There's No Such Word as Won't (Chapter 7)

[Rose of Betrayal]

Disclaimer: Um, I don't own Gundam Wing. It belongs to its respective holders, Sunrise and etc.. and even if I wanted to own it I couldn't because it wouldn't be right to steal other people's property...I mean, things... *dribbles off pathetically*
Current mood: Frustrated because I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet, but don't worry, I'm in a good enough mood.
Authoress' notes: . . .Twinkies. . .Blueberry muffins. . .*drool* Hail to you, mighty Emperor Wingnut! *salutes* We'll see if this is how you've foreseen everything. . .

There's No Such Word as Won't
Chapter 7

Dorothy hummed to herself as she knocked on Relena's bedroom door and waited. She brushed a strand of hair out of her face and adjusted the collar of her dress, studying her perfectly polished nails as Relena opened the door, looking quite frustrated and angry.

"Hello, Miss Relena," Dorothy greeted her calmly, stroding past and closing the door. "Is something wrong?" she queried, looking slightly innocent. Which gave her the impression of having a very bad toothache. Dorothy shook herself mentally. Though never one to play cupid, she had listened to Duo's plan and had thought it might have a very good chance of getting Heero and Relena together.

It's like putting her most loathed person in the world and the closest person she had to a sister together, she thought with some hesitation. But then again, she had Relena to consider. The girl, who Dorothy had considered a softie and a goody two shoes, was something like a family to her. Relena had understood her like no one could. She understood Dorothy's resentment and understood Dorothy's idea of revenge after Duke Dermail had died.

In those ways, Relena was a sister she never had, and she decided it was worth the effort to put her 'sister' and Heero Yuy together. But first, she had to make sure Relena wanted to come together.

And now she was sure.

She examined Relena's drooping hair and tired face. A face that had been once so young and innocent was now bitter-looking and lined with resentment. But she was still fresh and innocent, hardened though she might be.

Dorothy felt a pang of anger as she thought of that person Relena loved but would never receive love from. But the anger quickly died as she studied Relena's eyes. Those eyes. They were innocent, as the rest of her were, so they revealed everything to Dorothy's cunning and experienced eyes.

Sadness. Love. Confusion.

"No, Dorothy, nothing is wrong." Relena turned away from the other blond and stared in the mirror.

Dorothy smirked. "You, Relena Peacecraft, lie," she said softly, standing behind Relena and running a hand through the sweetly scented hair. "My sister, I see everything."

"Then you know."

"Yes, I do know, Miss Relena." Dorothy's voice slipped back into the casual name-calling. "I know you love Heero Yuy," she almost spat out the word in contempt; she had not forgotten his past faults and hurting, "but he does not love you back."

Relena's eyes did not begin to brim over. Rather, she closed her eyes to block out something. A memory. "Yes, Dorothy," she said with final resignation. "You are correct."

"But do you want him back, even if you denied him, and now he denies you?" Dorothy's voice was strangely persuasive.

Relena considered, her eyes still closed. Then she opened them and stared into the smirking clear blue eyes of Dorothy Catalonia in the mirror. Her expression was silky and hard to understand, standing behind her with a small smile of confidence.

"Dorothy..."

"You have not answered my question, Miss Relena, and I will not leave until you do so."

"Dorothy..."

The girl sat back on the bed, a smirk now playing around her lips, not only in her eyes. She folded her hands in her lap, sitting primly. It was clear she had no intention of going.

Relena turned away. "Give me time to consider."

"No, you don't take time to consider, Miss Relena." Dorothy's eyes flashed. "Once you know your feelings, there is no doubt which you have for one person. You don't need time. You know already."

"Yes, I do know, but does he?" Relena spun around to catch Dorothy's gaze head-on. Dorothy did not flinch, even though Relena's steely glare had quite a shocking resemblance to that of Heero Yuy's.

"You're dodging my question, Miss Relena," said Dorothy coolly, peering up at her.

