**********

**********

Chapter Three

**********

Duo awoke to someone pounding on his bedroom door. Not that he realised immediately that it /was/ his door, or even where he was or whose bed he was in. //Amasing. I was sure I'd wake up back in the alley,// was his first conscious thought, directly followed by a sincere appreciation for the goosedown comforter insulating him from the rest of the world.

"DUO! Get moving already, we're late!" Hilde gave up pounding on the door and let herself in. "Come on, I mean it! We've got Lady Une first thing in the morning and believe me, you do /not/ want to be late to this class!" By the time Duo had crawled reluctantly out from under the blankets, she was already throwing a sweatshirt and jeans at him. "Get dressed! Hurry! Do you know you slept through breakfast? We let you 'cause we figured you must be exhausted--oh, and I saved you some toast, here. Eat fast."

Duo scrambled.

No sooner had he laced up his boots--the only thing around him he'd owned longer than a day, he noted, with the same suspension of disbelief that was rapidly becoming reflex--than Hilde had grabbed his hand and was dragging him away again.

"Wait--Hilde--I need to braid my hair--" he stammered, but she didn't even slow down.

"Later! Leave it! I told you, we can't be late!" Pulling him behind her, she skidded around a corner, almost catapulting him into a wall. Duo decided to give up, and concentrate on not being damaged in the course of her headlong flight.

Hilde shot out one hand to catch a doorframe as she pelted past, using it to pull herself and Duo to an almost-stop and spin them into the classroom it led to. She brought herself up sharply, and Duo bumped into her before he could stop.

"We made it," she whispered to him, relieved. "Grab a desk."

Relena and Heero were already seated, and the honey-haired girl smiled warmly at Duo as Hilde stuffed him into a seat. "All rested up?"

Duo nodded, still trying to catch his breath. "Didn't even have time to brush my hair," he grumbled, and Relena chuckled.

"Don't worry, you look fine. And nobody'd really care if you showed up in your pajamas anyway. Well--assuming you sleep in pajamas," she added with a frankly appraising gaze that sent the blood rushing to Duo's cheeks and sent his head spinning for another place to look.

Which is exactly how he noticed Heero was staring at him. The intense blue eyes were fixed unblinking in his direction, and he wilted further under their weight. Fortunately, the classroom door swung shut in time to distract them all.

"Crap," he heard Hilde whisper under her breath. "Bad day." On his other side, Relena straightened self-consciously.

The woman who had just entered was tall, although her bearing probably gave her the illusion of more inches than she actually had, standing stiff in a dark tailored suit. Her brown hair was braided into a neat chignon at the nape of her neck, her hazel eyes framed by dark wire glasses. "Good morning, "she said crisply, calmly.

"Good morning," Hilde and Relena chorused back. Heero was silent and Duo was confused.

The woman's sharp gaze swung abruptly to Duo, fixing him with a cold glare. "Duo Maxwell?"

Duo swallowed. "Y--yes, ma'am."

She smiled, but it did little or nothing to put him at ease. "Welcome to St. Gabriel's. I am Lady Une. Mr. Treize tells me this will be only the second day after even becoming aware you had a talent. Is this true?"

He nodded vigorously. "Yes ma'am."

"Hm. I'm sure it will take some getting used to. Nevertheless I expect you to do your best. Is this clear?"

Duo nodded and repeated himself one more time. The next hour and a half was among the longest he remembered ever living through. It wasn't that Lady Une wasn't as good a speaker as Treize--she was. And she spoke with the same expertise and energy for her subject, though most of what she was utterly incomprehensible to him. And Duo was certain he could have paid more attention had he not been scared to death of her.

And to top it all off, whenever he looked up from the notes he was scribbling in rapid, barely-legible hand across his paper, Heero Yuy was staring at him.

***********

"I thought that would never end!" Hilde let all her breath out at once, deflating like a leaky balloon into her chair. "Been a while since she did that--maybe it's stress because you're here."

"Did what?" Duo wondered.

"Wore glasses," interrupted Relena, gathering up her notebooks. "She's got split personalities, Duo. If she's not wearing her glasses, she's Nice Une, and she's very sweet and you can talk to her about anything. If she /is/ wearing her glasses, best just yes-ma'am and no-ma'am and get out of her way as soon as possible."

