Isn't life just a kick in the crotch

Chapter 5.

It was a quiet morning in the deep forest. The sun was slowly rising and it's beams were glittering in the dew. Birds was singing and building their nests high up in the tree tops. A deer stooped to drink water out of a poring stream while a fluffy brown rabbit was munching on a dandelion at the edge of the deserted dirt road. Suddenly the rabbit sharpened it's ears. It's body tensed as it listed. Far in the distance you could hear a deep rumbling noise that was coming closer and closer. The deer grow restless and leaped over the stream and ran a fast as it could further into the woods. The rabbit dived into it's hole and pressed itself to the ground as the noise grow louder. The forest seemed to hold it's breath as suddenly, like from out of nowhere... a old Ford Sierra came roaring down the muddy forest road. The rumble from the engine was almost drowned out by the booming sound of the stereo.

Life was good. Wufei was sitting in the back of the old (but strangely comfortable) car, with two of his best friends up front, singing out of tune to German heavy metal. They were driving far to fast on the bumpy forest road and the wipers were working hard to keep the flying mud of the windshield (but that might have more to do with David's reckless driving then the actual state of the road). Duo was sprawled all over the passenger seat and was involved in a rather violent air drum solo to the loud music.

It didn't get much better then this Wufei reasoned. No work, no responsibilities, no neglected girlfriends. Just his childhood friends, a bag of jelly worms and heavy metal. And not just any heavy metal. -Rammstein-. It was just something about singing “Du! Du hast! Du hast mich!!!” on the top of your lungs that made you feel good. Not to mention very masculine. Singing along was a bit of a challenge since non of them spoke German, but they all agreed that German was THE language for heavy metal, death metal, industrial metal and all other types of aggressive music. It was just something raw and brutal about it. Like you could beat someone up with the words alone. You sang (or screamed, depending on how you looked at it) as loud as you could in a deep and aggressive voice. What you were singing about didn't matter, it was all about the anger.

David, who's mother came from Austria, had learned enough to understand the basics. But Wufei was actually quite happy that he couldn't understand anything of what they were singing. David had translated a piece of a Rammstein song once and it was just something about masturbating elephants that Wufei could not take seriously. Thank god that he had chosen to study French instead... not that he understood that much of that language ether. He knew enough to introduce himself and ask someone where he could buy dog food. It goes without saying that he had no wish to visit France. No, German was the shit. Or at least the German music was.

Wufei laughed along with his friends when they all stumbled over the pronunciation of “gefährlich” (what ever the hell that meant). It felt good to just relax with his friends. After the... “incident” with Duo, he had more or less isolated himself in his studio and painted until he collapsed. He might have gotten some pretty good paintings out of it, but he hadn't felt any better. The old feeling of a incoming depression had been luring in the back of his head the entire time. The drunken masturbation session had certainly not made him feel any better. He really wasn't so naive to believe that one drunken jerk of fantasy was enough to make him gay. It might make him slightly twisted, but not gay enough to have a relationship with a man. It kept coming back to 'the fist incident' as he had started to call it. Everything had been going just fine up until that point. The dating had been good. He hadn't been uncomfortable when Duo touched him. He hadn't been aroused by it ether, but that was not the point. Duo's kisses was something he had enjoyed and he really thought that it was something he could handle. The biggest problem was the sex. That's what it all came down to. Could he have sex with Duo?

One part of him just screamed 'NO!' when ever he thought about it. That, not only was Duo a male, he was also like a brother to him. But there were still one piece of him, that were whispering from the back of his mind, that he could do it. That it wouldn't be such a big difference from having sex with a woman. That it would work, even though it was Duo. No. Because it was Duo. He had reasoned with himself that it certainly would not be like with a woman. The lack of female equipment being on top of the list. And then he was back where he started.

