Happy Coincidence - Chapter 1
by Veste Notus
Dear Mr. Heero O. Yuy;
According to our records, you are already listed as an enrolled incoming freshman at James Asper University in Asper, L1. You need not reapply to the Francis School of Engineering. If you would like to transfer from schools, you must speak with your assigned advisor as well as the heads of the Engineering School and the school you wish to transfer into.
Duo Maxwell could scarcely believe his eyes as he stared at the email on his computer. A few weeks ago, he had applied to the James Asper University in hopes of getting a scholarship fund. Since the end of the war, he’d been looking forward to the days he could start over and be a normal student.
“Of course, it’s hard to be a normal student when you’ve been fighting a war ‘till you’re 16!” Duo laughed to himself. Duo closed the email and opened the word document containing his application. “Well, that’s what I get for applying under someone else’s name. ‘Guess I’ll have to resubmit my app…”, he thought.
Duo quickly corrected his application. This time, he’d be sure to enter his real name and personal information. He scanned the necessary paper-work and consolidated the files. Hours later, Duo had electronically submitted his real college application and went off to bed. He’d done enough for the night.
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“Welcome to James Asper University!” called a slightly frazzled looking woman outside the Admissions Building on the JAU campus. “My name is Tamara Stone, and I’m a senior at JAU majoring in Psychology.” Tamara paused and surveyed the 20+ students in her group. Most had teary-eyed parents beside them. “Incoming freshmen, please follow me! I will be assisting you to your dorms!”
Duo lugged his heavy duffle bag. His other equipment was being air-shipped to him from his apartment in L2. Duo sighed. He knew he’d miss his pleasant room. Ms. Peacecraft was kind enough to provide rent-free living for a handful of the heroes of war between the colonies and the Earth. Duo normally didn’t like handouts, but Relina was a pretty smooth talker… and an insistent one.
Duo mindlessly followed the crowd led by the ever-perky Tamara. She was pretty tall, but despite her position of authority, she didn’t stand out very much in the crowd. Tamara and the crowd stopped in front of a large brick building. It appeared to have 5 or 6 floors, but Duo wasn’t sure. Tamara shuffled through some papers on her clipboard.
“If I read off your name, go inside and pick up your room key from the people at the front desk.” Tamara started. “Flaurighty, Meaghan. Loach, Michelle. Maxwell, Duo. Soccolow, Anthony.”
Duo lingered before going directly inside. He watched as Meaghan (or was it Michelle?) kissed her mother and father goodbye before dragging in a series of wheeled bags and suitcases. Duo got his room key from the greeter and headed up the stairs to 4B.
There stood the door for 4B, as he turned the corner from the staircase. Its cold grey lettering was nailed to the wooden door. Duo pushed the key in the lock and held his breath. He opened the door.
The room was bare and empty. No one had moved into it yet. That was fine by him. He’d rather stake his claims to the room and get the best bed and desk. Duo surveyed the matching beds, wooden desks, and wooden drawers. They were identical. He took the set on the right and began unpacking his belongings.
Half way through making his bed, Duo heard someone fumbling with a key on the other side of the door. Duo quickly brushed himself off and tried to look presentable. The door opened.
“Hey. My name is Chad. Chad Owens.” said raven-haired boy with his arm outstretched. Duo shook his hand.
“Duo Maxwell. Nice to meet you.” Chad smiled and let go of Duo’s hand. He reached into his denim pockets and took out a handkerchief to wipe his wire-frame glasses.
“When did you get here?”, Chad asked as he wiped the dust off his glasses.
“Maybe an hour ago. I’m not sure exactly. I haven’t set up a clock in the room yet, so…” Duo let his voice trail off as he continued to make his bed and straighten up his side of the room. “I hope it’s okay that I took this side of the room. The beds and everything are exactly the same, so I didn’t think it would matter too much.”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Duo and Chad continued to unpack in relative silence. Every now and then, Chad would ask a question about what Duo was into or what he was going to do that week before classes started. Duo hated how awkward he was when he first met people. People like Heero Yuy.
