Disclaimer: No ownage of Gundam Wing or its affiliated characters on my part. I do own this story and my original characters though.


Chapter Thirteen: Atrium and Idea

I had walked into another world. The door led to a large room that had a ceiling made mostly of glass. The room was the size as the two rooms I had passed through put together, and the glass ceiling made to room look even bigger. On the far side of the room was a pair of glass doors that opened up to the back yard. There was a drawing table, a sewing machine and a couple of tables that were filled with cloth, art supplies, and lots of other random stuff arranged around the room.

Hundreds of objects hung from the ceiling. Some of them were mobiles that caught and reflected light that came in thorough the windows. Others were models of airplanes and mobile suits and space shuttles. But the most amazing objects were three butterfly-shaped objects made of brightly colored cloth that hung in front of some of the windows, creating a stained-glass effect with their wings. They were each at least four feet across, if not more.

Jericho was standing next to me, holding the door open. Her brown hair had been gathered back into a messy bun, and her sleeves had been pushed up above her elbows. A pair of overalls that were spattered with paint and had holes in the knees had replaced her jeans. She smiled at me and let the door swing free from her hand. It closed with a soft bang.

"Hey Duo," she finally said when my shock had worn off enough for me to understand what she was saying. "Welcome to my atrium. I was wondering when you'd get here. I just need to finish the repairs I'm doing, and then we can go."

I didn't answer her. I was still too much in awe of the space to speak.

She giggled. "Try to reattach your jaw to your head before your face freezes like that," she said, still giggling as she gently pushed my mouth closed with two fingers. "Before you ask, I call this place my atrium because of everything I have hanging from the ceiling. See? I have all my models, and my mobiles—well, they don't have to do with the sky, but they do move in the air, and they just look nifty. And those over there," she continued, pointing at the butterfly-like objects. "Those are my babies."

"What are they?" I asked, moving over to stand under them so I could have a better look at them.

"Kites," she replied. "I designed, built, tested, and entered competitions with them."

"Kite flying competitions?" I asked.

"No, silly! Design contests," she laughed. "Here, lemme finish fixing this telescope and I'll be ready to go."

I turned to see her sitting down at one of her worktables. She had an old-fashioned, collapsible telescope in her hands, taken apart and laid on the table in front of her. Piece by piece, she reassembled the telescope. "I found this telescope at a garage sale. The person selling it said it didn't work any more, so they gave it to me for like fifty cents. I took it apart, and figured out that one of the lenses was missing and another was cracked. So I ordered new lenses online, and they just came today," she explained. With the last turn of a screw, she grinned and turned to me. "There we go, all fixed. Here." She held it out to me. "Try it out."

I took the telescope from her and looked out on of the windows with it. "Hey! There's a robin's nest in that tree across the yard," I said, examining the line of trees that marked the end of the Van Buren's property.

"How do you know it's a robin's nest?" Jericho asked, taking the telescope from me and looking for herself.

"Because it's a robin sitting in it," I replied, sticking my tongue out at her. Then after a moment, I added, "It's really cool that you fixed that telescope. I wish I could do stuff like that."

Jericho smiled and folded the telescope up. "It's not that hard," she replied. "You just need to figure out what's wrong and then get the materials to fix it."

I looked around the room, taking in everything. It was so bizarre. Here I was, standing in a house on Earth, but I felt like I was in a completely different part of the universe. Jericho had created her own little world in that room. She was a weird kid. It was like everyday I was finding a new version of Jericho.

"So," I asked her. "Who are you really?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. "That's a weird question." Then she grinned. "I would tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. It's something you need to find out on your own. But first, you need to…" she stopped and shook her head. "Never mind. You'll just figure out who I am as you get to know me better."

I gave her a questioning look, but she didn't see it. She opened the door and we went back through the two library rooms to the front hall.

An hour later, we were sitting in my room at the Christopher's, eating nachos that Diana had made for us and discussing different project ideas. We suggested ideas like a rat maze, an exhibit on pollution, demonstrations of chemistry experiments, and an insect zoo. We didn't really like any of them.

