Disclaimer: Not mine.

Summary: AU, YAOI -- Based (very loosely) on the Chinese TV series Meteor Garden -- Duo is a poor orphan at the most prestigious high school in space. The other pilots make up an elite group called G4: the richest, most powerful 4 individuals on campus. When Duo decides to butt heads against the leader of G4, he learns that there is only a fine line between love and hate.

Meteors Garden

soumanyon

Chapter 1

posted: Oct. 16, 2004

"Oh shit!" muttered the long-haired boy. He struggled into his long black overcoat while wiggling his feet into scruffy black slippers. With the front of his feet in the shoes and heels crushing the backs, he finally managed to get his coat on. His long, chestnut brown hair flew behind him as he ran out the heavy dark oak door of the church, slinging his bag over a shoulder.

As he sprinted down the street which was already beginning to fill with people heading to work, he buttoned up the front of his coat. Feet padding on the stone sidewalk, the boy sprinted down the street, skidding around corners and darting between crowds of people who cursed as he shoved through them.

As he ran past a fruit vendor, he ducked low and snatched an apple, cramming it into his mouth as he went back to his long column of buttons. The murky little downtown stores fronted with peeling paint and cracked drywall slowly gave way to a quiet suburb with golden honey locusts lining the sides of the street.

Turning one final corner, he finally saw his school. The tall, majestic main building and clock tower of the most prestigious high school in the city was the first thing to be seen once you turned the corner and left the road with the honey locusts lined on both sides. The school rested at the top of the grassy, perfectly manicured hill. A road winded up the hill and the boy ran up as the bells in the clock tower began to toll.

Behind him, he could hear the screeching of wheels and turned his head, slowing for only a brief second. A small white sports car closely followed by a shining silver convertible came speeding around the corner he had just passed. The white car cut the silver convertible off in the curve of the turn and took the lead up the winding road, heading straight towards him.

At the last second, the long-haired boy ran off the road onto the dewy lawn of the hill. The white car zoomed past him, wheels crunching on the gravel of the road at the exact spot he had just been standing in.

Resisting the urge to shout expletives at the expensive cars, the boy jerked his middle finger at them, scowling, before the bell tolled again and he took off up the road after them.

-----

"Duo! Hey, Duo!"

Duo looked up at the cheerful voice calling his name. Quirking a lop-sided grin at the black-haired girl, he gave her a one-armed hug as he pulled at the collar of his coat with the other hand,

"Morning, Hilde."

They walked side by side through the grand foyer of the main building. Hilde's black shoes echoed on the white marble floor but Duo's soft slippers were silent. They headed across the foyer to the other side, where a pair of glass doors opened to a covered hallway that led to building B,

"So what have you been up to? Disappearing for more than a year and suddenly coming back?" Hilde mock-scolded her old friend. But her wide grin told him that she was just happy that they were going to the same school again.

"Eh, you know. This couple decided they'd try to take in 'the poor orphan'," Duo said the last few words mockingly, "But they got tired of me after a while."

"A 'while' being a year?" Hilde arched an eyebrow, digging below the surface of Duo's tricky words.

"Well, you know." The boy shifted nervously under Hilde's gaze,

"Don't tell me you ran away again!" she said in an exaggerated, jokingly exasperated voice. Duo replied with a cock of his head and a slightly strained grin before he looked away.

The gardens on either side of the hallway were bare, but the trees had begun to change color and the low dipping branches of young willows were covered with yellowing leaves. It was actually quite beautiful. The gardeners of the school were, of course, professionals and had planned for every season.

With a soft snort at the snobbiness and showery of it all, Duo turned back to Hilde as they entered building B through another set of glass doors. The girl's classroom was just on the right so Duo left her there, waving goodbye with a promise that they'd meet up for lunch.

Glancing at a clock with a wince, Duo pulled his crumpled schedule out of his pocket and quickly scanned it, finding the location of his first class, English, in building D.

"Damnit," He was already more than ten minutes late, after walking Hilde to her class, which started later than his. And to top it all off, his English class was all the way in building D.

Central Colony High School was composed of five main buildings, four of them arranged in a diamond shape. They were connected with covered, but open hallways. Building A, was the southern point. Building C was the western point. Building D was the eastern point and building B was the northern point. The center of the diamond made by the four buildings and the hallways was a courtyard with an extravagant garden and seating for studying or for lunch.

