Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Raptures of Paradise ❯ My Other Self ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Okay, I don't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters. So don't sue me or anything. This is basically a serious fanfic, although to lighten the emotional tension I did like Shakespeare and added some comic relief moments to ease the tension. Hope those moments entertain you as they did me! Oh yeah, if you aren't into cute, sappy type things, then don't proceed any further.

Gundam Wing: Raptures of Paradise
Chapter 5----------My Other Self
By Sailor Celaeno

Hilde was that good soul. Duo was that charming pilot. How could two people be so connected and so strong when they are individuals, yet they had those times, where they were weak without the other. How can these two be like that? How can they have such a life together?
Hilde Sheibecker was a petite young woman of 16. She still had her dark hair, her sparkly eyes, her strong spirit, and her true heart. Somehow, she lived and survived the Eve War. Somehow everyone scrambled out. Only, she was changed from before she went to fight. She had lost that look of ideals and dreamy optimism. She saw humanity at it's worst. Yet, she still had that ever lasting hope, a dream that there can be peace. Just as Relena Peacecraft Darlian does.
"Duo Maxwell... What a guy. How did I ever end with him?" asked Hilde to herself. "What was it that drew me in? Was it his humor, or his charm?" She still thought about it, even after a year. But he was gone now. The Preventers called her away. She ended up in assignments that kept her away. But he was in the Preventers too. It seemed like she was avoiding him somehow. "He must still be mad at me for that argument so long ago..."
An endless game of silence was all that was left of their friendship. The argument was kind of stupid when she looked back on it. "How could I let it all end with him being angry at me?"

It was an average night. The two roommates were enjoying a Friday night movie rental blitz. "Duo? Are you sure you wanna do this? I mean... it's a little fast for me. I'm just not ready for this..." said Hilde.
"Oh come on. It's a lot of fun." He looked at her slyly. "Besides I know you want to. You want to even more badly than me." He sat even closer to her on the couch. "Admit it. Come on. I promise it won't hurt a bit. I'll go nice and slow for you. You'll really enjoy this. It'll be the best Friday night you've had with me so far..." He gave that look.
That look was the kind that she couldn't resist. Every time he looked at her like that, she couldn't refuse anything he wanted. Although she had to admit she wanted this as much as he did. "Oh.... alright..."
"Yes!" He punched the air with victory.
"But!" she added.
"But what?" he looked at her.
"Just one request."
"What's that Hilde?"
"I start this thing..."
Duo smiled. "Anything for you." He bent over and opened the package. He slowly emptied its contents. "You ready?"
Hilde breathed a little. Then she faced him. "Ready."
"Hear we go!" He put the new video game into the game system. (What? Did you honestly think I was gonna make it a NR-17 story? If you did then you must read TOO many of those...)
After another twenty minutes and 8 rounds later. "Damn! I told you this game moves too fast for me!" complained Hilde as she lost the eighth game with Duo.
"Come on Hilde. You're just saying that because you don't want to admit that I'm better at Racing Thunder Machines III than you!" teased Duo.
"Damn it, Maxwell! Why do you have to be such an immature jerk?"
"Na!" he stuck out his tongue. Hilde just glared at him and they played another half an hour.
Hilde, in spite of herself, liked being with Duo. He was her new best friend in the world. She loved his company. She loved everything about him. He was so playful and that was what she wanted in a guy. Yeah, a guy like Duo. Nobody else could ever take his place. But Duo was irritating her at times. He can be too much of a clown. That was his problem. He wasn't serious enough sometimes. Even when he was fighting in the Eve Wars, he wasn't always serious. "Why can't he get real?"
"Hilde?" called a woman.
She looked up from her desk and saw Hannah Mersenna. Another Preventers agent that had been recently transferred to work with her and some of the other pilots. "Yeah, Hannah?"
"You are friends with Duo, aren't you?" she said with her light Parisian accent.
"Yes, why?"
"Well... you see, I wanted to ask if he wanted to go out with me on Friday night. And he said yes. And I wanted to know what he likes. You know hobbies, etc. I just wanna know what to talk to him about. You know?"
"Oh yeah..." Hilde said a little sadly. She thought about what he liked and told Hannah.
"Oui. Merci, Hilde." Hannah walked away. Hilde was left seething. She knew that she needed a serious talk with Maxwell...

