"Love Potion #9"
a Gundam Wing Fanfic

by the Princess

**WARNING: foul language, shounen-ai, characters frequently OOC...*

"Love is friendship set on fire."

-old Welsh proverb

~Epilogue~

To this day, I still don't have any memory of the next few seconds. I don't remember watching the sword swing down through the air in a silver arch of death, I don't remember the look on Relena's face when she realized what was heading her way, I don't remember hearing her scream, or screaming myself, and I don't know exactly when it was that I realized that Hiro had shoved Relena out of way and took her place.

These things were deleted from my memory, the same way that people like to forget any sort of unpleasantess, and the only thing I remember is being so scared that I nearly made water in my pants, and looking into Hiro's glazed-over cobalt eyes.

So, though I'm sure it would make a very dramatic story, I don't know how I managed to divert the sword's direction just enough, how I managed to slow it down barely in time, so that instead of cutting off Hiro's head, it whizzed harmlessly through the air and lodged itself in the pink wood counter.

But I did, and in the end, isn't that all that really matters?

I stood there, blinking, staring at the sword, which was buried to the hilt in the counter. My throat was aching like it was bleeding; later, I found this was because I had screamed out Hiro's name with everything I had to give. I looked at the sword hilt, and wondered how in the name of God I had carried Wufei's sword around without accidently gutting myself. I looked at Relena, who was wearing a pink bathrobe and on her ass on the pink linolium, her mouth open to scream, but not saying a word. I lastly looked at Hiro, who wore only a pair of jeans and was looking at me with such coldness that I thought I'd get frostbite.

"Hiro," I breathed.

"What are you doing, Duo?" he said coldly.

Relena obviously wanted to speak very badly.

"If you really loved me, then you would let me be happy," he went on. "You would respect my wishes."

"If I thought for one second that you were free to make you own decision, then I would let you be happy," I replied, releasing the sword handle. "But I don't think you are. I can't stand here and let you be yanked around like a meat puppet."

"You know, I knew you were desperate to be with me, but I didn't think you'd stoop to spouting such vicious lies!" His fury was quiet, but visible.

"I wish I was lying. But I'm not, man. That's the way it is. I know you don't understand right now--"

"Don't *patronize* me, Duo! You just tried to kill the only thing that ever meant a thing to me in my life, and now you're trying to tell me it was for my own good?!"

I nearly gave up right then and there. I wanted to collapse on the counter, cry and scream and despair until I either pulled out the sword and killed myself or the cops came to get me. I looked into those beloved blue eyes which were flat and cold as slate, and nearly gave up.

Then, two things happened at once: I put a hand to my pocket and felt the bottle of Love Potion Number Nine, and D'arcy--wielding her bo staff at its full length and splattered with a little blood--broke down the door and came spinning into the room. "Allrighty then," she bellowed, dropping into a defensive posture, "where's this 'psycho bitch with testicles' that I've been hearing so much about, so that I might kill her?!"

Hiro stepped forward with a furious look on his face, but Relena--who had shoved herself to her feet--waved him back. She gave D'arcy a filthy look and pointed at the pink kitchen floor.

"Nuh-uh. You might call your pet dog there--" D'arcy gestured to Hiro with her bo staff "--to help you out if things get a little uneven. Let's take this to that obscenely big and pink living room, or nowhere."

Relena thought for a minute, then went to a pink kitchen cabinet and pulled out a pink shotgun. She gestured towards the kitchen door with her head, and the two women left the room.

By the time they were in the living room (most of the rest of our conversation was peppered with background screams, gunshots, curses, and sounds of gigantic objects being knocked to the ground), I had gotten a hold of myself. I had to trust Acchi Ikeyo, had to trust that the gold-fanged Gypsy had some clue of what she'd been talking about when it came to Love Potion Number Nine, and that her Goddess had created something that hadn't gone over with time.

