The siren call of the braid in the middle row

Chapter 6

Wufei concluded that he really should be more attentive to his surrounding when he was walking. Too many times this week had he found himself walking into doors, street signs and even worse, smashing his face straight into Ellen's enormous rack. That traumatic experience was more then enough to convince him that he should watch his steps. Suffocation by D- cups was really not the way he wanted to go. So, what was the reason for his air headed behavior? Do you even have to ask?

Duo had been on his mind ever since the study group meeting.

He had just said goodbye to Kim when Duo had walked past him out the door. With a small smile he said 'Bye Wufei' and left. The Asian had walked like he was in a trance all the way back home. It almost seemed like his poor mind had gotten stuck on 'he smiled at me,' 'He knows my name' and 'He can pronounce my name!' only to start all over again. If the ugly cat had known how to, it would probably have rolled its eyes at him. But it had really just been the beginning.

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Wufei could feel his chest tightening as his eyes meet Duo's from where he was walking up the lecture hall's stairs. The beautiful man was not only smiling at him again, he was waving at him as well. Wufei managed a shy smile and a small wave of his own before looking down on the floor to let his hair hid his face. Our Hero might appear calm on the outside but the inside was a completely different story.

'Duo waved to me! He waved to -me-. He did. I know he did. There wasn't anyone standing behind me so it had to be me!' Wufei thought as he, with light steps, walked up the stairs to the back row. They were once again back in the older lecture hall and the cold air welcomed Wufei back with a freezing embrace. He reminded himself to work on his knitting so that the scarf he desperately needed would be done soon because it really was damned cold up there.

He took a quick look down to Duo in the middle row. It looked a lot warmer down there. Most people were even wearing t-shirts. Wufei on the other hand had two sweaters and his coat buttoned up to the top. Not to mention that he still had his knitted hat and his cloves on. The price you had to pay to be alone and get some space.

But he wouldn't be alone later today. They were having another study session at seven and Wufei could hardly wait. The first meeting had gone a lot better then he had thought it would. Everyone had been friendly and accepted him into the group, especially Kim. He hadn't been lying when he said that it had been nice to talk to her. Children were a lot less complicated then adults and Wufei desperately wanted to be a kid again. This stupid love thing wouldn't be such a big problem anymore... Oh, who was he kidding? A five year old Wufei would have fallen head over heals in love with Duo even faster then the adult Wufei.

The Chinese man sighed unhappily and glanced down at his crush who was talking and smiling at that blond girl... whose name he still couldn't remember. Yeah, being a kid again wouldn't be all that bad. 'Having mom alive again. Sitting on the floor and playing with my Lego. Not having to go to these lectures...' he sighed again. 'I miss my mom.' Wufei thought and leaned his chin in his hand. It was over ten years since she died but he still missed her like it had happened yesterday. One drunken idiot in a car and his mother was gone forever. The knowledge burned.

Even though Duo had waved at him, it wasn't a very pink day today. Instead he decided that it was a green day. He smiled slightly. Maybe he should draw a green dog.

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Walking over to Tom's apartment wasn't even close to being as bad as the last time. Wufei had in fact been watching the clock and more or less counted the seconds until he was going to leave. He was looking forward to seeing Duo again. Just thinking about the other man made everything seem so much... brighter. He was in a very good mood while he was walking through the snow slush covering the road, and if he had known how, he would have been whistling.

He met Bree in the stairway. “Hi Wofei, no Kim today.”

“Aww, then who am I going to play with?” He whined feeling childish but happy.

Bree just laughed. “You can always play with Duo or Tom, god knows neither of those two are ever going to grow up.”

Wufei couldn't help but think about exactly how he wanted to play with Duo. 'No, bad Wufei, down boy.' Wufei thought with a mental slap as they made their way up to the third floor.

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“I actually have something for you.” Bree said as she closed the apartment door behind her.

“Oh?” He said as he watched her search through her overfilled messenger bag.

“Damn, it was right here.” She mumbled in irritation and pushed a piece of curly red hair out of her eyes. “Aha!” She shone up and handed Wufei a folded paper. Opening it up he couldn't help but laugh. It was a portrait, he realized. In the middle was a man was drawn with a black spider like thing on his head (which Wufei assumed was his hair) big dark eyes and gigantic pink butterfly wings on his back. F-A-I-R-Y was written in big slightly crooked letters all over the left while the right side was covered with just three letters, K-I-M.

Wufei grinned. “Tell her that I love it and that it's going to have a place of honor on my refrigerator.”

“Oh, I will.” Bree said with a crooked smile. “You are the only thing that she has been talking about these last few days. The kindergarten teachers think she has gotten herself an imaginary friend named Fairy who saves dogs even though he doesn't like dogs.” Wufei smiled happily.

“Maybe you could baby sit her some day. If you want?” The redhead asked with a hopeful voice.

“Yeah.” Wufei said without even the slightest hesitation.

“That would be great. She almost cried her eyes out when her father came to pick her up and she realized that she didn't get to come to the session.”

He smiled. “Maybe I should draw her a picture. That might make her happy again.”

“That might work.” Bree laughed.

“Hello, where did you come from?” He suddenly heard Duo's voice asking someone from inside the apartment.

