Chapter 5:

Chapter 5: Hn, some new roommates, eh?

Duo leaned back and grinned. 'They're both so hot,' Duo thought, almost licking his lips. 'I can't believe our luck.' Duo then caught a glance of Heero who was disinterestedly stirring his soda with his straw. 'Or at least, my luck.' He grinned again.

"So, who are you?" The girl with dark hair sounded impatient. She was tapping her finger on the table, like she had somewhere else to be and they were holding her up. Well, can't keep her waiting.

Duo looked over at Heero, hoping to get some sort of affirmation to tell their tale, but he didn't get the clue. Heero just kept staring at his soda, like he was watching the fizz.

Sighing, Duo turned his head back on the girls. "WELL," He said with a broad smile, "Are you sure you want to know? Cause then we might have to kill you." He winked.

"Oh, shut up!" Usagi laughed. "Just tell us your story already!"

Duo took a breath. "OK. Well, I was in bed last night, ne? And I thought I was the only one awake, until I heard this totally monstrous groan from Heero's direction. I got so excited; I really wanted to talk to somebody. So I called out his name like a million times, but he didn't answer me. But I REALLY wanted to talk to somebody, you know? And I just KNEW he was awake, so I went over to his bed and whispered in his ear. He got so annoyed; I can tell when he doesn't want to be bothered. But I didn't really care. I was lonely, you know? Besides, I could tell something was bothering him. You don't just groan like that in the middle of the night without any reason. So I—"

"Maxwell, get to the point." Heero sounded annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting there, OK?" Duo took a bite of his burger, then continued. "So I asked him what was wrong. And man alive, did this kid have a rough day!" Duo started laughing out loud, and patted Heero on the back. In response, Heero just rolled his eyes then turned his attention back on his drink. "Do you know what happened to him?" Duo said mysteriously.

"What?" asked Rei.

"His girlfriend dumped him!" Heero almost spit his soda out. Did this baka just tell them what he thought he did? Maxwell was gonna get it. And bad.

Usagi's head shot up like a bolt. 'Whaaaaat? His girlfriend dumped him? That's amazing…we have something in common…' Her countenance softened.

"Well that's funny!" Rei laughed, "Cause the same exact thing happened to Usagi here yesterday!"

"REI!" Usagi screamed, standing up and grabbing her friend by the collar. "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TELL ANYONE THAT!"

The whole restaurant stopped. Everyone looked at Usagi and Rei.

"Woopsies…" Usagi let go of Rei's shirt and slowly sank back into her seat. "Carry on…" she said sheepishly, and waved a hand at Duo.

Annoyed, Rei straightened out her shirt. "Stupid blonde, you never told me that."

"It was supposed to be understood! I bet you've told everyone by now!!"

"Then next time, say it! And Jeez Usagi, give me some credit! I'm not a friggin gossip. I haven't told another soul. That is, erm..unless you count them."

"Well there's nothing we can do about that now."

"Yeah, yeah. Lets talk about this later, huh? Hey, go on..er..? What's your name?" Rei looked at Duo, realizing they hadn't introduced themselves.

"Oh! I'm Maxwell Duo! Nice to meet ya!" He outstretched his hand to Rei, smiling.

"Hino Rei," she replied, blushing mildly as she shook his hand. 'He's so cute…with that big grin of his. And that braid! It's so long! How much fun it would be to play with it…And those violet eyes..'

"Yuy Heero." Heero kept his arm to himself.

"Well, you all know me!" Usagi cried happily.

"Yeah Yeah, whatever." Rei focused her attention on Duo. "Now continue your story?"

"Well where was I? Oh yeah! Heero got dumped! Heh Heh..well, anyway, after he told me that, I was in total shock. I seriously thought they were gonna get married. I mean like, this girl practically stalked him, and then she went on and dumped him? Didn't make sense. But anyway, that's what happened, even if it was totally weird. But then he got pissed at me, slugged me, and kicked me off his bed."

"Maxwell! You were acting like a baka." What? Heero speaks?

Duo arched an eyebrow. "Heero, all I did was tell you what I thought."

Heero raised one back. "Enough said." He couldn't believe that Duo was telling these two girls all these things. About Relena. They had never even met them before, haven't known either of them for more than an hour! And there's Duo, yakking his head off for some mere female attention. Here it was, Heero Yuy's life on a platter, served to these two girls like it was nothing special. Inwardly, Heero grunted. Never again would anything escape his mouth to Duo's ears, especially personal matters.

"ANYWAY, then we fell asleep. But his alarm clock went off at like, four o'clock in the morning, so he woke everyone up."

"Who's everyone?" questioned Usagi.

"Everyone would be me, Wufei, Quatre and Trowa. We all share an apartment."

"How do you all know each other?" asked Rei.

"We work together," interrupted Heero. Duo had given away enough secrets for one day.

