Melody looked for Duo and found him in the den engrossed in the contents of a large red book.

"What are you reading, Duo?" she asked.

"Oh--it's somethin' that's okay--I'm bein' real 'haved so's I can go to the libarry," Duo answered. "I'm readin' in the 'cyclopedia 'bout turtles."

"That's good. Put the book away now. Relena's dress is being dyed in the washing machine so I have time to go to the library with you."

Duo searched through the encyclopedias to find the right place to put his book, then he happily followed Melody.

"Is Relena comin' too?" Duo asked with an unspoken "I hope not" tagged onto his question.

"No, she wants to stay here. Milliardo is going to keep an eye on her."

"An' Wufei an' Heero?"

"They are out riding bikes with Quatre, Trowa and Treize."

"So it's just you 'n me then?"

"Yes."

"Alright!" Duo jumped victoriously into the air.

Melody opened the front door.

"Ya know, you was right 'bout turtles," Duo said as they walked down the front steps. "Their moms DO 'bandon them 'fore they're borned." He slipped his hand into hers. "So I really AM glad I'm not a turtle an' that you're my webmommie."

Melody stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, bent down and gave Duo a big hug. "I'm glad I'm your webmommie too." Duo so rarely expressed himself in this way that she was especially touched by his loving words.

Duo looked at her face. "How come you're cryin'?" Duo looked puzzled as he touched one of her tears. "I thought you'd be happy if I told ya that."

"These are happy tears, Duo," Melody explained. "And you made me very, very happy."

"Happy...tears...happy...tears," Duo said aloud to himself as he puzzled over this new concept. "That don't make sense."

"You'll understand when you're older."

"You ALWAYS say that."

Relena waited at the top of the stairs as she listened to Melody and Duo leave the house. When she was sure they weren't going to come back for something that they had forgotten to take with them she quietly crept down the stairs. With Milliardo in his room and Melody out of the way, Relena had her chance.

Relena carried the white bundle in her arms through the dining room, the kitchen and down the basement stairs to the laundry room. She lifted the lid of the washing machine, but she had a difficult time getting it pushed up far enough, even when she stood on her toes. When she let go it shut with a "BANG!".

Relena stood in front of the washer, hands on hips, studying the problem. "Well," she thought, "I'll just have to open it as far as I can an' put it in that way."

Relena took her new white karate belt from the bunched up karate uniform which she'd dropped on the floor. She held the washer lid open with her left hand and dipped the belt into the pink dye with her right. She dipped it up and down, first the very end, then a little more and held it up to admire the pretty color. "This'll look even betterer now," she decided, with a satisfied smile. She dunked it again and again until she couldn't reach far enough to change its color anymore, so she dropped the belt into the machine. As she reached for her uniform the lid slipped out of her hand and closed noisily. She held her uniform up in front of her, examining the rubber bands that she had fastened all over it in the best imitation that she could manage of the way that Melody had done so with her dress. "Tie-dying will be even beautifuller than just makin' in only pink," Relena thought happily. "When it's done I'll ask Tegan to sew some lace on the sleeves for me."

She was lifting the difficult lid when Milliardo unexpectedly appeared in the laundry room's doorway.

"Relena, what are you doing?" he asked in an irritated voice as he snatched the garment from her hand.

"Gimme that!" Relena demanded, trying to take it back from him so he held it over his head. "I'm tie-dyin' my k'rate outfit to make it pretty."

"You can't do that."

"Yes I can!" Relena stood defiantly, her feet wide apart, hands on hips. "I just hafta put it in the washin' 'chine with my dress!"

"No--I mean you can't change the color AT ALL," her brother explained. "ALL beginners in karate get white uniforms, and they NEVER get pink uniforms and they don't get tie-dyed ones either."

"Well, I don't WANT it white 'cause pink's my fav'rite color," Relena said stubbornly. "'N 'sides, it'll still be white where the rubber banders are. That part don't change AT ALL."

Milliardo could see that this conversation was going nowhere, and so, much to his little sister's consternation, he took her uniform to his room and put it in the locked trunk at the foot of his bed and sat on it. He thought that was the best way to keep it safe, preserving its original color until the dye was drained from the washing machine.

At first, Relena was very annoyed by being thwarted by her big brother. "It's just NOT FAIR that he's bigger'n me," she thought. Then she remembered that her efforts weren't ALL in vain.

"Well," Relena said smugly because there was no one around to hear her talking to herself, "at least I've got a pink k'rate belt now."

Melody, John and several chibis were in the kitchen. Treize and Milliardo were teaching Trowa and Quatre to play chess at the kitchen table. Heero and Wufei were playing checkers unassisted. They preferred their own rules to the "Hoyle's Book of Rules" that the oldest chibis used, because Milliardo and Treize insisted that "that boring old book" contained the only right way to play games.

