The sound of a waltz drifted out the open windows of the Sanq Kingdom palace to the ears of a slight young woman stepping out of a car near the base of the palace steps. She gazed up at the brightly lit building with wide, sparkling eyes and allowed herself a small giggle.
"Hey, Duo, you think we can refurbish the junk yard to look like this?" She pointed towards the palace.
The man who hopped out of the driver's side of the car glanced in the direction she indicated and grinned. "Hilde babe, I may be able to build a functioning gundam out of a pack of gum and a piece of aluminum foil, but turning the trash into a treasure like that is a bit beyond my abilities."
Hilde mock-pouted. "You sure? We'd probably get more business if the garage looked like that."
Duo shook his head, his long braid whipping about behind him. "No, we'd just get delegates asking for Ms. Dorlian." He said "delegates" like it was a plague, vermin, or some other sort of nasty thing one avoided. "Now, c'mon, the party's gonna start without us. You up for a race?" Not waiting for an answer, he bounded forward, taking the steps two at a time.
Hilde opened her mouth to yell at him, but closed it, knowing screaming would only make him laugh. Instead, she hitched her ground-sweeping skirt up far enough to run without tripping over the hem.
Just as she finished her preparations, she caught a glimpse of a tall man wearing a Preventers uniform. Although there were quite a few tall men wandering around in Preventers uniforms, this one held her attention. Whether it was the arrogant tilt of his head, or the graceful, almost dangerous way he moved, or maybe it was the way his pants tightened over his-
Hilde shook her head. Now was not the time to be admiring the backsides of tall men in Preventers uniforms. No matter how nice aforementioned backsides were. There was a race to be won, and Duo was nearly to the top.
**********
For the fifth time in less than an hour, Wufei asked himself why he had come. There was so much he could have accomplished had he stayed at Preventers Headquarters, but Sally had threatened and cajoled him until he had become so irritated with her that he had thrown up his hands and announced his willingness to go if only she would shut up and quit acting so much like Maxwell.
Now he cursed himself for his spinelessness, Sally for her uncharacteristically childish behavior, and Maxwell for... well, he never needed a reason to curse Maxwell. He continued to fume, caught so far up in his thoughts that he never noticed when a small woman walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.
He became aware of her presence, however, when she tugged on his ponytail.
He glanced down at her and immediately thought she would look completely natural if she was perched on a leaf with gossamer-thin wings sprouting from her back. The top of her head barely reached his shoulders, and a long, midnight blue dress clung to her slight frame. Her eyes were a shade lighter than her dress, and he found himself drawn into their dark depths.
Several things to say floated randomly through his mind, disjointed and completely inappropriate for a first meeting. Before he could say something he hoped wasn't too stupid or embarrassing, the beautiful vision asked, "Doesn't that hurt?"
Wufei blinked. The question was certainly odd and entirely out of context with his thoughts.
At his blank stare, the woman clarified, "Doesn't having your hair pulled back so tightly hurt?" To illustrate, she gave another small pull.
Wufei grunted. "Only when people yank it."
Blushing, the girl lowered her hands and apologized. "Sorry, but why do you have it pulled back like that? It just looks so painful. And pain is stupid and pointless and entirely worthless. Unless," she clapped her hands to her mouth to stifle a shocked gasp, "you're a masochist! I'm sorry! I didn't realize! I've been insulting you, and I'm sorry! I didn't know! You should've said something! I'm sorry!"
Wufei's jaw dropped. No one had ever called him a masochist, and he had never heard anyone apologize so much in one breath before either. This fairy-woman jumped to conclusions rather quickly and illogically, and she talked faster than Maxwell with his braid on fire.
He held up a hand to stop the rush of words. "I am not nor have ever been a masochist. The only reason I have my hair tied back is not out of any sick pleasure I hope to gain out of it, but simply to keep it out of my face. You, Pixie girl, should learn to stop and breathe once every few sentences."
The girl reddened a second time, then giggled. "Pixie girl. I like that. It's better than the nickname my housemate has for me. He calls me-"
Wufei interrupted, "He?" With an unusual sinking feeling in his gut, he noted that the girl's dark eyes- the same ones he had earlier nearly drowned in- had lit up at the mention of her "housemate." She certainly was pretty with her sparkling eyes, but if she was already attached...
