Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, nor do I own any of its characters. Both respectfully belong to their original creators. I'm just temporarily borrowing them for my own enjoyment. ^_^

 

A Weekend to Remember

Chapter Thirteen: A Silver Lining

 

Fear lingered in the back of Relena's mind as she stared in shock at the sight before her. The two people that should have been placed on opposite ends of the universe, well as far as she was concerned, were now dancing and, even what was even more frightening, talking.

 

She never told anyone, much less Heero, about her and Brian dating a while back. It just never seemed worth mentioning, the main reason being Heero's tenacity to bring new meaning to the word 'overkill.'

 

Relena gulped. Brian was most probably digging his own grave with every word he spoke and the poor dear was more than likely completely unaware of the danger his life was in.

 

She cringed at the thought. Now how in the world was she supposed to handle this little crisis?

 

***

 

Duo silently prayed for a miracle. Why do these sorts of things always happen to him? Was a normal life too much to ask for? Obviously it was. Duo inwardly groaned. Where was Hilde when he needed her?

 

No, wait a minute. The road of thought he was currently traveling down was not permissible. He was the one that was supposed to be defending her. It was not meant to be the other way around. He was the one that was supposed to be wearing the pants in the relationship damnit, but one quick look at the flowing black dress he currently wore instead immediately eliminated that sentiment.

 

He unconsciously sighed and quietly grumbled to himself. 'Man, sometimes life sucks.'

 

His frustration did not go unnoticed. "Hilde?" Brad asked in a concerned voice and placed a comforting hand on Duo's shoulder.

 

The slight touch jolted Duo back to his senses. He looked up and blinked as he gazed at the person standing over him. "Huh?"

 

"Are you okay, Hilde? You're looking a little pale."

 

Duo took another small step back, causing Brad to release him. He shook his head a few times to get his thoughts back in order. "I'm fine." He replied with as much assurance as possible.

 

Brad smiled and chivalrously bowed. "Then you wouldn't mind if I claimed the honor of the next dance?"

 

All right, they say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link; well this little Shinigami was about one step shy of finally snapping in two.

 

Where men always so single-minded? Couldn't this fool tell he was here with someone else? Wasn't it obvious that he didn't want to dance? Did he have to spell it out?

 

Duo grumbled a few incoherent obscenities. Ridge was too persistent for his own good.

 

'Come on baka think. There has to be a way out of this. You've been in worse situations before. Hell, you were once locked in an airtight room with the only other living, breathing soul being Chang. If you can survive that, you can survive anything.'

 

After a few moments, inspiration struck and an optimistic smile graced his features.

 

How many of those old boring movies had Hilde made him watch? Too many to count, that's for sure, but now he was going to put all of those wasted hours to good use.

 

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe my date would appreciate such a gesture." Duo demurely replied as he politely smiled. He even went so far as to add a swipe of the hair and a bat of the eyelashes just for emphasis.

 

Whoever said playing the role of a debutant was difficult obviously never met the three buffoons standing before him. Duo mischievously grinned. He obviously missed his calling in life. 'Vivian Lee, eat your heart out.' (1)

 

The three friends looked utterly confused as they stared at the young woman standing before them. Duo wanted to perform a little victory dance right then and there as he watched a number of baffled expressions pass over each one of their faces. It was slightly humorous to say the least, but, alas, victory is never eternal.

 

Brad smirked as he crossed his arms. "That was a pretty good one, Hil, but I think you know just as well as I that Maxwell wouldn't mind." He leaned forward becoming eye level. "Besides, it's just one friendly dance."

 

'Of all the insufferable, scatterbrained, clueless, aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!' Duo's head reeled in agony.

 

Okay, so playing the damsel was not his specialty. Not every strategy could work on the first try, but there was more than one way to skin a cat. Not that he'd ever done that before.

 

"Yeah, I know, but, it would be rude of me to walk off to dance with someone else while Duo only stepped away to get me a drink." Duo inwardly smiled and was almost tempted to pat himself on the back. The guilt trip method was almost foolproof. Women were always trying to find new ways to work on a man's sympathies. It was almost impossible for Ridge to find a way to dodge that bullet.

 

However, Duo very quickly realized that Brad and his two friends did not look deterred. In fact, they didn't even seem the least bit convinced. The truth was that all three of them looked highly amused, which only served to irritate an already irate god of death even further. Was there any justice in the world today?

