Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Theories of Revolution and Affairs of the Heart ❯ Not Now ( Chapter 13 )

FROM: Hilde
TO: Duo
SUBJECT: Hi. :)

Hey Duo!

I was thinking about you today so I thought I'd drop you a line. Since you left L2 last time, the yard's been doing pretty well, though I have to admit, I don't have your way with the customers. You really do need to teach me whatever trick it is that you use. ;) Not much else is going on. Really... I guess I just wanted to check on how you were doing.

Later,

Hilde

***

FROM: Duo
TO: Hilde
SUBJECT: Re: Hi. :)

Hi Hilde!

Nice to hear from you. I need to talk. Could you be connected tonight at 1900 hours, your time? We can talk on the vid phone. Thanks.

Duo :)~

***

Hilde sat in front of her computer, connected, and impatiently waited for 1900 to roll around. She'd already checked the camera three times in her nervousness. Duo needed to talk, and he wanted to talk to her. It was a wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling that he counted her among his friends. But if he was choosing to talk to her rather than one of the other Gundam pilots... she paused. This probably wasn't good. A small worried frown wrinkled her brow as she waited.

Her computer beeped, displaying a message. *Video connection request from an anonymous user. Do you wish to accept?* She clicked yes, and soon a box popped up, with an empty room shown in it. Duo's head came into the line of vision, then left again.

"Damned camera!" she heard him mutter. "Adjust so she can SEE me... no... SHIT!" The floor got a close-up shot as the camera fell. She grinned. "Hilde? You there?" Duo's voice sounded weakly through her speakers. "This damned camera is demon spawn." The camera was lifted and finally adjusted, and Duo smiled. "There we go. Hiya."

"Hi Duo. What's up? You look like hell." It might not have been the most diplomatic thing to say, but it was the truth. She knew Duo appreciated the truth. If she didn't know any better, she would have said he'd been crying.

Duo sighed. "I'm not hell, I've just been dragged through it by my teeth."

Hilde smiled weakly. "What happened?"

"Well, let's see. To summarize, I got a lover who's in OZ, one of our worst enemies, and I used to be lovers with Heero so that made him jealous, we had a huge fight, he's using Trowa as a little toy to get back at me, and my lover just died in battle! Otherwise I'm absolutely fine!" He rolled his eyes. "Yup, it's all sooooooooo good."

Hilde sat in stunned silence, shocked. Then she started to catalog exactly what he'd said. One, Duo liked guys. Well, yes, that was a surprise, and it certainly crushed some of her hopes. She pushed that down, ordering herself to stay on topic. Two, he was sleeping with the enemy. Well, that wasn't too much of a surprise, Duo had never respected lines. There was too much gray area. Three, Duo and Heero had been lovers. How did he draw Heero out enough for that? Well, they fought, so Duo must get some reaction. And Trowa and Heero as lovers? She wondered if either spoke. She pushed the faintly catty thought away. Now, Duo's current lover... realization slammed through her. The most recent battle had only had one casualty.

She swallowed. Duo would need some kind of a response. "Oh, Duo..." She stopped herself from saying she was sorry. That wouldn't help and he wouldn't want to hear it. "That's..." Hilde paused again. She didn't have a word for what that was, and had no clue how to give comfort.

Duo shook his head. "It's okay. You don't have to try to think of something nice to say. Any guesses as to who my late lover is..." He flinched. "... er, was?"

Hilde nodded. "Zechs Merquise, right?" 'He's the only one I can imagine you with.'

"Yeah." Duo looked into Hilde's eyes, which were only slightly marred by the video quality. They were easy to look into, and pretty at that. "What should I do, Hilde? What CAN I do?"

"Well..." Hilde bit her bottom lip, "it sounds corny and cliched, but you can remember all of the good things about Zechs, so that he'll always be with you."

'His idiotic mask... his smile, that hair... he took risks for me, defied His Excellency for me... trusted me and didn't know why... unconditional...' Duo sniffed. 'This isn't helping, it's making it worse!' His vision blurred and he mentally cursed himself. 'Not now. You can't cry in front of her. Not NOW!'

