NY
Chapter One
Duo sighed, trying to find the right records on the computer.
"Maxwell," Chang said curtly, "shouldn't you be in the back?"
He didn't have to add the 'where the customers can't see you' bit, Duo
had deduced that for himself.
"Yeah, I just have to find some things out here first."
Wufei nodded hesitantly, then smiled when Relena and Dorothy stepped
through the door.
"Lena, Cat! It's so great to see you two!"
Wufei exchanged kisses on both cheeks with the girls.
"Are you two here for the new collection?"
Relena nodded. "It's official- both Dorothy and I have received
invitations from Mrs.Yuy. And we have absolutely nothing to wear!"
Wufei nodded, leading the girls into the lounge area. "I'll just have
our models show you things from our winter collection. Most of the
evening wear collection won't be released until the show, but Mister
Barton sent us a few pieces just this morning."
Wufei called into a telephone for the store's models, Claudette and
Sylvia, to come showcase the new dresses.
"That's perfect," said Dorothy, "so no one else has seen these gowns
yet?"
Wufei shook his head proudly. "You girls can have the first pick."
Duo half watched as Relena and Dorothy 'oohed' and 'aahed' at the
dresses the models were wearing. He had to admit, the gowns were
gorgeous, and probably cost a few thousand each too. He sighed, and
Relena looked over, smiling at the obviously common boy in front of her.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, deciding that it would be an act of
goodwill for her to listen to his problems.
Duo twiddled the pencil that he was holding, surprised that Relena
would care. He could see Wufei behind her, looking on the conversation
disapprovingly. There was nothing he could do about it, though, since
it had been Relena who had instigated the discussion.
"Oh, it's nothing really," he started, "it's just that I would never be
able to afford one of these dresses to wear to the ball."
Dorothy laughed a little. "You, go to the ball?"
"Yeah, my friend Quatre Winner sent me an invitation."
Relena didn't say anything, but Duo could tell she disapproved. Whether
of Quatre Winner or him going to the ball, he didn't know. It was
probably both.
"Winner?" Dorothy asked. "That nouveaulle-riche family that made a
fortune on satellite resources? I can't believe he got an invitation."
"You can't possibly be thinking of going to the ball," Wufei
interrupted.
"Actually, I was."
Relena fixed Duo with a condescending gaze. "Look, ummm…"
"Duo."
"Duo, you should think about this. You have no money, and absolutely no
connections. You're way out of your league with the company that will
be at the ball; you'll just feel like an outsider the whole time."
Dorothy nodded. "How much fun can you possibly have there? And if
you're looking for a marriage prospect, what makes you think Heero
would even consider you?"
"I'm not looking for a marriage prospect," Duo said dryly. It bothered
him that they would think he was just going to find a husband; he
wasn't like them, some status seeking gold digger. But they had made
some valid points; how much fun could he possibly have with people who
just looked down on him?
"Duo," said Wufei, "I know a girl who would love to have your
invitation, a European aristocrat."
"Oh, Sylvia?" asked Relena. "That would be perfect. She never got an
invitation, you see, since she was in this dreary accident on safari
and no one knew how to contact her."
Duo frowned. "You want me to give her my invitation?"
"Oh, we can take it to her," said Dorothy.
"I'm sure she'd appreciate your generosity," said Wufei, who was giving
him a 'do-it-or-you're-fired' type of look. Duo handed the envelope to
Dorothy, who placed it in her Prada purse. It had been a nice gesture
on Quatre's part, but it was probably best that he didn't go. This
Sylvia would probably be much more suited to that type of setting. The
girls went back to their shopping, and Duo watched as Relena picked out
a flowing sleeveless pink gown obviously inspired by vintage Dior,
maybe late 1990s. Dorothy took longer to make her selection, settling
on a black chiffon dress. Wufei sent the gowns to be fitted and the
girls left the store.
"How come you're still out here?" Wufei asked, turning back to Duo.
"Oh, sorry, I still haven't found what I was looking for."
"Well, why don't you go home for now? It looks like it's going to be a
busy day; you can finish your work here after the store's closed."
Duo picked up his things and left, not one to argue with an extended
break, as long as Wufei was still paying for his time. He decided to
take a walk through Central Park before grabbing some food. Just as he
was about to sit down on a bench a man with long platinum hair came
running by him.
A slightly nasal voice called out. "Wait, Zechs!"
Duo turned around as some one crashed into him. He pushed himself off
the floor, seeing a pissed off boy around his age sprawled down next to
him. "Hey, man, I'm sorry."
The other boy got up and brushed off his dress shirt. "You had better
be. If you got any dirt on my clothes, omae o ko-"
"Hey, you were the one that ran into me. As in, your fault, not mine."
The boy snorted. "I don't have time for this."
Duo tumbled back a few steps as the boy shoved him out of the way.
"Zechs, matte!"
Duo watched as the boy ran away. Zechs…he knew that name. That would
mean that the asshole that crashed into him was Heero Yuy. He felt
sorry for Relena and Dorothy, if that were the kind of guy they were
after, and didn't feel so bad that he wasn't going.
* * *
Duo wrote the figures down into a notebook. It was the night of the
ball, and he was here working overtime. At least the money was good.
