Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ True North ❯ True North, Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

True North

Chapter 11

Pairing: 2x1

Category: AU

Warnings: OC kid

Gundam Wing copyright Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu Agency. "Eien no Rhapsody" copyright Midori Saiha/Ringo Zaidan.

"For God's sake, Heero, get to bed already," Duo said, exasperated. "You've got a week left before the exam. There's no need to be studying this obsessively." He stood in the hallway, ponytail rumpled, blinking owlishly in the light.

The clock read a quarter to one. It /was/ late, but Heero had two more subjects to go over before sleep was anywhere on his agenda. Besides, he didn't need to be anywhere the next day, so sleeping in wasn't a big deal.

Duo, however, wouldn't have any of it. He walked over to the table, picked up a few books and started stacking them up. "Not a word out of you," he said firmly, just as Heero began to protest. "You," Duo jabbed a finger at his chest, "have been doing this since after dinner for three or four days. It's Saturday now, and if this keeps up, you will not have a chance in hell of passing. You need to give yourself time to rest, and as of right now, you've got ten minutes to get in bed."

"I'm not even done for today," Heero muttered.

"Tough." Duo turned on his heel, carrying the stack of books down the hall. "Bed. Now. We'll start teaching you better study skills tomorrow."

Heero sighed inwardly; there was so much he had yet to review, and a week didn't seem like enough time. Duo was right, though; if he didn't give himself enough rest, anything he studied would be wasted.

One pitfall of being a prodigy was the lack of any practical knowledge for studying, he thought, trudging obediently after Duo, though how Duo knew anything about studying he hadn't the faintest idea.

He yawned, and then realized that he was, in fact, extremely tired. Sleep sounded like a good idea right now. Tomorrow, though, he'd be back to the books, papers and mock exams.

Without bothering to get undressed, Heero fell into bed and was asleep within seconds.

******

It turned out that Duo wasn't the one with the expertise for study. That, in fact, was Moira's jurisdiction. It made sense, actually, if Heero gave it some thought; after all, she'd been in an environment that had exams on a regular basis.

And now, Moira was gaping at him after he'd described to her how he'd been preparing for the recertification exam. Since it was April and nearing final exams for her, she had spent most of her time in Blair's library.

"That's /not/ how to go about it. That is /so/ not the way how to go about it," she said. "Gotta hand it to you for your mental stamina, but Jesus Christ, you're gonna burn out at that rate." She shook her head, her braids swaying side-to-side as she did so.

"So why do you stay in the library for so long then?" Heero asked.

"I take breaks every now and then." Moira took a sip of her juice. "You have to. Otherwise you go crazy. Also, it lets the info settle in your mind a bit better." Her fingers drummed onto the table. "What you need to do, I think, is study for thirty minutes and then take a five or ten minute break before going back. I know it doesn't sound logical, but it really works."

"Really?"

"Yes," Moira said, "really. And that's only the beginning. Start making flashcards for the vocabulary on the exam. You're already taking notes on the papers you've printed out from the library, right? Read those, and /only/ those from this day forward. Are you writing mock essays yet?"

Heero shook his head.

"Then you're starting today." A melody with high-pitched vocals played, and Moira pulled out her cell phone. "Hold on, it's Heather," she said, pressing the talk button. "Whaddya want, `ho?...whoa, /whoa/, hold on. I can barely understand you...he /what/? Oh, oh no he /didn't/...fuck. Fuck! /Fuck/!"

"Language," Heero said matter-of-factly.

"I'mma kick his bitch-ass! Shit! It's due Monday, and he /forgot/ his data?" Moira slammed a hand on the table with a sharp crack. "Fuck that. So what do we do now?...uh-huh...I don't think he's /that/ sorry, but he will be after I'm done beating his ass. Fuck! Shit! God/damn/!"

"Language," Heero repeated.

"Wait a minute," Moira said, and then, to Heero, "One of our group members screwed up horribly on a project that is twenty-five percent of our final grade. I think I'm allowed to swear." Before he could reply, she went back to the phone. "Okay...yeah, I can make it. I'll be right there. How long do you think it'll take?...what? Oh, now I am /so/ ready to make sure Kevin doesn't have children...all right. I'm going now. Later."

"Damage control?" Heero asked, turning back to the paper he'd been reading before talking with Moira. She made an affirmative noise.

