Warning: A bit of gooey shounen-ai-ness.
Disclaimer: If the Easter Bunny gives anyone any chocolate pilots, I wanna know about it. =P (Oh, and, all the best characters in this story were made by someone else, darnit. So don't sue me.)
~~~~~~~~~~Episode Seventy-Nine: Invasion Force
"There are two kinds of men who never amount to much; those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else." ~Cyrus CurtisApril 17th, 1903
Duo, my precious,
It's been so long since you've written back to me, and I'm more and more afraid for you with every day that passes. I beg of you, don't go on with this life of sin you've chosen. If it's too difficult to make up your mind on your own, I'll help you...after all these years, you must know I'd give up everything to help my sweet little potato dumpling. I only want what's best for you, can you understand that? I love you so very dearly, Duo. You're the reason I'm getting my health back, and to show that I'm serious, I'm coming to London to visit you, and to talk to you about your 'little problem.' I can't wait to see your darling smile in person again. Take care of yourself, my little angel, and be good.
All my love,
Helen
**********What was left of the 'original' staff of Bridlewood were in a bit of a disagreement about the changes happening around the manor. Elsie, having served in more than one household for many years, had seen servants come and servants go, and it was simply a way of life. The business of tending to the needs of the wealthy was all about hiring and firing, and not about making lifelong friends, in her opinion. Doris and Bethany were rather disappointed that Heero had been let go, now that they were finally used to his laid-back style of household governance, but they weren't about to quit in protest over it. Trowa, Quatre, Hilde, and especially Duo, felt stuck.
They envied Arthur in that he could lead a comfortable life on his own at the back property line no matter what went on in the house. None of them had the luxury of telling Otto what they thought of him while the country was still mired in an unemployment crisis, so at Heero's urging, the four of them grudgingly held their tongues and kept their jobs.
Now the staff was being gathered in the kitchen to welcome some new arrivals. The seven remaining regulars stood around in a glob in the middle of the kitchen, chatting, drinking coffee, and reading magazines until Otto marched downstairs with his usual stern expression and barked at them to get in line. Then he wasn't happy with the arrangement of the line and shuffled them around in order of authority, placing Duo between Elsie and Bethany and leaving the outdoor boys down at the end somewhere. Otto was picking at and straightening their uniforms all the while, shaking his head at Duo's denims, which had integrated themselves into his work clothes somehow. When the big bear stalked back up the stairs for a moment, the servants dared to whisper amongst themselves.
"What do you suppose he's up to?"
"Must be new people arrivin' t'day."
"We've been doing fine on our own, haven't we?"
"I don't care who they are, I know I'm not gonna like 'em."
"What's taking him so long?"
Magically summoned, Otto came plunking back down the stairs with, not one or two, but five new employees in tow. They filed in after him and formed a second line, directly across from the first, and those who were bold enough began to look over their new co-workers, silently judging them. There was a tallish, dignified-looking man of about thiry with tautly-combed black hair and a matching moustache, an equally tall woman with straight, shoulder-length hair of such a bright red that it made everyone's eyes hurt, a pair of girls in their early twenties, one plump and dark-skinned with her hair pulled back into a bun, and the other pale, thin, and a bit horse-faced with short, stringy hair that didn't seem to have any colour at all. The fifth was a sandy-haired boy of roughly sixteen, who kept looking the younger members of staff up and down, oddly.
"I'll make this as brief as possible," said Otto, as stiff-necked and authoritarian as ever. "We have some new additions to the staff today, and I'll expect you all to behave appropriately towards them."
As Otto stepped towards the moustached man, the man stepped forward automatically, hands behind him and nose in the air like he was the king of France. He wore an elegant and quite costly-looking black suit, like the kind Heero used to wear, only posher, and the way he looked down his nose at the others gave the distinct impression that he was doing Otto a favour by being there at all. Otto introduced him as Bertram Augustus Something-or-other, a ghastly, hyphenated surname that sounded like it had entirely too many 'F's in it. There was a lengthy dissertation about the previous houses he had served in, references from other wealthy families, and the credentials he had collected over his fourteen-year career as a professional servant. When it was all finished, Bertram Augustus gave a curt nod and a haughty 'Good morning' to the crew before stepping back in line. He was to be the new butler.
