Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Deadly Beautiful ❯ A Nasty Surprise ( Chapter 19 )

Disclaimer: Gundams are big, the moon is too, I don't own the series, and neither do you. (.)

Deadly Beautiful - Chapter 19

By danse

At 8:17 AM, on Monday, May 1, Duo hustled Hilde out the front door of the apartment and herded her down the stairs to the lobby, ignoring the muffled protests that occasionally came from behind the slice of toast that he'd stuffed in her mouth on the way out. They exploded out of the lobby door and she screeched to a halt on the steps to remove the toast from her mouth, glaring at him as if willing his head to explode. He ignored that too, and pulled her by the arm to his car, which was parked right in front of the door.

They were already seventeen minutes late, because both of them had slept in, and then there had been too many things to tell her how to look after for the month that he would be gone. They needed to be at the office by 8:30, and the morning traffic usually declared that it would take them half an hour to get there, no matter how hard they tried.

Duo grumbled anxiously and opened the passenger door of his Mustang for her. She slid in and smoothed her black skirt underneath her. Duo slammed the door, ran around the front of the car, jumped in, yanked his door shut, and started the engine with a roar, all in one fluid, frenzied motion.

"Ooh," Hilde sighed as she leaned into the black vinyl seat. "Never thought I'd get to ride in a vintage car like this to my first day of honest work." She stroked the dash lightly as she spoke, gazing at it almost reverently.

"Yeah, well..." Duo said distractedly, as he looked behind him and pulled away from the curb. Once they were crawling through traffic, he picked up the thread he'd started. "If I take the car to work instead of walking, my boss'll keep it for me while I'm gone. Don't want my baby to get keyed or stolen."

Hilde nodded and took a bite of toast, settling back with a smile and watching the buildings go by. Besides the skirt, she wore a blouse, nylons, and black, strappy heels that weren't too flashy. She looked very respectable, and still very pretty. Duo had caught himself staring at her legs a beat too long when she'd walked into the kitchen that morning. Her constant closeness made him nervous, because he didn't want to be too forward. He figured that, after selling herself to strangers for food money, she might not be interested in a physical relationship with him. Best to take it slowly, if things went that way.

That morning, Duo was battling extreme nervousness. Today he was starting the longest undercover mission he'd ever been assigned, and his imagination kept attacking him with scenarios of all of the things that could possibly go wrong: failure, capture, or worst of all, death. He kept his mind away from his fears by speeding whenever possible, weaving expertly between taxi cabs, trying to shave time from the trip.

While they were stopped at a red light, he rubbed his chest with one hand, pretending to scratch. Actually, he wanted to feel the necklace that he was wearing under his black t-shirt. He'd lied a little, when he'd told Hilde that he had nothing worth stealing in his apartment. He did have one thing: a silver cross on a chain, which he'd had all his life. He'd dug it out of the bottom of his underwear drawer that morning for the first time in a few years. He was pretty sure that it had belonged to a mother he couldn't remember. All he knew for certain was that it was special to him and that it brought him good luck when he needed it. Today he definitely thought he needed it. Its weight and shape felt reassuring.

Thanks to Duo's lead foot and an unbelievable two-block tunnel through traffic (which he accredited to the luck of his necklace), they managed to get to the office at 8:33, by the clock in Duo's car. He pulled into a narrow alley near the building and waved at a security guard as they entered an underground parking lot. It was one floor, below the basement area of the building, and few people used it. He found a spot, and they ran from there to the front of the building (no direct access from the garage, because the basement was right below the high-security training area), going up the granite steps to the glass lobby doors as fast as Hilde's high heels would allow.

Navigating easily through the somewhat crowded lobby, Duo glided up to the secretary's desk and leaned over it, giving the woman his warmest gaze. "This is Hilde..." He suddenly paused and whipped around to face Hilde. "What was your last name again?" he whispered urgently.

"Schbeiker," Hilde snapped, exasperated. "I've told you twice already!"

Tuning her out, he smiled at the secretary. "Hilde Schbeiker. She's supposed to start today."

The secretary returned his smile and turned to her computer. A few seconds later, after tapping a few keys, she said, "Schbeiker...ah. Here we go. She's supposed to be on the third floor."

"Thanks, honey," Duo purred. He led Hilde away by the hand, leaving the blushing secretary to melt under the force of his voice.

"Anytime..." the young woman whispered huskily to his retreating back.

Duo dragged his hapless charge to the elevator, brusquely pointing things out and talking so fast that she couldn't follow half of it. She just gazed around helplessly, awed by the number of bustling people, and the profusion of glass, honey-coloured marble, and rich wood that decorated the lobby. She felt woefully inadequate to work in such a place. Everybody here must be so smart! she thought. And this place is so clean! She goggled at everything, only stopping to rest her aching head when they were in the elevator, which was much smaller, and empty except for them.

