Heero's Angel

-Nena.

It had been a long, beautiful, glorious day.

He took a sip of his tea and relaxed his stanza, leaning against the glass window and feeling the heat of the sun even through his dark gray sweater. He stared out across a deep blue ocean towards a pink, peach, and golden sunset going down behind the dark abyss of water. The only sound in the house was his breathing. He loved silence, probably even more than the warmth of the sun. He loved for things to just be. Not to move. Not to sing. Not to make noise, but to just be and stay that way.

Like his crimson heart. No one must know anything about it, must not hear its beat, must not long for it and bleed. They may know it is there. So be it. He forbade the world to hear it. Let the world sleep with one less distraction.

Oh, but if he could sleep one single night without hearing the sound of his bleeding, thumping heart filling his ears with cries of the massacred - oh, to know what real love felt like without the guilt of innocence lying on his shoulders - oh, to just be, and not care, and live, and begin again. To love and be loved merely for who you are, how wonderful - how perfect - how quiet...how utterly unobtainable.

The sun slowly descended behind the sea, shrouding him in the darkness of his house and heart. He looked into the sky and saw the first star - the only star he ever saw looking out of this particular window in his home. It was his only guide during the night, his only comfort. The only reflection on the black water below. He set down his tea, now cold, and walked softly across his kitchen into the living room. The plush white carpet under his feet gave him a sense of landing, so he sat down on the black couch in his living room. He reached into his jeans' pocket and pulled out a rather sharp knife, then brought it up to his neck, rubbing the cool metal along his throat. The tip of the knife poked his skin and he quickly jerked it away, reaching up and covering the cut with his hand. He looked at the knife in his hand as the blood ran now the metal, leaving a trail.

He hadn't done it on purpose. He wasn't suicidal. He just didn't care whether or not he accidentally hurt himself, and the worst-case scenario happened. It's what happened to people like himself. It's what people like himself deserved. The worst case scenarios. His punishment. He rose and walked back into the kitchen, opening a cabinet and bringing out the first aid kit.

Later that night, when he was in bed and the ocean outside was silent, he pondered his life. His existence. His reason to keep on trying - to not just give up. And he found he had none anymore. Before it was for peace, but now peace was here. This world was as safe as it could possibly be under the circumstances, even without the Perfect Soldier himself. He had no reason to keep on trying. So when he sensed the moon being covered by a cloud, and when he heard the silence being broken by his hot water heater, and when he believed the world wouldn't hear, he spoke in the night, a whisper…

"I need a sign. Anything. I need an angel, something...someone to show me what I should be doing. I've never asked anything of You since before the war, because I stopped believing. But I'm believing right now. You're my last chance, and if You're not real...if You don't show up, come through for me..."

His thoughts ran almost as a shock to even himself.

"You're my last chance. If You're not real, I give up."

He fell asleep that night in the uneasiness that settles into the oceans in each and every heart, but in the midst of his own murky black depths, a light shone.

She couldn't sleep. Tonight had been a night where the burden she bared had increased ten fold, and she felt a tugging in her heart - she hadn't known what for. She prayed daily, a sure sign of her faith to God even if she no longer believed in total Pacifism. She fasted at least once a week for Heero Yuy. She didn't know why, she just did. Maybe it was for his soul - she wanted that torn soul to be with her in Heaven one day. Or maybe it was because there was a secret romance blossoming in her heart towards him, to which of the kind she had never felt towards any male before. Literally. She had never kissed. She had never dated. She was 18 years old.

Or maybe it was part of her calling on earth. Or maybe it was a combination. She didn't know, but she did. So far, for the past four years, nothing had happened. Of course they talked, but only the necessary things. They worked in the same building together six out of seven days of the week, but had barely had more than a 5 minute long conversation. He attracted her - he attracted her more than any man she had ever met before, and she admitted it to herself. Physically, and mentally, and emotionally - the latter mostly because he was a mystery to her. She never knew what he was going to say, if he ever said anything at all. And she had to think long and hard about what he did say, and she received something from him about it - a new confidence in herself, or a new way of seeing the world. She wanted to know him. She wanted to know Heero Yuy. She wanted to hear his heart.

