windandwater | Double Double Toil and Trouble (Reply)

Duo glared at his counterpart, strapped to the chair. He pulled himself out of everyone's arms, cautiously stalking towards the bound captive.

"*YOU*," he hissed out through clenched teeth. Duo was fisting his hands so tightly that he knew his knuckles were turning white. "You're the one who's fucking up my life."

Wide violet eyes just blinked at him and WT!Duo squirmed in his chair. Reaching out, Duo pulled the gag from his double's mouth and threw it to the side.

"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" Duo asked scathingly, hands on his hips.

WT!Duo just stared. "You're... you're... me..." he said quietly.

Duo snorted. "Yeah, you're not the brightest crayon in the box, are you? Of COURSE I'm you. Or you're me. Or something like that. Aren't you going to defend yourself or something? You're the one invading here."

Violet eyes narrowed. "You're the one who's got me trussed up to a chair. Ah'm just followin' orders."

This time Prussian blue eyes narrowed. Heero crossed the room and glared at WT!Duo. "Orders?"

WT!Duo shrugged. "Yep. My Writer thought it'd be a good idea for me to visit or sumpthin'."

Quatre groaned, covering his face in his hands. "He's under Writer's orders?! Dammit... this means he's a Muse, you know. We can't just kill him."

Wufei scowled. "Quatre's right. Muses are notoriously hard to kill. We could probably kill him every hour. If the D&D field didn't bring him back, the fact that he's a Muse would. You just can't kill Muses."

Heero gave a very grim smile. "It doesn't mean that we can't TRY to kill him. It's difficult, but I'm sure between the five of us, we could figure something out."

"Whoa, boy!" Duo exclaimed, tugging on Heero's arm. "As much as I'd LOVE to follow your suggestion, we need to think this out. If we kill him too much, we'd risk him coming back even MORE fucked up."

"What do you suggest?" Trowa asked, idly flipping a knife through the air.

Duo smiled his trademarked Shinigami smile, violet eyes glittering. In his chair, WT!Duo swallowed nervously as five sets of eyes gazed at him with malicious glee.

"We just need a little time..."

-----------------------------------

"What are you doing here, Wufei?" Relena asked, one hand perched on her hip. She refused to step one foot out the room she had been given in the OC Wing. "Is the Writer calling me for bunnywork?"

Wufei grimaced. It rankled him to be standing at Relena's doorstep like some sort of supplicant for a royal favor. "No, onna. I'm here to offer you justice."

Relena's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Everyone in the Castle knows that you want Duo's head after what happened after Party Night..." Wufei trailed off as he saw Relena's cornflower blue eyes take on an added sparkle that didn't bode well. The Chinese boy reminded himself that he would have to tread lightly, as Relena had mode!shifts that were severely unbalanced, though she was sane a mojority of the time. He shook his head and continued. "Because you *are* and active Muse in the Castle, we have decided that your sufferings were unjust and thus you must be afforded compensation."

"And what would this compensation be, Chang Wufei?" Relana asked, her voice immediately switching to a wary-politician's tone.

"This."

Wufei pulled Duo, tied up and gagged into view. Relena's eyes widened and she stepped out into the hallway. One hand outstretched. Then, she stepped back into her room, her look disbelieving.

"You're trying to trick me. Duo's the Primary Muse, he wouldn't voluntarily allow himself to be punished by *me* of all people. And you four wouldn't allow your lover to be hurt at any cost. What are you trying to pull here?"

"No tricks, onna." Wufei said. Damn, she was a quick one when she wanted to be... no wonder she had become Vice Foreign Minister at such a young age. "You only get Duo for a little while. A few hours at most. Besides, Heero thought that if you were appeased, you'de get your fic done faster and he'd finally be rid of you."

Relena winced.

Then she looked at Duo, bound and gagged and looking poleaxed.

She smiled.

"I accept you offer of justice," Relena said, taking hold of the rope that Wufei had been using to drag Duo behind him.

Wufei nodded. "Anything goes, Relena. The D&D field should take care of everything. I shall be back to pick him up once your time has expired."

Relena just nodded, her eyes focusing on Duo's heavy braid of hair.

"And Relena?"

Cornflower blue eyes looked up at him, a hazy sort of cloud of maliciousness giving her an almost vapid look.

"Make sure to keep him gagged."

Relena nodded. "Oh... he won't be saying much after I'm through with him."

The door slammed shut, and Wufei spun on his heel, walking back to his Wing. Before he had gone five steps, the muffled screaming started.

Wufei was very glad he was not WT!Duo at the moment.