Hi, everyone. Satanira here. I swore I wouldn't work on this story at all until someone reviewed from chapter one, but I haven't even posted it yet, and I'm already starting chapter two. Am I pathetic or what?

Also, I warned the Wufei lovers. If this story offends your delicate Wuffle-centered sensibilities, too bad! I need a villain, and Wufei and I do not get along! I hate Wuffles!

Okay, I don't really hate him. But ever since that incident with that can of soda and my CD player, let's just say it's been safest for him to stay away from me. ;

To Comechatcha – Yay! [glomps] You're the very first reviewer for this story! Thank you so much! Now I know someone's actually ready this! Yay! [gives Trowa and Duo plushies] Here's your prize! Virtual plushies!

The entire school was talking about the incident by the end of the day; the boys thought it was cool how Trowa had attacked Wufei like he was nothing, and the girls all thought it was terribly romantic. They were convinced that Trowa had followed Duo from his last school to protect him because the two were in love. No one would leave them alone.
Frankly, it was getting on Trowa's nerves.
He'd hacked the system and given himself a schedule identical to Duo's with the exception of elective- no way was he taking Art Foundations- so he could keep the younger demon under his watchful eye all the time; he wasn't sure if that had been a good idea or not. Duo seemed to share at least one class with every female in the building, but one glare from Trowa made them melt away like ice under a fireball.
In fact, he'd just warded off a particularly dimwitted brunette named Relena, who withered under his gaze and slunk back to her seat, pouting.
"Did you see that?" The boy behind Trowa whispered to someone else. "He shut Relena Peacecraft up by looking at her!"
"I wonder if he'll teach us his secret." His friend answered. Trowa could practically hear the grin in his voice.
"C'mon, guys." The boy next to Trowa, a soft-spoken blond with huge aqua-blue eyes, cut in. "She's not all that bad."
"Quatre." The boy behind Trowa said seriously. "You think Mamoru's 'not all that bad.' She's nice to you because she's scared of your girlfriend. We aren't saints, buddy; we can't stand the bitch."
Trowa simply stared ahead, one eye on Duo at all times. The way the other brunette acted around humans was obviously why he'd gotten beat up; he was polite to everyone, stammered all the time, and BLUSHED for crying out loud!
The teacher walked in to the room a split second after the bell rang, and everyone scrambled for their seats.
"Okay, where's the new kid?" The teacher asked, scanning the room until he found Trowa. "Ah, there you are, Mr. Barton! Tell me, what kind of literature do you write most?"
"Poetry." Trowa said. "Blank verse, mostly."
"What a coincidence!" The teacher said cheerfully. "We're starting our poetry unit today! I'm Mr. Kushranada, also known as the Slacker's Worst Nightmare. Everyone does their best in this class, and everyone reads something at least once a week, including Mr. Maxwell. Speaking of which, Mr. Maxwell, what the hell happened to your hand?"
"A... a l-lot of stuff...." Duo stammered, blushing furiously as he stared very hard at his desk. "I-it's okay, sir."
"Okay, enough of that!" Mr. Kushranada said, clapping his hands. "Who can tell me what an alliteration is?"

Duo hesitated after the bell rang, not sure if he should wait for Trowa or not. He glanced back at the tall unabang, who was shoving his books into his bag with incredible speed, probably hoping to avoid Makoto, the class boy-chaser. He finished packing and started towards the door, but stopped at Duo's desk. The remaining students stared as he bent over to say something to the other brunette.
"Wait for me at your locker." He said. "I'm walking you home today."
Duo nodded mutely, flashing a quick smile at Trowa before running out of the classroom, past a group of girls already squealing 'He smiled! Maxwell smiled!' and other such strange girlish nonsense.

