---------------------------
      The Arrangement
~ A Moment in a Dorm Room ~
---------------------------
	"Okay, I can see right away that we have a problem," Duo 
started, having sensed long ago that his charming roommate would 
probably not be the one to begin very many conversations.  The two of 
them stood surveying their new realm from the entranceway of their room, 
just inside with the door closed behind them.  The other pilots -- or 
rather, ex-pilots -- were being acquainted with their own rooms, no 
doubt ones quite similar to the one they were standing in now.  They 
weren't next door, but they were all in the same hallway.

	The problem that Duo had identified lay in the arrangement of 
the furniture.  The room itself was fine.  Better than fine, he 
supposed, the benefit of attending a high-class private institution.  
Extraordinarily roomy, at least by his standards, with a lot of open 
floor space since all of the furniture was pushed up against the walls.  
The two beds were along opposite walls perpendicular to the door.  At 
the foot of each bed was a dresser, and beside the head of each bed was 
a desk and a chair, with their backs to the door directly beneath a 
large window.

	Duo took another few cautious steps into the room and turned 
around.  "Holy crap," he said succinctly, eyeballing the closet doors 
lining the right side of the same wall as the door.  "That's a lot of 
closet space."

	Heero followed him in and took a look for himself.  It was 
indeed a lot of closet space.  It boggled both of them that people would 
actually have enough stuff to fill all of that.

	"And that's a lot of counter space," Duo added, looking through 
the doorway to his left.  There was a sink there, with a mirror above it 
and a couple of extra feet of surface spreading off to the left.  He 
stuck his head into the doorway and found the toilet and shower hiding 
through another doorway next to all that surface space.  A sliding door 
that retracted into the wall could be used to separate the sink area 
from the rest of the room.

	In the meantime, Heero had put his duffle down by his feet and 
was busying himself with the scene outside their window.  Their room was 
on the second story, commanding a view of nothing more threatening than 
a grassy field.  Beyond that lay the edge of campus, a border of trees 
with an elegant fence of stone and iron to keep the outside out.  The 
rest of the town outside was barely visible.  It was almost enough to 
make him dismiss the fact that walls kept the inside in as well.  
Despite the fact that there was little out there, it went without saying 
that the window blinds would stay shut at night.

	They both turned back to the center of the room at the same time 
and looked at each other.

	"I'll flip ya for it," Duo offered, flicking his eyes towards 
the bed on the inside wall.  No way was he going to be stationed right 
in front of the door like that on the other side.

	Heero thought the same.  As Duo had said, there was a problem, 
but it was not without a solution.  "We can rearrange the furniture."

	"Think we're allowed to?"

	"Do you care?"

	"Good point."  Why hadn't he realized that sooner?  Bleh, but 
institutionalized life was getting to him already.  He dropped the bag 
he had been carrying all this time and pushed up his sleeves in 
preparation for some heavy lifting, but had to stop when he realized 
that they didn't have a plan yet.  He stared at the room, trying to 
rearrange the furniture in his head.

	Heero was doing the same, and coming up with some unpleasant 
conclusions.  "We'll each want our own side," he stated with certainty.

	"Absolutely."  If they were going to share a room, he wanted at 
least part of it to be *his*.  He would have preferred a single, but 
then again, all five of them probably would have preferred a single.  
Hell, even the civilians probably preferred singles.

	"Someone's going to end up next to the door."  Even if they 
didn't keep to their own sides, there was no way to rearrange things to 
place everything on the more secure side of the room.  Compromises would 
have to be made.

	"Damn."  They thought about it some more.  "Guess I'll flip ya 
for it after all.  Then we can try and work something out."  Heero 
agreed with a slight nod, so his new roommate fished a coin out of one 
of the many pockets that adorned his pants.  "Call it," Duo said as the 
coin arced gracefully through the air.

	"Heads."

	He caught the little piece of metal nimbly and flipped it onto 
the back of his opposite hand.  "Heads.  Damn."  And damn his morals for 
not letting him lie about it, either.

