Uh… There's a complete lemon in this chapter.  I didn't edit a line of it.

By Zapenstap

Heero had trouble keeping his eyes on the road while he drove. He was almost glad that Relena was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved sweater, however tightly they molded to her body. If she had been wearing a skirt, he didn't think he would have been able to keep his hands off her.

Her fingers slipped between his and she turned to smile at him. Relena's smiles were reserved, a soft upturn of the lips in a face starting to show elegant angles but not quite yet devoid of baby fat. Her hair hung down her back and shoulders in honey-blonde strands that he wanted to touch and run his hands through, but he found himself looking through her hair at her neck instead, eyes trailing down the gentle arch of soft and creamy skin to the collar of her sweater. Memory told him what she was like under her clothes. He had seen it often enough, but last night he had felt that mystery wrapped around his body, had seduced and ravished it twice and hungered for it still. Their first coupling had been less than perfect due to his inexperience and had resulted in something less than satisfactory for her, which also made it unsatisfactory for him, but the second attempt was sheer bliss. It made such a difference to work her into a sweat with his body and persuade her to whimper and cry for him to complete her. To make her feel the pleasure he felt…he couldn't think of anything more satisfying. It was a challenge on a whole new level, and one that he had enjoyed immensely.

"Heero?" she said from besides him. He pulled his mind out of the sensual haze that clouded his thoughts. "Do you do missions anymore?"

He glanced at her sideways, keeping his tone low and nominal. "Why do you ask?"

She closed her eyes and smiled in that accepting, knowing way she always did when he answered her in a way she expected. "I just like to know what you're up to," she said. "You're still so secretive and it's hard sometimes. I just want to be close to you."

"I've told you more about my life than I've ever told anybody," he informed her, turning his eyes to the rode.

"I understand," she said. "It's difficult for you. It's just that I…I care a lot about you."

"I care a lot about you too," he said quietly.

She smiled at him, a sweet, patient smile that was almost sad. Her hand in his caressed his fingers delicately.

Looking at her, he couldn't help but think that she was still so innocent. The thought did not deter him. He had been aware of it before, but something in him wanted to dissociate his relationship with Relena from his missions and the battles and his regrets of the past. Her freshness was part of what attracted him to her, a clean and simple beauty that was like nothing he had ever known. Sometimes she came across as naïve, but it didn't make her less desirable in his mind, especially knowing what he now knew about her. She was wild and beautiful and unknowingly sensual and her mental innocence somehow made it more surreal. Once he had been more wary of his desire for her, but that was before he realized the depths of his own loneliness, before he understood how attracted he was to her. Now he just wanted to touch her, and he knew that she wanted him to.

He pulled into the shopping market, parked near the entrance to the grocery store and locked the car after Relena got out and shut the door. Watching her stroll a few paces away, he surreptitiously traced the slim lines of her figure just barely outlined by her clothes with his eyes. He thought about how he would enjoy taking those clothes of her later, again, and smirked as he strode past her toward his destination. She smiled, catching up to take his hand and walking close to his shoulder. He could smell the fruity scents from her shampoo in her hair, the long, clean strands of which flew out around her head as a light breeze picked up around them. She was truly a lovely thing to look at, growing more so every year as she grew out of her childishness and into an adult grace. It was subtly sexual and pleased his instincts.

When they walked into the grocery store, he felt like they were being stared at. He didn't think it was because of who she was. Though a lot of people recognized Relena, few took too much notice of her personally these days. She was sometimes a curiosity, but unless she was doing or saying something politically important in the world at large, it was generally only government officials and politically active citizens who took an active interest in her affairs. What Heero felt was people eyeing them as a couple and noticing their intimacy by their body language, whether they recognized Relena or not. It didn't precisely bother him and in some ways it invigorated him, but to counteract those stares he took her possessively by the waist, glaring at any man who eyes her in his grip. He felt smug, reminding himself that only he had access to her charms.