"I /might/ come back for dinner, if not, I'll call. By the way, I wouldn't stay up too late studying if I were you," she said, getting up from her chair. "Let me know how it goes. I'm out."

With that, Moira was gone. That was good; it was after lunch and Heero was even more behind schedule than he'd anticipated. Never mind that he truly didn't want to stay up late; now, implementing the new study skills, there wasn't much of a choice. Duo wouldn't be happy, of course. Still, how was he going to pass otherwise?

******

Around eleven twenty-five at night, Duo came downstairs, already dressed in his T-shirt and pajama bottoms.

"Baby, come to bed already. It's so cold without you," he pleaded, kneading Heero's shoulders.

"Not yet." He hadn't realized he was so tense; Duo was really working out those knots. "There's more to do." All Duo did was keep massaging.

"You'll get it done later. Now get to bed."

Heero turned a page. "Give me fifteen more minutes." Reading the notes only helped a great deal; it cut down on time, and he was still able to remember the information. But he hadn't begun writing mock essays yet, and that had been saved for after he'd finished reading.

All of a sudden, Duo took his hands off. "All right. Guess I can't convince you," he said. "I'll go up first and see if I can't warm up myself. Night."

"Night." That was weird, Heero thought; usually Duo protested so much that he had to pry his hands off so that he could get back to his studying. Maybe Duo had decided there wasn't any point in arguing anymore, since the exam wasn't so far away and by the end of next week, he wouldn't have to study anymore.

There was enough time to start an outline for one of the essay questions. Moira had been ambivalent about that; the way she'd normally operated, she said, was to put the pencil to paper and start writing, since she usually knew what she wanted to write by the time she finished reading the question. It'd worked for her, but many others-Heero included-preferred writing an outline first to get their thoughts organized.

He'd only begun writing the main ideas to be touched upon when the lights all shut off at once, leaving him in pitch black darkness. Even the clock wasn't on, and for a moment, he wondered if there was a blackout. But the neighbors next door seemed unaffected.

Heero then realized why Duo had given up so quickly. All the lights in the house were rigged to shut off and stay that way, as nothing responded to his vocal commands. It couldn't have been Duo who'd done the actual handiwork, though; that meant that Moira was in on it too.

He was about to yell at Duo that they could have told him instead of pulling something like this, but then he realized something else; Moira had casually told him to not stay up too late, and Duo had asked him to come to bed.

Heero groaned and trudged in defeat towards the bedroom. He wanted to strangle both of them, especially now that he'd reached the doorway, where Duo was cocooned in a mound of blankets. He momentarily shifted in the bed to peer at Heero.

"Finished already?" Duo asked groggily. Heero gritted his teeth; he could detect a note of smugness in his voice.

"Shut up and go back to sleep, Duo," he growled.

******

There was no sympathy from Moira, as Heero found out the next day.

"Yeah, I tinkered with the lights to go off around eleven-thirty," she said airily. "Dad said he'd get that new processor chip for me if I did it."

"Duo /bribed/ you?" Heero asked, incredulous.

"Well...okay, yeah. Somewhat, but he had a point, y'know." She typed something into her laptop. "If you kept going like that, you'd be worn out by the time the exam came around. `sides," she arched an eyebrow at Heero, brushing her messy bangs out of the way, "telling you to rest failed spectacularly. What else could we do?"

She turned back to her laptop to resume typing. Heero did not know what to say for a while, and then realized that she was right; they'd told him last night, and Duo had kept telling him before that on a constant basis.

Even so, it didn't make last night any less frustrating.

"I can't believe he did that," he muttered. Moira shrugged.

"That was the main thing. Oh, that reminds me. Exam's next Saturday, right?"

Heero nodded. A sly grin spread over the girl's face. It was an expression he didn't like.

"Okay. Friday night at nine, you're not studying anything anymore. You'll be watching TV with Dad and me, which is good, because that's the day /Queer Eye: Earth-Colony Edition/ will be showing." Moira leaned back in her chair, wearing an incredibly smug grin.

He shook his head. "We're not watching that."

"Not your choice. That was a bonus I got for the lights; I got to pick the TV show we watch on Friday, and frankly, would you rather watch MTV Classic? Because they're showing /The Real World: The Shit They Should Have Shown/ marathon that same night, and I think every single episode features the desecration of a corpse in some way." The last sentence was spoken in a flat, clinical tone of voice while she gave Heero an innocent, wide-eyed stare.

