Author's Note: I have this terrible habit of referring to the Gundam-boys as "boys", even though I'm trying to portray them as older than in the actual series. If you catch that I've referred to, say, Quatre as "the blond boy", please disregard that -even though he's eternally fifteen in my head (because, for some damn reason, I can't get the guy to age at all .) he's still a "man." Secondly, this chapter was at one point written in first person POV due to some flight of fancy when I wrote it originally. I decided it wasn't right for one chapter to be like that when the other's weren't, so I went through it and tried to change it all. If there's a subject-verb disagreement or a randomly placed I, me, mine, or we, I'm very sorry.

The meaning of C&C: Literally, Comments and Criticism; like R&R (read and review). Basically it's the old-school way of asking for reviews. Sorry if that confused you.

Props to aspiring author for once again pointing out my mistakes. Heh.

The Professional and the Amateur Part 8

"Sugoisugoisugoi..."

Yes, Duo was actually this excited. He didn't think he'd been this excited in a long time. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd never been as thrilled as he was when he stepped out of Heero's awesome (and most likely expensive) black '64 Lincoln Continental convertible, complete with red interior.

Sweet car.

In any case, he was awed--no, wowed--no, no! Umm... Floored! Yes, he was floored by the sight and hustle and bustle in front of him.

Duo must have passed that same base they were filming at a dozen times without a second thought. Who would ever guess that one day the place someone passed by on a regular basis would one day be a part of a movie?

He'd never actually set foot on the base, although Hilde used to go there and sing for the soldiers when the war was in progress not long ago. After the war the soldiers all got together and sent her this nice little gift--a heart-shaped water globe with an angel watching over two playing children inside. The music was pretty. He used to listen to it over and over and make up words that probably didn't exist. It was probably safely tucked into Solo's room as one of his prized possessions for all he knew, because after a while he never saw it again.

Soldiers--those that stayed on base with nothing better to do or no one to go home to--all milled around, though away from a submarine where the scene was being shot. From the gist of it Duo paretically understood what was going on, but he only had time to memorize his first scene. He hadn't signed anything yet; Howard Stiles, the director of this darling development, wanted to see exactly how good he was before handing him anything to sign.

"Don't worry," Heero had said with a small, secretive smile that drove the braided man's hormones into a wild, frenzied party. "Howard and I have complete faith in you."

This coming from the Yale graduate at age eighteen. Or Harvard. It might have been Columbus, but Duo reluctantly admitted to himself that when they were talking about school he was mostly going over the lines in his head. He did remember that Heero graduated high school at fourteen and spent nearly five years in college.

Back to the soldiers. He really had no problem with them. Duo stood on the side, watching in quiet enthrallment as five stacked missiles--probably duds, but who knows?--were lowered on the deck of the sub for future use. Heero had mentioned that this was an action adventure/romance.

That is, until one by one they started looking at him more. After a while he thought they either had his already frail nerves snapping or they were already shot to hell. Duo didn't like much attention, and they were giving him a little too much.

"Isn't that Hilde's cousin?"

"Looks like his picture."

"She always talked about that braid..."

He almost physically slumped in relief. They knew Hilde, he thought with ease. If they knew Hilde, they were alright. Hilde had a sixth sense about people, and... well, they seemed like they were really nice to her before.

"Hey, Duo-kun!" The American felt an arm slip in the crook of his elbow and heard the laugh of a familiar, high voice and smelled something like lavender. He didn't even have to wonder to know who had just curled herself around him before smiling winningly and greeting the bubbly blonde politely.

"Nice to see you again," she chirped with a wide, mischievous smile before she made a nonchalant look around. "Did your family come with you? I'm sure Solo would have loved to see the making of the greatest movie yet."

He smiled at her. He understood why Heero seemed gruffly fond of the wheat blonde girl with the cornflower blue eyes. Within the span of a day she could have a complete stranger wrapped so totally around her finger it wouldn't even be funny.

"No, Solo had school today," he replied with an earnestness in his smile. "Aunt Helen and Hilde were still sleeping off the exhaustion of last night. They haven't been out in a long time, you know."

Looked to him like Relena planned to change that. "Ah. So how are they?"

"Hilde was fine before we left, Relena," Heero said somewhat teasingly as he stepped up to the other side of Duo, slipping his arm through the bend of the American's elbow, surrounding him on both sides. "Funny how you managed to drop my sis so quickly, Relena-sama. How... abrupt."

"She's close to being married," Relena shrugged defensively. "I moved to greener pastures a long time ago. Besides, I don't think I could survive another day with Wu giving me the hairy eyeball." She attempted to demonstrate this adorable little act, but Duo doubted it looked as cute as the real deal.