"Hi Hil!" called Duo when they got to the car they shared. She remained silent. Duo looked over at her and saw how peeved she looked. "Hil? Hilde?" he called her again.
"Don't you Hil me!" she snapped at him.
"Whoa! What are you so snippy about?" he made a left turn to leave the parking lot.
"I heard you're going on a date with Hannah on Friday night." She stayed angry.
"Yeah s--- oh damn!" Duo smacked himself when he realized what the problem was.
"Yes, Duo. It finally occurred to you what an idiot you are!" Hilde glared at the windshield.
"I know. I'm a moron. I shouldn't have agreed to Friday. God, how can I be so stupid?" he scolded himself. "I'm sorry Hilde. Once we get back at home, I'll call Hannah and see if I can see her on Saturday."
Hilde was silent for a moment. The gears of her mind were turning. Her face relaxed as thought she realized something. An epiphany had come to her at that moment, it seemed. Her face was downtrodden the rest of the day. She spoke very little the rest of the ride home. They both changed into their casual clothes. Hilde came out of her bedroom and saw Duo ready to dial Hannah's number. She walked over to him. She grabbed the receiver from his hand and placed it back on the cradle. He looked up in surprise. "Hilde? I thought you wanted me to reschedule that date with Hannah."
"I thought about it. It's selfish of me to make you do that. You haven't gone on a real date in a while. I think that it's better you go," she had a look of reassurance on her face.
"But, I thought..." he stopped. What's the use of trying to understand women and their fickleness? He looked at her with confusion. "...well if it's what you want, then I'll go out then."

The topic dropped. Friday night came and went. "How was it with Hannah last night?" asked Hilde as she poured some coffee into a mug.
"It was great. She liked some of the same things that I liked. She kept talking about... (basically all the stuff he likes). It was amazing. It was like she read my mind or something!" he said incredulously.
"Sounds like something good is happening with her. Are you going out again?" Little did he realize, Hilde had been 'coaching' Hannah about what conversations with Duo were like. Hannah had a huge crush on Duo from the beginning. Hilde wanted to make the two of them happy. So she stayed the silent matchmaker.
"Yeah. It's funny. She knows so much. It's like she's known me forever. Like she's been in every conversation that I've ever been in. But I guess, maybe she's the one for me. What do you think Hil?"
Her back was turned to him. He didn't see the slight grimace she had on her face for a split second. She was irritated. "That Hannah must have done EVERYTHING I told her to do. God, he hasn't figured out that I molded her into my clone!" she thought to herself. She walked out of the kitchen. The door of kitchen faced directly in front of Duo's seat in the dining table. "Just one of those funny coincidences." She smiled good-naturedly.
"Yeah. I'm seeing her again."
"That's good."

