freedom

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Freedom Wars: First Tremors

by The Jackal

Duo Maxwell, ex-Gundam Pilot, ex-Shinigami, and ex-Preventor, straightened his tie. He used to hate this going to fancy parties, seeing snobby people, dancing to slow and boring music. It always made him itchy; afterwards, he felt like going on some wild road trip to scrape off all the sophistication that may have stuck to him. The jeweled ladies and suited men wearied him, and they still did; though now he had a remedy to help him to endure it all.

"Duo! You spend more time in the bathroom than I do!" called Hilde from downstairs.

Duo smiled. Hilde was the only reason he did not spend the entire get-together in a dazed stupor. His wife was the only person there as far as he was concerned and he always treated formal partiees as dates---even if it did mean a little more time touching up.

Duo walked down the stairs and allowed himself to reveal all the awe he felt for Hilde's complete transformation. Though she was rarely seen in anything but a T-shirt and jeans, Hilde now wore her straight spiky hair in elegant curls with a youthful bow in the back that held her pony tail that Duo insisted she grow. It trailed down the bare back of her evening gown: an embroidered green silk dress that hugged her upper body and waist and let out into a flowing skirt that was pefect for dancing. Duo bowed.

"My lady, you look fabulous!"

She took the are he offed her and they both strolled out into the night.


The party was for Relena's tenth year as the world's leader. She was dressed in a festive red with Heero by her side. They stood observing the guests as they arrived.

"Oh look! There's governor Tracy with his wife. I have to think of talking with her about the environmental research she was thinking about funding. I've got a funny feeling about their connections." She looked up at her stoic husband, "At least, he decided to wear something different today."

Heero cast a bored look at the governor, "There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing. Besides, you look good enough for the both of us."

Relena could not help but give way. "All right, then, I"ll let you off this time since this party is just one of many. However, after this we're going shopping."

"Hn." Heero scowled. He hated shopping.

Relena squealed, throwing Heero's attention to the two guests that now entered the room. Hilde and Dro strolled in, each looking proud enough to have been the guests of honor. Duo's Armani and Hilde's gown attracted admiring looks from all over the room and everyone noticed the slight lull in conversation. The couple strolled across the room toward Heero and Relena, nodding to people they knew and noting people they did not, marking them down for introductions later.

Duo bowed to the ruling couple, "Heero, Relena, congratulations on a decade well done."

Relena could not help but smile, "Thank you for coming. You look wonderful! Perhaps you could come with Heero and I when we go shopping!"

Duo gave Heero a sympathetic look, "I'm afraid we'll have to decline that offer out of respect for our friend."

Heero smirked at Duo's mannerisms, "How many 18th century movies did you watch, Duo?"

Duo broke out into his ear-to-ear grin, "Seventeen! Can you believe it?"

Heero smiled, "I almost didn't recognize you. Come on, let's leave the ladies to talk. We need to fill each other in."

They walked to one of the nearby tables, chatting about how long it was and asking if either of them had heard from friends and acquaintances that they had accumulated over the past ten years since they had returned as heroes from the war. Heero was happy to hear that Duo's business had gotten a grant from the International Conservancy and Enviromental Health Association. It was for excellence in recycling and reusing. Duo smiled at Heero's congatulations.

"I was really surprised," he admitted, I mean, who would have thought that my little business could gain that sort of recognition?"

Heero hid a smirk behind his wine glass. Duo's business was hardly little. It had grown from a few facilties on a one or two colonies to thirty large scale factories on some of the larger colonies and earth and weekly pickups of old titanium suits from mines. Quatre took full advantage of his services and never quit bragging about the time and money saving advantages of Duo's products. He was part of the reason Duo's business had grown so quickly. The losses to Quatre's business during the war were astronomical despite his sisters careful handling and Quatre pretty much depended on Duo's cheap but well-made mining suits to get it back on its feet. Quatre's success story was the perfect sales pitch and soon Duo was the one frnding research projects on alloy salvaging and recycling. He even had his own experiment college close by the headquaters in the L2 colony.

Heero was about to restart conversation when he noticed that Duo's attention was focused on Hilde who was making rounds at the various tables. She laughed and his eyes sparkled.

"Still on the honeymoon, hm?"

Duo jumped then blushed, "Yeah, I guess. She never ceases to amaze me."

