Chapter 4
"I'm failing this you know." Duo said, stabbing the book roughly with his finger. "I might handle the rest but this." He snorted, brushing his long bangs away from his face. "I'm fucked."
They were once again sitting on Duo's leather jacket in the forest, math books spread out before them. They had been doing this for a couple of days now. Most of the time they would work on Duo's math assignments but sometimes they would just talk, something that Wufei enjoyed very much.
"I need to pass this so I can graduate." The book was once again stabbed angrily. "I have to graduate so I can move out and live on my own, there's no way I can stand living with foster parents for another year."
"Is it really that bad?" Wufei asked, pushing his glasses up further on his nose.
Duo sighed before tipping backwards onto the moss covered ground. "I've had worse, it's just…" He trailed off, closing his eyes with a sigh.
Wufei looked down on the other boy, taking the opportunity to just watch him.
It had been a strange thing for Wufei to suddenly have a friend. He had been alone for so long that he had started to consider it to be normal. It was strange to suddenly have someone who actively searched him out, who seemed to enjoy is company. To have someone to talk to during the breaks and to sit with during lunch, someone who whispered amusing comments during class and stayed with him no matter who was looking at them.
To have someone who cared.
At first it had been a bit awkward. Wufei wasn't used to socializing, especially not with attractive boys in his own age. He hadn't known what to say and had been almost painfully quiet until he realized that it didn't really matter what he said, Duo would listen anyway.
Duo didn't judge him or make fun of him. He would sometimes tease him but never in a hurtful way. Duo was a genuinely nice guy, even if he was a bit selective when it came to who he was nice to. So far it just seemed to be Wufei, the principal and two of the female teachers who wasn't on Duo's permanent shit list. Wufei was almost guiltily happy about this as it let him have Duo all to himself most to the time. He knew that several of the female students had taken a liking to Duo's bad boy attitude but so far they had only been met by nasty comments and sneers when they had tried to approach him. Wufei sometimes innocently fantasized about being Duo's secret boyfriend and that he was the real reason to why Duo turned down all those girls. It was a nice fantasy, to have such a good looking and protective boyfriend. And really, what was the harm in dreaming?
Duo fished a somewhat crocked cigarette out of his pocket, seemingly ignorant to the adoring way Wufei was looking at him.
Wufei was never going to breathe a word about the attraction he felt for Duo. It wouldn't do any good and the thought of losing his friends was terrifying. "So what are you going to do then, when you've graduated?" He asked instead, taking his eye off the temptation.
Duo shrugged. "Get a job I guess. My uncle will probably help me."
"You'll move closer to him?" He asked carefully. It was one of Wufei's worst fears. That Duo would move away and he wouldn't be able to say anything about it if it was something that would make Duo happy.
Duo was silent for a moment as he thoughtfully stroked his thumb along his lighter. "Don't know, maybe. Or maybe I'll stick around, it's a nice town."
"Yeah, it is." Wufei agreed. And it was, it was a really nice town. It was just the people in it that he didn't like. Wufei gathered his courage, took a deep breath and spoke. "I would like it if you stayed."
Duo gave him a pleased look and a smile before lying back down on the forest floor.
Wufei knew that he was probably reading too much into Duo's reaction but he still felt very satisfied as he laid down next the Duo, their elbows brushing against each other.
It hadn't taken long for Wufei to realize something.
Duo was a liar.
It wasn't that he told lies, it was more like his entire presence was a lie. His mouth and body language said one thing while his eyes said something completely different. He acted like nothing bothered him, like nothing could hurt him. His self confidence was built up like a shield around him. It seemed like he didn't need anything or anyone's help.
But his eyes...
His eyes gave him away.
Duo was just as alone, just as unhappy and insecure as he was.
In a way, Wufei felt like they were helping each other and he prayed that he would get to keep Duo with him.
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They had been walking to the forest together after school for a couple of days when Duo one afternoon didn't follow him when he started walking.
"You're not coming?" He asked, hoping that he didn't sound as disappointed as he was for missing his walk home with Duo. They were the absolute highlight of his day, even more than the lunches they shared and the breaks spent watching Duo do his best to clog up his lungs with smoke. .
