"You're back all ready!" Catherine exclaimed as Trowa trudged in through the front door of their apartment. "So how was it?"

"Fine."

"Just fine?" Catherine asked. "Honestly Trowa, that isn't enough for me to absorb and you really should learn to talk more than your few smatterings of words per day!"

"Did you know that a womn speaks an average of seven thousand words per day but a man only speaks about two thousand words only?" Trowa asked innocently, just to bug his sister. "Maybe you should cut down with the words."

"Hah! If everybody in the world were like you, it would be like everybody's mute!" his sister retorted. "Or that sound never existed!"

"At least there wouldn't be such a thing as noise pollution," Trowa said with a shrug. "Anyway, don't start nagging me again about how I don't talk as much as you do. I think you nag me about that at least forty-nine times a day." Trowa rolled his deep green eyes.

"Wow. I didn't know you were counting all those times I nagged you," Catherine joked. "So, tell me about the Winner boy," Catherine urged impatiently, brushing her wild, curly hair with her fingers. "Is he really sa horrible as his sister made him out to be?"

"Actually, he seemes like a nice, ordinary person," Trowa said. "Nothing at all like what his sister said. He's polite, cheerful, quite attentive and I didn't find him to be a snob in the least bit. I don't really understand why he needs to be tutored though. He has a quick mind and he's pretty smart although he seems to be having a bit of difficulty when it comes to Math."

"See? I knew you could do it!" Catherine suddenly crowed triumphantly.

"I can do what?"

"That you could actually speak a lot of words in one go. But, can't you dexribe him in a more interesting way?" Catherine complained. "The way you talked about this Winner boy.. what's his name again? The way you talked about him reminded me of the narrators for that National Geographic programme."

"His name is Quatre andI do NOT talk like that narrator from the National Geographic," Trowa snapped.

"Yes, you do but I don't wanna argur about that with you so why don't you tell me what he looks like?" Catherine suggested quickly before her brother could snap back at her.

"Well, Quatre's a bit shorter than I am. Fair-skinned, neatly cut, wavy blonde hair.. blue eyes.." Trowa stopped, seeing the glare his sister gave him. "Other than that, he's quite soft-spoken and has a feminine-like voice. Definately not like some wild brat his sister had described. I guess, that's all there is to describe about him."

"He must be really vute, huh?"

"Cute? I guess you could say so.."

Cute? Quatre cute? That thought had never crossed Trowa's mind. After all, it wasn't as if he went around gazing at his 'student's' faces and deciding if they were cute or not. That wasn't his job. But come to think of it, Quatre was pretty cute.

"Trowa! Hey, Trowa!" Catherine said loudly, waving a hand in front of her younger brother's face. Seeing no reaction, she poked Trowa in the side and he immediately snapped out of his little daydream.

"What?" Trowa snapped.

"What were you thinking of? Or who were you thinking of?" Catherine asked slyly.

"Nothing and nobody in particular."

"Oh, yeah? Then why are blushing, huh?" Catherine asked with an amused smile as she poked Trowa in the side again.

"I am not blushing!" Trowa protested. "And stop poking me!"

"You are blushing!" Catherine shouted gleefully. "Your cheeks are bright red!"

"I am NOT blushing, so there!" Trowa retorted. "I am going to take a shower and I will not talk to you for the next twenty-four hours sa of now."

"As if you ever talk anyway," called out Catherine as Trowa headed off in the general direction of his room. "And I still say you were blushing whether you believe it or not!"

~*~*~*~*~*

"Hey, Quatre! I was pretty suprised that you didn't pull even a single prank on that Trowa guy," said Duo after Quatre's lesson with Trowa had ended and the taller boy had went home. "That is so unlike you!"

"I know. But I thought it would be too cruel to play pranks on him," Quatre said.

"Cruel? When did you turn to be such a saint?" Duo said sarcastically. "I thought you hated having tutors."

"Yeah. I was kinda surprised at myself, too," the blonde admited. "But you gotta admit, Duo, Trowa's not like the other crummy tutors I had. He seems pretty OK to me. He doesn't talk much - but he's OK."

"But he's a tutor!" Duo argued. "You hate having tutors - that's why you terrorized the others so they'd all run away!"

"I don't really think of him as my tutor," Quatre said. "It's hard to since he's our age and all. I'd rather think of him as a friend who's helping my out with some school stuff."

