Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Repast Series ❯ Rushed Tête-à-tête ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters.

Warnings/Genres: 1+2+1, H+? ficlet, Heero-POV, slight angstiness?

Beta-reader: sailor c. ryoko

Notes: This is pretty much written as if Heero would re-tell everything to someone. It wasn't supposed to be like that, but I am currently reading `Interview with the Vampire' and I guess it is passing on to me.

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Rushed Tête-à -tête (Part of the Repast Series) by Maaya

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I was not really sure about sharing a dinner with Hilde, and especially not in a fancy restaurant like the one we went to. She was mainly Duo's friend and not very close to any of us other pilots (or even any of the girls in the gang for that part either) and I am not one to talk to people unless I really know them well enough to have something to say.

It is not as if I didn't trust the girl or anything, but I couldn't remember saying anything to her, or hearing her say anything to me in the past. So frankly, it was like going out with a stranger. She could just as well have been the cashier in the drug-store nearest to Duo's and my place, or the old almost-neighbour two houses away I meet on the way to work every day but never ever spoke to.

You have to remember that this was only six months after the Mariemeia-war had ended and two months since Duo and I had gotten our relationship straightened out and decided to move in with each other. I was still pretty much quiet and a little in `soldier mode' as everyone calls it nowadays.

I had some problems with being out in large crowds again and was rather . . . twitchy about it. Duo would probably not have approved if he knew I was going out that evening to meet his friend because he worried a lot about me during that time. But he was away with some of his old sweeper friends and wouldn't come back until the next day, and would therefore not possibly ever find out about it.

I admit I was surprised and not very thrilled when Hilde called and asked me to meet her at `Rizzo's' ten o'clock, but since my conversation-skills weren't the best and Duo had recently given me a lecture on how I needed to stop being rude, I could not say no. And I had no excuse to do so either.

So I could just accept and get ready to leave.

Out of habit, I arrived exactly on time, only to find Hilde waiting for me at a table. She was dressed in a pair of wide, blue-violet pair of pants that looked good on her because they were wide enough to cover up the thinness of her legs, and a white blouse. She looked old enough to order a glass of wine without being forced to show an ID, but was sitting and fiddling with a glass half-full with water anyway.

The restless fiddling with the glass should alone probably have told me her mood, but I didn't realize what it was until she looked up and I saw her eyes. They were . . . nervous.

"Hey." She said, sitting up and smoothing out imaginary wrinkles from the front of her skirt.

Not knowing what else to answer, I said the same thing back to her, sliding down in the seat in front of her as I did. "Hey."

An uncomfortable pause followed as we stared at each other for a while. She opened her mouth a couple of times as if to say something, but closed it again quickly. The moment was finally broken when a waitress came up to me and asked if I wanted to order a drink. I declined and asked if I could order my meal immediately instead. Hilde did the same thing.

Then we were left alone again, but Hilde seemed to have gotten a little courage out of the short conversation with the waitress. She abandoned the glass and looked me straight in my eyes.

"I guess you have no idea why I asked you to come here." She said it like a statement, not a question. I shrugged to indicate for her to continue.

She did, looking very old as she began. "Well, it is mostly about Duo." Slight hesitation. "Nothing is wrong or anything, it's just that I . . . I wanted to . . ." She paused again before finally blurting, ". . to make sure everything was okay!"

I raised an eyebrow. There wasn't much else to do anyway.

"I mean, is he happy?" Hilde wondered, then added as on an afterthought. "Are you happy together?"

I took my time to answer, because I knew she wouldn't settle with a simple yes. She wanted facts and pure honesty. " . . I cannot answer for him, but I am as happy as he seems to be."

Nodding carefully, she looked a little reassured, but persisted anyway. "Just don't . . . hurt him, okay?" She bit her lip. "Or let him hurt you. Or whatever." Her face reddened. She obviously didn't know very much about mine and Duo's relationship or about how far we had taken it yet.

"I don't intend to." was my answer, which I hoped was calming enough. "Nothing in the world would make me want to hurt him."

A couple of seconds ticked by and became past for us, until I suddenly realized what was being shown in front of my eyes. A revelation . . . or, well . . . something.

"You love him." Strange emotions erupted in her face and changed it too many times to count; from sadness to shock to anger to love to jealousy to horror . . . up until it reached its final expression in form of faint defeat and a lot more. . . guilt?

"I do, but there's som--" She broke off and scowled. "I mean, I would never be able to love him the way he needs and-"

"There's someone else you like too, right?" This time *I* broke her off, having pretty much figured it out already. "And you want them both."

"You're too smart for your own good sometimes, Heero." She frowned, looking unhappy. Her demeanor had suddenly changed from nervous to irate. "Just take care of him for me, okay?" I nodded and watched as she stood up, once again brushing away imaginary wrinkles from her clothing. "I'm sorry, but I have to go."

And with that, she threw some money onto the table and disappeared out of the door. Seeing no meaning with staying and eating after that, I left too and began to walk home to wait for Duo to come back.

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The End

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Kind of a hasty ending, but Heero and Hilde didn't want to cooperate when I tried to make more conversation. =,= Well - mostly one-sided conversation but you know what I mean. I hope.

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