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

The Symbol of Temptation

Chapter Five

If ever there were a cliché about cabins in the mountains, this was it. Tall trees, the scent of pine, and the sound of nature were all around him. The tiny clearing on which the cabin stood had perfectly cut grass that was greener than the trees. Quatre must take good care of this place, he thought. It seems as if he had it prepared in advance for our stay. Almost like he was planning it.

He glared at the cabin in front of him, which could barely be classified as such. It was two stories tall, beautifully built and fully furnished with the finest things available. It was as if the house of an English noble had been picked up and set down here, then painted to look like it was authentic. The ground floor had a sliding glass door, which bothered him to no end with its vulnerability, and large glass windows for every room but the bathroom. He despised the place entirely within the first five minutes.

Relena loved it.

She and Laura went about the whole house, deciding which rooms were their favorites and where they would spend most of their time, while Heero carried in the luggage. They laughed together like happy schoolgirls visiting a place in nature for the very first time. They seemed totally content to just be outside together, away from the busy world they’d just left.

He watched them from behind the sliding glass door. Relena stood in the middle of the clearing outside the door, swinging Laura around by her arms. It was cold and they were both wearing thick coats, but that didn’t take away his appreciation of the site of them. They looked like mother and daughter, now more than ever. He still felt something twinge inside when he thought that Laura just might be, somehow, Relena’s biological daughter. He never figured out why that bothered him. He just couldn’t put it together.

It wasn’t jealousy. It was something else.

While thoughts of the last few weeks ran through his head, he watched the two of them play outside. Play, that’s what he decided they were doing. Playing. It was a wonderful thing to see, brown hair flaying out behind them as they spun, their faces smiling as they laughed and laughed. He felt himself smiling before he realized he was doing it.

It seemed far less natural now that he was scared out of his wits.

Well, maybe not scared. Not exactly.

Nervous, for sure. What if she said no? What if she rejected him? What if she laughed and thought he was joking?

No, that wouldn’t happen. She wasn’t that kind of person. Besides, what she said…what she’d said before they…did that…thing…with the kissing…she’d said something about the dreams she’d been having. Dreams about him. He felt light at the thought.

She dreamed about him.

He hoped it was nice.

It wasn’t until the glass door slid open and the two of them came stumbling inside in a fit of laughter that he snapped out of his reverie. By the amused look she gave him he knew they’d been watching him for a while. She started laughing again and scooted Laura out of the room with her. He’d never seen her act so calm. So at ease. So natural.

She sure smiled a lot more when she didn’t have to force it.

After he’d locked all the doors and closed the blinds on all the windows and the glass door, he walked into one of the larger rooms, the main room, and spotted the pair of them sitting in front of the fireplace trying to get a fire started. When they noticed he was there they made a simply gesture that indicated he should do it instead. He smirked and went over to show them how it’s done.

When the fire was blazing, Laura insisted that she make cocoa for all of them. Relena wanted to help her but Laura wanted to do it on her own. She wouldn’t even let Relena come into the kitchen with her. Needless to say, Relena had a small fit about not being able to see her while she had the kitchen door shut, and Heero sat down on the couch to treat himself to the show. She paced back and forth in front of the fire while ringing her hands and glaring at the carpet. She seemed twice as beautiful when she was pissed.

He wondered what it would be like to stare into her eyes when she was full of pure fury.

Finally, after Relena’s steps had worn a little line in the carpet, the sound of something hitting the floor reached them from the kitchen. The moment he heard it he instinctively reached up to stop Relena before she could charge into the kitchen and startle poor Laura. In the few seconds that flashed by he had ended up half off the couch with his arm around Relena’s waist and was attempting to pull her down onto the couch with him. She wriggled and shouted at him until he had her successfully pinned to his chest.

A few seconds later, she was silent.

They had ended up in quite an improper position. She was sitting on his lap, facing away from him, and he had her arms locked against her own chest and was squeezing them rather tightly to keep her there.

She didn’t move. She seemed to have forgotten anything she’d had on her mind.

He wondered if she felt anything like he did, sitting like that.

It felt very natural.

Again, he jumped when she spoke to him.

“I…I don’t think we should be sitting like this.” She sounded a little nervous. He felt the need to say that it didn’t matter because no one would see them. Then his attitude changed.

He felt as if he’d sinned just by holding her.

“Sorry,” he tried to say, but it came out too softly. She turned to face him.

He jolted when he thought he saw tears in her eyes, but felt an even bigger jolt when he realized that it was fear, and that she was trying to hide it.

She turned to the side and glanced about as if searching for something else to say.

“Have you…have you…erm…thought about it?” She looked at him again.

He felt himself start to shake. “About what?”

“About…about the…the-”

“Cocoa!” Laura announced gleefully.

They both jumped. They stood up so fast they almost knocked each other over. Relena fidgeted a little and shifted her weight.

“Laura! I’ve been waiting for that cocoa…”

The day continued without any further events. Heero about tore himself apart trying to guess what Relena was going to say. He felt like he had to know everything she thought and felt. All of it. All the time.

He was anxious all day after that.

When the sun went down and the house was dark except for the few lights turned on and the fire in the main room, they tucked Laura into bed in the room closest to theirs. Relena kissed her forehead and he felt the familiar pang of…whatever it was, when he saw it. They turned off the bedroom light and walked back downstairs to the main room, not saying a word to each other but knowing that they both wanted to talk about something. He turned off the remaining lights in the kitchen and main room itself before he walked over to her.

She had sat down on the large blanket they’d put in front of the fireplace earlier when they roasted marshmallows together. He’d never had such a thing before, but he found it quite tasty. When he got closer he saw that she had pulled another blanket around her shoulders and she looked up at the sound of his approaching steps.