Relena and Tegan came into the kitchen to show everyone Relena's new pink dress. Tegan had curled Relena's hair and she looked very pretty.

"Look at how be-you-ti-ful my dress got," Relena said to everybody.

"I don't remember that pink sash, but it matches your dress perfectly," Melody observed.

"That's 'cause it's my k'rate belt," Relena informed her; she shot a look of triumph in her brother's direction. "The k'rate teacher said I hadta have a white belt like ev'ryone else, but I wanted it to be pink 'cause pink is even pertier than white so I put it in the washer with my dress."

Melody made a mental note to remember to get a new karate belt for the ingenious little student. She also decided to hide it from Relena between lessons.

"Tegan, tell Duo to put his library book away. It's his turn to help with dinner," said John.

Duo's happy face appeared in the kitchen momentarily; he was all smiles. He loved to read, but he liked "cookin'" even more; the fact that he was able to use some of the sharp knives under very close supervision was a large part of his enthusiasm.

"Yay! It's MY turn t' help tonight!" he said happily. "So, what do ya want me to do?"

"You can get the loaf of French Bread out of the freezer," Melody instructed.

"So we're havin' sketti?" Duo asked hopefully. He liked "messy" foods.

"No, we're havin' Fettycheeny Affraido," Quatre corrected him.

"Oooh! That's even better!" Duo exclaimed. "Then I get t' help cut up the olives an' mushrooms an' use the sharp knifes!"

Duo dragged an empty kitchen chair across the room to the refrigerator. He climbed onto it, opened the freezer door and peered inside.

"I don't see it," he said.

"Try looking way in the back," John suggested.

Duo reached into the freezer and moved a few things. "Oh, here it is!" he said as he yanked the loaf out of the place where it was firmly wedged. He saw a bit of bright blue underneath where the bread had been and, after looking carefully, he dropped the bread onto the floor and eagerly dug amongst the freezer's contents until he pulled out a familiar looking object.

"My trivia book!" he exclaimed joyfully, but his expression suddenly changed to one of suspicious irritation. "Hey, how'd it get in the freezer?!" he demanded. He looked over his shoulder and wasn't surprised to see that Heero's and Wufei's chairs were empty, their unfinished game abandoned.

Duo jumped down from the chair and sprinted from room to room. He looked for them frantically at first, but then a thought struck him so he stood in the middle of the house and shouted at the top of his voice, "You can run an' you can hide, but you're gonna get hungry 'ventually! So ya better be scared 'cause the God of Death will be waitin' for ya!"

As soon as his threat had been issued, Duo realized that it had not been a wise thing to say. His eyes went rounder than usual and he quickly clapped his hand over his mouth. He desperately--but in vain--hoped that Melody hadn't heard him.

After dinner, Heero and Wufei were sitting on chibi-sized chairs in the corner of the den; they were being punished for their naughty deed: Duo was reading to them.

"How much longer?" Wufei asked Melody, who was supervising them from her computer desk.

"It's only been five minutes, Wufei," she answered patiently, "so you still have fifty-five minutes left."

Wufei and Heero looked unhappy about that unfortunate bit of news, but they didn't dare to complain for fear that she would add more time to their already lengthy 'punishmint.'

"Did you know that black leo-pards really have spots on their furs just like reg'lar leo-pards do?" Duo asked the two obviously bored boys, but he was so engrossed in the facts in his book that he didn't notice that they were. "That's what it says here so it MUST be true," he added, pointing to the relevant paragraph in his trivia book. He was so happy to be reading this book again that he was oblivious to the fact that he was the only one participating in this conversation. "An' it says here that when weasels's furs are white in the winter that they are weasels, but in the Spring they turn into er-mines 'n have brown furs. Isn't that inter'sting? I wonder how they can make themselves be two animals? Must be some kinda magic," Duo mused. "Well, anyway, did you know...'

Duo rattled on and on in this fashion as the minutes dragged slowly by for Heero and Wufei. Their eyes became glassy and their expressions were a clear indication of their extreme boredom.

"Okay, Little Shinigami, time's up," Melody finally said. "Give me the book now."

Duo complied while his "hostages" popped out of their chairs and stretched their tired muscles.

"You're only gonna take it 'way from me for two days, aren't ya?" Duo asked hopefully, using his big blue eyes very effectively.

"Yes," Melody answered, "but if you threaten anybody again I'll have to add another day. Understood?"

Duo nodded. "Will ya make sure ya hide it real good so's that they can't steal it 'gain?"

"Ya don't have t' worry 'bout THAT happenin' enymore," Wufei quickly reassured him.

"Yeah," Heero heartily agreed. "Havin' t' listen to you read that book for an hour is "cruel an' usual punishmint" 'nough!"