Happiness For A Soldier 2
I don't own Gundam Wing, okay?!
Quatre took Duo to the jewelry store in his hot looking red convertible. Duo stretched back with his hands behind his head. "You're a hell of a guy, Quatre."
"I'm also a tired guy," Quatre moaned. "Tell me again why we're doing this?"
"Heero's going to propose to Relena and we need to pick up a ring."
"And you're taking me? Why can't Heero do it himself?"
"Quatre, Heero's hurt and he doesn't want to leave the mansion. Besides, he's Relena's bodyguard."
Quatre groaned, "but why are you taking me? Why don't you bring Hilde?"
"Someone has to pay for it!"
Why is it that people keep pumping me for money? Why don't they just get a job! Quatre thought. "Okay," he pulled in. "I'll just wait here," Quatre leaned back, "wake me up when you're done." (He said that in Episode Zero!)
Duo jumped out and opened the driver's side. He slapped Quatre's face, "Quatre, come on!"
Quatre sighed and then followed him inside. Duo looked at all of the rings. He picked up one and tried it on his pinky, "What do you think of this one?" he twiddled his pinky and cupped his face.
"It's nice," Quatre commented tiredly.
"Think Hilde will like it?"
"I thought we were buying this for Relena." Quatre said.
"Oh, right. Well, I see how tired you are buddy, so I think this will do for Relena. It has her name all over it, don't you think?" he began to pull it off, "Uh-oh."
"What's wrong?" Quatre asked.
"It won't come off!" Duo freaked, he pulled harder.
"Try moving it side to side as you pull," Quatre suggested.
"I'm trying!"
Quatre sighed and then tried to pull it off too. "Gosh, Duo, what'd you do?"
"I was just trying it on!"
"Here, Duo," Quatre said, "you hold on to that bar while I pull back and you pull too, k?"
"Okay," he wrapped his hand around a nearby bar and pulled back, "ready, pull!"
Quatre clenched his teeth and started pulling.
"Don't rip my finger off!" Duo shouted, "I need that!"
"Shut up!" Quatre ordered, pulling back.
Everyone in the store look at them, laughing.
"Great, Duo, you just made a spectacle out of us!"
"You're starting to sound like Hilde!"
Quatre leaned back while he was pulling, he started taking steps back. He took a big grunt and pulled hard on the ring, so hard that it slipped off Duo's pinky and set Quatre flying back. "Ga-aaah!" He fell down on his back next to a stand of necklaces.
"Wow, thanks Quatre." Duo said, wiggling his pinky.
"You're welcome," Quatre groaned.
Duo offered his hand down to pick him up. He pulled Quatre up and slapped him on his back. They walked to the counter.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" the clerk asked, a smirk on his face.
"Yeah, we'll take this." Quatre put the ring down.
"Oh, that's a good choice," the clerk said. "Will you need a different size?"
Duo laughed. Hard. But Quatre failed to see the humor in it.
"Nah," Duo said, "I think that's a good size. It's for Vice Minister Dorlain. She's got small hands."
"How much?" Quatre asked finally.
The clerk wrote a number down and Quatre's eyes almost popped out of his head, "what?!"
"Wow…" Duo groaned.
"I can make adjustments to it," the clerk suggested.
"Can you take a couple hundred dollars off?" Duo asked.
"I meant the ring."
"Oh."
"Duo, go find another ring," Quatre said. "And if you can't find one, we'll go to another store.
"Exuse us," Duo said to the man, and picked up the ring from the counter, "we'll be right back," and grabbed Quatre. He pulled him to the side and said in a harsh whisper, "Quatre, are you going to let this man push you around?"
"What?"
"Quatre, you are the heir of the winner of the family! You own all the satellites in the solar system for Pete's sake! Look at this ring." He held up, "it's perfect for Relena. Heero himself couldn't pick a better ring and I didn't even have to try the others on. Man, I'm good!"
"Your point, Duo?"
