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.  

Chapter 6

Zechs glared across his desk at the two young men in his office. Duo looked serious, and Heero stared blankly at the floor. “I should have you both reassigned to Antarctica for this.” He sighed and shook his head.

The door to Zechs’ office suddenly burst open, and Relena stormed in. “Milliardo!” she exclaimed then noticed the other two occupants of the room. She narrowed her eyes at them in anger, but was unable to keep up the façade for long. Sorrow took over her expression as her defensive walls cracked, and she visibly paled. “You promised,” she said softly, her tears spilling over and coursing down her face.

“Relena,” her brother called out, but she had already left; she ran blindly out of the room, not caring where she was going, or who saw her torment.

Zechs bowed his head and hated himself for what he viewed as his only possible course of action. He looked up at Duo, who nodded gravely, then turned to frown at his friend. Heero caught the look that Duo was giving him and met Zechs’ gaze. Their eyes flashed in mute conflict. “Yuy,” the former Oz lieutenant snarled. “Mission approved. Now, get out.”

Heero nodded, and the two younger men quickly exited. After they were gone, Zechs banged his fist down on the desk in anger. “I’m sorry, Relena.”

“So, what’s plan B?” Duo asked Heero once they were a good distance from Zechs’ office.

Heero glared at his friend. “I thought you didn’t approve, or want any part in this.”

“Well, if you fail, I get reassigned to Antarctica, so let’s just say I have a vested interest in whether you succeed or not.”

“Hn.”

“But I still don’t like it. I never imagined you could be this cold.”

“Hn.”

“But you’re going to need help. Perhaps some sensitivity lessons would do you good…” Duo said, his lips twitching into a faint smile. “Let’s go see Quatre.”

“What? No way…”

“Oh, yes way. That’s exactly where we’re going tomorrow, after all, he got Dorothy to marry him – changed her around completely. Relena should be an easy target by comparison.”

“Hn. Good point. But what about you – Hilde was a soldier, how did you subdue her?”

Duo gave Heero a puzzled look. “Subdue?” he thought. “He’s crazy.” Aloud, he said, “Oh, around my house, I rule with an iron fist – but it doesn’t start off that way, you know. You have to hunt your female. First, you set the trap. You wine and dine them, so to speak. Then, once you’ve got their defenses down, and they’re all dependant on you and stuff, that’s when you know you’ve got the upper hand. That’s when you spring your trap. Soon they’re putty in your hands – willing to obey your every command….”

Later that night

“But Hilde, please, it’s been a whole week! Can’t you take some aspirin or something, babe?” Duo whined, looking at the back of his wife curled up in bed. “I really want you,” he whispered huskily and nibbled on her ear.

“Duo, no. I have to get up early in the morning. Relena and I are having breakfast before she goes to work. I can’t be late – you know she doesn’t have a whole lot of time. Now, go to sleep.”

“Fine,” he grumbled, rolling over and facing the wall. “Subdue? Hmph. Yeah right, Heero. You have no idea,” he said to himself and pulled his pillow over his head in frustration.

* * * * * *

“Huh?” Relena asked Hilde, looking up from her cup of coffee.

“Relena are you okay? You don’t appear to be feeling well, hon.” Hilde said with concern.

“I’m fine, really,” Relena said, giving Hilde a sad smile that didn’t even come close to reaching her eyes.

Hilde took a sip of her coffee and debated whether or not to bring up the incidents of yesterday morning. “Duo told me what happened yesterday, do you want to talk about it?”

Pain flashed across Relena’s face briefly, before she gained control of her emotions again. “I don’t know what there is to talk about, I really don’t understand what happened…”

“Well, for starters, I saw the ring – it really was beautiful. If you don’t mind my asking, why did you turn him down?”

Relena looked at Hilde like she was nuts, “Well, for starters, he never gave me any indication that he cared about me until he came in my office yesterday to propose. If you can call that a proposal…” her voice trailed off as she shook her head in bewilderment.

“Oh, do tell, Relena. I’m dying to know….”

The look on Hilde’s face brought a genuine smile to her lips for a moment. “It’s not funny,” she said softly as a tear trekked down her cheek.

“Relena, I know it’s not, but if you could find some humor in it and laugh about it – it might not hurt as much.”

“You just want me to tell you what happened.”

“Well, there’s that, too,” Hilde replied with a grin.

Relena sighed and sipped her coffee. “His hand reached into his pocket, and I thought he was pulling out his gun. I stood up and took a step back, remembering his promise to kill me.”

“See, that’s funny.”

Relena gave her a wry smile. “It wasn’t at the time. Anyway, he plunked the box unceremoniously onto my desk, and I looked at him quizzically. He pushed it towards me without a word.”

“Go on,” Hilde looked at her eagerly.

“I picked up the box, opened it, and gasped at what it contained. My mind was reeling, I didn’t understand why he was giving me a ring. He just glared at me like I was the stupidest person in the world.” Another tear escaped and rolled down her face. Hilde reached over and grabbed her hand, sympathy evident in her expression. “He said, that I should know what the ring was for, so why make him say it. His voice was so cold, I was stunned and couldn’t keep from crying. He reached out and touched my cheek and said…” She gulped for air.

“What Relena, what did he say?”

“He said that he thought I was stronger than that. ‘Only the weak cry’,” she sobbed covering her face with her hands.

Hilde looked at her friend incredulously. “Don’t make him say it, and only the weak cry? That’s his idea of a proposal?”

“Yes,” Relena choked out. “I was so angry, I threw him out.”

“Well, I don’t blame you. He deserved it,” Hilde said angrily, taking in her friend’s pitiful state. “Oh, Relena, I’m so sorry.” She leaned over and hugged her friend.

Relena sniffed, and wiped away her tears. She gave Hilde a watery smile. “I’m fine, really. It’s okay.”

Hilde smiled back, but inside she was seething. “I’m going to find out what those two are up to,” she said to herself, while handing her friend a tissue. Just as they were about to leave, the two girls heard the sound of a throat clearing, and looked up to see… “Heero Yuy,” Hilde practically spat his name.

Heero and Quatre had received intelligence suggesting that the two girlfriends would be having breakfast at their favorite place, and had met the source, Duo, at the door. They had then sought out the two women in the hopes of speaking with Relena, however, they would soon find out that would not be possible. Upon their arrival at the target booth where Relena sat, Hilde stood up and threw her water in Heero’s face. He was stunned. He just stared at her, water dripping from his always-unruly mop onto the front of his jacket.

“Come on, Relena,” she said, tugging the blond girl’s arm. Relena stood up without acknowledging the presence of either man and headed toward the door. Hilde started to follow but stopped at the edge of the table, fingering the top of a glass of orange juice. An evil smile crossed her lips as she picked it up and dumped the contents on the unsuspecting Quatre.

“Hilde, what did I do?” the blond man sputtered, reaching for the napkin lying on top of the table and wiping at the sticky liquid oozing down his face.

“You’re his friend,” she tossed over her shoulder and continued on her way to join Relena at the front of the diner.

“This is not good,” Quatre said as he sat down at the table, still dabbing at his stained shirt collar, and the front of his hair. He looked up at his equally drenched friend. “And this is all your fault, you know.”

Heero shrugged. “She only threw water on me.”

Quatre shook his head. “We’re going to need Dorothy’s help with this. We need a female perspective, and I’m guessing Hilde will not be volunteering her services anytime soon,” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his usually good-natured voice. Heero wasn’t listening; he was busy thinking about the degree of difficulty of his mission.

“This is turning out to be harder than I thought. And at this rate, I won’t have any friends left by the end of the first week,” he thought with irritation. “Relena…” he said softly to no one.