Chapter 11

Relena sat at her vanity staring at her reflection. She sighed and took out the hair tie the bound her hair in a braid and started to unravel the strands. It has been four months now since she had returned to her duties as vice foreign minister. Four months since she has been around people again. Four months without Heero. 

"Heero." she whispered his name.

She missed him. God did she ever miss him. Her heart longed for him. She wanted to experience the way that he made her heart race. The way that he could get her body burn with desire from just a touch or a kiss. 

She pushed the thought out of her mind. She didn't need to do this to herself again. It wasn't doing any good. She picked up the hairbrush and ran it through her hair, combing out the knots that had built up from the day’s activities. She hit a snag and pulled as hard as she could not caring about how much hair she managed to pull out. 

Relena thought about what happened the night after she left the hospital after Duo told her about the conversation Heero and her brother had. 

~*~

She had stormed into the hotel with Duo in tow. Once she reached the room where she knew her brother and Noin were staying she banged as loud as she could on the door not caring if she disturbed the other guests.

"Millardo! Open the door!"

She could see Duo reach out his had as if he was trying to get her to stop or clam down but he didn't touch her.

She jumped slightly as her brother jerked open the door.

"Relena what's wrong?"

She smacked him as hard as she could, putting all of her weight into it. "How dare you!" She screamed at him. 

Duo smirked at the totally stunned look on Zechs face as he touched the cheek that her anger came into contact with. He knew that Heero would have loved to see that. Duo heard a few doors open in the hallway as a couple of the guests looked out to stare at them. He looked back at Relena to see that she was about to swing at Zechs again. Duo quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back against his body and held her tightly as she started to kick.

"Let me go Duo! Dammit let me go!"

Duo quickly stepped into Zechs room with her. He didn't want the people to recognize her and word about her little tantrum getting out to the press. Once he heard Zechs close the door behind him he let Relena go. She pushed off of him and turned around to face him, anger glistening in her eyes. She then turned her attention back to her brother.

"How dare you stick you nose into my life! You have no right to make decisions for me!"

"Relena..."

"No! You have always known how I felt for Heero. I finally got a chance with him, a real chance for the two of us to be happy, and you..." She pointed a finger at him."...you had to push him away!"

"Relena I did it to protect to."

She let out a deep cynical laugh. "To protect me. You have no idea how to protect me. What I need is protection from you screwing up my life!"

Millardo stood in silence watching her. 

"You lied to me and misled Heero. You're no brother of mine. A brother would be supportive of his sister and trust her decisions and her heart. You do neither. You will always try to run my life and second guess me." She could feel the tears that formed slide down her cheeks.

She felt him place his hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry Relena, I thought that what I was doing was best for you."

She shrugged his hands off of her shoulder and turned her back to him. "I don't want an apology from you because I won't accept it."

Relena took a few steps and bumped into a suitcase she looked up and seen Noin shift uncomfortably. Relena had completely forgotten that she was there. "I'm sorry that you had to witness this Lucrezia.... are you going somewhere?"

"Don't apologize Relena." Noin walked over to her and wrapped her arms around her. She looked at Zechs and glared at him. "I was just getting ready to leave before you came."

"Why?"

"I was going to head back to work. Lady Une asked me to help her with security for the conference at Brussels next week."

Relena thought about how her brother threw open the door when he answered it. He had a slightly enraged look on his face before it changed to worry when he thought that there was something wrong with her.

"You two had a fight before I got here."

Noin smiled. "It's nothing for you to worry about."

Relena broke down crying her heart was slowly ripping to pieces as she came to grasp the fact that Heero left and she had no idea if he would be back, and because she knew that Noin was leaving, not because of a conference but because of her brother.

"Duo, take Relena to her room please." Noin continued to hold onto her until Duo came and took her in his arms.

He carried her to her room just down the hall, and gently laid her down on her bed. "Relena."

She looked at him wiping her eyes. 

"I'll find Heero. I found you guys once. I'll find him again. Only this time it may take a little more time. I have a lot larger area to cover."

She smiled thanking him and watched him leave the room. She soon drifted off to sleep. 

