Quatre Winner\'s Diary

January: New Year, New Life

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Friday, Jan 31st

10:47 am

People assume that because I don\'t talk to my father all the time that we don\'t have a good relationship, but that\'s not true at all. My father loves me, very much, and not just because I\'m the heir to his empire. If that was all, then he\'d just be happy that I\'m working with him. No, he\'s really concerned about my happiness, but I digress.

So, my father called me into his office today, which he does occasionally, but today was special.

\"Quatre, I have something important to say to you,\" he said before I even got all the way through the door. Lena\'s brother was reclining in a chair by the window, which really confused me because usually when we have our father/son chats, it\'s just Dad and me. \"You know you\'ve been doing a wonderful job down in marketing right?\" My father was never one of those that played around when there was something important to say, which meant this wasn\'t a friendly chat.

\"I guess. I just try to do my best,\" I said sitting down in my usual chair.

\"Well, it\'s more than adequate, but it\'s now it\'s getting time for you to learn more about the executive branch of the business, considering that you\'ll be running the entire thing someday. And it\'s better to do sooner then later, in my opinion, so starting Monday, you\'ll be up here working with me.\" He smiled warmly, which told me that he was more than happy about this development. He\'d been saying that we needed to spend more father/son time, and he just found the easiest way to do it. \"Now, we\'ve already chosen your successor. Miss Dorothy Catalonia will be taking over your job downstairs. You said yourself that\'s \'s more than qualified to take over your position, so I\'m sure that she\'ll do a good job, maybe even fill your shoes. Do you having anything to say, Son?\"

\"Not really. This is a little shocking though. I didn\'t expect to start this so soon,\" I replied.

\"Well I have to retire someday, and I\'m hoping to do it before I become a grandfather,\" he smiled again.

\"But Iria is due in March,\" I replied.

\"Exactly. You can learn this in a month. I\'m more than confidant in your ability to do my job, Quatre. You\'re as tenacious as your mother. Now, there are some papers that you need to sign. Milliardo, would you mind taking Quatre to his temporary office to take care of the contracts?\"

\"It would be my pleasure, sir,\" he purred in that toe-curling baritone. \"Quatre, if you please,\" he stood up and motioned to the door. I stood and followed him down the hall. Milliardo is the head of the legal department, and generally my father\'s advisor. Of course, we never really ever called him by his first name, but his nickname Zechs. Just don\'t ask how he got it...it\'s a long story.

\"Well, that was a dirty trick,\" I play sulked. He chuckled slightly.

\"Seems one of your sister\'s mothers thought he was going to work himself into a early grave.\"

\"Which one?\" He thought this was a joke because he laughed again. \"No I\'m being serious. With twenty-nine sisters, sorting through the mothers is hell.\"

\"Must be murder at Christmas.\"

\"Actually they\'re all pretty easy to buy for, it\'s the sisters that make life hard. Most of them want outrageous things, like trips to Kyoto to sit in the hot springs or new cars, which Dad gets for them, but it leaves me completely in the dark. And now there\'s my brothers-in-law and soon nieces and nephews. You\'re lucky to only have Lena.\"

\"If you can call that lucky. Is she still chasing after that bodyguard?\"

\"She won\'t when she finds out he\'s gay and in love with Duo.\"

\"So I\'ve heard. Seems Heero\'s been getting relationship advice from my wife. Now he\'s asking what presents to get Duo. I heard he got a puppy.\"

\"And if he ever stops talking about it, that would be a miracle. Now, do you know who the puppy\'s from?\"

\"He drug Lucy to the pet store to get a collar or it, and spent an hour figuring out what color Duo would like the most. I\'ve never seen him fret so much over a boy before.\"

\"I\'ve never seen Duo so obsessed over a boy before. It\'ll be a perfect match.\"

\"If it ever gets to that point. Why in the world did he walk out on their date?\"

\"He still thought that Heero was a straight man who was an asshole to you\'re sister. If he\'s anything, Duo\'s loyal.\"

\"Well that loyalty may cost him the most important relationship of his life.\"

\"No, Lena\'s about to give up on Heero, she just doesn\'t know it yet. Give it a few weeks.\"

\"Well, here is your new office,\" he said motioning to open door on his left.
It\'s a little bit bigger than the one I have now, but it has the most amazing view. I can see half of Manhattan from up here. But that\'s not important now.

\"So what\'s the next present?\" I asked calmly.

\"I think he\'s sending flowers, but they can\'t seem to figure out what kind to send.\"

\"Oh, Duo loves daisies. He says they smile. Daisies and dandelions.\"

\"Dandelions?\"

\"Well, when you spend most of your childhood either on the streets or in someone else\'s house, you find comfort in the strangest things. The only constants throughout that whole mess were weeds. Dandelions became something that he could have everywhere. Even in the worst of homes.\"

\"It still amazes me that he could survive something like that and still be as well-adjusted as he is.\"

\"Duo\'s tenacious to a fault. But I suppose that Heero\'s already looking for dandelions. Dorothy bought him all of Hilde\'s albums last night.\"

\"I never thought about that before. I forget they\'re related most of the time. Funny, \'Dandelion Boy\' is one of Heero\'s favorite songs.\"

\"Wow, wait \'til he finds out it\'s about Duo.\"
So, my new office is really cool. And Dad let me tell Dorothy about her promotion, which went really well; she was so happy. And everything is going great, except for my love life, and that is fixable, especially after tonight. After the news we got today, well, it\'ll be a great way to celebrate.

