Chapter 3

Quatre came into the living room in a good mood and paused when he saw the serious faces of his friends. "What is it?" he asked astonished.
Duo grabbed his arm and pulled him down onto the couch.

"We have to talk," he said seriously. "Is Sally coming to visit now?" flattest Quatre, he was in a better mood than he had been for a long time, so he hardly noticed how Duo looked at him almost sadly.

"No," said the long-haired boy, now the blond Arab looked at him in surprise. “What do you have?” Duo pulled the smaller one onto his lap.

Quatre looked at him puzzled, he hadn't expected that at all.
Duo held an arm around his stomach and held him tightly on his lap.

The blonde was surprised, Duo had never made a secret of the fact that he was fond of him, but he had never taken him on his lap. Not that he minded, he felt very comfortable on Duo's lap, but the behavior of the other seemed very suspect to him."So what is it now?" asked the blond Arab and looked around expectantly.

"We're worried about you," Heero fell into the house with the door, the American rolled his eyes. 'Very sensitive Heero ... really ... like the elephant in a china shop!'

Quatre smiled: "But why? I'm fine". He was serious, that day it felt like he would never have to do it again. But to his surprise Heero shook his head, and neither Wufei nor Trowa say as if they believed him.

"Today yes. But what about tomorrow?" Duo asked softly behind him. “How?” Quatre didn't understand anything anymore, but deep down there was a well-known panic that he had been discovered.
Heero and Trowa glanced at each other, Wufei looked at the floor. The blond's panic increased, he would have liked to sink into the ground, but that was probably impossible.

'Suddenly everything makes sense,' thought the little Arab, startled, 'Duo is holding me here, I can't run away,' he tried to get up, but Duo wouldn't allow that, as Quatre had expected.'Take it easy, we don't want to hurt you,' said Duo, but, against his words, tightened his grip on Quatre's stomach.

He tried to calm himself down with great effort: 'Maybe you don't mean that, but have drawn the wrong conclusions ...' Even if, deep down, he knew that it would come out one day, he hoped, it wouldn't be now.

"Hilde was only here because we asked her to," Heero explained. "We thought we'd find out what's wrong with you," added Trowa. "By sleeping with one of us," Heero explained to Quatre's questioning look.

"And have you been successful?" asked the little one, smiling nervously. Heero just nodded, it was the answer the Arab feared most. "And what?" his voice was just a croak, he was afraid that the others would despise him and the crazy hope that she had drawn the wrong conclusions.

Instead of answering, Trowa got up and pulled up Quatre's shirt sleeves.The young man instinctively wanted to pull his arm away, but the other wouldn't let that happen. He turned his arm so that you could see the wrists, now the younger man's tears were running down his face.

One could clearly see the thin lines, witnesses of his actions. 'There is no point in denying it,' he thought, but tried anyway. "That was just a minor accident, I wasn't paying attention-" "I think you were paying attention very well," Heero said dryly with a look at the scars. “But-“ Don't lie to us! ”Demanded Duo sharply behind him.

Quatre winced, startled, he said nothing more. "We know that you did that yourself," explained the American behind him and carefully stroked his head with one hand. More and more tears ran down Quatre's face, 'Great, now I'm not only a coward, but also a crybaby,' he thought desperately, 'Now they will despise me all the more.

"We don't want to judge or punish you for it," Heero knelt in front of him and looked into his eyes, Quatre sniffed softly."We just want to help you," added Trowa. Quatre looked at the two in front of him in disbelief, he had expected everything that Heero would yell at him, that they would despise him, but not that they would say such a thing.

Quatre edged both of them well enough to know that they only say something like that if they mean it.

"But you despise me-" "No buts, we don't despise you for it, and now stop crying, there is no reason for that," growled the Chinese and handed the more than just perplexed Arab a handkerchief. However, he promptly dropped it, he was not used to such words from Wufei.

He looked astonished at the black-haired man who picked up the handkerchief and pressed it into his hand. Above all, he had thought of Wufei that he would despise him because of his obvious weakness.
But that wasn't the case. Quatre took the handkerchief and blew his nose. "You are nice," he sniffed. An embarrassed silence was the answer. Duo stroked his head."Well, the gentlemen in front of us can't handle that," said the long-haired boy with a grin.

"And what's next?" Quatre finally asked after a while. "Well ... they always say that talking helps, doesn't it?" Heero asked hesitantly, Quatre just looked at him with wide eyes. "And it would be a start ..." added the Japanese and twisted under Quatre's increasingly incredulous look.

"They say that only right therapies help, but I don't think you want to go there," said Duo, Quatre nodded vigorously. "I'm NOT going to a shrink like that!" he determined with certainty.
"Take it easy, we don't want to force you to do anything", Duo soothes him, "But maybe we can work together so that you can let it go", Quatre looked sadly at the floor.

"Or do we say reduce to a minimum?" suggested Trowa, Quatre reluctantly nodded, he didn't really think he could ever let it go completely, but Trowa's suggestion sounded good.If he talked to someone, then maybe it would be easier and he wouldn't have to do it as often.

"That would be a good goal," he said quietly.
Duo held him tight and kissed him on the cheek, the complexion of the Arab changing from pale to fire red. "Duo!" he scolded softly, the addressee grinned: “What?” Quatre preferred not to answer, he didn't want to become any redder, insofar as that was possible.
"So, if you have something on your mind, just come to one of us," said Duo smiling, Quatre nodded well, then something occurred to him: "Really to EVERYONE?"

"Yes", Trowa replied curtly and smiled at the younger one, who looked at him somewhat incredulously. Wufei also nodded: "Whenever you have something on my mind, I like to listen and don't keep talking in between," he added with a slight grin. "WUFEI!" Duo hissed angrily, he was slowly not finding these constant allusions funny anymore, but Wufei was not impressed by an angry duo, to their chagrin.Quatre looked at Heero, who forced a smile: "The same goes for me", Qautre's eyes grew to the size of a plate, he knew that Heero must have had to overcome a lot to allow something like that. But also from the others it was a proof of friendship that Quatre would never have expected.

"Thanks!" said the little Arab and smiled happily at everyone.
Following a sudden impulse, he jumped up and hugged each of them individually, as the last duo for whom the whole thing took a little longer.
"You are the best friends one can have," said Quatre, while he pressed himself against Duo's chest, so at least nobody could see that he was crying again, only this time with happiness.

END?!