By the end of the week, Duo's treatments had finished, he was sleeping nearly twenty hours a day, and Zechs was almost constantly grumpy. Despite his constant assurances that he was perfectly fine with staying up to receive Duo, the bags under his eyes said differently. And, of course, it was fully beyond the powers of any of us to stay up late one night, or so Zechs believed. Regardless of the reason, Master insisted on staying up late and getting up early every night for a week, getting only four or five hours of sleep a night. So it wasn't really surprising when, the day after Duo's last session, Zechs slept more than half the day. It was, however, surprising to find him awake and chipper the next day.
"What's gotten into you?" I wondered as Master flopped down beside me on the patio. I liked to come out before breakfast and read a bit in the early sunlight; you can't appreciate Chinese script in artificial light, and it had been a long time since I had seen any books with script of this quality. Zechs, beside me on the bench, merely smiled and took a large bight out of his apple.
"What do you mean? It's a beautiful day, Duo's treatments are finished and fully successful, and all of you are making leaps and bounds in your events. Why shouldn't I be happy?"
"I didn't say you shouldn't be happy. I said you shouldn't be this happy. There's a difference," I responded. Zechs chuckled, then lay back on the bench.
"Face it, Wufei, things are good. I mean, there are some problems here and there, but overall things are finally starting to go right. Have you seen Quatre's souffle? He's a natural at cooking! And Trowa can survive anywhere, and probably sing while doing it. Heero has taken on such a wide variety of competitions, and excels at every one. And you... well, you're already a champion, so I'd assume you're good at everything, but..." he trailed, his brows furrowing as he thought deeply. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen anything you've been practicing. You should show me what you're working on."
"Ah... um..." I stuttered, surprised. "Of course. What would you like to see?"
"What's the next skill you'll be practicing?"
"That would be dance, but I don't practice that until eleven. I tutor Trowa and Duo in the mornings."
"Hm. That won't work for me. I have a teleconference with one of my aides about my business investments."
"I practice fencing at two. I could use a partner, honestly. There's only so much I can do without someone to spar with."
"Two it is, then," Zechs replied with a grin. "I'll try not to cheat this time," he promised. I blushed, remembering our last duel.
Breakfast rushed past, though it was delicious as always. Quatre, who had the earliest chore of making breakfast, had indeed made leaps and bounds where it came to cooking, and I was certain he had in other areas as well. My next task, teaching Trowa and Duo, did not fly by so quickly, mainly because Duo was a constant source of frustration to me. Trowa, who came at nine for two hours of schooling, was a joy to teach. He wasn't gifted at reading or writing, which isn't to say he was slow, just that he didn't have a natural knack for it. It seemed that, as a dancer, performer, and slave, Trowa had gained a skill for reading people through their tones and body language. It was hard for him to understand how mere words could express all of those different things, and so he sometimes struggled to understand connotations of some words. However, he memorized the letters very quickly and soon had the basic skills of reading down. His writing, as well, gave him very little trouble, and his letter were written with an almost artistic flare, though he did spend more time than necessary in perfecting each letter. All in all, it was enjoyable to teach Trowa, and barely a challenge at all to me. Trowa was so easy to teach, in fact, that I usually left him alone to study on his own for the last hour of his session.
The challenge of teaching came with Duo, and most of the joy fled. Duo came into my "class" knowing the basic skills of reading and writing, but nothing more. Still, Duo could see no use in having any kind of grammar skills above the basic, and was perfectly happy with writing "kat" and "roc." He didn't see any use in knowing the difference between "soul" and "sole," or "waste" and "waist," either. So his attitude toward my class left much to be desired.
Beyond his attitude, he was not an exemplary student anyway. Duo had a tendency to get easily distracted, and sometimes he would merely fall asleep during an assignment, and other times he would get up and wander off. More than once I found him at the game system instead of working if I dared to turn my back for more than a second. Other times I would find that he had doodled in the margins instead of filling in the answers to my questions. Verbal lessons were no better, because he could more easily fall asleep. It was also much more frustrating to directly ask him a question and receive an answer that proved he had not been listening than to have him write down the answer. At least when he was writing I could fool myself into thinking he had been listening.