'I wonder who he's talking to.' He thought as he hung his coat up. The Asian very quickly got the answer to his question as he walked into the room a few seconds later. Because the first thing he saw was none other then his ugly cat who had two paws up against Duo's thigh.

'This is not happening. This is -not- happening. How the hell did it get in here?' Silently swearing he contemplated how to deal with the situation.

“It's probably a stray.” The blond girl who's-name-he-could-never-remember said.

“It's mine.” He heard himself say. Blushing slightly he walked towards his traitorous cat.

“Sorry, it most have followed me here.”

“And you didn't notice?” The blond girl asked in disbelief.

Wufei could feel himself shrinking. God, why did the world hate him so much? “Ehm, yeah. It's pretty good at not being seen. Sorry, I'll just take it back.”

“No. It's ok.” Duo said and lifted the cat up in his arms. “He can stay. Can't he?” He turned pleading eyes towards the defenseless cat owner. “Yeah, sure. If yo-, it no one minds.” Wufei mumbled as he melting at the sight of the beautiful smile that spread across Adonis face. And it was directed towards -him-. Only him. Wufei loved the world.

“I'm sure they don't. Or they are going to have to take it up with me. Wont they?” Duo said to the ugly cat who was purring contently in his lap.

Realizing that he was staring, Wufei moved to sit down. But he was feeling a bit daring, almost like the cat had opened up a door for him to connect with Duo. So against his better judgment he decided to take a seat in the armchair standing right by the edge of the sofa where Adonis was sitting. His heart was beating a mile a minute and his hands shook slightly as he started to lift his things out of the bag.

“Hey, Wufei. What's her name?” Duo said startling him so bad he almost dropped his pens all over the floor. For a second he had no idea what his love was talking about. But as the braided man nodded his head down towards his lap Wufei finally caught on. 'She?' He thought in astonishment.

This is the second that Wufei realizes that he has forgotten to name his cat.

“Emh... It- She kind of... don't have one.”

“She doesn't have a name?” Duo asked in disbelief

Wufei couldn't help but blush. “Well I kind of just call it- her, ugly cat, since you know, it's is a ugly cat.”

For a second Duo just stared at him with his mouth slightly open. Then he started to laugh. And laugh. Tears was running down his face as his whole body shook with laughter.

-:-:-

The cat, who by now realized that the New-human was not paying any attention to it and therefore was useless, decided to play on a safe card. With a heated glare at the still laughing human, the cat jumped down from it's lap and walked over to it's own human. This was a human that it knew from experience was properly trained. Jumping up into the armchair it surveyed its surroundings. The New-human was still making that disturbing noise and seamed to be in danger of falling over. The cat was most satisfied with its decision to abandon the formers lap and labeled the whole human as unpredictable territory. The Old-human's attention was at the moment focused on the New-humans almost spastic movements. It supposed that the human had a certain amusement value and let the Old-human continue its observations. Perhaps it would learn something. Maybe it could use the New-human as a example on how humans most certainly should not behave. The cat took a second to clean its paws while it contemplated the best course of action. Since its favorite resting area was in the wrong angle at the moment, it decided to make best of the situation and started to climb up the Old-human. Like the well trained human it was it stayed perfectly still and dutifully moved his head so that the cat could make itself comfortable.

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Wufei stared in fascination as the beautiful man laughed for all he was worth. And it really was a sight to behold. He could feel the ugly cat climbing on him but he couldn't find the will to care as he looked at the beautiful man. But after a while Duo started to calm down, something he noticed with regret. That meant that his excuse to watch him was over. He sighed, waved away the ugly cat's tail from his face and turned back to his books before Duo would notice that he was staring.

“Oh, That has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen.” Sarah suddenly said and pointed at Wufei and his ugly-cat-boa.

Wufei could once again feel himself start to blush. “It- I mean, she is a bit clingy. If she can't lie on my chest she does this.” He pointed at the hanging cat who was purring for all it was worth. He felt absolutely ridiculous, but he knew from experience that he could not remove that cat without suffering the consequences.

A sharp click was heard from his right and when he turned towards it he looked straight at Adonis. Adonis who was holding up his cell phone towards him. His camera cell phone. Wufei swallowed thickly. He really was not photogenic and to have Adonis take a photo of him with an ugly cat wrapped around his neck for entertainment value was not his idea of a good time.

“Sorry, I couldn't help myself.” He said with a wicked smile. Sarah motioned for him to show her the picture and the phone was very soon passed around the group with laughs and 'aaawww's all around.

Wufei cursed the cat. 'Should have thrown it out while I had the chance... Well, at least it wasn't licking me.' He sighed and pushed the tail away from his nose.

“Hey.” Wufei turned towards Duo who was leaning towards him. “I'm sorry if I embarrassed you.” He said in a soft vice as he looked over to the other couch where several people were bent together over Duo's phone.

“It's ok.” He responded in a equally soft voice. Any embarrassment was worth it if he could just get this kind of attention from the beautiful man.

“She was right you know.” Duo said with a crooked smile.

“What?”

“You two have to be the cutest things ever.”

Wufei loved his ugly cat.

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Pretty short chapter, I know but the next on will be posted soon. Now, please, please, please with sugar on top. Push the little button and tell me what you thought about the chapter.