Part One: The Question

Hilde smiled sweetly at the young man standing in front of her but nevertheless shook her head ‘no’ when he asked her to dance. Hilde turned back to the conversation she was having with her friend Sara Kastner and was surprised to see a slightly annoyed look on her face.

“What’s the matter with you Sara?” Hilde asked, her head tilted to the side as she looked at her friend in curiosity.

Sara gave Hilde a dirty look and then said with sarcasm dripping from her voice, “Oh, I don't know, Hilde. Maybe it's because I got all dressed up today and found a nice club to go to with my best friend, to try and find us some marriageable guys. But no, you have to go and turn them all down. What is wrong with you, Hilde? And don't try and tell there's something wrong with the guys here. I know for a fact that they are all very nice guys with great jobs. So what is the problem?"

By now Sara was standing with her hands on her hips, scowling at Hilde. Hilde sat there looking up at her and, seeing her flushed face and wild eyes, couldn't help but start giggling. Sara let her breath out with a huff and sat down in the booth once again, folding her arms on the table. She put her head down on them and glared at her still giggling friend.

Hilde finally regained her composure and, looking at Sara, asked, "What on earth made you think I was in the market for a husband, might I inquire?”

Sara just continued glaring at her friend and would not answer.

"Well?" Hilde asked, still looking at Sara with a slight smile playing around her lips. When no answer came for a good five minutes Hilde began to worry that she might have offended her friend. Just when Hilde had opened her mouth to apologize, Sara spoke.

"Don't you ever get tired of waiting for him?"

"What?" was all Hilde could think of to say to this unexpected question.

Sara raised her head from where she had buried it in her arms and said, “I asked if you ever got tired of waiting for Duo Maxwell."

Hilde flushed bright red at this comment and for a few moments was unable to say a word. When she had finally regained her mental and verbal abilities, Hilde answered her friend with a soft, "No.”

Sara shook her head in despair and said, "That's what I thought. Come on, there's no reason for us to hang around here any longer."

Part Two: Pleasant Memories

When Hilde got home that night, it was to an empty building. Duo had gone out with the other gundam pilots to celebrate Wufei's birthday. They would be staying at Quatre's house for the rest of the weekend, so she didn't have to worry about him banging on her door in the morning like he often did when he thought she was sleeping in too late.

Hilde chuckled softly to herself as the memory of the one and only time he had done that to Trowa entered her mind. Trowa had been staying over at the apartment that she and Duo shared along with the rest of the pilots and Relena for a weekend get-together. On the day they were all suppose to leave, Duo had gone to every door at five in the morning to wake everyone up so that they could get an early start to the spaceport since they all had different times for the flights they needed to be on. They had all been up until around 1a.m. the night before so none of them had been looking forward to waking up that early but all of them had quickly gotten up when Duo rapped on their door. That is, every body but Trowa, so Duo had just kept pounding on the door and yelling for Trowa to get up since Trowa had his door locked. Duo was just going to go and get the key to open the door when Trowa had opened his door, grabbed the front of Duo’s shirt and in his quiet voice said, “I’m up, Duo." Duo had turned as white as a sheet, smiled sheepishly and said, “I see that buddy. Um, do you think you could put me down?" He had looked down at the floor that was at that moment about two feet away from his own feet. Trowa had sighed, put Duo down, and gotten ready to leave.

Hilde smiled at the memory and, shaking her head, turned to go to her room and get ready for bed. When she had gotten her pj's on and buried herself under the covers, Hilde turned to look up at the ceiling and started thinking about the relationship she had with Duo. She was in love with him; she had never made any secret of that to herself, even when she was sure he could never love her back. But now she wasn't sure about what Duo's feelings were towards her. She hadn't been ever since the time he had taken her to see this nebula he had come across on one of his trips for some parts they needed for one of their customers.

He had arrived back at the shop with an excited grin on his face, told her to put out the ‘closed’ sign and pack a lunch and then dragged her out to see it before she had a chance to protest. It had been the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The stars were of every shade of purple, blue, and pink she had ever seen, and some that she had only dreamed of. But the best part was when Duo had wrapped his arm around her waist and, with his cheek laying against her hair, had whispered in her ear, "I hope we'll be able to go see nebulas together like this when we're eighty." He hadn't said anything else after that. He had just held her tightly in his arms, like he never wanted to let her go.

She hadn't known what to do until she had talked it over with Relena over the phone. To her amazement, the first thing her friend had done was laugh and then she had said something even more amazing, "Hilde, you idiot; don't you know that Duo has been in love with you for years?" Hilde had turned bright red when Relena had said this and had replied in a huffy sounding voice, "No. I do not know that Duo is in love with me. He hasn't shown the least bit of interest towards me in that way before." Relena had smiled and said, "Well, now he has and if you will just be patient with him I'm sure that someday you'll be Mrs. Hilde Maxwell." On that note Relena had been called away from the phone by Heero needing something and Hilde had hung up the phone.

Now Hilde once again thought about all the things she loved about Duo. With a happy sigh she remembered her answer to her friend's question of getting tired of waiting for him. Looking up at the ceiling Hilde smiled and said once again, "No, Sara, I don't think I'll ever get tired of waiting for Duo Maxwell. He's one of those men who are worth waiting for.”

With that, Hilde fell asleep with the image of Duo’s smiling face being her last conscious thought.