"Hmmpph. I thought you had high standards when searching for new friends."

"If it were so, you wouldn't be my friend, Duo," Quatre joked. "Besieds, if I'm going to see him twice a week for the rest of my schooling years, I might as well be his friend that having to act polite and formal like a student with his tutor, right?"

"I guess so," said the braided boy uncertainly. "Boy, wait till I tell the gang. They'll be surprised to know that Quatre Raberba Winner had turned into an ultimate goody-goody after his first lesson with his tutor."

"I am NOT a goody-goody!"

"Yes, you are," teased Duo. "A goody=goody smarty pants is what you are!"

"Wait till I get my hands on you!" threatened the blonde in mock anger as he chased his laughing friend out of the study.

~*~*~*~*~*

"Hey, guys! What's up?" Quatre said cheerfully when he had run up to his friends the next morning where they usually met before school starts - a big tree right near the school steps.

"I was just telling them some stuff about your new tutor," Duo told him with a grin. "You know, Hilde, this is the first time in history Quatre's taken a liking to his tutor. Maybe he has the hots for Mr. Tutor or something, ne?"

"Ewww, that is so gross, Quatre!" Hilde said with a grossed-out face. "Don't tell me you have a crush on some moldy, prune-faced grandpa! That would be some sick crush you're having!"

"Duo's been creating another on of his famous fairy tales, huh?" Quatre asked drily.

"It is only the weak, the stupid and the onnas who would only believe in whatever crap Maxwell says," Wufei, a Chinese boy with a tightly tied ponytail said with a snort.

"Oh, so you're saying that I'm a weak and stupid onna?" Hilde asked, pretending to get mad.

They were all used to Wufei and his rantings on the weak, the stupid and the onnas. Especially the part about onnas. Even though it could get a irritating sometimes, the rest of them never chose to argue so much with Wufei about his 'views'. It wouldn't do to go about quarelling with their best friend just because they didn't see eye to eye on some matters.

"Aren't all onnas weak and stupid?"

"So you're saying that your mother, your grandmother and all the women in your family and weak and stupid also, ne?" Hilde asked some more, looking very amused.

"Well, I, uh," sputtered Wufei, his face becoming bright red.

"Next time, think first before you say something," Heero, their Japanese friend muttered in a monotone. His face was as emotionless as his voice as he stood leaning against the big tree as he mostly kept quiet, choosing to watch and listen to his friends talk.

Sometimes, the others thought Heero to be a bit too silent and um, weird. Duo called him a 'Robot'. "That's because robots aren't living things and Heero doesn't have a life," Duo always liked to say and he would always end up getting a black eye courtesy from Heero himself. Still, no matter how different each and every one of them were, they were the best of friends.

"You don't have to tell me that!" Wufei snapped at Heero but the latter just shrugged.

Duo decided that he'd better change the subject quick before things could get ugly. After all, Wufei wasn't exactly known for being a patient person.

"Actually, Quatre, I did not create a 'fairy tale' as you put it," Duo said to the blonde. "I merely said that it was amazing that you don't wanna scare that new tutor away and that you wanna be his friend."

"Oh."

"I can't imagine you being friends with some tutor," Hilde said. "When I try to, I kep imagining you being good chums with that last tutor you had. What's his name again? Oh, Mr. Beardsly!"

"Ugh. Thank heavens Trowa isn't anything like that horrid Mr. Beardsly," Quatre said with a shudder. "I still remember his cheap, fake hair that looked like a bird's next and how he always reeked with the odour of smoke and onion breath."

"You're calling your new tutor by his first name?" Wufei asked with an eyebrow raised. "You two must have gotten to be very good friends all ready."

"Well, he asked me to call him 'Trowa' and not 'Mr. Barton' cos he's actually sixteen like the rest of us," Quatre explained.

"Trowa Barton? I know him," Heero said suddenly and the others turned to stare at him. "My dad's a professor at that univeristy Trowa goes to. Sometimes Trowa comes my house to hand in assignments and stuff to my dad cos my dad teaches him, you know."

"Hey, how come you never told us about this?" Duo asked.

"Didn't feel it was necessary to tell you that," Heero said indifferently.

"So this Trowa person is sixteen but he goes to university?" Hilde asked, facing Quatre. "Is he a genius or something?"

