Chapter Ten
" I can't see where I went wrong!" pouted Wufei as he pulled a dark blue top over his head. " What exactly is it that those judges are looking for?!"
Heero didn't reply but continued to pull his shoes off from his aching feet.
He continued to pack the rest of his clothes away, taking care to shelter any incriminating evidence of his wicked deeds from Heero's vigilant eyes. " How did Trowa and Quatre manage to get through to the next round? What is that that they did that I didn't? I mean, you had that problem with your shoes, but all it was that you had to do was walk up, turn around and walk back down, and I failed at it! Me! I can't believe it!"
Heero made a 'hmm' noise to indicate that he was actually listening, though if he was paying any attention was a completely different matter.
" Yuy? What do you think?"
" I think it doesn't matter." Replied Heero in a vapid tone. " Its over, you lost and so do I. And now that we did, I don't care who wins. It makes no difference to me, I never really wanted to enter anyway. I only did it to get people off my case."
Wufei pouted for a moment. " Whatever... I was looking forward to showing Maxwell up..."
Heero turned on him. " This whole thing was about showing Duo up?" he asked in a rather undeceive voice. " He never even got to enter, so you never got the chance to..."
Wufei quickly turned round and buried his face in his bag. What had Heero meant by 'never got the chance to?' Did he know? Then again, with Heero it appeared as if he knew everything anyway, it was just that he never shared it with anyone. " Well, I guess you're right, it's over now. And there's no point in winding ones self over it..." said Wufei simply, choosing to let the subject ride out rather than raise Heero's suspicions any higher than they already were.
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Quatre squealed and latched himself onto Trowa's arm, receiving rather promiscuous looks from the opposing girls that remained after the first round of elimination's. " I can't believe we made it through to the next round!" he whispered excitedly " We're further than Wufei!"
Trowa's expression remained unchanged. " There are still quite a lot of girls left. What is it that we have to do this round anyway?"
Quatre placed a finger up to his mouth and hooked it over his lip. " I'm not too sure. I think maybe we have to do a short presentation; a speech on why we think we should win or something like that."
Trowa 'hmm'ed and continued to stare at the girls who were grouped together and cackling away to themselves. " I still don't understand why girls need to talk as much as they seem to. All they ever do is talk, and it's usually about someone next to them. Females are rather fickle."
" Trowa, you are female! No need to segregate yourself away."
" Well you try having a chest this size. Then you help but feel different."
The now all too familiar announcer stood at the front of the group, confirming Quatre's assumption that this round would consist of each remaining contestant giving a short oration on why they would like to win or why they wanted to enter the contest in the first place. A wave of whispers spread over the sea of bobbing blonde and brunette. The first contestant would be on stage in five minutes, that time was spent by the girls rehearsing their lines, perfecting their walks and generally doing everything possible to get on Quatre' already frayed nerves.
Out in the audience, Heero was edging his way towards Duo who was still deep in conversation with Milliardo. Wufei trailed behind him, keeping his head low incase Quatre or Trowa should see him, the little blonde had a tendency to shout abuse at any given excuse and Wufei did not want to be it. Heero eventually struggled his way through the crowd and stood firmly infront of Duo, glaring from him to Milliardo to back again.
Milliardo raised a brow. " Yes? Can I help you?"
" Uh..." muttered Duo, desperately trying to remember Heero's assumed name. " Hana?"
"..."
Duo smiled weakly. " This is Milliardo. He's been telling me all about Relena... She's his sister you know!" He put one hand up to his face and flipped the other one forward while grinning tritely.
Heero's eyes continued to burn into him.
Duo shrugged his shoulders, then caught sight of Wufei who was still pushing his way through the crowd. " Wendy!" he cried, standing up and waving his arms around, causing serious staining problems to the white shirt that Milliardo was wearing (Compliments his hair wonderfully don't you think...?) as the cup of coffee he was holding was abruptly emancipated from the tall blonde's strong grasp.
Wufei barged up to him. " Yes?" He frowned and flicked his loose hair behind his ear, adding an effective 'hmph' while he was at it.