"Oh." Into Duo's brain the information went, along with every other unbelievable tidbit he'd picked up in the past twenty-four hours. By this point nothing seemed strange.

"Don't worry about it, you survived admirably." Relena started toward the door, motioning them after her with her chin. "We'll walk down to the garden with you, we all have Zechs' class together."

"What's this one?" Duo asked, shouldering his bag to follow her. "Because I don't mind telling you I'm totally lost. I have no idea what anything was that Lady Une was talking about."

"Manifestation of will," said Heero abruptly. "Making something happen with the power of your mind alone."

"Well yeah, I got /that/," Duo conceded. "But I still don't get /how/!"

Heero looked at him oddly. "That's what the class is for," he said simply, holding open the door for the rest of them to leave the room.

Hilde and Relena did their best to explain to Duo everything he'd been missing out on in Lady Une's class since the beginning of time, til he was afraid his head was going to explode. Somewhere on the trek to the garden, they were joined by Quatre, Trowa and Catherine, who fell into step behind them.

They stopped at a part of the garden where a collection of marble benches surrounded a pound in the centre of a copse of trees. Flashes of orange beneath the surface of the water proved to be a small population of carp, who gathered at the edge of the pond as Relena knelt next to it to dabble her fingers in the water and say hello.

"Have a seat," said Hilde, perching on the edge of one of the benches. Catherine joined her, and the girls scooted over to make room for Duo as Trowa and Quatre draped themselves over another one. Heero remained standing, his back to the hedgerow, scuffing at the dirt with his foot.

"Hello everyone." Once again, it was the voice which alerted Duo to an unfamiliar presence--but this time, even when he looked up, he saw no-one.

"Now that's not fair!" Catherine challenged pertly. "Come on out, Zechs, so we can see you."

"Of course it's fair," the low, sultry baritone responded. "I'm the teacher. And you /can/ see me...exercise your mind a little, instead of your eyes. Where am I?"

There was silence for several moments as the students looked frantically around them, each determined to be the one to uncover their instructor's hiding place.

Finally--"You're on the pond," Heero said flatly, as if he'd been waiting for someone else to come to the same conclusion and only now conceded to answering the question himself.

"Very good," said the voice, and the air above the water shimmered and took form, becoming a tall, lithe man, fair-skinned and bare-chested, with a tribal tattoo encircling one bicep and long platinum hair cascading to his shoulders. He wore torn jeans and moccasins, and what looked like /vines/, wrapped around his body and tangling in his hair.

And he was standing on the water.

Duo stared as he padded across the transparent surface of the pond without creating so much as a ripple and alighted near Relena on the edge of it. "The rest of you," he said in mock-sternness, "should concentrate a little harder on the actual task, and less on looking like you're doing it." His warm smile put Duo at ease as quickly as Une's glare had intimidated him, and he found himself relaxing.

It didn't take long to decide that this was going to be his favourite class. Zechs taught about the natural world--he was a shaman, whose gift seemed to be almost anything relating to plantlife. He coaxed a small chain of violets to grow and tangle themselves into Duo's loose hair, which made Hilde and Catherine swoon melodramatically before collapsing into giggles on the grass, and made Heero stare at him for what felt like an eternity before tearing his gaze away and fixing it on the floor. Duo blushed, and Quatre flashed him an encouraging smile and patted his shoulder reassuringly.

"What do you have next?" the blonde boy asked--he was wearing red, today, which made him look far less like a faded watercolour painting. "Besides lunch, I mean. That's what we all have."

Duo shrugged. "I'm still following Hilde," he answered, and the very mention of her name was enough to summon the dark-haired sprite's attention.

"Study hall, today," she said with a shrug. "Monday and Wednesday we'll have a session with Miss Noin after lunch, Duo, but the rest of the time we just work on whatever projects they've given us to practice. Since you don't have any yet, maybe you should use it to go talk to Mr. Treize?"

"That won't work," Relena pointed out. "Heero and I have class with Mr. Treize then. He'll have to wait til--no, the talent show's after dinner. Tomorrow then. He'll understand, don't worry. Duo's got to have time to figure out where he is."

"Are you coming to the talent show?" Quatre asked, and when Duo nodded, his smile lit up his face. "I'm glad! It'll be a good chance for you to relax with us, and get used to things instead of feeling under so much pressure. I know it takes some adjusting, but you'll get used to it in no time. Trust me."

