'Damn that baka,' thought Heero angrily as he trudged back towards his room. 'How dare he toy around with me? How dare he mess about with my feelings? You're stupid Yuy. Stupid stupid stupid.'

The Japanese boy changed course, and decided to head outside into the huge, lush garden where he might take his anger out on an unlucky sapling. "Stupid stupid stupid!" he whispered with rage as he punched the small tree's trunk furiously.

"Heero.."

He didn't have to turn towards the voice to see who was calling his name. He didn't have to see to know that it was the baka who had betrayed him. Heero stopped his mutterings but he still continued to bash the poor tree with all his might.

"Please stop Heero.. It hurts me to see you hurting yourself like this," pleaded Duo with a trace of sadness in his voice. "Please don't be mad at me."

Heero immediately stopped with the tree abusing.

"Don't be mad at you?" said Heero with a snort. "That's a laugh. How can I not be mad at you when you've been playing with me all along? Does Quatre even know that you've been fooling around with me behind his back?"

The braided boy winced at those words as if he were punched right in the middle. "I'm really sorry.. I didn't mean to make you angry," said Duo meekly. "But if you would just hear me out I'll tell you the whole truth."

Heero snorted again. "The whole truth?" he asked snidely. "You don't have to tell me that. It's not as if I didn't know that you and Quatre are lovers."

"Huh?" Duo blinked his eyes and his mouth was agape.

Heero whirled around to face Duo. "That's what you wanted to tell me, isn't it?" he asked coolly. "Don't waste your time. I all ready know about it and so does Trowa for that matter."

"God, I didn't realize how mixed up the whole thing was!" burst out the chestnut-haired boy suddenly which made Heero feel confused.

"What are you talking about?" the Japanese boy asked. "What's mixed up?"

"No, you guys - you and Trowa - misunderstood the whole thing, that's why all this stupid stuff happened," said Duo with a groan. "Me and Q aren't lovers! I can't understand how you guys would think such a thing. We're just best friends and the most we think of each other is as brothers. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Then why were you kissing Quatre in the music room?" asked Heero suspiciously.

"How did you know that?"

"Trowa."

"Figures," said Duo and took a deep breath before going along with his little explanation.

"I really have to apologize for just now. Actually it was all an act for Trowa. You see, Quatre's head over heels for Trowa but apparently he's heart-broken cos he's in love with this girl who all ready has a boyfriend. Anyway, Quatre thinks that Trowa will be moping around forever to ever notice him so Wu-man came up with this plan where me and Q gotta act mushy-mushy in front of Tro so that he would get jealous and realize that maybe he has feelings for Quatre. I don't know if the plan worked or not but the only one around here who's gotten jealous is probably you. And I'm not so sure if that's a good thing or not. Cos you might just kill me. But then it might be a good thing after all cos it shows that you do love me."

Duo looked at Heero expectantly while he tried to regain his breath after talking at a high speed of 145 words per second. Heero was struggling to absorb Duo's explanation when everything finally was understood and clicked into his mind.

"So you and Quatre did that kissing scene just so that Quatre could snag Trowa?" he asked finally.

"Yes," replied Duo then he trained his poor-little-pupy-dog-all-alone-in -the-rain face on Heero's. "I haven't been cheating on you, you know. I was only doing it for Quatre. So would you forgive me?"

It was hard, even for the Perfect Soldier to stay mad at the American long when he had that puppy-dog look. But he decided to pretend to be still mad for the fun of tormenting Duo.

"Please? We can just kiss and make up."

Now that was an offer the Perfect Soldier especially couldn't refuse and he immediately grabbed his beloved into a tight embrace and they kissed deeply and passionately.

Not far away, a pair of dark eyes were watchind these two boys from behind a cluster of bushes.

"Damn!" mumbled Wufei to himself. He had seen the two boys going outside and he had followed them quietly, hoping to catch every single moment of the fireworks display that he had anticipated. "Just when things were getting to be so exciting, that baka Maxwell just had to ruin the action."