"Yeah, the guy I live with. He... oh." Suddenly realizing the implications behind her words, she added, "We run a garage together. I deal with the finances and the cooking, while he's the mechanic and inhaler of food. It works quite well actually."
Wufei nodded. Relief flooding through him. So she and her "housemate" were business partners, rather than lovers. For some reason still not entirely clear to Wufei, that arrangement pleased him. It also sounded very familiar. It struck him why a moment later.
Maxwell and that... foolish girl that had nearly gotten herself killed escaping from Libra managed a similar business. Though there was no way that scrawny, stupid, and downright foolhardy girl could in any way compare to the graceful, lovely sprite before him.
Wufei glanced back down at the girl and noticed that her gaze had drifted towards the large area in the middle of the room where several couples were elegantly swaying to the music.
With a smile, he held out his arm. "Care to dance?"
**********
Hilde giggled at something her dance partner said and mentally kicked herself. She had tittered almost constantly since she had found the tall Preventer with the nice ass hiding in the ball room's shadows.
From what Duo had told her, incessant giggling was the most annoying thing a man could hear, but tall, dark, and handsome didn't seem to mind. In fact, it seemed that he liked it, since the corners of his mouth quirked upwards in a close approximation of a smile anytime a giggle issued from her throat.
Hilde now desperately wanted to see his full smile, not just a small smirk, so she racked her brain for anything that could elicit a laugh. Unfortunately, the only things that came to mind were Duo's tasteless jokes that were barely a step above bathroom humor.
Her companion would _not_ be amused with those. Not that Hilde could imagine herself repeating anything that Duo found funny....
Her train of thought abruptly ended when the object of her affection tapped her nose.
"Where were you?"
Hilde flushed- for the umpteenth time this evening, she sourly noted- and stammered, "I-I was just..." The lack of music caught her attention, and she glanced towards the dais where the musicians were busy packing their instruments. "What time is it?"
"Around one."
Hilde inwardly groaned. She had been dancing for hours on end. Her feet were going to be complaining in the morning, but it was worth it. To have such a... perfect partner was like- She realized that her "perfect partner" was talking.
"... all right if I leave now? I have to go collect my partner." He gestured to a blonde woman who was standing near a bowl of what was supposed to be punch. From the way the woman was swaying unsteadily and singing off-key in a dreadfully loud voice, the punch was not just punch anymore.
Hilde was certain Duo had had a hand in spiking it; and, knowing Duo the way she did, he had also imbibed enough to make himself pass out. She would have to search under tables and in corners to find him. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I guess I'll see you around."
He raised her hand and brushed his lips against her knuckles. "Good night." He turned away and walked towards his drunken partner, supporting her as they left.
Hilde watched him, a foolish grin creeping on to her face. Oh, yes, tonight was _definitely_ worth it.
A hand clamped on to her shoulder. "Hey, Hilde babe, how's it goin'?"
Hilde dazedly looked at Duo who wasn't quite as drunk as she would have thought. Although, at that moment she wasn't thinking of him much at all. "I think I found the perfect guy."
Duo snorted. "Nobody's perfect, babe, but when do I get to meet him? I really want to play the overprotective big brother."
Hilde's blissful expression vanished, replaced by one of panic. "Meet him? Oh no! I found my soulmate, and I didn't even get his name!"
Wufei glanced down the street, his eyes coming to rest on a nondescript house set amid a group of equally undescribable houses. The only difference about this particular one was the large pile of scrap metal sitting in the back yard. How Maxwell's neighbors put up with the neighborhood eyesore was beyond him. It looked worse than plastic flamingos and garden gnomes.
Wufei walked towards the house, mentally replaying the conversation he had had with Une earlier that day. She had told him that Duo had "gathered" some information about an organization that had managed to elude all their previous searches. Duo had requested that someone come get the file he had "acquired through less than legal means," as he had put it, since he didn't think it would be a good idea to send it to them any other way.