Next, the red-headed woman with the angular face stepped forward in her high-heeled boots, striped cotton dress and clinical white apron, bouncing on the balls of her feet and smiling broadly through a substance on her lips that wasn't quite rouge, but made her mouth glossy and more noticeable. Her emerald eyes were positively dancing at the prospect of meeting new people. "This is Merlyn," Otto continued, particularly in Duo's direction. "She'll be your new sous-chef."
"Hello, all!" Merlyn tweeted in a voice that was not only very sharp and very English, but very upper-class. "I know we're all going to get along splendidly, aren't we?"
"Sous-chef?" Duo asked in a suspicious tone. "What's that mean?"
"It means she'll be directly under you," Otto said, flapping one hand in the breeze as he searched for a more dignified way of putting it. "...culinarily speaking..."
Merlyn's wide eyes latched onto Duo in his tidy white tunic, and she pranced right up to him, bending down to talk as if he were no more than a child. "Are you the head cook around here, then?" Her voice was sounding more and more like happy little bluebirds scratching their beaks on a chalkboard every minute.
"Yeah, that's me," Duo sneered a bit defensively.
"Oh, how jolly!" Merlyn chirped. "And look at that adorable little smock! I used to wear those when I was in private cooking schools, and that was quite a number of years ago! I've studied in France, Italy, Greece, Spain, and the Americas. Where did you study?"
Duo's face was frozen into a glare that had absolutely no effect on the perky woman. She was just too much. He pointed to the kitchen table. "Over there."
Merlyn looked at the table, looked back, then prodded him merrily in the shoulder and laughed heartily, thinking he was being sarcastic. "Oh, how jolly of you! Well, of course, I shouldn't think you've been anywhere yet, why, you're just a boy! But that's alright...I'm sure we'll get along splendidly anyway!" Adding a final shining smile, she stepped back in line and began looking over her new domain while the introductions continued. Duo just folded his arms and pouted, thinking that this was just the first step in elbowing him out of his job.
"Now, ladies, your positions are going to be shuffled a bit, in the interests of efficiency," Otto then told the housemaids. "Hilde and Bethany, you two will be strictly chambermaids from now on. Upstairs work only. Elsie, you are officially promoted to parlour maid, and Doris will be the housekeeper, so you'll all answer to her authority." The two new girls were too timid to step forward when Otto walked up to them next. "This is Pearl, our new laundry maid...and Grace, our scullery maid."
Pearl, the stoutish, dark-skinned girl, presumably named for her brilliant pearly teeth, without which she might have disappeared in the dark, smilied warmly and curtseyed with a mousey 'G'morning' in a soft, light Cockney. Stringy-haired Grace, with her shallow-set eyes, receding chin and gargantuan nose, just stood and stared at a spot over Bethany's shoulder, probably out the window. Her rather gormless expression was jostled eventually when Pearl jabbed her sharply in the side with one arm. Grace suddenly sprang to life, displaying her crooked teeth in a dim-witted grin, and curtseyed quickly. It was somewhat anti-climactic after Merlyn's bubbly display. Both girls had new black and white maids' uniforms on, identical to the other girls' clothes.
Finally, Otto came to the teenage boy, who was about Quatre's height with simple-cut sawdust-coloured hair and a red uniform jacket with brass buttons over black trousers. There was something unsettling about his smile. "And this is..." Otto walked up to the boy, apologetically clicking his fingers as he struggled to remember his name.
"Tristan," the boy supplied in a somewhat lower-class Catford-like accent.
"Tristan," Otto repeated disinterestedly, turning to Trowa with the vital information. "He'll be our new valet and hall porter, except when the carriage is needed, in which case he will also be the footman."
Trowa frowned. When he had to sit atop the carriage for hours and hours, it was a treat to hop down off his perch and stretch his legs while helping his passengers in and out. Not only that, but he thought he did perfectly well at both jobs, so this was a slight slap in the face.
Without further ceremony, Otto shuffled four of the new cards into his deck, leaving Bertram Augustus where he stood. The new line, in order of importance, was Doris, Elsie, Bethany, Hilde, Tristan, Duo, Merlyn, Pearl, Grace, Trowa, and Quatre. This was a much more significant event than it seemed at the time. "You are all now under the direction of the new butler, and I...do not exist." Appearing to say that he washed his hands of the whole lot of them, Otto turned on his heel and marched back to where Bertram Augustus Something-or-other stood, to deliver a final set of instructions. During that time, nobody moved, for awhile.