"Actually, you're calming me down," Duo said, startled to discover it was true. "I'm not feeling nearly as overwhelmed as I was."

Quatre winked at him and hurried back to Trowa's side, where the taller boy was trying to commune with the spirit of some small plant. Hilde tugged on Duo's arm, pulling him down to where she and Catherine were attempting something similar.

"Help us with this!"

"Help you /what/?"

"Talk to the flower!"

Duo rolled his eyes and joined them in staring at the plant.

***********

Somehow, Duo made it through the rest of the day with his brain intact. Zechs' class was followed by a lunch of cheese sandwiches and french fries, which more than made up for his missed breakfast. Then he and Hilde spent their study hour in a comprehensive tour of the entire school--as well as walking from his room to the dining room to each of their classrooms four or five times til he was sure he knew the way. She asked him questions while they walked, about where he came from and what his life had been like and what his real talent was, as well as explaining some of the harder points of the day's lessons he hadn't been quite able to grasp. From there they went to Treize' class, where he caught his first glimpse of the elusive Sylvia Noventa, a small blonde wisp of a girl in a paint-spattered smock and bluejeans--but she was merely making her excuses to Mr. Treize before she slipped wraithlike out the classroom door.

And then that class was over as well, with Duo's head feeling like it would explode under the influx of information, and Hilde was dragging him off to a dinner table where the dishes flew around over his head and everyone seemed determined to swallow their entire meal as quickly as possible before running off to put the finishing touches on whatever they had planned for the evening's event: the Talent Show.

"You're not going to do /anything/?" he asked Hilde, disappointed, as they wandered back to their hall.

She shook her head. "Couldn't think of anything. Not that would actually impress people, anyway. See Quatre's a musician, and the twins were part of a circus before they came here, and Wufei--well, I couldn't do anything to top their acts, so I won't. I'll keep you company instead. We can sit in the front row and heckle the performers."

"How many rows are there going to /be/?" Duo pointed out, and she grinned.

"True, true. Though technically we were allowed to invite our families to this one. I don't think anybody did." Her voice darkened a little, and Duo looked at her curiously.

"What's wrong?"

She shrugged, feigning indifference. "Nothing. Most of our families don't want anything to do with us, that's all. That's why they sent us here. Quatre's sister's a sweetheart, and Dorothy gets letters every now and then...and as far as I know, Heero and the twins don't /have/ families. But those of us who do...let's just say my stepmother spelled my name wrong on the Christmas card she sent me."

"I'm sorry," said Duo, shifting uncomfortably.

Hilde gave him a tight smile. "Hey, it's okay. Should be used to it anyway. Go get dressed up, I'll meet you in your room before we head down." She reached up to trail her fingers through the violet-stem braided through his hair, adding, "Oh--Duo? Leave your hair like that, will you?" and disappearing into her room.

It didn't take Duo long to sort through his limited wardrobe and decide that a black silk shirt and black cotton slacks were the dressiest thing he'd ever owned in his life. He still wore his boots--they were scuffed, true, and worn out, but they matched, and he was beginning to realise he'd formed some strange sentimental attachment to them. He was surprised and pleased, taking in his own reflection in the mirror, to see that the violets really did bring do something to enliven his hair and bring out his eyes. //As if I'm trying to impress anybody with my looks,// he thought dryly. Still, it was intoxicating to be thought attractive, even if it was only by himself.

Hilde gave the door a quick warning knock before poking her head in the door. "You ready? Ooh, you look nice. C'mon, let's go." She too was dressed in black, a tight velvet t-shirt and short cotton skirt over black tights and a pair of clunky boots of her own. A trio of silver necklaces in varying lengths hung around her neck, glittering in the light. She led him down the stairs, through hallways that were finally--after spending all afternoon getting acquainted with them--starting to look familiar, and into a room that had been decourated with lush velvet draperies framing a "stage" in the centre of the room.

"Hilde! Duo! Over here!" There was no real reason for Dorothy to call to them--there were only three rows of chairs, after all, and most of them were vacant. But she waved them over, and they settled into the chairs next to her. " It won't be a very long show, unless Trowa and Catherine drag things out for a while," she said. "It's Wufei first, then Relena's helping him with something...then the twins, and Quatre finishing things up."

"Long or not, I'm intrigued," Hilde confessed with a grin. "Is Sylvia coming? I was going to bet with Cathy that she wouldn't, but Trowa talked us out of it."

