Disclaimer: Gundam wing is totally not owned by me or anyone I know. The evil plot bunnies just keep breeding and making more and more plot bunnies and I MUST let them out.

Story: Building a Better Mousetrap 101

Being a Mouse doesn't mean you're helpless or weak.

Current Pairings: 1xR, 2+OC, 3x4, 5xS, H+OC

Chapter 2 - the Psychology of friendship

Monday, Wednesday and Friday, midmorning class, Psych 101, Professor - Stubbins.

Professor Stubbins had been teaching psych 101 for many years here at Rochester University. It was his learned opinion that the fresh young minds of his students benefitted by human interaction. To this end he split his classes into pairs and had them learn about each other over the course of the class. Many long lasting friendships had been formed thanks to this particular class. He also made sure to let them all know that it counted as 50 percent of their final grade.

As usual on the 3rd day of class he split the room into two halves, one half was each assigned a number which was dropped into an old hat, the other half then took turns drawing a number. This assured some randomness in the pairing process. It's also why he waited for the 3rd class, by then he usually had a good idea who was already friends so he could make sure they ended up in the same half and 'not' end up with someone they already knew well as their partner. That sort of defeated the purpose of his pet project. For example he made 'Sure' the Gundam pilots in his class would not be not paired with each other. Yes the staff knew exactly who each of the pilots and their friends were and had been required to read a lengthy dossier on each. They all had issues of some kind, and the administration thought it was far better to warn their staff before one of them humiliated or went off on a highly trained, hair triggered killer.

The kind and elderly professor was actually thrilled when two of the biggest head cases took his class. Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier, trained assassin, stoic far beyond the norm, cut off from his own emotions. And Duo Maxwell, the self proclaimed God of Death, a seemingly happy go lucky, jovial teenager, who hid his pain behind fake grins, laughter and jokes. Professor Stubbins had seen both types before though never to this extreme. This year he took extra care to split the room, the personality test they had all taken the first day helping him decided who to put in the other group. After that it was all up to chance and perhaps fate. The professor was something of a romantic at heart, believing in fate and destiny, this year he just took a little extra care helping it along. And crossed his fingers. Fate seemed to smile on him that day as the students they ended up paired with were exactly what the Doctor, I mean Professor, ordered.

-

This was so stupid, he could barely talk to either his best friend or girlfriend about stuff, though he was trying. Now he was supposed to 'get to know' a complete stranger. Heero death glared the elderly Professor as he walked up to the old battered hat and withdrew a number. Five. Okay who was the unfortunate bastard that had to deal with him? Calling out the number a he was answered by a guy with light brown hair and light brown eyes, okay he doesn't look like a complete asshole. He said his name was Mike Fisher, who smiled and tried to shake his hand. Heero just glared at the young man and sat down in the seat next to him. Whatever. Why did he get the impression he should introduce this guy to Hilde?

-

Duo watched as Heero paired up with a rather pleasant looking kid named Mike Fisher, Hm might do Heero good to talk to someone new and well 'Normal'. Something he, Relena and the guys were not. Okay, rubbing his hands together and bouncing up to the podium Duo stuck his hand in the batter hat. All right kiddies it's the God of Death's turn let's see who the lucky contestant is….

"And the Lucky winner is…Number 13." Really teach actually put a 13 in here? Most people were still superstitious enough to leave the number 13 out. Large buildings designers still skipped over naming a floor unlucky number 13.

"Yo, that's me." Gazing over the room Duo smiled, it was the ponytailed dark brown haired girl he had all his classes with. Awesome, now he could find out the color of her eyes without looking like a jackass. He bounced on over to her and held out his hand.

"Duo Maxwell here, I may run, I may hide, but I never tell a Lie. That's me in a nutshell." Standing up the girl took his hand and gave it a good squeeze and a wry grin. Gray? Blue? Is that a little green in there too? Whoa, she has really neat eyes. Dark and kinda smoky looking. She was 3 inches shorter than he was, for some reason that made him glad, he wasn't the tallest guy on the block. Malnutrition as a child had taken its toll. He was still only about 5'8".

"Lisa Johnson, but call me Mouse, everyone does."

"Mouse?"

"Yeah when I was little my cousins claimed I squeaked like a mouse every time they hugged me. The name stuck." With a mischievous glint in his violet eyes Duo quickly grabbed the girl and squeezed her in a bear hug.

"Eeep."

"They we're right, you squeak." She gave him a wide eyed look for moment and then broke into laughter. The sound caused to Duo to feel the strangest thing, he didn't quite understand it, but it felt pretty good, so what the Hell. He smiled one of his few genuine smiles at his new friend.

"Are you always that impulsive?"

"Basically, that bother you?"

"Naw, I was just surprised. I will definitely try to not squeak the next time." He couldn't resist, it was like she dared him to do it again, so he did. He couldn't help himself, she was nice armful. She wasn't fat, so he had no idea why she always wore such lose clothing. She was in her usual baggy jeans and oversized shirt, but hey to each their own. He wore a lot of black when given the choice. Which now that he was in college and not hiding out in some stupid prep school he did.

"Eeep."

"Ha, gotcha. Oh Lord that was Fun!" Duo laughed and smiled down at the startled girl, they both jumped apart as the bell rang ending class for the day.

Rrriiinnnggg

"Hey, it's time for Lunch my favorite subject. Wanna join me and my friends?" Duo picked up his backpack and stuffed his books inside. His look was honest and earnest as he asked his Psych partner to join him. For some reason he wanted to keep her nearby, she was just as nice as she looked. Besides he bet the others would like her too, in fact he wanted his friends to like her. She had packed her book bag and slung it over her shoulder and they headed to the door of the classroom.

"Really, your absolute 'Favorite' subject?"

Duo's reply was lost in the noise of the crowded hallway. Heero had watched as his best friend paired up with the ponytailed girl, the same girl Duo had asked Heero to hack into the school administrative records to get info on. He also hadn't seen Duo give one of his real smiles in a very long time, even to him. Heero wasted no time crackin out his Cell phone and started texting Relena. As usually she was quick to reply, despite still being in her linguistics class.

[Duo got gf]

[What!]

[w/baka, c u lnch, lk ovr b nice] (Translation of Heeroese: She's with the Braided Baka, I'll see you at lunch. Look her over and be nice to her I think he likes her.)

[Will do, c u]

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AN: TIme to met the all important friends. Dun Dun... Dunnnnn.