Heero held out the big case and the little case to me, "Here." He said.

"Open it, man!" Duo cheered, "I'm excited to see your reaction!"

"As am I," Catherine said from the doorway.

"Alright, here goes," I said, opening up the bigger case first. Exactly as I had expected. The flute that I told them all I liked. "Thank you very much."

"Not done." Wufei said, pointing to the little one.

So, I un-wrapped that one, and it was a piccolo! "Thank you guys! How did you know that I wanted a piccolo!?"

"We didn't." The guys said, "She did." They said, pointing to Catherine.

"Happy birthday, little brother." She said, hugging me.

"Thank you, everyone." I said, hugging each of the guys in turn.

They all immediately ordered that they hear how I sounded on each new toy. The flute, well, it sounded beautiful, like they had all expected. But when I got to the piccolo…. well…it did something that I hadn't done since I was 5. It squeaked. It sounded breathy. "It's just because he doesn't have the right embouchure right now for it. He's too used to the flute." Wufei said. Everyone looked at him funny.

"He's right." I said, agreeing with him. "He's exactly right."

"How did you know that, Wufei?" Heero asked.

"There's still some about me that you don't know." Wufei said. Everyone anime sweatdroppedÔ, just like they do in Sailor Moon.

"How do you know so much about the flute, Wufei?" Duo asked, smiling brightly.

"I happen to play music."

"Wow. Didn't know that one," Duo said, "What instrument?"

"A little of everything, actually." Wufei replied, "Trumpet, Oboe, percussion, clarinet, and a little flute."

"That's cool, Wufei! You and Trowa should do a duet sometime!"

Duo had talked long enough. "Maybe for State contest, Duo."

"No! I'm talking about the talent show at school! You guys would be a great hit!"

Talent show? I hadn't heard about a talent show. Then again, I hadn't been to school for about 2 weeks, thanks to my concerts and my wandering.

"You really think so?" Wufei asked. "You don't even know how I play."

This time, Heero spoke up, "Knowing you, Wufei, you excel at everything you do. You would at this as well."

"Thanks, Heero."

"You've got mail." The computer chimed in, interrupting the warm fuzzy moment.

"Don't I know it." I said, replying to the computer. Why can't there be an evil person saying, "Open your new mail or I'll squash you with the foot of my giant robot trying to take over the earth and Sailor Moon and her little Senshi can't save you neither can Utena Tenjou with her Sword of Dios. So prepare to die little brat, or just check your mail. BWAH-HA-HA!" Things are never the way they should be.

"Is it Quatre?" Heero asked.

"Is it your girlfriend?" Duo asked.

"Quatre is not my girlfriend, Duo. I don't even know what gender Quatre is." It was, indeed, a message from Quatre:

"Trowa Bloom, Thank you so much for forgiving my transgression! Thank you for saying that I'm a great player too. It made me feel special. I'd like to get to know you a little better, Mr. Bloom. Maybe become friends with you. I wrote a song to sing, and I'll let you hear it later, perhaps. What kind of things do you like to do? Do you go to a normal high school, and if so, what kind of clubs are you in? What are your friends like? Thank you for putting up with me… Yours, Quatre R. Winner"

"Yeah," Duo started in a sarcastic tone of voice, "Quatre's not your girlfriend or infatuated with you?"

"I-I didn't say that." I said. Why was Quatre like this? She or he was obviously very interested in me, so why not just say it? And why was she or he in love with me?!? I feel much like Hamlet pondering Ophelia's love.

"Just leave him alone, Duo. Or you don't get any of my cookies tonight [1]." Heero intervened. He knew what it was like to be infatuated with someone. In fact, he had liked some girl from school named Relena. They were boyfriend/girlfriend for about a week, then she dumped him because he wasn't up to her "social standards". That girl acts like she's friggin Queen of the World. [2] Heero was heart-broken. Even though it never looks like he's feeling bad, I can always tell. I look the same way. Heero just tries to ignore his emotions, but he follows them nonetheless. He hypothesizes that emotions are useless, so why need them? But, he believes in them so much, it's hard for him to ignore them. In fact, he's one of the most emotional people I know; he just shows it in different ways than most.

Then, Duo Maxwell moved to our school. Most everyone thought that he was a girl. He had the longest hair that I'd ever seen, and he kept it usually in a long pigtail or a braid. Like most of the girls in our school, he wore the girls' uniform. He also wore the guys', only when he had to cover up some bruises or something like that. He had an abusive mother and father.

Things got so bad once that he had to wear the WINTER girl's uniform in the SUMMER, with black tights and everything! He also had his hair down that day to cover up the back of his neck. His mom and dad had gotten into a fight. They had a few drinks and decided that they didn't like to deal with the dirty house and, of course, it was Duo's fault. He didn't vacuum like he was supposed to. He didn't dust the furniture like he was supposed to.

He didn't do the dishes, by hand, (even though they had a dishwasher) like he was supposed to. His parents decided that the best way to get things done was to make even more of a mess, then yell at Duo. After the yelling was done, they hit him with anything that they could find, be it the glass beer bottle to the TV remote. Then, they made him clean up the mess.

When Duo came to school the next day literally dragging himself to class, Mr. Daniel noticed something was wrong. After getting the principal involved, there was improvement. Duo got moved to a different home, from a volunteer in the community. The Chang house. Yeah, you guessed it, Wufei's place. Wufei's parents were a nice couple, they did everything they could for their children, with Wufei being the oldest. He was the oddball though, he was the only boy out of 4 children. There was Wufei, the only child actually borne of his parents. All the girls were adopted from varying countries. There were the Japanese twins, Aya and Keiko; the Norwegian girl, Inja; and the American girl, Callista. Needless to say, the Chang clan decided that Wufei needed a brother, and Duo fit the bill quite nicely. He and Wufei actually are brothers now, not only in their hearts, but because the adoption was just legalized. The courts saw how much happier Duo was in the Chang house that they decided to let him stay.

So that's really how all of us guys met. Duo was Wufei's brother, and Heero was Duo's other half, and Heero my best friend. Somehow, it seemed like fate. Who knows, maybe it was.

TBC