Duo stood nervously in the rapidly emptying hallway, glancing around for Trowa. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to disobey the other demon and go home alone, even if it meant standing in the hall with the other students staring at him as they passed, whispering to each other.
He'd never really cared what people said about him before; he'd just kind of brushed it off as part of being him. But now they were talking about Trowa, too, and he felt weird about that, since it was basically all his fault.
"Hey, Duo." Trowa said, suddenly next to him.
"Yipe!" Duo yiped, jumping about a foot and doing a quarter turn at the same time.
"Jumpy, much?" Trowa asked, lifting his visible eyebrow. "Let's go, my braided bundle of nerves." He sighed, ruffling Duo's hair before pushing him gently towards the door.

"Umm...Trowa?" Duo said quietly, running to keep up with the taller boy. "I... I l-live that way."
"I know." Trowa said, glancing over his shoulder. "We're not going to your place. There's someone I want you to meet."
"W-who?" Duo asked uncertainly, not really feeling up to yet another stranger in his life.
"You'll see." Trowa said, smiling a mysterious little smile as he turned the corner to his apartment building.
The two went into the building and climbed the stairs to the third floor, stopping in front of apartment 307. The door flung itself inward before Trowa had even gotten his key out, and they were both attacked by a hyperactive blond dressed entirely in red.
"Whee! Tro-chan! You're back!" The blond yelled, kissing Trowa and turning to do the same to Duo, who cringed slightly. "Oh!" she said, letting him go with an embarrassed giggle. "Gomen nasai! I thought you were Seth-sama!"
"Beck, do you have a serious death wish or something?" Trowa asked, wrapping his arms around her shoulders briefly and planting a kiss on her forehead. "You know Seth will kill you if you attack him like that."
"Nu-uh!" Beck said, shaking her head vigorously. "He wouldn't do that! I'm too cute and it would upset Lien lots! And speaking of Lien, look what he got me at the con we went to!" She turned a quick circle and posed provocatively right in the walkway, showing off the blood red miniskirt wrapped around her hips and matching tubetop.
"It's very nice, Beck." Trowa said, shooing her inside. "What are you doing here?" He asked, pulling Duo inside.
"Lien burned my house down again, so I need a place to stay, and you're safe to stay with because you won't rip up my manga like Seth will, or say I can't watch my anime like Seth will, and you'll let me use your computer all the time, like Chad won't, and hi! I'm insane, but you can call me Beck! Are you a friend of Trowa's? Do you go to his new school? You're not his boyfriend, are you? I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a boyfriend, right Trowa? Or a girlfriend for that matter. You're not interested in humans, so you're really safe!"
"Beck!" Trowa yelled, cutting off the blond's flow of questions. "Please calm down. You're going to scare Duo, if you haven't already. How did you get in?"
"You left your bedroom window unlocked." She said, grinning. "I was going to break it open with my brand new Moon Scepter, but then I saw it was unlocked, so I climbed in and yelled at Tasuki for sleeping in the middle of the day and not answering the door when I knocked and knocked and knocked and making me climb the side of the building with both my bags in a miniskirt and heels because he sleeps too much and-"
"That's enough." Trowa said without shouting. "Is Tasuki still here, or did you chase him away again?"
"He went right back to sleep! I wanted him to take me to the pool, but he said he didn't have to since I yelled at him and I got a brand new bathing suit I was gonna wear and everything, but nooo, Tasuki needs his twenty-three hours of sleep a day and he wouldn't wake up again, even when I jumped up and down on his bed and I might have accidentally knocked his lamp over and maybe broke it, but... okay, I hit him on the head with it, and he made a funny noise, but he still didn't wake up! I wanna go to the pool!"
"I'll take you as soon as we're sure Tasuki's still alive, okay?" Trowa promised, heading for the back of the house. "But you have to sit still and speak very slowly to Duo, okay?"
"Okay!" She said cheerfully, plopping down on the couch. "You must be Duo." She said at half what appeared to be her usual speed, smiling pleasantly.
"Y-yeah..." Duo said, sitting down opposite her.
"You're shy, aren't you? It's okay. Seth was shy once, too. But Trowa's good at fixing that. Have you met Seth? If not, you probably don't want to." She paused for a moment, cocking her head to the side and studying him. "What kind of demon are you?"
"W-what?!"
"I've got a little demon blood myself, but I can't do much more than sense other demons and use water to scry. Passive abilities, and unreliable at best." She smiled again. "I could probably scry to figure out what kind of demon you are, if you don't know."
"You can?" Duo asked, interested in spite of his shyness.
"Yup. Can I try? It's impolite to scry about someone without permission unless you absolutely have to."
"S-sure."
"I'll be right back!" She exclaimed, jumping up and running out of the room, only to return with a shiny black bowl and a bottle of water.

