Chapter 4

"Heero, what cha thinking about?"

"You're gonna take me to L2 someday, right? I mean, once this is all over." I rolled over and smirked at him. I could see the lake outside the window to our small room, with the midday sunlight glaring off it. Wu-fei was swimming in the lake, and Trowa and Quatre had gone earlier for a walk in the lazy afternoon. It was still unsettling to see all of us relaxing, but I looked back over at Heero, who was staring at the ceiling with his eyes half closed, and it felt that as if this peace was, for once, real..

"You went there once though," I reminded him.

"That was just to get supplies, and we spent most of the time in hiding, so…that doesn't count. I want to see the church where you grew up." I laughed then and put my hands behind my head.

"That's long gone. I'm sure it's been torn down years ago."

"But you don't know?" He rolled over to look me in the eyes now, brushing my bangs out of my face. I smiled and kissed him gently.

"No, I don't know. I haven't had time myself to check."

"We should check then." He smirked then and rolled on top of me; his hair tickled my nose as he chuckled. "Or we could just stay here forever. I'm comfortable right where I am."

"We don't have to move. Just leave a 'do not disturb' sign up and stay in bed for the next week, or two weeks, or a month, or all year! And you know what? We can."

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The beeping beside me rudely pulled me from my dream. I turned over and smacked the clock to the floor, heard it clatter and stop its incessant beeping. Another day, dragging myself into school. I tumbled to the floor myself and staggered to the bathroom. So far, I had survived two weeks of this, not that it was all that bad. Get up, get to work, spend the day at school, head home, and collapse. Jack had shown up at my house a few times to pester me and take advantage of my comfortable living quarters and give me a hard time about being employed at a well paying job, but other than that, there was nothing much eventful that had happened to me.

"It's been a while since I've had any dreams about him though," I said to my reflection in the mirror. "And here I thought I was doing better." I flipped on the small radio next to me and scanned through the stations, hoping to find some music to clear my mind, but it seemed all stations were blaring some sort of message, a pre-programmed computer voice spitting off the same words at every stop. I paused at a station to listen.

"All lines of transportation will be under strict security today in preparation for the arrival of the delegate Relena Peacecraft from the Sanc Kingdom…" I shut off the radio and stared at it blankly for a few minutes. So she…she was in the colony, for some sort of conference, most likely. And if she is here, then, then…

"Goddammit!" I shouted. I threw the radio to the ground and stormed out of the bathroom without even getting a shower. "Calm down Duo. Get breakfast, get dressed, go to work, get through school, and don't even think about it. He's not here, and even if he were he wouldn't recognize me and care to see me again. I've got work, need to get to work…" I started the coffee and pulled out a box of cereal from the cupboard. "And soon there'll be papers to grade." And more of Tonako's writing to read, I reminded myself.

"Tonako, Tonako, Tonako, it's always Tonako!" Sure, he was a good student, a talented writer…and so very much like Heero. Who could be in the colony now, finally on L2…no, he's not. Expecting him to be would only make it worse when I did not find him. I munched on the cereal and watched the clock in the kitchen. I would be early to work this morning, but that gave me enough time to get ready for the first class, which was the one without Tonako in it. It did have his friend, or girlfriend, or whoever she is who follows him everywhere. I stuffed another spoonful of cereal into my mouth before standing up; I was in too tense of a mood to eat.

The buses this morning did have guards inside them, carefully measuring all passengers stepping on and off. As I neared the school the tension seemed even more in the streets. It was always unknown where the diplomats on this colony met, only because they distrusted the people. The bus stopped and I stepped out, looking over the front of the school; there were no students outside, and most of the building looked dark from here, in the early morning light. No surprise, being that I was here far earlier than usual, but I had no reason to linger in my apartment and mope. I strolled down the path to the large double doors and headed into the entrance. Inside, there were a few voices floating on the air, but they seemed to belong to the maintenance crew, not students. I waved to them as I passed them and headed back to my room. Along the hall there were a few more students, there early to finish last minute studying for a test or an overdue paper. Surprisingly, though, when I got to my door I found it already open and a light on in the room. I stepped inside and found Tonako sitting in a desk, bent over his laptop and typing furiously. He did not even look up when I entered the room. I paused in the doorway for just a brief moment, watching the way his hair fell in front of his eyes, before moving to my desk and setting down my papers. I could see most of his face over the laptop screen from where I sat.

