Relena curled her knees up to her chest and laid her chin on them. She didn’t care it wasn’t ladylike or that she was wearing a dress. She was cold, tired, lonely and soaked from the rain. That wasn’t even mentioning the fact she was sitting in a dirty alley and dressed entirely in whites and pale pinks.
She could hardly believe she’d run from her own nineteenth birthday party. She let out a curt little laugh, realizing that the same boy had made her run from two of her birthday parties. Sure they had both been boring and filled with people she did not like, let alone wish to talk to, but they were her parties. Once she had run to him and now she ran from him.
“Heero.” The name still comfortably formed in her mouth.
Standing and brushing off what she could of the dirt and slime streaking her dress, she walked down the street. She knew this was not the place for a lady of high breeding such as herself or, indeed, any lady at all. Holding her head high she hoped none of the residents got any ideas.
It wasn’t even that she didn’t want to see Heero; he’d saved her the last time they’d been together. But the rumors in the three years since were less than encouraging; most of them placed him in the crowd of some gruesome assassinations. Assassinations of people she worked with; that appeared to have been carried out by a skilled professional. An ex-gundam pilot, many insinuated.
Seeing him at the party… she just hadn’t wanted to see if the rumors were true. After all, why else would he have come to her party, except to assassinate someone? She could live happily if she didn’t know, but if she did it would destroy her. Still she wondered…
“Hey pretty lady,” a faceless man said, and Relena hastened her movement. She hadn’t realized how far into the bad part of the city she had run. There were men following her now, she knew that, but there was no way she could get away from them in heels.
Feeling a meaty hand land on her shoulder she felt the panic rise to her face and her body stiffen. This was a very bad! The next thing she heard was a loud crack; then someone grabbed her arm and dragged her away, into an alley. Relena screamed.
“Quiet!” a very familiar voice ordered and she immediately turned to find Heero holding a finger to his lips and gesturing to the men who appeared to be looking for them. One was holding his nose, which gushed blood, and they all looked too stoned and drunk to look in a logical place like the alley. “Heero,” Relena whispered with joy until a horrific thought crossed her mind.
He might be the assassin, she remembered, and with a gulp asked, “‘omae o korosu’?”
Heero gave her a look and she could have sworn he smiled.
“Are you laughing at me?” she asked, noticing the slight shake of his shoulders. Heero let out the loud bout of laughter, usually reserved for when he destroyed something. Relena jumped back before she felt a surge of, not anger, annoyance and gave Heero a whack in the shoulder.
“Come on,” Heero said, taking her hand and pulling her farther back into the alley.
“Heero,” Relena began. She had to know. If she was going to talk to him anyway she had to know, even if it destroyed her. “H-have you been killing my colleagues?”
Heero made no reply as they came to a low brick wall. Relena let out a yelp as he grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up top the wall and down the other side. She felt a blush rise to her cheeks at his closeness. His chest against hers, arms securely around her waist, heads and lips so close… He set her down on the other side and motioned for her to keep pace and to keep quiet. She frowned a little as she did. He hadn’t answered her question, but he obviously wasn’t going to kill her either. Why was he there, with her? He had always done so much to avoid her, even when she had made it quite obvious that she wanted to be around him.
It hadn’t been love at first, just pure infatuation. As she had followed him, like the lovesick schoolgirl she had been, she found she understood him. She understood why he fought after a time. Though she disagreed with his methods, pain was no way to accomplish peace, but at least he was doing something. The only thing worse than violence was a person who did nothing and expected results. That’s why her infatuation had turned to love; he was dedicated to his goal, like she was.
Relena blinked. She had been so caught up in thought she hadn’t even noticed they walked all the way back to the residence her party had been held at. She frowned toward the guards as she and Heero snuck past them. Obviously she needed better guards, they hadn’t tried to stop her leaving either. “Heero,” she said again to the boy…no, man’s back. “Are you the assassin who has been… killing people I know?”
Heero turned and smiled, before walking over and holding his face inches from Relena’s, “No, I’m not.”
“Then why have you been seen as so many assassination?” she asked, feeling a tad guilty. After all this was Heero, unlike half the people she dealt with, he did not lie.
“Investigation,” Heero said in answer as he opened the door of Relena’s room. She wondered briefly how he knew which room to go to. Then her mind turned to what Heero meant. She had checked the rosters of every organization she knew of for his name, at the time hoping to even just talk, and found nothing. “Investigating for who?” she asked with curiosity as she half paced the room. “What if I said it was for you?” he asked, his voice almost tinged with amusement.
Relena cocked an eyebrow. “Well, I’d want to know what you meant. We haven’t seen each other for three years.”
“You haven’t seen ME for three years,” Heero corrected.
“Huh?” Relena said, thoroughly confused by Heero’s uncharacteristic behavior. “Who do you thinks kept you alive for so long with all those idiot guards you have around you?” Heero asked as he looked at her, with a look she couldn’t place in his eyes.
Relena didn’t know how to respond, especially since Heero was now kissing her.
Kissing her!?
His lips, soft and gentle, were pressing on her own. She hardly realized that her knees had gone limp and he was holding her to himself. “Not that I want to point this out,” Relena said with a little pant as she pulled away, her mind hazy from getting what she wanted for so long. “But don’t you hate and want to kill me?”
“Now what ever gave you that idea?” Heero asked with a coy little smile that sat oddly on his usually grim features.
Relena glowered a bit before a smile crossed her face as the realization fully sunk in. “You like me!”
“When did I ever say I didn’t?” Heero asked, playing the a few strands of her hair.
“Well,” Relena began and was unable to think of an instance. “You implied it. You’ve been protecting me for the past three years?”
Heero nodded as if it were nothing.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Relena half yelled. He'd been with her all that time? And she'd almost started to forget about him because she thought she could never have him. And now it turned out that the idiot had been around the entire time?!
“Because it was better that way,” Heero answered distantly. “My being around puts you in danger. It was better to protect you from the shadows.” “Why are you here now, with me?” she asked, leaning a bit toward him. Heero said nothing for minutes and Relena was afraid he would leave. “Jealousy,” he finally answered and she took a double take to make sure she heard right. “That boy, Rick, was getting too close to you.” Relena blinked. Rick was just a friend. She admitted that in the past three years she had come to be attracted to him, but her heart always belonged to Heero.
“He was flirting with you too much tonight,” Heero continued with a possessive glint in his eyes.
Relena thought back. They had been flirting a bit, mostly because he was the only person who could keep her interest for more than two minutes. They had been of in a slightly secluded corner discussing politics. Rick had been getting a little closer than he needed to be, when she’d seen Heero. Heero looked into Relena’s eyes, locking her sea blue eyes with his own cobalt ones, “you are mine Relena.”
Relena opened her mouth to argue, a habit she'd picked up over the years. Then, she closed it and smiled. “And you're mine, Heero.” With that she threw her arms around Heero and held him tight, as if he would disappear. And she held on to him for the rest of the night, and the rest of their lives…