3:11pm

I got to spend all day moving my personal effects upstairs, meaning lots of riding the elevator. Which could be fun unless you do it fifty times, but everything\'s up here now, and Duo has seen it and approved, of course, saying that he\'ll be spending all his free time up here basking in the executive glow. Besides he\'s really taken a liking to the leather seating. So when there\'s a lull downstairs, he\'ll be moving on up, so to speak.

That was getting a little annoying though. Duo kept singing the theme to the Jefferson\'s, over and over again. I finally got him to shut up by telling him what happened yesterday, which got a big laugh from the peanut gallery. I can\'t believe he laughed at my crisis. It was a really important thing too. Not your run of the mill problem, even though I\'ve had it before. Not everyone has this problem. I must be impotent.

And tonight\'s the party. Dad says he\'s going to announce his plans for retirement, which means I have to be more than well-dressed because I might have to make a speech. I basically have to drag my Armani suit out of the back of the closet and have it pressed. Of course this means I get to leave work early, which is a good thing and of course I\'m dragging Duo with me. His boss doesn\'t mind, seeing that I\'m going to be running the whole shindig within a month. I can\'t believe that yet. I\'m going to be a CEO at twenty-four. I bet I\'ll make a couple most eligible bachelor\'s lists before the year\'s out, unless I\'m not a bachelor by March, even though I\'m kind of not single now. I\'m not sure what I am now. I\'m confused. If I sleep with Dorothy, does that mean that we\'re in a relationship? Do I want to be in one with her? Am I writing too much today? What do I want to do?

12:36 am

So I just had the most disastrous night of my life. The party was fine. Everything went smoothly. Duo took Lena, which was pretty fun. Dorothy and Lena really got along with each other and spent time going to the bathroom together and just gossiping. Of course when Zechs came over with Lucy, it just got noisier then ever. Women together...if you\'re raised in a house full of girls, you just get used to it. The weirdest turn of the evening was when I ran into Trowa, who was there with his sister Cathy. Turns out his sister works in the accounting department, accounts receivable to be exact. She just joined right in with the gaggle of girls while \'us men\' talked. Trowa said that I looked nice though, and gave me the most beautiful smile. He looks good when he smiles. He looks good in a suit. He\'d look good in a potato sack.

So the whole night went well, until I took Dorothy home. I didn\'t have anything to drink either, but still well nothing happened. It\'s not that I didn\'t want to, but when you call out another name in the middle, and when that name happens to be a man\'s, well it kind of kills the mood a little. I didn\'t realize that I did it, until she stopped and looked at me.
\"What did you just say?\" she asked in shock a little. I looked at her puzzled of course because I had no idea what she was talking about. \"Did you just call out Trowa?\"

\"No. Why would I do that?\"

\"You did, didn\'t you?\" She started smiling.

\"I have no idea.\" I think I actually did, which just makes me even more confused. That means I wasn\'t thinking about her, but him and with the raging hard on I had...well it just doesn\'t make sense. Well didn\'t make sense, and really still doesn\'t. I just don\'t get it.

So we stopped, leaving us both unsatisfied, and talked, but she wanted to cuddle and I just didn\'t feel comfortable. In fact, I felt terrible. It was my fault for ruining the evening and getting her hopes up and everything. So I told her I had to go. I had to get out. Basically, she laughed at me because I felt guilty and told me that she was just using me to let everyone think shept hpt her way to the promotion, doing all this while I pulled my clothes back on mind you.

\"Your father told me that I was next in line at the New Year\'s party, and that before the year was up, I\'d have your job. I didn\'t want people to think that I was really all that capable, because intelligent women just don\'t get men. Besides, I knew that you weren\'t interested in me, mostly because I\'m a woman. I\'ve got better gaydar then the biggest torch.\"

\"But I\'m not gay.\" Why did everyone think I was?

\"Denial is a sad place to be, Quatre. By the way, can we let everyone think that we fucked? It just works into my image better.\"

\"No. I\'ve never had sex in my life Dorothy, so I\'m not going to let my virginity be taken without experiencing the act. Even if it\'s only fictitious.\"

\"Wow, you\'re worse off then I thought. With all those girls coming and going, everyone just assumed that you were either gay or quite the ladies\' man. Most assumed that you were just a player. But don\'t worry, your secret\'s safe with me. And I\'ll tell everyone at the water cooler that you turned me down on the basis of professionalism. Give a speech about the evil of interoffice relationships. It\'ll look good, make you look real good in all their eyes.\"

\"Thank you.\"

\"Oh, and we are still friends. We still have Operation Cupid to pull off.\" In all the wallowing, I almost forgot to tell her.

\"Oh, dandelions.\"

\"What about dandelions?\"

\"His favorite flower, that and daisies. But he likes dandelions better.\"

\"Huh, \'Dandelion Boy\' is he?\"

\"Uh-huh.\"

\"And you do have good taste. Trowa\'s quite a catch, and he seems to like you too.\"

\"But I\'m not gay.\"

\"You just keep telling yourself that, darling. Maybe you\'ll even believe it.\"
Pretty much after that, I left. Now I\'m home alone with nothing better to do then spill my guts out to a book. I think I need a hug. Or maybe a human to talk to. Duo may still be up. Wufei might be awake, but Lena is definitely asleep. Definitely.

12:45 am

Duo wasn\'t awake, but he\'s coming over. Mostly because I burst into tears when he asked me what was wrong. I don\'t know what\'s wrong, but I just need a friend. Someone to tell me it\'s all okay. Duo\'s good at that. Wufei\'s good when you want something to puzzle over or to help you think things through, but Duo\'s the one to call when you need a hug. Nothing\'s better then a great big Duo hug.