A Change in Faith

Chapter Two

June 16th, 2004 8:15 P.M., Maxwell Home.

"Hilde, dear, could you come downstairs, please! There is someone here we would like for you to meet," Mother called up the stairs.

I smiled. I loved meeting Mother's and Daddy's friends. They were always so nice and pleasant to be around. I turned off the Joss Stone CD that I was listening to and came down from my violet bedroom.

When I got about a third of the way down the stairs, I stopped. There wasn't a stranger at the door. It was Heero, wearing white jeans, a dark blue tee-shirt and a faded denim jacket. He was still as beautiful as ever though, more so, even,nowthat he wasn't wearing that horrid outfit he was earlier.

"Come on Hil, come and meet Duo's friend!" my mother said sweetly. Oh poor Mother, if she only knew about Duo and his 'friend'.

I walked the rest of the way down at a slightly less excited pace. When I got down there, I was greeted by a bright, almost mocking, sort of smile from Heero. Duo was casually leaned up against the wall and had a playful smirk on his face.

Heero stretched is hand out to me. I shook it. "My name is Heero Yui. How do you do, Miss Maxwell?"

I wanted to scowl but I knew that I couldn't. "Fine, thank you, I'm Hilde, please call me that."

"Of course."

I just nodded. Duo's smirk had grown immensely since I last looked at him. This only made me madder, why in the world was Heero here. And why was Mother introducing him to me?

"Well, Heero dear, you and Duo can go and get your bags and take them to Duo's room," she smiled.

Heero and Duo acknowledged her and left through the front door. Mother turned around toward the kitchen and I followed her.

"Mother, why is Duo's friend here?" I asked, trying really hard not to sound rude.

"Oh his parents are going to be in New York for a week and he didn't want to go with them, he said he was a bit sick of the place," she explained. "So he asked Duo if it would be all right if he stayed with us. Well, your father and I talked with his parents and we both agreed that it would be acceptable for him to stay here."

I nodded. Sick of New York? I don't personally believe that is possible, unless you live there.

"I'll talk to you later, okay Mother?" I said after a prolonged pause.

She smiled and kissed my forehead. "Of course, love. See you later."

I nodded and waved to her as I walked out of the kitchen.

I decided to go and be with Duo and his friend for a bit, I knew it would be safe since Mother and Daddy were both here so they wouldn't dare try anything. I walked up the stairs to Duo's room and knocked on his door.

"Duo, what are you doing?" I paused. "Can I join you?"

I waited for an answer and a fewseconds later I got one.

"Me and 'Ro are watchin' a Beautiful Thing(1). And yeah ya can watch it with us," he called through the door.

"Okay!" what is a Beautiful Thing? I've never heard of it.

I opened the door and stepped inside. Heero was sitting on Duo's black dish-chair with Duo in his lap. Duo had his plait undone and Heero was running his fingers through the loose hair. My brother was kind of sprawled across his friend and had his left arm looped around Heero's neck. I thought this was a bit risky but since everyone in this household knocks. It might be all right.

On the TV I saw a teenaged boy in a red tee-shirt with a school logo on it, running home, I think (2). It looks like a good movie, I think it might be British though.

I moment later there was talking and my suspicions were confirmed. This was definitely a British movie. But it looked really good.

A few hours or so later, I'm not sure exactly, I went stumbling back to my bedroom very confused. It turns out that a Beautiful Thing is a gay movie. I know that homosexuality is wrong. But I will often get major blows to his belief. Like that movie, it was so sweet and beautiful that I almost can't imagine that those two teenagers were gay! It was a really confusing thing for me.

I don't want to accept the fact that my brother won't ever let give me nieces and nephews. I mean sure, there is our older brother, Solo and our seven-year-old sister that is staying with our Auntie Une for the summer, Mariemaia. But I am closest to Duo, I always have been.

But with him being gay like this, I think that we may have a huge gap in our relationship now. Is this my fault? Should I just accept him? I have been under the impression that Duo was the one at fault. Could it be that he really was just born this way and that the church has been wrong for year? If I am wrong, I feel really bad. I treated Duo like crap about something that he couldn't control. If I am wrong.

June 17th, 2004, 4:20 P.M., Maxwell Home.

I was up in my bedroom watching Duo, Heero and three other friends I've never seen before. It was Saturday so Duo was still wearing what he had worn to bed last night, his underwear and an old black tee-shirt. They were all chasing each other and it looked like they might be playing tag.

Watching them have so much fun together made me lonely for my friends. Making executive decision, I picked up my phone and dialed Relena's number.

"Hello?" Relena's voice asked from the other end.

"Hi, Lena, do you want to come over?" I asked her.

I could practically hear her smile from the other line. "Of course, Hil! That sounds great, I'll be there in a few." (Click)

I punched in Doro's number and waited for an answer.

"Hi, Hilde!"

"Hi, Doro, do you want to come over to hang out with Lena and me?"

Immediately she answered. "Of course, I'll see you soon, bye!"

She hung up and I put my phone back. I sat up from the computer desk I had been sitting at and went downstairs to wait. It would be about ten minutes, so I turned on the TV. My dad is a preacher, so we only get about two thirds of the regular cable channels. It ticked Duo off so much that he secretly has his own cable service in his room that he pays for. He said that he couldn't stand not getting to watch South Park or the anime on Adult Swim.

I heard a thump against the side of the house, the one facing our backyard, it was followed by my brother's voice yelling. "What the hell, Fei? That wasn't fucking cool!"

I blushed at Duo's language. I was a good girl. Why didn't Duo do the things the church taught us to the way I do?