And so the conversations went like that. For weeks, Hilde remained the submissive supporter, no longer the outspoken person she once was. A few people began to notice. Sally Po had become friends with her because she was pretty close with Duo.
"Hilde?" asked Sally.
"Yeah?" asked Hilde, disinterestedly.
"What is wrong with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you don't eat with Duo anymore. He eats with Hannah, and you don't join them. Is there something wrong?" Sally asked with concern.
Hilde wasn't sure if she should really say. She was afraid Sally might end up telling Duo and then... and then... God knows what could happen. "Sally, how do you feel about Wufei?"
Sally was a little stunned by the turn-around. She thought for a second. "I respect him as a fighter and as a Preventer agent. His attitude towards 'weak' people, however, leaves much to be desired. Why?"
"Well, don't you kinda feel like there's some kind of understanding between the two of you. I mean, you trust and respect each other. Yet it kind of goes deeper than that. You know?"
"You mean like how you and Duo are best friends?" asked Sally. Hilde nodded the affirmative. "Well, I suppose to a degree, but we aren't exactly like that. It mainly stays on the level of respect. Is there something wrong with you and Duo?"
"Well. It's just that when I found out he was going out on a date, I was happy for him. But then I found out that they met on Fridays..." she began.
"Isn't Friday your movie night?" asked Sally. After a moment, Sally slowly added things together and suspected something. "You feel left out don't you?"
"I mean... the thing is that, I've gotten the feeling that he needs to be someone else. I'm not his girlfriend or anything. I just feel like I'm stifling him. The fact he agreed to have their first date made things so much more clearly. It only proved things. I need to give him his freedom to move on. And so do I..."
"You don't mean, you'll leave..." Sally was getting really worried about her.
"Don't you get it Sal? I just want him to be happy. He's happy with her. He talks about her. He loves her now. She's everything he could ever want in a..." she stopped short.
Sally only shook her head. "God! Hilde, don't you notice when they get into some of those really good conversations? Doesn't she sound like someone familiar?" Sally had noticed how Hilde-like that Hannah had become in a short manner of weeks.
"What about it?" asked Hilde.
"He only thinks he's in love with her. She's exactly like you! Don't you get it? It's you he really loves. He's just such a complete idiot, he doesn't realize it. And you're getting to be an idiot too!" Sally simply had to spell it out.
"You have GOT to be kidding me. Him love ME? Get real Sal. She's prettier than me, more cultured than me..."
"And more Hilde-like than you?" Hilde simply stared at Sally. "Face it. He loves you, and you are just giving up on everything you have with him. Why is that? It's not like you to give up your friendship with Duo, so easily." Sally was four years her senior and she had more experience at life's bumpy roads.
"It's just that things are still great between me and Duo..."
"But?"
"...but it just doesn't seem to going anywhere you know? It's like we've given everything we have into this relationship of ours. It's grown to it's fullest, and now it's the time that it dies," she said sadly.
"So what are you going to do?" Sally asked.
"The only thing I can do. I'm going to leave. We both need the time to settle things. He needs some time with Hannah without me. And I need to see if there really is more for us, you know. I want to find out for myself whether there is more to us. It's the best thing I can do for him, and for me."
"Are you really sure that is the right thing?"
"Is it a bad idea?"
"I won't say it is. It's not my place. But if you really believe that it is what you must do, then I can't stop you. No matter how hard I try, your heart will decide every thing. No words can persuade it," said Sally.

Trowa began to notice something off in the air. As well as did Quatre and Wufei. Something was wrong with Hilde and Duo. They couldn't quite explain until they noticed the serious looks on Hilde and Sally's faces that day in the Preventer's cafeteria. Wufei and the other two knew exactly who to interrogate about this whole business. It was after work hours at the headquarters. "Sally?" called Quatre.
Sally looked up from her desk. She was packing up as she saw three young men walking to her. She had a feeling that they found out about her conversation with Hilde. "Yes?" She acted like she suspected nothing.
"Get off it woman. We know you know, that we know."
"Huh?" started Duo. He had been walking by at that opportune moment. He had just come from the copying machine that was just a few feet from Sally's desk.
"That's what we'd like to know," asked Quatre and Trowa who were just as confused at what Wufei was saying as Duo was.
Sally had that way of understand Wufei pretty well. "How could I fool you? I suppose I should have asked myself when you were going to confront me?"
"About what? What the heck is going on?" shouted Duo in complete confusion.
"Simple Maxwell," Wufei spoke since the other two were still trying to figure out that strange dialogue before. "We're here to find out from Sally the deal between you and Hilde."
Duo stared incredulously at the three pilots. "What? You have GOT to be kidding me? There's nothing wrong between me and Hilde!" He suddenly looked at Sally. She had a worried look on her face with a hint of guilt. The kind of guilt that you get when you know a deep secret that could affect someone's life. "What? What's wrong? And damn it why don't I know something is wrong between me and Hilde???" he shouted again.
"Shut up, Maxwell." Wufei gave him a death glare. Duo hushed up submissively. Quatre and Trowa were just as quiet eager to know.
"I just can't say it. Hilde is determined about what she told me. I've been trying to decide whether I should tell you Duo. I mean... you have the right to know. I think that you should cancel your dinner date with Hannah tonight. I think you should go home," was all Sally would say.
"Why? Hilde is working over time... isn't she? That's what she said..." Duo looked VERY worried now.
"Hilde gave this to me, an hour ago." He handed Duo a letter. The other pilots were eager to know the adventure of their friend and spied over his shoulders.

