I do not own Gundam Wing. This fan fiction has no commercial value and I am not making any kind of profit or income off of this.

Chapter 5

It was Wednesday morning – fairly late for his usual routine – and since he and Duo were pulling shifts, this would technically be the time of day he should be sleeping. But Heero had other things on his mind, and other objectives to achieve. He strolled into the target's, Relena's, office suite, and asked the secretary to announce him. The lady eyed him strangely, but did as he told her. Her boss replied to send him in.

As he opened the door, he caught Duo's eye from across the room and made a sharp motion with his head for her bodyguard to leave. Duo smirked as he walked past his friend into the waiting hallway. The former Zero pilot stepped into the office then turned to close the door, but stopped when Duo burst out laughing. Heero glared at his friend and marched back into the hall.

"What?" he hissed between clenched teeth.

Duo tossed a small box back to its owner. "No way you're doing this," he said shaking his head.

Heero looked at the box he now held in his hand then back at the braid-wearing Preventer agent. "How?"

"Sticky fingers," Duo replied with a grin. "I lifted it off you as I was leaving the room. Tell me you're not seriously going to propose to the girl?"

Heero stiffened and tucked the box back into his uniform jacket. "Why not?"

The former Deathscythe pilot's jaw dropped. "There's no way she's going to say yes to you without a relationship first. Hello? Earth to Heero, women don't just marry a guy because they ask them to!"

Heero blinked, processing this bit of information. The research he had done in preparation for his mission, various societal customs and dating habits, had indicated that most women wanted to get married. They wanted to marry a man they loved, and they hated waiting for him to commit. Why wouldn't she say yes? "You said she loved me. We've known each other for what is considered an appropriate amount of time, why drag it out?"

"Why indeed?" Duo exclaimed, his tone sounding less than enthusiastic. "What, do you think you're going to elope with her tonight or something? That's terribly romantic."

"You eloped with Hilde. What's the difference?" Heero said shrugging his shoulders.

"WHAT? Yesterday you didn't care for her the way she does for you, now you're ready to sweep her off her feet and make her your wife?" Duo yelled.

Heero snarled and grabbed his supposed 'friend' by the shirt collar, dragging him down the hallway. "Shut up, Duo!" He half-threw, half-shoved the Preventer against the wall.

Duo winced before pulling himself upright. He reached to put his hand on Heero's forehead; Relena's bodyguard swatted it away.

"You're sick. That's it - you've got a fever?"

"What is wrong with you?" Heero hissed back. He had planned on already having the proposal over with this morning, but the trip to the jewelers hadn't gone as smoothly as planned. So, he was already behind; and if he and Relena were going to get an appointment with the justice of the peace…

"Nothing. I just don't understand what you hope to accomplish. You said you didn't love her, so what's going on?" Cobalt eyes narrowed. "She's my friend, and I don't want to see her hurt."

Heero turned away and took a step back towards Relena's office. "It's none of your business," he bit out over his shoulder. "Stay out of it."

"Well, you've been warned. I'm telling you, women want to know that they're marrying someone that's going to love them for a lifetime. No matter how much she cares for you, she's not going to say yes to the man that was so indifferent to her not twelve hours ago."

Heero whirled around; he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "We'll see. She's been following me around almost eight years - since we were fifteen, remember?" This will be easier than invading the Sanq kingdom.

"Fine. Have it your way," Duo huffed and crossed his arms.

Duo watched his friend open the door to Relena's office and disappear from view. He checked his watch; it read: 11:05am. He sighed and tapped his foot as he waited impatiently for some sign of what was going on in there, but the room was silent.

He began to whistle to amuse himself. More seconds ticked by. Duo shifted his weight from one foot to another then leaned back against the wall. He flicked his wrist and looked at the time again, 11:13am, and still nothing. "Maybe she did say yes. That desk is big enough for them to-"

His risqué train of thought was unfortunately derailed as the door flew open. A startled-looking Heero Yuy stumbled forward, caught himself, and whirled around just in time to see the door slammed in his face. He looked blankly at the closed wood panel for a moment as if considering something, then crossed the hallway and took a position next to Duo.

"Didn't go too well?" Duo asked in a smug, casual tone. He couldn't wait to say 'I told you so' to Mr. I-know-everything, Relena's-been-following-me-around-since-we-were-fifteen. He snorted.

"Not as well as I thought it would," Heero replied. The door shot open; Duo looked up.

Oh shit! The two bodyguards ducked in unison. Something rocketed through the air above them. Relena banged the door shut again, and the velvet box hit the ground after bouncing off the wall where Heero's head had been resting.

"She's got good aim," Duo remarked, righting himself and dusting off his jacket. "Does she have anything else to throw at you? Or was it just the ring?"

Heero retrieved the box; he glared at his friend.

"What? I warned you," Duo couldn't help but chuckle at the look on the other Preventer's face.

"Hn."

"So, tell me. I want to know the whole story, and don't leave out any good details."

"Later."

"Why?"

"You're still on duty. Get your ass back in there."

Duo flipped him a mock salute. "Yes sir," he said and rolled his eyes. He stepped across the hall and opened the door to her office, but leapt to the ground as a stapler whizzed by. "Relena, it's just me," he called out, informing her that he was not the enemy. He poked his head up from the tile, gaining a crawling position before actually standing on his knees. But she wasn't out of ammunition. "AAAAAAAH!" he screeched and grabbed the door handle, tugging it closed as a shield. The letter opener lodged itself in the wall behind him.

He stood and glared at Heero before knocking. "Relena!" Duo yelled through the wall.

"Go away, Duo," her muffled voice sounded from inside her office.