Further north of B was the athletic building, set apart from the diamond shape with a covered hallway connected it to building B. Sports fields sprawled in the plains below the school on the overlooking hill and a ring of woods around the fields formed a semi-circle, surrounding the back of the school and served as a boundary.

Building A was mostly composed of stately rooms such as the auditorium, the grand foyer, the main office, and various trophy rooms. The private rooms of the professors and headmaster were in building A also.

Buildings B and C were classrooms where an enormous variety of subjects were taught.

Building D were the dorms. Students could pay a fee to live at the school in one of the rooms. Although most students had rooms, few lived in them. They were mostly used as storage where students kept books, clothes, and other supplies. Sometimes when a student skipped, he would be found napping in his room.

But the rooms were closed weekends and holidays. Some said it was because of partying, others thought it was because so few students stayed at the school over weekends or holidays that it was a hassle for the dorms to be open those times.

Whatever the reason, it didn't matter to Duo, who could barely afford the tuition, much less room and board. He lived at the church that had taken him in so many years ago, Maxwell Church. But it was a good life, for the most part. Father and Sister Helen were wonderful to him and he had no complaints, even though money was scarce.

So it had been a huge surprise to him when, after turning up from running away from yet another foster family that didn't worked out, they had informed him that he would be attending Central Colony, the most prestigious and expensive private high school on L2, hell, the most prestigious and expensive high school in all the colonies. And Duo was pretty sure it compared well with the schools of earth too. Of course, it wasn't as if there were many prestigious and expensive high schools on L2, well, at least not on Duo's side of the colony.

L2 was divided into two sides that were as different as night and day. The old sector was a grimy inner city. It was, as the name tells, the older part of the colony. It was populated mainly by descendants of the criminals and delinquents who had first been sent up to build the colony and had decided to stay in space.

Dirty streets crowded with drunks, druggies and more than a few prostitutes characterized the old sector of the colony.

The new sector was the rich half. Pristine streets and rich businessmen's mansions in quiet suburbs, shiny glass buildings, and perfectly preened fields and even woods made up the new sector.

The two worlds rarely mixed, even though they were on the same space colony. The rich stayed in their half while the poor and the unfortunate were doomed to theirs. Except for one boy.

Duo was an extraordinary boy by all measures. An orphan and street child for as long as he could remember, Duo and his pack of other street kids had finally been taken in by the kind people of Maxwell Church. One by one, the other kids had all been placed in foster homes, except for Duo, who had been shuttled back and forth from one home to another.

None of them seemed to work out and Duo always ended up either sent back by the foster parents or running away back to the church. Now, at 16, he was still a ward of the church. It confused Sister Helen, a kind nun who was almost a surrogate mother to Duo, why no one wanted to keep the poor boy.

Duo had been an adorable child and had matured into a handsome young man. He was kind, funny, and always had a grin. Perhaps it was his special talent at provocation or his sharp tongue and even sharper wit that foster parents just couldn't deal with. Perhaps they didn't like his habit of getting into trouble, even when he tried not to.

Years ago, when Duo had been 10 and had just been sent back to the Church again, he had padded through the cold stone halls of the church at midnight in his patched night shirt to Sister Helen's room, where he tentatively knocked on the door and poked his little head in.

He had crawled onto the bed with Helen and sat wrapped in her arms for a long silence until he finally turned around and stared up at her with large, bright violet eyes. He asked her in the most confused, small voice why no one liked him. Helen simply shook her head and stroked his hair, hugging him tightly to her.

Years passed and many foster homes later, Duo was still an orphan and still lived at Maxwell Church with Father and Sister Helen.

Maxwell Church was situated in the old sector of L2 in the middle of a street that was like all the other streets in old L2. On the outside, it was a small, grubby looking church, but on the inside, the walls, the floors, everything was immaculate. Or, at least as immaculate as the inhabitants could make their home. Everything was very homey and well-used, but clean and neat.

Not many people visited the church and in the poor sector of L2, no one had money to spare so there were precious few donations. Still, the church opened its arms to anyone who came to their doors in need and spared would could be spared. And sometimes they gave until there was nothing left to give. The entire church did so. Duo could remember days of going hungry and nights of shivering with only tattered, torn blankets.

Shaking the depression out of him, Duo ran through the sliding glass doors that led to the covered hallway between buildings B and C. Running through the empty hall, he finally got to building C, panting and cursing in his head at the enormity of the school. His footsteps echoed through the halls, long deserted. The buildings had class times offset, so even though he'd gotten Hilde to class early, he was 15 minutes late. 'Great way to start the fucking school year.' He thought as he found his history class and yanked opened the door.