Then he brightened up a bit as he remembered something else. "At least half of my plan didn't go wrong. I'll still have plenty of fun torturing Trowa and Quatre. Speaking of Trowa and Quatre, I wonder what I should do to them next."

'Hn. What was I expecting?' the tall boy thought to himself as he locked himself into his room. 'That Quatre would fall in love with me? Stupid! I had suspected that he and Duo were lovers since the begining and the kiss I saw them share proved my point.'

He sighed deeply. 'Face it. I'll never have Quatre in my life. Not with Duo around. Those two are very much in love with each other and I should just leave them be' he thought with resignation. 'Maybe if Duo was never around, I might have had a chance. But then again, Quatre might have fallen in love with someone else, like Heero.'

The green-eyed boy sighed again and walked towards the window which was partially covered with green silk curtains. He had a great view of the beautiful garden from there. He saw Wufei crouched behind some bushes and wondered what in the world was the Chinese doing there. Then he spotted Duo and Heero in lip-lock mode and scowled.

"What? I can't believe that Duo is two timing Quatre with Heero," he muttered incredulously and angrily at the same time. He was angry that Duo would do such a thing to the beautiful angel he had always dreamed of. "If Quatre was mine, I would never do such a thing. Instead I would love only him and stay faithful to the very end. Maxwell doesn't deserve having Quatre's love and trust when he is actually cheating on him."

Trowa felt so mad, he had an urge to run out into the garden and puch the lights out of the American boy and even the Japanese boy. The unibanged boy felt that Heero knew about Duo and Quatre so he shouldn't have been fooling around with Duo. And this was why Trowa even felt like punching Heero.

The pilot of HeavyArms decided that he would have a confrontation with Heero later and maybe some bashing before threatening Heero to leave Duo alone. Actually, that was what he wanted to do to Duo but he couldn't possibly do that or it might make Quatre mad that he had bashed the blonde's lover. Besides, Quatre may not believe him anyway even if Trowa had told him the truth about his two-timing lover.

"You're gonna be dead meat soon, Yuy," whispered Trowa to himself as he watched Heero and Duo make-out in the garden.

"Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid!" chanted Quatre and accentuated each chant by punching his big, soft pillow furiously. "Why am I so stupid?"

The plan was to make Trowa jealous and make him realize that he might have feelings for the blonde but it had backfired. "Instead of him getting jealous, it was Heero who became jealous," he mumbled morosely.

"Why did I even bother to act like some stupid fool when I know that Trowa's never gonna like me? He didn't even bat an eyelash when he saw me and Duo kissing! OK, he did gasp but maybe that's because he's surprised to see boys kissing each other. I really am stupid! I bet he would be too disgusted to be even my bestfriend right now since he has found out that I'm not straight."

The blonde boy finally stopped punching his pillow to bits and finally collapsed onto his large bed. He sighed. "Now I've made things worse by making Heero jealous. He probably thought that Duo was cheating on him," he said aloud. "I just hope that Duo was able to make him understand. I really don't want to face an angry Heero."

Slowly, the Arabian boy got up from his bed and walked towards his window. He could see the garden from there. He spotted Duo and Heero kissing each other and he smiled to himself. "Yokatta. They have made up all ready," he said, relieved. "It would have made me feel bad if Heero didn't want to forgive Duo because it really wasn't his fault."

Wufei was crouching behind some bushes but the blonde didn't notice him. He was too intent on watching Heero and Duo. The blonde felt his heart ache. "Will I ever find that kind of love and happiness those two share?" he wondered. "Maybe not cos the only one I love is Trowa and I want to accept love from only him.. Oh god, how can I ever get Trowa to love me as I love him?"

The front door closed softly after the two boys who were walking into the mansion hand-in-hand. They were giggling and flirting with each other, or rather, one of them was giggling and flirting with the other that they didn't realize that somebody was waiting for them.

Trowa who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest cleared his throat loudly when those two didn't even notice that he was there. Immediately, the two boys dropped each others hands in embarrasment with flushing faces.

