Title: Catholic Schoolboys Rule!
Author: Link Worshiper
Pairings: 1=2, 3=4, mentions of others
Stuff: AU, pokes at religious institution, fluff/sap, angst, lemon topping and a bit of drag XD
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Sunrise, Bandai and a lot of other people who aren't me. +5 skill points if you guess the title reference.

Filling a request for Rainya, because she feeds my geek needs. Not beta-read.

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XX.

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Blearily, Duo awoke at some ungodly hour of the morning to the sound of Trowa rummaging around on his side of the room. He propped himself up on bent elbows and peered across the floor, barely able to make out Trowa's shape in the darkness. A bright square glowing near Trowa's ear stood out in the shadows, proclaiming the presence of his cell phone, which was cradled against his shoulder as he pulled on a warmer sweatshirt. Duo tried to pique his ears to listen in but he couldn't make anything out of Trowa's mumbling, so he instead just posed the question: "Trowa, what the hell is going on?"

Trowa took half a second to glance back at Duo. "Go back to bed, Duo," he said and then quickly returned to his hushed conversation, all the while shuffling quickly towards the hall door.

The door clicked abruptly behind Trowa as he exited the room, leaving Duo sitting up in bed and staring after him with the most flummoxed expression on his face. Because his interest in where Trowa was going was counterbalanced with annoyance, Duo decided that the only thing to do would be to get up and find out what was going on himself. Not even bothering to throw on a sweater or find his sandals, Duo leapt out of bed and practically jogged after Trowa down the hall.

Quickly catching up with his roommate, Duo nearly scared Trowa out of his plaid pajama pants when he suddenly appeared at Trowa's side and demanded to know, "Seriously, what's so exciting that you have to go running off like this?"

Trowa grit his teeth behind pursed lips like he was trying hard to keep himself levelheaded enough not to say something he'd regret later. "Quatre needed my help," he said simply. "It's an emergency."

Immediately, Duo's mind was in the gutter. "Ohhhh, I get it," he said, suggestively elbowing Trowa in the ribs and waggling his eyebrows. "It's always the nice, quiet ones with the crazy libidos, isn't it?"

"Duo, shut the fuck up."

Duo was taken aback at Trowa's attitude, and though he was offended by his manner, it was a clear sign that something serious was going on. He furrowed a brow and tried to think of all the possible scenarios that would call a person out in the middle of the night with such urgency. A sudden thought popped into his head: "Is Quatre hurt?" he asked worriedly.

A heavy sigh fell from Trowa's lips before he steeled himself once again. "No, he's fine; it's someone else," he said, still keeping his answers vague. "He asked if I knew CPR and I do."

"Holy shit," Duo whispered, his eyes large and round like two glowing moons in the dark hallway. He put an extra snap into his step as Trowa started to walk faster.

Trowa didn't say anything else about it as he led the way to the bathroom where Quatre was waiting. He, of course, knew a little bit more about the situation than he was willing to tell Duo in hopes that Duo would just get bored of trying to badger it out of him and go back to sleep. However, conversely, he thought as they approached the slightly ajar door to the bathroom, maybe dragging Duo along for this would be a good wake-up call for the volatile boxer. He didn't know the specific details leading up to Quatre's discovery in the bathtubs, but he wasn't without a theory or two. He was sad to say he hadn't been very surprised when he found out what had happened.

"Say, Trowa, do you even know who it is that...?" Duo was asking as Trowa reached forward to push the bathroom door open. As it swung inwards on its creaking, brass hinge, the scene was immediately apparent, and the second Duo registered what comprised it, he felt the very breath in his lungs turn to ice.

Quatre had fished Heero's cold body out of the bathtub and had pulled him to a dry patch of tile. Hoping that the relatively small puddles on the floor were a sign that Heero hadn't been underwater that long, Quatre had searched desperately for a pulse and was more relieved than he'd ever been in his life to discover a faint trace of one. Thankful he was in the habit of bringing his cell phone everywhere he went, he'd immediately called Trowa, knowing that CPR was something that Trowa had been trained in as a member of the rowing squad.