"He hsa an IQ that is even higher than that of an average genius," Heero said. "You're considered a genius if your IQ is 180 and Trowa is whome we would call a genius."

"That high?" Wufei was impressed. And for Wufei, it took a lot to get him impressed. "You must introduce him to me sometime, Winner."

"What does he look like?" Hilde asked with brimming curiosity. "Not like a total nerd, I hope."

"He looks like a European. No, Latino. No, ah! I don't know!" Duo said, throwing his arms upwards in frustration. "OK, he looks foreign. And he has this blank expression on his face most of the time like Heero - hey! Maybe they're realted or something!"

"Baka!" muttered Heero and he thwacked the braided American on the back of his head.

"Itai! That hurts a lot, you know!" Duo scowled as he rubbed his head. "OK, so he isn't exactly like Heero cos he's eyes are green and not blue. And he's taller than the rest of us and lemme tell you, he has the weirdest hair I've ever seen! It's brown and he has this unibang thing that covers one side of his face."

"It is not weird!" Quatre burst out suddenly. "I think it looks very unique."

"My, look how our little friend is defending his new tutor!" Duo teased.

"He is my friend and I'm not letting anybodygo around dissing any friend of mine," Quatre said defensively. "AndI would appreciate it if you guys would refer to him as my 'friend' rather than referring to Trowa as the 'new tutor' all the time."

"How nice of you to stick up for him. I bet Trowa will be happy to know what a great pal you're being," Hilde commented. "Well, then... is Trowa handsome?"

~*~*~*~*~*

"My friend Heero Yuy told me that he knows you," Quatre informed Trowa later that day when the green-eyed boy had come over to tutor him. "Heero said that his father's a professor at your university."

"Yes, I know him," Trowa said, nodding his head. "I've met him a couple of times when I had to drop by his house to hand in some assignments to Professor Yuy."

"Those other friends of mine, Wufei and Hilde are really looking forward to meeting you," Quatre continued enthusiastically. "They're really interested in getting to know you. I hope it's OK with you if they could drop by some time to meet you?"

"Sure, it's OK with me," Trowa said. "I'm always up for meeting new people."

"Great! You know, I told them that I'd rather like having you as a friend and so I decided that maybe we could all hang out together one day?" Quatre suggested. "We could watch a movie together and have a junkfood eating marathon or something. I'm sure Duo will love that."

Trowa smiled to himself as he listened to the blonde's bubbly chatter. He thought it was sporting or the boy o really want to be his friend and wanting to include him in the activities he shared with his other friends. Trowa realized that Quatre was different from the people he knew at the university. The students only seem to act like his 'best' friends when they needed his help for an assignment or when it was nearing exam times.

"Quatre, maybe you should stop with your chatter for a while and continue with your work?" Trowa said, not sternly but in a polite and suggestive manner.

"All right, teacher!" Quatre said jokingly. "I guess I've been talking too much, huh?"

Trowa just chuckled lightly but stopped when he saw Quatre's chair tilt backwards along with the blonde. With lightning reflexes, the taller boy jumped out of his seat and grabbed Quatre before he could crash to the floor.

A few silent moments passes until Quatre noticed that he was held tightly in Trowa's arms and that his face wsa pressed against the taller boy's chest. If you were a passerby, you would have thought they were hugging or just clinging to each other for dear life.

"Uh, um, you can let go of me now," he said finally when he had found his voice.

"Oh, OK," Trowa said, finally realizing that he had been practically mashing the blonde's body close to his and quickly let his arms drop to his side. "So, uh, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that... I can be a total klutz sometimes," Quatre said, laughing nervously. "And it's sorta a bad habit of mine to sit with the chair standing on two legs instead of four like I'm supposed to."

After that, they countinued with their lesson as if nothing happened but the atmosphere wasn't like it was before. As Quatre snuck glances at Trowa, he couldn't help wondering why in the world was he sneaking peeks at his friend anyway and he couldn't help wondering he felt a weird pang in his heart and why he had felt so warm and safe when the green-eyed boy had held him.

Minna-san, please, please, please I am begging you to send me feedback - may it be praise or flames cos I reallt wanna know just where my fic writing stand. Yep, I am not confident at all with my fic writing so I really need you guys to tell me if I'm a good writer or not. If I don't get any feedback, I guess this fic really sucks bad, ne?