Duo leaned back against the wall as he fished a familiar package out of his pocket. "Naw, I'm going to drift for a while." He said, lighting up a cigarette. "The fosters are having people over and I'm not going back there until they are gone."
Wufei took a look around the empty school yard. He had a feeling that Duo's 'while' was going to take several hours and that this was where he was going to spend his time.
"You can hang out at my place... if you want." He offered almost shyly.
Duo looked over at him with one of those smiles that didn't reach his eyes. "It's okay, I'll be fine."
Wufei nervously licked his lips, lifting his backpack further up on his shoulder. "We could start on the new chapter if you want? I have some pretty good work sheets on the new equations at home."
Duo lifted an eyebrow in a way that made Wufei envy him. He wished he could do that and look half as cool as Duo while doing it."You don't have anything better to do on a Friday afternoon than to pull my dead weight through math?"
Like Wufei wouldn't spend every waking moment doing it if he could. "Not really."
Duo took a long drag of his cigarette before nodding. "Okay." he said simply, walking over to fall into step with him.
Wufei forced down the happy grin that wanted to spread over his face
They left the school yard, followed the road that ran through all the suburban villas standing in neat lines, passed the playground before crossing the street, jumping over the deep ditch on the other side and then they were in the forest.
They followed the familiar path through the forest, past their usual hang out until they reached the picket fence around the Chang family's back yard. They jumped over it and started walking over the lawn until they reached a new obstacle.
"Hi. Who are you? What's your name?" Wufei's five year old little sister asked curiously with a plastic horse in each hand. She was staring up at Duo like he was a magical creature who had appeared just for her.
Wufei mentally groaned.
"I'm Duo, I'm a friend of Wufei's." Duo responded, watching the girl just as curiously as she was watching him.
The girl gave him a puzzled look. "But Wufei don't-"
Wufei cut her off by shoving her out of their way. "Just go away." He hissed in annoyances.
"You go away." She retaliated stubbornly and Wufei could tell that she wasn't going to leave them alone. God, just what he needed. He had Duo over for the first time ever and his whiney little sister decides to make a pest out of herself. This called for drastic actions.
Wufei ripped one of the horses away from her and threw it over the fence and into the forest. "Go fetch."
The girl stared in shock at the vegetation that had swallowed her toy. "Moooooom!" She screamed on the top of her lungs before she turned on her heel and ran towards the front yard.
Wufei groaned, not even daring to look over at Duo to see how he was taking the commotion. "Come on, before she comes back." He hurried towards the house and the back door. He opened it and barely had time to kick his sneakers off before Jian and a couple of his friends came running. They were wearing various kinds of armor and plastic swords, something that Wufei found very alarming. They took one look at him, raised their weapons and screamed "Dragon!" before charging towards him.
Wufei felt like he might as well have a sign over his head with the words 'I play with my kid brothers.' Why had he thought that it would be a good idea to bring Duo here?
"Not today, no dragon today!" He called out, diving to the side to avoid being wacked in the head.
"But Wuuuuu." Jian protested but Wufei shook his head. "Not today."
Disappointed the kids trotted passed them out the door, muttering about finding a better monster to fight.
Wufei glanced over at Duo who seemed to be eyeing the kitchen like he had never seen anything like it. At least he didn't seem to be too put out by the welcome committee. "Come on, let's go upstairs."
Duo gave him a twisted smirk. "Sure… Dragon."
Wufei blushed and ducked his head as he led his friend through the house.
Chuanli was searching through one of the plastic toy chests from under the bed when they stepped into the bedroom. He gave his brother about four seconds to find what he was looking for before shoving the protesting boy out the door, praying that the he would stay there.
"Sorry about that." He mumbled, wishing that the door had a lock so he could at least assure that they wouldn't be interrupted again.
Duo was watching him in amusement, standing in the middle of the room with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "How many are they?"
"Four." Wufei sighed as he walked over to drop down on his bed.
