When the bathroom door finally creaked open, Seth looked up with a deliberately bland, harmless smile on his face. On seeing his Master, he found himself exerting a whole lot of effort to keep that smile from becoming a hungry, predatory one. <<Max never ceases to amaze me. He looks beautiful in that dress, and with his hair down, yet!>>

Firmly repressing any thoughts of just pouncing on his gender-confused Master and having his merry way with him, Seth said softly "I didn't know what you would like for breakfast, so I ordered a selection, Master."

The cheerful smile that curved Max's lips upwards didn't seem to quite reach those violet eyes, and the bright reply of "Great! I'm famished!" seemed more than a little forced, at least to someone as adept at reading people as Seth. <<I have to get to the bottom of this nervousness and depression, or this is going to take longer than I planned.>>

*****

Duo was quite distracted, but not distracted enough to miss the calculating look in Seth's pale eyes. But when his stomach loudly proved that his too-cheerful words were actually the truth, his worries about his strange slave vanished from his mind.

After sorting through a variety of pastry-like things that no one in their right mind could possibly eat before noon, the Gundam pilot settled on a heap of scrambled eggs, several slices of toast and a glass of orange juice for breakfast. Struck by the irony of eating such an ordinary breakfast in this most un-ordinary of situations, Duo gave Seth a genuine smile for a change before he started the line of questions that would hopefully lead him to the location of The Target.

"So.... a little gossip to start the day? Have you heard of a Master here named Christopher Lefebvre?"

Seth gave Duo an odd look at that, but shrugged and said amiably "Sure. Most slaves have. He's... reportedly quite a looker, if nothing else"

Duo grinned, forcing a little spark of desire into his expression "So I've been told. Actually, I... well, I don't suppose you'd know... where he tends to hang out? I'm kind of interested in meeting him.... I've seen him in Fortune Magazine so often and... well..."

*****

Seth was seething, though he didn't let a single bit of it show in his manner. <<Is that why he's been so shy? He's been nursing a crush for someone else?! And for a lousy, cruel, heartless son of a bitch, if what they say about him is true. That's not at all what I expected. Or what I wanted to hear. Damn it, I'll have to humour him for now, and just make sure to woo him away from whatever interest he has in Master Lefebvre.>>

The slave gave Max a smile as insincere as any of the manic grins his Master had been favouring him with, and chuckled. "Sure. He's very fond of the Gardens... one of the few public places that isn't monitored. He's real into his privacy, Master Lefebvre is."

Max's eyes positively lit up when he heard that little tidbit, and Seth's smile became even more strained as his pride in his desirability took another painful hit. To be taking second place to someone else was not something he was used to or, as he was discovering, very fond of at all.

*****

Duo, oblivious to his slave's growing annoyance, was thinking gleefully <<He hangs around an unmonitored area! God must be trying to make up for the crap I've been going through on this mission. This is great, slip in, kill him, slip back out, no muss, no fuss. Couldn't have asked for a better setup!>>

He smiled again and actually, God help him, batted his eyelashes at Seth (once again plotting to kill Heero for making him sink so low to get a mission done). "Do you think.... you could show me there? I'd be soooo grateful, Seth!"

This time the flash of resentment that flickered in Seth's eyes was not overlooked, and Duo felt a twinge of guilt. Seth was doing his best to be nice to him, and was really being very flattering, and here he was, stomping all over the man's pride. But it couldn't be helped, if he ever wanted to get out of here, and away from the temptation Seth provided. Plus, he still had to make good on all his dreams of hurting Heero badly for this.

So Duo forced another smile as Seth agreed to guide him to the Gardens, and yet another when the slave reluctantly agreed not to hang around after Duo got there.

*****

Max looked happy, but Seth was getting the impression that nothing was ever quite what it seemed with the long-haired young man, because Max certainly didn't feel happy when Seth took his hand and helped him up. There was a lot of tension in the slender boy, more than even nervous anticipation could account for. <<Something's up, and I still can't figure out what. This is all too weird. Insulting, but weird.>>

Even after he left Max in the Garden, Seth still couldn't shake the feeling that Max's feelings concerning Christopher Lefebvre were not what they appeared to be on the surface.

Arriving back at the room without mishap (the staff rarely bothered an unaccompanied slave going towards his room, it was when he was heading the other way that things got messy), Seth sat down in one of the window seats and stared out at the scenery for a while.

<<When Max gets back, no more Mr. Nice Slave. I'm going to ferret out whatever secret is weighing down on him and making him act so odd, if it's the last thing I do. Then I can go back to seducing him, once I know more about what makes him tick.>> That particular worry taken care of, the slave was content to relax with a book on Renaissance art and wait for his Master to return.

