Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Heero PoV. Very different take on Duo.
Spoilers: Just Duo and Heero jumping from school to school
Notes: This fic is the reason I am not a member of the SDDI. And despite my full support of the SDDI, I'm not ashamed of that. :)
"==========" - scene change
*blah* - emphasis
Duo's ultimatum left me with some difficult questions, not the least of which was whether it was worth doing whatever restitution he required to keep him with me. I came to earth expecting to work alone; perhaps it was time to return to basics. And yet, I regretted nothing of our time together. If it weren't for Duo's proven incapability to do the job, his presence wouldn't have been an issue.
And it *was* proven. Even Duo admitted his scores were sub-standard. But he also believed they had no relation to his abilities, and that if I thought about the issue, I would agree with him. I didn't understand his reasoning, but had no reason not to indulge him in this. So that first day, while repairing Wing, I reviewed the facts at hand.
Most obvious and most blatant were his test scores, particularly the IQ test. While any number of factors might account for poor scholastics, intelligence was something for which there was no compensation. How Duo managed to pilot his Gundam at all was beyond me; it was only a matter of time before his luck ran out.
We'd been partners for four months.
I actually paused in my work, considering that. Four months, and no mission failures. Some close calls, but nothing caused by pilot incompetence. Overwhelming odds, certainly. Short munitions at times. On rare occations, bad intelligence. But never pilot incompetence.
The more I thought about it, the less sense it made. As a pilot, Duo was reckless and rash. As a person, he was gregarious and impulsive. But incompetent? If I hadn't seen the test results myself, the thought never would have crossed my mind. But I had seen the results, and I couldn't reconcile the 87 score with the necessary skills to pilot a Gundam.
All through the repairs, I wrestled with possibilities. Maybe Duo had thrown the tests on purpose, to get easier classes? No, that was unworthy of him, and I'd watched him struggling with lessons. Perhaps English was not his first language, and he hadn't clearly understood the test questions? But he never slipped into another language the way I did with Japanese, and he read anything he could get his hands on. I even considered the possibility he was an idiot-savant, except neither his skills nor his limitations were that severe.
Eventually I drew the only possible conclusion; I needed more information. As the web was my most readily available and varied resource, it was an obvious starting place. Search engines are notoriously imprecise, and I had very little idea where to start, so I was not surprised to find results in the hundreds of thousands to my first queries. What did surprise me was the variety of the search results, even within the first dozen or so picks. Testing sites. Histories of intelligence testing. Drugs which could enhance or limit results. Mental health. Even animal intelligence tests. And the debates... there was no end to the debates.
Frequent and varied testing had been part of my regular training regime, so I had never questioned their validity. Others apparently did, with vehemence. Hereditary vs environmental effects were a prime discussion; one rather interesting article claimed that hereditary advantages such as intelligence actually sought out environments which emphasized those advantages (1). There were several articles supporting or decrying the widespread use of intelligence tests in academic and social systems; the former discussing social and economic advantages (2), the latter discussing social biases and recounting atrocities committed to individuals in the past, in comparison to which the Alliance was a benevolent government (3). The idea of Duo, dead or sterilized or worse for the sake of that one number, made me shiver. One theory, proposed in the late 20th century AD, even proposed multiple "intelligences," each relating to a different performance capacity (4).
Much of it was interesting reading, some nothing more than thinly-disguised propaganda, but in the end, it left me with far more and larger questions than I'd started with. If the test I'd given Duo was invalid, what about the numerous tests given to me? Was there a test which could be considered valid and unbiased? How could I be certain of accurate results?
Amid all the questions, two things became clear. First, I did not know nearly enough about these tests to make judgements based on them. Second, I did not know enough about Duo Maxwell to make judgements about him. The former continued study might eventually rectify, but there was only one way to know Duo better, and it wasn't going to happen as long as we were at odds.
I went to find the American.
======================================
Duo was in the ship's mess, chatting amiably with several of the Sweepers between mouthfuls of oatmeal. I was hesitant to break into their conversation; the Sweepers had never been particularly amiable to me, ever since I'd taken Deathscythe's parts on that first visit, and the current strain between Duo and myself had not improved the situation. But he spotted me standing in the doorway, and excused himself from his friends to join me. "Something on your mind, Yuy?"
"Hai. I - " I suddenly realized that almost every eye was on the pair of us, and stiffened slightly.