All these thoughts had just made things worse as they had left him feeling empty and confused. The whole thing had in the end almost sent him over the edge. Wufei really did not want to go back to taking the pills. He had been fine on his own for over six years now and the thought of having to start taking them again was awful. Especially when they at times made his hands shake so bad that he couldn't paint. Not to mention that they made him impotent and fat. So no, going back to the pills was out of the question.

Once again it was thanks to Duo that he was feeling... not fine but better. His friend had more or less dragged him out of his studio and forced him to interact with the rest of the world. Duo had even called up their mutual friend David who lived a few miles away and arranged for all of them to go hiking. They used to do it all the time during high school. But with David working and Duo and himself off to collage, they never had the chance nor the time to take any longer trips. But now they were on their way.

Looking outside the window there were only trees, trees and more trees. Nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. They had been driving for almost an hour now and for the last forty-five minutes they had not seen any trace of human life. It was like a whole different world from the city. The road was bumpy and since it had rained the day before, covered in muddy potholes. But today, the sky was free of dark clouds and the Weather channel had promised sun. Wufei was looking forward to getting his backpack on and heading out into the woods. Especially since they had (for once) left on time. The sun had not even been up when they left. David was and would always be the weakest link in the time schedule. And since he was the only one with a car that kind of made things difficult. It had been Duo's brilliant idea to bribe David's girlfriend to use what ever force necessary to get him out of bed and into the car. It had worked like a charm. They hadn't asked how she had done it, but the big smile and the whistling from David at four a clock in the morning kind of gave it away. If they had only had that option in high school. Then they might not have been late so often. Wufei didn't have a drivers license while Simon and Duo couldn't afford a car. And seriously, who wanted to take the bus?

Wufei tried to slid down a bit in his seat. It was a bit crowded since he was sitting behind David’s seat. The guy really had freakishly long legs. Duo didn't have his seat as far back, but if he sat there he couldn't see Duo when he was talking to him. He shoved one of the backpacks away as it began to slid towards him. There was almost no room in the trunk so they had to put most of the stuff in the backseat. Why didn't David get a new car? He had been driving this scrapheap since high school. One would think that when you got a job, one of the first things you would invest in would be a new car. But no, not David. He loved his old Ford Sierra with it's plastic dashboard and it's worthless fan system that never worked when you really needed them. And if it did work, it would sooner or later make steam roll out from under the hood in a very dramatic way. It was a piece of shit car and everyone knew it. Even David knew it... not that he would ever admit it. But that's David for you. Always the sucker for the underdog. It didn't matter if it was his three legged dog, his quiet and nerdy looking girlfriend or his worthless car.
But on the other hand. Things were never what they seamed to be with David. The dog was one hell of a vicious guard dog, the girlfriend apparently was an animal in the sack and the weak looking Ford did in fact have one hell of a engine. Even David himself was a bit of a mystery. He had perfected the slacker look over the years. His hair was just a little bit to long, his clothes a bit to big and his chin was always covered in bristles. People had always treated him like he was a loser without ambition and David didn't do much to prove them wrong. Except starting up a world famous web service that made millions a year. But the guy still drove a rusty Ford Sierra hatchback. Yeah, that's David. 'At leased the sound systems good' the chines boy thought with a smile.

Wufei cheered around a mouthful of jelly worms as a new song started up which set Duo of into another vicious air drum performance. David did the keyboard riffs against the steering wheel and Wufei took care of the airguitar. It was a sight to behold. When the song was over, Duo turned around in his seat. “Wu! Stop hugging the worms” he exclaimed as he caught a sight of the big colorful bag in the Chinese man's lap. Wufei only answer was to slowly suck a long pink worm into his mouth with a loud smack. Duo pouted. “Cock tease.”

Wufei eyes went wide as he almost choked on the half chewed candy. Duo who realize what he had just said, and -who- he had said it to, blushed and suddenly became very occupied with reorganizing the shopping bag on the floor between his legs.

