Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, Sunrise, ect.
I claim no rights to it.

“Heero,” Duo whispered, nudging at the dark form that lay sprawled across the bed.

“Heero,” he said a little louder, a growl beginning in the back of his throat. Still nothing. He put his face to Heero’s ear.

“HEEERRROOO!”

In one smooth motion, Heero whirled, straightened, and bit him.

“Omae o korosu.”

“Itai!” Duo whined, scrubbing at his sore nose with his paw. “You weren’t asleep at all!”

“Duo,” he began, with a hint of long-suffering. “It is now precisely 8:04 A.M. The biped has recently departed, to return at precisely 10:32 A.M. Now is the time most efficient for rest.” Thus said, he flopped back down on the bed.

“But Heeerrooo! Play with me!”

The cranky Doberman promptly pulled something out of the covers, tossed it a Duo, and buried his muzzle in his flank.

Duo caught said object in his mouth. It was his favorite chew toy, little plastic Shinigami. Duo growled in frustration.

“No I want you to play with me! I - ”

“no.”

“Heero - ”

“No.”

“Heero”

“No.”

A pause. “RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF - ”

Duo showed no sign of stopping. Heero, on the other hand, lasted about three seconds. The perfect watchdog * ^_^ *, now on the floor, growled darkly, if a little insincerely, at the golden- brown bundle of energy pouncing and skipping across the floor.

Retrievers. When will they grasp the importance of efficiency in man’s best friend...

He made it to the doorframe before he heard Duo’s growl. He spied Duo in the hallway, snarling at a bundle of white fur perched on the wooden stand, it trying to maintain an unruffled visage of distaste. Ever since that incident with the vase, Duo had barely been able to keep a civil front. Not that Heero could blame him.

“Heero!” Relena purred, judging the distance to where he stood. Heero ignored her, choosing to trot down the hallway and incidentally, out of reach.

Delicate pink nose wrinkled in irritation, she tried again. “Heero, lets spend the day together. I’m sure you’d prefer a little more significant company right now, am I right?”

“When are you going to start keeping company with cats, Ojousan?” Duo said with a doggy frown. *Kawaii of course ^_^* “We can’t always be avoiding ‘damper portions of the excursion’ for your sake.”

Relena spared him a glance that spoke volumes for exactly what she thought of his mud puddles, and turned to Heero, to offer him a catty smile. But he was already trotting away, and Duo hurried to follow. Tail high and smile strained, Relena-neko followed.

Duo brightened to see Quatre and Trowa dosing on the living room rug. Maybe they could be persuaded to join them. The hulking Great Dane twitched briefly in his sleep, causing the curly cocker-spaniel *V* sprawled over him to roll to the floor.

“.....”

Duo trotted over.

“Oh, g’morning Duo,” Quatre greeted cheerfully. Trowa nodded.

“Good morning guys! Hey, come outside with me and Heero - ” Relena delicately “ahemed” for recognition; Duo ignored her, “ - this is to nice a day to be lazing about inside!”

Quatre smiled warmly, “Why you’re right Duo. Trowa, are you coming?”

“Hai,” said Trowa.

The greyhound crouched at the ready, his goal readily in his sight. Teeth slightly bared he waited, not daring to make a sound. The dull camouflage of his objective might have fooled the eyesight of any other hunter, but not him. It’s leathery hide mocked him from among the grasses, and he gritted his teeth, stifling a growl. Wait for it, wait for it...

Suddenly the was a thump, the sound of snarling and pawing, the thrashing of a dog desperately trying to break the neck of its prey...

“MAXWELL!”

Duo gnawed once more on the old gardener’s glove, then turned to the furiously barking Wufei.

“What?”

“You’ve just ruined a very important, painstakingly planned hunting exercise! The precision, the calculation, the cunning... never again to be replicated!”

Duo looked from the glove, to Wufei, to the glove, to Wufei, and back to the glove again.

“But it’s just an old glove.”

“ ‘Just An Old-’?! ARRGGH! The injustice of it all!” Wufei stalked off.

Shrugging, Duo chewed leather.

Heero was seated before a little field of sand, swirls and eddies like clouds shaping its skylike expanse. Embedded in its surface were millions of stones, small oasises of individuality and unity, which somehow gave the impression of boulders dotting the sky. Airborne children of the earth, soaring through the incomprehensible blue..... with an incomprehensible purpose...

Heero furrowed his doggy brow...

“Heerrrroooo!”

Heero flinched, his contemplation of the little rock garden shattered. The Persian feline scooted up to him, trying to rub flanks.

“Come with me to sit by the koi pond. I’ll catch us a fish! It’ll be romantic...”

“Iie.”

I saw a little black and yellow one as fat as a pig - !”

“If you don’t go away I will kill you.”

Relena hmphed slightly. “Come on Heero. What’s so interesting about a pile of rocks?”

But Heero didn’t answer.

Quatre smiled a little dreamily, glancing at the Great Dane beside him, who quickly glanced away. The little yellow spaniel leaned forward slightly to sniff at a rose dangling from one of the bushes. He loved this portion of their garden... but especially with Trowa. ^_~

He trotted round the bushes, careful not to get pricked by thorns, and barked excitably when he thought he saw a silver fox dart through the rose beds.

Trowa lumbered behind him, looking for all the world half asleep, but still wanting to keep up with him.

Quatre gave him a doggy smile. He knew Trowa enjoyed these excursions too.

Trowa smiled back.

Duo was the one who heard it, of course. After all, he could hear a bag of food opening half a block away.

“She’s back!”, He barked excitably. “She brought lunch!” In various measures of dignity the troop stampeded into the house, milling around the girl who stood smiling with her bag of fast food.

“I spoil you guys,” she teased, “I just can’t resist those eyes!” She gave them scratches, and hugs, and sat down to her lunch, which she would consume a much smaller portion of, thanks to six wide eyed beggars milling around her legs.

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