Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters in this story. They are owned by Bandai and several other companies, none of which I am part of.

My finger trembled as I reached for the keys of the phone.

"Duo, the phone won't bite you."

I glared at Wufei. "I am thinking about my approach."

"That's probably a good idea," he admitted, that smug look on his face again. "Remember last time?"

I thought about last time. "Hi," I had said, "I think you're cute. Want to go on a date?"

"What's wrong with that?" I asked now.

Wufei smirked. "You asked his little sister out instead."

I shrugged. "I just thought he had a high voice."

"She was six years old!"

"Okay," I held out my hand. "Wufei, I won't say anything stupid. I remember the bet, and believe me, I *don't* you want to win, Kay?" I glared at him.

"Just make the call."

"Fine." I took a breath and dialed the number quickly. I didn't want Wufei to see me chicken out.

"Hello?" Heero answered on the second ring. His voice made my breath catch in my throat.

"H-I" I squeaked, and then coughed. "I mean, Hi, Heero. This is Duo. Ah, Duo Maxwell. Remember me?"

"Duo. I remember. Wufei gave you my message?" He was so direct. I liked that.

"Yes. I mean, you knew he would, right? Wufei usually does what he says he'll do. Usually, I mean." I swallowed. I was babbling, but talking about Wufei seemed safer than talking about myself.

"I know."

Okay, now what? I took a breath. The first date was never a problem for me. I avoided looking at Wufei and turned, my elbow resting on my desk. "Yeah, about that. Wu-man said you wanted to get to know me better. I- I want to get to know you better, too. I mean, you seemed really nice and all, and Trowa and Wu like you. So…" I paused, listening to the other line. Heero was so quiet, he might have not even been there.

"So what I'm saying is do you want to have dinner with me? Tomorrow night?" I finished quickly.

Heero took a moment to answer, and for a split second, I thought he might actually not be there. Then, however, he said, "That's fine. I'll drive. Is 7:00 okay?"

I grinned. "That sounds great. See you then, Heero."

"See you then," Heero echoed, and hung up without saying goodbye.

I was beaming when I replaced the phone on the hook and looked up at Wufei. He was looking at me with an eyebrow raised.

"What?" I asked. "I thought that went well."

"Wu-man?" was all he said.

I grinned. "I think it suits you."

Quatre came up behind him just then and smiled at me. "He said yes?" he inquired.

I nodded happily.

"Good," Quatre agreed. "I don't really have time to chat, but I wanted to see how it went and wanted to kill two birds with one stone." He turned to Wufei. "Here, Wu-man. These are for the meeting today." He smiled at both of us and waved, hurrying back to whatever he was working on.

Wufei glared at me. "If that catches on, you'll be sorry," he promised, and turned, heading back to his own desk.

I switched on my computer, and spent ten minutes programming it to do my work for me. I spent the rest of the day playing Tenchu and daydreaming about tomorrow night.

                                                                                ***

"Look, Wufei!" I exclaimed. When he came running, I turned my computer monitor so he could see and showed him what I had been doing, using the mouse to manipulate the image on the screen. "It's a snowglobe, and you can shake it with the mouse, and the people inside scream!" I turned up the sound, and the little people on the screen screamed in high pitched voices as I waved the image around.

Wufei frowned. "I thought it was important, Duo. Some of us here actually work."

"I work," I said. "Anyway, you guys are lucky to have me. I have had five new job offers this week."

"Job offers on The Sims don't count," Wufei sneered.

I stuck out my tongue. "Like anybody works the last half hour of the day anyway."

Just then, Quatre and Trowa walked by. "Hey guys, it's Friday. I thought we could go home a few minutes early tonight," Quatre announced cheerily.

I switched off Deathscythe (that's what I named my computer) and jumped up. "Sounds good to me!" I exclaimed.

Quatre smiled at me. "So, tonight's the big night, Duo?"

I nodded. "I can't wait."

