A/N: The most important note to go with this fic is quite simply this: This is NOT a Relena Duo fic. The pairings are as such: Relena Duo a hint at TrowaXQuatre. Thank you! .
"Thanks Duo," Relena Peacecraft sighed, "I'm sorry to be such a trouble."
"Nah, it's nice to have dinner with you once in a while, Princess," the braided gundam pilot grinned. He didn't lie; he did enjoy spending time with one of his closest friends, though it pained to see her as she now was. Sad, dejected, and still trying to hide the pain behind her diplomatic smile, her pacifist features.
"I'm glad, but- but I think I'm going to spend more nights in if that's alright." Relena looked away from Duo as the waiter brought the check. She took the check directly from the man before he could set it on the table.
"Princess-" Duo started, desperately wanting to be able to talk to his friend, at least long enough to make her smile or laugh.
"Duo," Relena surged to her feet check in hand, her face and voice were almost angry, "go back to your wife Duo! Go back to Hilde, I'm sure she misses you." Leaving Duo gaping at her Relena walked quickly to the counter to pay the bill and then out the door to climb into her limo, two security men following her as she went. The sight of the two new security guards made Duo inwardly curse; he knew whose fault it was that Relena was now so low, her spirits crushed and her smiles false masks.
"Yuy," he growled aloud before standing. Grabbing his Preventers jacket from the back of the chair as he pushed it back under the table. Swing the jacket around his shoulders he moved briskly through the restaurant to the front door. By the time he was out of the door Relena's limo had pulled away. She was gone, gone to cry alone Duo was sure. He made his way to the curb where he had left his bike.
He stared at the bike momentarily, at Relena's insistence, he always drove to the restaurant on his bike, and she always in her limo. They met at the table; she called it security, he called it cowering. But he couldn't blame her, and he sighed as his mind mulled over that thought and he climbed onto his bike.
He turned the key in the ignition and grasped the clutch, revving the bike. The sound of rubber on asphalt screeched on the street as Duo drove away from his rendezvous with the President. He hurried home to Hilde, the love of his life. Now that he no longer had his full attention on making Relena happy for the night, her comment about his wife worried him. Hilde swore she understood why Duo left so often, why he wasn't home to eat dinner with her anymore, why he sometimes didn't even come home after work, or left the scrap heap right after the day ended, not returning until late into the night. Hilde loved Relena too, Duo knew that, knew that she didn't want Relena to hurt like she did. But even as Hilde assured him that she was busy anyway, or that she wasn't in the mood for a big dinner, she had a look in her eyes that saddened Duo and cut him to the quick.
As the headlight illuminated the street that led to the junkyard, Duo changed gears in an attempt to quiet his bike. He turned from the main street to the small road that branched off in front of his and Hilde's livelihood and led to the right a short ways where a small three-bedroom house waited. The house was a simple, homely affair with a shingled roof, small square windows, and gardens, topped all off with a picket fence that matched tiny lace curtains in the kitchen windows. It was far from what Duo had ever imagined for himself, and just as far from the apartment the couple had shared for quite sometime. Until about a month ago, Hilde would ride with Duo on his motorcycle the fifteen-minute commute out to the scrap heap.
Quatre had discovered that they were slowly saving money to have a house built closer to their job; the rich Arabic prince had bought them the house. Less than a week later, the Shinagami and his girlfriend had packed their entire apartment, moved everything to the new house, and unpacked everything. On their first night into the house, Duo had proposed to Hilde, bent on one knee he reached for her hand and placed a ring n her hand over their fast meal of pizza and soda. Hilde had cried, the money Duo had saved for the occasion could only buy a simple silver band with a small diamond, Duo had picked it for the color of the diamond, which matched Hilde's eyes.
Hilde had said yes through her tears, making Duo the happiest man on Earth, or any of the colonies. That night, whilst sharing their double bed that rested on the floor for lack of an as yet constructed frame, Hilde and Duo simply enjoyed each other's company. They were close, but no intimate, simply holding and being held. A month later they were happily wed.
Their blissful euphoria only lasted until they were forced to leave their home to work one day, a week after their simple honeymoon; while Duo worked hard amongst the heaps of scrap metal, Hilde worked with customers, when she looked up for the next customer she gasped at the sight of Relena standing there, with no sign of security and tears running down her face.
"Here, take a seat Lena," Hilde comforted. After pushing her distraught friend into a chair and offering her a mug filled with water, Hilde rushed to the door and flipped the sign there. "Closed" would ward away any customers while Hilde cared for Relena. She then turned from the door and raced back to Relena. Patting her on the shoulder in a comforting gesture, Hilde reached for the phone with her other hand. She called Duo's phone and hoped desperately that he still had it on him.
"Yeah," Duo's cheery voice answered.
"Duo!" Hilde blurted in her relief.
"Hey babe," Duo smiled on his end of the line, pausing in his work and sliding down the large piece of sheet metal he had been standing on. "Did you need something?"
"Yes! Relena's here. Duo, she's- I don't know why she's like this! Just get down to the office please," Hilde hung up the phone to turn her full attention to her closest female friend. "Relena, Relena what's wrong?" Hilde asked anxiously.