Duo stood and waited very innocently, but became slowly aware that Tristan, the upstairs staffer to his immediate right, was smiling at him. Turning his head briefly, Duo smiled back, but Tristan's face kept stretching and stretching, no matter how many questioning looks Duo gave him. Eventually, while Otto and the butler were heavily engaged, Tristan leaned towards Duo and slowly whispered in a soft, light tone, ".....you've got lovely hair."
Duo looked surprised, and a little squeamish, but smilied anyway. "Thanks."
Tristan leaned closer. ".....I made me own uniform."
The chef forced himself to pretend to look at the fine sewing job and nodded. "Very nice."
".....would you like to try it on?"
This time, Duo's eyes widened, and he swallowed. "Uh...no, thanks."
".......can I try yours on?"
Duo went totally bug-eyed and sidled right into Merlyn, who hadn't noticed the exchange but grinned at him all the same. There was no time for any more whispering, thankfully, as Otto left and Bertram Somebody-or-other took the stage, clearing his throat at the line. "Stand up straight, please," he said in a clipped and slightly nasal voice. The line shuffled around a bit. "As far as any of you are concerned, I have no name, you will address me as 'Sir,' is that understood?"
"Yes, sir," the line responded jaggedly. The rapid, flowing way in which 'Sir' strung his commands into one long sentence was meant to be intimidating, and it worked.
"Look to your right," said 'Sir.' Everyone looked to their right, except Doris, who was on the end. "That person will have authority by proxy over you at all times, when I am not present. Look to your left..." Everyone looked to their left, except Quatre, who was on the miserable other end. "If that person makes a complaint against you that you have falsely accused or otherwise abused their position, you will be dealt with appropriately. All disputes come to me, all questions come to me once...after which time I shall expect you to answer them on your own." Everyone looked back to centre as they realised they were in deep trouble.
"The new rules are as follows. No smoking in the house or anywhere on the grounds. No drinking except while accompanied by myself or the housekeeper, and with our express permission. No slacking, horseplay, or general tomfoolery during working hours. Ladies will not have gentleman guests in their rooms. Meals will be taken at seven, one, and seven, with tea and elevenses. If you miss a meal, you will continue working until the next one. No leaving the property between ten in the evening and six in the morning. No animals allowed in the kitchen or anyplace else where foodstuffs are stored. No speaking to the family or guests unless spoken to first. No taking food from the kitchen to your rooms. No obstreperous attitudes. No--"
Duo suddenly felt a sharp and very unwelcome squeeze being inflicted upon his posterior. He yelped loudly and leapt out of the line, one hand flailing and the other hand clutching his sore bottom where he had been pinched. Wheeling around, he glared frighteningly at Tristan, who looked pure as new-fallen snow, somehow.
'Sir' was not amused. "Do you have a problem with the rules?" he scolded the chef.
Duo's lips flapped open and shut, unable to verbalize the assault without blushing all over. He could only wave his free hand vaguely in Tristan's direction and sputter a bit. "I...but...he..."
'Sir' flicked his eyebrow at Duo, twitched his moustache, and reached into his inside coat pocket, taking out a tiny leather-bound notebook and a little pencil sharpened to skin-piercing specifications. "Maxwell, is it?" he asked, flipping open to the first page.
"...yeah..."
The butler jotted in his notebook, whilst clearly indicating to everyone exactly what he was jotting and why. "Seventeenth of April...Maxwell.....disruptive...and.....disrespectful." He finished the note with a pert dot and put the notebook and pencil away. "Back in line, please."
Gaping in disbelief, Duo hung his head and returned to his place, fuming. 'Sir' had made at least one new enemy that day.
"An excellent example, as it happens," 'Sir' continued. "If your name appears in my notebook too many times, you may notice a negative alteration in your pay packet at the end of the week. I expect those are enough rules for the time being, and I shall be meeting with you in pairs or more throughout the day to administer further instructions. Allow me to confirm what many of you already suspect, that it is my responsibility to return this house to its former order and efficiency. The steward tells me there had been far too much laxity lately. It's high time we all tightened our braces. Standards of performance are rising throughout Europe..."
He went on and on for about twenty minutes, and nobody cared, at least nobody who had been at the breakfast table that morning. Even those who had made life exceedingly difficult for Heero during his first weeks at the manor now wanted him back desperately, but it was too late. Everything was going to change, and one of the least popular concept Bertram Augustus Somebody-or-other introduced was that he strongly discouraged fraternization between the upstairs staff and the downstairs staff.
Thank God, Duo thought initially, glancing sideways to his right with apprehension. Tristan wasn't smiling at him now, but he could start up again at any second.
