Disclaimer: I do not and never have/will own the copyrights to Gundam Wing
and/or any other such production. All of these programmes are available
from Bandai Entertainment.
Thank you to all of those who are there for me, but especially to all my dragonflies. Bouncing Beth, Salt, AnAngel, angry red dude, elfgrrl, sk8r Ana, Carla, indigo and all the rest that I don't have space to include. You have all made me feel so welcome and at home. I think about you all the time. I wish you all the best of luck, and I dedicate this fic to you guys.
The centre of my anxieties.
Part One.
Gazing happily around the table, Quatre asked the question that all the pilots dreaded hearing, but heard anyway ever single day.
''How's the food guys?''
''Hn'' this would be the longest sentence Heero would mutter throughout the course of the meal.
''Good.'' This, also, was a speech, coming as it did from Trowa.
''You do the world of chicken a great justice, friend Quatre.'' Wufei just politely cut up his food and shovelled it into his mouth.
Quatre couldn't help staring at the empty place at the table. Duo was always late for meals, if he showed up at all. It wasn't that he was rude, or that he didn't like Quatre's cooking, he just generally didn't have a large appetite, and he was usually busy with schoolwork most nights. But Quatre still worried about his friend; the American was losing weight, excersing more, and spending more time in his room.
Sighing and folding his napkin into a small neat square, an action that made him feel calm; he stood up and excused himself from the table. He walked away from the dining room and up the two flights of stairs to duo's room on the top floor. Duo got the whole top floor to himself, since he had his gym and astronomy things set up there. Wufei got the second floor, Heero and Trowa, the large first floor, and Quatre had his quarters in the basement rooms, along with the kitchen and dining room. The ground floor had the living room, guest room and guest bathroom.
Once he reached the top of the stairs, Quatre paused. Should he knock on the door and ask duo if he was coming down to dinner? He had asked the question twice before, and both times it had been received by a blank look, and a flat reply. 'I'm busy' was the favourite. That was another thing. Duo was becoming more and more.there was no other word for it, Heero-like. He had stopped being as animated and lively in some ways, but in other ways he seemed more assertive. Like school, for instance, and his love life. In the past two months he had had two girlfriends. One had last two weeks, before duo reported that they 'just didn't see eye to eye on certain subjects'. The other had been going strong for five weeks now.
In the end Quatre just knocked quietly on the door and informed the blaring stereo that dinner had been served, if it was interested.
Making his way down the stairs, Quatre thought that duo might just be having a small identity crisis. Thinking that he had maybe solved the mystery, it was a happier pilot who sat down to his square napkin.
***
"Angela, do you know where Duo is?" Heero approached the girl standing outside the boys bathroom, twirling a purple ball point pen between her fingers.
"Dude, WOULD I be standing outside the guys room if he wasn't in there?"
"Hey kiddo, some people get their kicks like that." Heero delivered this well practised line with a dead pan voice that made it hard to tell if he was joking. He waited for the customary answer, and wasn't disappointed.
"Hey man, it's your lifestyle, I ain't gonna interfere with your 'fun'. Each to his own."
"Catcha later, yeah?"
"Sure sweetie." Heero knew she called everyone sweetie, because her memory was notoriously bad, and it was better than asking everyone's name every time they spoke to her. Well, Heero knew that, but not many other people did. Being friends with Duo meant that he was told (whether or not he wanted to know) certain things about Duo's girlfriend. He pushed into the lil boy's rooms and his eyes swept the front area quickly. Damn, not there.
"Duo, man, you in here?"
"Dude," came a voice from the back of the room. "WOULD there be a hot skinny chick waiting outside if I wasn't?" Heero could almost hear the grin, and there it was, almost preceding duo as he walked out of his cubicle, zipping up his trousers.
"Seriously not cool, referring to her as 'the hot skinny chick'. You make it sound as though girls have to be skinny." Heero waited while duo washed his hands and checked his hair.
"She is a hot skinny chick. " duo stated, flicking the water from his hands at Heero and walking out the room, greeted by a 'hiya' from Angela who immediately put her arm around his waist. "Now what 'ya want? I know you didn't follow me into the bathroom for your own health."
"Yeah, err," Heero glanced at Angela, then gave up. He didn't want to talk to duo in front of her, he thought maybe duo didn't want to have this discussion near his girlfriend, and Heero didn't want that either. "Just wanted to know if you were going to the club tomorrow." He made up, lamely. He already knew that duo was going.
"Yeah, you knew that didn't you? Angie's never been to a club, so I guess she's a club virgin, which means that I will have to be there to make sure she has fun."
