Disclaimer: Yadda yadda I don’t own Gundam Wing and so on.

The Symbol of Temptation

Chapter Six

“…Zechs?”

Relena shifted and looked around the room.

“Milliardo, Zechs, whatever you want to call him, yes.”

Suddenly he felt uncomfortable. He couldn’t figure out if it was the context of what she’d just said, or if he was somehow jealous of Zechs being Laura’s father.

He decided the latter was unacceptable. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Relena closed her eyes, and he noticed she was holding her breath. Was there more to this? Of course there was. There had to be. Secrets aren’t kept for nothing.

She knew more.

“Relena?” Heero reached out but she flinched away from his touch. He was instantly frustrated. What the hell had happened? What wasn’t she telling him? Why was she crying? “Why are you crying?”

Instead of answering, she collapsed into his arms and began to sob. Confusion, surprise, and all around concern swept through him like a tidal wave, heating up his skin and turning his blood into magma. He didn’t know what else to do but hold her. The same way he held her after her mother’s funeral. He wondered now if that was the real reason she was crying.

There was something she wasn’t telling him. He knew it.

“Relena,” he whispered into her hair, “What happened? What aren’t you telling me?”

A few more sobs and then a muffled answer rose up from his shoulder.

“Alessnay.”

…What? “What?”

Relena lifted her head, meeting his troubled eyes with her teary blue ones. Even at a time like this she still left him breathless.

“Al…Alex…Sinay,” she looked back down at his shoulder. “Alex Sinay.”

The name itself tweaked his nerves, let alone the way she said it. “Who’s that?”

By her silence he knew she was struggling with whether or not to tell him. That bothered him. Didn’t she trust him enough by now?

“Alex was someone my mother thought was…suitable,” she looked back up at him, waiting for him to catch the meaning. When he nodded, she continued, “She wanted us to be married, but I didn’t. Of course, I didn’t have a say in the matter; our situation was desperate. My father was dead and I was a young, unmarried woman in politics, and Alex’s family was well respected. So, we were introduced. He said he fell in love with me instantly, though I think it was mere infatuation. You see, I never cared for him. I couldn’t. I was-” she stopped abruptly.

Finish the sentence, he thought. Finish that sentence.

She looked away.

“What?!” His impatience was obvious, but he didn’t care. This whole thing was really starting to bother him. He just wanted to know what the hell was going on. And how long it’d been going on.

She looked back at him, visibly troubled. “I was-” she took a shaky breath. “I was busy thinking about the boy I’d found on the beach, washed ashore. He had eyes like the ocean itself, and even though his words were cold, he painted a picture of himself in my mind. He haunted me. I couldn’t get him out of my thoughts, and it made Alex angry. But it didn’t stop him. He still pursued me. Right up until he met Milliardo.”

Heero didn’t have time to figure out what this meant to him, or the feelings it inspired within him.

“Milliardo forbid him to come near me, saying he ‘wasn’t worthy’ of me. Alex was furious. He demanded to know who could possible be better than him. And do you know what Milliardo said?”

Her tone alone made him wonder.

“He said, ‘The one man worthy of her, who proved himself worthy by refusing to cause her a tremendous pain, despite the consequences, is the one who is better than you.’ Do you know who he was talking about, Heero?”

He knew.

“He was talking about you!” She stood up, the blanket falling from her shoulders and leaving her chest bare.

If he were a vulgar man, his thoughts would have changed instantly. But she sounded angry. He looked up at her as if to say, “What’s wrong with that?”

“Heero, why would he say that? You two were bitter enemies! Why on Earth would Milliardo think that you were more worthy than someone who was far less questionable?”

Instead of feeling insulted, like he thought he should be, he was feeling quite smug. So Zechs remembered. The man had honor after all.