She put the bowl down on the coffee table and filled it halfway with the water bottle. When the water calmed completely, she placed her hands on either side of the bowl and closed her eyes. Then she began to glow, her hair floating slightly. The water in the bowl began glowing as well, then suddenly flared blinding red, sending a blast of heat into Duo's face.

Beck yelped and jumped away from the table, staring in mild shock at her bowl.

"That...was NOT supposed to happen." She said finally, picking the bowl up and dumping its contents into a handy potted plant. "You're one strong demon, my friend. Your natural shields are stronger than the ones Trowa put on me to keep full demons from controlling me. You're a death demon, in case you were wondering."

"A d-death demon?"

"You don't cause death or anything, don't worry. Your strength lies in working with the spirits of the deceased. Death demons usually have or develop close relationships with Old or Dark gods, and can form powerful alliances with just about any demon type, and many other creatures, such as nymphs, fairies, or even pixies. And let me tell you, pixies as a rule hate demons. Death has a bad reputation, but it's one of the most useful types."

"Beck, what're ya tellin th' poor kid?" A strange voice demanded from behind Duo, causing him to jump.

"The truth, Tasuki." Beck said, sticking her tongue out at the speaker. "Which is more than you would do, you mountain bandit!"

"'S what I ahm." Tasuki said, jumping over the couch. He crossed the living room quickly and kissed Beck on the cheek before running into the kitchen with a smug grin.

"Dammit, Tasuki, how many times do I have to tell you not to kiss me?!" She demanded angrily, scrubbing her cheek with the heel of one hand.

"Payback's a bitch, ain't she?" Tasuki said, laughing. "Get yer suit. I'll take ya ta th' damned pool. But I ain't swimming."

"You are so lucky we're not at my house, or you'd be dead." Beck threatened darkly, stalking into the back of the apartment to change.

"Did you two enjoy your talk?" Trowa asked, smiling at the way Duo and Beck had hit it off.
"Sh-she's real nice." Duo said, returning Trowa's smile. "She s- says she's a w-water demon."
"She's got just enough blood to be an active demon." Trowa said. "She sticks to the passive talents, and actually makes money off that scrying abilities of hers. I take it you found out what kind of demon you are?"
"Y-yeah..." Duo said, blushing.
"We have got to do something about this habit you have of blushing for no good reason." Trowa said, shaking his head. "And that infuriating habit of apologizing for everything."
"Sorry." Duo said, then flushed even redder.
"That's what I'm talking about. I'm also going to teach you hand-to- hand combat so you can walk home alone without almost getting killed again. How often does that happen, anyway?"
"N-not often." Duo said, slouching slightly. "J-just every now an- nd then..."
"Which is too often." Trowa said, sighing. "You, my friend, are too damned nice. If someone's hurting you, fight back. That's what your powers are for."
"B-but I... I can't." Duo protested, staring at the ground.
"Why not?" Trowa asked. "You damned near lost it a two days ago and killed them anyway!"
"I... I fought back o-once..." Duo said quietly. "E-even I d-didn't r- recogni-ize their b-bodies..."

And that's chapter two. A little, short, I know. But what do you care? Chances are, only three people are reading this, and no one's gonna review unless they feel sorry for me... [sniffsniff]

Review? Pretty, pretty please?