The characters of Gundam Wing aren't mine. Sorry to disappoint. Panthanaea, however, is mine, and if you steal her, I will hunt you down and peel the flesh from your bones with a wet noodle! That said, here's chapter 1!
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Chapter 1 - The Girl From Mars
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Duo Maxwell sat in the Starbucks on the university campus, watching the clock through dark sunglasses. It was the first time in 6 years that he'd been sober, and he was feeling it. He wore a black turtleneck, black slacks, and he was playing with his braid while sipping on coffee. Black. He glanced at the clock again.
Two more minutes and she'd be late. The woman had just waltzed into her cousin's home and subsequently, into his life, and now had him curious out of his mind. Was it the alcohol, or had she really been that pretty? Were her eyes really that intense?
Just as the clock hit 10:30, the door opened, ringing a bell, and Panthanaea entered the coffee shop with a briefcase and laptop bag. She looked around, then spotted Duo, and headed over to the booth where he sat. When a barista came by, she nodded. "The usual, Megan. Little extra cocoa today."
The barista nodded. "Mocha cappuccino with whipped cream, cinnamon, and extra cocoa. Biscotti today?"
"No, but bring me a lemon poppyseed muffin. I haven't had breakfast yet." The barista nodded and headed back to the bar. Panthanaea looked even better to Duo than she had the night before, now bereft of mud and grime, her hair up in a tight bun and dressed in a skirt suit. Her intense eyes smiled from behind her dark-rimmed spectacles.
"Sooo," Duo began, "Busy night?"
Panthanaea laughed, her eyes twinkling. "That's an understatement. Was up all night going over samples, and then someone convinced me to give a guest lecture this morning." She opened her briefcase. "How much do you know about Geology, Mr. Maxwell?"
Duo winced. "Please, call me Duo. Actually, very little, though I dabbled a bit when I was younger."
Panthanaea pulled a small, ruddy brown stone from her briefcase and handed it to Duo. "Tell me what you see."
Duo turned it over and over in his hands. "Little bit of fossilized seaweed, some roots, and a spiral shell." He looked up at her. "Looks like just your average piece of sea-bottom."
"That's right. Very typical, except for one thing. I found that in the canals of Mars." Duo looked aghast. "I know, that was my reaction as well. I was certain one of my interns was playing a trick on me. No one would fess up, and some of my colleagues seemed stunned, so we went back to excavate." She pulled a map out of her case. On it was a photo of the martian surface, with areas striped in blue. "We found a vast seabed that covered over 300 miles of the canal, and was over 400 years thick."
Duo blinked. "You mean meters?"
Pan frowned. "No, I mean years. It was the accumulation of 400 years of silt, plant, and wildlife, buried by 20,000 years of dust. So, around 20,000 years ago, something happened to kill off a rapidly developing native life, that had been in place for over 400 years on Mars." She smirked. "I have colleagues who beg to differ on the time frames, but that's to be expected."
Duo looked confused and Panthanaea frowned again. "What? I thought you asked to see my work."
Duo sputtered. "I did..I DO. It's just...I was just kinda looking for an excuse to see you again."
Panthanaea smiled. "Well, that's sweet. I hate to disappoint you, but I'm married to my work, and not looking for an Affair." She put her materials back into her briefcase, grabbed her cappuccino, and stood to leave. As she walked past, Duo grabbed her arm.
"I know there's more to you than you let on, Miss Weridge. Your eyes are too deep for there not to be."
Panthanaea turned her intense eyes on him sharply. "What would you know about it?"
Duo stood and took off his sunglasses. He stood almost 4 inches taller than her, and she suddenly felt like some character in a romance novel. "I know that a total stranger convinced me to be sober for the first time in 6 years. I know that every relative and friend of Relena's has more to them than they let on to anyone. And I know that, much as you try to hide it, Professor Panthanaea Weridge, you're still a woman under all that science and pretense. And deep down you know it too. That's why you still wear a skirt with your suit instead of pants."
