sweetestsurrender | { The AU meme }

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{ The AU meme }

Ever played out something and then later wondered "What if?" Ever wondered what it'd be like to play your character a different way, but didn't feel like making a full thing dedicated to it? Now's your chance to play it out!

Using RNG you'll roll 1-3 for the level of the change, and 1-6 for the change itself, or if you want, pick your own based on what you wanted to do.

1)  Small Change: The flap of a butterfly's wings can cause tsunami's on the other side of the world.

-1: "A minute too late"- What if you missed something by a minute, or more? You missed the big meeting, the girl, helping that person, all because you were too late, what happens next?
-2: "The nick of time"- Just like the first, only that instead of missing something you got, that if you got something you missed because you were either too late, or just messed up? Congratulations! Let's just hope it's what you really wanted.
-3: "A little too early"- One more, what if you showed up early? It's suppose to be a good thing, is it this time?
-4: "The other choice"- You had two choices, left or right, heads or tails, Coke or Pepsi, now you get to see what would have happened with the other choice.
-5: "Oops!"- You slipped up, and made a mistake. Is it bad, or a blessing in disguise?
-6: Wild card/Pick your own- Thought of a slight change that'd make all the difference, or had one you wanted to play? Here's your chance.

2)  Medium Change: Didn't really see that coming, did you?

-1: Turning point change- That one thing that would have turned things in your favor went against you, and vice versa. How will you handle this critical change?
-2: "A Razor's edge"- That one moment that could have went either way has gone the opposite way of before. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?
-3: Crossroads- You reached a point in your life where you had several choices before you, now's the time to go down another road and see where it leads.
-4: The Road less traveled- "Two roads diverged in the woods, and I took the one less traveled" Will it make all the difference?
-5: Interference- Something blocked you from getting something you were going for. What do you do once the moment is gone?
-6: Wild Card/Pick your own-Thought of a medium change that'd make all the difference, or had one you wanted to play? Here's your chance.

3)  Large Change: Why do all the people here have goatee's?

-1: Good/Evil- Use to be a good guy? Welcome to the dark side, here's your cookie. Former bad guy? Hand over the cookie tray and join the side of good. How will the change of moral compass change you?
-2: A different person- You're now a completely different person, literally. Are you taller? Shorter? A robot? A pony? Powers? No powers? Your call.
-3: The other sex- Rule!63 is in effect. Now how does this effect your relationships with the other?
-4: A change in history- Something that happened in the past now has completely change or is now gone. One domino toppling the rest. Now that you've changed your past, how will it effect your future?
-5: Giving up- You walked away from something important to you? Do you regret it? Are you happy?
-6: Wild Card/Pick your own- Thought of a large change that'd make all the difference, or had one you wanted to play? Here's your chance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Duo laughed at that. It was a good point. Who liked being held at sword point, really? But he couldn't imagine Wufei's people being happy with the way things turned out for her. Or any potential husband liking that she was a soldier. Which was a shame. She was strong, capable, resourceful... Anyone would be lucky to have her. Or him. Either one of them.

He shook his head at the question.

"Nothing serious." He looked down at himself and lifted his arm slowly to show off the crease along his ribs where a bullet had grazed him but hadn't penetrated. "... Getting old. Not as quick on my feet I guess?" or he'd just been desperate and hadn't paid attention to anything that had happened to him so he could get to Wufei.

She hummed softly as she looked at the graze wound. "I'll put some ointment on it," she decided, bringing the ointment back over, and some bandages. "Little sting," she warned, and smeared it across the wound as gently as she could. "I suppose it's both of us starting to lose our edge a little. Maybe we should work out together after you're healed up. It'd be nice to be able to do sprints without a binder on."

She had no idea how much worse it would be to go braless while sprinting. None at all.

He hissed softly. There was no numbing agent on his ribs so the 'little sting' was a dirty, rotten lie. But he was grateful for the help so he didn't protest nor pull away. He just held still and waited for her to finish. Her fingers were gentle, even if she was actively causing him pain.