"Ah, and to think, my first time will be at a club in Camden that you admittedly couldn't even find until an hour till closing. How romantic." Angela fluttered her eyelashes and gushed sarcastically. Sensing rather than seeing duo's pout, she tiptoed up and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'm sure I'll love it Hun. Don't sweat it sweetie."
Duo resumed his grin and whirled Angela around so that she was facing him. Stopping for a moment he look deep into her eyes before leaning down to kiss her. Heero just threw his hands up in the air and mumbled something about public indecency in Japanese. Angela just softly bit Duo's lip and giggled, while Mr Maxwell himself decided to annoy Heero even more by putting his hands behind Angela's back and dipping her down in a classic Gomez-and-Morticia-Adams-end-of-dance move. He dipped her down so low that if her hair hadn't been up, it would have swept the floor clean.
"Ok lovebirds, I'm off. Some people actually have lives and not just love lives." With that Heero stalked off and up the stairs that would carry him to the school library. Off course, he had to fight his way past several groups of first years sitting or standing in the corridors. He wasn't used to going to english schools, where all kids from ages 11 to 18 where together. He was used to middle school and junior high school and high school. This change had him annoyed. Why did he have to receive his education with a bunch of pre-pubescent little girls and boys?
Distantly he heard the sound of a raised adult voice coming from the foyer where he had left duo and Angela. Ha! A teacher had caught them. Heero laughed softly to himself, before coming across a gang of twelve year old girls that just stood on the stairs and blacked his way, giggling and nudging each other.
"Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!" he had learnt that shocking this particular species of student worked well, and sure enough, they stood for only a second, looking scandalised, before they scattered.
***
"Maxwell, are you coming down to lunch or what?" Trowa nudged the shoulder of the pilot, wakening him from the light doze he had been in.
"Wha?" duo yawned and stretched his arms high in the air, pulling his shirt out of his trousers and cracking the dormant muscles in his knuckles.
"Lunch, food, tapas, denrées. Comprenday?" seeing the spaced out look on his friend's face, he gave up and grabbed his rucksack, slinging it over his shoulder. "I'll tell Angela you're here then, if I see her at lunch."
"Cool, cool." Duo lay his head back down on the table and started the strange soft snuffling noise that meant he was getting ready to sleep again. Trowa just growled slightly and made his way out the door.
As he reached his locker at the end of the corridor, his mind was working overtime. Duo had been getting more and more strange lately. He slept through the lessons he didn't care about, but he has constant bags under his eyes. They weren't large, just small blue shadows, but they were still obvious if you knew how duo usually looked. And because Trowa had known duo for about two years, he knew how he usually looked. He was also starting to lose weight, and Trowa had noticed something when duo had stretched in the form room they shared.
His shirt had come out of his trousers and Trowa had taken the opportunity to have a peek at his chest. It wasn't that he was attracted to him, ugh, god forbid, it was just that he had a suspicion and he wanted to confirm it. Sure enough, duo's usually lean body was especially lean, and his ribs where showing very obviously. Trowa could almost feel the chair under him tip and turn 360 degrees, he felt sick seeing his friend like this. No matter what happened, Trowa had to find out what was happening. He suspected that duo had come down with some sort of virus, and that it was slowly depleting his health.
Slamming his locker shut and turning the lock he jumped and dropped his newly acquired books when he saw something that was totally unexpected.
Heero had just entered the library, and there wasn't a teacher standing behind him forcing him to.
***
"Never seen you here before Yuy." Wufei didn't have to look up from his screen to know that his housemate was standing behind him. Luckily, he had noticed Heero's presence as soon as he entered the room, and had minimised the window on the screen and opened another one to a safe site. The bright colours in the Google sign greeted him.
"Never been in here before, Chang." Replied the pilot. "What are you searching for?"
"Work experience placements." Wufei replied without a pause, typing the words as he said them. He knew this was a lie, and so did Heero, but Yuy didn't ask, so Chang didn't offer. "What are you doing in here?"
"Research. Just looking something up. Do you know where the books on psychology and psychiatry are?"
"They're in the same section as religion and politics, third shelf, fourth shelf and sixth shelf, left column." Wufei knew where everything was, that was the point of being assistant librarian, wasn't it? He didn't like the job, but it meant that he had unlimited Internet access on a private laptop, and since he was seventeen and didn't have to do it, the school paid him. God bless political correctness.
"Why not the fifth shelf?" Heero didn't care, but mindless chit-chat seemed ok for now, as he made his way to the shelves and back, with a armload of books.