**********Two things had greatly impressed Relena during her luncheon with Treize that had stuck fervently in her mind ever since. One was that her brother needed a loyal group of fighters on the payroll to get things done that would capture the attention of Cinq's selection committee. The other thing was the magnificent way in which that strange group of girls burst into Lady Une's house, secured it, and even took hostages in a matter of seconds. True, the control they exerted fell apart after a time, but it was still fun to watch, and though she wasn't sure why, she liked their style. She wanted to have a word with them.
Relena wasn't as surprised as she thought she'd be when Heero appeared that day, clearing the way for the girls to escape. The way it happened suggested that they knew each other, but not necessarily that they were working together; reason somewhat dictated that anyone involved with Lord Jeffrhyss would have to have their socks pulled up a great deal further than those girls' were, strategy-wise. Still, Heero's involvement was a stroke of luck. If she could find him, she could press him for information about the warrior women. If she could find Duo, he would surely lead her straight to Heero, since they were so sickeningly close. It seemed so simple, and so with all this in mind, Relena dressed herself in commoners' clothes, pinned her hair up under a scruffy straw hat, and left her Southhampton hideaway for London, intent on finding those girls.
It was fortunate that she had on a good, sturdy pair of walking shoes, for she travelled at least a dozen circles around her old neighbourhood in the peasant's disguise, eyeing Bridlewood from every angle for a glimpse of the braided chef. It was a safe gamble that he might sneak out of the house between meals, now that Heero was employment-challenged, so it was all a matter of time, and also of the thickness of her shoe leather. After pacing around the block so many times, it felt like she was getting slightly shorter.
Then, around two in the afternoon, she spotted him, ducking past the hedge along the south lawn and sprinting down the street. He seemed to have a picnic basket hanging off his right arm. Relena didn't once think about how silly she looked, chasing after him in a full-length skirt, and soon the youngsters were following each other in matching Hansom cabs, then a train, then another set of cabs crossing nearly the full breadth of London in one continuous swoop. Every now and then, Duo got a tingly feeling on the back of his neck, but at no time could he see anyone tailing him. He dismissed the feeling as frayed nerves that had every right to be frayed.
Duo jumped out of the cab in front of Catherine's, tossing a coin up to the driver, and quickly snaked his way through the restaurant and up to Heero's room, with the basket, vanishing from sight. Just as he was tackling his friend to the bed, demanding a badly-needed hug and launching into a full-scale whine about his terrible day, Relena was sizing up the building he had disappeared into, wondering if her theory was all that well thought-out after all.
...a bar? He spends his afternoons in a seedy, grungy, common bar? ...I hope he wasn't sneaking off here while I was in charge... Actually, it might have explained a few things. Relena held her nose and stepped inside.
It wasn't nearly as seedy and grungy and common on the inside as it looked on the outside, though some of the customers certainly qualified. The decorating was tasteful, there were some delicious (and familiar) smells emanating from the kitchen, and the spunky henna-haired barmaid who appeared to be in charge was decidedly non-threatening. Relena showed herself to one of the smaller, cleaner tables without any discarded plates on it, and sat down under her scruffy straw hat. She couldn't see Duo anywhere; the trail had suddenly gone cold.
Within a minute, someone came to wait on her, a girl about her own age with flowing dark hair, big bright eyes, and a happy bounce to her step. She wore one of several cornflower blue dresses with white aprons that seemed to be milling about the pub, and she presented Relena with a menu. "Welcome to Catherine's, would you like a drink to start with?" she said in a sweet, chipper voice.
As Relena looked up and met the girl's eyes, bells rang, for both of them. They each knew they had seen the other one before, but where? "Just tea," Relena uttered, trying to fit the face into its proper context. The waitress was frantically trying to do the same, but tried not to let it show as she nodded and walked quickly to the back of the room, through a sea of busy tables. Relena followed her closely with both eyes, searching for a clue.
Biting her fingernail as she was wont to do in a crisis, Adeela scurried behind the counter and waved over the first of her siblings to come into view. Adeela whispered to Nashida, and they both looked over at the blonde girl under the straw hat. Neither one had a concrete answer to the problem of who she was and why she seemed so familiar, so they called more of their clan over next to the menu board, until there were five sisters all whispering and looking over their shoulders at the not-so-stranger. Yasmeen saw them all clustered together as she was taking the orders of two local merchants for two halves of lager and a hotpot each, crinkled her brow in confusion, and stalked over to them. There was more whispering among the six, after which Yasmeen tried very subtley to peek over Hessa's shoulder at the golden-haired girl. Yasmeen put the pieces together with greater speed and gallons more ease, and she gasped and ducked down behind the counter, pulling her siblings along with her.