Trowa wasted no time in setting about the task at hand like it was business as usual, but Duo could only stand near the doorway, still frozen with turbulent shock at the sight of Heero lying there on the floor, just short of death. A myriad of emotions was coursing through Duo's veins, and he wasn't sure what the right thing to feel right then was. He was still consumed with bitterness and outrage at what Heero had done, and yet, his heart still felt as if it were wrapped tightly with thorns. There was almost no way to express all the things caught in his head. Even with all his education, he couldn't find the words to say - if there were even words to say at all.

The litany of watching Trowa go through the cycle of trying to breathe life back into Heero and administering a series of rigorous compressions upon his chest started to really affect Duo when it seemed that his efforts were in vain. If Duo thought he could have done a better job, he would have thrown Trowa out of the way in a second, but he knew that would have been counterproductive. He finally ended up bursting at the seams, balling his fists and complaining, "Why the hell isn't it working, goddammit?"

In the middle of another series of compressions, Trowa glared at Duo as he said tightly, "Did you call the nurse, Quatre?"

Very aware of the tense air that had fallen amongst them, Quatre was only able to squeak a placid, "Yes."

Duo turned his sights on Quatre, all the while struggling to keep the expression on his face tough as nails. "What the hell happened in here, Quatre?" he demanded to know, his eyes blue and sharp.

Quatre stammered, "I... I don't even know, Duo! I just found him, and -"

"Worry about it later," Trowa interjected tersely, moving to administer another series of compressions. As if on cue, Heero suddenly started sputtering, sending a gasp rushing passed the lips of the other three present. Immediately, Trowa snapped up Heero's wrist and started feeling for a pulse, letting out a relieved sigh that it seemed to be much stronger than when he'd first arrived. Quatre suggested that Heero take off his wet clothing and urged Trowa to lend his sweatshirt to the shivering boy.

Duo remained immobile as he watched the scene before him, trying hard not to let his eyes linger on Heero too long as he peeled himself out of his sodden clothing. He felt like he wasn't capable of feeling the emotions he ought to be feeling right then, and the fact that he was aware of it was rather disconcerting. He knew pride was his clout, but he still felt as if he had been somehow swindled, and it was something he had a hard time getting over.

Meanwhile, Quatre was helping Heero into Trowa's dry sweatshirt and asking what had happened. Heero burrowed into the warm fabric and frowned like he wasn't sure he wanted to be explicitly honest about the situation. Trowa was still shooting Duo dark glares, and all Duo had the mind to say was, "Don't look at me, man; he did this to himself."

The comment seemed to drive a spike into Heero's chest, for his eyes grew wide and he choked, falling into a sputtering fit of coughing. Quatre was instantly there, rubbing his back, while Trowa finally spoke his mind about Duo's attitude: "You really are as insensitive as they say."

"Says you," Duo snapped back, crossing his arms. He wasn't about to let Trowa push him around when Trowa didn't even understand half of what he'd gone through. If Heero had just been as honest with him as he had been in turn, then things might have played out differently. Trusting someone, he was quickly realizing, was just another way to get fucked over.

It was then that Heero finally chose to speak. "No.... No, he's right... I did," he murmured softly, more to himself than anybody else around him. He didn't know where he ought to look, so he just stared at the tiles beneath his feet as his lips continued to form words he was barely aware of. "I can barely sleep in my own skin anymore," he whispered, his fists clenched tightly against his chest. "I'll dream myself back home to the moon and then wake up in a sweat, wishing I didn't have to endure it anymore...."

Duo was unimpressed and unmoved by Heero's apparent despair. "So you tried to take the easy way out and run the fuck away," he summed up tersely. "Just like you were planning to do with our stolen money."

It was Quatre's turn to eye Duo skeptically as he started to say, "Really, Duo, is that what all this is about...?" but a sudden outburst from Heero cut him short.

"You don't know what it's like!!" Heero shouted, finally twisting around to face Duo with panic-stricken eyes. "You have no idea how absolutely empty my life was - is!! They make me not feel anything anymore - not happiness, sadness or even fear. Everything in my life is just a pantomime... even my efforts to give it meaning...." He trailed off and started coughing again.

