Duo was sprawled languidly in his chair while reading a motorcycle magazine he may or may not have snatched from Wu Fei’s desk. He seemed oblivious to the fact that every other bodyguard on the floor was standing at attention beside their respective employer’s door, and the ones in visual range were casting glances of bafflement his way, no doubt wondering how this obvious buffoon got the job of protecting the most important person at the convention. Duo was partly wondering the same thing (sans “buffoon”).

But a job was a job, even though body guarding was, hands down, the most boring assignment for anyone, let alone for someone of his skill. Since Howard and the Sweepers were late coming back to L2 after their most recent excursion, business at the Maxwell Scrapyard had hit a slump, and man Hilde hated making late bill payments. So to Une he had come crawling, looking for some quick cash before the fifteenth. Yeah, he kept telling himself, he was lucky that Lena’s regular was hanging over a bucket somewhere. Then why did he feel as if his brain was about to implode? Thank whichever god was watching that this was the last of six agonizing days. If physically possible, he slid lower into his chair.

“Maybe I should take Sally up on that coupon she gave me for Christmas,” his eyes glazed as he stared blindly at the ceiling. “Half off one lobotomy,” he smirked at that.

At the sound of hurried footsteps up the nearby stairway, Duo straightened and checked the corners of his mouth for drool. Finding none, he folded his hands in his lap. He would sit up straight for whoever was coming, but Heero Yuy himself could not get him to stand at attention one moment longer.

His posture relaxed when he saw who it was. Seth Brooks was Relena’s little prodigy, and thankfully, she had been able reverse a great deal of his prior training as a member of the upper class and turn him into a productive member of society.

“Hey Duo. Is Relena in?”

“Unless the past three hours have been some sort of cruel dream, and she snuck out while I slept.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.” He hugged the folder he was carrying against his chest with one arm and knocked with his free hand. He was slightly surprised when there was no answer, but only slightly.

“Maybe she turned in early,” Duo suggested, looking at his watch. Nine thirty.

“Well, this can’t wait until tomorrow,” he knocked one more time and when there was still no response, he pulled out his copy of the door key.

“Hey, are you sure you should do that?” Duo asked, worried that if he screwed up he might not get paid.

“Yes,” and with that he pushed the door open, and walked into the room. The lights were still on. “Duo!” Starting to get worried as well, he followed Seth into the suite. Seth emerged, obviously flustered. Duo started to think Seth reminded him of Quatre. Maybe that was why Relena chose him. “She’s gone, Duo.” Duo started.

“Whaddya mean, ‘gone’?”

“As in ‘not present’, ‘left the building’, ‘skipped town’, ‘high-tailed it out of here’, ‘rode off into the sunset’. However you want to phrase it, Relena’s gone.”

“OK, OK . . . there’s no reason to worry, she’s ditched bodyguards before. She probably went out for a walk.”

“Not this time, Duo,” he said sullenly, waving the folder he carried. “This time it’s for real. She’s not coming back.”

“Don’t start talking crazy-talk on me. Relena would never abandon her responsibilities like that.”

“She hasn’t. It’s all right here.” Seth flipped open the folder and started shuffling through the papers held within. “She gave this to me after dinner and told me to deliver it to Jonathan Carlyle tomorrow morning. It was purely by accident that I found out what it was. If that clumsy intern hadn’t knocked it off my desk . . ..”

“Well what is it already?” Duo came to read over his shoulder.

“The one on top is a letter of resignation. And the one underneath . . .” he paused, unsure of how to put it, “is a letter of recommendation.”

“Recommendation? I don’t get it.”

“It’s her recommendation that I take over the position of Vice-Foreign Minister until the next election. It also says that if I choose to run in the next election that it should be known that I have her complete support and endorsement.”

“What about all the rest of the papers?”

“Just various documents; the usual peace treaties, border disputes, the Terra Forming Project, et cetera.”

“OK, here’s how it’s going down: you wait here in case she comes back or someone comes looking for her. Don’t tell anyone that she’s missing; that’ll start a panic. Now the only way she could’ve gotten out without me seeing her is if she went down the fire escape, so I’ll start looking for her there. If I’m not back by midnight, tell only Lady Une about what has happened. Got that?”

“Yeah, got it. You better get going, she’s already got a head start on you.”

“Right.” in a few long strides, Duo traversed the room and was climbing out the window. He raced down the fire escape, not even bothering with the last flight and just jumping to the pavement below. He scanned the area. Oh great, he thought, she just had to escape to a dark London alley. Here’s hoping there's no such person as Neo-Jack-the-Ripper.