It was dangerous, she knew. But she couldn't help it - God had allowed him to come into her life for a reason. And she into his. For what reason she did not know, but strived to figure out. She craved the feeling of his arms around her - the feeling of not being alone all the time. She was never alone, she knew so - God was always there and would always be her strength. She just wanted to have a love - to feel that kind of love with someone else - with Heero Yuy.

The door to her bedroom creaked open and she turned to see a mop of golden hair next to her bedside. A chubby hand with Barbie-pink nail polish reached over her bed and tugged onto her night gown.

She leaned over her bed and stared into the beautiful blue eyes of her niece Aurora. The child merely stared back in hopes of being picked up. Relena searched the eyes for a long time - quite a long time. Apparently too long for tears started forming and Relena quickly picked her up and set her on her lap.

Aurora had never spoken a complete sentence in her entire life, and only spoke to Relena. The child was three years old. She didn't even cry when she changed from infant to toddler, even when Zechs and Noin found her standing in a bed of ants - Aurora simply ran to them and held up her legs. But for her Aunt Relena, the child would cry - if she wasn't held, she would cry.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Relena ran her hands through the child's locks as if they were silk. Aurora nodded "no" and Relena stopped.

"Is something wrong? You're not hurt, are you?" Relena quickly picked the child up and looked over her body, checking her legs. Aurora nodded profusely and Relena stopped.

"Well what's wrong, precious?"

Aurora looked up at Relena, as if she were to say something, but stopped. She reached over and poked her finger into Relena's chest, over heart.

"Your heart? Does your heart hurt, Aurora?" Aurora nodded "no" and kept poking Relena.

Relena sighed and stared quizzically at the child. She looked down at the child's hand and placed her hand over it.

"Hurt?" Aurora whispered.

Aurora simply looked up at her, waiting for an answer. Relena smiled at her, not sure how to say what she wanted to tell the child. Aurora then jumped off the bed and opened one of Relena's drawers, pulling out a picture of Heero Yuy. She reached up and waited for Relena to pick her up. After doing so, she placed the picture over Relena's heart and then picked up Relena's hand, placing it over the picture.

Relena's eyes burned with tears as the child waved her goodbye with a smile and walked out of the room with a teddy bear dangling from her hand. She didn't understand. Aurora had never been around Heero before - Milliardo would pitch a fit if she went within a mile of the Preventors office. She held her hand in place over the picture.

"Send me love." She said into the air, holding her hand over her heart. "If nothing else, please, God, send me love."

He woke up the next day with a splitting migraine. He sat up in bed and felt the world spin for a minute before pulling the covers back and standing up, which led to double vision and him sitting back down on the bed. Running his hands through his brown hair, he took a deep breath and walked to the bathroom. A quick shower could clean this whole thing up.

When he was through, he slipped a towel around his waist and looked on the ground to check for water, but as he did so nausea swept over him and he quickly leaned over and threw up into the toilet. Grabbing hold of the closest thing to him that he could to catch his balance, he quickly realized his mistake in grabbing the shower curtain - so he stuck his foot out to keep himself from falling. Unfortunately there was water on the ground. And so, as his foot slipped out from under him and the shower curtain broke off the hinges, the last thing he saw before cracking his head on the counter sink was himself in the huge mirror - himself, with no expression on his face.

She clicked her heels impatiently on the marble floor outside her office. Heero Yuy was late.

Heero Yuy was never late.

Something was wrong. She could feel it in her bones, and she could strangely feel the vibration of a heartbeat throughout her entire pulse.

He was supposed to be here bright and early this morning, as he always was, to do a daily checkup on her security system. It was so secure that he had to be there for her to get in. She had a busy day ahead of her today, and the one day that she had decided to come to work early so she could organize her desk, he decided to be late. An entire two hours late, at that.

She couldn't take it anymore. The guards stared at her wide-eyed as she strolled out of the Preventor's building with the keys to her white limo in hand.

She drove around in the country side a full hour before finding his house. He had brought her here once, to show her a few of the new high-tech security systems and etc. that they were working on, and she had fallen in love with the house when she had first seen it, despite the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere. She had thought she'd memorized the way there. It wasn't like she had to memorize the mailbox number...

