Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Forever Love ❯ Chapter 5

Author babble: Yay, it didn't take me that long to write this part ^_^ (Well, not long for me, anyway...). This is the part where things start to get pretty silly (Wait, isn't it silly enough already?). It includes a scene I had in mind waaay back when I first started writing this fic two and a half years ago. Anyway, beware and enjoy ^_^

Disclaimer: Yes, I created Gundam Wing. Anyone wanna challenge me? *Gundam Wing creators hold a gun to Spazz's head* Uhh...heh heh. Just kidding...

Ninmu Kanryou: 2001.10.30 (Last revision: 2002.03.09)* * * * * * * * * *

Forever Love

Part 5

Author: Sailorspazz (sailorspazz@yahoo.com)* * * * * * * * * *

Heero had seen death. He had seen destruction. He had seen entire colonies full of people wiped out in an instant. He had been tortured for information. He had slept on rocks during rainstorms. He had nearly starved to death. He'd had to complete countless missions while enduring excruciating pain. Truly, during his lifetime, Heero had been to Hell and back...

"Oh, Heero, isn't this dress just soooo cute?"

Yes indeed, Heero had endured many hardships in his life. But nothing he had gone through could prepare him for the mind-numbing torture of clothes shopping with Relena. He'd done his own shopping fairly quickly, but then Relena had insisted that she needed new clothes, too. He'd lost track of how many hours had gone by as his brain slowly turned to mush. There seemed to be an endless waltz playing (^_^): Relena would go into the dressing room, come out wearing some outfit, and Heero would nod, or make some other gesture that gave the illusion of him actually paying attention. Luckily, Heero knew every song had to come to an end sometime...

"OK, I am finished shopping now, Heero," Relena said, after having five store workers carry her clothes to the register.

Heero snapped to attention. 'Finally...' he thought. As the cashier went to work ringing up the mountain of purchases, Heero's mind began to wander again, grasping for an appropriate subject to think about. Within the first ten minutes of being in the store, he had memorized its layout, identified the most strategic locations, and measured the distances of the shortest possible escape routes from every point in the store (All of which were things he was used to doing, due to his extensive training). He had then gone on to imagine several different scenarios in which armed troops would enter the store and planned the most effective way to take them out (Even though the war was over, Heero still couldn't help but look at things from a militaristic perspective). As the hours went on, however, he had begun to run out of scenarios, and his mind inevitably roamed back to Duo. Heero still found it hard to believe how little control he had over his own thoughts and feelings. There had been times before when he had successfully repressed things he didn't want to think about, but in this case, it seemed his feelings were too strong for him to forget. Heero let out a breath of air in frustration. 'That's it,' he thought. "If I can't stop thinking about Duo, then I might as well make my thoughts about him useful.' Heero still wanted to figure out why Duo was insisting that the night they spent together meant nothing to him, so he decided to make it his mission to find out. "Ninmu, ryoukai," Heero said quietly.

"What did you say, Heero?"

"I said we should get going soon."

Relena looked at her watch. "Oh, my! You're right! We only have an hour and a half left until the party starts!" Relena looked up to see Heero heading towards the door with his bags in hand. "Heero! Where are you going?"

"Back to my room. I have to get ready for the party." It was a pretty lame excuse, as Heero knew it would only take him five minutes to get ready, but at that point, he would use any excuse he could to get away from Relena. Before she could say another word, he was out the door.

"But..." Relena looked at her pile of bags, "but who's going to carry my stuff?"

Heero reached his room and flopped down on the bed. Freedom, sweet freedom! Finally, he had managed to escape the clutches of the ultimate evil. Heero didn't even know why he had decided to appease Relena that one time, but after his experience, he swore he would never do it again. There was no torture greater than spending the day with Relena.* * * * * * * * * *

A bit before the party was to begin, Duo arrived at the door to the ballroom, where an employee was checking people off of a guest list. Duo said his name to the man and was led in, an act that was very unfamiliar to him; he usually had to sneak into these kinds of parties, and he'd certainly never been on the VIP list before.

Duo stepped into the ballroom and paused to look around for a second. The room featured hard wood floors, a high ceiling, many chandeliers, and lots of garlands, ribbons, and a huge Christmas tree, too. There were also many tables and chairs, a dance floor, and a stage, which, Duo noted warily, had a karaoke machine set up on it. Duo looked around to see if any of the other pilots had arrived yet.

