Quatre slammed the door to the black jeep as he grabbed his backpack and hoisted it over his shoulder. "See? What did I tell you? Isolated. You all are being way too paranoid."
Duo shrugged as he grabbed his duffle. He looked around; the parking space was just a gravel lot. All around them were tall trees and bushes, not a sound of civilization at all. The ride out there in the two jeeps, of which four-wheel-drive came in _quite_ handy, had taken nearly an hour. This place really was isolated. "Ummm…Quatre? Where is this house you were talking about?" Duo asked.
Quatre pointed at a small path leading up from the parking space. At that moment, the other jeep came up the drive and parked behind the other. Duo waved to his friends, seeing Trowa behind the wheel and Heero in the passenger seat. Trowa parked the car and turned off the engine. Heero got out swiftly and lowered the seat and leaned into the back. Trowa had already pulled out his duffle from the back and had come to stand with Quatre and Duo.
Duo watched as Heero half climbed back into the backseat and all he could see were Heero's legs. "Where's Wufei?" he asked Trowa.
Trowa smirked and pointed back to the Jeep. "He fell asleep in the back, I think Heero's waking him up." Trowa chuckled lightly.
"What's so funny?" Quatre asked.
"Wufei snores. Loud." Heero now had his duffle slung over his shoulder and a grouchy Wufei was following him, carrying his own duffle bag.
"Awww somebody get robbed of his nappy time?" Trowa teased. Wufei just grumbled and stood next to the others looking sleepy.
"So Quatre, this house?" Duo brought up the subject once again.
"Oh! It's this way, it's a small hike up this path, only accessible by foot." Quatre started up the path leaving the others to follow. Duo shrugged and followed. He heard footsteps and an "hn" from behind him; he assumed the others were following. The path was just a tiny bit wider than single file, but nevertheless, the pilots all walked in single file, no one wanted to walk in the mud, just so they could walk next to their friend. It was still winter, and this part of the country, was a temperate rainforest, not too cold, but certainly not warm. And muddy, excruciatingly muddy. Ungodly muddy. Duo was wishing he'd worn hiking boots. Quatre certainly wasn't lying when he said this place was isolated in a forest. He forgot to mention muddy-sticky-sloppy-messy-ruin your favorite shoes just walking in the ungodly amounts of mud forest.
A short twenty minutes later, the house came into view. Duo dropped his duffle bag in shock as the other pilots came up behind him, in similar states. Trowa's jaw dropped and his eyes widened, Heero stared and almost cringed away, Wufei just looked like he was ready to run back to the car and camp out there. Quatre beamed happily and walked up to the porch. "C'mon, what are you all staring at?" Quatre opened the front door and walked in, smiling all the while.
"We're staying here?" Duo whispered in shock. Trowa was still staring open mouthed at the house in front of him. It looked to be an old Victorian style house. Duo balked. That would mean this house is over 2000 years old! It must have been made in the 4th revival period, just before the colonies were built. But still that would make the house over 200 years old!
Quatre came back out. "Are you guys still standing there?!? C'mon, we have lots of work to do!" He walked back down the porch steps and stood in front of his friends again, who were still staring back at the house. Quatre turned around and looked at the house. "Oh. C'mon. It's not _that_ bad!"
Duo gave him a look.
Trowa glared at him.
Heero gave a "hn".
And Wufei promptly turned around and started walking back down the path again. Heero caught his arm. "Where are you going?" he hissed.
"I'm camping out in the Jeep. I will not stay in _that_". Wufei pointed to the house. Heero growled at him. Wufei growled back. Don't even _try_ to intimidate me, Yui
"If I have to stay here, so do you." Heero hissed out of range of Quatre's hearing. Wufei sighed and slumped his shoulders. Alright, but I'm sneaking out and running back to the jeep if _anything_ goes wrong [1]
"Quatre." Duo hissed. "You said 'fixer-upper', not dilapidated piece of shit!" Duo shouted.
"Yeah." Trowa agreed.
"It's not dilapidated. It's just needs a little work, you wouldn't believe the deal I got on this place."
I think I know why Duo thought to himself.
"Quatre." Wufei spoke very sternly. "I am not staying here. I'm taking a Jeep and going back to civilization, anyone who wants to join me is welcome." Duo, Trowa and Heero, immediately picked up their bags.
