Chapter seven, coming atcha!
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon OR Gundam Wing. But I do own YOU. And quite possibly your cat, if you have one……No wait, just your cat.
Key:
Bold = emphasis
Italics = thoughts
Warning: Maybe OOCness, I think it's justified, but you can make your own decision.
Awaiting Good Fortune
*******Chapter Seven: Stories to tell
"What have you got first, Usa?" Makoto asked, leaning over Usagi's shoulder to peer at her timetable.
"English. Great, my least favourite subject!" Usagi said dejectedly, staring at her sheet as if it were to blame. She sighed and began to gather her books out of her locker.
"Hey, don't worry, Usa, I've got English too!" Minako said excitedly.
"I thought you didn't like English, Minako," Usagi said, confused.
"Oh, I don't. But Duo told me that Mr. Sakamoto is the nicest and most laid-back of all the teachers here," Minako clapped her hands once then speedily extracted the necessary books from her looker before giving Usagi a sly look. "You don't want to be late for your first class, do you Usa? Better hurry!" Minako sped of, rustling papers along the floor with the quickness of her departure.
"Oh well, I've got Home Ec now so I'll see you at Lunch, Usa," Makoto said, walking away to her classroom as Usagi followed her energetic friend with less than half of her enthusiasm and rapidity.
"OK, so now that we've got introductions done, class, open up your workbooks to page 12." Mr. Sakamoto took his own version of the Workbook and opened it. His eyes widened as he looked at the page. "They… they changed it again?! I swear, this book is the bane of my life… every year I have to get a new copy of it! I have to re-learn where all the necessary exercises are, I have to memorize all of the…" He trailed off as he flipped through the book grumpily.
Minako risked a glance at Usagi and smirked. Usagi smiled quickly back.
"OK then, class, flip to page 47…" He looked down at the page carefully. "What?! They have worksheets to go with one now?! Ugh… class, I apologize for my lack of organization. I will be back in a few minutes with your worksheets. Worksheets. I swear, they just make us purchase more and more every year…" Mr. Sakamoto muttered as he walked out of the classroom, continuing to mumble angrily to himself and he walked down the corridor to the teachers lounge.
"He always forgets things." She heard Duo say to her. He laughed. "But we don't say anything to all the other teachers 'cause it's so funny to watch him get angry at the texts." Usagi chuckled softly. Minako left her desk and walked over to Usagi's, joining the conversation.
"Mr. Yui over there doesn't seem to happy about it," Minako pointed out, glancing briefly to where the boy was sitting.
"Yeah, but he never seems happy about anything... Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen him smile…" Duo put his chin in his hand and thought hard on the topic.
"Oh well, his loss," Minako said, tossing the subject aside with a wave of her hand. "Hey Duo, what other teachers are there? Are they all like Mr. Sakamoto?"
"Nah… there all pretty strict. There's Mrs. Mitsuishi and Mr. Hisakawa teaching Maths, and believe me those two are tough if you don't know how to do something properly. But, they're nothing compared to…" Duo's voice dropped to a whisper as he shivered, "Ms. Tomizawa." He looked uneasily around him, as if 'Ms. Tomizawa' was hiding somewhere in the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to eat his soul.
"Oh, yeah? Why's that?" Minako asked curiously. Duo shivered again.
"…She teaches gym…" Duo answered softly.
"Gym?! My favourite subject is gym! Ms. Tomizawa couldn't possibly ruin it for me!" Minako said determinedly. Duo looked at her with horror.
"You have no idea… she has made everyone in this school cry, even some of the teachers… well, not everyone, there's still four people who haven't even squirted some tears yet…" Duo peered under his desk briefly; making sure the hellish Gym teacher wasn't there.
"Who are they?" Usagi asked softly, afraid to talk at full volume because of the mood Duo had created.
"Heero, Trowa, Wufei and me."
"Really? Well done, Duo!" Minako said, giving him a friendly pat on the back.