 

Duo inwardly fumed. He was not here for their entertainment. Hell, he did not even want to come to this damn ball . . . err . . . gala . . . umm . . . fundraiser, or whatever the hell it was called.

 

He just wanted to leave, but, no, he was stuck. Stuck, wearing some godforsaken garment known as a dress. Stuck, wearing what had to be the most suffocating pair of pantyhose on the planet, and stuck, wearing heels that had to be at the least three sizes too small. His feet were killing him, his back was cramping, his head was aching, and the three morons standing before him were only making matters worse.

 

Brad smirked. "Well, if you ask me, Duo looks like he's going to be pretty busy for a while."

 

Duo momentarily stopped seething and confusedly blinked up at Brad. Now, what could the idiot mean by that?

 

Now, Duo knew deep down he really did not want to know, but something kept nagging at him to find out. It warned him that finding out later could mean bigger repercussions, but did he want to handle any more bad news.

 

He cringed at the thought. He was already on the verge of breaking, and he did not even want to think about how it could get any worse than it already was. However, he was also far from being a coward.

 

So, repeating he new mantra to himself that he'd survived worse, he slowly turned to face his next dreaded obstacle. Describing this latest complication as grating his last nerve was an extreme understatement.

 

His stalker was clinging to Hilde like a lifeline while Hilde futilely tried pushing the other girl away without spilling punch all over the two of them.

 

"Why that little . . ." The words stuck in his throat. They all seemed to fit; trollop, hussy, floozy, but none were forthcoming. Subtle hints were obviously above her head. Couldn't anybody take a hint these days?

 

Duo groaned as he watched Hilde resist a serious urge to knock the other girl away. Couldn't anything go right this weekend? Maybe if he rendered himself unconscious he'd wake up to find out that it all one big nightmare.

 

Duo tried his best to take a few calming deep breaths because something needed to be done. Besides, he was Shinigami. Therefore, he could handle some little dense freak.

 

He turned back to face the three friends who were now grinning with mirth. Duo resisted the urge to shake his head in irritation. Some people were just impossible to deal with.

 

"Excuse me, will you, gentlemen." He said then walked off without another word.

 

"Ten bucks says Hilde wins." Brad announced as he watched Duo walk away.

 

His other two friends smiled in turn.

 

Duo quickly made his way over to his girlfriend, who by now was very much in need of his assistance. The other girl was just about squeezing her half to death.

 

Hilde looked around wanting to see if anyone saw that she was in dyer need of help. The little trollop now had both arms wrapped securely around her waist making it very difficult to breathe, and Hilde was unable to do anything about it since both of her hands was currently above their heads each containing a glass of red punch.

 

Now what was she supposed to do? It didn't look like anyone would be coming to her aid. Who would anyway? Only three other people knew about her predicament and as far as anyone else was concerned Duo Maxwell, the former Deathscythe pilot, could most likely take care of himself. He definitely could handle one overeager admirer that didn't know the meaning of the words 'get' and 'lost.'

 

She was very close to reaching her limit. This one little dimwit had already caused her one of the biggest headaches of her life. Now the idiot was trying to slowly suffocate her as well.

 

'Alright, this ends now!' Hilde fumed in her head.

 

Then suddenly out of nowhere Hilde's knight in shining armor appeared . . . er . . . damsel in a beautiful dress was probably more accurate, but she was far from caring.

 

He was there, and, oh, how she could have kissed the daylights out of him. Well, that's if she could break free of her current nuisance.

 

"Am I interrupting anything?" Duo casually asked, but Hilde could tell there was more behind his exterior. She smiled knowingly. The god of death was currently at work, and she was not about to get in his way.

 

The little redhead blinked in surprise at being taken out from her dream world. In it, she was finally getting her hands on the unattainable agent, Duo Maxwell, and for a moment he was all hers. She looked up seeing a short raven-haired girl who looked completely livid to say the least. She smiled not for a minute caring who the other girl was and naively asked. "Can we help you?"

 

Both Duo and Hilde blanched, was the girl that stupid. Duo, however, quickly regained his composure and continued his interrogation. "Yes, you may. I was just wondering whether or not you were enjoying the opportunity at being able to squeeze the life out of my boyfriend?"

 

The redhead at first looked startled at Duo's words, but she quickly covered it up with a sly smile. "So, you're the 'supposed' steady girlfriend. It's nice to know Duo wasn't making you up."

