The Beehive: Ch1 (Scandal, Conspiracy and an Old Freind

[Tumbleweed]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters associated with it. This is simply a non-profit fictional story that a no life fan of the series decided to write in his spare time for jollies.

AN: This is probably unnecessary but I thought I’d comment right here and now that some of the concepts and ideas in this fanfiction are borrowed or were inspired by concepts in Xenogears and Star Trek. I did try to include many of my own thoughts, however. I would also like to mention that I’ve only seen the TV series and Endless Waltz (Special Edition). I’ve read a few things about the mangas but I’ve never actually read or seen one myself (at the time this was written) so if there is anything in this story that is inconsistent with the mangas that’s why.

This fic has been on FFN for a while. I figure while I’m here I might as well post it here too.

The Beehive

Chapter 1: Scandal, Conspiracy and an Old Acquaintance

DATE: February 14, 203 AC
LOCATION: The Presidential Residence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation

~*~*~ TIME: 8:32 AM ~*~*~

“Are you sure?” asked Relena, eyes intensely examining the document in her hands.

Mr. Barker, her secretary of the treasury sighed, he wiped off some of the perspiration that was gathering just beneath his, now graying, hairline and reluctantly answered, “Ms. President, there can be no doubt about it now, someone has been falsifying the books. These aren’t just isolated instances, a considerable amount of money is missing.”

Relena lifted her lead weighted eyes off of the paper and desperately struggling to keep her feelings of panic from infiltrating her voice, stood up out of her seat and asked, “How much exactly?”

The middle-aged politician timidly pulled a pen out of his suit’s left breast pocket and wrote something down on a small peace of paper and handed it to the caramel blonde young woman behind the desk. Relena glanced at the paper and for a moment just starred at it expressionless. About ten seconds or so past until Relena furiously crumpled it up and callously threw it into a nearby waste paper basket. She gracelessly plopped down back in her seat and rotated around to face her office window. She slouched down in her plush chair and just stared out the window with her deep blue eyes aimlessly for at least a minute.

Mr. Barker, wondering weather she had forgotten he was still there began to speak, “Uh… President Darlian..?”

Relena turned back around, eyes closed, head resting in her hands just above her eyebrows to face Mr. Barker. A strong edge of anger and annoyance were present in her voice as she began to speak, “How could you..?” Relena stopped herself, took a deep breath and started over in a calm -but still tainted with a hint of anger voice, “I’m sorry… How could you just loose track of that much money?”

“I’m not sure exactly, but it looks like someone’s been making hundreds, maybe thousands of small over estimates on every day government expenses, for quite some time too. It couldn’t have been just some random things; it was well planned. It was pure luck that the accountants even found out about this so early.” The man stood statue still, trying to hide his anxiety; he knew what she was going to ask next, and he didn’t want to have to answer it.

“Do you have any suspects?”

Mr. Barker’s adam’s apple rolled up and down his throat as he took a big gulp of air in, “No ma’am, expenses all across the board have been over estimated, they’re not confined to just one department. As I said, this was definitely well planned.”

Relena opened her mouth, about to say something but decided against it, ‘What do I pay you people for?’ she silently asked herself. “Please try to get to the bottom of this ASAP; you’re dismissed.”

Mr. Barker nodded and timidly slipped out of the room while Relena started writing a memo. By this time she had realized that if this got out now, she’d probably be the first one people would suspect. In many ways it’s so much easier to head a nation during times of war then it is during times of peace. During war, everyone focuses on the external threat and doesn’t pay attention to what’s going on inside the government itself; so all a politician would need to do to be hailed as a great leader is win. However, if an external foe isn’t clearly present the people will try to make one, and it’s usually the biggest most powerful thing they can find, their own government. So during times of peace if a leader isn’t absolutely flawless - which is impossible - their own people will persecute them for every little mistake they make and it doesn’t matter how trivial it is, how much control they actually have over it or how relevant the mistake actually is in regards to the leader’s ability to lead. Poor Relena, now starting her sixth year as president (her last year of her third term), had been learning this difficult lesson the hard way. Even though the now twenty-two year old has maintained the image of an innocent, well meaning and untainted young woman, her intelligence, ability to lead and even her morality had been called into question by newspapers and political rivals numerous times, especially during elections, which were coming up in December. One thing was clear to Relena; if the real culprit wasn’t exposed she was ruined.