"If you're at a dead end, then you should turn the fuck around and charge back the way you came," Duo snarked back, though it was clear he was just trying to be confrontational. "You're not the only person whose life sucks, buddy."

But Heero was huddled up unto himself, knees pressed up against his chest as he was wont to do when he was anxious. "Each day just goes so fast," he whispered. "I would stay asleep my whole life if I could dream myself into a life where I was... where I was happy." His blue eyes tainted with something dark, he added with a note of severity: "I had, too. And now I want to just close my eyes and go back there forever, undisturbed." There was something else he said even more softly than that, which Duo never heard, but Quatre was sure it was, "Back to when I was with you and you said you loved me."

Unable to keep up his vehement act with Heero's sad, hunched form in his line of sight, Duo pointedly whipped his head to the side and glared at the nearby sinks instead. "My life is a nightmare I'm trying to desperately wake myself up from," Duo grumbled under his breath.

Suddenly wrenching himself from the reach of Quatre's comforting hand, Heero turned and cried at Duo, "Goddammit, Duo, I don't know how many times I can tell you that I'm sorry for what I've done!"

The outburst certainly regained Duo's attention, and he glanced back at Heero, though his face was steeled once more. "You think this is just about fingering a couple trinkets here and there?" he wondered incredulously. "You think I'd be so wrecked over something as stupid as just that?" His voice was steadily rising in volume, reverberating off the bathroom tile and against the arching ceilings. "You fucking betrayed me, Heero," he spat out at last; "You fucking won my trust and then spat on it. You... lied!" The final few words came out at the top of his lungs, scraping the back of his throat and leaving it painfully raw.

"And there's nothing I could ever be sorrier for!" Heero desperately tried to plead, though it seemed his words were falling upon deaf ears. "Look at me, Duo!" he begged; "Look at me and know that my regret is no lie."

"I wish I could believe you, but I have no reason to," Duo said flatly. His eyes narrowed into a vehement expression Heero had never seen on his face before, even back when they were opposing strangers. He then turned on his heel and turned his back on Heero with an air of finality as he started back for the door.

He was nearly there when it swung open of its own accord, heralding the arrival of the nurse and thoroughly destroying Duo's grand exit. The dampening of the moment was furthered by the fact that the nurse had brought a companion in Mother Superior, who seemed none to impressed to have been roused at such an hour for what she was certain was some kind of nonsense. The fact was verbalized when she sucked in a sharp breath and strode right up to Duo, smacked him across the cheek and said, "I should have known."

Duo merely held his stinging cheek and glared back at Mother Superior with the same discontentment he'd been directing at Heero before wordlessly stepping around her and continuing on his way to the door. He paused briefly when she told him to wait for her in the hallway, nodded curtly, and then stepped out of the bathroom, forcibly closing the door behind him as he went.

Meanwhile, the nurse was tending to Heero and asking Trowa and Quatre what had happened there. The two of them exchanged a knowing glance with one another, and before anyone had a chance to interfere, they were playing off one another as they spun a convincing story about how Heero had come to take a late night shower and had slipped on a puddle in the middle of the floor. And though it was apparently Mother Superior seemed to smell something was up, no one seemed to question the explanation or ask for any details beyond what Trowa and Quatre had asserted, which was thankful - at least for the time being.

"Don't worry, Heero," Quatre said as he and the nurse helped Heero stand. "It'll all turn out well."

"How will it?" Heero wondered mournfully, leaning heavily on the bulky nurse's frame. A nauseous feeling had started to well up in the pit of his stomach, and he found himself swallowing bile down his throat. He glanced up hopefully at Trowa when Quatre took a moment too long to reply, but he was disappointed to see that all the tall rower had to offer was an almost subtle shrug of his shoulders. "Nevermind; save it," he grunted. "Might as well be consoling Relena with the way this played out." Privately, he thought Relena had handled his rejection of her far better than he was coping with this, even though what she had lost was a mere fraction of what Heero had.

Moments later, in the hallway, as the nurse started to escort him away, Heero glanced back over his shoulder in time to see Duo storming down the hall in the opposite direction with Mother Superior not far behind. As his form melded into the darkness, Heero found himself struck more than ever with the need to get out to L3. He would leave this place and this rut he'd been trapped in for so long even if it killed him to do it, even if he had to do it alone - even if that was nothing different.

