Get Rel

NOTE:  I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters.

By the time that Duo had gotten back to Bobby's house from college, by 1:00 pm, he knew that something was different, really different.  It started when he greeted Bobby and Bobby just gave him an up and down look before an amuse smile crossed his face.

That was just the start of it, the next odd thing to happen was while Duo was strolling down the street in search of something to do to keep him from boredom; he passed by two gossiping girls who shot him a glance then turned away and giggled.  At first Duo thought they were laughing at something about his attire but when he stopped in front of a store window to have a look at himself he found nothing wrong with his clothes.

The final oddity of the day was when Salem had approached Duo while he was drinking a chilled apple cider at a small café observing the residents from behind his darkly tinted sunglasses.  "Hey," greeted the kid.

"Hey," returned Duo putting on his 'Selfie voice'.

"May I sit down?" Salem inquired.  Duo just gestured to the chair beside him and Salem sat down upon it with a very nervous expression.  Obviously the kid wanted to talk or tell Duo-Selfie-something.  "Um…I just wanted to let you know that I admire you."

At that moment Duo had been sipping his apple cider, only to end up choking on it to keep from spraying the drink all over the café table and Salem.  "What?" Duo coughed, forgetting about his alter ego's voice.

"I admire you," Salem repeated as he looked out the window and saw someone, who appeared to be Ricky waving him to come outside.  "Pardon me," he implored Duo before leaving the former gundam pilot to his own thoughts.

Admire?! Scoffed Duo as he was headed up the stairs of the Collins' house to Heero's room. What the hell could he have been talking about?  What is it about me that he should ad…mi…re?  Realization hit Duo at that point in his train of thought, causing him to glance down at his disguise.  Oh God, he means he's attracted to me!  Ew, gross!

Granted Duo was fine when other men 'admired' him as a man but to have guy 'admire' as a 'woman' was a completely different story.  It felt very uncomfortable, and didn't settle very well with Duo.  The very thought of Salem like-liking him was enough to make Duo quicken his pace up the stairs to Heero's room/attic.

When he opened the door and dashed up the stairs Duo was greeted with the sight of Heero keeping watch at the window and Hilde lying out on the bed, kicking her legs back and forth.

"Hey, has anyone been acting weird towards you two at all today?" Duo inquired quickly, he desperately wanted to be assured that he wasn't being singled out or becoming paranoid.

"Duo, we're here to exchange theories and suspicions," reminded Heero in his 'no nonsense, all business' tone of voice.

"I realize that, Heero, but…" Duo paused for a moment as a sense that someone might accidentally overhear them if he didn't restrain his volume, "people have been acting very strangely towards me today, ever since Music History class."

"No surprise there," laughed Hilde and Heero just snorted his agreement.  This just rubbed Duo the wrong way, causing him to glare his rare death glares that could possibly match the intensity of Heero's normal death glares.  It made Hilde stop rolling in laughter at least.

"No, really, really weird behavior.  Like Salem, he just told me that he admires me!" Duo explained.

"Perhaps he's attracted to Selfie," suggested Heero in a voice that clearly said that he found no point to this conversation.

"That's what I think too but there were some girls who were giggling at me, how do you explain that?" challenged Duo crossing his arms over his fake breast.

"Your masculine legs or panty lines," Heero offered as he scrutinized Duo's appearance.

"I have panty lines?!" shrieked Duo turning around to see if it was true, but to no avail.  Instead he succeeded in circling in the same spot about nine times before Hilde stood up and approached him.

"Hold still," she commanded as she grabbed hold of Duo's shoulders and was observing his backside of his attire.

"Well?  Well?!" urged Duo impatiently.

"Straighten up," she ordered.  "Thank you."  Smoothing out Duo's skirt Hilde took a step back and analyzed the outward appearance of Duo's butt.  "Oh yeah, major panty lines!" she exclaimed after five painful minutes.  "Are you wearing shorts or a slip under this?"

"NO!" Duo shouted but blushed at his pathetic mistake.

"Well, do that next time, or wear a thong," advised Hilde.

To the suggestion of a thong Duo's face flushed red and twisted into a complexion of horror and disgust.  "No way, You can't expect me to go parading around with a thong on!  I'm a guy!" protested Duo.

"That's rather questionable," snorted Heero from his window place.

"Excuse me?!"

The door opened and trotting up the stairs was Jason.  "Hey Eiji," she started to say before taking in the sight of Heero having friends over.  "Oh, I didn't know you had friends over."

She glanced at Duo and tried to bite back a laughing smile that threatened to cross her features, but to no avail.

"I'm off to work, you're on your own for dinner tonight.  Okay?" Jason informed Heero.

"Hn," was Heero's answer, he had to provide himself food on more than one occasion in the past.

Satisfied with the answer Jason bounded down the stairs, stopping once to throw Duo one last laughing sort of glance.  Noting the glance sent shivers down Duo's spine, and shivers weren't good.  That much he had learned from past experiences.

"Please tell me you noticed that," implored Duo still under the impression that his comrades might think him paranoid and insane.

"Notice what?" Hilde questioned.

"Indeed, Maxwell, it was strange but nothing to be concerned about," Heero shrugged.  Well, at least Duo knew he wasn't the only person to notice Jason's laughing eyes that were placed on him; not Heero, not Hilde, him!

"Whatever," scoffed Duo as he rolled his eyes.  'Nothing to be concerned about', he begged to differ, but than again no one really listened to Duo Maxwell.  "Anyone besides me think this place is insane?" he inquired out of the blue.

"That's an understatement," snorted Hilde while Heero just made an affirmative sound.  "But that's beside the point.  We should list and compare who's all in our classes and see who has all three of these subjects as some sort of a major or minor."

Receiving no arguments Hilde pulled out a notepad and pen from her coat that hung forlornly on Heero's bed.  "Let's start with you Duo," she stated.

"Well, in composition I have Robin Shelly and Jason Collins; in theory I have April Ash, Robin, and Amy Johnson; and in history there's Jason and April," Duo listed as he checked them off on his fingers and mentally reviewed his list.  "Yeah, that's about all that I recognized."

"Heero?"

"British Lit there's Francis Shelly and Ringo Raccoon; fiction writing was with Jason and Salem Alley; and perspective writing had Robin, Ringo, and Kaitlyn," Heero automatically told Hilde without having to think about names for a moment.

"Well," Hilde began as she finished her scribbling, "none of us have anyone for all three classes.  For I have only Vicky Wickham-oh wait-sorry that's Wickgram."

"Wickgram?" Duo asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"She corrected me and almost everyone else every time someone called her Wickham," Hilde explained as she rolled her eyes.  "Then there was also Jake Cros and Kaitlyn Alley.  Slim pickings for business classes unfortunately."

"She must have dropped a subject, the question is which one?" Heero voiced the question everyone knew was coming.

"Well, I don't know about you two but my money's on Jason.  She has none of the classic, prim, pampered Relena in her which makes sense if Relena is trying to elude us again," Duo sighed.  Square one sucked.

"I was leaning towards April or Vicky almost, personally," admitted Hilde as she flipped the notepad closed and put it away.  "Though, I can see Jason as a reasonable guess, I suppose.  What do you think Heero?"

Heero turned to them with his poker face.  "I think that assumptions lead to mistakes in this matter.  We should not underestimate Relena this time, otherwise she'll surely run off again."

"True," groaned Duo as he sat down on the bed.  "So then now it's up to instinct and to some miracle of God to have Relena slip up and expose herself to us."

"Exactly."