	Heero nudged the duffle by his foot a little towards his side of 
the room, which was the most acknowledgment he gave the declaration 
before turning his problem solving skills back to the situation.  Since 
Duo's side of the puzzle was the more difficult to solve, he chose to 
work on it first, especially since he had just won the coin toss.  No 
point in rubbing it in, not if he wanted to live in peace.  Normally he 
would have left his roommate to his own devices and worried about his 
own affairs, but he realized that steps should be taken if they wanted 
to decrease the level of tension in the room, otherwise they could end 
up unintentionally hurting each other.  It was very unwise to have two 
very jumpy people living in the same room.  Doing all they could to 
secure their territory would go a long way towards easing their nerves.  
"If you put your bed along -that- wall and your desk along -that- wall," 
he said, pointing first along the wall by the window, then the wall 
perpendicular to the door, "then at least your back won't be to the 
door."

	"Yeah, but I'll still be the first person to get mowed down in 
case of emergency," Duo answered sourly, only as an afterthought 
wondering why he thought he might get mowed down in his own dorm room.  
He dismissed the errant thought easily.  Even if he weren't in any 
danger, he still didn't want to be so exposed like that.  Everyone would 
be able to see him and his stuff if the door were open.

	There were only so many configurations that were coming to mind, 
which only made Heero realize he wasn't thinking creatively enough.  He 
measured the available floor space with a critical eye and came up with 
a different plan.  "We can put your desk right here," he proposed, 
moving to the area next to where the dresser in front of the door 
currently was, which was left of the bathroom door.  "Your bed can go 
along the wall under the window, and we can put your desk right here, 
facing the door."

	"Whee, then I'll be able to look them in the eye when they mow 
me down."  That was even worse than having his side to the door.  Or, to 
frame it in a slightly more civilian manner, it would be distracting 
every time the door opened, and people would not only be able to see 
what he was doing, but his face as he was doing it, as well.  Why that 
was such a bad thing was hard to say.  It was simply an engrained habit 
to try and keep his activities to himself as much as possible, even if 
all he would probably be doing was homework.

	"There's a... what is that called?"  Heero pointed to the hutch 
sitting on the floor beneath Duo's bed.  He had one sitting underneath 
his own bed as well.  It was a simple shelf in an 'H' form with a 
corkboard underneath it.

	Duo shrugged.  The vocabulary of furniture had not been among 
the topics Professor G had made him study.

	Heero continued without it.  "It looks like it should go on top 
of the desk.  If we put it there, then you'll have a barrier between you 
and the door."

	"Hmmm."  The idea was not without its merits.  He could move the 
desk forward enough from the bed without getting in the way of entering 
the room or the bathroom, and still have room to move his chair back 
with some comfort.  So long as he pushed the chair in at night, it 
shouldn't hamper him getting in and out of bed.  The desk-shelf assembly 
would also be short enough for him to see over if he were standing.  It 
probably wouldn't be the most attractive thing to look at as the first 
thing in the doorway, but it was tolerable.  He could always put some 
sort of decorative matter on the back.  If he didn't push the desk 
completely flush with the wall, he'd be able to lean over the side and 
catch a view of the door as well, although that would leave the head of 
his bed exposed to public view.  Taking a closer look at the hutch, he 
saw there was hole in the back, probably to let wires through as 
necessary, and it might do in a pinch if he really needed to look 
through his wall without removing himself from cover.  "Hey, do you mind 
if I set up my dresser to the right of my desk then?  They look about 
the same height.  It'll kind of stick out into the middle of the room, 
though."

	His roommate shrugged his assent.  Duo could do what he wanted 
with his side of the room, so long as it stayed on his side of the room.  
Heero himself didn't require very much space.  He just wanted that space 
to be his and his alone.  Based on what he'd been able to observe, he 
was fairly certain that, so long as the two of them stayed out of each 
other's way, they would be able to cohabit well enough.

	"What about your side?"

