Disclaimers: standard disclaimers apply. Suing me won't get you anywhere. But I'll be happy to give you James for settlement. ^_^
I was inspired by Lorena's fic, Chiaroscuro. But it's not the same thing, I'm just borrowing the idea of the nightmare in studying in a private school (which I'm currently experiencing). ^___^
Warnings: AU, Cross-dressing. Language. Lame attempt at humor. Lil' bit o' Shounen Ai? By me, 'nuff to scare you? ^___^
Notes: This is going to have Shounen Ai in it. But that's to be expected since this is taking place in an academy exclusively for boys. So… if you don't like that, there's the back button for you. But it's not really that detailed, just kissing and stuff, it's for the plot. ::grin:: Oh, well. Read at your own risk.
NOTES 2: Sorry for the long update. I was modem-less for quite a while, forcing me off cyberspace, thus my silence. Part 8 was sitting on my HD waiting to be uploaded and stuff. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed and urged [if not demanded ^_^] me to write. It warms my heart to know people are still reading and liking. So, here's part 9 for you!
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Part 9
The rhythmic beating on her door woke her up. The sounds proving to be like hammers pounding inside her head, Relena opened her eyes with a low groan. The clock on her bureau read ten-fifty. Already? she thought as she slowly got up from bed, ignoring the thousand stones grinding against each other in her head with each movement.
She carefully put on the wig she carelessly threw on the floor the night before and made her way toward the other side of the room where the door out and her general "come-in-sit-down-relax" area were located. The girl tightened the knot of her robe and thanked her lucky charms that she was wearing an oversized shirt that didn't show her curves. She didn't think she could bind her breasts without fainting.
"Yes?" A sleepy, worse for wear Reynald greeted the cheerful Duo whose hand was poised for another series of knocking when the door swung open. He frowned. "You look like shit. Rey? You okay?"
"Thank you for putting it oh-so eloquently, Duo. But yeah, I just need the room to stop swaying and I'll be fine," she replied, stepping back to let him in. She moved toward the direction of the couch but ended up staggering forward when she tripped over a pile of dirty shirts. "Sorry for the mess, been too lazy lately," she mumbled and her friend could only nod. "Can I get you anything?"
Duo shook his head, walking over to her and pulling her to him, supporting her weight. Relena panicked for a second, wondering what he was doing but her worries subsided when he spoke.
"What can I get you? You should be in bed, young man," Duo admonished slightly with a smile. "It's obvious you're not feeling well. It's back to the bed for you!"
"No," she protested weakly. "I wanna go down for meals and I still have hiking with Heero." She tried to struggle, planting her feet firmly on the ground while Duo half-carried, half-dragged her to the bed, but all remained futile since she was overpowered, and she was already too weak to put up a fight anyway.
"Now, be a good boy and let Duo take care of things, okay?" he said, taking the light blue robe Relena shrugged out of while tucked under the blanket. He placed the back of his hand against Relena's forehead and the other on his and frowned. "You don't have a fever, just a bit hot but stay in bed nonetheless. We don't wanna take chances, do we?" He didn't wait for a response as he draped the robe at the foot of the bed and straightened. "I'll get you something to eat then some medicine to make you feel better. Promise me you won't try to get up till I return?"
Relena merely grunted in response. He shrugged. Good enough for him. "Be back in a flash," he promised before the door shut behind him.
She turned to her side and sighed heavily. The last thing she needed was a fever. Or something like it. It was her last week in SKA and she was at her wits' end about the whole Relena-Heero-Reynald fiasco. Snuggling deeper under the cover, she closed her eyes and willed the migraine away. No such luck. Someone was having too much fun hammering her head. The soft mattress seemed to swallow her whole and she shifted in various positions until she found one that suited her just perfectly. Then realized with a start when she opened her eyes that she was staring face to face with the snapshot Duo had of all of them lying leisurely on the grass in the garden. Her eyes instantly fell on the young man sitting a few feet away from her on the picture, a novel resting idly at his lap.
The politician-to-be groaned. Six more days and it's goodbye Heero forever. And here she was squandering those limited days wasting away in her bed completely devoid of said boy's company.
This sucks.
~*~*~*~
"And Heero told me you were next to Quatre in the Neat Freak Hall of Fame." She groggily opened her eyes and saw the blurred brown shape crouched at the foot of her bed. "Duo?"
"The one and only," he replied, picking the shirts up from the floor. He deposited them at the laundry basket he had in his left hand and smiled. "Your food's on the table. I didn't want to wake you since you looked so tired so it's a bit cold. But edible and healthy nonetheless. Eat up."
