Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ My Kinda Fairy Tale ❯ Facting The Facts ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter Two
Facing The Facts

//King Solo and Prince Duo were seated at the head of the long dinner table. The twenty princes and princesses were seated down the sides. Head Advisor Zechs and the various chaperones. The Head Guard-//

"Who's gonna be the head guard?" Duo asked to himself. His best friend looked over to him. "Hmmm..."

"Maxwell, what are you talking about?" The Chinese youth asked as he stuck a sagging piece of broccoli in his mouth. He grimaced and put down the plastic fork. "You have been writing and talking to yourself for all of lunch! You haven't even bought yourself a lunch," he waved his hand over the empty spot in front of Duo. "And class is about to start!"

"It's just math," Duo stuck his tongue out. "Miss Nion won't mind that much if I doze off. And I...I'm not that hungry. Is that a problem with that Wu?"

"You? Not hungry? I say that qualifies for a international disaster. What are you doing?"

"I'm writing a story for Mr. Marquise's English class," Duo glared at the notebook with pure hatred. "And I'm getting a little stuck. I can't figure out who is going to be the Head Guard for the castle."

"Who?" Wufei asked confused. Wufei had moved to this school from China during the second semester of the ninth grade. He had been an outcast with bad english and a cold exterior. He spent the first few weeks being miserable, hanging in the back of classrooms, alone in the café and reading in the library. He was struggling though a book during his lunch when Duo found him out. Duo had insisted that Wufei put down the book he was reading. "It was pure torture!" Duo had claimed at the time. Wufei had reluctantly placed the classic down and taken a comic book Duo had offered. Duo claimed it was easier to read. Ever since then, Wufei had hung out with Duo and Dorothy. Through them he met a girl named Merian that had also moved from China a few years back.

Just then the bell rang throughout the cafeteria. It was time for class. Duo sighed and closed the book. Wufei dumped the remains of his lunch and they hurried to their separate classes. Duo slipped into his desk and slumped down. He was early, a rare thing and watched as the other students entered and took their seats.

When the room was reasonable full the teacher stood up and faced the class.

"Today I thought you could all work on your accounting projects with your partners. Off school chatter is kept to a minimum," she glared sharply at Duo who looked at the wall guiltily. "So get started."

Duo stretched and slumped as he waited for his partner to come to him. He smiled brightly as the blonde boy slapped the binder on his desk. Duo's new project, Quatre Rabarbera Winner, was the son of a huge company. Quatre had 29 older sisters and had been home schooled until he had reached high school. He was withdrawn around people his age but Duo had spent the last few month trying to get him to loosen up.

"Hey Duo!" the blonde teenager slapped his huge binder on the desk. "I got the notes from my dad that we needed."

Quatre had just gotten started on the accounts when the entire class was started by the door banging shut. They all looked accusingly at the person that just walked in.

"Go back to what you were doing," the principal ordered sternly. "I just need to talk to Ms. Nion for a minute."

"That's it!" Duo whispered under his breath and pulled out his spiral notebook from his bag. He hadn't even looked at his math book yet but he just needed to get this idea down.

//The Head Guard, General Treize Kushrunada was seated beside the king and sole heir. His eyes roamed the room constantly, more from habit then real suspicion. Duo fidgeted as he glanced around the almost silent room. There was a singer playing the long sad song in the background and people were politely commenting about the fabulous food the cook had made. Duo's seat was far from anybody of interest so he turned to his father and pretended he was going to have a polite conversation.

"Father, your choice of my seat is most unpleasant. I thought the point was for me to meet the people, not let them observe me."

"Duo, are you trying to hint at something?" King Solo smiled slyly. "Say perhaps you have a certain someone in mind already?"

"Someones, father," Duo glared. "The Prince Heero and Princess Dorothy are most pleasing to the eye. I would like to know if they are also pleasing to the ears as well."

"Point taken. I have a talk with Zechs after about seating arrangements. But keep in mind you can only take one of them. I've heard Prince Heero has a heart of stone. In the mean time, there is one Prince I would like you to meet. No, not as a future ruler of Solo Kingdoms but as an ally to the south. Prince-"//

"Duo? Duo? Duo are you still alive in there?"

Duo snapped his pencil up and looked guiltily at the annoyed blonde. He tucked the notebook back into his bag and looked at Quatre innocently.

