[GW] - [FIC] [WIP] A Young Man's Fancy 3/?
complete?
not sure if this is where i want to end this chapter...
Heero’s first impression of Miss Helen had been that of a flighty, soppy woman, but once she was inside the Peacecraft compound, it was as if he were looking at a completely different person. Miss Helen walked swiftly and with purpose, leading Heero through the inner gardens to her small office and pointing out various directions along the way.
“You’ll mostly be in the young master’s wing, and that’s Master Milliardo to you, by the way, through that gate there. But if you want to find me, and you will when it comes to pay day, my office is over here. I’m the head housekeeper here, young man, and nothing goes without my approval, you got that?”
A little in awe of the rapid-fire information session, Heero could only nod in response.
Miss Helen led Heero into a tiny, cramped, but incredibly neat room next to the blistering heat of the kitchens. She unlocked a small cupboard under her desk and withdrew a money box.
“As is standard in the Peacecraft household, we pay our employees half their first month’s wages in advance. If you quit within your first week, you’ll have to return it. Understood?”
When Heero nodded again, Miss Helen handed over a tiny silk bag, which held four silver coins if Heero was to judge by size and weight. For a brief moment, he wondered how much Jae and Odin were paid. Eight silvers a month would certainly explain why they were so cranky all the time. Heero spent more than eight silvers in a day! He resolved to ask his father to give his tutors a raise when he got home.
However, Heero’s ruminations on remuneration were interrupted by the large roll of bedding Miss Helen thrust at him. It took all his will and energy to catch and hold the unwieldy bundle that was threatening to unravel itself any minute.
“You’ll be staying in the room behind the main study in the young master’s wing. Come on, let’s go,” she said, directing Heero back into the courtyard again.
Still juggling his blankets, pillow, and mattress pad, Heero wasn’t quite paying attention to his surroundings and managed to slam into someone just outside Miss Helen’s door. He tried to apologize but the other party merely shoved past him to address Miss Helen.
“There’s an emergency in the kitchen!” shouted the young girl who couldn’t have been more than 12. “The cooks told me to get you right away!”
Miss Helen rolled her eyes and Heero got the impression that an “emergency” such as this was a common occurrence in the Peacecraft household.
“Do you think you can find the study on your own?” Miss Helen asked, turning to Heero with a shrewd look on her face.
Seeing this for the test that it was, he was quick to assure the woman that he had been paying attention during the tour and could find his own way to Master Milliardo’s wing. After a few more perfunctory questions to test if his confidence was warranted, Miss Helen left Heero to his own devices and went off to put out whatever fires where in the kitchen, be they figurative or literal.
With a light bounce in his step, Heero trotted off, taking a left at the giant urn shaped like a phoenix rising from the flames, and then a right at the vibrantly blooming hibiscus and heading straight through the central garden. Now, if he recalled correctly, he needed to take the third door on the left…
“Heero Yuy, you stand right there!”
Startled, Heero stumbled and nearly dropped his armload of bedding on the dusty ground. Only through some manic twisting and grasping did he manage to keep everything together.
“Just what do you think you’re doing here, young man?” An irate, dark-haired woman marched into Heero’s line of sight. “Don’t you know this is the inner courtyard of the Peacecraft compound? You can’t just come barging in, free as you please. This isn’t your home and you should know your place! Being a Yuy buys you no special treatment here. Now go home before I tell your father!”
Heero didn’t know why he was so surprised. He’d known that his cousin, Lucrezia Noin, had married the widowed Milliardo Peacecraft last year and lived in the Peacecraft compound, but for some reason, he really hadn’t taken that into account when he’d formulated this half-baked plan.
“Lulu--” he started to say, but his cousin wasn’t done.
“The exams are in two months and you’re off gallivanting around town and sneaking into the home of the Provincial Magistrate? Are you trying to get yourself blacklisted? Do you want to disgrace your father? Have you even been studying like he wants you to? Oh my god, are you trying to fail?”
Heero all but tackled Lucrezia to shut her up. It wouldn’t do to have his grand scheme felled by his *cousin* of all people.
“I have *too* been studying and why on Earth would you think I’m trying to fail something?” Heero hissed. “I’ve never failed anything in my life and I resent the implication that I’m deliberately trying to now! I respect my father and my family’s name too much to throw it all away like that. Regardless of what I’m doing here-”
Lucrezia arched an eyebrow.
“And just what are you doing here, Little Cousin?” she asked.
Heero paused. “That’s not the point! The point is that… Well the point is that I’m not trying to fail my exams, thank you very much,” he said, sounding quite petulant.
“Heero Yuy, you tell me what’s going on here or I’m sending you straight back home.”
One look at Lucrezia’s stern expression told Heero his cousin was very serious. Something about the way her eyebrow was twitching reminded him of childhood scuffles that had always seemed to end with him being dumped in some reservoir of liquid. Spotting a chamber pot ten feet to his left and a small pond twelve feet to his right, Heero decided not to take any chances. He might be bigger now, but Lucrezia was meaner and she fought hard.
He was going to have to play his cards carefully.
“There’s something I want to do,” said Heero, scuffing his toe in the dirt. “It’s not bad! I just want to see someone...”
Lucrezia looked skeptical, but she gestured for Heero to continue.
“I couldn’t get into the Peacecraft house without being an employee, you see...”
“And the person you’re looking for is in the Peacecraft household itself?” asked Lucrezia.
Heero nodded slowly while trying to discern whether or not his cousin was buying it.
Lucrezia paused to think on the situation.
“Heero,” she finally said with an exaggerated sigh. “Please tell me you’re not trying to chase one of the Peacecraft servant girls. That’s really not becoming and so very last year.”
“Well!” said Heero with a bright smile. “I can honestly tell you that I am not chasing one of the servant girls. So can I go?”
Lucrezia shifted her stance ever so slightly and Heero started to mark the exits. It was time for either some fast thinking or some fast running and Heero seemed to recall that Lucrezia had always been able to best him in a footrace.
Heero tightened his arms around his bedding in preparation for fight or flight, but a glimpse of his own blue sleeve sparked a sudden idea.
“Okay. I got hired on as a tutor here because I’m doing research on the educational system for children of nobility,” he blurted out, trying his best to edge away from his cousin: that chamber pot there was awfully close. “Lulu, this is really important. It’s a special project that Professor Odin assigned to me. Don’t make me mess it up. Please?”
Lucrezia looked skeptical, but she seemed swayed by the mention of Professor Odin. He was a respected academic who had placed in the top ten during his examination year but had deliberately chosen to pursue the simple career of a tutor rather than the prestige and wealth of a civil servant. His teaching methods were supposed to be revolutionary, inspiring unheard of brilliance and genius in his students.
Heero was beginning to hope, but Lucrezia was not one easily fooled.
“Does your father know about this?”
Shaking his head, Heero said: “What does he care? As long as I’m studying, he’s happy. He just keeps his head in his books and, you know, that’s really the best for everyone. Come on, Lulu, let me go.”
“He’ll still notice you’re missing at dinner, Heero.”
Heero’s frustration was beginning to show on his face and Lucrezia did so hate to see boys cry.
“Fine, fine. I’ll tell Uncle that you’re helping me teach Milliardo’s children until we find another tutor to replace Professor Gee. I’m sure that, by now, news of Gee’s resignation has already spread all over the city.”
Heero dared a tiny smile.
“But you better be on your best behaviour, Heero Yuy, or so help me, favoured Yuy son or not, I’m going to throw you into the city sewage.”
Heero felt bad for lying to his cousin. Despite their little altercations, she was the only one of his twenty older cousins who’d always looked out for him and didn’t treat him like some small, vaguely diseased animal. At the same time, though, it wasn’t as if she’d never lied to him before and he figured his debt to Duo could take precedence just this once. Vowing to himself that he’d still make it up to Lucrezia, Heero executed a little bow and scampered off to his designated classroom/living quarters.
Not surprisingly, the study was empty by the time Heero arrived. Scattered rolls of paper and spilt ink dishes suggested that the Peacecraft brats had come and gone; now likely off celebrating their success in driving off yet another tutor. The back room was small but tidy, and Heero offered a silent ‘thanks’ to the Professor Gee who’d taken the care to at least clean up after himself despite his hasty departure. Heero hastily put his things away and then took off in search of Duo.
The old man at the door, Father Maxwell, had mentioned something about Duo being a “handmaiden” for the “young mistress”. If Heero recalled correctly, that would mean Duo worked for Milliardo’s younger sister, Relena, who was a recluse.
It was said that Relena Peacecraft was excruciatingly beautiful, extraordinarily brilliant, and at complete odds with her brother’s political ideals. Last year, she suffered a terrible shock that left her with a frail constitution and she withdrew from the public arena. It had been a horrible scandal at the time. The most prevalent rumour had it that she’d seen Milliardo murder his first wife. Heero remembered hearing repetition upon repetition of gothic tales of the Peacecraft household ad nauseum. And when the man proposed to Lucrezia, the Yuy family had been thrown into utter chaos. Milliardo was incredibly intelligent, sharp and cunning. Though not much older than Heero, he had already strategically placed himself to inherit his father’s position, despite the fact that the government system was a meritocracy, not an aristocracy where titles could be inherited. On paper, he was an excellent choice for Lucrezia, but there were those pesky rumours…
Still, Heero hadn’t seen anything wrong with his cousin today, and she looked healthier and happier than ever, so maybe the rumour mill was lying to him.
But what did that mean about Relena?
She certainly was a recluse; that much was true. Heero hadn’t seen her in years, even before the death of Milliardo’s first wife. And Relena obviously hadn’t attended Milliardo and Lucrezia’s wedding ceremony, what with the rumours in full swing and everyone clamouring to see the “poor, traumatized soul”, even an extrovert would have stayed away.
Milliardo had said at the time of his wedding that his sister was too fragile to handle the festivities, but how delicate could she be if she had a *male* handmaiden? Handmaidens were *maidens* because they had to attend to their mistress’ every need, including bathing and dressing her. What lady would let a male servant touch her so intimately? It was completely unheard of, and a sign of truly deviant behaviour if Heero was to say. Maybe Milliardo was ashamed of his sister and it wasn’t that she was a recluse so much as he had to hide her away.
But how did Duo fit into this? Didn’t he find it disgraceful to be classified as a female servant? If he had been so embarrassed about not knowing how to read, how was he going to react when Heero confronted him about his job?
Heero pondered all these questions and more as he made his way deep into the rear of the Peacecraft compound where the head family lived. As an unmarried daughter, Relena would still be under her parents’ watchful eyes.
He found the young blonde heiress sitting under a willow tree trailing one dainty little hand through the gorgeously artificial brook that ran through her family’s estate. She appeared to be perfectly normal; the worst Heero could say was that maybe she came across as a little melancholy. Certainly she didn’t *look* like a pervert. In fact, if Heero were to be honest with himself, he thought she was quite pretty in a very conventional, not abnormal whatsoever, type of way.
And then, before his very eyes, three young men dressed as classic, ladies’ servants ran up to her. They were giggling and playing like normal girls of their station, but the hard lines of their jaws and shoulders showed them very clearly as men. Heero felt his jaw drop.
“Miss Relena! Miss Relena!” the blonde one gushed, running up to kneel at the feet of his mistress. “I heard that Professor Gee quit!” He spoke as if he were imparting a particularly juicy bit of gossip.
Relena nodded absently and continued to dabble in the water.
“But that’s not all!” the “maiden” said. “I heard from the kitchen staff that Miss Helen managed to find a new tutor right away! He was just sitting outside our door and he’s dreamy!”
This news seemed to have the desired effect on his mistress for when Relena responded by looking up from her contemplation of the babbling brook, all three of her “maidens” looked inordinately pleased.
“How dreamy?” she asked sharply, as if doubting her maid’s aesthetic sense.
“He’s-Oh!” the blond cried. “There he is!”
The three “girls” squealed and hid behind their mistress. Their laughing eyes told Heero that this was all a farce played out for her sake.
Relena straightened at the sight of Heero. She pulled her shoulders back and tilted her chin just a notch higher.
“Boy!” she called out to him. “Come here and greet me.”
Heero walked slowly up to the young lady and executed a perfect bow, bending from the waist and sweeping his arm down and across his chest as he’d seen Professor Odin do when greeting his father.
To his surprise, the haughty demeanor dropped immediately and Relena giggled like any other girl on the street.
“Oh my,” she said, hiding coquettishly behind her handkerchief. “You certainly are dashing!”
Heero blushed. That had totally not been his intention and he hoped she didn’t think he was seriously flirting with her.
Then, quite suddenly, Relena fairly snapped into a new pose and persona; gone was the giggling, gushing girl and in her place was a Lady, a prissy little princess, and she was looking down at Heero like he was a beggar in the street.
“Introduce yourself,” she commanded.
Heero was a little confused, but he managed to react according to proper manners.
“My name is Heero. I’ll be tutoring Master Milliardo’s two children,” he said, and, unable to think of anything more to say, he stopped there.
This time, the personality snap was almost audible.
“He’s precious! So straightforward.” Relena seemed highly amused by this observation. “Isn’t he absolutely darling, Quatre? I shall have to ask Mill if I can borrow him. ‘Heero’. The name just rolls off the tongue!”
The blond handmaiden, the one who’d first told Relena of Heero’s existence, peeked out at Heero, flushed, and then nodded vigorously at Relena.
“Well, since *Heero* has been so gentlemanly in introducing himself, I think we ought to return the pleasantry, is that not the proper thing to do, girls?” Relena asked her “maidens”. As the “girls” stepped out from behind her, Relena introduced them one by one.
Heero greeted each handmaiden with the same politeness he’d accorded their mistress, but he gave each one a very careful onceover, trying to discern what kind of man would work as a lady’s maid. Solo had a shaggy hairstyle and a certain set about his features that made Heero think he was not born in the upper-middle classes that Relena’s maids ought to come from. Trowa was shockingly tall and his upper body muscles bulged obscenely beneath his flimsy silk outfit. Quatre was a pretty blond who, in contrast with Solo, most definitely looked to be from the right class to be a handmaiden, but the flat chest and slight bulge in his pants proclaimed him to be completely the wrong gender and reaffirmed Heero’s suspicions that Relena was truly a deviant of epic proportions. She had, not *one*, but *four*, male handmaidens!
But where was Duo? Heero craned his neck, trying to see around or behind the cluster of people in front of him, looking for that telltale whip of brown hair.
Relena placed herself directly in Heero’s line of sight, forcing his focus back on her. “Excuse me, Heero. Is there something you’re looking for?”
“Ah.”
Heero didn’t quite know how to avoid setting off Relena’s little ‘disorder’ again, but it was impolite not to respond to a Lady’s questions. So…
“I was just thinking that it looks like your handmaidens are named for numbers. One, Three, Four…” Heero pointed at each boy respectively. “And I was wondering if you had a… a Handmaiden Number Two?”
“Of course! She should be back any minute. I just sent her out for tea…” Relena peered about the garden in earnest, appearing stable in her bright-eyed, cheerfulness for the moment. “There she is!” she exclaimed, waving frantically at Duo who was approaching from the main house.
Heero tried not to look too excited. Quite frankly, he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to act in this instance. He didn’t want to get Duo in trouble with Relena, so he thought maybe it wasn’t appropriate to greet Duo with familiarity. But at the same time, he wanted Duo to know that he had come especially to see him. And then there was the fact that Duo was currently dressed like a girl.
“Duo! Duo, come here, you silly girl! There’s someone who would like to meet you,” Relena called out sternly.
“Oh, it’s not necessary, Miss Relena. There’s no rush-”
“Nonsense, Heero!” And there was a slight shift into that ‘other’ Relena for a split second before the shining, smiling girl reasserted herself. “Duo is a dawdler. She needs a firm hand or she’ll walk all over you.”
Unsure of how to respond, Heero just smiled politely.
“Honestly, Miss Relena, I can’t very well hurry if I’m carrying a tray full of tea and stuff!” Duo sounded exasperated and not at all as deferential to his mistress as a servant ought to be.
Relena simply giggled and motioned Duo to come closer.
“Heero, this is my second handmaiden, Duo. Duo, greet Professor Heero.”
Heero waved shyly, but Duo was so shocked that he dropped his tray and all its contents on the ground. The spout broke off the teapot and hot water splashed across the lawn, narrowly missing his own silk-clad feet; two of the delicate cups shattered, sending shards of blue and white ceramic flying every which way; and most of the pastries tumbled off down the embankment and to fall into the brook.
“Duo!” Relena turned to scold him.
“No, no, it was entirely my fault!” Heero jumped forward, bending down to help Duo pick up the broken and scattered china.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Duo hissed, as he snatched a chipped cup from Heero’s fingers. “Why are you here?”
Heero remained silent and resolutely continued to help Duo clean up. However, picking up a shard which had broken off the teapot, Heero cut his finger on the sharp edge of it. Still he was careful to drop the piece on the tray with the rest of the broken china before inspecting the injury. Though it wasn’t a wound of any significance, a large drop of red, red blood welled up just as he was examining it. Behind him, he heard Relena scream.
Duo immediately reached out and pulled Heero’s finger to himself, he gave it a quick look before bringing it to his mouth and gently sucking on it.
Then Duo looked up, peering at Heero through his long bangs. Their eyes met, and Heero forgot how to breathe. With pounding hearts both boys leaned forward ever so slightly and-
Unfortunately, a second scream from Relena brought reality crashing back with alarming speed.
Duo threw Heero’s hand back at him and scooted back about a foot. Heero, too, jerked backwards, landing hard on his rear end. Lucky for Heero and Duo, though, no one noticed their exaggerated reactions for the other handmaidens were busy tending to their mistress who was doing a rather passable feigned faint.
Heero clutched his injured hand to himself and stared at Duo with wide, wild eyes. Duo could see his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath. Funnily, Duo felt a bit breathless as well.
“It, uh, helps stop the bleeding,” mumbled Duo. “The spit, I mean. I’m sorry, I didn’t…”
Heero quickly scrambled to his feet and turned to leave, but the suddenly stricken expression on Duo’s face made him pause.
“Don’t be sorry,” he blurted out.
The smile that broke out across Duo’s face was as brilliant as the sun after the rain, and it was with a much lighter heart that Heero excused himself to Relena and took his leave of the inner Peacecraft garden.
TBC
because what i want to happen is that duo is supposed to be creeped out by heero following him and signing up to work in the same house and heero's going to give duo the bun he bought for him... (do we even remember it? ^O^;; that was in ch. 2 wasn't it? i'm ridiculous!) and duo will be won over a bit...
but if i were to stop ch. 3 here, i would start ch. 4 with: "a few days later..." i guess it could still be that heero keeps the bun and has been carrying around with him for a couple days waiting to give it to duo. would that make him extra endearing? ^O^;;; *ponders*
not sure if this is where i want to end this chapter...
Heero’s first impression of Miss Helen had been that of a flighty, soppy woman, but once she was inside the Peacecraft compound, it was as if he were looking at a completely different person. Miss Helen walked swiftly and with purpose, leading Heero through the inner gardens to her small office and pointing out various directions along the way.
“You’ll mostly be in the young master’s wing, and that’s Master Milliardo to you, by the way, through that gate there. But if you want to find me, and you will when it comes to pay day, my office is over here. I’m the head housekeeper here, young man, and nothing goes without my approval, you got that?”
A little in awe of the rapid-fire information session, Heero could only nod in response.
Miss Helen led Heero into a tiny, cramped, but incredibly neat room next to the blistering heat of the kitchens. She unlocked a small cupboard under her desk and withdrew a money box.
“As is standard in the Peacecraft household, we pay our employees half their first month’s wages in advance. If you quit within your first week, you’ll have to return it. Understood?”
When Heero nodded again, Miss Helen handed over a tiny silk bag, which held four silver coins if Heero was to judge by size and weight. For a brief moment, he wondered how much Jae and Odin were paid. Eight silvers a month would certainly explain why they were so cranky all the time. Heero spent more than eight silvers in a day! He resolved to ask his father to give his tutors a raise when he got home.
However, Heero’s ruminations on remuneration were interrupted by the large roll of bedding Miss Helen thrust at him. It took all his will and energy to catch and hold the unwieldy bundle that was threatening to unravel itself any minute.
“You’ll be staying in the room behind the main study in the young master’s wing. Come on, let’s go,” she said, directing Heero back into the courtyard again.
Still juggling his blankets, pillow, and mattress pad, Heero wasn’t quite paying attention to his surroundings and managed to slam into someone just outside Miss Helen’s door. He tried to apologize but the other party merely shoved past him to address Miss Helen.
“There’s an emergency in the kitchen!” shouted the young girl who couldn’t have been more than 12. “The cooks told me to get you right away!”
Miss Helen rolled her eyes and Heero got the impression that an “emergency” such as this was a common occurrence in the Peacecraft household.
“Do you think you can find the study on your own?” Miss Helen asked, turning to Heero with a shrewd look on her face.
Seeing this for the test that it was, he was quick to assure the woman that he had been paying attention during the tour and could find his own way to Master Milliardo’s wing. After a few more perfunctory questions to test if his confidence was warranted, Miss Helen left Heero to his own devices and went off to put out whatever fires where in the kitchen, be they figurative or literal.
With a light bounce in his step, Heero trotted off, taking a left at the giant urn shaped like a phoenix rising from the flames, and then a right at the vibrantly blooming hibiscus and heading straight through the central garden. Now, if he recalled correctly, he needed to take the third door on the left…
“Heero Yuy, you stand right there!”
Startled, Heero stumbled and nearly dropped his armload of bedding on the dusty ground. Only through some manic twisting and grasping did he manage to keep everything together.
“Just what do you think you’re doing here, young man?” An irate, dark-haired woman marched into Heero’s line of sight. “Don’t you know this is the inner courtyard of the Peacecraft compound? You can’t just come barging in, free as you please. This isn’t your home and you should know your place! Being a Yuy buys you no special treatment here. Now go home before I tell your father!”
Heero didn’t know why he was so surprised. He’d known that his cousin, Lucrezia Noin, had married the widowed Milliardo Peacecraft last year and lived in the Peacecraft compound, but for some reason, he really hadn’t taken that into account when he’d formulated this half-baked plan.
“Lulu--” he started to say, but his cousin wasn’t done.
“The exams are in two months and you’re off gallivanting around town and sneaking into the home of the Provincial Magistrate? Are you trying to get yourself blacklisted? Do you want to disgrace your father? Have you even been studying like he wants you to? Oh my god, are you trying to fail?”
Heero all but tackled Lucrezia to shut her up. It wouldn’t do to have his grand scheme felled by his *cousin* of all people.
“I have *too* been studying and why on Earth would you think I’m trying to fail something?” Heero hissed. “I’ve never failed anything in my life and I resent the implication that I’m deliberately trying to now! I respect my father and my family’s name too much to throw it all away like that. Regardless of what I’m doing here-”
Lucrezia arched an eyebrow.
“And just what are you doing here, Little Cousin?” she asked.
Heero paused. “That’s not the point! The point is that… Well the point is that I’m not trying to fail my exams, thank you very much,” he said, sounding quite petulant.
“Heero Yuy, you tell me what’s going on here or I’m sending you straight back home.”
One look at Lucrezia’s stern expression told Heero his cousin was very serious. Something about the way her eyebrow was twitching reminded him of childhood scuffles that had always seemed to end with him being dumped in some reservoir of liquid. Spotting a chamber pot ten feet to his left and a small pond twelve feet to his right, Heero decided not to take any chances. He might be bigger now, but Lucrezia was meaner and she fought hard.
He was going to have to play his cards carefully.
“There’s something I want to do,” said Heero, scuffing his toe in the dirt. “It’s not bad! I just want to see someone...”
Lucrezia looked skeptical, but she gestured for Heero to continue.
“I couldn’t get into the Peacecraft house without being an employee, you see...”
“And the person you’re looking for is in the Peacecraft household itself?” asked Lucrezia.
Heero nodded slowly while trying to discern whether or not his cousin was buying it.
Lucrezia paused to think on the situation.
“Heero,” she finally said with an exaggerated sigh. “Please tell me you’re not trying to chase one of the Peacecraft servant girls. That’s really not becoming and so very last year.”
“Well!” said Heero with a bright smile. “I can honestly tell you that I am not chasing one of the servant girls. So can I go?”
Lucrezia shifted her stance ever so slightly and Heero started to mark the exits. It was time for either some fast thinking or some fast running and Heero seemed to recall that Lucrezia had always been able to best him in a footrace.
Heero tightened his arms around his bedding in preparation for fight or flight, but a glimpse of his own blue sleeve sparked a sudden idea.
“Okay. I got hired on as a tutor here because I’m doing research on the educational system for children of nobility,” he blurted out, trying his best to edge away from his cousin: that chamber pot there was awfully close. “Lulu, this is really important. It’s a special project that Professor Odin assigned to me. Don’t make me mess it up. Please?”
Lucrezia looked skeptical, but she seemed swayed by the mention of Professor Odin. He was a respected academic who had placed in the top ten during his examination year but had deliberately chosen to pursue the simple career of a tutor rather than the prestige and wealth of a civil servant. His teaching methods were supposed to be revolutionary, inspiring unheard of brilliance and genius in his students.
Heero was beginning to hope, but Lucrezia was not one easily fooled.
“Does your father know about this?”
Shaking his head, Heero said: “What does he care? As long as I’m studying, he’s happy. He just keeps his head in his books and, you know, that’s really the best for everyone. Come on, Lulu, let me go.”
“He’ll still notice you’re missing at dinner, Heero.”
Heero’s frustration was beginning to show on his face and Lucrezia did so hate to see boys cry.
“Fine, fine. I’ll tell Uncle that you’re helping me teach Milliardo’s children until we find another tutor to replace Professor Gee. I’m sure that, by now, news of Gee’s resignation has already spread all over the city.”
Heero dared a tiny smile.
“But you better be on your best behaviour, Heero Yuy, or so help me, favoured Yuy son or not, I’m going to throw you into the city sewage.”
Heero felt bad for lying to his cousin. Despite their little altercations, she was the only one of his twenty older cousins who’d always looked out for him and didn’t treat him like some small, vaguely diseased animal. At the same time, though, it wasn’t as if she’d never lied to him before and he figured his debt to Duo could take precedence just this once. Vowing to himself that he’d still make it up to Lucrezia, Heero executed a little bow and scampered off to his designated classroom/living quarters.
Not surprisingly, the study was empty by the time Heero arrived. Scattered rolls of paper and spilt ink dishes suggested that the Peacecraft brats had come and gone; now likely off celebrating their success in driving off yet another tutor. The back room was small but tidy, and Heero offered a silent ‘thanks’ to the Professor Gee who’d taken the care to at least clean up after himself despite his hasty departure. Heero hastily put his things away and then took off in search of Duo.
The old man at the door, Father Maxwell, had mentioned something about Duo being a “handmaiden” for the “young mistress”. If Heero recalled correctly, that would mean Duo worked for Milliardo’s younger sister, Relena, who was a recluse.
It was said that Relena Peacecraft was excruciatingly beautiful, extraordinarily brilliant, and at complete odds with her brother’s political ideals. Last year, she suffered a terrible shock that left her with a frail constitution and she withdrew from the public arena. It had been a horrible scandal at the time. The most prevalent rumour had it that she’d seen Milliardo murder his first wife. Heero remembered hearing repetition upon repetition of gothic tales of the Peacecraft household ad nauseum. And when the man proposed to Lucrezia, the Yuy family had been thrown into utter chaos. Milliardo was incredibly intelligent, sharp and cunning. Though not much older than Heero, he had already strategically placed himself to inherit his father’s position, despite the fact that the government system was a meritocracy, not an aristocracy where titles could be inherited. On paper, he was an excellent choice for Lucrezia, but there were those pesky rumours…
Still, Heero hadn’t seen anything wrong with his cousin today, and she looked healthier and happier than ever, so maybe the rumour mill was lying to him.
But what did that mean about Relena?
She certainly was a recluse; that much was true. Heero hadn’t seen her in years, even before the death of Milliardo’s first wife. And Relena obviously hadn’t attended Milliardo and Lucrezia’s wedding ceremony, what with the rumours in full swing and everyone clamouring to see the “poor, traumatized soul”, even an extrovert would have stayed away.
Milliardo had said at the time of his wedding that his sister was too fragile to handle the festivities, but how delicate could she be if she had a *male* handmaiden? Handmaidens were *maidens* because they had to attend to their mistress’ every need, including bathing and dressing her. What lady would let a male servant touch her so intimately? It was completely unheard of, and a sign of truly deviant behaviour if Heero was to say. Maybe Milliardo was ashamed of his sister and it wasn’t that she was a recluse so much as he had to hide her away.
But how did Duo fit into this? Didn’t he find it disgraceful to be classified as a female servant? If he had been so embarrassed about not knowing how to read, how was he going to react when Heero confronted him about his job?
Heero pondered all these questions and more as he made his way deep into the rear of the Peacecraft compound where the head family lived. As an unmarried daughter, Relena would still be under her parents’ watchful eyes.
He found the young blonde heiress sitting under a willow tree trailing one dainty little hand through the gorgeously artificial brook that ran through her family’s estate. She appeared to be perfectly normal; the worst Heero could say was that maybe she came across as a little melancholy. Certainly she didn’t *look* like a pervert. In fact, if Heero were to be honest with himself, he thought she was quite pretty in a very conventional, not abnormal whatsoever, type of way.
And then, before his very eyes, three young men dressed as classic, ladies’ servants ran up to her. They were giggling and playing like normal girls of their station, but the hard lines of their jaws and shoulders showed them very clearly as men. Heero felt his jaw drop.
“Miss Relena! Miss Relena!” the blonde one gushed, running up to kneel at the feet of his mistress. “I heard that Professor Gee quit!” He spoke as if he were imparting a particularly juicy bit of gossip.
Relena nodded absently and continued to dabble in the water.
“But that’s not all!” the “maiden” said. “I heard from the kitchen staff that Miss Helen managed to find a new tutor right away! He was just sitting outside our door and he’s dreamy!”
This news seemed to have the desired effect on his mistress for when Relena responded by looking up from her contemplation of the babbling brook, all three of her “maidens” looked inordinately pleased.
“How dreamy?” she asked sharply, as if doubting her maid’s aesthetic sense.
“He’s-Oh!” the blond cried. “There he is!”
The three “girls” squealed and hid behind their mistress. Their laughing eyes told Heero that this was all a farce played out for her sake.
Relena straightened at the sight of Heero. She pulled her shoulders back and tilted her chin just a notch higher.
“Boy!” she called out to him. “Come here and greet me.”
Heero walked slowly up to the young lady and executed a perfect bow, bending from the waist and sweeping his arm down and across his chest as he’d seen Professor Odin do when greeting his father.
To his surprise, the haughty demeanor dropped immediately and Relena giggled like any other girl on the street.
“Oh my,” she said, hiding coquettishly behind her handkerchief. “You certainly are dashing!”
Heero blushed. That had totally not been his intention and he hoped she didn’t think he was seriously flirting with her.
Then, quite suddenly, Relena fairly snapped into a new pose and persona; gone was the giggling, gushing girl and in her place was a Lady, a prissy little princess, and she was looking down at Heero like he was a beggar in the street.
“Introduce yourself,” she commanded.
Heero was a little confused, but he managed to react according to proper manners.
“My name is Heero. I’ll be tutoring Master Milliardo’s two children,” he said, and, unable to think of anything more to say, he stopped there.
This time, the personality snap was almost audible.
“He’s precious! So straightforward.” Relena seemed highly amused by this observation. “Isn’t he absolutely darling, Quatre? I shall have to ask Mill if I can borrow him. ‘Heero’. The name just rolls off the tongue!”
The blond handmaiden, the one who’d first told Relena of Heero’s existence, peeked out at Heero, flushed, and then nodded vigorously at Relena.
“Well, since *Heero* has been so gentlemanly in introducing himself, I think we ought to return the pleasantry, is that not the proper thing to do, girls?” Relena asked her “maidens”. As the “girls” stepped out from behind her, Relena introduced them one by one.
Heero greeted each handmaiden with the same politeness he’d accorded their mistress, but he gave each one a very careful onceover, trying to discern what kind of man would work as a lady’s maid. Solo had a shaggy hairstyle and a certain set about his features that made Heero think he was not born in the upper-middle classes that Relena’s maids ought to come from. Trowa was shockingly tall and his upper body muscles bulged obscenely beneath his flimsy silk outfit. Quatre was a pretty blond who, in contrast with Solo, most definitely looked to be from the right class to be a handmaiden, but the flat chest and slight bulge in his pants proclaimed him to be completely the wrong gender and reaffirmed Heero’s suspicions that Relena was truly a deviant of epic proportions. She had, not *one*, but *four*, male handmaidens!
But where was Duo? Heero craned his neck, trying to see around or behind the cluster of people in front of him, looking for that telltale whip of brown hair.
Relena placed herself directly in Heero’s line of sight, forcing his focus back on her. “Excuse me, Heero. Is there something you’re looking for?”
“Ah.”
Heero didn’t quite know how to avoid setting off Relena’s little ‘disorder’ again, but it was impolite not to respond to a Lady’s questions. So…
“I was just thinking that it looks like your handmaidens are named for numbers. One, Three, Four…” Heero pointed at each boy respectively. “And I was wondering if you had a… a Handmaiden Number Two?”
“Of course! She should be back any minute. I just sent her out for tea…” Relena peered about the garden in earnest, appearing stable in her bright-eyed, cheerfulness for the moment. “There she is!” she exclaimed, waving frantically at Duo who was approaching from the main house.
Heero tried not to look too excited. Quite frankly, he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to act in this instance. He didn’t want to get Duo in trouble with Relena, so he thought maybe it wasn’t appropriate to greet Duo with familiarity. But at the same time, he wanted Duo to know that he had come especially to see him. And then there was the fact that Duo was currently dressed like a girl.
“Duo! Duo, come here, you silly girl! There’s someone who would like to meet you,” Relena called out sternly.
“Oh, it’s not necessary, Miss Relena. There’s no rush-”
“Nonsense, Heero!” And there was a slight shift into that ‘other’ Relena for a split second before the shining, smiling girl reasserted herself. “Duo is a dawdler. She needs a firm hand or she’ll walk all over you.”
Unsure of how to respond, Heero just smiled politely.
“Honestly, Miss Relena, I can’t very well hurry if I’m carrying a tray full of tea and stuff!” Duo sounded exasperated and not at all as deferential to his mistress as a servant ought to be.
Relena simply giggled and motioned Duo to come closer.
“Heero, this is my second handmaiden, Duo. Duo, greet Professor Heero.”
Heero waved shyly, but Duo was so shocked that he dropped his tray and all its contents on the ground. The spout broke off the teapot and hot water splashed across the lawn, narrowly missing his own silk-clad feet; two of the delicate cups shattered, sending shards of blue and white ceramic flying every which way; and most of the pastries tumbled off down the embankment and to fall into the brook.
“Duo!” Relena turned to scold him.
“No, no, it was entirely my fault!” Heero jumped forward, bending down to help Duo pick up the broken and scattered china.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Duo hissed, as he snatched a chipped cup from Heero’s fingers. “Why are you here?”
Heero remained silent and resolutely continued to help Duo clean up. However, picking up a shard which had broken off the teapot, Heero cut his finger on the sharp edge of it. Still he was careful to drop the piece on the tray with the rest of the broken china before inspecting the injury. Though it wasn’t a wound of any significance, a large drop of red, red blood welled up just as he was examining it. Behind him, he heard Relena scream.
Duo immediately reached out and pulled Heero’s finger to himself, he gave it a quick look before bringing it to his mouth and gently sucking on it.
Then Duo looked up, peering at Heero through his long bangs. Their eyes met, and Heero forgot how to breathe. With pounding hearts both boys leaned forward ever so slightly and-
Unfortunately, a second scream from Relena brought reality crashing back with alarming speed.
Duo threw Heero’s hand back at him and scooted back about a foot. Heero, too, jerked backwards, landing hard on his rear end. Lucky for Heero and Duo, though, no one noticed their exaggerated reactions for the other handmaidens were busy tending to their mistress who was doing a rather passable feigned faint.
Heero clutched his injured hand to himself and stared at Duo with wide, wild eyes. Duo could see his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath. Funnily, Duo felt a bit breathless as well.
“It, uh, helps stop the bleeding,” mumbled Duo. “The spit, I mean. I’m sorry, I didn’t…”
Heero quickly scrambled to his feet and turned to leave, but the suddenly stricken expression on Duo’s face made him pause.
“Don’t be sorry,” he blurted out.
The smile that broke out across Duo’s face was as brilliant as the sun after the rain, and it was with a much lighter heart that Heero excused himself to Relena and took his leave of the inner Peacecraft garden.
TBC
because what i want to happen is that duo is supposed to be creeped out by heero following him and signing up to work in the same house and heero's going to give duo the bun he bought for him... (do we even remember it? ^O^;; that was in ch. 2 wasn't it? i'm ridiculous!) and duo will be won over a bit...
but if i were to stop ch. 3 here, i would start ch. 4 with: "a few days later..." i guess it could still be that heero keeps the bun and has been carrying around with him for a couple days waiting to give it to duo. would that make him extra endearing? ^O^;;; *ponders*