Five:
“Duo? Baby? Are you awake?”
In my hazy subconscious - where reality takes a backseat as great pleasure
fills ones senses - the sound of that voice is very foreign to me. For a
moment, my brain refuses to connect the sound to its owner as my body still aches
in a million and one places that Duo is yet to explore. I have already
conditioned myself to be oblivious to anything around us but with Duo pushing
himself away from me suddenly and with no warning whatsoever, I am hurled back
to reality quickly.
“Duo? Mommy’s home!”
Oh crap! Mrs. Maxwell!
I stagger and stumble to my feet, my hands tucking in my school shirt as fast
as I can get them too. Duo’s motioning for me to be silent and to make my way
back to the dining table. There will be no point in me hiding this time around.
I’ll just have to make the best of this situation and hope she’s in a good mood
tonight. Running fingers through my hair quickly, noticing that Duo’s now
buttoning up the plaid shirt as he makes his way towards the lobby to meet his
mother, I make myself comfortable on the chair and shove the textbooks in front
of my face. I have to steady my breathing and hope that I don’t look too
flushed. My heart is pounding so hard, I’m afraid Eleanor will hear it and put
two and two together to make a rather painful ten. With abated breath, I listen
in to their conversation.
“…are you doing back so early?”
A short silence and a soft kissing sound. I don’t need to see that she’s
embracing her son.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she says laughing softly. “The meeting went much quicker
than I had expected and I brought home…guess.”
“Ah…eh…pasta?”
She laughs again and this time their voices are coming even closer. I rise to
my feet and brace myself for the inevitable.
“Pasta indeed. Can’t you see the bag I’m holding? It’s going to be sushi
toni…oh my goodness!”
I guess I must have startled her for she takes a step back, her beautiful eyes
widening in surprise at the sight of me. I give her a polite bow and manage a
small smile in greeting.
“Good evening, Mrs. Maxwell.”
She opens and shuts her mouth for a moment and then turns to Duo as if asking
for some kind of explanation.
“Mom,” he begins with a warm smile, placing a hand upon her forearm gently.
“Heero stopped by to go over some notes I missed in school. You remember Heero,
don’t you?”
“How could I possibly forget?” she finally replies with a small nod in my
direction. “But honestly, honey, I wish you would have told me he was coming
over tonight. I would have brought more…”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Maxwell,” I say quickly. “I won’t be staying for very long
anyway. I’m almost done with Duo…the notes…for school that is.” Shit! I hope
I’m not blushing.
She eyes me for a moment longer and then turns to Duo again. Some sort of
silent conversation passes between them and finally her shoulders sag a little
in defeat. “Why don’t you stay for dinner with us, Heero?” she asks with as
bright a smile as she can muster, while holding up the large white bag with the
words ‘Morimoto Steak House’ on it. “We’re having your native specialty.
Sushi.”
“Well I…”
“It might not be enough seeing as Duo hadn’t told me you were coming over
tonight and…”
Oh man, why doesn’t she just tell me to go fuck off? “Really it’s okay, Mrs.
Maxwell. I’m stuffed as is.” I begin to close up the books, now getting a bit
pissed off at her obvious mistrust of me.
“Oh? Are you leaving so soon? I thought you were both going through some
notes?”
Yeah, right. Like you really want me here. I smile again, trying not to
shove the books too quickly into my bag. “As I said, Duo and I were all but
done.” I catch his gaze and dare him to force me to stay, but he seems to
understand the tension between us and only gives a small shrug.
“I’ll escort you home…” he offers.
“Don’t stay out too long,” Eleanor cuts in quickly. “You know the doctor said…”
“My back’s fine now, mom,” Duo says tightly. “I think I can at least walk down
the driveway without killing myself.”
Mother and son exchange another silent look between them and as usual, Duo wins
with a rather stern frown on his features. I groan inwardly at the brief but
icy look Eleanor throws at me before she makes her way into the kitchen. She
stops at the doorway and smiles at me – something akin to a genuine smile this
time around.
“Thank you for stopping by, Heero. Really, it’s nice to know that he has
friends that care.”
Not giving me a chance to give a decent response, she walks into the kitchen
and begins to run some water into a pot. This obviously means that she’s done
with me for the day. Shrugging on my backpack, I follow Duo out the door and
into the cool evening, almost sucking in a lungful of fresh air like a man
deprived of it.
“Whew…that was…”
“Sorry about all of that,” he mumbles, as he shuffles his feet. He stops at the
curb leading to the street knowing he can’t take another step. We both take a
look back and barely miss seeing the curtain to the kitchen closing quickly.
She’s obviously keeping tabs on us.