Wufei appeared, not early but not late and the other guests filed in on each other's heels. The waither took that as the signal to begin serving the meals and Duo led Hilde to their reserved table near the podium. Hilde ordered an exotic sounding Tiki Tequila while Duo ordered the shrimp salad with sauteed clams and a French roll with white wine. For some reason, fish did not keep well in space flight and Duo jumped at the chance to get good seafood whenever it was offered. While they waited, the lights dimmed and Relena stoo on the podium to give a short but poignant speech about the reign of peace and how every person in the room contributed to it. Duo flicked his hand slightly.

"Just like Relena. Stealing the crowd then thanking the fans. I think Heero's going to bust his buttons with pride. Yeu know, I kind of think that he's almost grown into the father she never had despite being her husband."

Hilde nodded, "I wonder where Milliardo is."

Duo looked at her, "He's not here?"

Hilde smirked, "No, he isn't and Relena dodged the question when I asked."

Duo sighed, "I hope it's not that jealousy bit he had before Relena's wedding."

Hilde tossed her head in a way that totally distracted Duo, "I doubt it. He's not the type to hold such a silly grudge." She met his eyes and blushed, "Duo don't look at me like that in public," she whispered.

Duo let a smile creep onto his lips, "Look at you like what?"

Much to Hilde's relief, Relena finished her speech and Duo was forced to yank his eyes from Hilde to applaud. He made himself a promise to occupy her for dances this night. She looked to good to share.

The food was absolutely delicious. Duo had to refrain from seconds since supply was unexpectedly short ("Bad transport," the waiter huffily explained.") but he made short work of desserts that were as beautiful as they were scrumptious. He spoke to Wufei and Sally. Sally was stunning in an infamous little black dress and Wufei's old-fashioned double-breasted suit made him look the part as a wealthy Chinese man. Duo caught Hilde and Sally disappearing into the ladies room in deep converstion, whispering and giggling like children. He wondered; Hilde and Sally had not been the closest of companions but he was happy if she was.

While the apple of his eye was out of sight, Duo mingled aimlessly with the relatively boring crowd, keeping an eagle-eye on the door of the lady's room to wait for her to return. So he did not see Quatre until he caught his arm.

"You look lost," he said with a knowing smile.

"I'm waiting for the life of the party to come out of hiding," Duo sighed, mournfully.

"Well, in the meantime you can listen to a conversation where polite disinterest is acceptable." Quatre led him over to a table were some of the CEO's of companies under his sponsorship sat. They greeted with flourishes and compliments which Quatre ignored. After sitting, Duo let his eyes wander and they found Dorothy who wore an immaculate white that stood out from the crowd. She was far from the quiet, secluded girl he remembered. Time treated her to a mature feel and stature. Quatre had softened those snapping lavender eyes, and there was certainly more autheticity in her smile. Duo could not help but grin. She plucked her eyebrows for the party.

Just then a voice that seemed to cut through the meaningless noise around him! Hilde emerged from the restroom just as they started to play dance music and people around began pairing off. Mumbling courtesies no one could hear, Duo made a bee-line for his sweetie.

Relena and Heero, along with others at the party danced a beautiful waltz but it was as if the world had faded into the background and no one else was dancing accept for them. Duo looked in to his wife's eyes and noticed something he remembed seeing a long time ago.

"You have a secret," he whispered, pulling her closer.

She wrapped a hand around his neck, "I'll tell you later."

They whirled around with the music. Duo had grown onto Hilde until she was sure that this was definitely one of those relationships where one could not live with out the other. Even in her subconciousness, she felt that Duo was there, guiding her thoughts making her laugh by knowing exactly what to say. She loved him as she loved herself, even more than she loved herself. She would give her life for Duo without a moment's reflection, but then again it had always been that way. She smiled and Duo smiled back.

The music ended with a violin's flourish and the dancers filed off the floor. They then began to play a fox-trot. Heero snuck up behind Hilde and took her hand.

"Excuse me, Duo but I believe I'll have to borrow her for the fox-trot."

Duo gave her a mock frown, "Okay, but I'll need a fifty dollar deposit."

Hilde pouted, "I'm just worth a lousy fifty bucks?"

Duo brushed a stray hair from her face, "That's just if you r necklace gets knocked out of place."

Hilde smiled, gratified, "Okay, Duo. See you next dance!"

Heero led Hilde on to the dance floor. "He is entirely too jealous of you."

"Duo's perfect"

Heero smiled. She was going to be watching Duo for the entire dance.

