Abroad

Duo woke up to the sunrise the next morning. Unfortunately, sunrise was still at 4:30. "Damnit," Duo grumbled as he buried his face into his pillow. He lay with his face in his pillow for a long time hoping that maybe he could pass out from lack of oxygen. "Mmuurrgh," was the muffled groan that came from Duo's pillow. He had flipped and turned and tried with every fiber of his being to go back to sleep, but it was like trying to catch smoke with his bare hands. Resigning to his fate, he decided that the call of his bladder was more important.

On the way back from the bathroom, he noticed that the door to Trowa and Quatre's room was slightly open. Giving a quiet knock, he pushed open the door. Trowa was sitting at his desk with an open textbook. Quatre was on the bottom bunk with only a small tuft of blonde hair peeking out from the top of his covers.

"Mornin' Tro," Duo whispered as he came up to stand next to the desk. "Been up long?"

"About fifteen minutes. Awake for the day," Trowa said in a mildly annoyed voice.

"Hey I got an idea! Let's go running. Remember that path next to the river, well I guess it is actually a road. Roads are so damn small here, but let's go jogging there." Duo smiled when Trowa nodded. "Cool. I'll come get you when I'm ready."

It was a struggle to get changed into a pair of adidas shorts and a college t-shirt. He was making extra effort to be very quiet because he had no clue how light a sleeper Wufei was. Duo was able to finally slip from the room without Wufei waking up. Lightly knocking on Trowa's door, the two made their way to the genkan in tandem with their tennis shoes in hand.

They walked to the river to give the muscles a chance to warm up. When they hit the path they began a light jog feeling out each other's pace.

"How's the room situation," Duo casually asked.

"It's fine," Trowa said keeping his eyes on the road.

"Just fine?"

"Yes."

"Don't think Quatre's makes great roommate?"

"You jealous that my roommate is cuter than yours," Trowa said with a straight face.

Duo let out a peal of laughter. "You ought to be glad that Wufei doesn't speak English 'cause I would love to see his face if I told him you thought he was cute." Trowa had acknowledged his attraction to Quatre but was avoiding talking about it. Duo knew if Trowa was trying to skirt around the issue it meant Trowa had not yet figured out what the situation was. He mentally sighed. These were his two best friends and come hell or high water he'd make sure they could have a chance together.

Duo's noticed another jogger on the road coming towards the two Americans. Duo recognized the mop of dark brown hair belonged to the same person he had 'talked' to at the grocery store. As he got closer, Duo was able to get a better look at him and noticed his athletic build beneath the green tank top and spandex shorts. Duo realized this situation for what it was, a second chance. He could possibly rectify the situation by showing respect. "Ohayo gozaimasu," Duo called out a polite good morning to him inclining is head in a quick show of a bow. Grocery store boy only bowed his head slightly in return as he jogged past.

"Friend of yours," Trowa asked looking over his shoulder at the retreating form.

"Guess not," Duo said a little disappointed in lack of a return greeting. Although the guy hadn't said anything, he hadn't ignored him either. For now, that was enough.

****

Trowa and Duo were out for forty-five minutes so when they arrived back at the dorm, it gave them enough time to clean up before breakfast at seven. As usual, the girls were the last ones down to breakfast.

Rushing into the cafeteria, the girls looked like they were in the middle of getting ready upstairs. Hilde had on a vibrant red camisole and a black blazer but was wearing a pair of her light green pajama pants with yellow poka dots.

"Nice outfit Hil," Duo called out to her as she walked into the cafeteria. "You look like a crazy house wife from one of the square states."

"Always a charmer, aren't ya," Hilde said sarcastically. "So, you guys ready for the exam," Hilde put her hands on her hips standing at the end of the table. The boys responded with long groans. They had to take a placement test today, administered by professors of the college. According to the results they would be placed into a series of classes. The test was geared towards Chinese and Korean students who wanted to pass the proficiency test. This meant the questions were difficult and no one expected the American students to score higher than a twenty out of one hundred.

"Oh common, you guys will do fine," she lightly punched Duo in the arm because he looked the most annoyed about the test.

"Hey, I have to use that arm later," Duo said with a smile. She laughed and walked off to get her breakfast.

After everyone had eaten breakfast and scrounged their rooms for pencils, they made their way to one of the buildings on campus. They were sat a seat a part and listened intently to the professors tell them how long they had for each section, what they should do when they were finished, what kind of pencil they could use, and so on. It was hard to listen to all that instruction in Japanese, but Duo was glad that he seemed to understand the most important things.

The exam came in three parts. The first was kanji recognition. Out of a list of thirty kanji, Duo was able give the pronunciation for four of them. The fill in the blank section and grammar section were multiple choice. Duo didn't know how many he knew for sure, but it wasn't many. When the exam done, you were allowed to leave the room. Duo was surprised to see his roommate be the fifth one to finish the exam out of the room full of students. However, Duo wasn't surprised when Milliardo was the first of the Americans to finish the test, followed closely by Sally. Both of them had taken Japanese for three years before coming to Japan. Cathy was next to finish having taken two year of Japanese prior to the trip and Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Hilde who had taken one year of Japanese we the last ones out.

"Well," Duo said stretching his arms out over his head, "I haven't had that much fun since my last trip to the dentist. I only knew four of the kanji!"

"Hey I only knew three," Hilde said with a shrug. "Not really that worried though. We're not really expected to know more than that."

"Well no matter, we still have the oral exam later today," Quatre said tucking his pencil behind his ear.

"Oh yeah that's right," Duo said rubbing his hand down one side of his face and letting out a long sigh.

"They said they would call us in around three. They have to grade our exams first," Trowa reminded the group.

"Like there is going to be much to grade," Hilde said with a roll of her eyes. "Eh well, it gives us time to get back, make lunch, and chill."

"Wish they would cook for us on the weekends. Why don't we all cook one big meal today," Quatre said, hope lighting up in his eyes.

"I think that's a great idea," Duo said with a wicked smile. "Who's going to cook it," he said quickly reaching his hand up to his face and placing his index finger on the side of his nose. Behind him Quatre and Trowa saw the motion and also threw their fingers up to touch the sides of their noses. Hilde who had caught the motion looked strangely at Duo and then back at the other boys to see them doing the same motion.

"What the hell is that," she asked without heat in her voice.

"It's the nose game and you lost."

"I lost? Lost what?"

"You have to cook us lunch now," Quatre said with a huge smile.

"I have to what," Hilde said crossing her arms over her chest.

"You lost the nose game, so you have to cook us lunch," Duo repeated for her with a Cheshire grin. "Don't be a sore loser. So what are you going to cook us?"

"Wait, how can I loose a game that I didn't even know I was playing. That doesn't count!"

"Nope, that's the beauty of the nose game. Whether you know about it or not, if you're the last person to put your finger on your nose, you lose," Duo explained. Hilde looked exasperated and looked to Trowa to see is he would help her out of the mess. He shrugged and raised an eyebrow to imply that he was also curious as to what she would cook for them.

"Fine," she said indigently. "I'll cook you boys a meal, but I can't promise you will have your health afterwards." The boys let out a chuckle and they made their way back to the dorm.