Relena knew she was completely tongue tied, that nothing she could say would come out sounding right or even understandable, and so she remained silent, just staring up at the Gundam. The Valkyrie almost seemed to be staring back down at her, looking her over just as she was judging it, standing proud and tall, powerful, but yet somehow comforting, and protective. //I always used to tease them, Duo and the rest, for treating their suits like they were alive - but now I think I know what they meant.// Howard strolled along, footsteps ringing on the metal floor, moving closer to the massive suit, obviously expecting them to follow. Relena followed Dorothy, who was well ahead, already darting around the legs of the Gundam, turning every few seconds to smile at the man in the bright pink shirt. "I never thought - I mean, I remember when you showed me the initial designs, but I never thought it would actually get built." "Neither did we!" A voice shouted from high above, and Relena realized that there were about a hundred people on various levels of the building all watching them, leaning over scaffolds or out of doorways. Apparently, their arrival was an important event. Howard looked up towards the man that had called out to them, and smiled. "He's right, you know. If I told you how many times we nearly got caught, the times we had to hold transfer shipments on the moon because of possible raids... We were sweating in buckets for a while there." The bearded man tilted his head down, and grinned. Relena could see a wicked, merry anarchy in his eyes. No doubt, he hadn't minded the danger at all. "But she's 100% now, totally battle-ready. We just need to get you suited up, little miss, and she'll be all ready for a test drive." The brunette realized belatedly that he was looking at her. "Me?! I - I can't possibly..." Relena was merely thinking of the piloting skills, the time to learn how to operate the Gundam that she simply didn't have, but Dorothy and Howard seemed to take it some other way, looked at each other for a long moment. "I don't think she understands why this suit is so special." Dorothy said, before giving the Valkyrie an impulsive hug, murmuring "super cool!" under her breath. Howard nodded. "Let's go up and get a look at the schematics, Relena. I'll explain the suit's systems to you, and then you can make a final decision." ---------------------------- A few minutes later, they were sitting in a small conference room at the top of the hanger. Relena couldn't help but notice the way Dorothy looked behind her every few minutes, out the window, to where the Valkyrie stood. //I'm going to lose my girlfriend to a Gundam suit.// Relena was also well aware of the twenty or so technicians, scientists and mechanics also standing around near the doors and windows in the room, watching what was going on. She could hear them murmur each time Howard brought up a new series of diagrams, heard a few "damn rights" and other sounds of pride and appreciation as Howard started his speech. They weren't just watching him, she knew, they were watching her too, trying to figure out what her reaction to their masterpiece would be. //They're so happy... and proud. Nothing like the people who designed the other Gundam suits, not nearly as bitter.// "The Valkyrie suit has been designed with all the data we could gather from the battles fought with all other suits, including space-only vehicles and mobile doll battalions, though she is neither of those." "We could have her space-ready in a week, ma'am!" Someone outside the room shouted, and Relena could hear other people agreeing, a few people even clapped. "Excuse me." Howard glared at the door, until silence settled back over the room. He grinned at Relena. "Sorry. This has been a damn big, damn risky project for all of us. You'll have to excuse us for being a bit slap happy." Howard clicked a button, and the slide on the screen switched to a forward view of the Valkyrie. "The Valkyrie is, at the very least, the equal of any other current Gundam suit. Given what data we have, we also know that it is probably the fastest suit in existence. Excellent maneuverability, incredible agility." Relena heard another person cheer outside the room, and saw Howard roll his eyes. "... and yes, we have to give our praise to Simon, who spent six weeks recalibrating the main engine systems and Gillian, who spent another six redesigning the entire base turning mechanism." Everyone clapped, cheered, and just generally caused a ruckus for a while. Relena had the feeling this was standard operating procedure. "/Anyway/, the reason you have been brought here, Miss Peacecraft, and the real reason we're /all/ excited about this suit - The Valkyrie is the first non-lethal combat Gundam suit in existence." Everyone was silent, and Relena felt Dorothy's hand reach down and wrap around hers, squeezing it tight. The other girl was watching her reaction with a wide, hopeful smile. Howard continued