He was always alone.

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Duo's long night seemed to be growing exponentially thus as it wore on. He soon found himself being ushered into Mother Superior's office, hardly for the first time, but hardly in a state to deal with the usual song and dance such a visit usually entailed. He flopped into one of the cushioned chairs that sat before her large, oaken desk and waited for her to get on with it.

Mother Superior cut to the chase pretty quickly as she assumed her spot on the other side of the desk. Steepling her fingers, she sat down and said frankly, "Duo, explain to me what you were doing with those other boys at such a late hour. You know there's a curfew."

Duo rolled his eyes and slouched lower. "What, so I'm not allowed to take a piss in the middle of the night, now?" he wanted to know, his lip curled sardonically.

"Only an idiot would think that's what you were up to," Mother Superior retorted, seeing quickly through Duo's ruse. "Keep it up, young man, and I'll call your father into this. I'm sure you'd be keen on that."

Duo looked away, glaring hatefully at the statuette of Jesus that stood on the nearby cabinet. "What do you want me to tell you?" he muttered, knowing full well he was stuck. He'd rather explain his entire life story to Mother Superior than relay the time of day to his father.

"What do you think, Duo? Hardly a week since you were free of your punishment for the last thing you did, and there's already trouble," the stern nun said, sitting up straightly. "It's not a typical occurrence to get a call in the middle of the night that one of your students might be dead. And I know you well enough to know that if you're within a mile of the scene, it probably has to do with something you've done!" Her voice wasn't accusing, but it was certainly not a laughing matter as far as she was concerned.

"Oh, great, so now you think I'm some kind of murderer," Duo snapped, making it clear he was hardly up for games either. "I can assure you right now, miss, that I had nothing to do with any of that. That guy brought it upon himself with his own hands."

Mother Superior was hardly convinced. "Heero Yuy doesn't just slip on puddles," she asserted as if she had some kind of otherworldly sense about it. "He's just not that sort."

Duo scoffed, tossing his head condescendingly, still refusing to meet her eyes dead on. "He's less than perfect, you know."

"He is like me!" Mother Superior retorted, her hands placed firmly upon the desktop as she rose to her full height. "People like us do not simply act without reason and we certainly do not allow ourselves the luxury of letting personal trivialities interfere with our decisions!" She spoke almost as if she had been personally affronted by Duo's suggestion.

That was enough to make Duo refocus his attention on her again, his mouth drawn into a deadest frown. "Then that just shows how little you really know about him, doesn't it," he rejoined angrily.

Mother Superior's iron exterior wavered for the briefest of moments, which she tried to conceal by reassuming her seat and making a show of smoothing out the skirts of her black habit. "Then you will care to educate me on my miscalculation, Mr. Maxwell," she said with a false sense of amiability. Her eyes flicked up, staring across the desk at him from beneath her rigid eyebrows. "Unless, of course, you have nothing to add, and I will be forced to proceed at my own discretion."

"Bigmouth strikes again," Duo muttered under his breath, crossing his arms and melting even further into his chair.

"Straighten!" Mother Superior snapped so suddenly that Duo was startled into obedience.

Calming again, Duo reassumed his belligerent attitude and his less-than-perfect posture. "Just because you go through life always so certain that you're right about everything doesn't mean that you are," he began, uncaring of how disrespectful he may or may not have come off. "The fact that you think so about Heero Yuy merely proves that fact, since Heero never once thought he was ever once right about a thing in his goddamned life."

Mother Superior was so taken aback by Duo's verbal assault that she forgot to react to the way he'd taken God's name in vain. She was quick to regain her composure, though she had to let a rather audible gulp drop down her throat in the process. "Well, then," she continued, "if that's so, then you will kindly explain what you were doing there with him and how he came to be in such a state."

"You really want it to be my fault, don't you," Duo hissed accusingly. He jabbed an angry finger at Mother Superior and added, "I happen to know you well enough to know that you could give a shit about Heero Yuy and his wellbeing. You just found a chance to try and bring me down and took the cheap shot - again."

