Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing

The Siberian winter was brutal to the gentle constitutions of the young former princess, turned Vice Foreign Minister. Since arriving, her lips had chapped like never before, her skin was dry and she was getting split ends in her long golden hair. Relena sighed, thinking about how it was time for a fresh cut when she got home, as she made her way into the conference hall under Preventer escort.

Wufei Chang, a well-respected agent and former Gundam pilot, had been placed as head of her security for this trip. Relena was not surprised in the least when he intentionally blew off her efforts at friendly conversation. It was no secret that Wufei was not a big Peacecraft-Darlian supporter. During the Barton Uprising, he'd gone as far as to join the enemy ranks and battle his colleagues, the other Gundam pilots, as a statement against her belief in Total Pacifism. Now he'd atoned for his crimes and had been given a position within the Preventers, but he still showed only distain for the young politician.

Relena smiled silently as she watched him pointedly ignore her. She knew very well that he didn't want this job, but he knew that if he failed, he'd have to face Heero Yuy; and as such had treated it like this woman, he hated, was the only thing that mattered in this world. He'd rather protect her than accept a duel with the stronger pilot, once she was gone.

Relena found herself drifting into daydreams while Ambassador Ali talked in a painful monotonous voice about the need for recreational outlets in the greater Middle East area. She had her mind on one thing. Where was Heero? And why was he not here? She smiled, thinking how she'd love to just sit and talk with him in this brutal winter wonderland. Her feelings during such talks had never been strictly plutonic, but she knew, even in her daydreams, that she could never expect more from him than a chaste kiss, and even that would be shockingly hard to come by. But inside her mind she concocted various extreme circumstances that would require more. Namely, the brutal winter could give to the need for more body heat to keep her warm. Yes. Having Heero strip down and hold her close would definitely protect her from hypothermia. Definitely.

Relena was broken from her warming thoughts by a firm grip on the shoulder. "We need to leave," Wufei whispered, pulling her from the chair before she could protest. "Now."

"What happened?" She asked in a panicked, hushed tone.

He answered her with silence, scanning the halls and corridors as he led her into the basement. Relena jumped at the crashing sound, when Wufei shoved some pantry shelves out from his way, revealing a small, thick, steal door. Wufei needed most of his immediate strength to open it, and shoved Relena through. She found herself at the top of a long, rundown, metal latter, looking down into darkness, with no end in sight.

"Move," he ordered.

"But—"

"Move. Now."

Relena grumbled under her breath as she started down the latter, one rung at a time.

"Faster," he commanded.

"You'd catch more flies with honey, you know," she growled, swatting at his leg. "I could probably move a lot faster, if you would just ask nicel—"

Relena's word disintegrated into a violent ball of fire as an explosion above threw her and her body guard into the dark abyss below.

:::

Relena felt herself slowly fading back into the world of the living, with feather light fingers dancing over her head and limbs. The touch, though medical in nature, was soothing against the intense aches and pains her body found at the base of the cavern. She fought to continue regaining consciousness, squinting up at Agent Chang.

"Nothing's broken," he said in a cold voice.

"Where—are we?" She asked.

"An old bomb shelter under the conference hall. It protected us from the majority of the explosion, but it doesn't seem to be insulated from the cold, like I'd hoped."

Relena sat up, shivering in the freezing temperature as she tried to look around. "Then, the Summit was hit? They—my friends—?"

Wufei shook his head. "I don't know what it looks like up there, but it's probably not good. Don't count on survivors."

Relena felt winded, like she had been hit in the stomach.

"Hopefully the Preventers will come looking for us, while they clear the scene. We shouldn't have survived either, so it might take a while."

He looked down at the trembling woman, her legs bare from the knees down and her jacket torn, without a hint of compassion in his eyes. Nonetheless, he removed his leather jacket and offered it to her. "Take this. It'll help keep you warm." As he laid it across her shoulders, he looked around into the darkness. "I'll see if there's a heating element. We won't last long in this cold."

Relena curled into a ball under his jacket, waiting for his return. Several long, icy minutes passed as her temperature continued to drop closer to that of the air around her. She was thankful for the jacket, helping ward off the leaching cold, but it was only slowing the inevitable. She was freezing.

Wufei emerged back into her vision, mumbling expletives under his breath. "Heat's dead," he said, refusing to look down at her as he crossed his arms. "I should have known this would happen."

Relena answered him with a quiet chattering of the teeth. The sound only emphasized his own desire to keep warm.

Finally, he looked down on her through narrow eyes. "You're still cold."

She nodded, her muscles taught in an unconscious effort to warm her.

He sighed, sinking down next to her. "We'll share," he said, staring at the darkness in front of him.

She took a sharp breath, looking up at him in surprise, as he began to unbutton his dress shirt. Under the long sleeved white shirt he wore a simple tank top undershirt, barely covering his sharp cut muscles, trained to kill in the martial arts of his fathers. This was not who she was thinking about getting close to, to "keep warm". How did this happen? But even with the tense relationship between them, Relena knew her physical need for survival overrode her desire to maintain distance.

She sighed, leaning her stiff body against his hard chest as he brought the layers of his shirt and jacket around them.

:::

Being with Chang Wufei, Relena found herself feeling alone with her thoughts in the silence. He had nothing to say. At first, she was thankful for it. She needed time to process the recent events. She bit back tears, thinking how kind some of the older men she worked closely with had been to her. How they would never be kind, again. She considered asking him who was behind the terrorist attack, but she knew he felt the information was a need to know, and he would think she didn't have the need to know.

Finally, in a ditch attempt to calm her nerves, she began to wonder about Heero. She would rather be lying against his bare chest at this moment. Her body began to heat at the thought, as a mischievous grin played on her face. Suddenly, she realized how inappropriate it was to think of Heero that way while she was finally beginning to relax, in a fetal position, virtually in his coworker's lap.

"Thank you," Relena said, looking for a conversation to occupy her mind away from the panic or a fantasy.

Wufei opened his eyes and looked down at her, frowning. "I'm only keeping my word."

She smiled, sadly, resting her head on his shoulder. "I know. But just because you did it for someone else, doesn't mean I shouldn't thank you."

He answered her with silence, closing his eyes, again, as he laid his head back against the wall.

"Who did this?" She ventured.

"Irrelevant," he growled, as Relena had expected. "You will not be meeting any demands or bowing to their wills. Who they are doesn't matter. What they have done is unjust, cowardly and weak; and when the Preventers find them, they will pay for their crimes."

"Not everything is black and white, you know."

"I know," he sighed, exposing the tiniest part of an inner layer.

Relena grinned at the softness in his tone. "Really, though," she said. "Thank you. I'm lucky the Preventers gave you this mission. You saved my life."

He cracked his eyes open, again, to look at her. "This wasn't my mission. It was Yuy's. He gave it to me."