After a while, Duo finally went over to the phone and picked it up to see whether the man had hung up yet or not. There was still the sounds of someone either speaking or it was just Duo's overactive imagination at work that had combined with his paranoia. He grabbed the phone and shut it, but before anyone had the chance to call he turned it off and tossed it onto his bed. After watching it bounce a couple of times before coming to a rest, he was startled when his father started knocking on his door.

"Duo, are you alright? I heard you shouting a minute ago... Is someone in there?" His father cracked the door a bit and then opened it all the way when Duo just turned away and sat down in his computer chair.

His father's emerald green eyes shone with genuine worry as he watched his son, but all Duo knew was how uncomfortable he felt by looking into those eyes. Everyone had always told him he had his mother's eyes, and yet he had never really noticed it until after she had died. Even years later it bothered Duo whenever his father watched him as he was doing; just getting stared at made him feel guilty or like he had something weighing heavily on his conscience.

"I'm really alright, just go talk do some more of work... Do you want me to order some Chinese?" The braided boy was hoping desperately that he could change the subject without his father being suspicious of him. Apparently it worked as his father nodded and left the room without saying anything.

It was another few moments before he got up and went to the kitchen to use the phone in there; he decided to not use his cell phone because he had a feeling that the man would call back if he turned it on. As he neared the neat-freak clean kitchen, Duo stopped and noticed the picture of his mother on the mantel of their fireplace.

He picked up the picture and started to study all of the intricate details of it. He looked like an almost exact copy of his mother with her amethyst eyes and long brunette hair. Her hair had been long and on the day of that picture she had let it hang freely around her waist, and his father was in the picture as well looking happy. Duo actually couldn't remember that last time his father had smiled the way he did in the photo, and he also noticed that they had never gone to that park since his mother died.

Duo put the photo down and went back towards the kitchen and looked for the menus they usually had stashed somewhere near to the phone. He found them all and thumbed through them until he found the Chinese place with the best food in the whole city; after all his father wouldn't mind paying a little extra for such exquisite food.

He quickly dialed the number, and ordered the food without even pausing for breath which made him wonder whether the woman had gotten their whole order down. When she repeated it, she had gotten everything so Duo decided not to let it worry him if they forgot about an egg roll or something.

When he hung up the phone, he noticed that the house had fallen into an eerie silence and he began to feel it overpowering him. Duo started to go back to his room, but stopped when something on their beige carpet caught his eye. He looked back towards the door where his father's room was, and saw something similar to blood. As he went closer to examine it, he found it was nothing more than an illusion; once again caused by his paranoia.

The braided boy quickly went back to his room before he could be given the chance to create more hallucinations, and almost slammed the door once he was in. He couldn't explain this sudden fear that was beginning to overtake his every last nerve, the sense of foreboding that was telling him something or someone was watching him.

"Nobody's watching me... Why would they want to?" Duo tried to calm himself down, "After all, I'm just some kid who's started going downhill in life... Who the hell would be so interested in me they'd be watching me right now?"

As his own words began to take affect and calm him, the doorbell rang. It actually rang about twelve times because the impatient delivery person was waiting on Duo to hurry up. He snagged some of the money from what his father had left to pay for the food. When he had finally sauntered over to the door, the heard an irritated sigh from what sounded like a man.

"Geez, don't you guys have any patience?" Duo asked as he opened the door to reveal that it was Wufei who was delivering it, "Wufei? You're a delivery boy?"

"Shut it Maxwell, how many jobs do you think a fifteen year old can get?" Wufei snapped at the brunette but couldn't hold back a smile as Duo hugged him. He did begin to push away when Duo's father came around the corner with either an angry or surprised expression, but Wufei couldn't tell which it was. "Maybe I should leave..."

Duo's father had reached the door by then, and was gesturing for him to come inside, "Don't be silly... Wufei, was it?"

Wufei nodded slowly, distrust was shining in his jet black eyes but he still entered the house and began to uncomfortably make his way to the living room. He still seemed familiar with the house even though it had been such a long time since he had been inside. He looked around the place as if it was his first time ever seeing a house like Duo's, but there was also something about how the Chinese boy was acting that made Duo think he was also afraid of this room for some reason.

"Do you feel ill?" Duo's father asked with a kind tone that was obviously fake, but neither Duo nor Wufei would say anything about it, "If you do, you can always lie down in Duo's room and I'll just call the restaurant to ask if you could take the night off."

