Disclaimer: Is in the first chapter... I think. Don't hurt me.
Kuroi-chan's disclaimer: The nickname 'Sagi-chan is copyrighted to Kuroi. Any other who uses it will be mocked, laughed at, and will ultimately suffer at the hands of her vengeful and depressing wrath. That and she'll nag me into yelling at you.
Saaski-chan's disclaimer: The nickname Leeni-chan is copyrighted to Saaski. Use it and die. [temp. disclaimer]

AN So... this took forever to get out - I'm really sorry about that. [dies] Should I even mention the fact that finals are coming up? No, I'll just state that my birthday is next Sunday. That's right, the 23rd. Just letting you all know... So, sorry about the shortness [it's 8 pages, damnit!] but Wufei was being difficult this time and pinning him down became annoying. Eh...heh... Enjoy?

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Chapter 5

Sister Helen paced worriedly in the kitchen of the orphanage. It was still evening, the sun had yet to fall from the sky, but she was worried. All four of Duo's friends had come over that afternoon, which was odd.

Heero, she knew, had practice after school and was seldom available before seven in the evening. Quatre too, had after school club meetings he had to attend. Trowa had flute lessons and gymnastics practice and was often as unreachable as Heero. And Wufei, though he was probably the most flexible of the four, had extra homework to accomplish due to his college prep courses, not to mention his martial arts practice.

For all of those boys to abandon their previous commitments on the same day and visit Duo was a big deal. It meant that something had happened at school. Something else that Duo wasn't telling her.

She hated it when the long haired boy kept secrets from her. It made her feel as though he didn't trust her enough to fully embrace her as a part of his life.

Duo kept many secrets from herself and Father Maxwell. He kept them from his classmates, from the other orphans - she wouldn't be surprised if there were things Duo kept from his four closest friends.

"Ahem."

Sister Helen spun around, one hand pressed against her chest in surprise. She immediately recognized Quatre and smiled hopefully.

"Is Duo...?"

"He... had a very difficult day at school today," Quatre said softly. "There are some rumors going on about him and many of his other friends have deserted him." The small blond haired boy offered the nun a smile. "But he still has us, and he has other people who care about him as well. I'm sure that he'll be fine in a few days. It was just a bit of a shock to him."

Sister Helen sighed in relief and sunk down into one of the kitchen chairs. On the chair next to her the new infant of the orphanage, Hikaru, gurgled and lifted one fist into the air. Sister Helen smiled down at the baby and placed a small plastic toy in the bassinet. A rumor wasn't so horrible, she decided. Naturally she was curious as to what the rumor was, but she held herself back from asking. It was Duo's secret to tell her when he felt she needed to know.

"Eto..." Quatre said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I actually came down to ask if you had any drinks or snacks..." He laughed slightly. "We're all growing boys, you understand and we-"

"Get hungry a lot." Sister Helen finished for him, looking up from Hikaru. "Yes, there are some crackers in the cupboard, and soda's in the fridge."

She smiled again as she watched Quatre take the crackers and soda's. It wasn't really the others who had such large appetites. Just the cheery blond rummaging through the cupboards. One wouldn't think Quatre's stomach demanded so much, but the small boy could hold a surprisingly large amount of food. And he ate. A lot. If Quatre was able to think about food now, that had to mean that Duo had calmed down from his previous temper and shouting.

The teen was right: Duo would be okay in a day or two.

===

Quatre attempted to knock on Duo's bedroom door, regardless of the fact that his arms were weighted down with drinks and snacks. The attempt, having obviously failed, left the poor boy stranded outside the locked attic door. Suddenly, with a stroke of genius, Quatre resorted to tapping into Trowa's mind and asking his friend to unlock the door for him. Within the next minute, Trowa's hair covered face greeted him with an amused smile.

"You've got to stop reading my mind," he teased the blond, accepting half of the soda's with a wry smile.

Said blond telepath smirked playfully and breezed into the room. "I'm bound to find something interesting in there eventually," he called over his shoulder. Quatre then turned his attention to Duo. "Soda? Or juice?"

Duo looked up at him from the confines of his boyfriends embrace. The long haired orphan still looked rather defeated, not at all like his usually happy-go-lucky self. But his cheery mask would be in place for the next day, and he would eventually bounce back.

"Soda." He answered softly, not moving.

Instead, a can of his favorite soda floated out of Quatre's grasp and into Duo's unextended hand. It popped open a second later and the boy gratefully gulped down the carbonated caffeine.

Heero and Wufei accepted their own drinks and snacks, and the room remained silent, save for the chewing and swallowing.

