As the sunlight swept into the ordinary bedroom and paused to wake up the sleeping brunette. He tried hard to make the sun leave him alone and even pulled the black comforter over his head to deflect the rays of gold, but the alarm clock joined into the fight and began to play music from one of the many local radio stations. The song was loud and the singers basically screamed the whole song when Duo finally surrendered, and slammed his hand on the snooze button.

Duo sat up and squinted his amethyst eyes into the sun before practically tripping over himself to pull down the cheap blinds on his window. The plastic hit the window sill with an angry thump, but the braided boy didn't listen to it. Instead he sauntered over to the walk in closet and pulled out an outfit he always wore since it always had seemed to suit his mood.

It was a black cotton shirt with embossed bold letters that were shaded into a deep crimson color, and all that it read was, 'If life isn't worth living, then what makes you think you'll be any happier in death?' A demented saying, but at the same time Duo could see it was true, to him at least.

He remembered how much his father hated that shirt, and he threw on a jacket even though it was too hot for it. It didn't matter about his pants, so he just wore a pair of black blue jeans and his usual black boots to make the getup complete. After he had finished dressing, Duo crossed the somewhat spacious room and snatched his brush that had both the soft bristles and plastic ones to attack all the tangles he kept from sleep.

As he hastily eliminated all knots from his long auburn hair, Duo then rummaged through the fridge for something to at least fill him to lunch when he could leave the campus to get some decent food. All he found was some of the left over food from almost three days ago, and discarded the molding rice with disgust.

"When was the last time someone actually went grocery shopping around here?" Finally Duo managed to find some fruit that wasn't rotting and grabbed a tangerine to wash off any pesticides, "I really have to get something after school..."

"You wouldn't mind?" Duo's father asked as he walked in and grabbed his wallet and car keys, "I haven't got the time and I have to stay really late today. Those idiots are completely screwing everything up, and they have to turn to me to fix it all..."

Duo sighed knowing this would just turn into one of his father's famous rants about how all his co-workers couldn't even figure out where their own asses are, and he just didn't feel like he was in the mood to listen to it. He intended for his day to go as flawlessly as possible, which meant that nothing his father could say or do would ruin this glorious moment, "I'm heading out to school, see ya later!"

"You aren't leaving early to go meet that Heero boy, are you?" His father's emerald eyes had locked with Duo's confused amethyst ones, "So you already forgot?"

The braided boy couldn't believe he actually had forgotten all about his four friends arriving at his school that day. His hand was on the door knob and he was wavering between the decision to just skip school or rush over there to greet the new students that just yesterday he couldn't wait to see. After Wufei's visit though, it had made Duo really reconsider whether he would enjoy the company of his old friends like he had always thought he would.

"Of course not... I'm not even really sure I want to see them that much anyway..." The young American had almost escaped when his father caught him by the shoulder with a grip Duo had never expected, "Something wrong?"

"I'll warn you now... Stay away from Heero. That boy is nothing but trouble and just a sick little gay faggot, and I don't want him to traumatize you in any way." Duo's father released his shoulder which almost felt as if there was a bruise just from those few seconds, "The only boys I really trust is Wufei and that little Quatre Winner."

Duo tried not to show that he already knew exactly why his father didn't mind him hanging around those kids, but he did mind Heero and Trowa. He gave his trademark grin and made a mock salute goodbye. Without another glance and not speaking another word Duo shut the door and hurried down the porch steps and over to the sidewalk. He knew it would lead him back through his secret network of alleys to the back of the school building, but this time he took his time.

Along the way, he grabbed a cigarette from the secret pocket in his messenger bag and lit it. The braided boy knew he would make it to school on time as long as he didn't stop to enjoy his smoke; he kept reminding himself it was only for his anxiety as he neared the large building. From the angle Duo was looking at, the school looked like a prison that none of the convicts arrested could ever break out of, but Duo knew many ways to escape the place.

From the shadow he had hidden in, Duo could see Hilde who was also outside and finishing up her own smoke. Her dark clothes stood out against the white concrete style of the building, but as one of their gym coaches passed her by he didn't even realize what she could've been doing. All he did was gesture for her to go to the other side of the building and then went off to where the buses dropped off kids.

Duo could feel himself hesitating as he stepped out from the shadows and into the blinding sunlight. All he could really see was the school buses turning the corner and none of them were numbers he recognized as regulars at this school. He grinned and tried his best not to let his false confidence fail him now.

"Hey Hilde... I thought you were telling me not to take my chances out here." The brunette stared into his friend's dark sapphire eyes as she gave her own little smirk.

"Girls are always more innocent than boys are, so nobody's gonna suspect me of doing anything wrong." Hilde looked around the corner curiously before looking back at her friend, "Anyway, they wanted some of us to go greet the new snobs... and they picked me. But I heard that they also picked you to escort some boys around here."

Duo had completely forgotten about his cigarette, but he dropped it when he was suddenly burnt by it, "Shit!"