But she blushed and slipped out of his grasp, speaking nonsensically in a voice heightened to a nervous pitch something about not drawing eyes. He liked to hear her nervous, liked the way her voice trembled with uncertainty. She seemed more human and less of an icon when she was unsure, more attainable and flawed and interesting. In the past he had sometimes gotten the feeling that even in her personal interactions, Relena Darilan took on the role of whatever professional position was expected of her. What he was seeing now, and had been seeing for awhile, was a girl with less of an idea of what she was doing than she so confidently presented. There was weakness in her, frailty and inexperience and insecurity. It was attractive and challenging. She backed away from him, smiling as she did so, and he followed almost predatorily.

"Um, what do you need at the store, Heero?"

He grabbed a basket in passing. "Things," he said. He encroached upon her space again, stepping close enough so that his chest brushed against her shoulder.

"You shouldn't stand so close," she whispered. "We're in public."

He seized her hand, catching her eyes with an intense, demanding stare. "So?"

Her lips faltered, staring at him with her lips slightly parted and self-consciousness written all over her face. "It's just…"

"What are they going to see?" he asked. She closed her mouth and didn't answer, but slowly something gratifying swept through her eyes. He put an arm around her waist again and guided her down the produce aisle. She stopped protesting, leaning slightly into his shoulder as they walked side by side. He caught her reflection in the widows of the refrigerated food closets and was pleased to see that she was smiling. His hand crept under her shirt to feel the heat of her bare skin and she squirmed a little, but did not make further protest. When he pushed his fingers down the waistband of her jeans just at the hip, she made a plaintive noise and he stopped pushing his advantage with a smirk. He could just feel the edge of her underwear and allowed his fingers to dance teasingly across it.

He filled his basket with food item essentials and also restocked some of his basic kitchen and bathroom supplies. He had virtually nothing left at home, always waiting until the last minute before he went to the store. Relena gradually relaxed, eventually ignoring the glances of others and even holding his arm to keep it around her. It pleased him that she wanted his body close to hers.

"You know, you never answered my question," she said as he crouched down to look closer at the labels of soup cans. "Are you still doing missions, Heero? Is it so terrible to tell me?"

He appraised her levelly, answering in a straightforward, honest tone. "I've been asked to do a few favors every once in awhile, nothing very dangerous and usually in the way of verifying information. I just don't really want to talk about it, if that's all right with you."

She was quiet for several moments. "All right," she said at last. "You don't have to tell me about it. I don't need…"

He looked at her more gently then, and when the aisle cleared of people, rose from his crouch to kiss her on the lips before she could react. She floundered in mid-sentence, her words absorbed by his mouth. She stood still as he kissed her, slowly running his hands up and down her sides as his mouth engaged hers hungrily. When he pulled away, he did not back up, looking into her eyes closely, their foreheads nearly touching. "I'll tell you about it," he whispered. "Someday. I don't want to think about those sorts of things when I'm with you."

She nodded dumbly, blue eyes sparkling with a bejeweled shimmer like the aquamarine he had given her more than a month ago. He brushed a finger against her cheek fondly and the reassurance in her eyes settled him. He walked past her, brushing by her right shoulder and striding down the aisle with his basket.

He suddenly wanted to take her home and make her his again, perhaps just to prove that he could. Sex was a new skill, one he liked, and it was his aim to master it thoroughly. He had never learned a skill that required his complete attention and distracted him at the same time. The contrast was energizing. Paying attention to the subtle cues of her body informed him what to do and with what intensity, but at the same time his own senses were worked into pleasurable overload. He supposed he needed more practice. He believed he would get it down eventually. He had never failed to be good at anything that required attention to detail and physical endurance before.

 Relena was quiet as they stood together in the checkout line, but once he paid for his food items, she pressed her face into his shoulder. Her arms went around his middle as they moved out into the parking lot, and he let her hold him gladly.

"Where to now?" she asked as he unlocked the car door for her.

"I have to go to the bank and the dry cleaners, but we can stop somewhere for lunch. Unless you need to go home."

"Oh. No," she said, getting in the car. "I…I don't want to go home. I like spending time with you. Breakfast was late and I'm really not that hungry yet. Can we go to the post office, though? I need stamps."

