Boys \'n Girls

DiScLaImEr: Gundam Wing (and all the many other Gundam Something characters out there) do NOT belong to me. They belong to people like Sotsu Agency and Sunrise and Bandai and all the other companies in the world who own a piece of the GW pie. I only like to borrow them and make them act out weird and very risque stories for my own twisted amusement, and perhaps the amusement of others. The only thing here I own is the storyline, which is pretty sad. GUNDAM WING IS NOT MINE.

author: none, but I wrote it. I dont think of myself as an author.

pairings: you probably saw in the summary. het and slash (shounen ai, yaoi, whatever)

synopsis: no, read the story dammit

warnings: probably lots of sexual innuendo, some lemons (but not yet, so Im leaving the rating R), naughty language... all I say is this: it\'s going to be dumb. I mean, severely lacking in intelligence and all rational thought. it\'ll probably be plotless. it probably won\'t ever get finished. it\'ll probably make you cringe at parts. you\'ll probably find mistakes that conflict with the GW timeline. the characters will not be their normal selves. there is no bashing. yes Relena is in here, and she plays a major role. I LIKE Relena. there will likely be clashing tenses and run-on sentences. there will most definitely be stereotypes, probably the worst ones. as for the very former, just know that I like sex, I like to curse, I have a strange sense of humor and no shame to speak of. now read, or don\'t.


_________________________________________________________________________________________


\"Boys \'n Girls

\"And you don\'t think she would?\"

Hiiro turned and looked at me, temporarily abandoning the assignment he was working on. His brow was furrowed (I mean, more furrowed than usual) and I guess he was trying to give me this *incredulous* death glare. Yes, I just used the word incredulous. Does it mean what I think it means?

\"Do I think she would? No, Duo, I do not think she would.\" Short and to the point. And once again, no contractions. I tried to remember if I had ever heard him use contractions.

\"I bet she might,\" I replied, and took a bite out of my sandwich. I bet she would, too.

Hiiro grunted in response. Then, \"There is no way in... hell you would ever be able to convince Relena to sleep with you, Duo,\" he said, hesitating before the slight curse. I chuckled.

\"I never said she had to sleep with me, man.\" Did I? I glanced at the bottom of the Sprite bottle I was drinking from, and saw it was nearly empty. Except it didn\'t smell like Sprite; it smelled like gin. It tasted like gin, too. Nothing like peanut butter and liquor after a grueling day of school. What the hell was I talking about? Oh yeah, Relena. Did I say I could get her to sleep with me? How much have I drunk?

\"You said, and I quote, \'Hey, Hiiro, do ya think I could get your girlfriend to hit the sack with me if I made her drink enough?\'\"

\"And I say, \'Hey, Hiiro, you do a pretty good impression of me for a cold, heartless bastard with no confidence in his best friend.\'\" Then I gave a perfectly timed hiccup, the kind only drunk people make. But, except, I\'m not drunk. I\'m not--do I ever lie?

Hiiro\'s eyes softened a tiny little bit when I said \'best friend.\' Of course, you\'ll observe how he did not flinch when I referred to him as a cold, heartless bastard. It\'s the little things that count, I say. Anyway, you get the point--Hiiro has a heart of oatmeal. Kind of. Oatmeal in a plastic bag in the freezer that has gotten freezer burn... can oatmeal get freezer burn? I suppose jes about anything can get freezer burn, but what do I know? It\'s frozen, it\'s cold, but ya just gotta run some hot water from the faucet over it and it\'ll thaw as please as you nice. \'Course, then it\'ll taste really bad \'cause you\'re not supposed to freeze oatmeal and stuff and it has freezer burn so.... But just because it tastes bad doesn\'t mean it\'s not all warm and ooey gooey, and kinda runny too... It\'s not like I\'m going to eat Hiiro\'s heart after all, what does that matter? You get what I\'m saying here? Huh? Yeah... I\'m not drunk.

\"Duo, be quiet and take a nap or something. You\'ve had too much to drink.\" Oop, there\'s one.

\"What, Sprite?\"

He stood up and crossed to me, leaned over and took a dramatic whiff of air into his nostrils. \"No, that would be the alcohol.\" He calls it alcohol because he probably has no idea what it\'s called. I bet he\'s never even tasted gin, or anything. That\'s what I love about Hiiro, he\'s so naive. So fun to tease.

