Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ One Step Forward, Two Steps Back ❯ Rather Hang Out With a Street Rat ( Chapter 2 )

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

Quatre sighed as he looked from the schedule in front of him to the room that he was about to enter. He didn't recognize any of these people. It looked like none of them had been in his first class. Which meant that he was most likely going to have to sit in the back of the classroom, alone.

No one had questioned his presence here so far; they all probably thought that his dad had no time for him and so had shipped him off to a relative or something to keep him from getting in any trouble.

Though it was a pretty good accusation, it wasn't the complete truth as to why he had ended up here. If his dad hadn't walked in on him that day, then none of this would be happening.

Quatre heard a cough from behind him and realized with a start that he was blocking the door into the classroom. Blushing, he ducked his head and moved into the room. He headed to the back of the classroom where there was a group of empty seats and sat in the farmost one.

Quatre held his head up with his hand and stared off into space. He really didn't want to be here...

**** "You're sure that your father won't be here? That he's not coming home until late?" Quatre's then boyfriend, Zechs Merquise had asked as Quatre had slowly pulled him down the hallway to his room.

"I'm positive," Quatre replied as he lavished Zech's neck with kisses. "So just relax. None of the servants are going to come in my room with the towel on the doorknob; they know better by now. No one's going to bother us." Quatre grinned and kissed Zech's mouth feverishly. "So stop worrying. It'll be fine. Just enjoy." Quatre winked and pulled Zechs into the room and closed the door as he put the handy towel on the doorknob.

"Well, if you're sure," Zechs said hesitantly and then kissed Quatre himself. Quatre grinned and let Zechs move them back towards the bed as he fumbled with Zech's shirt buttons.

Quatre's tongue entered Zech's mouth as he finally got the shirt off of Zech's shoulders and threw it in some random direction across the room. Quatre's hands slid down Zech's back and was just about to push his pants down when he heard the door whip open.

Both Quatre and Zechs quickly jumped away from each other in reflex and Quatre's eyes rushed to the door, wondering who on earth would ignore his towel and just come in here. The person that Quatre found standing there, made his heart stop.

Quatre coughed and tried to figure out exactly what his father had seen. "Uh dad, what are you doing home? I thought that you had a late meeting tonight."

"I cancelled it so that I could come home and spend some time with my son," his father answered angrily, turning to Zechs, no doubt trying to figure out where he knew him from. Quatre knew that as soon as he remembered Zech's name, he would phone his parents as soon as possible.

Quatre didn't know what to do and turned to look helplessly at Zechs who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He knew that his father would tell Zech's father and Zechs knew it too. Zechs also knew that as soon as that happened, Zechs would be sent to a boarding school faster than you could say 'disowned'.

Quatre wanted to say something to Zechs to comfort him, but what was there to say in this sort of situation?

"Ah." Quatre's hopes collasped as he realized that his father had finally recalled the name of his friend. "Zechs Merquise, right?" Quatre's father didn't wait for confirmation. "I know your father quite well. I don't think that he would appreciate knowing that his son is up here with mine, doing who the hell knows what! Now get the hell out of my house before I call your father and make it so you can't get another job in your life, except for standing on the street corner whoring yourself. Do you hear me?"

Zechs whimpered, shot an apologetic look at Quatre, and ran for it. He didn't even bother to grab his shirt.

Quatre's father than turned back to Quatre. "I never believed that my own son would turn out to be a fag!" his father growled, glancing around the room as if the source of Quatre's homosexuality was something physical in there. "Didn't I raise you right? Didn't I give you everything that you could ever want? Didn't I give you it all?"

"Of course, Dad," Quatre managed to say, trying not to cry as he knew that would make his father even madder. "But-"

"Then why on earth did I find you with a boy?" his father raged, his blue eyes turning as dark as the ocean during a storm. "I had always expected to find you in bed with someone. I never doubted that. I know what teenage horomones are like. But why on earth did you have to make it a boy? Why couldn't you just find some nice girl to sleep with?"