Relena sighed. "Yes, I love him, I want him back."

"Then why tell him that you are over?"

"That..." Relena paused, "...was a mistake I regret deeply."

"In this room, Miss Relena," Dorothy's voice turned a deadly tone, "we discuss with straight answers."

"Frankly, Dorothy," Relena said, "I forgot the reason."

"I told you that you know your own feelings, Miss Relena, and I hardly doubt you will forget them."

"Fine!" Relena almost shouted. She turned away from Dorothy again. "I said we were over because all hope was over. I thought he didn't love me. Now I know he doesn't."

"Do you have proof, Miss Relena?"

"What?" Relena held Dorothy's eyes in the mirror.

"Proof. That he doesn't love you."

"Well, didn't he turn me down when I said I wanted him back? I threw away my pride, Dorothy! And he just shrugged and said, 'We're over. You said so yourself.' And I know he's not going to take back any of those words now."

"Didn't it occur to you that the reason he said yes was because you hurt him too much?" Dorothy looked at Relena, who had her fists clenched, her eyes downwards. "It would be a serious blow to him if he said yes."

"But would he say yes even if I didn't say that we were over in the first place?"

"I'm afraid, Relena, that cannot be supposed because it has already happened and you can't change it. There is no need to elaborate by thinking what would happen if we changed the past. The past is done. You must learn to live in the present and do as much as you can to stem the flow of mistakes from the past. The only thing you can do is correct them. You cannot undo what you have done. As you said, it was a mistake."

"So what should I do, grovel and beg for his apology?" Relena growled.

Dorothy smiled indulgently. "You don't know what's going on in his mind. Don't blame yourself so much. Heero Yuy is as human as you are, and he has emotions. Don't worry." She turned away. "We can discuss this later. I have work to do, if you'll excuse me."

*

Duo's tongue was dry as he got out of bed, clad only in boxers, and looked down at Hilde's sleeping form. He needed to get a drink of water. He padded outside after putting on a bathrobe...and stopped short as he saw a figure sitting in the kitchen, staring outside.

"Heero?" he asked incredulously, advancing into the room cautiously, as if Heero might bite. Which, he knew, was a little less than the worse that Heero could do.

Prussian blue eyes swiveled onto Duo, piercing and cold. "Duo."

"Yes?" He took a glass of water and washed it in the sink, keeping a close eye on Heero. The dark-haired Asian was sitting in a casual way in his chair, but his jaw was rigid, his eyes a burning blue fire. His gun, a magnum, a very powerful magnum, was on the table in front of him. Even in the dark, Duo knew that he could accurately shoot a bird in the eye a mile away. He had to trod carefully. Heero was a dangerous minefield.

"We need to talk."

The water slipped down Duo's throat, feeling like sandpaper, and successfully making it seem even drier. Had Heero somehow found out he had continued the bet?

"About Relena."

Duo set his glass down, prepared to keep up the facade. "But, Heero," he exploded, as if he was frustrated, "she's the only thing you talk about!"

Heero smiled grimly, making him seem even more menacing. Duo shrank back. Heero Yuy's grins were truly frightening, and if he scowled, it was actually no difference. 'Only Relena knows how to break through.' His heart thudded painfully, finally asking the one question that had been pounding in his brain.

'Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing the right thing in...in bringing them together?'
'He loves her. She loves him. There's no difference, Duo. It is the right thing.'
'But I don't have his permission.'
'Did that ever stop you before, Duo? Isn't it really amazing, that one little smile of Heero Yuy can make you hesitate?'

His lips curled in a small smile, which he quickly hid behind the glass of water. Heero's smile faded into a scowl as he looked Duo over, and the braided pilot saw a hint of tension in his eyes. He suspected.

"Duo."

"Heero," he said cautiously.

"Shut up, please." Heero's eyes burned into Duo's until he was forced to turn away from the cold gaze. "I'm going to have to ask you to be truthful, Duo." Heero fiddled with his gun, running two fingers along the smooth metal. Duo's cobalt eyes peered from it nervously to Heero's face and back again.

