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Duo dragged into the break room at the Preventers Headquarters and made a beeline for the coffee pot. He poured coffee into a freshly washed white mug and set it down right next to the coffee maker. He then took the pot over to the table and sat down.
Quatre winced as he watched Duo drink deeply from the carafe directly. Duo didn't seem to notice. Quatre discreetly pushed a stack of napkins towards Duo when he noticed some dribbling.
Duo set the carafe (now half empty) down and laid his head down on the table.
Quatre coughed politely.
Duo didn't lift his head.
"Er... you seem a bit tired today, Duo. Is everything all right?" Quatre reached forward gingerly for the carafe.
Duo snatched it back and held it close with a slightly hunted look.
Quatre tried to smile.
Duo laid his head back down. "I'm exhausted. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in a whole MONTH. Not since I moved in with Heero."
"OH, I see." Quatre giggled and covered his mouth politely. "Maybe you two should... confine your amorous activities to day time hours?"
Duo looked up. "Oh I WISH. That's not the problem. The problem is sleeping with him."
Quatre blinked. "I'm afraid I don't quite follow."
Duo took another long drink from the coffee pot and looked tiredly at Quatre. "It's not the mad-monkey-sex kind of sleeping, it's the head-on-pillow-off-to-dreamland kind of sleeping that I'm having the problem with. Have you ever seen Heero sleep?" Duo said with a desperate look edging his weariness. "It's like sleeping with a twitchy grenade launcher! He wakes up at every tiny little sound or any time I move. And when he wakes up he SNAPS into over-alert mode and he has to take stock of the surroundings." Duo sighed. "I mean, I know... Perfect Soldier and all that... but for the love of Cheese and All That is Holy, I can't get any sleep with him going off like that every five minutes! I'm getting so sleep deprived even I'm not interested in sex."
"Oh... dear." Quatre said.
///
"Yuy, Wake up!" Wufei snapped a plastic bound sheaf of reports onto Heero's desk.
"I am awake, Chang." Heero said irritably.
"Your eyes are open but you're not hearing a word I say. What the hell is wrong with you. You look like shit." Wufei said folding his arms.
Heero glared at Wufei.
Wufei met him, glare for glare.
Heero relented. "I'm not getting very good sleep."
Wufei rolled his eyes. "Maxwell keeping you up nights?"
"Hn."
"I would think that you, of all people, would better know how to prioritize. Letting his sex drive get in the way of-"
"That's not it." Heero said firmly.
Wufei arched an eyebrow.
"I have no problem with my priorities." He shifted a little bit uncomfortably. "Duo is a restless sleeper." Heero looked up at Wufei daring him to make a remark.
"And he's keeping you awake?"
Heero nodded. "He sprawls everywhere and kicks in his sleep. I'm this close to duct taping him in one place."
Wufei snickered.
Heero glared at him. Again.
"It can't be that bad-" Wufei paused and thought about Duo. Never mind. It could very well be that bad. "Maybe you could drug him..."
Heero gave Wufei a Look.
"Well you've got to do something about it. It's impacting your work." Wufei said.
"I can manage just fine, Chang." Heero said dangerously.
"Well. Good." Wufei suddenly remembered some memos that desperately needed filing and so he got up and beat a hasty retreat.
///
"What about Yoga?" Quatre offered as Duo dragged along behind the grocery cart. Duo had said that he had to buy more coffee, eggs, milk, and bread, and Quatre hadn't been entirely convinced that Duo would make it alone. So he had offered to drive.
Duo snorted. "Can you imagine Heero doing Yoga?"
Quatre paused. "I see your point. Do you get the Kona coffee or the Fair Trade?" He held up two bags of freshly ground coffee for Duo's inspection.
Duo raised an eyebrow. "Us plebes buy Folgers. Best part of waking up. Excepting that there's no waking up if you never get to sleep."
Quatre laughed nervously and put the expensive coffee back. "They're all out of Folgers." He picked up a large canister of Maxwell House (Duo still insisted it was named after him) and put it in the cart.
"So long as it's got caffiene. Grab three more, will ya, Q-man."
Quatre raised an eyebrow. "Just how much coffee are you drinking these days?"
"Not enough." Duo grumbled. He pushed the cart onwards.
"What about meditation?" Quatre picked up a bran cereal.
Duo put the cereal back on the shelf and picked up three boxes of Cap'n Crunch. "He already does kinda meditate. But I don't think that helps. I don't think he's physically capable of relaxing. I dunno, maybe there's too much iron in his diet. How much iron is in that healthy crap anyway?"
Quatre smiled through a look of pain. "I kind of don't think the iron in his diet has much to do with it."
"Crap, maybe it's genetics. Am I doomed to never sleep another night?" Duo wailed dramatically.
Quatre smiled desperately at the old ladies who had started staring at them. Quatre gave them his best 'nothing-is-wrong-he's-just-like-this-please-go-away' look. "Duo, I really can only think of one other thing to recommend."
"I can't DRUG him, Quatre!" Duo said appalled.
"WHAT? I wasn't-" Quatre gave Duo his best reproving look. "I think the only thing for it, is that you need to communicate better with each other. It sounds like there's more to this. I mean, really, when was the last time either of you had a serious relationship? Co-habitation can be challenging to adjust to. Even when you care deeply about your partner."
