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Chapter Two
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"This is Philosophy," Hilde explained, dragging Duo through the classroom door and practically stuffing him into a desk. "Well-that's what it's called, anyway. It's basically Mr. Treize explaining why we're the way we are, and how everything works...sort of a unified field theory of metaphysics, I guess. We've got it with L-0 and L-3, so you'll get to meet most of the rest of the kids right now."
"Hey, Hilde...not bad, where'd you find him?" Long strands of blonde hair brushed Duo's shoulder, before the person belonging to said hair poked her face between him and Hilde, and tossed an arm around each of their shoulders.
"Miss Noin gave him to me," Hilde answered pertly. "He's brand new today. This hour, even. His name's Duo. Duo, this is Dorothy."
"Nice to meet you," said Duo, craning his neck to get a look at her.
"A pleasure," the girl said smoothly, removing her arm from Duo's shoulder to shake his hand. "We're glad to have you, I'm sure. Be careful Hilde doesn't scare you out of the place entirely. She tries to with everybody else."
Hilde looked indignant. "I wouldn't! Not to Duo, anyway. He's my new section buddy, he's gonna help me torture the rest of you!"
Dorothy snorted. "Your section? I pity him, then." She left then, to greet another pair of students entering the room. "Hey, Wonder Twins."
"Drop dead, Dorothy," both the new arrivals said at once, in precisely the same good-natured tone. The boy was tall and wiry, in tight jeans and a loose dress shirt left half-unbuttoned, with a fall of dark brown hair covering one green eye. The girl only reached his shoulder, but was dressed almost the same, loose auburn curls springing wildly around her face. In perfect sync, the pair settled themselves in the desks behind Dorothy's.
Hilde shuddered, nudging Duo playfully. "Creepy, isn't it?"
Duo was still watching the twins, who appeared to be having a conversation without actually speaking or looking at one another. "Do they do it on purpose?"
"Sure they do," she answered sourly. "They're showoffs."
"Say Hilde..." Duo wondered. "What's your talent, anyway?"
If he'd known her better, perhaps he would have picked up on the mischievous light in her blue eyes--but he didn't, so he took it at face value when she just tossed off a nonchalant wave. "Mine? Oh, it's not important. Here, you want to see a neat trick?"
A neat trick? He nodded dumbly. "Sure."
"Cool!" Hilde fumbled in her pockets for a moment, but both hands came up empty. "Cathy!" she called across the room. "Knife!"
The redheaded twin did not so much as turn to acknowledge that Hilde had spoken, but a decourated throwing-knife leapt from her satchel and flew across the room to land on her desk.
"Thanks!" Hilde called gleefully, grabbing the weapon and holding it up for Duo to inspect. "See? Here's the trick--watch, it's cool!"
And with that, she sliced off her finger.
"What the FUCK??" Duo's jaw dropped and his voice rose. "I thought you said you were showing me a trick!"
"I am," said Hilde patiently.
"But--but--" Duo gaped. No, he was not imagining it. Hilde's finger was lying on his desk, bleeding just a little, completely severed from her hand. "You just--that's--"
"Now watch," Hilde demanded, thrusting her bleeding hand into his face. "This is the really cool part."
And as Duo watched, the wound at her knuckle healed--no, not /healed/, merely, for that would imply the flesh only closed over itself. Rather, it /grew/, slowly but visibly, until a whole, complete finger had taken the place of the one Duo was trying very hard not to look at again.
"See?" crowed Hilde triumphantly. "I fooled you! That's my talent--I regenerate. And I have a pain tolerance like you wouldn't believe."
"I...I guess so..." Duo swallowed, trying to decide if he was impressed or going to be sick. "Could you get your finger off my desk now?"
"Sissy," she pouted, but scooped up the appendage anyway.
"Miss Schbeiker," a new, unfamiliar voice said calmly from the front of the room, "amusing as your pranks are, I'll thank you not to leave superfluous body parts lying about my classroom?"
Hilde giggled. "Sorry, Mr. Treize. I just wanted to show Duo before somebody spoiled the surprise."
"I'm sure he's a better man for the experience," Treize replied dryly. He was tall, and far younger, somehow, than Duo had anticipated. He had short ginger hair and sparkling blue eyes, and was leaning casually against the doorframe in khakis and a blue sweater. "Now is it too much to ask if we could get started?"
"No, sir," said Hilde, tucking the finger into a pocket of her bag. Dorothy turned around to watch her, and mouthed 'freak' before winking, and turning her attention back to the front.