"Married? Only if he gets the balls, honey." This voice was new, and Duo had to do a full 180 to see the newcomer. She wasn't tall, about Heero's height. She had very long, very blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes that must have been her best features. Her forked eyebrows, so much like Treize Khushrenada's to a farther degree, were by far her strangest and most noticeable trait.

To the side of her stood a very tall man with light brown hair piled on one side of his face, covering one clear cut emerald green eye and leaving the other exposed for all to see. He sized Duo up as the braided man had momentarily done to him, and nodded as if in approval. He didn't say a thing through the entire exchange, but his thoughtful green eyes softened noticeable when landing on the shorter boy beside him.

The blond man had hair that matched the color of the woman's hair, and his wide, caring teal eyes were by far more expressive than his companion's. He was lithe, like Duo, and about the same height. With his friendly smile and posture (though he was leaning very close to the taller boy, like marking who was his and telling me he was Off Limits), Duo could tell they would be very close friends in the future.

"This must be Duo," the teal eyed angel said softly, smiling brightly as he held out a hand. "Ohayo nasai! I'm Quatre Raberba Winner, Heero's friend and your co-star."

"Duo Maxwell," he said with a cheeky grin, taking the blond's offered hand and giving it a firm shake. "Ohayo! The pleasure's all mine."

"I'm sure Heero forgot to mention me," the blonde woman said with an affectionate, teasing grin sent toward the handsome Japanese man. "I'm Dorothy Catalonia, Heero's stepsister. Nice to finally meet you, but we'll be on opposite sides in the movie."

"He's mentioned a lot about you," Duo said honestly. "It's nice to meet you, too." Duo was dull when it came to new, creative greetings, but call him up on the phone and most would get a whole new surprise...

Flashback

"Hi, I put the 'fun' in dysfunctional," Duo greeted cheerfully at what must have been three o'clock in the morning. "How can I help you on this delightful Friday morning?"

He heard a quiet chuckle on the other side of the line, and Duo was immediately pleased when Heero answered, "D-Y-S-F-U... Hn. There is a fun in dysfunctional..."

"Told you," Duo insisted, glancing at the bright red, glowing numbers on my digital clock. "What's up at three in the morning... besides you, I mean."

"Truthfully? Trowa and Quatre doing a little more than what it seems in their bedroom." Duo could distinctly hear a low moan in the background, but he bit his lip and grinned to keep from asking. "But I called to remind you about the little screen test and contract signing tomorrow. I just remembered and I had to kick myself for keeping you out so late."

"Do I look like I get that many hours of sleep in a week?" Duo asked in amazement, cracking a grin when he heard Heero laugh again.

"Are you nervous?"

"Dude, you haven't given me enough time to be nervous," the braided man answered truthfully, grabbing his script and reading over a few lines. "I think the character fits me well, though. It'll be a piece of cake." He paused. "What's this stuff about wheat fields and reaping?"

"Your character's way of speaking military terms. Don't worry too much about it, you'll start to understand the plot as it thickens." Duo could hear the rustling of the phone as Heero shifted. Duo thought it sounded as if the Japanese man was trying to block out a particularly loud moan, but he was sorry to admit he failed. Badly. "Listen, I'll let you go so you can get some sleep, all right?"

"You just don't want me to hear the wonderful healthiness in Trowa and Quatre's relationship," he teased.

He paused. "That wasn't Trowa and Quatre. That was Wufei and Dorothy."

Duo couldn't help it. He started to laugh, trying to keep quiet by stuffing as much of his fist as he could into his mouth. It was just too much... "Are you the only one not getting any?"

"Not for long, hopefully." Before Duo could ask what he even meant by that -as if he couldn't guess!- Heero murmured a quick good-bye and hung up the phone. Duo shook his head and followed suit, flipping around and curling into his favorite sleeping position.

It wasn't three minutes later before the phone rang again. Duo blindly reached over and picked it up. "Hi, the word of the week is 'legs'. Spread the word," he quipped, having a feeling he knew exactly who it was.

It was.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Heero said with a small laugh. "You don't have to wear anything particularly special to the shoot, okay? They'll have plenty of outfits to fit you in, and I'm sure they have your size and an idea of your outfit to fit your 'background' in the movie. I'll pick you up at eight. Bye." Click.

"Good morning to you too," Duo groused to himself playfully, hanging up the phone. It rang immediately.

"Hi, Duo Maxwell here. I'm off marrying the Queen of the World, but leave your name and number after the beep and I'll get back to you after I achieve reality. Or I won't if I don't like you. Beep!"

It wasn't Heero.

"Hello, this Jada Gold from Channel 8 News. Do you mind if I ask you a few quick questions about your upcoming movie and how you came into the part?"

Duo froze. "Lady, you do realize that it's three-oh-seven in the morning. Wherever you are, I hope it's pretty early in the morning, too."

