A Joyful Gathering
Part 4
by Enigma
No one said anything more about "the wishbone incident" as the six young men enjoyed their Thanksgiving feast. One by one, though, each realized they had over-indulged and pushed their plates away with regret.
"Oh, I am *so* stuffed!" Duo commented happily, patting his belly as if it should now be several sizes larger than it was before he sat down. Sighing contentedly, he added, "I couldn't eat another bite."
"What? No dessert, Duo?" Trowa teased, amazed that he had eaten almost as much as the others had for a change. His usual tendency to under-eat had been overcome by the delicious flavors and varieties of food available. Of course, Wufei had taken note of this unusual behavior and would recall which items had seemed to be the emerald-eyed boy's favorites in months to come whenever getting enough food into him became a problem.
"Of course, we have dessert, Tro," Duo assured, pointing to an unopened container on the counter in the kitchen. He smiled and suggested, "Why not take a look? It might give you an incentive to get hungry again later."
The auburn-haired boy rose from the table and dutifully looked into the box before remarking with a pleasant sigh, "Ah, this pumpkin pie smells good, Duo, it seems to have plenty of cinnamon in it, just the way I like it. But what're these little brown bits in the crust? I don't think I've ever seen a pie crust like this before."
"Hmm? Let me come take a gander," the braided boy sauntered over and peered at the deep orange dessert and frowned slightly before shrugging. He broke off a small portion of the decorative edge of the pie and popped it into his mouth, sucking on it for a moment before smiling broadly, "Yumm!! Those are chopped walnuts, Tro! Aw man! Now I want to eat some of *this* right now, too."
"I thought you just said that you couldn't eat another bite, baka," Heero teased from his spot at the table, too full to bother to get up and join Duo and Trowa a few feet away.
Duo smirked at the Japanese boy and answered darkly, "I can *always* find room for another bite when I want to, lover, and you know it!" He snapped sharp white teeth together as if he could nibble on Heero's neck from where he stood, then stretched his arms overhead in a calculated move to display a narrow band of skin at his midriff. "Besides, I didn't get a chance to even mention to Tro that there's three different flavors of *whipped cream* to go on the pie, too! He and Wu might want to know about *that*!"
At the mention of whipped cream, Quatre's eyes lit up but he wisely held his tongue and waited to see if the other couple might stake a claim on it.
"Do you ever get tired of using excessive quantities of sexual overtones, Maxwell?" Wufei asked dryly even as he saw Trowa's cheek turn pink yet again.
During the meal, the poor green-eyed boy had gone through more color changes than a chameleon in a paint store thanks to the American's insinuations. Wufei wondered how anyone could assume that someone who blushed constantly the way Trowa did could play the role of seme in their relationship, but he kept that observation to himself.
"Nopers, not me!" Duo grinned again and then sashayed back to his seat, swinging his hips enough to get the tip of his braid to sway from side to side in a sweetly seductive manner before flopping down in his chair. Sliding a booted foot up and down Heero's calf, he added as he gazed hungrily at the cobalt-eyed pilot, "How could I when I've got *this* sexy thing to distract me on a regular basis?"
An unanticipated voice spoke up. "Sexiness is in the eye of the beholder, Duo," Milliardo commented, gazing at his own little lover who was apparently in competition with Trowa for who could blush the most at the moment. "Some of us have other sources to be inspired by, you know."
"Oh really now?" Duo leaned forward to cup his chin in one hand, elbow on the table to support the decidedly wicked grin he wore. "Care to share with us what *you* find sexy, Lord Peacecraft?"
Azure eyes danced merrily as Milliardo answered, "Hmm, I rather like hearing you call me that, Duo."
Violet eyes looked confused and Duo asked, "Call you what? 'Peacecraft'?"
"No," the elder pilot nearly purred, holding Duo's gaze so completely, one might have thought he'd hypnotized the youth. "'Lord.' You know, Duo, as in 'lord and master'?" The smoldering lust in the former prince's eyes spoke volumes that the boy next to him wished had gone unrevealed.
Quatre nearly crawled under the table and hoped he might die any moment. The expression on his face was so transparent and yet so adorable, that his lover took pity on him, regretting his tease almost immediately.
"I'm so sorry, Quatre," the platinum blond man murmured into one pink-tinted shell of an ear. "That was a bit much to have said, wasn't it, my love?"
"Not really," the blushing boy admitted still unable to raise his eyes. "I kinda think that they knew about that aspect of our relationship already, but it might've been nice to be able to claim we were drunk when we admitted it, you know?"
"Ah, I see," Milliardo nodded and smiled, "A matter of saving face then, I take it?"
"More like saving my ass," Quatre muttered, finally raising his eyes in time to see a feral look of desire racing unchecked across Heero's face. Finding strength in the unintended moment of honesty, the Arabian boy glanced at the Wing pilot and stated simply, "Forget it, Yuy. I'm not interested in being a sub for you."
