Duo struggled to keep a smile on his face while he listened to the woman who guided him down the long corridor. Her voice was a beautiful contralto, but it nonetheless grated on Duo's frayed nerves. The woman hadn't stopped talking since she first approached him in the lobby.

"You're so lucky to have gotten the Burgundy Room. It's our most popular room, you know. It's hardly ever available. And it's incredibly expensive." The woman gushed, smiling happily at Duo.

Duo smiled back and managed to calmly reply "Well, the friend who made the reservations for me is quite well off."

"Oh of course! It was Mr. Winner who bought your Key for you, wasn't it? Of course I've heard of the Winner family! They've never been big customers of ours, but....." Duo promptly tuned the annoying woman out and returned to his favourite pastime. Plotting Heero's very messy death. <<I could shoot him, but that seems so ordinary. I want his death to be special. Maybe I could tie him up and beat him to death...>>

"Miss Carter? Miss Carter? Are you alright?" The woman's nervous voice finally caught Duo's attention.

"Huh? Oh, yes, I'm fine. It was... a long flight. I'm just a bit tired, that's all." said Duo quickly, smiling brightly to reassure her. He belatedly noticed that they had stopped in front of a pair of massive doors.

Duo looked up at the double doors and barely managed to avoid sighing in relief. A chance to be alone for a while and get out of this ridiculous outfit. He pulled the ornate silver key out of his carry-on bag and slipped it into the keyhole. The doors were much lighter than he had imagined, and as he pushed them open the woman started speaking again.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your stay at the Palace. The rest of your luggage will be brought up shortly, and if you need anything just dial 99 on the phone. I'm sure you'll like..."

Duo quickly slipped into the room and closed the doors in her face. Once inside, Duo leaned his face against the doors wearily and sighed. <<Alone at last>>.

"Welcome to the Burgundy Room, Mistress." said a silky voice from behind him.

Duo spun around so fast that his braid whacked him in the face. He dimly noted that his room seemed to have some sort of medieval theme before his gaze focused on the stunningly beautiful man standing in the centre of the room.

The man was tall, with long blue-white hair that hung down over his shoulder in a loose ponytail. His clothes were as pale as his hair, and thought they weren't skimpy per se, they didn't leave much to the imagination either. Not overly muscular, but obviously very active, the man was probably the sexiest guy Duo had ever seen. The American pilot stared in shock for a few moments before blurting out "Who the Hell are you?!"

The vision smiled and said "I'm Seth, your slave."

Suddenly Duo's dress seemed to get even tighter and he found he couldn't breathe at all. He gasped for air and his legs threatened to give way beneath him. The room started spinning crazily around him and one thought repeated itself over and over in his mind. <<Heero is a dead man. Heero is a dead man.>> Everything started going gray and Duo fuzzily noticed that a pair of strong arms caught him as he collapsed to the floor.

*****

As Duo slowly started to regain consciousness, he noticed that something cool was draped across his forehead and he was lying on something very soft. Feeling slightly disoriented, Duo opened his eyes and found himself staring into a pair of worried, ice blue eyes. Everything came rushing back to him an he almost moaned before getting control of himself.

"Are you alright now, Mistress?" Seth asked quietly.

Duo fought to pull his thoughts together and replied "Yeah, I'm fine. It was just kind of a shock." Duo smiled wanly and struggled to catch his breath in the overly-tight leather dress.

Seth frowned, and Duo wondered if the slave was insulted that his presence hadn't been expected. "A shock, Mistress? Were you not aware of the nature of the Palace?"

Duo coughed and tried not to look as embarrassed as he really was. "Ah, no, actually, I wasn't. I've been under a lot of stress lately, and one of my friends suggested I come here to relax. I guess he has... a strange sense of humour."

"I see." Seth looked somewhat uncomfortable for a second, then he smiled predatorily and moved closer to Duo. "But sometimes surprises can be... fun, can they not, Mistress?"

Duo gulped and blushed scarlet. <<Oh damn... this guy is hot! And I've been celibate for.. how long? Eighteen months? Ever since I met... >> and he promptly cut off that line of thought before he ended up back in the mess he had been in nine months before. The American felt his constrained member trying to rise and winced in pain.

*****

Seth smiled to himself as he saw the conflict on his lovely new Mistress' face. She wanted him, but something was holding her back. The stress of the moment perhaps. Now would be the perfect time to back off, let her calm down and maybe grow to want him even more. He had plenty of time to seduce her, and he wanted to make sure he did it right. A little aggression was just was this Mistress needed, but there was no need to terrify the poor thing.

Then she flinched and looked pained and Seth felt a moment's confusion. Pain was not a normal reaction in a situation like this. He looked closer at his Mistress, trying to figure out what was wrong. Now that he looked closer, he noticed some things that he hadn't seen before. True, his Mistress had a slim waist, but it seemed that that wasn't natural, as he had supposed. And the bodice of the dress was cleverly cut to conceal the fact that the wearer was very flat-chested. In fact, she had no breasts to speak of. Could it be that his Mistress was... a Master?

Seth smiled to himself and thought <<I've never had a cross-dresser before. This could really be fun...>>

His Master's body language indicated that he was quite aroused, but when Seth looked down at his Master's crotch he noticed that there wasn't the slightest sign of an erection, which probably meant that the boy's sex was bound up in some way. Which would explain why his Master was in so much pain. That would have to be taken care of.

