Chocolate Covered Autumn



Chapter 2: A Little Piece of Heaven



Of all the mistakes that I've ever made in my life due to what everyone loves to call my "wild" days, this was the one thing that I knew I did right. To me, they are just what any typical teenage boys would do but I've got to admit, I was more energetic than any typical teenage boy would ever be. After a year of drifting after college, I finally settled down in what I consider to be the smartest decision I've ever made, and I've never had to apologize for it.

See, I own this dessert shop called creatively "A Little Piece of Heaven". Sounds religious, I know, and I've suffered plenty of crude comments from those old church ladies who travel door to door to promote their church. I do however; believe that they were hypocrites of their own religion, practically selling Jesus like it is something commercialized. Ha, and they call my choice of name to my dessert shop callous while they were trying to shove their peeking heads into other people's doors. After a visit from one of them, Wufei often appear grouchy and irritated for the rest of the day, murmuring about damn onnas who pay no respect to a single guy. Most of us just ignore him anyway because unlike me, he has absolutely no good pity stories for us to be concerned in.

But as unique and well, a bit conceited this name may appear, the amount of business that it has managed to attract in the past two years were undeniably, something that we can be proud of. The place is packed and I know for a fact that it isn't just for the sweets. They also come to see us. Relena and Hilde are often found resting on the comfortable couches placed in the corner under the lava lamps talking to animated and eager girls. The girls catch onto their every single word about their understanding on guys, style or anything that they practice their areas of expertise on. That's one of the chief things that make us different from our competitors. We act as a place to talk, to confide in, and to take comfort in. One of my favorite phases said by one of our regulars was that when you step in the door, the best sweets are laid in front of you in a matter of seconds and six of your personal therapists come and comfort you for free. And we're damn good at it too! God knows that we get enough practice with each other.

Wufei would proudly display his "manliness" to many of the college guys who come in and while serving a cup of hot java to a man in a business suit, would be carrying on a conversation with the guys about how to prove to their girlfriends that they are in charge. The guy's wonderful at multi- tasking, did I ever mention that? The only thing that we've kept from him is that most of the guys talk to him just so Relena can overhear their conversation. We all know what happens next, yep, grab a seat and observe Relena extending her power over Wufei and the fight that's sure to follow. I'm sure Wufei knows this too but is just being a good sport about it all and I know for certain that he isn't a sexist pig, using Relena's words, because I've heard him distinctly say how much he admires Relena. He does it just for fun, just like the rest of us whose pride and joy exists in what we have created with our own hands. Now just don't ask me how I know that, because um... something tells me that if Wufei knows how much he was talking in his sleep and that I was the person who placed his hand in that large cup of lukewarm water that night, I would die in a very painful and slow death with justice rants in my ear, making the torture all the worse. But trust me, temptation shows its ugly head enough when I think of teasing him endlessly about how cute he looks with a teddy bear under his hands when he sleeps. Well, I'll always have the photo to remind me, not to mention the teddy bear. There's no way I'm going to leave Li' Duo in Wufei's hands, he'll miss his corner of my bed terribly.

Relena, what can I say about her? Besides for the obvious, she's a ball of blond energy on drugs. Ok, not really but how else can you explain it? There's so many sides to her that it just amazes me, not to mention that she's the only person I know who can keep up with my constant brainstorms. Love the girl to death, and sometimes, that comes dangerously close to becoming reality, especially after mamma's boy Chris and cross-dresser John. Yeah, I can stand drag queens who proudly display their sexual preferences, but this was too much for me. To think, Relena's only excuse for it was: "Well, I only knew that John was nice! I didn't actually look under the clothes to see that there were breasts!" Needless to say, that was another field day for my so-called friends.

Her best friend, Hilde, currently washing some dishes was laughing with a few high school girls looking at her in awe, almost in hero worship. The question, or so I've heard often asked is: "How do you and Relena remain so calm and collected working with these hot guys?" followed by an assortment of appreciative observations about our various body parts. I've heard from Relena and Hilde that so far, my braid, Trowa's butt, Quatre's smile, and Wufei's eyes are often the topics of the discussions. Hilde usually just tells them something to the degrees of seeing some of us in drunken splendor and half unconscious blabbing nonsense does nothing for her system. I'm just glad that she didn't spill our past history of seeing each other in diapers as her justification. Ha, if they only knew. Two out of the Four are gay and rolling on a bed with each other. The one whose bi is presently thinking of enlisting in priesthood, and the only one who's straight as a flagpole is afraid of women. Who wouldn't after what he's endured? I think Relena should start saving for a lawyer right now.

