Yay! I finished the chapter! A few things to keep in mind:
1. We still don't own Gundam Wing or Night World
2. We're still broke.
3. If you're reading the Night World series, be advised that this contains some spoilers.
Enjoy! Also, PLEASE REVIEW!!!!
Thanks.
Chapter 2
Ding! BLAT. Ding! Blat.
Ugh! Stupid bananas.
Ding! BLAT.
You scan NOW, or I'll make sure you go extinct…
Ding! Blat. BLAT. SCU invalid. Enter correct code.
Duo sighed, then picked up the P.A. receiver.
"Manager to register 5, please. Manager to register 5." Duo smiled hopefully at the impatient customer. She glared, adjusted the screaming toddler on her shoulder, and resumed glaring. Duo began to sweat. He could have sworn eternal gratitude to the wonderful possessor of the clean crop of black hair and sympathetic violet eyes gliding his way.
"Hi, Hilde! How's it going?"
"Duo! The bananas again?"
Duo studied his shoes. There was a little bit of scuff on the left one, so he'd have to shine them when he got back to the apartment. He heard a ding and looked up.
Bananas: $6.97
Duo quietly retreated to the end of the counter and began bagging.
"$6.97? The sign said $4.99!"
Hilde smiled indulgently at the customer.
"That was per pound, ma'am."
The customer was livid. Her child began screaming even louder, kicking his tiny feet into his mother's chest. I'll bet that hurts. "Per POUND? How can you possibly get away with charging THAT MUCH for banana's?" Hilde's indulgent smile began to crust over.
"You see, ma'am, besides the fact that we are in the middle of the desert and far from anywhere we can grow bananas, they've got some kind of fungus plague in the banana groves. They might even go extinct."
The customer was not convinced. "Take them off, then." Hilde's smile was definitely about to crack. She pushed void. Duo shook his head as he finished filling the bags, then saw the customer off.
Hilde shook her head at Duo, who had unfortunately already used up the pretense of studying his feet. Her smile was gone, but there was a slightly repulsive compassion in her purple eyes. "Duo, what are you doing here? Don't you like this job?" He nodded dishonestly, trying to look mildly ashamed. "I know you can do this! Duo, you're a computer genius! Are you honestly telling me you can't work a foolproof cash register?" He wanted to remark that "foolproof" meant that only fools could use it. Instead, he said,
"No, that's not it. It's just…my heart's not really in it today. I'm sorry."
Hilde gave a muffled sigh. "Oh well. Hey, look, it's 7:00, so why don't you just clock out for today, ok? We can try again tomorrow." Duo nodded, causing his long brown braid to bob up and down, catching on the knot in his work apron. "See ya'." Good thing she doesn't know about my night job…
As Duo walked back out, the Strip was just beginning to light up in the distance. He considered phoning Heero for a ride, but decided he was probably busy setting up their new apartment. Besides, it was a pretty evening. To one side lay the city of Las Vegas, an overwhelming morass of lights, sound, and the rise and fall of a thousand lost souls trying their luck. To the other side, across a vacant lot with some scattered weeds and a boarded up gas station stretched the desert, resplendent and orange in the setting sun. His stomach rumbled. Hungrily, he gazed across the desert, at the open, twilit sky. Duo decided that the apartment could wait, and turned down the street, toward the desert. Now was the time to hunt.
Huliana was in a panic. An hour ago, everything had been, well, what passed for normal at the Black Rose manor: they had been sitting down to a nice, tense dinner with some of the most powerful leaders and spies of the Night World (all of them, as usual, feeling pretty powerless), when Talia had complained of a headache and retreated to her room. Now she had disappeared, tearing out of the mansion with tears streaming down her face. Knowing her, she had fled to her favorite area sanctuary, a tiny Catholic prayer chapel a few blocks away. If she didn't find her there, however, Huliana had no idea where to look next. In her blind hurry to get to the church, she came quickly around a corner without looking ahead. She crashed into someone.
