Ne, Sensai! Part 1
The train ride to the college was long and cramped. Still, Duo couldn't get over his excitement over the whole situation. First of all riding a train to college rather than one of those silly little buses was great! Riding with a whole large group of people was so much better then being stuck in a cramped little yellow bus with children that were generally loud and noisy and younger than him. Yes, he could so get used to a train full of older people, who weren't incessantly noisy and didn't tend to jump from seat to seat, throw things... the normal things one was accustomed to in high school. Or at least where he had gone to high school.
Duo turned his attention to the buildings as they passed by and grinned. This day was starting out so perfectly and he just couldn't wait to see the look on Quatre's face when he finally got there. He seriously couldn't wait! He just knew he'd find Quatre there on the first day, after all the college couldn't be that big, he should easily be able to find one person...
The train pulled to its stop and Duo was the first one out the door, nimbly dodging around the suited adults on their way to the office. Using his perfected crowd weaving technique from cramped high school hallways he made his way quickly out of the train station and onto the sidewalk.
Now according to the map it was another two blocks in that direction...
Turning the corner he suddenly found himself in a light wave of students, all heading for the same large brick building. All of them were about his age, but the scene was so different from high school. He was so used to the generic high school students, dressed in the generic school uniforms with only their hair and their height to really tell them apart. But now... now...
Variety was the name of the game.
In a single look one could tell the newer students from the older students, and it wasn't simply a matter of age. The freshmen, much like himself, wore school uniforms from the high school they'd attended the previous year. It wasn't a fashion statement, that's for sure - since no one in their right mind would prefer to wear school uniforms - instead it made perfect sense for new students. After all they were new students, in a new place with a completely new set of rules. Being able to wear one's old school uniform was a type of comfort, something to latch onto in an uncomfortable place, least that was the way Duo saw it.
The older students, however, were a different matter. They wore whatever they felt like, ranging from the latest fashions to clothes that had obviously lost the battle of attempting to avoid another day of wear by hiding under the bed. Brand name shirts and color coordinated outfits versus ripped jeans and rumpled t-shirts. Duo felt like he'd stepped into a completely different world; it was all so completely different from high school.
The college looked basically like a larger version of high school. Due to the fact that it was an exclusive Academy that charged high prices they could afford to have a small student body and only a few buildings. Neatly planted flower gardens lined the edges of the paths, which twisted tastefully toward the buildings. A wash of colors, arranged nearly perfectly and accented by a small Japanese garden off to one side in the shade of a circle of cherry trees. Duo grinned; he already knew where he'd prefer to study.
He crossed the road, heading straight for the main entrance gates. Soon he'd be inside, soon he'd be in college, it was all so close, so within reach...
Tires screeched to the side of him and Duo whirled around in the middle of the road. He turned around so fast at the approaching sound that he stumbled to the ground and scraped his shoulder against the pavement, tearing his shirt a bit. He cursed and winced at the sharp pain as he saw a blur of black screech to a halt not a few feet away.
"Why you-!" Duo jumped to his feet and rubbed his shoulder, glaring angrily at the tinted windows. "Why don't you watch where you're going?! Just because you drive a big, fancy, expensive car doesn't mean you own the road! Some people walk to class you know, some people-"
Duo's voice cut off as the window slid down with a small automatic whine. His eyes widened as he viewed the driver inside.
Black sunglasses were the first thing he saw, sleek glasses with wire frames that perfectly reflected twin clones of himself who only stared back. The face was young, but still older than Duo, and was framed with chocolate colored hair that was tousled all about. Duo took an involuntary step back in surprise as a hand came up and tilted down the glasses to reveal dangerously glaring midnight blue eyes.
Duo's voice and breath caught in his throat and he completely lost track of everything he was going to say. His mind came up blank. There was nothing to say to those eyes, absolutely nothing at all.
The mystery man's mouth tilted up in a slight smirk and he pressed his glasses back into place. Then the window was up and the car was moving again, out of sight down the road before Duo could even catch his breath. A couple of blinks and deep breaths later he realized he was still standing in the middle of the road. Quickly he collected himself and moved to the sidewalk, melding in with the flow of students heading for their rooms.
Taking his seat in the classroom he frowned deeply.
"Just who did that jerk think he was? He nearly killed me before my first day of class! How dare he! I swear if I ever see him again..."
The door to the classroom entered and a man wearing a light gray outfit stepped into the classroom, heading for the desk. Immediately all the students settled down and Duo froze in his seat.
It was the same guy...
The guy with the car...
The guy with the eyes...
The man fixed a glare on the classroom as a whole but Duo could have sworn he was the center of that glare, receiving the bulk of the weight. The man stepped behind his desk and took a piece of chalk and wrote three simple letters on the board. Turning to face the rest of the class he leaned against the otherwise blank black board.
"Professor Yuy," he said simply.
Upon closer inspection Duo no realized that Professor Yuy was clearly of Japanese descent. His sunglasses were gone now, only to be replaced by tasteful wire frame glasses that had the effect of making him look like he should be listen in a class, not teaching it. Adding to the effect was the fact that the professor couldn't be more then a few inches taller then Duo, he wouldn't have been surprised if they were actually the same height.
Duo slid back in his chair, wishing he could just sink out of sight. This guy was his professor? His first professor in his first class for the next five months? Oh dear stars, how in the world was he going to be able to do this? College professors were supposed to be older guys with beards or older women in with their hair in power-buns and skirts to their ankles. But this guy totally broke all the rules.