Speaking of the happy couple, where were Quatre and Trowa? Quatre is off somewhere and I know that Trowa is always in the kitchen. He's one of the best cooks out of all of us, excluding me of course. I seriously believe that they have secretly been dedicated members of the Happily Married Club mailing list and receive stripped woven socks from the old ladies every single Christmas. They sometimes act so much like a married couple it scares me. But I've got to confess, I want what they have.

Ah, there's Quatre! Walking towards my direction was indeed, the boy with his gaze rested on my face. Something was not right here though I can't exactly put my fingers on it at the moment.

"Hey! Q!" I called out merrily to the pale blonde in front of me

And he just walked past me without a single glance, looking at something in the distance, completely out of it. His nickname died in my throat when my dense brain finally registered what looked out of place on his face. What happened to my beam? What about Christmas? On his face was probably the closest expression to a frown that I've ever seen on him.

"Quatre, you ok man?" I asked, worried by the sudden change that has come over my friend, not to mention scared shitless because I can only imagine what was bad enough for even Quatre to stop smiling. Armageddon? Church Ladies? Oh crap! It's John isn't it?

After running to the door and looking outside, I was prepared to slam the door in any guy with an uncharacteristically 36C sized chest. So sue me if I can't decide whether to settle with a guy or a girl, but "John" was not what I had in mind as a possible solution. A sigh of relief came to me as I saw the usual cars and blissfully ignorant pedestrians who probably have way better luck than me at dating. I closed the door slowly behind me and disregarded the few surprised stares cast my way, those must be new customers. They'll soon get used to it.

If it wasn't John, what the hell happened to Quatre?

"Hilde and Relena, come over here for a sec?" With that, a shared moan of disappointment came to the girls listening to their idols. I have no clue how we managed to look so mature in front of these people with us acting the way we do. I raised my two hands as a symbol of peace and smiled apologetically at the sulking girls. At my smile, they brightened again and resumed their lively chatter with each other. Oh yes! I have the power!

"Careful there, you may just have a few under-aged girls following you around like love sick puppies." Relena commented, none too nicely.

"Hey, when you've got it, you've got it!" I smirked proudly, but quickly sobered when both of the girls looked at each other and turned to walk away.

"I have to clean that table"

"I'll help you"

What was that thing called workplace morale again?

"Hey, I was kidding! Come back!"

".."

".."

"Please?"

With almost identical devious grins on their faces, the girls faced me once again. Note to self: need to place ad in newspaper for new friends.

"So, anyone know about what's wrong with Quatre?" Ok, back to the actual reason why we're having this conversation. I coughed a few times to demonstrate just how serious I was about the matter at hand.

"Why? Is something wrong with him?" With that, Relena's face quickly darkened. She has always had a soft spot in her for Quatre's kindness and generosity. Though no one has pointed it out, it's common knowledge that she played a large part in introducing Trowa and Quatre together. She was always proud of that successful matchmaking effort and would always fume at me when I never forget to mention that it was her only one. So sue me if I'm truthful. I think I'm victimized enough by her to have some right of free speech.

"I think so. He was looking a bit weird just now."

"Uh oh"

Seeing that these girls were of no help, I thought of the one person that I can always depend on.

"Hey Wu! Get your lazy ass over here!"

I really do appreciate him, I just don't show it nearly enough.

"What?" He said, annoyed that I cut him off at his favorite part of his usual rant. It was about honor or something, not important anyway.

"Get over here!"

"Alright already! Quit screaming!" Right and he don't call what he's doing as screaming, but as singing a lullaby?

Making his way towards us unenthusiastically, the three worried faces that greeted him was a big red alert. He looked at me inquiringly and I nodded in the direction of the cash register where Quatre was looking grim with his eyes stormy. That kid can be a poster boy for the side effects of too much caffeine with his shoulders rigid and stiff, his eyes looking straight ahead but zoned out. Wufei nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I've noticed." He said in a hushed tone. "I saw him walk in with that expression and knew that something wasn't right. Therefore, the logical thing for me to do was to watch him further to see what's amiss OUCH! What the hell did you do that for?"

Relena stood next to him with her arms crossed, looking impatient. "Stop with the mysteriousness and get on already! What's wrong with the boy?" Even though her tone was that of annoyance with Wufei, it betrayed her true feelings as hints of concern for Quatre seeped through. Wufei probably noticed and didn't say anything more, but that didn't stop him from glaring at her for a few seconds.