She started to sit up but paused, realizing she wasn't exactly looking like Reynald at the moment. She peeked underneath the blanket to see if whatever she has been hiding was still a secret and was relieved to see that even though it wasn't that well-hidden, it wasn't obvious either. And she was also grateful the room stopped spinning. That's one thing less to worry about. "Duo, you really don't have to do that," she said as she grabbed her robe.
Her friend was now crouched next to the couch, broom and dustpan at hand. "S'okay. I like doing housework as long as it's not my own house I'm cleaning," then paused, " weird." He continued sweeping. "Does Hilde like guys doing chores?"
That brought a smile on Relena's lips. Aha! "Guess so. She's a bit of a slob herself—relies on her roommate too much to clean the room—so it would be great to have someone who knows how to clean once in a while."
Her friend came over to where she was standing, or rather, leaning with her hand on the desk to support her weight and shook his head fervently. "You're staying in bed, mister. I'm not taking any chance of you losing balance and fainting to your death while you struggle to go to the little table and eat."
"I'm okay, Duo, really," she tried to argue. "The room stopped spinning. The sleep really helped."
"It's back to the bed with you!" he exclaimed, pushing her to the bed and making her lie down. He nodded in approval when she did comply, seeing how pointless her attempts were when faced with a concerned friend. "I'll bring the food to you."
"Thanks, Duo," she smiled. "But you don't have to do this. I'm fine. And I don't want you catching whatever it is I have." However all thoughts of being self-sufficient flew out of her mind when Duo took out a bottle of Coke from the mini-fridge she had. Coke! Her one true love! Okay, so she used to say she stayed away from carbonated drinks, but what could she possibly say? She was a hypocrite. She was a mere mortal and no one's ever resisted the dark colored liquid! Maybe being sick has its advantages. Duo was often more than unwilling to share his soft drinks.
"Don't worry, it'll take more than a slight fever to get me down," he winked as he set the food on a tray.
"I guess so," she said, relaxing against the wall she propped a pillow behind her on. "I need a breather anyway. I have my own slave driver in the person of Heero Yuy. This forced rest may actually be a good thing." Keep the Coke coming, and I'm one happy gal! She leaned back on her pillow and closed her eyes, gradually feeling her muscles relax. She deserved this. Nothing could make her get up from the bed now.
"Yeah, you should rest. Heero will roast my behind when he finds you not getting first-class treatment when he stops by later," Duo commented when he placed the tray on the side table.
Her muscles seemed to strain. Wha—WHAT? "He's coming?" she exclaimed, jumping out of the bed and making a mad dash for the bathroom when Duo grabbed a handful of her oversized shirt and grinned.
"I thought you were sick?"
Relena blushed. She thought she was sick! "You have just witnessed a miracle. I've miraculously made a complete 360º recovery."
"Nice try, Rey. But that won't work on me." He gave her a sly smile before returning to cleaning her room. "Eat your food before it gets any colder."
She sat back down on her bed with a sigh, grabbing the glass of carbonated drink first. She may have ulcer but she figured they were rich enough she could afford the bill. Maybe buy herself a new liver even. Besides, with what just happened, she needed coke.
"I've been noticing things, Rey, while you were asleep," Duo began as he picked up something from the floor that she couldn't see since his back was on her.
"What things?" she asked, reaching for the Clam Chowder her friend had generously supplied for her. She wondered briefly where he got the so-called soup.
"I dunno," he shrugged, walking toward her with the basket in hand and sat next to her. "Like where these underwear came from?" The hand with the spoon froze mid-air and she quickly replaced the spoon back to the bowl and reached for the Coke.
She recognized the bear-print bra in front of her face. Oh my god. Things just couldn't possibly get any worse than this. Here was a guy, one she considered a friend, waving her underwear in front of her like a flag. What had she done in her past life to merit this? Did the gods hate her that much? I knew I should've told mom it was me trying to mow the lawn as a Mother's Day present who ruined her prized garden and not the supposed drunkard who run the rosebushes over with his beemer.
"Don't you have those in your room too?" she asked in a small voice.
"Not with bears on them I don't," was the sarcastic reply. Then grinned. "I never thought you were one to break the rules, Rey! I mean, yeah, you brought your friends here though it was against the rule but having sex in the dorms with some girls?"
"Eh?"
"Don't act all innocent now. Not when I've got tons of these from all over the room!" he chuckled, grabbing said undergarments from the basket.
My god, I didn't realize how much of a disgusting slob I've become, Relena thought as she stared in horror as her colorful and cutely printed undergarments flew above her head. And Duo had been cleaning the room for only god knows how long. She noticed her favorite bra, a black halter with white bears printed all over it land on Duo's head. She wished, for the umpteenth time since she stepped into the halls of SKA, for her lighting to be delivered.
"So, do you keep track of the owners of these goodies?"
WHAT? He thought someone else was as crazed and as fetish'd as she with regards to cute underwear? "These are all mine!"