Dear Sally,
Just wanted to leave you this note. I've decided to go through with it tonight. I told Duo that I'm staying late so that he can enjoy tonight. I don't want to ruin it. He'd only try to stop me. I just want to say that I'll miss our lunchtime talks, and those phone calls at those slow workdays. I'll miss the other boys, so say good-bye to them for me. I left a letter at Miss Noin's desk. I'll be home, and I'm not going to be around any longer. Bye Sally...


Hilde

Duo stared at Sally. "Why didn't you tell me??"
"I shouldn't have to tell you anything at all Duo. It should have been Hilde. Well, I'm making her talk. You better get home, before you lose the chance to say good-bye to her," was all that Sally said. Duo raced down the hallway to the elevator. In less than five minutes, he got into his car and raced to their apartment.
"You should have warned him about Hilde killing herself, woman!" Wufei yelled.
"Suicide? I never said anything about suicide."
"Then what is she going to do Sally?" asked Trowa.
"She's running away from home. She left a letter thanking Miss Noin for giving her a last minute reassignment."
"Do you know where she's going?" asked Quatre.
"I'm sorry. She wouldn't tell me. Only Miss Noin and Hilde know. Miss Noin knows that it is against regulations for anyone below her rank to know the whereabouts of agents."

Duo raced his car and narrowly avoided speeding tickets. He could see a cab waiting outside their building. And a few seconds later, Hilde emerged from the lobby with three suitcase, including a shoulder bag. He parked the car and raced to her side. "Hilde?"
"Duo?" she looked shocked and frightened to see him.
"God! Hilde what are you doing?"
"Packing my things. I'm being reassigned," she said.
"That's a lie. If you are being reassigned, it's because you asked for it. Why damn it?"
"Sally? I kinda knew she'd find a way to tell you without actually saying it. I suppose I should have gotten the courage to say it myself. Duo, things between us aren't working out too well. I'm glad you have Hannah. You'll miss me less." She started to get into the cab.
Duo grabbed onto her arm. "You can't do this. I won't let you. How can you just pack up and leave me? Hilde, I thought you could trust me." He looked angry, hurt, sad, depressed, and heartbroken all thrown into one.
She lightly touched his cheek with her free hand. "Of course Duo. But to be quite frank, I think we need to get separate lives. We'll be happier. Life with each other has become stifling. You just haven't noticed because you have Hannah to make the problems less noticeable. Quite frankly, I'm getting bored with us!" she said bluntly.
He looked even more hurt than before. "Fine! If you are so bored, then go leave. If that's how you feel than GOOD-BYE!" he shouted.
She continued into the cab and slammed the door shut. The cab immediately drove away. She drove away from his life. And she ran away from him.

