~Day 3~
"Sleep well?" Washu was waiting in the hallway when the pilots got up, leaning in their direction with her arms folded behind her back, almost defying gravity by the angle of her slant.
"Oh, ha ha ha…" Wufei looked down at his 'instructor' crankily, dark circles underneath his gray eyes. "Like you don't know."
A groggy Duo picked up on the atmosphere. "Can we get different beds please? I can't sleep on that hunk of mattress any more than I could sleep on a heap of tacks… please?"
Washu leaned even farther inwards, closed one eye, and held up a pointer finger. "And what would that accomplish? You're asking the wrong person anyway! If you want to… 'rearrange' your sleeping arrangements, there're some other girls in the house you could talk to."
Trowa gave her an ironic look. "You are aware we all hate you, right?"
"Oh." She patted his cheek annoyingly. "Save all that energy… you're already on day three, and forgive me for noticing, but you don't seem to have made any progress. And it just might be a trend… because none of you have accomplished very much, have you? Tsk tsk."
He shoved her hand away, composing himself in that trademark Trowa fashion. "I'd blame the teacher for that."
"You would? Why?" She placed the rejected hand on her hip, slightly irked.
"Maybe I'd change my mind if you helped us out a little."
"Yeah!" Duo agreed. "Surely a scientist of your brilliance could tilt things in our favor?"
"Have faith, my clueless pupils." Washu grabbed both of Heero's hands suddenly and swayed to and fro. "I'm working behind the scenes, assuring your education. I have some big plans for you!" She arched an eyebrow in such a way that seemed too mature for her face. "And some extra-curricular activities planned… that's how much I care. Don't expect that you'll have to work any less hard, though."
"What then?" Heero cringed at the contact as she continued moving his arms to an unheard beat. "You're going to teach us some helpful skills?"
"Correct, my dear obsessive soldier!" She slid one of her hands behind his back. "Do you know how to dance?"
The question didn't seem to catch Heero off guard. "Yes." He proved the statement by dipping her back gracefully, reveling in her surprise. "It's been relevant to my missions… once or twice."
"I see!" She straightened herself, less confident than before. "Well… uh… good! Girls like to dance, and I mean to give you an opportunity to try out those fancy maneuvers on a certain prissy princess. But you'll need a little practice to keep up with a woman born of the royal line… don't want to look like a fool, do you?"
"So you'll brief us on this upcoming mission, I assume?"
She laughed hollowly. "Always the aspiring warrior. You'd do well to relax a bit… take that to heart. And all of you meet me in my laboratory after breakfast. I'll have you all dancing like love struck fools by the evening."
"Goody." Wufei adopted a dark countenance. "Does anybody have any cyanide handy?"
"One and two and three and…" At least the dancing practice was something to put their minds on, other than the hideous prospect of devising poetry, compliments, and presents. And even better, it was a distraction from the looming possibility of eternal confinement in this alternate universe. And although tedious, one and two and three and was at least predictable, unlike certain members of the Masaki household.
"So," Quatre whirled around the lab with a robotic creation that supposedly was a life-like substitute for a real partner. "What did you arrange that we'd be dancing for?"
Washu sighed as she corrected Wufei's steps, temporarily taking the place of his mechanical instructor.. "This is why you need this class. You don't need a special occasion to dance. Just turn on some music and there you go!"
"That doesn't sound romantic enough." Quatre frowned at the expressionless robot.
"Maybe," Washu guided her forlorn pilot into some smooth movements. "That's probably why I've conjured up a ballroom for tonight… never say I never did anything for you slackers!"
Heero paced through the waltz distractedly, obviously very familiar with the steps, though nobody dared to ask him where he had learned. "And your suggestions for getting everybody to go to this ballroom?"
"Oh, I have a pretense." She abandoned Wufei and changed the music to a faster tempo. "What's your favorite color, Duo?"
"Why?" Duo was jerking his faux partner around, nearly knocking it over with his lapse of rhythm.
"Duo! This is a dance, not a recreation of a violent murder… stop fighting with her and dance!"
"She doesn't know how to loosen up!" He smacked the side of the machine impatiently. "Come on, baby, let's see some real footwork!"
"Whatever." Washu switched the music again to a very slow song. "What's your favorite color?"
"Black! You'd think a genius could figure that out…"
"Aw, shut it before I go get my teacher's stick! Quatre?"
"Huh?" Quatre responded.
"Color, color! Favorite color!" Washu snapped her fingers hastily.
"Oh! Uh… gee… well… hm…"
"Come on! I'm not asking you for the value of a quantum figure in absolute negativity while suspended in artificial parameters of an integer! Oh wait a minute… I suppose I kind of did!" She laughed hysterically at the joke, which was clearly lost on the rest of the group. (A/N: And me… I mean, what the hell?)
"Er… um… ah… blue!"
"Heero?" She stopped laughing enough to present the question anew.
"What's the point in having a preferred color?" Heero shuffled with the robot with a bored expression on his face.
"This might be on the test!" Washu threatened. "Just give me a color, for pete's sake!"
"I don't even care. Red."
"Trowa?"
"Is there a right answer?" Trowa had spent the majority of the lesson moving his feet tiny increments across the floor, and had maybe succeeded in traveling a whole two inches in the last three hours.
"Not really. I might give you bonus points for coming up with something unique, though."
He thought momentarily. "I'll just go with all of them then: white."
"Wufei?"
"You want unique?" Wufei snorted. "Plaid… brown and green. With fuchsia polka dots, and yellow stripes, too!"
Washu paled a little bit. "That's just… cruel, Wufei!"
He shrugged. "What do you mean?"