Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Duo's Dilemma ❯ Chapter 15

Disclaimer - It’s not mine. Never was. The only characters I own are the ones not originally present in the Gundam Wing anime or manga. No money is being made from this work of fiction. In other words, don’t sue me because you’re not going to get anything!

-

Duo’s Dilemma

Chapter 15

We Did What!

-

Duo pulled her along towards the center ring of the big top circus tent towards a man in a clown suit, and a woman with daggers in her hands.

“Who are these people?” she asked, unable to keep the infectious grin from her face.

“Friends of mine that I want you to meet.”

“You’re friends with a guy who wears a clown mask, has gravity defying hair, and looks like he’s on a permanent pissy fit? Not to mention a woman who looks like she could turn you into a shish-kabob with those knives?” Bella asked nervously.

“I like to have a diverse array of people around me.” he said, feigning seriousness. Bella shook her head and allowed him to lead her over. “You’ll like them, I promise.”

“I’m sure I will. I might even ask that guy who his stylist is.“ she said, grinning. “That look could become a new trend.” Duo just laughed and waved at the clown guy, who began walking over towards them.

-

“I told you not to get that close to the elephants.” Duo said, shaking his head at the predicament Bella was in. “The sign even says not to get close.”

“I wasn’t that close!” she answered vehemently from her spot about nine feet up in the air, an elephant’s trunk wrapped securely around her waist. “He just reached out and grabbed me!”

“Right.” Duo said, grinning when the elephant trainer finally got the gigantic mammal to put her back down onto the ground and let her go. The Asian man helped her across the enclosure, and back to where Duo was standing. “That was absolutely priceless! I’m glad I got a picture of it. Princess won’t believe you were hung upside down by an elephant!”

“You don’t have a camera.” Bella said superiorly, not wanting to fall for the same threat twice.

“Didn’t need one.” Duo said evilly, holding up a small Polaroid in his hands of a terrified Bella hanging upside down from the elephants trunk. The young woman’s face turned red in utter embarrassment, and she snatched for the picture, only to have Duo dance out of her range, still waving the picture.

“Duo, give me that picture.” she said, eyeing him.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” he said, taking off into the crowd like some hyperactive child. Bella just quirked an eyebrow and adjusted her shirt back to its right place before calmly following the same way he went. It was bad enough there were people who had seen that humiliating display with the elephant, she didn’t want to make it any worse by chasing after the culprit.

-

“You’re the best, Ms. Bella.” the little redheaded Charlie said, hugging Bella tight that evening when she and Duo were about to leave Father Benelli’s. They’d spent all day there, playing with the younger kids, and lining up a few jobs for some of the soon to be graduates of the local high and a few from the colleges.

“Miss Belladonna has to go now.” Violet said, trying to get the little boy away from Bella. “She’ll be back soon, though.” Charlie looked up at Bella with his wide brown eyes, and Duo could practically see the woman in front of him melt into a pile of goo as her motherly instinct came out.

“You are coming back, right Ms. Bella?” he asked sincerely. “You’re not leaving us for good, right?” Belladonna stooped down and opened her arms to the little boy, enveloping him in a tight hug. The rest of the children seemed to take this as a sign, and formed a big group around Bella, each one hugging her tightly.

“I will be back, my little darlings.” she said when she stood back up. Duo smiled and walked up to her.

“You better bring her back here soon, Mr. Duo.” little black-headed Cordelia said seriously.

“I’ll see what I can do, kiddies.” Duo said with a wink. “Not to worry.”

“Yeah, good husbands always look after their wives.” another little girl said firmly. “And Mr. Duo will take care of Ms. Bella, just like my daddy took care of my mommy!” Duo looked down at the girl, who was no older than eight or nine, and tried to think of something to say to that. It was still awkward enough just hammering out where his relationship with Bella was going without mentioning marriage. Thankfully, Bella beat him to the punch.

“You don’t worry about us.” she said. “We’ll be fine.” That seemed to pacify the majority of them, and with a few more goodbyes, Duo and Bella were finally out of the building and walking down the street towards her apartment complex.

