Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Duo's Dilemma ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer- It's not mine. Never was. The only characters I own are the ones that have never been seen/heard in the Gundam Wing series as of right now.

A/N- Hey everyone. I've started another fic, and I shouldn't be. But I have. Anyhow, this little plot bunny was running around in my head and I figured I'd get it down on paper before it completely got away from me.

Warning!! This story is not friendly to the character known as Hilde. Duo will not -and I repeat- NOT wind up with Hilde in the end of this story. Just a warning for anyone who likes Hilde/Duo stories. This is not one of them. I personally like Hilde's character, but I didn't like it enough for this story.

Description - This story is set approximately one year after Loving You Against My Will, (about six years after Endless Waltz) another story that I have. It is not necessary to read that one before starting this one. The only thing you need to know is that Heero is back, and at Relena's side. Oh, and Hilde and Duo are having major relationship problems. That's about it.

Summary- Duo is in the dumps about his recent break up with Hilde. As a form of 'therapy' , Relena has him assigned as a personal body guard to her for the Peace Summit meeting. The meeting, which is taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana, is being called because there have been problems between some trade dignitaries from the colonies and Earth, resulting in fights breaking out in space. Once there, the Gundam group runs into problems, and the threats to Relena and Senator Kenneth Covington (the senator who Relena is staying with during the two month trip) start up. Things heat up in the Big Easy, and it isn't long before Heero and Duo discover that one of the senator's own daughters may very well be the one responsible for all the trouble.

Loving You Against My Will…Maxwell Style

Chapter One

"MAXWELL!! Get in here! Right NOW!" was the direct command that came across the intercom speaker box in the office where Duo Maxwell and Heero Yuy worked at Preventor's Headquarters.

Duo, who had passed out on his desk due to a lack of sleep the night before (consequently caused by a night of binge drinking at the local bar), only grunted and reached out to hit the volume button on the thing that was making his headache hurt worse. Across the desk, Duo's partner and fellow Preventor, Heero Yuy, looked up from his computer screen to glance at the miserable young man. Duo was an utter mess. Hair all over the place, a green tinge on his skin, black circles under his eyes, and reeking of alcohol.

"Yuy!" barked Une's voice from the intercom on his desk.

"What?" Heero asked coldly.

"Is Maxwell in there with you?" the aggravated woman asked. Heero took one look at Duo's limp form and shook his head.

"No." he lied easily. "He left a few minutes ago." A colorful string of curses could be heard over the speaker, and Duo groaned when he heard his boss threatening to cut of his precious, prized braid. "Is there a problem?"

"Other than Maxwell, no everything is fine." the exasperated woman said. "he's been late every day for the past month. I can't make heads or tails out of his reports, and he keeps giving me the slip when I try to track him down!" Heero remained silent, waiting patiently for his bosses' tirade to end. "Yuy, when he shows in the morning, if he shows, send him directly to me. I don't care if you have to cuff him to you and drag him to my office, I want him in front of me in the morning? Is that understood?"

"Perfectly." Heero answered. Une gave a noncommittal reply and signed off. When Heero was sure that she was disconnected from the intercom system, he stood and walked over to where Duo was sleeping soundly, salivating on the paperwork he was supposed to be filling out. Heero once again shook his head, and pulled Duo's chair out from under him, causing the braided ex-pilot to fall to the ground in an ungraceful heap.

"Aww…Heero…" the young man whined, rubbing his butt with one hand and his aching head with the other. "What's the big idea?"

"Clear out." Heero answered. "Une's looking for you."

"Again?" Duo asked . "What for now?"

"To talk to you."

"About?"

"Your job performance, if I have my guess." Heero muttered.

"Is she coming down here, now?" Duo whined.

"She things you've left for the day." Heero said, shutting down his laptop and grabbing his Preventor's jacket from the back of his chair. "So get out, get to your place, and get some sleep. You've got to meet her first thing in the morning." the stoic ex-Wing Zero pilot turned to walk out the door of the office when duo stopped him again.

"Where ya goin', buddy?" he asked.

"My shift starts in twenty minutes." Heero said firmly, walking through the doors. Duo just frowned and rolled his eyes.

Heero had been working for the Preventors a little over a year now, and main job was protecting Relena, the Vice-Foreign Minister. Ever since the Christmas before, when Duo had found them on Relena's balcony at the Peacecraft mansion a few days after the assasination attempt on Relena, Heero and the young woman had gotten closer and closer. Heero was later instated by Une as Relena's Head of Securtiy. And the young man watched over her like a hawk.

Although the threats died down, Heero still kept constant vigilance over her, morning and night.

"Lucky ass bastard!" Duo mumbled as he pulled himself out of the chair and towards the door to the office. It was almost time for him to get off, and thanks to Heero, he could get home and get some rest a little earlier.

It had seemed that when Heero and Relena's relationship had taken off his own with Hilde had floundered, eventually hitting rock bottom and leaving him in the state he was currently in, sleep deprived and hung over. His only consolation had been seeing Heero slowly open up a little more to people as time went along.

His break up with Hilde had been nasty, and the talk of Preventors Headquarters for a few days. Duo had walked in on Hilde and a guy that worked at the scrap yard Hilde ran. They had been in a Needless to say, Duo had been so shocked, that it had left him speechless for a few moments. He had never though he and Hilde were in trouble, and never thought she would cheat on him. But when all she did was look at him and smile when she was caught, Duo lost it.

