A Boarding School Facade -by Jooles*

Disclaiemr - I don’t own Gundamwing blah blah blah

Chapter Two - A discussion, a dance and a disaster

“When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.”

-Kanneth Kaunda

A/N  Finally some action:  Heero and Relena argue some more! Oh, don’t you just love a jolly confrontation?!

Relena refused to speak to Heero for the week following their marginally small spat.  He’d been such a blatant ass, the way he’d degraded her in front of Quatre.  It wasn’t so much the degrading bit that bothered her so much, she had suffered much worse with other people in the past.  It was more the fact that he didn’t see anything wrong with his acting like a jerk.  At least with most normal guys, they’d admit that they were jerks straight after the incident, in an attempt to redeem themselves with their chosen woman.  And that was just it!  Relena was not Heero’s chosen woman.  Actually  she was furthest from being anything of the kind.  They had done nothing but argue since the day they’d first met.  Not even once had they shared any special ‘moment’.  Yet, fate kept throwing the two together, as if trying to tell the two something, that they didn’t know about themselves.  And there was the small matter of a certain amount of ‘chemistry’ being displayed between the two.  Quatre had dubiously noted how good the two looked together when he’d winked at Heero the other night.  But then Heero had been an idiot and acted as though she were a germ, a virus, some sort of bacteria or something like that.  In as few spoken words as possible he’d blown it.  Relena and Heero may not have shared any special ‘moments’, but Relena had; before Heero’s idiotic behaviour, begun to think that she could possibly open up to him.  She had started to feel guilty about constantly dumping her troubles with Quatre, and even worse perpetually bottling them up.  But no, Heero had to go and be a jerkoff, a dumbkoff, whatever.  It’d take a while for Relena to learn to trust him.  That is, if the two ever got round to actually making up.

****

It was another sunny day at St. Michael’s and Quatre, Duo and Relena had succeeded in wagging their classes that period.  Relena was wagging physical education, while Duo and Quatre had decided to skip biology.  Sitting outside under one of the school’s oak trees, the three new found friends soaked in the sunlight, contented to take a break from not only studying, but their own personal worries.  Quatre sat placidly against the tree trunk, playing with various blades of grass, while Relena laid sprawled out on her back imagining what each cloud in the sky above them represented.  Duo, comfortably leaned back on one elbow and was trying to get Relena to join in his and Quatre’s conversation by lightly tapping her leg with his foot.

“Ahh, Duo, don’t!’  Relena growled.

“Come on Lena, I want your opinion on this,”  Duo chided.  His foot trailed a line upwards to her side, where he gave her a very gentle prod. 

Relena howled.  She was after all a very ticklish person.

“Quit it Duo!”  Relena gasped in between guffawing breaths.

This only motioned for Duo to continue.  Relena sat up.  “Okay, okay, what were you and Quatre talking about?”  She said, trying to look serious and stern, yet having no such luck, what with her hair being so mussed and blades of grass sticking out.

“We were just talking about Heero,”  Duo said looking slightly amused at Relena’s muddled appearance.

“What about Heero?”  Relena said flatly.

“You know Lena, how he’s so ‘I’m so serious, and perfect at what I do.  And you’re all annoying little things that I wish I could trample, or better yet, kill!’  You know what I mean Lena?”  Duo gestured, pretending like he was the boy himself.

Relena stared at Duo.   Did he really want her opinion on Heero?  Did he even know what he was asking?  She could go on and on for hours about how stuck up and stiff and tight-ass like Heero Yuy was.  Did he really want to listen to her talk about how pissed off she was with him?

“Well Lena?”  Duo prodded.

“I think he’s a ten tonne jerk-off who needs a good old-fashioned spanking!”  Relena admitted.  She silently thought to herself, that he was all those hateful things that she’d been mulling him to be the past few days, as well as being incredibly handsome, incredibly smart, and definitely not incredible boyfriend material.

“Okay then.”  Duo laughed, “I take it he’s gotten to you?” 

