Don't Push Me Away - Chapter 8 (4xR) AU
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 3:09 am
Don't Push Me Away
by Neon Fantasy
Disclaimer: Normal disclaimer applies.
Chapter 8
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" --- " - Speaking
' --- ' - Thinking
Taking a step out of his car, Duo scanned the surroundings of the car park. It had been a while since he came back here, he wasn't expecting it to have suddenly gone over massive changes but he somehow felt like a total stranger. Going about the normal routine of what he usually did in the mornings before school, he would head to the courtyard and basically hang out with the group before they would have to go to class. Now that his injuries had healed over, allowing him self to finally be able to move around with ease, he still felt physically drained out of all his energy, not to mention mentally. After all the weeks of being away from school, anyone would consider that being heaven, not for him. Even sleep seemed to be his enemy, since bad memories of the past would keep flooding into his mind when ever his eyes closed.
"HEY! It's Duo!" Mariemaia squealed when she saw him heading towards them, "Come on Duo; get over here so I can hug you!"
Duo just smiled but continued to keep at his slow pace as he headed towards them.
"Fine, I will come over to you then," Mariemaia called out to him as she got off the table she was sitting on and dashed towards him, "Brace yourself Duo because I have to make up for the days you missed out on my welcoming hugs!" Throwing herself over him she giggled and squeezed his neck tightly, causing him to gag at the strength she held on him.
"Haha, come on Marie, Duo has just recovered you know, give him a bit of space will you?" Alex said laughing at the facials Duo was giving them as though he was being strangled more then being hugged.
Mariemaia turned her head to Alex and poked her tongue at him before releasing her hold on Duo, "Geez, don't I have the right to be happy that Duo has finally recovered? I know you're just jealous that I am hugging Duo much longer then what I do for you."
Raising an eyebrow at her and sarcastically said, "Yeah. I. Am. Very. Jealous."
"Hahaha I was only joking," Mariemaia said as she walked back to their table.
"Come on Duo, don't act like a stranger on us. Come on, take a seat," Mueller said to him as he gestured to the free seat opposite from him. Duo gave them a weak smile but didn't say anything as he took Mueller up on his offer. His change in moods didn't by pass Hilde though.
She was leaning against a tree which was beside their table and watched Duo with concern. He looked so uncomfortable, as though he were new and just met them for the first time. She could tell that he was trying his hardest not to look troubled over what ever it was that was in his mind but it wasn't fooling her.
"Hey Hil, is something wrong?" Mariemaia asked as she came up to her.
Taking her eyes off Duo she looked over to Mariemaia and gave her a weak smile, "It's ok, nothings wrong."
"Hmm, well I don't believe you. Both you and Duo are acting weird today, did something happen between you two or something?"
Hilde was surprised by Mariemaia's words, "You can see that he's acting strange too?"
"Well yeah, I mean, Duo is always talking and he's always smiling and everything. But for some reason, he isn't his cheerful self today. I would have thought that being out and about again would have brightened his mood from the time we last visited him." Leaning closer to her she asked, "I assume your acting weird because of him huh?"
"Oh thanks, so I'm not allowed to be concerned about him?"
"Hey, don't make a 'Quatre vs. Duo' turn on me girl, I was just asking. Of course I'm not saying you can't be worried, I just wanted to make sure that you?re not having any problems either."
Hilde regretted snapping at her now. Her expression softened as she patted her on the shoulder, "I'm sorry Marie. I didn't mean to be so harsh." Pausing for a few moments she added, "I think I will need to talk to him later to find out what's wrong."
She didn't say that in an all too quiet tone, since Duo had been listening to them. His attention looked to be on Alex and Mueller as they talked but his attention was on Hilde mainly. She had not spoken to him yet, and like Mariemaia, she would always be energetic about saying hi to her friends and embrace them with a big friendly hug, she had done neither. He didn't know what to tell her though once she will ask him, since he wouldn't know what to say. He was still confused and frustrated over everything himself.
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'Great, just what I feel like first thing in the morning, English,' Duo cursed in his head as he went though his locker, trying to find what he will require for lesson. Hilde was standing beside him as she patiently waited for him to get his things but her vision was totally focused on him as she looked upon him with concerned eyes. Duo had been watching her from the corner of his eye and began to grow a little uncomfortable with her staring. Finally getting his books out from the junk heap of his locker he closed it up and remained focused on the closed door as he said, "What is it Hilde? You have been staring at me ever since I got here."
Hilde gave him a blank expression and tilted her head off to the side a bit as she thought, 'Wow, very observant.'
Snapping out of her thoughts she said, "I have noticed that you haven't been your normal self since you arrived. I don't mean to pry but, if you need anyone to talk to, I'm here."
Duo turned to look at her and smiled at the concern she was showing him. As much as he would like to talk to her, he didn't know how to explain what he was feeling. She knew of what happened to him those few years ago but didn't know the full story, the bit where it involved Relena. He thought he had everything sorted out, the past which he could not let go of had been buried for a couple of years now has suddenly resurfaced again. No thanks to Quatre. His mood turned sour at the thought of it. Quatre had visited him some time last week and during that visit, Duo had no idea what to think anymore.
Duo was deep in thought about Quatre's words to him but was suddenly snapped out of it as Hilde waved her hand over his face, "Hey Duo, are you sure your ok? You?re drifting off into space again."
Shaking his head of the thoughts in his mind he looked down at Hilde and said, "I'm sorry Hil, as much as I would like to talk to you about it, it's something only I can sort out for myself. I'm, confused at the moment. I'm facing something which I haven't dared to look back at for a couple of years now and, it's starting to take its toll on me again so, I need to face it on my own. Please understand."
Looking at him in question, just to be sure if he was serious about what he was saying she slowly nodded and said, "Alright, but just remember that not just me but everyone else in the group is worried about you and will be willing to help you through what ever it is that?s worrying you, ok?"
Nodding at her in response he gave her a weak smile and started heading off to class. Hilde watched him as he left and slowly started making her way to hers. She did understand if Duo wanted to handle things on his own but in a way, she wished he could have said something. Anything would have been fine with her, even if it was something she had no knowledge over, at least it would have taken a load off of Duo's back. The only thing she could really think about was if Duo was still affected by the fight with Quatre some how. But when he said that it was something that had been affecting him some few years ago the only conclusion she could come out of that was...
"Hey Hil!" Mariemaia called out to her hysterically, waving her hands furiously over her head.
Hilde smiled and waved back to her as she approached her asking, "You?re running a bit late to class, aren't you?"
"Hey, that should be my line, I was expecting to find you up there already," Mariemaia said. Shrugging it off, Mariemaia started heading up the stairs and looked back down at Hilde who wasn't behind her, "Come on or we will be late."
Hilde was still concerned about Duo but pushed that aside as she took two steps at a time to catch up to Mariemaia. She needed to concentrate on the work at hand at the moment, Duo wanted to sort out things on his own so she should respect that and patiently wait for him to recover on his own. After all, he didn't want to involve her in it so she should just accept that.
When they made it up the stairs, Mariemaia started going on about the hockey match Hilde would be having soon. Thoughts about the game didn't concern her at the moment, but as they approached the door to their class, Quatre happened to arrive at the same time as them. Hilde glared at the sight of him. Mariemaia looked at her in confusion before turning her gaze to where she was staring. Once she saw Quatre, Mariemaia saddened when she saw how ashamed Quatre felt about everything as he bowed his head in shame and headed into the classroom. It was not her place to say anything since it involved Duo and Quatre but she didn't like the idea of losing Quatre as a friend because of Duo's thoughts on him. Why couldn't she be friends with the both of them?
Quatre noticed Hilde glaring at him but didn't bring himself to look at her, he admired her for being such a dedicated friend to Duo but her coldness towards him was making it hard for him to keep a straight face. He regretted what he had done and her glares were making him feel all the more guilty.
As he walked into the computing room, he sat himself down and started logging on. As he did so, he remembered Duo saying to him that he had never told his past to anyone before. If that was the case, why did Hilde stand by his beliefs when she didn't even know them? It was good of her to show her support to him, but didn't she have a right to think for herself as well? Shaking his head of his thoughts, he knew that it would be pointless to think over such things, he needed to concentrate on the work he had to do.
Hilde and Mariemaia walked in a few moments after Quatre did, Hilde remained silent as she sat down and began logging onto her computer. Mariemaia on the other hand couldn't help but feel guilt eat away at her. She was to hate Quatre by someone else?s beliefs, not on her own and she hated herself for doing this. But she would have no one if she began to think on her own initiative. She had to follow in Duo's beliefs for her own benefit, she had no other choice.
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Upon entering his English classroom, Duo made his way to his seat but felt as though someone was watching him. Sitting himself down in the back row he looked to the other side of the room and found Wufei glaring at him. Duo turned his gaze away from his and continued to ignore him but found it being a bit difficult since he could still feel his cold gaze on him like a hawk. Sighing to himself he figured that he better not say anything since Wufei will pound him once again for stepping out of line. Touching his nose, he didn't want to go through the process of having it broken again, as much as he hated to admit, he was no match for Wufei. After all, he was no fighting expert.
At that moment their English teacher made his entrance into the classroom, "Excuse me, could we have some quiet in here please," he said as he eyed everyone in the class for their attention. When everyone eventually settled down, their English teacher started going through his roll book. Adjusting his glasses as he briefly checked to make sure if everyone was here and counted the students up.
"Alright everyone, today we will be starting on our next assignment. We will be researching the movie..." Pausing for a moment as he picked up a piece of chalk from the board he wrote down the name of their next piece. Moving out of the way for the class to see, you could hear the moaning from the males and see some delighted smiles from the females. Duo looked at the board wide eyed as he read what they will be working on, 'American Beauty.' Hitting his forehead on the desk he cursed the fact that they had to watch such a boring and useless movie, 'Well, at least we don't have to read another novel, for now.'
"Alright, before we watch through the movie I will be assigning each of you to partners. There are a lot of elements to uncover with this movie," Moving over to his desk he picked up a stack of paper and started handing them to his students, "Here are some of the things which I want you to look into within this piece. There are different sections for each group to research so studying this piece as a whole will be a lot easier on each of you." Walking back to the front of the class again he continued, "We will only be watching through this movie once. With your partners I will expect you to watch this movie a few more times and to do the work outside class time. This will be presented as an oral but afterwards, your notes will be photocopied and given to everyone in the class. You will NOT be picking your partners since I know most of you will hardly get anything done if you?re paired with your best friend." Reaching for the cardboard box on his desk he held it up for everyone to see and explained, "All of your names are written on pieces of paper within this box. This will determine your partners for this assignment and depending on who gets matched up with whom, I will be the one to swap it if necessary." Placing his hand in the box he shuffled around with the papers before he started drawing. Picking up one name he read out, "Josie and...," Pulling out another name he read, "Brett." Repeating the process he continued to call out names,
"Jaime and Daniel."
"Felicity and Tai."
As he went through pairing everyone in the class, Duo was getting a little anxious about whom he will be paired with. None of his friends were in this class and just the thought on maybe being paired with Wufei or Dorothy sent shivers down his spine. If he had to be paired with either of them he will REFUSE to do any work. Both he and Dorothy would be at each others necks half the time while the other half will be based on arguing. Even with Wufei, Duo will be too paranoid about watching his back to be paying any attention to the movie. 'Please don't let it be Wufei or Dorothy, please don't let it be Wufei or Dorothy,' he chanted in his mind. Listening once again to their teacher calling out partners, the next two came up as,
"Wufei and Dorothy."
"Whew," Duo sighed with relief as he lifted his head off from the table. Knowing that he wasn't going to be with either of them he relaxed a little and leaned back on his chair, folding his arms behind his head in the process. Besides Dorothy and Wufei he pretty much got a long with the rest of the class so who ever he got paired up with didn't bother him anymore. Waiting for his name to be called out, he was beginning to wonder if fate was on his side at the moment. Who could have thought that he wouldn't have been paired with those two snobs, the funniest thought was the fact that they were put together as partners. However, his rejoicing didn't last long when the mention of his name was called out and the next person to be nominated as his partner was none other then,
"Duo and Relena."
At the mention of Relena's name Duo lost all sense of balance and fell to the ground with the overwhelming shock of who his partner will be. Gathering himself off the floor in a flash he stood to attention and yelled, "WHAT!!" At that moment, he looked about the room to find out who called out with him at the same time.
