Rival Chatter
Chapter 4: Heero POV
Quatre was more bubbly than usual lately. In fact, even Wufei had noticed. It normally took a good knock to the head to get Wufei to acknowledge something was off kilter in his perfect little world, but apparently something had changed in his orderly life.
"Why is Winner so happy today?" Wufei asked as he joined me on my way from my computer technology class to my science class.
I shrugged, "It's either because of that guy he met at the circus or because he was getting a 'how to say NO to your sisters in one easy step' lesson yesterday. Or maybe it's both."
"Wait a minute… circus guy? Why didn't he tell me?"
"I don't know… you haven't made yourself readily available in the past couple of days."
He blushed and didn't argue further.
"So… is this guy just a friend or is he… you know… too?" He didn't look the least bit comfortable.
I rolled my eyes, Wufei could be so uptight sometimes. "I don't know, but you don't have to tiptoe around the issue."
"Well excuse me if I'm worried for my friend!" He looked angry right now… perhaps this wasn't the best time to argue with him.
"Gomen, Wufei. I know you're not really comfortable with Quatre's orientation but-"
"It's probably not even his fault with all those onnas running around in his house… the man was practically driven to it!"
"I was going to say 'he knows how to read people and make his own choices.'" I grumbled.
"We promised to look after each other," he sighed, "and whether or not I like the fact that Quatre is …. You know… I intend to protect him."
I patted him on the back, trying to calm him a little, "I know, I worry about him too."
We made our way to my science class and went our separate ways. Unfortunately, the three of us didn't have many classes together this semester so we only had time to talk between classes, during lunch and after school.
I went and took my seat and watched the door until a blur of black and auburn braid came running through the door. Looks like today was a test day for Duo… and chances are, since he was just barely on time, this was one of the classes he had a test in.
"Mr. Maxwell, glad that you could make it," old Mr. Spies said as he adjusted his glasses. "I assume you can recall where your assigned seat is?"
Duo nodded and sat down, one seat up and to the left of me. I really hated being seated in alphabetical order since I like sitting in the front, but I suppose it does have its useful points… for the teacher.
"You have the entire class period to do this test, ladies and gentlemen," Mr. Spies was saying. "It will not do you any good to rush through my exam. Doing so will only increase your chances of not passing. I recommend that if you do indeed finish my exam early, you double check your questions and make sure you have all the proper conversions and measurements." He finished handing out the test papers and went back to his desk. "You may now turn your papers over and begin. As a reminder: you are allowed to use a scientific calculator, but not a graphing calculator."
With that, we all began our tests. Unfortunately for some, high school science involved a certain degree of math in it, unlike in primary school. Luckily for me, math and science were my strong suites.
I finished my test and handed it over to Mr. Spies who glared at me coldly. I had the distinct feeling that he made the tests as "tough" as he did just to stump me. Scowling, he scribbled out a pass to the library and told me to go away, which I did.
Again, I was ushered into the conference room. This was beginning to feel like a trend. Idly, I sat down and began looking through my papers. I had finished all my homework now, thanks to my chat buddy and my revised version of my paper sat neatly in it's protector, but giving into compulsion, I had to check that I had all my homework in proper order.
As I rifled through my stuff, I found the sketch Duo did of me and smiled a little. I'd never had anyone take the time to draw me before. In fact, I was kind of surprised he hadn't put an arrow through my head or something equally gruesome or more. I tucked that away safely into one of my extra page protectors and put it hastily away when I heard the conference room door open behind me.
"You again?" Duo asked as he took what now seemed to be his usual seat.
"Did Spies give you the 'drop-dead-for-finishing-my-test-without-breaking-a-sweat' glare too?" I asked, determined not to be baited by Duo today.
He just rolled his eyes at me and looked away, "Whatever."
"You look more irritable than usual," I ventured.
"Bite me."
"I would, but I'm afraid you'd bite back."
"Oh, ha-ha. Does it look like I care what you think?"
"Fine."
"Fine."
After a long pause, Duo sighed. "Sorry. Spies just really gets under my skin, you know?"
"I know," I agreed. "It's like he can't stand that a student knows more about his subject than he does."
Duo laughed at that.
"So… three times in the same week… what are the odds?" Duo asked. "One more class to go and then we can all go home. Peachy, huh?"
"If you say so."
"Well, I do say so."
"You know, you'd really be a lot easier to get along with if you didn't have Mt. Everest sitting on your shoulder."
"Yeah, well, I would be a lot easier to get along with if some bastard hadn't knocked over my lunch on my way here." he snapped.
"Oh."
"Yeah, Oh."
"If you want, I have some munchies in my back pack… I'm a bit of a junk food junkie," I admitted.
"I don't want your pity, or your food," Duo snapped, but immediately turned red-faced when his stomach decided to speak up.
"It's not pity food, I'm a bit hungry too." I began pulling out some trail mix, some home-made cookies, some home-baked potato chips, and sliced cucumber and jicama doused in chili powder and lime, each snack in their own zip-locked bag and a thermos filled with some herbal iced tea.
Duo eyed the contents of my zip-lock baggies then raised an eyebrow, "Junk food?"
I blushed, "Well, because I like to eat, Rosie makes sure that I at least eat things that aren't bad for me."
Duo's stomach grumbled again, making him look pained. He was really hungry, but his pride wouldn't let him touch my peace-offering.
"Take it as payment for the portrait you did of me before." I said, pushing a cookie across the table.
Duo eyed the cookie for a bit before taking it, "Fine. It's only payment then."