“He probably thought that because I refused to kill him when I defeated him on Libra.” He took a moment to let her settle into this new information. Apparently, she hadn’t been expecting that for an answer. “I don’t see why it’s so upsetting to you. I didn’t kill him because I knew it would make you sad. I couldn’t explain it any more than that, and he accepted it. Shortly after that, he destroyed Libra’s core himself.” He took a breath, calming himself. “Maybe he thought that was type of person who was worthy of you. Someone who would defy their own principles just so they wouldn’t hurt you.”

She knelt down beside him, eyes searching. Again, he didn’t know what she was looking for. “‘Defy their own principles?’ What did you mean by that?”

He took a deep breath. If he wanted her answers he needed to give her his first.

“I would have killed him if it weren’t for you.”

Her eyes widened and she gasped, as he expected. He waited for her to do something, yell something, tell him he shouldn’t change just for her or decide someone’s life based on her feelings.

Instead, she leaned forward and kissed him, and then neither of them could ignore her bare chest anymore.

* * *

When he woke the next morning he had a lot of feelings to digest. The first being this 'Alex Sinay' character. For once, he found himself thanking Zechs, though he wasn't entirely sure Alex was out of the picture yet. Based on what Relena said when she woke from her dream, and the fact that Laura was Zechs's daughter, he was fairly certain that Alex Sinay must have some part in the murder of the Dryek family. But why the Dryeks?

The second feeling was shock. After the somewhat sudden end to their conversation, he and Relena came very close to going too far. He couldn't believe what she'd done. The things he'd felt.

The things he'd done.

Dammit she was sneaky. Only she could do something so simple and yet-

"Heero?"

The sound of her sleepy voice beside him caused a new feeling he liked right away. He leaned towards her and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before gazing into her glistening eyes. She was beyond belief sometimes.

How could she possibly have meant what she'd said the night before? That he was the one she loved?

He still had trouble believing any of this real. It must be a dream. She could never see him that way.

He felt her soft hand on his face, warm and reassuring. He closed his eyes and tilted his head towards her touch.

If this wasn't real, damn reality.

They spent a good while just lying together and enjoying one another's soft caresses, then reluctantly got up and dressed themselves. It would have felt awkward if she hadn't inspected herself in the mirror and made a comment about the mark he'd left on her neck. After that, he was feeling quite smug again.

When Laura came down later for breakfast Heero noticed little similarities between her and Zechs that he hadn't paid attention to before. Her hair seemed a bit more pale. Her eyes darker. He noticed similarities between her and Noin, too. It was as if there wasn't some big secret. Which reminded him, Relena never finished her story. In fact, she'd been avoiding the subject all morning.

Around noon, when Laura asked Relena if it was time to "go into the study," Relena explained to her that "Heero knew the big secret" and that she could call her father whenever she wanted to. Laura squealed and ran into the study. When Relena moved to follow, Heero stopped her.

She didn't look into his eyes. He took that as a sign. "What happened?" It was more like a command than a question, but Heero felt that this was something he had to know. All of his feelings would be jumbled until she told him the rest of the story about Alex.

"You're talking about the nightmare?" she sighed, looking at him just long enough to get an answer. He nodded. "If you're thinking that I had a nightmare about Alex, then you're right. If you're also thinking that I had a nightmare based on actual events, then you’re also right." She paused. He didn't like where this was going. Maybe he shouldn't have asked. Maybe he should just ignore everything and keep her in this cabin forever. With him. "However, if you're thinking that there's some other big secret, you're wrong. I have nothing left to hide. There are no more secrets. In fact, if you want some truth, I think it's adorable how much you have come to care for Milliardo's daughter." She grinned and walked into the study, a little hurried.

She's lying, he thought. After all this she's still lying to me about what's bothering her. What could it be? What could be so horrible she would keep it from him? And then it hit him.

She wasn't telling him because she didn't want him to go after Alex.

That just made him want to find out even more.

If she was protecting Alex, it was because she was being forced to.

That was another thing he just seemed to know.