(99 Ways) It's About Time [Relena x Crossover]

[AngelOfDeath]

I thought that I should try and push and do a non 1xR fic. Trust me, it was hard. In fact it was so hard there were some details I just had to keep for the sake of not going crazy. But know that I believe in Heero and Relena forever with no exceptions! This is just an exercise in ?make believe?. JUST PRETEND. I am pushing my comfort zone here. Give me some nice reviews to soothe the burning.

Disclaimer: I own neither Gundam Wing nor Trigun. Bummer.





Relena toweled off her hair to remove some of the excess moisture and thought about how long she?d have before her peace was shattered. This little escape may have been partially engineered by a sympathetic Sally and a pitying Hilde, but something told her the Gundam pilots would not take it the same way. Soon they would burst into her tropical paradise and bandy about phrases like ?danger to herself? and ?safety being paramount? but worst of all ?responsibility to her job?. For now those words were locked away behind her along with all those cleanly pressed business suits back at home.

Now to put on a bathing suit and find a likely beach chair. Maybe there would be a palm tree and some sort of alcoholic beverage involved. Something fruity and cold.

Her robe was just sliding down her shoulders as she unwound the terry cloth belt holding it on when the door burst open. The shriek that escaped her lips could probably be heard in the small cottages neighboring hers, but there was no need to enlist their aid. She knew this intruder.

"Relena! How could you!? Running away like that leaving us with just a note and more worries than you could possibly imagine!" The irate man, tall and out of breath from running from some undisclosed starting point to her room, all at once noticed that Relena was: 1. Not Happy, and 2. Not Dressed. A familiar leer started to glaze his features from habit.

"Vash, if you don?t get out of here this second I will personally make sure you have no desire to look at another woman again so long as you live." Her voice was calm and icy, and even if her words were not enough to cool the heat that was slowly creeping over his body, the fact that Trowa was probably going to be following soon did encourage him to leave and shut the door.

Not long after leaving, Trowa walked up to face him. Vash was still in front of the door, an expression halfway between euphoria and horror lodged on his face.

"She is safe?"

"Uuuhhh. . . yeah." Vash wondered if his thoughts were branding themselves on his forehead. He hoped not. Trowa, as Relena?s friend and bodyguard, would not stand for such thoughts as his and getting shot at was not on his to do list today. There was something. . . someone. . . he certainly did want to do. He gave his face a slap. Maybe this was just the chance he needed. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach, those vicious little buggers.

"What shall I tell Chang?" Trowa betrayed no hint if he knew what turmoil Vash was experiencing.

"Tell him everything is secure here." He looked serious suddenly, in a rare businesslike mode. "I will bring the minister home. You can leave as soon as possible to go back to your other duties." They both knew Trowa?s main job was guarding Relena. Vash was asking for some time. Trowa had suspected this happening for a while, and he nodded his consent. Turning, he left for the car to send the communication and arrange for transport off the island.

Meanwhile, in her room, Relena dressed in something more modest than the bikini she had been contemplating and thought about the past.

He would show up. The very thing she was trying to escape. Vash.

How long have you loved him, Relena? She asked herself, knowing the answer so well the question was almost rhetorical. Since you were 15. Her brain answered like a catechism memorized long ago. Since he landed on that beach and in your life.

Soon the memories cascaded into a montage as she slipped the sundress over her head. Vash running off with the ambulance. Vash going to her school. Vash saving her life. Then the pain became more acute as she recalled how she chased him all over the countries, like a game of hide and seek. It was childish indeed. Every time she sought him it was the same. He would be laughing and chasing after girls one minute, and off blowing up bases the next. It was like two different boys, but that mattered little. She was willing to take it all. The war was a strange time in all of their lives.

Then the war ended and she thought perhaps he would look at her and really see why she had chased him from place to place. Always he was irritated and not surprised, but always he had given her a smile and made sure she lived to see the next day. But if he gave her consideration, he gave every other girl affection. Was she not pretty enough? Was there something wrong with her? Doubts made her ill for years. Suspicion colored her view of any compliment until she realized it wasn?t her but him who made things this way.

After Mariemaia, when she held him and swore that he would never need to kill again, and he in turn swore to fight for love and justice but never take a life she thought perhaps she had not waiting in vain. Then he had all but disappeared into the missions the Preventors had for him. The few times he did show up he was pining after one office girl or another, or else stuffing his face with donuts.

Seven years was a long time to hold a torch for someone. Every time she thought maybe she was over him, he would show up and be his normal, exasperating, friendly, cheerful, bouncy, flirtatious self and she would fall all over again. Never flirtatious to her. No. She might as well be male considering how he seemed to see her.

Giving a last heavy sigh she walked out to confront a rare serious looking Vash, head in his hands, staring down at the floor rather intently. At her entrance his expression changed in an instant and a smile spread across his face, along with a faint blush.

"Relena! I?m so sorry, you know that I would never walk in on you like that if I thought for one second you?d be naked or nearly naked not that I looked or anything but I possibly may have seen something I shouldn?t in which case you can do anything you like to me or exact any revenge not that you have to choose because I could just do it myself such as. . ."

