Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I only own Alex. Sadly. Wish I owned Gundam Wing. But I don't, so I must suffer now. If, however, you sue, you shall be the ones to suffer! You cannot win against the great Shinigami's Lil Sis!! AHAHAHA!! *cough* sorry, that was the sugar speaking. Maybe I'm too much like Duo…that could be bad.
This is the sequel to Playing Cupid, the sequel to The Little Sister. If this is the first one you've read, I'd recommend reading them unless you want to be completely lost. Last "episode", Duo's planning blackmail, Alex has a little old "box" where she keeps her secrets, the siblings have a fight, and "someone" has a letter to Alex. What happens after Alex, through Quatre, gets her hands on the particular note signed Your Secret Admirer? What items occupy Alex's lil box? What happens at Relena's party? Find out now.
Secrets Revealed
"God, Duo. How often do you wash your hair? I think I just found that sweat sock you lost last week!"
"What?!"
Alex snickered. "Just kidding brother dearest."
Alex and Duo sat in his room, Alex was doing her brother's hair. Duo rolled his eyes. It was the day of Relena's birthday party and everyone was expected to look nice.
"Done," Alex said, standing up. Duo swiveled in his chair to look in his mirror, which Alex had kept behind him.
"ALEX!!!!"
Duo spun to face his sister and a flash went off in his eyes. When the lights cleared, there stood his sister, holding a camera. She laughed and ran. Duo jumped out of his chair and chased after her.
Alex led Duo downstairs and into the library where everyone was conjugating, waiting for the two siblings. Suddenly, the door flew open and in ran Alex, laughing and waving her camera. She dived behind Trowa. They all looked at the girl oddly. Duo followed her seconds later. Wufei, Heero, Trowa, and Quatre took one look at Duo and burst out laughing. Duo's hair was braided all right, but there were two braids and they were tied top to bottom with pink bows.
"Very kawaii, Duo!" Heero said laughing.
"I must have the number of your hairdresser, Maxwell," Wufei gasped out, shaking from laughing so much.
"She's hiding right behind Trowa. And she is so dead!" Duo leapt over his friend and landed…right next the where Alex had once been. Duo looked around and caught a glimpse of his sister running full speed back up to her room. Duo sighed. "I'll get her back later. For now, can one of you help me with my hair?"
Alex slammed the door to her room and locked it in case Duo had pursued her. She smiled. God, she loved to get the better of her older brother. Any day, anytime, anywhere. She looked at the dress she had borrowed from one of Quatre's sisters. She looked at the clock. She knew that it would take about an hour and a half to get to Relena's house and that the girl was big on punctuality. The time was 10:45. To get there by one, they had to get started by 11:30. That didn't give either her or Duo a lot of time to get ready. However, spending all that time doing Duo's hair like she had was worth it. Alex sighed and sat down to get ready for the party.
30 minutes later…
"Done with fifteen minutes on the clock. Great."
Alex could here yelling from down the hall.
"Ow! Ow! Not so hard Heero!"
"Hey, I'm just trying to help. It's not my fault you have mile long hair with seventeen pounds of knots."
"You're going to be in a knot if you don't fix my hair soon!"
Alex laughed to herself. And they said that girls took forever to fix themselves up. Alex sat down on her bed and pulled out her little box. It was a time like this that could be spent thinking back. Alex took off the top. Inside there were lots of small things, knickknacks and what-nots. On the top was the letter Quatre had given her on Monday.
"Maybe I'll find out who my secret admirer is today." Alex wondered aloud. She put the letter beside the box. Next was a picture, also added last Monday. She had borrowed Duo's camera and taken a picture of a certain young pilot. He was smiling, a rare act for him. His brown hair covered over one of his emerald green eyes.
"Trowa Barton, you are a hunk, you know that?" she whispered to the picture. She put that down next to the letter. One by one, she pulled out other things: more pictures, news articles, etc. Finally, there was only one thing left. It was a locket. She opened the locket. Inside were two pictures. The first showed a family of four. The woman had a bright and shining face, her smile looked like she could chase away darkness and her blonde, wavy hair enhanced the look. In her arms lay a baby girl, who looked like a chibi copy of her mother. Next to the mother was a man with dark brown hair. He seemed slightly stiff, but he too had a personality of laughter. On his lap sat a boy of about two or three. The boy had brown hair, like his father and was beaming as he held the tiny hand of his baby sister. In the photo next to it was a different family. A young couple sat together, the man with black hair and the woman with red. They both smiled at the little girl, about five in the picture. Her hair was brown with a touch of blonde, the only obvious sign that the people were not her biological parents. A tear slid down Alex's cheek. She remembered the day that picture was taken. How could she forget it? That night, her "parents" had told her that she was adopted and gave her the locket she now held in her hands. In the locket was a picture of her real family. They told her that she had been found with that locket when she had been taken to the orphanage. Then the person, the stranger that Alex had believed was her mother, slid the new picture into the locket, saying, "Keep this with you wherever you go. Never forget your real family and never forget us. Sleep tight love, tomorrow is going to be a good day." That night, the house caught on fire. Alex had been the only one to escape. She had brought the locket too. Eleven years later, she still had the locket with her. Through everything, she had kept the promise she had made to her second family. Have I finally found my real family? she wondered. She put the other items back into the little black box and returned it to its spot under her pillow. Then she put on the locket.