Hilde had been scheduled to work at Headquarters the next morning. And as soon as she came into the building, she had sought Duo out and apologized, saying that Keenan had gotten her drunk, and then took advantage of her in the inebriated state she was in. he had not believed the story, and Hilde had been angered beyond belief. By the time she was finished yelling, security had escorted her out of the building. That evening, Duo found out that she had turned in her gun and identification badge to her supervisor, and quit working for the Preventors.

It stayed like that for almost a year. They were together, then separate, together again, and finally separate once more. Now, thanks to Hilde's last round of infidelity, Duo had called it quits for good. It had been a little over a month since the break up, and Duo had been drowning his sorrows in alcohol. He had loved Hilde dearly, and to see her do this to him over and over again, tore at his heart string. He may have been the legendary 'god of Death' at one time, killing his enemies that stood in his way, but he still had feelings, and Hilde had toyed with them enough.

He grabbed his keys to the Jeep he was assigned and left the office in a huff. Thinking about Hilde only made him angrier. And what he needed now was sleep. Une was going to grill him in the morning, and he needed all the rest he could get to face the drill-sergeant that was his boss.

Heero nodded to the green clad Preventor as he entered Relena's office, dismissing them. The woman and man saluted their superior and walked out, leaving Heero to watch as a flustered Relena argued with someone on the vidcam.

When the blonde headed young woman finally hung up with whoever she had been speaking with, Heero had taken up his customary position closest to the window that encompassed the entire back wall of the office.

"Having problems?" he asked.

"You have no idea." she answered. "My proposal for the Peace Summit meeting has been vetoes in committee. Which means I have to rewrite it completely before I leave."

"Why was it vetoed?" Heero asked.

"I don't know." Relena said. "Something about the trade commissions from the colonies getting completely out of order."

"That was Manuel Sanchez on the vidcam just now." Heero said. "What did he want?"

"To tell me that the proposal that been shot down." Relena said in disgust. "And if I know him, he was the one in the meeting that vetoed it. He was head of the committee that read over what I had proposed. Also, according to him, my suggestions for the mining contracts on the MJ309 asteroid, and the shipping-harbor agreements were 'utterly preposterous', as he so eloquently told me."

"They're not giving you very much time to write a new proposal, are they?" Heero asked. "The meeting begins next week."

"I know." Relena said, running a hand through her hair in annoyance. "I don't know. I'll figure something out between now and then." The young woman got up from the chair she had been sitting in and stretched out the kinks in her back. "Speaking of the Summit meetings, who have you added to the guard detail, other than yourself?"

"No one, yet." Heero answered. "I haven't filled out the roster yet. Maxwell has been acting up again, and I can't seem to get any work done while he is moaning and groaning about Schbieker." Relena frowned and shook her head.

"Is he still upset about what Hilde did?" Relena asked. Heero nodded and leaned up against the wall once again. "Can't exactly say that I blame him, of course."

"He can't seem to focus on anything. And Une is breathing down his neck." Heero said stoically. "He needs to snap out of this mess he's gotten himself into, and soon." Relena sat back down at her desk and cocked her head to one side.

"Why don't you put Duo on the guard duty for the meetings?" she asked. "He could come to the States with us."

"Maxwell?" Heero asked, looking down at her like she was crazy. "Why would I assign Maxwell to protect you when he can't even make it back to his apartment without getting into trouble?"

"I think it would help." she said, looking up at Heero. "It'll do him some good to get out of the country and away from Headquarters for a few weeks. It'll be like therapy to show him that just because he and Hilde are not together anymore, he can still go out and live a little."

"He doesn't need to be 'living a little' while he has a job to do, Relena." Heero said firmly. "There is no point in assigning him to protect you if he's going to mope and not do his job. We can't risk you getting hurt." Relena sighed and stood up, walking over to Heero, a small smile on her face. She stood right in front of him and folded her arms.

"Heero." she asked. "Please. Do this for me. Duo is a good friend, and I hate to see him so bogged down in the dumps because he's depressed over Hilde."

"Relena…"

"Look." she said firmly. "Duo has never let any of us down before. You know he always, always comes through when he has a serious job to do, or anything that remotely resembled keeping me safe. Please, Heero. I think it'll help." The ex-pilot sighed and shook his head. He could not tell Relena 'no'. He'd tried it ever since he'd come back, and it never worked.

"Une's not going to like this." he said finally. "She's ready to crawl him for letting his work get so far behind as it is."

"I'll get a hold of Lady Une and take care of that." Relena said. "I just need your okay. I know you think Duo may screw up, but I think it'll help his self-esteem, knowing that even now someone trusts him enough to ask for his assistance."

"If that's what you want." Heero said, not easily conceding defeat to her. "I'll tell Une first thing in the morning."

"After she gets done chewing Duo out?" Relena asked. "That's not going to help, Heero."

"I'll talk to her before Maxwell ever gets there." Heero answered, which resulted in Relena smiling broadly at him.

"Good." she said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, which in turn made Heero give a half smile. "I'm sure Duo will pull through. And being away from this place may very well be the key to his getting out of the dumps of depression."

A/N- Okay, that's the beginning. Poor Duo…I really overdid it a bit, didn't I? huggles Duo plushie It's okay. I'll make things all better. I promise.

Well, what do you guys and gals think? Good? Bad? Needs work? Scrap it? Remember to leave me a review, telling me what you think.