Hilde had already left while Duo just flicked the cigarette into his little area of abandoned stubs. The braided boy turned the corner as well and headed towards the front where there was about thirty lost looking guys and girls staring disapprovingly at their new school. Duo didn't know how long he would manage to talk to these strangers without losing his temper, but he vowed to try his hardest not to.

"Alright Coach, who do I get?"

"Them over there," the coach wasn't really paying too much attention to Duo, but he did seem to know who he was pointing to. "I heard you knew a couple of 'em, so I let you escort 'em around."

It was then that Duo knew he wouldn't live to see the next day, as he looked into the steel blue eyes that had invaded his dreams ever since a year and a half ago. Heero Yuy wasn't easily mistaken for anyone, especially when he stood out in the very front of the crowd, like a tiger waiting to pounce on its prey.

"Coach, why not another group?" Duo could feel Heero's eyes burning into the back of his head as he started arguing with the old man about who he wanted to give a tour.

"Take 'em Maxwell, or I swear I'll suspend ya!" The coach turned away from the still debating Duo and ignored him until he had no choice but to take the group he'd been assigned to.

"Fucking old geezer... swear I'll get back at him for this..." He put on a grin as he approached the group of haughty boys and the four pairs of eyes that were watching him with a knowing gaze. "Don't you all just look so thrilled to be here? I can tell you I just love this vomit-inducing place and every corner with some freakin' cockroach nest in it!"

He was hoping that maybe they would reconsider coming to this school if they got the idea it was a disgusting place to be, but only a few boys looked affected by what the American had tried on them. So he just rolled his eyes and waved at them to follow him into the double doors with its red paint beginning to chip off.

"So what's your name anyway?" One of the boys asked, and Duo turned to see him snicker and point at his braid with his friends, "Are you like their gay mascot, or something?"

"No, that's somebody else, I'm actually the guy who supposedly murdered my own mom." He smiled as their snickering turned into a look of utter revulsion, "And if you guys don't like me, then you can go complain about getting away from me since that's what most kids are trying to do nowadays."

Murmurs floated amongst the boys for quite a while but then stopped abruptly as he began approaching some of their classes. Most of the boys kind of drifted into classrooms until the only group left was Heero, Quatre, Wufei, and Trowa following behind Duo. He felt nervous as one of their hands reached over and gently rested on his shoulder.

"Duo, can we-" It was Heero, but the American was lucky and the five of them were coming up to their classroom.

"Here we are!" Duo quickly cut off the slightly taller boy as he grabbed the door and flung it open to his surprised biology teacher, "Sorry we're late, but some of the guys were kinda lost and it took a while for them to figure out where they were supposed to go."

The biology teacher looked at the five of them with annoyance on her slim face, but she assigned the four new boys seats. Duo was just grateful that Heero hadn't ended up his partner at his table. Instead, Wufei and Heero had were partners and Trowa and Quatre took up another table, but there was still the question of who had ended up Duo's partner after all of the rearranging of seats.

As it turned out, it was the boy who had been transferred yesterday and had written him a note during his history period. Apparently the new guy's name was Keith, and he wasn't too happy with how he had been treated yesterday. Without showing the worry that had began to gather inside of him, Duo tried to look as calm as possible with the boy looming over him.

"So, you think it's fun to fuck with other people Maxwell?" Duo already could feel himself seething with spite at Keith, and wondered why the hell had the guy wanted to make him a target, "After all, you don't seem to mind what other people think about you, so why don't you come over to my place after school and we can get better acquainted?"

Duo felt the boy lightly tug on his braid, and he had to restrain himself from lashing out. His braid was untouchable unless he said so, but apparently Heero had caught what the boy was doing and threw something at Keith. It grazed right across his left cheek and almost hit the kid sitting in front, but Heero's aim didn't ever seem to falter.

All he had to do was glare at Keith, and the guy immediately tried to intimidate him back. Keith mouthed something that Duo could clearly tell, he was asking if he was Heero's fuck buddy. Then Heero said something unexpected back, with a quick growl Keith shut up and didn't even glance at Heero the rest of the period.

There was a time though, that Duo could've sworn he felt Keith's large hand brush across his back so he could quickly give a light tug to his braid. Every time he thought that was what the other boy was doing he always looked with the corner of his eye and could see that Keith couldn't possibly be doing it. It only just occurred that maybe his own eyes were deceiving him, but as the bell rang he quickly stood up and didn't bother to hang behind for his old friends.

They're old friends. Part of him that couldn't be revived and Duo didn't want anyone to try.

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So what did ya'll think? I honestly hope that the quality of the chapters hasn't gone down to drastically... Though from now on it might take me a little longer to write the chapters. Just a warning for you readers, but I promise it's not gonna take me like two months or anything. That I will make sure not to do.

Anyway, I'd love for any reviews, concrit, or (if you feel the need) flames. Even though flames are my least favorite things to read, I'll understand what you readers are thinking and whether I ought to really change anything in this series.

Please R & R!

Shari Maxwell