“Duo?” Duo blinked. Chad was looking at him, as if he was expecting an answer from him.
“Uhh… Sorry, I just kinda spaced out for a minute. What did you say?” Duo responded.
“Don’t worry about it. I just asked if you had a girlfriend or something.” said Chad, sitting on his freshly made bed.
Duo laughed out loud. “HEEELLL no! I don’t have time for no girlfriend!” Duo thought on it for a minute before adding “I just haven’t been in one place long enough to make close enough friends like that.”
Chad nodded in understanding. “So you moved around a lot?” Duo nodded.
“But I won’t anymore, so don’t get the idea that you’ll be livin’ in a single!” Duo joked. Chad snickered a little. The awkwardness was starting to fade away… albeit slowly.
“So how ‘bout you?”
“How ‘bout me what?”
“Do you have a girlfriend?” Duo asked. It was only fair that if Chad had bothered to ask him about his relationship status, Duo should do the same.
“Kinda. We’re on-again, off-again.” admitted Chad. “It’s complicated.”
“Well, just as long as I’m not sex-iled too often, we’ll be okay!” Duo said with a wink. “Let me make friends with people who’ve got plenty of floor-space first.” Duo thought he was being more than compromising. He frankly didn’t care where he slept: a bed, the floor, a car… just as long as it wasn’t outside. He hated sleeping outside. It reminded him of life before the orphanage. …And life immediately after the orphanage…
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The following Tuesday, Duo set out for his first classes. He had signed up for a few high level math, physics, and engineering classes. At 11 AM, he was due for his engineering class.
Duo entered the lecture hall and was lulled to a happy state of boredom for about an hour before the professor announced the homework for Thursday’s class. Duo scribbled it down and dragged his feet out of the classroom.
“MAAAAN that was boring!” he said to no one in particular. A red-headed girl leaving the building beside him laughed.
“Only 29 more ‘till the final!” she added sarcastically. Duo smiled at her.
“So what’s your name?” he asked through a grin.
“Rosa.” she answered sweetly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her freckled ear.
“Nice to meet ya! Wanna grab lunch and bitch about how boring Professor Awalt is?” he suggested. She accepted his invitation and the two headed off to one of the school’s cafeterias. Duo had never been prouder of himself. It was the first day of college and already he was making friends and wooing girls. He was pretty pleased with himself indeed.
“I can’t believe that you didn’t have a lot of friends, Duo!” Rosa said between mouthfuls of salad. “You seem like a pretty nice guy to me.” She looked down at her meal. “And not too bad lookin’, either.”
Duo grinned from ear to ear. “You think so?” He chuckled. “Nobody’s ever said anything like that to me before! Wow. I can’t believe a looker like you thinks I’m ‘not bad looking’!” The two shared a laugh.
An hour later, Duo waved goodbye to his new friend and walked back to his room. He wondered if his apartment TV he shipped out 3 days ago had arrived yet. He wanted to hook up some video games and start playing it.
Duo looked at his watch. There was still plenty of time before his next class. But not enough that he could get meaningfully into his video games. He shook his head and headed over to the library. Maybe he could get some work done before his math class.
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It had been a month since Duo first started classes at JAU. Every single class bored him to tears. It wasn’t that the professors were bad teachers. No, not all of them were. When you spend your childhood youth hacking computers and piloting gundams, college-level engineering and computer science seems… beneath you.
Duo rolled over in his bed. He groaned aloud, thankful Chad had taken a “sabbatical” as Duo called it, to visit his girlfriend. Duo let his mind wander. He was pretty busy these days. He wondered how his old war buddies were doing. It had been a while since he’d seen anyone from his piloting days.
Were Quatre’s sisters still driving him nuts? How’s Trowa’s circus tour going? Is Wufei enjoying his position with the Preventors? Is Heero… Is Heero…
“What is Heero up to these days?” Duo thought to himself. He laughed as his mind cleared and he remembered. Heero Yuy went off to college. James Asper Univesity in scenic Asper, L1. Duo remembered trying to apply to the school under a false name, using Heero’s personal information to keep his identity more-or-less secret. But with the war over and its heroes long forgotten, there was no need for that anymore. Duo could walk out in the open and rest easy knowing no one was going to shoot him.