"Hiro," I said. "Can't you see what's going on here? Do you remember what you said to me, before her hold on you got even stronger? You said that you thought she was a little opressive. That's the last sign of the Hiro I know and love I've seen. This, the way you're acting now, it isn't you. You're not being straight with me. You also remember when we were still friends, and you said that we had to promise to be 100% honest with each other? Was that an empty promise? I certainly meant it, and the truth can hurt, but haven't I been straight with you since that promise was made? Don't you respect that promise at *all*?"

He shook his head, not in denial, but like there were cobwebs in his brain and he was trying to get them cleared. "Duo--"

"What-o?"

He made a weird little noise. "Duo...I never said I didn't care about you...but Relena--"

"Relena is using you. Can't you see that? Have you noticed how she calls you on the hour? Have you noticed how you can't go for too long without hearing from her or seeing her? Her voice is the last thing you hear at night when you go to sleep, and I bet she wakes you up in the morning by calling your name, or else she wouldn't be able to keep tabs on you. Does any of this sound familiar to you?" I slid off the counter and took him by the shoulders. "She's using the love potion on you, Hiro."

He jerked away from me like my hands burned him. "That's ridiculous."

"You don't sound like you think it's ridiculous. Think, Hiro, before *she* comes back and suckers you back in. You know deep down that it makes sense." I sighed. "I love you, you know that."

"Duo--"

"What-o?"

He looked like he was thinking hard, like the cobwebs were blocking his thinking process, or gumming it all up. "Duo...I care about you a lot...but there's *something* that's keeping me from talking about it--"

"That's the potion. I told you. She's got you helpless."

"But..." I realized I must have caught him when the potion was at its weakest, or else I would never have gotten this deep with him. "I don't know any more."

"Do you trust me?"

"Um... ... ...I..."

"Take this." I pulled out the Love Potion Number Nine. It was in a small glass bottle wrapped in silver like netting, and had a fancy silver stopper. The liquid inside was clear as water, but thick and drippy like maple syrup. "It's not anything dangerous. It won't cast any weird spells on you. Here, let me prove it." I uncorked it, and paused before drinking, because the Nine reacted with the air. It turned into a shining color; it now looked like liquid gold. I didn't hesitate, though, to quaff about half of the bottle.

The feeling was amazing. It felt like a psychic loofah bath. Everything negative--my hate, my frustration, my fear, my confusion, my indecision, my reservations, and my anger--slowly melted, evaporated and disappated into nothingness. And what was left was all of the *good* things, the healthy things--happiness, peace, balance, understanding, courage, and above all, love.

My love for Hiro was shining like a nuclear sun.

It was, indeed, a miracle.

I looked at Hiro, who was staring at me oddly. I must have looked different; I certainly felt different. I felt like I was glowing from every pore in my body. "Nani...?" he mused, daring to reach out and touch my cheek. My skin electrified at his touch. "You look...you look...you look so *whole*."

"And you look like Death warmed over," I replied, reaching up and touching his hand. He jerked away, but it was a reluctant movement. "Please?" I asked, holding out the silver/glass bottle to him.

Like he was dreaming, he took the bottle from me, looked at the aurum liquid inside, put it to his lips.

Relena ran into the room, obviously wanting to scream, but afraid that she would ensnare myself or D'arcy. Her pink shotgun was nowhere to be seen, and she had obviously come to get Hiro to protect her. D'arcy came in from behind, bo staff gone, holding a pistol with both hands and screaming Relena's name. Both women stopped when they saw Hiro and the bottle. D'arcy looked at me and gave me a wink, which I returned; Relena ran and tried to stop him, but by the time she got to him, the golden potion was down his throat.

Hiro blinked hard, and dropped the bottle, which bounced on the pink floor but refused to shatter. He stumbled, and I caught him, relishing the feeling of holding him once again. He huddled in my arms, shuddering, and I wondered why the Nine would have a negative effect on him like this. I gently stroked his hair as D'arcy restrained a pink-cheeked and furious Relena-bitch. "Let it come," I muttered in his ear, "relax, it'll be all right, just let it come."