So now he was here, on L2, attempting to find some adjective to describe the house, and comparing scrap heaps to lawn ornaments. He _really_ needed a vacation. Unfortunately, this was as close to one as he was probably going to get for a while.
Grimacing, Wufei stopped in front of the house. He had finally found a word to describe it! Empty. Dark. No one's home. All right, maybe more than one. But now he was arguing with himself over adjectives and numbers. He _really really_ needed a vacation.
Just as he was about to turn around, go back to his shuttle, rant and rave at Une for sending him on a fool's errand, and demand a vacation- a paid one, damn it!- his eyes fell on the open garage door. Maxwell wasn't stupid enough to leave his garage open when he wasn't home, was he?
With him you could never tell.
That's true- Stop that! He was talking to himself again. When he got back to HQ, no one, no ONNA, was going to stand in his way of a vacation!
Determined to preserve what little sanity he had left, Wufei headed towards the open garage door. Peering inside, he saw that the walls were covered by shelves that were filled with drills, hammers, and wrenches of varying sizes and sorts. Machine parts littered the floor, to Wufei's eye completely unorganized, yet the slight girl that poked her head out of the hood of the convertible sitting in the middle of the floor and grabbed one of the unidentifiable parts maneuvered around the stacks easily enough.
The girl returned to her task, and- although Wufei couldn't see what she was doing from where he was standing- he guessed from the sound that she was attempting to force whatever the part was into place. Unsuccessfully.
With an inventive curse, the girl tossed the part over her shoulder to be lost in a pile of metal. Standing to her full height- and wincing as her back muscles protested the abrupt straightening- she stepped back and slammed the car hood down with a resounding bang. She brushed a grease-covered hand through her short crop of dark blue hair and grumbled, "That was the smallest one we had! Stupid antiques, and their stupidly sized parts!"
Wufei stepped into the garage and cleared his throat.
The girl- Wufei decided that she had to be Maxwell's business partner, Hilde or something to that effect- jumped and turned towards him. "How can I hel- It's you! You're here! I can't believe it! You're here!"
Wufei stared at her, startled by her apparent recognition of him. They had never met, and he had only seen her as she was being wheeled, unconscious and battered from her fight with the Mercurious and Vayate, into an operating room. She must have mistaken him for someone else. "I'm looking for Duo Maxwell. This is his garage, right?"
The excitement that had lit up Hilde's eyes faded, and she glanced down at her feet. "Technically it's _my_ garage, but he works here." She looked back up, glaring at him fiercely. "But he's out picking some stuff up from L3, so come back in a few days." She whipped around and headed towards a door joining the garage to the house.
Completely bewildered by her behavior, Wufei leapt after her and grabbed her arm, pulling her around. "What is your problem?"
Hilde slapped him reflexively, catching him off guard. He stumbled back a step, but didn't relax his grip. "Woman, what is your problem?" he repeated his question snappishly.
His entire day was going horribly. He was dragged out of bed early in the morning so Une could send him like a little messenger boy to meet with that baka Maxwell, only to find that previously mentioned baka had left his garage in the care of a woman who slapped men for no apparent reason! Add to that the fact that he was going slowly insane by talking to himself, thinking about plastic flamingos and garden gnomes, and listing all the troubles he was having, Wufei had every right to be snappish!
Hilde obviously didn't agree with his logic. "Let me go!"
"Not until you tell me what your problem is!"
"You don't recognize me!"
Wufei tilted his head to the side, puzzled once again. Remember her? "We've never met! I saw you _once_! On Peacemillion! You were uncon-"
"Don't you remember the Preventer party?" Hilde's voice suddenly went from angry to sad. "Or was that such a horrible evening that you blocked me from memory?"
Wufei's brow furrowed. This woman was confusing the hell out of him! One minute she's ready to physically harm him, and the next she's preparing to cry. _And_ she mentioned the party. The only memorable woman he'd seen that evening- in fact, the only woman he had paid any attention to- was the dark-haired beauty he had danced with.
**"We run a garage together. I deal with the finances and cooking, while he's the mechanic and inhaler of food."**
With wide eyes, Wufei scoured her features, finding too many similarities between this grease-covered crying girl and the beautiful pixie to dismiss as coincidence. He swallowed and licked his suddenly dry lips. "Pixie girl?"
