Empath

A/N: Just so you know...I never manage to get update out this fast normally...so relish it while you can.

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Two days later, I had all but forgotten the incident of uncontrollable channeling. I was washing up the last of the dishes from breakfast when I heard a crash from upstairs and a very familiar “MAXWELL!!” echo through the house. I sighed and hoped that nothing too valuable had been broken. That crash didn’t bode well. Then I heard the thundering of Duo taking the steps three at a time and Wufei following him. I didn’t bother to turn as Duo ran into the kitchen, with Heero out doing…whatever it was he did before work, I was the next line of defense. Why he didn’t ever go to Trowa was beyond me. The stoic third pilot would definitely be able to hold his own with Wufei in hand-to-hand better than I could.

“Q! Save me!” Duo shrieked, though I knew he wasn’t all that worried about his health. The wide grin and sparkle in his eyes gave it away.

“What did you do now, Duo?” I asked as he tried to hide his larger body behind mine.

Wufei slid to a stop, eyes blazing and dripping wet. “Get out of the way, Quatre, I’m going to kill him,” he hissed angrily. He sounded and partially looked like a drenched cat. I turned to Duo. He was emitting far too much enjoyment at Wufei’s clear anger and being caught between the very different emotions was slightly disorienting. I closed my channels to them.

“Oh come on, Fei-Fei…loosen up!” Duo said, still smiling behind where he had his arms wrapped around my waist as if that would protect him.

“Stop butchering my name!” Wufei hissed. “And turning the shower to cold was hardly funny!”

I closed my eyes. “Duo…”

“It’s a classic, Q! Everyone needs to have that prank pulled on them once!” he attempted to defend. “And besides, it’s not like he can’t go back up and take another shower. I didn’t keep the water on cold.”

“Wait, if you changed the water temperature…what was that crash I heard?” I asked looking over at Wufei. Duo burst out laughing and Wufei turned bright red. Wufei with a blush was…different. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen him blush before. It didn’t look half bad on him.

“Shut. UP. Maxwell!” Wufei hissed, still clinging tightly to the towel around his waist and dripping water onto my wooden floors.

I sighed again, “Alright, what happened?”

“The great Wufei slipped and fell out of the tub,” Duo said without bothering to hide his snicker. “Only thing that would have been better would have been if it had been Trowa.” Imagining the ever-graceful Trowa Barton falling was rather difficult to do but still…

“You turned the water to freezing while I was taking a shower!” Wufei snarled, anger rolling off him in waves and seeping through my mental blocks. “What was I supposed to do? Stay in it?”

I reached down and pried Duo’s arms from around me. “Wufei, why don’t you go back up to your shower…I’ll make sure Duo stays down here and away from you while you do,” I suggested. The angry Chinese man glared at Duo for another few minutes before turning and leaving, muttering to himself in Mandarin as he practically stormed off. I turned to look at the smiling pilot crouched on the ground behind me. “Duo, I wish you would stop aggravating Wufei…it took us forever to convince him to move in with the rest of us. You don’t want to go back to renting his own apartment do you?”

“I don’t even remember how we did manage it…” Duo muttered, suddenly looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. “He just one day moved in.”

“His apartment was suddenly bought and all the tenants had to leave for renovations for a few months. Wufei just never moved back after the apartments reopened,” I supplied casually. “It’s easier to convince people to stay if they know what living someplace will be like. I was able to work on him until he agreed while he was staying here temporarily.”

Duo sat back on his heels and studied me for a moment, which I ignored. I simply went back to washing the dishes. “Q…do you own any apartment buildings by chance?” he asked cautiously.

“Several. Why?”

There was a long silence. “Quatre…you aren’t nearly as sweet as we think you are…are you?”

I looked down at him and smiled a bit. “Duo, please do not forget my father wanted me to be a politician or businessman…not a solider. What kind of politicians are sweet?”