Duo was quiet for a moment, looking at the mess Chuanli had done around the box. "Must be fun to have so many siblings."
"Fun." Wufei snorted. "More like annoying... but most of the time they are alright." He had to confess that he could have gotten stuck with a lot worse. The twins were a bit wild when they wanted to be but were easily distracted if he promised to play with them and their Barbie dolls, Chuanli was stubborn like a mule and Jian drove him absolutely crazy when he was having one of his tantrums. But it was hard to stay mad at them when they came begging for him to help them build a fortress or when they crawled into bed with him on Sunday mornings and wanted him to read them stories.
He just wished that they would be somewhere else right now.
He leaned back against the headboard as he watched Duo explore the room. Duo let his eye sweep over his brothers' side of the room, dismissing it before turning to Wufei's noticeably neater side of the room. There were two book shelves, a bed and a small desk, He was unbelievably grateful to Chuanli for nagging him until he had given away his robot toys collection. It would have been so embarrassing if they had still been standing in his bookshelf when Duo came over. The last thing he wanted was to appear to be a total childish loser in front of Duo... or at least not more than he already was.
"You liked the 'The Dead's Shindig'?" Duo asked, nodding his head towards the movie poster hanging over his desk. On it were a dark ball room with a long shadow from a hunched over shape in the middle.
"Yeah." Wufei replied stupidly, not really knowing what to say. He knew a lot of people didn't like it and he didn't want to declare his alliance too much in case Duo was one of those people.
Duo nodded. "It was a bit slow in the beginning but I thought it was good. I liked the second part better."
Wufei grinned in both relief and happiness. "'Morbid Fascination' was awesome."
Duo grinned. "Agreed, the slasher scene in the forest was insane."
Wufei answered with a grin of his own. "Yeah, the scenery was way better and it had a lot better effects, the first movie didn't even get close:"
Duo tapped a finger against the gloomy poster. "They were more into the hiding in the dark in the first one instead of full out ripping people apart."
Wufei's lips twisted into an ironic smile. "Why do you think I have that poster up instead of the sequel?
Chuanli couldn't sleep with it up on the wall."
Duo snickered as he moved on to the bookshelf; his eyes lingered on the books as he ran his finger over Wufei's favorite horror fiction. He pulled a book with pouring blood on it out from its spot, turning it over to read the back.
Wufei was just about to comment when there was a gentle knocking on the door before it opened.
No.
Wufei felt his face flame in embarrassment.
No, please God no. Would the humiliation never end?
His mother was standing in the doorway, carrying a tray with lemonade and cinnamon buns.
Wufei wished that the floor would open up and swallow him whole.
"I thought you boys needed some encouragement."
Cinnamon buns and lemonade in plastic Mickey Mouse mugs. Wufei felt like he was about to die in shame. This was not happening.
He quickly got off the bed and hurried over to accept the tray in a vain hope that he could get her out as fast as possible. God knows what she would do or say if he gave her the opportunity. She might start asking embarrassing questions or comment on just how few people Wufei brought home with him. The humiliation was overwhelming as it was and he wanted to steer her back towards the door as soon as possible.
"Are you staying for dinner?" She asked Duo.
Wufei put the tray down on the bed as he dared to look over at Duo who looked strangely shy all of a sudden. "Um, if it's not any trouble."
"Of course not, the more the merrier. Do you have any allergies?" She asked, seemingly oblivious to Wufei's insisting eyes and the way he marched over to open the door for her.
"No... just mold."
She laughed. "I'll try to keep that out then."
"Mom." Wufei urged desperately hoping that he didn't sound as whiny as he felt.
"Just let me know if you want anything else."
"Okay, would you just go?" He begged quietly, pushing her towards the door. She gave him an amused smile as she closed the door behind her.
For a second he was almost afraid to turn around.
"Your mom is awesome." Duo mumbled around a bun.
