Open Your Eyes

“Wufei, you’re back!”

Trowa glanced up from his book when he heard the sound of Quatre’s voice and he was met with the sight of a rather disgruntled-looking Chinese boy making his way towards where they were sitting.

“Morning, Winner,” Wufei said, sitting down across from the blonde boy. “Who’s the new guy?”

“This is Trowa Barton,” Quatre replied, motioning to Trowa with a smile. “He and his brother Duo started here a couple of weeks ago while you were off sick. Trowa, this is Chang Wufei.”

Wufei nodded in greeting to Trowa who nodded back wordlessly. He looked up and his eyes narrowed slightly. “Yuy’s on his way over,” he commented idly. “Looks like we’re going to have to put up with his blonde shadow as well.” His nose wrinkled slightly in distaste. “I think I’ll go and start catching up on the work that I’ve missed.”

“Oh no, please stay,” Quatre said, looking concerned. “I haven’t spoken to you in so long now and besides, you haven’t met Trowa’s brother yet.”

Wufei frowned, but nodded his acquiescence, pulling a couple of books and a pen out of his bag and started poring over them, blocking out his surroundings. Trowa looked over at Quatre and raised his eyebrow. Quatre just shrugged and smiled apologetically in response. Wufei apparently wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but Trowa didn’t mind at all. The Chinese boy seemed a little stand off-ish, but it didn’t bother him. In fact, he found it rather refreshing compared to how smothered and awkward he felt around some of the other students.

Speaking of one of those students, Heero was making his way over to where the three of them were sitting, Relena tagging along behind him. Trowa sighed quietly. He couldn’t understand why Heero didn’t go nuts having Relena follow him around everywhere like that. He was extremely thankful that Dorothy never did the same to him.

Trowa didn’t look up when Heero took the seat next to him, but he did see Relena pouting out of the corner of his eye when she realised that due to the seating arrangements, she would have to sit opposite Heero rather than beside him. She took a seat next to Wufei who glared over at her, pushing his glasses further up his nose before burying his head back in his textbook.

For a while, none of them spoke which Quatre seemed to find particularly amusing. Wufei was too engrossed in his work while Relena was smiling at Heero and trying to catch his attention. Heero himself was staring off into the distance as though his thoughts were occupied with better things than his surroundings and Trowa just went out of his way not to really look at anybody.

“Glad we’re not too late!” a familiar voice announced loudly, making Trowa jump. “Wouldn’t want to miss this exciting little gathering for the world!”

Duo grinned down at his audience, receiving mostly glares in response. “Hey, quit staring at me like that!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in defence. “We just came over here to bring a little cheer to your otherwise dull as heck morning. Ain’t that right, Hilde?”

Hilde smiled in response and took a seat at their table. Quatre greeted her cheerfully and Trowa nodded. Duo sat down beside her and draped his arm casually across her shoulders, making Trowa smile slightly. They’d gotten together a few days ago and they seemed quite happy about the arrangement. They were good for each other, Trowa thought to himself. They got along just great and were always making each other laugh.

Trowa felt a little ashamed of himself for being envious of what Duo had. Things for him were so clear-cut and everything was in black and white, not in shades of grey like they were for Trowa. He still couldn’t figure off if he was relieved by the fact that Heero seemed to have backed off, or if he was upset about it and that worried Trowa.

“Wufei, you already know Hilde of course,” Quatre was saying, pulling Trowa away from his thoughts. “But this is Duo Maxwell, Trowa’s brother.”

“Hey, how’s it hangin’?” Duo asked with a broad smile.

Wufei glanced up momentarily before grunting, “Fine,” and going back to his work. Duo just shrugged good-naturedly and began a conversation with Quatre. Hilde leaned over to Trowa and tapped his knee to get his attention.

“Duo and I were thinking about seeing a movie this weekend,” she told him. “You’d be welcome to come along with us. You can bring Dorothy too if you’d like.”

“She’s busy this weekend,” Trowa replied quietly. He didn’t know the details, but he did know that she had some sort of function to attend and that Relena had been invited also.

Hilde’s face fell, but then she brightened again. “That’s too bad,” she said with a sympathetic smile. “But you can still come with us if you want.”

“No, that’s okay,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.” Although he enjoyed being around Duo and Hilde, he felt a little bad for intruding on their private time together. Both of them insisted that they didn’t mind at all and seemed to spend an abnormal amount of effort in getting Trowa to come out with them, but still…

“No, no, you should come along,” Hilde insisted. “Bring one of the other guys as well. Quatre might be free.” She raised her voice slightly. “Hey, Quatre! Wanna catch a movie this weekend?”

“Sorry, Hilde, I can’t,” he said apologetically. “Father managed to get some time off work for a couple of days so he’s taking Iria and I out for a three day vacation. I really am sorry though. Maybe we can go next week?”