"Dunno." Wufei did know, he just couldn't be assed to explain. "Listen, hate to be rude " liar, he thought inwardly " but this isn't the study area, if there's nothing else you want, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."
"It's about duo."
"What about him?" Wufei was more than a little annoyed that Heero had decided to insert himself into duo's business, more for the fact that now he would have to discuss it. Finally giving in, he switched the screen of his laptop off and turning around.
"I think he's sick."
"Maxwell is always sick. He never does his homework, and it's the only way he can get past the teachers. Those women love him, for some reason." Wufei straightened his uniform black trousers and black tie, and leant back with his hand behind his head.
"No, I mean, I think he's got a disease or something. He's wasting away, he's always really tired, and he keeps half collapsing in gym."
Wufei sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't want to get into viruses and stuff right now. "He's grown about ten inches in the last year. His body's just having trouble compensating. When he stops growing his weight will become normal. As for that other stuff, he's probably just a bit flue-y. Now, if there are no further questions, the doctor has double science in ten minutes and needs to find a dog who can eat his homework."
"See you then." Heero looked disappointed, but took the hint and left.
"Phew." Wufei whispered to himself. He switched on his screen and retrieved the minimised window:
"" Status: STUDENT
Student name: MAXWELL, DUO
Sex: MALE
Age: 17
History:
SUNGLASS CAFÉ*
FANFICTION.NET
DISCOVERY ONLINE
UNDERSTANDING FRENCH
UNDERSTANDING SCIENCE, LEVEL 10
Time last logged on: 16:36:45
Duration of stay: 1 hour 48 minutes ""
That was another perk of his job. Unlimited access to student files.
***
"Hun, do you have the little yellow pills?" Angela leaned over his shoulder and hugged him from behind. Duo was startled out of his daydream by her entrance.
"The xenadrine or the stackers?"
"The xenadrine. I'll get the stackers off you later."
"Sure. I can also get some hydroxycut and yellow jackets if you want." He took four small yellow pills in a popper foil container out of his breast pocket and handed them to her. "Don't take it all at once." He wagged his finger in the air at her.
"I thought yellow jackets and stackers where the same things?"
"Nah, some sort, different brands, I think." Duo picked a pen up and started tapping it against his forehead, his head turned towards his girlfriend with an odd smile. She didn't know it, but he was high on a pill that another friend had given him. He could think normally, but everything just seemed a bit more rosy and happy.
" Did he pack your lunch again for you?" Angela took a seat beside him in their form room and put the foil package into a zip up pocket in her purse, then held his left hand between both of hers. Rubbing them gently she placed her chin on his shoulder. Duo looked into her large green-amber eyes and felt nothing but deep affection. He knew she returned the feelings, and that made him feel so secure and loved and wonderful that he couldn't even find his voice. He just tucked a lock of stray blonde hair behind her ears and pinched her cheek playfully. He had to turn away before he could answer her.
"Yeah," he felt his voice crack slightly, but pretended he was concentrating on the math book which lay in front of him. " It's kinda sweet, he likes cooking and he cooks for us all the time, and now he's started making us lunch. Well, started making me lunch. The other guys all buy their lunch at school. I kept telling him that I was fine and that I could eat after school, but he wouldn't listen, so now I just take it from him and dump it on the walk over here."
"You walk? Still? I thought you gave that up. Well good for you. I'm too lazy. I admire your determination." She punctuated the last word with a slight tap on the nose. And then she leant forward and kissed him full on the mouth, a beautiful hungry kiss that lasted about a lifetime.
"Hmmm, if that's what I get for walking, what will you do for me if I run a marathon?" he teased once they had parted.
"You'll just have to run a marathon and see what you get." She shifted over so that she was practically sitting on his chair. He took the cue and moved his chair away from the table so that she could sit on his lap. They had given up all pretence of being discreet, even in the semi strict school that didn't like the thought of romantic relations. The two boys left in the form room, the only two who hadn't yet gone to lunch, hooted as the couple kissed again, but quieted to only soft wolf whistles and nudges after a growl from duo. Eventually, when they saw they weren't bugging the couple one bit, they picked up their bags and moved off.
'Finally,' thought duo 'some peace. Now we can be around each other without an audience.'
Famous last words.
