Get Rel

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

"I'm impressed Heero, you actually went out with a group of people to the movies and not because you had a gun to your head! Wow," commented Duo as he picked at his McDonalds salad with his plastic fork.

"You don't need to remind me," grumbled Heero, stirring his coffee mindlessly. "Do you think that I did compromise our mission with the whole Sylvia and Quatre stuff?"

Duo stopped his picking and leaned back in his chair for a moment as he contemplated the question. "It depends really on how much they know. I mean come on, everyone or at least most the college brats are friends with Relena, either directly or indirectly, so it would depend on how much she told them," Duo thought aloud. "If she told them about you and your ex-girlfriend as well as about our history together as gundam pilots, then I would say you fucked up royally."

Had Heero been the average twenty-year old he would have groaned and banged his head against the table, but he wasn't the average twenty-year old, he was the perfect soldier version of a twenty-year old. Instead of the groaning and banging of the head, Heero rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, trying to figure out a loophole of some sort.

"Well, information about Quatre isn't exactly all that classified, I could have found it on the internet for some past report, and Sylvia is a fairly common name among girls, right?" he suggested lamely. What kind of person would buy that lie?!

"Yeah, about every one out of every four hundred and sixty-some girls is named Sylvia, I think," nodded Duo but not exactly reassuringly. He couldn't think of another girl named Sylvia except for the Vice-Foreign Minister, so he would never have bought Heero's excuse. "Besides, how much would Relena want her friends to know?"

There was a moment of realization that passed through the two guys before they both sighed, "Everything."

Recovering the utterly defeating truth, Heero glanced around the fast food restaurant and noticed something was out of place. "Duo, where is Hilde?"

"Oh, she has work right now," Duo replied, picking up a tomato. "Do you think these things are really good to eat?"

"Since when did Hilde have a job?" Heero inquired as he glanced down at his watch, watching the time so he knew when to get to his next class.

"Since she found out that Relena could not be in the business classes, so she decided that she could possibly be more helpful if she got a job working with one of the girls," Duo answered absently as he shoved the salad away. "Why did I let Hilde talk me into dieting?"

Heero snorted, "Because she's your girlfriend."

"Hey, we're not, I repeat, not boyfriend and girlfriend, we're just really good friends," the crossdresser defended. "Besides, you better not get me started on talking about you and Relena being boyfriend and girlfriend, now there was some interesting chemistry."

Heero seriously could believe his ears; someone had actually thought that he and Relena, of all people, had good chemistry and could have been seen as lovers…The thought shocked him. When had he given off that impression?!

Instead of questioning Duo into his theories of how he and Relena had 'interesting chemistry', Heero went on to question about Hilde's job. "So where is she working at and with whom?"

Duo had noticed that Heero had not taken the bait, so the braided-boy decided to just leave the topic of Relena alone. "She's working with Joey and Salem at this antique bike store down the road," he replied. "I can't see how a girl can be interested in mechanics like how Hilde is…"

"Why not, after all, Hilde was the one who ran the junk yard before you two became Preventers, and before that she was a soldier. So, I imagine that she probably has some mechanic skills, whether they be good or not I don't know but I'm sure she has some skill," stated Heero, picking up his wrapper and empty soda cup and depositing them into a nearby trash can.

"Hey, wait up!" Duo called after the perfect soldier, dumping his salad in the trash. "Hey, did you ever think about my question?"

"Which one?" retorted Heero, running a hand through his hair, which needed to get dyed again.

At his friend's stubbornness Duo rolled his eyes and gave Heero a bit of a shove. "Don't try to play cute man, you know what I'm talking about. Why are you still chasing after Relena, and don't feed me that BS about you wanting to ask her a few questions and not wanting to disturb her happiness," Duo commanded.

Heero stopped short for a moment before he turned to Duo with a stern expression. "Listen, I don't know why except for the fact that I had made a promise to protect her once and I want to live up to that promise," Heero claimed. Did I really just say that? What was happening to him?! What had happened to the perfect soldier that he once was; calculating, unfeeling, and perfect?

"When did you start to care so much for protecting Relena?" Duo inquired in shock. "I mean I know you keep to your word but, man, you actually wanting to protect Relena was something a little too far-fetched even for me, and that's saying a lot with all the rumors about you two and all."

"What rumors?" There were rumors about him and Relena floating around the work area before he had left?! Why hadn't Heero heard any of them?

"Come over for dinner and I'll tell you all about them," Duo bargained. However, Heero did not like that idea so he suggested, "After class."

"Okay," Duo agreed, "after class it is then. See you then."

Hilde couldn't believe that Duo had made such a fuss to her the night before when she told him about her new job working with Joey and Salem at their family bike shop. He went on for hours giving her pathetic reasons as to why she shouldn't be working with them and how it could 'endanger' their 'mission'.