" If you don't mind me saying..." started Milliardo " Wendy does not sound very much like a... like a..."
" Eastern name?" concluded Wufei, displeased more than ever over his choice of name, reminding himself that it had been that or 'Winona'.
" Yes..."
" Oh Wendy's mother was twice divorced and three times married." Said Duo, confident that he could save the situation from turning into a glaring match anymore than it already was. Still, it gave him an excuse to have a dig at Wufei. " Don't ask how, we don't even know where he comes from so I don't know how he is supposed to!" Duo laughed loudly, causing some of the elderly members of the audience to start mumblings amongst themselves about the rude girl talking to the even more rude Chinese one. " Poor girl..." he continued, wiping a fake tear of laughter away from his eye. " Met her at school..." he whispered behind a hand to Milliardo. " Was terribly shy right from the start. She hardly speaks at all..."
Wufei turned red, though this time it was with rage and not embarrassment as it usually was.
" And this is Hana." Duo introduced the glaring and brow-raising Heero to Milliardo.
Milliardo smiled politely and offered them both a seat.
Both stood fast, eyeing Duo with great suspicion and mistrust, Duo eyeing them with a pleading look on his face. Heero and Wufei reluctantly agreed to the invitation and sat down just as the loud speaker clicked on and the next round was announced.
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I shall not go into great detail here; saying only that out of the twenty or so girls who remained, only four remained, them including a couple of strangers, Relena and Trowa. Quatre went on to regret reacting the 'I'm flying Jack' scene from Titanic involving the microphone stand and a bouquet of flowers that he had stolen from the winners podium. Trowa, confused as to why he had made it through to the finals despite giving a forthright and bland speech on why he thought the cosmetic industry, and in particular beauty contests, were wrong. Though he had a suspicion that it had something to do with the fact that he was still unable to find a bra and his arms had weakened, causing him to stand with his back arched out only serving his chest to become even more prominent. Relena had simply dug out one of her old speeches on 'A safer and more friendly universe for us and the future generations' and prattled on about it for the better part of fifteen minutes. She had been the only one who had received a standing ovation and Trowa, who was now standing one away from her on the main stage, averted his eyes from both her and Dorothy who was 'nancing' (Ahh... a favourite pastime of one Starkiller...) around the audience with the rest of Relena's 'fan club'. Due to Trowa's passive nature, he found no difficulty in standing on the stage infront of the large audience, his only qualm came from the fact that the air conditioning above the stage was not doing a lot to help him disguise his 'braless' state.
" Wow." Said Duo, staring at the girl's chest. " You could hang a duffel coat on them..."
" Ssh!" hissed Quatre who had now joined them. " Don't say things like that! It's not very feminine!"
" Oh shh yourself..." mumbled Duo, wishing that the whole thing would hurry up and end so he could go home and unleash his wrath upon Wufei. " I'm just saying that if it gets any colder on that stage she's gonna have someone's eye out!"
Heero choked on the coffee that he was pouring down his throat. He too found it bitter but it had been a long day with nothing but Quatre's ham and honey sandwiches. (A/N: - Try ham and honey... its nice!)
Beside him Wufei yawned. He was getting terribly bored of the whole event and was still bitter over being put out in the first round, though he was sure that he would be able to gain his revenge on Duo for the remark he had made about his chest that first day he woke and found himself to be female. That and the " If you don't like women why aren't you gay?" that he had had to put up with from him for the past four months. He had seen Duo suffer 'the horrors of full waxing', but the sick little masochist had enjoyed it... He had to think of something that would pay Duo back without causing any inconvenience to himself while also genuinely getting him back for what he had done.
Wufei's thoughts were rather imprudently interrupted by the loud speaker which once again clicked on to announce the rules of the next round which would determine who took which place. As it turned out, it was a voting round decided by the audience. A system of cards was to be used, and all a person had to do was put a cross in the box next to the name of the person who they wanted to win. Of course, it took a simple person to get a simple thing like that confused, and Duo had to nudge Quatre repeatedly until he finally paid any attention to him.
" I can't see Trowa's name anywhere." He whispered in fear of Milliardo finding out who the four girls that had ascended upon him really were.
