When Duo woke up it was already just about noontime. He languidly threw on some clean clothes and brushed his teeth. He took a minute to set his hair back into place and then headed out toward the kitchen.
"Morning, sleepyhead," followed by a few short giggles was the first thing Duo heard. He turned and saw Relena smiling warmly at him. Something must have cheered her up.
"Morning." He smiled back. "Where's everyone else?"
"Oh, Quatre took Wu Fei and Trowa out back to the tennis courts. He's teaching them how to play," Relena answered.
"I'll be that's a sight to see,"
Duo said, imagining Wu Fei trying to play tennis and swinging the racquet like
a katana. "What about He…?" Don't ask that, you idiot!
A bit of colour drained out of Relena's face, but she tried to keep a smile. "Oh, well…he's still, I mean, I guess he's in his room." Her smile disappeared. "Duo…I wanna see him."
Yeah. I know. You'll always want to. "Uhm…well, I'm kinda hungry! What's for lunch?"
Relena brightened up a bit and giggled again. "You're so cute, Duo!" Duo, too, cheered up in response to her. "What do you want?"
"Aww, just a sandwich is fine. I'll just grab something and we can go outside and watch the guys playing tennis."
"Or trying, at least!" She asked one of the on-duty servants to fix Duo a turkey sandwich. Duo eagerly accepted it and devoured it before they had even gotten outside on their way to the courts.
Damn, what a big back yard…
"Duo?" Relena asked.
"Uh, yeah?"
"What do you, uh, think of me, like…as a girl, or…well, you know…?" She turned toward Duo, fervently awaiting his reply.
But Duo's mind was breaking supersonic speeds. What? What? Quatre? Damn, damn, damn! Quatre told her! Oh, I'm screwed now. That little Arabian bastard. What the hell am I gonna do? All right, Maxwell…there's only one thing to do…turn the situation around…"Well, I guess you're kind of a nice person. I mean, you are. But we're just friends, okay? That's all. Nothing more. I mean, I wouldn't want anything more." Duo cringed at his own last statement. It sounded a bit harsher that it was meant to. But maybe that was better, anyway.
Relena looked down, obviously very disappointed. "Oh." Duo was a bit puzzled by her dissatisfaction. They had reached the tennis courts now. Relena stepped in and Duo followed after. They took a seat one the sidelines, on a little wooden bench. Quatre was in the middle of playing a game with Wu Fei.
"Injustice!" Duo turned to Wu Fei's side of the court and saw him throw down his racquet in unrestrained disgust. "That was a cheap shot Quatre! Where is your honour!?"
Quatre, on the other side of the court, looked slightly irritated, which was not typical of him. "I told you, Wu Fei, that's a drop shot. It's a perfectly legal shot!"
"You like drop? Me too! Let me show you a drop kick!"
"Hey, Wu, calm down! Hehehe, looks like Quatre's busting you up pretty bad." Duo loved taunting his friend when he was in vulnerable positions. Wu Fei, in reply, stormed off the court. "Relena," Duo started, thinking of a way to sheer her up, "Wanna play a bit?"
"No. I don't reel like playing right now." Duo shrugged his shoulders.
"Suit yourself."
"Actually," Quatre said, "We had best make our way back inside. It's about to rain." Quatre was right: Duo could already feel weak drops on his skin. He stood up and offered Relena his hand, but she ignored him and stood up on her own. In the same way, she began her way back into the mansion without waiting for the others.
"Well…hey, Trowa, Wu Fei, you two go on ahead, I've got something to talk to Quatre about." They did that (Wu Fei still mumbling crossly), leaving Quatre alone with Duo.
"Yeah?"
"I can't believe you told her."
"Huh?"
Duo frowned. "What gives, Quatre?"
"Duo, what are you talking about?"
"Man, don't give me this crap. You told her. She asked me."
"Who asked you what?" Quatre looked sincerely puzzled.
"Dammit! Relena asked me what I thought about her!"
"And you think I told her…? But I didn't! What did you tell her, anyway?"
"I told her that she's just a friend."
"Duo, you should've told her the truth!"
"Whatever. Just lay off."
"But Duo, why do you think she was asking!?" Quatre demanded exasperatingly.
"Because you can't keep your mouth shut!"
"Duo, I told you, I didn't tell her!"
"You expect me to believe you?" Duo asked snidely.
"Yeah!" Quatre yelled back. "I didn't tell her anything! I've barely spoken to her all morning!"
A sickening realisation dawned upon Duo, as he remembered her disappointment with his answer to her. "Aw, crap…I screwed this up…" his stomached turned as he ran to the house.
He bolted through the kitchen and made his way up the spiralling staircase. When he reached the top, he turned to his right, the direction in which he knew Relena's and Heero's bedrroms to be. He knew he had to get to Relena's room and correct his mistake. I must've made her feel worthless. When he turned down the hallway, however, he saw Heero casually strolling toward him.
Although Duo had by no means forgiven Heero for his transgression, he was in no mood to start a confrontation. "Have you seen Relena?" he frantically asked.
Heero smirked. "Sure. She just ran into her room." Duo began walking toward the door, but when he brushed by Heero, he felt a hand on his shoulder. "So," came Heero's voice, "Who made her cry this time?"