She saw the house way before she got to it. After the wars, the Gundam Pilots were rewarded a handsome sum of money for their acts of heroism. And Heero had chosen to buy this beautiful house. It was three-stories high and made of cedar, outside a lake...get this...a lake named "Lake Mystery". She never quite understood why anyone would ever want to name a lake that.

More than the lake, she loved the sunset. While he thought she was listening to him talk about security devices, she had been looking out his window, watching the sun go down. She couldn't describe it - she couldn't describe how beautiful it really was, in all of its nature and the beauty God had decided to birth forth through the sun and the sky and the sea. She felt at peace with herself - she felt at peace with herself for the first time since she had met Heero Yuy, and it had to be in his home.

She parked in his driveway quite well- Pagan had given her a few limo lessons. She walked up his homemade - wooden steps and smelt of a few wild roses that had grown around the handles. Funny. She never remembered Heero liking roses.

She tried in vain three times to knock on Heero's door and get his attention. She began to question her motive in coming here at all - he had probably gone on one of his famous "missions" and forgotten to tell her about it. But as she turned on her heel to leave, her heart clutched beneath her chest and she gasped, feeling God whispering her to stay.

She walked slowly back up to the door and brought her ear up to it - she heard absolutely nothing. The house was completely silent. Not that she had expected anything less from Heero Yuy.

But then she heard it - she pressed her ear harder to the door - yes, it was running water. It was running water at 10 AM. Heero never stayed up past 6 AM, she knew for a fact. Because he made sure she didn't, too. Maybe he was taking a short, quick shower...

She threw off the feeling as if it were just her mind playing tricks on her, and turned to leave. She walked down the steps and tried to focus once again on the sunset, her heels clicking against his wooden porch and then against the cement of his driveway. She walked swiftly, hoping that he wouldn't come running out the door any minute asking her what in the world she had been doing standing like an idiot on his front lawn.

She opened the car door and sat down in the seat. As she was buckling her seatbelt, the feeling came back again - but not in the clutching of her heart. More like the pulse. She could feel a pulse lightly, subconsciously imaging throughout her entire body. She could feel God trying to speak to her, telling her to stay and try harder. So she once again got out of the car, unbuckled her seatbelt and, this time, ran back to the door.

She felt the urgency in her mind become more anxious - she felt the pulse quicken, getting louder and more violent with each step she took across the porch - she didn't even bother to knock. She grabbed the handle and pulled, breaking it off its own lock - how, she didn't know. And she didn't care. She just knew that she had to find him. She walked around the house, yelling his name, her cries becoming more desperate each moment. She walked up one set of stairs and into a dim-lit hallway. The pulse quickened, the heartbeat rang loudly in her ears - all she could hear was the blood being pumped through the heart - she thought herself going mad, but didn't care. She just needed to find Heero. She trembled violently from the blood rushing through her body, the hanging need for oxygen suddenly very clear in her mind, her breathing became more needful of air. Each step she took brought on a new heartbeat - a new source of life.

"Heero!"

The name left her mouth every few seconds - she had to find him. She had to find him.

She saw a light through a closed door down the last hallway in the second floor, and ran towards it with every ounce of her strength - her feet felt like lead. She had to move, faster...

She flung open the door and screamed at the top of her lungs, seeing Heero Yuy sprawled out on the bathroom floor with nothing but a towel around his waste, blood pouring forth abundantly out of his head. She slammed the door shut and ran into an open door - finding his bedroom. She grabbed a large cover off of his bed, then walked back to the bathroom. She looked away as she opened the door, then flung the cover over his body, hoping that the cover would conceal his - lack of clothing - from her vision. She peeked from under her hand, and saw that he was decent. She went next to him and wrapped the cover closer to his body, sitting down next to him and setting his head into her lap. Her cream-colored skirt was just as soon covered in crimson, hot and wet against her legs. She pulled a cell phone out of her purse and quickly dialed in a number, all the while staring into his face, looking for a sign of life, but found that he was completely unconscious.

She became impatient and sighed as the phone rang for the fourth time. Just as she was about to hang up, the line clicked and she heard a sleepy voice on the other end greeting her.

"*Yawn* Yes?"

"Sally!" The word surprised even herself with its urgency, its loudness, but she tried to calm herself.