" Oh for God's sake... There! Tracey!" Quatre viciously stabbed a pen at the name.
" Oh..." Duo crossed it and passed it along the end of the row where it was collected.
Another fifteen long minutes passed before the familiar whine of the loud speaker was heard.
" And the winner of Miss Teen AC197 is..."
Relena smiled greasily. Trowa blushed profoundly. The other two girls braced themselves for their names to be called out.
" Tracey Barton!"
" Wha." Said Trowa bluntly, his arms hanging limply at his side. A wave of camera flashes once again blinded him and he threw his arms up protectively over his eyes to shield them to no avail. Amongst the sea of flickers he could make out Dorothy, her eyes brimming with tears and her lip quivering heavily. He looked at the side and saw Relena with her fake smile plastered across her face then looked out again to see Heero impatiently staring at his watch, Wufei trying his best to stifle a yawn and Quatre almost throttling Duo with a vigorous hug. The remains of the bouquet that Quatre had decimated and a trophy were thrust into Trowa's arms and he was pushed forward into the now reassembled microphone stand to give his winners speech.
The audience fell silent as the microphone whined.
" Uh..." Started Trowa, rather uncertain as to what to say. " This is unexpected."
The mic whined again.
" Is that all you have to say?" whispered the curator who had been standing beside him.
" And I want to go home now... please..."
The audience remained silent and Trowa was quietly ushered off the stage where he was quickly lost among the rush of photographers and reporters. The curator shoved him past them and into the empty corridor where he was approached by Relena.
" Good show you put on." She said cheerily, giving him an indescribable look. " It was good to hear someone finally tell the truth."
Trowa nodded. " I only entered this as a bet. I wasn't expecting to get very far."
" Funny, I entered it as a bet too and I never thought I would get past the first round!"
Trowa smiled weakly in recognition. " Well I have to go and get changed. My friends will be looking for me."
" Me too." She turned to walk away. " See you around Trowa."
For the first time in his life, Trowa raised an eyebrow and a smile along with it.
" I can't see where I went wrong!" pouted Wufei as he pulled a dark blue top over his head. " What exactly is it that those judges are looking for?!"
Heero didn't reply but continued to pull his shoes off from his aching feet.
He continued to pack the rest of his clothes away, taking care to shelter any incriminating evidence of his wicked deeds from Heero's vigilant eyes. " How did Trowa and Quatre manage to get through to the next round? What is that that they did that I didn't? I mean, you had that problem with your shoes, but all it was that you had to do was walk up, turn around and walk back down, and I failed at it! Me! I can't believe it!"
Heero made a 'hmm' noise to indicate that he was actually listening, though if he was paying any attention was a completely different matter.
" Yuy? What do you think?"
" I think it doesn't matter." Replied Heero in a vapid tone. " Its over, you lost and so do I. And now that we did, I don't care who wins. It makes no difference to me, I never really wanted to enter anyway. I only did it to get people off my case."
Wufei pouted for a moment. " Whatever... I was looking forward to showing Maxwell up..."
Heero turned on him. " This whole thing was about showing Duo up?" he asked in a rather undeceive voice. " He never even got to enter, so you never got the chance to..."
Wufei quickly turned round and buried his face in his bag. What had Heero meant by 'never got the chance to?' Did he know? Then again, with Heero it appeared as if he knew everything anyway, it was just that he never shared it with anyone. " Well, I guess you're right, it's over now. And there's no point in winding ones self over it..." said Wufei simply, choosing to let the subject ride out rather than raise Heero's suspicions any higher than they already were.
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Quatre squealed and latched himself onto Trowa's arm, receiving rather promiscuous looks from the opposing girls that remained after the first round of elimination's. " I can't believe we made it through to the next round!" he whispered excitedly " We're further than Wufei!"
Trowa's expression remained unchanged. " There are still quite a lot of girls left. What is it that we have to do this round anyway?"
Quatre placed a finger up to his mouth and hooked it over his lip. " I'm not too sure. I think maybe we have to do a short presentation; a speech on why we think we should win or something like that."
