Abroad

Duo woke up to the sunrise the next morning. Unfortunately, sunrise was at 4:30. After battling for fifteen minutes to try to fall back asleep, Duo figured it was a lost cause. Climbing down as quietly as he could, Duo grabbed his keys and left the room. He made his way to the second floor lounge.

Opening the door to the lounge, there were already two people there. Milliardo had a long purple mat laid out and was doing yoga stretches. Duo raised an eyebrow and gave a little snort. Walking past him he walked over to the small computer lab that was closed off from the rest of the lounge by glass. Sitting at one of the computers was Trowa. Walking up behind him he patted him on the back and sat at the computer next to him. "Couldn't sleep," Duo asked him as he accessed the internet.

"No, jet lag," Trowa said continuing to type an email.

"Yeah, same here. Thought I could pass the time with some internet games or something. Quatre still sleeping," he asked.

"He was tossing when I left. He will probably wake up soon."

"So, how long had the vampire been up here making like a pretzel," Duo asked throwing a glance back at Milliardo.

"He was here before me. Jealous you can't bend like that," Trowa gave a soft snort.

"Hardly! Crazy bastard," he said glancing at him one more time. "Anyway, I have better hair," Duo said as he opened a game of solitaire mahjong.

Quatre didn't come up for another half an hour. He joined his friends at the computers and started in on his emails. He had quite a few sisters so writing emails kept him busy for the next two hours. Duo played various games and Trowa kept busy by reading news from America and Japan. Soon it was seven o'clock and the lunch ladies would have breakfast ready.

Breakfast was miso soup, a bowl of rice, and a small serving of scrambled eggs. The girls were the last ones of their group who came into the cafeteria.

"Morning boys," Hilde called out.

"Mornin'," the boys chorused.

She stopped at the end of the table as Cathy and Sally walked over to get their breakfast. "The girls and I have been up since 5!"

"4:30," Duo and Trowa said together.

Sally walked with her breakfast over to the table to sit across from Milliardo. "How about you? What time," she asked him as she picked up her chopsticks.

"4 and tried to work of the energy with some yoga," he replied after taking a sip of his miso.

"Yoga, huh? Well good for you," Hilde said as she pushed off the end of the table and went to get her breakfast.

Duo snorted softly. 'The only men I've heard who did yoga were the ones that were pussy whipped into it by their girlfriends,' Duo thought.

Breakfast was uneventful and was punctuated with light, unimportant conversation. Duo saw Wufei come into the cafeteria and they greeted each other with nods. However, instead of sitting with his new roommate, which Duo didn't really expect, Wufei sat down with the Chinese and Korean students. It was amazing to listen to the conversation happening at the next table. The Chinese was difficult to listen to. It was so different from the Japanese sounds he was used to. However, the Korean conversation he heard had similar sounds to Japanese. He remembered a time when his untrained ears couldn't distinguish Japanese from any other Asian language.

After breakfast, the rest of the morning passed slowly. Quatre wandered into Duo's room around 10. Duo was laying on his stomach on his bed with some of his old Japanese textbooks open in the pillow. "Hey Duo. Whatcha up to," Quatre said peeking through the railings of the top bunk.

"Refreshing my Japanese. What you up to," he asked sitting up Indian style on the bed.

"Trowa is unpacking and you know how small these rooms are. Better to leave so he can get it done than keep bumping into him."

"Awh, don't act like you don't like the close quarters," Duo teased Quatre. Quatre looked indignant.

"Duo! I can't believe- how could you- what-"

"Come on, Q! I'm not blind, deaf and stupid," he said smiling down at Quatre. Duo thought he heard a snort come from Wufei. He ignored it. "Come on up here and tell 'ole Uncle Duo about it," Duo said patting the free space on the bed.

"No Duo, we are not talking about that, okay? So," he said clearly wanting to change the subject. "How about we go take a walk around the campus after lunch and the meeting."

"And talk about it?"

"NO! I thought we could ask the girls if they wanted to come with us too."

"Oh no, you mean to invite the vampire too, don't you," Duo said horrified.

"Honestly. There is nothing wrong with him. And of course I am asking him. How rude would it be to for us to all leave him here."

Duo let out his frustrated growl. "Ya know, he was looking at me funny in the mirror last night."

"Maybe he has the hotts for you," Quatre said giving a Cheshire cat grin.

"Quatre Raberba Winner," Duo roared and threw his pillow at him. Quatre let out a howl of laughter and rushed out of the room. Duo huffed at his retreating form and went back to his textbooks.