on, and the entire mood of the room only seemed to become more energized as he spoke. "We've collected some of the best theoretical concepts for non-lethal peacekeeping over the last four or five decades, and have come up with, what I think is an incredible system." He gestured to the schematics, although Relena couldn't follow what she was supposed to be looking at. "First of all, the Gundam's computer system automatically targets essential but low-kill spots in situations of hand-to-hand combat. Knee joints, non-armored hip and shoulder segments... all of these could conceivably put a suit out of commission without endangering the pilot." "There are also some killer weaknesses in Taurus and Virgo suits, ma'am! I'd be happy to clue you in!" Once again, someone added their opinion, interrupting Howard. He merely shrugged, giving up hope of having a quiet conversation as a debate outside the room sprouted up. Relena didn't understand what they were arguing about, except that she kept hearing the words "Wing Zero" and "Phillips-head screwdriver" over and over. Layered with that, and another few arguments, she could hear someone explaining the exact stress-fracture patterns that would develop along the left wing panel of the Sandrock if it got hit with a 5 kg asteroid. Howard quietly stood up, walked over, and slammed the door, locking it behind him. A loud groan of disappointment rose up behind the door, and Relena could see the technicians staring at the pink-shirted man with puppy eyes. Howard smiled at his compatriots, and calmly pulled down the blinds. "There." He turned, still grinning. "I'm sorry, but it would just be easier to get this done all at once, and some of those guys are /completely/ obsessed with these suits. They'll talk your ear off for hours about the Epyion's outer space backup left rudder propulsion system... I know, I've heard it." "It's really a non-lethal Gundam?!" Relena finally felt she could speak, if only to ask a stupid question. Howard beamed, flopping back in his chair, flipping through some more slides. "Mm-hmm. Completely so, all from my original design, pardon my gloating." He nodded. "That's why we did it here, with such obsessive pacifist help and such security in gathering materials. I wasn't going to let any of those warmongering morons lay a hand on her. I made damn sure they didn't." Relena noticed some of the slides he flipped through looked like weapons, or at least this suit's equivalent. Howard noticed her concern. "Don't worry, they're not weapons, not like you think, anyway. We've got a few offensive items to deal with the lower-end suits, basically anything that isn't an actual Gundam suit. Magnets, for example, that can hold a suit's arms and legs together, completely immobilize it, and a variation on that-" Howard started to laugh. "It's this thing some of the engineers came up with... it makes the entire suit start to shake like a maraca. We haven't loaded too many of either prototype into the actual suit, we'd like to see how they test first." "There's also a high-frequency communications scrambler, it can wipe out just about anything within a pretty wide radius. We've got it working now so that you can either just destroy the communications, or you can play something over it, like..." "La Bamba." Dorothy murmured, now grinning just as widely as Howard was. "I heard that the test song was La Bamba." "You heard right." Howard looked a little abashed, shaking his head as he looked at Relena. "Please don't take our jokes the wrong way. We're all serious here, but we can't help but have a little fun with these morons, teasing all those guys out there who'd rather fight than party. The scrambler works like a charm, and if you can annoy your enemy as well as stop them... why not?" "Did you ever get the hard foam system operational?" Dorothy asked. "Yup." Howard flipped forward a few more frames, focusing on a small round hole inside one of Valkyrie's arms. "There's a couple more of these loaded into her other arm. These will shoot out a foam that instantly hardens on contact with just about anything. It'll freeze a non-moving Taurus suit solid to the ground, we tested that out already. But God only knows what it would do to a moving Gundam..." Howard sighed. "There's a lot we haven't actually field tested - the magnets, the shakers, the hard foam on moving objects. We've got a sticky tar, it spreads out over the visors of just about any suits, brings visibility down to nil, that works pretty well." "Defense?" Dorothy interrupted. Relena started to wonder just how much the blonde knew, just how high up in the design and creation process she was, she seemed to know what she was talking about. Howard nodded. "One arm shield, set parallel along the side of the right arm to avoid battle damage if you get hit. We're kind of proud of this, it sprouts up like any mobile doll shield, with its own generators and such - it's a damn strong shield. But with the speed and agility