“Those kids are something else.” Duo said, shaking his head. “It’s like they never run out of energy.”

“The perks of being young.” Bella commented, looking out at the stars. “They’re so young to have been through so much. They’re innocence astounds me to this day.”

“You really like kids, don’t you?” Duo asked, watching her for a reaction. He still remembered when he found out she had once been pregnant, but had miscarried. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that that had probably been the worst thing she had ever gone through. And it only got worse when he recalled Violet telling him that she may never be able to conceive again as a result of the scar tissue from the surgery. As expected, her right hand went to her lower belly instinctively, and she nodded.

“I want children more than anything.” she said quietly, a small laugh in her voice. “But first, I’ve got to get a husband. And that’ll be nearly impossible.”

“It’s not all that impossible.” he said easily.

“So you say.” she commented, shrugging.

“I’ll tell you what, Bella.” Duo said, a twinkle in his eyes. “If you’re not married by the time you’re thirty, then I’ll marry you.”

“You’re joking, right?” she demanded.

“No.” he said, shaking his head. Bella was seemingly about to protest, but Duo held up his hands in a placating matter. “See, it works out good if you stop and think about it for a few minutes. I’ll never have to cook again, so I won’t burn down any buildings.”

“And what do I get out of that arrangement?”

“Sex with me every night isn’t enough?”

“DUO!”

-

“Duo! The fire doesn’t need to be that high!”

“The steaks need to thaw out, don’t they?”

“Yes, but the pan isn’t supposed to be smoking!”

“You’ve never heard of smoke-house flavorings?”

“Duo! It’s on FIRE!”

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

“What’s that noise?”

“The smoke detector!”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why is it making so much racket?”

“Possibly because there is smoke rolling into my living room?”

“That would do it.”

-

“Go that way!” Duo whispered fervently as he and Bella ducked behind a colorful bumper made of plastic and stuffed with Styrofoam. They were in the middle of a game of laser tag at some place Bella had never even heard of.

“We’re getting our asses whipped by a bunch of teenagers!” Bella grumbled. “This is embarrassing!”

“It could be worse.” Duo pointed out easily, glancing around a corner to find where their enemies were heading, only to have a neon green paintball fly past the end of his nose.

“Duo, we‘re running from a group of sixteen year old boys who are determined to turn us green via a game that went out of style in the twentieth century because you insulted their aim, and our only defense is an inch and a half bunker of Styrofoam and some guns that I have no idea what to do with.” she dead panned.

“Like I said, it could be worse.” Duo said, letting loose a spray of red paintballs in the general direction of the teenagers.

“Enlighten me as to how, again.” she asked, getting to her feet and running behind him as they headed for another bunker. She fired the paintball gun randomly, and heard a boy’s yelp and string of curses when one of the random balls of paint hit him.

“You could have already…..”

“OWWW! That hurt you little twerp!”

“…been shot.”

“Alright, you little punks.” Bella growled. “This means war.” She stood up and started blasting away at a group of boys who had started inching their way towards her and Duo’s hiding place. The boys scattered quickly, but not before two of the three were covered from mask to boot in red paint.

“Much better.” Duo grinned, nodding at her when she slid back down beside him. “You just might survive this yet.”

-

They had just left a movie theater a few blocks from Duo’s apartment, and were headed down the sidewalk after getting some ice cream cones to munch on.

“That was a good movie.” Bella said.

“It was a chick flick.” Duo groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Was not.” Bella countered. “Chick flicks do not show people being suffocated and eaten by a fifty foot snake.”

“Yeah, but the guy gets the girl in the end, and they all lived happily ever after.” Duo said. “Your typical happy ending. That’s a chick flick.”

“Would you have preferred them all to get eaten while they were floating in a raft down the Amazon River?” Bella asked demurely.