"Duo...it's alright to cry. You've got to let the grief out somehow." Hilde spoke softly, gently. She wished she were there, so that she could hold him, knowing how much the simple human contact of a hug would help.

He shook his head. "NO! I can't... not now!" His eyes defied his wishes, overflowing and spilling the tears down his cheeks.

"Why not now? Because of the fight with Heero?" She asked tentatively, unsure how Duo would react.

"Exactly. Hilde... can I ask you a favor?" Duo asked quietly, wiping at his face absently with the back of his hand.

"What is it you need?" There was no reservation. She would try to do whatever he asked, it was almost a given. She was devoted to friends.

Duo sighed, the tears sufficiently stopped for now. "Can I come back to the junkyard and hang out with you for awhile? I don't think I wanna be around Heero right now, and..." He trailed off, knowing he'd gotten his point across.

"Of course, Duo," Hilde stammered in her shock. "You're always welcome."

"Appreciate it," Duo said, smiling. "If it's not too much trouble, I'll probably be over sometime tomorrow. Easy enough for me to catch a shuttle, ne?"

"Sure... I'll have your room ready." Hilde smiled back.

Duo's smile broke into a grin. "Thanks a million, Hilde. Talk to ya later." He ended the connection and dropped the grin. Shutting his eyes tightly, he pulled his legs up to his chest, hugging his knees, trying not to cry. 'Maybe it will help if I go see Hilde. It's better than sticking around here... right?'

***

Wufei and Quatre were snuggled together on the couch, and Quatre was half-asleep. Smiling fondly, Wufei thought, 'How does he manage to bring out such a sap in me?' He pulled the sleepy blonde closer, dropping a kiss on the top of his head. "Ne, Quatre, are you still awake?" he said quietly.

"Mmm?" Quatre stirred and smiled sleepily. "I was almost asleep."

Wufei sighed. He'd woken Quatre up. "Sorry. Go to sleep, then."

There was suddenly a loud knock on the door. Wufei looked at it, and before he could tell whoever it was to go away, the door opened. "Oi Wu-man, where's Quat--" Duo blinked. "Oh. Hi Quatre..." He blinked again. "You...? He...?"

Quatre sat up a little and focused sleepy eyes on Duo. "Yes, we are. Now... what was it you needed?"

Duo shrugged. "I didn't need anything. I just wanted to tell ya that I'm leavin'. My primal junkyard instincts are calling me back." He grinned. "Oh, and congratulations to the both of you! You look happy!

"No, we're absolutely miserable. Of course," Wufei retorted.

Quatre smiled slightly, but didn't allow Duo to distract him this time. He knew Duo was running and hiding, true to his signature statement. "I'd ask you not to run away, but it wouldn't work."

"No, I suppose it wouldn't. Hey, it's not like you'll never see me again! I'll be back, if only to see how you two lovebirds are doin'. Without me around, who's gonna tease you, right?" Duo grinned. "So I'll see you guys around, okay?"

Wufei opened his mouth to tell Duo that he didn't have to act, but decided not to. Duo knew he didn't have to act, but was doing it anyway. It was his own decision.

"You're going to Hilde's?" Quatre wanted to be sure he knew where Duo was going in case they needed to find him.

"Nope. Haven't you heard? Relena's got a junkyard now, cause she's decided not to be a Peacecraft anymore. Ojousan's given up her pink skirts for jeans and a t-shirt, and she's given up Heero to wade through piles of scrap metal. Riiiight, Quatre." He laughed. "Of course I'm going to Hilde's."

Quatre shuddered slightly despite himself. "I wish you wouldn't go."

"Well, I'm going. Tell Heero and Trowa I left, and tell 'em I said bye, ok?" Duo started to back out of the door, wondering if he'd be stopped again, or begged to stay.

"Alright Duo. I hope it helps." Quatre watched him go sadly, cuddling closer to Wufei in the process.

