Disclaimer: nope, I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the characters. I do own the plot of this story though, so please don't steal it.
A/N: This chapter is a lot shorter than usual, I know, but like the last one, it was really hard to write. I just got back to college yesterday, and I spent most of this afternoon and this evening moving stuff around in my dorm room with my roommate. The set up is a lot better now, but it too FOREVER for us to find an arrangement that satisfied us both…ANYWAY, last chapter, I promised Shout-outs to all my reviewers, so they'reat the end of the chapter(the shout-outs will make this chapter seem longer than it really is, too.; )
And I hope people didn't think I was being too cruel to Duo in the last chapter by having all of his friends out and him stuck at home with only Jericho to think about. I'm sorry to admit it, but I like torturing my characters just a tad every once in a while. Keeps them in line, heh heh….
Now, on with the chapter….
Chapter 22: Results and a Hero
I was still sitting on the couch in the front room, moping and just feeling sorry for myself in general when the phone rang two and a half hours later. Even though there was a phone right next to the couch, I didn't move to answer it. I let the machine pick up and listened to who it was.
"Hey, Duo, it's Jericho. I just got home from my date with Quatre, and I'd like to talk to you. It's kind of important. I guess you're not near the phone. I'll try back later. Bye." She hung up.
I went back to staring at the wall, this time wondering what was so important that she wanted to tell me about. "Oh Duo, thank you so much for setting me and Quatre up. It was love at first sight and we're gonna get married next week! Quatre's supposed to call you to ask you to be best man." I groaned at the thought, and as if on cue, the phone rang again. I once again let the machine pick it up.
"Hello, Duo, it's Quatre…"
Speak of the devil! I thought. So, when's the wedding, lover boy?
"…I just dropped Jericho off at her house, and I thought I should talk to you about what happened on our date, since you seemed to be upset when we left. So, please pick up the phone. I know you're just sitting next to the machine, listening to my message. You did this when Hilde died, and I'm not going to-"
I cut him off by snatching the phone off the hook and putting it to my ear. "You know me way too well for your own good, you know that Quatre?" I said. "What's up? How was your date?" I was forcing myself to sound happy and easy-going, when really I wanted to throw the phone across the room.
"It was fun," Quatre replied. "Jericho is a wonderful girl. We get along great and our conversation was very fulfilling."
"Congratulations," I said, fighting to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. "I hope you two are happy together."
"I'm afraid you didn't let me finish, Duo," Quatre said, and I could hear the disappointment in his voice. "The date went fine, but I think she is much more your type than my type."
I blinked and sent a funny look to Benny who had wandered back into the room. "What? What makes you say that Quatre?"
"Well, the fact that you were practically all she wanted to talk about was a pretty big hint," he said, chuckling.
I frowned. "It's not nice to play jokes, Quatre, no matter how funny they are. That's what you used to always tell me whenever I put salt in WuFei's coffee instead of sugar."
"That was so that you would stop before he ended up hurting you. Anyways, I'm not joking, Duo. I'm very serious. No matter what we were talking about, she always managed to mention you. Not that I minded," he added. "I don't mind talking about you, and it is definitely interesting hearing about the ways you've been getting into trouble here on Earth without us to keep you in line."
I laughed. "Oh, jeez, what did she tell you?"
"Nothing terrible," Quatre replied, allowing me to relax. "But Duo, if my taking Jericho out bothered you so much, why didn't you say something? I wouldn't have ever taken her out to dinner if I knew you would be so bothered by it."
I winced. "I guess I didn't tell you because I didn't want to keep you and Jericho from being happy," I replied. "I mean, it'd be pretty selfish of me to keep you from dating her when I don't even know if she likes me as much as I like her. Does that make sense?"
"It makes perfect sense," Quatre said. "Thank you for the thought, but don't torture yourself over me. I'll survive if I don't get to take every girl I want to out to dinner."
"I'm sure Dorothy Catalonia will be glad to hear that," I said teasingly. "How is she by the way?"
I could almost hear Quatre blush as he replied. "Last time I saw her, she was doing quite well."
I grinned. I loved teasing Quatre about the blond girl who had a very obvious crush on him.
"Well, I'm glad we got that all cleared up," Quatre said. "I'll say hi to the others when I get back to space. Good seeing you Duo, and I hope we'll talk again soon."
"Yeah, same here Quatre. Talk to you later."
