"Duo, do me a favor. Better yet, do the entire earth sphere a favor," Heero said as he stared at his previously-white socks and underwear. They were now pink, the result of one of Duo’s pranks. He’d secretly thrown a red shirt into the washing machine when Heero was doing his laundry.
"What?" Duo asked, grinning and enjoying himself entirely too much.
"Don’t reproduce."
Duo snickered. "You’re gonna have to argue with Hilde about that. She wants kids if we get married."
"I’m sure she’ll understand. This place can’t handle more than one of you."
"Well, at least I’d be a good father." At Heero’s look, Duo merely shrugged. "Come on, Heero, admit it. You couldn’t see yourself walking around the house at two a.m. trying to get a screaming baby back to sleep."
Heero ignored this. Instead he said, "I hope you realize that mine weren’t the only clothes you dyed pink."
"What?"
Before Heero could answer, Wufei’s outraged voice could be heard. "MAXWELL!!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. "You’ll pay for this!"
"Eeep!" Duo squeaked, face suddenly pale. "Oh man, he’ll kill me!" He began squeezing himself under Heero’s bed. "Please don’t tell him I’m here."
"Why shouldn’t I?"
"Please, Heero, I’ll do anything," Duo said desperately. "I’ll give you money for new clothes. I’ll go out and buy them myself and present them to you on a white satin pillow. Just please don’t let him kill me!" He finished squeezing under the bed and pulled the sheet down to cover his face.
A door opened and slammed and Wufei could be heard stomping down the hall. Another door opened and slammed, closer to Heero’s room. Wufei stomped again and the door to Heero’s room flew open. "Where is that braided baka?!" he shouted.
"Probably hiding from both of us," Heero answered, nodding toward the pink clothes on his bed.
Wufei looked only slightly mollified. "If I find him, I’m going to cut off that damn braid and shove it down his throat."
"I have a better idea," Heero replied, a small smile crossing his face.
"Oh yeah? What?"
"If he likes pink so much, I’m sure we could oblige him..."
"Oblige him?"
"By painting the Deathscythe pink."
Wufei’s laughter drowned out the sound of Duo clapping a hand over his mouth to keep from making a noise and giving himself away. They couldn’t. They wouldn’t! He couldn’t go into battle with a pink mobile suit!
"I’ll contact Relena," Heero said as they left the room. "I’m sure she’ll know where to find a lot of pink paint."
"I bet the women would even like to help," Wufei said, put in a good mood by the prospect of getting back at Duo.
Duo eased out from under the bed. "Oh man, this did not turn out the way I wanted. Serves me right, I guess." He crept cautiously out of the room, in case Wufei was still around. The hallway was empty. Breathing a small sigh of relief, he bolted down the hall toward the mobile suit hangar. He had to get the Deathscythe away from here and hidden someplace. He wouldn’t let them disgrace his old buddy.
When Heero and Wufei got to the hangar, the Deathscythe was gone. Wufei scowled. "How did he know?"
"He was cowering under my bed," Heero replied. "Don’t worry, I know all the places he’d hide his gundam. It won’t take that long to find it."
Wufei smirked. "After this, he’ll never play another practical joke again."
"Don’t be too sure," Heero said, shrugging. "You know Duo. I’m sure he’ll get over it and continue making life miserable for the rest of us."
"He’d better not," Wufei said in a threatening tone of voice. "So where should we look for Duo’s gundam?"
"C’mon," Heero said, walking out of the hangar. "I know of a few places offhand..."
* * * * *
A few days later, Duo awoke in the morning to a suspiciously quiet house. He knew Quatre and Trowa were on a mission, so that took them out of the picture. Heero and Wufei weren’t noisy, but he should be able to hear the television or something. He padded out of his room in bare feet, absent-mindedly scratching his side. "Anybody here? Hello? Heero? Wufei?" Silence reigned in the kitchen and the den. "Where is everyone?" Duo wondered aloud. Then he froze, trying to convince himself that his sudden thought wasn’t possible. They couldn’t have found the Deathscythe, could they? He ran back to his room and threw on his clothes, not bothering to brush his hair before he ran back out and headed to the cavern where he had hidden his gundam.
The sound of voices reached his ears before he came within sight of the Deathscythe, and he dreaded looking around the corner. When he did, he slumped against the rock wall. It was already halfway done! "Are you sure we should be doing this?" he heard Relena ask.
"Who cares? This is fun!" Hilde replied.
"Oh, man," he muttered. "Even Hilde is helping?"
He trudged back to the house, more depressed than he’d ever been before. This was worse than when Deathscythe had gotten blown up. It was pink! They’d turned it into a girly suit! As he walked, he slowly cheered back up. By the time he reached the house, he’d come to a decision. They weren’t going to get the best of Duo Maxwell!
When the others returned, the found Duo on the couch watching TV. "Hey Duo, we got a surprise for ya!" Hilde said cheerfully.
"Oh yeah?" Duo asked, getting up. "What’s the surprise?"
"Come see for yourself," Wufei said, barely managing to contain a smirk.
Duo followed the others to the hangar. The lights were off. "What’s going on?"
"Close your eyes," Hilde said.
Duo obediently closed his eyes and let them lead him into the hangar. The lights came on and Hilde said, "Okay, open your eyes!"
Duo opened his eyes and examined the...the Pinkscythe. Well, it could have been worse, he thought. They could’ve done a bad paint job. "Hey, thanks guys, it looks great!" he said, grinning suddenly.
"What!" Wufei shouted, overpowering the more subdued exclamations of the others.
"Yeah, it’s just what I needed." Duo flopped into a chair near the control panel that operated the huge hangar doors. "After all," he added, putting his feet up on the console, grin still firmly in place as his pant legs slid up to reveal his own pink-dyed socks, "a guy’s gotta know how to accessorize!"
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