Relena shrugged.  Did she really want to discuss what Heero had more-or-less said with Duo?  Not really.  She’d rather just keep her short-comings and Heero’s dumb ass behaviour to herself, and Quatre also.  She shot Quatre a warning look, letting him know that she’d skin him right there and then if he even breathed a word of what had passed between the two last week.

“Can we change the topic already?”  Relena asked.  She rolled onto her side, displaying her disinterest and dislike of the current topic of conversation.

Duo shrugged, and then smirked as he thought of an interesting topic of conversation to bring up.

“What are you up to Duo Maxwell?” Relena suspiciously asked her friend.

“So Lena, tell me are you going to the dance this weekend?”  Duo asked, mischief mercilessly sparkling in his violet eyes.

Relena looked startled.  She’d remembered Dorothy and her friends mentioning something about a dance, but she’d honestly hadn’t know that it was on this weekend.

Duo noticed Relena’s vaguely panic-stricken face.  “Don’t tell me you forgot about the dance Relena?”  Duo asked unable to hide his amusement.

Quatre cut in, “I can’t believe you forgot about the dance, Relena!  It’s all anybody seems to talk about these days...”  Quatre smiled fondly at his best friend who he thought of more as a sister.

Relena suddenly found the blade of grass she’d been playing with to be of particular interest, staring at it as though it was a masterpiece art work.

“Well beat me senseless Lena, I’ve gotta say you’re probably the only girl at this whole damned school that’s forgotten the dance!”  Duo observed.  He glanced at Quatre, who looked equally as amused.

“I can’t help it!”  Relena groaned, trying to hide the blush she knew was evading her cheeks.  “I remember Dorothy and the others saying someting about a dance.  I just didn’t realise it was this weekend.”

“Gees girl!  You’re one of a kind!”  Duo laughed, leaning over to gently tickle her foot.

“Eugh!  Duo don’t!  I mean, what normal seventeen year old girl forgets about the social event of the year?”  She buried her face in her hands.  Looking up at her two friends she said, “You must think I’m completely deranged or something!”

Quatre shook his head.  “Relena, I thought you were deranged before you forgot about the dance!”

Duo grinned at his friend, “Point for Quatre!  Good one man!”

“Quit it you two!  If I’m so deranged, what are you doing here with me, eh?”  She prodded Duo with her foot.  “Eh?”

Duo and Quatre shrugged.  There was no stopping her when she was like this.

“That’s what I thought.  You shouldn’t complain.  Instead be glad that I haven’t gone on and on like all the other girls at our school.  Actually Quatre, you should be thanking your Allah, and Duo you should be thanking your God.”

Duo smiled sadly at Relena, “I don’t believe in God, Relena.”

“Oh Duo,”  she said sadly as the conversation took a different turn of topic, “we should all have something to believe in.  Whether it be God, Allah, Buddha, or ourselves.”

“Well in that case Lena, I’ll vouch for believing in myself,”  Duo mumbled, rolling onto his side.  “Now, let me tell you this joke I heard the other day.  You guys will love it!”

Relena rolled her eyes as Duo started to retell the joke he’d heard a few days ago.  Predictably, surely enough, the three were crying tears of laughter by the end of the tale.

It was sometimes of the highest beneficiary having friends like Quatre and Duo who made Relena laugh not only at inanimate and stupid things; but also at herself.  She needed to have friends like them around sometimes.  They stopped her from dwelling on issues she would have easily and unavoidably dwelled on much longer if her friend’s hadn’t torn her attention away from her otherwise morbid thoughts.

And she was glad that, however embarrassing it had been for her forgetting about the upcoming dance, that her friends had reminded her about it.

Now, she joined the rest of the female population at St. Michael’s in search and want of a dress to wear.  Bummer.

****

Relena left Quatre and Duo shortly afterwards, feeling slightly agitated.  Seating herself near a window that had a marvelous view of St. Michael’s sprawling grounds, she gazed out the window, her attention elsewhere.  Her teacher, Mr Marlborough noticed Relena’s unusual silence in a subject where she had regularly taken part in class discussions since starting at the school.

