Oh dear gods.

It's been nearly a month... a month! That's horrible for me!

I'm so sorry for making you guys wait like this, but I just couldn't feel the motivation with this fic. I have no idea how to take this... I know where I want to go but not how to get there.

I took so long, and yet I'm not satisfied with the result. I'd have to say that this is a very poor quality chapter, but I really wasn't sure what to do. And no... it really doesn't seem to be getting anywhere quick. There is a little more Heero/Minako interaction though... as well as Rei/Wufei and Rei/Quatre.

Well... I'd better not give it all away.

Surprise, surprise. I don't own GW or SM.

"She's not here." Heero said, in his expressionless voice, looking around the lunchroom. "She was absent at her classes as well."

Duo looked around at the cafeteria, and immediately spotted Ami and Makoto. "Well... sucks to be you. I guess that creates some problems in you mission plan, doesn't it? Though if your suspicions are correct, you did shoot the poor girl. Even I would stay home if I got shot."

Rolling his eyes, Trowa lightly hit Duo on the shoulder. "If the choice were left up to you, you would stay home even if you hadn't gotten shot."

"Did you expect anything less?" Duo asked, trying to look innocent and failing horribly.

Heero, it seemed, paid no heed to the conversation, as he suddenly stood up and stalked out of the classroom. His mind was set on one objective, and one objective only. Locate Minako, Aino, and to accomplish the mission.

Meanwhile, Duo sat and watched the retreating figure. "Well bye to you too." Turning to Trowa, he winked. "So... what do you say to getting us one step closer to fulfilling the mission?"

Nodding, Trowa glanced at Makoto. "The sooner this is over, the better."

Snorting, Duo replied. "Do you even know anything about Makoto yet?"

"I know who she is."

"Uh... for some reason I don't think that's going to cut it for the mission." Sighing, Duo said, "Follow me. It's about time you crawled out of your shell anyways. How are you ever going to pick up chicks if you never say anything?"

Trowa simply raised an eyebrow as he allowed himself to be dragged to the two girls.

Minako, meanwhile, made herself quite at home sitting in the park. It was the only place she could think of to go, her usual places to hang out were out of the question. If she went to the arcade, she would without a doubt be spotted and recognized. That limited the places that she could go to only a few places, and although Michiru and Hakura often went to the park, she was willing to take the chance.

Upon arriving, she had gone to the restrooms and changed out of the school uniform, seeing as how it was too conspicuous. She was now dressed in casual clothes, sitting on a bench and reading a book. She knew that she should be working on something more productive, but she couldn't think of anything. So instead, she had a mystery novel on her lap, not really reading a word in it. In fact, she was still on page three, and the whole morning had already passed by.

Labeling the book as a lost cause, she closed it and leaned her head back onto the bench, closing her eyes for a second. Minako had a restless night, plagued by thoughts of Makoto's and Ami's message. Thinking about it had made the situation a thousand times worse, but she just couldn't stop. Now, in the peaceful serenity of the park, Minako was finally able to rest.

No one had bothered her for the whole morning... the few people that had walked through had barely given her a glace before moving on. So naturally, she was rather startled as she felt a shadow linger above her.

Easing open an eye, she was met with the sight of cerulean eyes and messy hair. In a second her heart was racing, but she somehow managed to keep up a calm exterior. It was him. Heero Yuy... the same Heero Yuy that had sent her the bugged roses... the supposed Preventer that was on her case.

And he had somehow found her, despite all of her precautions. How did he manage to do that? Not even her closest friends would have thought to look for her in the park... it just didn't match with her personality. Waiting with bated breath, she opened her eyes and waited for him to make the first move.

Eventually, he did.

"You weren't at classes today." He stated plainly, as if running into your classmate in the middle of the day in a park 13 miles from school was ordinary.

"Uh... I wasn't feeling too well. You're... Heero, right?" Minako asked, trying her best to sound like the ditz everyone thought she was. Inside, she was praying that he hadn't formally introduced himself... she'd be in quite a fix if he did.

"Yes." He said, still emotionless. God... he was good at keeping a straight face.

Looking up at him, Minako felt a dreadful anticipation. The same one you get before taking a final that you've never studied for in your life... the same one she felt thudding in her chest when she found out about Usagi...

'The one you get when you know you can't win.' Minako thought, fervently wishing that the thought never entered her head.

And still... he stood there. Unmoving, unblinking. Just staring as if she were from another planet.

"Uh... why are you here?" Minako finally forced out, voice coming out more timid than she had hoped. So much for keeping up a 'tough-chick' persona around him... he seemed to bring out the scared little girl living deep inside her.

"I was taking a walk." He said simply, and Minako ran the chances of him happening to find her in a secluded area of the park at this particular time. Nonexistent.