Relena sealed the memo in an envelope and walked outside her office to see her office secretary, Cheryl, typing up documents on her computer. Cheryl looked up from her work, brushed her bouncy red hair to the side and gave Relena a cheery smile, “Good morning Ms. Darlian, is there something you wanted?”

Relena sighed a bit, it was obvious she was stressed, ‘good old Cheryl’, she though, ‘she’s always so energetic and cheery.’ She snapped out of her momentary silence and remembered what she came her to do, “Cheryl, isn’t Heero in yet?”

Cheryl face shifted to a concerned expression and shook her head a bit, “No, of course not. Remember? You told him he didn’t have to come in until 9:30 today”, she answered.

Disappointment struck the stressed out politician’s face as she began to regret her telling Heero to try and take it easy. “Yeah, that’s right. I remember now”, she handed Cheryl the envelope and continued, “Could you please give this to Heero as soon as he does come in, it’s urgent.”

“Sure thing.” Cheryl gave her a smile and a quick wink. She didn’t know what was going on but whatever it was it looked like the President could probably use some cheer. She caught Relena’s eyes wondering to a red and pink heart-shaped card that Cheryl had left lying on her desk. She blushed a bit and commented, “It’s from Alen.”

“Oh, That’s right, you were telling me before; so you two are getting along well then, I guess?” Relena really didn’t want to talk about love right now, but there didn’t seem to be a way out of it since Cheryl caught her looking at the valentine. ‘Heero probably won’t even remember it’s Valentine’s day let alone do anything for it’, she thought, ‘but then again why would he?’

A warm grin stretched across Cheryl’s face as she replied, “Yeah, he’s taking me out tonight after we get off work.” Cheryl hesitated a bit before continuing, “Do you have anyone for valentine’s day?” Cheryl knew that it was a risk asking her but it was a question she had to ask.

As expected, Relena’s expression became even more depressed as she let out a deep sigh and plainly answered, “no”, a hint of contempt within her manner.

“Well, you know, I think Alen’s brother broke up with his girlfriend a week or two ago” Cheryl proclaimed with a merry confidence, “I’m sure he’d be thrilled to take the President out on a date. Maybe you could wear your hair up or something so you won’t get noticed or…”

Relena interrupted, “Thanks a lot Cheryl”, her expression alleviated a little, “but I don’t think so.” Relena began walking back to her office.

Cheryl, a little discouraged by this scrunched up her bottom lip for a moment as she thought. “Well, maybe I can persuade Heero to do something with you, eh?” Cheryl winked at Relena, almost giggling at her own cleverness, “That is, if he’s available, I bet he’s a real Romeo in private”, she rolled her eyes, “I bet the girls go wild when he’s in the room.”

A small, bitter sweet, almost depressed laugh escaped the office bound Relena’s mouth, “heh…heh…hee… Yeah, that’ll be the day.”

~*~*~TIME: 8:59 AM ~*~*~

Heero walked by the presidential reception room heading directly for his personal office. In recent years, the combined factors of Relena being his employer and the fact that her really didn’t have much else to do with his time had caused Heero to become a total workaholic. Under normal circumstances, when he wasn’t on night guard duty, it was his routine to check up on any possible new threats for an hour or so in the mourning before going to the president’s office to personally check every inch of it for booby traps; he was usually done by about 6:00 AM. However, since Heero took Relena up on her offer to come in late today, he was in more of a rush then usual. Cheryl caught up with him, as he was about to enter his office. She looked at her watch, “Wow, you’re late agent Yuy, your only… gasp… one measly half-an-hour early. You’re really letting yourself go,” she teased.

To Heero, Cheryl had always been an annoyance; but then, so were a lot of people Heero met. “Don’t you have something to type?” Heero interrupted, barely maintaining a face and tone of voice free of irritation, or any other emotion for that matter.

“Don’t you have a life outside guard duty”, Cheryl shot back, “the president doesn’t give you the okay to come in late every now and then because she thinks rest will hurt you, you know. I swear, I even see you here on your days off.”