“Shrewd. Very shrewd,” he commented before pushing himself up to stand next to me. “Now…how are you going to make sure I stay down here and away from Wuffers?” I saw the leer and felt the mischief. I rolled my eyes a bit; he really was an incurable flirt. I wondered how Heero put up with him sometimes. But then, I also knew. All during the war I had felt Heero’s opinion of Duo grow from annoyed to neutral, to friendship, to tentative affection, to his current feeling of very hesitant love. It had taken him years but Duo with all of his vices had grown on Heero.

I grabbed a nearby dishtowel and gave it to the brunette. “You can start by wiping up the water Wufei dripped all over the place. Since you’re the reason he was out of the shower and dripping wet in the first place.” Duo scowled at the towel but went to mop up the water anyway. I suppose he figured I had enough of a point that he’d give in to doing things my way.

It didn’t take him all that long to mop up the water and by the time he’d done so Wufei was coming back in fully dressed though he still had a bit of a scowl. “Hey, Fei-man no hard feelings about earlier right? I mean…it was just a harmless prank,” Duo said with a slightly nervous smile.

Wufei narrowed his eyes. “What have I said about butchering my name, Maxwell?”

“Uh…not to?” Duo answered hesitantly.

“Then why do you keep doing it?” he asked with more than a little anger.

I sighed in a bit of agitation before putting the last plate in the proper cupboard. “Can’t you two please try to get along?”

“Quatre, he is deliberately trying to annoy me!” Wufei said pointing at Duo who was attempting to look innocent and failing miserably.

“And you let him,” I replied simply. “You know what he’s trying to do and you let him succeed. And Duo I can feel how much satisfaction you’re feeling. Stop it. You’re just as much if not more to blame. Stop antagonizing Wufei. We’re all friends here and I enjoy spending time with all of you. So please stop fighting.” The two of them exchanged a long look before nodding. I wasn’t sure at all of how long the truce would last but any length of time would be welcome. I gave it a week at most.

Trowa chose that moment to enter the kitchen in his usual quiet manner, with a slight nod to everyone as he moved past to the fridge. Probably to pick up his lunch before heading into the office. He always made his lunch the night before so he could just grab it and go whenever he left in the morning.

Suddenly, I felt a wave emotion and I turned to Trowa. “What’s wrong?”

He straightened and looked over at me with a bit of confusion. “Nothing is wrong, Quatre.”

“That’s not true. You’re upset I can feel it,” I said taking a few steps closer and putting a hand on his shoulder. The waves of distress were definitely coming from him. He felt terrible about something. He was worried. “What happened, Trowa?” It was as clear to me as if he was wearing a giant sign lit up like the Fourth of July. Something was wrong.

“Quatre, nothing is wrong,” he insisted though now Wufei and Duo were looking him over more carefully for what I already could see clear as day. “Nothing has happened. I assure you I am fine.”

I frowned. I knew he wasn’t and yet he wasn’t lying to me per say. It felt more like when Duo was trying to get around saying the truth without lying. “Did something happen to Catherine then?” He winced slightly and I felt his distress increase. “Trowa what happened?”

“Yeah, Tro, you can tell us,” Duo said throwing his support behind me.

Trowa sighed ever-so-softly. “There was an accident with the high wire. Catherine broke her leg. But she’ll be fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Oh man…that’s tough, dude. At least it’s just a broken leg though!” Duo said. Ever the optimist.

But I could sense that Trowa was beside himself with worry. I could feel it beating at me and I put a hand to his shoulder. “You’re still worried sick. Go see her. We’ll cover with Miss Une for you.” Trowa blinked in surprise. Apparently, he had thought answering my question would be enough to end the subject. But I couldn’t let it go. Not with how distressed Trowa was. It was just a real to me as if one of my own sisters was ill and needed me. Only Catherine didn’t have twenty odd other siblings to take care of her like mine did. She only had Trowa and that made me even more upset. Or was Trowa the one getting more upset? It was a bit difficult to tell. I deliberately pulled my Empathy back, dulling the emotions I was feeling. “Just go, Trowa. Visit Catherine and make sure she’s alright. I’m sure she’ll find the change of positions funny.”

