The Beginning Part 2
By Jan McDougherty

	All five of the boys were silent as they picked at their meager lunches. Heero broke
 the silence.
	"You know this is all your fault." he pointed an accusing finger at Duo, who tried 
to hide his guilt but knowing how true Heero's statement was, he was unsuccessful. Quatre 
opened his mouth to defend Duo, but remembered what Duo's antics had cost him and chose to 
glare at him instead.
	"Um...excuse us." All five boys turned to see Jan and Yasmin standing behind them, 
lunch trays in hand.
	"All of the other tables were full," Yasmin said,"we were wondering if we could sit 
with you?"
	"Sure!" Duo answered as he cleared two places on either side of him. but Heero 
pulled him over a seat, leaving two empty seats next to each other. Jan and Yasmin sat down 
and quietly began to eat their meals.The previous conversation continued for the rest of the 
lunch period. The whole time, the two girls remained silent.
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	Duo checked his list again. "Hmm, this oughta be a snap," he said to no one 
imparticular as he started on his homework. His room was small and the only furniture was 
his desk and bed. All of his clothes were piled at the bottom of his closet and his 
dufflebag containing his dicman, CDs, and gun hung on his bedpost. Besides those items, he 
had no other possessions except for his laptop in the room. As he attempted to focus on his 
rather small amount of homework, Duo's mind kept wandering to "Romeo and Juliet." He was 
actually very excited about the project. Secretly, he had read ahead in the book because he 
had no desire to wait to find out what happened to the star cross'd lovers. He had read the 
book five times already, loving every moment of it. 
	Finally Duo gave up on his homeworked and flopped down on his bed. Taking his book 
out from its hiding place behind his pillow he flipped to his favorite scene, where Mercutio
discussed the truths of love with the lovestruck Romeo.
				"If love be rough with thee,
			  	    be rough with love"
	Just then, he was interupted by fits of laughter down the hall. He closed his book 
and went towards the source of the sound. Just as he reached Quatre's room, Quatre threw 
open the door, hitting Duo in the nose, and ran down the hall, not even glancing back at 
the wounded Duo who lay sprawled out on the floor. Regaining his composure (and 
conciousness), Duo stood up, holding his throbbing nose, and went into the room. Inside, 
Trowa was rolling on the floor laughing and Wufei was sitting on the bed chuckling.
	"What's going on?" Duo asked, looking in utter confusion at the two.
	"Trowa was just teasing Quatre about the fact that he would have to kiss Yasmin," 
Wufei stated and Trowa started to laugh even more, causing himself to cry. Duo shook his 
head and made his way down the hall to the kitchen, where he found Quatre sitting on the 
counter with his knees pulled up to his chest. He looked angry and a little embarrassed at 
the same time. Duo hopped up on the counter next to him and took an apple out of the fruit 
basket that was to his left.
	"You shouldn't let them get to you like that," he remarked as he took a bite out of 
the juicy red fruit in his hand.
	"I wouldn't be so embarrassed if..." Quatre started and trailed off while the blush 
on his face became even more pronounced.
	"If what?" Duo asked as he took another bite.
	"If I didn't like her,"he looked straight at Duo, who looked as though he had just 
swallowed his snack whole.
	"You what?" Duo hadn't meant to sound teasing, but he did, and Quatre buried his 
face, which was now as red as the apple, into his knees. "I'm sorry," Duo said and patted 
his comrade on the shoulder,"you just surprised me, that's all." He set down the apple on 
the counter. "Do they know?" he knodded in the direction of Quatre's room where Trowa's 
laughter still resonated. Quatre shook his head. "OK. Don't worry, I'll bet she's even more 
nervous about the kiss thing than you are."