One of the most difficult challenges about teaching Duo was his skittishness. It is difficult not to get into close proximity when teaching only one student at a time. Like most tutors, I tended to lean over Duo's shoulder and read some of his answers while he worked, so that I could stop him if I saw any kind of continuing mistake. Duo, however, viewed this as an invasion of his personal space, and would often snap at me. If I didn't back off immediately he'd become very upset, often throwing his paper or his pencil, and the lesson would have to end for the day, because Duo would no longer respond to anything I said or did. It was difficult and frustrating not to get close to Duo, but what concerned me more was that he wouldn't allow me. I found it odd that he would keep such a harsh space barrier between him and me. Certainly we weren't the closest pair out of the group, but I didn't think we were so far apart, either. It concerned me, but I didn't want to put more distance between us by being a tattletale, so I kept my worries to myself.
The worst part about this situation was that Duo, who had come in with a basic knowledge of grammar, had made very little progress, while Trowa, who had come in with no knowledge at all, had made such a significant improvement that it was very possible that he would catch or even exceed Duo in the near future. And since there seemed to be very little difference in their intelligence, I could only attribute this disparity in progress to their individual attitudes.
Of course, it wasn't all bad. Duo did make some progress, and it was probably only the comparison of the two that made it seem like less. There were days when he would come in with a bright attitude where we would make great progress on his lessons, just as there were days when he would come in with a foul attitude and we would make no progress. Regardless, he wasn't trying to sabotage my class and he didn't seem to have any natural dislike for me, so most days ran smoothly, though they were frustrating to me. It helped if Heero would stop by to encourage Duo, because Heero's opinion was very important to Duo for some reason. Heero had a free hour at the same time Duo took his lessons, so he would often take time to help Duo with problems he was struggling with if I were busy, or encourage him if not. Whatever the reason, Duo was much less frustrating in front of Heero, so I encouraged him to visit whenever he wanted.
That day, however, Duo was still recovering from his asthma treatments, and so was excused from class. With Trowa reading well on his own, I was left on my own. With an extra hour of free time, I decided to stay close in case Trowa needed me, so picked up a convenient book and sat down in a chair by the window to read.
Before I could open the book, though, a sight outside caught my attention. It was Zechs, mounted on a white horse, riding across the field. Heero, mounted on a dark roan stallion, was a few feet behind him, but closing quickly. They were both smiling, though it looked like Heero was putting a lot more effort into catching up than Zechs was in staying ahead. I could only assume that, in his brilliant mood, Zechs had volunteered to go riding with Heero and view his improvement in that area. Together they looked like a knight and a squire, riding into battle. I could almost imagine Zechs as the older, practiced knight and Heero as his nervous squire, off to witness his first battle. Zechs would protect him, of course, keeping him close at his side during the battle, wary of letting his young charge wonder into danger. The two of them reined their horses to a stop, and Zechs leaned over to say something to Heero. In my fantasy, Zechs would give him vital information on how to steady his horse during battle. Heero would smile and nod, quite in awe of his older, stronger teacher. Then Zechs would smile and lean close to Heero, then give him a quick peck on the lips. Heero would blush demurely, still unused to such intimate touches. But it wouldn't matter, because Zechs would soon teach his young protégée the way of the warrior, in life and in bed.
I was called from my musings as the two rode off again, and realized nearly five minutes had passed and I had yet to even open my book. Blushing, I quickly opened the cover and read the first sentence, but soon found my eyes drifting back to the window. With a sigh of defeat, I closed my book and turned to the window.
"I'm no better than Duo," I mumbled, but not even that remark was enough to pull my attention away from the pair outside. Heero was gorgeous, youthful and vibrant, but his beauty paled in comparison to Zechs. With his long, golden hair flowing behind him as he rode his pure white stallion across the grass, Zechs looked like a warrior of god, radiant with life and strength.
"Wufei?" Trowa called from across the room. "Can you help me with this word? It doesn't seem to fit the sentence."
"Coming," I responded, setting aside my unread book and quickly leaving the window behind. By the time I returned, both Heero and Zechs had disappeared from view.