Their English teacher had almost finished the pairings before he was rudely interrupted by that sudden sound of protest. Looking up to the class he noticed Duo standing, not to mention Wufei had his hand up as well.
"Is there a problem you two?" The English teacher asked as he re-adjusted his glasses once again.
As Duo opened his mouth to answer he was suddenly interrupted by Wufei, "Mr. Quinze, I don't think the idea of Duo being paired with Relena is a good idea," Wufei said with a growl as he narrowed his eyes on Duo. Duo sat himself back down again but kept his expression blank, he wanted to return the glare but he didn't have the guts to try that yet. Especially when he was basically speaking his mind, he had no reason to complain.
"And why do you find this of annoyance Mr. Chang?"
"The fact that Duo and Relena were involved in a fight not very long ago is of concern to me sir. I rather doubt if any work will be done between them because of this and I do not want to fail my exams at the end of the year because of it," Wufei said proudly as he watched Mr. Quinze considering his words. There was NO way in hell that Wufei was about to let Duo and Relena be put together as partners. It was bad enough that Duo had hit her, he was not about to have the chance of it happening again, "If you wouldn't mind me asking sir, to not disrupt the other pairings, I suggest that you swap these to with me and Dorothy." At that moment both Relena and Duo went under a major panic at the thought of that. Dorothy on the other hand smirked at Wufei's words, she loved the way he bent things into his favour by a few twists of words. 'Using end of year exams as an excuse as indeed a good move Wufei, you may fool anyone with that excuse, but it didn't by pass me.'
Mr. Quinze went into deep thought as to what he should do. Wufei and Dorothy were his top grading students in the class, whereas Duo and Relena were close to the bottom of it. Splitting them would indeed be good considering the fact that Duo and Relena would be paired with two dedicated students, however he had to think of everyone else as well. He would start arguments if he were to swap them, already he could see students murmuring to each other about how unfair it will be if they got the privilege to swap partners.
Moving over to his marks book he examined the marks between the four people. Wufei and Dorothy were having no problems, Duo wasn't doing the bests of his set standards but he was at least passing. Relena on the other hand has been failing most of the assignments but during the last couple of weeks her marks had been improving, not all that good yet, but she hadn't been decreasing at least.
Looking up towards Wufei he said, "I can understand your concern Wufei and I will admit that your offer did sound appealing." Wufei glared at him as he started getting the impression that his request was not going to be considered, "It would be unfair to the rest of the class if I gave them privilege to swap partners."
Before Mr. Quinze could continue Wufei interrupted, "Fairness of groups isn?t going to be helping us at the end of the year sir. I for one think that passing with the highest grades possible is more important than, fairness. This will be one of the things we will have to study at the end of the year and if there are people in this class who can't set the standards of others than everyone else will be brought down because of it." Dorothy suppressed her laughter as she watched Wufei from the corner of her eye, she could almost see the steam rushing out of his ears.
Wufei was losing his patience with Mr. Quinze and it was taking every ounce of his strength not to explode at him, the pairing is just not going to work! If Relena got hurt again by Duo he would never forgive himself since he could have prevented it. Duo will also be looking for a harder pounding if it were to happen again anyway, so for his sake, he wouldn't want to pull anything again.
Turning his vision to Relena who was in the front row of the class, Mr. Quinze asked, "What do you think Relena?"
Relena jumped slightly when she heard her name mentioned. She didn't want to get involved in this.
"Your marks have been improving lately so I won't be too big on changing you just yet. I will give you the choice, either work with Duo or work with Wufei or Dorothy. I recommend Wufei or Dorothy but if you can work with Duo then that's fine too but I hope to expect good quality work from the both of you."
'Great, just great,' Relena cursed to herself. Quite frankly she didn't want to be paired with any of them. She was too scared to even look at Duo let alone work with him. Wufei was just out of the question and she isn't exactly on good terms with Dorothy either. If she had to make the choice she would choose Dorothy but the thought on Wufei and Duo being together worried her deeply. Because of her she got Duo sent to hospital because of him and she didn't want to allow such a thing to happen again. But there was no way she would pair herself with Wufei either, the last thing she really needed at the moment was to be alone with him. No, she was not ready to be on talking grounds with him yet, not yet, she couldn't.
"I don't mind working with Duo sir, to be fair, I should remain with him as my partner," Relena finally answered. Wufei, Duo and Dorothy turned their gazes at her and were shocked by her answer, one, which each of them was not expecting.
"Very good then. I assume that there are no problems with you Mr. Maxwell?" Mr. Quinze asked as he looked towards him.
As much as Duo resented being paired with Relena, she at least won't do anything to him, unlike Wufei and Dorothy. Sighing in defeat he nodded his head and said, "I'm fine, no problems here."
As Quinze went back into drawing out the next couple of groups Duo finished to himself, 'No problems here that can be resolved.' But what puzzled him was the fact that he expected her to choose Dorothy as a partner. At least they were on talking grounds compared to him and her but then he would have killed himself knowing that he would be paired with Wufei. 'Hang on; did she remain with me because of that?' Shaking that thought out of his head he kicked himself for even thinking such a thing. But then Quatre's visit started flooding into his mind again.
******Duo's Flashback******
Duo stirred in his sleep as he continued to hear knocks at the door. Hoping that who ever it was will leave soon. He put his pillow over his head but singed at the pain he felt from it as it pressed onto his nose. Getting himself into sitting position he continued to hear knocks at the door, "DUO! ANSWER THE BLOODY DOOR ALREADY!!!" A deep, croaking voice yelled out to him. Sighing to himself he muttered under his breath, "Why don't you answer it fat bastard." Knowing that 'he' won't be the one to answer it, Duo dragged himself out of bed and slowly made his way to the door, holding his stomach at the pain of even moving. He stumbled a couple of times from the crinkled carpet mats but made it to the door without falling over and cracking his head open. As he opened the door he didn't prepare himself for the sudden shock of 'this' person ever visiting him.
Quatre was dressed in his school uniform and looked at Duo with a whole mix of feelings, ashamed, concerned, and uncomfortable. Duo did not know how to react, he never expected Quatre to come to his house like this. He was a mix of emotions too, angry, upset, frustrated, annoyed. They stood there for a moment and stared at each other before Duo suddenly heard the bellow of that ugly thing in the house again, "WHO'S AT THE DOOR BOY!?"
"Just a, person from school," Duo called back in his 'nicest' tone possible. He didn't turn his gaze away from Quatre as he said that. Looking up and down at Quatre he noticed that he seemed to look completely unharmed by any form of physical damage. What ever happened to him being bashed by Heero or Wufei? He was just as much involved in that fight as he was. "What do you want?"
Quatre looked at him helplessly, he felt so uncomfortable visiting Duo like this. By Duo's appearance he could tell that he still had the fight fresh in his mind. Looking up and down at his form he couldn't help but notice that Duo was a total and utter mess. By the looks of him Quatre figured that he might have just gotten out of bed since his clothes were all wrinkled and his hair, which was still in a plat looked to not have been touched for days. He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of red boxer shorts but from his bare arms he could see many bruises, some darker than others. Quatre dared not think about what his body may look like under that t-shirt. From his punch and the added ones Wufei inflicted to him he was shocked to even think that Duo could still walk. Looking up at his face he saw that both of his eyes looked to be swollen, his right one wasn't even open, it had a massive purple bruise over it and his left one was only barely open but it looked to be healing better than his right one. Duo's nose had a thick, white bandage over it while he had a couple of other bandages over his left eyebrow but to sum it up, most of Duo's face was completely covered with bruises. Just looking at him wasn't helping Quatre out one bit, he started the fight and he hardly got any punishment for it while Duo, who was the victim, got the worse punishment over the fact that he was only concerned for him.
"Duo, um, may I come in?"
Duo couldn't believe this guy, after everything that has happened to him, did Quatre still expected him to treat him with some form of compassion? Duo had every right to just slam the door in his face, or even take him down for what has happened to him but since he was in such a pitiful state, that option had to totally be ruled off, much to his dismay. Rounding up the words he wanted to shout in Quatre's face he suddenly heard the 'tub of lard' come towards them, 'Oh no.'
"DUO!!! WHAT'S THE IDEA OF KEEPING THE DOOR OPEN LIKE THIS!!!?" Looking at Quatre the man dragged him in and slammed the door shut behind him. Looking back at Duo he yelled, "THERE IS A DRAFT RUNNING THROUGH THAT OPEN DOOR!!! JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE BEATEN TO A PULP DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO ACT AS THOUGH YOU ARE BRAIN DEAD AS WELL!!!"
Quatre stared at the man wide eyed. The man was a fair few inches taller than both of them; he towered over them in height, not to mention weight. The guy was HUGE, just by looking at him Quatre would assume him to be over three hundred and fifty kilos! He had a long black hair with grey strands running through it and had a beard which went down to his chest. He was wearing a white singlet which had many stains over it and wore dark blue shorts which had faded a lot in age.
Quatre quickly turned his gaze away from him when he noticed the man turn his vision towards him. Quatre stood perfectly still as the man watched him but as Quatre watched him from the corner of his eye he was beginning to feel as though he was not welcomed at all, even though he was dragged into the house. Quatre could feel the sweat from his forehead run down the edge of his face with the overwhelming fear he was having over the man. Thankfully the man turned his vision away from him and gave a cautioned look at Duo before he stomped his way back to the lounge room.
When he left Quatre felt it safe to breathe again, although the smell of the man was still remained in the air. It smelt as though he hadn't showered for weeks, not to mention that he probably hasn't even heard of the word deodorant before.
Duo just looked at Quatre briefly before he turned to leave but felt pains in his stomach again when he turned himself around too suddenly. As he felt himself about ready to collapse to the ground, Quatre quickly went up to him and held him up by the shoulders, he was too scared to touch Duo anywhere else without hurting him so the shoulders were the only option he could think of at that second.
"Let go of me," Duo warned him as he tried prying his way out of Quatre's hold.
"Please, allow me help you Duo," Quatre said as he helped Duo back on his feet. Once he was on his feet again Duo roughly released himself from his hold and staggered his way to his room, with Quatre following behind him. Duo's energy levels were very low at the moment and since he spent what little energy he had fuming at Quatre, he only barely made it to his bed. Quatre wanted to help him but Duo would always give him ?the look? to make him keep his distance.
When Duo had finally managed to get himself in bed properly again he gave him a little smirk and said, "Well, go on, say it."
When he said this, Quatre just looked at him in question while Duo just stared back at him; waiting for him to say what Duo knew was going through his mind.
"I'm sorry Duo but, I don't know what you meant by that."
"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME QUATRE! I could see it in your eyes; you are disgusted with the way this place looks huh? By the look of our flat you have probably noticed that the place is falling apart, the grass out the front is dead; all the plants which were originally there have withered away. Even in here you have noticed the cracks in the walls, the torn wallpaper, the dust, the shit all over the floor, the smell of the place. The way you were looking at me also showed the signs of disgust you have towards me and my home. Go on, I know you were thinking that, come on, admit it!"
"Duo, if anything, I did not come here just to insult you on your home."
"Oh right sure, so you?re saying that the thought of disgust didn't even come into your mind once!? I some how don't believe that."
?Why is Duo being so moody?? Yes he can understand that he would still be angry at him for hitting him like that, not to mention, be the cause of Wufei smashing him up. But if anything, Duo seems to want to pick a fight with him over matters which don't concern the fight.
"Duo please, I came here to apologize. I didn't mean to hit you like I did, and because of me, this is the result of what my foolishness has done to you. It was wrong of me I know, you were only worried about me and now it has resulted in me losing a really good friend."
"Oh, so now you are expecting that your sucking up to me will make me forgive you now is that it?"
"No of course not, I just wanted to let you know that I really do regret those actions that I pulled on you," Quatre mumbled the last few words since the guilt of everything was starting to rush over him again.
"Oh, is this supposed to be the bit where I'm supposed to accept your apology? I can't even believe I allowed such a think to slip my mind. Oh no, the reason for that was because of THE FACT THAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY OR DO CAN TAKE BACK WHAT HAS HAPPENED QUATRE!!! AND WHAT PISSES ME OFF EVEN MORE IS THE FACT THAT NOTHING HAS HAPPENED TO YET, SO WHAT DID YOU DO? BRIBE THEM SO THAT NEITHER HEERO NOR WUFEI WOULD HURT YOU!?"