Dorothy laughed. "Thank him, then, he saved you some money. Quatre went down there earlier to convince her to come. When I saw her, she was painting Duo on the wall."

Duo's eyes widened. "Me?" he asked, just in case he hadn't heard right, or there was some other Duo wandering about the school.

Dorothy nodded. "That's right. It's a picture of you, holding a green glowing scythe in your hands. If you want to see it I'll take you down there later and show you. Oh--here they come."

She motioned toward the door, where Wufei was just arriving--and with him, Sylvia Noventa. Wufei was dressed up, as they all were, in a dark blue Chinese-style suit, flashes of indigo threads showing the outline of dragons in the fabric. Sylvia, by contrast, was still in her colour-spattered smock and stocking feet, and jeans with a hole in one knee. She toyed nervously with a strand of hair, tucking it continuously behind her ear and twining it around her fingers.

Wufei steered her over toward them and pulled out a chair for her next to Dorothy. She perched there for a moment, then stood again and crossed to stand directly in front of Duo.

"Hello," she whispered.

"Hi," Duo said, with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

It must have been, because she offered one of her own, her lips twisting faintly upward at the corners. "I'm Sylvia," she said, her voice barely audible.

This conversation, at least, seemed fairly normal. "Nice to meet you. I'm Duo."

She nodded slightly. "I know." Her smile widened, and her eyes took on a vacant stare. "Find out something only dead men know...."

Duo's eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"

She tilted her head, sing-songing quietly, her fingers reaching for the violets in his hair and stoking gently through the chestnut mane. "Larded all with sweet flowers; which bewept to the grave did not go, with true love showers...."

Duo sat very, very still, too conscious of her vacant, pale eyes and her fingers in his hair. "I'm sorry--?"

She smiled again, brushing his cheek. "Violets. Faithfulness. Even after death, though they may wither then."

"Ah." Duo nodded, hoping he was giving her whatever response it was she required. It seemed to be enough, because she dropped her hand to her side again and shuffled back to her chair, where she gazed off into space.

Hilde squeezed his hand. "She gets like that. Don't worry, you're not expected to understand her. None of us do."

Duo sighed in relief. "I'm glad, because I have no idea what she said."

"Hamlet," Dorothy interrupted, leaning across Hilde to explain. Her lips twisted into a sad, wry smile. " 'I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died.' Ophelia. Act four, scene five."

"Oh," said Duo. "Never read it."

Dorothy shrugged. "You should sometime. Oh, there's Heero. And Zechs, and Miss Noin--wonder where Sally is? Guess we'll be starting soon."

No sooner had she so observed, than the lights dimmed. Treize and Une slipped in the door behind Noin, who took her place in front of the audience. She was dressed up as well, in a long violet dress with a diamond suspended from her neck.

"Welcome to the first ever St. Gabriel Institute Talent Show," she announced, trying to sound serious behind her mischievious smile. "I daresay you'll see things here that would put any normal circus to shame--so sit back and enjoy the show!" She took a seat behind them, next to Zechs, and the lights went to total blackout.

A quick burst of flame ignited a torch on one side of the "stage" that Duo hadn't even realised was there. Another joined it, on the other side, and Wufei was slowly revealed standing between them, his head bowed, his hands before him as if in prayer.

Then, from somewhere--perhaps thin air--he pulled a sword. Hilde let out a delighted gasp and nudged Duo's shoulder. "He's going to do a sword dance! Usually he'll never show us these!" Dorothy was already too enrapt to listen, and Duo too watched in silence. The sword dance, while not the elabourate show of supernatural prowess he'd been expecting, was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Wufei's movements were slow and deliberate, and in the dim glow of the firelight seemed unearthly. When at last he came to a halt in the centre of the stage, bowing once again to his audience, Duo was breathless.

And then the stage burst into flame around him.

Fire danced in a widening circle around the exotic swordsman, licking the curtains but never completely devouring them, flickering along the edges of his sword and playing along his fingertips. But before it could grow too much, droplets of water sprinkled from the ceiling above, dampening and slowly quenching it.

Relena appeared from the shadows, clad in a shimmering indigo gown, sodden hair falling in dark wet coils around her shoulders. She lifted her hands. Wufei raised his sword.