*

After disposing the paper bag into the furnace of the hotel, Relena had started her sojourn to the bus depot. From there, it was a quick ride out to New London and its space port. She hadn’t yet decided where she was going to go, or what she was going to do for a living, but she was sure that as long as she had the same chances as everyone else, somehow she’d be OK.

Relena clutched her briefcase with two hands, holding it out in front of her. She kept glancing over her shoulder to see if anyone was following her, but it was just the normal hustle and bustle of Saturday night window shoppers, most of them teens, she noted. She found herself wishing she had been able to do something so simple as that when she was still a teenager, but quickly dismissed the thought. She was starting all over. She had missed her adolescence, but she still had years ahead of her and she wanted to enjoy them without worrying over what’s best for everyone else, or how it might affect her image. She was being selfish, she knew, but if she kept giving away all of herself to others, what would be left for her? What would it do to her? How much longer could she go on living like that? She paused in front of a department store window, and caught her reflection in the darkened glass.

Why was that person reflected so sullen? Right down to her posture, she seemed weak, self-deprecating, and should have been wearing a shirt that said “DOORMAT”. She shifted her briefcase to her right hand and stood up straight. There, that was more like it. She changed her pace to suit her appearance. Her stride became more confident, as if she were on her way to something important. Right there she resolved to maintain that facade until it sunk past “only skin deep”.

It was then that she felt someone brush past her. She turned her head slightly and recognized the braid. Without thinking she said, “Duo?” She immediately realized her mistake. Duo was her bodyguard this past week, of course he’s out looking for her. But it was too late; the damage had been done. Duo whirled around searching for the source, but didn’t recognize a single face in the crowd. His only chance was to hope that she would react to her name.

“Relena?” He noticed a blonde woman with her head bowed flinch at the sound, and he immediately grabbed her arm. When she spun around and he came face to face with her he mumbled an apology and released her. It was obviously not Relena. But when he heard her murmur ever so softly, “It’s all right,” he caught up with her and stepped in her path to face her and block her way. “Relena? Is that really you?” He gently placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face to look him in the eye. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was as if she had been reborn as a female Zechs. Her eyes watered and she pulled her face away from his hand.

“Am I truly so hideous to you?” Duo hadn’t realized it but the entire time he’d been staring at her with his jaw scraping the sidewalk.

“No, no, no! It’s not like that! I mean-! I wasn’t-! It’s just such a shock!” Duo quickly scanned for a more private place to talk. “C’mere,” he grabbed her arm but she yanked it away with surprising strength.

“I’m not going back!” She turned and ran headlong into the crowds. Duo started to pursue her but all too quickly she had melted back into the throng. As he shouldered through the pedestrians in chase, he was teased mercilessly with glimpses of her; a wisp of blonde hair here, a flicker of red and black there, and once in a while he found himself apologizing to look-alikes. Eventually he had to resort to jumping on top of a parked car just to get a better vantage point. It was then that he spotted her trying to cross the street at a busy intersection. He got off the car and started heading toward the crosswalk when he heard tires screeching. Shoving almost violently past people, he got to the corner just in time to see Relena safely on the other side of the street, while two motorists argued over who was responsible for their fender-bender. Duo released a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding before weaving between the cars stopped at the red light. Fortunately for him, Relena didn’t see him until it was too late to run.

She struggled against his hold until he was forced to wrap both arms about her to keep her from writhing through his grip. He waited patiently for her to calm down in spite of the sidelong glances and head-shaking at the pair. Great, he thought to himself, now they think I’m some kind of wife-beater. She finally stopped squirming and did something he’d never seen her do, and quite honestly, didn’t think she was capable of doing. She broke down in tears.

“Please don’t make me go back there, Duo. I can’t go back - I won’t go back!” She was so tired of running; she was so tired of everything. . .. Her knees buckled, but Duo held her up.

“It’s OK, Rel. I’m not gonna take you back, I just want to talk to you,” he assured her calmly. “Can we talk?” She regained her footing, and nodded wearily. He kept one arm around her shoulders and led her slowly to the bus station, where he assumed she was headed.

As they walked though the fluorescent pulse of street light after streetlight, she recounted her story for him. He only interrupted her once or twice, to ask a question, but when she finished her narrative, he only asked one question. The one she had been praying he wouldn’t ask.

“What are you going to do now?” he inquired innocently enough while opening the glass door of the bus depot for her. She changed the subject.

“How did you know this was where I was going?” she asked, looking up at her surroundings for the first time.

