GS Note: Let it be know that it is the first snowfall of the year in my town on October the 22, 2002. Yea! I loooove snow! More snow days! ^_^

Man, you peeps are amazing. Waiting for me so long… I feel horrible so to make it up to you, I'm making a pact. And you all have to re-enforce it. I promise, the next chapter will be out in two weeks tops or you can all flame me. Got it?

Tales of Love

Maybes and Mistakes

Maybe it was wishful thinking

Maybe it was hopeful dreaming

But somehow it was thought

That love is eternal

Beautiful and sacred.

A month had gone by since Heero had seen his parents. From Germany they had gone straight to a potential investor in Belgium then Ireland. Heero didn't know when they were going to be back. In the mean time, he planned on enjoying his newfound adolescence.

"Are you sure about this?" For some reason, Heero felt the urge to strangle Dorothy or marvel at her genius.

"Of course!" she sighed. "It has never failed me before!"

"Still," Heero looked at their creation somewhat unsure. "It looks a bit…dangerous."

"I swear to you," she rolled her eyes in silent exasperation. "It won't explode."

"And if it does?" Heero took a small step back from the plate sitting innocently on the small shelf beside the brand-new microwave in the café. The lunch period was still new but most people were waiting in line for food and weren't looking in their direction.

"Then I don't know you," she mocked him and planted her hands on her hips waiting. "Are you ready?"

"I'm not doing anything," he raised his hands up stubbornly and glared at her. "But I'm ready to watch."

Dorothy took that answer satisfied and picked up the plastic bowl. She opened the door with a click and carefully placed the bowl, with pasta in it, on the glass bottom. She shut the door confidently and hit a few buttons for the right time. She pressed start.

Heero took another step back as the food began to spin. Dorothy just watched it calmly.

"Um," Heero cleared his throat as he noticed something suspicious. "Aren't you supposed to take the metal fork out before you turn on the microwave?"

He didn't think Dorothy's eyes could get so wide. She whirled in horror to the appliance but it was too late. With a loud bang, the once-clean door was splattered with orange tomato sauce. A flying fork clattered against the door too as Dorothy cursed and opened it. Steam poured angrily out as sparks began to fly from the back of the machine. Dorothy managed to leap back as the plastic coatings on the wires melted and the wooden stand holding the microwave up caught fire. She grabbed Heero's arm and began to drag him to the middle of the gathering crowd.

The smell of burning plastic filled the air as a few people began to scream and even more to laugh. The front of the crowd was beginning to move even closer to the burning wreck when the fire alarm went off. Dorothy let go of Heero and clamped her hands over her ears as it echoed in the high ceiling. Heero just groaned as the backed away to fringes.

Teachers showed up to usher them out of the building into the freezing October air. They were pushed by the crowd out to behind the teacher parking lot. The brisk breeze cut right through their thin clothes. Heero crossed his arms defiantly, refusing to acknowledge the spreading goose bumps over his arms and neck. Dorothy decided to chicken out and huddled in the lee of his body, sheltered from the wind.

As she soaked in Heero's warmth, she scanned the crowd hoping to spot more friends.

"Hey!" she abandoned her shield and braved the cold for a moment as she waved out. "Solo! Over here!"

Heero glanced over to where she was waving and saw the tall blonde boy respond and begin to make his way over. Heero glanced at his watch. It had been six minutes and not a single fire truck to be seen. Solo squeezed through the last group of people and popped out on the other side of Dorothy.

"Whew," he went to wipe his forehead but stopped and smiled sheepishly when he realised he wasn't sweating. "This is fun. Mr. Granger was about to make another girl cry today. What happened anyway?"

Dorothy's cheeks tinged a bit but tried to look away. "I don't know. Heero, do you know anything?"

Heero snorted and tried his best to not succumb to the cold. "I think it was that metal fork you left on your plate in the microwave."

Dorothy glared at him as Solo looked from him to her then burst out in laughter. The blonde girl just sighed and looked annoyed as Solo slowly calmed down and wiped tears from his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Doro," he tried to stop. "But really?" he chuckled again then just smiled merrily. "Oh well, got me out of com tech for the moment. Think you can do it again for fifth, I have a math test I don't want to take!"

"Hardy harhar," Dorothy rolled her eyes. She stepped away from Heero again and looked out of the crowd, her teeth chattering. "D-do you see Duo?"

"Not yet," Solo shook his head. His arms were wrapped tightly around his body too. "But I'm kind of hoping we can go back in soon. It's way to cold to be out today."