"Of course! Would you think otherwise? Where were we?"

"Class is over Duo," Quatre smirked. Then Duo noticed the almost empty room. "You might want to hurry if you are going to get your books and make it to you next class."

"Holy-" Duo jumped up and knocked his chair over. He grabbed his bag and yelled a thanks at Quatre as he sprinted out the door. 'Why me?' he thought as he dodged people and things. 'Why is my locker all the way at the other end of the building? And why do I always forget to pick up my books at lunch? Shit, shit, shit, shit, shi-'

Duo's train of thought was halted by a solid force. He looked up dazed at the human wall above him. He took the offered hand as he started to apologise extensively.

"I'm really, really sorry! Are you ok, I'm so sorry, more so if you turn out to be a teacher or superindent or Ms Une or-"

"Duo?" the person sighed. "You forgot this again." A binder was placed in front of Duo's face. Duo looked up into the one visible green eye of his locker buddy.

"Trowa! Great to see you! Even more great to see my binder. Do you know I love you man? I will do anything for you, you do realise this?"

"Duo," Trowa sighed again. "I think Heero will appreciate that more then I would. Forward my thanks to him. And it's not a big deal, I get them for you everyday."

"I love you buddy!" Duo winked and glanced at the clock on the wall. "Awe shoot! I'm gonna be late! See ya Tro!"

Duo bounded off down the hall while Trowa shook his head. He had been friends with Duo since the ninth grade and they had to share lockers. It had been within the first month that he had finally asked Duo if he could go through his stuff and keep the locker clean. Once that obstacle was out of the way, Duo and Trowa became fast friends.

Duo barely made it to his class when the final bell rang. 'It was totally unfair,' he had ranted to the Guidance near the beginning of the semester. 'My math class is at the back, my next class is in the portable farthest from the school and my locker is near the office! Do you really expect me to make the run in five minutes! The walk from one end of the school to the other is five minute in itself!' Apparently they had.

"Good afternoon class," the teacher greeted the class in a dry, bored sounding voice. "How is everyone today? We are going to be looking at the effects of-"

At that point Duo tuned out. Most of the class did. Dekim, the history teacher, was anything from interesting, especially when it came to the Great Depression or whatever today's class was. Duo felt his mind drifting to his story. The more he thought about it, the more fascinating it got. Duo knew the outcome of course, but now he had to introduce the characters more, make a real plot, settings, the list went on. He picked up his history notebook and began to doodle as he thought.

Nearing the end of the class he glanced down at the drawing that covered the entire page of his book. It was a lay out of the castle, towers, spare rooms and where they were, the kitchens, stables, courtyards, dining hall, the walls, and more. Duo was slightly awed at his sub-consciousness.

"Duo Maxwell?" the teacher's sarcastic voice brought him to attention.

"Yes sir?" Duo gulped and hoped he wasn't going to be asked a question.

"Can you answer it?" Dekim raised an eyebrow. Duo shivered. The teacher had always given him the creeps. Dekim was constantly calling him to the board and Duo could feel his small squinting eyes running all over his body.

"Could you repeat the question?" Duo asked as calmly as he could.

"Since you were taking such extensive notes during the class this should be an easy question. What was one of the main reasons World War II ended so abruptly with Germany?"

"Germany was trapped by the allies approaching from three sides," Duo answered confidently. "There was no place for Germany to escape to, so they were forced to give up."

"Good," Dekim looked disappointed. "May I see you after class Duo?"

"Yes sir," Duo gulped. The final bell rang and the rest of the class was jerked out of their blank state and quickly left. Duo slowly packed up his stuff and went up to the teacher's desk.

"Duo, how are you doing?" Dekim smiled. Duo felt an icy fear climbing up his spine and he clutched his book a bit tighter.

"I'm just fine sir. What did you want me to stay behind for sir, I have a ride to catch back to home soon and I'd rather not miss it."

"I know where you live Duo, I can easily drive you home. Have a seat."

Duo slowly sat in a nearby chair as Dekim stood up and eyed him. Duo's breath caught as Dekim walked over to the desk.

"Dekim?" a voice snapped Duo from his stationary state. Mr. Marquise stood in the doorway with a hand raised to knock on the open door. "What are you doing? I thought classes were over today."