The classroom was set up like a university lecture hall. The professor had his desk in the front and lectured to the students sitting in rows of seats that rose as they went further back, like an auditorium. Duo's eyes quickly scanned the rows, conscious of the many staring eyes. Not many seats were empty.

The professor cleared his throat and Duo turned to the old man, who raised one of his bushy eyebrows at the young man who had come barging into his class.

"Uh…."

"Name?" the man asked irritably,

"Maxwell, Duo Maxwell."

The professor marched to his desk and picked up a list of what Duo supposed were the students. Frowning and marking a small note next to his name, he glanced up at the waiting Duo,

"Find a seat and sit down." He barked, before dropping the list back on his desk and turning his back to Duo.

Red-faced at the dismissal, Duo started up the stairs on the side of the rows and halfway up remembered to look for an empty seat. There weren't any. He was all the way up to top before he realized that there weren't any more seats and had to walk back down the steps with half of the students staring at him. 'Never seen a guy with long hair before,' he thought as he shifted the backpack on his shoulder and kept his head down. If they saw his eyes, there'd be even more to stare about. Not many people had violet eyes and colored contacts came no where near the same brilliant shade of violet that his eyes were.

He chanced a look up and spotted an empty seat next to a boy with light blond hair and a wide, disarming smile. He met Duo's eyes and cocked his head a little as an invite to the open seat next to him. Duo hurried over, dropped his bag, and sat down with a small sigh of relief. After he sat down, most people turned their attention back to the annoyed teacher.

As Duo bent down under the desk to take a pen and notebook out of his backpack, the blond ducked down too and held his hand out. They shook hands and the blond winked at Duo,

"Hello, I'm Quatre."

"Duo." He replied with a grin.

The desk was heavy oak and fronted with heavy oak. It ran all the way down the row so they could duck down and talk without being noticed, even though their row was near the front.

"That's Doctor J," Quatre supplied helpfully, "He's one of the nastiest profs in the school and he hates tardiness. You probably—"

Quatre was cut off when the door to the class flew open with so much force that it bounced off the wall. Everyone turned to the open door again, including Duo and his breath caught at the sight.

The young man that stood in the door had tousled dark brown hair with long bangs that hung over his eyes. But the brilliant blue of his eyes shined through his bangs. The eyes were narrowed in a scowl that looked like it was permanently on the boy's face, but it didn't make the face any less handsome. Duo let his eyes wander over the other boy's body. It was muscled, that much was obvious, but not overly so. The other boy had a slender aesthetic to him that still managed to scream dangerous.

"Yuy," the professor shook his head and the boy turned rebellious eyes on the professor, "Button your jacket." was all the old man said before turning back to the board. Duo couldn't believe it. He was 15 minutes late and the prof embarrassed him in front of the entire class for his tardiness but the boy who had walked in without a tie and his uniform unbuttoned to show a green tank top underneath got a 'button your jacket'?

"Who's the asshole?" Duo asked Quatre under his breath and the blond's blue-green eyes widened. He was just about to reply when he was cut off again, this time by a voice that froze Duo. It was the sexiest voice he had ever heard and the slight accent in it made it even more attractive. 'Never knew it was possible to fall in love with a voice…'

"Winner." It said and Quatre looked up with a smile,

"Good morning, Heero." Duo winced. Obviously the two were friends and he'd just called Quatre's friend an asshole. 'Heero Yuy.' Duo said to himself. The name sounded Japanese. It sounded familiar…but he couldn't put his finger on where he'd hear it before.

Heero's blue eyes met the eyes of the boy who sat to Quatre's left. The boy stared back in muted fear and quickly, with shaking hands, packed up his notebook and pens and stood up to find another seat. With a smirk, Heero took the now empty seat as Quatre harmlessly rebuked him.

To get to Quatre's left, Heero had to walk behind Duo's seat and as the mysterious boy walked by, Duo caught a whiff of the boy's…cologne? He couldn't be sure. He'd never smelled cologne like that. It smelled like…a wild thunderstorm or a towering forest; raw power. Or maybe it was just the boy's natural scent.

Heero leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed and eyes closed. His desk in front of his stayed empty and it looked like he was asleep. He was silent through the rest of the class, only nodding, shaking his head, or shrugging at questions that Quatre would ask him under his breath. Duo, like many others in the room, snuck glances at Heero between scribbling of notes.

'He's beautiful,' thought Duo, 'but he's got an attitude problem.'

