Chapter 5
It was 8:15. He knew Heero had probably already arrived. Heero was never late, ever. And, he knew Heero would have Hilde safely by his side, away from the old pervs that frequented these types of events. Not that he had anything to worry about. What was an old fart, no matter how rich, compared to the great Duo Maxwell? He did his best to boost his own ego. He would need it after Hilde was finished with him.
Duo had to admit, he hadn't been the model boyfriend as of late. Far from it. Tonight would be different, though. Tonight would change everything. It was about time he was the man people thought him to be. The man Hilde needed and wanted.
He had been lingering in a hallway for the past 20 minutes or so. He wasn't hiding, he kept telling himself, but he knew that was a lie. He had vowed, after breaking up with Relena, never to lie or withhold truth in its entirety from anyone again, including himself.
Taking a small box out of his pocket, for the fifth time that evening, he looked inside to make sure its contents were still secure. Glancing around the corner of the hallway, where he had been standing, he spotted her. She looked absolutely stunning. In that instant, all of his apprehensions disappeared. She was safely on Heero's arm, like his friend had promised.
It wasn't until he rounded the corner that he saw her. Relena had made her way over to Heero and Hilde without him noticing. She looked like a mannequin- perfect and plastic as always. He didn't know what she was saying but he didn't like it one bit.
"It's so nice seeing the two of you….together. Are you keeping Ms. Hilde warm until Duo gets here Heero?" Relena gave a faint laugh to indicate her remark was meant to be a joke of sorts, but Hilde simply gave a polite smile and Heero ignored it. He wasn't sure what Relena was up to, but he did not like it. His Heero senses were tingling, and every bone in his body said to run. Hilde could sense something was off about the blonde woman but she couldn't put her finger on it. She decided to play along for the time being. She could not dislike a woman she knew practically nothing about.
She was about to lead Heero away when she felt a strong arm pull her gently by the waist.
"Hilde, babe. Glad to see you made it tonight. I expected nothing less from my man Heero here. You look gorgeous as usually." Duo was grinning as only he could but no one else was.
A mixture of anger and pain was painted on Hilde's face and she pulled herself out of Duo's grasp. Relena looked oddly pleased and had a wild look in her eyes. Duo just stood there smiling as hard as he could, his face never betraying the wave of guilt and rejection he felt. Heero looked as stoic as ever, but inwardly he wanted to vomit. He even toyed with the idea of doing so to get out of the situation but he decided against it. He had to admit the idea of accidentally aiming in the general direction of Relena and killing two birds with one stone was tempting.
Heero never thought he would hate silence, but the tension between the four of them was nearly unbearable. He didn't know whether or not he was relieved or terrified when an observant Trowa somehow steered both ladies and Duo into an empty area of the large hall.
It took Heero a few minutes to finally follow behind them and develop a plan of action. He figured that either both women would turn on Duo, or they would turn on each other, or they would turn on each other and Duo. Heero never thought there would be an equation he could not solve, but there were too many variables to come to a conclusive analysis of the situation when women were concerned.
As he neared the heavy closed door he was alarmed that he could not hear anything. He hoped that no one had been killed. That would solve part his problem but would certainly create a far worse one.
As Heero entered the room, the situation was much calmer than he had expected.
"Good Heero. You're here. I'm sorry to ruin your evening but can you please take me home. I don't want to be around him anymore." Hilde looked far more composed than he had expected. He figured it best to do as she asked.
"Goodnight Releena. Good riddance Duo." Hilde was doing her best to walk with her head held as high as she could when Releena whispered something rather loudly.
"Look at that Duo. She is sickened by the sight of you and she doesn't even know how you took advantage of me. I mean all of the nasty, filthy things you said and did to me. I think she would absolutely abhor you if she found out about that."
It was in that instant that Heero knew things had gone from bad to suicidal. He had assumed that Hilde knew about Duo's affair but the look of rage on her face told him everything he needed to know.
TBC….