He could hear her silent rue over the phone. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Maxwell! I'm out of town, and I meant to do this interview earlier this week..." She sighed regretfully. "I guess I forgot all about time zones."

"We all make mistakes," he soothed, not feeling angry with her at all. "I was wide awake anyway. Heero keeps callin' to remind me in his nick-pick way about the shoot tomorrow!" He laughed, showing her it was all okay.

"Shoot," she sighed. "I'll be back by tomorrow. Do you mind if we have a face-to-face interview? I'd really like to ask you a few questions to clear up the confusion among different groups at the opposite end of the same spectrum, if you get my drift."

He hesitated. "Tomorrow? Um..."

"Do you want me to come to your house? If you're too tired to leave--"

"You really don't know where I live, do you?" He laughed softly in the phone when she admitted she didn't even know what he looked like. By the end of the phone conversation he had set up to meet her in a small little diner somewhere uptown. Finally he was able to get some sleep!...

End Flashback

"Oi." Duo felt Heero tap him on the shoulder, bringing him back from his momentary lapse of reality. "You zoned on me. Did you get enough sleep last night?" The teasing hint in his eyes were there, and damn him, it certainly did something for Duo's libido!

"Not really," he rattled with a mocking yawn. "I mean, in between your twenty-seventh early Friday morning phone call to remind me to wear my hair up tight and the twenty-eighth call to remind me to bring a brush and a list of my clothes sizes, I actually had a call from someone who had an excuse for calling at three in the morning."

Heero's friends cracked up, picking on him about coming on a little strong. He shrugged simply. "You were keeping me up. It's not my fault my room's wedged between you four." Nonchalantly he added, "And I do believe it was you who said the only reason I wanted to let you go was because I didn't want you knowing the healthy aspects of Trowa and Quatre's bed life. Or how loud Dorothy actually is in bed..."

The three aforementioned friends cleared their throats and looked away from one another, but especially found it difficult to force eye contact with Duo. Relena, he noticed, smirked lecherously.

Heero seemed to finally realize Duo had said something else; it really wasn't like him to not immediately register something and mentally file it away for future reference. He mustn't be a morning person... "What moron called you at three o'clock in the morning?" He sounded a little angry. Duo actually had to give him a look that told all, and he was pretty sure the four of his friends were beginning to laugh again.

"Besides me," he added politely and a little stiff-like, like his own insult didn't compare to him because he was the one that made the comment. He was conceited, all right, and what was worse (and enduring) was that he didn't realize it most of the time.

"Some reporter from Channel 8," he answered with a shrug. "She's outta town and coming back today. Apparently she was in a hurry and forgot about time zones." Duo could see they were all looking at him funny. "What?"

"You set up an appointment with her, didn't you?" To Duo, it sounded as if they had all pegged him the type, but Dorothy sounded a little pained at her own question. He nodded slowly.

"Well, yeah, I didn't see any reason not to," he rambled on. "Why? I won't tell her anything about the movie, y'know, I barely understand the script as of yet."

"It's not that, Duo-kun," Quatre replied with a little frown. "I myself found nothing wrong about talking to reporters and interviewers when I first started out... but throw one a bone and the others are calling you and begging for the same interview. You'll get pretty tired of all the attention real fast."

Duo never really wanted the attention anyway, so he was already pretty much tired of it. He didn't say that, though. "Can't do anything about it now," he quipped cheerfully, although he didn't at all feel cheerful. "If I cancel than she'll just badmouth me for tryin' to dump her or something."

"Hey, kid!" Ah. Duo recognized that voice. He turned a tantalizing grin toward Howard Stiles, who had decided to finally make his appearance among the group of young actors. With a bat of his long lashes, and made a show of giggling like a ditz.

"Don't you mean 'chic'?" he asked guilelessly, taking pleasure in his little blanch and grinning virtuously ear to ear. The four that had joined us not long ago began to snicker a bit, but quieted down.

"Keep it up, smartass," Howard said with a playfully displeased look. He dropped the scowl so fast that Duo had thought he imagined the whole thing. "Get your butt down to makeup and see if they can do anything with you. And have them fit you a wardrobe while you're at it. Yuy, show him the way." He turned back to Relena, Quatre, Trowa, and Dorothy. "While those late blockheads are getting ready, I want you four numbskulls to start filming. Time is of the essence, and if you don't get your essence out there you're all going to have to answer to me. Clear?"

"Crystal," four voices echoed before they all departed, laughing.

"Howard's a bit long-winded," Heero whispered, though loud enough for Howard to hear. "You'll get used to it sooner or later."

"Long-winded?" Howard questioned loudly. "I'll give you long-winded you pugnacious little pule! Take your boyfriend to makeup or you'll have to deal with Olga again." For some reason that sounded really scary right about then...

