A/N: Before I forget, I'm utterly disregarding school starting dates and all that. We'll just say…umm…how 'bout their baseball season starts in the summer? Yeah. That'll do.

Thanks to Cerulean Waters for reminding me I still have this story. Ah, I love it so…

Catcher 02

Chapter 2

Trowa

Trowa Barton was crazy, as any student at Pianosa High School could have told you. And those students included Trowa Barton. Most saw him as a quiet, crazy enigma who could kill you with a fastball. Duo saw him as a quiet, crazy enigma to everyone else but him who could still kill you with a fastball regardless.

He was a man who read Victorian-era novels while listening to Alice Cooper. He was a man who could say a thousand words with a look yet absolutely nothing in a monologue. And he was crazy on the baseball field.

Some called him the Towering Trowa of Terror, since he loomed over the batter with his six-foot advantage and could scare people off the plate with a glare, and the public always enjoys a good use of alliteration.

Duo Maxwell, however, called him Tro. Or, at the moment, "you".

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!"

Trowa looked up from Pride and Prejudice with one of his speaking smiles as Duo and the other three boys strode back into the library. "Hello Duo. My uncle died."

"Ah." Duo nodded sagely as the other three boys with him grew more confused by the moment. "That explains everything." Duo Maxwell was quite possibly the only person on the planet who could follow Trowa's logic.

"What does that mean?" The blonde- Quatre, Duo reminded himself- asked. Trowa frowned, yet again his green eyes telling everything. Or, at least they would have if the other four boys were close enough to gaze into them.

"Trowa lived with his uncle, who was about 94 and half dead last time I was over in Pianos…uh, Pianos High School. If he died, that'd leave Trowa to come over here and live with his half-sister Catherine," Duo explained, and then turned, grinning, back to his best friend. "Hi!"

"I can't help but notice the company," Trowa stated, and yet again Duo jumped into action.

"Trowa Barton, meet…well, I, uh, don't have their full names yet…"

"Quatre Raberba Winner," he said, coming over and shaking Trowa's hand. "I play shortstop."

Trowa smiled just a little. "Towering Trowa, eh?" Duo chuckled, and Quatre just shrugged.

"Well, I admit to following your stats. You going to try out for the team?"

"We have a pitcher," Heero stated rather quickly, only for Wufei to snort in disdain.

"Otto? He barely knows what a ball looks like, let alone how to throw it," he muttered dryly, as always. He bowed slightly towards Trowa. "Chang Wufei, second base. And the kid glaring at you over there's Heero Yuy."

Trowa chuckled. "So that explains the hostility." Heero frowned, and Trowa stretched a little, putting a bookmark in the novel and setting it down on the table. "If it makes you feel any better, I wasn't there during the championship game." His eyes were shining again. "On the other hand, Du-OW! Uh. Huhhhh…" Trowa gritted his teeth as Duo finally let go of his shoulder blade. Or, more specifically, the skin around his shoulder blade.

"Well then, there's sure to be no hard feelings if you decide to try out for the baseball team. It's this afternoon, by the way," Quatre said diplomatically. His aqua eyes swung over to Heero. "Isn't that right, Heero?" The definitely firmer tone got the other boy to nod. "Good. Duo, do you play baseball?"

Duo blinked, and grinned. "Who, me? Naaah. Me and baseball go together like…umm…"

"Like Duo and baseball," Trowa supplied, and smiled back at the other three boys. "I'll be sure to drag him along." He just barely missed the pinching of his lifetime by standing very, very quickly. "I'll see you there. After school at the baseball field?" The other three nodded. "We'll be there."

"TROWA!"

A green glare was his reward. "We're going, Duo. You both deserve that much."

For once, Duo couldn't follow the logic, but with a cordial goodbye (yet another thing that made him crazy), Trowa had walked out of the library and off to whatever tall kids did during the day.

"So you play baseball too," Quatre asked, getting stuff out of his backpack at the same time as Heero and Wufei. It was all laid out on their four-person table. Heero's pencils, Duo couldn't help but notice, were lined up in a grid pattern, three up, one down. He couldn't help but wonder why the boy even thought he'd need that many pencils at one time.

"Uh, I guess you could say that," he said nervously. "Nothing special, though."

"I'll judge that. What's your last name," Heero asked, and Duo nearly shrieked as he pulled out last year's stat book, flipping straight to the Pianosa Varsity team.

"…I…don't know."

If it was possible, the quiet library grew even more silent.

"You don't know your last name." Wufei was staring at him, black eyes boring a way into his brain. He was going to pop any second.

"I don't know where my first class is," Duo blurted out, grinning. "Hey, anyone want to help me? It's a new school and very different from Pianosa, so I'm kind of lost, and the one time I tried to find my way I ended up slipping into here, and I don't know the schedule either so I don't know which class to be late to next."

Heero was incredulously, vapidly staring at his forehead.

Wufei gave him a crazy expression of, 'can anyone really be THAT stupid?'

Quatre, bless him into eternal paradise, sighed and smiled obligingly, standing up from his mildly organized pile of school-related junk. "Why not." He held out his hand. "Schedule?"

Duo shoved it into his hand, grinning. "Thanks, man."

But, after one look at it, Quatre sat back down, motioning Duo to the empty chair at the table. "Sit down."

Duo quirked an eyebrow up. "Huh?"

Quatre pointed to the paper's first line. "Study Hall, Room 1000- or, the library." Aww, shit… "You're in your class. Sit down, Duo. It lasts an hour and a half."

Duo groaned, slamming himself down in the chair with a grunt and letting his head bang onto the table. "If I survive that long…"

x---x

Trowa's always just one step ahead...

See the date? April 22nd? Huh? Yup. Figured this deserved an update for the date alone. Not to mention I wanted to…

READER RESPONSES:

Kaaera: Aww, I missed your Hitchhiker deadline by six days. Stupid time. Hopefully you'll enjoy Catch-22, though! It's a bit weird (like this fic), but enjoyable. I'll have to update on your birthday for you…or do you want a different birthday update? Hmm…

Duo Maxwell-Chang: Ah, yes, the horrible shortness of these chapters…sorry 'bout that. It's mostly 'cuz I have no real plan for this story, and I think it's just genuinely fun to write/read. And thank you VERY much for reviewing!

KawaiiTenshi27: Hmm…well, a month and a bit isn't TOO bad for Catcher 02…(snicker) "Alone time" indeed…Gives me ideas…Thanks for reviewing!

Gods sent angel: Wow! You liked my inappropriate usages of the word 'rape'? COOL! And 'twas is VERY under appreciated. I want to hear one of these 'perturbing sentences', honestly…

Proton7: Thaaank yoou! Sorry I take so long to, you know, WRITE.

Serena429: Ah, the tribulations of updating quickly. Sorry for that. But thanks for reviewing!

Windy River: I sure do try!

TKM: Thank you VERY much! I love patient people, and I hope you think it was worth the wait.

Ink2: Yep, Duo switched schools for a reason you'll see later. Sorry 'bout not making that very clear. Thanks very much for reviewing!

Kushielle: I stand proudly in front of my earlier-but-still-very-late updating! Woohoo! Well, yeah, I abuse Duo, but…well, I DID have a reason for it, but it just sorta abandoned me. Go figure. Thanks for reading, though! It's always great to hear from you.

Cerulean Waters: Oh, thank you thank you THANK YOU for reviewing and reminding me I had this. Thank you SO much! And the discovering will eventually happen, and you'll definitely want to be around when THAT happens. Muwahahah…Thank you again! (And your secret's safe from Prodigy, that time-hoarding, annoying harpy of a story. It just won't leave my brain alone!)