“Relena,”  Mr Marlborough called her to his attention mid way through the class.

Relena pulled her gaze away from the grounds outside, fixing her attention on her teacher, “Yes, sir?”

“I think myself, and the class would be very interested in hearing your opinion on the topic at hand.  Would you be able to give any input?”  The teacher questioned as he paced the room, looking very much like an old ragged diplomat.

Relena blushed, “And what may I ask is the topic at hand?”  She asked, feeling every bit like a stick in the mud at that critical moment.

Mr Marlborough studied Relena, trying to figure out why she, the usually attentive student, hadn’t been quite her usual attentive self.

“We were discussing the Cinq Kingdom’s stance on pacifism and whether the Peacecraft family were in the right in instigating the doctrine within their nation,” he said as he pointed to the blackboard where he had written the discussion topic up.  “Myself, and the rest of the class, I believe; would like to hear your opinion on the topic.  Relena?”  The teacher handed the attention of the class over to Relena.

Relena sighed.  She was going to have to discuss what was a very ‘touchy’ subject for her with others eventually.  Now was as good as time as any to actually start speaking about her beliefs.  If she was correct in her assumptions, Milliardo, when he finally got them back into the Cinq Kingdom would probably want her to be the one to do all the talking.  She couldn’t help if talking was something she was good at, and well endowed at participating in also . . .

“I think sir,”  Relena began, “that the Cinq Kingdom was in the right when they decided to use pacifism to try and keep peace within the nation.  And I also believe sir, that the Peacecraft family were in the right when they not only approved it, but established it.”

“Ahh, and Relena why is that?”  Mr Marlborough questioned her.

“Sir, you may or may not have noticed that many nations of the world are war-stricken and war-ravaged, be it due to either their own internal conflict, or external disruptions such as terrorist attacks, border clashes, religious or ethnic wars etcera etcera..” Relena began, ticking off the reasons for various disruptions around the world

“Yes, but what does this have to do with pacifism, if you don’t mind me asking Relena?”  her teacher paced once more up and down the classroom.  It was if he was trying to intimidate her.  Why would that be?  He was probably just trying to gauge an intense reaction from her on an extremely touchy topic.  Oh well . . .

“Not at all sir,”  she responded to her teacher.  These nations, you see, all have one thing in common.  And that is the fact that try as they might, true peace can not and has not been achieved or attained that has satisfied both parties to the conflict.”

“And?”  her teacher asked wanting Relena to expand on her reasoning.

Relena scrunched her face, pausing to think for a moment.  Whatever she said next had to be convincing.  In a way she was testing herself and her ability to win a debate on Cinq’s pacifism doctrine.  In the future, having chances to debate on topics so close to her own soul would be of a much more serious and may hap life-threatening tone, that the practice she was being granted now was worth more than the wealth she would probably inherit once she returned home. 

“Agreements between the parties involved in whatever conflict you please yourself to name, can never be made to the satisfaction of each party,”  Relena looked around the classroom for confirmation.  She had the attention of her fellow peers which was surprising.  If she’d been back in Treventville, most of the class would be chatting within their little cliques.  But no, she had the class’ attention.  Then again, this was the ‘mighty St. Michael’s’.

“Why not,” she continued, “forget about agreements, about the power seekers gaining whatever they please, while the people, the civilians are left worse off then what they were beforehand?  And instead, why not focus on dissolving all boundaries around the world, and constituting a doctrine of total pacifism.”

Pausing for a moment, Relena looked to her teacher for confirmation to continue.  He indicated with his hands, for her to further expand on her explanation beforehand.  Very well.

“The Cinq Kingdom, was like a model for the rest of the world . . .  It used the pacifism doctrine to settle the nation’s problems.  And you will probably recall that the doctrine did have very pleasing results for awhile.  But, the Peacecraft family, the ones who showed their support and took steps to uphold the doctrine were assassinated quite shortly after the doctrine started to take effect.”