"Heh… it's not really as good as it would sound, though…" He said as he looked over his shoulder warily.
"Why not?" Minako squawked.
"Well, Tomizawa gets everyone one by one, by yelling at them, insulting them, making them do ten times as much work as everyone else, then ridiculing them when they get tired--"
"That doesn't sound that bad, though," Usagi interjected.
"Yeah, I know. That's what I thought at first. She gets the weakest ones first, knowing that just a little will get them bawling, then she moves onto the tougher ones. She'll do stuff like read out all your worst marks in tests and stuff in front of the entire class while you do lap after lap of the basketball court. Or she'll make you run for ten minutes on hot concrete, on a boiling day, completely barefoot. Or--"
"Yeah, yeah, we get the picture, she's a she-demon from hell, move on…" Minako said as she made circular gestures with her hands.
"Yeah, well, she hasn't made Trowa or Heero cry for obvious reasons; they just can't. And, of course, those guys can take her physical torture without a word and never get tired. Wufei doesn't do gym anymore after he got all riled up and had a screaming competition with her, ending up challenging her to a duel. Heh, it was funny, 'cause the principle had to give a school address on how 'violence doesn't solve things' and swords outside of the training hall wasn't accepted. So, that was how Wu-man got out of it," Duo said, laughing as he remembered Wufei's actions.
"Yeah, and what about you?" Minako pressed, poking him in the shoulder for good measure.
"Ah, me?" Duo blinked, then continued quietly. "Well, she focuses on me now. I don't think anyone else actually does anything in gym anymore. They just walk in, sit down and watch me as Tomizawa makes me run around climb ropes, oh, and once she made us play dodge ball. It wouldn't have been bad to play dodge ball, except I was the only person on my team and we had 'accidentally' lots most of the squishy balls, so she made everyone use basketballs instead. Basketballs. I swear, I got so many hits to the groin I thought--"
"OK, OK, stop there. No more details on that subject please," Minako yelled, waving her arms in the air.
"Yeah, well, just be prepared," Duo said warningly, before twisting his head to look at Heero. "Hey, Heero, tell Mina and Usagi how bad Tomizawa is."
"Hn."
Duo turned back to face the two blondes with a grin. "See, even he agrees."
"Duo, he grunted," Minako said flatly.
"Yes, true, but it was a positive grunt. When you live for seven years with him, you kind of need to learn how to interpret his language," Duo said matter-of-factly.
"He has his own language?" Minako asked dryly.
"Yeah, sure! 'Hn,' means no, whereas 'hn' means yes. 'Hn' means you're an idiot, and 'hn' means get lost. 'Hn' means shut up and 'hn' means--"
"Duo, I'm not noticing a difference between any of them," Usagi said as she flipped one of her long pigtails over her shoulder absent-mindedly and smiled.
"Well, it did take me seven years to get the hang of it."
"By the way, I was going to ask a little while ago, but how long have all of you been at the boarding house?" Usagi asked as she turned around in her seat. (Her neck was beginning to hurt so she decided to turn her whole body around instead of just her head.)
"Yeah, how long?" Minako asked as she began to gnaw on a pencil she had been holding.
"Heero and I have been here for seven years. Wufei and Quatre have been here for five and Trowa three. There were a few other people but they only came for a few weeks or months at a time, so I never did get to know them real well," Duo shrugged. "Oh well. That's life."
"So you've lived with Heero for seven years, and he's just grunted to you the whole time?" Minako asked, still nibbling the poor gray-lead in her hand.
"Not the whole time. Once he said, 'get off' when I was playing on his laptop, and he said 'pass the salt' once at dinner. Oh yeah, and he said 'be quiet' to me when we first met you guys," Duo considered what he'd said. "Hey, that's really weird. I've lived with him for seven years and I can only remember him talking out of class three times." He scratched the back of his head.
