Author: Omnicat v''v
Rating: G
Genre: General.
Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge: Nothing much in the spoiler department, but it would help if you?d seen enough to know what I?m talking about.
Warnings: None.
Pairings: Heero x Relena, teetering on the border of platonic and romantic.
Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue. Simple, no?
Summary: Relena isn?t used to admitting that something is bothering her. Heero isn?t used to dragging confessions out of people. But it?s about time someone gave it a try.
Author?s Note: I?ve always felt a strange distance when I watch the first couple of episodes and see how Relena interacts with her classmates. They always call her Miss, St Gabriel?s is a boarding school but Relena goes home after class every day, and she never seems to reach out and open up to her peers, only her parents, until Heero shows up. Not to mention how anti-social she was in Episode Zero. So here?s a little (i.e. really really tiny) something exploring that.
TL;DR, enjoy Heero's way of being supportive.
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The Woes of Miss Relena
II-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-I-oOo-I-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-II</center>
Heero opened his eyes when he heard Relena sigh.
She was leaning against the door on her side of the car, almost, but not quite slumping, elbow propped up on the ridge below the window and chin in hand. Her long hair was loose today, hanging over her ears and spilling over her shoulders with every turn of her head. The dark, dusty-pink dress she wore had frills at every hem and a bow tied around the waist. It all made her look much younger than her eightteen years. Certainly not like a Vice Foreign Minister of two years. They were headed for the St Gabriel Academy she had gone to as a girl, to attend the graduation ceremony and parting feast of her old classmates, but...
"You don?t look happy." Heero observed.
Relena shot him a look from the corner of her eyes, then looked out the window again. Her heavy expression didn?t fit her overall appearance. "I wonder if they remember me."
Heero felt his eyebrows rise. "I?m pretty sure these people follow the news."
"That?s not what I meant." Straightening, Relena folded her hands in her lap and stared down at them. "They would never forget the daughter of Vice Foreign Minister Darlian, who dropped out of school to lead countries and save the world and follow in her father?s footsteps. But do they remember Relena?"
As Heero watched, she frowned hard enough to make her eyes close - a sure sign of internal struggle. He didn?t understand; she was the one who had brought up the event, she?d bartered and wheedled and pleaded for her security to be in plainclothes until he?d decided to go with her himself and made up a colonial mirror-story of Relena?s life as a cover for his tumultuous past experience at St Gabriel?s, and childhood anecdotes were the only thing she?d talked about in the last few weeks. Why was she becoming conflicted now?
"I?m not following you. Of course they?ll remember who you were before. They went to school with you for years."
She looked up and across to him helplessly. There seemed to be something on the tip of her tongue, but after opening and closing her mouth three times she shook her head and looked away again. "You?re right, I shouldn?t be complaining. Forget it. It?s nothing."
Heero made an exasperated noise in the back of his throat. Unfolding his arms, he told Relena: "You?re a really bad liar, you know that?"
If she kept up snapping her head around at that rate, she was going to get a whiplash.
"Whatever it is that?s bothering you, it?s not going to go away because you tell yourself it?s not something you should be bothered by. Just spit it out."
Relena bit her lip. "It?s stupid. You?d think I?m pathetic."
"Being troubled by something doesn?t make you pathetic. You don?t think so about others, I?ve heard you say it, so why would you think so about yourself?"
To Heero?s immense confusion, Relena burst out laughing at this, but her eyes were moist when she looked at him and choked out: "They would never stop calling me Miss. Nobody else was called Miss. But I was never just Relena, always Miss Relena. What if - what if they never saw me as anything other than Darlian?s daughter? Not a person, but only an idol. I can deal with it when it?s people I?ve never met personally, but my classmates..."
It took a moment for Heero to wrap his mind around what she was saying. When he was growing up, first in Odin?s care and then under J, being treated according to your rank or position was simply how things worked. He had often found it hard, but he understood why it was done. Evidently though, things were different in the environment Relena had grown up in. It made sense now that he thought about it; Relena never treated people (him, for one) like she was their boss - or like they were her boss. Heero couldn?t quite imagine what was going through her mind, but he did know that for all her introverted quirks, Relena was a lot quicker to reach out to people than he was. Logical deduction and extrapolation would indicate...
Re-crossing his arms and leaning back demonstratively, Heero declared: "If they never saw your worth as an individual in all those years, they?re not worth -"
"No!" Relena exclaimed, looking almost shocked. "They?re not bad people, Heero. It?s just... I..."
"Then give them another chance. That?s the only way things may change." he said with a small smile.
As Relena stilled and stared at him, a blush began to form on her cheeks. When she looked down at her lap, she was smiling too. "See. I should have thought of that myself."
"There?s no point in beating yourself up about stuff like this."
She smiled at him. Still a bit watery-eyed, but radiant all the same. "Thank you, Heero."
Heero shrugged.
A little while later, they arrived at the school grounds. Relena grabbed his sleeve as he made to exit the car, leaned over, and kissed him on the cheek. "I mean it. Thank you for doing this for me. All of it."
Though it seemed the most appropriate response, he couldn?t quite bring himself to say "That?s what friends are for.". But Relena had always had a penchant for reading his mind; his smile said it all.