Chapter 2

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"Today is the day," Hilde murmured to herself as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

Tugging on some clothes, she walked out into the hallway and peered into the neighboring room. Luckily, it seemed that that Duo was still sound asleep.

Making her way over to the phone, she quietly rummaged around for the number to a specific private line.

"Aha- here we go…"

Dialing in the number, she waited for all the beeps and connections between the colonies. Finally, she was greeted by a warm voice on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Relena? Hey, it's Hilde. About that little party you're attending tonight…"

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Duo rolled and squinted against the sunlight coming through his bedroom window. Someone was knocking at the front door, he groggily registered.

"Eh. Let Hilde answer it," He sleepily reasoned.

But moments later, another knock sounded; and this time, it was on his door.

"I'm awake. What is it?"

"Duo, get up. We need to go shopping," Hilde said.

Glaring at the numbers on the clock, he stifled a yawn.

"Why so early?"

"Because I'm afraid I have other places to go before the party this evening," Another voice piped in.

Duo paused, then quickly scrambled out of bed and yanked on some clothes. Sure enough, he came face to face with none other than Relena herself when he pulled open the door.

"Relena?"

She laughed lightly at his shock, "I got a call this morning about a little plan you two are putting into motion."

The young man shifted his gaze to Hilde, a panicked "How much did you tell her?" etched across his face.

Hilde held up her hands in defense, "It's okay, Duo. I just told her we're trying to test Heero's guard. Nothing else."

He looked between the two women before sighing in defeat, "So let me guess- you're here to help with the dress shopping, right?"

Relena nodded as Hilde replied.

"I figured since Relena goes to these things all the time, she'd have a better idea of what kind of dress to stick ya in. Oh, and she's gonna get Wufei to cover your shift."

"Wufei?" Duo questioned, glancing at Relena, "You've been in touch with him?"

There seemed to be a light blush on the young woman's face as she replied, "We've been… in touch. But don't worry, Heero will just be told that you were stationed somewhere else at the last minute. I'll cover for you there."

"See, Duo? It's all taken care of like I promised. Now- to get you a killer dress."

Running a hand through his bangs, Duo sighed.

"I'm really gonna go to this in drag, aren't I? Sheesh, the things that I end up doing just because Heero's a nut-job. He's gonna owe me big time for this one if he tries anything funny with me."

"Don't worry. The most he'll do is threaten to kill you," Relena said, thinking back to her own first encounters with the young man.

Duo laughed, "I've lived through that already. I suppose I've got eight lives left then."
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It was a warm, mid-summer's day in the colonies. All the appearances and effects of a normal earth-summer, down to the irritating humidity, were being produced via the colony's weathering system.

As the unique trio meandered down the street through the shopping district- Duo's mind tried to plot out exactly what to do and say later that night.

"Here we are," Relena said, stopping in front of an elaborate store window lined with beautiful gowns.

Duo and Hilde just blinked.

"Are you sure we've got enough money for this, Hilde?"

"Oh, don't worry about the price. Consider it my contribution to the 'Help Heero' foundation," Relena said cheerfully as she ushered the two others into the store.

Looking around at all the fancy ball gowns, cocktail dresses and accessories- Duo realized that this task was going to be much harder to pull off than some of his adventures during the war.

"We need to find something that will look nice on you without showing off that you're a guy. Let's start with these."

Relena lead them towards a selection of longer gowns in colors that were 'in' that summer.

"I'll be wearing a white gown, so we'll make sure yours is a bit more colorful. Got to make sure you catch Heero's eye, right?"

There was something in the way she said it, combined with the fact she was being so helpful with a plan that was basically testing to see if her bodyguard would fail her, that made Duo wonder just how much of this situation Relena had figured out.

But before he could ask the young woman just how much she'd figured out- Duo found himself being thrust into a dressing room with a pile of dresses.

"This better work…" He murmured to himself, yanking off his shirt and eyeing the first dress in the pile.
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If Duo didn't know any better, he would have sworn he was looking at a beautiful young girl in the mirror instead of his reflection. Between the outfit, the makeup and the hair- the disguise was flawless. No one would ever know that the pretty brown-haired girl with the wavy hair and red dress was none other than Duo Maxwell.

"So…?" Hilde asked, edging up beside him to look in the mirror.

"I look pretty- damned pretty and…" He paused to laugh, "I never want to see myself in drag again. This is just disturbing, ya know?"

Hilde reached up and pushed a lock of hair behind his ear.

"I'm just gonna pretend you're Duo's long lost twin sister so the utter absurdity of this doesn't sink in."

"Hey, it was your idea."

"And you were the one so eager to go along with it."

The two shook their heads, laughing to themselves over the whole crazy situation. Smoothing out the dress on her friend one more time, Hilde gave him a quick hug.

"You're going to be fine. Then, once this is all done and over with- hopefully you'll have a better idea about Heero's feelings for you."

Duo snorted, "Do people always do stupid shit like this just because they love someone?"

"So now it's 'love,' huh? Not just like?"

A light blush appeared on his cheeks, as he gave Hilde a playful shove.

"Hey!"

"Okay okay, I'll leave you alone for now," She said helping him make his way to the door, "But I expect full details afterwards."

"Fine," He relented.

"Now remember. Relena's escort will take you to the dance, you'll arrive a bit late- but she hopes that it'll catch Heero's attention to have you walk in after the other attendees. You have any idea what you're going to say to him once you get him alone?"

"Somewhat, I figured I'd just kinda wing it depending on how Heero reacts."

Hilde opened the door, and gave Duo one last smile before watching him walk out.

"Good luck, Duo!"

"Thanks, Hilde. I'm going to need it."

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