Not a second before those words left her mouth did she realize just what she said. She could've taken the easy way out with Duo thinking she was a very horny teenager, but no. She just had to open her big mouth. She considered stuffing the underwear in her mouth in an effort to save herself from further humiliation.
Duo stared at her for a full minute before understanding dawned on him. Relena felt the world beneath her crumble. Had she been found out? She wanted to tell her friends the truth, but definitely not this way.
"I never thought you had it in you, Rey. Or is it Reina?"
Relena sighed and took a deep breath. Well, here goes nothing. Might as well tell him everything and get on with it. "Duo, there's something I have to tell you. You may be a bit...shocked at first but really, it's nothing too serious."
"Rey…you know, like Cat and Tro, I understand. Though your situation's a bit different, it's okay."
What? Mentally shrugging, she continued, "I haven't exactly been honest with you guys. I've been keeping this little secret—"
"So Heero was right after all! You were hiding something. This has something to do with the undies, right?"
Heero? He knew? Please kill me now. Steeling herself, she nodded. "I know you noticed that I act a bit different from you guys," she paused, taking a deep breath yet again. Nobody warned her confessing was going to be this hard! She knew she was giving an overripe tomato a run for its money with the shade of red her whole face (not to mention body) was in. "Well, it's because—"
"You like drag. So what?"
The whole seemed to freeze and Relena stared at her friend. Wh—what? What? WHAT?
Duo shrugged, standing up and giving him a comforting smile. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. And like I said earlier, I understand. You don't have to be ashamed or embarrassed. I have it in good authority that you're not the only one who loves cross-dressing. There are others like you. So don't feel like you're any different from us just because you like women's clothes better."
She continued to stare stupidly at him.
"Well, your room's relatively clean now so I guess I better go back down and see how the team's faring at the pool without me. I'll be back to check on you later. Now remember, rest!" With one final wave he left her alone to her stupor.
"That went well," she said aloud, blinking as the shock slowly wore off. She hasn't exactly exposed herself as a girl but he did find out she was a cross-dresser. It was a half-truth anyway.
She glanced at the collection of bras and panties littered all over the bed, majority on her lap and groaned, collapsing back on her bed. "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
~*~*~*~
The day worn on without much event for Relena. She no longer felt sick in any way so she spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning her room since Duo had forbidden her to leave her room lest she got worse. Yeah, right. One of the things Relena detested the most was doing nothing but lie on her bed so she took a quick shower and bound her breast before putting another oversized shirt on.
After doing her laundry and making sure none of her undergarments were to be seen by anyone other than her again, she proceeded to do the dishes that started to pile. She scrubbed and washed with vehemence, channeling her excess energy to the dishes since she had no use for it anyway now that she wasn't hiking with Heero.
And she'd been looking forward to it, too! She dried her hands and grabbed a rag. She figured she could wipe the surfaces of the room to keep her busy since she was done with the laundry, dishes and sweeping. There was nothing else to do.
She proceeded to make the pictures dust-free first then stopped when she got to the snapshot of her with her new friends. She stared at Heero's face and felt a smile tugging on her lips.
Okay, so maybe he wasn't as bad as she originally thought he was. He wasn't that sadistic and he did help her with the stamina thing. And he did have a sense of humor, even if she was at the receiving end of his so-called jokes. He was sarcastic but she liked that; she was getting tired of the sweet praises people sang for her. Not that she minded but it was a refreshing change and who knew if those compliments were even sincere anyway? She touched the face and marveled how soft his hair looked. She wondered if she had to pull his hair in a mock fight just to prove her theory that is was indeed soft.
She caught her line of thinking and sighed, replacing the frame on the table. Getting into a fight just so she could have an excuse to touch his hair. "God, how psychotic." But she mulled the pros and cons of said act. She was curious to know after all.
Heero stared at the closed door at the end of the corridor. He had been standing on the hallway for more than an hour now. He crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, leaning against the wall. He dismissed the team earlier that afternoon since he couldn't really concentrate on anything.
When he didn't show up for breakfast, he got worried. Sure, it wasn't uncommon for people to oversleep but still, what if something happened, right? So he sent Duo to check in on him. Then his friend came back with news that Reynald wasn't feeling well. He had to stop himself from racing to his room and taking care of him himself but thought better of it and stayed calm. He told Duo to take care of their friend and tell him if there was anything he could do to help. The braided idiot merely winked at him.
What? So it's wrong to be concerned for a friend now?
Then he hasn't heard anything from Duo afterwards; he went directly to the pool and Heero didn't have the chance to talk to him. So here he was, standing outside the boy's door, having an internal debate whether or not he should come in or just leave.
He was confused. No, confused was an understatement. No word came close to describing how he felt at the moment. And with the whole kiss and comforting yesterday, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't fathom what evil force overcame him yesterday that made him kiss the other boy.