of that suit, trust me, getting hit will not be a problem." Howard stood up, and moved to the door. As it opened, Relena could hear the sound of many footsteps scrambling away, clearing a path. The man in the pink shirt stepped out, and they followed behind him, back into the hangar. Howard pointed to the large, black wing that stretched out along the suit's left side. "That stabilizes the balance enough to fly her, or at least we think it should. Like I said, there's a lot we have left to test. A whole lot. " Show them the big gun!!!" Someone hollered, and the entire scaffold shook with the sound of delighted war whoops, and chantings of "Big Gun! Big Gun!" "All right, all right." Howard waved his hands, waiting for silence. "Last, and definitely /not/ least, there's the Valkyrie's primary weapon, the Longbow." Howard gestured toward it, but it took Relena a moment to realize what she was looking at was not part of the scaffolding, and not a part of the building either. The massive weapon leaned against the side of the opposite wall, a long, thin cannon that tapered down slightly at one end. It curved down near the middle, and Relena figured that was where it would rest on the Valkyrie's shoulder. As for the rest of it, she was stumped. "The Longbow is a massive EMP cannon, designed to turn /any/ suit into the world's largest paperweight in one shot." Relena could almost hear the technicians and engineers salivating behind her. They were already manic about the Valkyrie, the Longbow was obviously everyone's coup de' grace. "We've designed the cannon with two main abilities. One, it can simply destroy the electrical systems of its target, but two, it can also drain the target's power, and redirect that energy into the cannon, and the Valkyrie. It will allow you infinite power if you choose your targets right." "Relena?" The brunette turned, surprised to see Dorothy watching her with slightly wary, but hopeful eyes. "It's also, a bicycle built for two." She smiled. "It has a two man, or two woman, cockpit." Howard shifted uncomfortably after a moment, and Relena realized she was under the center spotlight once more, the tour was done. There were so many questions she needed answers to, the brunette merely picked the first one that came to mind. "How /did/ you manage all this? Where did you get the materials, the supplies, the manpower?!" Howard crossed his arms, looking up into the invisible heavens far above the roof of the hangar. "Miss Peacecraft, there are /many/ supporters of Absolute Pacifism on this planet, and in every colony out in space. There are too many families who have lost someone in a battle they didn't want to be a part of, part a war they probably didn't even understand." Howard gestured to the hanger around him. "Most of the people working here have lost someone special in a fight on some distant shore. Most of the money we used to build this facility, and to create the Valkyrie, have come from people, foundations, and countries that simply are tired of war." Relena could see some of the other men nodding in agreement behind the man in the pink shirt. "We've decided, we believe that the Valkyrie - and you - are our best hope for peace now." Relena looked around her, at the suddenly somber eyes of every person in the crowd, at Howard, and finally at Dorothy. //My Dorothy.// The brunette could see the hope there, in Dorothy's gray-blue eyes, hope and fear and love. Yet again, she was being asked to take the lead, to be in command, and to make a choice that could affect the rest of the world for better or worse. Except this time, Relena knew, she would not be alone, and she would not be powerless, left to fight with words while everyone moved on. This would be a burden she could carry, this was a fight she knew she could win. "I'll do it." The cheer that went up inside the hangar, rattled back and forth across the metal walls, and nearly deafened them all. ------------------------- "I said I'd do it, but I still don't see /how/..." Relena and Dorothy were walking down one of the hanger's hallways, following a technician back to the Valkyrie's navigation simulation. "Don't worry, Relena. We've had this worked out for months. The hardest part was dealing with the anxiety of wondering - of hoping you'd agree to it." The brunette shook her head. "No matter /how/ much I agree to this, Dorothy, it still doesn't mean I can just sit down and pilot a Gundam suit." The technician in front of them turned around, grinning like a madman. "Trust me, ma'am. Once you try out this system, there's no going back." It would have sounded ominous, if he hadn't high-fived the other technicians on his way through the door. Relena couldn't believe the laid-back atmosphere, the lack of uniform, in dress, thought or behavior in Howard's group of scientists. More than one person behind the computer had piercings, primary-color hair, tattoos or all three in a mix-and-match combination. Only a handful of them, Howard included, were older than twenty-five. //And yet, they've developed this amazing machine. This really is the future. These people are all working towards your future, a peaceful future.