"Hello, Tonako," I said. Only then did he look up, with a confused look in his eyes before catching sight of me. He nodded and went back to typing. "If you don't mind me asking, are you working on schoolwork?"

"No," he said. I sighed; small talk was clearly something he disliked. Well then, let's try something else.

"I'm surprised to find you in here. I thought I had locked my door last night." He shrugged.

"You didn't." I laughed then and shuffled through the papers in my bag, finding a notebook with all of my notes for class today. "It was unlocked when I got here."

"Either that, or you unlocked it. But you're here early. Class doesn't start for another forty minutes, you know." He just shrugged.

"I needed to finish some work." I sighed and looked up. He was looking at me now, as if he had been watching my every move before, and I had not noticed his eyes on me. The only person who managed to watch me without my noticing, ever, was Heero. But when I looked at him again, he went back to staring at his laptop screen.

"You could have finished it at home, you know." He shook his head. "And why not?"

"Too busy there. Preparations." He closed his laptop and smirked at me now.

"What for? And especially this early in the morning." He had stood up now and moved to the front of the room. There was some other movement outside of the room, a few more students in the hallways.

"My father is hosting a gathering for the ambassador Relena Peacecraft…" I gripped the pencil I was holding even tighter. Tonako's family was in some way connected to the government, enough to host a party for Relena? "You do know that she is on the colony don't you?"

"How could I have not noticed?" I spat. Then I checked myself and laughed. "Sorry," said, but Tonako just shrugged. He walked back to his desk and got his books. "You don't have class for quite a while."

"I know, but I need to work, and I can't work with you talking to me." I leaned back in my chair and chuckled.

"Hey, I'll shut up if you want." Tonako was already heading out of the door though. "What, did I get you mad? I'm sorry." He shrugged again.

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Maxwell." He closed the door behind him, and I let out a sigh. Well, it was the first conversation with Tonako beyond a few words during class, and what a surprise it was. It almost felt like I had had that conversation before, maybe different words, but all the same in some way. Maybe it was Tonako's expression, or the way he spoke the words, but something felt so familiar, nagging at the back of my mind.

But before I could find myself walking down that path of memories, a teacher entered the room. She had been working at the school for quite a while, but was still young; I think she taught one of the Latin classes. I had seen her in passing once in the hallway, but had not met her just yet.

"Thought I'd stop by to say hello, Mr. Maxwell. I'm Sara." She stuck out her hand, and I shook it, smiling at her. "I know what it's like to be a new teacher here. I've taught for a while, but not so long I've forgotten what it's like. So, if there's anything you need help with, I was just going to say you can come ask me. I know this place can be a little…intimidating at first."

"Oh, no, I can find my way around fine enough," I said, laughing. Sara laughed and shook her head.

"That's not what I meant. I meant the students." She glanced around almost nervously. "I mean, I know you've been here a week, but have you noticed something different about them? It's just that feeling that they think they have control." I raised my eyebrows and shrugged.

"I haven't had that problem just yet."

"Probably because you're new. In a little while it might be different. They think they own the world because these are the kids whose parents own L2." She glanced around the room again, searching for any crack or crevice that could leak this conversation to the outside world. "Not only that, but often as a sort of 'rite of passage' for new teachers they invite them to their lavish parties. And we can't do anything about it. Because these people control everything on L2, and any false move to tarnish the name of the children, and the parents will send all their resources at us to destroy us." Sara looked back at me and smiled, but I could not help myself and stifled a laugh.

"You have to be kidding. I mean, come on! I've taught at some shitty places but nothing was ever that bad. Anyway, I'll just have some sort of prior engagement." Sara shook her head.