She smiled and said, “Sit down, Heero.”

He complied, already feeling his muscles tense and his nerves on end. He wasn’t shaking that badly yet.

Yet.

He sat Indian-style and put his hands in his lap, slouching forward a little. He was trying to force himself to relax, or he was sure he’d die of a heart attack.

He about had one when she touched his arm.

Immediately he turned to look at her, and her eyes were searching. Searching for what, he didn’t know. He’d never known. But what he sought in her eyes he found almost immediately.

Uncertainty.

She must want to ask him something.

“Heero,” she said softly, the sound of her voice bringing him to attention. She gazed at him and her eyes seemed to bore into his, and he was more than willing to let her see whatever she wanted to see. To let her see everything. “I’ve been thinking about…when I kissed you.” He felt a lump form in his throat. “Do you know why I did that?”

Despite his intentions to speak clearly, his answer was stifled, “No.”

Her eyes twinkled. It was that something. That flicker. It made him feel so light he could fly.

“It was because I’d wanted to do it for some time.” She watched him, waiting for a reaction. She got one when he felt his eyelid twitch. “I’d wanted to kiss you…I have wanted to kiss you, for a long time.”

His heart thudded in his chest. He wasn’t expecting this. He was much more nervous than he could stand to be and it was beginning to show. She must have seen him trembling because she moved her hand down his arm to grasp his hand, lifting it up and placing it in her other hand. Her hands were very warm. Always warm.

“And do you know why I’ve wanted to kiss you?”

He felt his pulse pounding in his fingertips. Pressure was building up in his ears and he felt the distinct urge to kiss her and touch her face. Her soft, beautiful face.

“Why?” He barely heard his own voice but knew that it had sounded horse. Whatever she was going to say, whatever she about to tell him, he knew it would change something. Maybe everything.

Her voice came as a whisper. “…Because I love you.”

Silence. He didn’t move. He was afraid to move. If he moved, he was sure she’d disappear. And when she disappeared, all the warmth, happiness, and answers to his questions would disappear with her. He knew that he loved her. He couldn’t imagine her feeling something like that towards him.

His response now was a hoarsely whispered, “Why?”

He gazed into her eyes the entire time it took for her to lean forward and press her lips gently against his. They lingered there for a moment before she brought the hand she still held towards her chest and placed it over her pounding heart.

For the first time, he noticed how much she was trembling.

“Because you do this,” she said, her eyes filling with shiny tears. She closed her eyes and he did not fight, did not try to stop himself from leaning forward and pressing his lips to hers. This time, it was not gentle for long.

It started out as simply a firm press from his lips to hers, but when she pressed back and leaned forward, he felt senses he didn’t know he had suddenly come to life. His trembling hands suddenly felt as if they needed to touch her. From somewhere inside, somewhere he didn’t know, came the desires he told himself were forbidden, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged herself to him. The kiss went from polite to out of control in only a matter of seconds, and he felt the desperate need to stop her from awakening things he shouldn’t want.

But he never got the chance.

He belonged to her.

When the fire eventually turned to coals, and the room was too dark for a normal person to see, Heero looked down at her from above her barely covered shoulder. They did not do what their instincts seemed to want, but instead explored each other’s upper bodies in sheer appreciation of a flesh-to-flesh connection. She tore his shirt. He ruined her sweater. They spent a lot of time laughing at themselves and their own impatience. She confessed that felt sinful and wanted more. He chuckled and held her close.

She was asleep now. Her cheeks were flushed before she closed her eyes and paled when she heard him whisper, “I love you,” under his breath. Her eyes shot open and he was shocked that he’d actually said it aloud. She’d touched his face and kissed his eyes before nuzzling his neck. He compared her to a fluffy kitten.

His heart was still pounding. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Right now it seemed to have passed in mere seconds but while it was happening, while they were kissing and hugging, he felt all consumed by her and her touch and it seemed to last for an eternity. Her fingers tickled his skin and her flesh tasted better to him than the roasted marshmallows. Her flesh tasted better to him than anything. And it was only her neck he tasted.

He remembered her embarrassment when he said he’d left a mark there.

The whole experience filled him with a new form of joy. He still trembled, but not as much as before, and not for the same reasons. He was still nervous about being near her, but there seemed to be a closeness now that couldn’t be broken.

He wished Quatre would hurry up and find out who was after Laura so he could get rid of them and make Relena his wife.

He also wished he would stop being so frightened of her, or the rest of his life was going to be spent taking medication for panic attacks.

Sleep was finally coming to him when Relena cried out and sat straight up, clutching the blanket to her chest in fear. She was perspiring. He’d been too lost in thought to notice.

She flinched and jerked around to face him when he touched her arm. Her eyes were full of terror and tears.

“Relena-”

“It was him,” she said weakly. A tear rolled down her cheek. “It must have been him…he killed Laura’s godparents!”

Total confusion swept through him. “What? What do you mean? I though you-”

“I’m not Laura’s godmother,” she interrupted, sounding frantic, “That was just a lie the Dryeks told so I could take care of her if anything happened to them.”

He didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”

“Laura,” she said breathlessly, as if she was suddenly putting together all the pieces of some inner puzzle. “Laura’s godparents were the Dryeks, not me and Peagen. Mrs. Dryek was her godmother, not me.” She took a moment to catch her breath. He was completely lost.

“Peagen was her godfather?”

“No! The Dryeks just said that he and I were the godparents so that Laura wouldn’t be put in an orphanage if anything happened to them.”

“Well then who are her biological parents?”

He watched her take several deep breaths, considering whether or not to answer.

“…Milliardo…and Noin.”