Relena stirred in her sleep, slowly returning to the land of the conscious. She cracked open an eye and saw the blurry form of a man leaning over her and lightly rubbing her stomach.
THWACK!
Her fist connected with the side of his head; and, as soon as he reeled back, she jumped up and prepared to bolt. She came to a halt a moment later however, when a second man stepped into the room. The blurry form coalesced into Wufei, and she glanced back at the man she had decked. Duo Maxwell.
"Maxwell, you are truly weak, letting a woman hit you."
The groaning pilot snapped back, "Shove it, Wufei! I thought she was asleep!"
Relena watched the two bicker, until she grew bored and cleared her throat. "All right, I want to know why you kidnapped me, why you plan on killing me, and why-"
Duo held up a hand. "Can I replace your bandages first?"
Relena narrowed her eyes. "What bandages?"
The braided man pointed to her abdomen. "Those bandages. You really cut yourself up. I was cleaning the cut when you hit me. You've got a mean right hook by the way."
Wufei snorted. "It's pointless to heal her."
"I agree with him. Why are you doing this?"
"Because unlike my uptight companion," he gestured to Wufei, "I think there's another way to solve this problem. One that doesn't require killing pacifists."
Wufei snorted again. "I'm going to tell him about your lack of spine, Maxwell. Watch her."
After the other man left, Duo grinned. "Hey, 'Lena, you hungry?"
Relena blinked at the casualness of the question, but managed a nod.
The cheerful pilot's grin widened. "Good! I'm starvin'!" He led the way to a kitchen and began fixing himself and Relena sandwiches. "Hope you like turkey. It's all we have."
Relena nodded absently and sat down at the circular table. Duo set a plate in front of her and pulled a chair out across from her, sitting in it backwards. Around a mouthful of bread and turkey, he asked, "So what do you want to know?"
Relena took a bite of her own food. "Mmm, this is good!"
Duo smiled. "If nothing else, I can make a killer turkey sandwich. So?"
Relena ate another few bites before asking, "Why did you kidnap me?"
"Well, Heero contacted us and-"
Relena jumped up. "Heero's here?"
Duo sighed and shook his head. It seemed she still had a thing for the stoic man. "Yeah, Wu-man's talking to him now."
"So Heero was hired to kill me as well?"
"Um... well, actually," he coughed nervously, "to tell the truth, Heero hired us to kill you." The sentence escaped in a rush.
Relena stared at him, dumbfounded. A minute passed, and she gasped out a strained, "What?"
Duo nodded. "That's what I said too. But then I did a little research. Heero, it seems has been working for this rebel organization who- guess what?- hate you, want you dead. They recruited Heero as their assassin, and all the pacifists who have been killed lately..."
"Have been killed by Heero," Relena finished. "So if he hasn't left the assassin business, why did he hire you?"
"The only thing I can think of is he still cares for you. Has a strange way of showing it though."
Relena pondered this for a moment. "Then why are you here? Wufei's here and so is Trowa, so why are you here? I can't see Heero waltzing into your house, aiming a gun at your head, and saying, 'Duo, go kill her.' He doesn't work like that."
"Normally, I'd agree with you. I can't see Heero waltzing, and he didn't point a gun at my head physically, but that's basically what he's doing- the organization, at least."
"Meaning?"
"That organization has a deep space missile launcher. Aimed at the colonies. I have a gun to my head. If you don't die, thousands will."
Relena leaned over the table. "If I do die, thousands will as well. Peace will fall apart."
Duo stood and bent over the table, shoving his face close to Relena's. "Do you honestly think I would let that happen? I have worked so hard for peace- do you think that you're the only reason for peace? That all it took were a few bright, sugar-coated words for everyone to kiss and make up? Have you forgotten the war? If another war started, you wouldn't be able to stop it. You'd have as much luck with that as you did last time. You'd need the gundams again. You'd need us.
"Besides, even if you did die, the ESUN would be able to find another figurehead. They don't need you. In fact, they'd probably be better off getting a new symbol. Their present one is getting just a bit too high and mighty."