For one thing he had those eyes.
For the other he was drop dead gorgeous.
Finally he had a killer voice.
Duo couldn't help but groan as he listened to the lecture begin. He really wanted to find Quatre after these three years, and he was still set on the goal. But having this professor to distract his thoughts was going to be horrible. He wasn't attracted to the guy, no, of course not! Still he couldn't help but admit that Professor Yuy was hot beyond belief.
And he couldn't help but hang on the young professor's every word.
~*~
A normal student he was not, but then that was obvious the moment you saw him. A normal student just simply didn't look like this... a normal student simply didn't look this good.
It wasn't that Milliardo Peacecraft was stuck up, he just simply knew the truth about his appearance. After all, one could hardly ignore the truth when it constantly flung itself in one's face day after day with each admirer. Today's admirer of choice was a moderately tall female with curled red hair that brushed tastefully across her shoulders. Unlike the others her age she still wore her high school uniform, with the skirt hiked up to show off her long legs. Milliardo had to admit that the deep green did suit her, and brought out the color in her hair almost perfectly, not to mention that it emphasized her lips.
At the moment she was sitting next to him, speaking about something that really didn't hold his attention, though most things didn't these days. He admitted that he enjoyed the attention from the girls, but he didn't encourage it... much. Instead Milliardo felt it was pointless to avoid the truth, if girls wanted to throw themselves at him because of his long silky blond hair and killer light blue eyes who was he to stop them? Why not let them live out their little adolescent fantasies, even if it only lasted for a day.
He leaned back in the grass and ran a hand through his hair, glancing up at the sky above. A glance to the side and he took in the student body sitting outside. Whenever it was a nice day out the school lawns seemed to be covered with more students then flowers. It was as if there was some rule that everyone had to be in class or be outside, and that's how things were supposed to be. So there were people everywhere, sitting around eating, studying, sun bathing, playing Frisbee... you name it.
One particular person caught his eye, stepping out of the main school building, only to lean up against the brick wall and breath a deep sigh of relief as he ran a hand over his long braid. This boy looked particularly stressed about something, but then that was normal. Milliardo could easily see that he was a freshman, due to his choice in clothing for the first day and his discomfort at the whole setting around him.
Yet that light brown braid seemed to catch Milliardo's eyes and he swore he recognized it from somewhere...
"Oh, here she comes."
The deep pouting voice of his latest admirer broke his concentration and he glanced back at her. He didn't need to look around to see who was coming; he knew that tone well enough.
"Brother, I need to talk to you." Her voice was tossed across the lawn, low and commanding.
"You best be off, I'll see you tomorrow." For good measure Milliardo ran his hand through her deep red hair and he could have sworn he heard her give a purr like a young kitten. Still, like the well-trained little fangirl she was, the redhead stood up and took off across the grass, only pausing briefly to toss an angry glare in the direction of the other approaching girl, then she was gone.
"I honestly don't see why you lead them on like that! After all, they all know you're gay anyways."
Milliardo turned a seductive smile toward his twin sister and shrugged, leaning back across the grass. "I hear that's what makes me even more attractive to them."
Relena frowned deeply, communicating her disapproval. "You're just going to break hearts and gain enemies. Why do you even bother?"
"It would be more of a trouble to chase them off." He shielded his eyes from the sun and glanced to her. "Was there something you wanted to speak to me about?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact there is." Relena crossed her arms and looked straight down at him, assuming the 'scolding' pose that Milliardo knew so well. Relena did take after their mother after all, and no one was better at scolding then their mother. You might have heard the phrase 'hell hath no fury...' but that fury was nothing compared to the anger of his mother when tapped. And Relena had definitely inherited a good portion of that temper and cunning, and what was worse she knew how to use it perfectly to her advantage, just like her brother knew how to flaunt his looks.
He waited patiently for her to get the little scolding session over with.
"There's a new principal this year. I expect you already know that. I just wanted to remind you what happened with the last one, and that if you keep this up this year you'll never make it out of the school. You need to stop fooling around so much with girls and start paying attention in class, brother. If you don't we're not going to be able to graduate together, and you know how much mother would disapprove of that. After all that work you went through to convince her to let you keep your job while in college..."
Milliardo tuned her out with a hidden smile. Convince nothing, his mother had been a pushover for accepting the idea of the job. And he kept his grades good enough to keep both parents happy, true they weren't ecstatic but his grades were good enough to keep them quiet. The new principal on the other hand...
"Oh, not again."
Milliardo blinked, noticing his sister had stopped with her rant and was now looking across the lawn with a pitiful expression on her face.
"See, that's what I mean. You don't want them to think you're gay, brother. Look at what they're doing to that poor new kid."
Milliardo sat up and turned. True to her word he found that the boy he'd noticed earlier was now surrounded by a group of four upperclassmen, who were all leering and glaring at him with angry faces. Milliardo watched as one of them grabbed the boy's long braid, which he snatched back fiercely and protectively. The boy tried to dodge around them but they blocked his path, and one of them grabbed his hair again. The boy yelled something at them and Milliardo caught a glimpse of distinctive purple eyes.
He'd thought so!
Pushing his sister's talk to the back of his mind, and her whole presence period, he stood up and walked over. Straight or not no one deserved to be treated horribly on their first day, especially not when they were one of his close friends that he hadn't seen in ages. He didn't usually get into fights but this required some action.
There was no way Milliardo was going to let Duo get beat up just because of his lovely long hair.
TBC...
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