Heero never thought she was ever capable of looking that sweet. It disturbed him a great deal. That, and the idea of watching a program where people who were older than himself couldn't understand that rigor mortis and sea burials were not a good combination.

"You /know/ not all gay people are like the ones on /Queer Eye,/" he said. Heero hadn't seen the show for himself-he'd only heard what Duo had told him, and from that alone, it didn't sound like a program he'd be too interested in watching, or, as Duo put it, "it's a show that's God's gift to the straight female population, not us."

"Oh, I know. If they were, I wouldn't have to watch it, would I?" she said sweetly. "They've got Zechs Merquise for hair and grooming this time, and he's my favorite on the Earth edition. Anyway, don't you have an exam to study for?"

He glared at her, but she didn't even blink. Finally, he sighed and stalked off, Moira's trademark sarcastic "Yeah, I thought so," following him.

******

Four days before the exam, Heero started taking the practice tests from the past three years and scoring himself afterwards. Duo and Moira's suggestions worked; so far, all the results on the practice tests put him well into the "qualified for certification" area.

The exam consisted of two parts, taking up about three and a half hours: first was the multiple-choice section and the second was the essay. He could score himself on the multiple-choice, but for the essay, he looked to Duo for help.

"I'll be damned," Duo said, after he'd graded the latest essay. "I can't find /anything/ wrong with this one, and that's when I'm being obsessively nitpicky. You're going to pass, Heero, so I don't see why you're so worried all the time. At this rate, you could stop studying now if you wanted."

Heero snorted. "Sure, but is it worth the risk?" He didn't want to walk into the exam only to find out that he couldn't remember important information for either part. All Duo did was laugh.

"What risk?" He gestured towards the essay. "Your recertification's practically in the bag. If you want to keep studying, sure, do it, but for an hour at most. Clearly, the info's not going anywhere for the next day or two. Remember, Friday, you're not allowed to study after nine at night."

Heero groaned. "Did you have to let her pick what we were going to watch?"

Duo shrugged, putting the essay paper on the table and leaning back. "I told her to rig the lights by Sunday night and she had it done early Saturday morning. So I threw it in as a bonus. It could have been worse; we could be watching /Buddy Cole's Back Door Man Love Hour/. Now that show's real popular among girls her age."

Heero grimaced: he'd accidentally seen that when he'd still been mastering the eye controls of the TV set. What he'd seen could be considered soft-core porn, with a few dramatic scenes thrown in for plot and possibly an opportunity for the characters to be fully dressed.

"Do all girls watch this sort of thing?" he asked. Duo chuckled and got up out of his chair.

"Ah, it's just a phase." Heero watched him open up the fridge and rummage around. "She might settle down once she gets a boyfriend of her own. When she was nine or ten, just before she got skipped up to high school, she had this little game called Cops: Bike Edition, right? She used that as an excuse to mow down the kids who took her lunch money on the playground. Didn't stop until I took away the bike for a month." He emerged with a carton of orange juice and went to the cupboard for a glass.

"Then there was the `talk in a Scottish accent whenever possible' phase. That one just died out on its own...I think that was age twelve." Duo turned from the cupboard, glass in hand, and set it down onto the counter. "Wasn't that troublesome, though that same year she got into girls' football, and /that/ was fucking frightening. Gave as good as she got, but I took her out next year because I was afraid there'd be a game where all that'd be left of her would be hair and bone fragments."

He poured the glass full and took a sip. "Don't get me wrong, she can be vicious; there were games where she was downright nasty, but I got freaked out `cause compared to the other girls on that team, she's tiny."

Heero frowned. "What does this have to do with her wanting to watch that show on Friday?"

Duo opened his mouth to answer when they both heard the door slide open and Moira staggered into the kitchen, wearing a silly grin and a glittery pink feather boa wrapped around her shoulders. She stood there swaying for a few seconds before uttering, "Heeeeeey."

"What the hell did you /do/?" Duo asked. "I thought you guys were working on that project."

Moira held up one finger, batting away the feather boa with her other hand. "Well, we /were/ doing that, but we got done, so we went out to uh...celebrate. Yeah. And it was drag queen night at this place, and we went anyway because it was the only one that wasn't too crowded."