"I'm sorry, Dad. I just don't-" Quatre tried to keep himself under control. He couldn't break now, he just couldn't. Not for his own sake or for Zechs's."I just don't like girls."

"YOU WHAT? You just don't like girls?!?!" his father bellowed. Quatre closed his eyes, not wanting to see his father's face anymore. Maybe it would make it easier to get through this. "Unless you're a girl, then you like girls. That's all there is to it. What do you mean you don't like girls? You don't just not like girls! You choose not to like girls! That's what you do!"

"No, Dad, it's not like that."

"Yes, it is!" Quatre's father's voice sounded closer. Afraid that he was going to get hit by him, Quatre reopened his eyes. "You will go and live with your uncle, Quatre. That's the end of this. You will go there and you will not see this boy again. You will learn how to correct your own mistakes, and you will like girls! Do you understand me?"

"But Dad-"

"There are no more buts, Quatre! You will do this, or you will be disowned. I don't care what anyone thinks. This is my decision and you will be a normal boy." With that Quatre's father turned around and left the room.

Quatre finally allowed himself to sink down to his knees and cry. Crying for his father's anger, crying for Zechs, and crying for himself. ****

"Hey, Quatre?" a soft voice asked, bringing Quatre back from his memory to the present time. "You looked like you were lost in thought. Is there anything wrong?"

Quatre looked up at Trowa, who was standing there smiling down at him warmly, and he nearly swooned. No one had ever looked at him like that before. There was so much concern in Trowa's eyes for him. Not even Zechs had ever looked at him like that. Never.

Quatre looked away sadly. It was probably all just a lie, though. How could someone who had known him for just a few hours look at him in concern? How could someone who didn't even know him feel worried for him? It just didn't happen. It was all just a lie. If his father, who he had thought loved him at least a little, could hate him after knowing him for so long, than no one could really like him after knowing him for so little time.

Besides, if Trowa knew that Quatre had just been thinking that, he'd look at him the same way his father had when he had found out. And there was nothing that Quatre could ever want less than to have anyone ever look at him that way again. If that meant that he had to live a lie, then so be it.

"Quatre?" Trowa leaned in, catching Quatre's attention.

Quatre realized that he hadn't responded to Trowa's question yet, and that he was probably getting even more concerned, if he was even concerned in the first place. He probably wasn't, but there was something at the bottom of Quatre's being that made him want to think he was.

"Huh? Oh! Nothing's wrong, don't worry about it. I just thought that I was going to be all alone in this class," Quatre said quickly, hoping to satisify Trowa's curiousity. Trowa's eyes didn't change though, and so Quatre continued on hurriedly. "I just didn't want to be alone, you know. It's scary to be alone in a new school. You never know what kind of queers you'll meet."

Trowa looked away, and Quatre tried to figure out what he had said wrong. But before he could, Trowa looked back and smiled. "I'm glad that you're okay now. Heero has invited us to eat lunch with him and Duo."

Quatre frowned. "Are you sure that we can trust Duo? He's probably a pick pocket or something." Quatre shook his head. That was one of the first things his father had taught him. Never trust someone off the street, they were all tricky bastards. "I've seen his kind before. They'll do anything they can to get money, you know. I've seen them rob old ladies, beg from the same old ladies they stole from, and whore themselves at night. It doesn't matter to them."

"You shouldn't stereotype people because of where they come from. If he did any of that, and it's a big if, he probably had a good reason to do so. Human instinct says that you will do anything to try and survive," Trowa said softly. "You don't even know how he ended up on the street or how long ago it was. For all you know, he may have just been on the street for a couple of months or something. You can't just condemn him like everyone else does because you know some exceptions."

"I agree with Barton on this," Wufei chimed in. "Everyone deserves the chance to either seperate themselves from the group or to join it. You can't just decide their fates because you think you're better than them. I also believe, from talking to him, Yuy has a good sense of morals and would only befriend someone who had them as well. Therefore, if Yuy is going to give Maxwell a chance, then why shouldn't we? It's only fair. Besides, if you were in Maxwell's shoes, wouldn't you hope that we'd give you a chance, too? We are willing to give you a chance to be a friend of ours right now, so do the same to others in return."