"It's Lady Peacecraft," she whispered as she crouched next to a shelf of clean glassware, and her sisters erupted in panicky whispers of their own.
"What's she doing here?"
"Do you think she's found out we were in her house uninvited?"
"What if she's punishing Quatre for what we did?"
"...doesn't she look like that girl who was with Treize the other day?"
"Everybody be calm. We mustn't assume anything..."
There was a little silver bell sitting on the counter, for customers to ring in the event that there was nobody available to serve them. Someone rang it, and the sisters looked up. The golden-haired girl had her hat off, and she was leaning right over the bar, regarding the group with a cool eye. She seemed...amused. "Can we talk?"
**********"...I swear, one more minute of that guy, and I woulda lost it." Duo punctuated his sad tale with hand jabs and rolling eyes, but it still paled in comparison to the original. During a lull, he leaned over the open picnic basket, which sat on the writing desk, and pointed a swirly finger at what remained inside. "Oh, her little blankey's in here, and her toy mouse, her jingle ball, and some kitty treats. I'll bring the rest tonight, I just don't trust her in that house with the new rules. I mean, I can't very well lock her in the cellar for the day, just so she doesn't get caught in the kitchen, can I?"
Sitting on the bed in his pinstriped waistcoat with Shadow curled in his arms, Heero nodded. The smoky gray cat had behaved herself very well during the speedy journey through town, and now she was getting fidgety after spending too much time in the basket. "I don't know what Catherine will say," Heero wondered out loud, stroking her furry head and scratching behind her ears. "Maybe it's best if she doesn't find out."
"Sure, sure...I just couldn't leave her there." Duo pushed himself off the desk, strode over to the bed, and tickled Shadow under her chin, to which she responded with a meow and a purr. "And anyway, she misses her Daddy! Don't you, Honeypaws? Yeahhh..."
They each gave her a quick cuddle, after which Heero carried her back to the writing desk and began unloading her toys from the basket, while offhandedly thinking about the story of Duo's day. There seemed to be some pieces of information that were absent. "So...what exactly made you leap out of the line and yell like that?"
"Oh." Up until that point, Duo hadn't decided whether or not to tell Heero about the new valet with the busy hands. In the end, it came down to his own ruthless honesty, however, and he knew he couldn't keep it a secret. "Well...I had a...problem...with one of the new people."
"What kind of problem?"
A deep breath, and another deep breath. "...okay, see...there's this guy. Tristan. He's..." The boys stared at each other during the pocket of silence, lengthening it in Duo's perception. "...at the risk of sounding hypocritical, he's weird."
"Weird, how?" Heero asked, turning completely around to give Duo his full attention. "Was it something he said?"
Duo wasn't aware of it, but he was turning faintly red. Not only that, but he was fiddling with his hands and looking away a lot, two things he didn't do unless he was under severe duress. "Uh...at first it was...and then he..." He searched for words, and upon finding them, felt too self-conscious about speaking them out loud, even though the door was locked and there was only Shadow in the room with them, and she was too busy with her jingle ball anyway. He beckoned Heero closer, and Heero leaned away from the writing desk while Duo put his lips up close to his ear. As he whispered out the words he couldn't give full voice to, one hand reached back and pointed at his behind. When Duo stopped whispering and pulled back, he began to seriously worry about Heero's reaction.
Behind his everyday mask, Heero wanted to laugh out loud, and he didn't know why. It just sounded so silly that he couldn't believe it. In fact, after applying rational thought to the problem, he wasn't completely sure that he did believe it. His extra free time had seen him reading a lot more, and it was not unheard of for one half of a couple to use jealousy to manipulate the other half into doing what he or she wanted, at least on the pages of the latest literature, and Duo did potentially have an ulterior motive for making Tristan up. He wanted himself and Heero to live together in their own space, apart from the manor and apart from the pub. Heavy travel time was the best reason for moving out of the pub, and the story of philandering Tristan provided a reason for getting Duo out of the manor. While he wasn't convinced one way or the other, Heero decided not to overreact or underreact, and just wait until Duo showed his hand. He looked at Duo with his usual blankness. "Want me to break his legs?"