"You guys! You said you'd help me!"
Duo sighed. "Quatre, we are not free labor. Besides, this was supposed to be a 'vacation' remember? You used those words yourself. 'C'mon guys, I bought this new property and it'll be fun to go out there and fix it up! Just like old times, we'll have a vacation and party and it'll be fun!' You said that didn't you?"
Quatre looked away and nodded sheepishly. "It will be fun." He said quietly. Heero snorted.
"About as much fun as taking it up the ass."[2] Trowa muttered under his breath.
"Please. I know it's not much to look at, but I know that the four of you will do a better job than any repairman. I need your skills. And I thought it would be good for us. We've all been so busy. It'll be good to be just us again. Please?? Don't walk away…" Quatre begged.
Duo felt bad, he did say he would help, to turn back now would be lying, and that was something he didn't do. He also didn't turn his back on his friends. Trowa too, felt guilty…he was just concerned about…spiders…They are probably crawling all over that place! he visibly shuddered. Heero just nodded.
Wufei wasn't as easy to convince. "Are you serious? That place is about to fall apart as we speak! How old is it anyway?!" he yelled.
Quatre paled. "Well…uh…old…the realtor said it was probably built sometime around 50 B.C" [3] Wufei paled and looked as if he was going to faint.
"50 B.C…are you serious?" Trowa asked, astounded.
Quatre nodded. "Yes…something like that. Oh shoot. It's starting to rain. C'mon let's go inside."
Reluctantly the four ex-pilots grabbed their now muddy duffle bags from the ground and followed Quatre inside, Wufei mumbling "50 B.C is he insane…" all the way. Duo was having second thoughts…was coming in out of the rain and the mud into a dilapidated-should-be-condemned-200+-year-old-house was much better? As it turned out, it was much, much worse.
"This is the main living room, I camped out here last week and brought some futons and extra blankets, I also stripped the carpet and re-varnished the hardwood floor here…" Quatre pointed out. The other boys noticed that this room looked normal at least. It was clean, and had obviously been renovated. Quatre continued, "We'll sleep in here-"
"All five of us?" Duo interrupted.
Quatre nodded. "All five of us. This is the only room in the house that's been renovated. I had to install new insulation, the old stuff was the original insulation, not warm enough for this climate. I put in the new windows and installed the fireplace. The rest of the house gets much too cold to sleep in, until we can update the insulation and properly re-seal all the windows and doors."
Duo nodded, already beginning to dread the daunting task Quatre was going to assign to *him*.
"Anyway, set your duffels here, I'll give you a small tour." Quatre indicated they were to follow him through a large set of double doors on the wall opposite of the one they entered. They walked through a dining room with a large bay window. It was clearly dilapidated. The ex-pilots walked cautiously behind their babbling blond friend. The dining room had another door on the left and into the kitchen.
Duo followed right behind Quatre and nearly passed out from shock. He'd seem some pretty ugly kitchens, condemned buildings, hell! He'd even _lived_ in some, but he had never seen a kitchen more disgusting, more gross, more _alive_ with mildew like this than in all the places on L2. Wufei gasped and immediately cringed away from the filth and towards the nearest source of protection, Trowa, who was looking with a look of disgust clearly on his features. Heero was stoic as always, but steered clear of touching any surface.
Quatre laughed. "C'mon! It's not that bad. The fridge is new! I installed it last week!"
It was true; the fridge looked out of place in the disgusting kitchen. The cabinets were dirty and rotting, and looked as if they were about to fall off their hinges, the sink was obviously once made of porcelain, but now appeared to be made of mildew, lime stains, and slime. There was mold literally _growing_ on the counters and the stove looked as if it hadn't been used in about 50 years. It was a type of stove none of the pilots had ever seen before, let alone use. The floor wasn't much better. The tile was stained and peeling, and the color had long since faded away changing into a lovely shade somewhat resembling three-day-old puke after a drinking binge or baby shit after getting into mom and dad's secret cookie stash.
"Ick." Trowa said out loud.
Quatre had continued over to a corner, and opened two doors, with old slatted wood. "Here's the washer and dryer. Both fully functioning, I installed them last week." He walked over to old sliding glass doors, in another room, open to the kitchen.
