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" Friendship "Written By: Maaya Disclaimer: I don't own 'em. Most of the dialogues in this story are spoken in Japanese, but to make it easier for the poor author, it’s written in English, which is hard enough for a Swedish girl. Warnings: A couple of OC:s, Duo-POV, timeline-what-timeline? Spoilers from the Episode Zero-manga. LOUSY GRAMMAR! I don't have a beta-reader! Also, I don’t know all that much London-English, but one of my OC’s is from there, so if you find faults, so tell me, please! Rating: PG-13 Genres: Don’t really know; little angst, small amount of humour, and so on.. Pairings: VERY slight 1+2, maybe more like friendship? Notes: This fic completely screws the timeline!
In my story, the pilots meet in a school, soon after coming to earth
for the first time. This was planned to be written in 3: rd person,
but while writing, I always started with first person POV. Don't ask
me why. I'll maybe write a series (in the future, but I have to finish
some things first), with this one as the first fic, but then you have
to send me feedback. I don't want to write something that everyone
hates. I wasn’t really happy about how this turned out, don’t
really know why. I had planned it too be a little more ‘emotional’
but it turned out rather boring. Duo feels like some kind of robot
when I’m writing his POV in this fic. *sigh* Summary: The pilots meet each other for the first
time in a school in Japan, where they must hide in four weeks in order
to get to know each other, but Duo have problems coping with it all.
Slight 1+2 Friendship Part 1 From: Dr J (e-mail hidden) To: 01 (e-mail hidden) Copy to: 02, 03, 04, and 05 Subject: (none) Hide in Kyoto - Japan. Stay at the school I’ve sent information about. Keep your cover. No missions in four weeks. Use the time to get to know the team. ^^^^^^^^ I stared up at the grey stone building in front of me. Some white kanji were placed over the main-entrance, and I guessed that they meant “School”. I couldn’t be sure though; I can't read kanji. I knew that my face showed disgust at the mere thought of going to that hellish place called school again. I could see some teens walking around outside the building, everyone dressed in the awful, green school-uniform that was complete with ties and occasionally a hat. No one seemed to notice me; the short kid, dressed in black and with a chestnut braid reaching to his ass. Anyway, it wasn’t a problem because I’m not shy, and it’s in my nature to talk with people. I can easy get friends, at least normal non-fighting friends. I wondered if the pilots were very different from me. I had never met them before. I hoped they were nice though, because I need a group of friends, an own pack. I’ve always had one; Solo’s gang, the orphans at the church and now the Sweepers. I need somewhere to feel comfortable and protected. I need a pack, Duo the flock-animal. Sue me. Still, I don’t like school, I’ve never done. I went to school for two years on L2 but since the colony was too poor to fix a good school-system, the education wasn’t all that good. To be brutal; it sucked, because the teachers weren’t afraid to use physical punishment. As the little rebel I was, the school was just a massive pain, though somehow I actually managed to learn how to read and write fairly decent. Easy math, geography and such are also okay, but I'm not exactly Einstein. I’ve already said that I was (and I still am) social and the other students were never a problem; no it was the teachers I had problems with. They barely glance at me, and then immediately assume everything about whom and what I am. Words like lazy, defiant, and stupid and sometimes even a slut can appear. Maybe it is the braid..? Hopefully, the teachers are only like that on L2, because I'm definitely *not* lazy, nor a slut or stupid. Defiant maybe. Professor G told me everything about the history of the colonies, Heero Yuy, and all that. I also learnt Japanese and refined my English when I stayed with him. I have to admit; I'm quite good at English, the grammar and that. It's about the only subject in school I am good at. (More than art) I sighed and looked around to find a girl, who could show me the way to the headmaster’s office, were I was supposed to meet the other pilots. I prefer to talk with girls in situations like this because most of them are willing to help that *gorgeous guy*. Boys usually think of me as a *stupid