And so that was how she had left things. A week after she arrived at the Pluto Research Labs, she turned 16. She wondered often about how everyone was, especially Duo. Perhaps he was still angry. Perhaps, he moved on as she hoped. Her assignment was temporary. She was simply there as supervising security expert for the top secret scientific departments at the Pluto Research labs. They were working on advanced technology that could be reformatted to cause chaos and she was there to make sure that they were well guarded. They changed agents every quarter-year, and she was returning to Earth for reassignment. She called Sally two days earlier and they set up a dinner date.
She arrived at Laramie's Bar & Grill at 7:30 sharp. Sally was already there waiting. "Hey!" waved Sally to Hilde.
"Hi," she smiled warmly.
"Glad you've made it back home."
"Just for a couple of days. Then I'll be on the road again."
"How long are you going to be like this?"
"Maybe forever."
"Hilde." Sally gave her a serious look. "You can't do this for long. Wandering will only add to the loneliness. Besides, you need to stop and settle down eventually."
"I've become content with life as it is. I just don't feel so good being in one place anymore. I've felt like I lost a part of myself, and I'm just trying to find it again. This wandering is what I need."
"If you say so." They ate and talked away about work. Quatre was going to be the newest investor of the Pleiades Corporation, the owners of the labs that Hilde was assigned at. Trowa was seeing a girl that he met when he visited Catherine a few weeks after Hilde left. Wufei and Sally had a better relationship and were seeing each other. Relena was her usual self. Zechs and Noin were also their usual selves. Heero was still nowhere to be found. And Duo...
"How is Duo?"
"Well, he's still dating Hannah, but things aren't going too good. They get along, but there's no great chemistry like last year. It's fizzling, I guess you could say," Sally smiled amusingly as though she knew it would.
"Even my replacement couldn't make it work with Duo," Hilde had to smile too.
"How do you feel about him, now?"
Hilde was on the brink of tears. Those quiet lonely nights were catching up with her. Those feelings of being lost, and hopelessly sad that she tried to block out, had finally knocked down the wall. She began crying. "Oh God! How could have been such an idiot?"
"What's wrong?" asked Sally as she tried to comfort her friend.
"I just can't take it anymore. Just being on Earth is killing me. I wanna leave again. I don't want to be reminded of my regrets. Can't you see I have nothing on Earth to return to? I belong on the colonies, back in outer space. What do I have that's so wonderful?"
It seemed funny that it had begun to rain. "I just don't think that you have to regret anything. As long as you think it's really the right thing. But, you can't take back what you did in the past. That is the sad truth." Sally lifted Hilde's face up to look at her. "My poor Hilde. You have no clue what to do. As much as I can, I'd like to help you. But even I can't help you fix things and make things better. Being your soundboard is the best I can do. The only thing I can say is that somehow, we survive. We will rise from the ashes and build things all over again. Some how you will find your way. I believe that."
Hilde had stopped crying and looked at her friend. "Thank you, Sally. I'm glad you still believe in me." She went over to hug her friend.
"You're welcome, Hilde." They were there together until 8:45. "Hilde? You don't have an umbrella."
"That's alright Sally. I was going to stay here for a little while. I'll just leave when it lightens up."
"Alright. Call me later."
"Of course. Bye." Sally left opening a large umbrella.
Hilde just sat there. She ordered a large pot of herbal tea. There was something about drinking herbal tea on a rainy day that made the rain seem less dreary. The rain became something kind of musical, almost a beautiful miracle. Almost better than any sunset, or more comforting than a soft quilt on your bed. It was like listening to a song, slow, melancholy, and beautiful at the same time. She paid the bill and was just sitting there enjoying her tea.
She just stared into the air. Just thinking and listening to how nice the rain really was. Just then her mind wandered back to the restaurant as she heard two familiar voices. She didn't want Duo or Hannah to see her. She made no noise and made herself inconspicuous. She sat at a table in the middle section towards the front. But they were walking from the opposite side of the street and they sat five tables behind her. She had squatted into the booth where they couldn't see her. She finished her tea and heard their laughter. Other people's happiness was making her sick. She gathered her things and said good-bye to Larry, the manager. She walked past the front window.