"Oh!" Duo shook him, "talk this man down. Have him negotiate. You're the pilot of Sandrock. You blew up a whole colony on your own."
"I was piloting Wing Zero, Duo."
"Quatre, you're our strategist. You're cool, you're smart and you know that this isn't the right price for this ring. If Heero was here, he'd shoot the clerk!" He shook Quatre's shoulder, "you don't have to take that! You can buy this ring at a reasonable price and a necklace to go with it if you want to! Think about it, Quatre. What would you do if you were buying a ring for Dorothy?"
"Excuse me?" Quatre gasped.
"Oh, come on, Quatre," Duo said, "I've got eyes. I know you like her. You may not be dating her yet, but I see the way you look at her. Toughen up man, don't be such a wussie!"
"Wussie?!" Quatre snarled, "I'm not a wussie!"
"That's the spirit, Quatre!" Duo said, "now go and tell that man off!" he led Quatre to the clerk. "Hey, do you know who this man is? He's Quatre Rabera Winner and he owns all the satellites in the solar system. He's a gundam pilot and he thinks the price for the ring is unfair."
"Really?" the clerk mumbled.
"Yeah!" Duo said. Then he nudged Quatre.
"Yeah!" Quatre cried. "It's unfair!"
"I can probably take ten dollars off," the clerk said.
"Ten dollars!" Duo cried and then Quatre shook his head and gave him the "I'll handle this look." Duo looked at him with "you get 'em look."
"Look pal," Quatre said, putting his hand down on the counter, "I'm a nice guy. Are you a nice guy? I like nice people."
"I'm nice." The clerk said.
"Good," Qutare said, "so this should be easy. Let me tell you something. My father was the speaker for the pacifist colony L4."
"You're Mr. Winner's son?!"
"That's right," Quatre said with a nod. "And I'm the only son in the family."
"Oh, so you're buying this ring for your fiancé?" the clerk asked.
"Not exactly. This ring here is for the queen of the Cinq Kingdom. We're here on behalf of her bodyguard. He's our friend. You see," Quatre said leaning close, "he got injured while saving her life and the nation. These people will come back soon and our friend wants to make sure she's safe. So he wants to marry her."
The clerk leaned back, "so you're buying this for your friend?"
"That's right," Quatre said with a nod.
"The price remains the same."
"What!" Quatre leaned forward, "you're lucky that it's just me here and not the other guy because he'd shoot you! He's not as nice as I am," he pointed to Duo behind him, "Duo's nice too, but you don't want to be on his bad side.
"That's right!" Duo said.
"We're gundam pilots," Quatre told him. "You know how strong a gundam is?"
The clerk shook his head.
"Very strong."
"Are you threatening me?"
Quatre jerked his head back and laughed. It was so similar to the laugh he laughed when his father died. "I blew up a whole colony all on my own" he grinned mischievously and leaned forward so his face was inches away from the clerk's. "I can also blow up a whole jewelry store all on my own."
The clerk took in a deep breath. It was so deep he seemed to suck in all the air in the store.
Duo came up and patted Quatre's shoulder, "this guy works too hard to pay too much for a ring. I mean, look at him, doesn't he look like an honest hard worker to you?"
Quatre gave him his most honest hard working face.
The clerk sighed.
"You don't want to make him mad do you?" Duo asked, "why don't you do him a favor and give us a more reasonable price, huh?"
The clerk wrote down another number. It was still too high.
"This is not acceptable!" Quatre cried. "My convertible didn't even cost me this much! You can't do this to me, I'm, I'm, QUATRE RABERA WINNER!!!!"
"Oh, no, you've made him mad!" Duo snapped, "My buddy here doesn't like that!"
"Are you satisfied with that?" Quatre shouted, "I'm not satisfied!"
"I'm not satisfied either, Quatre!" Duo said, "She may be the queen of the pacifist nation and the queen of the world once, but she's not the queen of the whole universe!" Duo put his hands on his hips, "Relena would feel bad that you'd pay so much for her engagement ring. She has enough jewels as it is."