Relena and Dorothy were probably at some ritzy salon right now, getting
their hair and make up done to coordinate with their dresses. Although
he didn't have any interest in Yuy or the ball, he still felt kind of
disappointed that he was here instead of there. He attributed his
disappointment to the fact that everyone wanted to feel like a prince
or princess once in their lives. Suddenly he heard a knock at the back
door, and went to open it, figuring it was some bum that wanted
handouts.
"Look," he said, opening the door, "we don't have-"
Duo stopped as he got a good look at who it was. The man was wearing
knee high black boots over skin tight black leather pants and a
untucked white shirt that blew loosely in the breeze, sleeves rolled up
to the elbows.
"Trowa Barton?" Duo gasped. The man chuckled and nodded, exhaling out a
puff of smoke from his cigarette. That was when Duo noticed the
entourage of people sitting in the stretch limo outside.
"Would you like to come in?" he managed to squeak before holding the
door open wider.
Trowa glided into the room, brushing his signature bang aside a little
before it fell back into place. "Is Mr. Chang here?"
Duo shook his head as Trowa turned to look at him.
"So why aren't you at the party?"
"Party?"
"The Yuy bash."
"Oh, ummm…well, I was going to go, you see, my friend Quatre sent me an
invitation…"
Trowa's eyes seemed to light up as he interrupted Duo. "Quatre? As in
Quatre Winner?"
"Yeah, we're best friends."
"Oh."
"Anyway, so I had an invitation, and was going to go except I didn't
have anything to wear. And then Relena Peacecraft and Dorothy
Catalonia, along with my boss, convince me that I don't want to go,
that I wouldn't fit in on account of my being low class and all."
"Yeah, that sounds like them. Quatre gets a lot of attitude from those
types." Trowa turned to face Duo. "Do you want to go to the ball?"
"No… I mean, kind of… well, yeah, just to see what it's all about."
"Then take my invitation." Trowa held out a white envelope with gilded
lettering. "The invites were printed with 14 karat gold, you know. The
Yuys spare no expenses."
"But what about you?"
Trowa shrugged. "I've been too enough balls and cotillions for this
year."
"But I have nothing to wear."
Trowa pulled out a tiny cell phone from his pocket, talking into it in
Spanish. In a few moments a girl came into the store, holding a dress
bag.
"Duo, this is my assistant Lily. And this," he opened the box, "is your
dress."
Duo looked at the dress. It was made from a light blue fabric that
gleamed in the light, silver embroidery stitched into all the right
places in just the right designs. It flowed within the box's confines,
like some kind of crystal ocean. The cut was basic enough, fitted and
long, with slinky straps that trailed down a very low cut back. More
silver threads ran across the back in a loose spider web. The dress as
a whole might have been the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
"The fabric's from Egypt," Trowa said, "my textile people came on it by
chance. They say the fabric was made out of flower petals, but I don't
know if I believe that. The stitching you see, and the back threads?
It's spun platinum. We had that done by this lady in South Africa."
"This must be expensive."
"It is." Trowa laughed. "And it's all yours for tonight. Now go change."
Duo went into the dressing room, taking off his own clothes to try the
dress on. Looking in the mirror, he was amazed by how well it fit. It
was if it had been made for him, curving around him in all the right
places. He came out of the dressing room, surprised to see Lily with a
curling iron.
"Now," said Trowa, "we can't let you go to the ball with your hair like
that."
Lily pulled Duo to sit in front of her, unraveling his braid. When she
was finished Duo looked in the mirror. The top half of his hair was
pulled up and back, then cascaded down his back with the rest of his
hair in loose curls. Silver threads weaved in and out of his hair,
curling along with the loose ends. Lily then proceeded to do his
make-up.
"Just some silver eye shadow and stuff like that," she winked at him,
"you really don't need make-up."
Duo smiled at the compliment.
"Come on, then," Trowa said, pulling Duo up. "You're all ready."
Trowa led Duo into his limo, where he squeezed in among all the other
people already there. Trowa turned to Duo as the car turned out of the
parking lot.
"Now, Duo, I need that dress back by midnight so I can have it fitted
to my model for the fashion show. Will that be a problem?"
Duo shook his head no. He didn't think he could spend too much time in
there anyway.
"Good, here's the address of my studio. Remember to have the dress back
to me on time, okay?"
"Sure."
Trowa noticed that Duo was looking down at the ground a lot. "What's
wrong?"
Duo looked up. "It's just…well, my feet."
Trowa looked down to find Adidas sneakers popping out from under the
blue fabric.
"Oops, I forgot the shoes. Hmm…and we don't have any panty hose. That's
okay, I have a pair of shoes here, and they're open toe, so you won't
need stockings."
Lily pulled out a box from under the seat, handing them to Duo.
"What are these, glass?" Duo held up a shoe. The heel wasn't too high,
and it would slip right on… but how would he walk in glass?
Trowa nodded proudly. "Just try them on, they're not too bad."
Duo took off his sneakers and slipped on the glass shoes. "I guess not."
The limo stopped and Trowa ushered Duo out. He called out the window.
"Remember, Duo, midnight!"
Duo nodded. "Trowa, how come you were at the store today anyway?"
Trowa winked as his limo drove off. "Let's just call it magic!"
Duo watched as the car drove off. It was already nine, so the party had
been in swing for an hour now. He handed the doorman his invitation,
and was led to a grand staircase leading… up into the ballroom. Funny,
he always imagined that people descended into the ballroom. He sighed
and started climbing up the steps, cursing his glass slippers, which
weren't being very comfortable right about now.