"So he talks in class?" Minako asked as she bit straight through her pencil. She looked at sourly for a short moment, then tossed it across the room into the bin. She then began to wipe her mouth on her sleeve in an attempt to get all the wood chips out.
"Well only when he has to."
Minako looked thoughtful for a moment, began to bite her thumbnail (as a poor replacement for her know ruined pencil), then clicked her fingers as an idea came to her.
"OK. Our mission is to make Heero Yui speak when he doesn't have to. In class, and out of," Minako said with an evil grin.
"Mission accepted!" Duo said excitedly as he and Minako shook hands, sealing their partnership on their 'msssion.'
"Are you in, Usa?" Minako said as she looked at the smaller girl.
"Nah, I'll stay out of this one. You guys are on your own," Usagi said as Mr. Sakamoto came rushing back into the classroom looking rather frazzled and carrying a slightly bent stack of worksheets.
"FIRST SHOWER HOUR!!!" Mr. Colt bellowed from downstairs. "All boys downstairs!!"
After much debate over the first few nights in the boarding house, it was decided that a system had to be worked out for showering times. (Everyone except Duo wanted there to be separate times for each gender.) Due to the fact that one of the two bathrooms was being renovated, the usable bathroom had to be shared. It was also decided that it should be an hour long because the three showers would have to be shared between each gender. And so, it had been agreed that there would be two hours; one for girls and one for boys. Girls 'shower hour' was first, and went from 5 o'clock to 6, and during that time all male residents had to stay downstairs. Boys 'shower hour' was second, went from 6 to 7, and in that hour the girls had to stay downstairs.
"I'm washing my hair tonight so I have to go first!" Usagi yelled, grabbing her shampoo, conditioner, soap, hairbrush and towel, throwing them into a cloth bag and sprinting through the bathroom door into one of the three shower stalls.
"I'm washing my hair too!" Minako picked up her messy pile of bathroom necessities and hauled them speedily into one of the two remaining stalls. There was a brief moment of silence before Makoto walked calmly out of her room with her bathroom belongings and over to Rei's door. She knocked on it three times to get Rei's attention.
"Rei? Do you want to go in first?" Makoto asked. She didn't really mind if she went in the first or second lot but knew Rei would have a fit if she wanted to go first but couldn't.
"No, I'm fine Mako. I've just got a few more chants to do, I'll go second."
"OK." Makoto walked over to Ami's open door and stuck her head in. "Ami, do you want to go first or don't you mind?" Ami's head swiveled from her books to her friend and smiled.
"Oh, no, I'm just finishing my up homework, so…"
Makoto looked shocked. "Ami, they didn't set any homework, today…"
"Oh, I know. I created this homework on my own. It's all helping me learn, anyway." Ami smiled (again) as if creating your own homework on nights that you had none was perfectly normal and logical. Makato sighed.
"Ami… that's really weird," the tall brunette said with a teasing grin.
"I know, but I can't help it," Ami retorted with a broad and innocent smile. Makoto laughed.
"Well I'll leave you to it, then."
Makoto shuffles her armful of bathroom items to her left arm and used her right hand to pull the hair-band out of her ponytail. Giving her head a quick shake to loosen her hair from its ponytail shape, she walked into the bathroom…
…and had the misfortune of hearing Usagi sing.
She tried not to listen as she walked to the last empty stall. She put her shampoo, conditioner and soap into the holder attached to the wall and stacked her towel and change of clothes onto the ledge high up on the wall of her cubicle. While she undressed and turned on the water, she listened in on Minako's and Usagi's conversation. (Finally, she had stopped singing!)
"Hey, I forget to point it out at school, but at the start of the day I saw you standing with Heero, Usa!" Minako taunted. If Makoto had been able to see her face, she would have been grinning evilly. Usagi groaned.
"Ah! Minako, Give it a rest! He was the person on my slip! That's why I was standing next to him!" She said exasperatedly.