A moment later, duo heard the sound of the door opening, and saw four boys enter the room. Well, he couldn't see anything, as Angela's hair covered his face, but he felt the shift in atmosphere, and recognised the electricity in the air. Sighing, he softly nibbled Angela's lip, signalling the end of one session. He could feel her growl beneath him, and for a moment thought he saw a glimmer of murderous rage at being interrupted in her eyes. But seeing as how he felt much the same, he chose to ignore it. The worst thing in the world was being interrupted in the middle of a really good kiss, but worse than that was having the interrupters wait around for you to finish.
"What is it guys?" Angela didn't budge from his lap, but instead put her arms around his back and curled up against his chest. He could feel her heart beat erratically through her ribcage, and she could feel his. They liked it this way and darned if they were going to move.
Famous last words.
"Maxwell, we need to talk to you." Heero was the first to speak. When met by the 'yeah, and?' look by duo, he added: "alone."
"No way, why alone? Anything you can say to me-" he couldn't finish before his lips where stopped by Angela's.
"Hun, if they need to talk to you alone, then alone it is. I don't mind leaving. See you in music?" she removed herself from his lap, ignoring the whine that escaped from his throat. She straitened her white short sleeved blouse and black tie, and pulled her short skirt down a bit. She only paused to pull up her above the knee black socks before leaving the room, pausing only to kiss Quatre on the cheek. She always did this, just to see the way he blushed furiously at the attention of the girl. She would never know, but Quatre liked this girl much more than he was willing to admit. But she loved duo, and he wasn't going to risk endangering that relationship.
"Thanks guys, you picked just the right moment, didn't you? Perfect bloody timing." Duo fumed.
"Now or never, Winner." Wufei muttered under his breath and pushed Quatre forward. The blonde Arabian slapped him away and scowled. Turning to duo, he put on a kinder face, and started to walk slowly up to him. When he reached duo he sat down in the chair opposite.
"How are you feeling?" Quatre tried to make the question sound casual, but the atmosphere in the room was so charged that all it served to do was send sparks flying through the air.
"Listen, I know that's not it, so either stop wasting time, or forget the whole thing." Duo was more than angry now, he was suspicious. Seeing the look on Quatre's face he added, "I feel fine! How else would I feel? Bloody hell."
"What have you had to eat today?" Quatre persisted in a quiet voice, knowing that if he got angry or started barking things at him, duo would just close up and not talk at all.
"Huh?" acting as though the question genuinely caught him off guard, he took a few seconds to consider his answer, pretending to the world that he was just confused. The whole 'run, hide but never lie' thing kind of made things awkward sometimes. " Two banana's, and some toast." Well, so what if yellow jackets were nicknamed bananas? He was still telling the truth. Some toast had actually been two nibbles early that morning before his work out, and he had spat them out, but still, he was telling the truth.
"Do you know what anorexia nervosa is, Duo?" Quatre didn't want to say it, but it was dragged out of his mouth by his compassion for a friend whom he could see was teetering on the edge.
This time the look of surprise on duo's face was genuine. He had expected everything but that. 'You're a drunk. 'You're a drug addict' 'you're a frigging alien from planet vesuveus!' he had expected anything but 'you have an eating disorder'
"Yeah, it's when fat girls diet, isn't it?" trying to act as though he was just plain dumbass, he squinted up at the clock.
Quatre turned around to face the other boys, all of whom were standing there, mouths gaping, jaws moving in silent speech. None of them had expected this, none of them had known that this was going to happen. Quatre had told them that they needed to speak to duo, and all of them had their own idea's what it was about, but to bring it outright into the open?
"Come on guys, " he chided softly, "you knew what this was about. Don't act shocked. I was on the trail of this thing about three months ago. I know that Wufei has been figuring it out for two and a half, although I don't really agree with his methods, " Wufei blushed, thinking about his hacking. "Heero came next, then Trowa. We all got there our own ways, but I think we all came to the same conclusion." The boys all looked at duo, their confusion and inability to deal with what was going on clear on their faces. Wufei turned a nervous laugh into a hacking cough, but his embarrassment was clear enough. Yes, they were embarrassed. Duo couldn't believe it.
"What? WHAT? Why are you all looking at me like that? Jesus, can't a guy just be left in peace?"
"Duo, you're sick, you need help."
"I don't need any help, I'm perfectly fine."
I'm perfectly fine.
Everything's perfectly fine.