Duo looked at him as though he had grown extra limbs from his ears. "What? You wanna repeat that in English?"
Quatre sighed with exasperation. "I think you two need a marriage counselor. Now I have the number of a lovely-"
"A WHAT?!" Duo threw his arms up and knocked over a display of canned pears.
Quatre sighed.
///
There was a knock on Heero's office door.
"Come." Heero said closing a file folder.
It was Sally at the door. "Good afternoon, Yuy. May I come in?"
Heero stood. "Please." He indicated a chair. "What can I do for you, Po?"
"I was talking with Chang earlier and he mentioned that you were having some difficulties." She said delicately.
Heero narrowed his eyes. He made a mental note to deal stringently with Wufei later. "It's nothing of consequence. Is there something I can help you with?"
"I'm just a friend expressing concern. I have a bit of experience with adjusting to new relationships. It can be tough. The best thing-"
"I appreciate your concern. But I can handle my personal problems. Thank you." Heero said firmly.
"-is to discuss these problems with your partner. Healthy relationships require a good deal of communication and trust. You might both benefit-"
"I said, Thank You. If there's nothing else-" Heero insisted. His eye twitched a little.
"-from some professional help. I know an excellent couples therapist who works near here. I took the liberty of calling the office and they are taking new patients."
Heero had definitely developed a twitch. He gritted his teeth.
She handed Heero a small business card. "Call the number there. Ask for Dr. Dieterich."
Heero snatched the card. "Yes, thank you. Good bye." He shoved Sally out his office door and closed it behind her. He leaned against it and on impulse locked it. He put a hand to his head, rubbing his temples, and glared down at the little card in his hand.
///
Quatre sat at his desk typing up reports and listening to Vivaldi. It was nearly time for his morning cup of tea. He was about to get up when Duo stumbled through his door. It had been a few weeks since he'd taken Duo grocery shopping. Duo looked much worse for wear. He had dark circles under his eyes and his face looked drawn. "My God, Duo, you look like death!" He pulled over a chair for Duo to sink dramatically into.
"Quatre... do you still have that number?" Duo asked.
"Of course I do. Let me get it." Quatre flipped open his immaculately organized Roladex and copied down the number for Duo. "Now just give them a call and ask for-" Quatre stopped.
Duo was lightly snoring with his head fallen back over the chair.
Quatre carefully turned off his music and pulled another chair over and carefully propped up Duo's feet. He turned down the lights in his office. He shut the lid on his laptop and grabbed some papers and then crept out of his office. He could work elsewhere. Duo needed the sleep.
///
Heero caught himself sleeping at his desk. His head snapped back up. This was bad. The Perfect Soldier never fell asleep at his post! He prided himself on his alertness.
Of course, the Perfect Soldier had never had a desk job that required things like memos and staff meetings before either. Or a boyfriend, let alone one that tossed and turned all night.
Heero put his head down on his desk, resting his forehead on his desk blotter. He was so tired.
He glanced sideways at his calendar. That business card from Sally was paper clipped to a page. He started reaching for it...
///
Trowa met Quatre for lunch at a little cafe near the office. Trowa worked with a physical therapy group downtown. He found it fulfilling and it kept him in great shape. He made his way carefully through the crowd to a large table where Quatre had set up shop. Laptop, file folders, and empty tea cups littered the table. He took the empty seat next to Quatre. "Working from the cafe today?" Trowa asked.
"Yes." Quatre said with a patient look. "Well, you see, Duo fell asleep in my office and I didn't have the heart to wake him. So I just picked up and moved."
Trowa raised an questioning eyebrow.
"He hasn't been sleeping well since he and Heero moved in together. And he says it's not about the sex, it's the fact that Heero is as twitchy as a hand grenade, always jumping up at every sound. And I can only imagine Heero has the same trouble. I remember bunking with Duo during missions in the war, he is SUCH a restless sleeper. So I've been trying to get them to go and talk to a couples therapist or something because I'm just sure that they need to improve their communication skills and really talk about their-"
"How big is their bed?" Trowa interrupted.
"Huh?"
"How big is the bed that they sleep in?" Trowa asked again.
"Well, I don't know. I suppose a big one. I mean that's what they'd have gotten, right?" Quatre said.
"I'll bet they never bought a big one and they're sharing an old twin bed. That'd make it hard to sleep for anyone." Trowa picked up a menu to choose a sandwich.
Quatre blinked at him. They couldn't possibly... Then Quatre thought about the coffee. Cheap and economical. Maybe they were. "That's crazy." He looked over at Trowa who just shrugged.
Quatre picked up his phone and dialed. "Hello. IKEA? Yes. I'd like to order a King Sized Bed."
///
Quatre watched the coffee levels in the office break room very carefully. One morning when he went in for his tea there was still an entire full pot of coffee warming. He abandoned his tea mug and went straight to Duo's office.
Duo was chattering away on the phone to someone. His chair was leaned back and his feet were on his desk. He was absently crumbling memos (probably unread) into balls and tossing them into the corner by the door where he had mounted a basketball hoop over a recycling bin. He only made it through the hoop once every five or six tries. He waved energetically to Quatre and looked great. The dark circles were gone, the color was good in his cheeks and that old familiar spark was back in his eyes. He smiled wide enough that the top of his head should have fallen off.
All was right with the world again. Quatre smiled and sighed contentedly.