 

Hilde screeched. "Making me up! Why of all the . . ." She started berating, but stopped mid sentence when she noticed the strange looks she was receiving not only from the redhead but from a few other people standing around them as well.

 

Also seeing the bewildered stares, Duo decided to interject. "Look, umm . . ." However, the fact that he could not even remember the other girl's name cut short any good come backs he might have replied. He stopped mid-insult and unconsciously scratched his head in thought. Had she ever mentioned her name? For the past few weeks, he had just been referring to her as his 'whacked-out admirer.'

 

"The name is Elmira." The redhead interjected as she glared at the raven-haired girl standing before her, insulted that she would not know her name. "But, it's Ellie for short."

 

Duo mischievously grinned and resisted the urge to laugh at such an ironic name for the girl. It seemed to fit their current situation perfectly. "Well, Ellie, if you'll excuse us, I'd like to have a word with my boyfriend." It felt strange referring to Hilde in such a way, but he pushed it to the back of his mind and kept his gaze fixed on the girl that was presently trying to threaten his and Hilde's relationship.

 

Hilde stood rooted in her spot. It was difficult to breathe much less move. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a waiter carrying a tray of drinks. She signaled him over as best she could and thankfully he got the message.

 

Unbeknownst to Duo and Ellie, the waiter came up alongside Hilde. She smiled Duo's trademark grin in thanks and placed the two glasses on his waiting tray. The waiter then bowed and walked away taking the confounding glasses of red punch with him. Finally, she had some sense of freedom, now to get rid of her other burden.

 

While Ellie was still busy glaring daggers at Duo, Hilde moved her arms behind her back and pried the other girl's arms off of her.

 

"Hey! What's the big idea?" Ellie shrieked in surprise.

 

Having enough, Hilde raised an annoyed eyebrow and fumed at the other girl. "Look, Ellie, you've obviously been given the wrong impression somewhere along the line that I like you, but it is safe to say that I don't. I have a girlfriend. Her name is Hilde. I love her very much, and you're not going to come between us. So, get off it."

 

Ellie's mouth dropped open in surprise and hurt as tears filled her eyes. No one had ever spoken to her in such a tone.

 

Hilde blinked in shock, as she became witness to the last possible reaction she expected. The other girl looked about ready to cry, and Hilde tried everything she could to hold on to her resolve. She let out a defeated sigh as she fiddled with the end of her braid. "Ellie, I . . . um . . ."

 

"No. Don't even try apologizing." Ellie fumed as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

 

The three of them were starting to cause an even bigger scene, and Hilde just wanted to crawl under a table and hide.

 

Then to everyone's surprise another voice spoke up from behind. "Damn, Maxwell, you sure have a way with women, don't you?"

 

Three heads jerked around at once to see the face of . . .

 

"Brad." Hilde said in surprise. "What are you doing here?" She then asked momentarily forgetting herself.

 

Duo glared at the other man. He thought he had gotten rid of him, but then a wicked idea popped in his head, which quickly replaced the former grimace with a mischievous gleam.

 

Meanwhile, Brad stared bewildered at Hilde's question. After all, his office was directly across from Maxwell's and it was a little known fact that over one-fourth of the Preventer Force was there for security that night. "You're kidding, right?"

 

Hilde nervously laughed as she scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, silly me."

 

"Anyways." Duo interrupted. "Brad, let me introduce you to Elmira."

 

The tear-faced young woman looked up and for the first time took full notice of the man standing next to Duo. She quickly wiped away the remaining tears and returned the smile that Brad was giving her.

 

"Please, call me Ellie." She said as she offered her hand.

 

Brad gently took hold of it and leaned over to lightly kiss the top of her palm. "Pleased to meet you."

 

Ellie smile brightened and she quickly forgot the reason for her earlier tears.

 

Brad placed her hand in the crook of his arm as he straightened back up. He looked over and winked at Hilde. "Later, Maxwell." He then turned and smiled at Duo. "Bye, Hil. It was good seeing you again."

 

Duo smiled as he watched the two of them walk away. "That was almost too easy." He smugly replied.

 

Hilde blinked a few times surprised at the new turn of events "What the hell just happened here?"

 

Duo smirked. "Don't tell me you want me to go get your admirer back for you." He teased.