"Alex! Hurry up!"
Alex's attention snapped to the clock. 11:35. Quickly she slid on her shoes and ran to the library. Duo's hair had finally been fixed. He was in a blue tux and Heero, his hair still messy, was sharp in his. Heero didn't seem all too happy about this. Quatre was smiling, his white tux shining. Personally, it was nice to see him in something other than pink. Wufei had what appeared to be a Chinese formal. His hair was still in the tiny ponytail.
"Where's Trowa?" Duo asked. Alex was relieved that she wasn't the last one.
"I'm here." Trowa said, walking into the room. Like the other guys, he was in a tux as well, black.
"Great. Now let's go. I'll drive." Heero said, reaching for the keys.
"It's my car. I should drive." Quatre said.
"Injustice! I should drive!" Wufei yelled.
As the three boys argued, Duo walked over to the table and picked up the keys.
"I'll drive."
The four remaining pilots stared after him as he left.
"Now look what you did!"
"Me? It was you who started this whole thing!"
"If you had just given me the keys…."
Alex and Trowa exchanged glances and sighed. This was going to be a long day…
In the garage with the car…
"Okay," Duo said. "Who's sitting where?"
"I call back." Alex said quickly and climbed into the third row of seats. She wasn't going to give Duo any way or reason to get his revenge while in the car.
"Anywhere but up front." Wufei and Quatre both said and climbed into the middle.
Heero glared at them. "Cowards," he said, taking the front seat next to Duo.
Trowa said nothing and took the last remaining seat next to Alex, who had been secretly hoping that would happen. Quatre turned around to face Alex.
"Here Alex, I picked this for you."
He handed her a single red rose. She smiled and put it on her dress.
"Who do you think I am, Trieze Kushrenada?" she asked jokingly. Duo and Quatre laughed. She knew about her brothers and their enemies. They had informed her that Trieze loved roses and had rarely been seen without one. Wufei, however, had killed him years ago in a mobile suit battle. His daughter, Marimeia, had tried to take over the world like her father had about a year ago and she had come very near to accomplishing her goal. She remembered Relena saying something about inviting Marimeia to the party.
Then, before anyone could react, Duo punched the gas and sped out of the garage. Once on the road, there was no stopping him. At the rate he was going, they would reach Relena's house at 12:00…if nothing happened first. Suddenly, after about ten minutes of playing Russian roulette with the cars, they reached a four way stop as the light began to change. Duo hit the brakes, but he was going too fast. The car slid past the stoplight and into the open lanes of traffic, a large produce truck heading straight for them. Duo swerved and the car began to spin out of control, right into some nearby brush. Glass shattered and screams echoed as the car slammed into a tree. Then, there was nothing but silence.
(AN: To cliffhanger, or not to cliffhanger. That is the question….um….NAH!)
Sometime later….
Alex's eyes flickered open. Where was she? What had happened? She remembered Duo had been driving and…
"Oh my god!"
Alex looked around the car. Duo's head was resting against the steering wheel. Heero was slumped across the remains of the airbag. Quatre and Wufei were in a pile, their seatbelts torn. Trowa was no where to be seen. Alex took off her seatbelt, grateful that she had sat in the back and had it on. She observed that her door was stuck against the underbrush. She got out of the other side, hoping, praying that they were alive. With a bit of work, she was able to get to the front driver's side door and get Duo out of the car. Then she rescued Quatre and Wufei from the middle. She looked over to Heero. His door had been smashed in by the tree. She could never get around to him, nor could she pull him out across the car by herself. But she had to try. The smoke rising from the car warned her that it could catch on fire any second and she didn't want to lose anyone. Carefully, she got in and around to the passenger's side. Alex unbuckled him from his seat and tried to push him out. No luck. He was too big for her…
"Come on. We can do this together," a soothing voice assured the girl. Alex looked up quickly. Trowa was there, trying to get to the large pilot. Alex smiled.
"Yeah."