"Relena?"

"Sally, I'm here at Heero's house. He's hurt really bad, there's blood pouring everywhere...I don't know what to do. I'm scared he's...I mean, Sally, what...he could be dead..."

"Woah, Relena, calm down. I'll be right over. Where's the blood coming from?"

She lightly touched his face and gasped at the chill she felt. She turned his face to the side and brushed his brown hair from his forehead. Her eyes widened when she saw a humongous gash above his temple, bleeding profusely, and she knew instantly that his skull was cracked. Her vision wavered.

"Relena? Relena, are you there? Relena!"

She refused to let herself faint, and took a deep breath, whispering to Sally to hang on. She leaned over and waited a minute, then held the phone up to her ear.

"It's on his head, Sally. His skull's been cracked."

She heard a momentary pause on the other end, and then the sounds of an ambulance in the back round.

"Just hang on, Relena. I'll be there in a minute. Don't hang up the phone."

"I won't."

~

She ran straight behind the nurses and doctors who were rushing Heero to an emergency room on a cart, impatiently trying to get them to speed it up. She was oblivious to the people around her, even after she walked beside a man who had just been shot three times in the stomach. All she could see was Heero's pale face against the blood-stained sheets he was lying on. Once she got to the door, two male doctors stood in front of her as Heero passed into another room.

"Mrs. Vice Foreign Minister, we can't allow you to go through here."

"No, you don't understand, I was there at the scene..."

"I'm sorry. You're going to have to wait."

"But..."

"Please, Mrs. Vice Foreign Minister, we don't want to have to escort you out of here."

She took one last glance through the doors and glared at the two doctors, but regained it in her mind that they were just doing their job. Suddenly she felt extremely drained. Her feet dragged underneath her as she walked to the waiting room. She slouched as she sat, totally unladylike, but not caring at the moment. Her eyes closed and she sighed. She didn't have the strength to care.

She felt two strong arms lift her up, one underneath her knees and the other behind her back. She recognized the smell of Milliardo and protested, without looking up.

"No..."

"Shh. Don't worry, love. We won't leave him here alone."

The noises of the hospital slowly faded into the back of her mind as Milliardo carried her down the long corridor of the hospital, the rocking motion of his steps sending her to sleep.

She was halfway awake when she heard the beep of a heart monitor waking her from her tired sleep. Her eyes opened and she blinked a few times against the bright light, not recognizing where she was. She felt a weight on top of her and looked down at the closed eyes of Aurora. The child lightly snored and Relena looked up, confused. She found Heero across the room on a hospital bed, wires hooked up to his arms and a bandage around his head. She instantly became worrisome, but did not want to wake Aurora, so she quietly picked the child up and laid her back down on the couch she had been sleeping on.

She trembled as she walked to his bed, finding it hard to walk and breathe at the same time. She was determined to see his face, to make sure that he was okay, and reached his bed after what seemed a five mile journey.

She saw his face, now with a bit more color in it, but his eyes hollow and his lips still a bit blue. She reached over and ran her hands through his hair that had somehow escaped through the bandage around his head. As if a wall broke, she let herself freely fall until she was on her knees, leaning over his bed, tears flowing freely down her face onto his stomach. She cried silently, hoping no one would hear her open herself up this way. She would hate for her mother to see her right now.

She heard a groan and quickly lifted her head up, dashing her tears away from her face angrily, hoping whoever was in here wouldn't see her crying. She looked around the room and found only herself and Aurora the only ones in the room, besides Heero...

She turned quickly and saw him with his eyes quenched painfully, grabbing his head and grinding his teeth. Her eyes widened and she reached over and grabbed his hand, trying to get him to stay awake.

"Heero, get up. Come on Heero, you've got to get up. You know you could go into a coma. Don't go back to sleep, fight it...Heero, fight it!" She was squeezing his hand by now, and she could tell he was struggling to stay awake, struggling to do anything at all but sleep.

She felt someone tug on her shirt and found Aurora beside her, her eyes filling with tears. With her other hand she lifted the child up so Aurora could see Heero. The child's eyes widened as she looked down at Heero, a smile coming to her face. Until she looked up at Relena, who was struggling to keep the flood in her eyes from overflowing. Aurora could sense her Aunt's sadness and the child immediately became fearful, her eyebrows creased with worry.

