Gundam Wing: The Never Ending Waltz Between

War and Peace

Fandom: This is a Gundam Wing fan fiction

Disclaimer: I do not own this great show, Gundam Wing!

Ratings/Warnings: This is a NONYAOI fan fiction rated 'T' for teen. It will have some violence, slight sexual contents, and very mild profanity. Action/Adventure/Humor/Romance

Beta read by Chibi Rose Angel

Chapter 5

As soon as Heero and Hilde came through the entrance of C-Mart, they were greeted with the loud symphonic bustling music the store contained. Babies were crying and wailing at the top of their lungs with their parents trying to silence them. There were little bratty children throwing fits because they couldn't get the candy or toy they wanted. Couples were bickering with one another. But the young teens who were bickering with their parents surpassed the numerous bickering couples.

Heero was taken aback by all the commotion, but Hilde who was used to all of this acted as though nothing was going on. She stopped the cart and pulled out a long list from her jean pocket. "Hmm. Let's see. Well, we got a lot of things to gather. Follow me!"

As she began pushing the buggy, she turned to Heero and smiled saying, "So Heero. There are a few groceries I need to get. Is there anything specific dishes that you like to eat? You know like spaghetti and meatballs, or steak and potatoes, or curry and vegetables. You know, stuff like that."

Heero, still not used to the commotion around him said, "I have no preference."

"Ok then!" Hilde said while turning on the pasta aisle, "Well I really want some spaghetti and meatballs. I haven't had that dish in ages!" As Hilde was grabbing pasta and spaghetti sauce, Heero watched as she made her choices. Then he watched the old lady behind him. They both made the same decision. They didn't choose the most expensive one, but they didn't choose the cheapest one either. Both seemed to pick the one right in the middle. Heero didn't understand. Why go for the more expensive ones when you could get the cheapest one and save more money? Certainly all pasta tasted the same, so what made them decide on the middle one? He just didn't understand.

Hilde found a rice bag that had a curry recipe on it. She began reading it and said, "Wow, this looks tasty. I think I'll make some curry too!" So she tosses it in the grocery basket as well.

"So easily tempted." Heero thought to himself, slightly amused. "That was not a part of the grocery list I'm sure."

Hilde began moving towards the next aisle, so he followed. She stopped the cart and pulled out the grocery list again, "Umm…yeah….we need some cookies, some more soda...ha ha! And Duo needs some more chips to snack on, or else we'll really be eaten out of house and home."

She put away the list and started grabbing bags of chips. In the midst of her grocery shopping, she noticed Heero was calmly leaning against one of the shelves with his hands in his pockets and staring at a father and his son. The father picked the son up so he could grab a cookie pack on the top row. When he got it, they both cheered and the father hugged his son. Then she thought to herself, "I wonder if Heero is ever sad. He doesn't have a family or really any friends. Or does he even have any friends? I know Duo considers him one, but what does he think of Duo? Or even the other Gundam Pilots? Does he actually consider them friends?" Hilde was so lost into her own thoughts that she didn't even realize she was staring at Heero, who was now staring back at her. Embarrassed, she tried to cover it up by saying, "Oh there it is! The cheese dip is right behind you! I was looking for it! Heee hee!"

Heero was slightly confused, and moved out of the way for her to grab the cheese dip. After she got it and placed it in the basket, she headed down the aisle. She glanced back at Heero and he was just following behind her with his hands still in his pockets. "He must be really bored." She thought to herself. Smiling, she looked up at him and said, "Hey Heero. Why don't you go ahead and get the things that you need. I'm almost done with the grocery section of the mart, so soon I'll be around the clothing section. If you need me, you can find me there."

Heero nodded his head and headed for the aisle with the toothbrushes. Once he was there, he found the toothbrush he wanted. It was one of those he saw on a commercial break at Duo's house. It reached all the way to the back of the mouth where most toothbrushes don't reach. He had to brush every tooth and make sure they were clean. Then he found the toothpaste. Heero couldn't decide between tartar control or whitening. He didn't want discolored teeth, but at the same time he wanted to prevent plaque, gingivitis, and all sorts of other ailments that could form in his mouth.

He kept looking back and forward from the tartar control toothpaste in his left hand and the whitening toothpaste in his right hand. Not being able to decide for himself, he thought he should get another opinion and was about to find Hilde when he saw the perfect toothpaste. It had tartar control and whitening. And not only that, it was a cheaper price than the single tartar control toothpaste and the single whitening toothpaste. A slight grin formed on his face, for he had made a bargain.