idiot* who probably will steal all their girls. Guess it’s my terrific charm. Finally, I spotted a fitting girl; with black hair reaching to her shoulders. She wasn’t all that cute or good-looking, but she had an aura of shy-ness around her, which showed that she would never say no to help me. Shy people usually don’t say no, trust me; I know. I’m good at reading people. Anyway, she was perfect. I stopped her. “Excuse me, could you show me the way to the headmaster’s office, please?” I gave her a puppy-eyed look as I spoke in the best Japanese I could manage. It’s probably accented, but fully understandable. The girl blushed prettily and nodded, happy to be able to help. “Y-yes, of course” I smiled at her, and she blushed even deeper. I seem to affect people, mostly the female-part, that way. I’m not complaining, but it *does* get a little frustrating in the end. Hastily, the girl turned around and I followed her into the school building. When I entered, I could just feel the air of school-angst going through me, reaching my heart. Translation; I got depressed. Not only depressed, I got moody too. Everyone in their right mind should hide, now. We walked in silence for a while, as I looked around inside. It was kind of boring - but functional; grey walls, grey floor, grey ceiling and grey furniture. Did I say ‘kind of’ boring? I mean ‘very’ boring. And I was forced to live here for four weeks! I feel sorry for the ‘normal’ kids. I turned my head to look at my guide and asked “What’s your name?” Not that I was all that interested, but I couldn’t stand the silence anymore. Most of the kids must be in their classes because I couldn’t see many people. Classes. Sigh. The girl smiled nervously “Aya Tominaga” At first, I didn’t notice anything strange with her way of presenting herself, but when I had already answered “Duo Maxwell”, I realized she had used the American way, with her family name last. If she’d used the Japanese way it would have been ‘Tominaga Aya’. “You realized huh?” I asked her with a grin. Now, she laughed at me and didn’t sound as shy as before. She looked prettier laughing too, and I itched to tell her that, but I avoided it, knowing she’d get embarrassed. “You speak like an American student” she said. An American student. It wasn’t all that far away from the truth, you only had to add the bit about ‘gundams’ and ‘terrorists’. Finally, I could see a group of people standing outside a door, waiting. I recognized them from the photos that G had sent me; it was my fellow pilots. I know it’s stupid for me to feel nervous, especially about such a thing, but still I was. I couldn’t help it; I desperately needed to be accepted, to have friends. My only comfort was that neither of them knew each other. We were complete strangers, if you didn’t counted those times we had heard each other over COM-links. Not to my surprise, Aya led me towards that door. “Here it is” she said and nodded slightly towards the door, and I could see she was curious about the others as well. I understood her, they were quite a..colourful gang. One blonde, one black-haired Chinese who looked.. bothered, a brunette whose bang covered one of his eyes, and another brunette who glared at me. Nice gang, I could see myself standing there too, the boy with a constant smile and a long braid. God help me. Now they were all looking at me and Aya with various degrees of curiosity showing in their eyes. “Thank you, Aya..-kun..-san..?” I said, unsure about what title I should use. “Aya-chan will do” she said, and I sent her my best dazzling smile. Not to my surprise, she turned around and walked down the corridor in quick movements, probably to hide her blush. She completely forgot to say ‘goodbye’. I took a deep breath and turned to face the pilots, my team-mates. They all looked at me in different ways. The blonde boy looked curious but also excited, the aqua-blue eyes glimmering with hope that he maybe, maybe would meet a new friend today. I smiled, hoping the same thing. The boy with green eyes and that strange haircut, looked calm and not at all interested in me, but I could tell that it was just a mask and behind the cool facade he was actually scanning me, estimating me. The Chinese guy with the tight ponytail looked disapproving and I wondered if he always wore that look or if it was something I said. I smiled and winked. He just snorted. The last boy, the one with fierce Prussian blue eyes didn’t show any emotion whatsoever, but