Relena looked down at Aurora with the most serious look she could make at the moment.

"Aurora, will you help me pray for Heero?"

Aurora nodded and closed her eyes tightly, reaching over and slipping her little fingers into Heero's hand and the other one grabbing Relena's own.

"Dear Jesus, please let Heero get better and help him not to get sleepy, and give us strength to endure this Lord. We need Your help. We love Heero very much, so if You don't mind, will you make sure he's okay? Thank You very much. In Jesus' name, amen. "

Relena tried to put the words as simply as she could for Aurora, hoping that it would at least stop her from sending her questioning looks. It seemed to have worked, for the child walked back to the couch and was instantly asleep.

Relena stayed where she was, staring at Heero's face, holding his hand, speaking softly to him.

"Open your eyes, Heero. Come on, get up. I know you can, just try harder. Come on, Heero. I still believe in you."

Slowly, she saw the most beautiful shade of Prussian blue show as he opened his eyes painfully, blinking many times but still awake. He focused on her and she smiled back at him, not able to control a tear rolling down her face, still on her knees, still holding his hand. The door quickly opened and she turned to see a nurse walking swiftly over to her, Milliardo behind her and Noin on his heels. Relena's smile faded just as quickly as it had come when the nurse grabbed her by the arm and asked her to move softly.

"I need to check on him. Will you move, please, miss?"

She looked back at him and found him still looking at her, contemplating her. She slipped her hand out of his and stood up, taking a few steps back, keeping her eyes on his. His gaze never wavered from her face, and she blushed. He did not seem fazed by it, and continued looking at her with silent eyes. He never said anything, never showed any sign of pain even as the nurse pulled the IV out of his arm, just stared at her. It would become her undoing, she knew, but she couldn't keep her eyes away from his, though she tried. He just looked at her, with that intriguing look of his - the look that she knew saw past all of her barriers, all of her masks, all of her fears - that saw who she really was, without the condemnation she seemed to face everyday.

Maybe that was what made her want to know him more - the fact that he knew just about everything about her and still wanted to lend his strength. That he still believed in her cause, though he may not believe in the way she went about it. That he knew her, whether she wanted him to or not. But the most important parts he seemed to miss - or maybe he didn't miss them, but would not allow himself to accept them. Maybe he knew that a part of her was starting to love him (or maybe she had been loving him, but not as much as she wanted) - but he wouldn't allow himself that one pleasure. To think that someone could love him. He was much too hard on himself.

Another may be her faith and trust and obedience to God - he never liked to talk to her about it. She never pushed it. Never brought the subject up, only mentioned things that had to do with it and he'd get quiet. More quiet than usual. More alone than usual.

She didn't know why she wanted to know him more, but they both knew that she did. Neither of them knew exactly why. She figured that Heero's feelings towards her were a mystery as much to him as they were to her. That was if he felt anything.

By now Aurora had woken up from the noise in the room and run over to Relena, pulling once again on her jeans. She noticed for the first time that Milliardo must've had someone get her a change of clothes when she had been asleep in the waiting room. Aurora's eyes sparkled with tears and Relena, finally out of her trance, was brought back to attention - and found Heero still looking at her, sitting up in the bed. Not able to be scrutinized under his gaze any longer, she bent down and picked Aurora up, purposefully bending so that her long golden hair would cover her face.

She hefted Aurora up onto her hip and ran her hands through the child's un-brushed hair, pulling out the knots. An older doctor walked into the room with a clipboard in his hand, and Relena listened tentatively.

"I'm assuming you realize the damage that has been done, Mr. Yuy. I read in your profile you've had experience in the medical field, along with your combat training."

"Hai."

"You do realize the side effects this may cause for the next couple of weeks?"

"Hai."

"Fine. You should be able to leave in a week or so. Is this alright with you?"

The doctor waited for an answer, and looked up from his clipboard when he received none. Heero glared up at him, his mouth set in a grim line.

"Mr. Yuy, there's no other way. You have to stay here because there are a million possible things that could happen within the next week because of this opening in your skull. It'd be suicidal to stay away from here."