After a few moments, he wrenched away from my grasp. He looked at me with no readable emotion in his eyes, and looked at the two women. A flicker of something lit up his eyes, and he smiled warmly. "Relena?"

>Oh, my God, he really did love her all the time, I was wrong to love him,< I thought, expecting to feel a horrid fear gripping my heart. But--maybe it was the Nine at work--I knew that I *wasn't* wrong in loving him, and that I wasn't going to be afraid to love him unrequited for the rest of my life, because the feeling of REAL love was so marvelous and sweet.

But to be with him...

Relena, looking very defiant and triumphant, wriggled out of D'arcy's grip, and went to Hiro. D'arcy looked at me with her big green eyes, seeming helpless to do anything constructive, and I shrugged. "Que sera sera," I sang. "Whatever will be, will be--"

"Relena," Hiro said, taking her up in his arms, and I started to cry, not of sadness but of happiness, because I did want him to be happy, now that I knew he wasn't drugged.

Then D'arcy, Relena and I all stiffened as we heard the chk-CHK! of a pistol being cocked into place.

Hiro was holding a gun to the psycho bitch from hell's head.

"Omae o korosu, busu," he growled.

D'arcy laughed wildly as the pink bitch squealed and stumbled out of the room. She winked at me and crinkled her nose, drawing attention to those freckles of hers which were so damn cute. "Gotta take out the trash!" she said, running after Relena with a rebel yell on her lips.

I looked at Hiro, who was grinning hugely. "Scared you shitless, didn't I?" he said, and I laughed, shaking my head. Then he suddenly wrapped his arms around my waist, and pulled me as close to him as I would get, and moved in for a kiss. I gave it to him, wrapping my arms around his neck, then he suddenly broke away, looking me straight in the eyes. "I'm a shit," he said.

"Iie."

"Liar. I've been a bastard to you all this time. Always...afraid...to say anything to you. So I always said, 'Nothing,' but it wasn't--*isn't* nothing, it's the most important thing I could ever think of saying. And this stuff, whatever it was...it's a miracle." He paused. "Duo?"

"What-o?"

"I love you."

I cried, and held him, and kissed him, and knew finally that he was mine.

I felt compelled to visit the golden-fanged Gypsy one last time. I had the silver/glass bottle in my hand and a lightness in my heart which was so strong, it felt almost scary.

I looked at her door again, at the pentacle in the Celtic knot in red and black, and then the yellow hand with an eye on the palm, then the door dinged open as I entered. The candles were all burning, of course, and this time, the insense was an unfamiliar sweet spice. She was sitting in the only chair left; I'd broken the other my last visit, and she seemed to not have moved at all since last I saw her. She smiled, showing off her gold-capped canines which were all the stronger against her chestnut skin. Her Oriental-looking amber eyes glistered at me. "It worked," she said simply.

"And you didn't know for a fact it would?" I asked, holding up the bottle for evidence.

"Oh, I knew, make no mistake," she countered. She accepted the bottle as I handed it to her. "Tell me something, though, Mr. Maxwell. Are you happy?"

I thought about last night. We spent half the night moving Hiro's things out of Relena's mansion and back into our apartment. The apartment had been filled with boxes of all sorts by the time we were done. Hiro had looked around, shaking my head, and said: "Damn if it isn't going to take the rest of the night to get this shit out of the boxes."

"Oh, forget about the boxes," I had said, an eager glint in my eyes, as I grabbed him by one hand and led him to the bedroom. "There's always tomorrow."

"It *is* tomorrow! And if we don't do it now, we'll decide that the apartment looks better with boxes everywhere, and we'll never--"

"Peace, I will stop your mouth," I said, and gave him a lingering, fiery kiss.

"You're right, the boxes can wait," he had agreed, and then night belonged to us. In the morning, late morning, we had looked around and at each other, and it had been him to decide that the apartment *did* look better with the boxes everywhere. "It'll fool us into making us think we have more furniture," he had laughed.

"Never been happier," I replied to Acchi Ikeyo.

She nodded. "Then I suspect that that is all."

I turned to go, then turned back. "Hey, if I cross your palm with silver, will you give me a reading?"