"Screw you, Heero!" Duo shoved him off. "You've got a lot of room to talk, you jackass."
Heero chuckled. "She doesn't want to see you, Duo." He held up his hand showing Duo the ring on his finger. "She only wants to see me. And I don't feel like seeing her right now."
"Dammit, how can you be so evil?"
Heero's facetious smile turned sour. "Duo, do you know what kind of stress I'm under lately? Of course you don't. You could never know. Relena's so damn dependant anymore. She acts like she can't even function without me. I don't do that, Duo. I'm not a babysitter."
"what kind of a man are you, making excuses (I sound like Wu Fei…)? She needs you, dammit! Her whole family was slaughtered! She's not exactly living a stress-free life either!"
"Duo, I don't have any other family either. But you don't see me hanging all over her. I don't care what she goes through, it gives her no excuse to act like she does."
"Ha! It's called 'love,' Heero. Sorry if you can't understand that emotion."
"'Love?'" Heero laughed again. "She'll do anything for me. She's like my puppet. She's like my whore." He laughed again.
But Duo had broken. He wasn't going to listen to Heero any longer. He balled his hand into a fist and lunged at Heero, with the full intent of hitting him in the face. Heero saw Duo jump at him, though, and almost effortlessly stepped to the side. As Duo flew past him, Heero threw out his leg and caught Duo in the gut, sending him to the floor. Duo turned to get up, but Heero's foot caught him again, this time in his face. Duo felt his lower lip being forced into his teeth, and he tasted blood.
"Next time think before you act," Heero spat. "And don't think about going in Relena's room. She's my whore." He laughed again and then disappeared around the corner of the hallway.
Duo lay on the floor in pain. Maxwell, you idiot. Too damn hotheaded. He resolutely stood up. He contemplated listening to Heero and leaving Relena alone, but his anger got the best of him. "Go to hell, Heero," he hissed, and opened the door to Relena's room.
He stepped inside and found her broken down on her bed, sobbing quietly, or just finished doing so. He knew it was he that had caused her this pain, and he felt awful at having done so.
But he didn't know if he should leave or try to comfort her.
She looked up and saw him standing in her doorway. She saw the blood trickling down his chin and gasped. "Duo, what happened?" Her speech was slightly broken by her tears.
Duo reached to his lip and wiped the blood off. "Oh, nothing," he lied, "I just tripped coming up the stairs and bit my lip pretty hard." A few drops of blood remained on his chin.
Relena stood off of her bed and walked over to hip, brushing the few residual drops off of his chin. "Duo, you should be more careful…"
"I'm okay, really. I came up because I wanted to talk to you about earlier," he started.
"No, don't worry." She hesitated and looked at the floor as though the next thing she wanted to say was there spelled out for her. "I guess, well, I mean… you helped me come to terms with reality, Duo. If you wouldn't want me as more that a friend, why would Heero?" Tears began forming in her eyes again, and she began softly whimpering.
"Relena, stop that, come on." He took her face in his hands and tilted it toward his. "You're making two big assumptions there." She stopped weeping for a moment. "One, that Heero's any better than me." Relena forced a smile, waiting to hear the second assumption she had made, hoping… but he didn't answer, he just continued to stare into her eyes, inviting her to ask.
She had to. "What's the second?" she asked, looking up at him with eyes wide with naïve innocence.
"The second," he begun his answer and, bringing his mouth down to hers, quickly but gently kissed her. "Is that I wouldn't want you as more than a friend." He had wanted to do what he had just done for such a long time that he couldn't have forsaken his opportunity. He was ready to accept the consequences, but he had no idea they would be in his favour.
She started to cry again, but her tears were a mixture of fear and happiness. She threw her arms around his waist, brought her face up to his, and kissed him again and again. Duo was definitely not expect her to react in this way, but he put his arms around her and pulled her close to him, letting her lips have their way with his. He sensed fear in her embrace and kisses, but he sensed love too, and he wondered if she really did love him, or if she was just using him as a backboard.
She stopped kissing him and brushed her fingers against his lips and wiped off a little blood. Her kisses had opened up the abrasion again. "Heero did this to you, didn't he?"
Duo nodded. He nodded because he wanted her to hate Heero. He wanted her to love him. But at the same time he wondered how she had known that Heero had beat him up.
In an answer to his silent questions, she replied: "I heard you guys fighting. I don't want to be Heero's whore anymore, Duo!" And she began crying again.
Duo violently cursed Heero in his mind and now he wished he hadn't confronted him in the hall at all. "You're not, Relena, you're not. You're not a whore. Never listen to Heero again. He's a worthless, cowardly excuse for a person, and he doesn't deserve you at all."
"Oh Duo… please, just hold me for a while," she sobbed into his chest. "Don't go."
So he held her, giving her both love and protection. One part of him was berating him, telling him he wasn't doing the right thing, that Relena was Heero's. But another part of him told him that things were going to be different now. That Relena was no longer bound by the ring on her finger to a man that didn't love her. That he was going to be able to look after her now, and protect her from Heero.
And so he just stood there with the girl he loved in his arms.