Panthanaea glared. "Just what this world needs. Another beer-bottle psychoanalyst. Please let go of my arm." When Duo released her, she walked out of the coffee shop, trailing ice in her wake. Duo just stood there, staring after her, then came to his senses.
"Whiskey, damnit. WHISKEY psychoanalyst." He growled under his breath, then left the shop, putting on a leather jacket and a black baseball cap. "Can't stand beer..."
Panthanaea wasn't sure if she was more angry that he had analyzed her, or that he was right. Or was it maybe that, for a moment, he'd made her feel lightheaded and vulnerable. She glared at no one in particular as she stormed back to her office. Students, unwittingly caught in her way found themselves on the sharp end of Professor Weridge's tongue. Once she got to her office, she hung a do not disturb sign and slammed the door after her.
Meanwhile, Duo was asking around campus about her, determined to learn more. Students praised her knowledge and mentioned that she'd been working off-planet for almost 3 years now. They also cursed her sharp tongue and strict grading. It didn't take long for him to discover that she'd been in a foul mood on her way to her office. Her fellow professors described her as a loner, but a strong woman. Duo was making slow progress untill he asked her intern about her.
"Who wants to know?" The young man wasn't much younger than Duo, and had the same sort of intense glare that Pan had.
"Just a friend of her cousin. She intrigues me, as a professor, and as a person."
The intern glared, and brushed his dark hair from his deeply tanned face. "Look, guy. Drop it. She ain't interested in men. She travels too much to look at any relationship." His eyes turned sad. "Besides, she's had too many creeps try to be her 'Man' over the years. I know...I was around for the last one."
Duo looked intrigued. "The last one?"
The intern looked distracted. "Yeah. She thought she'd finally found the perfect guy, then, a month before they were supposed to get married, she found him in her bed with another woman. It crushed her." He looked up at Duo. "That's why she took the job on Mars, so she could immerse herself in her work. I helped her pick up the pieces of her broken life, and she won't even look at me with a tender thought. What makes you think that you can do any better?"
Duo smiled mischievously. "Because, my dear boy, I got under her skin." He disappeared down the hall with a laugh. As soon as he was outside, he fished in his coat for his flask. That guy had done to her what he'd done to Hilde. If she ever found out... He lifted the flask to his lips, then pulled it away, glaring at it.
"DAMNIT WOMAN!" He put the cap back on and stuffed it back in his inside coat pocket. He strode out across the Quad, and dashed behind a tree. She was storming across the grass, headed towards the department offices. Probably going to talk to that intern. This would be his chance. He'd found out what he'd wanted to know, and was determined to make her open up to him. Once she disappeared inside, he headed to where her office was and began sweet talking the secretary.
Before long, he'd convinced her to let him into Pan's office, and he set about rummaging through a few items of more personal value. Books, photos, magazine clippings. Keys to what went through her mind in private. His Operation Meteor days were paying off after all. After a few minutes, he'd compiled a pretty accurate profile of her, he'd thought, until he found a notebook between the pillow and canvas on her cot in the corner. He opened it, and grinned. "Oh HOH!"
In it were clippings of wedding dresses, flowers, and short stories in her own hand about romantic interludes, sudden romances, and intrigue of the heart. On the most recent page, he found a stylized description of their scene in the coffee shop. He was impressed, but he was so distracted he almost didn't hear the door handle click behind him. He swiftly stuffed the notebook back where he found it, and rolled under the cot.
Panthanaea stepped into her office and looked around. "Maria, you must have been daydreaming again. There's no one in here." She closed the door and walked over to her cot. She was worn out and could use a nap. She laid down, and in no time was asleep. Duo managed to slide out from under the cot and stood there a moment, watching her sleep. Relena was right. She looked alot like her cousin without those glasses. Duo reached out to brush an errant strand of hair from her cheek, but stopped himself. Instead he opted to leave through the open window, cursing all the while.
"I'm getting too old for this spy crap." He pulled his coat up around his neck and looked at the sky. "It's going to rain..." He shivered. "I just LOOOOOVE Autumn."