Mobile Suit Gundam Fan Fiction ❯ The Pea Conspiracy ❯ Who's the Lucky Girl Again? ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: All Gundam Wing references and characters belong to Sotsu Agency, Sunrise and Bandai. As far as I know, the Princess and the Pea is fair game for writing fodder and aside from that, this story is barely based on it.

A/N: As this story is a Christmas present for Ladybug Oblivion, I let her pick the scenario. She wanted "The Princess and the Pea" with Duo and Wufei as the leads, she gets "The Princess and the Pea" with Duo and Wufei as the leads.

The Pea Conspiracy
-Who's The Lucky Girl Again?-

Relena slipped out of the evening's festivities early. Now, that someone had finally caught Duo's interest, she was going to make sure that the wedding happened. Despite her relaxed responses to her brother, she was just as frustrated by the nine-month situation as he was. It wasn't healthy for the King, it wasn't healthy for Duo, it wasn't healthy for the bride-candidates and it most certainly wasn't healthy for the kingdom. The first betrothal ceremony was happily funded. The second, third and fourth were deemed reasonable need and were still within proper means but every ceremony after had King Howard pulling funds from budgets best left alone. A good example of monies that King Howard should never touch would be the dowry of his only daughter. Just an example. That made the official reason for messing with Duo's life.

The unofficial one was a bit harder to place a tag on but it had to do with her need to make sure everyone around her was happy and Duo would be happy if she had to force it down his throat. Which brought her to knocking on the door of the man who was going to help her make the dream possible.

The door was opened to reveal only darkness and a slightly blacker shadow. "Highness?" asked the shadow. Relena smiled and interpreted the question as, "Welcome, Your Highness. It's so good to see you. How have you been? To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

She smiled. "Thanks for the warm greeting. I need your help."

"Help?" Meaning, "Glad to be of service, but I don't work for free."

He was a bit linguistically challenged but he had a real talent for getting whole sentences across in one or two syllables. "You will be rewarded."

"Details?" Right. Time to get down to business.

Relena checked the corridor behind her and smiled. "Do you mind if I come inside? I don't really want to do this in the hall."

The figure took a step back and the door opened just enough to admit the princess passage.

"Thank you," she replied, squinting into the blackness and praying she wasn't going to run into a piece of furniture, trip, fall flat on her face and loose any and all credibility she'd managed to build up with her host. The Mime was an increasingly difficult man to get in the good graces of and though Relena's leverage was pretty much concrete, she still had her dignity to consider.

Her consideration was cut short by a candle flaring to life behind her and her host leading her to a simple wooden chair. He then quickly lit the remaining candles in the room to chase out any lingering night gloom.

The new light revealed that the young man had most likely been woken by Relena's visit, as he was only wearing a pair of drawstring pants and nothing else and the bed that he settled onto was rumpled. He leaned back and fixed her with a stare that somehow gave off the impression that it was only coming from his right eye. "Details?" he repeated.

Since Relena didn't feel any need to remain formal now that the door to the outside world had been closed, she leveled out their gazes by setting her elbows on her knees and resting her chin on her palms. "The first is a bit of reconnaissance. I need you to find out everything there is to know about the Shenlong retinue's herald. I need this information before noon at the latest."

"Part two?"

"To be determined," she admitted, "Based on the recon you gather and the sources I can finish scrounging tonight."

He nodded slightly. "Pay?"

She sat up straight, squared her shoulders and delivered her opening gambit. "One."

He blinked once, slowly. "Five."

Relena held back a smile as she wasn't honestly bargaining and just teasing him. "Two and not a second more."

He was not inclined to play. "Ten and not a second less." He smirked and then added, "Unchaperoned."

Well, damn. He had her there and he had used an entire sentence. She couldn't reasonably say no. "I will agree on the stipulation that there is a part two and it keeps you on retainer if there happens to be a part three. Ten unchaperoned training sessions with my twin brother is much too rich an award for a measly recon job."

"Deal?" He sat up and offered his hand.

Relena accepted the hand, giving it a firm shake. "Sealed."

To be continued...