I smiled goofily and snagged the collar of his tank top with one very steady hand. Could a drunk person do that? I think not. I pulled him down until his face wasn\'t more than a couple inches away. \"So take me to bed, hotshot.\"

And drunk people aren\'t nearly as subtle as I am.

I was joking, of course, but I didn\'t object when he pulled my hand off his shirt and hauled me by my wrist to my respective twin-sized bed on the other side of the room. Ow. You\'d think once in a while he might sweep me off my feet or something, lay me down by the fire and make sweet love to me and all that, but noooo. He\'s got to be Mr. Hiiro Yui, straight-as-a-fucking-board-and-fun-as-a-wet-blanket. I used to be straight as a board, too, but then it rained.

It\'s ok, though. I used to think I was in love with him but then I discovered I just had this infatuation with that spandex-clad ass. Ok, sorry, I don\'t mean to be crude, you know what I mean. Hiiro\'s hot enough to start a fire. He knows I wanna jump his bones and does not seem to mind, but he does his best not to encourage me I think. He does not seem to be trying very hard, though, what with all that breathing and living and moving and being THERE and stuff. But like I said, it\'s ok. We\'re just friends. I\'m content enough he wants to be that much if not my lover.

He pushed me down on my bed (hehe, I love that line) and covered me with a blanket, taking the time first to remove one of my shoes. No, he did not leave the other one on (how stupid is that); it was over on the other side of the room or something. I only just now realized I had one shoe on. Huh. Weird. I\'m not drunk.

\"G\'night Hiiro,\" I slurred, and turned over on my side. I heard him go back to his homework, which made me think about mine. Eh, screw that. You can\'t be a perfect student all the time, or else they get suspicious. At least, that\'s how I justify it.

I yawned and prepared to go to sleep. I dozed off not thinking of Hiiro for once, or my past or the mission or how uncomfortable it is to have to wear underwear to bed for the sake of your roommate, but of something else.

I fell asleep thinking about Relena.


_________________________________________________________________________________________

It was raining against the window. I opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling without really seeing it. What I could see was the dancing shadow spots that appeared and disappeared against it from the water pounding the window glass a few feet away. It was the perfect time of morning when everything is all cozy, you don\'t want to get up, it\'s raining, and you are warm and snug as a bug in a rug, as they say. Who they is, I\'ll never know. But I did feel snug.

I stretched and felt a small, sharp lance of pain through my head. Damn those Sprite people. They really oughtta put a warning on the label. I rubbed my head sorely, more for the novelty of it than the pain, and I remember hoping I hadn\'t missed too much of the rain \'show\' before the weather controller got bored and flipped the switch. Then I remembered we were on Earth, and that\'s when the doorknocker sounded throughout our small quarters.

I automatically swiveled my head to the right to find Hiiro\'s bed empty, the covers thrown back haphazardly instead of neatly made like sometimes they were, and wondered just who in the Hell had decided to disturb the God of Death while He was musing beneath the covers the meaning of life (and death, sensibly enough) and the foggy warm cozy ambience that had pervaded His small room that morning. Well, I was pissed off anyway. The last hazy effects of sleep had waned and I headed to the door with a drawn brow and a wrinkled nose, not to mention a wrinkled uniform, which I had fallen asleep in last night. Even so I was checking my breath on the palm of my hand before I looked through the peephole to see who it was.

Well, speak of the devil. Or should I say angel?

I opened the door slowly after the second polite knock and leaned against the doorframe, trying my best to look sexy and suave at the same time. Trouble was, I didn\'t feel very sexy, nor did I feel suave. It was too early in the goddamn morning!

\"Ms. Relena. Looking for Hiiro?\" I silently congratulated myself when my greeting came out smooth like I had meant for it to be. Looked like Morning Voice had decided to do me a favor this particular day.

Relena smiled politely. \"Good morning, Duo. I was looking for him, actually. Is he around?\" Her voice was sweet and courteous, her hands clasped neatly in front of her pressed dark skirt. Everything about her posture suggested she had practiced it before, and positioned herself carefully before knocking. It was so sad, really. She was so smitten with my suicidal friend. It made me kind of jealous. Of BOTH of them. She was so prim. For some reason today it did not disgust me, me who washes his hair twice a week and considers takeout fine dining; today somehow I just wanted to... change it.