Please, God, not this again...

"I'm willing to risk that."

"No, you're not, Yuy. You're the best agent in your field and you of all people know how important it is for you to take care of Relena."

She began to speak up angrily at Milliardo but Heero cut in for her.

"She's a big girl now. She can handle herself, Zechs, and you of all people should know that the world's at peace now and there will always be threats with or without Relena."

A grin appeared on Relena's face but disappeared as soon as it had come. Aurora began to try to wiggle out of Relena's grasp and succeeded, dropping her teddy bear on the ground and running up to Heero with a smile on her face. Heero stared down at her bewildered, not quite knowing how to react. She motioned for him to pick her up and he did so reluctantly. She placed her head over his bare chest, right over his heart, and made small noises out of her mouth that made a good representation of his heartbeat. She looked over at Relena and motioned for her to come over, and Relena did - her face bright red. Aurora grabbed Relena's hand and placed it over Heero's heart. He had an intake of breath so quiet that no one in the room heard it but himself, but he felt - warmth.

Aurora once again looked up at him with innocent concern in her eyes.

"Hurt?"

Heero continued staring at the child and Aurora's eyes began to water. Finding that Heero wasn't going to 'make things better', she took his hand and placed it over Relena's own over his heart.

"Hurt."

The two stared into each others eyes, neither knowing quite what to say. Milliardo spoke for them.

"What if he stays with us?"

Everyone in the room's attention snapped to him, indignation showing on Relena's face.

"It's obvious that he's not going to stay here, even if you try to force him. He'll find a way out. But maybe if he would agree to stay with us - just for the first two weeks. And then he can leave. So he'll have someone always near him in case something happens."

The doctor took a moment to think about it and then turned to Heero.

"It sounds alright with me, as long as someone is always at home with him. He can't do any strenuous activity. He wouldn't be able to go to work, but he could go out of the house. As long as someone's with him, it sounds fine."

Heero looked back at Relena, questioning the option in his mind.

"If it's alright with Relena..."

Relena looked around the room, torn between what would be easier and what would be best. Heero's heartbeat resounded under her hand. He wouldn't take his hand off of hers.

"Why do I always have to make these kinds of decisions?"

Noin smiled at her from behind Milliardo.

"Because you always seem to make the right ones."

Relena rolled her eyes and looked into Aurora's. Aurora smiled at her with innocence, not quite realizing what was going on but only caring about who was hurting.

What hurt.

It hurt when she wasn't around Heero. Right now, touching him...it didn't hurt so bad.

Father, give me strength...

"It's alright with me." She managed to say, biting back the loneliness in her voice.

They packed his bags the next day. It didn't take long - Heero Yuy was more self - sufficient then she could've ever dreamed. He had everything organized, clean, perfect in his house. The trip home from the hospital had been tenuous and uncomfortable, neither of them not quite knowing what to say to one another. Not able to handle the feeling anymore, she tried to shake it off.

"If you're ever hurting or anything, just call me." She said, giving him a brilliant smile. He caught himself mesmerized by it and had to look the other way from smiling himself. Her smile faded and she turned the other way, watching the scenery flash by out of her limo window. Milliardo and Noin sat at the front with Pagan, as if they had planned it all - well, Milliardo might not have planned it, he didn't seem to like Heero much - but she had no doubt Noin and Pagan did. Would they ever understand that things just didn't happen that way?

Heero hadn't spoken to her since the hospital. To be honest, she was scared of what the next two weeks would have in store for her. She had no idea what to expect, and even though it scared her - horrified her, almost - she reminded herself that God had everything under control. It was all happening for a reason. She stared out at her hands as she replayed what the doctor had told her afterwards in her mind...

"Mrs. Peacecraft, might I have a word?"

"Of course."

"While Mr. Yuy is staying with you, he may have a few unusual side -effects. Such as nightmares. There could be a number of fluids or things of that nature that can leak through the crack in his skull, but nothing major. Just don't be frightened by him. A few physical problems may be that he gets extremely tired easily, or hungry, or his vision blurs. What I will go ahead and assure you now of is that he will suddenly fall unconscious without any warning, all because of this injury to his head. Don't be afraid if he does, just make sure he gets rest. Make sure that someone is always with him, especially if he's walking down the stairs or something of that nature."

