!”

The lady blushed and began playing with her blue locks. Hey, I wasn’t kidding. She looked pretty good in it, and the blue was so electric that I think it gave off its own light.

“You think?” Blue Hair looked around and leaned over the counter. “There’s a wicked cool belt on the rack back there that would go great with this outfit. Why don’t you go back there and get it . . . and I’ll sneak you the employee discount.”

SCORE! See what a little Maxwell Charm can get ya?

Needless to say, we shuffled our asses back there and grabbed a purple and silver studded black leather belt and went back to the register. Blue Hair took it and put it into the bag with the rest of the stiff we’d bought.

“How much?” I asked, pulling out my wallet. I eyed the credit card that was in Heero’s name but that I had authorization to use. It was a left over thing from our old relationship. I guess he’d forgotten about it.

I was really tempted to use it. Soooo tempted, but then I thought twice. Man, I should really just cut the thing up . . . someday.

“Don’t worry about it. Some dude paid for it already.”

Cool! Free clothes!

Wait . . . what?

I spun around, eyeing the crowd, trying to see if anyone stood out, or if I recognized anyone. Nope. Everyone looked pretty normal.

“What dude?” Quatre asked curiously.

“I dunno. Paid in cash, told me to give you the change and the receipt.” She handed me a bunch of credits, the receipt and the bag.

Okay, normally I wouldn’t complain about getting free junk (sometimes, you gotta take it where you can get it), but for some reason, this just gave me the willies. I stared down at the receipt, and in the light, I could see that there was something written on the back. I turned it over and a chill came over me, as if ice were flowing through my veins.

I knew the handwriting. I knew the fucking handwriting, damnit! Quatre peered over my shoulder and read the note.

‘I hope you liked the roses.’

Fuck, fuck, fuck! Sending me flowers was one thing, but following me, watching me was another!

I shoved the note into my pocket and said loudly, “Actually, I hate roses!”

Then Q grabbed my arm and pulled me from the store. “Skip Ikea, I’m taking you home NOW,” Quatre said tersely, eying everyone around us suspiciously.

Yes, sir! That was fine with me—deep inside, I was ready to go home too. I was Thoroughly. Creeped. Out. Capital C, capital O.

We practically ran from the mall and locked the car doors once we got inside. I slouched down in my seat and pressed my forehead against the window, paranoid that somehow, the guy was still watching me. The ride back was pretty much silent until we got stuck in traffic.

“Should we call the police?” Quatre asked softly, glancing in my direction.

How the fuck should I know? What do you do when a mobile suit is comin’ at you full speed? You shoot it down. What you do when you’re given orders to give some guy a ‘warning’? You rough him up a bit. And what do you do when you’re told to destroy and enemy base? You blast it to hell.

That shit I knew. But what do you do when some creepy guy is obsessed with you, buying you stinky ass roses every day and paying for your slutty clothes when you weren’t looking?

Dealing with a potential stalker was foreign territory.

But there was one thing that I did know. “I know that we can’t call Heero. He’ll hunt the desperate bastard down and bust a cap in his ass.”

Quatre looked confused. “What? That one’s new. Bust a cap in his . . .?”

“Ass, yeah. He’ll shoot the dude, when I’m sure that he can be reasoned with.” Hmm. He was a stalker, so maybe not. “If not, then we can toss his ass into a mental institution.”

Forty-five minutes later, Q parked his SUV outside of my building and insisted on coming in to check the place out. That was fine with me. I’d feel a lot safer if he did.

When we reached my door, I paused before sticking my key into the lock. What the heck was that smell? It was all florally and junk, like Relena’s funky perfume. I knew for a fact that Miss Pretty-In-Pink would not be caught dead anywhere near my apartment (or me), so . . . I shook my head and unlocked the door, kicking it open and flicking on the light.

Holy. Shit. What. The. Fuck.

“Allah!” Quatre exclaimed as he dropped the bag of clothes he’d been carrying out of surprise, no doubt.

While I was away, my living room had turned into a flower shop! There were huge arrangements of lilies, tulips and about a dozen other kinds of flowers that I couldn’t name packed into the room, but there was not one rose to be found.