Duo's words were slicing through Quatre as though knives were being stabbed into him. Tears were swelling up in his eyes now, but he couldn't allow them to fall, he just couldn't. Duo was showing him no mercy and even though Quatre was expecting this, not to mention deserved it, he didn't think it would hurt him so much. The fact that Quatre had lost his temper was because of the way he had broken Relena's promise. Duo just happened to be the unlucky person around him at that time to push the wrong buttons. Quatre didn't hate him at all, he cherished the friendship he had with Duo and since he cares for him deeply, his words were hurting his heart.
"Hmph, what I wouldn't wish to have money like that to throw around as I pleased. You should feel ashamed Quatre, do you think that your some sort of god or something where everyone should love and treat you with respect, all because you are well known and wealthy!? Well I'm sorry if I'm not one of those followers Quatre, but personally if I was anything like I was then, than I could show you up with money and power any day!"
"Duo, please, I-" He couldn't hold it down anymore, as soon as one tear cascaded down his cheek, that gave invitation for the rest of them to come down. Quatre closed his eyes tightly as to try and stop them but with the regret over Duo, Relena, and himself, it was all starting to come back at him. He didn't know what to do, there was nothing he could say to change things, this was the result of his own foolishness so, like Duo said to Relena, 'You deserve whatever?s thrown at you.'
Dropping down to the ground, Quatre put a hand over his eyes to try and cover up his pitiful state but even as he tried sobbing quietly he knew that it looked bad either way. 'Men aren't supposed to cry. But no, I'm no man; I'm still a child, the same child I have always been ever since I can remember.'
Duo was about ready to fire at him again with more insults but just the look of Quatre's pitiful state was enough to silence him. He knew Quatre was a bit of a softy but if anything he didn't know that he was THIS open with his emotions. Didn't Quatre understand that this was making him look even worse than what he already did? Was he expecting forgiveness over the tears that he was shedding? 'Is this another one of your tricks to seek forgiveness Quatre?' Duo didn't flinch as he watched Quatre quietly sob in the corner; however, he was beginning to give him the impression of a lost little boy. 'Lost little boy...' As Duo continued to watch him he started having flashbacks of memories sweep by him of his past, the past he had thought was buried years ago.
***Flashback***
A little boy of about ten years old sat helplessly under the kitchen table as he watched and feared what was being displayed before him.
"WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY!? ARE YOU TRYING TO HIDE IT FROM ME YOU WHORE!?" The man said as he stood right before a much shorter woman with cobalt eyes and long light brown hair.
The woman was shaking furiously as she dared to look up at the man before her, "I- I don't have anymore money."
That answer awarded the woman with a slap across the face, causing her to collapse to the ground from the force. Walking up to her again the man lifted her by her shirt and shook her about as he yelled again, "I THINK YOUR LYING TO ME HONEY! I WILL SAY IT AGAIN, W-H-E-R-E I-S T-H-E M-O-N-E-Y!!!"
"Please, I told you, it's all gone. My bank account has been sucked dry, we have nothing left," she whispered to him, whimpering at the hold he had over her.
The man was furious; no money meant no more drinking, no more gambling, no more cigarettes. There was no way he was going to take this lightly. Throwing her across the room, she hit the counter of the kitchen and cried out in pain as she fell to the ground, defenseless and helpless in the situation she was in. The man glared down at her pitiful form and darted his gaze to the little boy under the table.
When the little boy saw him come towards him he screamed and rushed to his mother. Because of his youth, he wasn't able to out run the man and when the man grabbed hold of him he whacked the boy over bottom and threw him to the other side of the kitchen. The little boy screamed in pain while the man yelled, "SHUT UP YOU LITTLE-" Since the little boy continued to scream in pain, the man untied his leather belt and started heading towards him. The woman watched as he started heading over to her son, struggling to get to her feet she called out, "NO, PLEASE NO! HE HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG!"
"This little thing is the cause of all the money's disappearance, all because of worthless things like schooling, clothing and food. That money used on him could have lasted us a while, he is worthless and is doing nothing but leech off of us," the man said as he looked down at the terrified boy. Kicking him in the gut the boy cried out in pain as the woman started crawling to him, "Please don't, no, my son." The man raised his belt and slashed the boy over his back, the boy screamed in agony. Raising it up once more he slashed him over the back again before the woman suddenly shielded the boy.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY WOMAN!!!"
"PLEASE! Spare him and I will work to get our money back! No matter what it takes, just leave him alone, I beg of you," the woman pleaded as she gently brought her son into her arms. Her words brought the man to lowering his belt, much to the woman's relief. But then he suddenly grabbed her by the wrist and said, "I need to teach you a lesson as to not go about and waste our money again." She looked helplessly at him as he began to drag her out the kitchen.
The little boy quietly sobbed at the pain he was feeling and crawled his way into one of the kitchen cupboards. Huddling himself up in one of the dark corners he brought his knees up to his chest and laid his head in his lap, quietly sobbing to himself as he could faintly hear the screams of his mother coming from the other side of the house.
***End of Flashback***
Duo was starting to feel tears form up in his eyes at the bad remembrance of such a memory, to think that it was triggered off just by watching Quatre cry. The look of Quatre in that helpless huddled ball was beginning to flood everything back into his mind.
"No, not again. Not now. Not when I thought I was finally rid of it," Duo whispered to himself as he felt tears fill up in his badly bruised eyes. Quatre had heard his words and looked up at him slowly; Quatre's eyes had puffy sags under them and were shocked to suddenly notice Duo crying too. What he didn't understand was what Duo meant by those words. Standing up from his spot on the floor, Quatre slowly made his way over to him, he was taking a big risk by confronting him in such a state but he wanted to find out what was wrong.
"Stay back Quatre," Duo said between sobs as he raised his hand to indicate for him to stop where he was.
"Duo, I-I can't help but feel that there is another issue bothering you at the moment. One that, isn't related to the fight we had," Quatre said as he continued to approach him.
"Just, go Quatre," Duo begged, his voice held no anger within it but softened into a quiet, weak, helpless voice.
Quatre sat down on the bed beside him as he gently put his hand over Duo's shoulder, "I'm so sorry Duo. It is my fault that your feeling this pain isn't it? If it will help, I will not hold it against you if you decide to pull this treatment on me. I deserve it after all."
Duo jerked his head up to Quatre and said, "How can you say that! You think I'm just some psycho who takes pleasure in hurting people or something!?"
Quatre shook his head at Duo and was about to make up for that worthless comment before Duo interrupted him, "I'm not like 'him' if you're getting that impression. There is no way in HELL that I would want to turn out like that. He may get pleasure in beating me but don?t think I?m like that to others," Pausing for a moment he soothed his voice down and took a deep breath to calm his nerves down to continue, "Quatre, I have been a bit harsh on you. No, I have been more than just a bit harsh, I-I have been throwing out my anger at you over something you don't even know. You see-" As he was saying these words, he could feel his hands shake as the words coming out of his mouth were beginning to quiver, "Quatre, what I'm about to say to you now is something I have NEVER in my life to anyone before, even Hilde doesn't know the full story. Maybe once you hear this, you will understand why I have a thing against Relena..." Watching Quatre's reaction to this, he noticed him looking at him blankly for a few moments before setting his concentration on what's about to be said. He nodded his understanding to promise that this will be kept between them, and patiently waited in silence for Duo to continue.
Quatre had been very anxious to find out about this, Relena had not said anything to him about it and figured that maybe she was looking out for Duo in some way. This obviously seemed to revolve around him so maybe she didn't find it right to say anything, but then again, maybe she was ashamed of what she did. Quatre couldn't make any decisions now, hearing the story from Duo might finally put them on even grounds to give some form of understanding to each other; this was a good sign to show that Duo may still want to patch things up with him.
After a few more moments of silence, Duo turned his vision to a particular spot on the ground to focus himself into saying these words; he didn't have the confidence to say it to him face to face. Wrapping his hands together he forced them to stop shaking and closed his eyes to allow the words of his past to flood out and be revealed, "That pathetic excuse for a parent out there is not my real father. He is 'supposed' to be my step father but I have no respect for that ignorant excuse for a human being. It would have been ten years ago when my real father was still alive and well, along with me and my mother. My father was a distributor of car parts, which provided us with enough money to do anything we wanted. My mother had unfortunately dropped out of school while she was still young and had been earning money by working behind checkouts, that was before she met my father," Smiling at the happy memory he continued, "Since my father was a good provider she didn't need to work the long hours over lousy pay cheques so she maintained our home and dedicated herself to looking after me. My mother was always kind to me; she would always take me out, whether if it was the beach or the park. It was great. I was worried at one stage if she ever got lonely because my father always had to work, but she told me that she never felt lonely since I resembled my father in so many ways, I had my father's personality while I had my mother's looks. I never will forget that. Even when I did get to see him, he always seemed to be in a cheerful mood, no matter how much work he would do. He use to spend like over twelve hours on that company, I hardly ever got to see my father during the weekdays, but he was always sure to spend time with me and my mother on weekends. I admired my father and wanted to be like him, I'm sure that explains to you why I like playing around with mechanical things huh?"
Quatre nodded at that, Duo did seem to have quite a talent at fixing things, no matter how technical it was he would play around with it for as long as it takes to fix it. 'Must have been a genetic talent,' Quatre thought, smiling to himself.
"But like all good things," Duo started again, "They never last forever." His eyes started swelling up with tears as he said that, rubbing at his eyes to stop any tears flowing he continued, "My father's company got sold out, it was to make way for some new hotels," Clenching his fists together, "Cinquil Hotels was the name of that damn place, and it was Relena's mother who demolished my father's factory! I remember seeing that bitch when I was over at the company to watch my dad work; she just waltzed into place and held up a piece of paper to sell out my father in order for her to take the land. Our company had been in our family for generations, and the fact that she thought that she could just suddenly say, 'Here is the offer I'm willing to make, either take it or be dragged out with nothing.' My father wasn't afraid of her; she had no right to just do that!" Duo's expression hardened, "But all of a sudden, we get a visit from Relena's father. He is a big shot lawyer who always wins his cases, and he ended up taking us to court over this incident since my father didn't accept Relena's mother's offer. As much as his reputation precedes him, he won and kicked my father out of the company, which I still don't understand how but he did." Putting his hands up to cover his face he went on, "My father invested everything into that company, when it was gone, he had so many debts to pay off but in the end, he went into deep depression. I had never seen him like that, ever. No matter what my mother would try to do, he was like an empty human shell. But one day, he locked himself up in his office and never came out, he stayed in there for like three days I think it was. My mother eventually got to the stage of pick locking the door open, but then," Streams of tears were gliding down his face now, "We found my father, hanging from the ceiling by his neck. He used his neck ties to use as a noose to kill himself. That image has been imprinted in my mind and will always haunt me until I die. My mother tried remaining strong for me; I think if I wasn't there, she would have killed herself as well. It was too hard for her to find a job with her low education but she did what ever she could. She was never at home much anymore, since she would drown in her sorrows at a bar, we still had the money which Relena's mother offered us so she was being sure to use it wisely. But even she needed to treat herself to some luxuries. But then one day, she announces to me that she is seeing someone, as much as she wanted to look happy for me, I saw no happiness in her eyes. I hated the guy but it wasn't my place to say anything, if she needed him then I would support her decision. He leeched off my mother's money to do with it as he pleased, but when she told him that all her money was gone, he turned violent. He beats both my mother and I and a regular basis over things like money, or basically over anything if he?s angry."
Quatre's eyes widened when he heard this, he assumed he was talking about the man who dragged Quatre inside the house and looked about ready to kill both him and Duo.
"Both my life and my mother's went down hill once my father killed himself, my mother has to work as a damn cleaner to support us, even I have to do some part time work since the money my mum earns automatically gets given to that prick out there. I can't stand our lives! We don't deserve this, because of Relena's family we lose everything while they gain more money in their pockets, who knows who else they sold out just to expand their business!!!"