Trowa nodded and Quatre swallowed hard. Yeah, sure, maybe right now they were willing to give him a chance, but how long would their friendship last when they found out what Quatre was really like?

Quatre hoped for his own sake that they wouldn't shun him. Trowa reminded him of Zechs and it comforted him to be around something so familiar. Besides, Quatre didn't want to be all alone here as well.

Wufei slipped into a desk next to Trowa Barton and sighed. The first day of school seemed to be so dull to him. Math class so far had just been reviewal of all the things that he already knew; and consequently, it was incredibly boring. All he could hope was that socials class would be a bit more interesting than he expected it would be.

Barton was telling Winner to give Maxwell a chance and Wufei had to agree with him. Maxwell came off as a good person; therefore, they needed to give him a chance to confirm that or deny it. Besides, Wufei's clan had expanded by befriending those that no one else would go near, and they had definitely prospered because of it.

"I agree with Barton on this." Wufei voiced his opinion. "Everyone deserves the chance to either seperate themselves from the group or to join it. You can't just decide their fates because you think you're better than them. I also believe, from talking to him, that Yuy has a good sense of morals and would only befriend someone who had them as well. Therefore, if Yuy is going to give Maxwell a chance, then why shouldn't we? It's only fair. Besides, if you were in Maxwell's shoes, wouldn't you hope that we'd give you a chance, too? We are willing to give you a chance to be a friend of ours right now, so do the same to others in return."

Winner fell into deep thought, and Wufei again ignored the two. He hadn't been lying about Heero's judgment. For someone who obviously got a lot of attention due to who his parents were, he seemed to have his feet planted quite firmly on the ground. Wufei respected that a lot, and so he respected Heero.

As for Maxwell, Wufei did not yet know what kind of person he was or what to really think of him yet. Street rats could indeed be very rude and conniving, but Maxwell didn't act like a street rat. He acted like a well-raised person, who just got embarassed when people talked about him the way the snobs had earlier. A proper conversation with Maxwell would, of course, tell Wufei all that he needed to know, but that would have to wait until lunch at least.

The teacher began to talk, and Wufei forced himself to pay attention. It was mostly boring, but Wufei refrained from falling asleep during the lesson. He looked over at Barton and Winner, to see how they were doing. They were in the midst of a note passing session, and Wufei looked away. Rolling his eyes, he turned his attention back to the front of the class until something hit him in the head.

Wufei scowled, looking around to see what was going on. No one was paying any attention to him, and most people were either passing notes or chatting with friends. He scanned the floor and spotted a small piece of crumpled of paper. He reached down, picked it up and looked around again. Still no one was looking at him. He wondered what was going on.

Wufei uncrinkled the note and read it.

"W.C.- Wow, you look positively bored. Wanna talk? I heard that you're going to hang out with that street rat at lunch. What a complete waste of your time. I'm sure there are many other things that are worth doing and a thousand other people worth talking to. -D.C. (the blonde sitting next to you)"

Wufei glared at the note. Obviously this was one of those idiotic snobs that believed that they were three times better than anyone else, and a thousand times better than anyone without a lot of money.

Wufei picked up his pen and wrote, "A thousand other people like you?" in crisp, clean writing and threw the note back. Smiling as the note landed perfectly on her desk, Wufei turned back to the teacher.

He didn't care to see the girl's reaction, and was surprised when another note hit him in the head. This time it read, "Well, I suppose I could be better than the others. Why don't you eat lunch with me, instead of that brat, and see? -D.C.".

Wufei rolled his eyes and picked up his pen once more. He wrote, "I'd rather spend my time with a street rat than a snob." Wufei tossed the paper back while the teacher was writing on the chalk board and stretched, bored.

Barton glanced over at Wufei, giving him a questioning look. Wufei merely shrugged and mouthed that he would tell him later. Barton nodded and then went back to writing notes to Winner.

Another piece of paper hit Wufei on the head and he opened it up, smiling as he read. "You'll regret calling me that! I will make sure that you never make a good friend again."