The four ex-pilots followed him into the large room, which they figured used to be a den. Duo was glad to get off that awful kitchen tile, only to discover that the den carpet wasn't much better. It was filthy, moldy and _soggy_. Soggy with what, Duo didn't want to know. And was that a blood stain in the corner? Duo paled. "You might want to stay in the kitchen." He warned to his friends. Wufei was now cowering in fear, swearing to Nataku that he would never make a promise to anyone in the Winner family ever again as long as he lived through this and didn't have to get anywhere near all this _filth_.
Trowa looked around nervously for spiders, he'd seen some cobwebs when he first walked into the kitchen and was on his toes. Wufei meanwhile was clinging to his shirt ready to crawl into Trowa's skin should any of the dirt gain a life of its own and try to get him. Trowa would have almost chuckled if he wasn't cringing from the worry of spiders, Wufei's - expression was priceless: 'Save me from all this dirt!'. Heero on the other hand, just looked disgusted with the whole matter and glared at Quatre for it. Quatre walked through another door just off the den and motioned for the others to follow.
Heero just pushed past Wufei and Trowa and followed Duo who was tiptoeing as softly as he could across the soggy carpet. Heero stomped across it following Quatre into the room, his feet making loud 'squish, squish' sounds. Duo wrinkled his nose up in distaste. Wufei squealed and hopped into Trowa's arms. Trowa caught the Chinese man in his arms, just in time, before he knocked them both over. Duo turned around, hearing Wufei squeal and almost laughed. The image was great: brave, strong Wufei cowering in fear over a little dirt. Duo couldn't resist the opportunity.
"Afraid of a little dirt?" he jeered at Wufei.
"It's not a little dirt Maxwell! This place could be used as a lab to grow new species! I have never in my life seen such a filthy place! And there is no way in hell I'm walking across that soggy carpet! In fact, I'm not sure it's even carpet!" Wufei wrinkled his nose while giving the carpet the evil eye, as if it would cower away in fear at his gaze. Duo would've laughed if he too wasn't disgusted by this place. Quatre's been a rich, spoiled brat nearly his whole life, how come he isn't disgusted by this? Trowa just walked forward still carrying Wufei across the soggy carpet into the room with Quatre and Heero. Duo followed, grumbling something about rich bastards…
Trowa set Wufei down in the new room, which was to Wufei's delight, Hardwood floor. At the very least, it wasn't soggy, but it was by no means, clean. The wood was warped, and raw, and all the ex-pilots swore they wouldn't be going barefoot anywhere in this house, manners be damned.
Quatre spoke, "This is the only downstairs bedroom. I put the mattress and bed in here last week, and the sheets, but it's still far too cold at nights to risk anyone sleeping in here." He punctuated the last part, looking especially at Wufei.
Wufei just sneered at him, with a look on his face that said 'you couldn't pay me to sleep in here'.And in fact, don't be surprised if you wake up and I'm not in this house at all!
Quatre pointed to a chair and continued speaking. "I also brought in this chair and I was hoping we could do this room first. Its' really not as bad as the others…" And with this a look of displeasure coursed over Quatre's face. Wufei paled. I do not want to see this 'others' Quatre continued, noting the look on Wufei's face with only a hint of amusement, "Also the dining room and the den. I'd like to get the entire downstairs in ship-shape, before tackling the upstairs. It's really in bad shape."
"BAD SHAPE!?! How the fuck could anything possibly be worse than this!?!" Wufei screamed.
"Wufei, calm down." Duo placed a hand on Wufei's shoulder. Wufei growled at him and slapped his hand away. Duo replaced his hand and gave Wufei a 'look'. Wufei sighed and cursed himself. Duo could hear him mumbling "Why me, Nataku? What did I do?" Duo patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. But he was just as mad. This is the last time I do a favor for you Quatre. *EVER*
There was another door on the opposite wall of the one they had just come in and Quatre opened it leading back to the foyer. Directly in front of the front doors was a staircase and off in front of them was the door, to the only decent room in the house. Wufei immediately marched back into the living room and sat down. "I am not going upstairs." He announced. His tone promised death to anyone who suggested otherwise.
Heero shrugged and followed Quatre upstairs. The place was disgusting, yes; it was falling apart, But it has potential. A little work, okay, a _lot_ of work but we could have this place looking nice. We saved the world a few times, what's a little renovation task? Heero smiled to himself. He was thinking this would be fun, to turn nothing into something.