“Do you believe, if the Peacecraft family were still alive today that the Cinq Kingdom would not be the mess that is now?  Or do you believe that the belated family are in fact the ones to blame for the rioting and suppression that goes on now?”  Her teacher questioned her.  Relena noticed with wry humour that his eyebrow raised slightly as he asked the question, crinkling into a ‘v’ shape that marred his forehead.

“I believe sir, that total pacifism could work,” she paused once again, silently chanting a mantra of ‘make this work, make them believe, get it right,’ to herself. 

“But for it to be achieved, Cinq cannot be the only ones to use the method.  Every other nation in the world must also use the pacifism approach.  It may not have worked as a model.  But with every other nation in the world working together with total pacifism as their aim and mode of government, I believe that it could be achieved and therefore attained.”  Relena finished, using all the years of research, pondering and mulling of her family’s beliefs and ideals to try and make her class believe her when she said that her ideal was the only way for the world to go. Well, if true peace was to be attained, and in the process the safeguarding of humanity itself.

“What a load of fat stinking crap!”  a low growl emanated through the entire political science classroom.

The hushed whisperings of Relena’s political science class began.  Heero Yuy barely ever spoke in class.  He actually only ever spoke when called upon, or to aggravate one of his peers, which he was clearly doing with Relena now.

Relena recognised almost immediately who had so immodestly disagreed with her.  She should have known he’d get in her way.  He had a habit of taking the opposing side whenever their opinions were required.  Especially the opposite side, of whatever side she was on.  Did he have to disagree on this though??

-

“Well, Heero, what would you do instead then?”  Relena questioned, turning in her seat to meet his cold level glare.

Heero sneered,  “I’m just saying, look at the conflict that occurs in Cinq now.”

Relena’s eyes narrowed slightly, “That conflict was brought about by a greedy faction that wanted for their own destructive purposes to bring about the destruction of the Cinq Kingdom.”

“And why was that Relena?”  Really, did he have to talk to her as though she were a child?

“I don’t know Heero, because they were bored, because they thought that they’d get a kick out of watching innocent people die.  Take your pick?!”  she replied incredulously.

Heero smirked at her, if that was the she wanted to play it, well then so be it!  “It’s my understanding that there were more than two ‘factions’ that brought about the Cinq’s destruction.”

Relena sighed, yes, he was correct when he said that there were more than two factions that brought about the Cinq’s destruction.  But, in Relena’s mind there had been only one.  The faction that had killed her parents, and left her to grow up an orphan on the run, and in disguise

“There were more than two factions, Heero that brought about the Cinq’s destruction.  But only one of them assassinated the Peacecraft family.  And the Peacecraft family were the people to uphold and promote the doctrine in the first place.  Without them pacifism was only a mere dream.”  Relena finished.  Maybe, he’d quit attacking her and agree with her, seeing that her ideal was correct.  Yeah right!  Heero was not the type of person to give up easily.

Instead Heero said to Relena, “So, what are you getting at.  Because, truthfully Relena, I’m completely lost.”

“What I’ve been trying to say, is that the Cinq Kingdom was used as a model for pacifism.  And, although that model was unsuccessful in its completion, it did demonstrate to the world for awhile, that if other nations followed in the Cinq’s footsteps, internal and external problems within other nations would be solved so much more easily.”  She looked around the classroom, as recognition ever so slowly dawned on her classmates faces.  “The Peacecrafts wanted to demonstrate to the rest of the world that pacifism could work and the Cinq was the perfect model for them to do so.”

Relena paused.  That was all that she could possibly say on the topic without exposing herself as knowing more about the Cinq Kingdom and the Peacecraft family then was normal for the average teenage girl.

Mr Marlborough, the long forgotten political science teacher suddenly started clapping.  Relena whirled around in her seat, to face her now applauding teacher.  What??  She glanced around the classroom as realization finally dawned on her usually glowing face which was now a ghostly pale.  They were clapping for her, and her well-supported argument.  What Relena didn’t realise was that the class were clapping for her winning her argument against Heero.  It was an achievement and a half in her peers opinion, and the more so that she’d outwitted him in public.