The third floor was stereotypical office space. Industrial grey carpet kept the floors from getting too exciting, cubicles were crammed in every usable space, and the humming ring of telephones provided musical accompaniment to the choreography of men and women walking around with stacks of paper and half-empty pots of coffee. Duo led her up to the floor manager's desk, pushed her forward, and said, "This is Hilde Schbeiker. She's supposed to start here today." He put a hand on her shoulder and whispered, "Good luck," before walking back to the elevator. Behind him, the manager immediately swept Hilde into a tour of the office, while Hilde cast nervous glances back over her shoulder at Duo's back, until it disappeared behind the elevator doors.

Duo reclined tiredly in the back of the little silver car, playing with the red lapel of his uniform jacket as he watched huge trees glide past the windows. The sun filtered through the tree branches, and occasionally he had to squint in a blinding sunbeam. All of his nervous energy had fled by now, leaving only fatigue. The silver cross rested against his chest and his trusty Glock handgun was locked inside his suitcase, in the trunk.

The car turned, rumbled through enormous wrought-iron gates, and pulled up a long driveway, continuing for what seemed like miles before stopping in the plaza in front of the main building.

He sat up slowly and got out of the car, staring at his highly polished black shoes. The butterflies that had been in his stomach earlier that morning had recently cemented together into a cold, heavy weight, and he wasn't sure which feeling he disliked more.

The man who had been driving the car pulled Duo's suitcase out of the trunk and set it down on the concrete between them. Duo looked up at his face. The man was tall and slender, with hair about the same colour as Duo's, and was wearing a navy blue business suit. The woman who had been in the front passenger seat stood beside him. She was an inch shorter than Duo, with long, dark blonde hair, a pixie face, and a nose that looked a lot like Duo's. Her black women's suit and stylish glasses completed the couple's 'on the way to work' image. To a passerby, they would have looked like his parents.

The male agent stepped forward and gave Duo a bear hug, which Duo returned, soaking up comfort from the false goodbye. The female agent hugged Duo too, embracing him for a long time, like a mother who was close to tears. "Good luck, kid," she whispered in his ear. "Come back with all your extremities intact."

When she backed away, Duo gave her a strange look. Did she know Ivanov? Probably. She gave him a secret wink and a grin as he picked up his suitcase. He turned his back to them and marched up the many steps to the front doors. He heard the car doors slam shut behind him, and he turned to watch the car disappear down the driveway before going inside. When he found the office, he was going to get the grand tour, and start classes after lunch.

Heero sat silently in the back of his English class and stared at the dotted ceiling tiles. This was the third period of the day, the last one before lunch, and he'd already been able to establish that his target wasn't at school that day. In first period and this one, there was an empty seat in the front of the room that was surrounded by a phalanx of chattering girls. Occasionally, one of them, or another curious student, would sneak a glance at him, but he'd completely ignored them so far, so they left him alone.

He didn't even bother to pay attention to the teacher, who was droning on incessantly about extended metaphors. Heero was very intelligent, and already had the equivalence of a general studies college degree, thanks to J. Instead, he kept himself entertained by alternately doing mental exercises that kept his brain sharp, and keeping up a scathing internal monologue in Japanese about the incompetent, boring teacher, occasionally picturing gruesome, torturous deaths that he could inflict upon her.

Heero fervently hoped that his target was just away sick today, because he didn't know how long he could put up with this if it was all for nothing.

Duo grabbed a sandwich from the cafeteria at lunch and killed the time by wandering aimlessly around the grounds. He was half enjoying the sun and the greenery, and half watching for signs of Relena. He didn't expect to see her right away, so it wasn't a big deal that he didn't.

After lunch, he found his history class in the GenAc and opened the door. The room was almost full, and he glanced swiftly around, searching every face. Relena was supposed to be in here, but he didn't see her. Most of the students were in their seats, twisted around and talking to each other in little groups. One lone guy sat in the empty back corner, staring at the ceiling in silence.

Suddenly, Duo found the next best thing to Relena: a single empty seat in the middle of a group of giggling girls. That was probably where she normally sat. Turning on the charm, he adjusted the way his schoolbag sat on his shoulder and sauntered over to the group, preparing to do one of the things that he did best.

"Hello, ladies," he purred, in his most effective honey-toned voice. Their conversation froze, and they all turned as one to look at the source of the sexy voice. Suppressing a satisfied smirk, he started his act. "I'm new here. Is this seat taken?" He pointed at the empty desk.

The girl who sat right next to it, who had long, curly brown hair and hazel eyes, stuttered and blushed. "U-um, normally it is. But, uh..."

Too nervous. Duo swept closer, his eyes turning a smoky purple and giving off waves of heat. "What's your name, gorgeous?" It might have been a tacky line, but it did the job.

Nervous under the attention of not only Duo, but the rest of her friends, the girl was incapable of speech for a second. Finally she croaked, "R-Roxie. Wh-what's yours?"

"I'm Scott. I'm sorry, I think I interrupted you. What were you saying?" This manipulation was too easy.

