Chapter 8
When Hilde woke up the next morning, she lied abed for awhile, and thought about the previous night. She really had no logical reason for her behavior, though at the time, it had seemed the right thing to do. She sighed, and got up. She got dressed, and went out to wake Duo up. When she reached the living room, she looked around and noticed Duo was nowhere to be seen. The blanket was even folded and slung over the back of the couch. While she examined the room and puzzled over where he could be, she noticed a pleasant aroma emanating from the kitchen. There, on the kitchen table, was a spread of food, obviously intended to be her breakfast. Bacon, eggs, juice, and only one place set. He apparently was not going to be joining her, she thought, as she was abruptly struck by the fact that Duo had made her breakfast. It had not quite clicked until that moment, and she felt like smacking her forehead. Where had he gotten to, anyway?
After she had finished and thoroughly enjoyed her meal, especially because no one here voluntarily ate food from the cafeteria, AND had not had to cook it herself, she prepared to go down to the gym and do her stretches and training. Duo was almost certainly down there already, and he had been training her the same way, though slightly less vigorously, that Heero had been training Relena. She heard a knock at the door, and went to open it. She stopped when she saw that Duo had already let himself in, and had closed the door behind him.
"Uh, Hi. Thanks for breakfast, by the way." Hilde greeted him, and he walked toward her.
"You slept in. I didn't think I'd have that much time to go out." Duo said, smiling widely, and continued as he walked closer to her, " Hey, Hilde, Close your eyes."
Hilde obliged him, a sly smile on her face, and said "Now what? You want me to open my mouth?"
"No. Now you open them back up."
Hilde hid disappointment, but gasped when she opened her eyes. She beheld a stunning jeweled gold necklace; each flat link set with a small sapphire, and a large, intricately carved piece of amethyst dangling from it. The jewel was engraved to look like a swirling sunburst, and matched Duo's eyes, even as the sapphire matched hers. She realized that was the intent, and was speechless.
Duo smiled at the look on her face, and fastened the clasp around her neck. It appeared as if her slender throat was encircled by blue fire, spawned from the violet sunburst. Hilde's hands went to her mouth, and her eyes glittered. She supposed that the hints she had dropped last night hit home, and reached up, pulling him down for a kiss.
Someone had knocked on the door for about two minutes before either of them even heard it through their haze of passion, and at least another minute before they decided to answer it. Duo finally went to open it and Relena stood there, a slightly confused look on her face. When she saw Duo, her eyebrows shot up, and she stared at him for a couple of seconds.
"Is Hilde here?" she said at last.
"Yeah. I was just leaving, anyway. Go on in." He motioned inward, and she walked past him into the living room, while he walked into the hall and went down to the gym to get ready for their daily training session.
"What was he doing here this early?"
"Well, he slept here last night."
"You didn't!"
"No! Geez! He slept on the couch! Heero and Jai locked him out of his quarters last night, and he needed a place to stay until he could change the lock again. At any rate, he made me breakfast and was gone before I got up. I was just getting ready to go down to the gym, for our training session, when he came back in and surprised me with THIS." She fingered the necklace Duo had given her, and Relena's eyes widened. Then she smiled.
"He finally caught on, huh?"
"With a vengeance. The colors match our eyes."
Relena's smile widened, and studied the jeweled chain Duo had given Hilde, tracing the sunburst pattern with one finger.
"Amethyst and sapphire, huh? He apparently knows one hell of a jeweler. And probably spent a year's salary on it, too. Anyway, what were you saying about Heero and Jai? Heero seemed a little distracted during our session this morning, and Jai had the most god-awful look on her face, added to the fact that both of them were beating the crap out of a pair of punching bags this morning when I got down there. What did Duo do this time?"
Hilde sighed, and turned to the disc player, gesturing for Relena to follow. Before she showed her the disc, Hilde filled Relena in on the events of the last few months that had, until now, not been any of her concern.
"Why, that devious little sucker. I knew he was smart, but this is like…oh, I don't know. I'd like to know how he managed to get that information in Quatre's head without him realizing it was intentional."