"Yes?" Duo hoisted himself into a chair, grunting as the chair squeaked.

"I'm asking you if you could maybe help Relena."

Silence reigned in the kitchen, only the steady drip drip of the water could be heard. Heero's eyes were cast downwards, but Duo could see. He could read Heero Yuy like an open book. He could read that Heero was absolutely in pain for requesting his help...again.

Duo set down his glass. "I'm not going to laugh, Heero." He pressed his lips together in a tight line, indicating he would like to have done nothing better. Luckily, Heero didn't notice. If he had, he would have beat Duo to a bloody pulp, or else shoot him until he looked like a hunk of cheese.

Heero's head snapped up, and Duo was forced to press his lips even tighter. He inched his chair slightly to the left, hoping that the shadows hid his face completely, with his back to the moonlight shining through the window. Heero had the look of someone completely lost. But then again, that was why he was laughing. He was laughing because Heero was no lost innocent. But...it wasn't funny.

"You're laughing." Heero's voice was deadly in the quiet in the room.

"Yo, s'up Heero?" came Hilde's sleepy voice from the doorway. She had put on Duo's shirt as a cover. She scratched her side lazily and examined Heero and Duo through lidded eyes. "Having troubles?" She padded into the kitchen and switched the kettle on. "Don't you know it's two in the morning? Could you guys maybe discuss this somewhere in the late afternoon?"

"This can't wait," Heero snapped.

Hilde's eyes widened in pretended disbelief. "Do mine ears mock me?" she asked. "Or do I hear that Heero Yuy is finally looking for help from the Shinigami for women trouble?"

Duo hid a snicker, and Heero shot him a murderous glare.

"I do not have women trouble," he announced thinly.

"Shut up, Heero," Hilde yawned. "You're in the household of death, you can't hide anything from us."

"Death knows everything," Duo sniggered.

Heero glared at both of them, but they just ignored him. Silence settled in, Heero's silence was due mainly to a temporary dreamland, since he was staring at the ceiling, and Hilde and Duo's silence was due to sleepiness.

Finally, Hilde snapped open the kettle and poured the boiling water into three mugs. "Heero?" She waved a hand in front of his face. "HEERO?"

"He's dreaming about Relena," Duo yawned. "Naked."

Heero snapped out of his daydream and glared at the steaming mug in front of him. "What?"

Hilde sighed, exasperated. "I was going to ask if you wanted hot chocolate or coffee."

"Coffee would be fine." Heero continued to fix his glare at his mug.

"Hey, are you trying to stare a hole in the mug, man?" Duo asked, sipping his hot chocolate. "It's not a very good idea, y'know." He set down the mug and studied Heero closely. "So, you want our help, d'you?"

Heero looked as if he took all the effort he had to nod his head.

"There, there," Hilde said sympathetically, settling down next to Duo, "that wasn't bad, was it?" Duo snorted into his mug, and she grabbed it away from him. "Careful," she warned, "or you'll find you're drinking hot chocolate with snot for flavoring."

Heero almost choked and set down his mug on the table, his body shaking with coughs.

Hilde smirked. Duo grinned. Heero glared. "So," she continued, wiping the smirk off her face like chalk rubbed off with an eraser, "you wanted our help?"

"I already said I did."

"Specify a subject, please," Duo pressed.

Heero scowled at him. "You know very well who I'm talking about."

"No, I don't."

"Duo, you're playing stupid."

"I always did. And when I'm not playing, I still am stupid." Duo glanced at Hilde, who seemed fixated on a point above Heero's shoulder. She met his eye and smiled, indicating she understood.

"Well said," Heero grunted. "But if you're going to do it that way, I'm not doing this."

"Yes you are. And we know it," Hilde smiled innocently. "Because you have nowhere else to turn to, eh?" She took another sip of her hot chocolate. "Women trouble is sometimes hard to deal with."