"I certainly will."

I gave her $10 I had stolen from Hiro's sock drawer--he'd understand--and she stared into the crystal ball. She didn't touch it, or wave her hands over it and mumble mumbo-jumbo. She just stared into its smooth and glassy surface. "The money you gave me was stolen," she said. "Hiro is going to go hungry at work today because you took it. You are going to take a taxi to his work and give it back to him. That's first." She shoved the wrinkled bill back at me; I was too flabbergasted to do anything but take it back. "Second. I see a very angry man out for your blood. He has a girlfriend with long silver-blonde hair and shame in her eyes."

"Marcia!"

She nodded. "Do not go any further east than the park for the next month or so, if you are smart. Lastly. You and Hiro both now have sizable shares in NBC. You're both rich."

"NANI????"

"It would appear that Neine Rasputin has very fond feelings for Hiro yet. You both now own approximately 1/12 of the company, which is a small fortune. You will be recieving notification in the mail this afternoon."

"Oh holy shit Jesus Mary Mother of God and Joseph!! HA! Are you kidding me?? We're *rich*?!?"

"Your current holdings exceed the wealth of the Winner family."

"HA! Holy God! Is there anything else in there?"

"Hai. D'arcy is in love with you. But I see that she will eventually move on."

"D'arcy is WHAT?"

"She had had feelings for you the entire time. But she seemed to be in denial. Don't worry, she's not going to try and ruin your relationship with Hiro; she *couldn't*, but she could try. And, one last thing. You won't forget the witch to whom you owe your current happiness."

I had been jumping up and down and running through the room once I found that I was rolling in dough. At that last comment, I stopped, and looked at her. She was smiling smartly. "Doshite, Acchi Ikeyo?" I asked her. "Why'd you do all of that for me?"

"Well..." She considered. "There was no one else. I knew from the second you bought the love potion that you would need help in reaching your appropriate future. You certainly would have let it all go to hell if you'd been left on your own, wouldn't you?"

I nodded at that. Then I went to her, and gave her a tight hug. She smelled like citrus. She hugged me back, and when I pulled away, she was smiling an aurum smile. "I won't forget you," I said. "And I'll send you a check once I get my money in order."

"Good boy. Now go give your lover his lunch money."

Again, I was out on the sidewalk before I even knew that I had left, and I went whistling down the street.

The familiar, though a snake, seemed to smile. >So he has reached his destiny, Acchi Ikeyo.<

"Yes," the Gypsy replied, watching the snake as it twirled around her arm. "As it was meant to be."

>I think you will, perhaps, miss seeing the boy's shining face.<

She smiled. "Perhaps. But if he is happy, then that is all I could wish for him."

The snake chuckled to itself, then twined into the fingers that gripped the silver-wrapped bottle. >As it was meant to be, indeed. Tell me now, miss, you were hoping that he would realize love for you when he quaffed the Nine, were you not?<

"Of course not--I--"

>You can't lie to me. You drank a bit of it yourself. Answer your own question: Can you live with your love unrequited?<

She thought for a while. "Yes. I can. Whatever makes him happy."

The jar was returned to the safe, empty and alone, and Acchi Ikeyo Butsoyo closed the store for the day.

Disclaimer

The Gundam boys and anything pertaining to Gundam Wing belong to the creators of the show, not to me, no matter how hard I wish. They are being used without permission for fun, not profit. If you don't know this, then you are a sad sack of shit. Go crawl under a rock and wither up and die. Also, "Love Potion #9" (the movie and the song ) belongs to their writers, and not me; any semblances between the plot of this fanfic and that movie were done very much intentionally. Get over it.

In contrast, D'arcy, the Butsoyo clan, the Rasputins, and any characters not belonging to the Gundam franchise are mine, and may not be used without my permission (God only knows why anyone would want to use them, but...). If you do use them without asking me first, I'm going to get Acchi Ikeyo (which, incidently, means "Go away!") to put a curse on you so nasty that I don't even know what would happen...

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