"Oh ho ho…! Well you certainly didn't have to stay there the whole time! And what about the poor person that had your slip? They would have felt like they'd failed!" Minako said dramatically.
At this point, Makoto began to massage her shampoo into her hair.
"Heero had my slip," Usagi pointed out.
"IT'S A SIGN!" Minako sounded like she was jumping up and down, and Makoto was seriously worried that her friend would slip and break something (whether it be the door or her leg).
"Oh it so is not…" Makoto could tell Usagi was rolling her eyes.
"Well you certainly looked snuggly with him, Usa." Minako's evil, childish cackle/giggle followed her statement.
Makoto rinsed her hair as the child-like laughter rang through the large bathroom.
"Well… you…" Usagi seemed to struggle to find a retort, "You certainly seem snuggly with Duo!" Usagi yelled victoriously.
Ouch. That one would've caught Minako off guard. Makoto thought, wincing inwardly. There was a small silence, where only the sound of water splashing on skin could be heard, until Minako returned with a vengeance.
"Ew… that would be like like-liking a really good friend or something…" Minako said quickly, as if to make up for the uneasy silence she had left. (A silence in which Makoto had begun to condition her hair.)
"Well why did you take so long to answer, eh Minako?" Usagi said in a voice that would usually be accompanied by sly elbow-pokes into someone's ribs.
"Well you would be stunned if I said you got snuggly with like Umino or something," Minako pointed out.
"You said 'really good friend,' Minako, not 'dork,'" Usagi said wryly.
"Yeah well…" Minako trailed off. Makoto washed herself with her bar of soap then rinsed out her hair. She turned of the water, dried herself off then got changed into her clothes. Carefully stacking all of her belongings into her arms, she exited the stall.
"You guys should talk about something else for once. You're starting to get obsessed," Makoto said with a laugh as both girls squawked with indignation.
At exactly 7:01 Usagi walked down the stairway of the boarding house and into the Lounge room. It was oddly empty, but she wasn't complaining; with no one else in there except Heero (who was clacking away at his laptop) she would have full control over the remote and the TV.
She ran into the room, pounced over one of the arms of the sofas and landed next to the remote. Extremely happy with her perfect landing, Usagi cheerily snatched up the remote and turned on the television. She became even more jovial when her favourite show popped onto the screen.
It was also Minako's favourite show, and usually they would watch it together, but Minako had foregone it to continue plotting with Duo (who had decided against a shower) on their latest scheme. Usagi was extremely curious of whether or not they would succeed, so she wasn't hurt at all by her friend not following the usual routine.
Rei had continued her meditation or whatever she did in her room, Makoto was helping Mr. Colt with dinner, Trowa and Quatre were having their showers, Ami was studying in her room (Makoto and herself had talked her out of doing her own homework, but she had stubbornly argued that she had to study every night so she wouldn't fall behind.)
Like that would ever happen.
And Rei's mortal enemy had sided with Duo by deciding not to have a shower (however, he used his free time to continue on training.)
He must be training for the re-match that he and Rei are going to have.
The thought of the duel brought back the memory of the printout Heero had given her.
I should probably read that properly. I mean, Heero did put effort into getting it for me.
She was in the middle of debating mentally whether or not to get up and get the printout when Heero surprised her by asking a question.
It surprised her for two reasons. One; he talked without having to (so poor Minako and Duo were plotting for a false cause) and Two; the question was about a subject she held guarded very close to her heart.
"Who's 'Mamo-chan?'"
He had just been in the middle of hacking into the school's network when Usagi walked, no ran into the lounge room. He paid her no mind at first, and concentrated on changing some of the files stored in the school's system. First of all, he added more complaints under the file 'Tomizawa.'
He'd decided for his New Year Resolution to become friendlier and more human. He decided that he would begin achieving is resolution by helping people. Of course, that wasn't really his style and he wasn't used to being kind, so he decided to help people out without them knowing it.