"You don't understand, do you? Their parents are the structure of L2. And so they have all of the colony at their disposal, almost. The entire place is so corrupt."

"Yes, but that has nothing to do with the children."

"You just don't understand. We'll all be crushed under that, and not only that, but they might shut down this school and everything. They haven't yet, but we've had more teachers mysteriously disappear after a year or half a year or so because of this than you can imagine. The whole colony is so corrupt."

"No shit," I grumbled. She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow. "You think I couldn't tell? Sure, I've been here for a week, but yeah I could tell. And somehow, I just can't believe you about all of that." She just shrugged.

"You're loss." Then, she smiled. "But onto better things. How do you like the school so far?" I grinned and shrugged.

"Not sure now! Damn, I don't think I'll ever get used to this place. But I like teaching here. The students are actually a lot nicer than you seem to think. You're just going about it the wrong way." Sara gave me a sympathetic smile.

"I hope you're right. Well, I've got to go. I have a class to prepare for." She left the room quickly, glancing back at the doorway and smiling at me once more. She did not appear to be a bad person, not the norm of the school's employees. Though her warning did perplex me. I pondered it while reading over notes for today's class. Surely students, no matter how powerful their family was, could not get away with that. There was no way it was even feasible. Though, if it were true, it was a frightening idea. I shook my head and laughed.

"Hell no that wouldn't happen." I chocked her warning up to her being overly cautious and continued readying myself for the day's class.

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"Dammit!" I breathed as I rushed towards the classroom, wondering briefly if all teachers were this worried when they were late for their own class. Yes, they looked composed and as if their delayed appearance was all planned, but what was it actually like? Did they rush from the bathroom to the room like this and then brush it off by saying they were running off papers? I rounded the final corner to the room and saw that most of the students were inside. There was only one lingering outside, waiting for me to enter the room while stealing a little extra time with his girlfriend.

"Come on you two. Time for class," I said, smiling. I entered the room and shut the door part of the way, peeking out long enough to see them exchange a quick kiss in the hall. "And I saw that," I said. The girl rushed off and the boy turned around, blushing slightly. "Ah, don't worry 'bout it. I can turn a blind eye." Especially for him. He and his friends often hung out in my room during their free time and after school, and were not bad. He slipped into the room and walked to his seat in the back before pulling out his laptop. I took my eyes off him and scanned my class. They had settled down now that I was in the room and saw me reaching into my bag for papers.

"Allrighty class, since we've finished a few short stories, I think we should have our own go at writing them." Before the groans could start, I held up the stack of papers. "You see these? Your old teacher left these for this unit. Now, tell me if ya want to do these: write a character sketch about a person in your life, what was your most memorable day and write about it, blah, blah, blah. So?" There was a chorus of complaint from the students. I glanced back to Tonako, but he was still silent, though his eyes traced my every move. He blinked a few times and shook his head but kept his eyes on me. "Okay, that's decided." I ripped the papers in two and threw them in the trash. "Let's leave it open-ended. Write about whatever you want. Now, I don't want a novel or anything, but more than just a few pages. This is an advanced class and all." A girl near the front raised her hand.

"Are you sure we should be doing short stories before essays?" I laughed.

"You've been writing essays all year. And I have copies of those, so no worries at all. I know what your writing is, whether that's a good thing or not." There was a few snickers around the room. "Okay then, I'll be giving you class time for this week to work on stories, ask me questions, everything. So, I expect these to be done in one week. You'll have all of class, plus extra time to work on them." And now time for the barrage. I expected the complaints, the number of tests coming up, everything else these children could complain about. But there was just silence, until it was Tonako who raised his hand.

"The teachers have called this weekend a no homework weekend, with so many students caught up in activities due to ambassador Peacecraft's arrival." I felt myself bristling.