Duo laughed. He also wasn't sure if his partner was kidding or not. "Sweet thought, but no. I can handle Tristan alright...just need to keep him from handling me." He rubbed the spot one more time, reflecting on the strength of Tristan's grip to be able to inflict such pain through such thick fabric, then retreated to the foot of the bed, where he sat down and flopped backwards with a sigh. There was just enough room for two people to manoeuver comfortably in the small suite, conservatively decorated with oak trim and royal blue wallpaper, and as Duo stretched out on one half of the single-sized bed, Heero slipped off his shoes and climbed onto the other half, leaning back against the wooden headboard and snatching the half-read newspaper off the bedside table as he crossed his legs at the ankles.
They were positioned just so that Heero's feet landed somewhere alongside Duo's head, and the chef lazily tossed a hand back and clamped onto a piece of Heero's shin, as much of a hug as he could manage in his shattered condition. Heero looked up from his newspaper and smiled. "Tired?"
"Mm."
Heero looked back down at the paper, suddenly with a pencil in his hand, and seemed to be studying one section in particular. "It's a lot of work, dashing back and forth like this, isn't it?"
"Mm-hm..."
"Maybe we should look for something else...something closer to the manor...there's some nice-sounding places in Camden Town..."
Duo's eyes opened, and he sat up slowly. He'd been hinting at just such an idea for days, but this was the first measurable progress made on the subject. He turned at the waist with a giddy smile. "Really? Wow...that sounds suspiciously like...you and me moving in together."
Heero circled an item in the paper, looking purposely ambivalent. "I suppose it does."
"And gee, Camden Town's, like, that far away on the map," the chef added, holding his finger and thumb a half-inch apart to illustrate. "It'd shave a whole lot of travel time off! This is a nightmare, flying back and forth! As soon as I get here, I get to spend about twenty minutes with you, and then I have to turn back!" In reality, it meant so much more than that. Aspects of their relationship were under serious threat from exhaustion and constant separation, and there were still many delights Duo wanted them to share but couldn't initiate while he was traipsing from one end of the city to the other over and over and over. Duo slipped his shoes off as well and crawled up between Heero and the wall, snuggling up to his side and reading the exposed page of newspaper by the light of the gas lamp on the bedside table. It appeared to be a list of flats for rent, some of them only a ten-minute ride from Bridlewood. Duo wrapped his arms around Heero's waist and nuzzled his shoulder appreciatively. "We'd have a lot more time together."
Leaning his head against Duo's, Heero circled another possible dwelling advertisement, feeling the blissful calm he missed so much during the day. "Most likely."
"...and we'd be alone more often..."
"...with any luck..."
Heero's eyes were still attached firmly to the paper, but his tone of voice welcomed the little mouse who was practically crawling up his left side to get within kissing distance. Solitude and time were getting to be such rare treasures that Duo didn't want to waste one second, and he squeezed ever closer, inhaling the slightly spicy scent wafting off Heero's skin. Giving in gladly, he pressed his lips to Heero's neck, making him smile and curl up a bit as he snaked his left arm around Duo's middle. Treating that arm as a green light, Duo angled his head forward and added tiny nips and licks as he moved from Heero's neck up to his ear, and then slowly down his jawline. As he did this, his spiky bangs flopped right in Heero's face, and the ex-butler winced, trying to blow them away as both his hands were occupied. Duo stopped what he was doing and laughed, and for a moment, it was as if they had no troubles at all.
Their best kisses usually began with a bit of hesitation, a moment of shared breath and wandering eye contact, but just as the tips of their noses brushed against each other, entertaining thoughts of drawing their lips together in the silence, Heero's spy sense told him he was being watched, and he stopped. First he looked aside, and then Duo, and they realized that Shadow was sitting in a clump on the writing desk with her forepaws tucked underneath her, watching them curiously. It was silly, but they didn't feel alone. Heero unfolded the newspaper as far as it would stretch and looked at Shadow. "Excuse us..." Purely to get another delicious laugh out of Duo, he then pulled his mouse down to lie flat on the bed and draped the newspaper over their heads, and Duo did indeed laugh, but it was quickly muffled with a kiss. Shadow kept watching the newspaper as it seemed to shift and writhe on its own, unable to see the hands and lips meshing underneath, but eventually lost interest and went back to her jingle ball. Her two-leggers would return eventually, she had no doubt.
Sadly, the little game only lasted a few minutes, before Duo pulled back, leaned his head against Heero's, and sighed. "...Heero?"