	Heero refocused his attention to his own half of the room, 
noting that he would have to leave space to be able to access the 
closets, but other than that, he had an entire safe wall to work with.  
"I'll put my bed over there," he declared, pointing at the corner and 
gesturing along the inside wall.  That would leave them clearer access 
to the windows as well, should such an emergency arise that demanded an 
extra exit from the room.  The fact that they were on the second story 
did not faze him.

	"The dresser next to it," he further decided, seeing that it 
would put something between his bed and Duo's.  They weren't completely 
at ease with each other yet.  Then he moved to stand in the empty space 
he had left in the middle, facing Duo's side of the room.  Taking a 
confirmation glance at the desk to see that he would be sitting on the 
left side of it, he made the mental calculations and accepted his 
assessment.  "And the desk right here.  And maybe I'll leave the desk 
shelf over there," he finished, pointing to the floor behind him.

	Duo ran through the final image in his head.  It worked, so he 
nodded his assent and started to figure out in what general order they 
should move things to get things done.  He was glad that between the two 
of them, they actually had very little of their own personal items to 
worry about at this juncture.  Some government workers would be by later 
to deliver some staples of school living to them, like bedding, school 
supplies, and toiletries, but for now, they had only two duffles to add 
to the mess.

	While Duo had been occupied with his thoughts, Heero had stuck 
his head under his bed for a look.  The mattress came up to a little 
higher than his waist height.  He supposed it could be convenient to 
have all the extra storage space, but he decided he didn't want to be so 
eye-level.  Lowering the bed to beneath the level of the dresser would 
give him a private little sleeping alcove.  All he needed was a hex 
driver to solve the problem, so he went to his duffle, unzipped it, and 
pulled out his pocket screwdriver, the type that could be converted from 
flat to Phillips to hex.  He didn't bring many of his tools with him -- 
the interim government organization that was handling their cases had 
been 'kind' enough to store the things of theirs that they didn't think 
high school students would need -- but one never knew when one might 
need a good screwdriver.  This was a case in point.  As an afterthought, 
he considered letting Duo know what he was doing.  "I'm going to lower 
my bed.  Do you want to lower yours, too?"

	Hmm, yes, if they were going to lower their beds, now would be 
the time to do it, while they had all that wonderful floor space in the 
middle of the room to work with.  Given some thought, however, Duo could 
see why Heero might want to lower his bed, but he shook his head in 
refusal of the offer, seeing potential in the space.  If he managed to 
get some boxes from the government guys, maybe he could 'store' them 
under his bed and make a nice bolthole for himself.  His desk assembly 
would probably shield him sufficiently without his lowering the bed.  He 
also had to admit to himself that there was a certain amount of novelty 
in sleeping so far off the floor, so long as it wasn't high enough he'd 
have to climb up.

	It didn't take them very long to finish up all the physical 
labor of the rearrangement.  The most work came in lining up their desks 
so that Heero wouldn't be staring straight at Duo every time he looked 
up while they each got the space they needed to maneuver.  When they 
took a step back to examine their handiwork, Duo gave a low whistle.  
"Our room's pretty ugly, isn't it?"

	"But defensible," Heero answered, and in the end, that was all 
that mattered.



-----
here's a cheap ascii rendition of their room.

heero's          duo's
 side            side
+------.........------+
|bbbbsss      bbbbbbbb|
|bbbbsss      bbbbbbbb|---+
|bbbb                 |   |
|bbbb              c  |   | -- bathroom
|h            sssddddd|...+
|h    ddd     sssddddd+   |
|    cddd                 s -- sink
|     ddd             +---+
|                     |
+--------+--------+   +
+--------+--------+...+
  closet   closet  door

b: bed
s: dresser
h: hutch (and an unmarked hutch on top of duo's desk)
d: desk
c: chair (so you know which way the desk is facing)
.'s at top: window
and the 2 closets are separate and each have dual sliding doors.


_________________________________________
This piece of fiction is the intellectual 
property of the little turnip that could.  
The basis for this fic, i.e. Gundam Wing, 
Kyuuketsuki Miyu, et al., is the property 
of someone else.  The author can be con-
tacted at jchew@myrealbox.com.  This has 
been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 10/28/2003 17:37:09 PST