"Right." Treize scanned the room, his gaze finally settling on Dorothy. "Miss Catalonia...where's the rest of your section today?"
Dorothy shrugged. "Not here. It's not like she lets me keep track of her. She's probably downstairs throwing paint at the wall again."
Treize arched a delicate eyebrow, but nodded. "I'll ask Lady Une to check on her," he said, and turned his attention finally to Duo. "Mr. Maxwell."
It was, Duo realised, the first time in his life he'd been addressed that way. This was turning out to be quite an eventful day. "Yes, sir?"
Treize smiled warmly, and Duo felt tension draining from his body. "It's good to have you here. I'm Treize Khushrenada. I'm sorry I couldn't meet you when you first arrived--I'd like you to find the time to come by my office in the next day or so, so we can get acquainted."
Duo nodded. "Yes, sir. I will."
"Good. Miss Schbeiker, make sure he does." Hilde nodded pertly, and Treize began his lecture. It was all completely foreign material to Duo, who had dropped out of high school about the time the shelter he'd been staying at had burnt to the ground and left him without a permanent address. But he found it all utterly fascinating. Treize was an animated speaker, with an obvious love for and understanding of his subject matter, and he wove myth together with scientific fact in a way that kept Duo captivated. He talked about White Noise, the energy of the universe, and electromagnetics transferred into Places of Power, about ley lines and chi flow and how in the end it all came down to the power of a person's soul.
It was all over too soon for Duo. "That's it for today," Treize said finally, and Hilde let out a sigh of relief. "Get yourselves to dinner. Enjoy your evening. Mr. Maxwell--remember, whenever you have a moment." He strode out the door, and Hilde bounced to her feet, hauling Duo up with her.
"Whew! I'm glad that's over! Not that I don't like listening to him, I'm just /starving/! Come on, we'll get something to eat and then I'll introduce you the rest of the school."
"You might start with us," a soft, almost sultry tenor suggested from behind her. Hilde spun--and so did Duo, just by being in close range--to see the twins standing side by side, perfectly synchronised smiles quirking each of their lips.
"Stop doing that," Hilde grumbled. "You're gonna freak him out. Duo, this is Trowa and Catherine, otherwise known as the Wonder Twins. You don't have to guess why. They're section L-3."
"Nice to meet you," said Catherine, and Trowa extended a hand.
"Um...nice to meet you too," said Duo, shaking it.
"I'll walk down to dinner with you," said Catherine, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "Trowa's going to meet up with Quatre first...Dorothy, you coming?"
"Damnit, you caught me," the blonde girl responded, tossing her hair. "Here I was hoping you'd be so busy with the new kid I could run ahead and get some food before Hilde gets there and hogs it all."
"I'm a growing girl," said Hilde, unapologetic.
"Ha! The only thing you grow is new body parts!"
"Children, children..." Catherine rolled her eyes and ushered them all out of the room. "If you do not /move/, and I mean now, so I can get fed, I'll just have to eat both of you." She winked at Duo over the other girls' shoulders, and he grinned back. //Funny,// he thought, //I should be having a lot more trouble accepting all this than I am. Then again, I suspended disbelief so far by this point I probably can't even reach it anymore. Wonder what the rest of them are like.//
"Relena! Heero!" Hilde skipped suddenly ahead, grabbing Duo's hair just in time to drag him with her. "Look look look!"
Two more students, making their way toward the enticing smells that indicated a kitchen nearby, turned at the perky girl's outburst.
"What?" the girl asked. She was shorter than Duo, with honey-brown hair hanging loose around her shoulders and pale blue eyes--Duo was beginning to wonder if everyone in this school besides himself and the twins had blue eyes--and was dressed less casually than any of the others, in a short plaid skirt and brown sweater and knee socks. "Oh! Hi! Who're you?"
"Duo Maxwell," he spoke up quickly, before Hilde could answer for him. "I'm new here."
"Well of course you are, or we would've seen you before. There aren't that many of us." She juggled a stack of books in her arms, til she could finally hold out a hand to him. "I'm Relena Darlien. This is Heero Yuy." She made a face at the boy walking with her, who glared at the floor and pretended not to notice.
A wild mop of dark brown hair framed an angular, almost delicate face, dominated by the bluest dark blue eyes Duo had ever seen. //Heero. Hilde mentioned him--super strength, or something, right?// he thought--but this boy didn't /look/ like he had exceptional strength. His body, while wiry and athletic, still carried the same aura of fragility as his fine-boned face. His long-sleeved black t-shirt and black jeans were loose but not baggy, and he carried only a battered, wrinkled green notebook doodled all over in black ballpoint pen. "Hi," he said, when Relena elbowed him in the side.