***
ok, tell me what you think. Can I just request that people are gentle about their reviews though. I understand that some people are not prone to agree with my lifestyle, but would you please respect me enough as a human being that you don't bash my eating disorder in your review. Reviews are for the story, not the person. If you want to tell me that I'm a fat cow who's going to hell, feel free, but put it in your email to me, don't put it in your review. Thank you for respecting my choice and the tremendous amount of courage I had to muster just to post this. All my love, Ana Angel
Thank you to all of those who are there for me, but especially to all my dragonflies. Bouncing Beth, Salt, AnAngel, angry red dude, elfgrrl, sk8r Ana, Carla, indigo and all the rest that I don't have space to include. You have all made me feel so welcome and at home. I think about you all the time. I wish you all the best of luck, and I dedicate this fic to you guys.
The centre of my anxieties.
Part One.
Gazing happily around the table, Quatre asked the question that all the pilots dreaded hearing, but heard anyway ever single day.
''How's the food guys?''
''Hn'' this would be the longest sentence Heero would mutter throughout the course of the meal.
''Good.'' This, also, was a speech, coming as it did from Trowa.
''You do the world of chicken a great justice, friend Quatre.'' Wufei just politely cut up his food and shovelled it into his mouth.
Quatre couldn't help staring at the empty place at the table. Duo was always late for meals, if he showed up at all. It wasn't that he was rude, or that he didn't like Quatre's cooking, he just generally didn't have a large appetite, and he was usually busy with schoolwork most nights. But Quatre still worried about his friend; the American was losing weight, excersing more, and spending more time in his room.
Sighing and folding his napkin into a small neat square, an action that made him feel calm; he stood up and excused himself from the table. He walked away from the dining room and up the two flights of stairs to duo's room on the top floor. Duo got the whole top floor to himself, since he had his gym and astronomy things set up there. Wufei got the second floor, Heero and Trowa, the large first floor, and Quatre had his quarters in the basement rooms, along with the kitchen and dining room. The ground floor had the living room, guest room and guest bathroom.
Once he reached the top of the stairs, Quatre paused. Should he knock on the door and ask duo if he was coming down to dinner? He had asked the question twice before, and both times it had been received by a blank look, and a flat reply. 'I'm busy' was the favourite. That was another thing. Duo was becoming more and more.there was no other word for it, Heero-like. He had stopped being as animated and lively in some ways, but in other ways he seemed more assertive. Like school, for instance, and his love life. In the past two months he had had two girlfriends. One had last two weeks, before duo reported that they 'just didn't see eye to eye on certain subjects'. The other had been going strong for five weeks now.
In the end Quatre just knocked quietly on the door and informed the blaring stereo that dinner had been served, if it was interested.
Making his way down the stairs, Quatre thought that duo might just be having a small identity crisis. Thinking that he had maybe solved the mystery, it was a happier pilot who sat down to his square napkin.
***
"Angela, do you know where Duo is?" Heero approached the girl standing outside the boys bathroom, twirling a purple ball point pen between her fingers.
"Dude, WOULD I be standing outside the guys room if he wasn't in there?"
"Hey kiddo, some people get their kicks like that." Heero delivered this well practised line with a dead pan voice that made it hard to tell if he was joking. He waited for the customary answer, and wasn't disappointed.
"Hey man, it's your lifestyle, I ain't gonna interfere with your 'fun'. Each to his own."
"Catcha later, yeah?"
"Sure sweetie." Heero knew she called everyone sweetie, because her memory was notoriously bad, and it was better than asking everyone's name every time they spoke to her. Well, Heero knew that, but not many other people did. Being friends with Duo meant that he was told (whether or not he wanted to know) certain things about Duo's girlfriend. He pushed into the lil boy's rooms and his eyes swept the front area quickly. Damn, not there.
"Duo, man, you in here?"
"Dude," came a voice from the back of the room. "WOULD there be a hot skinny chick waiting outside if I wasn't?" Heero could almost hear the grin, and there it was, almost preceding duo as he walked out of his cubicle, zipping up his trousers.
"Seriously not cool, referring to her as 'the hot skinny chick'. You make it sound as though girls have to be skinny." Heero waited while duo washed his hands and checked his hair.
"She is a hot skinny chick. " duo stated, flicking the water from his hands at Heero and walking out the room, greeted by a 'hiya' from Angela who immediately put her arm around his waist. "Now what 'ya want? I know you didn't follow me into the bathroom for your own health."
"Yeah, err," Heero glanced at Angela, then gave up. He didn't want to talk to duo in front of her, he thought maybe duo didn't want to have this discussion near his girlfriend, and Heero didn't want that either. "Just wanted to know if you were going to the club tomorrow." He made up, lamely. He already knew that duo was going.
"Yeah, you knew that didn't you? Angie's never been to a club, so I guess she's a club virgin, which means that I will have to be there to make sure she has fun."