Heero’s face maintained it’s frosty granite composure, “I did sleep in; there’s just no reason to dawdle back at my apartment while the president is here. Did you have something to say to me or not?”

Cheryl rolled her eyes, “Oh well, guess it’s just as well”, she handed Heero the sealed envelope containing Relena’s memo, “she said it’s urgent”, she added. Something was up, Heero was putting in more effort to try and brush Cheryl off then usual. As she tried to figure out what was prompting it she noticed something unusual, Heero was carrying a bag from a local mall along side with his briefcase. “What’s in the bag”, she asked inquisitively.

Heero ignored her question and looked over the memo. His expression became intensely serious as he folded the memo up, tucked it in his coat pocket and threw the bag into his office before shutting the door. He then bolted off to try and find Relena. “Thank you”, he said before hastily brushing past Cheryl and turned the corner just ahead of her.

Cheryl looked back at Yuy’s office and for a moment considered trying to go back and find out what Heero actually had in the bag but ended up deciding against it. As she went back to her desk and sat down she began to think about it some more. She had heard plenty of gossip from various housemaids and other staff saying that Relena and Heero were pursuing a secret romantic relationship, many of which she found to be a little overboard so she completely dismissed most of them as just a bunch of nonsense. Yet, at the same time, as much as they tried to make their relationship appear purely professional, it was obvious to anyone that there was undoubtedly an attraction between the two, so she didn’t completely dismiss all the possibilities. Several of the rumors were still too shocking to be taken seriously though. That however, didn’t stop the super market tabloids from printing, among many other bizarre and slanderous things, crazy stories about the president’s love life, which in actuality, save for the long talks the two of them sometimes had and the countless times they would find themselves staring at the other when they didn’t think they were looking, didn’t exist. According to the Earth Sphere Questioner, for example, President Darlian had been pregnant on numerous occasions with the children of either Heero or other member of her staff, females included; aliens; random perverts off the street that had claimed to have had a one night stand with her; a demon baby and on one occasion a clone of her brother, Milliardo. All the nonsense surrounding the fact that Relena was a young woman in her prime that didn’t outwardly appear to have a man in her life aside, Cheryl began to think to herself, ‘Maybe Ms. Darlian does have a valentine after all.’

~*~*~ TIME: 12:03 PM ~*~*~

Heero was escorting Relena to the east wing’s meeting room. Even though politically she was in the middle of a crisis she couldn’t have it appear as though something was wrong until she had more information, so all scheduled meetings were still on.

No matter how often Relena looked at Heero in the black suit and sunglasses he wore to work it just didn’t seem natural. She had to do it though, that raggedy old tank top he liked to sport accompanied by either spandex shorts or jeans simply wasn’t an appropriate attire for a presidential bodyguard. She did admire what good fight he put up about it, however.

Relena entered the room to find that Mr. Almond, some of her other advisors and all the guests from the Darter Corporation were already in their seats. “I’m sorry for being a little late”, the young president stated, “I had some other matters to attend to.” She promptly took her seat and folded her hands on the table.

The guests from the Darter Corporation, including the corporate president Thomas Darter, himself, included several other executives and some of the top researchers for the Beehive Project. The Beehive Project had actually been initially proposed during the days leading up to the end of the Alliance by high-level scientists interested in further developing nano-bot technology far beyond what it was currently at. The idea behind it was initially to revolutionize the fields of medicine but it was realized that they could be used in many other ways as well. However, the project was never brought into serious consideration by the Alliance leadership due to the troubled times; and after Oz overthrew the Alliance, the Romefeller Foundation was simply to fixated on mobile suits to consider the Beehive Project at all. It wasn’t until 197 AC that the previous president finally approved the project when the Darter Corporation, under new leadership, proposed it again. Now, five years later, the Darter Corporation was reporting that it’s made considerable progress and that they are ready for Mr. Almond, President Darlian’s chief minister of technological development, to make any inspections he needs to in order for them to continue their research.