// Relena couldn't have been happier. She and Dorothy were seated in dentist-style chairs, side by side, and every once in a while another person would come up and attach more scanners and electrodes to her face, or wrists, or neck. "You nervous? You're heartbeat's a little high." One of the techs said as he attached a band around her arm. Out of the corner of her eye, Relena saw Dorothy give her a comforting grin. "What is all this, please? What are you going to do?" "Operating system hookup. We're going to make it so you can fight in the Valkyrie, so it will respond to the way you fight." "I don't fight." The man chuckled, and she hoped he realized she was serious, that she really didn't know what she was getting in to. "We're going to map your brainwaves, physical data and reaction times into the Gundam's computer, so that it will react in tandem with your personal abilities." He said it so simply, she almost wanted to believe him. //But I know me, and I know that I /can't/ do this!// "You do realize, as soon as I get into the real thing, you're going to be witness to the shortest flight ever, don't you? I'll turn your masterpiece into tinkertoys faster than you can blink." The technician laughed at her, snapping one final monitor to her arm. "Give us a little credit, here. Those guys out there may have designed the hardware, but we worked like dogs on the software too. Just relax, and let the computer do the work." The man pushed a panel of switches and buttons under her hands, and slid a helmet onto her head, with a dark visor completely covering her eyes. Relena couldn't see or hear anything, until a slightly muffled, almost electronic voice spoke into her ear. "You hear me, Relena?" "Uh... yeah, Howard. Loud and clear." Relena wondered if there was some special fighter pilot jargon she was supposed to know, but figured she was too nervous to remember to use it anyway. "Now, this isn't much like the Valkyrie's actual systems, the helmet, the controls, but this will make it easier for us to load your data into her computers. Just watch what happens, and react to it as best you can. I'll switch Dorothy's radio on in a moment, so you two can talk this out. Remember, just try to do what you can, and let her do what she can, and eventually it will just happen." Relena looked down, instantly forgetting what every button on the controls did, except that only one of them would do what she needed at a time. //I'm dead... I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead.// "Uh, yeah. Right. Roger? Um... over and out." -------------------------- The first few test simulations went just as badly as Relena had predicted they would. She flew the Valkyrie right into a mountain, after she had already let it drop like a stone and impale in the ground, twice. Relena was unable to find any button she needed, let alone attempt to control the engines, and she and Dorothy had overheated everything more than once simply trying to make the weapons work, often reaching for the same switch at the same time. Most everything the brunette did caused error bells to ring. After a while, it felt like a bowl of crickets was living inside her helmet. Relena knew Dorothy had trained, at least a little, with systems like this, and felt awful, knowing that the bumbling, horrible attempt to pilot was all her fault. "It's all right Relena. Give it time." "I don't think we could /ever/ have enough time." Relena murmured back, feeling miserable. There was no response from Howard or the tech team, just a blinking flash as one simulation stopped, usually with them dead in some way or another, and the whir of a motor as another program started up. Despite her misery, Relena was impressed by how many situations they had loaded up, snow and rain, water, sky, both in the countryside and over major cities. "Oops! Sorry!" Relena winced as she accidentally kicked the top off of one of the domes at St. Basil's cathedral, hearing Dorothy giggle through the radio link for a long, long time. The Valkyrie was an earth-based Gundam, but someday, Howard had said, he hoped it would even get a chance to see the deepest reaches of space. //...and they expect /me/ to pilot it there?!// Relena kept at the controls, always doing her best but never feeling like anything but a slow-witted idiot. //I swear, I'll never tease Duo again!!// It almost felt as if, every now and again, the engines /were/ responding slightly faster with each attempt she made. The brunette wondered if she was actually feeling the machine react faster, move better, or if it was simply something she wanted to feel so badly that she had convinced herself she could. //I /want/ to do this, damn it! I don't want to let Howard and Dorothy and everyone down!