“Christ, I don’t know when and how she became such a pain in the ass.” He kicks
at a pebble on the ground and I absently watch it tumble down the asphalt.
“She’s only looking out for you,” I reply softly. “You wouldn’t want to know
how my mom would react if I introduced you to her as my boyfriend.”
“What would she do? Drown me in the lake and make it seem like an accident?” he
replies with a smirk and even I have to laugh at the image of my mother
whacking Duo over the head with a paddle and doing her best to drown him. We
both laugh quietly as if afraid to raise our voices any louder. It slowly
subsides to soft chuckles and then silence as we both realize that this is our
reality. Things aren’t always going to be so rosy and wonderful especially when
it comes to our relationship.
“Sometimes,” he begins slowly. “Sometimes I wish she had never returned, you
know?”
He looks at me and I stare back, understanding what he means. Yes, there have
been many nights when I’ve wished that Eleanor would disappear but I know that
we are both being selfish with our thoughts.
“At least you know you’re not alone in this world,” I say lamely, not really
sure of what to say anyway. “You have your mom now…” I would have said ‘Dad’ as
well but remembering Duo’s decision not to talk about it, I let it go.
“It would have been fine with only you in my life,” Duo says sending color
flooding to my cheeks. “I’ve been without her for almost fifteen years…why
should fifteen more be any different?”
“Duo…”
“But she’s here and there’s nothing I can do about it…unless I decide to commit
matricide.”
I gasp and stare into his eyes, wondering if he’s kidding or not but to my
chagrin, Duo has that enigmatic look within them again and I can’t tell if he’s
being serious or not.
“You wouldn’t,” I finally say with a light frown. He laughs and taps my nose gently
as if reprimanding a child.
“Of course not! My mom might be a pain in the ass, but she is my mother and a
rather cool one when she’s not being anal…”
“Duo? Can you come help me with something?”
“…like right now,” he finishes with a small smile. I can see Mrs. Maxwell’s
slender silhouette at the doorway and any chance of me stealing a goodnight
kiss from Duo is now out of the question. I reach out to squeeze his wrist
gently instead and our eyes do all that our lips cannot do or say.
“See you later,” I whisper. “And take care of those damn hands so you can come
back to school already.”
He winks and nods. “Will do, captain. Consider the healing process begun.”
I snicker and begin to make my way down the street, only turning back once to
wave at him. At least the day hadn’t been a total loss. I had spent some time
with Duo and enjoyed myself. Although, I can’t help but regret not having a
taste of Morimoto’s famous sushi. Those babies are expensive and I would have
done anything to have had just one little bite.
Fujisaki High School
Friday, 11.30am:
Due to my rather hectic schedule, I will now proceed to give you a quick
summary of the events that have led up to today. It’s a miracle I’m not
sprouting gray hairs at this point. I wonder how Zechs managed to pull it off
so effortlessly during his tenure.
The Week at a Glance:
Tuesday – Discovered I had failed to submit notes of first Council
meeting to the Principal and got reprimanded. Had a good long talk with Kenzo
about leaving my office door open to allow curious juniors and freshmen in.
Listened to him whine for ten minutes about certain disparities in the accounts
and had an impromptu meeting with a very cranky treasurer. She later apologized
and said she was going through PMS.
Wednesday – Finally managed to stop everyone from putting things at
Duo’s locker. Had to send two first years to detention for writing on school
property. Rescued yet another freshman from being harassed by some seniors and
for my efforts got threatened by the burly bastards with my life on the line.
Discovered that once pristine bathrooms on third floor had been converted into
a graffiti hell (as predicted). Had a talk with the clean-up crew about it and
as expected, they weren’t very happy about it.
Thursday – Drama and Art Club members filled my office all complaining
about the use of the auditorium for their meetings. Kenzo tried to step in to
bring some peace to the chaos, but was knocked out cold by some brawny Art Club
member. Finally threatened to give them all detention and to disband their
clubs if they didn’t get the hell out of my office…and had to take some aspirin
afterwards. Went to auto shop after school to check up on Duo’s bike. It’s
almost ready and should be sent to him tomorrow. Later on that night, the guys
came over to my place to keep me company. I think I fell asleep in the middle
of Wufei’s story about his new car. No wonder he keeps glaring at me even
though I’ve apologized over a million times already.
Friday, 11.37am
With Mr. Hamida gone for the day, I have no Biology class to attend and so I
decide to make a quick pit stop at the library to return some books I had
borrowed last week. I don’t assume you’d understand how empowering it is to
walk down the hallways, knowing that everyone looks at you with respect or fear
(from the freshmen mostly). It’s a bit hard to convince them that I don’t
bite…unless you provoke me. After all, I still like to see myself as an
easy-going guy – at least most of the time.