"Ah, and to think, my first time will be at a club in Camden that you admittedly couldn't even find until an hour till closing. How romantic." Angela fluttered her eyelashes and gushed sarcastically. Sensing rather than seeing duo's pout, she tiptoed up and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'm sure I'll love it Hun. Don't sweat it sweetie."
Duo resumed his grin and whirled Angela around so that she was facing him. Stopping for a moment he look deep into her eyes before leaning down to kiss her. Heero just threw his hands up in the air and mumbled something about public indecency in Japanese. Angela just softly bit Duo's lip and giggled, while Mr Maxwell himself decided to annoy Heero even more by putting his hands behind Angela's back and dipping her down in a classic Gomez-and-Morticia-Adams-end-of-dance move. He dipped her down so low that if her hair hadn't been up, it would have swept the floor clean.
"Ok lovebirds, I'm off. Some people actually have lives and not just love lives." With that Heero stalked off and up the stairs that would carry him to the school library. Off course, he had to fight his way past several groups of first years sitting or standing in the corridors. He wasn't used to going to english schools, where all kids from ages 11 to 18 where together. He was used to middle school and junior high school and high school. This change had him annoyed. Why did he have to receive his education with a bunch of pre-pubescent little girls and boys?
Distantly he heard the sound of a raised adult voice coming from the foyer where he had left duo and Angela. Ha! A teacher had caught them. Heero laughed softly to himself, before coming across a gang of twelve year old girls that just stood on the stairs and blacked his way, giggling and nudging each other.
"Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!" he had learnt that shocking this particular species of student worked well, and sure enough, they stood for only a second, looking scandalised, before they scattered.
***
"Maxwell, are you coming down to lunch or what?" Trowa nudged the shoulder of the pilot, wakening him from the light doze he had been in.
"Wha?" duo yawned and stretched his arms high in the air, pulling his shirt out of his trousers and cracking the dormant muscles in his knuckles.
"Lunch, food, tapas, denrées. Comprenday?" seeing the spaced out look on his friend's face, he gave up and grabbed his rucksack, slinging it over his shoulder. "I'll tell Angela you're here then, if I see her at lunch."
"Cool, cool." Duo lay his head back down on the table and started the strange soft snuffling noise that meant he was getting ready to sleep again. Trowa just growled slightly and made his way out the door.
As he reached his locker at the end of the corridor, his mind was working overtime. Duo had been getting more and more strange lately. He slept through the lessons he didn't care about, but he has constant bags under his eyes. They weren't large, just small blue shadows, but they were still obvious if you knew how duo usually looked. And because Trowa had known duo for about two years, he knew how he usually looked. He was also starting to lose weight, and Trowa had noticed something when duo had stretched in the form room they shared.
His shirt had come out of his trousers and Trowa had taken the opportunity to have a peek at his chest. It wasn't that he was attracted to him, ugh, god forbid, it was just that he had a suspicion and he wanted to confirm it. Sure enough, duo's usually lean body was especially lean, and his ribs where showing very obviously. Trowa could almost feel the chair under him tip and turn 360 degrees, he felt sick seeing his friend like this. No matter what happened, Trowa had to find out what was happening. He suspected that duo had come down with some sort of virus, and that it was slowly depleting his health.
Slamming his locker shut and turning the lock he jumped and dropped his newly acquired books when he saw something that was totally unexpected.
Heero had just entered the library, and there wasn't a teacher standing behind him forcing him to.
***
"Never seen you here before Yuy." Wufei didn't have to look up from his screen to know that his housemate was standing behind him. Luckily, he had noticed Heero's presence as soon as he entered the room, and had minimised the window on the screen and opened another one to a safe site. The bright colours in the Google sign greeted him.
"Never been in here before, Chang." Replied the pilot. "What are you searching for?"
"Work experience placements." Wufei replied without a pause, typing the words as he said them. He knew this was a lie, and so did Heero, but Yuy didn't ask, so Chang didn't offer. "What are you doing in here?"
"Research. Just looking something up. Do you know where the books on psychology and psychiatry are?"
"They're in the same section as religion and politics, third shelf, fourth shelf and sixth shelf, left column." Wufei knew where everything was, that was the point of being assistant librarian, wasn't it? He didn't like the job, but it meant that he had unlimited Internet access on a private laptop, and since he was seventeen and didn't have to do it, the school paid him. God bless political correctness.
"Why not the fifth shelf?" Heero didn't care, but mindless chit-chat seemed ok for now, as he made his way to the shelves and back, with a armload of books.
