I do not own Gundam Wing.  This fan fiction has no commercial value and I am not making any kind of profit or income off of this.  

AN: I apologize for the delay in posting this chapter – I’ve had some job stuff, illness, and awful writers block on this fic getting in my way. But ch. 20 is almost complete, and I have a small start on 21.

Thanks to those of you still reading! Love, Rose

Chapter 19

“So when are we supposed to put this plan into action?” Heero asked, still hiding his eyes behind dark sunglasses - it allowed him to watch the occupants of the room without appearing to. Noin and Sally seemed to have moved on to another topic, their voices hushed to an inaudible level, and faces turned to where he could not read their lips.

“Well, that’s the only thing we hadn’t decided. We figured we needed to talk to you about that since you knew her schedule inside and out,” Dorothy replied. She cocked her head to one side in a thoughtful pose, as she appeared to study him. Something about Mrs. Winner had always made him feel uneasy, and Heero took a moment to evaluate the tactical decision to place the fate of his love life in her hands. Well, if all else fails…

“Hn. A weekend would probably be best, and give us time to get everything in order, as well as give me time to try and do it another way.” He paused while his mind worked out the possibilities. “I would consider this a last resort method.”

Sally’s head darted up and met his eyes. A small smile played on her lips, though her brow creased a bit. It was…an odd expression, he observed, almost like she was amused and alarmed at the same time. “Last resort? We didn’t know you were on a time table, Heero.”

“I’ve wasted eight years already - that seems like enough time. The sooner she accepts my proposal and becomes my wife, the better.”

“Whoever said you weren’t a romantic, Heero,” Dorothy smirked, rolling her eyes, “has your personality pegged to a tee.”

“Is that another insult?”

Her eyebrow lifted as she shot him a frigid glare. “For most people it would be. For you, probably not.”

“Hn.” Heero sucked in a deep breath. That woman was beginning to really get under his skin. And Quatre used to be afraid of the Zero System…

“Actually, Heero, I don’t know if you were aware of this, but Relena’s been asked to attend a series of disarmament talks being held on the L4 colony in three weeks.” Noin’s voice jarred him from his thoughts. “She’s supposed to be there for the duration of the talks and then stay on with the host family for an additional week. And she’s already requested you not be part of the guard detail assigned to go with her.” A dark shadow fell across the conspirators as they all turned to stare at him again.

Pain unexpectedly punched him in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him. But he couldn’t let them think that this was all about his position as her guard. “Of course. As her husband, I wouldn’t need to go as a bodyguard,” he said and arranged his face into a smirk, again thankful for the sunglasses that hid his eyes.

The tension in the room dissipated with his statement. “Oh, right!” Sally exclaimed with a smile.

“Guess there’s hope after all,” Noin chimed in.

“I have to go.” Heero flicked his wrist to glance at his watch. “The circus is in town.”

“You’re going to see… Trowa?” Quatre swallowed hard and took a step forward, wanting to stop him, but hesitant to bring up an awkward subject. He noticed the rest of the group exchanging worried glances, but Heero didn’t see them.

“Yeah, he’s always had a way with women, I was thinking some of it might rub off on me.”

“Uh, do you think that’s a good idea, Heero, I mean...” Dorothy elbowed her husband in the ribs. “Ow.” He turned to frown at her, his hand fluttering up automatically to his stomach.

Steel blue eyes glared at him over the tops of those dark lenses, still tired-looking, but alert. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Quatre tried to shrug it off, but knew he was the world’s worst actor. When he had first started having feelings for Dorothy, everyone knew it even before he did. The blond man smiled weakly and let a nervous chuckle escape his lips as he tried to smile. “Oh, I just thought you hadn’t seen him in a while, that’s all.”

“I saw him last night after my date. He said to come by this evening, he offered to help.” He watched Heero’s jaw tighten and wondered if he had any clue as to why they were all on edge.

“Oh. Well, tell him we said hi!” Quatre grinned and tried to sound cheerful.

“I’ll make sure to do that,” Heero replied flatly and left without another word. Everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath until they were sure he was gone.

“Uh, does anyone else here consider the latest turn of events to be not a good thing?” Noin asked, glancing around at the room full of stunned expressions.

“Not good for Heero, I guess he doesn’t know why Trowa put himself on inactive duty, huh?” Sally asked, but the question was mostly rhetorical.

“Guess not, otherwise he wouldn’t be asking for his advice on how to get closer to Relena – unless he’s just stupid,” Dorothy hissed, a hint of annoyance evident in her voice.