"I don't know, but apparently, it worked. Quatre's been avoiding Jai like she has the plague, and that is not the best way to make a girl feel wanted. She knows about it now, though, and my guess is that the both of them will be trying to patch things up. Heero will be able to put his considerable talents to good use."
All at once, the P.A. came on, and Jai's voice echoed through the hall Duo was walking down.
"All Gundam pilots, report to the mobile suit hangar. The updates to your Gundams have been completed."
Excitement and fear combated in Duo's moderately paranoid mind, and curiosity finally won out. Everyone would be there, so he doubted they would do anything more severe than try to humiliate him. He could stand that. He caught a glimpse of Trowa striding down the hall, and kicked it up a gear to catch up.
"Hello, Duo." He said, without bothering to look back, and using the same tone of voice he always did.
"Do you practice that or something? I could find out what note that is, and it would be impossible to tell you from me, once I figure what key that is. Like F, or something."
They reached the elevator, and both stepped in, Trowa leaning against the far wall and Duo pushing the button for the floor the hangar was on. Trowa, knowing that the best course of action when trapped in an enclosed space with Duo was to simply ignore him, looked almost comatose and Duo thought he looked like he was about pass out.
When they reached the hangar, Duo veritably danced out, and Trowa walked in his characteristic not-in-any-big-hurry way down to the area where the Gundams were maintained. Heero was already up on the catwalk, as were Jai and Quatre. Wufei and Sally were just now arriving from the other lift, and were walking in their direction.
"All right, The modifications are completed. They are now capable of engaging a far greater number of suits at one time. Each one could conceivably eliminate Fifty suits in under two minutes. The extra energy output has been compensated for by the installment of much more powerful generators, while they are virtually the exact same size and weight."
The murmurs from among the pilots suggested approval, and Jai continued. "Now, first, the Deathscythe." This statement carried a slight sinister undertone that no one either heard or understood but Duo, and he swallowed. " The active cloak has been upgraded to be functional at all times, not just when the wings are closed, and the entire suit is now capable of becoming completely invisible not only to radar and sonar, but to infrared, ultraviolet, and any other type of light detection. You will be completely invisible, undetectable, at any time you see fit. This was designed for battle. The new vernier boosters make the suit a full one third faster than it was before."
Duo could barely contain himself. He had half expected his suit to have been stripped down to it's component parts during the night, and he couldn't have hoped for an upgrade any better than these.
"Next, the Heavyarms. The ammunition will no longer be a problem, inasmuch as the suit no longer fires ordinary bullets. The missiles can all be fired independently, one by one if you wish, and all have homing capability. Every weapon aside from the missiles on this suit now fires energy charges, comparable in size to a bullet with the same rate of fire. The main difference is the power behind them. Each charge is up to five times as powerful as a normal bullet. Each weapon has it's own individual power source, allowing for extended battle. The generators will last almost indefinitely in even a prolonged fight. For a close range attacker, each arm is equipped with a thermal wrist blade."
Trowa's eyes shone, though he gave no other physical accompaniment to his approval than a curt nod.
"On to the Sandrock. The heat shotels are now capable of being used as boomerangs, and can be thrown individually. If they are thrown, they will track the target and swing back to the suit's hands. It is also now equipped with seismic grenades, launched from any of six cannons located at strategic points around the suit's body. These, to prevent the need for reloading, are also basically explosive energy. The grenades will cast powerful vibrations strong enough to rattle an enemy suit completely to pieces if it is in range of the detonation."
Quatre gave a small bow, and smiled.
"The Altron. The suit has been modified to, in addition to the flame-throwers, be able to fire long range explosive incendiaries. These will detonate either on contact with an enemy suit or under on of two other circumstances. When the remote is triggered, the bomb will explode. It will only travel a certain distance, and then detonate. The distance can be set from the cockpit. The bombs, after they explode, will continue to burn, suit or no, for ten minutes in a ball of fire three hundred feet in diameter. The tail laser is able to be set to fire only on specific suits, and then will be able to operate independently of the pilot."