“Not by the snake.” Duo said cheekily. “But there could have been some hungry piranhas chewing at the life raft. Now that would have been worth it.” Bella only shook her head and grinned at the man beside her. They stopped at an intersection, still talking about the movie and its lack of a ‘respectable’ ending, as Duo was putting it, when she noticed a familiar head of black hair standing on the other side of the street.

It was Hilde. And by the looks of it, she had spotted them.

The light turned green, and Duo and Bella crossed the street, only to be stopped by Hilde’s curt greeting.

“Hello, Duo.”

“Hello, Hilde.” he said coolly, his arm resting lightly on Bella’s waist as they came to a stop.

“How are you doing?” she asked nervously, glancing sporadically at Bella, who remained absolutely quiet during the interaction.

“Fine.” he said. “Yourself?”

“Well enough.” she said.

“Good to hear. Now, if you’ll excuse us, Bella and I have some things to finish up before the night is over with.” Duo said, leading Belladonna away from the street corner and down the sidewalk without another look backwards at the fuming Hilde.

-

Last night was the best night she‘d had in a very long time. She and Duo had danced the night away at some night club called ‘The Devil‘s Sins‘ They had eventually gotten drunk as all hell, courtesy of the bartender’s generosity. She remembered being sober enough to call for a cab, and then getting to her apartment, only to clean out the meager store in her wet bar. Everything else was pretty much a blank, except for remembering seeing Duo finally pass out on the couch in her living room.

‘It was worth it.’ she thought with a dreamy, half-conscious grin. Bella felt that grin stretch into a smile as she recalled the last few moments of the dream she had just woken up from. It had been absolutely the most erotic dream she‘d had in years. She and Duo had, for all intents and purposes, screwed each other like a pair of overly hormonal rabbits.

She snuggled up to her closest pillow and tried to will herself back to sleep, if only to hopefully finish out her dream before dawn’s early light woke her up again. But one thing quickly caught her attention.

Her pillow was breathing…and moving…and snoring?

“Holy shit!” she muttered, sitting up in the bed and looking over at the warm body she had inadvertently snuggled up against.

Duo was sleeping soundly on his side, arms out where he had apparently been holding her while they slept. He looked so peaceful and calm, two things she definitely was not.

‘Did we…’ she thought, quickly gathering her scattered wits and trying to calm down and deal with this rationally. She instinctively reached down to pull the covers up to her chest, only to find that she wasn’t wearing anything at all. She glanced over at Duo, only to find him just as devoid of any clothing as she was. A sheet wrapped around his legs provided the only modesty to be had in the early morning light.

‘Well, that answered that question.’ she thought grimly. Bella reached over and flicked on a small lamp that flooded her side of the bed in a soft light. Another quick glance around her room gave her the last bit of evidence she needed to realize that her dream had been more real that she had originally thought. The tank top she remember changing into before going to bed was lying in a heap on the floor, and her pajama pants were intermingled with a pair of stonewashed blue jeans that did not belong to her, and a long sleeved black shirt and red wife beater that were hanging off her dresser’s drawer knobs.

‘What the hell have I done?’ she thought, catching herself before she flew into a full-fledged panic. ‘This wasn’t supposed to have happened!’

Beside her, Duo groaned and rolled over, his long braid falling over the other side of the bed. Bella waited until she heard his soft snores once again before reaching over him to grab the little foil packets from beside his pillow.

‘Trojan.’ she read, panic slowly starting to sink in. ’This is definitely not good!’ She crumbled them up in her fist and managed to slip out of bed without waking up the former Gundam pilot.

Although the meager light of pre-dawn offered little assistance, she managed to gather up her scattered clothing from around the bedroom and deposit it in the bathroom that was attached to her room. She silently closed the door leading into the bathroom, turning on the cold water taps and splashing herself in the face with the cooling liquid.

They had did it. After the days and days of teasing, taunting, and not so innocent flirting, they had slept together. And taking Duo Maxwell as a lover was not something she had planned on doing anytime soon.

By now she was shitting Frisbee’s.

She had made love to him, even if she couldn’t remember a damned bit of it.