"Heero, may I have a word with you?" asked Trowa politely but with fires blazing in his green orbs. "Alone."

Duo nodded his head at Heero, gesturing at him to go ahead. Trowa walked away towards the study which was probably the most suitable place for a confrontation with the Japanese at his heels. Both didn't even say a word until they were in the study and the door was properly locked.

"Did I just see you kissing Duo in the garden?" asked Trowa after a moment of silence.

"Aa," replied Heero, blushing.

"I want you to stay away from him."

"Huh?" Heero felt confused. He wondered what was Trowa's motive. Trowa was acting like.. a jealous lover or something but that couldn't be true because Heero was confident that Trowa was in love with Quatre, and not Duo.

"Don't ever get close to Duo again, you hear?" repeated Trowa, feeling impatient. "I can't believe that you'd go fooling around with Duo when Duo all ready has a relationship with Quatre. Do you know how sad Quatre will be if he found that his beloved Duo is cheating on him with you?"

Oh, that. Heero could understand. Trowa was only trying to protect Quatre which obviously meant that it was true that Trowa had feelings for the blonde even though he never admitted it. Heero had a feeling that Trowa was doing this because he didn't want to see the blonde get hurt. And it was obvious that the tall boy also thought that Quatre and Duo were lovers.

"You don't have to tell me to stay away from Duo," said Heero evenly. "I know you're in love with Quatre and you're trying to protect him but the truth is, Quatre and Duo aren't an item."

"What do you mean?" asked Trowa and frowned. "And who said that I'm in love with Quatre."

"You did," said Heero simply. "By the way you're acting, anyone can see that. And I should tell you, the kissing scene you saw? It was merely an act."

"I'm not that stupid," snapped Trowa. "Who is that stupid to pull an act like that?"

"Maybe you shouldn't call your Quatre stupid," said Heero dryly. "It was he who was pretending with Duo to be in love with each other so that he could get your attention."

Seeing the confused look on Trowa's face, Heero proceeded to tell him everything that Duo had told him before this.

"You mean he did that just because he wanted me to notice him?" asked Trowa disbelievingly after Heero had told his tale. "If he liked me, then why didn't he just say it to my face? He shouldn't be worried that I might reject him cos I won't. I love him."

"Yeah well, he thought that you might cos he thought that you were in love with this girl who all ready has a boyfriend."

Trowa frowned. "Now where would he get an idea like that?" he wondered. "I never said such a thing. He asked me once if I liked anybody and I said yes but the person I like all ready has someone. I didn't even say that the person I liked was a girl."

"Then that's your fault because you made him think about something else," pointed out Heero. "Why didn't you tell him that you like him then?"

"Because I thought that he was in love with Duo," said Trowa. "Because they way they acted, it seemed that they were lovers."

"At first I thought so, too," said Heero slowly. "But then I realized that the way they always act that way around each other! I'm sure you realize that also but why did you suddenly think that they are lovers?"

"Because of what I saw in the garden this morning," said Trowa and he told Heero what happened. "And also because of what Wufei said."

"What did Wufei tell you?"

"Actually he told me that if he didn't know any better, he would have thought that Duo and Quatre are lovers," said Trowa and then felt very silly because Wufei didn't really comfirm that those two were really lovers.

Heero cocked his head to one side and thought for a while.

"I think something fishy has been goin on. Haven't you realized that Wufei seems to be mixed up in this whole mess even though I can't see the connection," started Heero. "Whatever it is, I think we should keep an eye on a certain someone called Chang Wufei."

Go Trowa! Go Heero! Looks like this fic is gonna end soon, ne? So how was Part 9? This story has gotten way too OOC but nevermind that! We are finally going to be able to read about Wufei getting his ass kicked! Thank you and thank you to everybody who has sent me compliments. I was surprised to get more than 400 mails from ppl telling me that they like this fic. Waahhh!! And surprise - I haven't even gotten a single flame yet. Now how am I supposed to have a campfire with my beloved G-boys without even a single flame? Send comments to me at the usual. My e-mail is blue_violet@ gundamwing.org.