Huliana and the boy tumbled to the pavement. In a flash, he disentangled himself and stood, spinning into a fighting stance. Huliana blinked. The boy's enormous brown braid spun too, whipping through the air to hit him in the face. Looking down at her, he pretended not to notice. She looked up at him quizzically.
"I'm sorry, uh, sir. I wasn't watching where I was going."
The boy relaxed his stance, odd purple eyes twinkling, and extended his hand to help her up. "No harm done. Where are you in such a hurry to get to?" Huliana looked at him warily, but accepted his help and got to her feet.
"Well, umm…" she trailed off hopefully. He stared for a moment, uncomprehending, then started.
"Oh! I'm Duo." He beamed at her winningly.
"Right. Duo, then. I was just headed to the chapel over on Calle del Sol." She figured there was no harm in telling him that. "Oh, and my name's Huliana." Don't call me Hula if you want to live.
With a false note of casual interest, he asked, "Oh, are you religious, then?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm going to meet a friend. Listen, um, Duo. It was nice to meet you, but I really ought to be going now…" Duo wilted, then brightened.
"Oh, that's alright. I was headed about that way, too. I could walk with you." She looked at him skeptically. "Can't be too careful in this town, you know." Huliana shook her head, laughing, and set off again for the church. As they walked, he continued his effort to make conversation. "I was raised Catholic. Never really got into it, though." He looked away. Huliana decided to change the subject. She saw that he was wearing an apron and name tag.
"So, do you work at Albertson's?"
Duo looked down. He saw the apron and blushed. "No, I just steal their clothes." He beamed at her. "Actually, I just started working there about a week ago. It's not a career or anything. I'm kind of…between jobs."
Huliana stifled a laugh. She nodded in a way she hoped looked sympathetic, and said, "Yeah, the job market's not what it used to be. Especially around here." She looked back toward the Strip. "Tourism never really picked back up after…you know. September 11th." Now it was Duo's turn to look around awkwardly.
"So, what do you do?"
Huliana answered without really thinking, then regretted it. "Oh! I've got a Forensic Science degree from the University of Colorado." She wanted to smack herself for giving that away so flippantly. She thought she saw Duo's eyes cloud over for a moment, but then it was gone. He stepped away from here, throwing his hands up in a mock-defensive gesture.
"Whatever I did, I didn't do it! Honest!"
Huliana laughed, which only provoked Duo to beam at her even brighter.
"So what's a Forensic Scientist doing in Las Vegas? Do you work for the police department?"
Huliana drew in a slow breath, then said, carefully, "Not exactly." Duo nodded knowingly.
"'Nuff said."
Huliana nearly doubled over with relief. There were plenty of private investigators in Las Vegas, and though few needed much in the way of forensic science, he had probably assumed she worked for one of them. That was very good, as she saw it. Anyone in Las Vegas who knew anything about the Night World would have heard of Thierry. Moreover, their association could lose her, or worse, Thierry, some rather important friends. Since Duo seemed to have opted for companionable silence, she took the opportunity to study him for a while. Besides the fighter's reflexes that he had exhibited when she had crashed into him earlier, he moved with a flippant, predatory grace. His eyes were an odd shade of purple, but besides that, his eyes were dilated beyond the necessary human level for the twilit scene in front of them. From these she deduced that he was probably some type of shapeshifter, whose animal form hunted at twilight, possibly with the sun in its eyes. She watched him as unobtrusively as possible. The way he turned his head to give her a quizzical look was very birdlike. Definitely a bird… Suddenly, the quizzical look processed in her mind, and Huliana looked away. He's also kind of cute, in a silly way…
She realized that they had reached the Calle del Sol, and that she needed to turn. She looked up at Duo.
"Well, this is my turn. It was nice to meet you." She smiled at him almost flirtatiously.
"Ok! I hope I see you around sometime!" His smile was very flirtatious. She giggled a little, waving as he turned to walk away. Suddenly remembering Talia, she turned and half-ran all the way to the church.
A/N: Just so everyone knows, we do have the next two chapters written, but will not post them until some one reviews. In other words: please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please review or we will hold the next chapters ransoms.