‘Well... not really.‘ a more logical part of her brain clamored. ’You didn’t really have a night with him. You were both drunk of your asses!’ Bella grabbed a nearby washrag and wiped her face off before reaching for a robe she kept hanging on the door. She sat down on the toilet lid and tried to calm her breathing down before she hyperventilated.
The clock on the wall read 4:13 A.M.

She was in for one hell of a morning.

-

Duo’s foggy brain registered the small of frying bacon before anything else. He reached out and pulled a cover up over his head in an attempt to drive out the morning light. He rolled over and burrowed down into the warm spot on the mattress, trying to find his way back into the land of sleep, despite his stomach’s attempts to keep him awake.

“Alright already. I hear ya down there.” he mumbled sleepily, slowly sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Halfway through his morning routine of sit, scratch, yawn, and stretch, he realized he wasn’t in the same place he’d went to sleep the night before. “What the hell?”

He shook his head, scanning the room, and quickly placing himself in Bella’s bedroom.

“What the hell am I doing in here?” he questioned, quickly noticing the lack of clothing on his bottom half. It took a few seconds to put the pieces of the puzzle together in his hung over state. But when he finally fitted them all together, and a nice little picture of the night before began to form in his hazy mind, Duo jumped to his feet in utter shock, effectively stubbing his big toe on the bedside table.

“Ohhh!” he whined, hopping up and down on one foot. “Who put that there?”

“Duo?” Bella asked, sticking her head into the bedroom door, only to blush at the sight of a stark naked Duo hopping on one foot next to her night stand and pull her head back out.

“Bella? What the hell am I doing in here?” he asked grumpily.

“Breakfast is ready if you think you can hold it down.” Bella said, apparently ignoring his question.

“Where’s my pants?” he whined, rubbing his foot and glancing around the room for his missing clothes.

“On top of my dresser.” she called back. Duo glanced over to the dresser and saw his pants hanging precariously from the corner. He grabbed the jeans and threw them on, forgoing any boxers on the grounds that he couldn’t find them. He left the bedroom, and walked through the living room, taking in the mussed blankets on the large couch, and two pillows on the floor. He saw Bella moving around the kitchen, setting two plates of food on the table, and his stomach rumbled in anticipation. Bella motioned him in there, and he

“How did I get in there?” he asked, rubbing his head and taking a seat at the table where Bella had put a mug of black coffee next to his plate of French toast. “I thought I slept on the couch last night.”

“You did, but I’m guessing you didn’t stay there for long.”

“Not for…. What?”

“Duo, did you take a look around my bedroom this morning?”

“No.” he lied, dreading where this conversation was headed. She seemed a little nervous, and had yet to even take a sip of her coffee despite the fact that her hands were wrapped around the ceramic mug.

She was nervous. He could deal with that. He wasn’t exactly sure of how to handle this either. He'd been flirting with the woman in front of him since he'd met her. But he'd never actually thought they'd wind up sleeping together!

“Okay, well, you’re shirt is hanging off my ceiling fan, just in case you were wondering where it was.”

“Ceiling fan?” Duo asked. “What the hell happened last night?”

“Three guesses, and the first two don‘t count.”

“We didn‘t…?” he ventured, only to have her nod silently, answering his question before he could even finish.

“We did.”

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Bella nodded nonchalantly. “I take it you don’t exactly remember…?”

“Not a thing.” he said, rubbing his head as the alcohol ran its last leg in his brain. “You?”

“Not a thing.” she verified. She bit her lip, apparently trying to gather her thoughts before she spoke again. But the words coming out of her mouth made his blood run cold. “Duo, we’ve got a problem.”

“It’s not that big a deal. We’re both consenting adults, Belladonna.” Duo pointed out, starting to take offense at her tone. “No one has to know if you’re that worried about it.”

“That‘s the problem.” she said, walking over to a drawer and pulling out a small envelope. “Someone already knows about it.”

“A letter?”

“It’s not just a letter, Duo.” she said solemnly. “Read it.” Duo managed to kick his brain into drive long enough to take the letter from her and open it.