\"I\'m sorry, I don\'t know where he is, as a matter of fact. He was gone before I got up this morning.\" Like she would believe I hadn\'t just now rolled my lazy ass out of bed. I cleared my throat. \"Would you like to come in and wait for him?\" Ah, see that? I am Humphrey Bogart, baby.

She looked kinda surprised, and for a second I thought she was going to shoot me down. That would\'ve sucked seriously for the God of Death\'s self esteem.

\"Well, yes, for a little while. I can\'t be long.\" Ok, Princess, I understand. You\'ve got to go save the world in half an hour, I get it. And me, it was Saturday--if I didn\'t get laid I was going to sleep until Hiiro got home and then take out my sexual frustration on him.

I let her into our small apartment and gestured to the couch. All our furniture was issued and mandatory, in order to repress our creativity and individuality, of course. She swept her skirt under her with practiced ease and sank onto one end of the sofa. No point in it; I had already noticed, as you can imagine, that her skirt was too small and too short to worry about sweeping it under her in order to sit. Just for the record: I am not a pervert, I am a TEENAGER.

What\'s the difference, right? I could only hope Relena had the same hormonal impulses as I did.

\"Excuse me.\" Smooth and sexy or no, my breath was a killer. I slipped into the bathroom and rebraided my hair, put on a t-shirt to replace the button up uniform one, which was soiled with crumbs from what looked like a macadamia nut cookie... which was questionable, since the last time I remember eating one of those was about a week and a half ago... and scrubbed my teeth vigorously. Feeling fresh and beautiful, I emerged from the bathroom a new man, a full three and a half minutes after I had entered it. Yeah, I know I\'m good.


She was still sitting on the couch, in the exact same position I had left her: legs crossed ladylike, skirt smoothed, joined hands cupping one knee, equal amount of honey blond hair touching each shoulder. But now she was looking out the window. I followed her gaze and saw that the rain had started coming down even harder. Ah, bliss. In case you haven\'t noticed, I love the rain. I\'ll take cloudy skies over the sun any day. Especially when you have to stay inside. Know what I love almost as much as rain? Snow. It\'s so pretty and light and... wait a second, I\'m getting off on a tangent here.


I looked at her cheek tilted away from me towards the cold wet glass, the shadows dancing across her face now instead of the ceiling and walls. I\'ve never thought of Relena as beautiful. At least, not conventionally beautiful. She\'s almost plain, actually. But right then she looked very pretty, and even beautiful to me.

Yes, I can be mushy and romantic sometimes. You knew I was charming, didn\'t you? Where do you think I get this stuff, my ass?

Sorry, had to throw that in there before you thought I was sensitive or something equally silly. Let us zone back into the present of reality, shall we?

She turned back to me then, as if she sensed I was done being crude to my captivated audience. Well I\'m never done but you know what I mean. She smiled sweetly and civilly and I found myself smiling back. Not the Maxwell patented Stupid Grin of Death, but an ordinary, toothless smile. Not old man toothless, of course. Jeez I suck at this.

\"When do you expect Hiiro to be back?\" Does she have to bring up HIM now? The last thing I need to be reminded of while I\'m trying to work my magic is that Hiiro-Yui-I-know-you\'re-all-in-love-with-me-but-I\'m-gonna-make-you-suffer-anyway is due back any minute. Or is he? By the way, that hyphen key is a major pain in the ass to hit over and over again like that.

I shrugged and shook my head. \"He was gone before I woke up. No telling where he is. He\'ll probably be back soon though, with the weather like this.\" To be completely honest I did not know if he would be back soon because of the weather, but I needed to keep her here *somehow*. Without Hiiro as an incentive what else could make her stay? Relena Peacecraft may preach about peace and pacifism, but I think her ultimate goal is that spandex-clad ass, same as mine. Except right now I shouldn\'t be thinking about spandex, it\'s distracting. Or Hiiro\'s ass. Put them together and what do you get? Frankly I\'d rather take them apart. Then what do you get? Dammit I need to concentrate here.

So to get my mind off spandex and asses I consolidated all my effort into sitting on the opposite end of the couch. Well, it\'s not as easy as Relena makes it look, after all. First of all it\'s not squishy and comfy, so you just can\'t sink into it, or bounce onto it naked after a cold shower (Hiiro loves that, lemme tell ya) without breaking, spraining, or twisting something and looking like an ass. I sure do use the word \'ass\' a lot, don\'t I?