"How do you know?"

"I'm a woman, duh, Heero," she said, rolling her eyes. "And we know it's Relena you're talking about. I mean, has the subject been off your brain?"

Heero suddenly had the look of someone very uncomfortable, and Duo could have sworn there was a faint blush on his cheeks. He wondered what he was thinking. Probably something nasty, Duo thought, hiding a smile. About Relena, more like.

"Uh..." Heero looked away from the table.

Duo's grin widened. "Why come to us, buddy?" he asked.

"It seems it's for the best."

"Ooh..." Hilde raised her eyebrows. Then, mercifully, it seemed, she lowered them with some effort. She looked like she would have loved to tease him more. "Then, what do you want us to do?"

"Whatever you want," Heero mumbled, looking down at his lap. "I just want Relena back."

"Why all of a sudden?" Duo asked.

"You know this is not all of a sudden," Heero growled. "I loved her for more time than I can think of. I naturally want her back."

"Then just tell her that you love her. I'm sure it'll be all right," Duo suggested.

"Duo!" Hilde elbowed him in the face. "You know it's not that easy for him!"

"I know. Just teasing."

"Well, teasing is sometimes painful, and I know it." She shot him a venomous look. "Remember the time when I starved you to death by tying you to the truck and put blueberry muffins in front of you? As soon as you were cut free, you just leapt on them and practically stuffed them into your mouth."

"Yeah, that was painful," Duo said wistfully. "I remembered that for days, there was an awful knot in my stomach everytime I looked at muffins from then on. And you tied those knots like a sailor...the rope burns wouldn't come off for three days and the blood supply to my hands didn't circulate again until an hour later."

"Luckily, it didn't distract you from food."

"Heh...almost nothing can do that."

"Isn't this a little far-fetched?" Heero said, staring down at his hands, which were concealed under the table.

"What's far-fetched?" Duo frowned. Then he noticed the edge of a paper poking out from Heero's hands...and got the familiar twist in his stomach similar to that of when he looked at muffins. Especially blueberry ones. "Eh... How..." His voice was high-pitched, and he cleared his throat nervously. "Um... How did ya find that?"

"It was in your bag," Heero shot back, throwing it at him. "Now I'm saying, isn't it a little far-fetched to include Dorothy and Wufei in the plan?"

"Sally'll make sure that Wufei does everything right," Hilde said, smirking. "She has her - ways."

"And you only don't like Dorothy in the plan because you loathe her," Duo added. "She's very helpful, being a close contact with Relena."

Heero frowned. "But I spoke to her a few hours ago. It didn't seem like she was working with - Quatre?"

Duo nodded wisely. "Quatre's working along, too. Don't worry, he's got enough money already, so he won't betray us or anything. Unless he gets the urge to join his best friend or something...." He glanced down at the paper.

"Trowa?"

"Bingo." Duo shook his head. "I don't know, I just said the bet was still on and he just went away..."

Heero's eyes snapped to Duo's face and narrowed promptly into blue slits. Hilde leapt back as if she had been burnt. Duo almost spilled his hot chocolate as he realized just what a big mistake he had done. He had told Heero Yuy that the bet was still on. He had told the one person he did not want to tell exactly what he didn't want to tell.

By accident.

Oh dear.

"You. Said. The. Bet. Was. Still. On," Heero repeated jerkily, as if he was not sure what he was hearing. "You. Said. It. I. Told. You. Not. To."

"Eh... It was a mistake, Heero..." Duo was drowned out as Heero's gaze intensified, and now they were two orbs of blue fire in the dark, burning a hole into Duo's vision. Hilde gave a tiny squeak, too scared to move.

"Why did you do it?" Heero asked him, his tone much more deeper and angrier than Duo had ever heard it. "You will tell Trowa that the bet is off."

"But..."

Heero shoved his cellphone under Duo's nose. "Now."