I couldn’t see through the mask. I couldn’t figure him out so I used my best defence; I grinned disarmingly. The boy just snorted like the Chinese boy had, and that made me grin even wider. “Hi, I’m Duo Maxwell, or Maxwell, Duo - whatever you prefer.” “An American, just what we need” The Chinese boy’s statement seemed to be soaked in sarcasm and unfortunately; I decided not to have hear it. I smirked, only to show I didn’t care about him. “And your name is?” “Chang, Chang Wufei” I stuck my hands into my pockets like I always did when I wanted to look comfortable and relaxed, “Well, nice to meet you, Wufei” I spoke the words carelessly, but with the same amount of sarcasm. The blonde boy giggled, and Wufei blushed. I wasn’t sure if it was because of embarrassment or from anger, but I enjoyed it no less. Suddenly, the green-eyes boy spoke, and he caught me off guard with his calm emotionless voice “Barton, Trowa” We looked at each other for a moment, and no one spoke. I had a strange feeling that this boy was much more than I first had seen; that he had gone through a lot, maybe even more than me. He was old, and experienced. I didn’t smile towards this one, just nodded. Surprise, surprise, but he nodded back. I turned to the blonde as he spoke; “Quatre Raberba Winner, pleased to meet you” He smiled, and I realized that he had said his first name first. The only considerate in the group, it seemed. I smiled back, and he lit up, his blue eyes shone. He looked so damn cute; it felt wrong that he was a feared terrorist! Finally, I turned to the last boy, and waited to hear his presentation. No one came; instead our eyes met, and we stared at each other. His blue eyes was so piercing, so piercing, and I wondered if he could read my soul. I wanted to shiver; it was such a stupid thought but it didn’t seem very unlikely. In fact, it seemed very possible. I was the first one to look away, and moments later I heard a monotone voice that said “Yuy, Heero” Nothing more. Nothing less. Before I had a chance to comment, or maybe come up with a smart-ass thing to say, the door to the office opened and the headmaster himself peeked outside. He looked very ordinary, black hair and brown watery eyes, tall and slender. I had the sudden urge to hide in a corner somewhere, because he fixed his eyes upon me, and then he..frowned. Frowned! Unfortunately, for him, I frowned back, and I realized that if he wasn’t already frowning, he would have frowned because of my cheekiness. Did that make any sense at all? The headmaster shook his head before he motioned for us to enter the office and as I did, I wondered if the others had seen the frowning-contest. Must have looked rather stupid. I felt Heero stare at me. Not one of those ‘I’m curious about you, stare’ but a full-blown suspicious, stabbing glare. I desperately wanted to wink, bit resisted, since I didn’t believed he would have appreciated little charming me. We found ourselves standing in a line in front of a big desk, that kind you can see in movies starring rich businessmen dressed in uncomfortable suits. Sadly, this tale was starring a headmaster. Quite the difference. The headmaster (who was called Komagata-sensei by the way) talked about the school-rules, explained the schedule, and said that he was happy to see us and so on. I think he was sarcastic with the last statement, because he glanced at me as he said it. I don’t think he liked my all-black attire. Only Quatre and Wufei had changed into their school-uniforms, but Heero, Trowa and I was still in our own clothes. (Heero in well-worn blue jeans and a tank-top, and Trowa in the same kind of jeans and a turtleneck). I felt kinda out of place with my black jeans, black tee-shirt and my silver-cross hanging around my neck. Well, don’t they have any fashion-sense at all? Soon, I grew tired listening to that boring voice and began looking at my team-mates instead. Heero and Wufei stared at Komagata-sensei, and they actually seemed to listen to him. Trowa kept his eyes steadily on the floor, but I saw he was concentrated on listening anyway. Quatre seemed to listen too, but I was his eyes flicker for a moment before they met mine. We shared a smile of understanding. A very, very bored smile. When the headmaster began explaining the rooms we would get, I decided to start listen again. There were two beds in each room but if you paid, you could get a single. I would share with Wufei (none of us was happy to hear