"I see..."

"I haven't known Heero for too long, Mrs. Peacecraft, but I can tell that he's not much of a people person, with anyone. Maybe you could do something to change that."

He winked at her and turned on his heel, walking through the double doors that led to Heero's room.

She looked back over at who she considered a mystery, his dark brown hair flying in the breeze from the open window, resting his chin in his hand. He was so beautiful, in who he was. She wanted to know him so bad.

He suddenly let out a heavy sigh and his body went limp against the seat, his eyes forced close and the upper half of his body falling into Relena's lap. She "oofed" and immediately tensed, not quite sure what was happening - until she stopped and noticed his slow, even breathing. He was completely out of it.

This situation seemed to always happen to her - holding this beautiful person in her arms, wanting to show him how much she knew who he really was, but never quite making it on time - he always seemed to end up in her arms, unaware.

The feeling of being near someone so much a part of her made her feel not so quite alone, and his steady, even breathing lured her to sleep with its melodic rhythm.

He woke up to the sound of someone breathing softly, and he opened his eyes to see long strands of silken blonde hair laid across his chest, his face, his lips. He stayed still but looked up to find himself lying in Relena's lap, her arms down by her side but one hand beside his head, as if she had been running her hands through his hair. Her eyes were closed and he could tell she had fallen asleep, but he didn't like the fact that he had without any warning, and had to fall here, of all places. Not that he didn't like it...

He felt the car stop and sat up so as neither he nor Relena would be found in an awkward situation, and he sat up straight in his seat. He didn't look at her as she yawned softly and opened her eyes - he didn't look at her as she blushed madly at realizing that he must've woken up in her lap. She reached over and touched his shoulder, and he looked over at her concerned eyes and felt himself fall - fall completely in love all over again.

"Are you alright? You scared me for a little while there." She said, smiling at him.

Before he could even stop it, the side of his mouth turned slightly upward. It was a ghost of a smile, he knew - you would've had to of been paying extremely close attention to see it - but she did, and her eyes brightened and she laughed slightly, the blush still on her cheeks.

"I'm fine."

The door opened and Pagan greeted them both with a knowing smile, helping Relena out of the car as Heero went out the other way. They walked into the house and Heero followed, knowing the grounds like the back of his hand. They all walked into the living room and sat down, except for Milliardo, who stood up and straightened his back, coughing to get everyone's attention.

"Heero, you will be staying in the room adjacent from Noin and mines - if that's alright. We have precautions we have to take care of and you being alone with Relena in her bedroom at night is something we'd rather not have the reporters getting hold of. Is this..."

"That's fine." He said, looking at Milliardo with - not really anything in his eyes. Or if there was any sign of anything, he held it back.

"Of course." Milliardo said, taking a deep breath. "Never leave this house without telling one of us first, understood?"

Heero noticed in the back of his mind that Milliardo was speaking to him as if he were his commanding officer - he missed having one of those, however extreme it may have sounded.

"Yes, sir."

Noin grinned.

"Welcome to our home, Heero. Whatever you need, ask Pagan and he'll get it for you. Welcome to our life." Noin said, clasping her hands together and walking away. Milliardo stared at Heero as he followed his wife, issuing a warning. They were alone, he and Relena, and uncomfortable. She started walking past him but he shot his arm out in front of her, stopping her from moving any further, and she gasped.

"What do you want from me?" He said, his baritone voice sending a chill down her spine. She regained her senses and looked into his eyes, determination overriding whatever fear there was there. She reached up and laid her hand flat against his chest.

"I want this." She said, and walked away. He felt the inside of his chest burn with a fire he never knew he had - he felt his heart melt just from a simple touch from this dove.

She had asked for far too much. Too many things, too many painful memories he could never quite fully bring forth, too many emotions -

And he hadn't protested, even as the fire scorched his raw heart. Even though it hurt more than anything else, he hadn't objected to her decision to open up his insides and lay everything bare before her. He didn't say no.

He didn't want to say no this time, and he was going to be selfish. This was it. This was all he had left.

*End of Chapter One*

Author's Note : I do not own Gundam Wing or anything in this story but the story itself. Review? Please?