Wufei held Quatre tightly, sensing the other's worry. "Try not to worry too much, Quatre. Duo knows how to take care of himself. And we can trust Hilde."

"I know, I know...but things seem to be going from bad to worse around here. And I don't know how we're going to fix it."

***

Hilde had been rushing around like a headless chicken since she'd talked to Duo. She'd cleaned up his room, made up the bed, and checked it a billion times. She'd cleaned the rest of the place up; it quite frankly hadn't looked this good in a while. Hilde'd even gone shopping, stocking the kitchen fully with a lot of Duo's favorites. Now there wasn't much she could do but wait. She wasn't very good at waiting.

There was a loud knock on the door. "Honey, I'm hoooooome!" Duo's voice called out from behind it.

"DUO!" Hilde leapt up and rushed to the door, flinging it open and enveloping Duo in a hug before he could say or do anything.

Grinning, Duo returned the hug, swinging Hilde up in the air and spinning her around a few times before setting her down. "Hilde! How are ya?" he said, not breaking the hug.

"Pretty good. And you?" Hilde gave him a probing look.

"As good as I'm gonna get, at this point. Hey, you got anything to eat? I am absolutely famished. Shuttle food sucks!" Duo released her and went through the door, making a beeline for the kitchen.

Hilde laughed and followed him. "You should be able to find something you like." She propped herself against the doorway and waited to see his reaction to the well-stocked kitchen.

Duo opened the cabinets and let out a whistle of approval. "Jeez, Hilde, the place is a supermarket! Sugoi!" He pulled out a can of soup, opened the top, got a pan, and dumped the noodles, vegetables, and broth in. Turning on the stove, he put the pan on and turned back to Hilde. "So how's yard business?"

Hilde shrugged. "We're doing pretty well, but this definitely isn't the way to get rich."

"Of course it isn't. But it's better than nothin'. You want soup?" Duo stirred the said soup absently. "Got a boyfriend?"

"Sure." Then she blushed at Duo's question and shook her head.

Duo poured the now-heated soup into two bowls and handed one to Hilde, with the addition of a spoon. "Why not?" He sat down at the table and began to eat vigorously.

Hilde joined him at the table. "Well, between the yard and lack of prospects..." She buried herself in the soup.

"Oh, come off it. If business around here is as average as you say, you have plenty of time, doncha?"

"You forgot the lack of prospects part." Hilde winked.

Duo rolled his eyes. "That I did. So, do you like anyone, at least? Got a crush?"

She snorted, "Have you ever met a girl who didn't?"

"That's precisely why I asked! So, who?" Duo grinned.

"Nun huh." Hilde shook her head vigorously after another spoonful of soup. "I'm not telling you. You'll tease me endlessly."

Duo shook his head. "No I won't! C'mon, please? Tell me!"

"No!" Hilde shook her head, cursing her blush.

"Of course you will. I always get what I want. So just make it easy on yourself and tell me!" Duo winked. "C'mon!"

'Yes, you always do. But you can't this time, you just can't.' Hilde shook her head and rose to take her bowl to the sink.

"Aww, why not?" Duo complained, following her with his bowl.

"Because I'm not going to tell you. A girl deserves a few secrets." Hilde made her tone teasing, but didn't look up.

Duo raised an eyebrow. "Are you not telling me cause it's... me? Or is that just an egotistical thing to say?"

Hilde tried to surpress her look of shock, and figured she barely succeeded, but it would have to do. She arched her brows, forcing a teasing tone. "I know you're drop-dead gorgeous, Duo, but not everyone falls to pieces over you."

"Well, gee thanks. Such a compliment." Duo smiled. "Anyway, I'm gonna go catch some sleep. Talk to ya later?"

"Sure." Hilde smiled, partially in relief.

Duo gave her a wave over his shoulder as he bounded up the stairs to his room. Smiling at the care with which the room had been prepared, he flopped down on the bed and thought. 'Well, as I suspected. It's me. But what to do...? I mean, I've always had a little crush on her, nothing serious. Maybe...' He fell asleep.

~OWARI~