"Vash!" With a long-suffering expression, Relena tried to calm down the distressed pilot. "It?s ok. Don?t worry about it." He looked like a great weight had been taken from him. They both stood there a while. "I just need to stay here a while. Maybe if you could just leave Trowa here with me nearby," She could have sworn she saw something flash in his eyes. "Then you won?t have to worry. I must have a vacation or I will go mad. You remember what happened last week. . . " She had locked herself in her office for an entire day and just cried the whole time. He had seen the security videos.

What she didn?t tell him was she had cried all day because of him. Because that was the anniversary of the day she found him on the beach.

"Maybe I could stay. . ."

"No!" She had interrupted too quickly. The atmosphere was strained now. She closed her eyes and rubbed her right temple a moment. Arms surrounded her and her eyes shot open.

"I?m not leaving. Not this time." She got the feeling there was more to this than her immediate security.

"Let me go Vash." She tried to sound steady and monotone while her heart beat madly.

"How long have we known one another Relena?" He hadn?t let go. She felt her body fit beneath his chin and she wondered how he had gotten so tall. Had he really fit into that tiny Gundam cockpit?

"Seven years." Almost to the day.

"Come sit down next to me." He guided her over to the couch where she sat down in a graceless folding of limbs born of nervousness. "In all that time how many women have I chased after?"

She felt defensive. "Thousands? There could be more than that. I only saw the ones on Earth you wanted." The bitterness in her voice was only partially masked. Vash flinched.

"And how many times have you seen a girl actually tell me ?yes??"

This was a good question. All at once Relena found that though she had seen him chase after enough women, some circumstance or another seemed to prevent him from actually getting any of them. Somewhat odd, but true enough. Even Duo had had better luck until Hilde caught him. Her hesitation became a pause that dragged on for a while.

"Exactly." Came Vash?s somewhat sardonic reply to her silence. "But last month someone finally said yes." Relena?s back stiffened and she tried to smile and hide the tears.

"Congratulations. Now if you?ll excuse me, I have a vacation to-" She tired to rise but Vash caught her hand and smiled up at her even as he pulled her gently and firmly back down.

"It took me exactly two dates to realize that even though I had been convinced up until that moment that she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, she wasn?t what I wanted. Suddenly she didn?t look so nice anymore. No girl has since then." Relena thought back to how he had indeed been relatively calm recently, with his little episodes of mad energy more like a tornado than a hurricane. And he had been eating more donuts too.

"And. . ." Was this going somewhere, she wondered, or were her hopes rising just to pull up her blood pressure and further along the ulcer she was no doubt getting?

"You?ve seen my scars." Relena was suddenly confused. "You saw them a couple times and you didn?t turn away or look down. Sometimes I think of the way you looked when you gave your speech as the Queen of the World. I would look for you whenever I changed schools, even if I never admitted it, and was sad if you took longer than a week to find me." Relena?s eyes began to water a little. ". . . and the time you held me to you and swore I would never have to kill again I had to take a cold shower every day for two weeks to stop thinking about how soft your chest was."

"Vash. . ." she could barely choke it out.

"I love you Relena. I?ve always destroyed everything I?ve loved. But I won?t run anymore. Ever since I fell out of the sky and woke up at your feet, I ran. With your permission I?d like to get up and give something a try." He slid down to kneel by her. "Marry me Relena. I love you more than my life." He paused. "I love you more than donuts."

Relena made a little choking noise like a yes strangled by her throat and threw her arms around his neck. The kiss she gave him was salty and wet with her tears but she had never been happier. Vash crushed her to him. The moment lasted several minutes until Relena cleared her throat rather loudly.

"Um. Vash?" She glanced down and slightly behind where his hands had slipped down from her waist to. . . a slightly less appropriate area. Removing his hands from her posterior, his smile was sheepish and cheerful as always.

"Sorry?" He very well wasn?t sorry, but this was new to him and he didn?t want to mess up. Relena, at once aware of her power in this situation, got an impish grin on her face.

"You really love me more than donuts?"

"I said it didn?t I? I don?t lie. I am a defender of love and justice and we have our standards, after all. I wouldn?t joke about something like that." He slipped his glasses on his face just so he could look down at her through them. "Cross my heart."

"And you were really thinking about my chest for two weeks?"

Even now his hands were creeping on their own towards the very objects in question. "Yes." He gulped and forced his hands down again.

Relena stood up and walked back over to her room. She was suddenly glad that her nearest neighbors were a ways away. Vash looked after her, a question in his eyes.

"I?m changing to go swimming. There?s a pool out back. You?re going swimming too." Summarily decided. No room for questions.

"But I don?t have a swimsuit!" Vash protested as Relena disappeared behind the door. She peeked her head out.

"Neither will I."

Maybe a vacation was a good idea, Vash thought as he stripped frantically. A nice long one.

[SimplyTurquoise]

*gush* I Love You!!

...*cough*

That is... I really liked this fic... The whole VashXRelena never crossed my mind.... but now that you did this... yea...

Er...

SimplyTurquoise

[blackrose]

*dies*

I wanted to write a Vash x Relena fic, but I never thought of subbing Vash for Heero into the GW-verse. And ooooh dear. He loves her more than donuts. *roflmao* WHat a proposal indeed!!!

[AnShino]

Ahahahaha. I need to watch Trigun again XD I'd forgotten how much I do so very much love Vash and his utter!lover affair with donuts. Ahahahaha.

Wows, a Heero-free GW universe... interesting... sooo different, but I don't hate it at all. Lol.

Loved the fic,
An