// As they practiced, a pattern slowly developed between the two girls. Dorothy started working the guns more, focusing on the attack and shield defense, while Relena dodged and maneuvered, working the Gundam in the space between earth and sky, each girl slowly finding their own niche within the system. Then, all at once, something just /clicked/. Relena couldn't believe the ease, the incredible supple power she suddenly felt under her hands, the exhilaration pouring through her as she led a chase of suits along the lower part of a river valley, dodging through tight crevasses, running low to avoid side fire. She could hear Dorothy breathing hard in the radio link, murmuring slightly as she lined up her shots. Relena's eyes narrowed as she saw an opening ahead, a place that they could have a single second to turn and attack, to bring this battle to a decisive end, if she played things out just right. "Dorothy, look ahead." She waited for a moment, until she thought the blonde followed her logic. "Let's bring things to a close, shall we?" She heard Dorothy laugh breathlessly, still laying down cover fire behind them, actually stopping a suit in its tracks with the hard foam, sending it tumbling to stick against the side of a cliff. Relena pushed the Valkyrie forward, feeling it react to her slightest direction, no longer separate from her, almost anticipating her movements. She could feel her heart racing, hands clenching the controls in excitement. //This is /incredible/!!!// Relena's eyes narrowed as she approached the slight gap between the rocks. She reached out and flipped up the Longbow's charging mechanism, still shooting across the bottom of the valley, close enough to leave a wake in the water behind her. //All right, steady. Keep it steady.// "I'm ready, Relena." Dorothy murmured. Relena eased the pressure off one leg's propulsion rocket, just slightly, not enough to even be noticed by the other pilots, but she could tell. She was holding off on purpose. Waiting. //Almost, almost...// "NOW!!!" Relena shot through the tiny gap in the rocks, and cut the power to one leg, bracing for impact as she cut the power to the other side a second later. The extra second of propulsion turned the Gundam into a wild spin, sent the suit sliding back in the water as she landed on both feet, facing the gap. Dorothy had already done her job, setting up a wide layer of foam and tar that shot back through the gap they had cleared only moments before. The three suits following them tumbled together in chaos as they fell through the small crevasse, unable to dodge either Dorothy's trap or the massive burst of electromagnetic energy that sent them all crashing to the ground with a single, perfect shot. "YES!!!!" Relena screamed, hearing Dorothy's whoops of joy and laughter, watching the simulation dissolve around her. She grinned as she heard the slight clicking, the mechanical sound of another program coming to life. The brunette slid back into her seat, wrapping her hands around the controls. "Ready to go again, Catalonia?" She murmured, and heard a fierce chuckle in response. "Lead the way, Peacecraft. Lead the way." --------------------------- "How long have they been in there?" Howard yawned, wiping his eyes. He had fallen asleep a few hours ago, and was now slowly eating a blue-frosted doughnut, sipping slightly at too-hot coffee, trying to wake himself back up. The tech turned to him, slowly munching on his own bowl of frosted cornflakes, and grinned. "Sixteen hours. We've run them through 97 percent of the simulations, and they've only gotten better since the first hour." He pointed through the glass to the room below, where Relena Peacecraft was guiding the virtual Valkyrie through a series of caves. "Peacecraft took on the underwater series without even thinking about it. She didn't hesitate, she just dove in. I don't know how she knew the suit could work underwater, and that blonde, she's got killer instincts. The girls, the suit, the system - they work together perfectly. This is going better than we could have ever imagined." "No." Howard shook his head, grinning. "This is what I was counting on. This is just what I expected." He smiled broadly. "War without death. Fighting without lethal consequences. A chance for the leader of Absolute Pacifism to defend her country and her principles at the same time." Howard paused, blinking, as if surprised by his own moment of soliloquy. "Cool, man. Very cool." He rapped the scientist on the shoulder. "Want to play a game of Ping-Pong?" Another technician, a few booths away, looked up. "They're all done now, sir. We have all the information for the Valkyrie's main systems. It's ready to load." "All right." The tech reached out, flipped a few switches, ending the animations. He flipped on the switch for the speaker in the training room. "Hey, Miss Peacecraft, Miss Catalonia, you can take all that stuff off now, one of our guys will be in there to help you." He could see Relena already removing the heavy helmet. Her eyes