Next he began looking for deodorant. There was only a specific kind of deodorant he used. Dr. J introduced him to it, and he'd been using it ever since because it worked really well. At first, he used the solid white kind, but all it was ever good for was clumping up under his arms. He never talked about personal topics such as this, so when Dr. J noticed, he introduced him to liquid gel deodorant which worked perfectly.

Lastly, he needed a new bar of soap and razor. He picked up a bar of soap, and began looking through the razors. His old razor was dull and he really needed a new one. As he picked up the razor, he noticed some shaving cream. He'd never used it before. Soap was good enough for him, but he noticed it in Duo's bathroom. So he considered trying it out. Now that Heero had his basic needs for survival, he began looking for Hilde. He thought to himself, "Maybe it was a good thing I stayed after all. I really needed these items and wouldn't have had the time to stop and get any. I owe them both for their kindness."

After Hilde finished in the grocery aisle, as promised, she headed for the clothing section. She grabbed some more socks, especially for Duo. He really needed some. Then she headed to the underwear section. While grabbing some for Duo and herself, a thought occurred to her. "Oh yeah! Heero probably needs some underwear. I'll pick him up a pack." But then she was at a lost. "What size underwear does Heero wear?"

She turned a deep red at the thought of trying to figure out Heero's size. She didn't even want to imagine what Heero might look like down there. Then she noticed that Heero was actually approaching her right this second. Embarrassed and still blushing, she looked down at the floor and said, "Uh..Heero. I uh…uh….WHAT SIZE DO YOU WEAR?" She finally blurted out and pointed to the packets of male underwear.

Heero calmly looked at the packets and back at Hilde, wondering why she was such a deep red. Was it hot in here? He found the right size, grabbed a handful and placed them in the cart. Apparently, not noticing how awkward the situation was for Hilde, he turned to her and asked, "Did you get everything you needed?"

Still blushing she said, "Yes….I mean NO! Uh no! I still have a few things I need to get. And then after that I'm through."

"I see." Was all Heero said while placing his toothbrush and other things in the shopping cart.

Hilde cleared her throat as the embarrassment started to go away and said, "Well we need a few batteries and stuff like that. So let's head to the electronics section." And off they went.

Duo was still wandering around town. He was at such a lost. All the car shops he went to had all the people they needed so that meant they weren't hiring. So he was still jobless. Soon, the money from his last paycheck was going to run out and Hilde would notice for sure. What was he going to do?

"Aw man! Hilde's gonna kill me." Duo sighed. He sat right back down on the same park bench; right where he started from the beginning. He leaned forward and rested his chin in his hands pouting. "Oh well, that's what happens when you are as irresponsible as me. I just gotta suck it up and face the consequences." He leaned back in the chair and stared up at the sky. "Besides, Hilde will understand." He began trying to convince himself. "Sure, she'll yell at me, but she'll get over it. It's better when we work together and not in secret with each other. So I'll just tell her the truth the next time I see her." Standing up and feeling better with himself he said, "Yeah, I think I'll just do that."

All of a sudden Duo heard a familiar laugh. He looked up in time to see it was Hilde. "HILDE!" He screamed in his head and in a moment of panic flipped over the park bench. When he landed on the ground, he looked from under the park bench and saw Heero and Hilde together. Heero was carrying all of the groceries while Hilde only carried her purse and was chatting away at God knows what. He could overhear her saying, "Ooh ice cream! That looks really good! Want some Heero?"

Heero shook his head and said, "No thank you. You go on ahead. I'll wait here."

"Ok!" She beamed and practically skipped over to the ice cream stand.

Duo smiled to himself as he watched her and thought, "After all these years, she still hasn't changed. She's still the same old Hilde that I…."

His thoughts were interrupted when he had this sinking feeling. He looked up and noticed that Heero was staring right in his direction. Duo thought to himself, "Nah. He can't see me. He's all the way on the other end of the park." When Heero didn't stop staring in the direction, he thought, "Then again, this is Heero Yuy we are talking about." With those thoughts in mind, Duo rolled behind the bush that was next to the bench and began crawling away.

Once he thought he had crawled far enough from their sights, he stood up and hid behind a tree. He spotted Hilde easily. She was still at the ice cream stand. Probably trying to decide between chocolate fudge or double mint chocolate chip. After smiling at Hilde's cute quirks, he looked towards Heero's direction and noticed he wasn't there. "Ok……maybe he decided to meet up with Hilde and get some ice cream after all." He looked back at Hilde and saw that Heero was no where nearby.

Frowning, Duo muttered under his breath, "Now I wonder where that guy ran off too?"