Finally, with a lot of effort, the two were able to pull the remaining pilot from the wreckage of the car.
"It's not going to last much longer," Alex said, watching the smoke rise higher and become larger. "We need to try to get the others away, and fast."
"I can get Heero and Duo. Think you can handle the other two?"
"I hope so."
Trowa lifted up Duo and Heero over his shoulders while Alex supported Quatre and Wufei.
"There's a clearing about five minutes away from here. Follow me."
"Do I have any choice?" Alex asked, moving after the taller boy.
As they ran, they heard the telltale sound of the car catching flame.
10 minutes later….
Alex and Trowa reached the clearing with their "packages" and put them down.
"I thought you said five minutes away."
"Well, that was before I had to carry anything. Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I think so. Where'd you disappear to?"
"I got thrown out of the car."
"Ouch."
"Not really. I landed on a pile of moss."
Alex sighed and sat down. It seemed that whenever she had that locket in her hands, something went wrong. As a baby, she had taken the necklace to look at it. The next day, her parents had died and her brother had disappeared. She was only one then. Next she had been given the locket back as a birthday gift on her fifth. That night the house burnt down. And now this.
"Do you think they'll make it?" Alex asked, obviously worried.
"…" Trowa sat down beside her.
"Yeah, me too…"
Alex reached into a pocket on her dress and pulled out a small piece of paper. She was about to throw it into the underbrush behind her when a gust of wind took it out of her hands. Trowa reached up and grabbed it. As he brought it down, he noticed his name written on the front of it. Alex turned away so he couldn't see her face as it turned bright red as he opened the note. On it were five short words, but in those five words was a whole letter.
'Save me the next dance'
Alex looked like she had a sunburn, her face was so red. Trowa folded the letter back up. He had gotten the gist of it. Slowly, he leaned over towards the younger girl and whispered two words.
"I will."
Alex snapped to attention, some of the redness rushing from her face. Of all the things he could have said, she hadn't expected that. However, before she could reply, the other four pilots began to move and Alex and Trowa had to divert their attentions to them.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, bro." Alex said, helping Duo sit up.
"Ugh…..what happened?"
As he spoke, the underbrush rustled and three policeman entered the clearing with hunting hounds. They had been searching for the owners of the car that had disappeared. Alex smiled again.
"I don't know. But it's going to be alright now. We're going to be alright."
One week later…
Duo plopped down on the couch with his most recent pictures, pictures he took at Relena's party with a camera he found. That was one weird day. He had gotten his license restricted for awhile to the relief of everyone else. Heero, who really didn't want to go to the party, faked a broken leg and was sent to the hospital with Quatre, who needed stitches from where glass had pierced him. The police had been kind enough to drive Alex, Trowa, Wufei, and Duo to the party. Coincidentally, they were only two hours late. Relena was very upset the her Heero could make it and Dorothy, a one-time enemy, missed Quatre dearly. Duo had some decent pictures of Relena, Alex and the others. He had also gotten some for blackmail. He picked up a pen to label the newest group. The first blackmail picture was one of a set of two. Alex was giving Trowa a peck on the cheek. Duo put his pen on the back and wrote, "Thanks for the dance."
On the next picture was the two again. This time Trowa was returning the kiss like one of those romantic ones you saw on made for TV movies or something. Smiling, Duo wrote, "You're welcome."
He put that picture on top of the last one. As he turned back to the next photo, he never saw the hand slip around and pick up the two photos from his blind side. Alex put them in her pocket and waited until Duo had placed down the next photo. Then she cleared her throat. Duo jumped and twirled to face his sister.
"What?" he asked simply.
"I need to show you and the guys something. It's downstairs in the hanger. Can you get the others and meet me there in five?"
"Sure, why?"
"You'll see."
Alex turned around and walked away.
Five minutes later, in the hanger…
"Well, what is it you want to show us, Alex?"
"Is it important?"
"I think it can be called important."
"Well, don't keep us waiting, onna. We have things to do."
Alex glared at Wufei.
"I've just talked with the professor on the phone. He says it's time I told you. For a while, the professor and I have been working on a special "project" because of the new uprising that's expected. The maguanacs have also lent a hand in it, but were sworn to secrecy. But now, no more secrets. Guys, meet the new member of your group."
Alex grabbed onto a tarp that covered something hiding behind her and pulled it off. There stood a giant of pure Gundanium alloy, a monster of mobile suits.
"Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the newest Gundam mobile suit…"
To Be Continued…
What's the name of this metal giant? How will the guys react? Find out in the next installment, The Gundanium Giant (remember, five positive reviews and I'll begin working on part 4. Enjoy!)