Wufei didn't knew what to say. They hadn't talked about their brief relationship-dating-thing. Instead the both of them had more or less ignored that it had ever happened. They had just gone back to being friends. Best friends. It was just a bit strained every now and then. 'Like right now' Wufei thought as he looked over at Duo's rigid shape in the front seat. It was like they didn't know where they stood with each other. Didn't know how to act or what to say. Something was wrong, but Wufei didn't know what it was or how to fix it. But the thing was that he could not bring himself to regret his ”trip to the other side” as he liked to call it. They had some fun times too and it had been... interesting to get to know Duo on a whole new level. Like a boyfriend. And maybe even like a lover. But that didn't mean that he didn't hate this -thing- that had settled between them.

“Ow!” Duo yelled loudly and shoved a finger into his mouth.

“What?” David said as he turned of the stereo and started to slow down. “What happened?”

Duo mumbled “I broke a nail” around his finger.

David rolled his eyes and steeped on the accelerator again. There was a snort from the backseat.

“I think that was the gayest thing I have ever heard you say.”

There was a moment of total silence. Duo turned around and looked at Wufei who had a 'holy-shit-I-can't-believe-I just-said-that-I-hope-I-didn't-piss-him-of-enough-to-kill-me' expression on his face. For a few seconds they just stared at each other in silence, until Duo snickered in amusement. Wufei tightened his lips as his shoulders started to shake in silent laughter.

Duo on the other hand couldn't hold it back and started to laugh hysterically which immediately set Wufei of until they both where gasping for breath.
“Okay, I'm missing something.” David said as looked from Duo's twitching figure to the rear-view mirror with Wufei who had tears running down his face.

Duo patted David’s shoulder. “It's a long story. I'll tell you later man. Ok?”
“Yeah right, what ever. I don't think the story is that long since I already know that the two of you are out of your minds.”

“Well, at least we're not alone, right Wu?” Smiling blue eyes looked over the edge of the seat.

Wufei smiled. “Nope, Shinagami and Dragon will rule the world.”

“Oh-my-god!” Duo exclaimed. “I had almost forgotten all about that. How old were we when we came up with that?”

“And once again I'm out of the loop.” David interrupted in singsong voice.”What are you two talking about?”

Wufei answered with a laugh. “We were like eight or something and we started up this club where we were planning on taking over the world. Duo's secret club name was Shinagami and mine was Dragon. We had secret languages, handshakes, passwords and even a “secret” club house in the backyard.”

“I loved that club house, I wonder if it's still standing. Damn, those where the days. We had so much fun back then. Not to mention all the trouble we got into. We were a couple of real terrorists weren't we Fei?”

“Oh hell yes. Or at leased my sister thought so.”

“Oh! Remember that time we tried to steal her panties?”

The Chinese man snickered. “How could I forget? She's still angry about it.”

Duo laughed as he climbed over the seat and in next to Wufei in the back. He pushed the hiking equipment around a bit as he made himself comfortable and reached over to grabbed a couple of jelly worms from the bag.

“Well, how were we supposed to know that she was storing her sex toys among her underwear?”

“Yeah, well I didn't even want to know that she had any.”

“Too true.” Duo snickered and sucked a pink jelly worm into his mouth with a loud smack. The action set them both of into hysteria again. David just rolled his eyes as he watched his laughing friends in the rear-view mirror.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
Damn, that one was hard to wright. How did you think it turned out? Am I moving too fast/too slow? Is Duo and Wufei's relationship believable? What did you think about the presentation of David the OC? And isn't Rammstein the greatest? ;) So many questions.

Well, I have no clear plan for what's going to happen next so I'm very open for suggestions. What do YOU think should happen next? Should I skip the hiking or should I let them walk? Should I let the rain fall or make Wufei forget his sleeping bag (I'm sure that Duo would let him share his sleeping bag). The possibility's are endless.
A -big- thanks to Aniratac who read through this even thou she didn't have the time. Many, many hugs to you honey.