The tension dropped away from Wufei's shoulders as he walked over and sat down on the bed, reaching for a bun of his own. "I guess. She's a bit of a wannabe house wife." It was sad to see his earlier so self confident and independent mother fall into a role that didn't fit her. His father's new wife was like something straight out of the fifties. She always looked perfect, the house was always spotless, dinner was always on the table at six and she always had a big smile on her face. It freaked Wufei out. He was almost surprised that she wasn't fetching his father's slippers when he came home from work.
Duo snorted. "You got lucky, my mom's a crazy druggie, she couldn't cook soup in a microwave."
Wufei stared with his mouth open around his bun. What does one say to that? "Oh." He mumbled through his mouthful.
Duo smiled humorlessly "I'm serious, before they took me away she once actually put the whole unopened soup can into the microwave, one guess to what happened."
"So you got foster parents after that?" He asked, hoping that it wasn't a sour subject. You heard a lot of shit about foster parents who were only in it for the money and how they would abuse their kids. Wufei prayed that Duo wasn't one of them.
Duo didn't appear to be upset by the question as he leaned back against the wall. "Yeah, I wanted to be sent to my uncle but he's a bit... eccentric and the social service didn't think he was fit to take care of me." He snorted angrily. "Like any of the nut jobs I get sent around among are any better. At least Howard wanted me around."
"What about your latest foster parents?" Wufei asked carefully, his fingers absently ripping the bun into pieces.
Duo shrugged, taking a sip of his lemonade. "They're okay. A bit strange and really into the whole new age shit but they leave me alone and I leave them alone."
Wufei couldn't even imagine what it must be like. To not have anyone who cared about you.
Duo finished his bun and reached for another. "So what are we learning today?"
Wufei got up and walked over to his desk to get the work sheets that he had gotten for this exact purpose.
"This." He answered as he sat back down and spread the papers out between them.
They worked effectively next to each other and Wufei almost guiltily enjoyed every second of it. This was a lot nicer, not to mention comfortable than sitting in the forest.
Duo looked very out of place in his bedroom. His black clothes stood out like sore thumb against the light wallpaper with their colorful flowers. They clashed both in style but also because of what they represented to Wufei. It was as if Duo personified his adult desires that now had crashed into the innocence of his childhood. Two worlds trying to occupy the same space. But on the other hand, wasn't that what being a teenager was all about?
"Boys, dinner's ready!" His mother suddenly called out from down stairs.
Wufei flinched, wishing that this wasn't going to be as bad as he was afraid that it would be.
One could always hope.
Duo was almost freakishly polite to his mother during dinner. Wufei was staring at him in wide eyed wonder when Duo acted like he had been invited to dine with the queen, he was almost surprised that Duo wasn't pulling her chair out for her before sitting down.
Thankfully the kids were so fascinated with Duo that they were very well behaved… if openly curious and the dinner went by without any bigger misfortunes.
"Thank you for an amazing dinner Mrs Chang." Duo said politely a he carried his and Wufei's plate over to the kitchen counter.
His mother smiled happily at the compliment. "Oh you're welcome dear." She said before shooing him away when he tried to clean off the rest of the table.
After a few more pleasantries, Duo excused himself to step outside. Wufei followed Duo out and watched as he fished the cigarette packets out off his jacket. He must have felt Wufei looking at him because he turned his eyes over to him.
"What?" He asked with the cigarette dangling between his lips
"I'm starting to wonder if you're trying to make a move on my mom."
Duo rolled his eyes. "Oh ha-ha, very funny. Your mom is nice and there is nothing wrong with being polite." He said, lighting up his cigarette.
Wufei watched the smoke drift by. "I guess."
Duo hummed thoughtfully. "I should get going."
Wufei almost pouted. "Oh… so should we keep working on the work sheets another day?"
Duo grunted. "I swear you're a masochist for volunteering but yeah. When?"
"Tomorrow?"
"Sure." Duo took a long drag. "I should go, the fosters are probably alone by now."
Wufei nodded, trying not to look defeated.
Duo tapped the ash off the end of his cigarette, looking over at him. "I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"Yeah."
Duo gave him a small casual wave as he strolled across the yard, jumped over the fence and walked away through the forest.