At the end of class as they packed up their things, Quatre turned to Duo after Heero had already left,

"So what class do you have after this?"

Duo fumbled through his pockets of his coat and finally found the worn schedule again. His eyes traveled down the paper, trying to read the complicated thing. With a bright chuckle, Quatre slipped it out of his fingers and glanced through it,

"You have Chemistry now," he pointed out for Duo, "Let's see…I have physical education now, gym, but I can show you where your class is, if you'd like. You're new, right?"

Duo nodded, but suddenly remembered, "Isn't the sports building far from here? You'll be late if you show me."

For some reason, Quatre grinned, "Oh, it's no problem." He assured Duo and led him through the halls of building C, leaving him at the door to his chemistry class as the clock tower bell tolled.

"Thanks," Duo said as Quatre left waving.

He went inside, this time on time and found a seat towards the back of the class, behind two boys. One of them looked Chinese. His eyes were so dark they looked black and his equally raven black hair was swept back from his high forehead in a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. Next to him was a tall, brown-haired boy. His bangs were long and hid one side of his face. On the other side, Duo could see a bright emerald eye.

One other person walked in after Duo sat down, just before the class began. The girl had long blonde hair and walked with her head held high and not sparing a glance at any of the rabble in the room. Spotting the two boys that sat in front of Duo, she went to sit down to the Chinese boy's left, since the tall, brown-haired boy was sitting next to the aisle.

"Wufei." Duo heard her greet him with a smile,

"Relena." He replied back with a small incline of his head.

Relena gracefully slid her books onto the desk and sat down, straightened her hair and skirt as she did so. The prof at the front of the room began to talk and Duo hauled out his notebook again, ready for another hour of notes. The last prof, Doc J, had talked all hour and Duo's hand was sore from all the writing.

Relena smiled in greeting at the tall brunette then immediately turned to the Chinese boy sitting next to her,

"Have you seen Heero yet?" Relena asked Wufei softly as she uncapped a pink pen. Duo could see Wufei wince slightly as the girl spread out all of her pink supplies. Pink pen, pink pencil, pink eraser, glittery pink notebooks, pink folder with pink hearts and pink stars.

"Yes," Wufei replied when he finally tore his eyes from the glittery notebook cover when Relena opened the notebook. He winced again as he saw that the paper inside was also, of course, pink.

Duo barely managed to hold in his snort. Pink ink and pink paper. What a smart combination.

The prof began to get into his lecture and Duo's attention stayed on the board. He wasn't there to listen to snobby, idle, rich chitchat. He was there to get a good education. That's what the church was toiling and slaving to pay for.

After Chemistry, Duo took out his schedule again to try and find his music class. Walking through the crowded halls of building C to the music room, he accidentally ran into a chest that felt like a wall. Duo was shoved back and stumbled a little before looking up to glare at whoever the rude bastard was.

His eyes met the blue of the boy he'd seen in History. Heero Yuy.

"Watch it." The sexy voice growled at him, before shoving past him on his way to god knows where. Duo's face flushed from embarrassment and anger. 'The son of a bitch!'

He fumed all the way to his music class. There were already some people there chatting with each other, so Duo quickly found a secluded seat towards the back and threw his bag down. A few minutes later, the blond from his history class meekly pushed open the door and looked in. Spotting Duo, he walked towards him and carefully propped his bag on his chair,

"Duo! Looks like we have music together."

Duo nodded grumpily, but he was glad that there was someone he knew in the class.

"Trowa!" Quatre's bright voice called over the brunette who sat in front of Duo in chemistry, "Trowa, this is Duo." Quatre introduced them and Trowa looked calmly at Duo and nodded,

"We have chemistry together." It was a statement, and Duo was surprised. He didn't know that this Trowa had noticed him.

"Oh, that's great! He has history with me and Heero first period." Quatre continued on, not noticing or not caring that the prof was waiting for him to finish to start the class, "Duo's new, so it's great that he's in the same classes as some of us. He'll fit right in!" Quatre beamed at Duo, who smiled weakly back. 'If they only knew…'

If Trowa had been anyone else, Duo would have thought the expression on his face was the equivalent of rolling his eyes. He shook his head at the blond's enthusiasm, but then noticed that the prof was still staring and waiting for them,

"Uh…Quatre?" he pointed the prof out

"What? Oh." Quatre inclined his head slightly to the prof before settling down calmly with his hands folded on his desk.

