Hi again! You probably all hate me right now, but I have valid excuses. Where to start… I go to a boarding school but I'm a day student there. This means that the school has to keep their students busy all day (including me). This means that I leave for school at 7:30AM, and return at around 10:30PM (no joke). I have things to do at school on weekends as well. As you might imagine, this cuts down on my time available to write. I have a case of senioritis on top of this.

Also, this story had some plot problems, as pointed out by a reviewer. Thank you Green Bird for not giving any specifics in your "criticism" so that I had to figure them out for myself under my limited schedule.

Either way, this is not a good excuse for taking so long. I did say it would be about a week, but it has been much longer than that, so I apologise. There's just one thing I want to say before I give way to the chapter.

To my understanding, the purpose of warnings in fanfiction is a way to distinguish it between the real show and the fiction. Obviously everybody is going to have a different viewpoint about characters, personalities, and what they would like to see happen in the show. Being true, each person will do slightly different things with the characters in the fiction. Warnings are there to help a person decide if they actually want to read the fiction after all. So, in the case that you don't like if someone makes Heero have a personality, or Relena unpleasant, or has Duo acting funny, then just don't read the fic. That's my advise to you.

Without further ado, here's chapter eleven of Something to Talk About.

(r2gn)

Something to Talk About
By Wolf Girl

Disclaimer: I do not have any sort of ownership over the characters or the premise of Gundam Wing. I do not make any sort of profit off of this story. The title of this song is from a Bonnie Raitt song of the same name.
Warnings: AU, Yaoi, minor Relena bastardization, OOC Heero (not stoic enough, please forgive me).
AN Warning: Unfortunately, my grammar and punctuation usage is a weird mix of American and British styles... Enough said.
Pairings: 1x2x1, 3x4, others...

Italics thought (unless obviously otherwise).

(r2gn)

ELEVEN: Vapid

Journal Entry #93

That bastard Yuy. He likes to play with people's emotions to make up for his own lack of them. I can't believe that I thought he cared about me. He's so easy to trust.

This is just like how things turned out when we were kids.

(r2gn)

I don't know when the last time I found myself thinking so much. It's making it hard to tune out her chatter. Heero stared at Relena, then noticed that his mouth was hanging open slightly. He closed it quickly and drummed his fingers on the tabletop.

Relena's mouth stopped moving, and she stared at his fingers. "Hee-chan, is there something wrong?"

Even Relena notices, he thought. "No, nothing."

"Oh okay. Anyway, we should get going because our next class is soon." Relena stood up, taking her tray as well as Heero's and started walking. Heero dutifully stood up and followed her out into the hallway.

It was getting harder and harder to be emotionless. He just wanted to punch the wall sometimes, to feel the plaster give way and his bones to make the harsh impact. It seemed like it would be more real than his life.

Heero saw Duo in the hallway. Duo glanced his way for a split second, and the look burnt into Heero. Heero opened his mouth, but Duo turned his head away and walked faster in the opposite direction.

Heero sighed as Relena ran up and grabbed his arm, chattering away about something unintelligible. They had walked a few feet when someone grabbed his shoulder.

"Yuy." Heero stopped and turned. He hoped unreasonably that it was Duo, but instead Treize stood there with a frown on his face. Heero nodded silently in acknowledgement.

"What did you do to Duo? He's never this quiet. Ever." Treize glared at the boy.

"Oh, it's not Hee-chan's fault at all that Duo's in such a horrible mood. He's just put out because he can't have Hee-chan. Hee-chan is mine you know. Heero can't help it that Duo's always had a crush on him, I mean that picture he painted of him—" Relena clapped her hand to her mouth, blue eyes wide. "I mean—I have to get to class."

Heero turned white and felt very faint while Treize stood gaping like a fish as Relena hurried away as fast as her little pink pumps would carry her.

(r2gn)

"Oh Heero, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"What?"

Relena stood smirking at him. She knew she had won already. "It's about my party."

"What about it?" Heero glared, but it had no effect. The girl was so desperate for friends, for him to like her, for any kind of attention.

"It's about the picture I took. The one that I'm going to show Duo tomorrow."

Heero stopped dead still. Not a muscle moved in his face save a slight twitch of his left eyebrow.

"I'll show it to him if you won't be my friend. You can't hang out with him anymore. If I show him the picture, he'll be heartbroken. You know, it was such a shame about his parents passing away and his last boyfriend dying in a car crash. You should really protect him from another broken heart. That's all you're good for, you know, to be protective. You don't have any emotion." Relena said, the words rushing out before she could stop herself. She felt better, having let her venom free. She could be clean of such words now. She'd have her Heero, and her adoptive brother wouldn't get anything.

Heero just reached his hand out for the picture.

"Tomorrow night, at 8 o'clock sharp." She handed him the Polaroid picture and watched as he ripped it in half. He wouldn't go back on his word.

Heero's fingers stroked the keys, playing gently but captivatingly, like a lifeline for sound.

He poured his feeling into the music, not leaving any to be betrayed to one looking at his face. I must be strong, as a rock, as the rushing water, as the beating heart. My wants must not get in the way of duty.

The sound of keys in the lock interrupted his mantra. Heero hit a wrong note as the door slammed shut. There wasn't the sound of someone singing, like usual. There wasn't the sound of boots walking toward the living room, like usual.

Those boots just stomped up the stairwell, deafening even on the carpeted floor. Heero looked back to his sheet music and suddenly didn't feel like playing anymore.

He slumped on the piano bench and shoved it back a few feet. He kicked his foot a couple times. It swung lazily in an uninterrupted arc, then fell back down. He cradled his head in his arm and set them down on the piano keys, laying there in the reverberating clash, letting the harmonics drown out his thoughts.

Duo sat on his bed and carefully sealed away thebrown cardboard box with packing tape. It held all of the pictures he'd done that were of Heero or were based on Heero that hadn't been taken by his art teacher. He wrote on it "Artwork- To be opened never" in fat blue sharpie print.

He shoved it under his bed and kicked it once for good measure. He was done with that. Now there's only the art show, but I think I can manage if Heero doesn't come to it.

(r2gn)

Endnotes: Vapid means lacking life or spirit; unanimated; flat or dull.

Yes, I am plugging Rotengen by Hyde in my plot-spacers. Deal with it!

Most of this chapter is in Heero's point of view, except for the journal entry. It was fun to develop Heero's character more.

If you are looking for a boring book that if you actually manage to struggle through it you will have better writing skills, take a look at the Lively Art of Writing, which is anything but lively, but very informative.

E-mail me any questions! R&R si vous plait!