Anyway, I managed to sit down without looking like an a....an idiot, and crossed one leg over the other (guy style: I may fantasize about being Hiiro\'s bottom man but I am a guy at heart). She was playing with the hem of her skirt now, which I thought was kinda strange. Who taught her to do that? Relena was the last person I would think to have such a nervous habit. Nervous? Is she nervous? Around little ol\' me?

Stop flattering yourself, Duo.

I could hear the clock ticking. Strange, I didn\'t even know we had a clock. I craned my head around to find it. Where the hell is it? I can hear it, I just can\'t... oh there it is. Where did that come from? I never noticed it before. Of course, I\'ve never been quiet and thoughtful long enough to really be aware. It was ticking back and forth, back and forth. Click, clock, click, clock, click, clock...

That got boring real fast, didn\'t it? Well Ms. Relena over there isn\'t exactly being the most entertaining person I\'ve ever met, either. If you had to choose whose mind to peek into, it\'d be mine, right? I\'m the one who keeps asking rhetorical questions and being excessively vulgar, after all. You think you\'re going to hear Relena say \'ass\' over and over again? Ha. Fat chance.

I wonder what she\'s thinking about though?

...Hiiro.

Maybe not, though. Maybe she\'s thinking about that hunk with the braid sitting a few feet away from her, cool as a cucumber, with the face of Raphael and the skin of some other more obscure but nonetheless very beautiful angel. And all she can think about as she fiddles with the end of her skirt is how much she wants that dashing young beautiful man to rip it off and have his way with her, over and over again... hehe... Hiiro? Who\'s Hiiro?

Then again, maybe I\'m just full of shit and you should just insert His Majesty Tight Shorts into that little fantasy up there.

\"What are you thinking?\"

I looked up in shock, for one split nano-second wondering if those words had just come unbidden from my mouth, in a very feminine tone and somehow from across the couch.

Relena was looking at me expectantly. I think it took me about fifty whole seconds to realize SHE had indeed been the one to read my mind, and ask that question to find out...what was in my mind. Does that make sense?

\"Uh, I was, um...\" Look at me, floundering like a fish. I can\'t lie, can I? No, but I can refrain from mentioning the whole skirt-ripping-and-having-my-way-with-her (once again, I hate that hypen) thing. For her sake, if not mine.

\"Actually, I was wondering what you were thinking, Ms. Relena.\" Well, it\'s the TRUTH.

She smiled again, and I think I saw some of the phony saccharin sweetness melt from her lips as she did so, her eyes not meeting mine. Or it might just be in my head. Whatever. At any rate you\'re still going to hear about it.

\"I was thinking... well, I don\'t know; I was thinking about a lot of things.\"

Any skirt-ripping, perchance? Don\'t worry, I\'m not going to say that out loud.

\"Hiiro?\"

She looked back at me then, her eyes locking with mine for the first time. Relena\'s eyes are sort of a funny color, let me tell you. Weird. They look blue, but they also seem kind of green, and even violet. And sometimes they are amber.

\"Hiiro? No, not really. I came here for him but I\'m almost glad he isn\'t around. It would\'ve been...awkward.\"

Whoa. Give me a minute to process this please. 1) She\'s NOT thinking about Hiiro, 2) She\'s glad he\'s not here, and 3) \"It would\'ve been...awkward.\" ???

\"Awkward?\" That\'s me for you, always speaking what\'s on my mind. For the most part. Minus the skirt-ripping.

Relena looked away again towards the window, where the rain showed no signs of letting up any. \"Yeah. Awkward.\"

Did she just use the word \"yeah\"?

She smoothed her skirt again in that nervous way and breathed deeper than usual. I could tell she was about to say something else.

\"Duo, I know that you... have feelings for Hiiro.\" WHAT THE FUCK?

Her dark blonde head turned gracefully on her neck until she was looking at me again. With that expectant expression. It dawned on me that she was not going to continue, and that she was waiting for me to reply. That makes sense, what with the expectant expression and all, I should\'ve seen that coming.

It was then that I realized my mouth was hanging open unnaturally wide, and if I didn\'t close it soon then my saliva would take it upon itself to lubricate my chin and make me look very stupid. Not that I didn\'t already look like a gay, boyfriend-nabbing asshole. God, there go my chances for scoring!