He took her to the post office while he went to the bank. After all of his errands, it was nearly five in the afternoon by the time he suggested Chinese take-out for dinner, and the sun was already beginning to set. They ate their dinner in front of his television, open boxes of rice and vegetables and strips of beef scattered over the surface of his coffee table. When they were finished eating, they both got up to clear the table, use the restroom and brush their teeth. Heero watched Relena move about in the kitchen, strangely attracted to every little thing she did, the way her torso twisted when she looked behind her and the way her hair fell over her shoulders when she leaned forward. He watched her out of the corner of his eye after he returned to the couch, and she smiled at him when she noticed, immediately coming to sit beside him. She swung her legs up on the couch and nestled comfortably against his side, her head leaning against his chest so that it was easy to play with her hair while he flicked through the channels.

"Can we just watch something?" she murmured after a few minutes. "You've gone past several interesting things. Why can't you just settle on one?"

"There might be something better on one of the higher channels, or somewhere else in a few minutes."

"Well the flickering is giving me a headache. Please just pick something."

He looked down at her, amused, and asked her what she wanted to watch. They settled on a movie, during which Heero's hand wandered idly over Relena's body, stroking the side exposed to him down to the hip. They both watched the screen quietly, comfortable with their platonic proximity but growing gradually more interested in each other as time spent so close together ticked by. Relena shifted several times throughout the production, sidling closer to him and playing with the material of his shirt. When the credits began to role, she curiously turned her face into his chest. Looking down at the hair failing around her head, he had the impression that she was smiling at some secret thought she didn't want him to see.

He hoped he could guess anyway.

His fingers danced down along her spine suggestively. She moved in response, and he stroked smoothly back up her body. Her face, still turned into his chest, descended lower to his stomach, and he forgot about whatever it was she might be thinking as warm breath from her mouth reached his skin beneath his shirt. His head fell softly back against the padded backboard of the couch as he relaxed, his hand jumping up to stroke her hair and neck to indicate that he had noticed where her attention was. Her hands pushed up his shirt, revealing bare skin to the soft wetness of her mouth, and he closed his eyes, imagining kissing her stomach, keeping one hand on the back of her head as the other moved down to her caress her ass.

She unbuttoned his pants and he looked past her at the wall as one of her hands reached between his legs and applied pressure to his crotch, stimulating his growing arousal through his jeans. "Relena…" he whispered.

She shushed him with a responsive whisper and he felt her tongue on his navel, tantalizing his senses as she pulled at his jeans, tugging them over his hips. He helped her, lifting himself up and then kicking the things off. Sitting on the couch in his boxers, he briefly met her eyes as she sat up beside him and crawled onto his lap the way she had this morning. Her thighs straddled him to either side, her fingers digging into his hair as she lowered her pelvis against his. It was a different experience in his boxers. The blood rushed to his loins and he felt himself rise and harden, straining for a woman fully clothed and looming teasingly over him. He couldn't take his eyes off her. His hands threaded through her hair to her neck and then down her arms. She was watching his face, but all he could see was her breasts right in front of his eyes, shielded by her sweater. He hadn't given them much attention lately. That sweater needed to go.

She helped him remove it when he grabbed it by the edge and pulled up. Her skin was revealed slowly and he took advantage of it with the touch of his hands, caressing her stomach and teasing her ribs while he regarded the lacy bra that confined her breasts strategically. He too a moment to regard the entire procedure strategically, laying out a loose agenda in his head designed to make her come for him. The soft, hazy look in her eyes was a good place to start. He caught her eyes with his, not allowed her to shut them or turn her head by the intensity of his stare while his hands caressed her curves, running down her back and thighs and over her butt. With gentle ministrations, he persuaded her to rise from his lap so that he could reach under her ass from behind. Her breathing lost its steady rhythm as he pushed teasingly at her core through her jeans. He avoided her clit, not quite reaching high enough, and presently she began to show the need of it. Her expression became strained and she rocked her hips back so that the tips of his fingers would slide against it. When that wasn't enough she fell forward into him, supporting herself by the elbows on the back of the couch, her head hanging to the side of his face as she panted breathlessly into his neck. He rubbed her as she wanted, though not rhythmically enough to finish her.

"Let's take this to the bedroom," he whispered into her ear. He didn't want her to come on the couch.