"Ya so, after Heero took a shower, he went outside and went for a run. I felt like something was up, you know, being the intuitive friend I am and all, and followed him." Duo bit off half a fry for effect, then continued. "And when I finally caught up with him, he was standing blankly infront of this tiny library. Let me tell you, when I saw that library, I kinda got excited. I like libraries, you know? But I hadn't been inside one since I was a little kid cause I've been so…erm....busy. So I asked Heero to go in with me, and to my surprise he did. Then we found this really freaky looking book. I mean like man, it was weird. It was all old and stuff, and none of the words made any sense. But anyway, I was feeling stupid—"

"Like always," said Heero.

"— so I read out loud this phrase that was written beside this picture of a city. Next thing I knew, we we're flying through a portal, and I woke up here." Duo ate another fry.

"Whaaat? So you're saying you're from another dimension or something?" Rei didn't believe it. She looked at Usagi for affirmation.

"It's true, Rei! They landed on my lap!"

"In class?"

Usagi nervously twitched in her seat. "I umm...didn't...er...exactly...go to class."

Usagi cringed as she waited for Rei to explode, but it didn't come. Instead, Rei put her hand on her shoulder and smiled. "That makes sense." Usagi smiled back.

'She really does understand..' Usagi thought.

"So what's this? They landed on your lap, eh?"

"Yeah! I was sleeping under that huge cherry blossom tree in the park, ne? And I woke up because these two bodies landed on me! It was the weirdest thing!"

Heero looked at Usagi and suppressed a smile. 'Definitely the most pleasant thing to land on.'

"So," Rei said, "Now what?"

"Got me," Duo replied.

"Where you guys gonna stay?"

"Got me again." Duo got a thought. "Why—are you offering?" An evil grin spread across his face.

Usagi looked at Rei, and Rei looked at Usagi.

'Heero, in my home, day in and day out? Looking at me with those gorgeous Prussian eyes, half-asleep on my couch? Eating dinner with me every night? Seeing me off in the morning and waiting for me when I get home? Hello!'

'Duo, in my apartment, living there? Taking a shower in my bathroom, sitting next to me late at night watching tv, cracking jokes? Lounging around the place, with that sumptuous braid of his and those stunning blue eyes? Oh baby!'

"Sure!" They gleefully replied in unison.

Heero couldn't believe it. These girls actually wanted him and Duo to stay with them? Or better yet, Usagi sounded excited about him living with her?

"It's settled then," Duo said, still grinning. 'Look out Rei,' he thought, 'Shingami-daddy's gonna be with you for a looooong time!'

The waitress came and left them their bill, and Usagi paid it. As they were walking out of the restaurant, Duo turned to Heero and started talking lowly, so the girls wouldn't hear.

"We're pretty damn lucky fella's, eh?" Duo nudged him in his side. "Not to mention this is just the thing you need right now, to get your mind off Relena. The blonde seems to have an attraction to you, Heero. You should go for it. I mean, she's in the middle of a heartbreak too, ne? You guys can uh, comfort each other," he winked, "if ya know what I mean."

"Duo, get off it," Heero replied, showing no external interest. But the thing was, he really was interested. The tiny blonde girl with the pigtails had captivated him. Not in the way Relena had, with her wishful thinking about peace, stalking and proclamations of love— oh no. This small, blue eyed wonder had charmed him with a certain mystery, with an almost silenced beauty. Who ever had let her go had certainly missed out, been ill informed or legally blind, because this girl was…astonishing!

"So ah..should we check out this apartment of ours?" Duo asked cheerfully as they stood in the street.

"Yeah sure!" cried Rei, grabbing Duo's arm. "Follow me!"

Usagi blinked. She watched Rei and Duo walk off ahead of her, both of them talking a mile a minute. 'What the heck do they have to talk about?' But her thoughts were interrupted.

"Should we follow them?"

Usagi turned to the voice, and saw Heero looking at her, a hand in his pocket and the other holding a thick, funny-looking book.

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authors notes

Well, there you guys go! Another chapter to "In a World Where Pain is Real'!! ::wipes forehead:: phew! That was kinda hard to come up with! I'm getting dry for idea's here! BTW..sorry the chapter's kinda boring, but I hope it somewhat satisfies you all ^_^ Now I suppose I'll go work on another chapter for "My Life with Heero Yuy"…you guys really seem like that one, ne? HEHE! There's only two chapters in that one so far, but you guys have given me so many kind reviews for it! (more than this one has, and it's been around longer AND has more chapters!) ::bows:: Thank you, thank you!! I feel so loved!!

E-mail me! Any of you! I'm bored – I get no personal mail! I WANT TO TALK! Talk to me!!! Ok?

HEY- give me some constructive criticism on this, if it crosses your mind? But not like that happy cabbit idiot..that person just got pissed at me so they felt like they had get me back (immature…bla bla bla, you know how it is). You know what? I WISH my fic's read like an *N SYNC song! Cause then I'd be rich – all my fic's would be massive hits, I'd have publishing companies banging down my doors to write novels for them to put out! I'd get millions of reviews…loyal fans. My face would be plastered in teeny bopper magazines…Heck, life would be sweet! ::giggles::