Heero did not join his classmates in their applaud, but he did however somewhat bow his head uncharacteristically so that only Relena saw him relent to her submission.  And with that he excused himself from the classroom.  Relena’s peers believed this was Heero’s way of cowering away and showing his already believed bad-sportsmanship.  But, Relena had a feeling it was something else.  He probably just wanted to get out of the classroom so he didn’t embarrass himself further.  Anyhow, Relena took the bowing of Heero’s head before as his form of an apology for the events that passed the week before.  If it wasn’t his form of an apology.  It would just have to do.

****

Heero left the political science class rather quickly after Relena showed her talents as a potential politician.  She’d done well in supporting her opinion.  Even outwitting him in what was a subject he had always thought himself to have an abundance of knowledge in.  But, her outsmarting of him had been expected.  At least on his client’s behalf.  Heero, himself was still trying to regain his composure and get over the shock of Relena displaying such a vastness of wisdom on the Cinq Kingdom and Peacecraft family..  He had to admit, she did seem to have a talent for being able to sway your opinion on a topic.   Heero, hadn’t had much of an opinion on the Cinq kingdom before.  He just wasn’t one for having opinions.  But, the way Relena had spoken, and with so much passion, Heero almost believed that Oz, Romafellar and the Alliance Federation were the mongrels she’d managed to make them out to be.

But his opinion didn’t matter.  He was only there to report what he saw.  And that was why, at that very moment, he stood in the pay phone box near the students common room, and was about to ring a very important person.

“Yuy speaking,”

“Ah, yes Yuy, password?”

“Wing zero” 

“Confirmed.  Thank you Heero.  Now, to what do I owe the honour of your phoning me now, after how long has it been.... two weeks??”

Heero literally snarled.  His clients paid him sufficiently well.  That didn’t mean that he had to like them.  This client in particular was a man whom he got no pleasure out of working with whatsoever.  He was a cold and calculated bastard.  And the sooner Heero could finish this job the better.  He didn’t want to deal with this specific client ever again.

“I was ringing to let you know that I have witnessed the subject engage very mindfully in discussions about the Cinq Kingdom and Peacecraft family.”

“Anybody can engage knowledgeably in discussions about the Cinq Kingdom and Peacecraft family Heero.  You’ve got to get me more than that.”

“The subject was a little too knowledgeable if you get my point.”

“That’s still not good enough Yuy.  We need more.”

Heero sighed.  He wanted to finish his work with this client as soon as possible.  But, just as he had suspected when his guardian had signed him up for this job, his gut feeling had proved correct in that this client was going to prove very difficult and was at the same time severely demanding.

“Well, what do you want me to do then?”

“Just keep on doing what your doing.  Keep watching and waiting.  She’ll trip up sooner or later.”

Heero sighed.  He rubbed the bridge of his nose irritably.  The way ‘the subject’ was going, he could be in for a long wait . . .

His client on the other end of the telephone line cut through, interrupting Heero’s thoughts  “I’ll discuss further with you what to look for when we reconvene the next long weekend.”

Heero paused, “hn... you mean when I have my ‘family visit’?”

“Exactly right, Yuy.  Fast learner huh?”

Heero’s growl emanated down the phone line, while his client responded with only amusement and his own laughter permeated back down Heero’s end of the phone line.

“Is that it?”  he asked irritably.

“For now Yuy,”  Heero went to hang the phone up, when his client spoke up once again, “Oh, and Yuy, don’t go forgetting who’s the boss.”

Heero slammed the phone back in place.  He hated that guy.  He was a miserable excuse for a human being, and if his guardian ever game him the go-ahead he would gladly kill the guy.

What a shame that permission would never be granted to him.  His guardian had to keep Heero on a too tight leash.

****

Everybody stayed at school for the weekend.  Usually, Relena noted, most of St. Michael’s wealthier students went home for the weekend.  Relena never did.  The cost of petrol to fuel her VW was just too hefty a price.

