I know I left it at a bad spot last time, but let's see if I can't do some damage control. I just got home from working 12 hours and it is currently 9:44PM. My goal is to finish this chapter and get it posted by 11:15 PM Central time. Ryokai.

Chocolate Dreams

Chapter 3

I was left completely dazed after that electrifying kiss. I'm not even sure how exactly I got back to my room that evening, but I know Duo had something to do with it. He kept jabbering on but the words were not registering in my mind. I swear, the only thing on my mind at that point was the memory of those sweet lips on mine with the hint of a dark chocolate aftertaste.

I managed to find my way to my bed and I'm sure that Duo was also responsible for turning off my lights and locking my door. Still, he babbled on the way out, but for the life of me, I couldn't bring myself to comprehend simple English... perhaps I would have had better luck if he spoke Aramaic?

That night I had the sweetest dreams of chocolate kisses in the moonlight, and I don't mean the kind that come wrapped in foil. I felt those warm lips on mine over and over again, but I was never able to see his face. That was a very pleasant night.

Since the next morning was Saturday, I ended up waking up later than usual and did some homework before venturing out to find some food. I would have gone to pester the CA people, but today the grad students were competing in various cook-offs at the civic center, and as I didn't have a car, or a ride, I was stuck on campus. I wasn't too keen on trying out the undergrad cooking, but I was hungry, and I did not feel like spending money on some over-priced, low-quality sandwiches at the concession stand in the student union, so I figured I'd brave their cooking just once and risk heartburn.

I managed to find some half-way decent food, and made my way back to my dorm. I was bored and still thinking about last night. Who had that guy been? Will I ever see him again? I know that he had to be one of Duo's friends, but Duo was so outgoing, it could have been just about anyone on campus. The fact that he had referred to the guy as 'Green Giant' did little to help since there were several chefs in the CA department who specialized in vegetarian cuisine. Needless to say, that led me nowhere.

I supposed I had to wait around until Duo got back to find out who the guy was. Why did he run away, anyhow? I'm not very big, and I'm about as threatening as a kitten all tangled up in a ball of red yarn, so what could possibly be the reason.

I sat and puzzled that out all day while I tried my best to wrap my brain around equations involving supply and demand and the tangent lines of demand curves with respect to the budget constraints of hypothetical business situations. I did remember him saying something about being afraid of sexual harassment charges, and Duo mentioning his being an RA, but still, that could be any number of people. Unfortunately, the web directory was still down, but on the up side, my shower had been fixed.

I remained in my room until late that afternoon when I heard a loud banging on my door. Curious, I went to answer it and found myself with an armful of Duo and Tupperware dishes.

"Hey Q! I hope you're hungry, buddy cuz I'm gonna stuff you good!" Duo grinned as he walked into my room with a huge grin.

I welcomed him into my room and placed the containers he had given me on a smallish folding table I had set up in the room. "How did it go, Duo?" I looked at the containers and tried to pry one open, "What's this? It smells good!"

He gave me another grin and waved his blue ribbon at me, "I won first place in my area. Yep, they just adored my Corn Fritters, Barbeque Ribs, Loaded 'Taters, Spicy Chili and Ole American Apple Pie! I won several events, but this one takes the cake… or rather pie." He waved his ribbon for me again. "I got best three course meal in the entire place!"

I hugged him enthusiastically, "That's fantastic, Duo!"

He grinned again, "Damn straight! I figured you'd like a taste of the best food in town, so I brought you it."

"Thank you! I've been starving all day!" I eagerly began opening containers and digging in.

Duo watched as I began enjoying myself and took a seat on my bed. "So… about last night…" he began.

I looked up, "What about it?" Was he going to tell me what happened? Who it was?

"Well… I just want you to realize he's not a bad guy. I'd just been on his case all day and he just reacted. Give him a chance, won't you?" He looked up at me with pleading violet eyes.

"I don't even know who it was," I told him seriously, "As a matter of fact; I don't remember much of anything after the kiss last night."

"Really?"

I nodded, "So who was it?"

He sighed, "I'll only tell you if you promise to give him a chance to explain himself, okay?"

I nodded.

"It was Tr-," just then, we were interrupted by another knock at my door. Duo clamped his mouth shut and let me go answer.

To my surprise, it was Trowa standing there with a box in his hands.

"Trowa!" I smiled, "Come on in. I'm just having dinner… Duo cooked. Would you like to join me?"

"Yeah, Tro, come on in and have dinner with Blondie. I was just leaving anyway. Heero and I have dinner plans ourselves," he grinned and winked in my direction. Hey! He was supposed to tell me who the mystery kisser was!

Duo didn't give Trowa a chance and pretty much sat the man down on my bed and whirlwind out of my room.

"Well… that was interesting…" I said as I stared dumbly at the door. "What was that all about?"

When Trowa didn't answer, I turned my attention toward him and sat down on the rolling chair I had earlier vacated.

"Hey, what's wrong, Trowa?"

He held out the box to me, but still refused to meet my eyes. What could be wrong? I took the box and opened it up, delighted to find a kind of hollow chocolate sphere, composed of crisscrossing chocolate lines with a set of little white chocolate doves sitting in the middle of this 'cage'.

"This is beautiful," I breathed, amazed at how lovely the design was. There were little tiny sugar flowers on some of the crisscrossed chocolate, making the lines look more like vines that had encircled the little feathered pair.

"I'm sorry," he whispered brokenly.

I paused and put the sphere back in the box and the box down on my desk, "What are you sorry for? This is absolutely marvelous. I don't think I've ever seen anything as beautiful as that sculpture."

"I wasn't talking about the chocolate."

I blinked, "Then what are you talking about?" He'd never done anything to warrant his asking forgiveness.

"I'm sorry about last night." He still didn't meet my eyes. "I didn't mean for it to happen like that, and I'm sorry I attacked you. I'll sign anything you want if you want to file an incident report."

My heart was breaking at the sound of his dejected voice. He thought I was going to report him?

"I… I'm sorry. I should never have invited you to the CA department in the first place. None of this would have ever happened."

That made me stop him, "Wait, what?"

He sighed, "I'm sorry. I'm the one that kissed you in the bathroom."

"No, that's not it…. Are you telling me that you are RA 03?"

He nodded, "Aren't you mad?"

"I'm mad that you didn't let me know who you were when I first got there! That would have been a nice thing to know. And as for the kiss, yes I'm mad!"

He flinched at that and looked away.

"Look at me!" I said as I put my hand on his chin and tilted his face up to look at mine, "I hated it that you kissed me like that!"

"Quatre- I…I'm sorry!"

"No! Next time you kiss me, I want you to stay there and hold me after my knees go weak!"

I saw green eyes visibly widen and his breath hitch, " … what? …" he asked in a small voice.

"You heard me."

I don't remember much after that. What I do remember though were chocolate flavored kisses and a night of chocolate dreams that followed.

OWARI

Jess' rant:

Okay, peoples! It is currently 10:38PM and the chapter is done, as promised. I'm anticipating this being posted before 11PM (Central time) and am looking forward to your comments. Yes, I know this is a short story, but I did promise it would be really short with no more than 3-5 chapters. I hope you enjoyed and I hope you all are still around when I come out of hiding again for whenever my next story decides to be written. Until then, ENJOY!