"I was just giving Mr. Maxwell here some more notes for class," Dekim quickly turned away and straightened some paper on his desk. "I'm just explaining somethings to him and it could take a while. Would you mind coming back?"

"Actually, I was hoping to speak to Mr. Maxwell now about an assignment I gave him a while back. Could I just borrow him for a second?"

Duo immedently jumped up from his seat, a huge wave of relief making his knees weak. He turned to the wrinkled old history teacher with a fake look of regret on his face. "I'm sorry sir, but this assignment is very important and it can't wait. Could I be excuse? I'm sure I have enough notes for now."

"Alright," Dekim sighed. "Be off with you two."

Duo practically ran from the classroom and set a fast pace until the room was around the corner. Mr. Marquise hurried to keep up with him. They walked down the hallway at a normal pace.

"That man should be fired," Mr. Marquise grumbled. "There have been more then one complaint about him, what the school board keeps him I'll never know."

"That's ok, Mr. Marquise. Would you mind talking while I go to my locker? I'm in a hurry."

"Not at all. I did want to ask you how the story was coming."

"It's ok," Duo frowned. "But I'm having difficulty placing characters. I could make them up on my own so I'm using real people. I hope that's ok."

"It perfectly fine Duo. It is only a high school assignment, it not like it's going to be published and set out of shelves," he smiled. "I look forward to reading it. I'll be seeing you tomorrow."

"Goodbye sir!" Duo called as Mr. Marquise left down another hallway. Duo stopped in front of his locker and spun the lock. The halls were nearly empty so he hurriedly grabbed his books and dumped them in his bag. He closed his locker only to have it bounce off the lock he had forgotten to take out. The lock was bumped off and went sliding down the hall.

"Oh bother!" Duo said crossly and got on his hands and knees to look under the lockers. As he did that, his unzipped bag spilled out onto the floor. He swore vigorously under his breath and he grabbed the papers that fell out of his disorganised binders and hazardously shoved them into his bag. He took the time to zip it up and grabbed the lock from the floor. He slammed the locker door and snapped the lock shut.

He almost left the near empty hall when a glitter of gold laying at the foot of his locker caught his eye. He bent down to pick up the gold chain. He gasped as he recognised it as his own. His looked at it quickly and saw the plain gold cross on it was gone and the chain had snapped. Duo dropped his bag and started to crawl on the floor looking for it.

A last minute student somehow missed him on the floor and stomped on his hand hard. Duo bit back tears as he quickly straighten and clutched his hurting hand. Duo slumped against his locker holding his hand and felt like crying. Everything was going wrong today. First his alarm didn't go off so he had to run to the bus stop then he forgot a french paper at home and barely talked his way out of a detention, he forgot his lunch money so he was hungry. He hadn't even look at his math, the whole thing with Dekim, his locker, the cross, then his hand.

No use crying, Duo glanced around for his cross again. It took a few minutes but he found it under a heater at the end of the hall. How it got there, Duo was yet to find out. He had to slide on his belly to get it and he was covered with dust. He slipped the necklace into a pocket where it would be safe and picked up his bag in the hopes the buses hadn't left yet.

It just wasn't Duo's day. He reached the doors in time to see the last bus pull out. He knew the late bus wasn't leaving today because the driver had just quit and the school still needed to find a replacement driver. Father Maxwell was away for the week to get some more funding for the orphanage, Sister Helen didn't have a license and he didn't have anyone to pick him up. He sighed and started down the steps, prepared to walk the four hour walk to his town. He wasn't even out of the parking lot when an old batter jeep pulled up beside him. The window rolled down and a voice spoke to him.

"Need a ride?"

Duo smiled and walked to the passenger side. He opened the door, slipped gratefully in and buckled his seatbelt. Then he leaned over to the driver and gave him and little peck on the cheek.

"Thank you Heero," he slumped on the warm padding and closed his eyes. Heero started to drive down the dirt country road.

"Rough day?" He asked quietly.

"The worst!" Duo complained miserably, not even opening his eyes. "First my alarm broke so Matt had to wake me up five minutes before the bus arrive. I had to grab these clothes that haven't been washed in a month-"

"So that's what smells."