His eyes opened in shock as he read the first few lines threatening unspeakable harm to Belladonna unless she distanced herself from Preventor Maxwell. Whomever had wrote out the letter was threatening to beat, maim, and murder Belladonna for ‘taking her man’. They had called Bella a whore, a slut, and a cheap prostitute all in the same sentence.

By the time Duo had finished it, and looked up at Bella, she was sitting at the table, nervously swallowing.

“When did this come?” he asked.

“Last night. I remember seeing it when we came in.” she said quietly. “Duo, someone’s been watching me, watching us. There’s no way anyone would know what we’ve done in the past few days unless they’re watching us. It even mentions when we went to the paintball arena last week!”

“But this is dated three weeks ago.” Duo muttered seriously, looking down at the paper again. “Right after we got onto the colony.” He glanced over it one more time before folding it up and putting it back in the envelope. “Have you gotten any more letters like this?”

“A few.” she said, shaking her head.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.

“I didn’t think there was anything to it.” she amended. “I’ve gotten these before, and nothing’s ever come of it. And this is the first one that I‘ve gotten that‘s mentioned you.”

“This is different.” Duo said, shaking his head, only to be interrupted by the sound of the doorbell and the slide of the morning newspaper through the mail slot, along with a few envelopes. Bella took the lull in conversation to walk over and pick up the mail, only to shift through the junk mail to find another envelope addressed to her and Duo.

“Another one?” Duo asked, looking over her shoulder.

“Should I open it?” she asked, obviously worried about the contents.

“Let me see it.” he said. She handed him the envelope, and Duo opened it, then quickly folded the letter out. Bella couldn’t see the words, but the grim line on her newlover’s face was enough to make her cringe.

“Duo?”

“Pack some things, Bella.” he ordered, folding the letter and placing it back in the envelope. “You’re not staying here by yourself anymore. We’re leaving, now.”

“You can’t be serious?” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve gotten threats before.”

“I’m dead serious.” he said, sitting the envelope on the table and leading her quickly to her bedroom. “Get some of your things, you’re coming with me.”

Bella didn’t have to be told again. She grabbed a duffle bag and tossed some clothes in it, along with a few toiletries. Duo managed to gather up his scattered clothing and get dressed in record time while juggling his cell phone from one shoulder to the next. He was perversely grateful to be handling some sort of crisis as opposed to dealing with the awkward 'morning after' conversation with Bella. He wasn't sure what to think about what had happened, but now his first priority was getting her somewhere safe. Because if the two letter he had read were anything to go by, this psycho wasn't just targeting them, but her entire family as well. By the time he got his belt buckled, he was off the phone and grabbing Bella’s duffle bag.

“Where’re we going?” she asked.

“My place.” he said. “Whoever is sending these letters know the area well enough to have scouted the area out. We’ll catch a cab to Preventor’s headquarters, and then to my apartment.”

Bella didn’t argue, and quickly called up the cab company and told them to be at her apartment complex as soon as possible. By the time they got downstairs, there was a yellow cab waiting on them. Duo gave the guy directions to the Preventor’s headquarters, and they were off.

After the quick pit stop at the station, and an even shorter drive to his apartment, Duo opened up the door to his home away from home, only to find things in shambles. Beside him, Belladonna was literally shaking in her boots. Whoever had ransacked the place had painted the words ‘YOU WILL DIE FOR THIS, BELLADONNA’ on the wall in bright red paint.

“Duo?” she asked, her voice quaking in fright.

“Let’s go.” he said, backing out of the room and herding her down the hallway towards the elevator as he pulled out his cell phone once again. A few curt words, and Duo had a Preventor jeep waiting pulling up to get them a few minutes later. Bella put her stuff in the back seat while Duo conversed with the man driving. They headed back to the station, and Duo led her into a small office away from the others.

“Duo, what’s going on?” she asked while they were waiting on the Preventor captain Duo had requested to speak with. “This has never happened before.”