"Hi," said Duo. "Nice to meet you."
"All right, all right, he's met everybody!" Catherine said in exasperation. "Let's go /eat/!" And she was pushing them along again, with Relena falling into step beside Dorothy and Heero taking up the rear, still staring at the floor.
"Say, Duo--what do you eat?" Hilde asked, as the group took their places around a long wooden table.
He made no attempt to hide his confusion. "Anything that I can stuff in my mouth before it escapes?"
She giggled. "Good! I just wondered--well, Heero and Quatre and Relena are all vegetarians, for example. Though after sitting through Zechs' plant classes, I don't see how they think eating /those/ is better than eating meat! Sylvia...well, she barely eats anything at all, but she's weird. You'll meet her later, she's in Dorothy's section but some days she won't leave her room. Oh! Speaking of food, here it is! And here come Trowa and Quatre!"
Duo wasn't sure where to look first, trying to watch Hilde's flailing fingers point to everything that might possibly be of some interest to him. He /did/ see Trowa, hand-in-hand with a small, pale, blonde boy, making their way toward the table.
"Hey, Hilde--they're holding hands," he hissed, hoping nobody else could hear him.
She grinned at him. "Sure they are. They're lovers." The way she said it was so nonchalant that she could have just as easily been talking about the weather, or the bowls of food that a stocky Polynesian woman was setting down on their table. Then again, this was a girl who hacked off body parts for entertainment.
"Um...okay," said Duo, reaching for a bowl of mashed potatoes that was easily twice the size of his head and spooning a generous helping onto his plate.
"Ooh, that looks good!" Scarcely had he deposited the spoon back into the bowl than Hilde had snatched it out of his hands. "Cathy, pass the gravy, would you?" The redhead didn't even look up from her own meal, but the gravy boat did sail through the air and land in front of Hilde. "I just like it when she does that," the dark-haired girl whispered conspiratorially to Duo. "Want some?"
"Um, sure..." Duo wondered how many times he was doomed to repeat that phrase, and variations of it, in the course of his existence at St. Gabriel's. But all those thoughts were quickly dispelled by the reality of having a full plate of food to eat right in front of his face--two meals in one day was a luxury he hadn't been able to afford in a long time.
"SCHBEIKER!!" A loud yell cut through even Catherine's concentration, and the entire table looked up. A slim, wiry Chinese boy, his shoulder-length hair pulled back in a short tail, in loose black warm-up pants and a white t-shirt, slammed his hands down on the edge of the table to glare at Hilde.
She smiled innocently. "You found my surprise! Did you like it?"
The boy's eyes narrowed to angry slits. "No."
Hilde shrugged, unapologetic as ever. "That's too bad. Have you met the new kid yet? This is Duo. Duo, Wufei Chang. L-5."
"Nice to meet you," mumbled Duo with his mouthful.
"You've got gravy on your chin," said Wufei, shooting another glare at Hilde before he stalked away to sit, very pointedly, at the other end of the table next to Heero. Duo wiped his chin hastily.
"Mind if we sit here?" asked a soft, mellow voice behind Duo's elbow. Indescribably melodic, hovering somewhere between alto and tenor, the very timbre of it was like a tender caress along his skin.
"Course not, go 'head," Hilde answered, waving to the two empty spots. Trowa took one, and the pale blonde boy Duo assumed was Quatre--as well as the one who had spoken--folded himself into the other as Hilde completed introductions between mouthfuls. "Duo, you met Trowa. And this is Quatre. Quatre, Duo."
"I know who he is," Quatre answered, catching a bowl out of the air that Catherine sent flying his way. "My sister's sponsoring him. Nice to meet you, Duo."
"Really?" Hilde licked a bit of gravy off her fingers. "So you two're kind of like brothers already. Neat!"
Quatre shrugged delicately. His entire being was delicate, Duo thought--even more imbued with fragility than Heero. He looked as though his bones might be hollow, like a bird's, or like he might float away at the first sign of a strong wind. His skin was pale, his hair barely blonde, and his eyes a watery blue, all of which gave him the appearance of being vaguely surreal. And it didn't help that he was wearing white, which only made him more washed out and strange.
"Have you decided what you're doing for the talent show?" Trowa asked Hilde, reaching across her plate for a basket of rolls.