*****

Meanwhile, Duo was not-so casually wandering around the lush Gardens of the Palace, looking for the familiar, tanned face of his target. After about half an hour, he was ready to give up for the day, when he spotted a tall, dark-haired man wandering by, an even taller, blond slave trailing behind him.

"Mr. Lefebvre! Wait!", Duo called out, making his voice suitably shy and nervous-sounding. The handsome man turned around, peering curiously at the short, exquisitely-dressed person who had called him.

"Do I know you, young lady?", Christopher Lefebrve queried in a deep, gravelly voice.

"Ah... no... no you don't, sir. I just... well, I've seen your picture in magazines, and I recognized you and well, I just couldn't help it. I'd heard rumours that you were here but I didn't really believe it! Imagine, me meeting you like this! I'm sorry, I'm bothering you, aren't I? But I was just so surprised to really see you here!", Duo babbled, letting his voice drop back down to it's usual throaty rumble, leaving no doubt as to what his true gender might be.

After a long moment, a smile slowly started to spread across Christopher's face, though it was not a particularly pleasant smile, if one looked too closely. "Well, it's always nice to meet a beautiful young... lady.", the older man purred soothingly, leaving just enough pause before the word "lady" to make it obvious that he knew his young admirer was no such thing. "Would you like to go somewhere and sit, maybe chat a little, Miss.... why I don't believe I caught your name.."

Duo managed to blush on cue, thanking the Lord on High for all his experience conning an extra penny out of generous people when he was a kid. "Oh! I'm so sorry... I'm Maxine. Maxine Carter. My friends... call me Max."

"Well then, Max, I know of a lovely little alcove just up ahead where we can sit in private, if you'd like. Don't worry about Jag, you'll hardly be able to tell he's there.", he said, gesturing to his slave negligently.

Once again displaying miraculous acting ability, Duo somehow came up with an actual giggle, as he accompanied his target to a nice, conveniently out of the way alcove.

The small talk seemed to last forever, at least to Duo, who was quite anxious to get this over with. Finally Mr. Lefebvre leaned closer, obviously about to kiss his shy "admirer". Duo pulled back and blushed nervously, fidgeting with his hair and reaching for the knife strapped to his leg at the same time, while Christopher murmured soothing compliments and pulled Duo closer again. He hated to do this in front of the slave, since that would mean killing him too, but there wouldn't likely be another opportunity like this anytime soon.

<<Hey wait... where did Jag go?>>, the would-be assassin thought, just a split second before his arms were roughly grabbed from behind, and his wrists tied before he could even blink. "What in? What's going on!?", the slender boy yelped in all-too real dismay.

The dark-haired man just smiled unpleasantly and said lowly "If you tell anyone about this, you'll just be ignored. I'm very well connected here." He got up off the bench and nodded sharply to the person standing behind Duo, presumably Jag.

Duo felt himself being shoved forward over the bench, and it finally clicked that bad things were going to happen if he didn't get away. He started to struggle, but the blond slave had strength rivalling even Heero's, so the long-haired pilot didn't accomplish much before his legs were harshly pulled apart and tied to the sides of the wide bench.

"Let me go! You can't do this! Get off!", Duo shrieked in something approaching panic, tugging uselessly at his bonds. Then a large figure was standing in front of him and his jaws were pried open. A torn-off piece of the silk dress was shoved into his mouth, while another strip was tied over his face, effectively gagging him.

The Gundam pilot's muffled protests grew more and more urgent as his dress was shoved up above his waist, and his shamefully tight underwear was yanked down, baring his pale buttocks to the suddenly cold-seeming air. A sharp, painful smack on his bottom was the only reply he got, which only made him squirm all the more.

Out of the corner of his eye, Duo could see Mr. Lefebvre watching eagerly, one hand straying down towards his own crotch, where an obvious erection strained at his pants. He was still watching hungrily when the big slave suddenly thrust into Duo from behind, making the smaller boy cry out sharply and stop struggling for a second, his body frozen with pain.

Something wet and warm trickled down Duo's thigh, and the last clear, but hopelessly inane, thought he had before his mind went numb with shock was <<Heero will kill me if I get blood on this dress...>>

Later, when both the slave and Christopher had vanished, Duo came back to his senses and found that he was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor of the garden alcove with his dress still hiked up around his waist, though his underwear had been tugged back into place. The burning, throbbing pain between his legs chased away the hopeful thought that the last few hours had been a dream and Duo shakily, numbly, picked himself up and made a feeble attempt to straighten his dress.

Some key part of his brain still seemed not to be working, because the violet-eyed pilot found that he was quite empty of any emotion at all as he made his unsteady way back to his room. The blank, shocked look on his face drew several concerned staff members towards him, but he waved them away and stumbled into the sanctuary of his bedroom.