Chocolate Dreams
Chapter 2
After that time spent with the Culinary Arts students, the rest of my day didn't seem so bad. I was so excited about the prospect of hanging out with so many talented chefs. I have to admit though, that I was mostly looking forward to being around that tall green-eyed one. I still can't believe I didn't get his name.
A couple of weeks passed and I settled into a routine. I'd go to class in the mornings every other day, then spend a good two hours with the chefs at around noon. The rest of the time on those days, I'd do homework, work on my research papers and pretty much avoid people in general. The days that I had classes all day, I'd end up feeling a little lonely, although apparently some of the chefs liked me enough to hunt me down between classes and feed me.
One of said chefs was Duo Maxwell. He was pretty tall, thin, and like me, had very feminine features. He was totally gorgeous, but taken. Actually, that is how he found me when I was waiting to go into my Business Law class. He was apparently there to meet his lover with a basket of baked goods and found me furiously typing on my keyboard while I waited for the classroom to clear out of its previous occupants.
"Hey Q-bean!" Duo called out that day as he practically bounced over to me. He was wearing a chef's outfit, except it was inverted in colors. Whereas the norm consisted of white pants and jacket with black buttons, his was black with white buttons. His long hair was still braided, though he no longer sported the hairnet he oft complained about, nor was he wearing his chef's hat. What he did have, was a covered basket and a mischievous grin on his lips.
"Hi Duo, how are you?" I asked, politely as always. It was hard to be so casual when you were raised to be a 'proper gentleman'.
"All's good, all's good," he replied, waving a basket of food under my nose. "I didn't see you come by today, little buddy."
I sighed, "I know, I'm sorry. It's just that Tuesdays and Thursdays I have classes all day and I hardly get a break for lunch. I know the CA building is on the other side of campus, and so I don't have time to run over there and have time to hang out with you and eat."
Duo just waved his hand dismissively at me, "Oh whatever, Q. You know you're just getting tired of me and my cooking."
"I am not! I love your cooking!" I gasped, completely mortified that he'd think I was getting tired of his food. Duo specialized in what was called 'Old American' cuisine. There were very few people that could pull off that kind of cooking since the style had died away since the time of space explorations and colonizing. There were very few cookbooks left and from the look of it, most of that style of food was what used to be known as 'Soul Food'. In other words, the dishes never came out the same because the chef added ingredients as his or her mood (and taste buds) saw fit. It was very haphazard if you asked me, but Duo was especially gifted at it.
"Well, we'll just see about that!" He fished out of his basket something that looked somewhat like a muffin, except it was yellow-brown and had something that looked like a bean sticking out of the top. Upon closer inspection, it looked like there was a jalapeno and a piece of bacon on there too. What kind of muffin was this?
Gingerly, I took the oversized muffin and examined it. Well, it looked interesting enoughY
"Duo... What is this?" I gingerly sniffed at it, which got me a chuckle.
"It is a version of cornbread. This version though, instead of just being plain cornmeal is a full meal all on its own."
"What's in it?" I asked cautiously. It was still warm and the smell was mouth-watering.
"Well, there's the general cornmeal, and then there's corn, red beans, pinto beans, a little bit of onion, some tomato, some jalapeno, bacon, sausage(1), and cheese."
I took a bite of it and delighted in the texture and flavors I was presented with. This was really good and I told him so.
"Thanks," he grinned, handing me another 'for later'. "I hope Heero likes them."
"I'm sure he'll love them," I enthused.
He chuckled again, "Well, at least now I know he'll eat it without trepidation since he'll know someone else ate one first without keeling over."
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and instead gave him my kicked puppy look, "Duo? Do you think you could come feed me when I can't make it to the CA building?"
"Aww, Quat! Don't gimme that look! You know I won't say no, just cut the puppy eyes, kay? Sheesh!" He grinned when I relented and gave him a hug of thanks, "Although, you DO know that this gives me license to feed you anything I want, don't you?"
I nodded, "And since you're such an excellent cook, I'll be looking forward to it!"
"Flattery will get you everywhere, my man. Oh, by the way, Tro sent you this," he fished around his basket again and came up with a baby-blue box with my name written on the top. "He asked me to drop by your dorm tonight and give this to you since you seemed to like his chocolate and he was going to be busy with preparing for that chocolate sculpture thing he's been working on."
I took the box and thanked him, barley missing being smacked in the face by his meter-long braid as he skipped off again to find his lover.
I opened the box and smile as I found a miniature chocolate menagerie complete with lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!
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qrwinner0404: Hey, 03 are you on tonight?