"Heh, so your idea of training is sprints? C'mon, Wu. There are better ways to keep fit." Running hadn't been the problem. Avoiding bullets had been. "... So are you actually gonna tell me what happened? How they caught you? And if you're hurt?"

Well, at least she'd warned him about it, even if she'd been a bit generous with her estimation of how it'd hurt.

"We'll put you in chest compression and see how easy you think those sprints are," she replied, playfully smug as she taped some gauze down over the wound. The questions had her sighing though, cleaning off her hands with a shrug. "Some pretty nasty bruising, but no open wounds; A cracked rib at worst, but more likely just bruised. And they caught me through sheer numbers. Fifteen of them with improvised weapons in a tight alley." So her usual fighting techniques had been less effective, and they'd simply overwhelmed her with numbers. She shrugged again, sitting on the bed next to him.

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks!" He laughed, and once he was patched up enough, he half turned to face her once she sat down beside him. Even though she'd told him her status, he couldn't help giving her a once over, checking on how she held herself. Cracked ribs could have meant broken, but she didn't seem to be favouring any particular side so Duo nodded, satisfied he was being told the truth.

"I'm glad things weren't worse." He'd worried. Remembering his own time being captured, the enemy had spent a great deal of time and joy in making him as miserable as possible. Duo was glad Wufei had been able to avoid most of that. "And thanks for helping patch me up."

"Me, too," she admitted softly, blushing a little when he looked at her even though she was well aware of the intent behind it. "I was worried; They'd worked out that I'm female, but I guess the number of teeth I kicked out in that alley was sufficient deterrent." Along with the mess that had quickly developed.

"So, movies and chocolate and whatever that heavenly smell coming from the oven is? Or were you planning to turn in early tonight and rest up for the morning's flight?"

"Shit, the food...!" Duo jumped up to his feet and moved across the room to grab a shirt. He eased himself into it, pulled out his braid from the back and then grinned over at Wufei.

"I'm starving. And I'm guessin those bastards didn't give you the five star treatment so you've gotta be hungry too. So c'mon." He gestured to the door even as he started walking toward it. Duo had planned to shower, but he'd get a quick wash before bed instead. For now, food was the more important thing. "You wanna see if you can find something decent on tv for us?"

She laughed as he got up, lifting a brow as Duo looked back at her and met his grin with one of her own.

"I'm going to leave them a scathingly bad review," she agreed. "The food was especially awful." She slid off of the bed and followed him out and down to the main floor. "I'll see what I can find," she promised, grabbing a glass from a cupboard and getting herself some water before heading to the sofa, settling on the sofa and grabbing the remote to start channel surfing.

"Think you're good, I've a feeling that place'll be closing down real soon." Duo may have been a little heavy handed when he'd broken in. Stealth would have been his preferred method of getting inside and getting Wufei, but stealth hadn't been a viable option. So he'd gone in obnoxious. He'd poked the ants nest and then proceeded to light the whole thing on fire. He wished he could feel regret about that, but for their taking Wufei, Duo had no mercy.

Duo followed Wufei down and into the kitchen. "I'll be through soon as I'm done here." He promised and watched her leave for the sofa before he busied himself with the food.

The meals were just slightly overcooked, not burnt but crispy. Luckily Duo didn't mind that, they still smelled and looked so good. He got plates together and dished out the food. Simple pasta dishes in sauce, which Duo sprinkled a little grated cheese on top. A couple rolls were added to plates as well. Before picking up the plates, Duo grabbed two bottles of soda and shoved them under his arms and then carried the plates into the sitting room.

"Here we go. Hope you like pasta? It was the best they had."

She'd been glad for it, not just because it meant she was rescued, but because there was a pretty good chance no one who had learned her secret had escaped alive. It just made things a little less complicated, and she couldn't complain about that.