The class was silent for a few moments, but then the prof began taking role and Duo gaped. It was as if she'd been waiting for permission from one of her students to teach! 'What the hell?' The school was unlike any other school Duo had ever attended. Heero had walked in late with no rebuke, Quatre had delayed the class a good 10 minutes and the profs didn't care. The double standard was incredible. 'Sure, they're rich…but what the hell?!'

Then the prof was calling for them to line up to register instruments and Duo blinked. He'd never touched an instrument in his life. But Quatre was tugging on his sleeve and calling for him to hurry up. Quatre immediately walked straight the front of the line and the kid that had been first nervously backed up almost tripping over the girl behind him to make room for Quatre and Trowa. Duo decided that he didn't want to be first and went to the back of the line over Quatre's protests.

He stood nervously in line while Quatre signed up for violin and Trowa for flute. As each student signed up for his or her instrument, the line kept moving forward and the students who had gotten their instruments already went back their seats.

'Damnit!' Duo swore as he suddenly realized that as the last one, everyone would be watching him. He stood in front of the prof nervously,

"Uh, I don't really…"

"What's that?" Duo looked up and started when he realized that the prof was a young woman. A pretty young woman,

"I don't play anything." Duo said, even more nervous. He was sure that the whole class was listening now. Apparently, rich meant refined, which he obviously was not. The prof eyed him thoughtfully, before looking down at her handheld computer. She scrolled down a little with the pen and then smiled at Duo,

"Can you sing?"

Duo's eyes widened a little before he shrugged,

"Sort of. I sing at church,"

The prof nodded and her smile widened,

"You'll sing then."

Duo shook his head, desperately trying to find some way out of it, "But don't you need to hear or audition me?"

"Nope." The prof clipped her pen back on the little handheld and stood up, "I have a hunch." She waved him back to his seat where he joined up with Quatre and Trowa. Quatre was excited,

"You're singing? Wow, that'll be great. Can you sing very well?"

Duo shrugged again, but Quatre grinned, "I'm sure you'll be great!"

And they spent most of the rest of the time chatting while the rest of the class got acclimated to their instruments. Apparently, Quatre had his own violin and didn't want to bother with what he called were the terrible, out of tune school ones. The same went for Trowa, but he simply said that he had his own instrument, and left it at that. And, of course, Duo didn't have an instrument but he didn't want to practice singing at school. He really didn't want to sing at all.

'What the hell? Why did I volunteer to freaking sing?!' inside, he fumed at himself for choosing to sing, and forgetting his self-consciousness.

The bell tolled again and they all left quickly, since there wasn't anything to pack up. Quatre stopped Duo before they left and Trowa waited for them, standing behind the much shorter blond,

"Hey Duo, would you like to have lunch with us?" Quatre invited with a pleading puppy-eyed expression,

Duo shrugged, "Sure," he turned to go, but then stopped again, "Uh, I'm going to meet up with a friend first, though. Where do you eat?"

Quatre blinked, at a loss for words. Trowa took over calmly, "Meet us by the front entrance."

Duo nodded and left to find Hilde, leaving a bewildered Quatre.

As he wandered through the halls hoping to bump into Hilde, he passed a crowded room and paused in confusion. Pushing through the crowd, he finally got to the edge of a ring around a desk. Duo recognized the boy sitting in the desk from his Chemistry class, but he'd been laughing and joking with his friends then. Now he looked miserable and on the verge of tears.

Even more confused, Duo glanced around wondering why no one was saying anything or comforting the broken boy. He noticed a bright red slip of paper crumpled in the guy's hand and wondered what it was. Around him, he began to hear murmurs of 'G4' and other things that Duo didn't understand.

The boy seemed to pull himself together, but he still looked miserable. He got up and moved towards the door and the crowd backed away from him, as if he was contagious with some terrible disease. The room had gone silent again.

The crowd flowed out of the room with the boy and melted into the crowd in the hallway. The whole hallway quickly became silent, just as the room had and people again shied away from the boy as he walked dejectedly towards the school entrance. Once he turned the corner, the talk began, more harsh whispers and rumors building.

Thoroughly confused, Duo began to wander again but was so lost in his thoughts as he tried to reason out what had just happened that he didn't hear Hilde calling him repeatedly.

"Duo! Hey, Maxwell!" Duo was grabbed in a tight hug as if Hilde hadn't seen him for 3 years, instead of the three hours she'd just gone without seeing him.