Duo sat up. His alarm clock read 1:18 in big red letters. Duo made up his mind that it was too early to go back to sleep on a Friday night and rolled out of bed. He threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and combed through his messy hair. He quickly braided it with practiced efficiency. Stuffing his room key in his pocket, Duo went out to check out some of the off-campus bars.
Hours later, a drunk Duo sat out on the curb of a street he didn’t recognize. He had a lot of fun singing karaoke until 3 in the morning at one bar in particular. But at 4 AM, the bars began to close. Duo had shuffled out with the crowd and began wandering.
Sitting on the curb with a cold wind blowing at his back, Duo wondered why it was he wandered around when he was drunk. Duo grabbed at his arms to keep from shivering in the cold. He sat up and looked around to get his bearings.
At last, Duo realized he was hopelessly lost. He wandered over to bench he’d spied a few yards off and had a seat. “At least now I can sober up comfortably” he thought to himself. His cell phone rang.
Duo fished his phone out of his pocket and checked the display. It was Chad. Duo answered it, trying to conceal his drunken state.
“What’s up, buddy?”
“She dumped me” Chad blurted out weepily.
“What else is new. You two break up every other week!”
“Not this time, Duo” Chad continued. “She means it. She’s got a new boyfriend and everything!” Chad started crying again. Duo knew that Chad was no wimp. Sure he and his girlfriend argued a lot… And they had “broken up” a few times before. But Chad never cried over it. Duo knew this was serious.
“I’ll be over as soon as I can, Chad.”
“Thanks, Duo. Hey man… where are you?”
“Dunno. I got drunk and kinda got myself lost. Don’t worry! I’ll meet ya in the room in half and hour.” Duo hung up the phone. He wanted to pass out right there on the bench, but he knew he had to comfort his roommate. He was his friend, after all.
Duo walked down what he thought was a familiar road. When he reached a dead-end, he doubled back. He paced around the bench. He stood up on it to see if he couldn’t see the JAU buildings on the horizon.
“Duo?”
Duo spun around on the bench so quickly, he nearly fell off it. His braid hit against something as he turned. A pair of hands shot out to stabilize the American.
“Thanks… you scared me and…” Duo looked up. “…Heero…” In front of him was the Japanese boy himself, dressed in a pair of shorts and a thin white hoodie which he had zipped up with the hood carelessly thrown over his head. A pair of headphones hung around his neck.
“What are you doing here?” Heero asked, somewhat incredulously.
“Lost. Didn’t exactly wanna be here.” Duo replied. Heero could smell the liquor on his breath.
“You’re drunk.”
“And hot!” the braided boy joked. “Was just thinkin’ ‘bout you earlier. How’s school going?”
Heero slung Duo’s arm over his shoulder and helped him stand. “How’d you know I was in school?” Heero assisted Duo across the street and down the sidewalk.
Duo hazily tapped his head. “I’m the smartest man in the colonies.”
Heero scoffed. “You’re lucky I was jogging down this route. Not too many people hang out around here in the mornings.”
“I owe ya one.” Duo looked up at the large grey building Heero was guiding him towards. “Where are we going?”
“My dorm. You need to sober up.” Heero said with finality. The two entered the building and staggered down the hallway, stopping at room 1C. Heero put in his room key and opened the door to a fairly spacious single room. Duo nearly threw himself onto the bed.
“Dude! You got a single? No way! JAU stuck me in a double half this size!”
Heero blinked. “You’re at JAU too?”
“Yeah. I’m livin’ in Higgins 4B. You should meet my roommate. He looks like a cross between Trowa and Wufei… but with glasses.”
“Duo?” Heero called. “Shut up.”
Duo sat up in Heero’s bed. “And here I thought I was beginning to miss you.”
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