"Dunno." Wufei did know, he just couldn't be assed to explain. "Listen, hate to be rude " liar, he thought inwardly " but this isn't the study area, if there's nothing else you want, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."
"It's about duo."
"What about him?" Wufei was more than a little annoyed that Heero had decided to insert himself into duo's business, more for the fact that now he would have to discuss it. Finally giving in, he switched the screen of his laptop off and turning around.
"I think he's sick."
"Maxwell is always sick. He never does his homework, and it's the only way he can get past the teachers. Those women love him, for some reason." Wufei straightened his uniform black trousers and black tie, and leant back with his hand behind his head.
"No, I mean, I think he's got a disease or something. He's wasting away, he's always really tired, and he keeps half collapsing in gym."
Wufei sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't want to get into viruses and stuff right now. "He's grown about ten inches in the last year. His body's just having trouble compensating. When he stops growing his weight will become normal. As for that other stuff, he's probably just a bit flue-y. Now, if there are no further questions, the doctor has double science in ten minutes and needs to find a dog who can eat his homework."
"See you then." Heero looked disappointed, but took the hint and left.
"Phew." Wufei whispered to himself. He switched on his screen and retrieved the minimised window:
"" Status: STUDENT
Student name: MAXWELL, DUO
Sex: MALE
Age: 17
History:
SUNGLASS CAFÉ*
FANFICTION.NET
DISCOVERY ONLINE
UNDERSTANDING FRENCH
UNDERSTANDING SCIENCE, LEVEL 10
Time last logged on: 16:36:45
Duration of stay: 1 hour 48 minutes ""
That was another perk of his job. Unlimited access to student files.
***
"Hun, do you have the little yellow pills?" Angela leaned over his shoulder and hugged him from behind. Duo was startled out of his daydream by her entrance.
"The xenadrine or the stackers?"
"The xenadrine. I'll get the stackers off you later."
"Sure. I can also get some hydroxycut and yellow jackets if you want." He took four small yellow pills in a popper foil container out of his breast pocket and handed them to her. "Don't take it all at once." He wagged his finger in the air at her.
"I thought yellow jackets and stackers where the same things?"
"Nah, some sort, different brands, I think." Duo picked a pen up and started tapping it against his forehead, his head turned towards his girlfriend with an odd smile. She didn't know it, but he was high on a pill that another friend had given him. He could think normally, but everything just seemed a bit more rosy and happy.
" Did he pack your lunch again for you?" Angela took a seat beside him in their form room and put the foil package into a zip up pocket in her purse, then held his left hand between both of hers. Rubbing them gently she placed her chin on his shoulder. Duo looked into her large green-amber eyes and felt nothing but deep affection. He knew she returned the feelings, and that made him feel so secure and loved and wonderful that he couldn't even find his voice. He just tucked a lock of stray blonde hair behind her ears and pinched her cheek playfully. He had to turn away before he could answer her.
"Yeah," he felt his voice crack slightly, but pretended he was concentrating on the math book which lay in front of him. " It's kinda sweet, he likes cooking and he cooks for us all the time, and now he's started making us lunch. Well, started making me lunch. The other guys all buy their lunch at school. I kept telling him that I was fine and that I could eat after school, but he wouldn't listen, so now I just take it from him and dump it on the walk over here."
"You walk? Still? I thought you gave that up. Well good for you. I'm too lazy. I admire your determination." She punctuated the last word with a slight tap on the nose. And then she leant forward and kissed him full on the mouth, a beautiful hungry kiss that lasted about a lifetime.
"Hmmm, if that's what I get for walking, what will you do for me if I run a marathon?" he teased once they had parted.
"You'll just have to run a marathon and see what you get." She shifted over so that she was practically sitting on his chair. He took the cue and moved his chair away from the table so that she could sit on his lap. They had given up all pretence of being discreet, even in the semi strict school that didn't like the thought of romantic relations. The two boys left in the form room, the only two who hadn't yet gone to lunch, hooted as the couple kissed again, but quieted to only soft wolf whistles and nudges after a growl from duo. Eventually, when they saw they weren't bugging the couple one bit, they picked up their bags and moved off.
'Finally,' thought duo 'some peace. Now we can be around each other without an audience.'
Famous last words.
A moment later, duo heard the sound of the door opening, and saw four boys enter the room. Well, he couldn't see anything, as Angela's hair covered his face, but he felt the shift in atmosphere, and recognised the electricity in the air. Sighing, he softly nibbled Angela's lip, signalling the end of one session. He could feel her growl beneath him, and for a moment thought he saw a glimmer of murderous rage at being interrupted in her eyes. But seeing as how he felt much the same, he chose to ignore it. The worst thing in the world was being interrupted in the middle of a really good kiss, but worse than that was having the interrupters wait around for you to finish.
