It was the second week in the first month of Collar's summer by the time Duo got back to normal. He still tired easily with heavy exercise and slept more than the other boys, but otherwise he was almost completely normal. Bored, but normal.

And I was working on the bored part. I had expected that the boys would have to train for Collar, but I hadn't anticipated how fierce the competition would be. So while Duo healed and the boys settled, I had to get everything set up.

But first I had to do some serious thinking. Each of the boys had his own strengths and weaknesses, and each seemed to have some hidden and untapped strengths. It took a lot to decide which of those strengths would pair best with the Collar competitions. I let Duo and Wufei stay with the sections they already did well with, dance and martial arts for Wufei and the erotics for Duo. So I was more concerned with placing Heero, Quatre, and Trowa into sections, and since Duo and Wufei already had their chosen competitions I had to fit the other three into the ones left over and hope for the best. It wasn't really a sacrifice, because all three of them would be starting fresh, though Wufei did overshadow Heero on several sections I would have assigned to him. But, still, I knew it was a much better strategic move to keep the boys who had actually had been to Collar in the sections they were accustomed to and to put the ones who had never been to Collar in the leftover places.

And this realization, of course, led me into a terribly arduous search for suitable tutors and trainers, who then had to be approved by Preventers before I could proceed. Once that was settled I had to come to terms with just how difficult it was going to be to set up lessons for five teenage boys at the same time. It finally came down to setting up schedules for each of them.

I didn't keep my activities a secret, exactly, but only Wufei found out about it. Quatre and Trowa were too busy noticing each other to notice my doings, and Heero was either with Duo or training. So only Wufei noticed or questioned my activities, but even he was often busy meditating, training, studying, or helping with Duo. Although I did ask his opinion on a few of my choices, and he was the only one who had input into his own schedule.

"But what about these spaces?" he wondered, looking at his own daily plan. He had already glanced at the other's schedules but, naturally, was taking more time with his own. I hovered behind him, glancing at the large open spaces on his paper. He hadn't noticed that pieces of those empty spaces corresponded with the empty spaces on Trowa's paper.

"Do you remember when the assassin attacked you?" I wondered, wanting to start slowly.

"Yes," he replied, his brows furrowing in confusion.

"While you were drugged you mentioned that you had wanted to be a teacher, and you've shown a good deal of proof of being a scholar. So, I wanted to ask you, is it true that you wished to be a teacher?"

"Yes, I had hoped to be a teacher one day, but I don't know what that has to do with anything."

"I was wondering, then, if you would mind teaching Trowa?"

"T-teach Trowa?" he wondered in shock. "Teach him what?"

"I found out a while back that Trowa, amazingly, does not know how to read. I was hoping you could teach him."

He was quiet for a long time, as I had expected, contemplating the situation. It seemed to be an important choice for him. I'm sure he had given up on ever becoming a teacher, so he was very uncertain of taking the responsibility. Once a dream is broken, it is difficult to put it back together. But I could see him doing it, little by little, and there was a sparkle of hope in his eyes, so I knew his response even before he spoke.

"I... I am not trained as a teacher."

"That's alright. I'm not asking you to be perfect, but it would be more convenient for you to teach Trowa than for me to find someone with the necessary skills and character. Also, he trusts you, so he won't be as guarded as he might with another teacher. So? Will you do it?"

"O-of course," he stuttered, surprised and pleased. "I would love to. I just hope I'll be able to live up to your standards."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," I dismissed, smiling to reassure him. He nodded curtly, though I caught a slight smile on his face as he ducked his head, then left. I put the finishing touches on the schedules, double checked the times each of the tutors were scheduled to arrive on Monday, and put my stuff away.

Finally finished, I leaned back and stretched. I had been spending more time in my study than I had in my bed lately, but it was necessary to keep everything running well. And hopefully on Monday everything would run like clockwork with my boys.

My only concern was with Duo. He had won several competitions once, but it could have been a fluke. Beyond that, he had refused to perform since his first master died, and I didn't know how to convince him.

Speaking of the devil, I was startled when Duo entered without knocking. I frowned my disapproval, but I had learned to pick my battles with Duo, and this simply wasn't important enough for me to gripe about.

"Hey," he said, his voice strangely quiet and I could tell something was bothering him. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Take a seat," I offered, motioning to a couch adjacent to my desk. He took a seat awkwardly, fidgeting as he sat. He seemed nervous. "What can I do for you?" I wondered, but Duo just shook his head.

"God, you're green. Listen to the way you talk. What kind of master asks what he can do for his slave?" Duo wondered, snorting bitterly. I tensed, but he had already attributed it to my newness at being a master, so I would merely have to watch myself better in the future. However, I chuckled to cover my unease.

"It's a turn of phrase, Duo. I just want to know what you're here about," I said, putting the ball back in his court and making it so that he was the nervous one again.

"Look," he said hesitantly, "medical stuff isn't cheap. I know you spent a lot on saving me, and I know I've been nothing but trouble to you. I just wanted to tell you that I'm willing to help out with... whatever you need. To pay for my bills."

"Whatever I need?" I wondered. Duo bristled, jumping up from his seat.

"I'm not gonna screw you!" he yelled, snarling in anger coming from a deep rooted fear.

I laughed.