"I'm glad you understand that this isn't working out between us," Duo said.
"Of course, Duo. I think it is best that we just stay co-workers, nothing more. But it was lovely while it lasted. To think I had Hilde to thank for this lovely year with you."
"Hilde? What does Hilde have to do with this?" he asked with a mixture of excitement and slight bitterness about Hilde leaving those many months ago.
"I'm sorry to bring that up." Hannah realized how upset she had made him.
He looked at her repentant face. "I'm sorry. I wanna know how exactly Hilde fits into all this."
"Well, it was back on our first date. I didn't know what sort of conversation you liked to talk about. So she told me about all those lively conversations you used to have with her. You know those conversations you would have when it was raining. She said she'd make a pot of hot tea. Then you'd drink some with her and watch the rain together. Like music she said it was. It was the most beautiful moments in her life. Not just how lovely the rain was, but most of all that she was sharing the moment with you," Hannah replied.
Duo was thinking and absorbing everything Hannah was saying. He realized that he shouldn't have been angry with her. He should have been angry with himself. "God, Hilde gave up a lot, just for me?" Just like that time she was almost killed when she stole information from the Libra to help him and the other pilots the way to defeat the White Fang. But she didn't something even greater. She gave up her happiness. It finally occurred to him why he liked Hannah so much. She was just like Hilde. The same pretty, loving, self-sacrificing, brave, pretty... It also occurred to him at how beautiful her
eyes look when she was deep in thought. They twinkled as she daydreamed of who knows what. That smile she had when he made her happy. The giggles when she laughed at one of his antics. "I'm a fool, Hannah. I love Hilde. I've always loved Hilde, but I never treated her like I loved her. I only treated like she's one of the guys." He began laughing at himself.
Hannah had to laugh too. "Oh my poor Duo. You will still be the lost Duo."
Just then, Duo noticed that Larry was taking way a pot of herbal tea away from a nearby table. Just then he saw a young woman walk past the window. "Oh my God! Hilde!" he stood up as he saw her.
Hannah turned around to catch her walk by as well. She looked back at Duo just gawking. "Duo!" She snapped.
He looked at her. "Huh?"
"Don't just stand there. Go after her before she's gone forever."
Duo grabbed his umbrella and began opening it outside. It was then the rain poured harder. He turned but couldn't see her. "Damn, she couldn't have gotten that far!" He raced down the street to find her.

Hilde ran through the rain. She had to hurry to the hotel before she caught cold. She ran, but the rain poured harder and made things even more difficult for her. She had to stop. She stopped at the stoop of an apartment building that was five blocks from the restaurant. She caught her breath. She slid onto the stoop and sat with her legs stretched out. She was wearing pants as usual and casually sat there. After a few moments, she caught her breath and ran like the wind again. Her breathing was so heavy that she neglected to hear the shout of an old friend.
"Hilde!" He shouted even louder.
She promptly stopped and turned to see Duo racing up to her with a large, black umbrella. "Duo?" she asked very quietly even for her. She was breathing hard from the sudden stop. He soon held the umbrella over her. Everything started to spin as she tried to catch her breath. She stumbled forward a little. Duo promptly steadied her back on her feet. "Sorry," she said a little sheepishly.
"No, I'm sorry, Hil. I'm sorry for what I've done to you, kid." He looked straight at her.
"For what? What have you done to me that was so bad?" Her hair was soaking wet, but her wet bangs hung over her head in a very chic fashion.
"I drove you away. I made you run."
"No. I chose to run away. I wanted to think about things. I wanted you to think about things."
"Well it worked. I have to say that much. What about you?"
"It worked out better than I expected."
"How's that?"
"I think for the first time, I realized how messed up my life is," she said dejectedly.
"Don't say that." He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Don't say that. Your life hasn't been so bad."
"You're only saying that because you're a part of my life, and you wouldn't want me to say that you made it worse," she said teasingly.
"It's not that. I just don't want you to run away again. I don't want to lose my best friend again."
"I see that still hasn't change." She smiled at him.
"It never will." He hugged her fiercely. "I've missed you."
"I did too."
"I tried looking for you. I searched everywhere, but no such luck. Even Sally wouldn't dare say a word." He stared at her intently.
"I'm glad she didn't tell you. I wouldn't have been ready to take your appearance." She stumbled a little again.
Duo looked at her with concern. "What's wrong? You're never this sick before."
"I..." she fell into his arms again.
He felt her forehead. "God you're running a temperature. I have to get you some place dry." The rain had slowed to a light, trickling drizzle. He closed his umbrella and held her in his arms. He looked at her wet, pale face. "I'm taking you home." He was half hoping she heard him.