"Are you drunk?" Heero asked, suspicious. At that, Moira shook her head so rapidly her hair was hitting her face.

"No, but the others are. When I left, I think Kevin was walking into the wall again and again...I've got a movie on my camera if you want to see-"

"That's fine," Duo said quickly. "You look pretty beat, kid, and there's class tomorrow. Better get to bed." He gently shoved her towards the stairs. "Scoot, scoot."

After she'd left, Heero raised an eyebrow at Duo. "I suppose that's another phase of hers."

Duo took a deeper drink from his glass. "Yeah, I guess. Hopefully she'll grow out of it by the time she reaches thirty."

******

/Queer Eye,/ Heero decided, was one of the dumbest shows he'd ever had the misfortune to watch, and he'd only seen the opening credits.

But considering the opening credits had Otto, the one in charge of fashion, twirling and skipping with no less than three shopping bags on each elbow with a small fluffy poodle trotting at his heels, it didn't take much to tell that it was going to be an extremely long hour of television.

If he hadn't been flanked by Duo and Moira on each side, he'd have gotten up, taken a book from the shelf and gone to read in the dining room, but when he'd tried to get up to go to the bathroom, Moira sat on his legs and wouldn't budge. He'd had to get Duo to help pry her off.

Now Zechs Merquise was inspecting the bathroom of this episode's straight man. The camera zoomed in on the bathtub, which had a distinct ring around the inside.

"Oh, this guy is gross," Zechs muttered, as the camera zoomed in further, displaying a crude stick drawing scratched in the dirt.

"Ewwww," Moira squealed. "I wonder what his /toilet/ looks like."

"It's probably just as bad as the kitchen," Duo said. "Yeesh. `The dishwasher's broken!' is not a good excuse! Get it fixed, man. He's just fucking lazy. Those dishes have been in there forever; no wonder they all got knocked back by the smell."

Moira made a disgusted noise and shuddered. "That's sick."

Now, while Otto pranced around the house wearing one of the man's ponchos, Zechs ran his hands through the man's greasy hair. "Ugh, how often do you wash this, Justin?"

"Uh...I guess once a week. I dunno. I use the shampoo Lisa gave me."

Zechs immediately whisked his hands out of Justin's hair and stalked off, returning with a bottle of shampoo. "For dry/damaged hair," he read. "Dude. Your hair is not dry. You could probably lubricate an entire spaceship with what's in it now. First we need to get it cut /properly/, and then we're going to look at the products /you/ need and not your girlfriend."

"But first, we're going to go shopping for clothes!" Otto chirped, popping up wearing a long blonde wig along with the poncho.

"Aw, that's just wrong. Now he's trying to be Zechs," Moira said. "Except /not/, because Zechs has prettier hair and stuff." She shifted on the couch, putting her stockinged feet up on the coffee table. One thing Heero had noticed in the ten months he'd lived with her; she never wore, or even seemed to own, white socks. They were always striped, gray, or black. Duo had a mix of white and black.

It was amazing how knowing small, inconsequential things like that made him feel...well, good, for lack of a better word.

The screen switched to commercial break, and Duo got up and stretched. "I think I'll get something to drink," he said. "You guys want anything?"

Heero shook his head while Moira said, "Juice! The usual!"

Duo grinned, reaching over and patting the girl's head. "It's always white cranberry with you, isn't it? No UTIs in your future," he said, turning around and going for the kitchen.

"Isn't this show great?" Moira asked. "Zechs is so hot."

Heero shrugged. "It's a dumb show. The problem with Justin is that he's lacking in any common sense. He doesn't need those five yet; nobody should have to be told to wash his or her own dishes or to keep a clean house."

Before Moira could reply, the sound byte of a very irritated woman snapping, "What the fuck you doing? What the fuck you doing? What the fuck you doing?" over and over played at a loud volume. Moira groaned.

"Great, it's Kevin. Let me take this. Hello?" Moira rose from the couch. "What did I tell you about selecting that ringtone for my cell? No, dude, being /drunk/ is not an excuse. You used that for tossing me in the goat pen on our last project...what do you mean, you don't remember? You've got a fucking movie on your camera! So, what's up?"

She paused, half-listening, half looking at the screen, which was showing a commercial for the upcoming movie, /The Buttsex Musical/.

"Oooh, I'm seeing that," she murmured.