Duo kept his promise and he searched for Heero. The only thing that they found out was he had donated everything that he had in his small apartment in the Sanc kingdom to a local charity, and had cleaned out his bank account. After that all trails were cold. Relena had told Duo to go back to L2 a few weeks later and do what he could from there. She didn't want to pull him from his life any longer. They finally dropped their search last month knowing that if he didn't want to be found then they would never find him.

.~*~

Relena looked again at her reflection. Her body was shaking once again with anger. She tightened her grip on the hairbrush and smashed it into mirror breaking it. She then dropped the brush and watched the way that her reflection looked in the many different shattered pieces. And she thought how ironic it was because that was the way that her heart felt, shattered almost to the point of not being able to repair it.

A movement reflected in one of the broken pieces. She quickly grabbed her brush turned around to face whoever it was. And froze in total shock at the sight before her. Her hand slackened and the brush fell the floor. 

"Heero."

She watched as his eyes looked at the mirror then back to her. She quickly got out off of the chair and approached him slowly, stopping just a few feet away from him. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. 

He just stood in the same spot. Not even moving or trying to speak to her. He then looked down and the floor taking his eyes off of her. She watched and held her tongue, not wanting to say something that would probably make him leave. She would wait until he was ready and let him say what he wanted first. He slowly lifted his face to look at her once more. She gasped when she seen the tears in his eyes. 

Relena ran the rest of the distance to him and threw her arms around his waist. She buried her face against his neck and joined him with silent tears. She felt his arms circle her and pull her tightly against his body.

"I missed you." Relena whispered.

Heero kissed her on the forehead. "I missed you too."

She looked up at him then smiled and touched his face. They locked eyes and she held her breath as Heero leaned toward her and kissed her. The kiss quickly deepened into something far more passionate and before long they were heading toward the bed while shedding each others clothes off.

This time when they came together they pushed beyond the limits of just a physical experience. They opened their hearts and souls to share with the other. Making the bond between their two hearts stronger as they found new ways to give pleasure to the other.

When morning came Relena opened her eyes and saw Heero getting dressed.

"Are you leaving?" She started to feel the weld that was holding the pieces of her heart together start to break.

"We're leaving."

"What?" she sat up and stared at him.

"Pack what you can our flight leaves in two hours."

"Pack what I can? What are you talking about? I can't leave."

"Relena I came back to get you."

"Heero, I can't leave. My job, the people are important to me. I made a promise that I would take the Foreign Ministers office this summer. Please stay here with me."

"Relena, I can't say here. I can't live this type of life." He walked over to the bed and sat down next to her. He reached up and took her hands in his. "I worked hard to make a life for us, one that we would have only each other to depend on. I got a good job, one that doesn’t depend on me holding a gun in my hand. And I bought a cabin that has plenty of room for a family. It has a amazing view, on that I know that you would…” Heero stopped when he seen that she started to cry.

He pulled her into his embrace and held her tightly. "What's wrong?"

"You want a family?"

He took her face in his hands and turned it to face him. "I want that and more with you."

She smiled at him as he wiped her tears away. "Then please stay with me."

He let his hands drop from her face and he quickly got off of the bed. He took a few steps and stopped with his back facing her. 

"Heero, you can't expect me to just walk away. The people of the earth and colonies depend on me."

"I understand, your promise to the people is too important to you. But when are you finally going to take time for you to be yourself? To live?" He then started to walk toward her balcony, without looking back.

"Heero, wait please don't leave!"

"Relena when you finally decided that you’re ready to leave this life behind, then I'll be there. I can't stand beside you and watch and worry about each day that passes wondering if it will be the last time that I will ever see you." He walked out onto the balcony. He could hear her get off the bed and walk toward him.

"Then stay here and protect me."

"I wouldn't be able to protect you like I should. Not when just being around you is enough to distract me."

"Heero, I...I love you and I know that you love me. You know we belong together. And if my brother wouldn't have said anything to you that day in the hospital we would have worked something out. Why not work something out with me now. You know that I can't leave. So please don't leave me Heero. You mean too much to me."

Heero took a deep breath. "This type of life is not me anymore Relena. Take care of yourself." He jumped down off of the balcony and took off. 

She quickly ran the distance to look over her balcony and didn't see any sight of him. "Heero please don't do this, don't leave me." She whispered before she collapsed. She broke out crying morning her loss.