Mr. Darter stood up, “Ms. President, I have no need to give an extended speech, for the historical technological developments that the Earth Sphere Unified Nation has made possible by funding the Darter Corporation’s research and development in nano-bot technology and neurological interface devices have led to what could possibly be the most influential piece of technology in human history, the Beehive. However, I should probably leave the explaining up to our two lead scientists in the final stages of this project, Dr. Jonathan and the young Dr. Marcus.”

Two men dressed in lab coats stepped forward, the first one, Dr. Jonathan was an African gentleman who was getting on in his years. His dark and frail looking figure had wrinkles in almost every part of skin that was visible. The second scientist, Dr. Marcus, was a young man who was somewhere in his twenties. His lanky form rose to about 6’1”, he had pale skin, brown hair and brown eyes covered up by a pair of oversized glasses, which were at that moment focusing squarely on Relena.

It took her a few seconds but she eventually recognized him. Relena stood up, an awestruck expression of shock pasted on her bewildered face. “Tyler..?” she asked, still dumbfounded about her meeting him again like this.

A cocky grin began to grow on the left side of Tyler’s acne scarred mug, “I see you remember me…”, his expression became one of resentment as he added with a hint of contempt, “princess!”

Mr. Darter shot Tyler a dirty look, telling Tyler to take his seat. Tyler reluctantly obeyed his boss’ silent order.

Relena, sunk back down in her seat, Tyler’s message was loud and clear. ‘I don’t need this now’, the slumping girl thought, ‘He’s still mad at me, even after ten years. Of course, it’s not like I can blame him for how he feels, though.’ She looked back at Heero who was standing by the door, she couldn’t see his eyes behind the sunglasses but his stern expression appeared unchanged.

Dr. Jonathan began, “As we all know, nano-bots are simply microscopic machines that can be used to complete various small tasks. However, since it’s almost impossible to coordinate their efforts they haven’t been very useful to humanity; that is until now. Ms. President, I introduce to you and your staff, the Beehive.” The meeting room grew dark as a screen on the wall behind Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Marcus lit up showing the image of a large supercomputer that actually looked something like a beehive. Dr. Jonathan proudly continued in his rough old voice, “The Beehive is a supercomputer that was designed to be able to coordinate the activities of trillions of nano-bots at one time. More importantly, the Beehive can take instructions from a variety of different input devices, including a direct link to the mind of a human being. Since these new nano-bots, which we nicknamed ‘bees’, are so small and precise, they can easily construct or repair things that humans need a microscope to even see. For example”, the image on the screen changed to that of a man in a wheel chair, “this poor soul had his spinal cord severed; however,”, the image changed again to pictures of the man walking around just fine as if nothing were ever wrong, “the bees were able to completely repair the damage at the cellular level in a few hours. Even more amazing is this man’s story”, the image switched to a man who was missing an arm and a leg and then to that same man with all his limbs in tact, “The war cost him an arm and a leg but with the help of the bees he completely regenerated in a day’s time.”

By this time many of the president’s staff members who attended the meeting were had grown very interested in what was being presented to them, except for Heero who didn’t outwardly seem to be effected at all and also Relena, who seemed only seemed to be half paying attention.

Dr. Marcus began his part of the presentation. With confidence he stood up in front of the group and picked up where Dr. Jonathan left off, “The possible uses for nano-bots aren’t just limited to the medical field however. With the use of sub-nano-bots we found that we could even rearrange simple molecules. Imagine what could be done… think about how this could speed up the terraforming project. With the use of a few Beehives, Mars’s atmosphere could become breathable in a few short years. We humans could become the true masters of our environment.”

Dr. Marcus’ speech continued as he began to explain the complicated operations behind the Beehive, but Relena was simply too lost in thought. ‘I always knew he was a genius’, she mutely stated, ‘but still, earning a doctorate degree, already. Of course, no one would have believed that I’d be president of the world nine years ago.’ A small cold smile began to form as she recalled a time in which her mother was lecturing her about her about a bad grade she had, but only for a second; and then realized she was missing Tyler’s speech.

“…and so”, Tyler was concluding, “humanity is at a revolutionary breakthrough in our technological abilities and I, as I’m sure the rest of you all are, am very anxious to see how the world will change due to this breakthrough.” Tyler sat down again to allow Mr. Darter to speak.