"Isn't the fire station only down the road?" Heero spoke quietly. He had never met Solo before but he ignored his shyness. "Why is it taking so long?"

"It's a volunteer station," Dorothy shrugged and huddled closer into her own arms. She proudly refused to use Heero's body heat again. If neither boy beside her was going to react to the chilly outside, she wasn't going to either. "They have to get there first in order to come here."

"Oh." Heero frowned. He had lived here all his life, why had he not known that?

Finally, a straggling cheer rose up from the teachers and students as two blaring red trucks whirled into the parking lot and pulled to a stop at the entrance. A few men jumped out and greeted Mr. Kushrinada. It took only a few minutes for the firemen to get organized and in the school.

Heero shivered slightly as he felt a tiny snowflake hit his elbow and melt. Another hit his nose. Then another his eyelash. Pretty soon, dozens of small, sparkling flakes were falling from the overcast sky and on to the shaking crowd of teens. Several hurried to their cars and Heero watched jealously as they blasted the heat. Then he snorted and turned back.

Apparently, the fire was out. Of the five men that had gone in, four were outside and packing up their supplies. The last one was just coming out now, holding something smoking in his thick glove. He paused by the principal and they spoke a bit before all five of the men got back in their truck and left as quickly as they had came.

"Finally," Dorothy muttered as the teachers began to usher them back into the school. Even Heero relaxed when he walked into the heated building amid the crush of students.

Solo waved as he shouted, "I gotta jet! See ya at the Church Doro!"

He shrugged off the comment as Dorothy waved over the crowd. They separated from the moving bodies as soon as they could and wove their way back into the café where three teachers were positioned around the blackened corner, glaring fiercely at anyone who came close.

"Come on," Dorothy grabbed Heero's elbow and pushed her way determinedly through the crowd. "Let's go see what they know!"

"I don't think this is a good idea," Heero allowed himself to be dragged while he protested with a heavy scowl. Dorothy just ignored him as they reached the closest circle of people. One of the teachers, an older man, was trying his best to intimidate a group of druggies.

"Mr. Dekim!" Heero watched as Dorothy's voice seemed to rise over the dim of the echoing cafe slowed the conversation around them slightly. "What happened to this place?"

"We really don't know yet," the old man shook his head. "But if you would please, Miss Catolonia, step back…"

Dorothy cursed under her breath and turned. She pushed Heero back out the way they had come in. Heero just passively let himself be used as a human plow, glaring at anyone who didn't move.

***

Heero drained the glass as he finished his story and looked over to the cooling tray sneakily.

"Did they find out who started the fire?" Marie was busy whisking around the kitchen. She added another batch of hot chocolate chip cookies onto an empty cooling rack and the next second was adding more dough on the cookie tray. Heero trained his eye on one of the fresh cookies, his fingers twitching.

"What? Oh know, no one was caught yet," Heero tried to focus on the conversation but folding his hands in his lap, waiting patiently for the right moment. Marie turned to put the new batch of cookies in the oven.

Heero's hand flashed out and snagged a warm cookie. He shoved the whole thing in his mouth. Half a second later the temperature registered. Marie turned quickly at Heero's choking noise and looked at him suspiciously as he coughed and hid his face with one hand. Under her eye, he poured another glass of milk with his free hand and tried to casually wash the burning treat down.

"The cookies are still hot," Marie smirked and set the timer. "Don't try and eat them."

Heero snorted and glared as he swallowed painfully. Marie just chuckled under her breath.

Heero had holed himself up in his room again that night. He was lazily flicking through the channels with a map of the world open on his lap and no intention of completing the sheet of questions that accompanied it. He had said good night to Marie an hour ago and was daring the clock beside his bed to send him to sleep. Heero knew he was tempting fates and that he would hate himself tomorrow when he had to wake up.

He paused on a documentary that looked interesting. Settling back, Heero closed his books and set the timer on his television to shut of in two hours, just in case he fell asleep. He set the remote on the ground.

It wasn't long before he had finally gotten annoyed with media reports of UFOs and reached for his bed stand to change the channel. His hand fell on empty hardwood.

Heero cursed and tried to reach the remote on the ground. He stopped short of himself getting up and resigned himself to watch the boring propaganda. Unbidden, his eyes began to slowly shut. The clock blinked beside him. It was 3 am.

***

"And now, if you would pass your homework to the front."

Heero felt his mind jolt like lightning for the tenth time in the class. He dragged his head up from his arms feeling like he was sitting in a jar of glue. He couldn't keep his eye open and the noise in the class drifted over his head. He felt himself fuzz out again.