When he joined her in the living room, she'd finally settled on a little local channel with sitcom reruns that would probably also show the news later. "At this point I would even be willing to eat Quatre's cooking," she replied with a chuckle, accepting the pasta and giving it a sniff with an appreciative hum. "It smells delightful."

So she settled in to eat it, making short work of her portion before slouching in the sofa with a long, contented sigh. Things were working out better than she'd expected them to.

"I'm a better cook than him at least." He laughed. "But these are just pre-cooked meals. They should be good enough?" Duo almost regretted not making an actual home cooked meal and relying on convivence instead. But if Wufei was happy with it then it was fine.

He offered her one of the bottles of soda before he dropped himself down at the other end of the sofa and also settled down. The meal wasn't too bad. The stress of the day was ebbing away and it wasn't long until Duo had began to doze off.

The following morning was a bit of a blur. Duo had woken early to clear away the dishes and things he'd bought the day before as well as getting that shower he'd missed out on yesterday. He'd been careful of his arm but he'd managed to get rid of the worst of he filth. Soon enough he and Wufei were back in the car and heading to the space port where a small, non-descript and somewhat run down little shuttle was waiting for them. Duo waved Wufei inside while he dealt with his contact. The shuttle would get them to Earth in one piece and that was good enough for Duo.

"Right, we're ready to go. Buckle up, Wu." Duo entered he cockpit and slid into the pilots seat before buckling up himself. A quick grin and Duo pushed Wufei to the back of his mind as he prepped for flight and waited for clearance to take off.

Wufei must've liked it because she polished the whole thing off -- and even drank the soda, too. When Duo fell asleep, she tucked a blanket over him and went up to one of the beds to sleep, lest he feel weird about things in the morning. Her secret being out changed things, certainly, but she wanted to try to keep them as close to normal as she could.

The next morning was a blur for her, too. Dealing with a little bit of a mess first thing, then sewing the binder a little tighter with some leftover sutures from the day before, and wiggling her way into it.

She headed into the shuttle ahead of Duo when they reached the space port and was already midway through the takeoff checklist from the copilot's seat when Duo entered, flashing him a smile. "Already done, Captain," she replied lightly.

Wufei got a low laugh at that, and was pleased to find that Wufei had gone ahead to get things ready. He glanced to the side and gave a little gesture for Wufei to continue. He'd handle the rest.

Within ten minutes they got their clearance. Prep finished it was time for take off. Duo always kind of loved and hated this part. It was a thrill but there was always that little fear that the shuttle was going to shake itself apart as it struggled to escape the atmosphere. It was smoother when already in space though. One moment they were waiting to go and the next they were off and Duo's hands were moving, correcting their trajectory to the course he'd plotted for them.

Wufei nodded, and finished going through the checklist, announcing items and checking them off as they went, and by the time they had clearance they were ready to go.

It was always a little weird, when the shuttle slipped out of the gravity well of the colony and inertia gave way to microgravity. They were off, on the short trip around the moon and back home to Earth. "So, are you going to stay long once we get soil-side, or head right back?"

Once the course was plotted and they were in their way there wasn't much to do except sit back and wait. So he smiled over at Wufei when the question was asked of him and gave a thoughtful hum before replying. "I'll probably stick around a while. Let the heat die down before I go back. What about you?"

"I'm going to be crushed under a mountain of paperwork for the next week or so," she replied with a sigh. "I'd estimate at least three hundred forms, in triplicate. Most of which are redundant, but bureaucracy loves nothing more than wasting time." Even with most of the forms being electronic, and having perfected her copy and paste skills, it was going to take her at least sixty hours to fill everything out, and that was only because they'd not interrogated her. That would've tripled the amount of work. "We should go get drinks on Friday," she suggested. "I'm going to need to get good and drunk by then," and since Duo knew her secret, there was no need to worry about accidentally outing herself.

"If I could help..." He laughed. If he could help bed probably find some way to get out of it. He'd always hated paperwork and thought it was a colossal waste of time and energy that could be spent doing other things. Important things.