He started by hacking into the school's system and filing masses of anonymous complaints referring to Ms. Tomizawa. He knew that almost the entire school despised her; it was just that no one had the courage to get rid of her.
At last count, he had filed 1078 complaints. Most people would believe that to be almost impossible to think up and file 1078 complaints for just one teacher, but 'most people' probably haven't had the displeasure of being taught and tormented by her.
It was actually quite an easy task.
He wasn't big on talking, so the whining, talking and laughing of his peers filled his silence. He listened to their annoying chatter, and most of the time the sentences began with;
"Today, Tomizawa made me…"
Or
"Tomizawa said…"
Or even
"Tomizawa threatened us today with…"
And when you file anywhere between one and forty-two complaints per day, reaching 1078 in total wasn't really a large undertaking. So he added another duty to his mental list titled 'Tasks to help people.' Right under 'Getting Tomizawa fired' was 'Help Duo with his grades.'
After seven long years, he decided that Duo could be considered a friend of his. He had had a few conversations with Duo ('Conversations' meaning Duo talking to him while he busied himself with other, more important and useful tasks) throughout his stay at the boarding house, and grudgingly come to the decision that Duo could be smart and insightful when he wanted to be.
Of course, he would severely hurt anyone that discovered he'd admitted that. But whilst no one knew, he decided it was OK to help his braided neighbor.
So Duo, whilst being very deep when he wanted to be, tested very badly. He could be very sharp and clever as he rattled on about anything that popped into his mind, but get him to put it to paper or try to remember what he just said and he would fall to pieces.
He knew that the idiot would be famous one day, so he helped him out by changing the grades on his files. It was nothing big, simply small modification such as changing a 'B' to a 'B+' or an 'A-' and so on.
But back to the Lounge Room.
Usagi had just turned on the television ((AN: yes, all of Heero's thoughts flew through his head in a matter of seconds. Isn't it weird how that happens?)) and was happily watching a cartoon of some description. He mentally rolled his eyes and concentrated on the task at his fingertips. After firing off another complaint about a certain gym teacher, he stilled his fingers and turned his head slightly so he could look at her properly.
He had been insanely curious about who 'Mamo-chan' was. (Which surprised him greatly because he had never been insanely curiously or even greatly surprised.) And before he could control himself (Which also surprised him) he asked her.
He decided afterwards that curiosity (whilst killing cats and other just as unfortunate things) was simply another step to becoming more human.
"Who's 'Mamo-chan?'"
She flinched in surprise at his question, and turned wide, shocked, but strangely guarded eyes towards him very slowly.
"What?" She asked very softly, almost as if trying to hide something in her voice.
"Nothing," he grunted, snapping his head back to his laptop and continuing with his semi-false complaints as if he hadn't said a word. He severely berated himself for opening his usually tightly sealed mouth as she stood and walked over and stood right in front of him.
"How do you know about Mamo-chan?" She asked, very slowly and very softly, not because of anger, but because she was obviously holding a tight reign on her emotions and tears. He decided to stay silent and hope she would simply drop the subject that was plainly hurting her mentally and just go away.
She didn't.
"How?" She repeated, her eyes becoming wider as hurt began to creep in at the edges.
"You were talking in your sleep."
"How did you hear me?"
"I have good ears." He didn't want her to know about his little adventure into her room, so he simply stated a fact about himself that she would consider as his answer. She sighed and limply sat down next to him, staring at her hands that had fallen into her lap.
"What did you hear?" She asked softly, a barely detectable stutter in her voice.
He had many options for that one.
1: Reply truthfully and say, "I heard you say, 'don't leave me' and 'I love you', etc."
2: Ignore her, close his laptop and return to his room.
3: Grunt, ignore her, and continue what he was doing.
4: Lie and say, "I heard nothing."
His mind raced, trying to find an answer. He decided on using the method that had seemed to work the previous night.