Hilde woke up a few hours later. She was aching all over. She saw that she was in her pajamas and was in her old bed at the apartment. She looked to see that it was the next day. She saw that her room was the way she left it. There wasn't even a piece of dust anywhere. She got out of bed and walked through the hallway to the kitchen. She saw that Duo was in his "No. 1 Cook" apron. He turned and stared at her with surprise. "You shouldn't be out of bed. You'll get dizzy again."
"I'll be fine Duo." She yawned and stretched a little. "How'd I get back here?"
"I took you back to the restaurant. Hannah took her car to your hotel to get your things. I got a cab and took you here. The doctor prescribed some pills for you to take. Hannah changed you in case you're wondering..."
Hilde looked at her pajamas again. "Yeah. I was gonna ask..." She started to blush a little at the idea of Duo seeing her naked, but then something about it wasn't so terrible, she began to think.
"You ready for bacon and eggs?"
"Definitely." She had a smile on her face.
They both walked to the dining table. They settled down to a nice breakfast. "So how are you and Hannah?" she asked casually.
"We broke up a few days ago."
"What?" she looked in surprise. "After all that I did..." she stopped herself.
Duo looked up at her. "That's alright. Hannah told me about all that stuff you did to get us together."
"I see." Hilde ate quietly.
"How was Pluto?"
"It was nice. I guess you did find out about where I went."
"Actually, you had those final reports in your suitcase. I had to take a look. That was some job you had."
"I know. It was tedious and very dangerous at the same time. But I was all right with it. It kept me busy."
They ate for another ten minutes in silence. Finally, Duo stopped and looked at Hilde intently. "I've been dying to say this to you since that day you left. I've been hoping for the day when you would return. And when I saw you last night, and you fainted..." he started. After a split second he continued, "I just had to tell you something. You got sick, and I found myself scared... for you."
Hilde looked at him with shimmery eyes like tears yet to shed. "You did?"
"Of course, Hil. How I could help it? It was like seeing you battered up from the Libra all over again..." He stopped at that bad memory. "Look what I'm trying to say is that. I've been a complete idiot! How could I look for any other girl to hang out with, when there is you."
Hilde had a touched look on her face. "Oh, Duo. I have no idea what to say."
"I just think that we have a great thing together. Well... that is..." He had a frustrated. "Oh listen to me! Being all wishy-washy in front of someone that I could always talk to so easily. I guess that's what love does to people, huh?"
Hilde had an absolutely shocked looked on her face. She gulped air down her throat. "Did you um, say um, love?"
"Yeah." He reached over to hold her hands. She reached out to meet his hands. "It's just that, when I thought of you and everything we've gone through together, I thought to myself. It's like you're my other self. The other half of me that knows me so well. The part of me that is always with me, and if it ever goes away, I'll die. I just can't live without you around, like I can't live without a heart, or any other organ inside of me."
Hilde couldn't believe she was hearing what she was hearing. "OH Duo. I had no idea. I just hoped that one day, someone would say it to me."
"You did?" He looked at her intently again.
"I'm glad it was from you."
"Good. You'll be hearing it for a long time."
"I'd guess as much."
They both leaned over towards each other. They kept staring at each other until their noses touched each other lightly. Duo leaned his head a little so he could touch his lips against hers. She was happy with that sensation. She lightly pressed her lips harder against his. They touched noses and foreheads. Smiles curled their lips, and slight giggles emerged from the two of them. "Some things will never change," she said.
"Yeah, but there are some changes that are pretty good." He looked at her face again. He lightly brushed her bangs, and kissed her again.

Author's Note:
Hope you like this story about Duo and Hilde. Sorry to any possible Yaoi fans that may have for some reason read this. Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this story. It got a little sappy, and had that romantic-comedy plot twist in it. I know, it's a bit much, but I'm such a hopeless romantic at heart. What can I say?

Onto Chapter 6!