Duo stood in front of the full-length mirror at the end of the upstairs hallway. He put his hands on his hips, placed his feet wide apart, and then stared at himself. Then he crossed his arms and put his feet together and stared some more. Then he repeated his first pose. Trowa's curiosity was piqued, so he walked down the hall and stood next to Duo.

"What'cha doin', Duo?"

"I'm practicin'. I wanna look at Hilde like Heero looks at Relena when she's buggin' him."

"You mean the look that Tegan calls 'Heero's Smoldering Glare'?"

"Yeah."

"But Heero gets in trouble if he gets caught doin' that," Trowa said, in a horrified whisper. "'Specially if he says 'Omae o korosu,' when he does it."

"I know. But it'd be WORTH gettin' punished for."

"Don't ya like Hilde? She likes you."

"No! An' I don't WANT her t' like me!" Duo cried vehemently.

Trowa shrugged.

"So, which do ya like better?" Duo posed one way and then the other.

"I think the one with your arms folded is best. Makes you look annoyed more," Trowa gave his opinion.

"How'm I doin' with the glare? Do I look like Heero yet?" Duo asked hopefully, and glared into the mirror.

Trowa studied Duo's reflection. "Almost," he decided.

"I'll keep practicin' then."

Trowa went into the Nursery, leaving Duo to work on perfecting his smoldering glare.

"Duo!" Heero called from downstairs a few minutes later, with a smirk in his voice. "Hilde's here to see you!"

"Tell her I'm busy!" came the annoyed reply.

Heero and Hilde appeared at the top of the stairs, followed by Relena.

"What're ya doin'?" asked Hilde as she walked down the hallway.

Duo whipped around to face her, put his hand on the back of his head, elbow out, with an embarrassed smile on his face. "Oh, nuthin'," he lied, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Great!" Hilde exclaimed with a big smile. "Then you can come to the picnic 'cause you're not busy."

"Picnic??" Duo asked somewhat dubiously.

Relena was standing behind Heero at the top of the stairs. She moved forward, slipped her arm through his and clung to his side.

"Yeah," Relena began to add her two cents. "We made ev'rythin' at Hilde's house. It will be SO ROMANTICAL with only US FOUR." Relena squeezed Heero's arm and sighed dreamily.

Heero rolled his eyes. "Ya don't mean I gotta go TOO?"

"'Course you do," Relena answered somewhat crossly, "else it won't be Romantical."

"An' it's all stuff YOU can eat 'cause Relena told me that your fam'ly is Veg'tablearian. So we only made Veg'tablearian food," Hilde informed the boys.

Heero and Duo stared at each other, each hoping the other one would have a REALLY GOOD REASON not to go to the picnic. They were both disappointed.

"COME ON, sweetie-pie, it'll be fun!" Hilde encouraged poor Duo. She grabbed him by the hand and enthusiastically dragged him down the hallway.

"If I'm goin', you'd better go too--IF ya know what's good for ya," Duo threatened Heero as they passed by.

"We WERE gonna make Jal'peno Lem'nade 'cause Relena says you both like it," Hilde chattered happily as she hurried her sweetie-pie down the stairs. "But we didn't have any lem'nade, so we used orange juice 'stead 'cause oranges are KINDA like lemons, ya know." Duo's stomach was already turning. "An' I hope ya like peanut butter 'n pickle samwiches, 'cause we made LOTS of 'em!"