 

"No indeed! But, how did you do that?"

 

He smiled smugly once again. "I'm just good like that."

 

"Oh really?" She sarcastically asked.

 

"Yep, and you'd be wise not to forget that either."

 

"Oh yes, oh Great One, I know I'll never be so foolish as to forget such a thing." She mocked.

 

"Just as long as you know who wears the pants in this relationship."

 

"Oh, I live to serve you." She continued to play along, but she knew from experience that she couldn't make it too easy on him. "But, for now you live to serve me." She replied with a smug smile of her own.

 

He raised an eyebrow in question. "How do you figure?"

 

She then triumphantly pointed to his current ensemble then her own.

 

His brows furrowed in frustration. "Damn."

 

Hilde laughed and despite himself Duo soon joined her.

 

"Hey." She spoke as she contained her mirth. "What do you say we get out of this stuffy ballroom for a few minutes before we have to get back to mingling."

 

Duo smiled. "After you."

 

Hilde offered her arm and Duo for once took it without grumbling under his breath.

 

"Let's go." She said as she led them to the garden right out the main back doors.

 

***

 

"Relena?"

 

"Huh?" Heero replied as his adverse thoughts were interrupted and reality came crashing back down on him.

 

"I said I'd like us to . . ."

 

"May I cut in?" A very displeased voice interrupted.

 

Brian, obviously trying to remain unaffected, hesitantly turned around to face the discontent of the one he thought to be the perfect soldier. "Uh . . . Sure, Yuy." He said trying to sound natural.

 

Relena glowered and tried her best not to let either man catch a hint of her nervousness.

 

Brian unconsciously gulped when he saw the look 'Heero' was giving him. He had the distinct impression that after this his next assignment would be handing out parking tickets. He gave his best smile as he turned back around to face his dance partner. "Thanks for the dance, Relena. I'll catch you later."

 

He bowed then stepped aside, which allowed Relena the opportunity to step in and continue the dance. Brian reluctantly gave one last smile and walked back to his scheduled post to stand watch along the sidelines.

 

Relena did not miss the unease in Brian's voice and a part of her felt guilty for having to turn the patented glare o' death on him, but there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. Right now her main priority was preventing any disasters that could cause irreparable damage from occurring this night, which included keeping those two out of the realm of communication for the time being.

 

Heero didn't know whether he wanted to cheer or scream. Cheer for joy because he would no longer have to dance with every available bachelor in the room since his 'bodyguard' was back or scream in frustration because he just missed hearing a few essential details concerning Brian and Relena's past relationship.

 

Heero looked up at his new dance partner and glared. Why didn't she tell him? It's not like he would have gone out and disemboweled the man because he even thought about touching her or anything like that. Okay, maybe not total disembowelment, but that was beside the point.

 

Relena momentarily sighed in relief. It seemed like another disaster had been averted. Maybe despite her, Heero, Duo, and Hilde's current circumstances and despite everything that happened in the last two days, someone was actually smiling down on her.

 

"Why . . . didn't . . . you . . . tell . . . me?"

 

Well, then again maybe not.

 

Heero pronounced every syllable slowly and meaningfully, as he looked her straight in the eyes. Relena gulped nervously. For once in her life, words failed her. How was she supposed to explain this one? It's not like she could say,

 

'Oh, Heero, it was nothing really. A little over a year ago I met Brian during one of my many visits to Headquarters. He turned out to be really nice and he would always make me laugh. We dated a few times, but it was nothing overly serious. However, no one knew about it since me and Hilde were not roommates at that time, my brother and Noin were not around as much, and you and the other pilots were not around a lot of the time as well.'

 

Yeah, that would blow over real well.

 

Heero glared harder as he waited for an answer.

 

Relena unconsciously held her breath as she looked back at him. Being of the receiving end of a Yuy death glare while it was coming from the face that was formerly your own is a very disconcerting thing. There was never a rock to crawl under when you needed one.

 

Then, to Relena's relief, the song ended giving her an idea. A little bit of her confidence returned, and she shrewdly smiled down at him.

 

Heero's glower deepened. "What?" He asked almost seething.

 

Relena smirked as she glanced behind Heero's shoulder and saw three young men trying to make their way over to the 'Vice Foreign Minister,' all three wanting to get the next dance.

 

"What?" He asked again. When it came to wanting to know all that was going on, he really hated being left out of the proverbial loop.