Trowa took a short glance at Wufei before following the others up the stairs. Duo just walked in the living room, shutting the door behind him and joining Wufei on the floor. "Why did we do this?" Wufei asked softly.
Duo shrugged. "He's our friend…although I'm seriously reconsidering that right now." Duo added with only a slight touch of sarcasm, for his was pondering just walking out and saying 'Fuck you Winner! Call a repairman.'
Wufei sighed and laid back onto the thick oriental carpet that Quatre had dragged in here last week. It was the only redeeming feature in the whole house. The carpet was soft and thick and almost covered the entire floor. Wufei took his shoes off. It'd be the only place in the house were he'd be able to walk around in his socks.
"Oh shit." Duo cursed from next to him.
"What is it?" Wufei asked.
"I have to piss. After seeing the rest of the house, I'm afraid to see the bathroom. I mean, I've seen some gross places and all, growing up on L2, but I have never seen anything this bad!"
Wufei just nodded. "I've never seen a place this bad either." He said softly, but Wufei was wondering what he would do if he too had to piss, or gulp, go No. 2. "I think you better take your chances with the bushes outside." Duo nodded and made a beeline for the front door. Wufei watched almost amused as Duo waved to him through the windows. Wufei waved back.
Duo cringed looking at the house again. He was going to have to "live" here for the next few weeks, and do free labor at that! What an injustice! He chuckled at his own thoughts and waved to Wufei again. Wufei just smiled and nodded. What is taking that baka so long, I thought he had to pee? Duo turned and stalked towards a small apple tree, his back to the house now and gave the tree a through watering. The rain was still coming down, but not as hard, so Duo only got a little wet, while he ran back inside. Duo was completely unaware that Trowa was watching him water the foliage from an upstairs window.
Trowa laughed loudly.
"What's so funny?" Heero asked coming over to stand next to Trowa who was looking idly out the window.
"Nothing." Trowa shook his head smiling to himself. After seeing the bathrooms in this place, I think I'll be peeing in the bushes too! And Duo didn't even get a look at the upstairs! Quatre continued his short tour throughout the upstairs, Trowa wrinkling his nose as each room continued to get worse in filth. "I'm going back downstairs." He paused a moment in the hallway. "Quatre does the down stairs have a bathroom?" Trowa asked.
Quatre nodded. It would be rather silly if it didn't. "It's that door off the kitchen, I forgot to show it to you, the toilet works fine, but the plumbing's not up to par for showers yet. You think you could handle the plumbing in this place?" Trowa nodded. The plumbing wouldn't be a problem. It was just…those…spider webs. Trowa shuddered. He walked back downstairs, as Quatre showed Heero the last room.
The room was small with only one window facing north. Heero leaned out the door indeed making sure that Trowa was heading down stairs. He smirked to himself. "Finally, we are alone." He said and pulled the blond close to him and kissed him deeply. Quatre yelped before closing his eyes and letting Heero's kiss take him away.
They pulled apart moments later, Quatre's eyes half closed gazing into Heero's. Heero was smiling gently at him, as he ran his hands idly under Quatre's shirt, sighing softly at the feel of Quatre's smooth skin beneath his hands. "You don't think this place is that bad do you?" Quatre asked softly, as his own hands rubbed softly over Heero's shoulders.
"No." Heero said, his softened gaze not leaving Quatre's once.
Quatre laughed softly. "Heero. I meant the house not me." He admonished softly. "This isn't the time or the place to be doing this now." He pushed away softly.
Heero took a deep breath through his nose. "Quatre." He whimpered softly and pulled Quatre back into his arms, this time with Quatre's back to his chest. He rained soft, sweet kisses down Quatre's neck. "I missed you." Heero's arms squeezed gently around Quatre's waist as if to punctuate that fact.
"I missed you too. But really this hardwood floor would be hell on your back."
Heero pulled away and looked at him, "My back?" He questioned.
Quatre smiled and kissed the end of Heero's nose. "Yes, _your_ back." He wiggled his eyebrows at Heero. "They'll be time for that later. C'mon, it's getting dark." Reluctantly Heero released Quatre and they continued out to the hallway and back down the stairs.