The Assignment
They had a private study room between the five of them this time. Good quality too, Wufei thought appreciatively. One could see that this was a school of wealth. Oak panelling with shelves lined with literature, comfortable chairs and spacious desks with large bay windows facing out onto a peaceful scene of a willow-framed lake. All conductive to the disciplines of education and study.
Duo, it seemed, disagreed. The fool 02 pilot had rejected the practical option of desk and chair and was sprawled on the floor, staring at a thick textbook of American political history and a blank piece of paper. Blank, except for the essay title, the answer to which was due in tomorrow morning…
Snorting in disgust at the other's lack of discipline, Wufei turned back to completing his maths assignment. Picking up a ruler he rapped sharply on the knuckles of a slender hand as the light-fingered thief tried to lift his neatly written history essay.
"Aww c'mon Wufei, please?" Duo whined, sucking on a sore knuckle, "I've gotta get this one in or I'll be in detention again, then I can't plan mission, then Heero'll get mad, and then I'll be dead. Little help? Ya know that teacher don't like me much anyway."
That was certainly true; the teachers had taken immediate dislike to Duo's painfully obvious lower class roots. He seemed simply unable to fit in to higher society, Wufei thought slightly fastidiously. He withheld to urge to snap his ruler in half. Why him? Why was he left alone with the baka? Technically it was because the others were still on their reconnaissance mission, but still…breathing deeply and mentally repeating his calming mantra, the Chinese boy turned to the American.
"You have had two weeks in which to complete this", he pointed out icily.
He received a careless shrug in reply, "Yeah well, had all that plannin' ta do, didn't I. Then, well, whatever."
Rolling his eyes, Wufei got up to head to the peace of his room, but Duo sprang up, blocking his path.
"Wulfei, please? Just a little bit of help."
He hesitated, finally seeing the touch of desperation in Duo's eyes despite his wide ever hopefully smile. But he wasn't going to give in gracefully.
"Fine, baka! But you must be more foolish than I thought. This is a somewhat simple question."
Seating himself on the floor next to Duo, he grabbed the heavy textbook, thrusting it towards Duo, "Here, read these passages", he indicated to several pages. "They shall give you all the necessary information, and I draw you out an essay plan", he grumbled.
Duo's delighted look faded slightly, "All of it?" He eyed the three pages uneasily.
"Yes!" he snapped, "Your idleness is despicable, Maxwell." Duo flushed and bent his braided head towards the book.
Ten minuets later Wufei looked up, pleased with the plan. He had found some new, interesting angles to approach it from. It wouldn't do to alert the teacher to how much he had helped Duo. He glanced at the teenager in question, who was staring off out the window. Sensing Wufei's furious gaze, he swiftly refocused upon the book, which, Wufei observed, was still on the first page. Incensed, Wufei ground out, "Maxwell!"
Guilty violet eyes looked up.
"You become more deserving of the title baka every day", Wufei snarled, forgetting in his anger the harshness of his words, "What is the problem? Book too hard?"
The eyes glanced away.
"Well?" Wufei spat. Duo bit his lip.
"I c-can't read it. It's too hard. I don't understand what all the words mean." Duo flushed with humiliation as he softly admitted the problem. "'sides, don't reckon I can write well enough ta do a whole essay."
Wufei blinked, "But…but you can read and write. You must be able to, to pilot a Gundam. Besides, what of your education, your schooling?"
Duo snorted.
"What of it? Only bit I ever had was at Maxwell Church. Even then the Father didn't push me too hard, knew I'd been on the streets too long, was too wild for it. Learnt the basics though, picked it up pretty quick as well. Didn't think I was too bad 'till we started comin' ta all these fancy schools." Duo admitted ruefully.
"Oh." Taken aback, Wufei could say no more. Then he flushed, thinking back on his earlier words. "Maxwell, I apologies. What I said, it was unfair."
Duo smiled, a little crookedly, "Na, no need for that. You weren't ta know."
A small silence fell, until Wufei broke it in his curiosity.
"Duo, how have you managed up till now?"
Duo lifted a mocking eyebrow, "Been different, hasn't it? We've never been in a place this long before, so I can't get away with not doing the work. 'sides, often our classes have been in maths and stuff. That's all a bit easier than this."
Wufei thought it over. "Well, the way our missions seem to be devolving, I would imaging that we will be doing more like this one now. Which means you shall have to improve your level of education to maintain our charade." Duo looked uncertainly at him. "We shall start now," Wufei decided.
He pulled the textbook between them. "Now, we shall read this together. You shall inform me of what you do not understand. Then later I shall show you how to structure and write essays and check your spelling and grammar."
Duo's face had lit up into a wide happy smile, "You serious? Man, that's so cool! But…" He hesitated and his face fell, "What 'bout all your stuff. You've got work too."
Wufei snorted, "Maxwell, the standard the school requires of me hardly reached what I have been trained to. I'm confident I'll cope."
Inwardly he smiled, as the slightly obnoxious remark brought to the fore the Duo Maxwell he knew. Then rolling his eyes as the smart-ass reply, he redirected their attention back to the book.
Reflecting back, Wufei found he learnt a lot about Duo Maxwell that night. The braided boy was quick, with intelligence as sharp as a knife. Wulfei found that he picked things up in a flash. It had surprised him. Unnerved him, even. He was so use to seeing Duo the baka, the clown, that he had failed to pay attention to the clever mind beneath that. He also learnt that Duo's concentration span was painfully short, not that he wasn't aware of that already. What he wasn't aware of was that Duo was aware too, and tried desperately hard to pay attention. Wufei had suddenly realised the challenges facing Duo, who had had scant little formal education and scare any authority in his life. To be placed in such strict institutions as boarding school suddenly appeared overwhelmingly intimidating when looked at from Duo's perspective.
Reflecting back, Duo found he learnt a lot about Wufei Chang that night. The Chinese pilot was a surprisingly good and patient teacher, both in explaining things and in bringing Duo back to the task in hand. He persevered even when Duo knew Fr Maxwell would have given up and insisted in drawing the answers from Duo, even when Duo knew fully well the scholar could have given the same answer in three seconds flat as opposed to Duo's torturous 20 minuets. But the end result was Duo's, and Duo's alone. Sure it was a bit scruffy and short compared to Wufei's flawless and elegant script but Duo felt a glow of pride all the same, and was startled to see the same glow of pride reflecting Wufei's black eyes as he looked at him.
Duo smiled, a touch shyly, whispering, "Thanks."
"You are welcome." Came the reply.
Trowa pushed the door open to their shared study a day later, with not a little trepidation. The mission had gone well, but more than once the three Gundam pilots had voiced their uncertainty at the wisdom of leaving pilots 02 and 05 by themselves. The sight that greeted his eyes shocked him, although no visible trace of the emotion appeared. There was no blood, no decapitated heads or incensed Chinese men, no chairs thrown through windows. Instead, Duo was curled calmly up on a chair while Wufei sat composedly at the desk. Duo looked up at Wufei, mouth open to apparently ask some query. Then he caught sight of Trowa and his face broke into a welcoming smile.
"Hey, ya back! How did it go?"
"Mission completed" the tall boy answered succinctly.
Duo's grin grew as he crossed the space to his desk. Patting a heavy textbook he replied with a wide smile,
"Mine too, Trowa man, mine too!"
The End