- meltdown--
"Are you nuts?!" Wufei raised his eyebrow. Though still washing the dishes in the sink, his hands were just a bit rough on the delicate plates.
Drying the plates next to Wufei, Quatre winced involuntarily. He really did not like to confront with Wufei. Throughout the whole dinner, Quatre had been gathering up his courage to talk this out with Wufei. He had run through all the possible reaction Wufei would give when he brought up the issue. But nothing could prepare Quatre Wufei's wrath.
"You want Heero to befriend with that clown?!" Wufei shook his head, not believing at all. "Have you SEEN what that clown did in the class EVERYDAY? He is a dishonorable bastard!"
"But he saved us" Quatre's persisted.
"It was a coincidence." Wufei snorted. "What do you know about him? He practically got kicked out of the class all the time. You don't KNOW what kind of bastard he could be." Wufei roughly cleansed another plate.
"Yes, We don't know him. We don't know what kind of MAN he could be." Quatre quietly retorted.
"Quatre, God damn you. He could be a psychopath. You want Heero to ruin his life and to befriend with a man like Zechs again and getting himself killed too? He had lost his...." Wufei suddenly stopped short, realizing that he had uttered the forbidden name.
Quatre tensed. He quickly looked around and was relieved that Heero had already finished cleaning up his plate and had gone upstairs.
Wufei's stopped washing dishes but he allowed the water running. "You know Quatre..." Wufei sighed. Wufei's voice had calmed down a bit. "I just don't want Heero to get hurt again. That... that..." Wufei searched for the word. "That murder had ruined Heero's life. I don't want this clown to turn out to be another psychopath too..."
Quatre looked squarely at Wufei. " Heero needs to trust people again." Quatre took in a deep breath. "We need to trust Heero for making his decisions. Don't you get it? He needs that from us before he could stand on his own. Besides, " Quatre turned his eyes away from Wufei. "Heero actually reacted to Duo." Quatre smiled slightly. "How long ago since we have seen Heero getting mad. How long ago since we have heard Heero laughing?"
Wufei was quiet. The water was still running.
"Did you remember the time that Heero got mad at me when I broke his toy gun?" Quatre's eyes focused on an old picture on the wall. "It was an accident. He left the toy gun on the sofa and it was buried under the newspaper..."
Wufei's expression softened and his mind went back 8 years ago. "And your fat ass sat on that pile of newspaper, snapping the plastic toy gun in half."
Quatre turned his eyes back to Wufei briefly, frowning. "You didn't have to put it that way." Quatre stared at the old picture again. "And then he chased me up and down the stairs. God, he was so angry and it was only a cheap plastic toy gun."
Wufei allowed himself a chuckle. "Well, Heero was always possessive of his belongings." Realizing that the water was still running, Wufei quickly turned the faucet off.
Quatre nodded. "But then I tripped on the way down the stairs. I broke my ankle."
"You were a weakling. You SPRANG your ankle." Wufei laughed.
"I'd like to remember the way I wanted to remember." Quatre pouted "Anyway, so Heero just stopped yelling at me. He picked me up, carrying me on his back...." Quatre smiled. "He didn't say anything, but I know he felt sorry."
"You purposely TRIPPED on the stairs didn't you?" Wufei eyed at Quatre. "I know you like to manipulate other people. You have your father's blood in you." Wufei's snorted, in a benign way.
"You mean I have a great diplomatic skill right?" Quatre grinned.
"Well?" Wufei didn't give up.
"What?" Quatre pretended to not understand.
"Did you trip on the stairs on purpose or not?"
Quatre shrugged. "It was the only way to divert Heero's anger."
"You were a bastard, Quatre." Wufei smiled. There was no hostility in his voice.
"I was, wasn't I?" Quatre smiled too. "Heero was a grumpy person to befriend with. I gotta have something to encounter him."
Wufei nodded. " But we all loved that bastard."
"That's why we should do the right thing for him right now. We want that bastard back don't we?"
Defeated, Wufei looked at his childhood friend. "I should have known this was a trap."
Quatre reminded Wufei. "Diplomatic skills, Wufei. Diplomatic skills."
* * *
Quatre sighed loudly as he walked into his orchestra class. A week had passed and he still did not have the chance to talk to Duo. Mr. J must have really hated Duo. He kicked him out of class everyday.
Quatre took out his violin from his locker in the orchestra room and went to his seat. He opened the case and picked up his instrument. He absent-mindly plugged the strings to check for sound.
The oboe player started to play concert C for him. . It was a routine that their teacher, Mr. G, had insisted. The whole orchestra had to be in tune before he walked into the class.