Hilde rolled her eyes and smiled. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it,” she told him. She leaned closer to Trowa and whispered in his ear, “Quatre’s always apologising for something. Honestly, his conscience is like a mile wide.”

Trowa smiled slightly, but he was startled when another voice interrupted their conversation.

“I’ll go.”

Both Trowa and Hilde turned round to see Heero staring at them casually. He only raised an eyebrow in response.

Hilde didn’t say anything for a few seconds, unsure of whether or not Heero was making a joke. “Well then, that’s that settled,” she announced. “We still haven’t decided on what we want to see yet though, so do you guys have any preferences?”

“Action movie!” Duo called out loudly, apparently having been concentrating on their conversation as well as his own with Quatre. Hilde huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“You got to decide which movie we saw last time,” she said with a frown. “I had to sit through two and a half hours of watching some guy hacking off people’s heads left, right and centre.”

“I know, wasn’t it great?” Duo chirped.

“No,” Hilde replied flatly. “But now it’s my turn to pick a movie. It’s only fair.”

“Let you pick a movie?” Duo asked, looking astounded. “There’s no way on earth that I’m going to sit through some sappy chick flick.”

“Guys, guys!” Quatre said, waving a hand to get their attention. “You shouldn’t be fighting over something so trivial!”

“But it’s fun,” Duo replied with a smirk.

“Maybe you think so,” Quatre told him. “But it isn’t right. Why don’t you let Trowa decide?”

“Yeah, you pick out a movie, Trowa,” Hilde announced, patting his arm. “Otherwise Duo and I will be here all day arguing over what we’re going to see.”

Trowa shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe we could see some sort of thriller?” he suggested. “You like those types of movies, Duo.”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” said Duo enthusiastically. “Some sort of movie where the leading guy is a cop and he has a crazy serial killer stalking him, sending him body parts in the mail or something.”

“Duo!” Hilde cried, jabbing his ribs. “That’s disgusting!”

“It’s entertaining,” he countered and the two of them quickly began an argument whether or not gross-out movies were really aimed at the lowest common denominator.

“I see you’ve been making friends, Wufei.”

Trowa looked up to see a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair twisting into curls standing by the edge of their group, smiling down at them. Duo and Hilde fell silent while Wufei seemed to squirm in embarrassment.

“What do you want, woman?” he asked, hurriedly taking off his glasses and shoving them in his shirt pocket.

“I just wanted to see if you needed any help with the work you must have missed,” the girl replied calmly, not seeming too offended by Wufei’s rude response.

“If I want your help, I’ll ask for it,” Wufei told her, narrowing his eyes slightly. The taller girl only sighed indulgently.

“You don’t need to,” she responded with a slight smile. “Mr. Matthews already told me to check see if you were doing okay with the work he set for you.”

“Oh, I see,” Wufei said testily. “You think I’m incapable of doing this work by myself? You think that because you’re in the year above me, that makes you smarter?”

“I don’t think that at all, Wufei and you know it,” she said, lightly placing a hand on his shoulder. “But you do know that all you need to do is ask for me if you’re struggling, okay?”

Wufei merely huffed in annoyance and the girl’s smile widened. “I have to go find Noin now, so I’ll see you around, all right? Good luck with that work.”

Duo watched wide-eyed as she left. “Wow,” he said. “Who’s that?”

“That’s Sally Po,” Wufei replied, glaring at the girl’s retreating back. “She’s my mentor in Science. My teacher seems to think that Science is my only weak subject and he thought that that woman should tutor me to help catch up.” He scowled slightly. “I am aware of my own weaknesses, but I don’t need anyone’s help, least of all hers.”

“Oh, Wufei, you’re so stubborn,” Quatre told him gently. “Sally cares about you. That’s why she offered to tutor you and I think that’s very considerate of her. You know that she has a lot more work than we do right now, but she still wants to make the time to be your mentor. Why don’t you just accept her help?”

“I don’t need it,” Wufei insisted. “What could I possibly learn from her that I couldn’t find out from a textbook?”

“Textbooks don’t smooch,” Duo announced with a huge grin. Wufei sputtered angrily, his cheeks tinged with red.

“What did you say?” he asked angrily.

“You heard me,” Duo replied airily. “I think the reason you won’t ask her help is because you like her.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wufei hissed, glaring at the braided boy.

“Denial is a powerful thing,” Duo told him, laughing. “Ain’t that right, Tro?”

Trowa found that it was his turn to glare at Duo and the braided boy raised his hands, his eyes widening. “Jeez, what is wrong with you guys?” he asked in exasperation. “I make a joke and you all just look at me like you’re thinking about stabbing me or something.”

“Maybe they are,” Heero said mildly and Duo frowned at him.

“Very funny,” he replied. “Well, as much as I’d love to sit around and trade insults with you all day, Tro and I have a History class to attend. Catch you later, Hilde.” He dragged Trowa to his feet. “Later, guys.”