"Well, then, should I move the due date?" Most of the students, in a clamor suggested days to move it to. I sighed and held both of my hands high. "Come on, gimme some time to think!" I let my blood calm and cursed myself; even the mention of her name still got me, and for some reason, looking at the way Tonako smirked at me, he had picked up on this. "Okay, I won't give you all of this week in class to work on it, but I will move it to the end of next week, and will give you most of the days in class to work on it. That good?" They pondered this, then a few nodded. "Good, now time to get to work. I have paper here, or write on your computers, if you wish. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me." I sat back in my chair and pulled some paper out my bag. It was lessons plans for this week, but I quickly found myself doodling on the side of it, and quick sketch of a man with messy hair, messy bangs in front of eyes. I quickly scratched through the drawing though, turning my attention to the plans, only to find myself drawing him once more.

"Mr. Maxwell?" I looked up, scrambling to cover up the drawing and saw Tonako standing above me. "I have a few stories already written. So do I need to write a new one?"

"I think you should write one. I mean, you can turn in whatever one you want, but at least write one now. Come on, Tonako, it's not that hard."

"I'll write it," he said. He strolled back to his seat, something Heero would never do. Would he have, though, if he had not been trained for as long as he could remember to fight, have perfectly controlled movements at all times. I found myself caught in watching Tonako for any of Heero's smooth, precise movements, but before I could get caught in him another student walked to the desk with more questions.

The class slipped by in much this manner until the bell rang. Students rushed out, as it was now their lunch period, a strange time when normal children turned to savages, even at this school, scrambling to either buy the fresher food or finish their own lunch in the short time allotted for lunch. I noticed the girl from before carefully slip through the outgoing crowd to meet her boyfriend again. I hid a smile at the sight of them; I almost never saw them apart, except during class. They left, an arm around each other, and I slung my own bag over my shoulder. Only Tonako was left in the room.

"Not a bad artist, Mr. Maxwell," he whispered as we left the room.

"You're not a bad slacker either, Tonako." He started. "Yeah, you thought I didn't notice. You didn't type a single word all class. I actually take note of that, you know." I strode off before he could say anything, feeling smug about my victory. The slight fear in his eyes gave me such a thrill, seeing I had broken through that mask of his. I turned around then, and saw Tonako watching me. I waved to him, and his eyes narrowed. He stormed down the hall and around a corner. Tonako would not forgive me for that; I wagered no other teacher had mentioned his behavior to him, but I was almost certain that he behaved that way in every class. It was only after that I realized I had started a war.

"Oh well, it's at least something to do." A group of girls turned to look at me after having been whispering harshly to each other. "Oh, nothing, don't worry about it." I laughed, and they gave a few short giggles, but I was long gone down the other end of the hall.

I always brought some sort of lunch, or, if I had left the house in too much of a hurry, just did not eat. I dared never brave the lunch room, even though teachers were encouraged to eat there, "mingle" with the students instead of eating in the comfort of the teacher's lounge. Most days I avoided both and walked along the nature path, back behind the back of the school. No one else even seemed to use it, and it let me have a little peace in the day, something I knew I did not need but so desperately wanted. And after a weekend of thinking, I wanted nothing more than the mindless tasks that kept me going. I could even say I enjoyed teaching here, as surprising as that seemed. Teaching older students was more of a challenge, but an enjoyable battle.

"Speaking of battles…" I said. I sat down against the building, with trees around me, and laughed. That glint in Tonako's eyes told me he was not going to rest until he could make my life miserable for even pointing out that he would dare misbehave in class. "It's gonna be wild."

"Someone back here?" I heard someone say. I glanced up. Coming down the path was a man I had never seen before. He was middle-aged, dressed in a dirty collared shirt and jeans. He had blondish colored hair and darker skin, and was considerably taller than I was. He pushed a wheelbarrow in front of him. "Oh, hello. I've never seen anyone back on this path. This is a surprise. Hey, hold on…Duo!" The man put down the wheelbarrow and rushed towards me. "Hey, man, it's me, Richard! Duo, hell I haven't seen you in years." I stood up myself as he launched my way and caught me in a hug.