His emotions more than his face let me know he had found a bit of humor in my attempt. I gave him a smile to reassure him and he nodded slightly before turning and leaving the room. Probably to go gather his things for his visit. “And what are you going to say to Une again, Quat?” Duo asked, scratching his head curiously. “I mean, I think she still thinks we’re at war with how she runs the place.”

I smiled. “Don’t worry about Miss Une, Duo. I’ll talk to her. She’s really not that bad. At the very least she’s reasonable. Now, we should all get going before we’re late for work. Heero probably already left without us by now.”

“Yeah,” Duo chuckled a bit “He can get a bit impatient.”

I stiffened at the sudden jolt of lust I felt from my friend. “Could you please not talk about your sex life in front of me, Maxwell?” Wufei demanded as Duo walked past him towards the door.

“You’re just mad that you’re not getting any, Fei. You and Trowa both need to loosen up. Maybe you’d be able to find someone then,” Duo said looking over his shoulder at the other pilot. “I can give ya some lessons in loosening up if ya want,” he added with a flirty wink.

Wufei’s anger spiked quickly and he only had time to snap out Duo’s name before the braided menace was gone. I groaned silently. This was their idea of getting along? They hadn’t even lasted a week. Maybe I should just stop trying to get them to get along. Though even as I thought that I knew I wouldn’t. I just cared too much about them to leave them be. Maybe that was yet another result of having so many sisters that I was used to at least one person forcing people to resolve their differences. I almost snorted at the thought. Oh well, at least it sounded like a logical excuse.

I started for the arch of the kitchen when a sudden jolt ran through me. I put my hand to my chest and closed my eyes. I hadn’t been able to pinpoint where the feeling had come from. And it was so strong I couldn’t tell if it was just nearby or that strong of an emotion. I took several deep breaths as my body slowly relaxed. I took one long sweep of the kitchen with my eyes but saw nothing out of the ordinary. So why then was I picking up the feeling of deceit? Someone was keeping something from me and that made me more than a little nervous. Or maybe I was picking up someone elses nerves? It was difficult to tell.

I forced myself to take a deep breath and ran my fingers through my hair to reassure myself. How that reassured me I wasn’t quite sure but it seemed to help. The feeling of secrecy surrounded me and I felt stifled with the need to keep quiet. It was almost as if I was in the middle of space without a space suit. All the air was suddenly evaporating and I swore I was going to have a panic attack.

Finally, the feeling dissipated and I was left standing there, shaking from head to toe and almost gasping for air. “Yo Quat! Come on would ya!” Duo called and I quickly glanced around the kitchen once more before leaving. I was still more than mildly disturbed by what had happened. Still, they didn’t have to know that anything had happened at all. It wasn’t anything major. But, then why did I still feel so unnerved by it?

I was quiet the whole ride into work, but Wufei and Duo didn’t seem to notice. Heero had indeed left earlier than us and Trowa took his motorcycle in the opposite direction just as we were leaving. Wufei refused to ride in a car Duo was driving so he was behind the wheel. But he also refused to let Duo sit behind him so I was in the back while Duo was in the passenger seat. Maybe that helped to them not noticing I was distracted. Whatever was being hidden from me didn’t seem to be coming from either of my two friends in the car with me. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t coming from Trowa or someone who wasn’t supposed to have been there. Or even Heero. If I had a strong enough connection to someone I could channel from much further away. True, I doubted I’d be able to pick up emotions from someone too far out of the house but maybe Heero hadn’t left as soon as I thought.

I shook my head. All this ceaseless speculation was only going to give me a headache. It wasn’t helping anything and I couldn’t go back and try and pinpoint who I had channeled. We pulled into the parking garage and I sighed, trying to push the sensation firmly to the back of my mind so that I could yet again focus on work.