“A hunch. Here,” he led her to a bench. “Wait here for a sec. I’m just gonna make a phone call. Relax,” he defended when he saw an argument forming in her head. “I’m just going to tell Une that your safe, I won’t say anything else, ok?” She gave him her tacit acquiescence and he left her there and found a phone booth. He fished out a credit card and swiped it before dialing Une’s private line. Duo glanced at his watch. Ten minutes after twelve.

Relief showed on the face that greeted him.

“Is she alright?” Duo was slightly confused.

“How did you know I had found her?”

“You wouldn’t have bothered calling me unless you had given up or found her. It was too soon for you to have given up.” Duo shook his head to clear his thoughts.

“Yeah, I’ve got her -- in one piece, to boot. But listen, Une -- I'm not-”

“-Bringing her back? I understand. I’ve read the letter.”

“Why don’t you seem surprised?”

“I am surprised. Surprised that she waited so long, surprised she stayed so long, but not surprised that she did it.”

“Oh,” was all Duo could say.

“Your paycheck has been directly deposited to your bank account.”

“Huh? But I-? And she-? I get paid even though I'm not bringing her back?”

“Duo, you signed on as her bodyguard, not her warden. You just told me that she’s safe; I have no reason to believe that to be untrue and so you have fulfilled your duty. What’s more, your job ended,” she glanced away from the screen, presumably at a clock, “eleven minutes ago. I thank you for your services and release you from your responsibility. And now, there’s the damage control to think of.”

“But what about Relena? She doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into.”

“I think she does, and I also think it was worth it. Une out.” The screen went blank. Duo hung up the phone and the machine printed out a receipt for him. He shoved it into his coat pocket and walked back to Relena.

“How’d she take it?”

“Surprisingly well.” He sat down next to her. “So now what?”

“Now? Now I walk up to that counter and buy a ticket to New London.” She stood up; Duo stood up with her.

“What’s waiting for you there?”

“The space port.”

“Is it safe to assume that you won’t be booking passage under the name Relena Darlian?”

“Yes, it is.”

“May I see your passport? As a pro to an amateur,” he assured when he saw doubt in her eyes. The briefcase snapped open and she pulled out a pink slip of paper. She handed it to Duo who inspected it thoroughly. It was one of those temporary slips they gave people who hadn’t had their photos taken yet and couldn’t be processed.

“Nice touch. The carbon paper I mean.” He looked at the personal information. “Serena Windsor?” Relena seem slightly offended.

“It was my great-grandmother’s maiden name,” she defended.

“OK, OK. . .no need to get huffy. I just don’t think I can get used to calling you ‘Serena.’ There’s simply no good way to get a nickname out of it.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you were to continue to use my given nickname,” she said with a smirk. Duo smiled.

“Fantabulous, Lena. Now, about this,” he flapped the slip of paper. “This’ll only work once. Once the dust settles, we’ll see about getting your personal history cleared up.”

“We? Duo, I can’t drag you into this anymore than I already have.”

“Do I look like was dragged here? I don’t think so.”

“You have no idea the media frenzy that’s going to follow this. It’s bad enough you know as much as you do, but if you get involved in my disappearance, it’d be like throwing you right to the sharks.”

“And you have no idea what it’s like on the outside.”

“As long as I have the same opportunities as everyone else, I’ll manage. It’s got to be better than what it’s like on the inside.”

“But you’d be at a disadvantage.” A look of confusion graced her face. “You wouldn’t have a friend to lean on. Even when I was on the streets, I had my gang to rely on.”

“But-”

“And anyway, Hilde would never forgive me if she found out I just let you go off and live all alone on a strange colony. There’s no arguing it. You are going to stay with me and Hilde.”

“I know when a battle’s lost. You win; I’ll go with you. But just until I get back on my feet.”

“Deal.” They shook on it and then headed to the ticket booth. Relena looked at the bus schedule and her watch and turned on Duo.

“Duo, if you knew where I was going, why did it take us two hours to walk ten blocks?” He only ginned. She realized she might never get a straight answer from him, so she just decided to leave it at that. She turned back to the teller and bought two tickets to the New London space port. Duo was still grinning when they left to catch the bus.

While waiting for the bus to arrive Duo couldn’t help but stare at the back of her head, somewhat remorsefully. He could not fathom why anyone would want to hack off all those wonderful, healthy tresses.

“I still can’t get over what you did to your hair! It was so long!”

“Duo, Duo, Duo. . .” she mock scolded with a shake of her head. “Hasn’t Hilde ever told you? It’s not the length that counts, it’s the thickness.” Duo burst out laughing.

“You are most definitely the last person I expected to make a dirty joke,” he screwed up his face thoughtfully. “Well, if I kept Quatre and Heero off the list.” It was Relena’s turn to laugh.