I do recall being afraid of the president of the Council when I was a freshman.
Tohru Akiko was quite the character – a staunch disciplinarian who ruled the
school with an iron grip. During his reign, he had managed to take Fujisaki to
all the major championships and had won many or at least come in second place.
It is a record that his predecessors are yet to beat. Hopefully, I can change
that during my reign. We have the Chess and Debate competitions in a week or
so. I have to get ready for them as well …
“Ooofff!”
Ah for crying out loud! Why can’t people watch where they are going?!
“Sorry….sorry sempai!” That voice.
I open my eyes and blink at the sight of the boy on his knees who’s doing his
best to pick up all the books that are scattered around him. A feeling of déjà
vu overwhelms me and I scratch my nose trying to remember where I have seen him
before.
“I’m really sorry,” he stutters weakly, now having the books in a neat but
rather high pile. How in the world had be managed to carry all of this without
killing himself? He finally lifts his head and all of a sudden, I remember
exactly who and where I have seen the clumsy kid before. Those green eyes are a
dead giveaway.
“You!”
He bows quickly, his face a bright beet red. “I’m sorry, sempai,” he gushes
again. “I wasn’t looking at where I was going and I didn’t mean to bump into
you…”
“Either you have really clumsy feet or you really need to lessen your load,
kid,” I mutter, reaching down to help pick up a few. “Where are you taking them
to?”
If his eyes could get any wider, I am sure they would have. He’s staring at me
as if I’m a creature from another planet and even I can’t help feeling a bit
uncomfortable at the intense scrutiny. “Well?” I snap impatiently and he
quickly lowers his head again in apology.
“I was just taking them back to the library…”
“Then let’s go,” I interrupt quickly, hardly having the time to wait for him to
gather his thoughts. I can hear him shuffling behind me and stealing a quick
glance over my shoulder, I notice that he’s still not looking up and is still
blushing. Man, what is up with him?
“I’m not frightening you know,” I say quietly as we climb up a flight of stairs
leading to the great room. “You can talk to me about any problems you might
have. That’s what I’m here for.”
“Ye…yes…”
I worry he might trip on a stair and crack his skull, but we manage to make it
into the room with no incidents. I smile softly at Mrs. Sawada behind the
counter and return the books to her.
“Ah, thank you Kamui,” she says with a warm smile as the boy places his pile of
books before her. “You’re doing a good job as a library assistant this week.”
Ah, so his name is Kamui – seems fitting somehow.
“Thank you, sempai,” he says with another bow and yet another thing is
confirmed. He’s obviously Asian or at least has his roots there, although he
hardly looks it. He’s blond for one thing and could almost be mistaken for
Quatre, if it wasn’t for his height and well…his clumsiness.
“It’s no problem,” I reply with a small smile, already eyeing the list in my
hand. I plan to get several text books for Duo when we meet later on today. We
have to go to the bike shop and then study for a while at the park.
“How…how is Duo sempai?”
I blink and then glance over my shoulder at Kamui, who seems to be following me
for some reason. His hands are clasped tightly before him and he still looks
flustered.
“Duo’s fine,” I reply. “He should be back to school sometime next week.” And
not a moment too soon, if you ask me.
“I’m…glad to hear that…I was very worried about him.”
I stiffen at the statement, wondering if this is yet another boy who has a
crush on Duo. Christ, they just never stop coming, do they? I stop before the
science books and read through the titles quickly.
What the…?
“Is there something you wanted, Kamui?” I ask impatiently, groaning inwardly as
a slightly worried look fills those green eyes. “Don’t you have a class next?”
I add in a more friendly tone.
“I was just…” He looks away and then seems to take a deep breath as if mustering
up the courage to do something. He faces me again and this time there is a
determined look in his eyes that has my cheeks reluctantly flaring with color.
For a brief instant he looks quite mature and different.
“Sempai!” he says firmly – a far cry from his stuttering earlier. He bows again
and then looks straight at me. “I like you, sempai!”
HUH?!
“And I would like to challenge Duo sempai for your affections!”
Please…somebody tell me this is a really bad stage production!
He smiles at me – a very cute smile to be honest and then reaches out for my
hand to place a gentle kiss on the back of it.
“I am also glad you liked the chocolates I sent to you,” he says, releasing my
numb hand slowly. “Thank you for the encouragement, sempai! I will do my best
to prove myself to you!”
He bows again and without another word, he’s gone. I lift the kissed hand
slowly as if wondering if he’s left any germs on it. I’m still in a daze –
everything had happened so fast, I wasn’t even sure it had even happened at
all! In fact, I do believe that it never happened to begin with. This is all
just a figment of my…
“I like you, sempai,” someone says in a very falsetto voice that sends my
cheeks flaring with embarrassment. It’s Trowa of all people as he steps away
from the next aisle to stand beside me. There’s a small smile on his face – a
knowing smile that has me scowling and ready to defend myself. How long has he
been spying on me?!