“Heero’s not stupid. He really mustn’t know,” Quatre said, his heart heavy with guilt. He had tried to tell him years ago, but the former Zero pilot hadn’t seemed interested at the time…. Now was a very different story. “Anyone want to volunteer to enlighten him?”

He could have heard a pin drop on his home colony in the silence that reigned throughout the room. Quatre sighed.

“Yeah, me either. Maybe we should see how things go before we tell him. We may be worrying over nothing.”

Noin shook her head. “I hope you’re right, Quatre, I hope you’re right.”

* * * * * *

Heero decided that climbing in the window in the middle of the day might look a bit strange, so he opted to knock on the door of the Barton/Bloom trailer. Expecting the cheerful redhead to open it, the former Zero pilot was a bit surprised when Trowa himself answered by turning the doorknob and leaving the metal barrier slightly ajar. Heero pushed it open and made his way to the acrobat’s room.

He entered the correct way this time, no gun pointed at him by his friend, but the urge to turn and run gripped his legs as he quickly took stock of Trowa’s plan. Taking one look at the fair-haired figure sitting quietly in the corner of the room, Heero shook his head and did an immediate about face. “Oh hell no,” he cursed and whirled around to leave.

“Don’t tell me you don’t like her.” Amusement danced in Trowa’s normally placid tone as Heero froze in the doorway primed to leave.

“Sandy’s just here for a lesson in anatomy.”

“No, I don’t like her,” Heero spat, turning to level a venomous glare at his ‘instructor’. And you might want to check your clown makeup for lead content, it’s leaking into your brain.”

“She can help you, if you let her.”

“I don’t need that kind of help. I need to get Relena to marry me, not….”

“Sexual performance can make all the difference.” Trowa left his place against the wall, and moved to where the room’s third occupant was seated, silently watching their exchange. He rested his hands affectionately on her shoulders. “You really ought to give her a shot. I’ll even let you take her home, if you want.”

Heero crossed his arms. “No.”

“Look at her. Supple breasts, pouting lips, beautiful blond hair.”

“She’s a damn blow up doll, Trowa. And I don’t think lips in the shape of a doughnut count as pouting.”

“Maybe she can help you relieve that frustration you have built up.” A small chuckle trailed the last part of his sentence.

“No.” He said, emphasizing the words through clenched teeth. “Hell. No.” Heero moved in to face the grinning acrobat, but took a step back when he noticed how close he was standing to her. “You said you could help me.” He growled, casting a look of distaste in “Sandy’s” general direction. “This,” he spat, pointing at the inflatable woman, “is not helping.”

Trowa shrugged, the smile fading from his lips. “I can’t help you if you’re not going to be open-minded. You’ve made a mess of this on your own, and now your dignity is going to have to suffer in order to make amends.”

“What do you mean?”

“Candy and flowers are not going to get you out of the proverbial dog house. You’re going to have to dig deeper than that.”

“What dog house?”

Trowa glared at him. “Tell me again how the date ended.”

Heero took a deep breath and began his recital. “The mission had gone as planned…”

“Planned?”

“Quatre helped me plan the date.”

“Oh. Continue.”

Heero took the seat across from Trowa, and letting out a long sigh, began to rehash the events leading up to the ultimate failure of “Operation Early Wedding Night.”

“So, the mission had gone as planned. Throughout the course of the evening, her physical proximity occasionally distracted me, and so I sought to remedy the situation by following her to the door and requesting permission to enter the dwelling.”

Trowa nodded. “You wanted to sleep with her.”

“Affirmative.”

“But she wanted you to tell her you loved her.” The acrobat sat down on the bed, moving Sandy aside in order to face his friend.

“Correct.”

Trowa leaned forward. “What exactly did she say?”

“Uh….I believe it was ‘if you tell me you love me, I’ll gladly spend the night with you.’” Heero frowned as he couldn’t help but picture her standing on the porch, looking…away from him, and issuing the ultimatum. His heart sunk as he watched her close the door on him – again.

“And you replied….”

“Not the requisite words.”

“Tell me what you said.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Heero stood up and turned towards the door. Trowa wasn’t helping, and all he wanted to do was see her, to try again….

“It does. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the situation we’re in.”

His head fell forward to stare at the floor. The sentence ended up a barely audible burble: “ItoldherIneedher.”

“What was that?”

“Ineedher.”

“I didn’t hear you.”

Heero’s head jolted up, his jaw hardened, and his hands curled into fists. “I said I need her.”

“Well, not as idiotic as I thought, but you’re still in deep shit.”

Heero whirled around and met razor sharp emeralds glinting in the dim overhead lighting. For a moment, he could have sworn those were the eyes of the enemy. “How so?”