"Most of these ideas are either lame or have been done before," Jericho moaned as she stared at the list we had brainstormed.

"Well, what were you gonna do by yourself?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "I hadn't thought of anything yet. Last year, I didn't bother to think up an idea until a week before the fair."

"What did you end up doing?"

"I did an exhibit on kites," she replied. "THE SCIENCE OF KITES, I think that's what I called it. I got a really good grade on it because I made the kites myself. Not that I really made them for the fair. I just had happened to make them for a competition."

"Hn." I leaned back in my computer chair, thinking.

My computer beeped, indicating I had an incoming video message. I looked at that sender and realized that it was Quatre. I quickly turned on my web cam, threw on my microphone headset and it the "accept" button. The image of my blond friend came up on the screen.

"Hey Quatre!" I greeted him. "What's up?"

He smiled back. "Nothing really. I just found a few empty minutes in my schedule and noticed you were available for a chat. I thought I would just say hi."

Jericho came to look to see whom I was talking to. Her jaw dropped. "That's…" she gasped.

"Oh, Quatre," I said, motioning to Jericho. "This is my friend, Jericho. Jericho, this is my friend—"

"Quatre Rababa Winner!" Jericho finished. She waved at the screen. "Hi Mr. Winner. I've seen you on the news and I think you're doing a wonderful job at keeping peace."

"Thank you," he said, blushing slightly. "I hope you're keeping Duo in line down there. He can be quite a handful."

"Oh, don't worry, I am," Jericho said, grinning. "I'll let you and Duo talk now. Nice to--err--meet you? Bye!" She walked over and sat on my bed, ready to wait politely until I was done talking with Quatre.

"So how is everybody up there, Quatre?" I asked, eager for news about my friends. I hadn't realized until then just how much I had been missing my friends.

"They're all doing well. And they all send their regards. We all can't wait until you're able to return to space," Quatre replied, a somewhat sad smile on his face.

We chatted for a few minutes. He gave me an update on how everyone up there was doing. Apparently Trowa's circus was doing quite well, Heero and Relena were now dating, and WuFei was acting strangely.

"If you ask me, I don't think he knows what to do now that you're not there to lecture, Duo." Suddenly, he turned from the computer as if someone off-screen was talking to him. He nodded then turned to me. "I have to go Duo. I have a meeting. It was wonderful talking to you. Tell Miss Jericho it was a pleasure to meet her…and check your e-mail," he added.

"Okay Quatre, I will. Talk to you later."

"Bye," he said with a wave, and the line disconnected.

"He seems like a nice guy," Jericho said with a smile. "How'd you meet him?"

"He is, and we met during the war," I replied as I logged onto my e-mail account. I had a new message from Quatre. I opened it.

Duo, I did find it a real pleasure to meet Miss Jericho. I don't mean to be over stepping the bounds of our friendship, but if you're not interested in her, would you mind if I took her out to dinner the next time I come to Earth? You're quite lucky to have befriended her. Sincerely, Quatre.

I stared at the e-mail a few moments and then burst out laughing. Quatre was always so shy around girls that I never would have expected him to express an interest in Jericho.

"What's so funny?" Jericho asked as she sat up and made a move to come towards my desk.

"Nothing," I said as I quickly closed the e-mail before she saw it. "So, any ideas for the project yet?"

She shrugged. "I dunno." She sighed and moved her eyes around my room. They finally fell on my space colony poster. I looked up at the poster as well, and a light went off in my head.

"I've got it!" I cried. "We can do a model of Earth with the colonies and the moon all orbiting around it!"

Jericho's eyes lit up at the idea. "YEAH! That'd be really cool." She scooped up the pad of paper we had been brainstorming on, tore off the top sheet and wrote "COLONY MODEL PROJECT" on the first line of the new page. "Okay, Mr. Maxwell," she said, smiling. "How would you suggest we pull this project off?"

I groaned. As if school didn't require me to do enough thinking already, now I had to think for her!