As soon as I hung up the phone, it rang again. I didn't pick it up. I was still a little down. Besides, I was thinking about Jericho, and wondering why she had spent so much of her time with Quatre talking about me. And lately, just thinking about Jericho kept me from acting like a normal human being.
Yeah, like you act like a normal being most of the time, I thought to myself with a smile.
"Duo Maxwell, you pick this phone up right now!" It was Jericho again, and she sounded annoyed. "I know you're there! I just tried calling a minute ago, and the line was busy, and I know it wasn't Diana or Jon because they would answer the phone before it got to the machine, and certainly before I could leave this long of a message. Now, pick up the phone right now! I need to talk to you about the science project."
I rolled my eyes and picked up the phone. "You rang?"
.0.
I was beginning to really hate gym. Well, not hate it. More like hate it with an undying passion.
The reason for this was James. Bruising my jaw and tearing my shirt hadn't satisfied him. During gym, he and his friends used me for target practice. No matter what sport we were playing, by the end of the period my shins would be bruised, my shoulder would be sore, or I would be limping. Of course they were careful to attack me only when Mr. Kingsly wasn't looking or when they could make it look like an accident. I wanted so badly to take James out—I knew I could do it— but I knew I would only get in trouble and so I didn't.
Jericho had gym the same period I did, and a few weeks before winter break, our classes were combined into the same gym because the girl's gym was getting a new floor put in. The gym teachers decided to make life easy for themselves and put up a bunch of stations around the gym. The stations were things like "do forty sit-ups" or "jump rope for two minutes". We had a piece of paper, and we had to check off each station as we completed it. The teachers spent their time supervising the kids who were climbing the rope.
Jericho and I went from station to station together. After her date with Quatre, things between us continued had on like nothing had happened. I had asked her how the date had been, and she had simply said, "It was nice. Quatre's a nice guy and the food was good. Could you pass me that hot glue gun?" Apparently there hadn't been any major fire works between them because I heard nothing from either of them about a second date.
"Thirty-eight… thirty-nine…forty. Wow Duo, I've never seen anyone do sit ups that fast!" Jericho said as I finished up one station.
I shook my head. "I'm getting out of shape. When I was a pilot, I could have done that without even getting winded," I said, trying to catch my breath and rubbing my sore abdomen.
"You're such a couch potato," Jericho said, poking my stomach. She frowned. "You're not as soft as most couch potatoes are though. Are you sure you eat enough?"
I rolled my eyes and stood up. "You've seen me eat. I just have a fast metabolism. Let's go over to the rope next."
Jericho's frown grew. "Nah…" she said, looking around. "Let's go to the pull-up station."
"But there's like twenty people over there!" I said. "There are only three people at the rope station."
"Yeah, but one of them's James, " she replied.
I took another look over at the rope climbing station. Sure enough, there was James, one of his lackeys, and that girl Kristen who had offered to take me shopping.
Sighing, I turned to Jericho. "They're just humans, Jericho. It's not like they're going to roast you over a fire and then eat you. Besides, the teachers are over there. What can James do to us with teachers around?"
"Good point. Okay, let's go," Jericho agreed, still frowning.
We walked over to the station. When James saw us, he sneered at us. "Well, well, well. It's the Twerp Twins. How are today?" he asked, a sick sweet smile across his face.
"Fine," I replied coolly. Jericho pretended he hadn't said anything.
"Okay, who's next?" Mr. Kingsly asked as James's lackey climbed back down to the bottom of the rope.
James sent me a sneer and stepped forward. "I'll go next." He grabbed the rope and began to climb. He was strong and made it up the rope fairly quickly, but I knew I could do it faster. He reached the red tape that was the expected distance and then climbed down without going for the bell that was another six or seven feet up. From what I could see, no one in the class had managed to make it to the bell yet. I knew James could have done it if he had wanted to, but I had begun to notice that he was on the lazy side.
"Good job James," Mr. Kingsly said as James reached the floor. "Record time for this class: ten-point-eight seconds."
James grinned and turned to me. "Better than you could ever dream, Maxwell," he said with narrow eyes.
That's what you think, you jerk, I thought. "Mr. Kingsly," I said aloud stepping up to the rope. "I'll go next."
"Okay Duo. You go right on ahead. Now, you don't have to do it really fast. Just climb up as far as you can. Shoot for the red tape."