Hilde began to smile and step towards him, but as soon as she realized what she was doing, she stepped back and glared. "Well, thank you for remembering," she snapped. "Now let go of my arm and go away!"
Surprising even himself, Wufei complied and turned to go. "I'm sorry. Could you please tell Duo that I stopped by? By the way, my name is Chang Wufei."
Hilde watched him go, his name sinking into her furious consciousness a minute later. Inhaling sharply, she raced to the garage's entrance and spotted Wufei's hunched shoulders several houses down. Running to catch up, she stopped behind him and tugged his ponytail. "Chang Wufei, the gundam pilot, is a masochist?"
Wufei stiffened and glanced over his shoulder. "You're not angry," he stated wonderingly.
Hilde shook her head. "No, it was kinda stupid to be angry with you. I wouldn't recognize me either. Who would? Grease monkeys normally don't dress up nice enough to look like human beings. Take Duo for instance, he's so covered in grease and oil by the end of the day that it looks like he's the creature of the oil spill or something- Hey, as an apology for being angry at you, do you want to stay for dinner?"
Wufei grinned when she finally stopped talking. "You need to breathe once in a while, Pixie girl. And I will have dinner with you. Just as long as you breathe."
Hilde beamed and pulled him back to the house.
*****
Hilde slipped into the kitchen, an empty soup bowl in hand. Wufei had shown up at her house with a fever and a cough around midmorning, and after a day of her care was looking and feeling much better. Hilde though was quite exhausted.
Just as she was about to return to the living room and cuddle Wufei- regardless of the risk of catching his cough- she noticed the overflowing trash can. Cursing Duo and his selective hearing- she had told him, _several times_ in fact, to take out the trash before he left, but obviously he had been too busy straightening his rarely used Preventers jacket and fiddling with his braid to hear her- Hilde hefted the garbage bag and headed to the front door.
Her jaw crashed through the floor and hit a man on the other side of the colony when she opened the door to see Duo and Wufei's partner, Sally, kissing on the porch. As soon as the two broke their liplock, Hilde shoved the garbage bag at Duo, snatched up her elongated jaw, and dragged Sally inside. "When did you two happen?"
The older woman shrugged. "Just today actually."
Wufei appeared in the living room's doorway. "What are you doing here?"
Sally glanced from him to Hilde and grinned. "So Duo was right. You two are an item. But how did _that_ happen?"
Hilde gestured her into the living room and, after chiding Wufei for leaving the couch and waiting for Duo to return from his chore, told their story.
*****
Wufei arrived at Preventers HQ early the next morning, fully prepared to argue with Une until she allowed him to go on the mission that she had assigned Duo to in place of him. Normally he would take an extra day's rest from such a severe virus- not to mention spend more time with Hilde- but he wanted to hear Sally's account of her sudden relationship with the braided baka again. En route to a target seemed the best time to hear it.
Before he even reached the hall where Une's office was located, the founder of the Preventers bumped into him. "Wufei! I'm glad you're here! Sally caught that bug you had, and I don't want to send Duo out on his own! He's almost ready to go though, so you'd better get down there."
Wufei nodded wordlessly and jogged down to the hanger. There was no time to back out of it now. He would just have to suffer through Maxwell's incessant prattle during the mission. Although, he might be able to make it _useful_ incessant prattle.
He arrived at the jet they were using and found Duo running the preflight checks. "Duo-"
"Wow! You finally showed up! And you used my name! Does this mean our relationship is developing?"
Wufei ignored him and slid into the copilot's seat. "Duo, Sally told me about yesterday. I want your side of the story."
Duo grinned. "Jealous, are ya?"
Wufei snorted. "Why should I be jealous? I have Hilde."
"That's right. You'd better be good to her. I know where you live." The former god of death laughed maniacally.
Wufei rolled his eyes. "The story, Duo," he reminded, irritated. He still couldn't believe that Sally and anyone as annoying as Duo could get along for any length of time.
"Oh yeah. Well, it started like this..."
Wufei settled deeper into his chair. Let the unstoppable chatter begin.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~