Trowa 'hmm'ed and continued to stare at the girls who were grouped together and cackling away to themselves. " I still don't understand why girls need to talk as much as they seem to. All they ever do is talk, and it's usually about someone next to them. Females are rather fickle."
" Trowa, you are female! No need to segregate yourself away."
" Well you try having a chest this size. Then you help but feel different."
The now all too familiar announcer stood at the front of the group, confirming Quatre's assumption that this round would consist of each remaining contestant giving a short oration on why they would like to win or why they wanted to enter the contest in the first place. A wave of whispers spread over the sea of bobbing blonde and brunette. The first contestant would be on stage in five minutes, that time was spent by the girls rehearsing their lines, perfecting their walks and generally doing everything possible to get on Quatre' already frayed nerves.
Out in the audience, Heero was edging his way towards Duo who was still deep in conversation with Milliardo. Wufei trailed behind him, keeping his head low incase Quatre or Trowa should see him, the little blonde had a tendency to shout abuse at any given excuse and Wufei did not want to be it. Heero eventually struggled his way through the crowd and stood firmly infront of Duo, glaring from him to Milliardo to back again.
Milliardo raised a brow. " Yes? Can I help you?"
" Uh..." muttered Duo, desperately trying to remember Heero's assumed name. " Hana?"
"..."
Duo smiled weakly. " This is Milliardo. He's been telling me all about Relena... She's his sister you know!" He put one hand up to his face and flipped the other one forward while grinning tritely.
Heero's eyes continued to burn into him.
Duo shrugged his shoulders, then caught sight of Wufei who was still pushing his way through the crowd. " Wendy!" he cried, standing up and waving his arms around, causing serious staining problems to the white shirt that Milliardo was wearing (Compliments his hair wonderfully don't you think...?) as the cup of coffee he was holding was abruptly emancipated from the tall blonde's strong grasp.
Wufei barged up to him. " Yes?" He frowned and flicked his loose hair behind his ear, adding an effective 'hmph' while he was at it.
" If you don't mind me saying..." started Milliardo " Wendy does not sound very much like a... like a..."
" Eastern name?" concluded Wufei, displeased more than ever over his choice of name, reminding himself that it had been that or 'Winona'.
" Yes..."
" Oh Wendy's mother was twice divorced and three times married." Said Duo, confident that he could save the situation from turning into a glaring match anymore than it already was. Still, it gave him an excuse to have a dig at Wufei. " Don't ask how, we don't even know where he comes from so I don't know how he is supposed to!" Duo laughed loudly, causing some of the elderly members of the audience to start mumblings amongst themselves about the rude girl talking to the even more rude Chinese one. " Poor girl..." he continued, wiping a fake tear of laughter away from his eye. " Met her at school..." he whispered behind a hand to Milliardo. " Was terribly shy right from the start. She hardly speaks at all..."
Wufei turned red, though this time it was with rage and not embarrassment as it usually was.
" And this is Hana." Duo introduced the glaring and brow-raising Heero to Milliardo.
Milliardo smiled politely and offered them both a seat.
Both stood fast, eyeing Duo with great suspicion and mistrust, Duo eyeing them with a pleading look on his face. Heero and Wufei reluctantly agreed to the invitation and sat down just as the loud speaker clicked on and the next round was announced.
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I shall not go into great detail here; saying only that out of the twenty or so girls who remained, only four remained, them including a couple of strangers, Relena and Trowa. Quatre went on to regret reacting the 'I'm flying Jack' scene from Titanic involving the microphone stand and a bouquet of flowers that he had stolen from the winners podium. Trowa, confused as to why he had made it through to the finals despite giving a forthright and bland speech on why he thought the cosmetic industry, and in particular beauty contests, were wrong. Though he had a suspicion that it had something to do with the fact that he was still unable to find a bra and his arms had weakened, causing him to stand with his back arched out only serving his chest to become even more prominent. Relena had simply dug out one of her old speeches on 'A safer and more friendly universe for us and the future generations' and prattled on about it for the better part of fifteen minutes. She had been the only one who had received a standing ovation and Trowa, who was now standing one away from her on the main stage, averted his eyes from both her and Dorothy who was 'nancing' (Ahh... a favourite pastime of one Starkiller...) around the audience with the rest of Relena's 'fan club'. Due to Trowa's passive nature, he found no difficulty in standing on the stage infront of the large audience, his only qualm came from the fact that the air conditioning above the stage was not doing a lot to help him disguise his 'braless' state.