She spoke more confidently now, warming up to him. "It's normally taken, but since Relena's not here, she probably won't mind if you sit in her place until she comes back." She shrugged in what she obviously hoped was an offhand way, and her eyes told him that she was praying that he would sit there.

"Ohh, that's too bad," he answered smoothly. His ability to sound casual and maneuver the conversation his way was obviously much better than Roxie's. "Where'd she go?"

"On vacation. She didn't say where. I think she went with her parents. Left on Friday after school."

"Well, I guess I'll meet her when she gets back," Duo said, and sat in the empty seat. He'd found out all he needed to know, although the news didn't make him happy. He could picture what G would say: 'If you'd left last Monday, when I told you to, you wouldn't have missed her!'

The thought of the 'I told you so' lecture to come dampened Duo's mood considerably. Grumpily, he pulled out his binder and forced himself to sit through a History class on a subject that he already knew inside out. He'd been tutored by one of G's teachers over the years, and had effectively finished high school eight months ago.

The vice principal, Mrs. Landry, was waiting for Duo when he walked out of his last class of the day, and escorted him out of the Science Building and across the grounds toward the boys' dorms. As they strolled past the back of the GenAc, Duo winked at a girl walking by him, turning to watch the view from behind as she smiled and walked away.

Landry carried his suitcase, which he'd left in the main office that morning, and they walked together into the boys' dorm building and up the stairs as she listed off the dorm rules for him. They reached the second floor and marched down the hallway, her heels clicking loudly on the wooden floor.

"Your roommate will probably be around at this point. I waited until now to show you your room so that I could make sure that you met him, rather than showing you earlier, when you came." She led the way briskly down the hall and stopped in front of a dark wooden door that said, '217'. She knocked briskly on the door, and called, "Mr. Midorikawa?"

Heero had walked into his room and collapsed on his bed just ten minutes earlier, ready for a nap, and the sharp knock on the door startled him awake. He heard Landry's voice carrying distinctly through the heavy wood of the door and angrily wondered what in the world she could want.

Slowly, he heaved himself to his feet and straightened his tie a bit on the way across the room. He unlocked the door and swung it open to see her directly in front of him, a smile on her face.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," he managed.

"Good afternoon. I hope we didn't disturb you. Do you remember that I said that you probably wouldn't be on your own for long? Well, you have a new roommate already." She stepped to the side to reveal someone standing behind her, and introduced him. "Mr. McNeil, this is Hikaru Midorikawa."

Heero stared at the person she presented. He (it must have been a 'he', since they were in the boys' dorms) was about Heero's height, with blue eyes and very long, brown hair that was pulled back in a braid. His nose was slightly pointed, and the deep scratch across the bridge was scabbed over.

Heero's eyes widened in shock and anger as a red haze descended over everything. You! His hand clenched convulsively at his side, trying of its own volition to choose between gun, shuriken, or strangling.

The other boy presented his right hand. "Call me Scott," he said cheerfully.

Duo had been wondering who he would be stuck with, and the sight when the door opened surprised him. The guy who was standing there, looking like he'd just been woken up, was the loner from History class. At the time, Duo had been more concerned with the lack of Relena to notice him much, and the guy had been counting ceiling tiles or something anyway. Now, though, when they were barely three feet apart, all Duo could see was the guy's eyes. They were like twin chips of ice, the deep blue colour of a glacier, and just as cold. There was something about them that pierced right through him, hooking deep inside his chest and making him feel like his bones were frosting over.

Fighting to tear his gaze away, Duo stuck out his hand. "Call me Scott," he said, in what he hoped was a cheerful voice. After staring at his hand for too long, Hikaru took it awkwardly and shook it, squeezing a little harder than Duo would have liked.

"Excellent," Landry exclaimed from beside him. Duo jumped; he'd forgotten she was still there. "Well, I have things to do. Mr. Midorikawa, if you could show Mr. McNeil where everything is. I'm sure you'll get along great." The two boys stared at each other as the click of her heels on the floor faded to echoes, then silence.

Hikaru turned around and went inside the room, flopping onto his bed and draping an arm over his eyes. Duo was left standing in the doorway with his suitcase, and walked inside nervously. "Uh..." he tried. "Where's the bathroom?"

Hikaru didn't bother to look at him. "There are three doors in this room," he growled, in a voice that was deep and a little gravelly. "You've already been through one of them. You have a fifty-fifty chance of finding the bathroom on the first try." And with that, he rolled over, so that his back was to Duo, and apparently went to sleep.

Warm welcome, Duo thought sarcastically. No wonder he sits alone. He shivered, though the room was warm. Hearing Hikaru's voice for the first time had thickened the frost on his bones, and Duo could have sworn his lips were turning blue. You're just like ice, he decided, staring at his new roommate's inert form. I'm gonna get frost-bitten if I don't watch it...

Duo set his suitcase down on the other bed and found the bathroom on the first try.