\"Relena--\" What was I planning to say anyway? Oh yeah, now I remember.

\"Who the hell told you that??\"

Her eyes widened a little bit, whether at the volume of my voice or that dirty little word \'hell\' I\'m not sure.

\"Why, Hiiro, of course.\"

Why, Hiiro. Of course.

Just when in Death\'s name did Hiiro, my old buddy, old pal, my fucking BEST FRIEND, get around to telling his would-be girlfriend, the one I\'m trying to score with, that I, Duo Maxwell, Sole Survivor of the Maxwell Church Massacre, God of Death, A. K. FUCKING A. SHINIGAMI, Pilot of Deathscythe, Wreaker of Havoc, Eater of Nacho Flavored Bugles, that *I* had the HOTS for HIM?!

NeverMIND that it was true. That\'s not the point! You don\'t go around telling people that you\'re the object of your best friend\'s lust and you think it\'s funny! That\'s not cool!

By the way, sorry about that whole bugles thing, I was running out of titles, and I really love those things, so, yeah...

Relena was blushing. \"I\'m sorry, am I mistaken? Did Hiiro...\"

What, lie to you? I oughtta say, yes, Hiiro lied to you, he\'s a bastard and NO, I do not want to jump his bones, I am a ladies\' man, want me to prove it to you?

If only I could...

But I am the most honest son of a bitch you\'ll ever meet, so, no, no lying. Damn.

\"No, you\'re right, Relena. I mean, I don\'t know if I\'d say I have \'feelings\' for him, but, uh, physically, you know what I\'m saying?\"

She was crimson now, and nodding furiously. I imagine just to make me stop talking more than anything else.

\"Why would he tell you anyway, though?\" I was still a little bit pissed off, of course. Man, was that guy gonna hear it when he got back. I\'m gonna bitch and moan and pummel his back uselessly with my fists. Just you wait and see. Oh yeah.

She made an effort to stop blushing and look me straight in the face. \"I asked him.\"

\"You. What?\"

She nodded again, concentrating very hard on her fingers as they twisted and pulled at the edge of her skirt. \"I suspected something, so, I asked him.\"

I guess that makes sense. Just taking a nice lovely stroll one day with the man of your dreams, Hiiro Yui, Prince Charming without the Charm, and just nonchalantly slip out with, \"Hey Hiiro, does Duo want to have your children or what?\"

In case you couldn\'t tell, I was being sarcastic. Just making sure, it\'s a little harder to understand in written text, I know.

\"But Duo...\" I glanced up, surprised she would have it to speak up again so soon. Looking in her face I could see the last pink blushes were fading out of her face as the blood decided it had somewhere better to be, and her eyes were all... glassy and stuff. Seriously, shiny like glass? Get what I\'m saying?

\"I know exactly how you feel. It\'s so frustrating, isn\'t it?\"

I had to strain to keep my jaw from dropping again. Relena was looking at me like I was her savior or something. It suddenly occurred to me she might see me in a different light than gay, boyfriend-nabbing asshole. I was someone she could empathize with, maybe. Was that what she thought? Was she right?

This was too much. I was still back on the whole Hiiro-telling-her-how-I-feel-stuff. How had she even suspected? I didn\'t understand. How could she have been so convinced it might be true that she had to go and ASK?

...And now she thinks she understands me?

Frustrating? Yeah it was frustrating. I may be able to admit to myself that it won\'t kill me if Hiiro doesn\'t want to be anything more than my friend (my backstabbing friend who can\'t keep his fucking mouth shut), but I\'m certainly not at Relena\'s level of lovesick patheticness, no way!

She was waiting for me to answer.

\"Frustrating? Yeah, I guess it is...\" She got up suddenly and I blinked in surprise at the jerky movement. She jumped to her feet and started pacing, in front of the sofa. Her bare legs brushed mine as she walked back and forth in the limited space between the couch and the coffee table.

\"Duo, don\'t you ever get sick of him? I mean, of everything?\" Of his inability to keep things to himself? Yeah, I hear you.

I stood up and stopped her in her tracks. \"Of course I do, Relena. I just have to put up with him.\"

She looked at me (I\'d like to say she looked UP at me, but no, I\'m 5\' 7 and that\'s not happening) and narrowed her eyes.