"What is it guys?" Angela didn't budge from his lap, but instead put her arms around his back and curled up against his chest. He could feel her heart beat erratically through her ribcage, and she could feel his. They liked it this way and darned if they were going to move.
Famous last words.
"Maxwell, we need to talk to you." Heero was the first to speak. When met by the 'yeah, and?' look by duo, he added: "alone."
"No way, why alone? Anything you can say to me-" he couldn't finish before his lips where stopped by Angela's.
"Hun, if they need to talk to you alone, then alone it is. I don't mind leaving. See you in music?" she removed herself from his lap, ignoring the whine that escaped from his throat. She straitened her white short sleeved blouse and black tie, and pulled her short skirt down a bit. She only paused to pull up her above the knee black socks before leaving the room, pausing only to kiss Quatre on the cheek. She always did this, just to see the way he blushed furiously at the attention of the girl. She would never know, but Quatre liked this girl much more than he was willing to admit. But she loved duo, and he wasn't going to risk endangering that relationship.
"Thanks guys, you picked just the right moment, didn't you? Perfect bloody timing." Duo fumed.
"Now or never, Winner." Wufei muttered under his breath and pushed Quatre forward. The blonde Arabian slapped him away and scowled. Turning to duo, he put on a kinder face, and started to walk slowly up to him. When he reached duo he sat down in the chair opposite.
"How are you feeling?" Quatre tried to make the question sound casual, but the atmosphere in the room was so charged that all it served to do was send sparks flying through the air.
"Listen, I know that's not it, so either stop wasting time, or forget the whole thing." Duo was more than angry now, he was suspicious. Seeing the look on Quatre's face he added, "I feel fine! How else would I feel? Bloody hell."
"What have you had to eat today?" Quatre persisted in a quiet voice, knowing that if he got angry or started barking things at him, duo would just close up and not talk at all.
"Huh?" acting as though the question genuinely caught him off guard, he took a few seconds to consider his answer, pretending to the world that he was just confused. The whole 'run, hide but never lie' thing kind of made things awkward sometimes. " Two banana's, and some toast." Well, so what if yellow jackets were nicknamed bananas? He was still telling the truth. Some toast had actually been two nibbles early that morning before his work out, and he had spat them out, but still, he was telling the truth.
"Do you know what anorexia nervosa is, Duo?" Quatre didn't want to say it, but it was dragged out of his mouth by his compassion for a friend whom he could see was teetering on the edge.
This time the look of surprise on duo's face was genuine. He had expected everything but that. 'You're a drunk. 'You're a drug addict' 'you're a frigging alien from planet vesuveus!' he had expected anything but 'you have an eating disorder'
"Yeah, it's when fat girls diet, isn't it?" trying to act as though he was just plain dumbass, he squinted up at the clock.
Quatre turned around to face the other boys, all of whom were standing there, mouths gaping, jaws moving in silent speech. None of them had expected this, none of them had known that this was going to happen. Quatre had told them that they needed to speak to duo, and all of them had their own idea's what it was about, but to bring it outright into the open?
"Come on guys, " he chided softly, "you knew what this was about. Don't act shocked. I was on the trail of this thing about three months ago. I know that Wufei has been figuring it out for two and a half, although I don't really agree with his methods, " Wufei blushed, thinking about his hacking. "Heero came next, then Trowa. We all got there our own ways, but I think we all came to the same conclusion." The boys all looked at duo, their confusion and inability to deal with what was going on clear on their faces. Wufei turned a nervous laugh into a hacking cough, but his embarrassment was clear enough. Yes, they were embarrassed. Duo couldn't believe it.
"What? WHAT? Why are you all looking at me like that? Jesus, can't a guy just be left in peace?"
"Duo, you're sick, you need help."
"I don't need any help, I'm perfectly fine."
I'm perfectly fine.
Everything's perfectly fine.
***
ok, tell me what you think. Can I just request that people are gentle about their reviews though. I understand that some people are not prone to agree with my lifestyle, but would you please respect me enough as a human being that you don't bash my eating disorder in your review. Reviews are for the story, not the person. If you want to tell me that I'm a fat cow who's going to hell, feel free, but put it in your email to me, don't put it in your review. Thank you for respecting my choice and the tremendous amount of courage I had to muster just to post this. All my love, Ana Angel