*****

Duo fidgeted nervously as he watched his "slave" look him over quite thoroughly. He wasn't used to being under such scrutiny. When that ice-blue gaze focused on the pilot's crotch, he felt a moment of panic. <<Does he know?>> But slowly reason asserted itself and Duo calmed down a bit. <<Doesn't matter if he does. The target is supposed to be able to tell that I'm... a cross-dresser>> Duo almost gagged just thinking of himself in such terms <<so why shouldn't this guy figure it out?>>

Seth smiled that predatory smile again and Duo felt the absurd need to run and hide. He really didn't know how to deal with this. Damn Heero and his stupid "mission".

"That really can't be comfortable Master. There's a robe in the bathroom that I'm sure would be much less... restraining."

Duo blushed to the roots of his intricately braided hair and thought <<Okay, so maybe I wasn't quite ready to deal with people knowing that I'm a... that I'm... dressed like this.>>

*****

Seth hid a smile as his Master blushed. This Master really was cute. This was going to be a lot of fun, for sure.

"The door to the bathroom is behind that tapestry on the far wall, if you want to change."

"I... ah... thank you. I'll... do that." stuttered the red-faced boy.

Seth watched his Master's tight ass as he walked across the room. Oh yes, this was going to be a lot of fun.

*****

Duo sighed as he slipped into the bathroom. This was not going well so far. The American put his bag down on the floor and struggled to undo the tight laces of his dress. After a few minutes of some contortions that would make Trowa's Circus friends proud, Duo managed to get out of the leather outfit. Then he pulled off the leather underwear and sighed in bliss. It felt good to be out of that outfit. He left the boots on for the moment and sat down on the edge of the huge bathtub. Just as he was starting to feel a bit relaxed for the first time in ages, a beeping sound came from his bag. <<Oh no, not now>> he groaned to himself.

Duo reluctantly opened his bag and pulled out the battery powered laptop computer he had brought with him. He opened it up and saw Heero's grim face staring at him.

"Duo, I assume you arrived some time ago."

"Yeah, I did, and I have few things to discuss with you about my... accommodations" Duo snapped angrily.

"Have you ascertained the location of the Target yet?" Heero asked calmly, oblivious to Duo's anger.

"No."

"Have you learned anything about the Palace or your target?"

"No."

"Well then, what have you been doing for the last hour?" asked Heero, looking slightly mystified.

"Mostly lying unconscious on my bed, because that stupid dress was so tight that I could barely breathe, so I passed out when I suddenly discovered that my room came with it's very own slave!" Duo hissed, barely keeping his temper in check "A slave you forgot to mention when you were briefing me for this mission! Why the Hell didn't you warn me about that?"

"Because I didn't think you'd go if I told you about that in advance," Heero stated without inflection.

Duo gritted his teeth and struggled to keep from losing his temper altogether. "Okay, fine, all for the sake of the "mission". Typical of you. But why the Hell is my "slave" a guy?!"

"So that the presence of a slave would be less... distracting for you."

Duo stared blankly at the computer screen for a moment. Then he started chuckling. Within a few minutes he was laughing hysterically, tears streaming down his face. Heero looked, for once in his life, thoroughly shocked.

"What's wrong with you Duo?" Heero asked, confusion written all over his face.

Duo stopped laughing suddenly and muttered sadly "And to think that I was worried that you had figured it out."

"Figured what out?" Heero asked, now quite perplexed.

"Never mind. Right now I just want to take a bath, get some sleep, and not think about this Hellish mission for a while. I'll get to work tomorrow morning." then the American pilot reached out and shut off the computer.

*****

Seth wondered what was taking his Master so long. He considered looking in to check, but decided against it. And listening at the door wouldn't help either, since the tapestry quite efficiently muffled any sound coming from the bathroom.

He looked at the clock and sighed. It was getting late. The Master would probably be too tired to do anything but collapse into bed and fall asleep by the time he got out of the bathroom.

Seth turned his attentions to making the bed ready for his Master and shoved all thoughts of seduction aside until the next morning.

*****

Duo leaned back in the nearly scalding bath water and inhaled the scent of the rich bath oils that he had found in the cupboard. He had taken care of his arousal soon after his conversation with Heero, and was now trying to soak away the knots that had formed in the muscles of his back and neck. This mission was really getting to him.

The pilot's mind started to drift as the warmth of the water related him. Without realising it, he slipped into sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

He was sitting on the supine form of a Gundam, chatting happily away at the mysterious boy he had met only the day before. He smiled as he thought of the other pilot's short brown hair, which fell a bit into a pair of cold, dark blue eyes. He continued babbling aimlessly as the other boy worked on the damaged Gundam, and he almost blushed as he looked again at the bike shorts and tank top which did little to hide the boy's slender body.

"Could you just stop talking for a while?" The grim pilot asked coldly. Duo's heart sank as he heard the unfriendly words.

The dream turned into a blur of events and words. Time after time Duo saw his friendly overtures cut off with a curt word or a cold glare. Time after time he watched as the boy he wanted more than anything dedicated himself to "the mission" without even looking at him. Time after time he saw the look in Heero's eyes when Relena Peacecraft walked into the room. And finally, the dream rolled around to the time, a little over two months after the first meeting with Heero, when Duo vowed to shove his feelings aside and deal with the other pilot as nothing more than a comrade.

Of course, a few months later it became a moot point... but Duo's mind shied away from that thought...

~~~~~~~~~~