How can he call it a mission as though we were going to be taking her away against her will! Hilde thought, fastening the wheel to an antique bike. If anything this should really help in our search, I can look up information from their book accounts and gossip.

The bell from the door rang as Robin and Jackson came running in with very large grins on their faces.

"Hey Mindy, do you know where Joey is?" Jackson inquired obviously in a major hurry to talk to his friend.

"Yeah, she's in the back," Hilde pointed.

"Thanks," Jackson returned quickly, dashing into the back and leaving Robin behind with Hilde.

"What's going on, Robin?" questioned the ex-preventer, rubbing her hands on her overalls and standing up.

"Come on, you might be interested in this too," Robin winked, pulling Hilde to the counter and they waited for the other two to come out of the back.

Jackson, Joey, and Salem came out from the back room excitedly and crowded around Robin as he pulled out a magazine. Flipping to a marked page, Robin pointed to one specific section.

"He's going to be at the convention this year, see!" Robin declared, pointing at the name 'Wesley James'. "I told ya!"

"Hey now, wait a minute here Robin," Salem interjected, "just because he is supposed to be there doesn't mean he'll actually be there. Get my drift?"

"Frig."

Joey took the magazine and began to examine the text on the pages. "Hey, they're planning on bringing back a bunch of classic series again, and this one sounds interesting, 'Ranma ½'," she pointed out, placing the magazine back down.

"Thank you! We are going to see that one," announced Jackson but then he thought about it for a second. "Actually, we're going to see all of them for at least one episode then buying the whole series."

Salem laughed, "If we have the money you mean."

Jackson blushed for a moment, he completely forgot that classic series were often expensive and the group had a limited income that they took to the conventions.

"Just what is this convention?" Hilde questioned as she observed the magazine and began reading over many comic industry names, artists, and writers that were supposed to be at this convention.

Joey turned to her with an earnest smile, "It's the Philadelphia Comic Convention, and we go there every year. There and Chicago, but Chicago is further away so we're just keeping our eyes on Philly for now."

"When is it?"

"The 19th through the 21st of May," answered Salem as he flipped through the magazine pages. "But of course we're only going on the twentieth. Oh, what a great day that will be!"

"That's only a few weeks away though," Hilde realized.

"No kidding, that's why we're all working our butts off for money. Thankfully, we're all driving there, so we only have to chip in on gas money rather than on plane tickets," Robin commented.

At the word 'work' Hilde's head snapped around to Robin in surprise. "You work?" she questioned in disbelief.

The disbelief must have shown in Hilde's voice for it had caused Robin to chuckle at her. "Yeah, I work," he confirmed, still chuckling a bit. "Is it that hard to believe?"

"No, it's just that I never seen you around anywhere around here," reasoned 'Mindy' lamely, blushing a bit in embarrassment. Leave it to her to ask a stupid question like that!

"I work a couple blocks down the way at the family comic store," Robin smiled then squinted his eyes as he glanced to the left. "Well, actually, it should be called a comic slash action figure slash poster slash video store because we don't just sell comics and all."

This greatly surprised Hilde, she would never have taken anyone in town for being a comic fan, but apparently there was a whole group of them that enjoyed the archaic things.

"Frankie and Robin are our go-getters as far as comics are concerned. We pay them and they'll put comics off to the side for us, not to mention they'll give us a heads up on any new comics coming out soon," Joey stated, sitting herself on the countertop. "Of course, since the comic industry had slowed down a bit about ten years back it has been steadily picking up speed again after that 'Something' movie came out."

"Ah…" nodded Hilde. "So is everyone into comics here or something?"

"I'm not," claimed Jackson with a grin, "I just go for the people in costumes and for the weapons that I can get at the convention. Screw the comic universe in my opinion… Hey!" Jackson had been promptly slapped in the back of the head by Salem.

"We don't make fun of your dolls so quit insulting our literature," the twin growled.

"Action figures, not dolls," corrected Jackson before Robin, feeling the tension that was building, grabbed the magazine and began to pull Jackson towards the door.

"Come on Jackson," he hissed, "we've got work to do and people to see. Catch you guys later, and Mindy, Selfie was looking for you this morning, something about having to talk to you about a bike or something."

Hilde couldn't help but smile, it was Duo sad attempt of using code to tell her that he wanted to talk to her about her job again. "Thanks Robin, I'll talk to him later," she promised before the two boys left.

"Alright," Joey spoke up, "now that the exciting news is over let's all get back to work. Hey, Mindy, is that bike almost done with?"

"Yeah, I'll have it on the rack shortly," Hilde assured.

"Great, I knew I could count on you!" complimented Joey before going back into the back room with Salem.

So the comic convention…would Relena go there? I mean it's a great place to get lost in a crowd, should she need to, Hilde thought as she returned to the bike. Looks like we need to get our passes if we're to go to Philadelphia.

Okay, back by demand of one person, I am bringing back the poll.

Frankie-2

Robin-3

Joey-1

Salem-1