Wufei gave a nod of thanks, and graced Jai with a smile.
"And last, the Wing Zero. The beam cannon has been modified to be able to fire low power blasts a well as high power, and can be used at the same time as the beam sabers. Smaller cannons have been installed around the suit, a total of ten, each with it's own power generator. These will be able to either be aimed by the pilot, or operate on their own. Each has a different range of fire, though all can be fired at the same time while sweeping across their respective target areas in the middle of a fray."
The muffled conversation between the pilots turned to a mad scramble to get to their ripcords and get in the gundams, and an amused Hilde and Relena stood at the entrance to the huge hangar, exchanging amused glances.
"Boys and their toys." Hilde said, even as Duo, who had apparently reached his cockpit and the new control scheme, shouted a somewhat stifled "Cool!" igniting snickers from the other four gundams.
"Don't forget, Jai's up there, too. And while she didn't say anything, I'll bet you anything she made at least a minor modification to Starfire. She's as much one of them as if she WERE a guy. I like her, though."
"Speaking of which, did you notice those little glances Quatre kept sneaking at Jai? He's an empath, too, and Jai was probably purposely radiating a couple of encouraging signals."
"I wouldn't put anything past either her or Heero. Quatre at least seems to be a little more receptive to those "signals" than Duo."
"ANYTHING's more receptive than Duo. Any normal human, anyway. Maybe even a reasonably bright jellyfish."
Relena let out a giggle, and covered her mouth with her hand. She knew what Hilde's feelings for Duo were, and could understand them. They were both jokers, and would be until the day they died.
"Has Heero caught on yet?"
Relena started a bit at the sudden mention of Heero, and cursed herself. "Well, if he has, he's hiding it very well. I think he knows though, and is trying to pretend he doesn't. I mean, I was dropping some heavy-duty stuff on him this morning, and it almost seems like he didn't hear it. It just rolls off him. I can understand that to a point, but it's getting ridiculous. I mean, in the last five years he's been here, More girls have been hitting on HIM than any of the others. Yes, I've heard the stories. He's not stupid, by any means. He knows what's going on." Relena cast a resentful glance at Wing Zero, and said, "You know, ever since the day he met me, He's been like my guardian angel. I'd be dead five times over if it weren't for him. Hell, his gundam even LOOKS like an angel."
"Well, look at it this way. He's not going anywhere, and you've got plenty of time to…..well, land the catch. He's already hooked, and he knows it. Otherwise he wouldn't have been quite so upset when Duo made that tape of you two in the gym. I suppose Duo gave you a copy, too? After Heero tackled him to the ground at twenty miles an hour and yanked the film out of the camera?"
Relena laughed silently for a moment in quiet remembrance of that little present, and leaned against the wall. She promised herself another good viewing when she got back to her quarters, and sighed. Heero either didn't want her, or he did and didn't know it, or did and didn't want to. It was possible he did and knew it, but didn't know how to let her know. He was very complex for someone who always made sure everyone knew exactly what he meant.
Hilde saw the look in her eyes. "You know, my shameless boyfriend wouldn't mind planting a seed of his own. He's pretty devious when it suits him."
Relena looked at her. "What do you mean?" She really didn't know what Hilde meant, but suspected she'd find out soon.
"See ya." Hilde walked back down the corridor, mischief glinting in her eyes as she looked at Relena over her shoulder, and waved.
Relena watched Hilde go, and stared at the door where Hilde had exited. She blinked, once, twice, at the door, and then turned to the wall in front of her, enveloped by her own thoughts. Those two were entirely too smart for their own good. You wouldn't know it until you had known them for a while, but they were, and living near these people was making her paranoid. They could barely go two days without pranking each other. She had never seen people so restless, and she supposed that they should be. Keeps them on their toes. Though she doubted that they saw it that way, it was probably the cause. You live with people for so long, you start to know them too well, and you know what irks them. She sighed again, and with one last, lingering glance toward the angelic guardian Heero controlled, turned and left the hangar.