"No, I'll be fine... I was just so surprised that this place looked exactly as I had remembered from two years ago. It's almost as if time has stood still here..." Duo realized that he must be remembering the first time that all of his friends had been invited over because his mother had thought it would be nice for Duo to finally be with his friends on the weekend.

Both father and son had the same pained expression, but they were both experienced in hiding that pain from others so it was only a quick moment that it happened. Duo walked over to Wufei and took the food from him gently and then set it on the dining room table. He stared at Wufei as if expecting him to come sit automatically, and Duo figured that was because he hadn't seen any of his real friends in so long.

"I've got some calls I have to make, so I'll just take my dinner with me to my study." Duo's father snatched on of the take-out trays and went up the staircase and disappeared into the hallway.

"Is he upset that I came here?" Wufei asked as he seemed to watch the top of the staircase.

"Nah, you were always his favorite anyway."

The Chinese boy didn't seem to need an explanation for that since he had always be the most polite to Duo's father and mother. Not to mention, he was also from a very rich family. Although, Duo hadn't thought of his father only liking Wufei for that reason at first, but now he really realized just how rich Wufei was.

"I heard about what happened to your mother... and I'm truly sorry. I've also heard about some of the rumors floating around recently, and most of them are saying that you killed her. But I don't believe that and I'm not sure how anyone who knows you could think that." Wufei sat down on one of the comfy ebony dining chairs and Duo did the same.

"You've been gone for almost a year and a half... You haven't seen the kind of person I've become. I actually prefer that people say all that shit they do since people will leave me alone then." The braided boy refused to meet his friend's eyes and was suddenly interested in observing all there was about the carpet. "Maybe if my father hadn't been hell-bent to separate me from you guys... Maybe I could've turned out different."

"Duo, don't talk like that. You make it sound as if everything in your life is final and there are no more choices for you to make, but you're wrong. We're still young and now that we're coming back we can help you get your life back on track." Wufei offered a comforting hand on his shoulder, but was quickly brushed off.

"I don't need people to come and try and correct what I've done wrong. I'm happy with how I am now..." Duo hadn't realized until then that he was contradicting his own thoughts from only an hour ago. "Won't you get in trouble for being late? It's been almost half an hour since you got here and I don't want you to be in trouble for being late to get back."

Wufei took the hint and stood up to make a beeline for the door. As he was leaving, he handed him a slip of paper that had his phone number on it along with three others; it didn't take a genius to figure out who all the numbers belonged to and then Wufei was gone.

Duo closed the door and double locked it, once again that feeling of insecurity and paranoia was coming back now that Wufei had left. He grabbed the Styrofoam container and carried it up to his room. He sat at his desk and opened the tray to find the food was still warm enough to enjoy. As he began to eat, he turned on his laptop next to him and as it was booting he ate all of his food before it even reached the log in screen.

Duo threw the empty container in the trash can beside the desk and typed in his password. After the computer finished loading all of the files and checking for virus threats, he was finally able to log onto his e-mail. As soon as the window popped up, there was an e-mail from Hilde and also from website that sold all kinds of crap that wanted him to buy from them.

He scanned over Hilde's e-mail which read:

Duo,

Remember all those rich morons are coming tomorrow, and don't go behind the school to smoke. It would be just your luck to get caught by a teacher checking around for a lost student.

Also, I heard that you had some friends over at that school where everyone's got a damn stick up their ass? Is that true? Or is it just more rumors spreading because someone just felt like making up shit like that?

Love,

Hilde

Sighing, Duo replied quickly with by saying she had told him earlier that day. Another thing he put on there was he used to know kids who went to that school, but they had stopped talking about a year and a half ago. He tried to imagine Hilde being the motherly, overprotective type from what she sent in the e-mail, but still couldn't see her having kids in the future.

He quickly went surfing the internet to find some information on who was coming to his school tomorrow and sure enough when he looked over the lists there was Trowa Barton, Wufei Chang, Quatre Winner, and Heero Yuy. He then got off the internet, but left his laptop on since he couldn't think of a real reason to turn it off. It was then that he finally decided that he would go to bed when it was almost midnight, and knew that he would be irritated when he woke up the next morning.

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Hope everyone liked this chapter as much as you liked the first! And just so you know, this series is going to turn into 1x2 eventually but you'll have to wait a few more chapters!

Please R & R!

Shari Maxwell

Oh! And Happy Holidays!