Plus the dance was on this weekend.  And everybody was going.  Well, that was what Dorothy had sarcastically told her, when Relena had mentioned skipping it.

Oh well.  Relena didn’t mind a good dance now and then.  And she liked the chance to wear a pretty dress, even though she knew her dress would in no way compare to the wealthier students who could afford flashy ones.  And because Relena had forgotten that there was even a dance on, she’d had to dig around in her very small wardrobe of clothes for an old dress.  She’d managed to find a summer dress that she’d worn to Hilde’s barbecue earlier that summer.  It was cerulean blue, matching the colour of her eyes.  It was short, ending just above her knees.  But it wasn’t too tight.  Instead, it was a nice and loose and flowing-like.  It was done in a very simple pattern, and flared out as the hem sat above her knees.  Relena surveyed herself in Dorothy’s mirror.  She didn’t look as plain as she usually did.  In fact maybe a little ‘fetching’.  She smiled to herself as she realised that this would be the first time her friends would see her in anything other than their school uniform and her jeans which she’d worn when she’d first arrived.

Relena had decided to leave her hair unbraided that night.  The dance was a chance to display how long her hair really was, and also to show off the golden highlights she’d snagged while working outside in her foster father’s gas station that summer.  She pressed her lips together as she rubbed just the briefest amount of lip gloss on them.  She wasn’t really into the whole make up thing, but she wanted to look nice for the evening.  Dorothy had lent some eye-shadow and blush, which Relena had masterfully (surprisingly enough) applied.  Studying herself in the mirror once again, Relena smiled to herself.  She did clean up well when she put her mind to it!

****

“Come on Heero, it’s only a dance!”  Quatre said through his roommate’s bedroom door.  Heero was refusing to go.

“It’ll be fun.”  Quatre tried again.  After fifteen minutes of trying to get Heero to attend the dance, Quatre had decided that it was time to give up.

The sound of the front door knocking interrupted Quatre from trying to talk his friend into attending the dance any further.

Duo was leaning happily on the door frame with a disgruntled Wufei and placid looking Trowa down the way.

“Um, hello?”

Duo smiled, “Remember you said we could meet at your dorm before the dance Quatre?”

Oh yeah.  He’d forgotten.  He’d been so busy trying to talk Heero into attending that he’d forgotten about the whole meeting up thing.  “Of course I remember.  I’ve just been a bit busy here ‘s all.”

A wry smile marred Trowa’s face, as he guessed at what, or more correctly who had kept Quatre busy.  “Heero being difficult again?”

A faint smile settled on Quatre’s lips as he smiled at his friend who was so perceptive, yet so quiet about it.

The door to Heero’s room slammed open, before anything else could be said on the topic.  A very angry, yet very formal looking Heero Yuy stepped out of the room.  He calmly observed the now filled-to-the-brim dorm, and said in his monotonous voice that had such power in it, “I am not being difficult, and I am going to the dance.”

Heero seemed to have a talent for saying what he wanted to say without having to actually say it.  For instance, the way he’d just said that he was going to the dance, let everybody in the room know that he didn’t want to discuss with them why he’d changed his mind, and that if you asked him about it, you were likely to get your face punched in.

“Well, should we get going then?”  Quatre said as he straightened his tuxedo.  He was more used to these sort of things then the others he suspected.  As they made their way to the school’s gym where the dance was to be held that evening, Quatre wondered if Relena had managed to get her act together.

And, as the group entered the gym, he observed, that yes she had managed to get her act together.

“Holy momma!”  Duo whistled to Relena who waved at the group.  She was standing on the outskirts of Dorothy’s group of friends, Quatre noted.  She stood tall and staunch like, but Quatre noted that an unsure look marred her pretty features.  As confident as she may have seemed to everyone else, she was probably a bundle of nerves.  She was always like this when it came to social functions.

