Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A Different Circumstance (Arc) ❯ #10 - In Life ( Chapter 10 )

He slipped into his seat opposite the petite woman, pulling his jacket around him and dismissing the approaching waitress with a flick of his hand. Hilde forced herself to remain calm, even while she was thrumming with excitement and anger.

 

“I thought Duo Maxwell never told lies.” Her voice was accusing.

 

“I don't,” he smiled tiredly at her, but his eyes were unreadable behind the dark sunglasses. “I just...want to protect some people in this life.”

 

“He's a liar and an adulterer.”

 

The smile warmed slightly. “Have you ever met an honest adulterer, Miss Schbieker?”

 

She glared at him. “Don't make fun of me!” she snapped, fingers tight on the edge of the table. “You know what I'm talking about!”

 

He sighed, and glanced out the window. “He is a liar and an adulterer. He's also a good friend who goes back a long way. I didn't do it for money or connections, Miss Schbieker.”

 

The outrage wouldn't die so easily, not after how much effort she'd put into finding out the truth. “But...but how could you?”

 

There was a glint off the shades as he turned sharply back to her, and she fancied that his eyes grew harder. Chastised, but only slightly, she released the table, and folded her arms across her chest.

 

“It's in my power to do so, Miss Schbieker. It may sound corrupt and untruthful and against everything I stand for. But I won't sit by and watch as a friend falls to ruins over something that I can prevent. He knows he's done wrong by his family. It won't ever happen again.”

 

She resisted the urge to mock him. “How do you know for sure?”

 

He paused, and then suddenly, abruptly, smiled at her. It wasn't a nice smile. It was weary, slightly bitter, and it was self-deprecating. “He said he wouldn't. And I trust him, even after everything. I'd also like to trust you to keep quiet about this.”

 

She itched to hit him for daring to assume. “What if I don't?”

 

He simply looked at her. Inexplicably, he laughed. But it was the same as the smile he'd given her earlier.

 

“I can threaten you, Miss Schbieker, but I really don't want to do that. You'd go out in a blaze of glory after printing your precious story, and then what? Will it be a personal triumph, a measure of your success? Will you be particularly happy after exposing the 'truth'? Will you next write an article about how the Darlian family is locked in a custody battle for a precocious six-year old?”

 

She would bite her tongue rather than admit that she had thought of that, and that looking at the file pictures of a mischievously grinning golden-haired boy had made her feel strangely remorseful and heartless.

 

It was a vicious inner conflict. She had already given up so much to further her career, and the neutral voice in her head screamed that she would be going against her very principles, and all else that she had achieved so far. She had always submitted the fodder, spun the gossip mills, exposed the ugly truths, without hesitation.

 

'Will it be a personal triumph, a measure of your success?'

 

'I won't sit by and watch as a friend falls to ruins.'

 

'I trust him, even after everything.'

 

She muttered something under her breath, and then jerked to her feet to go.

 

“Miss Schbieker?”

 

She whirled, mustering the most affronted expression she could. It wasn't that difficult. “I understand, all right? You've made your point.” Perhaps Heero Yuy would tear his family apart in the end, but as things worked out now, she wouldn't be the one to do it. Privately, she realized only now, in a moment of clarity devoid of the promises of promotion and bonuses, that she didn't want to be the one to do it. She didn't want to be the one to take away the smile on the child's face, be the one to take away a child's happiness and stability.

 

He saw the change in her eyes and smiled, and this time, it was a world of difference, something soft, genuine and grateful. “Thank you.”

 

How could she even be angry at this man? All he'd done was for the sake of friendship and loyalty, in the spirit of an unerring determination to protect the people important to him. Duo Maxwell was a champion of integrity, and also the epitome of everything that was so easily lost in the rat race. She, herself, had sacrificed her sense of compassion for her work.

 

What would it be like, to be able to hold so true to one's sense of right and wrong? To know exactly when one was crossing the line? What would it be like, to have something to protect that would cut through the motions of instinct, power, and duty?

 

She would perhaps let herself learn from this man. Objectively, of course. And hopefully maybe...she would come away the better for it?

 

“I'm going to order the most expensive cake on the menu,” she declared sullenly, sitting down again. “And you're going to pay for it.”

 

He gaped at her, obviously taken aback at this sudden turnabout in events.

 

Then, slowly, Duo Maxwell reached up and pushed his sunglasses onto his head. His eyes were dusky violet-blue, and there was an iridescent sparkle in them that Hilde felt herself falling for despite her best intentions. Falling hook, line and sinker.

 

“It'd be my pleasure, Miss Schbieker.”