"Wufei, Trowa thinks it's sweet that two of your friends are dating," Quatre said. Trowa smiled a bit and nodded.

Wufei looked sideways at me, a half-smile on his face. "So do I, if Duo doesn't mess it up first. It's only the first date."

Quatre shook his head. "Wufei. If it's meant to be, nothing Duo can do will mess it up."

"Don't you guys think you're getting a little ahead of yourselves?" I asked, grabbing my coat and backing out of the office. "It's just dinner. What can possibly happen over dinner?"

                                                                                ***

The car ride to the restaurant was quiet. Normally I would have been cracking jokes the whole way, but Wufei's silly bet ran through my mind. Heero, as I'd already figured out, wasn't much of a talker. The silence started to get to me immediately, however, and so I made my first attempt at nice, benign small talk less than five minutes into the ride.

"So, ah… what restaurant are we going to?" I asked.

"Italian," Heero replied. "Do you like Italian food?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed quickly. "Who doesn't like Italian food?"

"Good," Heero responded, keeping his eyes on the road. Apparently he had to concentrate really hard to drive decently. If it wasn't for Wufei's dumb comments, I would have said something by now. But I was being good.

Lucky for me, the restaurant wasn't very far from my house. Heero parked in two spaces and we went inside. My date had made reservations in advance, so we were seated almost immediately. He ordered some round, crispy things for an appetizer and veal parmesan. The waiter nodded, and kept telling him how good the food was tonight. Then he asked me what I wanted.

"Uhm… do you just have spaghetti and meatballs?" I asked. I had looked and couldn't find that, except on the kids menu. The waiter nodded stiffly and wrote that down.

"And what would you like to drink?" he asked.

"Shirley Temple," I ordered, and grinned at the waiter. He was a very good waiter. If he thought my order was strange, he didn't show it. He only nodded and repeated my order under his breath as he wrote it down.

When we were waiting for our food, Heero decided to pick up where I'd left off in the small talk department. He picked a very good subject that I wished I'd thought of: our friends.

"So how long have you known Trowa and Wufei?"

I thought about that. "I'm not sure," I said after a moment. "I knew Quatre in high school. Then he went off to college and we kept in touch. He met Trowa one summer in Europe. He introduced us when they got back. Then when he graduated and took over Winner Enterprises, I met Wufei. He and Wufei had known each other for a little while before that, and I had seen him around in mutual social occasions, but I didn't really get to know him until we both started working for Quatre." I took a drink of my Shirley Temple.

Heero nodded. "I went to college with Trowa and Wufei."

"I know," I replied. "Apparently they mention you a lot," I added, thinking of an earlier conversation.

Heero decided not to question that last remark, although I would have if I had been him. "Where did you go to college?" he asked instead.

"No. I joined the military after high school," I said.

"So you must have had a knack with computers beforehand," he guessed. "You joined the military to work with computers and got a few degrees in the meantime. But Quatre already knew you were an expert, and would have hired you even without the formal education." He paused for a minute, thinking. "Air force?" he asked after a moment.

I nodded. "How could you tell?"

"The hair," Heero said with a straight face. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, so I laughed heartily to let him know I appreciated his sense of humor.

His appetizer came just then, and Heero thanked the waiter. I looked at it with interest. "What is that?" I asked.

"Calamari," Heero replied. "Want to try it?"

I nodded and bit part of a crunchy circle. Inside, it was chewy and rubber-band-y and tasted like fish and told Heero so.

"Of course," Heero said. "It's squid."

"Squid?" My eyes widened and I spit it into my napkin discreetly. I'm sure Heero didn't notice.

Our dinner came just then, and it was plain spaghetti just like I ordered. This was one of those nice restaurants, too, with free water that you don't have to order and an extra fork in case you drop one. I like that. I told Heero, but he just snorted into his wine and covered his mouth with his napkin a moment before looking at me with those piercing blue eyes.

"Duo, do you want to go to Dairy Queen for dessert?" he asked.