Sure enough, Heero made a show of staggering back and gasping as if in betrayal. "Surely you don't hate me that much!"

"Enough to send you to Olga, boy," Howard replied simply. "Now go! Get! Begone you vermin of the set!"

They were already running from the ranting, and perhaps just a little, crazy director.

Duo hadn't realized how long getting all prettied-up in makeup took. By the time he was finished with the makeup, outfitted, and given advice about how to ignore cameras, microphones, and such, the sun was already setting. Heero said that was good; the scene was shot at night, anyway.

Relena came back from her latest shoot and the stylist immediately began work on her. Duo looked over his magazine, raising an eyebrow at her blue, expensive looking party dress. Heero made a show of looking at her in disbelief, although Duo bet he already knew beforehand.

"Relena," he said in mock surprise, "they made you put on a dress?"

"Keep it up, Yuy." The usually chipper girl said moodily, sighing as the blush brush went to work on her cheeks. "Do you have any idea how many times I had to do and redo that scene? If I stand over a hill to watch fireworks fly one more time, it'll be too soon!"

"I thought you did that scene yesterday," Heero mumbled.

"I did," she hissed at her reflection. "Stiles said it wasn't good enough."

"Ahh, you know him," Heero waved it off. "He doesn't do anything halfway. Speaking of which, let's head toward the set." He was addressing Duo this time, but he smiled at Relena through the mirror. "We'll catch you when you come back to film scene 26, alright?" Actors seemed to have made it habit to call the scenes by numbers. It would have been easier on Duo if they said 'the scene with all the explosions and stuff' but that happened a lot in the movie and he doubted it would make things any clearer.

"Alright. Break a leg and don't mess up, Duo," Relena smiled winningly. "This is the last scene of the day, and I plan on going home for a nice, long soak in the hot tub."

"Thinking about Hilde," Heero chirped as he stepped out of the door. He saw Relena blush, but Duo just smiled and waved her good-bye.

----------

"Hiroshi..."

But his eyes suddenly turned cold, and he whirled around with a gun held steadily in her face. She gasped and stumbled back, hurt and confusion written all over her features...

"You should have stayed out of my way, Rina," he said coldly, squeezing the trigger...

A shot rang out, slamming into the gun-holder's shoulder. He dropped the gun, letting it clatter to the ground as he stumbled in surprise more than anything else. Both turned their attention on the dark figure standing at the end of the sub, both hands holding the gun steady and pointed on the other boy.

The figure raised his head, revealing two amethyst orbs focused on the scene before him. "Call me uncultured," he said in a dry, almost humored tone, "but I don't think that's a proper way of treatin' a lady, pal. Are you alright, miss?"

The former gun-holder's eyes flickered to the gun, and he lunged. The current gun-holder, however, read this move and shot at the gun, knocking the weapon from his reach. He cocked the gun to let out another bullet, this time for the kill, but he hesitated for a brief millisecond.

This gave the girl time to step in front of the injured boy. "No! Don't kill him!" she insisted with a heated glare at the figure. His head jerked up in shock as she turned his back on him and ripped her elegant party dress to tend her attempted murderer's wound.

"How is it," the braided boy murmured to himself, lifting his gun to his ear, blowing a breath of exasperation, "that I always seem to turn out to be the bad guy?"

At that moment, something in the ocean rumbled to the surface. The braided boy gasped and made a quick glance at his watch. "Damn... I must have miscalculated the time..."

And suddenly the Japanese boy was up and running toward the six torpedoes he had set up just for that such occasion...

----------

"Yahoo!" Relena pumped a fist in the cool night air as Heero finally turned over from his face-first landing in the water, placing his hands behind his head and floating leisurely, sometimes kicking himself into slow circles. "That's a wrap, people! Duo, sign that blasted contract and let's head home!"

Duo grinned. "You really get a kick out of this, don't you?" All of a sudden she looked down at Heero, who was swimming below behind the braided man's back and got a devilish look in her eyes. He knew what that look meant. It meant Heero wanted her to do something, and since Duo had a feeling it was towards him... He turned and looked down, only to see the Japanese hottie smiling innocently at him from the water. Well, that didn't seem so evil--

Two hands planted themselves firmly at his back and shoved...

SPLASH!

"YUY!" Duo sputtered once he'd surfaced, aware of Heero's laughter echoing Relena's. "PEACECRAFT! I swear you'll get yours!"

Now to think about just what I should do...

TBC...

Yes! That's right! I am totally UNoriginal. :big grin: The movie Duo and Heero are starring in is a shorter version of Gundam Wing. Two hours and twenty-two minutes of action packed excitement... :sigh:

Reviews welcomed and highly encouraged!

 

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