Heero finally moved, and Minako fought to keep in a sigh of relief. That is, until she realized that he had sat down beside her on the bench, and was now staring, a determined look on his face, at the bushes opposite them.

Minako blinked. This was not going well.

Wufei glared.

In fact, he found himself glaring quite a lot lately. And mostly either at Maxwell or Rei. Now, it was Rei.

She had completely ignored him for the whole day, only talking to him and Quatre when she was helping them around the school. As if the previous night between them hadn't happened at all.

Wufei ran the last sentence through his mind, and realized how wrong it sounded. No! Nothing had happened, except for maybe a girl one-upping him. And forcing him to be her slave.

He supposed he should be thankful that she wasn't publicly making a fool of him, and supposedly only making a fool of him in her home. Which she shared with Relena and Dorothy. And that other blonde girl... Minako was it? Wait a second... Relena and Dorothy. Relena and Dorothy. God... they would never let him live it down if they caught on to what was happening.

Well... it was safe to say that he was completely and utterly doomed.

"Wufei... what's wrong?" he heard Quatre hiss to him at lunch.

"Nothing."

"Than why do you keep glaring at Rei? We're supposed to be under cover! As in incognito! You'll give us away... and aren't you supposed to be following her? Discreetly?"

Wufei bit back on his response that he had indeed already given them away, and that it was perfectly normal to be glaring at her at this point. He however did say his next thought.

"She's got to be the devil reincarnated or something."

Quatre gave him a weak, really-not-effective-only-ranked-about-a-one-out-of-ten-compared-to-Heero's, glare. "Be nice."

Wufei's answering look said quite clearly, 'You have got to be joking.'

"Well... at least be civil."

"I am being civil."

"Yeah... as civil as Heero." Quatre muttered.

"Do not compare me to him." Wufei ground out the pronoun as if it were a curse word, "why he didn't assign you instead of me to the horrible female is beyond my comprehension."

"Yeah... he just gave me someone none of us has seen before. And he wants a report by the end of today." Quatre argued back.

"And what do you expect me to do about it?"

"Talk to her."

"Huh?"

"Talk. To. Her." Quatre deadpanned.

Wufei actually looked like he was considering it. And then, when Quatre finally thought that he had made a breakthrough...

"No."

Suddenly, the girl in question rose from her seat and made her way towards them. Quatre watched on, amused, as Wufei suddenly looked like he was on a mission without a backup plan. In other words: stupid and panicked.

"I hope your day has been going on smoothly...?" Rei asked, without really asking. She smirked evilly as she saw Wufei sweating bullets.

"Faye... are you alright?" She asked, playing the angel, "You look very... tense."

"I'm just fine, onna." He shot back, hiding behind his wall of hostility. Ah... his trusty wall of hostility. What would he do without it?

Quatre just rolled his eyes and gave Wufei a look that said, 'Oh yeah. Real smooth.'

Wufei glared back with a heated 'Shut up'.

Quatre then decided to do something about the open hostility Wufei was showing Rei, whether Wufei appreciated it or not. "As a matter of fact... Faye really isn't having that great of a day, are you, Faye?"

Wufei grunted. He had been around Heero for way too long.

"In fact... Faye's having some problems with his math class. Aren't you good at math, Rei?" Quatre asked sweetly.

"Well... yes, as a matter of fact." Rei answered, bewildered.

"You don't object to giving my friend here some tutoring now, do you? I know h... uh... she would really appreciate it, even if it doesn't seem like it." Quatre prayed that Rei hadn't caught onto his little 'slip' of the tongue.

She had, but let it slide. "Well... I am free this afternoon. How about all three of us meet somewhere?"

"Of course! You can come to our apartment, can't she Faye?" Quatre said, intentionally ignoring the glare on Wufei's face, "Oh... but I have something to do. But you'll get to meet our other roommates! They have a few... quirks... but you'll like them enough. None of them are as hostile as Wufei, except for Heero maybe."

"That sounds great." Rei said, looking forward to it. This would be an excellent opportunity to embarrass the hell out of Wufei.

"I suppose neither of you care if I have an objection to this all?" Wufei asked rhetorically. "No... of course not. What was I thinking?"

"I have no idea." Quatre answered as Rei moved away. "You do tend to get a little kooky around 'that time of month'."

There was the faint sound of struggle as Wufei proceeded to strangle Quatre.

I told you it was bad. The writing isn't up to my standards at all. Oh well... I just hope it'll pass.

Thanks for all of the reviews thus far! I love you all!

Even though the chapter does stink, I spent quite a lot of time on it. So please review and tell me what you think.

Love,

Inverse-chan