She nodded wordlessly, and he scooped her up in his arms. She didn't weigh anything, and he carried her to the bedroom without bothering to shut the door. Something about an open door increased his excitement. He laid her down on the bed and pulled open the buttons of her jeans, turning down the flaps to reveal her underwear, but not taking them off. The hindering fabric would help him stay with it. Opening her knees, he slid comfortable between them, a little lower than his favorite place, and focused his undivided attention on her breasts.

Though small, they were soft and round and creamy and he found them to be as pretty and confounding as the rest of her. He worked around her bra, slipping his hands under it to hold her breasts and then shifting it up so that he could take one of them into his mouth. His tongue worked over and around the nipple, lavishing it with attention while his ears absorbed the soft pleading whimpers that issued from her throat. He liked the sounds. He wanted to work harder for more of them. His hands grabbed the outside of her knees and ran down the length of her thighs to her hips. He liked the way her jeans molded to her skin and there was something erotic about her still being half clothed and crying out for him to take her. He lifted his mouth from her breast and slid up until he could feel the heat of her core against his arousal through their clothes. He groaned into her ear, his hands working her breasts again as her fingers tangled in his hair.

He leaned into her, straining to pull his head close to her face, and spoke softly into her ear. "Do you want me?"

She pulled his shirt up and he attacked her pants. They both half sat up to finish undressing. Relena's bra and underwear and jeans were left as they lay on the bed, burying Heero's boxers on the rumpled sheets. Heero took Relena by the shoulders and met her lips with a desperate, hungry kiss. His hands wandered down her back as her tongue entered his mouth and as he lowered her back down to the bed, she cradled his body between her knees. Her skin fluttered under his hands as he touched it, producing violent twitches and shivers that he kissed if he saw them. Her skin was tasteless, but something about it was sweet. He buried his face in the fragrance of her hair and felt her hand grasp his member where is strained against her stomach. She stroked it a few times and his breathy groans found their way into her ear.

She turned her head so that her lips were close enough to kiss. "I want you, Heero, please."

Kissing her, he supported himself on his elbows as he lowered his pelvis and eased himself inside of her, grunting at the pleasurable sensation that pulsed in his loins. He moved slowly at first, gasping with pleasure as Relena breathed laboriously beneath him. He tried to increase her stimulation by positioning her body advantageously to his entrance, but was overwhelmed by the feel of her lips on his shoulders and neck, her hot breath in his ear. Her lips trembled on his cheekbone, her hands grasping him to her as he lengthened his strokes.

"Oh, God, Heero, I'm going to…"

He knew when she was coming. Her whole body clenched tight and she threw her head back spasmodically, crying softly and unintelligibly under him as he continued to pump into her. Jesus. He was close himself, and while her tremors subsided, he sweated with the effort it took to push his sensory levels over into orgasm. Relena opened her eyes as he fought to finish, clear and bright with the passing of her pleasure. She touched his face with her hand and continued to move with him, whispering to him in words he couldn't quite understand. He clenched his eyes shut, hanging his head as he sped up, mouth gaping open in wordless exclamation as he began to come. He strained to complete his release, pushing his hands into the mattress, aided by Relena's legs wrapped around his hips. He swore at the last of it, forgetting that she might be sensitive to language. And only when the final wave crested over him did he regain his composure, blinking over Relena unsteadily as she rubbed her hands gently through his hair and neck. He rolled off her body and sank down to the bed, burying his face in the pillow beside her.

"Three times," Relena whispered, sitting up so that her hands could caress his back in slow, soothing strokes. "Three times this weekend. Is this normal?"

He turned his head slightly to look at her with one eye. "Do you want something more?"

She blushed under his gaze, a pink tint that increased the glow in her skin. "No. I'm happy."

He smiled and pulled the covers over them both, wrapping his arms around her and breathing together as their bodies cooled in the darkness.

It was perfect. Everything was perfect.

*****

Two days later, Relena walked into a bookstore after work with the intention of buying a new compilation of modern political speech addresses and a novel to read at night and during trips. She had been thinking an awful lot about Heero and the climactic aftermath of her first sexual experiences with him, something that had turned into a weekend affair. For whatever reason, she really felt like she glowed and could not keep the smile from her face. Was it was sex or her love of Heero or just a general aura of happiness that made her days shine so luminously?