Wufei merely looked over at here, made sure that she was watching and then balled up the note and tossed it into the nearby garbage can. Her eyes sparked with anger. Wufei grinned and looked away.

The bell rang and Wufei gathered up his stuff. Barton and Winner waited patiently by the door for him. On his way out, however, the blonde girl stepped in front of him.

"Why on earth would you, someone who obviously knows the importance of money, choose a street rat over me?" the blonde, D.C, asked, hands on her hips, glaring at him.

Wufei smiled down at her and took her hand. "You're right, I do know how much money is worth. And you're right, money is a very nice friend-getter." D.C's face lit up and she smiled back at Wufei, sure that he was coming around. "However, having a good personality is quite a better way." With that Wufei dropped her hand and walked away, leaving the girl frozen as she stared after him.

As he walked past them, he realized that Barton's and Winner's eyes were dancing with mirth. Wufei couldn't help but grin back in return, and all of them left the classrom with huge grins on their faces.

"Duo and Heero should have been there to see that!" Winner proclaimed. "I never knew that members of the dragon clan could be so nasty."

"I wasn't nasty," Wufei remarked. "I was just firm in my disagreement of her beliefs. That's all it was."

"Well, whatever you call it. It was very amusing to watch!" Winner exclaimed with a chuckle. "That you can't argue with."

"Indeed," Barton agreed with a nod, his eyes still flooded with laughter. "You can say that again. Hope you didn't want to go out with that girl or anything, because I don't think that you've made it on to her list of favourite people after that one."

"What? Going out with that piece of trash? Never!" Wufei mocked.

The three of them laughed about it until they reached the willow tree and saw that Maxwell was standing there, alone. He saw the three of them too and looked like he was about to run for the hills.

Wufei raised one of his hands and waved to the long-haired boy. "Hey there, Maxwell. I thought that Heero was eating with us too. Where did he run off to?"

Maxwell eyed the three of them for a second, trying to figure out what to do about them, and then shrugged. "He hasn't showed up yet. My class was right there," he said, pointing to a set of windows that were right next to a door which led outside. "So I got here right after the bell rang."

Winner shrugged. "Heero probably got stuck at the other end of the school or something like that." He sat down below the tree. "Well, let's all take a seat before someone decides to steal our spots."

"So, Trowa, you live somewhere different every year?" Maxwell asked as he opened up his lunch bag. When Barton nodded, he sighed wistufully. "I wish I could do that. I'd give anything to leave this town and go somewhere else. I've never even been out of this town."

"It's not that great," Barton replied. "You leave behind a lot of close friends, and it's hard to keep in touch with them when you're constantly on the move."

Maxwell nodded. "I guess I can understand that. I lost a lot of friends too, especially after I got picked up." Maxwell suddenly discovered that his food was very interesting and stared intensely at it.

"Duo-" Winner asked softly, "I hate to bring up touchy issues, but why were you on the streets? You look like a good kid- surely someone would have adopted you if you went to an orphanage or something."

Maxwell looked over at Winner hazily. "My house burned down when I was two, and a group of kids, mostly teens, took me in afterwards. We didn't need an orphanage to take care of us. We found shelter and food, that's all that we really needed. So we took care of each other. It was better that way."

"It must have been hard," Winner commented as he bit into a sandwich.

"It was, but we made it." Maxwell's eyes flashed. "We didn't have the right kind of families, so no one just handed us money for looking good."

Wufei coughed suddenly, spitting out a mouthful of water, and Trowa cleared his throat in surprise at that comment.

Winner glared at Maxwell. "My father doesn't just get handed money for looking good. He's worked for it all of his life, just like every other successful person does."

Maxwell snorted, looking ready to say something particularly nasty in reply, but thankfully, at that moment, Yuy decided to make an appearance. He flopped down between Winner and Maxwell, smiling.