The group made their way over to Dorothy’s friends, and Relena stepped out as Quatre ritually pecked her on the cheek.  “You look great!” he whispered in her ear.  She smiled back at him, oblivious to the raised eyebrows amongst Dorothy’s group of friends.  Unbeknownst to them, Quatre and her had just made themselves look like a couple.  Kissing your ‘friend’ in public kind of shot down any attempts you made at stating that you weren’t a couple.

Dorothy’s friends shyly flashed their pretty little smiles at Relena and Quatre’s friends.  Duo, sensing the tension stepped forward and asked one of the girls to dance.  The girl obligingly accepted, and Duo relentlessly spun the girl around the room, displaying his flair for waltzing.

“The nuns apparently taught him,”  Quatre said quietly to Relena as she watched the two.

Relena intensely observed the other dancing couples in the room.  So intensely, that she hadn’t realised that she and Trowa were the only ones now standing together.  Everybody else had paired off.  Well, everybody but Heero.  He’d disappeared the moment he’d enter the gym.  He certainly was what you termed a ‘solitary’ person.

Relena stood with Trowa, silently taking in the rapture of her peers who were fortunate enough to have a partner.  Quatre was dancing with Dorothy, while Wufei was dancing with, Relena noted an older woman!  She’d seen Sally Po around and about the school, and from what Relena had observed, she seemed nice enough.  She had to admit though, she’d been surprised that Wufei knew Sally.  He did seem to spend a lot of time degrading the female species after all.

“Surprising isn’t it?”  Trowa asked Relena.

Relena looked up at the tall boy who hadn’t left her side since the group had gone their own way, meeting and greeting and flirting with other people at the dance.  He’d seemed content enough to keep Relena company.

“What’s surprising?”  She unconsciously smoothed the front of her dress, which Trowa noted was very flattering for her figure.

“Wufei dancing with a girl,”  he smiled.

Relena nodded.  She liked Trowa.  He was the type that didn’t intrude in your personal space.  He seemed to sense when you wanted to be left alone and when you needed company.  Like now, Relena didn’t want to be left alone, like a reject.  And Trowa, seemed quite content to stand with her watching the dancing figures laugh, smile and flirt, without a single care in the world.

“Would you like to dance?”  He asked her.  Relena looked up at him, slightly startled.  She’d thought that the reason he’d been standing, watching everybody else was that he couldn’t dance.  As if reading her thoughts, he said, “That is what we’re here for, isn’t it?”

“Lead away...”Relena held onto Trowa as he spun her gracefully around the room.  She laughed a little as he so delicately twirled her, thinking that whichever girl ended up with Trowa for a girlfriend would indeed be in for a lucky catch.

Once the song had finished, Trowa led Relena back to where the two had stood watching before.

“That’s the third time Quatre and Dorothy have danced this evening  . . .”  Trowa noted.

Relena looked over at Quatre and Dorothy.  They did seem to be hitting it off rather well.  She glanced at Trowa, whose usually featureless face seemed to have a wounded look about it.  He looked almost in pain.  Could Quatre have done that to him? 

Trowa, sensing Relena’s eyes on him, looked down at her.  She smiled helpfully at him.  “You know Trowa, back in Treventville everybody thought me and Quatre were a couple.  Having everybody believe we were a couple was kind of advantageous for the both of us.”

“How so?”

“I didn’t have to worry about being paired for life with one of those country hick guys because everybody thought Quatre and me were an item.  And as for Quatre . . .”  how could she say this?  “Well, for Quatre, let’s just say it kept his parents and his friends off his back about finding a good wholesome girl.”

Trowa stared at Relena incredulously.  Had she just said what he thought she said?

Relena unwittingly nodded at Trowa, knowing that he would have understood the hidden message in her words beforehand.

So why had Quatre spent the night dancing with Dorothy?

“He probably just enjoys her company Trowa.  He likes talking to  . . . challenging people,”  Relena responded, almost as though she’d read Trowa’s mind.  Then, laughing ever so slightly, “Trowa, he rooms with Heero for pity’s sake!!”