 

"Well, you have two choices and about two seconds to decide the best course of action." Her smirk turned devilish, which caused a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "We can continue this conversation at another time and move as far away from the dance floor as possible, or . . ."

 

"Or?"

 

" . . . you can fill up your dance card for the rest of the night?"

 

He paled. No, he could not go on dancing with all of these frilly morons for the rest of the night. The thought was unacceptable, but at the same time how could he let Relena know that everything was starting to get to him.

 

"The clock is ticking, Heero. Do you want to dance or do you want me to scare off the rest of your would-be dance partners?"

 

To hell with it all, he couldn't take it any more. She could have this round. "No."

 

"No what?"

 

"Just get me the hell out of here." He grumbled.

 

Relena hid a triumphant smile and teasingly bowed. "After you, milady."   

 

Heero scowled and murmured a few less than sentimental notions before begrudgingly walking off the dance floor never once looking back.

 

Relena quickly followed suit in order to keep up their pretense, but not before glaring over her shoulder at the three vultures that were getting too close. To her delight all three completely balked in fear and quickly headed in opposite directions. She slightly smiled, not wanting to attract too much attention to a normally emotionless Heero. Oh, to harness such power on a regular basis.

 

Ah well, everyone has their own special qualities. One of Heero's just happened to be scaring the shit out of 'dishonorable weaklings,' as Wufei was prone to call them.

 

Maybe once everything returned to normal she could keep Heero around more often. She could think of more than one good way to put his services to use. She smirked at the thought. Her little perfect soldier did not know it, but he was in for a few surprises.

 

With every savory thought still planted in her head, Relena walked back to where Heero was currently standing with his other three bodyguards for the night. She then retook her earlier position and continued to go over many more satisfying ideas in her head.

 

<>

 

~~~To Be Continued~~~

(1) Vivian Lee starred in many silver screen motion pictures, which are now classic movies. One of the more famous roles she played was Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.

 

Well, it's about time. I thought I'd never get this chapter out. I'm sorry for the delay. A few days after I wrote that little note on my author's page on FFN saying that this chapter wasn't long in coming my computer had the misfortune of catching a virus. You know I need to learn to keep my mouth shut. Maybe if I do then things would seize to go wrong.

 

Well, to make a long sob story short. I had to get my hard drive reformatted, which made me loose everything. Yes, EVERYTHING not already saved on disk. Yes, school papers and previous fic chapters were saved, but anything that I'd recently typed up to that point was lost. *grumbles about injustice* Then I finally get my computer back up after reloading ALL the software only to find that my computer's bout with viruses was far from over.

 

Anyways, now that everything is back in some semblance of order, chapter thirteen is finally here. I hope you liked it and that it was worth the lllllloooonnnnnnggggggg wait.

 

Oh, one more thing. In the process of loosing all my computer data I also lost my address book and my favorite Internet places, which was how I kept track of what sites hosted my fics. I tried finding as many as I could, but I don't think I found them all. So, please, if you know of any site that is not listed below that host my fics please let me know so that I can send future updates to that site as well. The sites I was able to relocate are the following:

 

Aishiteru
Blissful Ignorance
Caliko's Fanfiction Site
D & H Addiction
Destined Hearts
Final Triumph
Gundam Hilarious
Gundam Wing at Peace
Ironic Paradise
My Animated Fantasy 2000
Peace, Love, and War
Pink Spandex
Razzly's Fanfiction
Rei Tamashii's Gundam Wing Fanfiction
Shades of Grey
Star Crossed Love
Temple of Balance

 

I'm sorry if I missed any sites. I'm also sorry to those of you who sent me reviews between April and May that did not get a reply back. Your reviews, unfortunately, got deleted during the whole reformat process as well before I had the chance to reply back. I really appreciate all your comments though, and I'm sorry you didn't get a response.

 

There was also a list of a few people I had that wanted to know when I sent off new chapters. Well, that list was regretfully lost during the fray as well. So, if anyone still wants me to email them when my fics are updated then I'll start a new list.

 

I'm sorry if this is an inconvenience to anyone, but please know that I'm trying over here and that I'm not giving up. I will finish ALL of my fics. It's just the date of completion that is yet to be determined. ^_~

 

Well, I guess that's everything. I hope you enjoyed chapter thirteen. ^_^

 

Bye,
Carebear