"Nani?" Heero blinked for a moment, then grinned even more darkly as he answered, "Oh, I didn't want to have you be a submissive for me, Quatre. I was just wondering if you might talk Duo into giving it a try, too. I've wanted a chance to get him in leather and spank his cute little ass for ages now!"
"HEERO!!" Duo exclaimed angrily, shocked that for once *he* was at the receiving end of the merciless teasing he'd always given the others. "What the hell's wrong with you?!"
Snickering, the Japanese boy answered easily, "I just thought you ought to get a taste of your own medicine, koi, that's all." He cocked a slightly forked eyebrow at the boy as if to dare him to argue further. When no rejoinder was offered, though, he added more tenderly, "And you can forget that whole spanking scenario, Duo. I was just teasing."
To everyone's surprise, the braided boy looked actually disappointed for a moment and then he asked, "Does that mean you don't want to see my 'cute little ass' in leather, too, Heero?"
Snorting softly at his irrepressible partner, the Wing pilot commented, "No, that part's true, baka. Then again, you look pretty hot to me the way you're dressed right now."
"Now you're talking my language!" Duo grinned again and then paused to glance at the far end of the table, realizing belatedly that neither Trowa nor Wufei had joined the conversation for quite some time. "Yo, guys? Are we boring you or something?"
Wufei turned his head away from where he had been apparently whispering something into Trowa's newly glistening wet ear and smirked slightly as he placed one last lick onto the earlobe, and answered, "Who? Us, Maxwell? Bored?" He turned to smile at his lover who barely succeeded in not turning more red than he already was. "We're not bored, are we, angel?"
"N-no, not bored," Trowa stuttered and noticed the look of shock on almost everyone's faces as the realization of just who precisely was the leader in their relationship began to sink in. Mock-yawning slightly, he smiled and asked, "Anybody besides me feel sleepy?"
Confusion crossed a few people's faces and it only got worse as Wufei pretended to yawn, his acting skills being somewhat less than those of a rock. "*I'm* sleepy, Tro. I think I might need to go take a nap."
Catching on, Quatre and Milliardo both hid knowing smirks behind their hands as they, too, joined in the false display of tiredness.
"Um, anyone want me to make some coffee or anything?" Trowa offered, not expecting a positive response yet feeling the need to behave like a good host for a moment. Then, more certain he knew what they *did* want, he mentioned as if in passing, "There's two extra bedrooms in this place that we haven't been using. If you're sleepy, anyone who wants to is welcome to grab a nap in one."
Finally realizing what the true topic of conversation really was, Duo smacked himself in the head angrily and joined the yawn brigade. "That's really nice of you, Tro, I think that I'll take you up on that offer." He mock-yawned noisily and shot Heero a look out of the corner of his eye and added, "Looks like Yuy's tired, too. Guess we'll both grab some shuteye before we have pie later, okay?"
Heero snickered since he was only biding his time waiting to see how long it took the resident hentai to catch the drift of the conversation. Giving in to the shared decision to not have anyone admit that each couple simply wanted to go find a place to make love, he, too, forced an approximation of a yawn from his lips and nodded before asking Trowa pointblank, "Which room are you two using? The one with the biggest bed, I take it?"
Wufei snorted softly in amusement, then gazed at the cast on his leg to remind the Wing pilot of why they might've made that decision and Heero winced visibly, immediately sorry for forgetting the reason the other two were there in the first place. Seeing a similar look of awareness on the other three men's faces, he said congenially, "Yes, Heero, we did. Ours is the first one on the right down that hallway. The one on the left has a double bed in it and the one at the end of the hall has two twins." With Trowa's assistance, he clambered to his feet and got his crutches in hand before commenting with a sly smile, "I'll leave it up to you four to figure out who gets which rooms, all right?"
"Sure thing, Wu," Duo nodded and smirked as he saw Trowa apparently hiding something from the table behind his back as they walked away.
"See you later for pie and coffee, everybody," the HeavyArms pilot called before closing the door to the master suite. "Thanks for dinner, Duo, it was great!"
"Glad you liked it, Tro!" The braided boy called back pleasantly and then turned his attention to the others. "Why don't you two take the room on the left, Q? Me and Heero are used to twin beds after all those boarding schools, ya know?"
"Gee, thanks, Duo," Quatre smiled, glad to get the double bed since his long-limbed lover tended to not even fit onto a regular twin bed for sleep much less for something more active.
All four young men rose from the table and took a moment to do their civic duty to toss at least some of the leftovers into the refrigerator before they all went to enjoy their afternoons. Within a matter of moments, though, they decided it was close enough to being done that they all smiled a lot, wished each other good "sleeping" and went to their agreed upon rooms.
Before they left the kitchen, Quatre had made it a point to steal something from inside the refrigerator and Heero had kidnapped a dish from the table, but they were all trying not to think about what they were all about it do for fear of embarrassing themselves.
The afternoon's meal was far from over for several of the young warriors and it was a certainty that they'd all be ready for the energy-giving pumpkin pie later.
Full Author's Notes to run at conclusion.
End Notes Part 3-5 can be found at the end of Part 5.
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