After a few moments of silence, Duo finally brought himself to look at Quatre; he needed to know if he understood. Instead, Quatre looked to be completely blank, Duo had no idea what was going through his mind, in a way, it was beginning to make him panic, "Please tell me you understand! You are the first person I have ever told this to, you can understand my pain right!" Duo asked him as he shook Quatre by his shoulders.
Quatre released Duo's hands from his shoulders and nodded slowly in response, "Duo, I had no idea that you have been through so much pain and loss. If I knew before-"
"Don't kick yourself over it Quatre, it was my fault for not explaining myself earlier. But now you can understand why I got so angry when ever you were with Relena. She doesn't deserve your friendship, and if I'm not mistaken, it wouldn't surprise me if her family would want to take over your family business as well."
"What! Duo, that's taking it too far. I can understand your pain, really I can, but during your story, I heard nothing about Relena ever doing something to you."
Duo's eyes widened with that statement, with his anger flaring again he yelled, "What do you mean she didn't do anything! She knew what her family did to me and loved watching me suffer during primary school! She was so full of herself and treated everyone like shit! What was worse was the fact that she could get away with everything because of the power her family possessed! She bagged me for being homeless and saying how much our family business was a dump, she caused the whole school to turn on me because of my family difficulties. I was lucky to have Hilde, she stood by me no matter what position she was putting herself into. That's why we are so close, we have always stood by each other in primary school. It got better when we met Mariemaia, Alex and Mueller in high school too. But even in high school, Relena was still the annoying little bitch that she always was. Because of her, everyone has a thing against us Quatre! Not just me, the whole group!"
"I admire your strength Duo," Quatre suddenly said, catching Duo off guard, "When I met you, you were so cheerful all the time, you never let anything get to you and I admired that. You have gone through so much that you don't want your whole life to remain in ruins, you want to make the best of your life and always go about it with a smile."
Duo softened his expression when he heard this, 'Maybe Quatre does understand me.'
"However," Duo did not want to hear that, why couldn't Quatre just support him in his feelings? "Duo, I don't find it right that you throw out your anger at Relena for what her parents did to you."
Duo was shocked but Quatre followed up, "Your descriptions of her do not match who she is now. You have every right to be angry but since you were hurt so deeply, you can't let go of your past. I'm not saying to forget what happened, but don't make it control your life! For you to truly be happy you need to start looking forward, not back at the times that cannot be changed. You judge Relena for what you saw of her in the past, what about now? Have you bothered to look and see her for who she really is, not just by the impression of her family? I saw you as one not to judge people by their reputations Duo, I know for a fact that she is not that same girl you knew then. Not to mention, she is going through some emotional problems as well."
Before Duo could rip into him for saying such a thing, Quatre interrupted again, "You know what Duo? Don't you find it strange that I only just found out about your past now? If Relena knew of it, why didn't I find out from her?"
"She probably wants to remain innocent so that you will always be friends with her!"
"You described her as being one who was proud of making you go through pain, not once have I heard anything about her past from her mouth and I will not pry into it. If she was proud she would say everything about herself to look good to others, but she hasn't. If what you say is true then I would assume that she is ashamed of herself and hated what she did to you. SHE CARES DUO! You might not believe this but Relena wanted to get rid of me when ever I was near her, and do you want to know why? Because she didn't want to be the one to ruin the friendship between us. She did not want me to pick her over you and the rest of the group. And the reason for that is because she hates herself and thinks that she doesn't deserve to be happy! I know this because I see it in her eyes."
Duo tried again to speak his mind but was stopped once again, "I picked her over you and the rest of the group because you judge her by what she was and not what she is now. I wanted to still remain friends with you, really I did. I have never gotten the chance to make such good friends like you and everyone else. But you began to judge me because your mind was starting to tell you that I believed, what she did to you in the past was right. Your past is clouding your judgment," Pausing for a moment he said in a low voice, "I'm right when I said that aren't I? You believed that I was on her side when it came to your past didn't you?"
Duo no longer had the ability to speak, he was right; he brought the situation of his past into the present. With Quatre defending her, his mind played tricks on him believing that Quatre was defending her family, for what they did to him. He had no idea how to react; his mind was battling with Quatre's words. Part of him believed what he was saying was true while another part of him was against it.
"I don't expect you to believe my words Duo, it is your decision to believe what you think is right. You have been hanging onto your past for so long that it would be hard to let go. It will be a memory which will be looked upon from time to time, but it shouldn't rule your life. Start looking ahead Duo, see things for what they are and not what you saw them as in your past. You deserve to be happy, but in order to do that, you need to face up to your past and not keep it hidden any longer."
Standing up from Duo's bed, he looked at him one last time and started heading for the door. Before walking out he looked back at Duo and said, "I will always think of you as my friend Duo, I will understand if you don't feel the same way. But I will always cherish what we had, but I'm afraid that I will still remain friends with Relena. Please get well soon." Digging into his jacket pocket Quatre pulled out a little box and threw it over to Duo. Duo caught it with ease and noticed it to be a box of chocolates, looking up at him again, Quatre smiled and waved to him before leaving. Duo listened in as he heard the front door open and close, leaving the sounds of a car leaving a few moments later. Looking down at the chocolates once more, Duo had no idea what to think anymore, did his talk with Quatre help him? It confused him more than anything else, what he always believed and stood by has now been thrown out the window. 'Start looking ahead; see things for what they are and not what you saw them as in your past.'
******End of Duo's Flashback******
'Am I really wrong for treating Relena in such a way? No, how can I, she did the same to me. I am merely doing what she did to me.' He was so deep in thought about everything, that he didn't realize he bell had already gone. Snapping out of his thoughts he noticed that the movie had already ended and it was playing the ending credits. Sighing to himself in frustration he bowed his head onto the desk and heard Mr. Quinze say, "Don't forget work on your set tasks based on this movie. I expect to hear everyone?s oral presentations by next week." Raising his head up from the desk, Duo slowly got out of his seat and thought, 'Set tasks? Did he give us them already? Geez, good on you Duo, you blacked out for the whole double lesson.'
"Um, Duo?"
Hearing his name being said he looked up and almost jumped by noticing Relena standing in front of him. Narrowing his eyes on her he remained silent as he waited for her to continue, "Um, I-I was just wondering if, if you wanted to, maybe we could work on this at my house." Looking at her in question Relena lowered her head and kept her gaze on the floor. What Duo wouldn't give to just spit in her face and ask if she was being for real, but for some reason, he did nothing like that but said, "Yeah, I think that will be best."
Surprised by his answer Relena brought her gaze up to his but noticed him looking off to the side. He seemed annoyed but uncomfortable at the same time, not that she couldn't blame him but she was waiting for some form of insult, but nothing came. Taking this as a good sign she continued, "Well, um, shall we meet at the car park after school?"
Turning his gaze to her briefly he watched her carefully for any negative signs. Strange how she appeared to look innocent and weak at the same time, hardly the girl he remembered back then. Not wanting to get deep in thought about it again he nodded and said, "Yeah, I will be there anyway since I brought my car today." Walking past her, Duo was beginning to have second thoughts about this. He had a long time to think this through but he couldn't help but feel as though he was betraying his father in some way. Was he really ready to face everything? Visiting her home meant facing her parents. 'I wonder if they would remember me.'
Watching Duo leave the room, Relena was starting to get second thoughts about inviting him to her home. With what things have been like between them, would more conflict rise before them once he set foot in her house? As she began making her way to the exit she froze in her steps when she saw a pair of flashing black eyes watching her from the door. Relena remained still as she stared into Wufei's eyes. He was so complex that she couldn't understand what he was doing, she felt as though she had upset him in some way and that he's giving her the glare saying that she has stepped over line. He continued to do this for a few moments before he suddenly decided to leave, not saying a word to her as he left the room. Staring at the door in question for a few moments she eventually made her way out, being casious of her surroundings as she did so.
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The drive to Relena's house was indeed a silent one. Both Duo and Relena were feeling very uncomfortable at the moment. Both of them were deep in thought, each questioning if whether or not their actions were really the best ones to take. The only words that were spoken were when Relena directed Duo to her home. As he parked the car at the front of her house they both got out and headed to the front door. Duo stared at it in question, 'I would have thought that her place was a lot bigger than this.' There was nothing wrong with her home; it was a normal standard house but still a nice one. Duo just assumed that maybe she lived in a mansion like Quatre or something, with the money her family would have, he couldn't understand why they wouldn't.
As they walked in Duo examined the place carefully, nothing looked to be out of the ordinary. In fact, her home was like any normal one, which he found being very odd. Duo was beginning to question his beliefs on her now, Quatre had been right about everything so far; he hated Quatre in a way for never being wrong on things like this. How could Quatre know what lies in your heart and mind so easily? He couldn't help but wonder that Quatre seemed to understand him better than what he understood himself, it was strange.
As they walked into the lounge room, Duo noticed a woman sitting on one of the couches, drinking a coffee as she looked to be reading a novel.
"I'm home mother," Relena said as she came into the room.
"Hm, so you are," Mrs. Darlian said as she looked up at her briefly. Before she lowered her gaze back to her book again she noticed someone standing beside her.
Watching her mother staring at Duo, Relena figured that she better do some introducing, "Mother, this is Duo Maxwell. Duo, this is my mother."
Duo looked to Relena in question but turned to look at Mrs. Darlian. So far, things have been very strange, strange enough that he didn't feel so angry. For some reason, being in Relena's house hadn't been too bad so far, although he wasn't liking the way that woman was looking at him. Mrs. Darlian continued to stare at Duo as though he was an annoying insect, which needed to be squashed quickly. Her stares felt as though they were burning straight through him, making Duo feel very uncomfortable, not to mention unwelcomed. Clearing his throat he began to walk up to her, although he was taking notice of her disgust as he approached. Wanting to be polite he held out his hand to her and kindly said, "Hello, it's nice to meet you."
Mrs. Darlian narrowed her eyes on him as he approached; she looked at his hand briefly before glaring back at him again. Standing up from the couch she eyed his long braid critically. Duo wasn't stupid, he knew what she was looking at, and the fact that she seemed to hate him already frustrated him. Was she that paranoid about who she met that she only cared about appearances first? And to think that he was trying to be polite too.
"By the look of your hair," she finally said, pausing for a moment, "I assume that you can?t seem to afford a descent hair cut??
Lowering his hand, Duo bit down on his tongue and kept himself from giving her any negative looks. He had a feeling that she was about to say something like that, but felt strange was the fact that he wasn't being negative at her for the past. Trying to keep a straight face she stared at him for a moment and said, ?Don?t take it personally but if you can?t afford to cut your hair than I would have to assume the worse with your personal hygiene too.?
Raising an eyebrow at her, Duo had to restrain himself to not do anything foolish while Relena just narrowed her eyes at her.
Glaring over at Relena now she said, "Really now Relena, why can't you invite descent guests like Quatre? At least he gives a better presentation of himself." With that said she walked out the room without a second glance. Relena had to step out of the way for her as she walked out, knowing that she would run over her if she didn?t move herself.
Duo was angry, but more than anything he was really, really confused. From the house to her mother, things were getting really suspicious. Duo felt as though the past which he had been deeply affected by, didn't seem to hang in the air around here? Looking over at Relena he was hoping that maybe she could explain something to him, this was bugging him ever since he saw her house and being inside of it wasn't making things any clearer for him.
Sighing to her self as she watched her mother leave, Relena noticed Duo looking at her in question. Turning to him, she could see confusion written all over his face. She had expected this, which was the reason why she wanted him to visit, not just about their oral presentations, but something which had hurt both Duo and herself long ago, "Duo, there is something I feel that I need to tell you. I'm sure you have noticed it already but maybe it will make some sence if I explain."
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Author's Note:
Writing this chapter made me cry, the things I had to write about Duo And to think that there is still more depressing things to write as well, based on the other characters 
. But anyway, I will be sure not to forget putting in some possitive things as well, 
If anything, they deserve it that's for sure 
I hope no one found this too offensive or anything, Duo is a strong character in this so things will turn out to be alright. Relena's past wasn't exactly mentioned I know, but there is some informationed based on her from Duo's words. Her past will be revealed bits at a time, her story is a very complex one (well sort of) but anyway, hope you all liked it (besides what Duo had to go through, but I'm sure you know what I mean ) Thanks for reading, and I will be looking forward to hear what you think.