Relena flinched, each word he spoke was a blow to her, but they were all true.
Duo immediately regretted what he said. "Hey, 'Lena, I'm sorry. Didn't mean it."
Relena shook her head. "Don't be. You're right. I am a just a symbol, and I am full of myself. Guess I've gotten a bit to used to my cage. Started believing everything I'm told." She sat back down and steepled her fingers. "Do you have any idea as to how to make Heero stop this insanity?"
Duo hopped onto the table and rested one foot on his abandoned chair. "Tried it already. Got a big, black bruise on my cheek for my troubles."
Relena's reply was cut off by the kitchen door slamming open and Heero storming in. He took one look at the room's occupants, stalked over to Duo, grabbed his braid, and dragged him out.
The door closed behind the two, but Heero's yells could be heard through the wood. "What the hell are you doing? She's supposed to be dead! Why isn't she?"
Duo's voice was so quiet compared to Heero's that the young woman heard nothing of his answer. The next thing that reached her ears was a thump and a cry of pain. Hurrying into the hall, she found Duo sitting on the floor with his hands to his nose and Heero nowhere in sight.
Relena knelt next to Duo and pulled his hands away from his face. She inhaled sharply at the blood gushing out of Duo's nose and pulled a hankerchief from her pocket.
Duo pulled away from her. "I'm fine. It's just a broken nose; that's happened before." Trying to make light of the situation, he joked, "It must be pick on Duo day. You've hit me, Heero's hit me, Wufei's probably going to hit me. It's just not my day."
Relena sighed. "Mine neither."
Duo sobered. "'Lena, they're waiting for us in the hangar." He staggered up and swayed forward, toppling on Relena. The blonde, unbalanced by the unexpected weight, fell on to her back, Duo on top of her. He pushed himself up on his elbows and looked down into her face. "Sorry, you all right?"
"When you get off me."
Duo realized their position and scrambled up. "Sorry again."
Heero's jaw tightened as Duo and Relena walked in, jealousy washing over him. Relena's arm was wrapped around Duo's waist to support him, although the braided man seemed to be walking fine on his own. But he wasn't complaining either.
Heero stalked over to them and pulled Relena away from Duo. "What are you doing?" He scowled at him.
Without missing a beat, Duo- being the braided baka that he is- grinned. "Walking with a beautiful lady, of course. Jealous?"
Heero grabbed Duo's braid with his free hand and yanked. "I wasn't talking about that. Why isn't she dead?"
Relena pushed herself away from him. "Maybe I just have extreme luck where it concerns assassins!"
Duo attempted to hold back his laughter, but failed and soon felt Heero's fist slamming into the side of his face. He slumped against the wall and glared. "You really should learn to control that temper of yours."
Heero growled, "You should learn to control that mouth of yours."
Duo smiled sardonically. "This time it's your turn to talk. I'm sure 'Lena would love to hear why you can't kill her yourself."
Heero tensed at both Duo's sarcasm and his familiarity in shortening Relena's name. "You want to know?" He turned to Relena, his eyes burning into hers. "You really want to know?"
Relena swallowed and nodded, ripping her gaze away. His eyes were unnerving- more so than they normally were.
Heero murmured, "I'll show you why." He firmly grasped her chin and pressed his lips to hers. Relena gasped against the bruising force of his kiss, and Heero took the opportunity to deepen it. Relena pushed against his chest, finally wrenching away. It took her a moment to catch her breath, and Duo stared, open-mouthed. That was the last thing he expected Heero to do. Glancing at Trowa and Wufei, he saw that they were also extremely surprised.
Relena regained her breath and, when Heero placed a hand on her shoulder, slugged him. "That was way overdue!"
Duo closed his mouth. "What? The kiss or the punch?"
"Both!" Relena whirled around and started down the corridor; she turned back and asked, "Anyone going to kill me tonight?"
The four men simply looked at her- Duo grinning, Heero rubbing his jaw, and Wufei and Trowa calmly studying her. She nodded. "Good. I'm going to go find an open window or dig a tunnel out of here or something. Good night."