"But drinks I can do." which meant he had to stick around till at least Saturday, well Sunday, Saturday would be earmarked for nursing an epic hangover from Friday night. "In fact I know just the place. You'll love it." or hate it. But one thing was for sure, they wouldn't care who or what Wufei was.

Wufei snorted at the idea of Duo helping, imagining him attempting to hack the mainframe that Heero himself maintained the security on. "You'd probably have to blow the whole building just to take the servers down," she replied lightly.

Hearing that Duo knew just the place had her smiling, and she nodded in agreement, relaxing in her seat and stretching her legs out. "Drinks, socializing like a normal person," without being terrified of her binder breaking, or someone noticing that she was a little too curvy in all the wrong places. There was a reason she was about as friendly as a cactus, and it was mostly a big, neon distraction from her little secret. "Sounds like something I've been putting off far too long."

"Just say the word and that can happen." Duo most definitely would, if Wufei wanted him to. Though he knew that would never happen. She was too good to let him do something like that. So it was easier to just go onto the next topic.

"Yanno..." He started, tone a little more delicate that Duo Maxwell was known for. "If you wanted to just be yourself, I'd be okay with that. I can almost guarantee you'd not see a single person who knows you."

She snorted softly at his first reply, smiling and shaking her head a little.

The second, though, had her lifting her brows, glancing over at him. "Yeah?" she asked. "I do own some dresses that rarely get to see the light of day," and wouldn't that be an experience? She wasn't terribly fond of dresses even when she'd been living as herself, but a few undercover operations had opened her to the possibilities. "How formal is the place we'll be going? I've got an evening gown, a sundress, and, well. Hooker attire. It was for a mission," even though she knew damn well he would have worked that out for himself almost immediately.

Duo just laughed at the idea of the bar he was thinking of being 'formal'.

"It's a spacer bar, Wufei. Jeans and a button down is about as formal as you'll get there." He laughed again, a slight pink tint to his cheeks. "No need for a hooker outfit or a ball gown. Just...come as you are. Casual. Yanno?"

"Casual I can do," she agreed lightly, and released her harness so she could get up. "I even own a pair of jeans. I hate them, and will not be wearing them, but they do exist," she teased as she headed into the back, almost certainly to use the bathroom. Assuming it was in decent shape.

"Think you'd look pretty good in jeans." Duo threw the comment over his shoulder with a grin, off hand and with a laugh in his voice. But it was a true comment. Then again, he was pretty sure Wufei would look good in anything. He just usually kept those comments to himself.

The bathroom was as basic as basic could be, but it was working so there wasn't much they could complain about there. At least they wouldn't have to deal with it for several, just several hours.

"I look much better in tights," she shot right back, relieved that Duo was back to joking around with her -- things had been weird and tense, but that little offhand remark told her that it wasn't going to destroy their friendship, even if it had been strained a little.

She took care of business, and mentally blessed Duo for buying a big box of the pads. At this rate she was going to use the whole thing up before her body decided to stop trying to kill her with anemia. She returned to the cockpit and lowered into her seat with a sigh, idly going through another systems check just to keep her hands and mind busy a little longer. "So how much did Une agree to pay you for this little field trip? Did I net you a sizeable bounty?" She said it in a playful tone, but she was genuinely curious just what dollar amount Une had put on her head.

Wufei would have headed to the bathroom to the sound of Duo's laughter. And when she returned, he was lazing in his seat, arms behind his head and eyes closed. A smile formed when he heard Wufei joining him in the cockpit and cracked a single eye open to peer over.

"Honestly? Nothing." Duo said with a shrug. "I don't need to get paid to help a friend out, Wu. And I definitely don't need to be paid when it's saving you from a dangerous situation. And if she tries to force it..." He shrugged again. "I'll just give it to a charity or something. I don't... Don't think I did this for money, yeah? I didn't."

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