Email: neon_fantasy@hotmail.com
by Neon Fantasy
Disclaimer: Normal disclaimer applies.
Chapter 8
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" --- " - Speaking
' --- ' - Thinking
Taking a step out of his car, Duo scanned the surroundings of the car park. It had been a while since he came back here, he wasn't expecting it to have suddenly gone over massive changes but he somehow felt like a total stranger. Going about the normal routine of what he usually did in the mornings before school, he would head to the courtyard and basically hang out with the group before they would have to go to class. Now that his injuries had healed over, allowing him self to finally be able to move around with ease, he still felt physically drained out of all his energy, not to mention mentally. After all the weeks of being away from school, anyone would consider that being heaven, not for him. Even sleep seemed to be his enemy, since bad memories of the past would keep flooding into his mind when ever his eyes closed.
"HEY! It's Duo!" Mariemaia squealed when she saw him heading towards them, "Come on Duo; get over here so I can hug you!"
Duo just smiled but continued to keep at his slow pace as he headed towards them.
"Fine, I will come over to you then," Mariemaia called out to him as she got off the table she was sitting on and dashed towards him, "Brace yourself Duo because I have to make up for the days you missed out on my welcoming hugs!" Throwing herself over him she giggled and squeezed his neck tightly, causing him to gag at the strength she held on him.
"Haha, come on Marie, Duo has just recovered you know, give him a bit of space will you?" Alex said laughing at the facials Duo was giving them as though he was being strangled more then being hugged.
Mariemaia turned her head to Alex and poked her tongue at him before releasing her hold on Duo, "Geez, don't I have the right to be happy that Duo has finally recovered? I know you're just jealous that I am hugging Duo much longer then what I do for you."
Raising an eyebrow at her and sarcastically said, "Yeah. I. Am. Very. Jealous."
"Hahaha I was only joking," Mariemaia said as she walked back to their table.
"Come on Duo, don't act like a stranger on us. Come on, take a seat," Mueller said to him as he gestured to the free seat opposite from him. Duo gave them a weak smile but didn't say anything as he took Mueller up on his offer. His change in moods didn't by pass Hilde though.
She was leaning against a tree which was beside their table and watched Duo with concern. He looked so uncomfortable, as though he were new and just met them for the first time. She could tell that he was trying his hardest not to look troubled over what ever it was that was in his mind but it wasn't fooling her.
"Hey Hil, is something wrong?" Mariemaia asked as she came up to her.
Taking her eyes off Duo she looked over to Mariemaia and gave her a weak smile, "It's ok, nothings wrong."
"Hmm, well I don't believe you. Both you and Duo are acting weird today, did something happen between you two or something?"
Hilde was surprised by Mariemaia's words, "You can see that he's acting strange too?"
"Well yeah, I mean, Duo is always talking and he's always smiling and everything. But for some reason, he isn't his cheerful self today. I would have thought that being out and about again would have brightened his mood from the time we last visited him." Leaning closer to her she asked, "I assume your acting weird because of him huh?"
"Oh thanks, so I'm not allowed to be concerned about him?"
"Hey, don't make a 'Quatre vs. Duo' turn on me girl, I was just asking. Of course I'm not saying you can't be worried, I just wanted to make sure that you?re not having any problems either."
Hilde regretted snapping at her now. Her expression softened as she patted her on the shoulder, "I'm sorry Marie. I didn't mean to be so harsh." Pausing for a few moments she added, "I think I will need to talk to him later to find out what's wrong."
She didn't say that in an all too quiet tone, since Duo had been listening to them. His attention looked to be on Alex and Mueller as they talked but his attention was on Hilde mainly. She had not spoken to him yet, and like Mariemaia, she would always be energetic about saying hi to her friends and embrace them with a big friendly hug, she had done neither. He didn't know what to tell her though once she will ask him, since he wouldn't know what to say. He was still confused and frustrated over everything himself.
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'Great, just what I feel like first thing in the morning, English,' Duo cursed in his head as he went though his locker, trying to find what he will require for lesson. Hilde was standing beside him as she patiently waited for him to get his things but her vision was totally focused on him as she looked upon him with concerned eyes. Duo had been watching her from the corner of his eye and began to grow a little uncomfortable with her staring. Finally getting his books out from the junk heap of his locker he closed it up and remained focused on the closed door as he said, "What is it Hilde? You have been staring at me ever since I got here."
Hilde gave him a blank expression and tilted her head off to the side a bit as she thought, 'Wow, very observant.'
Snapping out of her thoughts she said, "I have noticed that you haven't been your normal self since you arrived. I don't mean to pry but, if you need anyone to talk to, I'm here."
Duo turned to look at her and smiled at the concern she was showing him. As much as he would like to talk to her, he didn't know how to explain what he was feeling. She knew of what happened to him those few years ago but didn't know the full story, the bit where it involved Relena. He thought he had everything sorted out, the past which he could not let go of had been buried for a couple of years now has suddenly resurfaced again. No thanks to Quatre. His mood turned sour at the thought of it. Quatre had visited him some time last week and during that visit, Duo had no idea what to think anymore.
Duo was deep in thought about Quatre's words to him but was suddenly snapped out of it as Hilde waved her hand over his face, "Hey Duo, are you sure your ok? You?re drifting off into space again."
Shaking his head of the thoughts in his mind he looked down at Hilde and said, "I'm sorry Hil, as much as I would like to talk to you about it, it's something only I can sort out for myself. I'm, confused at the moment. I'm facing something which I haven't dared to look back at for a couple of years now and, it's starting to take its toll on me again so, I need to face it on my own. Please understand."
Looking at him in question, just to be sure if he was serious about what he was saying she slowly nodded and said, "Alright, but just remember that not just me but everyone else in the group is worried about you and will be willing to help you through what ever it is that?s worrying you, ok?"
Nodding at her in response he gave her a weak smile and started heading off to class. Hilde watched him as he left and slowly started making her way to hers. She did understand if Duo wanted to handle things on his own but in a way, she wished he could have said something. Anything would have been fine with her, even if it was something she had no knowledge over, at least it would have taken a load off of Duo's back. The only thing she could really think about was if Duo was still affected by the fight with Quatre some how. But when he said that it was something that had been affecting him some few years ago the only conclusion she could come out of that was...
"Hey Hil!" Mariemaia called out to her hysterically, waving her hands furiously over her head.
Hilde smiled and waved back to her as she approached her asking, "You?re running a bit late to class, aren't you?"
"Hey, that should be my line, I was expecting to find you up there already," Mariemaia said. Shrugging it off, Mariemaia started heading up the stairs and looked back down at Hilde who wasn't behind her, "Come on or we will be late."
Hilde was still concerned about Duo but pushed that aside as she took two steps at a time to catch up to Mariemaia. She needed to concentrate on the work at hand at the moment, Duo wanted to sort out things on his own so she should respect that and patiently wait for him to recover on his own. After all, he didn't want to involve her in it so she should just accept that.
When they made it up the stairs, Mariemaia started going on about the hockey match Hilde would be having soon. Thoughts about the game didn't concern her at the moment, but as they approached the door to their class, Quatre happened to arrive at the same time as them. Hilde glared at the sight of him. Mariemaia looked at her in confusion before turning her gaze to where she was staring. Once she saw Quatre, Mariemaia saddened when she saw how ashamed Quatre felt about everything as he bowed his head in shame and headed into the classroom. It was not her place to say anything since it involved Duo and Quatre but she didn't like the idea of losing Quatre as a friend because of Duo's thoughts on him. Why couldn't she be friends with the both of them?
Quatre noticed Hilde glaring at him but didn't bring himself to look at her, he admired her for being such a dedicated friend to Duo but her coldness towards him was making it hard for him to keep a straight face. He regretted what he had done and her glares were making him feel all the more guilty.
As he walked into the computing room, he sat himself down and started logging on. As he did so, he remembered Duo saying to him that he had never told his past to anyone before. If that was the case, why did Hilde stand by his beliefs when she didn't even know them? It was good of her to show her support to him, but didn't she have a right to think for herself as well? Shaking his head of his thoughts, he knew that it would be pointless to think over such things, he needed to concentrate on the work he had to do.
Hilde and Mariemaia walked in a few moments after Quatre did, Hilde remained silent as she sat down and began logging onto her computer. Mariemaia on the other hand couldn't help but feel guilt eat away at her. She was to hate Quatre by someone else?s beliefs, not on her own and she hated herself for doing this. But she would have no one if she began to think on her own initiative. She had to follow in Duo's beliefs for her own benefit, she had no other choice.
********************************
Upon entering his English classroom, Duo made his way to his seat but felt as though someone was watching him. Sitting himself down in the back row he looked to the other side of the room and found Wufei glaring at him. Duo turned his gaze away from his and continued to ignore him but found it being a bit difficult since he could still feel his cold gaze on him like a hawk. Sighing to himself he figured that he better not say anything since Wufei will pound him once again for stepping out of line. Touching his nose, he didn't want to go through the process of having it broken again, as much as he hated to admit, he was no match for Wufei. After all, he was no fighting expert.
At that moment their English teacher made his entrance into the classroom, "Excuse me, could we have some quiet in here please," he said as he eyed everyone in the class for their attention. When everyone eventually settled down, their English teacher started going through his roll book. Adjusting his glasses as he briefly checked to make sure if everyone was here and counted the students up.
"Alright everyone, today we will be starting on our next assignment. We will be researching the movie..." Pausing for a moment as he picked up a piece of chalk from the board he wrote down the name of their next piece. Moving out of the way for the class to see, you could hear the moaning from the males and see some delighted smiles from the females. Duo looked at the board wide eyed as he read what they will be working on, 'American Beauty.' Hitting his forehead on the desk he cursed the fact that they had to watch such a boring and useless movie, 'Well, at least we don't have to read another novel, for now.'
"Alright, before we watch through the movie I will be assigning each of you to partners. There are a lot of elements to uncover with this movie," Moving over to his desk he picked up a stack of paper and started handing them to his students, "Here are some of the things which I want you to look into within this piece. There are different sections for each group to research so studying this piece as a whole will be a lot easier on each of you." Walking back to the front of the class again he continued, "We will only be watching through this movie once. With your partners I will expect you to watch this movie a few more times and to do the work outside class time. This will be presented as an oral but afterwards, your notes will be photocopied and given to everyone in the class. You will NOT be picking your partners since I know most of you will hardly get anything done if you?re paired with your best friend." Reaching for the cardboard box on his desk he held it up for everyone to see and explained, "All of your names are written on pieces of paper within this box. This will determine your partners for this assignment and depending on who gets matched up with whom, I will be the one to swap it if necessary." Placing his hand in the box he shuffled around with the papers before he started drawing. Picking up one name he read out, "Josie and...," Pulling out another name he read, "Brett." Repeating the process he continued to call out names,
"Jaime and Daniel."
"Felicity and Tai."
As he went through pairing everyone in the class, Duo was getting a little anxious about whom he will be paired with. None of his friends were in this class and just the thought on maybe being paired with Wufei or Dorothy sent shivers down his spine. If he had to be paired with either of them he will REFUSE to do any work. Both he and Dorothy would be at each others necks half the time while the other half will be based on arguing. Even with Wufei, Duo will be too paranoid about watching his back to be paying any attention to the movie. 'Please don't let it be Wufei or Dorothy, please don't let it be Wufei or Dorothy,' he chanted in his mind. Listening once again to their teacher calling out partners, the next two came up as,
"Wufei and Dorothy."
"Whew," Duo sighed with relief as he lifted his head off from the table. Knowing that he wasn't going to be with either of them he relaxed a little and leaned back on his chair, folding his arms behind his head in the process. Besides Dorothy and Wufei he pretty much got a long with the rest of the class so who ever he got paired up with didn't bother him anymore. Waiting for his name to be called out, he was beginning to wonder if fate was on his side at the moment. Who could have thought that he wouldn't have been paired with those two snobs, the funniest thought was the fact that they were put together as partners. However, his rejoicing didn't last long when the mention of his name was called out and the next person to be nominated as his partner was none other then,
"Duo and Relena."
At the mention of Relena's name Duo lost all sense of balance and fell to the ground with the overwhelming shock of who his partner will be. Gathering himself off the floor in a flash he stood to attention and yelled, "WHAT!!" At that moment, he looked about the room to find out who called out with him at the same time.