The next several minutes were perfectly choreographed and, to Duo, utterly unbelievable. Wufei, he realised, was a firestarter. He called flames from the air, or from his fingers, and Relena summoned streams of water just as easily. The two elements danced round each other, as did their creators, until in one last final moment they embraced, and the resulting steam obscured them from all view as they disappeared.

Applause erupted from the audience, far louder than what so few people should have been able to do. Even Sylvia bounced to her feet, her eyes bright and sparkling.

"I see what you mean about not being able to top them," Duo muttered to Hilde under his breath.

She flashed him a grin. "Just wait. They're not even the best part."

Wufei and Relena appeared as the cheers were dying down, miraculously un-singed and un-waterlogged, and took two of the empty chairs. "Trowa and Cathy next," Relena mouthed to Hilde, who nodded in response.

There was a flash of light. Not fire this time, but coloured lights, dazzling and blinding and utterly dizzying, as the twins descended from the ceiling in a billow of smoke. Cathy was in violet satin, with a sheer tulle skirt, and feathers in her hair; Trowa's costume was a skintight harlequin's motley. Duo didn't need to look closely to know neither was on a line, but that rather Catherine's telekinesis was keeping them both afloat. They landed, each with a gracious bow, and Trowa cartwheeled backward until he reached the wall.

Catherine opened her hands, displaying a collection of sharp, decourative daggers. She tossed them into the air--only juggling at first, then faster, and faster yet, until it was impossible to distinguish one from another, and they were only a silvery blur around her hands.

Thunk! One hit the back wall, almost pinning Trowa to it. He stood perfectly still, impassive. Another knife divested itself from the blur and sailed toward him--then another, and another, til the air was full of silver and the eye could no longer keep track of where the knives flew and where they landed.

But when the vision cleared, Trowa had vanished, and his body was outlined perfectly on the wall.

"Psst!" Hilde nudged Duo again. "Look up!"

He did, and saw Trowa--dangling upside-down by one foot from the chandelier, his arms stretched downward. He motioned to his sister, and she leapt upward toward him--and from there the two launched into a trapeze act with no line and no net that involved the entire room and all the furniture in it. It wasn't until they landed in the centre once more, Trowa taking a bow with Catherine perched on his shoulder, that Duo remembered to breathe.

"Incredible," he breathed in satisfaction. Hilde just grinned.

The twins joined the audience as well, and the lights signified change of act yet one more time. Quatre entered with less ceremony than the others--he merely stood in the centre of the stage, in an exotic costume of red silk and beadwork, a violin resting against his chin. Silence fell.

And he began to play.

While Duo had never been exposed to too much in the way of cultural events, he was certain no other music in the world sounded quite like this. The song was not merely /heard/, or even sensed--it permeated the universe, seeped into the air, wound its way through his bones and skin to embrace his very heart. He could feel it in his hair, in his breath, he could taste it--it was desperation and eternal rapture, heartbreak without tears, emptiness and ultimate fulfillment--it was too much, too much all at once, and as tears streamed from Duo's eyes he wondered if he would survive to hear the end of it.

Darkness enfolded him, and he floated--then fell, blind and insubstantial--

"Duo!" It was Hilde's voice, screaming. "Quatre, stop!"

The music broke off--loss, beyond all comprehension, and Duo wanted to cry--there were people about him, calling his name--and pain, pain past anything he'd ever felt before--

"I'm sorry!" Quatre was gasping tearfully. Hands seized Duo's shoulders and pulled him up. "I'm sorry--I didn't mean to--somebody get Sally!"

"What's the matter with him?" Dorothy was asking, and he could hear the scrape of chairs moving against the floor, and the pound of feet.

A scream broke through the darkness, and chaos erupted. Too many voices, all talking at once, calling his name, calling for someone named Sally or trying to hush the screaming.

"Quatre, see to Sylvia--"

"What happened? What's the matter with Duo? Why is Sylvia screaming?"

And amid it all, strong arms gathered him up and held him close. "I've got him," a low soft voice said firmly, soothing Duo's inflamed skin and calming his heart.

"Good--Heero, take him to Sally." Treize was calm, always calm, no matter what the situation.

Duo felt movement, and the voices faded behind him. Still cloaked in darkness, he snuggled into the shelter of those arms, comforted--he had never felt /safe/ like this before, and he wanted to hold onto the sensation forever.

And then even the feel of those arms faded away.