He always thought of his as straight. Really, he did. And he even fancied himself liking this girl, Relena, but with the kiss yesterday...it just threw all the straightness out the window. It could've been a one-time deal but he knew he didn't want it to be like that.
Yet another source of confusion. Given that he was bi, what about Relena? He liked her, that much he knew. And he really would've liked to get to know her better, maybe even go beyond friends. But what about Reynald? He felt like he liked him as well.
They were similar in so many ways. They were both beautiful and they both had spirit, something he liked. Liked very much. But they were two different people. Never mind the fact that they knew each other to some extent.
So what should he do about his attraction for both? He prided himself for never being greedy, but now, he wanted them both. And he knew that wasn't possible. He had to choose. But who?
And he saw the way Reynald looked at him before. He may act like a complete ass but it was obvious the other boy felt something for him. And the feeling was reciprocated. At least he thought it was. And he comforted him yesterday when he felt like he amounted nothing more than trash to his family.
But so did Relena, even if the situation was different then. She even shared something about herself that made him understand her better. And she always knew how to make him laugh.
So does Rey. And he was fun to be with. Who knew rolling down the hill could be so much fun? Never mind the bruise he had on his hip and the many scratches he had all over his legs.
He didn't want to raise the other boy's hopes up. If he was going to choose one of them, he had better choose now. So the other wouldn't expect something he couldn't give. It was better that way. He had just made his choice.
He stood straighter and walked toward the door he had been keeping a vigil upon. It's back to Devil's Spawn Heero for Reynald. Sorry.
The brunette frowned when the knob easily turned. Didn't the boy know how to lock his door? Especially when a sex maniac senior was on the loose? "They didn't put locks on doors for nothing," he said in his usual monotone when he stepped in and closed the door behind him.
Relena looked up from the pictures, startled when someone suddenly spoke up. She smiled when she saw who it was though inside, her heart was doing a complicated acrobatic act. Sure, she was expecting him to stop by but no amount of pep talk prepared her for Heero looking sexier than usual in his tank top and faded jeans that clung to him like second skin. I wonder if he'll attribute the nosebleed to the fever.
Heero, for his part, couldn't help but stare at the expanse of smooth, creamy skin that was Reynald's legs where the oversized shirt left off. He cleared his throat. "Duo said you should stay in bed. What are you doing up?"
"Cleaning my room," she replied. She walked toward the fridge and took out a couple of cans of soda, all the while trying to ignore the eyes that trailed her. Probably trying to bore a hole at the back of my head, she mused.
He followed her and an undignified sound escaped her lips when she felt his arms wrapping around her. What's going on? Is he—is he hugging me? She felt the room become considerably warm. Then drop below zero when Heero carried the squirming bundle back to the bed where she was unceremoniously dropped.
She glared at him, all warm and fuzzy feelings flying out the window. How dare you! Screw the fact she fit perfectly in his arms, what the hell did he do that for?
As if reading her mind, he shrugged. "You should be in bed. Didn't Duo clean your room?"
"Yeah, he did a bit of cleaning. But I got bored just lying here like I'm on my deathbed so I thought I'd make the most of the day by cleaning the rest."
"You'll overdo it. Just rest in bed."
"If you hadn't noticed, Doctor Yuy, I no longer feel feverish, not in the least bit," she retorted, rolling her eyes while she scrambled to sit up. She suddenly stopped when Heero dropped next to him and leveled her with a glare, his face just mere inches away. His forehead touched hers and Relena could feel her face growing warmer by the second.
"You feel feverish to me right now," he stated, still not moving. Whatever the hell happened to becoming Devil's Spawn Heero? Devil's Spawn Heero doesn't say more than "stupid," "hn" and "hmm" when "conversing" with Reynald.
That's because you're here, just a few millimeters away, she replied mentally. "I have that reaction whenever I share the same oxygen with arrogant, self-centered creatures such as yourself."
"Oh? Then I'm afraid it'll just turn for the worse." Devil's Spawn Heero does not experience sudden urges to kiss Reynald breathless.
"Wh—" She never got to finish what she was going to say because Heero's lips met hers for the second time. And the third. And the fourth…
Tbc
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Hope you like! ^__^ It's a bit short but I wanted to get a new part out before Holy Week since I'll be shipped to the province then. The time when I would have to feel all the more sinful has arrived. Pray that I survive the week without much trauma. ::grin::
Btw, I've decided to have a once-a-month update thingy. I figured that if I set a goal of one part per month, then there's a bigger chance of a monthly update since I'll be striving to meet that goal. But of course I'm not going to limit myself to just one part a month; it'll just be a target. If I come up with two in a month, the better, right? Just thought I'd let you know. ^_^