"Um...right."

*

Trowa rolled over in bed as his cellphone rang. He glanced at his clock. Who could be calling at - he checked his watch again - almost three in the morning? He answered the phone with a silent, "Hm."

"Trowa?" Duo's voice rang through the cellphone. It was slightly shaking, and Trowa could feel someone right next to Duo. He smirked inwardly.

"Yes, Duo. Trowa speaking."

"Um..."

"Is Heero there?" he asked softly.

"Yeah..." Duo's voice was hesitant. "He knows."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, get on with it!" Trowa heard Hilde's voice hiss from the background. "He's standing right there pointing a gun at your head, you know? He could blow your brains out any minute!"

He suppressed a smile. Looked like Yuy was currently angry. "Listen, Duo, he wants us to end the bet, doesn't he?"

"Yes."

"Does he really think I'm going to give up that easily, it's an awful lot of money."

"You can't change the course now, Trowa. It's the whole gang against you."

"One man can change the course of history..." his voice softened even further, "...as we, the five Gundam pilots, changed it."

"We're talking about a bet, Trowa, not the whole history."

"We're talking about your financial future, not history," Trowa corrected him. "Whether you'll be poor enough, or rich or whatever..."

"Give me that phone," Heero growled from somewhere in the vicinity. "Barton."

"Yuy," Trowa said coolly.

"I want you to stop ridiculing the whole thing right now. There's no point. You're just going to end up messing Relena and my chances together." Heero's voice grew hard. "And I thought you wanted us together."

"There's still money on the bet, Yuy. I'm not counting on your relationship. Rather, on the money."

"You are a selfish idiot!" Hilde yelled into the phone. A thump was heard as Duo pulled her back onto a chair to let Heero continue with the conversation.

Trowa's smirk faded. He knew he was being selfish: refusing to budge down from a bet even though it meant hurting one of his friends. Did he really need the money? What did he have against Heero and Relena?

He recalled Relena's tired face and resolved to do one more thing.

"I'm not backing down, Yuy." Then the connection was broken.

TBC
------------------------------------------------
More soon... I hope. I've been feeling distracted lately, since this guy keeps on tracking me down on the Internet, claiming he's looking for girls. Bleargh. He has no clue he's talking to someone, like, way younger than he is. Sigh. Sometimes guys are just so clueless, no offense to the guys...of course. But sometimes, I guess it makes them cute in a way. *thinks longingly of Heero being clueless*

[Morrighan]

Ooh... The plot thickens!! This is turning out so well! I love it!

Can't wait to see more!!

[Wingnut]

Well there goes the cat more than happy to be out of that bag. Duo is right about one thing though, Heero and Relena are makeing this more complated than it has to be. What did Trowa have in it anyway $100? Come on Barton, don't make me call your sister in on it.
The fate of Relena and Heero's relationship now resides with them alone. Duo's group only needs to keep outsiders from interfereing. If this can be done all should trun out well assumeing Heero and Relena can drop all barriers and pretences between themselves.

[freelight01]

One thought has now occured to me... Is Trowa in love with Relena and doesn't know it, thus is unwilling to quit the bet in hopes of having a chance himself? :evil: :evil:
AND if he is in love with Relena will he acturally compeit with Heero? And if he isn't in love with Relena why on earth (or the colonies in his case) is he not backing out of the BET????????????? :-? :-?

I have way too many questions and mixed emotions about this, and there is only one solution...

GET THE NEXT CHAPTER OUT SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Eppes]

Boy, Relena and Heero sure complicate their relationship to the tenth power. Geez! Seriously, I love how everyone and their dog is meddling in their relationship. Great story.

[Rose of Betrayal]

ty, ppl, for posting!
freelight...looks like you're confused, hm? i have something in mind to complicate the story further.... MWAHAHAHAHA!! Oh, dear, soon I will fry people's brains into eggs with this story. if I say anymore, i will give away exactly what I don't want to give away.