were slightly glazed with exertion and hours of practice, but she was smiling broadly, and she and Dorothy exchanged excited glances. "We've got everything we need. If you want to return home, we'll call you as soon as we set the system up and get ready to give the Valkyrie her first real sendoff. Right now..." The man chuckled. "Right now, I gotta go play Ping-Pong with Howard. Later." ----------------------------- The ride back was silent, each girl lost in her own thoughts. Dorothy tried more than once to break the still, but couldn't seem to think of anything to say, especially since Relena was staring out the window, back to her for the entire ride. It had been exhilarating to fly the Valkyrie, even in simulation. It was absolutely wonderful, an affirmation of everything Dorothy had ever believed about war, the enjoyment of battle, the thrill of victory. Of course, for Relena, that could very well have been the problem. //I know she enjoyed it, I know that for sure. But maybe now, she realizes she didn't want to enjoy it. Maybe she's angry with me for forcing that on her, for making her feel that way about fighting.// It was a scary thought, and Dorothy desperately wanted to ask the other girl, to find out what Relena was really thinking, but all her questions refused to leave her lips, wadding up inside her chest like a cold, wet ball of tissue paper. As soon as they got back home, and got out of the car, both girls quickly stripped off the coverall tops they had been given, sighing in relief as the cool air hit their bare arms. "I never thought white-t shirts could be such a great fashion statement." Relena murmured, walking into the house. Dorothy picked up a garden hose near a plot of flowers, shivering just slightly in the cool morning air. It was early, the sun had just rose, and Dorothy knew she should have been exhausted. They /had/ spent the entire night fighting, running through simulation after simulation, but the nervous fear she felt now was easily enough to keep her from feeling tired. //She didn't sound angry, but maybe - I don't know, maybe...// Dorothy began lightly misting the flowers, trying to do anything to keep from thinking, from imagining what she would do if Relena really /was/ angry with her. The brunette reappeared a moment later, tossing the daily newspaper behind her, back through the door after only a glance at the cover. "Nothing yet today. The Sank is still at stalemate, at least for now." "Maybe they've come up with something else on their own? Another way to get out of this without a war." Relena laughed bitterly. "Not a chance. My brother, he /doesn't/ negotiate." The brunette sighed, leaning slightly against the house, watching Dorothy water the flowers. Try as she might, Dorothy could not interpret the look in her eyes. Relena finally spoke, quietly, watching the blonde closely for a reaction. "How is it that you manage to understand my dream, but completely misinterpret it... all at the same time?" Dorothy flinched. //Damn it. Damn it, she won't - she doesn't want to... Aw, damn it to /hell/!// "You don't have to pilot it, Relena." It was hard to say the words, but she got them out anyway. "They can always find someone else." "But you want me to, don't you?" Dorothy's head jerked up, she stopped watching the flowers, staring at Relena in surprise and confusion, stunned by the other girl's simple, soft tone. "It would be perfect, Relena. I... I think it would be wonderful." Dorothy couldn't deny it. The idea of both of them, fighting for peace in their very own Gundam had been something in Dorothy's thoughts from the moment she heard the word "Valkyrie." Fighting, in a suit that was the solid reality of Relena's dream, the ideal cast into metal - it was more than she could hope for, really. //Relena, you would make war perfect. You would make it into something glorious, and wonderful.// The blonde wasn't sure what Relena was thinking anymore, wasn't sure what the brunette wanted to hear, or what she had already decided. She breathed in sharply when the other girl stepped up to her, as a warm hand traced the curve of her side, from thigh to waist, and higher, finally cupping her breast in a firm, almost decisive way. Relena pushed Dorothy gently against the side of the house, pressing in close. She rested her head against the blonde's shoulder for a moment before looking up. "I... I never thought of it, not in a million years. I never thought a Gundam could do anything but kill... and I never thought there was a way to peacefully protect my people, that I could really /do/ something to bring peace to the Sank, and the world." Dorothy tried to pay attention, knowing Relena was teasing her as much as confiding in her, purposefully destroying the blonde's concentration as she massaged the tip of Dorothy's breast, rubbing the pad of her thumb against the hard nipple, which was easily visible through the blonde's thin, white shirt. It was also easy enough to see, when