Their English teacher had almost finished the pairings before he was rudely interrupted by that sudden sound of protest. Looking up to the class he noticed Duo standing, not to mention Wufei had his hand up as well.
"Is there a problem you two?" The English teacher asked as he re-adjusted his glasses once again.
As Duo opened his mouth to answer he was suddenly interrupted by Wufei, "Mr. Quinze, I don't think the idea of Duo being paired with Relena is a good idea," Wufei said with a growl as he narrowed his eyes on Duo. Duo sat himself back down again but kept his expression blank, he wanted to return the glare but he didn't have the guts to try that yet. Especially when he was basically speaking his mind, he had no reason to complain.
"And why do you find this of annoyance Mr. Chang?"
"The fact that Duo and Relena were involved in a fight not very long ago is of concern to me sir. I rather doubt if any work will be done between them because of this and I do not want to fail my exams at the end of the year because of it," Wufei said proudly as he watched Mr. Quinze considering his words. There was NO way in hell that Wufei was about to let Duo and Relena be put together as partners. It was bad enough that Duo had hit her, he was not about to have the chance of it happening again, "If you wouldn't mind me asking sir, to not disrupt the other pairings, I suggest that you swap these to with me and Dorothy." At that moment both Relena and Duo went under a major panic at the thought of that. Dorothy on the other hand smirked at Wufei's words, she loved the way he bent things into his favour by a few twists of words. 'Using end of year exams as an excuse as indeed a good move Wufei, you may fool anyone with that excuse, but it didn't by pass me.'
Mr. Quinze went into deep thought as to what he should do. Wufei and Dorothy were his top grading students in the class, whereas Duo and Relena were close to the bottom of it. Splitting them would indeed be good considering the fact that Duo and Relena would be paired with two dedicated students, however he had to think of everyone else as well. He would start arguments if he were to swap them, already he could see students murmuring to each other about how unfair it will be if they got the privilege to swap partners.
Moving over to his marks book he examined the marks between the four people. Wufei and Dorothy were having no problems, Duo wasn't doing the bests of his set standards but he was at least passing. Relena on the other hand has been failing most of the assignments but during the last couple of weeks her marks had been improving, not all that good yet, but she hadn't been decreasing at least.
Looking up towards Wufei he said, "I can understand your concern Wufei and I will admit that your offer did sound appealing." Wufei glared at him as he started getting the impression that his request was not going to be considered, "It would be unfair to the rest of the class if I gave them privilege to swap partners."
Before Mr. Quinze could continue Wufei interrupted, "Fairness of groups isn?t going to be helping us at the end of the year sir. I for one think that passing with the highest grades possible is more important than, fairness. This will be one of the things we will have to study at the end of the year and if there are people in this class who can't set the standards of others than everyone else will be brought down because of it." Dorothy suppressed her laughter as she watched Wufei from the corner of her eye, she could almost see the steam rushing out of his ears.
Wufei was losing his patience with Mr. Quinze and it was taking every ounce of his strength not to explode at him, the pairing is just not going to work! If Relena got hurt again by Duo he would never forgive himself since he could have prevented it. Duo will also be looking for a harder pounding if it were to happen again anyway, so for his sake, he wouldn't want to pull anything again.
Turning his vision to Relena who was in the front row of the class, Mr. Quinze asked, "What do you think Relena?"
Relena jumped slightly when she heard her name mentioned. She didn't want to get involved in this.
"Your marks have been improving lately so I won't be too big on changing you just yet. I will give you the choice, either work with Duo or work with Wufei or Dorothy. I recommend Wufei or Dorothy but if you can work with Duo then that's fine too but I hope to expect good quality work from the both of you."
'Great, just great,' Relena cursed to herself. Quite frankly she didn't want to be paired with any of them. She was too scared to even look at Duo let alone work with him. Wufei was just out of the question and she isn't exactly on good terms with Dorothy either. If she had to make the choice she would choose Dorothy but the thought on Wufei and Duo being together worried her deeply. Because of her she got Duo sent to hospital because of him and she didn't want to allow such a thing to happen again. But there was no way she would pair herself with Wufei either, the last thing she really needed at the moment was to be alone with him. No, she was not ready to be on talking grounds with him yet, not yet, she couldn't.
"I don't mind working with Duo sir, to be fair, I should remain with him as my partner," Relena finally answered. Wufei, Duo and Dorothy turned their gazes at her and were shocked by her answer, one, which each of them was not expecting.
"Very good then. I assume that there are no problems with you Mr. Maxwell?" Mr. Quinze asked as he looked towards him.
As much as Duo resented being paired with Relena, she at least won't do anything to him, unlike Wufei and Dorothy. Sighing in defeat he nodded his head and said, "I'm fine, no problems here."
As Quinze went back into drawing out the next couple of groups Duo finished to himself, 'No problems here that can be resolved.' But what puzzled him was the fact that he expected her to choose Dorothy as a partner. At least they were on talking grounds compared to him and her but then he would have killed himself knowing that he would be paired with Wufei. 'Hang on; did she remain with me because of that?' Shaking that thought out of his head he kicked himself for even thinking such a thing. But then Quatre's visit started flooding into his mind again.
******Duo's Flashback******
Duo stirred in his sleep as he continued to hear knocks at the door. Hoping that who ever it was will leave soon. He put his pillow over his head but singed at the pain he felt from it as it pressed onto his nose. Getting himself into sitting position he continued to hear knocks at the door, "DUO! ANSWER THE BLOODY DOOR ALREADY!!!" A deep, croaking voice yelled out to him. Sighing to himself he muttered under his breath, "Why don't you answer it fat bastard." Knowing that 'he' won't be the one to answer it, Duo dragged himself out of bed and slowly made his way to the door, holding his stomach at the pain of even moving. He stumbled a couple of times from the crinkled carpet mats but made it to the door without falling over and cracking his head open. As he opened the door he didn't prepare himself for the sudden shock of 'this' person ever visiting him.
Quatre was dressed in his school uniform and looked at Duo with a whole mix of feelings, ashamed, concerned, and uncomfortable. Duo did not know how to react, he never expected Quatre to come to his house like this. He was a mix of emotions too, angry, upset, frustrated, annoyed. They stood there for a moment and stared at each other before Duo suddenly heard the bellow of that ugly thing in the house again, "WHO'S AT THE DOOR BOY!?"
"Just a, person from school," Duo called back in his 'nicest' tone possible. He didn't turn his gaze away from Quatre as he said that. Looking up and down at Quatre he noticed that he seemed to look completely unharmed by any form of physical damage. What ever happened to him being bashed by Heero or Wufei? He was just as much involved in that fight as he was. "What do you want?"
Quatre looked at him helplessly, he felt so uncomfortable visiting Duo like this. By Duo's appearance he could tell that he still had the fight fresh in his mind. Looking up and down at his form he couldn't help but notice that Duo was a total and utter mess. By the looks of him Quatre figured that he might have just gotten out of bed since his clothes were all wrinkled and his hair, which was still in a plat looked to not have been touched for days. He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of red boxer shorts but from his bare arms he could see many bruises, some darker than others. Quatre dared not think about what his body may look like under that t-shirt. From his punch and the added ones Wufei inflicted to him he was shocked to even think that Duo could still walk. Looking up at his face he saw that both of his eyes looked to be swollen, his right one wasn't even open, it had a massive purple bruise over it and his left one was only barely open but it looked to be healing better than his right one. Duo's nose had a thick, white bandage over it while he had a couple of other bandages over his left eyebrow but to sum it up, most of Duo's face was completely covered with bruises. Just looking at him wasn't helping Quatre out one bit, he started the fight and he hardly got any punishment for it while Duo, who was the victim, got the worse punishment over the fact that he was only concerned for him.
"Duo, um, may I come in?"
Duo couldn't believe this guy, after everything that has happened to him, did Quatre still expected him to treat him with some form of compassion? Duo had every right to just slam the door in his face, or even take him down for what has happened to him but since he was in such a pitiful state, that option had to totally be ruled off, much to his dismay. Rounding up the words he wanted to shout in Quatre's face he suddenly heard the 'tub of lard' come towards them, 'Oh no.'
"DUO!!! WHAT'S THE IDEA OF KEEPING THE DOOR OPEN LIKE THIS!!!?" Looking at Quatre the man dragged him in and slammed the door shut behind him. Looking back at Duo he yelled, "THERE IS A DRAFT RUNNING THROUGH THAT OPEN DOOR!!! JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE BEATEN TO A PULP DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO ACT AS THOUGH YOU ARE BRAIN DEAD AS WELL!!!"
Quatre stared at the man wide eyed. The man was a fair few inches taller than both of them; he towered over them in height, not to mention weight. The guy was HUGE, just by looking at him Quatre would assume him to be over three hundred and fifty kilos! He had a long black hair with grey strands running through it and had a beard which went down to his chest. He was wearing a white singlet which had many stains over it and wore dark blue shorts which had faded a lot in age.
Quatre quickly turned his gaze away from him when he noticed the man turn his vision towards him. Quatre stood perfectly still as the man watched him but as Quatre watched him from the corner of his eye he was beginning to feel as though he was not welcomed at all, even though he was dragged into the house. Quatre could feel the sweat from his forehead run down the edge of his face with the overwhelming fear he was having over the man. Thankfully the man turned his vision away from him and gave a cautioned look at Duo before he stomped his way back to the lounge room.
When he left Quatre felt it safe to breathe again, although the smell of the man was still remained in the air. It smelt as though he hadn't showered for weeks, not to mention that he probably hasn't even heard of the word deodorant before.
Duo just looked at Quatre briefly before he turned to leave but felt pains in his stomach again when he turned himself around too suddenly. As he felt himself about ready to collapse to the ground, Quatre quickly went up to him and held him up by the shoulders, he was too scared to touch Duo anywhere else without hurting him so the shoulders were the only option he could think of at that second.
"Let go of me," Duo warned him as he tried prying his way out of Quatre's hold.
"Please, allow me help you Duo," Quatre said as he helped Duo back on his feet. Once he was on his feet again Duo roughly released himself from his hold and staggered his way to his room, with Quatre following behind him. Duo's energy levels were very low at the moment and since he spent what little energy he had fuming at Quatre, he only barely made it to his bed. Quatre wanted to help him but Duo would always give him ?the look? to make him keep his distance.
When Duo had finally managed to get himself in bed properly again he gave him a little smirk and said, "Well, go on, say it."
When he said this, Quatre just looked at him in question while Duo just stared back at him; waiting for him to say what Duo knew was going through his mind.
"I'm sorry Duo but, I don't know what you meant by that."
"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME QUATRE! I could see it in your eyes; you are disgusted with the way this place looks huh? By the look of our flat you have probably noticed that the place is falling apart, the grass out the front is dead; all the plants which were originally there have withered away. Even in here you have noticed the cracks in the walls, the torn wallpaper, the dust, the shit all over the floor, the smell of the place. The way you were looking at me also showed the signs of disgust you have towards me and my home. Go on, I know you were thinking that, come on, admit it!"
"Duo, if anything, I did not come here just to insult you on your home."
"Oh right sure, so you?re saying that the thought of disgust didn't even come into your mind once!? I some how don't believe that."
?Why is Duo being so moody?? Yes he can understand that he would still be angry at him for hitting him like that, not to mention, be the cause of Wufei smashing him up. But if anything, Duo seems to want to pick a fight with him over matters which don't concern the fight.
"Duo please, I came here to apologize. I didn't mean to hit you like I did, and because of me, this is the result of what my foolishness has done to you. It was wrong of me I know, you were only worried about me and now it has resulted in me losing a really good friend."
"Oh, so now you are expecting that your sucking up to me will make me forgive you now is that it?"
"No of course not, I just wanted to let you know that I really do regret those actions that I pulled on you," Quatre mumbled the last few words since the guilt of everything was starting to rush over him again.
"Oh, is this supposed to be the bit where I'm supposed to accept your apology? I can't even believe I allowed such a think to slip my mind. Oh no, the reason for that was because of THE FACT THAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY OR DO CAN TAKE BACK WHAT HAS HAPPENED QUATRE!!! AND WHAT PISSES ME OFF EVEN MORE IS THE FACT THAT NOTHING HAS HAPPENED TO YET, SO WHAT DID YOU DO? BRIBE THEM SO THAT NEITHER HEERO NOR WUFEI WOULD HURT YOU!?"