that), and Trowa and Heero would share. Quatre had one on its own. He seemed almost embarrassed when Komagata-sensei announced this, and he looked at me (and the other pilots) with worried eyes. I bet people got uncomfortable with him sometimes because he had money. I knew that the Winner-family was rich, and wondered if Quatre was a relative. I decided to ask him later. “..and no girls are allowed in the boys’ dorm.” Was the last words the good old sensei said, and he looked at me as he spoke. With his eyes, the others followed and I could feel my cheeks go hot. It was strange, because I’m not the type who blushes. By the way, I wonder why no one ever has realized that I’m gay. We parted when we came to the dorms, and I was left alone with Wufei - and he was left alone with me. I wonder which one of us who disliked it the most. “Hey, Wufei?” “Yes?” He said in perfect Japanese, without any sign of accent. That annoyed me. “What was the number to our room?” “853, don’t you remember?” I shrugged, “Didn’t listen” He glared at me and I shrugged again, with a smile on my lips. The smile, however, disappeared when we realized that our room was on the eight’ floor. The system was easy, really; rooms with numbers with 0 in the beginning was in the basement (example; 021), and then rooms with the number 1 in the beginning was on the next floor, and so on. We had our room on the eight floor! After having climbed up the stairs, we finally found our room. My fingers itched to pick the lock, but Wufei used the key before I had a chance. As he opened the door, and let me in, I fell down on one of the beds without taking as much as one glance around in the room. I hadn’t slept last night, so soon - I fell into a dark, dreamless rest. ^^^^^^^ When I woke up, I wondered why I felt so uncomfortable. Slowly, my tired brain realized that I was still fully dressed and laying in an uncomfortable posture *on* the covers. I even had my shoes on for goddess sake! Suddenly, I noticed how light it was in the room. I slowly let my eyes wander to look out of the tiny window Wufei’s my bed; yup - the sun was up. I looked around in the room - nope, Wufei wasn’t there. I finally dared to look at the clock - it was past ten. Suddenly I felt sick. I shot out of my bed and changed clothes. I don’t feel comfortable in green, and I hate ties, so I didn’t like it all that much. In fact, I hated it. I didn’t have time to shower, nor brushing my teeth, *nor* eat breakfast. When I glanced at my schedule, my mood sunk 50 degrees. I had math. Of course it had to be math. I hate math - everyone hates math. As I opened the door to run to class, I saw myself in the mirror on the opposite side of the room. What caught my eyes was my braid, which I hadn’t had time to re-do. Wisps of hair stuck out in different angles everywhere. For short; I looked like a hedgehog. Lucky me. As I ran to my class, I re-braided my hair in a hurry. Since I didn’t have a mirror, I couldn’t see the result but I hoped it was acceptable. I finally found my classroom, and I glared at the grey door in disgust before knocking on it. I didn’t receive an answer, so I decided to enter. I opened the door and the sight of a big man, very long and muscular, and with a mop of curly black hair on top of his head. He seemed to be engaged in scolding the class. As he heard me coming inside, he turned his head towards me. His cheeks hung like a bloodhounds and he glared at me in an..uncomfortable way. If it had been anyone else, I’d have grinned as an answer to that glare, but this man had an aura of anger, and I didn’t wanted to piss him off any further. I flashed the rest of the class a cocky grin though, and they all smiled back. Actually, the ones who *didn’t* smile was Wufei, Quatre and the teacher. I guessed that Trowa and Heero had another class. Anyway, the class wasn’t all that different from my old ones on L2, and if I played the joker well enough, they would probably accept me. I’m good with my joker-mask so it wouldn’t be a problem. The teacher however - would be a problem. He did *not* look happy. “Mr. Maxwell” he said, “We were wondering when you should show up. Doesn’t look too good to skip classes first day of school, does it?” He looked at me with a sarcastic smile on his thin lips. Of course, I had to be stupid enough to open my big mouth “Uhh, Actually, I wasn’t skipping..I just..” I was too stressed, trying to come up with a good explanation to think about my