Dorothy looked down at the brunette's matching attire, that Relena was as excited as she was. "It's wonderful, Dorothy. You've given me so much. You saved me, when I thought everything was lost. You gave me your heart, your love, and now this..." The blonde murmured softly as one of Relena's legs parted hers, pushing her further back against the cool brick wall. The brunette kissed her, and Dorothy moaned into her open mouth as Relena rocked slightly, leaning in and sending pulses of hot electricity rippling out from her center. The brunette's hand had not left her breast, and Relena was now slowly kissing the side of her neck as well. It was almost too much to take. "Dorothy..." The girl's voice was feigning hilarious innocence as she whispered in the blonde's ear. "How will I ever repay you?" "I think - I-I'm going to fall over." Dorothy whispered back, weak-kneed. Relena leaned in just a little harder, and Dorothy shuddered, tried not to cry out, overwhelmed by the jolt of powerful pleasure that flooded her senses. "Yep, definitely going to fall over. Mm-hmm." Relena chuckled again, but did not relent, explaining in that innocent tone that she simply /had/ to find a way to repay Dorothy for her kindness. Soon, the blonde forgot she was even standing. ------------------------------- "Holy sheeeeeeeeit!" Duo shifted uncomfortably from his position in the bushes, wishing he had thought to wear looser pants as he watched the two girls make out. //Looser pants, and binoculars. Good God, Heero is going to shit kittens when he finds out about this.// It had been difficult enough to keep silent when Howard had called him a few days ago, told him where to find Dorothy and Relena, and had made him promise not to say anything to anyone. //Not because I care about what Zechs and Noin and the rest of them want, but - geez, what a secret!!// He had scoped out the house much earlier that morning, in the dark, but no one had been home, so he had decided to wait around for a while. None of the Gundam pilots were needed just yet. Zechs didn't want to make it look like they were preparing for a war until it was absolutely unavoidable, which meant waiting for the Prime Minister to make the first move. Duo believed what Howard had told him, that the brunette ruler of the Sank was in no danger, but he still wanted to make sure. //Uh, well. I would definitely have to say it looks like Relena isn't being held here against her own free will.// His thoughts skipped a beat as he saw Dorothy's pants slowly crumple to the ground, heard the blonde loudly cry out her lover's name. //Huh. uh... huh. Cool.// Duo had to turn around and sit down, almost had to cover his ears in order to cool off enough to think, to remember what he was supposed to do now. //She's all right. She's /better/ than all right, if you ask me. Wow, Heero's going to fucking /explode/ when he figures out what's going on.// Since Relena was all right for the moment, and well hidden, Duo figured there was no point in rescuing her and taking her back to the Sank. Duo had noticed that Relena was miserable in the castle, and he had been kind of worried about her in the days before her disappearance, that she didn't look right, that she looked sick and pale. //Huh.// He thought, listening to more delightfully loud sounds coming from behind him. //She /sounds/ better, at least.// All kidding aside, there was just no reason to bring her back now. Relena was safer and happier here, and there wasn't much for her to do even if she came back anyway. As far as Duo could tell, there was no way to stop this war short of fighting it out. If Relena came back afterward, there would be a good chance of finding peace again, and taking the entire war as some sort of horrible mistake that she had no control over. //Not that I really understand this whole thing - or that I want to...// Duo was pretty impressed with himself, that he had been able to do /any/ thinking at all with what he knew was going on behind him. There was nothing he could do, however, and no way to stop from looking back when he heard the sound of a garden hose. The pilot turned around so fast his braid snapped like a whip in the air, and he watched the two girls take turns hosing each other down, until they were wrestling, half-naked, on the grass. It really was every dream he had ever had all rolled into one, in living color and surround sound. //Hose. Wet. White... t-shirt. Hose. White. Wet. Wet. White. Wet shirt. Oh boy.// Duo knew that if Hilde ever found out about what he had seen, he would be nothing but a smear across the side of a space station in less time than it took to cook pizza rolls. Of course, that thought didn't occur to him until much later, along with the happy realization that he would carry the memory of that morning in crystal clarity, in the very front of his thoughts, for the rest of his life.
Back to Valkyrie Index - Back to Gundam Wing Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction