These characters don’t belong to me. They belong to Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and some other companies.

Please don’t take this story without my permission. I’ve spent one year and ten an a half months on this fic. That’s almost two years of my life! So please don’t take it without my permission.

AN: I hope you guys like this. Inspiration suddenly hit me this afternoon and I had to write this. Don’t forget to review!

The Sun You Seek

Chapter 8

Duo looked up at the tall building in which his penthouse, or their penthouse, was located, and sighed. He knew she was home, but he didn’t want to see her. It had taken him two days to get all the things at the hotel taken care of and Relena had happily left him to amend things with the manager and other workers. Heero’s anger and his shouting had the manager of the hotel asking Relena and Duo to leave, and Relena had complied, leaving Duo to deal with the consequences and an apology and no wallet to pay for the expenses. He’d asked to stay for one more day so he could go see Heero and Hilde, the manager had wearily said yes, but it had not been necessary for it seemed that Heero and Hilde had left the hotel that same day.

As the elevator made its way to the his floor Duo thought about what he’d said to Relena in the hotel. It was over. It was all over and he’d been a damn fool the whole time. It took a lot for him not to start beating his head against the elevator’s wall at his stupidity. He couldn’t apologize to her. He wouldn’t. Relena didn’t deserve an apology from him. If anything, she should apologize to him. No, he thought. He was as much to blame for cheating as she was. He couldn’t keep it in his pants and he’d slept with this best friend’s girlfriend. Not only that, but he’d lost his own girlfriend in the process. He had never meant for it to go that far. After that first time he’d sworn he would never again touch Relena, but that had proved to be a difficult task. She kept enticing him and he kept saying yes to her temptations. Before he knew it they were seeing each other every chance they could and sneaking around to see each other. Until they had gotten caught. He didn’t know when he had fallen in love with Relena but he had. At least that’s what he’d thought for a while. He’d more than likely convinced his head that he loved her, but his heart, a deep part of it, kept longing for inky black hair and laughing cornflower blue eyes., not the blond goddess he slept with every night.

And he had denied that part of his heart for a long time. Here he was now, coming out of the elevator hoping Relena wasn’t home. He opened the door with his key and immediately wished he could come back later.

Relena, sitting on the couch watching TV, barely glanced at him. She took one look at him and turned back to the television completely ignoring him. “Nice to see you too,” he said sarcastically.

“Don’t start, Duo. I’m not in the mood for this today,” she said angrily.

As if she had a right to be angry, he thought. “You started all of this, Relena. You started it by looking for Heero and wanting to “talk”. Was it the same kind of talk you wanted to have with me when all of this started? Or did this talk actually involve words?” he practically snarled at her.

“How dare you talk to me like that Duo? If I remember correctly you weren’t exactly protesting! And I did not throw myself at you. You could have said no if you really wanted to. It’s not my fault Hilde wasn’t giving you what you wanted,” she said maliciously.

Duo rolled his eyes and walked in the bedroom. He put down his luggage and prepared to unpack. He noticed Relena in the doorway.

“What do you think you’re doing? I don’t want you to stay here,” she stated.

“Too bad, because this is my house too. The lease is in my name too and I pay half the expenses, so until I find something else you’re going to have to live with it.”

Relena scowled and crossed her arms. “Don’t you have any friends you can stay with?”

He turned to her and rolled his eyes in annoyance at her. “No, Relena, I don’t. They all cut ties with me when they found out I cheated on my girlfriend with you.”

She sighed and walked further into the room. “You seemed to have no problems with me a week ago, Duo, what happened?”

“I found out what a bitch you really are, Relena. And don’t you think you should be asking yourself that question? Because you did this! You did this to us! I wake up one day and I don’t recognize you anymore. I see you but you are not the same person you were...” he trailed off. He couldn’t even explain this to her.

Relena licked her lips and sat on the bed. “Nothing happened, Duo,” she said harshly. “You just never saw it. You never made me happy, but you were too wrapped up in your own life and thoughts that you didn’t notice me!”

“God, you can’t even admit that you don’t know what you want. You never did. You spent all those years chasing Heero around but you never really wanted him, did you? Just like you never wanted me and you never really wanted anything you have.”

She turned angry eyes to him and pinned him with a glare. “Shut up, Duo. I always wanted Heero, I still want him,” she said. She was close to tears, but she didn’t care if she cried. She hated Duo now.

“Too bad you can’t have him, he doesn’t want you anymore,” he bit out, his voice dripping with venom, and walked out of the room.

Three weeks later–

Duo paced in his hotel room on L2. He had come home from visiting a lawyer about his part of Hilde’s company. He wasn’t going to sell it back to her, instead he was going to give it back to her. He had just put it under her name. Now, he was debating on how to go about telling Hilde that. He guessed the most logical thing to do would be to call her and tell her, but he didn’t want to call her. He wanted to see her, but wondered if that was a wise move. She made it quite clear that she didn’t want to see him. He rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands and made a decision. Grabbing his jacket, his keys and the manila folder on the bed he made his way out of the hotel room that had been his home for the past week. He sighed and made his way to Hilde’s and his old house.

When he arrived twenty minutes later, his resolve was waning. With a deep breath he knocked on the door and was totally taken aback when Heero opened the door. He was wearing gray sweats, a white t-shirt and no shoes or socks. Duo’s mouth went dry with nervousness.

Heero stood there and looked at him without saying anything for a few minutes. The two men just looked at each other. “What do you want?” he said sourly .

“Uh– can I talk to Hilde? Please?” Duo asked wearily.

“Why?” was the short reply.

Duo fingered the manila envelope he held in his hands behind his back. “To both of you. Can I talk to both of you for a few minutes?” he tried again. Just as well, he thought. He needed both of them to hear what he had to say.

Heero just stared at him. Duo could see the flurry of emotions in his stormy, cold glare and was surprised when Heero stepped away from the door to let him in.

“Sit down, I’ll go get Hilde,” he said and left the room.

Duo let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding and sat down. He took a moment to see if the house had changed, and was saddened at the fact that it had. All his pictures and pictures of Hilde and himself were gone, replaced by ones of Heero and her. He’d expected this, but he hadn’t expected it to hurt so much. He had really wanted to find at least one picture of him in the living room. Why? He didn’t know, but he guessed it was because he still harbored some sort of hope that Hilde still cared for him, or about him.

He heard Heero clear his throat and turned around. He saw Hilde and Heero standing a few feet behind him. He also cleared his throat and stood up.

“What is it that you wanted to talk about?” Heero said impatiently. He didn’t want Duo in the house. And now that he and Hilde were living together it was his house too.

A tense silence followed Heero’s question. Hilde broke it by saying, “Sit down, I’ll make us some coffee.”

Duo avoided looking at Heero. He didn’t need to see him to feel the hostility coming from the other man. The way Heero was looking at him sent shivers up his spine. But he refused to be intimidated by him. He had to deal with this situation sooner or later and he preferred to not beat around the bush. When Hilde came back with the coffee he took it graciously and gulped half of it down in one gulp. Afterwards, he summoned all of his pride, or what was left of it, and said, “I just wanted to apologize to you both. For what happened in Los Angeles and for the way I behaved with Relena a year and a half ago.”

He paused, waiting for them to say something, almost hoping that they would say something. “I’m sorry, Heero, for... for sleeping with Relena, knowing that she was your girlfriend. I’m really sorry. God, I really didn’t mean for that to happen, for it to get that far. Please believe me when I say that after that first time I swore that I would never let it happen again, but things just escalated and... I really don’t know how I let them go so far,” he said. Tears stung his eyes and he wished to God that he didn’t burst into tears.

Heero sucked in a breath. “I don’t need to hear this, Duo. I don’t want to,” he spit out.

“Maybe you don’t need to hear this, Heero, but I need to say it. Please listen to me. I should’ve had the balls to face up to my responsibilities and I should have been man enough to put a stop to the affair, but I didn’t. And I was thinking with my pants and not my brain and I’m sorry. And, God, Hilde– I can’t even look you in the eye to say this– I swear I regret losing you the most. Heero was my best friend but you were– are– my soul mate. I should have had respect for my fiancee.”

Hilde shook her head, tears threatening to fall down her cheeks. She had imagined him coming back and getting on his knees and begging for forgiveness and asking her to take him back for a long time after they broke up. But she had never imagined that he would come back and apologize, truly apologize for all the heartache he’d caused her.

“I regret a lot of things, Hilde, and one of them is not being your husband right now. And if I thought there was even a slight chance that you would take me back, I’d be jumping through hoops right now for you to give me that chance. But, I know that you love someone else now, and as much as it hurts me to see you with another man, Hilde, I couldn’t be happier that you found someone who loves you and will never betray you. Because I still love you, Hilde, and I want what’s best for you. I want your happiness even if it isn’t with me.” Two lonely tears escaped from his eyes and made their way down his cheeks. He angrily wiped them away and looked at Hilde and Heero.

Hilde spoke first. “I can’t forgive you, Duo. I never will. You made me the most miserable person in this galaxy. I was so unhappy for a very long time. Until recently, when I found out that Heero loved him and that I loved him too. If it hadn’t been for you and Relena, Duo, I wouldn’t be with Heero, I don’t forgive you.”

Heero was quiet, but he knew he had to say something. “I accept your apology, Duo, but I can’t forgive you. And know that we can’t be friends again. I can’t forgive what you did and what kind of man would I be if I let you be near Hilde and me, when you slept with my previous girlfriend? I take your apology, and maybe I’ll forgive you someday but I won’t forget.”

Duo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “As much as I want to argue and tell you that I’ve changed, I understand. And, there’s one more thing I want to do before I get out of your lives.” Duo stood up and picked up the manila envelope he’d been holding the whole time and stretched out his arm and handed it to Hilde. “It’s... it’s the rest of your company, Hilde. I’m giving it back to you, no strings attached. It wasn’t right of me to take it in the first place, and it wasn’t right of me to keep it after we broke up.” He looked at her face, memorizing the way she looked right then and walked to the door.

“Thanks for listening,” he said and walked out, closing the door softly behind him. Leaving the house was easy, but forgetting Hilde wasn’t. And he hoped that one day he could move on too.

Both Hilde and Heero stared at the door long after he left. Hilde looked at Heero and hugged him. “That was decent of him,” Heero said.

“Yes,” Hilde whispered. “It was.”

The End

Final Author’s Note:

It’s done! Finally! Praise the Lord! And much sooner than I expected. I can’t believe it’s done not even a month after I posted chapter 7! I really, really never thought I’d ever finish this. I actually never planned to continue this fic when I first stared it, but I did with the encouragement of some of the members of the DxH ML. Aside from this last chapter, whenever I sat down to write anything for this story I never had anything planned that’s why I always said this story had no plot. I never knew what was going to happen. Most of the things I wrote, (again, except for Duo’s apology at the end and the fact that I never wanted 2xR to end up together) were free writing. I tweaked and rewrote some bits and pieces when I’d finish a chapter but I never really had any plans for this fic. I’m actually very content with how this turned out and all the encouragement and comments that I got while writing it. Almost two years of my life were dedicated to this fic and I must say that, to me, it was worth it.

Anyway, very much thanks to: Estrange, Liz, Saba, Darkwingit, all the others on the DxH ML, Morrighan, Roja, just a friend, Vega03, Hikari, Zero Vision, Kat aka Mistress Shinigami, Aisha, Duet Masaki, theperfectdeathscythepilot, Hydra, reviewer, write more please, 2xR freak, Kaylen, Bluey, lmc, sunmistress, Jennifer, N/A, Arielle, Blue Diamond and Trini and all others who have reviewed on ff.net and/or emailed me because they’ve read it on other sites!

Thank you for reviewing and sticking with this story… although I know some of you wished it hadn’t ended this way. This will probably be my only alternate pairing fic ever… Thanks again! And I’ll see you guys next time!