"Right behind you." Heero said.

Duo flinched and then slowly turned around. He saw Heero staring at him with an arm full of groceries and one questioning eyebrow raised. "Duo, what are you doing?"

"Uhhh….I'm not doing anything…….Heero."

Heero raised his other eyebrow and said, "Well it looks like your hiding to me."

"Hiding! Ha ha ha! I'm not hiding Heero! I was just uh……exercising!" He exclaimed while pointing his finger in the air and laughing nervously. He really hoped Heero would believe him……even if his story of exercising was a load of bull.

"Exercising?" repeated a confused Heero.

"Yes! I was doing this new type of exercise." Duo began stretching his legs and arms. "You know run, flip, crawl, jump." He paused watching Heero's expression. It was obvious he wasn't buying it. "It's a uh….new type of gymnastics type aerobic type exercises. Hee hee heee. It's supposed to keep the heart rate up and at the same time you can learn how to be as fit as a gymnast. Cool isn't it!"

At first, Heero just stared at him. Then he said, "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"Huh? Oh no. I uh….got the day off and so…I just decided to walk around the park."

"Ok then. Well, let's meet up with Hilde."

"NO! NO! NO!" Duo shouted frantically. He shook his head while saying, "I can't do that or Hilde will see me!"

"So you were hiding." Heero said matter-of-factly.

"No! I mean, yes! I mean! Ah!" He said in frustration. "Ok! So I was hiding from Hilde. You see, I'm supposed to be at my job, but I got fired yesterday and well Hilde's gonna kill me because…."

"HEERO! WHERE ARE YOU!" Hilde shouted.

"AH!" Duo gasped and began running away. "Look Heero, as far as Hilde is concerned you never saw me! I wasn't here! I gotta go and try to find another job! BYE!" And with that, Duo ran from the scene like a real athlete.

Hilde finally found Heero and smiled. She walked over to him with double scoops of ice cream; a chocolate fudge and double mint chocolate chip. Smiling, she said, "You know, I could have sworn I just heard Duo around here. But I know it wasn't him, because he's at work." She looked down at her ice cream and said, "You know, I couldn't decide which one I wanted more. Chocolate fudge or double mint chocolate chip. So I just got them both."

She began licking away at her sweet desert and said, "Well, we better stop off at the house and drop the groceries off so they don't spoil. By the time we do that, Duo should be getting off of work and we could meet him at the mall as planned. Come on, let's go Heero." He just silently followed after Hilde who was busy chatting and licking away at her ice cream at the same time.

Once Heero and Hilde finally made it to the mall that evening, they saw Duo waiting inside. He was in all black and leaning against the wall, with his hands in his pockets. His long braid was slung over his shoulder and was resting on his chest. He was in his own little world. Hilde smiled at him. She sometimes didn't realize how lucky she was to have a guy like that in her life. A secret ex-Gundam Pilot that helped save the world on many occasions. She began to run towards him shouting, "DUO!"

Duo came out of his world and saw Hilde running towards him. Once she reached him, she hugged him and smiled up at him. Duo was blown away by this random display of affection, but he didn't mind it. He hugged her back. Smiling, he said, "Hey babe. What's up?"

"Oh nothing, just meeting you here at the mall." She let go of him then grabbed his hand and lightly squeezed it.

Duo was loving the affection and soaking it all in, but he felt really bad at the same time. He was holding that secret back from Hilde. He just had to tell her the truth. Tonight. He squeezed back and smiled sweetly down at her. Hilde slightly blushed and looked away. Then she cleared her throat and said, "Alright boys, let's get this shopping done!"

"WOOHOO!" Duo shouted and began walking with Hilde.

Heero was silent as he watched the two of them together. Knowing full well the feelings they had for each other. Then he wondered if he would ever be that close to anyone? If he would ever be that close to Relena? But that's if he even saw her again. He put those thoughts aside and began following after Duo and Hilde.

"Heero, what are you doing!" Hilde shouted, "Come walk next to us, not behind us. You're a part of us remember?"

"A part of us." Heero repeated in his mind.

"Come on Heero!" Duo shouted. "There is this really cool store I want to show you."

Heero slightly smiled as he caught up with them.

They were like a trio. Heero, Hilde, and Duo. And for once in his life, he finally felt like he belonged.

Author's Notes: Yeah, so it's been like forever since I last updated. Sorry about that. Anyways, I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter. I'm trying to expand a little on the simple things in their life. You know, like shopping. Just thought it would be a cute idea. Thanks guys.

Chao!