“The Darter Corporation is very excited to be the one to pioneer The Beehive Project and as you’ve seen we’re already in our final stages of testing. You can send Mr. Almond’s team to inspect for yourselves any time you desire.”

Relena was still unsure weather she missed anything important or not but she had to say something, “Thank you, that was all very interesting. I’ll be sure to fill out the paperwork for Mr. Almond’s trip later today.” She hoped that sounded about right.

As people began to leave the room Relena caught up with Tyler, “Tyler!?”

Tyler stopped dead in his tracks and tensed up his shoulders a little, “Yes, Ms. President?”

Relena sighed a bit and continued, “I’m really sorry about what I did; we were young and I just…”

‘You’re still young’ Tyler internally retorted. He turned his head around and loosened up his shoulders a bit, “It’s all in the past Relena, I forgive you.” And with that, he followed the group out of the meeting room, leaving Relena alone with Heero.

Heero lifted up his sunglasses revealing his indigo blue eyes, to the brim with concern. “What was that about” the bodyguard asked, almost suspiciously.

Relena met his gaze with hers; it was clear that Dr. Marcus’ presence was making her even more depressed then she already was. “He’s just a boy I used to know, that’s all” she answered somberly.

“I see”, Heero let his sunglasses fall back down to cover his eyes. “His speech was just about how the things work”, he continued, “He’s one of the biggest nerds I’ve ever seen.”

Relena couldn’t help but laugh a little upon hearing that; Heero didn’t say something funny all that often, so when he did she made the most of it. “As often as I see you with a computer, your one to talk”, she playfully jeered.

Heero opened the door for her. His expression became serious again; “So, should I resume with my investigation immediately?”

“Oh…”, Relena had almost completely forgot about that, “Yes… Thank you Heero, you’re really going above the…”

“That’s why you hired me”, Heero bluntly interrupted.

Relena’s voice sank back down again, “Well… no, that’s not the only reason…”

~*~*~ TIME: 12:45 PM ~*~*~

The limousine carrying Mr. Darter, Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Marcus was departing from the Presidential Residence. Mr. Darter closed the window between the driver and passenger area and began to cautiously speak to his head scientists, “Apparently she has recently found out about the… misplaced funds. Luckily, she doesn’t have a clue what’s really going on; Mr. Almond does a thorough job.”

Dr. Jonathan’s wrinkled face seemed almost ebony striped in the dim light of the limousine. “Even if she did find out, I doubt that she’d be able to do anything about it; all that’s left is to install the implants”, he pompously added.

“Still”, Mr. Darter continued, pausing for a second and then glared directly at Tyler, “we should be careful what we say, shouldn’t we?”

Tyler rolled his eyes and let out a small, exasperated snort. “You don’t need to worry about it, she doesn’t suspect a thing; what did I tell you? She’s as dumb as a door knob”, Tyler turned his head towards the window, and watched the street light posts zoom by as the limousine drove down the street; he silently added, ‘but even so, she’s still twice as smart as you two.’

~*~*~ TIME: 2:45 PM ~*~*~

“…and the Conservative Party will eventually get a hold of this”, Mr. Kushplacky lamented.

Relena was at her desk filling out some paperwork. She signed at the bottom of the last page in the packet and handed it to Mr. Almond, “Here, it’s all done.”

Mr. Almond accepted the paperwork from Relena’s hands, and promptly walked out the door, before beaming Relena his big ivory white smile.

Relena turned back around to her head political advisor, Mr. Kushplacky and wearily stated, “You may continue.”

“I was about to say” Mr. Kushplacky continued, his voice now expressing annoyance. He stopped again as Heero came into the room carrying a manila folder marked confidential. Heero, realizing that that Relena was in the middle of a meeting began to silently exit.

“You may stay Agent Yuy”, Relena assured him. Heero nodded and came fully back into the room before shutting the door.

A truly annoyed Mr. Kushplacky went on, “If we don’t solve this problem soon it could seriously damage your reputation and jeopardize your upcoming campaign. There’s bound to be some patsy down in accounting or something that we can pin this whole mess on, isn’t there?”

“Patsy!?”, Relena cried, “You’re talking like you think I actually have something to do with this!”