"Mmkay," I said. I was shooting farther than just for the red tape.
I grabbed the rope and when Mr. Kingsly said, "Go," I started climbing. I was more out of shape than I thought, and my arms were weaker than they had been when I was a pilot. But I ignored the pain in my arms and bolted up the rope as fast as I could.
"Good job Duo! Ten-point-three seconds! Even better than James!" Mr. Kingsly gushed. "Come on down!"
I looked down to the group below. James was glaring up at me, his face turning redder than the tape on the rope. His friends were following suit. But it was Jericho's face that really got me. She was staring up at me, her huge brown eyes shining, and a beautiful big smile spread across her face. She was looking up at me like I was a hero. I had been planning on going back down the rope without reaching the bell because my arms were tired, but when I saw Jericho's expression, I felt energy come back to me. I smiled back at her, and then kept climbing. I was going to reach that bell for Jericho.
"Duo, you really don't have to keep climbing!" Mr. Kingsley called up to me. "Really! That bell isn't mandatory."
"GO DUO!" Jericho suddenly cheered. "You can do it!"
My arms were burning, but I was almost there, so I kept going.
"Maxwell, stop showing off!" James shouted at me. I could hear the jealousy and hatred in his voice. I ignored him and concentrated on Jericho's cheering.
I reached the bell and hit it with my hand. "MADE IT!" I shouted, looking down to Jericho. Her smile had only grown and she was clapping.
I was so busy staring at her that I hadn't noticed my arms had reached their limit until suddenly they gave way, and I began to fall. "DUO!" Jericho cried. I clung to the rope with my hands and tried to slow myself with my feet. It didn't work, and my hands were getting some pretty bad rope burn. When I was still about six feet above the floor, I let go of the rope and tumbled to the floor. When I landed, I did as Heero would and rolled across the floor a few feet. I was slightly dazed from the fall and my hands were throbbing. But none of that could compare to the joy I felt when I pictured Jericho's face.
She rushed over to me. "Oh my god, Duo! Are you okay?"
I grinned up to her. "I'm your hero, aren't I?"
She gave me a funny look, then turned to Mr. Kingsly. "I think he hit his head. He's acting like he's delirious!"
I sat up quickly, ignoring the pain in my hands. "I did better than James," I said to her, still grinning. "I beat James!"
She nodded, smiling slightly at me. "Yes Duo, you did beat James."
"So am I your hero?" I asked as she helped me up.
Her smile grew a little bit and she nodded again. "Yes Duo, you are my hero."
SHOUT-OUT TIME!
Cocowinterdeathangel: Thank you so much for all your reviews! TEN GOLD STARS? WOWWIE! You rock girl, and you (along with all my other reviewers) encourage me to keep writing and not give up on this story completely! I'll post the website for the Duo Plushie with the next chapter.
Shia Moonflower: Yes, I loved writing the part with the boxers and the snow. I actually took it from something my little brother did a last year. Some how he didn't realize it had snowed like a foot of snow the night before, and I was just leaving the house, and I had forgotten something, so he came barreling out of the house and into the snow in just his boxers and his t-shirt, trying to catch up with me. His face was such a Duo expression that when I remembered it, I knew I had to include it. Anyway, like Cocowinterdeathangel, you are such an encouragement.
Ereina-chan: Is Jericho close enough to the girl next door you suggested?.
Koyo: thank you for the compliments, but I'm sure there are better authors out there that have writeen better G.W. fan fics than me.
Duo-23: I'm happy that you can sort of identify with Jericho and Duo in this story. It's a big compliment to me to know that my characters are realistic (okay, so Duo's not my character, but the way I'm portraying him is realistic)
CobaltBlue149: Is the relationship between Duo and Jericho still going the way you want it to? And thank you for saying this fic rocks. I love that predicate!
Koyishiri: Duo's my favorite character too! He's such a cutie. And thank you for the urges to update. It really gets my butt in gear when I know people are waiting for me to update.
Kurleyhawk2: I like Quatre too, but sadly I had to just use him as a plot device to get Duo to wake up to his feelings for Jericho. Which led to angst, which is something I have the need to write every once in a while. Anyway, thank you for reviewing and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!
Pippy32388: Thanks for the compliments .
I think that's everyone. If I missed anyone, please feel free to yell at me either in the review section or via e-mail.