Coworkers had noticed. Oliva has cornered her in the hallway after a meeting and demanded details. She told them briefly, with a stammer and a blush, about how the first time had left something to be desired but how the other two times had left her gasping and wondering what her name was. If anything, Olivia seemed a little jealous, but not meanly or overtly, and showered her with sex advice.

Relena wasn't sure she needed sex advice, though she listened curiously. She couldn't stop having fantasies. Her embarrassment over oral sex before had been cute compared to the brazen desires she had now. For one thing she wanted to move out of the bedroom and try it in a different atmosphere, and maybe in a different position. Her face heated up when she thought about it, but it didn't stop her from thinking up methods by which to entice Heero to please her in new ways. But she was not selfish. She also enjoyed pleasing him, and spent a lot of idle time thinking up new tricks to try. However, she didn't think she was brave enough yet to actually do what she imagined so thoroughly. She was still getting used to things.

"Well if it isn't Relena Peacecraft."

She blinked and turned away from the bookshelf she had been rifling through to see Wufei Chang standing in line at the counter. He had a stack of books in his arms and a pair of reading glasses on his nose. It took her a moment to recognize him.

"Wufei Chang," she greeted him. "It's a pleasure. Have we… met before? I mean officially?"

He smirked and turned away from her almost rudely. "I don't think so. I didn't expect to ever actually have to talk to you."

"I see," she said, and felt a bit nettled by his response.

"But can I ask you a question?"

"I suppose," she replied.

"Are you really seeing Heero Yuy?"

She blinked, though after a moment it didn't surprise her that he had heard. "Yeah. For several months now."

"Huh."

There was something in the tilt of his chin and the slight raise of his eyebrows that irritated her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's really none of my business."

She felt obligated to defend herself. She had heard things about Wufei from other people, mainly that he was intellectual and prideful and had a dislike for sentimentality. "Look," she said. "I don't know why you dislike me so much. Maybe you don't like me as a politician. Maybe you think that I'm not good enough for Heero. Maybe you think it brings a warrior down to fall in love, but the point is that I do love Heero, and I…"

"Who said I didn't like you?"

She faltered. "Well…"

"Your pacifism of the past insulted me as a warrior, but these days none of that matters. As for you and Heero, I don't really care. I just wanted confirmation on the rumors. I thought it was odd."

"How is it odd?"

"I don't see Heero in a relationship."

She fought back the urge to say something biting. Heero was not a weapon anymore. He deserved to be loved as much as the next person. Did even his old comrades still think of him as nothing more than a soldier? "Well what about you? You are a warrior, right? Do you ever plan on being in any relationships?"

He grunted. "Not right now. But it's different anyway. Heero and I aren't coming from the same place."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, Miss Peacecraft. I'm going to admit that I don't know Heero that well. It's possible he's found the love of his life with you. It just seems a little early to me that a guy like Heero would be ready for the kind of social and personal commitment that a serious relationship takes. I can tell by looking at you that you're serious. So keep this is mind, just as a little friendly advice: When Heero really knows what he wants, he goes after it with all he's got. That guy's all about goals. And he relies heavily on instinct."

Relena smiled. He went after me.

Wufei eyed her stoically. "Are you sleeping with him?"

She blushed, one of her hands going automatically to her face, and she knew she had given it away.

"Huh," he smirked. "I thought so. Well, it's clear to me that I can't be of any help here. Take care of yourself. If I were you, I'd ask him how he feels."

She watched Wufei pay for his books and walk out of the store without turning back. Something in his tone made her stomach flop over, and she berated herself for feeling uneasy over the assessment of someone who was not a participant in her relationship. Heero had gone after her, goal-oriented just as Wufei had said. Perhaps it was just difficult for Wufei to believe that Heero could change so much, or that underneath his perfect soldier exterior he could be so sweet and caring and attentive to a girl, or that he could also be vulnerable to one. However, Wufei was right about one thing. It was past time to ask Heero how he felt. She didn't want to wonder anymore.

TBC

Please take a second to review!