Mr. Kushplacky, realizing that he just insulted her, paused for a moment to think and then apologetically responded, “I’m sorry Ms. President, I wasn’t thinking clearly about what I was saying. I was simply trying to suggest a way to remedy the situation.”

“Well if that’s your solution then don’t”, Relena infuriatingly shot back, “I’m not just going to ‘pin it on some patsy’ who doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with it. We’ll find out who is really responsible and bring HIM to justice. And as for my campaign…”, Relena paused for a moment to look at Heero.

‘Why is she looking at me’, Heero thought, his puzzlement hidden by the dark glasses he was wearing.

The blonde politician returned her line of sight back to Mr. Kushplacky, “I wanted to inform you of a decision I recently made. I’m not going to be running for a fourth term.”

Even Heero was taken aback hearing that. ‘Relena, what could you be thinking?’, Heero contemplated as his jaw dropped. Relena was the only person in the world that Heero even thought deserved the position of president, why would she just quit now? Then he slowly began to realize what this might be about, ‘No… she can’t do this.’

For about thirty seconds neither one of the three said anything until Mr. Kushplacky finally opened his mouth, “Are you… sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure Mr. Kushplacky”, Relena stated, an aura of anger and defiance in her manner. “At the end of this year I will have served as president for six years, I think that’s long enough.”

“Does this have anything to do with this accounting scandal”, Mr. Kushplacky questioned. “I’m sure that it will be fine if we handle it prudently. You still have a strong approval rating by the people. I don’t think that…”

“That’s quite all right”, interrupted a now calmed down Relena, “My decision is final however. You may leave.”

An aggravated Kushplacky resentfully stood up and shot Heero a quick glare as he halfheartedly proceeded to the door. He paused for a moment, “Please, think about this more carefully before you tell anyone else”, he pleaded before exiting the office.

Heero folded up his sunglasses and placed them in his breast pocket. He just stood their looking at Relena, unsure of weather to say something or not.

“Did you have something to show me Agent Yuy”, the president’s voice piped up.

Heero remembered that he had come in here to hand Relena his report, or what there was of it. He decided he better wait before saying anything else because when she calls him Agent Yuy when it’s just the two of them, she means business.

“What did you find?” Relena was clearly more interested in the contents of the document Heero was handing her.

Heero took a deep breath, “Not much”, he reluctantly admitted. “Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing, and they sure as hell know how to cover their tracks too. What’s for sure though is this had to have been planned someone pretty high up. It couldn’t just be one rogue accountant, I do know that.”

Relena leaned back in her chair, “Do you think it could be Mr. Barker?” She didn’t just want to point fingers before learning more, but he was the most obvious culprit.

“No”, he replied, “He’s the first person I looked into. Besides, if I really did think it was him, I’d be personally questioning him right now instead of talking to you about it. The problem with that theory is that Mr. Barker wasn’t in your advisory board at all until this term; your previous secretary of the treasury resigned after the heart attack, remember? And, as you can see from the records this seems to have been going on before that.”

Relena scanned page two of the document that Heero handed her and sighed. It wouldn’t be as easy as she had hoped. “So that means whoever is behind it has been here for a while”, she stated. Absolute seriousness, distress even, took hold of Relena’s voice “Heero, you don’t think I have anything to do with this, do you?” Relena simply didn’t know what she’d do with herself if even Heero, her only real support for the past five years didn’t trust her.

Heero, of course, was baffled about why she would even ask such a stupid question. “Relena”, he stated with absolute assuredness, “You’re the only person in this whole building that I trust didn’t have something to do with it.”

Some weight lifted off of Relena like she’d just taken off a lead vest; she rotated her chair to face Heero. “Thank you Heero, I just needed to hear something like that from someone.”

Heero wasn’t sure why, but for a moment Relena seemed more attractive then usual. The sunlight shown through the window illuminating her smooth white suit and making her grand golden hair, which was pulled back in a pony tale with a silky black bow, glisten. Her cerulean eyes, though ravaged with worry and weariness, still seemed sparkled like the ocean. Personally, Heero always thought she looked better in a dress and with her hair let lose with the braids, like how she used to wear it; he’d never tell her that though. Besides, she looked just as angelic to him no matter how she wore her hair. He realized about then that he was doing it again, letting her beauty distract him from his work. It did remind him that he was planning to ask her a question a few minutes ago though. “Relena”, he asked, “Why aren’t you running for a fourth term?”