When the dance was well on its way, Heero managed to lead Hilde into the thicker part of the group, making it harder for people to see them. Surprised, Hilde winked, "You're not going to be naughty are you?"

Her humor disappeared at Heero's serious expression, "You were wondering where Milliardo was." It was not a question. "What is it?" asked Hilde, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice. When Heero looked at her like that, it felt like someone lid an ice cube down her dress. Heero's eyes narrowed slightly, 'I figured Duo wouldn't tell you," before Hilde could snap, he continued, "Several months ago, strange activity was going on in the L2-A3 islet. At first, we thought it was a mere rash of isolated criminal activity," when Heero said we he usually meant his league of detectives which was not that bad. Hilde relaxed slightly, "But that's when I noticed that the islet was slowly drifting away from the colony. I called Duo to check it out but he was confident...way too confident." Hilde had a sinking feeling. Was peace softening her husband? She had never thought that Duo would miss anything that big. Heero read her thoughts, "Don't worry, Duo's a busy guy and besides someone else was supposed to take care of these things. But lately the colony had been lax in replying to letters sent. Many of the responsible and trustworthy people in the islet were sent off on...abortive trips." Hilde bit back a gasp. She had noticed some absences in this party that were conspicuous. Heero tightedned his arm around her in sympathy. "Recently, the islet sped up its slow drift to a steady clip and cut off every communication with the earth and L2. Milliatdo is chasing them as we speak." Hilde looked up at Heero whose eyes were probably off on themission as well. He redirected his attention to her, "Make sure Duo knows. He'll react this time. This smells suspiciously like rebellion. L2 might need Duo's services."

Hilde stiffened, "No! No more fighting..."

Heero stroked her back, "That's not what I meant. Mobile suits, Hilde."

Hilde relaxed feeling foolish for jumping to the conclusion that Duo would fight again. She felt that their life had just begun and she was not about to let Duo walk out that door without her. The dance ended and Hilde felt exhausted from the news. Duo looked at her with slight concern, then at Heero with growing suspicion but before he could speak, Heero disappeared.

"Are you all right?" he asked after she ordered a fruit punch.

She gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile, "Fox-trot is harder than it looks." She turned away and watched the other dancers.

Duo was uneasy for the rest of the night. He knew that something was bothering Hilde but she tried so hard to hide it so he pretended that he did not notice. He had no such scruples about Heero though. He tried to corner him into a private conversation but since he was the host of the party, it was impossible. He sat down at a table and glared. He would take Heero up on that fifty dollar deposit thing.

"What's wrong?

Duo jumped and turned, "Man, Trowa! I've heard cats louder than you!"

Trowa blended in in the shadow of a dimly lit corner of the room. Being the only bachelor in his circle of friends and seemingly determined to stay that way, Trowa tended to stick to his aloof nature and only speak when spoken to. Secretly, Duo was surprised that Trowa even showed up.

Trowa cocked an eye at him. He had not forgotten his original question. Duo sighed and picked at the tablecloth. "Hilde's hiding something from me. At first, I thought it was a good secret, but then I let Heero dance with her and she comes back all shaken up with some silly excuse that she was tired from the fox-trot. To tell you the truth, I was suspicious of Heero at first, I couldn't see them for some of the dance. But Hilde would never let Heero try and trick into something like that," Trowa raised an eyebrow and Duo jumped again, "Not that Heero would try!"

Trowa allowed himself a smile and Duo was glad the darkness hid his blush. "Well, she does look lovely tonight."

Duo leaned back, "You didn't come here to check out girls, Trowa. Why'd you come?"

"Why not? The tenth anniversary of the success of peace...our sucess."

Duo sighed and watched Hilde at a table of older women. This just was not his night. "I'm sure Hilde will tell you everything after the party. You two are very close. She's trying hard to be pleasant so you can at least help her out."

"Maybe Heero told her where Milliardo was..."

Duo did not miss Trowa's slight intake of breath but he pretended he didn't hear it. Could that be it? Was Milliard in some sort of trouble? Whatever it was Heero and Trowa were not talking. Duo stretched his legs under the table and called for the waiter. He orderd a sharpbrandy to help him relax and enjoy the night; Hilde would tell him what was wrong and chances are Milliardo was fine; he was just way too uptight.

Part two: Hilde breaks the news as a last resort to Duo to help save their relationship which unexpectedly dissolves. Little does she know, more is saved than just her love life.
Freedom War 2: First Wave