"What is wrong with you?" Duo growled, offended and afraid. I smiled at him somewhat annoyedly, though to be honest I could understand his anger.

"I have three boys that are perfectly willing and even eager to climb into my bed. I don't need another bottom," I told him, the humor gone from my features. "I need Collar slaves. I want you to compete this year. If you can do that, we'll be even."

"I can't," he replied almost instantly. I would have thought he was just being stubborn, but his eyes were cold and flat.

"How do you know?" I wondered, knowing I would have to tread carefully as not to set him off again. He sighed, lowering his head.

"Do you know what it takes to win competitions like that? What you have to do?" he wondered. Honestly, I couldn't think of much that it would take to win a competition of perversion.

"Skill? Beauty?"

"Everyone at Collar has the skills to win that competition, and if you're not pretty your not gonna survive long enough to get to the competition. To win that game, you've gotta have love."

"Love?" I couldn't help but sputter. How could love have anything to do with this level of perversion?

"When the judges watching you each have six dead sexy boys to do whatever kinky acts they want to, you have to show them something they haven't seen. My partner was my master and I was..." he paused, scrubbing his hand over his face. "I was fucking head over heels for him. They thought it was all a really good act, but in reality it wasn't an act at all. That's what got me the wins, and why I couldn't do it once... once Solo died. From there... it all spiraled out of control," he admitted, staring at his hands. "And don't tell me I didn't love him. I've heard it all before. I grew up on the streets, okay? Running away from foster homes that beat me into the streets that starved me," he said, then paused. His eyes were years away, and yet I was hesitant to stop him. Duo intrigued me, for he was the only slave that I was unable to predict in the least. If he was willing to offer me some insight into his past, then I would eagerly take it. I knew I could gain it no other way than by letting him tell his story, so I remained silent, though I was eager to question. "I could never tell which was worse, the homes or the streets, but at least in the streets I had hope. I guess you don't have to be told that there wasn't a lot of love in my childhood. I don't know what happened to my mom, but I was orphaned as a baby and on the streets as soon as I could run. On L-2 they don't have juvie, and I never got caught for anything bad enough to put me into jail, so they just kept putting me into new and worse foster homes. The last one, conveniently, just happened to be when I was fifteen, and it was the guy that sold the kids to Collar and said they ran away. I think they sold me to him to get rid of me. It wouldn't surprise me any," he said, his eyes burning with an old anger. "I was loaded up with a bunch of other boys and shipped off. They handled the others rough, but I was pretty, so they were gentler with me. When we got there they cleaned us all up, then started to sell us off," he said, and the hate drained out of his features only to be replaced by an almost haunted look. His voice quivered as he continued. "The masters... they didn't even wait to get their new slaves home. Just... just grabbed 'em and fucked 'em right there. I was... I was so damn scared I almost wet myself. And then Solo showed up, and he was young and handsome, and he took one look at me and bought me straight out. I actually cried, but he didn't hurt me or anything. Just took me home and gave me a bath. He even let me sleep in the bed with him," Duo said, and there was no doubted in my mind that he had loved his master. His eyes shown, and his voice was full of wonderment and pride. Whether the master had only been taking advantage of an easily impressionable young boy, I couldn't know, but it was easy to see that, for good or for bad, Duo had been deeply, almost unhealthily in love with him. "When he did take me the next day he was really gentle, even when I fought him, and it was really good. I had seen what it could be like and I was so grateful... I would have done anything for him after that. When he died I wished I would die too, because I didn't want to live without him," he said, pausing as his eyes went sad again in memory. "The other masters all told me that I didn't really love him, that I just loved the safety he gave me. Some even said that he did that to earn my trust and cooperation, that masters do that with particularly pretty slaves. I don't know, they could be right. But, whatever it was, I did love him, and nobody can take that away from me."

I gave him a moment to collect himself before bullying forward. The past was hard to speak of, but the future was what I was worried about.

"So you need to be in love to win?" I wondered. He looked up, suspicion in his eyes, as though he could sense my intent.

"Look, master, you're great and all, but I'm not in love with you," he snapped defensively. I laughed.

"Not me. But there are other's here who wish to... attract your attentions. I'm just saying that there's no need to give up completely on love because your first love died. You'll be very lonely if you do. All I'm asking is that you leave yourself open to the possibility, and we'll see what we can do from there."

"Who...?" Duo wondered, but there was a knock at the door, interrupting Duo. Heero peaked in, only opening the door enough to put his head and shoulder in.

"Duo, you wanted me to remind you when you're show came on," Heero said, staring directly at Duo. "I also put your popcorn in the microwave, so you wouldn't burn it again.

"Aw, Ro, you're the best!" Duo crowed, grinning madly. He jumped up, prepared to run out of the room, but I paused him.

"Duo?" I called. He halted just inside the door. "Think about what I've said," I told him, nodding my head toward Heero's retreating back. "You may find love in surprising places."

It seemed almost as though a light had gone on in Duo's head, and he stared at Heero's back for a moment longer than was polite, before smiling softly and nodding. Then he was gone, racing down the hall and toward his favorite TV show. If I wasn't wrong it was something along the lines of "Monster Trucks, Motorbikes, and Madness!" I listened to the sounds coming from down the hall for a moment, then went to find Wufei. I'd rather take a beating than watch that.