“It’s nothing,” I say quickly. “He’s just some delusional kid that thinks
he’s…”
“…in love with you,” Trowa finishes with a smirk. I have forgotten how ruthless
my friend can be. “I wonder what Duo’s going to think about this…”
”I didn’t even eat the damn chocolate…well only one, but that’s not the point!”
I hiss out desperately, noticing Mrs. Sawada eyeing us with a disapproving
stare. “What the hell does he mean by competing with Duo for my affections?! Is
he crazy?!”
“He didn’t look crazy to me,” Trowa says quietly as he runs his fingers along
the hard covers of the books on the shelf. “If anything, he looked quite
determined. Duo had better watch his back.”
“You’re not being serious…are you?”
“Aren’t you?” I try to maintain my glare, but Trowa’s right. There’s no way
Kamui had been joking. I’ll just have to find him and explain that it’s going
to be quite pointless to pursue me. I really do not want any more dramatic
encounters in my life.
“So what are you going to do?” he asks.
I frown and continue to search for the book I need. “Find him and talk to him
that’s what.” I nod in determination. “Someone’s got to straighten that kid
out.”
“And you’re just the one to do it,” Trowa adds and I wonder if he’s being
sarcastic or not. Fuck it all! If I have to hunt down that little twerp for the
rest of the day, then so be it. I’ll have to teach him a lesson in some way or
another.
Briscoe Park
4.35pm:
“Can you believe it?! I’m being serious, Duo so please stop laughing!”
But he’s making no attempt to do so. He tries to stifle his laughter within his
hand, but his amused depths are a dead giveaway.
“I’m sorry, Heero man…really I am…I mean it’s just that…competing…” He gives up
and falls on a bench, laughing even louder than before. My cheeks darken and in
retaliation, I punch him (not too hard) in the ribs, causing him to double up
in pain and yet…yes, more laughter.
“Glad I could entertain you,” I mumble as I open up my school bag to bring out
the books. “You wouldn’t be laughing when and if he wins.”
“Eh?” That gets his attention and he sits up to stare at me. He’s still smiling
though. “Are you serious, Heero? You really want us to fight over you?”
“Of course not! I don’t want you fighting with some twerp who thinks he can get
me to be his date…”
“Hmm, there is the older man younger man relationship thing that’s happening
these days…”
“Oh for fuck’s sake…”
“Or you could just go along with it for a while and then see if you want to
hang out with him or not…”
I raise my brow at eye him incredulously. He thinks it’s all a joke. Of course
he would. He hadn’t been there and hadn’t seen the determination in Kamui’s
eyes, so how could he understand that the freshman was being really serious
about his wooing of me?
“I tried to look for him in his class, but they told me he had gone home for
the day.”
“A delinquent,” Duo muses as he reaches into his pocket to bring out his pack
of cigarettes. His hands aren’t as heavily bandaged anymore and I’m glad to see
that. He says it still itches a little but otherwise the burns have pretty much
healed. “I definitely have my work cut out for me.” He winks and burns the tip
of the cancer stick.
“Stop messing around, Duo,” I groan, opening up ‘The East of Eden’ by John
Steinbeck. It’s our reading selection for my literature class and quite tedious
but all the same very interesting.
“Okay, okay,” he finally says as he picks up my Biology notes. “Time to get
serious.”
We remain silent for a while, either scribbling down notes or occasionally
seeking help (Duo mostly) when he came to a part he did not understand. An hour
went by easily and for a while I found myself lost in the story of the Hamilton
and Trask family.
“Andre?”
“Huh?” I ask absently, turning the next page of the book but Duo nudges me and
I have to lift my head albeit reluctantly to see what’s got his attention.
“Look over there…painting…that’s Andre and…”
I blink and then rub my eyes not sure if I’m seeing things or not. But no, we
are definitely not imagining it. Andre – the famous artist friend of Duo’s – is
sitting on a boulder with a large sketchbook in his hands and to my chagrin; he
seems to be drawing a picture of…
“Well, well…methinks it’s your crush he’s got his eyes on,” Duo drawls lazily
as I scowl in growing irritation.
Sure enough, Kamui the psycho is sitting on a bench reading the very same book
I have in my hands. I’m not sure if he’s aware he’s being sketched (not that I
care) but Duo – who really shouldn’t have done this – suddenly yells out with
obvious enthusiasm.
“Yo, Andre!”
And just like that, my carefully planned ‘quiet’ evening with Duo is completely
ruined.
~End Period Five~