\"Sometimes I get so sick of him. Sometimes I want to...to HIT him so he\'ll know I\'m there! Sometimes I want to do something, ANYTHING, to grab his attention. I\'ve often thought of...trying to make him jealous, somehow.\"

Jealous? Good luck with that. (This is the part where the situational irony--yes this thing is full of rich literary goodness--jumps up and smacks you in the head, and you say, \"Is she going to do what I think she\'s going to do?\" and make fun of me for being a dense dumb ass who does not see things coming.) How in the hell did she plan on making Hiiro jealous?

\"Jealous?\" I grinned and scratched my head characteristically. \"How you gonna do that, Ms. Relena?\" (dumb ass DUMB ASS)

\"Simple, Duo.\" Here she stepped forward until we were just barely not brushing forms. \"I\'ve got a proposition for you. Tell me what you think. It\'s bound to work out for one of us.\"

I quirked an eyebrow and tilted my head. \"Yes?\"

\"I want to know how Hiiro feels. Not just about me, but about you. If we were to...\" She trailed off and looked at the carpet, then back at me. Then at the carpet again, then back at me. Obviously I failed to see the correlation between myself and the carpet, and what this relationship had to do with what she was trying to say, because she sighed and went on. \"If we were to become involved.\"

\"Ah. Involved. Romantically involved?\" She blushed and nodded.

\"So you want to do this in order to make Hiiro jealous, so that he will be forced to realize...\" I bit my tongue to keep myself from saying something like, \'forced to realize who he is truly in love with so that they might live happily ever after.\' \"...who he has feelings for, and act on those feelings?\"

She sorta gave this little half-shrug and nodded again. Boy. She had thought this through alright.

\"And are you sure that is the whole reason you want to do this?\"

She readily shook her head this time. \"I like you, Duo. I\'ve always liked you. I hope you don\'t think I\'m using you.\"

Nevermind that that was EXACTLY what she was doing, but as long as I got something out of the deal, who cared? I hope she didn\'t expect me to hold her elbow at dinner parties and escort her to political rallies.

I moved and bridged the tiny gap of existing space between us. \"Of course not, Relena. You know, I\'ve always liked you, too. A lot.\" (Insert appropriate background pornographic film music here)

I was whole-heartedly expecting her to skitter back and bloom red in the face, so you can understand my surprise when she pressed UP against ME, arms still defiantly at her sides. I looked at her smooth, pretty neck that swept down to her collarbone, enclosed by the neckline of a dark sweater that matched her hem-tattered skirt. Speaking of skirts...

I suddenly heard the sound of keys jingling in the lock of the door behind me. And when I say behind me, I mean behind me. This apartment is small, very small, and the minute you step through the front door, you are in the living room--a.k.a. the place Relena and I were standing, sharing each other\'s body heat.

The key sank home (silly boy, he knows our door hasn\'t been locked since we moved in) and turned without resistance, and neither Relena nor myself had made any attempt to move. I stepped back slightly when I heard the door open and Hiiro come in, and I knew it must\'ve looked like I was just stepping away from an embrace.

Evidently it was still raining outside, because our favorite Japanese boy assassin was drenched to the core. Looked like he had been outside the whole time. He stopped when he saw Relena, rainwater still running off his skin and clothes and hair onto the floor. Yum. Er, sorry.

My back to my new pseudo-girlfriend, I gave a small, smug smile and greeted him. \"Welcome home, Hiiro. You\'re supposed to take your clothes off before a bath, you know.\" Screw you, I had to make a joke. Don\'t make fun of my jokes.

Hiiro\'s very blue eyes (no question about the color of THOSE freaky things, man) focused on me, and they may have been full of a lot of things, but since most of what I was looking at was wet, drooping brown hair, I couldn\'t tell. \"Duo.\" His greeting. He shifted to Relena. \"Relena.\"

I half-expected her to glomp the guy, but instead I heard her reply to him in close to the same cool monotone. \"Hiiro.\"

She brushed past me, nodded, turned, nodded to Hiiro, and left. I\'m serious. Just LEFT. Gone, like that. Wasn\'t even there anymore. Get what I\'m trying to say here? She was gone.

And so I was left alone with Hiiro, and I waited for the questioning to begin.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~