Duo's words were slicing through Quatre as though knives were being stabbed into him. Tears were swelling up in his eyes now, but he couldn't allow them to fall, he just couldn't. Duo was showing him no mercy and even though Quatre was expecting this, not to mention deserved it, he didn't think it would hurt him so much. The fact that Quatre had lost his temper was because of the way he had broken Relena's promise. Duo just happened to be the unlucky person around him at that time to push the wrong buttons. Quatre didn't hate him at all, he cherished the friendship he had with Duo and since he cares for him deeply, his words were hurting his heart.
"Hmph, what I wouldn't wish to have money like that to throw around as I pleased. You should feel ashamed Quatre, do you think that your some sort of god or something where everyone should love and treat you with respect, all because you are well known and wealthy!? Well I'm sorry if I'm not one of those followers Quatre, but personally if I was anything like I was then, than I could show you up with money and power any day!"
"Duo, please, I-" He couldn't hold it down anymore, as soon as one tear cascaded down his cheek, that gave invitation for the rest of them to come down. Quatre closed his eyes tightly as to try and stop them but with the regret over Duo, Relena, and himself, it was all starting to come back at him. He didn't know what to do, there was nothing he could say to change things, this was the result of his own foolishness so, like Duo said to Relena, 'You deserve whatever?s thrown at you.'
Dropping down to the ground, Quatre put a hand over his eyes to try and cover up his pitiful state but even as he tried sobbing quietly he knew that it looked bad either way. 'Men aren't supposed to cry. But no, I'm no man; I'm still a child, the same child I have always been ever since I can remember.'
Duo was about ready to fire at him again with more insults but just the look of Quatre's pitiful state was enough to silence him. He knew Quatre was a bit of a softy but if anything he didn't know that he was THIS open with his emotions. Didn't Quatre understand that this was making him look even worse than what he already did? Was he expecting forgiveness over the tears that he was shedding? 'Is this another one of your tricks to seek forgiveness Quatre?' Duo didn't flinch as he watched Quatre quietly sob in the corner; however, he was beginning to give him the impression of a lost little boy. 'Lost little boy...' As Duo continued to watch him he started having flashbacks of memories sweep by him of his past, the past he had thought was buried years ago.
***Flashback***
A little boy of about ten years old sat helplessly under the kitchen table as he watched and feared what was being displayed before him.
"WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY!? ARE YOU TRYING TO HIDE IT FROM ME YOU WHORE!?" The man said as he stood right before a much shorter woman with cobalt eyes and long light brown hair.
The woman was shaking furiously as she dared to look up at the man before her, "I- I don't have anymore money."
That answer awarded the woman with a slap across the face, causing her to collapse to the ground from the force. Walking up to her again the man lifted her by her shirt and shook her about as he yelled again, "I THINK YOUR LYING TO ME HONEY! I WILL SAY IT AGAIN, W-H-E-R-E I-S T-H-E M-O-N-E-Y!!!"
"Please, I told you, it's all gone. My bank account has been sucked dry, we have nothing left," she whispered to him, whimpering at the hold he had over her.
The man was furious; no money meant no more drinking, no more gambling, no more cigarettes. There was no way he was going to take this lightly. Throwing her across the room, she hit the counter of the kitchen and cried out in pain as she fell to the ground, defenseless and helpless in the situation she was in. The man glared down at her pitiful form and darted his gaze to the little boy under the table.
When the little boy saw him come towards him he screamed and rushed to his mother. Because of his youth, he wasn't able to out run the man and when the man grabbed hold of him he whacked the boy over bottom and threw him to the other side of the kitchen. The little boy screamed in pain while the man yelled, "SHUT UP YOU LITTLE-" Since the little boy continued to scream in pain, the man untied his leather belt and started heading towards him. The woman watched as he started heading over to her son, struggling to get to her feet she called out, "NO, PLEASE NO! HE HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG!"
"This little thing is the cause of all the money's disappearance, all because of worthless things like schooling, clothing and food. That money used on him could have lasted us a while, he is worthless and is doing nothing but leech off of us," the man said as he looked down at the terrified boy. Kicking him in the gut the boy cried out in pain as the woman started crawling to him, "Please don't, no, my son." The man raised his belt and slashed the boy over his back, the boy screamed in agony. Raising it up once more he slashed him over the back again before the woman suddenly shielded the boy.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY WOMAN!!!"
"PLEASE! Spare him and I will work to get our money back! No matter what it takes, just leave him alone, I beg of you," the woman pleaded as she gently brought her son into her arms. Her words brought the man to lowering his belt, much to the woman's relief. But then he suddenly grabbed her by the wrist and said, "I need to teach you a lesson as to not go about and waste our money again." She looked helplessly at him as he began to drag her out the kitchen.
The little boy quietly sobbed at the pain he was feeling and crawled his way into one of the kitchen cupboards. Huddling himself up in one of the dark corners he brought his knees up to his chest and laid his head in his lap, quietly sobbing to himself as he could faintly hear the screams of his mother coming from the other side of the house.
***End of Flashback***
Duo was starting to feel tears form up in his eyes at the bad remembrance of such a memory, to think that it was triggered off just by watching Quatre cry. The look of Quatre in that helpless huddled ball was beginning to flood everything back into his mind.
"No, not again. Not now. Not when I thought I was finally rid of it," Duo whispered to himself as he felt tears fill up in his badly bruised eyes. Quatre had heard his words and looked up at him slowly; Quatre's eyes had puffy sags under them and were shocked to suddenly notice Duo crying too. What he didn't understand was what Duo meant by those words. Standing up from his spot on the floor, Quatre slowly made his way over to him, he was taking a big risk by confronting him in such a state but he wanted to find out what was wrong.
"Stay back Quatre," Duo said between sobs as he raised his hand to indicate for him to stop where he was.
"Duo, I-I can't help but feel that there is another issue bothering you at the moment. One that, isn't related to the fight we had," Quatre said as he continued to approach him.
"Just, go Quatre," Duo begged, his voice held no anger within it but softened into a quiet, weak, helpless voice.
Quatre sat down on the bed beside him as he gently put his hand over Duo's shoulder, "I'm so sorry Duo. It is my fault that your feeling this pain isn't it? If it will help, I will not hold it against you if you decide to pull this treatment on me. I deserve it after all."
Duo jerked his head up to Quatre and said, "How can you say that! You think I'm just some psycho who takes pleasure in hurting people or something!?"
Quatre shook his head at Duo and was about to make up for that worthless comment before Duo interrupted him, "I'm not like 'him' if you're getting that impression. There is no way in HELL that I would want to turn out like that. He may get pleasure in beating me but don?t think I?m like that to others," Pausing for a moment he soothed his voice down and took a deep breath to calm his nerves down to continue, "Quatre, I have been a bit harsh on you. No, I have been more than just a bit harsh, I-I have been throwing out my anger at you over something you don't even know. You see-" As he was saying these words, he could feel his hands shake as the words coming out of his mouth were beginning to quiver, "Quatre, what I'm about to say to you now is something I have NEVER in my life to anyone before, even Hilde doesn't know the full story. Maybe once you hear this, you will understand why I have a thing against Relena..." Watching Quatre's reaction to this, he noticed him looking at him blankly for a few moments before setting his concentration on what's about to be said. He nodded his understanding to promise that this will be kept between them, and patiently waited in silence for Duo to continue.
Quatre had been very anxious to find out about this, Relena had not said anything to him about it and figured that maybe she was looking out for Duo in some way. This obviously seemed to revolve around him so maybe she didn't find it right to say anything, but then again, maybe she was ashamed of what she did. Quatre couldn't make any decisions now, hearing the story from Duo might finally put them on even grounds to give some form of understanding to each other; this was a good sign to show that Duo may still want to patch things up with him.
After a few more moments of silence, Duo turned his vision to a particular spot on the ground to focus himself into saying these words; he didn't have the confidence to say it to him face to face. Wrapping his hands together he forced them to stop shaking and closed his eyes to allow the words of his past to flood out and be revealed, "That pathetic excuse for a parent out there is not my real father. He is 'supposed' to be my step father but I have no respect for that ignorant excuse for a human being. It would have been ten years ago when my real father was still alive and well, along with me and my mother. My father was a distributor of car parts, which provided us with enough money to do anything we wanted. My mother had unfortunately dropped out of school while she was still young and had been earning money by working behind checkouts, that was before she met my father," Smiling at the happy memory he continued, "Since my father was a good provider she didn't need to work the long hours over lousy pay cheques so she maintained our home and dedicated herself to looking after me. My mother was always kind to me; she would always take me out, whether if it was the beach or the park. It was great. I was worried at one stage if she ever got lonely because my father always had to work, but she told me that she never felt lonely since I resembled my father in so many ways, I had my father's personality while I had my mother's looks. I never will forget that. Even when I did get to see him, he always seemed to be in a cheerful mood, no matter how much work he would do. He use to spend like over twelve hours on that company, I hardly ever got to see my father during the weekdays, but he was always sure to spend time with me and my mother on weekends. I admired my father and wanted to be like him, I'm sure that explains to you why I like playing around with mechanical things huh?"
Quatre nodded at that, Duo did seem to have quite a talent at fixing things, no matter how technical it was he would play around with it for as long as it takes to fix it. 'Must have been a genetic talent,' Quatre thought, smiling to himself.
"But like all good things," Duo started again, "They never last forever." His eyes started swelling up with tears as he said that, rubbing at his eyes to stop any tears flowing he continued, "My father's company got sold out, it was to make way for some new hotels," Clenching his fists together, "Cinquil Hotels was the name of that damn place, and it was Relena's mother who demolished my father's factory! I remember seeing that bitch when I was over at the company to watch my dad work; she just waltzed into place and held up a piece of paper to sell out my father in order for her to take the land. Our company had been in our family for generations, and the fact that she thought that she could just suddenly say, 'Here is the offer I'm willing to make, either take it or be dragged out with nothing.' My father wasn't afraid of her; she had no right to just do that!" Duo's expression hardened, "But all of a sudden, we get a visit from Relena's father. He is a big shot lawyer who always wins his cases, and he ended up taking us to court over this incident since my father didn't accept Relena's mother's offer. As much as his reputation precedes him, he won and kicked my father out of the company, which I still don't understand how but he did." Putting his hands up to cover his face he went on, "My father invested everything into that company, when it was gone, he had so many debts to pay off but in the end, he went into deep depression. I had never seen him like that, ever. No matter what my mother would try to do, he was like an empty human shell. But one day, he locked himself up in his office and never came out, he stayed in there for like three days I think it was. My mother eventually got to the stage of pick locking the door open, but then," Streams of tears were gliding down his face now, "We found my father, hanging from the ceiling by his neck. He used his neck ties to use as a noose to kill himself. That image has been imprinted in my mind and will always haunt me until I die. My mother tried remaining strong for me; I think if I wasn't there, she would have killed herself as well. It was too hard for her to find a job with her low education but she did what ever she could. She was never at home much anymore, since she would drown in her sorrows at a bar, we still had the money which Relena's mother offered us so she was being sure to use it wisely. But even she needed to treat herself to some luxuries. But then one day, she announces to me that she is seeing someone, as much as she wanted to look happy for me, I saw no happiness in her eyes. I hated the guy but it wasn't my place to say anything, if she needed him then I would support her decision. He leeched off my mother's money to do with it as he pleased, but when she told him that all her money was gone, he turned violent. He beats both my mother and I and a regular basis over things like money, or basically over anything if he?s angry."
Quatre's eyes widened when he heard this, he assumed he was talking about the man who dragged Quatre inside the house and looked about ready to kill both him and Duo.
"Both my life and my mother's went down hill once my father killed himself, my mother has to work as a damn cleaner to support us, even I have to do some part time work since the money my mum earns automatically gets given to that prick out there. I can't stand our lives! We don't deserve this, because of Relena's family we lose everything while they gain more money in their pockets, who knows who else they sold out just to expand their business!!!"
After a few moments of silence, Duo finally brought himself to look at Quatre; he needed to know if he understood. Instead, Quatre looked to be completely blank, Duo had no idea what was going through his mind, in a way, it was beginning to make him panic, "Please tell me you understand! You are the first person I have ever told this to, you can understand my pain right!" Duo asked him as he shook Quatre by his shoulders.
