Heero awoke in his room in a mild daze. The talk he had with Trowa the night before still burned in his mind and he was not too eager to submit to his hormones and his heart completely yet. He still did not believe that he was worthy of Duo's love or if his feelings were reciprocated. Sure, there were always those moments when their hands would brush by and a feeling of electricity would run up his spine, or when their eyes met, it was as if the world itself stopped. But that was not love. Love could not be based on moments alone, it had to be based on what he would always feel for Duo in his heart.
He pondered lazily about Trowa and Quatre's relationship. They were perfect for each other; they complemented the other in a way that no one else on the planet could. They had their little tiffs over the stupidest of things, but always got over it and returned to the other's arms. They were always taking care of each other when the other got hurt and didn't let anyone else near them. They could communicate without words, but a mere glance, wink, or shrug would mean the same as a sentence. They were what Heero hoped he and Duo could have one day. But...
The Japanese boy groaned. This was still just a game to Duo. The stage was set just right for Duo to take his ultimate revenge for the humiliation of having to be a girl. Duo _was_ the expert on emotions, so he probably had already clearly read Heero's. No matter how hard the Japanese boy tried to hide it, there were just too many slips over the past few weeks and too many mid-stares caught by the American. Trowa was wrong. No, Trowa _had_ to be wrong. Duo didn't love him, it was all just a game to him.
He staggered unhappily to the bathroom and looked at the image staring back at him. His face was a bit sunken from the lack of a comfortable rest, his complexion was a bit pale from the lack of healthy food, and his eyes were a bit tired from the lack of emotional stability. He rubbed his temples hard as he realized that if this continued, he would most definitely have to check into an asylum. Hopefully, blowing some things up later would cheer him up.
After his morning routine in the bathroom and a quick shower, Heero went back out into the main room of the dorm. His mind finally registered that Trowa was missing and had been missing since Heero had awaken. Quickly grabbing the note left for him on the bedside table, Heero skimmed it and got dressed. They were apparently meeting a little earlier so Trowa had left to find Wufei and the rest of them first. Heero sighed. Right, right. Mission first, love later.
The halls of the dorm building were quite empty except for a few early risers who had decided to go out for some fresh air before class and a few others who just wanted to enjoy the paper before the rush of the day. He made his way quickly to the girl's side and mindfully did not look anyone he passed by in the eye, afraid to bring on the wrath of a female without make up on him. Eventually, he made it to their door and knocked quietly, hoping that he didn't wake any extra genki, non-mission related roommates up.
He was greeted by the sight of a very cheerful Quatre who looked as if he had overdosed on caffeine. Nodding a greeting, he walked into the room and closed the door silently behind him. He liked their room a lot since it had a bathroom, a large bedroom for four, and a 'living room,' thus separating the sleeping from the awake. Duo walked out of the bedroom at that minute with Wufei in tow, grabbing a cup of coffee before getting down to business.
"It should be no problem talking now since Umi-chan doesn't wake up until around 7:30 today. We still have about an hour and a half." Duo smiled cheerfully at Heero and plopped himself down comfortably next to the Japanese boy.
Heero tensed noticeably and glared at Wufei who was enjoying his mild discomfort.
"Get a room, Maxwell. We need to talk about the mission now, so don't get too cozy with your lover boy there." Duo stuck his tongue out at Wufei and the two went on a staring contest with the other before Quatre told them to stop and finish deciding what to do with the mission.
Heero ignored the comment and got right back to business. "We need to identify who the suspects are before deciding who is actually the spy. It has to be someone who must have been very well-informed about our student backgrounds if they were able to find out further information on us. Any suggestions?"
Quatre thought for a moment and replied, "Anyone in the administration is possible. All of our teachers have access to our permanent records, so it wouldn't be that hard to trace our 'recommendations' to find them all to be phony. We're in serious trouble if they find out the other three Gundam pilots are here as well. So far, according to intelligence, they only know that Heero and Duo are here. Though, they still haven't figured out Duo is a girl. They all know how Heero looks like, so all you have to do is keep a low profile, don't attract TOO much attention. For Duo, they're just profiling all Caucasian males now between the age of 15-20, from about 5 feet to 5'6", weighing approximately 100-130 lbs.[1] They probably already know your alias and everything else since the spy would have sent out your student profile back to base and sent for troops. Good thing Duo's application was submitted separately."