"Oof, hey, good to see you! It's has been years." Richard laughed and stepped back a little. "I'm amazed you recognized me."

"I'd know your face anywhere, and your…you hair? Turn around." I turned in a circle, revealing the short pony tail behind my head instead of the braid. "You've changed a hell of a lot. Damn, last time I saw you, you were still over in the slums."

"Yeah, and so were you. What brought you here?"

"They wanted a gardener, I needed employment, and I actually knew something about plants. And what about you?" He pulled on my tie. "Looks like you've got yourself a fancy position here."

"I'm a teacher now!" I said, grinning. I put my hands on my hips. "I've moved up to the bottom ladder of the social rung, instead of sitting ten feet below."

"Damn big jump, if you ask me. Hey, so what have you been up to these past few years?" Richard and I had met one night in the streets, when I was still working the streets and he was drunk on the side of the road. He was never a customer, but it was a night when I had found no one, and Richard looked lonely, so I sat down next to him, and we started talking. We talked until morning and became fast friends after that. He started to crash at my apartment, when he was smashed, which ended up being almost every day for the next month. His girlfriend of four years had just dumped him and left the colony completely, and he drank himself into a stupor every night after that. He finally got himself cleaned up a bit, and stopped staying at my place, and since then we had rarely been in contact, but I had always had a soft spot for Richard.

"Oh, not too much. Taught a few other places, before coming here." Richard smiled a large smile and clapped me on the shoulder.

"I'm glad you got off the streets. You were too good for that, and I knew ya would get somewhere, someday." I just laughed and shrugged. We talked a little while longer about the old days in the slums.

"God, I'm glad you're here. All the teachers here have sticks up their asses, and I thought I would go crazy!" I said. He laughed. "But hey, do you come back here often?" He shrugged.

"Only when I have to clean the path, which isn't too often. No one's ever back here." I nodded slowly. "But I'll come back here more now that you're here." He smiled again, a warm smile I rarely saw on him when we were friends. "I've missed ya, you know. I think it's all your doing I ever pulled myself out of the gutter."

"But I bet you're around campus a lot," I mused. An idea had popped into my head, and a small smile was forming on my lips. "There's a student I want you to look out for. His name's Tonako. He's about my height, Japanese, messy black hair that's long, dark brown eyes, thin but muscular…" Richard held up his hand.

"I think I got it. Why you want me to?"

"He's been causing trouble in my class and I want to know what he's doing around school the rest of the day." It was only partially a lie, and Richard bought every word of it. I think he would have bought any excuse I could think of.

"I'll keep an eye out. I always have something to do around the campus, so I'm here every day. Don't worry; I'll report anything out of the ordinary to you."

"Or, just, anything. I'm trying to figure him out, you know." Richard grinned.

"You're a good teacher, Duo. I've never seen anyone this concerned about their students and wanting to connect with them so much." So Richard had always been a little slow, but he was a good man, and I knew I could trust him with this job, and trust him to not say anything about it. "Hey, you doing anything this evening? Maybe we could get together for a few drinks or something…"

"Richard, you know I can't come to school hung over!"

"You don't have to get drunk," he said. I sighed.

"But I don't trust myself to not get drunk. So I'll pass. Maybe this weekend we can head out on the town! Now that we're rich men working at this high class establishment."

"We're rich men? No, I think you're the only rich one here. I'm just a gardener, remember? Speaking of which, I've got a job to do, and so do you. Best not keep you away from class." He picked up his wheelbarrow and waved to me as he walked down the path.

"Talk to you soon!" I shouted. I smirked then and held my head a little higher. Let the war begin.

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Finally an update! Sorry that it was another long delay between updates, and only for this short chapter. But I wanted to get it out before I left on vacation. So the next chapter will just be even longer! And hopefully-I can't make any promises-the delay won't be as long.

This chapter has not been betaed yet, but I will be putting up a betaed version once I get back from vacation. So, if there are any glaring errors you see, feel free to point them out to me.

Hope you liked the chapter and please review!