The four boys had been sitting in Duo's bedroom for hours. Comforting him, cracking jokes, doing homework and simply being there for him when he needed them.

Eventually though, the group of friends had to leave. Trowa was the first to leave, not wanting to worry his mother too much. He had already skipped his gymnastics lesson earlier that afternoon, no need to skip out on dinner and a lecture. Quatre was the next to head out, followed by Wufei, who had been offered a ride home. Heero, on the other hand, didn't leave Duo's side until Sister Helen kicked him out of the orphanage around ten that night.

That left them about four hours to be alone together. To talk about what ever they wanted, to discuss what they were going to do about their relationship.

Duo vehemently refused Heero's offer to leave the closet. He defended his motion saying that if a mere social outcast like him had been shunned so horribly - what would somebody who was popular and well-liked be treated like?

And Heero was equally against his boyfriend suffering through the needless hazing alone. He especially hated being witness to said torture and not being able to do anything about it.

They came to a compromise. Heero would keep his sexuality a secret for the time being, and Duo would spend more of his school-time with the moody jock. There was bound to be a negative reaction for the second part of the compromise, but Heero didn't care and Duo would need somebody to be there for him when the worst hit. Leaving the long haired boy alone just wasn't an option in Heero's mind.

It was strange actually. Though both boys protested about what the other had to offer, they were very obviously relieved that it had been offered. And at the same time they were also given relief because what they had offered the other was similarly rejected. Heero didn't really want to admit his sexuality to the public, and Duo didn't want to be alone all day.

Not that they cared what other people thought of them, of course. It was just that nobody wants any of their secrets revealed, and regardless of it you care or not - it does hurt when people openly reject you.

School the next day would be interesting - that was the only thing that both Duo and Heero agreed on.

===

If Duo had previously thought that Monday was a nightmare, Tuesday was much worse. Although he constantly had a friend - usually Heero - by his side... the endless torturing of his pride brought him down to hell.

While nightmares are unpleasant, at least you can wake up from them. And that alone made Monday look like a walk in a park compared to Tuesday. Granted, that park was rather barren and dead, but it was a park all the same.

So, even with the ever constant presence of Heero beside him, Duo was still miserable.

After school was over, because Heero had basketball practice, Wufei transported the long haired boy home - so as to avoid any unnecessary hazing which was sure to occur if Duo walked home alone. As he typically did.

"I don't need to be babied," Duo complained after Wufei had released the tight hold he had on his upper bicep.

Wufei didn't answer if favor of focusing his breathing to attempt to suppress any nausea that might occur. Though that particular symptom was rare with Wufei, it wasn't absolutely unheard of. This was one of those times, and when such a thing happened, it was no small deal. It meant something bad had happened, or was going to happen. Usually, anyway.

"Fei?" Duo asked, peering worriedly as his friend.

The Chinese scholar grinned weakly. "Fooled you with that one." He said quietly, opening his obsidian eyes. The twinkled slightly, though Wufei's strength was very obviously tapped.

"You've gone farther than that before, with no problems." Duo frowned, "what's wrong with you now?"

"Quatre ate half of my lunch," Wufei explained, shaking himself slightly. "I'm just hungry."

Duo's eyes took on a slightly frightening gleam. "Than let's fatten you up!" He declared, dragging his friend into the church kitchen. He pulled the protesting Asian teen down the hall and forced him to sit in a time worn chair.

And at Sister Helen's first sight of the pale faced Wufei, she patted his head like a small child and immediately began shoving food down his throat.

He didn't have a chance, really. However, Duo wasn't exempt from the feeding ritual either. So at least Wufei wasn't suffering alone.

===

As was typical during basketball season, being in the gym after school was always a deafening experience. There were kids shouting across the gym to each other, balls bouncing against the hard floor, and the sporadic whistle screech.

In this kind of atmosphere, Heero Yuy wasn't exactly what you could call relaxed, but the noise and the energy from such a place made him more comfortable than in any quiet room, like a library. He was odd like that. While Heero himself was a rather quiet individual, he thrived in an environment that was alive. In a gym any noise he happened to make would be swallowed by every other noise, but in a library it felt that any single movement would be amplified indefinitely. It was simply more relaxing when he didn't have to worry about what people were thinking about him.

Currently, Heero was running laps, dodging the odd ball that rolled through his path. Because he was an asset to all sports teams the school, most people were content to let him do whatever he wanted during practice. But today... was different. Today, the top jock had allied himself with the gay reject. Today wasn't most days. And "most people" weren't content to let him be.

"Oi, Yuy!"

Heero neatly dodged the ball that was thrown at his head. And he kept running.