Trowa looked down at his much smaller companion.  He’d always thought quite highly of her, especially since she was Quatre’s best friend.  But now, she’d given Trowa some important information regarding Quatre’s sexuality, and had done so without Trowa having to ask, and given it in such a diplomatic and modest way.  They could have been talking about anything, the way she’d weighted the topic with so little importance.

“Would you like another dance?”  he asked her.

Relena shook her head, “No, if it’s okay.  I might take a walk outside for awhile.  You know, get some fresh air?”

Relena had almost made it out of the gym, when a hand clasped around her wrist.  “Ouch!”

The hand released her, and she stood to face who had grabbed her.  It was Heero.  “Oh, it’s you!  I was wondering where you’d disappeared to.”

She’d been looking for him?  He pushed his messy chocolate brown hair back off his face, unconsciously trying to smooth it down.

“I was just going outside for a walk.  Why’d you stop me?”

“hn...”

“Okay.  Great excuse Heero.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need some fresh air!”

Heero watched as the slight figure with the pretty blue dress and golden halo of hair stalked away.

Why did he always have to make a jackass of himself whenever she was around?  She seemed to have a mannerism that made him react badly to her.  Shaking his head slightly, Heero wandered back to the dance, watching staunchly and silently as his friends loosened up enough to enjoy the evening.  Everybody seemed to be delighting in the dance, except for him.  He’d had enough of the stupid dance, and enough of making an idiot of himself in front of Relena.

He’d had enough of people.  He wanted out.  At least for a while.

****

Relena had wandered St. Michael’s gardens for awhile after her confrontation with Heero.  She would have gone back to the dance, but she’d really had enough.  Heero had a way of completely putting her equilibrium out of balance.  Now, she couldn’t face returning to the gym and watching all the happy smiling wealthy boys and girls flash their wealth around in the clothes they wore and the mannerisms they threw lavishly about.  She felt so out of place in those sort of settings.  She felt that even though Dorothy and her friends had let her join in with their conversation at the start of the dance, that they had looked down on her somewhat.  And, Relena had a fairly good idea why.  It was because she was ‘the scholarship student’.  In other words the poor student.  The one with no connections, so they weren’t under pressure to be pleasant to her.  Everybody was so false at this school.  It was all about connections and networking and how much money your parents earned.  Relena smirked to herself, as she thought of how Dorothy’s friends had so subtly ignored her that evening and admittedly ever since she’d arrived at St. Michael’s.  They were idiots.  And they would be absolutely mortified when they found out that they’d swept away the princess of the Cinq Kingdom . . .  Oh how wonderful it would be when they found out who she really was.

That was if she were alive, by the time she took her throne, nation and people back.

****

Relena arrived back to her dorm, and tripped over something as she entered her bedroom.  What?  That hadn’t been there!

Switching her bed lamp on Relena surveyed her now destroyed room.  Someone had been in it while she’d been at the dance, searching for something.  And to cover their searching, they’d trashed it.

Relena couldn’t help but cry.  She didn’t have many possessions.  And, surveying the room, those few possession which she did own were now trashed. 

And under further surveillance, Relena realised that the person who had been in her room, had been in her room for a reason.  They’d been looking for something, and Relena was almost at once sure of the reason why her room had been broken into.  How would she explain this to Quatre??

Relena cried until she could cry no more.  Somebody must have found out who she was.  But who?  And more importantly how?  Relena wiped her nose, ruining her once pretty dress, and stood up resolutely.

She had a room to clean up.  And she had to clean it up before Dorothy got back, otherwise she’d ask a lot of questions, and then they’d be an investigation.  And Relena, in no way could let that happen.

Relena sighed as she attempted to straighten a picture frame with a photo of herself and the Dorlian’s in it.  She wished that she could turn to someone with her problems sometimes.  And Quatre had seemed to be having such a good time tonight.  She couldn’t spoil his happiness.  She would leave him out of this.  He worried about her enough already.

“Oh Heero, if only you were real for me....then maybe I could confirm the suspicions I know you have of me.....if only....”

Relena wiped the remnants of her tears away and set to cleaning her room up.

She’d be in for a long night.