"So, we just have to watch Heero's back, right Q-man?"
"Exactly. Trowa, Wufei, and I are enrolled in some of Heero's classes, so there will always be at least two of us who can observe around him any suspicious characters as Heero carries out his daily responsibilities. Each one of us females will wear an earpiece to communicate. Since we can't do this for the males, we have to just hope that they can get info to us as soon as possible."
Before they were able to reply in affimation, footsteps from the bedroom roused them. They all silently turned their heads around and saw Umi slowly getting up and stretching.
"Ohayo Umi-chan." Both Duo and Quatre chirped at her at the same time.
"Ohayo, Hellen-chan, Kat-chan, Wu-chan." She blinked at the two boys in the room as well, in quite...compromising positions with their respective girlfriends. "Er...Heero-kun, Trowa-kun, what are you guys doing here at 6:40 in the morning?"
"We were all going to go off campus for breakfast and come back before classes. But Hellen-chan took too long." Quatre replied smoothly, opting to take the leadership role in this and do all the talking. "Would you like to join us?"
"Oh! Well, I have some time to kill before class, so why not?" She had a silly grin plastered on her face before she continued. "Besides, this means that I get to talk more to Wu-chan about her exploits with older men!" She made a "V" sign and Wufei glared at her before throwing a discarded soft-cover novel at her. "Just lemme get ready, I won't take that long!"
The five boys nodded and waited patiently for her to return, all the while making random jokes at Wufei's expense. When she returned from the bathroom ten minutes later, the five set out to have a nice healthy breakfast at a nearby Denny's.[2]
On their walk over, Quatre motioned to Duo that he wanted to talk to him. Walking a little farther in front of the group, Duo gave the blond a quizzical look as to what he may have wanted to talk about.
"Duo, when are you going to tell him?"
The American frowned. He knew exactly what Quatre was talking about and didn't want to answer him. But the blond gave him an insistent look as to knowing the answer immediately, not wanting to solve any riddles or play any mind games with him today. "I don't know." It was a simple answer, but it was true. He was just so confused. One moment, Heero was nice. The next, Heero didn't even know he existed. But was the latter really true? Or just something he'd associated with Heero since he'd first encountered him?
"Duo, he really does love you. Trust me. I can feel it."
Duo sighed. "Fine, fine, you're the empath here. But that doesn't mean I will."
"Duo, he can be dead by tomorrow. You don't know when that OZ spy is gonna kill him. What if it was now? You have to...please? For your own sake, you must do it."
"But..." Duo really didn't have anything to follow up with that, but he didn't really want to go through with confessing that he really loved Heero.
"You guys'll have enough time to sort this out. But I want it done before today is over. Got it?"
"Fine, fine. You know, I could never refuse anything from an old pal like you Q." Quatre smiled brilliantly at him before hopping back to Trowa's side.
Heero walked up casually to Duo's side and drew him closer to speak to him in private. "What was that about?"
"Nothing..." Heero gave him a pointed look that told him that he knew nothing actually meant something. "Fine, it _was_ something, but I don't wanna talk about it right now." He laid his head on Heero and slowed his pace. "Let's just enjoy what we have and not think about anything else right now, okay?"
Heero nodded. These moments with Duo were very well worth it and he did not interject to having some time out of the day to just be with him.
After a relaxing breakfast, the six returned to campus for their day of classes. Everything was well with the world on that day, until fourth period when the principal personally came to his class and called Heero to his office.
Heero snarled under his breath as he realized what this meant. He gave a glance at Wufei to tell the others of the recent news and gave a hand motion signal to Duo for back up. Heero got up and followed the man out the room and into his office.
Duo held his breath when he saw Heero leave. He waited a few minutes before feigning illness and asking the teacher if he could be excused. The teacher nodded and allowed Wufei to take Duo to the nurse when he requested it. Cursing fluently, they ran towards the principal's office, hoping that Quatre could worm his way out of class as well. Critical times like these called for as much force as possible.
End Part XII
[1] Yes, I know that those aren't his real weight range, but OZ intelligence is dumb. And this is pre-episode 19/20, where they captured Duo and showed his face on universal TV.
[2] Yup, Denny's still exists in AC 195.