“I’m not exactly sure, love.” he said, hugging her tightly. “But we’ll find out. I’m going to get on the phone to Heero and Wufei as soon as I get things lined up here, and we get you somewhere safe.”

The Preventor captain entered the room, and Duo got straight down to business, telling him what had happened. Half an hour later, Duo had commandeered a Jeep and they were headed to a hotel in the heart of the colony that Preventors often housed witnesses at.

“This place is safe?” Bella asked, glancing around as they walked into the reception area.

“Half the people here are undercover Preventors, love.” Duo said quietly as he handed the man behind the counter a note from the Captain of the Preventors. “This is the tightest security on the entire colony.” They were quickly led up to a hotel room in the center of the building that had no windows.

Bella threw her bad on the bed and dug out her laptop while Duo exchanged a few words with the bellhop, who she seriously suspected was one of the undercover Preventors. She quickly got online and checked her email, only to find that her inbox had been flooded with messages with the subject ‘YOU WILL DIE FOR THIS, BELLADONNA’ . Bella was absolutely terrified by now, and she snapped the laptop shut, her breath hard and heavy. Duo came over and hugged her, trying to reassure her that things were going to be okay.

“I need to call Corey and Daniel to see if anything has happened at the company.” she said, shaking her head.

“I already did that.” Duo said. “Everything is clear down there.” Bella nodded and slouched back down against the bed.

“I left Earth so I could get away from this.” Bella sighed, burying her head into the pillows.“

“I don’t know, love.” Duo said, stroking her back soothingly. “But we’ll find out who’s doing this. I’ve got Heero and Wufei searching out some possible leads right now.”

“I though they were on vacation.” she said, picking her head up from the pillow to look at him curiously.

“Those two never take a vacation.” Duo said with a grimace. “And I’m happy about that right now. If I can’t find out something, they will.”

“This is crazy!” Belladonna raged. “Every time things start evening out for me, someone has to go and fuck it up! What have I got to do to get these people off my back!” Duo reached down and kissed her forcefully, figuring it was the easiest way to shut her up. She melted into him immediately, and he felt her arms wrap around his neck. Duo lost himself in the sensations that the little woman in his arms was invoking. And somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered the same feeling from the night before, when they had been together for the first time.

He remembered feeling happy with her then, and he was content to stay right beside her now, despite the chaos they were in at the moment.

When they broke apart, Bella was biting her lip nervously.

“Duo…”

“I’ll take care of it, Belladonna.” he reassured her, pushing some of her hair from her eyes. “No one’s going to hurt you while I’m here.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about.” she said sadly. “It’s you.”

“Me?” he asked. “Why me?”

“Something like this happened when I was with Joseph.” she said quietly. “The threats, the letters, it’s like I’m reliving it all over again, only it’s with you instead of him.”

“Bella…”

“I don’t want anyone else to die because of me.” she cried. “Wasn’t the life of my son and my fiancée enough? I don’t want to lose the best thing that’s happened to me since my son died!”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Duo said soothingly. He wasn’t used to seeing this side of the independent woman he’d grown to respect, and it kind of worried him. His phone gave a sudden shrill, and he picked it up.

“Maxwell.” he said curtly, hugging Belladonna closer to him.

…

“You sure about that?”

…

“Are they okay?”

…

“Call me if anything else comes up.” Duo hung up the phone, and looked down at her nervously.

“What is it, Duo?” Bella asked, recognizing his expression.

“It seems like you weren’t the only one targeted, Bella.” Duo said slowly. “Your dad‘s and step mom‘s house, and step sister’s house were all burglarized last night.”

“Are they okay?” she demanded.

“Your step-mom and dad are fine.”

“And Marguerite?”

“She’s gone missing, Belladonna.” Duo said sadly. “They can’t find her.”

-

A/N - No, I didn’t fall off the face of the Earth. I’m still here. And I’m back to updating again. Hope you enjoyed the newest chapter. The next one will be up much sooner, I promise.

A.A.

Oh, and remember to review. I want to know what you think.

Later.