"Sorry about that." Yuy's monotone voice sounded very calming at the moment for the entire group. "My English teacher wanted to talk to me about something." Yuy looked at each of them in turn and noticed the hostile energy between Winner and Maxwell. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Nothing!" Winner and Maxwell exclaimed at the same time, and then shot the other a poisonous look.

"So what was that girl writing to you about in the first place anyway?" Barton asked suddenly, trying to change the conversation tone of the group.

"Oh, she said that I shouldn't be wasting my time with Maxwell. I told her to go-" Wufei started to say but was interrupted when three girls, including the aforementioned blonde, walked over.

"Hello, Heero." A brunette, who Wufei had learned was named Relena, said as she fluttered her eyelashes. Then she turned to each of the others and nodded. "It's nice to see you, Wufei, Trowa, Quatre-" She glared as she said the last name. "Duo."

Everyone, except for Duo who glared back, nodded in greeting.

Relena smiled. "Now, I don't know if anyone told you this yet, but I'm the class president this year. Which means that I am responsible for making you feel at home here in Gundam High." Relena turned all of her attention to Yuy now. "So I believe that on Friday night, you should come with me and I could show you the town. Get the tour from someone whose lived here all their life."

Yuy stared at Relena with an unreadable expression on his face. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

Relena blushed slightly and Wufei couldn't help but wonder if she practised that kind of thing in front of her mirror each morning or something.

"Well, I guess you could say that." Relena giggled and her friends behind her did too. "But we don't have to call it that if you don't want to."

Yuy's eyes twitched and he frowned. "Then we won't."

"What did you say?" Relena asked, not believing her ears. She obviously wasn't used to being told no. Maxwell looked like he was about to burst out laughing and Barton had that mirthful look in his eyes again. "I didn't hear you."

"I said no." Yuy raised his voice and looked defiantly at her. Maxwell and Winner started to chuckle softly behind him.

"You can't say no to me! No one says no to me!" Relena exclaimed, stomping her feet.

"I just did," Yuy stated simply, frowning. "I'm not into dates."

Relena's eyes narrowed and she stood with her hands on her hips."What do you mean you're not into dates? I bet you're a fraud! I bet that you don't even like girls, you fag! Why don't you go and make out with your street whore?!" With that, Relena stomped away, the other brunette hot on her heels.

The blonde from socials class smirked at the five of them. "Looks like I was right about Duo, the street rat, not being worth it." She turned and walked away after Relena and the other girl.

Maxwell jumped up, growling, but Wufei shot up too, putting a comforting hand on Maxwell's shoulder. Wufei squeezed it to restrain him. "Don't let them get to you."

Yuy stood up too and grabbed Maxwell's other arm. "They're both just jealous."

Wufei nodded. "Don't pay any attention to them, Maxwell."

Maxwell nodded, but cast another glance in the girls' direction before sitting back down.

"And my name's Duo, not Maxwell," Maxwell told Wufei. Then he turned to the rest of the guys. "Sorry about that. It's just that girls like that tend to rub me the wrong way."

Everyone nodded at that, and silence overtook them.

Wufei pondered what had just happened. He had been right about Maxwell, Duo. Duo was a strong person and he deserved their friendship, there was no doubt about that. Duo was a person that Wufei was happy to owe his friendship to. Anyone who thought anything else was wrong.

"I noticed that this town has an arcade," Winner commented, after the moment of silence. "What do you guys think about going there after school today?" Everyone nodded in agreement once again and Winner beamed. "Alright then. We'll met at the front of the school after the bell. Then we'll all walk there."

Duo grinned mischieviously. "I'll have you all know that I have never lost a race. I look forward to leaving you all in the dust and kicking your asses."

Wufei snorted, though he was grinning. "You're going to have to put your money where your mouth is."

"Oh, I will," Duo said, as he wrapped an arm around Wufei's neck and then shoved him to the ground. "That I can guarantee you."

(A/N: There you go, the second chapter. It's very hard to write everyone's last names only. I think I had to go back and change them every single time..*sighs* oh well...whatever. That's what happens when you write the way Wufei thinks with only last names if you're male. Except for now, Duo. *shrugs* oh well...lol)
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