"TALK!" That definitely earned a few stares.

"Fine, fine..." Wufei complied unwillingly but not before mumbling something under his breath about stubborn onnas. Typical him, but when can he learn that he'll never win?

"It's Trowa." Absolute silence came over Hilde, Relena and I to this utterly unforeseen answer. Hilde was the first to shake off her amazement.

"What happened?" she asked softly and Wufei looked slightly uncomfortable with three pairs of piercing eyes resting on his face, all wordlessly demanding the answer and threatening him with certain death if he doesn't crack.

"I think they had a fight. Don't ask, that's all I know."

"You're kidding? The married Brady's had a fight? We're talking about the same people here right?" Hilde's quick hand automatically came to block my big mouth as the words came out a little bit louder than I expected. But it wouldn't have mattered anyway because Quatre didn't even cast a single glance at our way, totally engulfed in his own thoughts.

"You idiot! He might have heard you!"

"Look at him! He's so out of it, he wouldn't notice if Godzilla came in and danced the tango right in front of him in a flower printed dress!" I hissed, albeit quieter this time. Their eyes looked at me unbelievingly and I just shrugged. I have a very good imagination and I put it to good use, what can I say?

"Ok, so now that we know, what do we do about it?" Hilde, always the thoughtful one, offered her idea.

"Maybe we could get them to talk or something."

That was received by a furiously shaking head belonging to none other than Relena.

"Are you kidding me? We're talking about Trowa and Quatre here! Especially Trowa! They wouldn't talk. Trowa would be um..Trowa and Quatre probably feels so terrible right now that he doesn't even want to face him! You know how reserved he is!"

"I hate to admit it, but she's right for once." And Wufei's comment achieved its usual consequence.

"Don't worry, I think I got it. Leave it all to me." Relena proclaimed confidently purposely ignoring Wufei who was rubbing his head and staring daggers at her.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! When am I ever not sure?"

Why does that not comfort me? Like not even a tiny bit?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Will that be with ice cream or not?" I gave the girl sitting in front of me my widest smile and took a guilty pleasure in seeing the blush that quickly spread on her cheeks. If I'm considered so great a catch, then why the hell do I get the dates that probably belonged to that therapist test driving the Porsche yesterday.

"Ok, please excuse me a moment as I get your order." With a last smile, I turned around and went into the kitchen to retrieve her order.

"Here you go, enjoy." And as I handed her the pie, I noticed to my great annoyance a small puddle on the ground. I hate having anything dirty in this shop and that poor puddle unfortunately was now the object of my scorn as I glared at it, all thoughts about how it's an inanimate object, not to mention just water, escaped me as I plotted my vengeance. It's water, so I can't burn it, and dropping something heavy on it would only cause it to spread it's evilness when it splashes onto other places. Ok, a mop it is! I think it's in the back closet.

Humming cheerfully, thinking of how quickly my shop will be back into its usual perfection within a few minutes, I crawled into the closet clumsily. It's actually a pretty big closet but the boxes that we stored the ice cream and ingredients with are still in here, making it hard for me to reach the mop that is behind all of them, only about 3 inches from my struggling hands. Leaning on several of the boxes, I tried desperately to touch the long handle of the mop and finally, my fingers made contact.

"Yes! I got it.. AHHH!"

And I promptly fell into the boxes along with the mop. I'm just so good at this.

"ouchhh.." Great, now I have a headache not to mention that I have to get all these boxes off me now. I swear, I have the worse luck!

"Trowa?"

As soon as I heard that meek, soft voice, I hesitated in my efforts to push the boxes away from me. Quatre? What was he doing here? All of a sudden, the worse idea came to my head of what was going to happen inevitably.

"Now get in there!" That was definitely Relena's voice, way too happy for comfort. I peeked between two boxes to vaguely see a body being pushed forward by her hands. I need to have a little talk with her about using brute force to get her way. As for the person who she pushed in, I can only guess who it is and my stomach feels like its going to be sick.

"Trowa?" Getting a bit repetitive there, aren't ya Q?

"Yep, now, you two stay in here and talk over whatever little problem that you may have, and until you've settled it, in other words, start making out, you'll be locked in here, but until then. No coming out! Have a nice day!"

"Wha?" That was Trowa, apparently feeling a little inarticulate right now. I pity him, the unsuspecting fool. I can just picture Relena's smug smile right now. He needs to know how to predict Relena's little plans. Ha, as if I wouldn't be surprised in his shoes.