Well. That explained the smell.

I took a further step into my new shop, feeling a bit light headed. Then I caught sight of a card sitting upright on the coffee table, and fought back a bunch of weird looking flowers and snatched it up.

“What does it say?” Q asked from the door way. Smart man. Now that I was in the thick of things, surrounded by the flowers, I could barely breathe.

“Ahem. ‘I hope you like these better. Forgive me for the roses.’ It’s HIM again!” I sneezed. Fucking flowers. Fucking stalker!

“So he was still in the store. . .” Q mused.

Hmm. He was right. We stood in silence until . . .

“Duo! You’re back!”

Q and I jumped about a foot into the air. Oh. Just my fat, balding landlord. He gave us a toothy grin (or just a grin, cuz he didn’t really have all of his teeth) and said, “You got this huge delivery while you were away so I let the flower boys in. They didn’t touch none of your stuff, I sear.”

Quatre gave the man a sweet smile. “So you let them in?”

“Yep.”

Oh, good. That meant that the creep hadn’t gotten inside my apartment.

We shooed the curious old man away and stood in the middle of the flowers. Quatre took time to admire some yellow tulips and I stared at a strange orange-colored cactus sitting in a pot in the middle of the floor.

Then it hit me. “Quatre . . . how the fucking hell does he know where I live?! He knows where I live!”

Quatre’s eyes widened. “Oh, hell. Get some clothes, you’re staying with me and Tro tonight.”

*~*

Trowa was sitting on the porch sipping something from a bunny mug (awww) when we pulled into the drive way of Quatre’s mansion. We got out and quickly approached the house, eager to get out of the dark. I was getting jumpy now. Had he somehow followed us out here? Was he watching me now?

Trowa got to his feet and helped my with my suitcase, bless his heart. I’d packed more that half of all of my clothes, since I was planning on staying for a while, until the jerk took a hint and left me alone.

“Having a slumber party?” Trowa asked, obviously amused as we stepped into the house. Quatre quickly shut and locked the door behind us.

Inside the security of Q’s fortress/mansion, I felt safe. Ummm, safer, at least. I began to relax and released a breath that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

Well, Trowa certainly wasn’t an idiot. He could tell that something was up. “What’s wrong?” His voice was now full of worry and concern and he scrutinized me with his one eye. Aww, he cared about me. Q had bagged a really great guy.

We took him into the kitchen and sat him down, and then told him of the night’s exciting and Totally Creepy events.

Trowa’s visible eye narrowed. “So he’s been following you too.”

“Yep,” I said, trying to sound cool, calm and collected, when I was really . . . well, not. But I could see that Quatre was fretting, and I hated to see him worry, so I pretended as if none of the stuff had bothered me. It’s that best friend thing again.

“Do you still have the receipt and the card? Keep them, we might have to go to the police.” Trowa gulped down the rest of his drink and caressed the bunny mug as he thought. I stared at his long fingers, stuck on the fact that Trowa had a bunny mug in the first place. Maybe it was Q’s . . .

“In the morning we’ll take some photos of Duo’s flower shop.” Trowa turned to me and his eye seemed to pierce my skull to see into my brain.

You know, sometimes I think his eye is magical, like that crazy guy from Harry Potter. When he give me one of those looks, I always fear that he’s looking at the real me, and that he can see all of my fears, insecurities and my personal thoughts. I rubbed my forehead as if it could stop him from working his magic.

“Duo, you look exhausted. Why don’t you go up to bed? I’ll help you with your suitcase.” Trowa helped me upstairs and into my usual room, leaving Q to run around the house locking all of the doors and windows and to set the alarm.

Uh, oh. Q wasn’t here, so that meant that we were going to have a little talk. Damn!

“Duo, are you okay?” he asked, watching as I tossed open my suitcase and searched for something to sleep in. I didn’t really feel like talking to him right now. Not after Stalker-Boy had made it clear that he was serious.

I gave him my trademark grin. “Yeah! Of course. I’m sure the guy will loose interest after a while. I’ll be okay.”