Out in the junkyard Duo quickly pocketed his phone and broke off at a run back to the office where his wife waited with his friend. He had no idea what was wrong with Relena, but the anxiety and worry in Hilde's voice had planted and equally anxious seed of worry in the young Americans stomach.
When Duo made it back to the office he found his wife cradling Relena. The beautiful pacifist's shoulders were violently shaking with the sobs that wracked her body and seemed torn from her heart. Duo walked the rest of the way into the office and went to the two women. Hilde stood and Duo took over her place of holding Relena.
"What happened?" Duo asked, trying to soothe Relena, running his hand down her hair. "What happened Princess?" When Relena gave no sign that she had even heard Duos question he turned pained cobalt eyes to his wife. "
"Wha-" Duo started to ask to have his wife sadly cut him off with two words. Two words spoken so softly duo barely heard them.
"He left," Hilde nearly whispered, feeling tears well up in her own eyes and choke her with sympathy for her friend.
Duo nearly cursed and held Relena tighter. He and Hilde did all they could for her throughout the rest of the time she was there. She ended up taking a nap after her crying session in the office. By the time her nap was finished, Hilde had hardy soup made for her and Duo had called Trowa to escort her home. Relena was speaking at that point and thanked them for their hospitality before leaving silently with Trowa, rubbing tearstains from her face.
She later called Duo, a week after she last saw him, the day Heero had left. She demurely asked him to join her for dinner. Hilde had suggested Duo go alone, promising to wait up for him. The dinner had gone pleasantly enough, when Duo wasn't thinking of how much anguish Relena was hiding. When he returned home a sympathetic Hilde welcomed him ready to listen. After that night it had become more and more frequent of Relena to call. Hilde rarely went to dinner with the two of them and the few times she did, there was even more of an awkward air.
As Duo's bike turned into the driveway leading to the garage, he cut the engine, coasting to a stop. He climbed off the bike and let himself into the house. The lights in the front were turned off and as he made his way through the living room and into the hall leading to the bedrooms, he noted that all those lights were off as well. Hilde had not waited up for him. Duo walked into the guest bathroom, not wishing to wake Hilde with the sound of running water in the bathroom that was joined to their room. He brushed his teeth, took down his hair and combed the long locks. Emotionally and physically tired, Duo did not bother with re-braiding his long brown hair and simply tied it back in a loose ponytail before turning off the light in the bathroom and heading for the bedroom he shared with Hilde.
Quietly opening and then closing the door behind him, Duo moved into the room. He walked quietly to Hilde's side of the bed and looked down on her, watching her breath. Her hair was growing out, it curled around her ears and landed just below her shoulders now; Duo smiled softly as the love of his life moved in her sleep mumbling something he couldn't make out. Slinking across the floor to his side of the bed, he sat down to take his shoes of and throw them carefully into the corner. He stood again and unbuttoned his shirt and slacks. Removing his clothing he slipped under the covers in his boxers and turned to his wife's sleeping form.
Duo reached out for her soft warmth and pulled her into his embrace. In her sleep she turned to him out of habit and snuggled up to him, her head resting on his shoulder, his arm draped over her waist. Duo fell asleep with a small smile on his face, the comfort of his wife's embrace chasing away his worries for Relena and his fear of his wife's pain.
Relena stared blankly into the mirror she sat before. She didn't see the way her hair fell long and forgotten own her back, she didn't see her shoulders, thinner than they used to be, to the point that the straps to the nightgown she now wore constantly slid unhealthily down. She did not see eyes red with too many tears, or cheeks pale with too many sleepless nights.
No, Relena Peacecraft saw in her face a traitor, in her lips, ragged from being torn at by anxious teeth, a slut. She despised herself and what she felt she had become. A parasite, feeding from others, leeching away their rightful chance at happiness to feed her own petty greed and hunger.
He smiled so warmly at her, when his wife's name was not mentioned, she could almost pretend he held interest in her that stretched further than their friendship. The way he smiled, the way he talked, the way he hugged her each time they met, made he smile a little inside, made her feel wanted, made her feel loved, made her fell as though she had some worth.
Their meal was finished; Duo was rising to pay the check, but stopped when he felt Relena's hand on his arm. He looked down to her to see her face turned down, her teeth chewing at her lower lip.
"Princess?" he asked calmly, prompting her to look at him. She did, dropping her hand from his sleeve.
"I'll pay for that Duo," she gestured to the check. Duo only shook his head and left to walk to the cash register. He left Relena behind him staring at the table. Though it pained him to do so, he walked out of the restaurant after paying for their meals. It was what she insisted on, and he would conform to her requests.
At the table, all alone but for the empty cups and plates of food, eaten on Duos side, barely touched on hers, Relena wept. She had nearly asked him to stay with her. She was about to ask him to take her somewhere, so that she would not miss him, so that she could spend more time with him. Relena wept at the greed behind her actions. She kept him from his wife, her friend, too often as it was, to ask for more time, more time that he would give would have been horrible.
Relena stared at her reflection and her lip curled in hate at what she saw. Then her eyes filled with tears again and she stood up and turned away from her desk, flinging herself at the bed. She wept into her pillow, she cried out in self-loathing and asked forgiveness.
"God help me, I think I love Duo Maxwell."