A poke on the back pushed him back into reality. He took the sheet of papers from the person behind him and handed them off to the front. He mentally started to curse himself for not doing the homework but forgot what he was cursing about before he completed the thought. His eyes drifted closed again.

Half on hour later, he was kicked out of his chair by the next class and he tried to remember what he had for second period.

A savoir appeared in the form of a teenaged girl.

"Hey Heero, we're going to have to hurry if we want to miss the gym class." Heero nearly hit the wall as Dorothy seemed to transport to his side. "I think they're playing football this week and I do not want to try and dodge that! Unless you can catch of course."

Heero let his feet follow her automatically before her words registered and he translated them. He cleared his throat to respond.

"Did you get question 2a?" Dorothy didn't seem bothered by his silence as she started to steer him down the right maze of halls. She glanced at her watch but only subtly changed their speed a little. "I don't know if I'm right and I have no clue how the back of the book got 25."

Heero struggled to keep his brain into the one-sided conversation as he was propelled through the doors and eventually into the math class. Miss Noin was in the class and writing on the board. Dorothy pushed him in his seat as the second bell rang and she settled in hers.

Math class was a repeat of geography. Heero dozed off easily in the warm class. Only a key word or change of tone snapped him out of his trance a moment before he slipped into sleep. Fortunately, Miss Noin never checked homework and only called on people who raised their hands.

Dorothy didn't head to the café but hauled them both into the library while it was still empty and got them two seats. She opened a textbook on Heero's lap and told him teasingly to go to sleep. Heero tried to glare at her but his eyes drifted closed.

He hovered in the fragile space between wakefulness and dreamland for half an hour. He dimly heard Dorothy turning pages beside him and someone kicked his foot by accident. Dorothy left and he barely heard her say something about being right back.

His chair shook a bit as someone took the seat next to him. He struggled to open his eyes, the bright light making the scene of the library look unnatural.

"Hey," Heero cleared his thick throat. "Someone's—"

The film in his mouth dried up and the last traces of sleep left him as he spotted the culprit. His heart stopped for a good few seconds then started backup wildly. Duo Maxwell grinned at him from his slumped seat on the chair.

"I know, I know!" Duo held up his hands defensively. "Doro is coming back. I'm just out for a minute and stopped by to say hi to her. Heero, right?"

"Yea," Heero shook his head. "I mean, yes."

There was a tense silence between them as a girl flipped through a squeaky turning rack of books beside them. Duo blinked as Heero fought the urge to twiddle his thumbs in nervousness. His laces on his shoes suddenly became very interesting.

"So," Duo trailed off, trying to make conversation. "Any good courses this semester?"

"I guess," Heero grunted moved from his shoes to the grayish carpet beneath them.

"What do you have?"

"Geography, math, art…" Heero shrugged in a non-caring way. Duo nodded and tried to look interested. Heero gripped the textbook on his lap with iron fingers. Duo began to play with his braid, not noticing the discreet looks Heero shot him from under his shaggy bangs.

"Duo!" They both snapped at the voice and looked up to where Dorothy was making her way across the library to them "What are you doing out of class?"

"Bathroom break!" he grinned widely. The tension was broken as Duo stood up and Heero started to mental curse himself. "Miss Barony doesn't care how long I'm gone so I decided to come and say hi. So, hi."

"Get back to class, you moron," Dorothy laughed and shoved him towards the door playfully. "Knowing you, she'll probably made an exception this time!"

Duo laughed his agreement and left with a backward wave. Dorothy sat down in her chair again, then noticed Heero staring after the boy.

"That's Duo Maxwell," she supplied, mistaking his stare for confusion.

"I know," Heero replied, not really listening to her.

"Oh," she opened her book again. "You have him in a class or something?"

"No."

"Really," she looked up and at him curiously. "How do you know him then?"

Heero looked back at her and panicked. "Well, I guess I've run into him a lot! Why do you care?"

"No reason," Dorothy took and extra long skeptical look at Heero then turned back to her novel. Heero snorted but the need for sleep had disappeared. His mind was milling over with thoughts.

Had Dorothy caught on? He thought feverishly. No, how common is it for people to even think that a boy might have a crush on another boy. It was almost unheard of these days. No impossible but it's not the first thing on a person's mind. No, Dorothy couldn't have figured out.

Right?

Uncertain,

Unsure,

Unaware,

Unknown am I.

One, two, three,

Chose a choice,

Stop killing me.