Trowa’s expression lightened and that knowing smile once again tugged at his lips. Heero despised that expression and glared at him with disgust.

“Just trust me.”

* * * * * *

Trevor stared open-mouthed at his friend from across the fast-food booth’s table, a french fry dangling from his hand, halted in mid-delivery by the words escaping Duo’s lips. “So, that’s your plan?” Trevor watched as the other man simply nodded. “Oh, how very cunning…” He shook his head. “Let me get this straight. You want us to kidnap a high ranking government official and former queen of the world in the hopes her sexually stupid bodyguard will realize he loves her?”

Duo’s eyes went wide in a sarcastic expression. “When you put it that way, it sounds idiotic.”

“It IS idiotic!” Trevor argued, shaking a fried potato at Duo to emphasize his point. “Do you know what kind of trouble we could get in? The guy kills first and asks questions later.”

“Not really, not anymore he doesn’t. After the Mariemaia incident, he hasn’t killed anyone.”

Trevor threw down his french fry in disgust finding little reassurance in Duo’s statement. “Could have fooled me. He looked quite ready to rip me apart limb from limb the other morning.”

“Well,” Duo grinned, “In his defense, he’s a little new to the whole jealousy thing.”

“He’s a little new to the whole behaving like a normal human being thing, too, if you ask me.”

“Yeah, well, there’s that…. Can’t argue with you there.” Duo shrugged and leaned back into his seat.

Trevor picked up another french fry and dipped it in ketchup. “What did Hilde say?”

“Haven’t talked to her about it yet.”

Trevor cringed and dropped his french fry. He looked up and shot his friend another incredulous look, but Duo wasn’t fazed.

“She was out shopping when I got home. So you don’t think it’s a good idea?”

“I think it’s a terrible idea. But we don’t have any better ones, obviously, so I say see what Hilde and Relena think…”

“Oh, we can’t tell Relena. She’s given up on him.”

Trevor sighed, “Again?”

“Yeah, well, it’s gotten worse. She’s talking about threatening the head of the Preventer Organization until he’s reassigned to a new mining colony in another solar system.”

“Have we built a colony in another solar system? I didn’t know we had made it that far out into space.”

“We haven’t, yet.”

“Oh.”

“She wants Heero to be the first.”

“Ouch.”

“Can’t blame her. It’s pretty rough having your heart chewed into little pieces on a regular basis. His ‘performance’ last night was particularly bad.” Cobalt blue eyes narrowed and he unconsciously rubbed his bruised ribs.

“Yeah, you told me. Why do we still want them to get together? I forget.”

“Because…uh…well, she’s been in love with him for eight years, it’s about time he made her happy.”

Trevor arched an eyebrow. “Right. Well, I suppose you have a point there. When were you thinking of pulling this off?”

“Not sure yet. I think over a weekend would be best - whenever she has free time.”

“And the logic behind this is….”

“That Relena being in danger will wake him up to his real feelings for her,” Duo said with a sly grin.

“No, I meant kidnapping her when she has free time. Like what are we going to do, enter her office wearing ski masks and carrying guns and say…” Trevor raised a fist and pantomimed knocking on Relena’s door. “‘Excuse me, Miss Vice Foreign Minister, if you’re not doing anything this weekend, will you kindly let us kidnap you for a while? We promise not to make you miss any meetings.’”

“Ha ha. No, I was going to check her schedule. She has to have some time coming up.”

“I see.” Trevor leaned back into his seat, his french fries long forgotten. A smile crept over Duo’s features.

“So does that mean you’re in?”

“Well, only because I promised Relena, not because I feel like doing Heero any favors.”

“Yeah, he has that effect on people. But I’ll talk to you about it again, after I’ve pitched it to Hilde.”

Trevor’s face twisted into a grimace. “Good luck…”

“Aw, Hilde will think it’s a great idea.” Duo grinned, astounded at his own dazzling intellect. “It’s brilliant. It’s fool, er, Heero proof. I think she’ll totally be impressed….”

“Duo Maxwell! Of all the idiotic, horrendously stupid, utterly moronic ideas you’ve ever had, this one takes the cake!” His wife yelled across the kitchen, shaking a frying pan in her right hand, as dinner was momentarily forgotten.

“What? How can you say that?”

Her dark blue eyes danced in anger as she took a step towards her cowering husband. Duo eyed the skillet warily while Hilde advanced.

“I didn’t complain when you turned my kitchen into a war zone trying to ‘decipher’ the recipe to the stuffing inside Oreo cookies.”

“Hey, I was this close to….”