"But what did I do?" he practically whined.

"You're his friend."

"But…" Duo's shoulders slumped forward. He turned and scowled at a slightly amused Heero. "This is your fault."

"She only threw the box at me," Heero replied wearing a sickening smirk; he turned to go.

"Hey, wait up!" Duo took off after his friend.

A half hour later, the two friends sat, once again, at the Maxwell kitchen table while Hilde made them something to eat.

"So, tell me, buddy - what happened?" Duo asked munching on potato chips.

Heero glared at him. "She said no." Why did she say no? He wondered and began replaying the incident in his head. I had the ring…

"Well, I thought that was pretty obvious. What made you go straight for the full commitment? I mean - why not just ask her on a date?"

The image of the proposal dissipated. He needed time to re-run the scenario and determine the root cause of mission failure. But Maxwell kept interrupting. "I don't want to date her."

"Oooookay. But you do want to marry her?" Duo stopped crunching.

"Hn. You wouldn't understand."

Hilde entered the room and placed lunch on the table in front of the two men. Duo grinned at his wife, and she laughingly planted a kiss on his lips. "Whoever said the way to a man's heart is through his stomach was talking about you, Duo," Hilde said. She turned towards their guest. "You're chipper as always, Heero."

"Hn." He picked up his sandwich and began to eat.

"He's not feeling so well today, Hilde. He's kind of had a rough morning," Duo said with too much of a smile on his face for Heero's liking. He glowered at the braid-wearing Preventer agent between bites of his sandwich.

"Wow, a rough morning, huh? Did more terrorists try to dance with Relena last night?" Hilde giggled. Heero was suddenly reminded why the two were married. They were too much alike.

Duo laughed.

"Hn."

What could only be described as an evil smile crept onto the former Deathscythe pilot's face. Heero had seen that look before, it usually came right before Maxwell took his life in his own hands around Wufei. He shot his friend a threatening glance. Whatever it is you're thinking….

"Actually, Hilde," he began, the smile widening despite the look he was getting.

Don't even think about it. Heero straightened in his chair, glaring daggers at Duo.

"He proposed to Relena this morning…."

Heero calmly placed his sandwich back on his plate, listening to Hilde's sharp intake of breath. As soon as he swallowed his bite, the former Zero pilot lunged across the table, startling the other Preventer. The chair toppled to the ground with a loud crash!

"Ohmigod! Heero, you proposed! I didn't even know you two were dating!"

The two wrestled on the floor, knocking over other chairs, and tumbling into Hilde. Heero finally got the upper hand, pinning his opponent to the tile; his knees dug sharply into Maxwell's ribs. Heero ruthlessly tightened the chokehold around Duo's throat and banged his braided head against the floor. The Preventer turned whitish-blue, choking for air, but he managed to get out: "They're not."

"WHAT? Heero let go of him right now!"

The former Zero pilot obeyed. He stood up and offered Maxwell his hand. Duo took it, and was halfway up when Heero let go and he fell. The Preventer smirked as Duo scowled up at him. As usual, the man failed to look anything close to menacing with his cheerful features. Maxwell picked himself off the ground.

"Okay," Hilde said in a no-nonsense tone. "Spill it. So far all I've got is Heero proposed to Relena, but you two weren't dating."

Duo rubbed his neck. "Yeah, she said no."

Hilde stared, wide-eyed, at Heero, who was sitting in his chair, arms crossed, looking like a little boy caught teasing his brother. "Um, I guess I didn't know you cared about her so much, Heero. What are you going to do now?"

Heero shrugged.

"You do love her, don't you?" Hilde asked.

Heero wouldn't look at her, he just shrugged his shoulders again.

Hilde blinked and looked at her husband.

"Of course he loves her! Did you see the ring he got her? It's beautiful!" Duo practically sang.

Heero frowned at him, but dutifully reached into his pocket and pulled out the black velvet ring box. He handed it to Hilde.

She opened it and gasped at the stunning, marquise-cut diamond in a white gold setting. "You have great taste." She smiled slyly as she handed the box back to him. She sat down, propping her chin up on her hand; Hilde looked at him expectantly. Duo smiled and followed suit.

Heero glanced from one to the other. "What?" He growled.

"I thought you were going to tell us the story."

"There's nothing to tell."

"You're not going to at least go over the proposal? Did you kneel down and take her hand and all that?" Hilde asked, remembering her husband's sweet, if a bit awkward, proposal only a few months before:

"Hilde, I, you know I'm not good at a lot of things. Like knowing when to shut up, for one. But if there's one thing I swear I know I can do, it's love you for the rest of my life."

"Ha! Heero probably dropped the box on her desk and told her 'we're getting married'." Her husband's voice interrupted her beautiful memory. Hilde moved to slap him, then stopped at Heero's expression. She sucked in a breath and her heart tumbled into her stomach.

"You didn't!"

Duo choked. "No way! Even I'm not that big of an idiot!"

Heero stood up. "I don't have to take this, Maxwell." He said coldly. He turned away and headed for the door. "If you're not going to help…."

"Help? You never asked me to help you! What do you want me to do, Heero? You haven't even told me why-y-y," he glanced at Hilde, "I mean what changed your mind so suddenly," Duo called out, chasing after his friend. "Heero, wait up!"

Hilde watched the two men leave and sighed. "Poor Relena. This is the man she's in love with." She took a sip of her tea and pushed her sandwich away - no longer hungry. "At least Duo was trainable," she surveyed the pieces of potato chips littering the top of her table; they spilled onto the floor. "Well, mostly."

"But, Heero?" She huffed and shook her head. "I don't think she's got a prayer."