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

"So from the Chinese side we get money. From everyone else they can give us stuff for home. Works out great." Duo had already closed his eyes but opened them a crack at that sleepy voice.

"Most of his beds are like this. Lucky bastard. We'll steal one when we leave... Or at least pillows." Maybe he could get Wufei to shove a few up her dress and pretend that in the week they'd been there she'd gotten heavily pregnant and oh look at that, time to go home! It could work. Maybe. So long as Quatre wasn't one of those people who liked to touch baby bumps.

She laughed warmly. "That sounds like a perfect plan. We'll have to tell them the date of the wedding, and they might send a few cousins to help with some of the traditions, but I think that's well worth it." She didn't have anything against her extended family -- just the elders, because they wanted to meddle in her life. The rest of her family were mostly just strangers to her.

A hand came up to cover her mouth as she yawned. "Sleep," she decided, and nuzzled her pillow again. "Sleep and come up with a stealthy way to sneak this bed onto a plane," she teased, eyes already drooping.

"Leave it to me. I'll find a way..." Though probably not. Not even be had those kinds of skills. But those were thoughts for a future Duo to work out. Right now he wanted sleep. So he shuffled a little closer to Wufei, shoved an arm under the pillow and settled himself down to fall quickly asleep.

She hummed in agreement, and drifted off alongside him.

And for a while, everything was fine. Until she rolled over in her sleep, and pinned one of her arms beneath her. Her breathing picked up, and her legs started twitching as she slept, until a few moments later she let out a quiet whimper.

Duo was usually a light sleeper. But he'd let his guard down and slept deeper than he normally would. The sound of Wufei's distress was enough to filter through to rouse him. He blinked his eyes open, not sure just what it was that had woken him.

Until he heard Wufei's whimper and realised she'd kicked him in her sleep.

"Wufei?" Duo called out to her. He called again, but in the end knew he would have to reach out. So he did, a gentle hand to her shoulder to shake her awake. "Wufei, it's a dream. Wake up. C'mon, Wu. Come back to me."

She'd squirmed a little after he said her name, grimacing as she turned her face aside. The hand on her shoulder was enough to wake her, and have her recoiling from him as she gasped in a breath and swallowed a scream, rolling up onto her arms and knees -- and thank got the bed was so big, or she would've dumped herself onto the floor.

It took a minute, a few deep breaths, before the shaking subsided enough for her to widen her focus enough to shoot Duo an apologetic glance. "Did I hurt you?" Her voice was rough, almost like she really had screamed.

"No..." Not physically, but his heart ached seeing her like this. He was afraid to move though, just in case. So quietly he opened his arms and waited.

She relaxed when he replied, lowered to sit on her heels and take a few calming breaths, make sure the nightmare was fully banished before she went to him. Sank into his arms and pressed her face into his neck with another sigh. "I'm okay," she said softly. "Just haven't had a nightmare that vivid in a while."

He waited for her to be ready, aching to go to her but knowing that he couldn't. Not until she was ready. But as soon as she fell into his arms he wrapped her up and held onto her tight. One hand raised to cup the back of her head, stroking her hair slowly.

"What... What set you off?" he asked quietly. Afraid it was something he had said or done. If it was, at least he hoped it was something he could apologise for.

"Not sure," she admitted softly. "Some of it is talking about it for the first time, I'm sure. I must've pinned one of my arms beneath me, that's..." she cleared her throat. "That's the fastest way to give me a panic attack. Pin me on my back with my arms under me," she hadn't warned him about it yet because the odds of ending up like that even by accident were pretty slim.

Apparently less so when she was asleep.

To go from worry and fear to a cold, burning fury was something of a shock. He didn't have to ask why something like that would trigger a panic attack. Duo could imagine. And he hated it.

His arms tightened and he dropped them back down onto the bed, just holding her cradled to his chest.

"That will never happen again. Ever." He breathed. If he had to he'd have her sleep atop him for the rest of their lives. That way she could never ever end up on her back and pinned.

She moved with him, relaxing as she settled atop his chest and closed her eyes again. "I know," she replied softly. The only place Treize could get to her was in her nightmares.

But here? In Duo's arms? Her heart rate was almost back to normal already. "Guess I should've insisted on cuddling," but they'd both been so tired, she didn't want to ask anything more of him, and she hadn't even thought about the possibility of nightmares, it had been so long since she'd had one that bad.

Duo went still. He hadn't even thought about that. He'd been so tired he'd just fallen asleep. For a moment his arms tightened about her before they relaxed and he sighed softly.

"Guess it can't be helped then, huh? Gonna have to have you sleep in my arms every night." Duo heaved another heavy sigh, like a man with the world on his shoulders... And then grinned. "The things I do for a healthy marriage."

