A/N: Just so you know, chapters that actually have the subtitle "Dear Heero…" will generally be shorter than other chapters.

Chapter 6

Dear Heero…

"You have letters from the provincial capital, Your Grace."

Heero tensed briefly, looking over at the opening of his tent where the messenger waited. The young man flinched at the sight of his eyes, passing over his burden to Trowa and beating a hasty retreat once the commander excused him.

"It's because you were glaring, Your Grace," Quatre explained candidly, understanding Heero's confused expression over the messenger's harried exit.

Heero frowned. "I wasn't glaring," he muttered. I think.

Quatre made a noncommittal noise that was both supportive and dismissive. Sometimes Heero hated his friends.

"It's from Howard," Trowa spoke up, dropping the letters on Heero's desk. "And the Duchess."

Gah.

"You're glaring again."

"Shut up, Quatre."

Procrastinating with Howard's letter first, Heero scanned the contents once. Then twice. Then a third time, just to be sure, but when the information didn't change – Heero stood from his seat, moving to the back of the tent where he kept his previous letters from Howard stashed.

"Bad news?" Trowa asked.

"They reorganized the provincial budget," Heero stated. "Under orders of the Duchess."

"They what?" Wufei hissed in outrage.

Pulling out the last few letters from Howard that detailed the cash flow of the estate and the duchy, Heero returned to his desk to run the numbers. It wasn't long – he'd been crunching these numbers since he was 15 and there hadn't been much change – but the result he got was surprising.

To be sure, he passed it to Quatre to look over.

"…he reduced his own allowance?" was Quatre's verdict, sounding as confused as Heero felt.

"He separated the amount needed to pay the capital tax," Heero explained. "Then allocated the leftover funds to the Yuy dukedom or provincial development."

The 'Yuy dukedom' looked to be an account for maintenance of the Yuy estate and the personal wealth of the Yuy family. They had their hands in some businesses both in and out of the province, so these funds were sent to this account.

The 'provincial development' account was more surprising; it was funded by the taxes collected from the Yuy fief, but seemed to be reserved exclusively for the fief itself. There were budgeting reports – Howard had kindly boiled them down to simple stats – for infrastructure support (roads that were cleared and maintained to ease travel between cities and towns), development of human services (clinics in areas of high-need being built), and economic development (this was much more vague, but Howard had written something about a "steam engine"?).

The personal allowance of the Duchess had also been vastly reduced, back to its original number when they had first been married.

"Oh, this is really well-organized," Quatre gasped, looking over Howard's more detailed accounting of the provincial budget. "The Duchess did this?"

Heero moved on to the second page of Howard's letter. "That's what Howard implied," he said. The others traded disbelieving glances; Heero whole-heartedly agreed. He couldn't see Duo sitting down long enough to even read the full account of the provincial budget, much less reform it.

"It looks like he went on a trip around the province too," Heero read aloud.

Trowa stared at him, gaze coolly assessing. "To meet another of his lovers?"

Heero scowled, but the expression smoothed out as he continued reading. "No, one is in the Farrell province, the other is visiting the Capital," he replied. Just because Duo made no effort to hide his affairs didn't mean Heero had to acknowledge them, but he at least kept track of the people his husband cheated on him with, just in case. He didn't want them conspiring to assassinate him (or even Duo) for their greed; love had never been a part of any of Duo's relationships, with either his husband or his lovers.

Sometimes Heero wondered if Duo could even feel love.

"He visited Taketoyo… Sawara… and Aoba-ku?"

"Taketoyo would be nice to visit," Trowa mused. "But Sawara is a farming village and Aoba-ku is in the mountains. Why would the Duchess go there?"

"Howard keeps mentioning something about a 'steam engine'," Heero said, looking over the expense report for the Taketoyo stay. Why was it so low?

"I've never heard of it," Wufei said, the other two nodded in agreement.

"Howard said they're brewing a new drink in Sawara," Heero reported. "The Duchess suggested it. Have any of you tried 'whiskey'?"

"Is His Grace just making things up now to waste money?" Wufei complained.

Howard even mentioned something about the invention of a new distillation process, but it was too vague that Heero could only surmise it was needed to make the 'whiskey' drink Duo had wanted. Maybe Wufei was right…

Heero stared at the section about Aoba-ku.

"…they found an iron mine in Aoba-ku," he stated aloud, incredulous. What the hell was Duo doing?

Quatre's eyes were still skimming the budget reports. "I wonder if the Duchess will allocate those resources to the 'provincial development' account…"

A section of the letter was written in thin, strict script – Hilde's writing. It looks like she'd been going around the province with Duo and her report on Aoba-ku was both straight-forward and startling. "Duo was attacked by bandits while hiking in Aoba-ku," he summarized.

"He was attacked?!"

"He was hiking?!"

"Hilde said…he was nearly beheaded when he got separated from the knights guarding him…" Clearly Heero would have to put them through more training. How did a frail dandy manage to elude his own guards?!

Trowa looked at the second letter, the one Heero had been avoiding. "Do you think he means to complain straight to you about it?"

At this point, Heero wasn't sure. Duo should have been asking for reparations one near-death experience ago.

"His knights rescued him and slayed the bandits, and Duo's made a fully recovery… But it seems he's the one who found the iron mine…" What was Duo doing hiking in the mountains to begin with?

Maybe his letter will explain more, Heero thought. Opening the letter from Duo, he felt a mix of relief and (bemusingly) disappointment when no pressed flowers fell out of the envelope. He opened to letter up, surprised to note he'd also lost the 'Dearest Husband' greeting too.

Dear Heero,

I hope you're doing well! I heard from Hilde that there is no Spring in Lagrange – only Winter and Summer. The more she talked about it, the hotter I felt, so I can only imagine how you're feeling. Please remember to drink lots of water and stay in the shade when you can.

Howard and Hilde were kind enough to (scratched out here was: let me out of the house organize) a small trip around the province for me. I got to see the beautiful sea from Taketoyo's port, enjoy the fresh food of Sawara, and feel the cool mountain breeze from Aoba-ku. It's been a very enjoyable trip so far, but we'll be on our way back to the Yuy estate soon because some people are a little paranoid.

There was a small incident in Aoba-ku, but it was nothing to worry about! I just got a few scratches, (scratched out here was: and if anyone says differently, it's because they're overprotective). But I think you'll be hearing some good news about it soon enough! We were lucky enough to stumble across it, so I'm hoping our citizens will take heart from this new discovery and search for even more.

All in all, everyone is doing well, and your people await your return very earnestly.

Stay safe.

Sincerely,

Duo

He didn't explain anything?!

A/N: I love that the boys' response to Duo for now is just "?!"

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