Duo noted my stance, and the reason, and took hold of my arm. "C'mon, we can talk on deck." Though I doubted it'd be much more private there, I followed without argument. While the deck was certainly more crowded with the morning crew, they had other things to pay attention to than two off-duty Gundam pilots, and we were effectively ignored. "All right, talk."
I eyed the way Duo stood, arms crossed, legs apart and slightly bent, as though braced for a fight. Not the most inviting of poses. I took a deep, bracing breath, and began. "I allowed outside information to interfere with my judgement, and made decisions based on unsupported data rather than known information and personal experience. As such, my behavior was short-sighted and irresponsible."
For a long moment we stared at each other, each wary, each waiting. Finally Duo sighed. "You know, Heero, you suck at apologies." His word weren't encouraging, but he *did* use my first name, and there was a glint of humor in his eyes. "You still have to make all that up to me, you know. "
I nodded, though I still had no idea what he would consider adequet restitution. Still, at least he'd still be with me. Maybe at this next school I'd have -
The next school. I suddenly remembered the classes for which we were registered, and realized I needed to warn him.
"Ne, Duo, about our new courses... the classes are more advanced than the last school. If you... I thought you should know." I had been ready to offer to do his homework again, but thought better of it.
His eyes narrowed at me, almost as though he'd heard the words unsaid. I realized that while he might still be willing to work with me, there was a long way to go before he forgave me. "So help me, Yuy, if this was some lame idea of yours to keep me dependent on you-"
"No!" I cut in quickly, indwardly wincing. We were back to last names. "No," I repeated, softer. "I thought you might appreciate the challenge, is all."
He sighed, rubbing one hand over his face. "Heero... if you're going to be an asshole, *be* an asshole? This back and forth switch is giving me a headache..." I blinked, unsure what he meant, and then nervous as I saw the beginnings of his grin. "Okay, what classes are we in?"
"Second-level Algebra, Advanced Chemistry, Information-age History, World Literature, Computer Science. And basketball."
His grin was full-blown now, the same one he wore in battle. "All right, Heero, here's how you can make up that last mission to me. You get to tutor me. *Not* give me the answers. Not do my homework. Tutor. You're going to help me with my homework. You're going to explain concepts. You're going to work me through every single step of every equation. You get to take part in every single headache I'm going to get trying to pass these classes."
After a stunned moment, I managed to clarify, "You want me to tutor you... in all the courses?"
"Well, not basketball, obviously. And I think I can handle history and lit on my own."
Considering the option, I found it appealed to me. Tutoring Duo would be the perfect oportunity to get to know him better, to judge his abilities against the research I'd done. "Ryoukai. I'll tutor you in math, chemistry, and computer science."
"And Japanese."
"We're not taking Japanese," I protested.
Another grin. "Yeah, but if you're going to curse at me in another language, I at least want to know what you're saying."
I sighed. "Duo, I've never cursed at you."
"Then what's 'baka' mean?"
My mind froze. The weight of the word I had used so often on him suddenly hit me. After all that had happened, how would he react if he knew? The peace between us was such a fragile thing...
"Fool," I finally said, taking a translation which I hoped would be less offensive. "It means someone who acts foolishly."
His only reply was a short, dry - possibly amused? - sound. "They're going to clear breakfast soon, you'd better hurry up and get yours." He gave my shoulder a friendly slap as he left, and I was cautiously hopeful things might yet work out.
These are links to the various articles outlining the debates Heero discovered. Warning: Some of them are HIGHLY controversial, and HIGHLY reactionary. The views expresses are not necessarily mine.1) http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/views/articles/dickens/2001_psychreview.htm - An interesting article, though the premise suggested I find overly simplified.
2) http://www.eugenics.net - The arguments in favor of eugenics (purposeful improvement of the intellectual gene pool) are well-thought and clearly defined; but the only practical applications require complete disregard of civil rights.
3) http://www.plp.org/pamphlets/riwc.html - Article laying out the historical relation between eugenics and racism. Sophonisba on the GWA MB pointed out the works of Jay Gould (The Mismeasurement of Man in particular) as a more balanced discussion, and provided me with the following links:
Gould's review of The Bell Curve: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance/course/topics/curveball.html
More on Evolutionary-Psychology: http://www.stephenjaygould.org/additional.html, in the section entitled "Humans, IQ, and Evolutionary-Psychology."4) http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr054.shtml - The theory of Multiple Intelligences. The vast majority of the links to other resources are, unfortunately, broken, but there are a few at the bottom that work and give more detailed information on the theory.