He just stared. “That’s not what I meant.”

“ . . . er, okay . . .” What was he getting at? Wait, was this about Heero again?

“I was talking about Heero. That comment you made today at lunch . . .”

Bingo! I was right. Argh, why did everything always come back to him? “So the love of my life cheated on me with one of my best friends! That was a year ago, and look at it this way—at least he isn’t with Relena. She’d never let me live that one down.” I plopped down on the bed and sighed. “Besides, he’s pretty happy with ‘Fei and ‘Fei’s pretty happy with him, and they are way more compatible that he and I ever were, so I guess things worked out for the best.”

Lies, lies, all lies!

Trowa sat next to me and began to mess with my bangs. Hmm. That was new. “Worked out for the best? For them? Yeah, I guess it did. But what about you?”

“Me? I’ve got a hot . . . well, cute date next week, baby! I’m back on the market, so if you know someone who’s interested, preferably a damn fine someone, let me know, kay?”

Trowa laughed. Since we’d been hanging out, he’d been doing that more often. Although one could argue that I’ve had a negative influence on Q, no one could say that about me and Tro. He was turning into a better human being. I can’t take all of the credit thought. Q has worked miracles, too.

He ruffled my hair a bit and leaned down to kiss my forehead. Okay, now THAT was REALLY new! “Yep, you’ll be alright. I’m sure there’s some damn fine guy out there who’s perfect for you.”

“Finer than Heero?”

Another laugh. “Ten times finer than Heero.”

Wow. That was pretty good! “Oh yeah? Tell me about him.”

“Well . . .” Trowa closed his eyes and a tiny smiled formed on his lips as he took my hand and began to stroke it, as if my hand was a map of my future. “I can see him right now. Blond hair, ice blue eyes . . .”

I giggled. “Sound’s like your boyfriend.”

“No. This guy is tall, really tall. With a personality kind of like Heero’s. You like guys like that, don’t you?”

What, the strong silent type? Hell. Yes. They were so sexy. “Fuck yeah. Keep going, keep going.” I kicked off my shoes and snuggled beneath the covers. This was an excellent bedtime story. I could imagine myself having a very . . . nice dream after this.

“He’s very strong, and he’d do anything to protect you. He’d throw his body on top of yours to save you from a barrage of bullets . . .”

Ohhh, his body on top of mine? Very nice.

“But he’s also compassionate. He’ll let you cry on his shoulder and he’ll comfort you when you need it the most . . .”

Hmm. That wasn’t like Heero at all, but what the hey. I’d go with it.

“He’s got a temper where you’re concerned. Someone steps out of line and says something off about you and he looses it.”

Okay, that really wasn’t Heero. He may have stuck up for Wufei in the cafeteria today, but when we’d been together, some guy could’ve come by and pinched my ass and he wouldn’t have cared. You see, I know this for a fact, because it had actually happened. Jerk. Bastard.

“So when am I gonna meet this guy? He sounds like just what I want.”

Trowa frowned suddenly, and his hand gripped mine so hard that I winced. “Soon, I think. But not until after something happens.”

“What something?”

He released my hand and sat back. There was a very confused look on his face. “I don’t know.” He rubbed his temples and grumbled something under his breath.

“Hey, that was pretty good. You made all that up on the spot!”

“I didn’t make it up.”

“ . . . oh. Er, did they teach you palm reading at the circus or something?”

Trowa got to his feet. “No. I’ve read some books though.”

“So you’re saying what you saw was real.”

“Yes.”

“And I thought Q was the one with the magic powers.”

“Good night, Duo.” He quickly left the room.

Ooookay. My life was so fucking weird. First a stalker and now one of my friends has become a magician over night. I got up, changed my clothes and flicked off the light, crawling into bed.

I thought about the guy that Trowa had described. I didn’t know anyone like that. Nope, no one in the office came to mind. Wait, I was actually believing what Trowa had said? I guess so, it sounded so good that I wanted it to be true.

I closed my eyes and tried my best to fall asleep. It took a while, because I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched.

Fucking stalker.