Japanese. Too late, I realized that I had spoken in English. Sadly, the teacher didn’t seem to understand English, because he stared at me as if I was the devil himself. Unfortunately, I’m just Shinigami. “What did you say?” He asked me, annoyed. “Sorry about that” I said sheepishly, switching to Japanese “It won’t happen again. Now, where do I sit?” “Beside Mr Bishop” A guy, who I guessed was European, with his blonde hair and grey eyes, held up his hand to show me were he was. He grinned widely as I made my way towards him. I grinned back. “I’m Marcus Bishop” the guy whispered in a good old London-English. “Duo Maxwell” “American?” “Yeah” He leaned close to me “I think you’re in trouble with Mr. Fool” I blinked “Mr. Fool?” Marcus grinned and began playing with his pencil “Yes, the teacher. I call him that, because he doesn’t know a word of English. He doesn’t seem to mind it. His real name is Sanjou-sensei” Marcus and I talked to each other during most of the class, and I decided that this guy was cool, maybe we could become friends for those four weeks? I mean - I know I have to be together with the other pilots, but I have to keep my life too, right? Life includes friends, *not* beam-cannons or gundams. “Mr Maxwell!” I looked up to see Mr. Fool standing over me, a scowl visible in his face. “Sir?” He looked at me with disapproving eyes that showed the tiniest bit of disbelief. Some of the students giggled, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of me or the teacher. “I’ve talked to you for the last two minutes, Mr. Maxwell” he said, “Maybe you can help us with this?” His hand waved towards the blackboard, which had a scary amount of numbers, plus and minus and other symbols I couldn’t even recognize. Maybe I was more after in this class than I had thought. “Uhh, not really..I think..” I said, uncertain. I could see Wufei looking at me, disapproving, and maybe even disgusted, as if he was sure about how to do it. He probably was, too. Fool sneered at me, “Mr Maxwell, how come you are in advanced math if you can’t even work out the sum this easy calculation? I want to speak with you after this class” He continued to lecture, but I stopped listening. Advanced math? Who in *hell* had placed me in advanced math!? I saw how Quatre looked at me with something that looked like pity. Ugh, I hate pity! As the clock finally became 11:00 and the class ended, I sat without moving in my chair, like the good little boy I am. (You heard the sarcasm, didn’t you?) Mr. Fool approached me as soon as everyone else was outside the door, and instinctively, I shrank back in my chair and closed my eyes. This was when you usually got hit, at least on L2. Do you wonder why a big bad gundam-pilot is afraid of a mere slap? Well, it *hurts* and I’m not the type who gets used to pain easily. To my surprise, the blow I almost expected by now, never came so I dared to open one of my eyes. Fool stood the same way he had stood when I had closed them. He looked quite angry, but not *furious*. I opened my other eye and peeked at him under my bangs. “Yes?” I said, and I can confess that my voice sounded rather meek. Sue me. My teacher sneered. “Not so tough now, Mr Maxwell? I think I’ll have to..” As he started ranting about speaking headmasters, rules and other shit that didn’t had anything to do with my knowledge in math, I blinked. Tough? I searched in my memory; nope I hadn’t said anything tough to this man. “..you’ll be moved from this class..” I snorted - what a punishment huh? Maybe a little degrading but I wasn’t the one who had chosen my classes. Suddenly, I became aware of that he had stopped talking. I looked up at him and was surprised to see him eyeing me, like a piece of meat or something. “You’re pretty” he said and caught me with surprise. Pretty? I got an uncomfortable foreboding Before I had a chance to react, he reached out with his hand and caressed my cheek roughly. What the fuck did he think he was doing?! I could feel my cheeks heat in embarrassment and humiliation, but he didn’t stop. I shrank away from the touch, but he continued, and leaned towards me. At first, I didn’t understand that he would kiss me, but he certainly did. A wet tongue forced my mouth open, and tasted me, drank almost drank my saliva. I did the only thing I could think of; kicked him between his legs. He gasped and bent over, and it gave me enough time to run out of the classroom as fast as my legs could carry me. ^^^^^^ TBC.. |
