Duo looked up from his newspaper as he heard Heero walk in and grinned. "You sure slept in today," he remarked cheerfully. Heero looked at him coldly before he walked over to the table and set down his laptop heavily in front of Duo. His more-then-usual stony personality was starting to make Duo slightly wary. "What's wrong with you?"

Instead of answering, Heero opened his laptop so that the gray screen stared at the two of them. "Take a look at this." He double clicked and opened a file - a saved email message that was titled 'Emergency'. Duo scanned the information and shrugged when he finished.

"So what? It's almost Christmas; Relena probably just needs help decorating her house or something. I mean seriously, her mansion is even bigger than Quatre's, and who knows how many people it'll take to add all the finishing touches in time for the ball." Duo grinned again. "Besides, how am I supposed to know that you don't only want to go to see Relena?"

Heero glared at him before replying. "It was sent with her alert address." That immediately wiped the grin off of Duo's face, and it was replaced by a more serious expression.

"I'm going to check with Trowa. If he got it too, then we'll go right away."

~*~*~

The phone rang, vibrating with its urgent message. Trowa strode into the room and picked up the receiver before it could push itself onto the floor. "Hello?"

"Trowa, this is Heero." The voice on the other end was a monotone, just like Trowa had always remembered it. "I need to ask you…"

He was cut off and replaced by a more hyperactive-sounding person. "Trowa? Hey, this is Duo. Didja get an email from Relena?" Trowa's eyes narrowed. So he wasn't the only one who'd received it.

"Yeah."

"Are you going?"

"Wufei and I were just leaving when you called."

"Oh, okay. I guess we'll see you there then." There was a click and a buzz as Duo hung up, and then Trowa was gone.

~*~*~

"So you were right." Duo bit his lip. "I wonder what's wrong…"

Heero grabbed his jacket off the back of a chair and shrugged it on. "Let's go. It's the quickest way to find out." He pulled out an extra set of keys to the truck and started towards the garage when Duo stopped him.

"I thought you didn't have your license yet…" he said, worried.

"We're not going to get pulled over."

Duo shook his head so that his braid sort of swayed. "It's not getting pulled over that I'm worried about. I just think I'm kind of too young to die." Heero looked at him in exasperation. "What?" Duo asked. "I have every right to want to live life to the fullest. Besides, I bet I'm not the only person who doesn't want to get in a car with some guy with no license."

"You've driven before," Heero pointed out, and as he realized the truth behind that statement, Duo relented.

"Fine. Let's go."

~*~*~

A few minutes later, Heero turned up the driveway to Relena's mansion. A new structure that resembled a tollbooth had been erected halfway up the drive, and the truck screeched to a stop inches before the orange striped bar. A man wearing a blue uniform nodded to the two occupants of the truck. "Please show your ID," he said.

Duo looked bewildered. "ID? When did you need an ID to see Relena?"

The guard looked at the American and raised an eyebrow. "Queen Relena, you mean."

He stifled a laugh, disguising it as a cough. "When did she suddenly insist on being called Queen Relena?" Heero turned his head and glared at Duo, who quieted down.

"We don't have an ID," he stated flatly. "We've never been required to show one."

Duo nodded, agreeing emphatically. "Exactly what he said. Besides, Queen Relena was the one who told us to come." Then, as if though right on que, the com next to the guard's shoulder beeped and blinked red.

Relena's voice came through, slightly blurred but still recognizable. "Duo, is that you?"

"Yup, that's m'name." Duo smirked at the guard. 'I told you so,' his look seemed to say.

"Ahmad, let them in. I called them over, and I apologize for not having told you earlier." She was still ever gracious and mannered.

Ahmad the guard bowed stiffly to the com, and Duo snickered. "Of course, Queen Relena. I'll let them in immediately." Then, as the com clicked off, he pressed a button to raise the bar. "Have a good day, sirs," he said as the truck drove off.

Duo twisted around in his seat and waved at the guard, who was busy lowering the bar. He turned back and grinned. "He called me a sir," he observed, sounding quit self-respecting. "I think I'm starting to like this place a little bit more now."

Heero decided not to reply.



ames: So.....what didja think? Good? Bad? I need to know how I'm doing~!!!!!!!