I was so lost in my thoughts that when the doorbell rang, I jumped. I slowly got up and went to the door and opened it. Dorothy was standing there wearing a pastel mint green scoop-neck sweatshirt with a pink crown on it and the words 'God Save the Queen'.

"Hey babe! How are you doing?" she smiled at me.

I smiled back. "Great, come in and wait for Lena with me."

She followed me back to the TV room where I previously had been. It was pointless though, about a minute later the doorbell rang again and I had to get up and answer it.

It was Relena, looking absolutely perfect wearing a coral pink sun dress and white wedge heel sandals. Behind her, in our driveway was her bubble gum pink Vespa.

She smiled sweetly. "Are you going to let me in?"

"Yeah, come on in!" I laughed. Dorothy came up behind me and hugged the two of us. This was probably the most spontaneous thing I have ever had happen to me.

"Let's go play in the backyard with Duo and his friends," Dorothy suggested. Relena and I nodded fervently.

"Yes let's!" she joined in.

"Come on!" the three of us walked through the living room and kitchen to the backdoor and opened it. I let my friends through first before stepping out myself and closing the sliding door behind me. Duo was being pinned to our tree, the one with the swing, by a tall boy with light brown hair.

I wasn't worried. Duo was laughing like a maniac and so were his friends. A blonde boy the same exact size as Duo was being chased by a slightly taller and really well-muscled Chinese boy. Heero was trying to pry the tall one off of my brother. I heard Dorothy snort at the sight in front of us.

"Hey boys! Lemme show you how this st is really done!" Dorothy yelled and with that she had pushed the Chinese boy out of her way and was chasing the blonde.

I saw a twinkle in Relena's eyes when she caught sight of Heero. "See you, Hil, I've just seen my new boyfriend."

She went off toward Heero so I decided to pursue the Chinese one. I reached my hand out to him, he was still laying on the ground from when Doro had pushed him, he was laughing so I wasn't concerned. He took my hand and used me as leverage to pull himself up.

"I'm Hilde."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "I'm Wufei, Chang Wufei."

"Hello Chang," he snorted.

"Call me Wufei, where I'm from you put your surname first, I've never really gotten used to doing it the European way," he corrected me.

"Oh thank you, Wufei. Now you had better start running or I am going to tickle you!" I yelled.

He smirked and took off, man he's fast. But so am I! I chased after him, giggling like mad. I can't remember when I had this kind of fun, or this much of it!

We passed Relena and my brother and Heero and tall boy. It looked like my friend wasn't getting very far with the boy that I knew was gay and hopefully not interested.

About twenty minutes later, I was pooped and so was everybody else. Heero had eventually gotten Duo loose and the tall boy started chasing after them. Relena was running too, her shoes had been left by the door and I think that she was just chasing Heero, not playing our game at all.

We all basically wandered to the porch and fell on the lawn furniture like lead weights. Duo was sittingnext toHeeroon our smallest lawn chairand blondie was sitting on both Wufei's and tall boy's laps. Relena looked confused and just sat down on the wicker sofa, next to Doro and me.

"Do I need to introduce everybody?" Duo asked.

I looked at him and nodded.

"Okay," he pointed to blondie. "He is Quatre Winner, underneath him are Trowa Barton and Chang Wufei. I'm sure you can figure out who is Trowa and who is Wufei."

He moved his hand to point at me and my two friends. "In the middle there, is my sister Hilde, on her left is Relena Dorlain, the other is Dorothy Catalonia. She hates men, so steer clear."

"Dumb fuck! I don't hate men. I hate dating them!" she yelled.

Duo shrugged. "Same dif."

Finally Relena spoke up. "Will you all just shut the hell up! It's too hot tofight!Lets go inside and take advantage of the nice air conditioned house our friends Hilde and Duo live in!"

I sigh mentally, why does everyone I know always use such horrible language? Am I too poor of an example to them?

We all got up and trudged inside. It was pretty hot outside, I guess I was having too much fun to notice before.

Duo motioned to his friends. "C'mon up and meet Whiskuz, guys. Ỳall can't be my friends if ya haven' been properly acquainted.

They left and Relen and Dorothy both turned to look at me. Lena's gaze was wandering across the fruit and vegetables that Duo had painted on the walls a year ago.

Relena looked at me. "Who is 'Whiskuz'?"

"Duo's pet rat."

She choked. "A pet rat? Why in the name of God would he have a pet rat?"

Dorothy shrugged. "Duo's weird, he likes punk rock, and not decent stuff like Blink-182, either. I mean purest stuff like Green Day, the Sex Pistols and the Ramones. He likes black and has hair down to his knees, he wears mascara and he doesn't get dressed on Saturdays, no matter what you do!He won't date girls, then again,I'm also guilty of not dating, but anyway,I've known Hilde my whole life, you've only just met her three years ago, I've known Duo longer than he's know himself, I've learned to leave him alone and he won't flaunt his weirdness too much."

Relena looked at me tentatively. "Is Duo gay, Hilde?"

I stared at the floor. "Yeah," I whispered.

End Chapter Two

1- this is a real movie and it's really good. If you like yaoi/shonen ai, you'll love this movie. It's a BBC production, which, if you don't know, is the British equivalent to our PBS. But it's so well done that you can't even tell.

2-this is in one of the first scenes of the movie, the boy, Jamie, is running home from gym class and that's why he's wearing a red tee-shirt with a school logo. Anyway, I suggest that everyone find a way to watch this movie. It's awesome.

Did everyone like it? Thank you to everyone who reviewed this! Loves to all of you! Reviews make me want to update faster! And I had this done in less than a week! So I'd say that was pretty good, wouldn't you?

Hugs and Kisses,

Terra Cotta Fox

(Ada)