"...hn?"
"...what time is it?"
Reluctantly, Heero folded back the newspaper and looked at his pocketwatch in the light. "Ten to four."
".....uhngh..." Duo folded his corner back as well, disappointed. They propped themselves up on an elbow each and gazed at each other for a bit. "I have to go."
Heero shrugged and nodded, and Duo crawled over top of him to get off the bed and put his shoes back on. It was a standard farewell from then, with a promise that Duo would try to duck curfew later that night--indeed, he would have to, because there was no way in Heaven or on Earth that the new butler would let him up to 'their' old room on the second floor. Once he was gone, Shadow made a grand leap from the desk to the bed, and snuggled up next to her pet, sensing that he needed cheering up all of a sudden. Heero sighed, scratched Shadow behind the ear with one hand, and straightened out the newspaper with the other, looking for that perfect home that would theoretically solve all their problems. Ever since Morocco, he had been looking over his shoulder, waiting for that terrible retribution to come falling out of the sky at him for striking out at his former master, but days had passed, and nothing bad had happened. It was starting to feel like he might just get away with it and lead a normal life.
**********After being found out, the six sisters led the blonde not-so-stranger into a meeting room, one that was on hold for a business dinner for some middle management executives later in the day. Relena held her hat in both hands, but left her hair pinned up, and stepped in from the door as one of the girls closed it for her. Then the siblings made sort of a loose semi-circle in front of their visitor, but stood well back from her as if fearing some terrible vengeance for the secrets they kept. The first words out of the girl's mouth seemed to support that theory. "I regret that we haven't been properly introduced. My name is Relena Peacecraft."
Yasmeen, in her capacity as senior spokeswoman, waited for something else, like 'You owe me four months rent' or something equally unpleasant. Nothing else came, though, and that threw Yasmeen off guard considerably. She shrugged with her eyebrows. "...alright."
"You do remember, don't you?" Relena prodded. "The mansion? The invasion? My uncle at the receiving end of your sword?"
Indelicately, the girls all looked at one another. It had been a full year since they had taken up temporary residence in this woman's cellar, and she still hadn't twigged. But she remembered the confrontation in the parlour of the evil jackals holding their brother prisoner. Unsure of how much to reveal, Yasmeen had to choose her words with extreme care now. "Of course. We just have to be careful, speaking of our dealings in public."
"Naturally. And, um...the person you were there to...'collect'...was it your brother? Is he well, might I ask?"
More troubled glances were exchanged among the siblings. It was the mother of all coincidences, landing right at their feet, but the eldet sister kept her composure nonetheless. "He's...resting comfortably."
"That's good to hear," Relena said. "I'll admit I found you by chance today, but I've been looking for you. I have a proposition to make, to all of you." Recalling what Milliardo had taught her about taking the position of power in any conversation as quickly as possible, she laid her hat on the table and helped herself to a chair, swinging one leg over the other and dangling her shoe off the end of her toe languidly. She felt totally in control. "I was very impressed with what you did...I think if your energies were directed at a specific, long-term goal, you could do great things."
"What did you have in mind?" asked Yasmeen.
Relena glanced casually down at her hat on the table, and ran a finger around its perimeter, keeping up the illusion of being totally relaxed. Rationally, though, she knew these women were quite dangerous and could chop her up into mince pies if they wanted to. "My brother has need of...assistance, the kind that only people with your particular talents could provide. I shouldn't reveal too much too soon, but let me tell you...if you had a dispute with Count Khushrenada, the threat he represents is just the beginning. My brother is facing a much worse evil, and he could use some quality backup, at the right price."
"You're...offering us work??"
"Yes," the young Peacecraft answered simply. "We need our own force of private warfare...and, as I'm sure you can understand, one can't simply put an ad in the paper asking for thieves and assassins."
"True enough..." Yasmeen gnawed on her lower lip in thought, as her sisters began looking to her questioningly. "Would you excuse us for a moment?"
"Certainly."
The girls whirled around and bent over into a tight huddle, whispering amongst each other. One of the topics that was hushly passed around the circle was the unnecessary reminder that many of their family members were still in danger abroad, not just from Treize and Hassan, but as Quatre put it to them, from a whole nest of hornets that spread all over the globe looking for treasures to raid in support of their evil doings. There was the opinion that if they, as a family, were to combat such terrors, they would need a bit of practice, since the rescue operation of a few days ago was only a sloppy success at best. They still couldn't get over Miss Peacecraft's total ignorance about who they were and how they were already involved in her affairs, but there would be ample time to giggle about that later. All at once, they rose up out of the huddle, and Yasmeen took a few steps forward. "We're not saying no..."