" Wow." Said Duo, staring at the girl's chest. " You could hang a duffel coat on them..."
" Ssh!" hissed Quatre who had now joined them. " Don't say things like that! It's not very feminine!"
" Oh shh yourself..." mumbled Duo, wishing that the whole thing would hurry up and end so he could go home and unleash his wrath upon Wufei. " I'm just saying that if it gets any colder on that stage she's gonna have someone's eye out!"
Heero choked on the coffee that he was pouring down his throat. He too found it bitter but it had been a long day with nothing but Quatre's ham and honey sandwiches. (A/N: - Try ham and honey... its nice!)
Beside him Wufei yawned. He was getting terribly bored of the whole event and was still bitter over being put out in the first round, though he was sure that he would be able to gain his revenge on Duo for the remark he had made about his chest that first day he woke and found himself to be female. That and the " If you don't like women why aren't you gay?" that he had had to put up with from him for the past four months. He had seen Duo suffer 'the horrors of full waxing', but the sick little masochist had enjoyed it... He had to think of something that would pay Duo back without causing any inconvenience to himself while also genuinely getting him back for what he had done.
Wufei's thoughts were rather imprudently interrupted by the loud speaker which once again clicked on to announce the rules of the next round which would determine who took which place. As it turned out, it was a voting round decided by the audience. A system of cards was to be used, and all a person had to do was put a cross in the box next to the name of the person who they wanted to win. Of course, it took a simple person to get a simple thing like that confused, and Duo had to nudge Quatre repeatedly until he finally paid any attention to him.
" I can't see Trowa's name anywhere." He whispered in fear of Milliardo finding out who the four girls that had ascended upon him really were.
" Oh for God's sake... There! Tracey!" Quatre viciously stabbed a pen at the name.
" Oh..." Duo crossed it and passed it along the end of the row where it was collected.
Another fifteen long minutes passed before the familiar whine of the loud speaker was heard.
" And the winner of Miss Teen AC197 is..."
Relena smiled greasily. Trowa blushed profoundly. The other two girls braced themselves for their names to be called out.
" Tracey Barton!"
" Wha." Said Trowa bluntly, his arms hanging limply at his side. A wave of camera flashes once again blinded him and he threw his arms up protectively over his eyes to shield them to no avail. Amongst the sea of flickers he could make out Dorothy, her eyes brimming with tears and her lip quivering heavily. He looked at the side and saw Relena with her fake smile plastered across her face then looked out again to see Heero impatiently staring at his watch, Wufei trying his best to stifle a yawn and Quatre almost throttling Duo with a vigorous hug. The remains of the bouquet that Quatre had decimated and a trophy were thrust into Trowa's arms and he was pushed forward into the now reassembled microphone stand to give his winners speech.
The audience fell silent as the microphone whined.
" Uh..." Started Trowa, rather uncertain as to what to say. " This is unexpected."
The mic whined again.
" Is that all you have to say?" whispered the curator who had been standing beside him.
" And I want to go home now... please..."
The audience remained silent and Trowa was quietly ushered off the stage where he was quickly lost among the rush of photographers and reporters. The curator shoved him past them and into the empty corridor where he was approached by Relena.
" Good show you put on." She said cheerily, giving him an indescribable look. " It was good to hear someone finally tell the truth."
Trowa nodded. " I only entered this as a bet. I wasn't expecting to get very far."
" Funny, I entered it as a bet too and I never thought I would get past the first round!"
Trowa smiled weakly in recognition. " Well I have to go and get changed. My friends will be looking for me."
" Me too." She turned to walk away. " See you around Trowa."
For the first time in his life, Trowa raised an eyebrow and a smile along with it.