“I didn’t yell when I had to buy a new vacuum cleaner because you took mine apart and tried to make it a robotic maid.”

“Think of all the time that coulda…”

“I didn’t leave you when you came home with that sports car only three months after you traded in my fully-paid-for truck for a ‘family sedan’.” Her voice rose again, and she advanced another threatening step forward, still wielding the cast iron skillet.

Duo wisely took a step back. “But babe, that’s not just any…”

“And somehow or another, I didn’t kill you when I found out that you were helping the Inhuman One try to get Relena to marry him because you THINK he might be in love with her. But KIDNAPPING?”

“Okay, let me explain this again. Please, babe, will you listen?”

She crossed her arms, and glared up at the ceiling. “I’m listening.”

“Okay, in the middle of the battle to save the Earth, where did he go?”

“To Libra.”

“To Libra, right. Why?”

“To rescue Relena.”

“Exactly. When the remnants of White Fang were after us, where did Heero go?”

Hilde took a deep breath and sighed. “To rescue Relena.”

Duo moved to try and get his wife to meet his eyes. “Right. And you know what? While they were saying their goodbyes, I caught him trying to kiss her.”

“Hn.” She turned her back towards him.

“And then when she was kidnapped, who went after her?”

“Heero.”

He crept up beside her and snaked an arm around her waist. He bent to kiss her neck. “Do you know where I found him when it was over?”

She struggled a bit in his grasp, but he held firm, his lips trailing lightly over her neck. It tickled, but she tried to keep from smiling.

“We’re all outside the bunker, battling, kicking Serpent butt, and there’s Heero copping a feel of the Vice Foreign Minister.” He nibbled on her ear a bit, then chuckled at his own joke. Sensing the angry cloud had lifted, he loosened his grip on her waist, allowing her to turn in his embrace. She had that look like she was still trying to be mad at him….

“Duo, why do you have to be such a pervert?”

He shrugged, and reached to gently pull the frying pan out of her grip. “Well, that’s what it looked like to me.” He placed the weapon onto the table. “Looked like a pretty sweet setup, actually. Wish I would have done that with you, sometime.”

Hilde punched his shoulder, and tried not to laugh.

“Hey, it was the only thing that gave me hope he MIGHT be human.” He pulled her closer and felt her arms encircle his neck. He breathed in her familiar scent…so wonderful, so intoxicating…. The next words were out of his mouth before his brain registered them. “Until their date last night.” Duo bit his lip, but it was too late. She twisted out of his embrace, and that scowl was back on her face. “Woops.”

“You followed them?”

“Uhhhhh…”

Hilde glowered at him. “I can’t believe you! No wonder he wanted to kill you!”

Duo ran a hand through his bangs. “No, he wanted to kill me because Relena left him at the front door when he didn’t say the L word.”

“Good for her. So do I even want to know why you two were watching a porn movie together when he’s been left ‘unfulfilled’?” A hand came up to rest on her hip.

Duo blanched. “Uh, torture? Hence the ropes and being bound and I’m digging myself even deeper aren’t I?”

“Uh-huh.” She watched her husband’s notoriously cute backpedaling with a hint of a smile. She decided to take pity on him – he had always been too adorable to stay mad at for long. She took a step forward, and rested her head on his chest. An arm slid around her waist. “So you really think…”

“I really think that under stress, he can’t suppress the way he feels about her.” He looked down at her and smiled that lovably mischievous grin. “So kidnapping her will be a good start on putting him under the needed stress.” He leaned down until their lips were almost touching – it sent hundreds of little shivers down her back, even after all this time.

“We can work on other ways to twist the knife once we’ve got it in his back.” He winked at her and she almost melted into a puddle on the floor.

“Painful analogy. But you really think it will work?” She tried to keep her voice steady and unaffected, but she was pretty sure he knew that right now, his arms were the only things holding her up. As if to rub it in, he winked at her again.

“Yep! And then all we have to do is make sure he doesn’t find out it was us.” He leaned forward a little further and finally touched his lips to hers. She kissed him back like she had for seven years, and yet somehow, each one still seemed like the first. His arms slid around to her back and pressed her closer to his body as his tongue sought entrance to her mouth. Hilde’s hands came up to play with the buttons on his shirt….

The couple broke for air, and his eyes gleamed with another sort of mischief as he met her gaze this time. Teasingly, she went back to the subject at hand.

“Don’t you think he’d just be happy to have her back and not take revenge?” She made her eyes widen into an innocent expression even while his darkened with desire.

He smirked and then bent to scoop her up in his arms.

“Not a chance.”