"Hilde-babe!" Duo crowed, taking his mind off of the puzzle and fully playing along with her. He leaned in as if to give her a sloppy kiss, but Hilde turned her head so he just pecked her on the cheek,

"Duo! What'd I tell you about the flirting?" Duo blushed. Both of them knew that he wasn't interested in her that way, but they still enjoyed a little harmless playing once in a while,

"Sorry, babe, you're just so sexy that I can't help myself." Duo said, kneeling on one knee in the middle of the hall with her hands clasped in him. She glared at him before swatting him upside the head with her bag,

"That's going from cute to creepy." She pulled him up by the braid with Duo protesting and whining the whole time. They started walking from Hilde's Precalc class in building B to the hallway that led to the main A building.

"So how's your day been going?" Hilde asked as they walked with one of Duo's arms slung across her shoulders leisurely.

"Great!" Duo exclaimed at once, but that only made Hilde suspicious,

She stopped them and pulled Duo off to the side of the hall where there was a convenient, located so that the person sitting there could stare into the landscaped courtyard,

"Spill." She deadpanned comically, but she was truly concerned. Duo would act if nothing was wrong even if the world was ending. If she didn't get to whatever was bothering him, it'd just worm deeper and deeper until it was out of sight, out of mind, and out of control.

Duo's squirming under her broiling glare made her even more suspicious, but then the bell tolled and Duo got up.

"Stay!"

"Hilde!" Duo protested, "Later, okay? I have to meet up with Quatre and Trowa for lunch."

That stopped Hilde and she quickly dropped his arm, the color draining out of her face,

"Q-Quatre? As in Quatre Raberba Winner?" Duo shrugged, he'd heard Quatre's whole name but it'd slipped out of his mind because it was so long, "Yeah, and Trowa, uh…"

"Barton." Hilde filled in and Duo nodded warily,

"What the hell?!" she yelled, before the curious glances from passing kids made her at least sit down. She lowered her voice, but it was still the volume of a stage whisper,

"What the hell are you going hanging out with them? How did you manage to meet up with them?"

Duo shrugged, "Quatre's in my history class. I sit next to him. And Heero."

The mention of the name Heero made Hilde gape. Duo was getting concerned. Nothing fazed Hilde, he didn't know why a couple of names did.

"Spit it out already, Hilde."

She swatted him over the head as she often did when he was stupid and glared,

"You idiot! Heero Yuy, Quatre Raberba Winner, Trowa Barton, and Chang Wufei are the members of G4!" At Duo's blank expression, she continued, "G4 is the richest, most powerful group on campus. They can do anything… but they're dangerous." At Duo's raised eyebrow she shook her head,

"Not dangerous-dangerous. But they have power and influence. People have tried to be friends with them before, but if you slip up…"

Duo snorted,

"What? They'll kick my ass? I doubt it." Duo really couldn't imagine angelic Quatre beating the shit out of him. But Heero… Still, it explained a lot, like why even the profs seemed to bow down to those four guys. And why the crowded hallway of students parted like the red sea for Heero or Quatre.

"No!" Hilde hissed, "They can do much more than that. They could get you kicked out. Anyone they want out of school is out. They own the school."

Duo was confused,

"I thought that guy…Peacecraft, owned the school?" Hilde rolled her eyes at Duo's stupidity,

"The Peacecrafts do own the school. Relena Peacecraft," Duo's eyes widened at the familiar name. The blond girl in his chemistry class, "Relena Peacecraft's boyfriend is Heero Yuy. Her father owns the school." Duo nodded, understanding, but there was more,

"But Heero Yuy's family is even more powerful than the Peacecrafts. If Heero wanted Relena out of this school, her father would have to expel her."

Duo shrugged, but a sinking feeling was gripping his stomach even though he tried to act as if he didn't care, "So what? So they get me kicked out of this school."

Hilde shook her head again, "You still don't get it, Duo. They—"

"Duo! Hey, Duo!" Quatre's bright voice echoed in the empty hall and Hilde looked around, shoving Duo off the bench,

"Well? You better go, he's looking for you." She said in a resigned voice. She was convinced that G4 was not good news for her sharp-tongued friend, but there wasn't anything she could do.

Before Duo left, he squeezed Hilde's shoulder with a lop-sided grin,

"Don't worry, I know how to take care of myself."

"I know, Duo. Just…be careful, okay?"

"Sure, Hilde-babe," he replied with a lecherous wink and she swatted at his arm as he trotted down the hall to where Quatre was waiting.

Hilde sighed to herself as she watched Duo leave with G4. She really hoped that her friend knew what he was doing...

tbc