"At least for a while," she agreed, giving him a little squeeze and missing the grin entirely, but the sentiment made her smile. "Happy wife, happy life," she said, picking her head up so she could see him properly, and her smile warmed. "Thank you, for waking me." Before it had gotten even worse.

Duo moved his hand from her hair to lightly brush the backs of his fingers across her cheek when she lifted her head. His smile had softened. "Always will." if he was able. He didn't really care if she hurt him, he'd only been afraid of making the dream worse for her. The wrong touch in the wrong place, or the wrong word at the wrong time could make a dream like that so much worse. "I'm here for you, Wu. No matter what."

She leaned in to kiss him softly, letting out a quiet hum. "I'm beginning to learn that," she agreed. She knew it, of course, but she was starting to feel it down in her bones. He was very quickly becoming her safe place. "Before bed tonight we should sit down and talk about it a little, maybe figure out what the best way to wake me is if it happens again," she suggested, settling her head on his chest again. "I won't go into detail," that would be tempting fate, and too painful for them both, "but knowing what the dream is like might help," might inform where to touch, where not to touch.

That warmed him. She was coming around to the fact that Duo could be someone stable for her. Which flied in the face of the memory of when he was younger, which was mildly unstable and chaotic. Duo smiled when he was kissed, and then when her head fell back to his chest he returned his hand to softly stroking over her hair.

"If you don't think right before bed is a bad time, then yeah, we can talk about it." He might need a few extra drinks to mellow him out though, because he knew what he would hear would make him very angry. It was useless getting angry since that bastard was already dead, but he couldn't help it. The thought of Wufei being hurt like that drive him insane. He wished he'd been able to protect her back then. All he could do was his best to protect her from the memories now.

She hummed softly. "I'm going to have nightmares regardless, I think. Not as bad as that one, but... talking is supposed to help, maybe doing it before bed will work it out of my system for the evening." If nothing else it would tell them whether or not it was something to be avoided.

She smiled softly, running one of her hands up and down his side. "And besides," he said softly. "I'll be with you. I'll feel safe."

"Alright, we'll get a plan worked out. But I'm not letting you go tonight." There was no chance. Even if he had to stay awake the whole damn night he would do his best to keep those nightmares at bay.

The hand at his side caused him to give a quiet laugh, but it was nice. Duo didn't comment though, just smiled and let it happen. Whatever she was comfortable with he'd allow. "Yeah, you will. I won't let anything happen to you, Wufei."

"Okay," she replied softly, smiling as she relaxed atop him. "I don't think I've ever calmed down this fast before. S'nice," and she had no inclination to move until they were summoned. Or until nature called one of them a little too loudly.

She knew he could only offer her so much protection -- they were only human, after all, and they were both capable warriors in their own right. The sentiment meant a great deal, regardless. "You should talk to Sally I'm sure she has a list of risky things she wishes I would stop doing, and a buffet of ways I could hurt myself doing them," she teased lightly.

Duo smiled at that. Bring able to help ground her was a pretty awesome thing in his opinion. So he kept on lightly stroking her hair and down her back, slow and gentle, with no intention of moving either.

"I know what you can handle. Sally is overprotective. I'm protective enough." He'd be there when she needed him or called for his help. And okay, maybe there would be times he'd have to force the issue because she was being stubborn, he could be the exact same way. "I know how strong you are."

She hummed happily, letting her eyes drift closed again. "Yeah, she is, but sometimes she's right. I'm very stubborn, you'll recall," she chuckled warmly, her hand still sliding up and down his side lazily. "I'm glad you still believe that. I worried, even though I know you better than that, I worried it would change the way you look at me, but it hasn't. Not in a bad way, anyway," she could feel his protective rage when the topic came up, and it was a balm to her soul.

"I know you're stubborn. Knew it from the start. Even more now. You'd have to be to have kept this all up for as long as you did." Duo was pretty sure he would have gotten frustrated after a while or just gone into hiding. Maybe actually faked his death and reincarnated himself anew.

"You really worried about that?" Duo raised a brow and looked down at her curiously. "I guess... Yeah. Okay I guess it's changed the way I look at you. But no, not in a bad way. I don't think you're weak. I'm in awe at how strong you are. Because now you're more you, y'know? Before I could always tell there was something you were hiding. But we all were. All hiding or running away from something. I'm just glad I get to meet the real you."

She smiled, chuckling a little when he agreed that she was stubborn, opening her eyes to look up at him. There was warmth there, like a cup of hot cocoa.

"Yeah, I was. I'm glad I didn't need to be." He still cared deeply for her, loved her, and it made her feel things that she didn't even have words for. "No more hiding, ever again," she promised him, eyes drifting closed again. "Unless it's in your arms."

"Don't mind you hidin in my arms. Not one little bit." He really liked it in fact. It felt a little strange when he let her go but he knew that was just him being silly.

"Think you can get more sleep?" he asked gently, pitching his voice low. "Think we've a an hour or two more."

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