RA03tb: I'm here, can I help you with anything?
qrwinner0404: Thanks for the advice you gave me. I'm starting to make friends with the CA majors and I never have to fear starvation.
RA03tb: Food poisoning on the other handY.
qrwinner0404: Very funny, Mr. Wise Guy. By the way, have I seen you there? Why haven't you ever said hi?
RA03tb: WellY there are several taste testers. I can't be sure if we've seen each other or not. In any case, I have to get going. I have an event in the morning and the next RA should be coming in any minute now to help you out if you have any questions or concerns.
/RA03tb has logged out/
/RA01hy has logged in/
RA01hy: Good evening. qrwinner0404: Hi. RA01hy: Is there anything you need help with this evening?
qrwinner0404: Actually, yes. Do you know anything about RA03tb?
RA01hy: Why? Has he been inappropriate? Would you like him written up?
qrwinner0404: Oh no, that's not it at all! It's just … he was very nice to me when I first came on and after suggesting an extracurricular activity for me, he's become rather distant. I don't know if I've done anything to offend him. I know he's a CA major, but he hasn't told me his name. I would like to be able to find him to at least be able to apologize if I've done something to make him mad at me.
RA01hy: I'm not sure I'm supposed to disclose any information about our RA's over the net, but you can go to the student/faculty directory on the school's main page and look for him. I'll give you a hint: the number in our screen name is the dorm we work for and the two letters after the number are our initials.
That thought made me smile. Now I would be able to find the one person that had introduced me to the people that I'd started to call friends, even if his involvement was somewhat indirect. I hoped I hadn't done something to embarrass the RA. I mean, I didn't even know his name. What if I had snuffed him down in the CA building? I don't know if I could live with myself!
I checked with the student/faculty directory, but to my utter irritation, the site was down for maintenance and updating. You'd think they'd have done that by now!
Sighing, I grabbed my toiletries, bed clothes, and bathrobe and made my trek to the communal showers. I had my own, mind you, but the maintenance department hadn't gotten around to fixing the showerhead despite the work order I had put in last week.
The showers were pretty empty when I got there, there were only two other people occupying the room. I was very relieved my first week here when I discovered that the showers were in individual locking stalls.
"You are such a wuss, you know that?" a voice sounded from another stall. I hoped it wasn't directed at me and began to hurry up to get out of there before anything bad started.
"Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about," said the second, more quiet voice. It was hard to distinguish the voices over the roar of the showers and the echoes of the bathroom.
"You have nothing to lose. Just go up to your 'blonde angel' and go for it."
"You know I can't do that."
"Why not? You're an RA, not a Monk. You're allowed to date, you know."
Somehow, the voices sounded familiar.
"Just get off my case, Betty Crocker, and mind your own bee's wax."
"Them's fightin' words, Green Giant." The voice said with a bad movie-western drawl. "Just go up to the cutie and steal a kiss. What's the worst that could happen?"
A sigh, "I could be charged with sexual harassment, and you know it."
"Pfft. In that case, I dare you. Besides, blondie might like it!"
"What?" The water in the other two stalls turned off suddenly and I could hear the conversation a little better.
"You heard me, go give Blondie a huge, 'I wanna examine your tonsils,' type kiss."
"I can't do that."
"Sure you can," the other person persisted, "In fact, I double dare you. And if you back out of this one, I'll just go tell Blondie myself. I don't want to play parcel boy all semester just 'cuz you don't have the balls to do it yourself!"
"Fine, I'll take that dare!"
I turned off the shower and hurriedly got dressed in my stall, coming out with my dirty clothes and toiletries in one hand, while the other held my bathrobe closed. I didn't bother to look at the two talking in the corner.
"Here's your chance, buddy!" is all I heard before strong arms pulled me into someone's chest and a warm, demanding mouth took possession of mine. My eyes closed of their own vocation and I felt my knees give out from under me.
The next thing I knew, I was kneeling on the floor with my things scattered around me and a shocked looking Duo standing on the other side of the room with only a towel to cover his modesty. By the time I thought to look for the person he was talking to, the bathroom door had slammed shut, leaving me dazed, aroused, and completely clueless.
Jess' Rant.
How's it going people? I like to think I'm churning these out quite quickly and rather nicely for my long hiatus (if I do say so myself). Thank you for reading and for putting up with all this skirting around. I'm changing the ratings because in this fic, Quatre is supposed to be sixteen while Trowa, Heero, Duo and Wufei are 23, 22, 23, and 28 in that order.
(1) I am taking a liberty here and saying that Quatre is NOT Muslim. I don't have anything against Muslims, it's just that I like pork meat way too much to have Q not want to eat it.