Wufei took a deep breath, getting a last hint of the sharp smell of tobacco. It was a smell that he was starting to associate with happiness. He stood there a minute, looking at the spot where he had last seen Duo before he walked back inside. He met his mother in the kitchen doorway.
"Duo seemes like a nice boy." She said with a smile as she leaned sideways against the doorframe.
Wufei held back a snort. That really depended on how you defined 'nice' He shrugged as he kicked off his shoes. "I guess."
"We'll be seeing a lot more of him, I assume."
The way she said it made him pause. "Maybe..."
"You should have him over for dinner again soon, I'll cook something nice."
Wufei gave her a suspicious look. "Okay..."
"Just tell your boyfriend not to smoke near the kids."
"Mom! We're not- he's not-" Wufei stuttered out in embarrassment.
"Only a matter of time then." With that she walked away, whistling what sounded like 'love is in the air'.
Feeling like he was about to spontaneously combust from humiliation, Wufei hurried to his room.
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A/N Well I'm back from Slovenia after two very hectic weeks. Man, I never knew that there was so much to see there. I totally recommend a visit.
Lionchild - *blushes* Thank you *shuffles feet* I'll try to live up to your expectations ;) Annoying little Twit – Ever seen that South Park episode where the internet stops working? I swear that episode captures the desperation you feel perfectly. It's like your whole life depends on the internet and you have no idea what to do without it XD It was soooo good to see that little green sign in the bottom of the screen when I got home. Oh, and who doesn't enjoy a bit of dragon torture? You are so not alone :D MizVegas06 – Thank you :D and I won't be stopping anytime soon. This paring is just too addictive. Oh, if you want, check out my GW universe page if you want to read the porn. There are also two more stories there then here. EbonyOsmosis – You're right, Duo is a street kid but he so rarely gets the chance to show that. Wufei does need to be "stolen away" from the bullies and that gives Duo the perfect opportunity to show a rougher side. Did I mention that I'm having a great time writing this fiction? :) Force Majeur – I'm really sorry to say that no, I did not make up the bulling scenery. The inspiration for this fiction comes both from books and articles about bulling but also from my friend experiences. Kids and teenagers can be very cruel and they have the power to destroy peoples whole life. Bethanyshiver *bows* Thank you, I do try :D Anf600 – Thank you :) It's a good deal, Duo protects Wufei who helps him with school. Its been done before but it's fun. Boxxx – LOL! Thank you, and it's about time that Wufei gets a bit of help, especially from a cute guy. Suicidal-sinner – Another Wufei fan *high five* I'm glad you are enjoying this version of Wufei. Turtle kid – Wufei's crush is going to get so much worse, just wait ;) Darkrevenge – More information about Wufei and his bullies will soon come… probably in the next chapter, we'll see. I took a lot of photos… but not as many as my mother. I don't think there is a rock in the whole country that she doesn't have a picture of. Mifibou –How this chapter gave you just as many happy feelings :) and I promise that Wufei will get more into character later on. He just needs a bit of encouragement. Snowdragonct – Well we got to know a bit more about Duo in this chapter, how did you like it? Slovenia was really nice, something that surprised me. It was like visiting Norway (Or Canada in you case), no sign of the war .It was actually never a part of the Russian Federation (that was what I thought too) if I got the information right. It's a part of old Yugoslavia. – Duo really gets to shine :D Glad you like it. Seneschal – Yeah, you are on the right track. They have a few more reasons but bullies have a habit of going after smaller and as you said, the ones who's "not exactly the paragon of masculinity." And about Duo's reaction to the attack on Wufei. Duo has, just as Wufei, very few people who stands up for him and when he saw how those idiots hurt someone who had helped him, well, he kind of snapped. They have both had a rough time, they just react differently. Wufei tries to hide from the pain while Duo hides the pain. I hope you enjoyed this chapter since we got to see a little bit more of them 'behind the facade' Cinnamon Selkie- Yay! Lots of fuzzy feelings :) there will be more of them, you better believe it. Kidishcaresh – Thank you :) Slovenia is actually next to Italy (I also had to look it up when my sister said that she was going to study there)