Swallowing, the clerk wrote down another number. Still too high.
Quatre growled, "my Sandrock should be fully repaired now."
"So should Deathscythe."
Gasping and choking, the clerk wrote down another number, it was $10,000 less that the original cost. "this is my best offer and you can have two more pieces of jewelry to go with it."
"Now that's more like it!" Quatre said. "You're a good man."
"Pleasure doing business with you!" Duo said, picking up a pair of earrings, "what do you think about these for Hilde, Quatre?"
"Oh, she'll love 'em!" he turned his head and picked up a bracelet, "how this for Dorothy?"
"She's going to wish she never stabbed you!" they put the two articles of jewelry on the counter.
Quatre took out his checkbook and started writing. "You were so good, I'll give you a two dollar tip!" He ripped it out and handed it to the man and then the man put them in velvet jewelry boxes.
"Come, come again," he stammered.
"Thank you," Quatre said, walking out the door.
Duo came behind him and put his sunglasses on his face. "Man, Quatre, I see you like to live up to your name!" Duo laughed. "I'm proud to say that I'm your friend…hey, if you're my friend and your last name's Winner, does that mean I'm a winner too?"
Quatre laughed, "sure. The Magunac's didn't call me Master Quatre for nothin'." He took out his own shades and put them on his face. They looked at each other and laughed.
Putting a hand on the door, Duo leaped into the passenger side. He always got in Quatre's car that way. Duo dared Quatre to do the same. Quatre sighed and tried it, but it ended up kind of awkward and Quatre hit the steering wheel.
"Ooops," Quatre groaned.
"You might need to practice a bit more, Quatre."
Quatre pulled out of the parking place, "I hope Heero would like it. What do you think?"
"He'd better," Duo said, "after what we had to do get it, he'd better!"
Relena went to her room to rest. She was having trouble sleeping for weeks. After talking to Noin, Noin instructed her to take a nap and try to get some rest. Relena tried to talk her out of it, saying she was fine, but Noin told her to go and get some sleep.
Relena laid on her bed, unable to sleep. She looked at the canopy. "I can't sleep. There's just too much on my mind."
"Heero, hey, buddy, look at we have for you!" Duo said, opening the door. Quatre came behind him.
"Let me see," Heero said, sitting up.
Duo sat on the edge of Heero's bed and opened the box, "now tell me that this isn't the best engagement ring you've ever seen." Duo challenged, just as Hilde came in.
"Duo Maxwell, how could you?!" she shouted.
"H-Hilde! It isn't what you think!"
Hilde covered her mouth with her hands, looking like she was going to be sick, "I can't believe it! And shame on you, Heero! I'm telling Relena!" she stormed out of the room.
"Hilde, no!" Both Heero and Duo cried. Duo dropped the box on Heero's chest then left.
Quatre crumbled to the floor with laughter.
"Shut up, Quatre, it's not funny!" Duo snapped as he ran past Quatre and after Hilde. "Hilde, would you wait?!"
"Quatre, I don't think it's funny," Heero mumbled with a smirk.
"Then why are you smirking?!" Quatre demanded.
Heero frowned, "it was funny until Hilde said she was going to tell Relena."
Quatre sighed, "whew, that felt good. It's been so long since I laughed." He patted Heero's shoulder, "well, what do you think?"
"It's perfect."
"Good. I almost had to pay million dollars for it."
"You what!?"
"But we talked the clerk down to more reasonable price. He even let us take more jewelry."
"Oh, well, that's better." Heero said, looking the ring over. "Thanks, Quatre."
"You're welcome, now if you excuse me," Quatre said, looking at his wrist watch, "I have to go and design another satellite." He waved at Heero and left the room.
"Hilde, come on, wait up!" Duo begged, running behind her.
"You sick gay fiend!" Hilde accused, keeping her pace high.
"Hilde, you know it isn't true!" he ran harder and grabbed her hand. He whipped her around, "would you please listen to me and let me explain?"