"Hey! Anyway, I missed breakfast. I forgot Madame Goulash's french paper and almost got a detention. Dorothy was pestering me all science class; I forgot my lunch money so I'm starving. Quatre let me get away with ignoring him during math so I have no idea what we are doing in our project. I have writer's block for my extra English course, Dekim, just... Then my lock flew off the door and I had to look for it so my books spilt on the floor. I found the lock and got my papers but then a guy stepped on my hand so it's sore. And my cross broke!" Duo sniffed miserably and slide lower in the seat.

"Duo," Heero smiled and looked over to him for a second. "Life hasn't been good for you lately. Why don't you call up Sister Helen and tell her you're going to be late."

"But I'm not with you driving me," Duo pointed out and opened his eyes.

"I'm going to take you out," Heero handed him a small cell phone. "Dinner, a movie, shopping, you decide, my treat."

Duo's face split into a huge grin as he dialled the number for the Church. His wonderful boyfriend Heero Yuy, was actually a cousin of Quatre. He was from a very wealthy family too, but like Quatre he had been sheltered with home schooling and very little contact with people his age. Unlike Quatre however, Heero had no other siblings and he had been raised by the housemaid. His parents were constantly away and decided to let Heero attend a public high school. From the first moment Duo saw Heero it was love at first sight. Duo had trailed Heero for weeks, too shy to approach him or even talk to him. It was Dorothy who he confessed his feelings to and she urged him to at least make friends with the silent excuse for a human. Duo did start to hang out with Heero about a month into grade ten and by the next semester they had become a couple.

Now in grade 12, Heero had his license and they took their dates more often. Sister Helen and Father Maxwell could care less about Duo's preferences, one of their strongest teachings was love was love no matter who you share it with. Their second strongest belief was against premarital sex and Duo and Heero heartily agreed. Heero's parents had found out about Duo a year into the relationship. They disapproved and didn't mind showing their dislike for Duo. Maria, the house maid, treated Duo like a lost son, fattening him up and such. Still, Heero spent a lot of time at the Church and away from the huge empty house.

After leaving a message with Hilde, Duo pulled out his notebook.

"May you can help me Heero," Duo glared at the paper. "I have a bit of a brain cramp right now."

"What is it about?"

"It's about a Prince Duo, who is being forced by his father Solo to marry somebody. They invite the kingdom's finest maids and princes to meet Duo. There's the Head Advisor, Zechs Marquise, Head Guard Treize Kushrinada, a Chaperone Lady Une, Princess Dorothy and, er, Prince Heero."

Heero raised and eyebrow in amusement. "Let me guess, I'm the hero of the story."

"Right!" Duo grinned wickedly. "How did you ever guess? Anyway, I left off when..."

//"Point taken. I have a talk with Zechs after about seating arrangements. In the mean time, there is one Prince I would like you to meet. No, not as a future ruler of Solo Kingdoms but as an ally to the south. Prince-"//

"And then I need a name," Duo said as he finished the story.

"An ally. And someone that is at school. Well, who do you know that is your friend and helps you out?"

"That would be Dorothy, but I've used her," Duo chewed on his pencil and looked out at the rapidly passing landscape. "Wufei? Na, can't see it. One of my better friends...Oh duh! I even bumped into him today! Trowa!"

"Your locker buddy? Yea you've introduced us a few times. I guess he'd work. So he's going to be your ally. So all you have to do is introduce him into the story."

//"...Prince Trowa. He's a good boy, I've known his family for a long time."

Duo frowned. "You mean that guy with the weird hair? From the Barton kingdom? I thought the Barton's didn't have a heir."

"Trowa was adopted but an aunt of the family and she just got married a few months ago. Trowa was taken in by the king and queen and was pronounced to be the heir."

"Ah, that makes sense." Duo noticed the servants coming to clear away the plates from the last course. "Are they all going to their rooms now?"

"Yes, but I've arranged to have Barton in the guest room nearest to your tower so you can visit him a little later. From what I've observed, Trowa isn't interested in a relationship so you can't have the mixed signals."

"Alright, well I guess I'd better be off. I'll get one of the guards to escort me to Prince Trowa's room later."

Later, in the Prince's chambers, Duo finished braiding his hair and secured it with a ribbon. This was one task he wouldn't let anyone do for him. He decided that he was going to be bored unless he did something. He opened the heavy wood door to his tower room and peered down the narrow, stone staircase. It was on a sharp turn so Duo couldn't see past the first torch. Instead he yelled for the guard he knew was waiting at the end of the stairs.

"Guard!"//