She shook her head, affecting a pout. "I wanted to be a target for Cathy, but she says she'll only work with you. Maybe I won't do anything, I'll just keep Duo company instead?"
"Talent show?" Duo asked hesitantly.
Quatre smiled, answering smoothly before Hilde could get the words out. "It's just something to keep us occupied," he explained. "It's not like we can have our own sports teams or other things that go compete with other schools--most of them don't know we exist, and if they did they wouldn't want to play with us. So we plan our own events, just for ourselves. Miss Noin set up a talent show for tomorrow night. All of us are going to do something...well, almost all."
"Can you imagine if we /did/ have interscholastic teams?" Hilde added, giggling. "Can you see a swimming match, for instance? Relena has gills," she explained offhandedly to Duo, "and webbing between her toes. A regular waterbaby. It wouldn't even be a competition. Or a basketball team with Cathy and Trowa?" She shook her head. "Anyway I don't have any talents people aren't sick of seeing. And Heero's not doing anything, and I'll bet you real money Sylvia doesn't even show up."
Quatre shrugged again. "She will if I ask her to." A pause, and then he changed the subject yet again, his limpid eyes flickering to Duo. "So. How're you settling in?"
Duo wiped the last of the gravy off his plate with a roll. "Honestly? This is all really weird. I'm just waiting to wake up."
Quatre smiled. "It does take getting used to, doesn't it? Don't worry, Duo. We'll all take care of you."
It was impossible not to believe anything he said in that unearthly, melodic voice, and Duo nodded. "Thanks."
Conversation floated around him for a while, and every now and again someone asked him a question that he did his best to answer, while the others filled him in on how things at St. Gabriel's worked, and promised him they'd all make sure his settling-in went as smoothly as possible. A certain amount of good-natured sympathy was expressed at his having to spend so much time with Hilde, all of which the girl fended off with either witty barbs or threats upon their physical or mental well-being.
"So what d'you want to do now?" she asked as the plates were finally cleared and the students began to disperse.
"Take a shower," Duo answered immediately, fiddling with the end of his greasy braid. "And settle into my room a bit...I don't know, think for a while? Not move?"
Hilde giggled. "That's fair then. I'll walk you back to your room...I've got some letters to write and some studying to do, so I'll be right nextdoor if you need anything," she offered, already leading him back through the labyrinthine corridors.
"There is one thing I wondered." Duo had been puzzling over one aspect of his fellow students for quite some time, but as the information was never volunteered, he wondered if it was impolite to ask. "I'm sure I'll figure out what everybody's talents are in time, but--well, the classification thing."
Hilde nodded, waiting. "What about it?"
"Well--you and I are L2, and you chop off body parts...I've seen what Cathy does...and it goes up from there? If we're the little talents, what the hell do Quatre and Wufei do?"
Hilde burst out laughing, grabbing his arm and dragging him insistently up the stairs. "I can't just tell you!" she explained, giggling. "They'd kill me! We /never/ get new people here, which means we never get a chance to show off. Remember what I did to show you mine? They all want the same chance...I can't spoil it for them!" She frowned slightly, pausing in the stairwell. "Well...except L-0, because Dorothy doesn't care and you need to be warned about Sylvia."
"Warned?" Duo repeated, suspicious.
She nodded. "Dorothy's a technohead--literally. She remembers everything, figures equations faster than any computer in existence, can play with electricity, and can interface with a computer just by thinking hard. If your stereo breaks or something, she's the one to talk to. Sylvia..." Her eyes darkened, her smile vanishing. "She sees the future."
Duo blinked. "That doesn't sound so bad."
Hilde shook her head. "It isn't, if you're like--oh, Miss Noin, who only sees it when she scries for it. Sylvia has...visions. They hit her at random times, and she doesn't have any control over them. And she says there are spirits talking to her, who tell her to paint these really bizarre pictures, and...well, you'll understand when you meet her. Just be aware, she's stranger than the rest of us all put together."
"Oh," said Duo, filing this away among the rest of the things he would eventually come to accept. He was silent, lost in thought, until Hilde gave him a gentle shove toward the door of his room. "There ya go. Yell if you need anything."
"I will." Duo barred himself in the cubicle, reveling in a room that was really, truly /his/. He took a shower so hot it scalded him, and washed his hair three times before the water finally threatened to run cold. He pulled on the new, clean sweats he and Noin had bought earlier, and tossed himself onto his new, clean bed to stare out the window at the moonlight bathing the garden below. And finally, while he contemplated the changes the day had wrought, his exhausted body surrendered to sleep.