Quatre released Duo's hands from his shoulders and nodded slowly in response, "Duo, I had no idea that you have been through so much pain and loss. If I knew before-"
"Don't kick yourself over it Quatre, it was my fault for not explaining myself earlier. But now you can understand why I got so angry when ever you were with Relena. She doesn't deserve your friendship, and if I'm not mistaken, it wouldn't surprise me if her family would want to take over your family business as well."
"What! Duo, that's taking it too far. I can understand your pain, really I can, but during your story, I heard nothing about Relena ever doing something to you."
Duo's eyes widened with that statement, with his anger flaring again he yelled, "What do you mean she didn't do anything! She knew what her family did to me and loved watching me suffer during primary school! She was so full of herself and treated everyone like shit! What was worse was the fact that she could get away with everything because of the power her family possessed! She bagged me for being homeless and saying how much our family business was a dump, she caused the whole school to turn on me because of my family difficulties. I was lucky to have Hilde, she stood by me no matter what position she was putting herself into. That's why we are so close, we have always stood by each other in primary school. It got better when we met Mariemaia, Alex and Mueller in high school too. But even in high school, Relena was still the annoying little bitch that she always was. Because of her, everyone has a thing against us Quatre! Not just me, the whole group!"
"I admire your strength Duo," Quatre suddenly said, catching Duo off guard, "When I met you, you were so cheerful all the time, you never let anything get to you and I admired that. You have gone through so much that you don't want your whole life to remain in ruins, you want to make the best of your life and always go about it with a smile."
Duo softened his expression when he heard this, 'Maybe Quatre does understand me.'
"However," Duo did not want to hear that, why couldn't Quatre just support him in his feelings? "Duo, I don't find it right that you throw out your anger at Relena for what her parents did to you."
Duo was shocked but Quatre followed up, "Your descriptions of her do not match who she is now. You have every right to be angry but since you were hurt so deeply, you can't let go of your past. I'm not saying to forget what happened, but don't make it control your life! For you to truly be happy you need to start looking forward, not back at the times that cannot be changed. You judge Relena for what you saw of her in the past, what about now? Have you bothered to look and see her for who she really is, not just by the impression of her family? I saw you as one not to judge people by their reputations Duo, I know for a fact that she is not that same girl you knew then. Not to mention, she is going through some emotional problems as well."
Before Duo could rip into him for saying such a thing, Quatre interrupted again, "You know what Duo? Don't you find it strange that I only just found out about your past now? If Relena knew of it, why didn't I find out from her?"
"She probably wants to remain innocent so that you will always be friends with her!"
"You described her as being one who was proud of making you go through pain, not once have I heard anything about her past from her mouth and I will not pry into it. If she was proud she would say everything about herself to look good to others, but she hasn't. If what you say is true then I would assume that she is ashamed of herself and hated what she did to you. SHE CARES DUO! You might not believe this but Relena wanted to get rid of me when ever I was near her, and do you want to know why? Because she didn't want to be the one to ruin the friendship between us. She did not want me to pick her over you and the rest of the group. And the reason for that is because she hates herself and thinks that she doesn't deserve to be happy! I know this because I see it in her eyes."
Duo tried again to speak his mind but was stopped once again, "I picked her over you and the rest of the group because you judge her by what she was and not what she is now. I wanted to still remain friends with you, really I did. I have never gotten the chance to make such good friends like you and everyone else. But you began to judge me because your mind was starting to tell you that I believed, what she did to you in the past was right. Your past is clouding your judgment," Pausing for a moment he said in a low voice, "I'm right when I said that aren't I? You believed that I was on her side when it came to your past didn't you?"
Duo no longer had the ability to speak, he was right; he brought the situation of his past into the present. With Quatre defending her, his mind played tricks on him believing that Quatre was defending her family, for what they did to him. He had no idea how to react; his mind was battling with Quatre's words. Part of him believed what he was saying was true while another part of him was against it.
"I don't expect you to believe my words Duo, it is your decision to believe what you think is right. You have been hanging onto your past for so long that it would be hard to let go. It will be a memory which will be looked upon from time to time, but it shouldn't rule your life. Start looking ahead Duo, see things for what they are and not what you saw them as in your past. You deserve to be happy, but in order to do that, you need to face up to your past and not keep it hidden any longer."
Standing up from Duo's bed, he looked at him one last time and started heading for the door. Before walking out he looked back at Duo and said, "I will always think of you as my friend Duo, I will understand if you don't feel the same way. But I will always cherish what we had, but I'm afraid that I will still remain friends with Relena. Please get well soon." Digging into his jacket pocket Quatre pulled out a little box and threw it over to Duo. Duo caught it with ease and noticed it to be a box of chocolates, looking up at him again, Quatre smiled and waved to him before leaving. Duo listened in as he heard the front door open and close, leaving the sounds of a car leaving a few moments later. Looking down at the chocolates once more, Duo had no idea what to think anymore, did his talk with Quatre help him? It confused him more than anything else, what he always believed and stood by has now been thrown out the window. 'Start looking ahead; see things for what they are and not what you saw them as in your past.'
******End of Duo's Flashback******
'Am I really wrong for treating Relena in such a way? No, how can I, she did the same to me. I am merely doing what she did to me.' He was so deep in thought about everything, that he didn't realize he bell had already gone. Snapping out of his thoughts he noticed that the movie had already ended and it was playing the ending credits. Sighing to himself in frustration he bowed his head onto the desk and heard Mr. Quinze say, "Don't forget work on your set tasks based on this movie. I expect to hear everyone?s oral presentations by next week." Raising his head up from the desk, Duo slowly got out of his seat and thought, 'Set tasks? Did he give us them already? Geez, good on you Duo, you blacked out for the whole double lesson.'
"Um, Duo?"
Hearing his name being said he looked up and almost jumped by noticing Relena standing in front of him. Narrowing his eyes on her he remained silent as he waited for her to continue, "Um, I-I was just wondering if, if you wanted to, maybe we could work on this at my house." Looking at her in question Relena lowered her head and kept her gaze on the floor. What Duo wouldn't give to just spit in her face and ask if she was being for real, but for some reason, he did nothing like that but said, "Yeah, I think that will be best."
Surprised by his answer Relena brought her gaze up to his but noticed him looking off to the side. He seemed annoyed but uncomfortable at the same time, not that she couldn't blame him but she was waiting for some form of insult, but nothing came. Taking this as a good sign she continued, "Well, um, shall we meet at the car park after school?"
Turning his gaze to her briefly he watched her carefully for any negative signs. Strange how she appeared to look innocent and weak at the same time, hardly the girl he remembered back then. Not wanting to get deep in thought about it again he nodded and said, "Yeah, I will be there anyway since I brought my car today." Walking past her, Duo was beginning to have second thoughts about this. He had a long time to think this through but he couldn't help but feel as though he was betraying his father in some way. Was he really ready to face everything? Visiting her home meant facing her parents. 'I wonder if they would remember me.'
Watching Duo leave the room, Relena was starting to get second thoughts about inviting him to her home. With what things have been like between them, would more conflict rise before them once he set foot in her house? As she began making her way to the exit she froze in her steps when she saw a pair of flashing black eyes watching her from the door. Relena remained still as she stared into Wufei's eyes. He was so complex that she couldn't understand what he was doing, she felt as though she had upset him in some way and that he's giving her the glare saying that she has stepped over line. He continued to do this for a few moments before he suddenly decided to leave, not saying a word to her as he left the room. Staring at the door in question for a few moments she eventually made her way out, being casious of her surroundings as she did so.
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The drive to Relena's house was indeed a silent one. Both Duo and Relena were feeling very uncomfortable at the moment. Both of them were deep in thought, each questioning if whether or not their actions were really the best ones to take. The only words that were spoken were when Relena directed Duo to her home. As he parked the car at the front of her house they both got out and headed to the front door. Duo stared at it in question, 'I would have thought that her place was a lot bigger than this.' There was nothing wrong with her home; it was a normal standard house but still a nice one. Duo just assumed that maybe she lived in a mansion like Quatre or something, with the money her family would have, he couldn't understand why they wouldn't.
As they walked in Duo examined the place carefully, nothing looked to be out of the ordinary. In fact, her home was like any normal one, which he found being very odd. Duo was beginning to question his beliefs on her now, Quatre had been right about everything so far; he hated Quatre in a way for never being wrong on things like this. How could Quatre know what lies in your heart and mind so easily? He couldn't help but wonder that Quatre seemed to understand him better than what he understood himself, it was strange.
As they walked into the lounge room, Duo noticed a woman sitting on one of the couches, drinking a coffee as she looked to be reading a novel.
"I'm home mother," Relena said as she came into the room.
"Hm, so you are," Mrs. Darlian said as she looked up at her briefly. Before she lowered her gaze back to her book again she noticed someone standing beside her.
Watching her mother staring at Duo, Relena figured that she better do some introducing, "Mother, this is Duo Maxwell. Duo, this is my mother."
Duo looked to Relena in question but turned to look at Mrs. Darlian. So far, things have been very strange, strange enough that he didn't feel so angry. For some reason, being in Relena's house hadn't been too bad so far, although he wasn't liking the way that woman was looking at him. Mrs. Darlian continued to stare at Duo as though he was an annoying insect, which needed to be squashed quickly. Her stares felt as though they were burning straight through him, making Duo feel very uncomfortable, not to mention unwelcomed. Clearing his throat he began to walk up to her, although he was taking notice of her disgust as he approached. Wanting to be polite he held out his hand to her and kindly said, "Hello, it's nice to meet you."
Mrs. Darlian narrowed her eyes on him as he approached; she looked at his hand briefly before glaring back at him again. Standing up from the couch she eyed his long braid critically. Duo wasn't stupid, he knew what she was looking at, and the fact that she seemed to hate him already frustrated him. Was she that paranoid about who she met that she only cared about appearances first? And to think that he was trying to be polite too.
"By the look of your hair," she finally said, pausing for a moment, "I assume that you can?t seem to afford a descent hair cut??
Lowering his hand, Duo bit down on his tongue and kept himself from giving her any negative looks. He had a feeling that she was about to say something like that, but felt strange was the fact that he wasn't being negative at her for the past. Trying to keep a straight face she stared at him for a moment and said, ?Don?t take it personally but if you can?t afford to cut your hair than I would have to assume the worse with your personal hygiene too.?
Raising an eyebrow at her, Duo had to restrain himself to not do anything foolish while Relena just narrowed her eyes at her.
Glaring over at Relena now she said, "Really now Relena, why can't you invite descent guests like Quatre? At least he gives a better presentation of himself." With that said she walked out the room without a second glance. Relena had to step out of the way for her as she walked out, knowing that she would run over her if she didn?t move herself.
Duo was angry, but more than anything he was really, really confused. From the house to her mother, things were getting really suspicious. Duo felt as though the past which he had been deeply affected by, didn't seem to hang in the air around here? Looking over at Relena he was hoping that maybe she could explain something to him, this was bugging him ever since he saw her house and being inside of it wasn't making things any clearer for him.
Sighing to her self as she watched her mother leave, Relena noticed Duo looking at her in question. Turning to him, she could see confusion written all over his face. She had expected this, which was the reason why she wanted him to visit, not just about their oral presentations, but something which had hurt both Duo and herself long ago, "Duo, there is something I feel that I need to tell you. I'm sure you have noticed it already but maybe it will make some sence if I explain."
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Author's Note:
Writing this chapter made me cry, the things I had to write about Duo And to think that there is still more depressing things to write as well, based on the other characters . But anyway, I will be sure not to forget putting in some possitive things as well, If anything, they deserve it that's for sure I hope no one found this too offensive or anything, Duo is a strong character in this so things will turn out to be alright. Relena's past wasn't exactly mentioned I know, but there is some informationed based on her from Duo's words. Her past will be revealed bits at a time, her story is a very complex one (well sort of) but anyway, hope you all liked it (besides what Duo had to go through, but I'm sure you know what I mean ) Thanks for reading, and I will be looking forward to hear what you think.Email: neon_fantasy@hotmail.com
) If you are rrrrrrrrreally anxious, I could hint to you where some evidence of her past has been mentioned if you like