"I didn't even know you would be there," Mother Superior snapped back, easily roused by Duo's attitude. "But your defensive attitude convinces me I'm correct." She then folded her hands and waited patiently for Duo to come clean.

But instead of adhering to the nun's wishes, she merely got another round of muttered commentary from Duo: "I wouldn't be sitting here like a fucking prisoner if Sister Helen were still here," he groused just loud enough for Mother Superior to hear.

That was the last straw for Mother Superior, who was soon on her feet once more. "She is the only reason you are still here, young man!" she said.

"Same for you!" Duo retorted, also jumping to his feet and slamming his hands down on his side of the desk. He figured if he was already going to be in trouble, he might as well do something to actually deserve it, so he launched off with a candid opinion of the stiff headmistress. "Everybody knows that you were dancing for joy when you found out Helen's missionary group vanished; you always hated the fact that she was the favoured sister - that she got to be headmistress of this dump before you, even though she was younger."

"That is no way to speak to your aunt!" Mother Superior roared, a vein rising up on her forehead.

"You're no aunt of mine, Colleen Maxwell!" Duo's eyes bored across the desk, deep into Mother Superior's aghast ones. "And if it weren't out of respect for Helen, I'd have given up the name a long time ago. You and my father... you're the most close-minded people I've ever met! And I hate thinking we have anything in common at all." With that, he flung himself back into his chair with no short amount of gusto, crossing his arms again and staring angrily forward in hopes that he'd be dismissed soon.

Mother Superior frowned, clearly displeased at the direct way Duo had dared to address her and even less amused by his derogatory analysis of their relationship. "You should learn to respect your elders, especially those joined to you by blood," she said simply, her face perfectly schooled as if she'd not lost her composure one bit.

"I couldn't respect you if I tried," Duo threw back nonchalantly. He drummed his fingers impatiently atop one knee.

The comment deflated Mother Superior, and she let another traitorous sigh escape her lips. "Are you really so cold, young man?" she wondered exasperatedly.

"Are you?" Duo responded almost immediately. He gripped the arms of his chair and sat up a bit more rigidly; "If it means anything to you, miss, then let me say that the fact you let that damn Lowe family anywhere near Heero is a perfect example of what little regard you have for anybody besides yourself," Duo said with an eloquence inspired by the heat of the moment. "Any fool could tell that they're slowly killing that boy."

It was hard to tell whether or not Mother Superior was moved by Duo's words as there was nothing on her face to suggest much, though there was a slight warble in her voice when she spoke again. "Please, Duo, tell me what happened to him."

The expressiveness in her voice was subtle, and it was something Duo had never quite heard before, and it almost threw him for a loop. It struck a particular chord in Duo that stirred something he thought had been stifled by his pride. "He fell apart," he said succinctly; "He fell apart and there was no one there to help put him back together." He bit his lip as a disconcerting feeling started to bubble in his stomach, and he was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to get out of there, certain that he would soon find himself admitting things he didn't want to - not to Mother Superior, or even himself. Abruptly, he stood up with the intention to leave.

"Where are you going, young man?" Mother Superior demanded to know, clearly shocked by Duo's sudden movements. "We're not through with our chat."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Duo said, fighting hard to keep up his gruff exterior as he slowly started to step away from the desk. "If you really want to win my respect, do something that deserves it," Duo said as he turned his back on the headmistress and headed for the door. Just as he was about to pass through it, he glanced back at Mother Superior, his father's second sister, and added, "You know, though, sometimes there are times I wish I could be like you: so sure of yourself and your principles all the time. It must be great to know you're never wrong, regardless of whether or not you are." He offered her a lopsided smile, which was probably the most earnest expression he'd ever shown her, and then darted out into the blackened hallway before she had a chance to respond.

Colleen Maxwell stared at the closed door her nephew had just exited through, her eyes stinging with a dampness she had not felt in what had to be years. Pressing the heels of her hands into her eye sockets, she tried to make the tears stop, but she found her efforts useless as the emotion started to overwhelm her. She had never been filled with so much doubt in her life.

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