What would Quatre or Duo do?
Quatre and Duo were the two people most comfortable with their emotions that resided in the boarding house, so logically, they were the first people to consider.
Quatre would try to soothe and console her. Duo would try to be humorous and cheer her up. I'm, not humorous and I can't console people. So what do I do?
He knew he must have started to look ever so slightly panicked on the outside (She wasn't looking at him, so she wouldn't notice it, but the thought that his useless emotions were showing on the outside was worrying him even more than his current predicament was.)
Now that he had started to enter the first stages of panic, he couldn't ignore her or lie to her (He had seen people lie when they became panicked and it was painfully obvious that they were fabricating, so he decided against it).
He didn't have the time to consider more options, so he was left with his first; The truth.
"'Don't leave me,' 'I love you,' and 'I'll become mature,'" he said unemotionally but truthfully.
She sighed and sat up straight, as if preparing to tell a long story. She moved her pigtails out of her face and over her shoulder, then briefly glanced over to the staircase (he supposed she was planning her exit) then went back to staring at her hands (that were now fidgeting.)
"Do you know why Minako wants so badly to set me up with every second guy she sees?" Usagi said, trying to sound flippant and not serious, but not succeeding.
He didn't answer her, but he didn't start typing again, which she must have taken as an 'I am listening to your story, please continue.'
"It's because they want me to get over Mamoru. That was 'Mamo-chan.'"
She quickly brushed the beginnings of tears out of her eyes with her fingers.
"He had been my boyfriend for a long time. But… he had to go to America for a job, and he told me he wasn't going to come back. I knew where he was going with the conversation so I told him that our relationship could still work, that I would work hard through school, and as soon as was able to I would fly up there and live with him."
She took a deep breath and exhaled softly.
"He said no. He told me I wasn't mature enough, and that we should break it off before he left. I told him I would become mature, I begged him not to leave… but… he did. And so… before he left, I made one last request of him... I asked him to kiss me before he left, just one last time. But…"
She emitted a short, choked laugh.
"… he didn't. I never did get to kiss him goodbye. He just walked away from me, leaving the part that loved me behind. I've always wondered… if I had kissed him that one time, would he have realized just how much I cared for him? Would he realized that I was telling the truth when I said I would become mature?"
She shook her head sadly.
"…I know he probably wouldn't have. But, I still think and wonder about it…"
She sighed again and smoothed her dress. She looked around the room quickly and her eyes settled on him. She jumped a bit, as if just remembering he was there. As if just remembering she had told him her story.
As soon as her eyes rested soon him she flinched. She had become so involved in her story that she had forgotten all about him, and now he was just sitting there. His fingers resting on the keyboard but not pressing anything, his hair as shaggy and messy as ever, and his eyes focused on her.
All hope that he had been ignoring her was gone, as his cold, emotionless eyes were stared at her. She could see that he had listened to her… she could see it his eyes. His eyes were always cold, uncaring and completely void of emotion, but she could tell that they had changed somehow, signaling that he had listened. She could also see that his eyes told the most about him, even though that wasn't very much.
She had always had a knack for seeing the good side of people and how they truly were, she could always tell when there was something wrong, and she knew that Heero Yui still had his stories to tell.
*******End chapter 7
Phew.
Story this is late, I was banned from the computer for a day. :P
I know that there wasn't much of anyone except Duo, Minako, Usagi and Heero but I need to Heero's and Usagi's relationship going before I move on (and that's going to take a few chapters…sigh), and once I get the ball rolling I'll focus on the others. (Ugh, I'm dreading Makoto and Trowa. That's going to take a long time.)
But Minako and Duo are a cool because they make the chapters easier to write and they seem to make all you wonderful people out there happy.
So we're all happy.
~Jemjols.
PS: Please review! I love reviews! I read every single one like four times! Don't be afraid! REVEIW! *pants and then goes back to sleep*