Relena gazed up expectantly. "...but?"
"...but we can't very well say yes when we know so little about you."
"Understandable." Relena rose, gathered up her hat, and took a small white card from a pocket in her poor dress, handing it to the eldest sister. It had a Southhampton address on it, embossed in gold. "This is where you can find me. I'll give you some time to think it over, but please let me know if you're at least mildly interested before too many weeks have passed. We have to move on this situation sooner rather than later." Replacing her hat, its wide, round brim shading her face from the electric lights, Relena showed herself out of the meeting room, leaving the sisters to stare at the card and wonder. No matter how independant they were in everyday matters, they would require their brother's opinion on this one.
**********When Duo crept back into the house, with a brown shopping bag full of fresh herbs he'd grabbed on the way home for an alibi, it seemed like the new butler was lying in wait for him, looking down at his golden pocket watch and glaring disdainfully as the chef tried to sneak in a side door, less than successfully. Tea time had come and gone, and now he had to race around making dinner, which meant that he certainly didn't need the moustached man's self-important glare following all the way back to the kitchen, but that was exactly what he got anyway. When he was herded downtairs, he found that Merlyn had already taken care of tea and was half-way through planning dinner, without him.
Dumping the bag of herbs on the table, he retreated to Trowa and Quatre's room, where he hoped to find some sympathy, but found more chaos. Since the room was originally meant to house several servants and not just two, Grace and Pearl were commandeering half the room and hanging up old bedsheets to give themselves a little privacy. The boys were slightly resentful that the girls automatically took the half of the room that had the door to the bathroom in it, but said nothing to disrupt the peace. The three lads snuck off to the pantry then, it being the only place where they could find some immediate solace.
"I don't know if I like this," Quatre whispered. "I got put down in the notebook for wearing my outdoor shoes indoors. Nobody ever complained about it before, and it's not like they were even muddy! I would never bring muddy boots into the house!"
Trowa rubbed the back of his neck as he leaned on the shelves of canned goods. "That Tristan was following me all around the carriage house, asking if I wanted to feel the fabric of his jacket."
Duo half-laughed, glad to see that he wasn't the only target. "I'm probably gonna get another telling-off for missing a meal, but I think I've got worse problems..." The three of them leaned a little ways out of the pantry to watch Merlyn, as she stood at the counter chopping carrots. She had such a blazing quick action with the knife that ten carrots were peeled, trimmed, and chopped into cute little coins in under a minute. In less than another two minutes, eight potatoes were peeled, quartered, and dumped in a pot of water, and the carrots were set to steam next to them on the stove, all in swift, swooping movements with the delicacy of a ballet dancer and the precision of a watchmaker. Duo sighed. "That's it. I'm screwed."
Quatre patted his arm. "She's probably just trying to make a good first impression, that's all...and the others are just trying to do their jobs the best way they know how. I hate to say it, but that new butler has a point. When Lord Peacecraft was still alive, things were a lot more proper around here." The other two seemed less convinced that the changes were necessary, but for the sake of being friendly, they agreed to let it go and see if the situation improved. Before Quatre let Duo out of his sight, though, he pulled something from his pocket and stopped the chef with a hand on his arm. "Didn't you see this? It was in the mail this morning...I thought you would've opened it by now." He held out a letter that had been sitting on the counter for hours, unread.
Duo took the envelope and remembered that he had looked at it in passing that morning, and decided to put it off. It was from Helen, but judging by the tone her letters had been taking over the past weeks, he couldn't justify inflicting it on himself when he was already having such an up-and-down day. He shoved it in his pocket. "I'll open it later..." ...maybe. It can't possibly be good news, not after all this time. "Better get started on dessert before Merlyn grabs that out from under me, too..." Telling himself repeatedly that he was going to be nice to the evil usurper lady no matter how much it hurt, Duo went back to his work, for the moment.
~~~~~~~~~~
Next, in Episode Eighty: Things heat up as Duo and Heero give themselves permission to explore their physical relationship, while Merlyn becomes a pain and Trowa stumbles onto something sinful by accident.
Yow! Dinner's on the table, and I'm just ravenous. All that talk about carrots and potatoes didn't help much, either... *drool* =@_@= Anywho. Next eppy will be on April 28th. Laterz!