“Why would you ask something like that Heero?” Relena inquired back. Her voice sank a little, she didn’t want to be having this discussion with him now.

Heero knew it wasn’t any of his business but he had to know for sure; he felt it pompous to presume so but if Relena was doing this in hopes of pursuing some kind of romantic relationship with him he could never forgive himself. “I just think that you should make sure that no other individual is influencing this decision of yours, it effects a lot of people. You should take them into consideration first.”

Relena turned her head away from Heero and just looked down into nothingness for a moment as she thought about it. She broke her silence; “I guess if this all goes over okay and I support her campaign my vice has a good chance at the presidency. It’s not like no one else could do my job.”

Heero had to consciously restrain himself from making a comment he might later regret; he just couldn’t imagine anyone else ever filling Relena’s place in government, she was one of a kind. However, he still had to say something, “No one could ever replace you. It’s because of you that we have peace in the first place.” Heero realized that he may have been giving Relena more credit then she deserves, but he didn’t care, he wasn’t about to just stand by as Relena threw her career away, especially if it was in any way for him.

As she heard Heero’s words, the anger and frustration Relena had been building up lately began to boil over. She didn’t understand why she was so angry with him, not just angry but hurt too. She knew what he was getting at, or she hoped she knew at least. It’s true that the thought had crossed her mind once or twice… a day, but still, she didn’t think she was that hopeless. She was just so sick and tired of politics; and she couldn’t believe that Heero, her only real close friend for the past several years couldn’t see that.

“You really have no idea; screw the world!” she snapped.

Heero took a half step back in astonishment; he never thought he’d ever hear Relena say that, not in a million years. It just wasn’t like her; she couldn’t possibly mean this.

Relena was about as surprised as Heero was about her emotional outburst, but her heated speech continued, “I’ve spent all this time trying to obtain and maintain peace and what do I get out of it? Nothing! Everyone makes judgments about everything I do, scandalous rumors about me are spread around the world on a daily basis, there are people that want me dead, every day I’m expected to make decisions that impact the lives of billions and no matter what I decide someone is always unhappy, I never have time for fun, I’m surrounded by greedy politicians all day, I’m overworked, underslept, I just found out today that nobody in my advisory board trusts me anymore and I’m totally stressed out! The people just use me Heero, and after they’re satisfied they’ll just throw me away. If I were living in a shack, in the woods, squeezing out the bastard children of an inbred redneck I’d be happier then I am right now! You’d do fine!”

They both just froze right there, statue still, looking at each other for what seemed like hours. Neither, one of them was exactly sure where that last part came from nor what to say next.

Relena, whose face had turned scarlet red, forced her expression to soften a little and finally broke the silence, “I’m sorry… I… you see… I… I don’t even make sense anymore.” She attempted to put on a smile to ease the tension. She couldn’t live with herself if she somehow damaged the friendship she knew they did have.

Heero just continued gawking, unsure of what to say. What was he supposed to say to something like that?

“I just…” Relena continued, “I can’t…” she paused for a moment and threw her head down in her hands, desperately trying to hold back the tears which had already begun to leak out. “Just… just go”, she said.

Whenever Heero wasn’t sure how to feel, he always opted not to show emotion at all. He stoicly replied, “Yes ma’am”, and left her office.

Slowly, Relena picked her head up; she wiped a salty drop of moisture off her rose-red face. “Of course not…” she commented as she moved to the next set of papers on her R&S (read & sign) pile.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: I'll post the other 5 chapters I have ASAP

[RyanEX2000]

I like this story(I don't say love.....too...fluffy).

Anyway I've followed it on FFNet,whenever I take the time to filter through the accursed Yaoi,gay,whatever you wanna call them,fics.Though you seemed to have put it a bit on hold though.

Hope you finish this soon.

[zipdos]

Well....I didn't get a chance to read this one on ff.net.....I think it's gonna be real good....I really liked when Rel threw a fit.