"I can't believe I risked my life for you!" she put her hand to her head. "Omigawd! I let a gay man stay at my place!"
"Hilde! Listen to me!" he jerked her towards him. "What you just saw wasn't real. Well, it was real."
"See, you admit it!"
"No-no-no! Hilde, what I mean is Heero asked me to buy a ring for Relena."
"Oh, so you love Relena and not me?" Hilde demanded.
Duo groaned, "no, Hilde. You're not listening to what I'm saying! Heero is Relena's bodyguard."
"Yeah, so?"
"And he wants to keep her safe. So he asked me and Quatre to buy an engagement ring for her. He would've done it, but he was still injured and he didn't like leaving Relena."
"I'm so stupid," Hilde moaned, turning red. "Oh, Duo, can you forgive me?"
"Sure!" He gave her a hug, "here, I got something for you!" he opened the red velvet box to reveal a pair of ruby dangling earrings. "Ruby is your birthstone, right?"
"Oh, Duo! They're beautiful!" she kissed his cheek and held one to her ear, "now I just have to get my ears pierced!" (I don't think her ears are pierced, are they?)
"They match your face," Duo commented.
Hilde covered her face, "I feel like such an idiot!"
Duo kissed her forehead, "aww, don't be so hard on yourself."
Dorothy was sword fighting with another girl in the class. "You are very good, Miss Dorothy." She commented.
"Thank you, Sara."
Quatre came in and stood by the door. He waved Dorothy over. "Hi Dorothy!"
Dorothy smiled, surprised to see him. "Could you excuse me for a moment, Sara?"
"Yes, Miss Dorothy."
"Thank you," she said then ran up to Quatre. She pulled her mask up and put her fencing coil down. "Quatre Rabera Winner, what can I do for you?"
"You could wear this on your pretty wrist," he opened up the box to reveal a shiny gold bracelet.
"Quatre Rabera Winner!" she cried, "you shouldn't have!" she held her wrist out for him to put it on her. "Oh, you're too kind!"
"I'd thought you'd like it," he said.
"Oh, I love it!" she pecked his cheek, "thank you! We should go and do something if you're not too busy. Give me a call, won't you?"
"Sure."
"You're so sweet, Quatre Rabera Winner!"
Quatre blushed, "yeah…well…"
All the girls behind Dorothy oohed and awed. Quatre nearly tripped out of the room.
Relena got another letter. It was the same stationary. She ripped it open and read the message.
Relena, I'm coming for you.
Relena gasped and put the letter away. "Don't worry about it Relena…just don't worry about it," she told herelf. She sat on her bed, "you've got to get some sleep." She turned over on her side and fell asleep.
Heero began hobbling to her room, "Relena would you…" he practiced, "Vice Minister, no…Miss Relena?" he was just outside her door when he heard her scream. "RELENA!" he swung open the door to see her tossing and turning and screaming.
Relena sat up and screamed, "no, don't hurt me!"
"Relena!" he cried and then rushed to her side to shake her. "Relena, you just had a nightmare!"
"This was the worst ever," she gasped out. "It was so real…"
"How long have you been having these nightmares?"
"For a while now." She looked at Heero, "Heero, why do I have the feeling you didn't come just to wake me up from my nightmare?"
He sat on the edge of the bed, "Relena, I have something I want to tell you."
"What is it, Heero?"
Heero gulped, trying to find the words, "I could of lost you today and I want to make sure nothing ever happens like that again."
"Yes?"
His hands shook as he reached in his pocket and pulled out the red velvet ring box. He opened the top and stammered, "R-Relena, w-would y-you m-marry m-me?"
A tear ran down her cheek and she embraced Heero. "Mission accepted." She said, laughing. He laughed too, embracing her back and kissing her.
Now that he has proposed, what would their wedding be like? When will the enemy come back and will jewelers sell their merchandise to Quatre ever again? Find out it Part 3 of Happiness for a Soldier!