"No you're not," Heero said. The movie preview looked even worse than /Queer Eye/, mainly because the selling point of the film was the gratuitous use of the word "buttsex." Even Duo would have found it tiring after one and a half hours, but the audience would probably emerge from the theater using that word at least three times per sentence, and Heero was not going to suffer that in here.

All Moira did was wave him off and return to her call. "What? They're posted already? And Lucas did so badly he got wasted?...oh, let me listen. Wow. `Who's that boy and why is he wearing girl's clothes?' at his own reflection. That's /wasted/. Okay, look, is that all you wanted to say? Because we're having quality time by watching /Queer Eye/. Oh, and don't ever use that ringtone again or I'll find some way to get your drunk soundbytes as my ringtone. You know I can do it, bitch. Later."

She hung up and plopped down next to Heero once more. "I'm still seeing that movie," she said. "I think we're all planning to go after our Theoretical Physics final."

"The hell you will," Heero snapped, just as Duo came in with the drinks. "I'm not going to listen to you use the word `buttsex' whenever you can for who knows how long."

Duo raised an eyebrow. "Honey, you know that's the only joke the movie's got, right? The boys in that are pretty ugly." He handed Moira her glass and sat down.

"Yeah, but I heard they've got some good people on the soundtrack," she said, taking a drink.

Duo shook his head. "What the hell kind of competent songwriter would write a song about buttsex? No, /don't/ answer that question," he said, as Moira opened her mouth, about to tick off her fingers.

The commercial break ended and the show came on again, with Otto leading Justin into a clothing store.

"/This/ is Steel, the men's line for Ken Pundik. I know he's more famous for all those dresses, but his menswear shouldn't be overlooked," Otto said, taking Justin by the elbow through the racks of jackets, shirts and pants.

"Oooh, Ken Pundik. His dresses are /pretty/," Moira sighed. "And he wears them too, and he looks prettier than /me/."

This was going to be a long hour, Heero thought. A very long one.

******

The next morning, Moira was gone, out studying yet again, but she'd left a note reading, "I won't say good luck because you don't need it. I know you'll pass."

Maybe that was the case, but it didn't stop Heero from taking out his notes and giving them a last-minute glance while Duo had been cooking them breakfast. Of course, as soon as Duo saw what he'd been doing, the notes had gone into the recycling bin, along with a stern reminder to Heero that he'd studied more than enough and a good breakfast was more important right now.

Now they were in the car, driving to the test site; Duo was going to buy groceries while Heero took the exam, and then they were going to call Moira and have lunch together at a small place Duo'd read about online.

"Nice weather today," Duo said. He flicked on the turn signal. "I think that's a good sign."

"Don't be superstitious," Heero replied. He'd had bad days even with sunshine and cloudless skies. Not that he didn't have confidence in himself for passing this, but he'd wanted to make sure.

The test site-Hutchins Auditorium-appeared after they'd turned left and gone down the street for about three blocks. It was an old looking brick building, covered here and there with ivy vines, managing to blend in with the surrounding cafes and shops.

Duo pulled up to the entrance. "You gonna be okay from here?" he said. "You're not gonna get lo-"

"Duo, there are /signs/," Heero said, cutting him off. "And I can always follow people into the room. Don't worry about it." He pushed the car door release button, gathering up his things.

"Fine, then." Duo pecked him on the cheek. "Call me when you're done, okay? And good luck, though you don't need it. Anything you want from the store?"

Heero shook his head as he stepped out.

"All right, then. See you in a few," Duo said, shutting the door.

******

After he entered the auditorium, Heero noticed that he was the youngest sitting in; everyone else-they couldn't have been more than forty or fifty total-looked like they were in their late twenties or mid-thirties. In fact, it could have been his imagination, but he thought he saw some of the others staring at him as they took their seats.

He remembered what Duo had said: "Eh, they're not going to care about how young you are. They're more concerned with how they're going to do on the exam."

The booklet in front of him looked reassuringly similar to all the practice tests he'd been looking at. At this point, it was only something to get over with; he either knew what was on the exam or he didn't. In fact, he'd even memorized the proctor's opening remarks.

He could do it. And then afterwards, he'd be able to go back to work, begin research with Duo on his new project, and he'd be fully back to where he was before he was put into coldsleep.

"...now, if there are no questions, you may now open your booklet and begin."