"Bye!"

"WAIT!!" That was Quatre and Trowa this time, but unfortunately, their combined efforts did not discourage her as the door locked into place with a little click. Total darkness swallowed the two lovebirds. AND ME! Let's not forget ME! How do I get caught in these things? After going over the most descriptive words I know in my mind, I finally admitted defeat. Leaning against the box behind me, I equipped myself for the long hours to come. Rubbing my temples is not helping the throbbing migraine in my head! Kill Relena, kill Quatre, and kill Trowa! Think happy thoughts! God knows that I can't jump out and declare my presence right now because... Well, because of the utter humiliation that will be guaranteed to follow and the words that will be said about "peeping-tom" Duo. Like I want to be here in the first place!

"Trowa?"

"..." And one point for the always talkative Trowa, the life of the party! I may be trapped between tons of empty boxes, my head may feel like it's going to explode, and I'll be sent to jail for murder in a few hours, but at least I can have fun talking to myself and practicing my sarcasm! I think I have a right to do that at least! Ok..calm down, I'm getting hysterical.

"I'm sorry and it was entirely my fault."

Quatre is trying to savage the relationship right now, awwww how sweet! Now if Trowa don't accept that, I'm going to go out and kick his ass, no matter how many good hair tips he's given me.

"Please forgive me. I love you."

Trowa...if you have telepathic powers, please read the thoughts I'm trying frantically to transmit to you.. Get him in a big hug; tell him it's all forgiven.and LET ME GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!! Of all the awkward situations that I'm caught in, this has got to be one of the worse. And I don't know if it's a good thing that they can't see me, or a very bad thing that they'll carry on as if they were alone. Bad, bad, bad mental thoughts!

"You have nothing to say sorry for, I was being stubborn."

Thank the Gods!

"Trowa!" And this is when I hear the distinct sound of someone running into another person's arms. Good, kiss and get out the door! And then, I can stand up and rid myself of this cramp that is quickly forming in my legs! Maybe if I just chop it all off?

"I'm sorry. I will never pass judgment on your brownies again. They are pretty good once you get used to the taste."

"Trowa, thank you but I really shouldn't have taken so much offense."

You've got to be kidding me. Rewind here please... This is all about a batch of brownies.. I'm stranded in a closet, suffocating among boxes because of a stupid batch of brownies. They are arguing because of brownies... I'm in immense pain and more mortification than I can ever recall for chocolate.. You know what? I change my mind. I think I'm going to stay here after they go out, find a rope and hang myself. This sorry excuse for a life isn't worth living. Goodbye sex, goodbye food, it was nice knowing ya, but it's not worth this pitiful existence.

"I'll make it up to you."

Oh...please don't...

"I don't think I would want to stop you from that." And I can practically hear the giggles coming from Quatre's mouth until it was silenced by something. Let's not even go there.

I knew I shouldn't have stolen that pie earlier in the morning.

Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep! Go to sleep now dammit! Why in the world am I so awake and lucid? These noises coming from next to me can't possibly be healthy for my ears.

"mmmmmmm....more"

No Quatre, you're too young and innocent for that! Ok, I'm too young and innocent for that! Dammit, one of us in this room has better be too young and innocent for that! Wait, I just remembered, they don't know I'm here so I don't count and so far, it seems that I'm the only one who fits that description. The majority always gets their way!

"Whatever you want..."

"Yes doctor, my name is Duo Maxwell and I'm your new patient. It all happened one day in the closet when I was locked in with my friends, who were lovers by the way. Well, doctor, they started shagging like bunnies and were too involved in each other to see me. And ever since then, I've developed a sudden disgust towards sex, chocolate and just dark cramped rooms in general." I practiced the dialogue again and again in my head as I tried wretchedly to distract my thoughts from what was happening less than six feet away. Telling myself that I should be happy for them because at least some of us were fortunate enough to be getting it was not working..Now, where's that rope?

"Are you people done yet?" That was Wufei! Oh wonderful and kind Wufei! My prince in shinning armor! I could give him a big kiss after this is done! I'll just walk away an hour after they leave with Wufei and then, pretend like nothing abnormal happened at all. I'll just put the boxes up and when they ask me where I was, I'll just tell them I went to get some more pie crust because we ran out. No one will suspect a thing! Oh I love Wufei! I'll propose to him tomorrow morning! He deserves me!



"Because I need to wipe off this puddle off the floor! I need the mop in there! Hello?!"

next chapter!