Being the concertmaster, Quatre stood up, facing toward the class. He listened to the note, gracefully letting his fiddle dance across on the violin. It sang the perfect concert C Quatre had imitated from the oboe. The note lingered in the room for a few seconds and the rest of the group slowly joined in.
Quatre winced a bit. Not everyone knew how to tune his or her instrument. The second chair violins seemed to be a bit too sharp. The trumpet section seemed to be blasting the note. How would anyone hear the note under that kind of blast? Quatre closed his eyes, trying to sort out everyone's tune. Only the flute section was decent. No wonder Mr. G picked Dvorak's symphony number 8, G major . It had a great flute solo in it. Quatre opened his eyes and really looked at the flute section leader for the first time since he had been in the class. What was his name? Quatre stared at the slender boy, who had a weird hair band covering almost half of his face.
Quatre's eyes widened. He had seen this boy somewhere else before. He was with Duo Maxwell that day on the baseball field.
"That was good, Mr. Winner." Mr. G walked into the room. Quatre nodded and sat down. "We will start with Dvorak." Mr. G raised his hand with a conductor's stick in his right hand. Mr. G's hand paused in the midair for a few seconds. When he saw that all his students' attention was on him, he set up the tempo for the piece.
The beautiful flute sound permeated in the room. Quatre sneaked a furtive glance at the flute player.
Mr. G's hand stopped abruptly. "Where was my French horn?" His face was annoyed. "you were supposed to be supporting Mr. Barton's solo in the background!" Mr. G's eyes dangerously narrowed at the unfortunate French horn player.
Quatre, however, was delighted. Trowa Barton. Quatre repeated his name silently. Mr.G's yelling had finally reminded him the flute player's name. Quatre looked at Trowa again. For Heero he would do anything. He made up his mind.
The remaining 40 minutes went by in Quatre's agony. Mr. G had spent most of his time rehearsing the brass section. When the bell finally ran, Quatre put down his violin carefully but swiftly into his case. Leaving the case on his seat, Quatre walked to Trowa's section.
"Um. Hi." Quatre took care not to show his embarrassment.. too much.
The flute player looked up, just finishing up polishing his flute and putting it back into his case.
"Do you mind if .. um.. if we meet after school?" Quatre saw Trowa raised an eyebrow, question in his eyes. "I mean to talk.. there was something I need to talk to you about." Quatre quickly added. He lowered his head and stared at his shoes, feeling hot on his cheek.
To Quatre, a good 5 seconds went by like an hour.
"Where?" Trowa asked in a quiet tone.
Quatre looked up at Trowa. He couldn't believe that he actually agreed. "Cafeteria is okay for you?" Quatre said quickly, as if he was afraid that the green eye boy would change his mind.
Trowa nodded once.
Quatre smiled.
* * *
Heero Yuy copied the call numbers from the computer screen in the school library. He then turned around and started to walk toward shelves of books. Mrs. Po had made Heero's entire class doing a research paper on war and the psychology of the soldiers that were involved.
Heero matched a book with one of the call numbers in his scratch paper. The book was on the top shelve, which was a good 6 feet above the ground. Heero extended his right arm, standing on his toes.
His hand barely touched the book.
"Hey kid, want some help?" Duo Maxwell's cheerful voice came behind of Heero.
Heero still extended his arm, as if he did not hear Duo.
Duo sighed, comically. "Yare yare." He shrugged and reached for the book, easily retrieving it and put it on a lower shelve.
Heero lowered his arm and took the book from the lower shelve.
Duo shrugged again and turned to leave.
Having the book firmly tucked in his hand, Heero turned around and looked at Duo's retreating back.
Duo's long braid swung lazily behind him, as if inviting people to pull it.
"I am not a kid." Heero quietly said. It was so low that no one would have heard.
But Duo responded. He turned around and raised an eyebrow. There was teasing in his eyes.
"I am not a kid." Heero repeated flatly.
Duo ran his eyes up and down, pausing more than once on Heero's body.
Heero stood as a rock, realizing that he was in his spandex and tank top. They had just finished the fencing practice.
Finally Duo winked and opened his mouth AFTER he fully checked out Heero from a good 8 feet or so. "Yup, you are not a kid."
Heero gave Duo a glare. A mild one but definitely a glare.
Not bothered by the glare at all, Duo shrugged carelessly. This time with exaggeration. Ignoring Heero, Duo turned again and started to approach the library exit.
Heero gripped his book tightly in his hand. He walked past Duo in a quick few steps, almost running. He took out his library card and checked out his book under the scan near the door. He opened the library door with a forceful yank and slammed the door behind him.
Everyone in the library was startled by the loud noise.
Except Duo, who stood in the middle of the library, smirking at the door. "You don't walk like a kid either."
* * *