"Do you think you're better than us? Come and practice like the rest of us, you slacker!"

"Is that really wise to say? He's the best player we have!"

"Shut up! I'm not going to take his crap anymore!"

Heero sighed, slowing his steps and slipping into a light jog. He loped casually around the perimeter of the gym once more, moving out of the path of several more wayward basketballs with ease.

He would eventually join the others on the team for warm-up and drills. But for now, he would use this time for himself - regardless of what the rest of the teams thought.

"You think that somebody with a stick that far up his ass would at least acknowledge us." Somebody complained loudly as Heero ran past once again.

Heero's jaw tightened minutely but he said nothing.

"Hello Heero," a strangely cheerful voice said as another player fell into step with him.

Heero glanced over at the girl before grunting. "Relena." He said in response.

The girl smiled prettily at him and they ran on in silence for a few more moments. "I was just wondering," Relena said finally, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. She kept his pace easily, not even breathing hard. "I noticed that you were spending a lot of time with Duo Maxwell today... don't you know that he's gay?"

"Bi."

"Hm?" Relena wasn't quite sure that Heero had actually said anything, with all the noise in the gym it was hard to tell - but at the same time, some sound or other had fallen from her crush's lips. "Did you say something, Heero?"

"He's bisexual." Heero repeated himself, not looking over at the girl clad in rather preppy looking warm up clothes. Really, that much pink shouldn't be allowed on one person. If there was a color that Heero hated, it was probably pink - and only because Relena swathed herself in it everyday. "And Duo is my friend. I'm allowed to spend time with him if I want to."

Relena was quiet for a moment, slowly digesting the information. "I wasn't aware that the two of you were friends," she said, carefully avoiding the sexuality subject. Something in the boy's tone had said that the subject was off limits.

"We've been friends for a long time," Heero finally admitted, "ever since the second grade."

The pink clad basketball player was surprised, to say the least. That was information that had somehow stayed out of the rumor mills. At Gundam High, nothing stayed out of the rumor mills. Especially not about people like Heero and Duo. The two boys were quite popular, in their own ways. Heero was the jock, popular because he was involved in every sport and could be counted on for always winning the game. And Duo was popular in the opposite way - he was a rebel. He ran with the "bad crowd", it was rumored that he was involved in illegal activities, and he was never caught pulling pranks - but everybody knew that he was the one who pulled them. Their popularities might have been completely different - just as their personalities were - but they were popular none the less. And any news about the two was immediately big news.

The fact that the two had managed to stay friends since the second grade - and keep that fact a secret - was big news. News that could probably drown out the fact that Duo was gay. No, not gay, Relena corrected herself, bi.

She wondered why the two boys hardly acknowledged each other during school, but then she realized... that they did. Each morning they would greet each other in whatever language it was that they spoke. Their lockers were right next to each other - she remembered Heero requesting that particular locker at the beginning of the school year. It must have been for the two to be near each other. Relena could also understand why the two had kept their friendship quiet. They were from two different social worlds - people wouldn't be happy to know that their favorite jock was buddy-buddy with some punk loser.

The coach entered the room at that moment, ending their jog around the gym. Heero and Relena parted ways in order to participate in their respective practices.

And Tuesday passed without any negative incident

===

Wufei was mad.

It wasn't something that was hard to see - if the Chinese boy was angry, he showed it as obviously as possible.

If he could, Wufei vented his anger with physical activity - that being his martial arts training. He threw himself into his punches, kicks, dodging... everything. He focused his anger to motivate him until he was too exhausted to do anything except curl up and hate the injustices of the world he lived in.

But while he worked, he ranted.

"I hate-" punch, dodge. "How people-" kick, jump. "Judge others!" Punch, spin. He paused, panting slightly, before beginning again. "They should all- just stay out- of his business! I want to- kick all of their- asses!"

"Wufei!"

Wufei stopped, his leg still lifted in the motions of his last kick. He turned, staring with wide, surprised eyes at his mother. "Eh... ni hao..." He added a smile.

"Don't you "hello" me!" His mother ranted, walking a little further into the yard where her son was still standing with one leg lifted in the air. "I don't want to hear you say those words ever again!" She paused, her black eyes twinkling slightly. "Dinner's ready, go wash up."

The teen nodded, his anger having been shocked away, and hurried into the house. He would continue ranting later - after dinner.

He was hungry again, despite the snack that Duo had shoved down his throat.

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AN It was short and I curse Wufei for being so difficult to write! CURSE HIM! Please heed all disclaimers at the beginning of the chapter. Please excuse my bad spelling/grammar and my fangirl-ish Japanese and Chinese.

Review, ne?