Meanwhile, Relena, who had arrived a few minutes earlier, was with a group of friends (*cough*groupies*cough*) who were all gushing over how wonderful she was, how beautiful her dress was, and generally kissing her ass as much as usual. She wasn't really paying attention, though, as she was busy doing her own search. She had wondered why Heero had run off so quickly earlier, but she had quickly convinced herself that Heero wanted to take extra time to get ready so he would look extra special just for her. She sighed happily. 'Heero is so sweet and romantic,' she thought. Suddenly, she spotted the object of her affections sitting at the end of a row of chairs across the room. And, what was that? Could it be? Relena squinted a bit to get a closer look. Yes, it was! Relena had noticed that there was a sprig of mistletoe hanging over Heero's head. She squealed inwardly. What a perfect opportunity to experience her first kiss with Heero! 'It must be destiny,' she thought. 'I'm sure this is the story we'll be telling our grandchildren.' Relena excused herself from the group and began heading towards where Heero was sitting.

As Duo searched around, he suddenly noticed Relena. She was walking rather quickly and had a mysterious glint in her eyes. Duo looked at the direction she was headed in and noticed she was making a beeline for Heero. Since the look in her eyes made him feel uneasy, he rushed in the same direction so he could protect Heero from whatever scheme she had planned for him. He felt butterflies swirling in his stomach as he got closer to Heero, but he considered preventing Relena from causing eye-roll inducing scenes much more important than keeping himself from acting like an idiot again. "Hi there, Heero," Duo said when he finally reached him, his voice cracking a bit. "Can I sit here?" he asked, indicating the empty seat next to Heero.

"Do as you please," Heero said in his usual cold tone. His voice showed no indication that he was glad to see Duo, which actually couldn't be farther from the truth. Not only was he happy to see him because of the feelings he had for him, but also because he had seen Relena heading in his direction, as well, and Duo always seemed to be a good deterrent for whatever twisted plans she had in store for him. Just as Duo sat down, Relena appeared in front of the two boys. "Good evening, Ojousan," Duo said, very pointedly putting an arm around Heero's shoulders, causing both of their bodies to warm up a bit. "How are you doing this lovely evening?"

Relena looked mournfully at the seat Duo now occupied. "Fine..." she said in a disappointed tone. She glared at Duo. If he were a gentleman, he would have offered her his seat so she could sit next to her one true love. Duo didn't look like he had any intention of doing that, though, so Relena dejectedly sat down in the chair next to him. If she couldn't be right next to her love, she would at least be as close to him as possible. She sighed and glanced briefly at the mistletoe. It was one missed opportunity, but there would surely be several more throughout the night.

Duo couldn't help from grinning like a maniac. He could tell from Relena's expression that he had obviously foiled whatever little scheme she had had in mind. Not only that, but he felt kind of a dizzy high from having his arm around Heero. Sure, he had often made the same gesture before they had slept together, but now everything about it felt completely different; it just felt so much more intimate. Duo thought that doing things he had done before would help him to be just friends with Heero again, but he was quickly realizing that, even though the actions were the same, things just felt so different now. "Are you having a good time?" Duo asked Relena.

"Yes..." Duo had never seen someone sulk so much while trying to confirm that they were having a good time. It only made his grin wider.

"Well, that's good. I'm sure it's gonna be a great party, right Heero?" Duo lightly squeezed Heero's shoulders.

"Hn." Heero was glad he had floppy hair, because he knew his ears were turning red.

Before the threesome could attempt any more uncomfortable conversations, Quatre and Trowa walked up to them. "Hello," Quatre said in his usual friendly tone. "How are you three doing?"

"Fine..."

"Great!"

"Hn."

"Well, that's good...I guess," Quatre said, noticing Relena's sulking. There was more silence for a minute, until Quatre decided to speak up again. "This certainly is an exquisitely designed room. Look at those chandeliers." As Quatre looked up to admire the elaborate ceiling fixtures, he noticed a little something that Relena had seen earlier. "Hey, look, there's mistletoe hanging above your chairs!"

Duo looked up as well. So that's why Relena had been rushing towards Heero so purposefully before. He smirked. Well, now he was the one sitting next to Heero, so that meant...

"Duo, Relena, I believe a kiss is in order."

Both Duo and Relena froze in horror. Duo looked up again. Now that he looked more carefully, the mistletoe really was hanging between him and Relena, rather than him and Heero...

'No, no, this is all wrong!' Relena thought in dismay. 'This is not what my destiny should be! This is not the story I want to tell my grandchildren!' Even worse, due to the mind games Heero had been playing with her earlier, Relena was convinced Duo had a crush on her. 'He's actually going to enjoy stealing the first kiss from a maiden such as myself.' Relena continued her mental fretting.

"Uhh, Duo? Relena? What are you waiting for?" Quatre prompted them. Both Duo and Relena gave him death glares that made Heero's seem like a loving gaze in comparison. They turned towards each other and closed their eyes. Heero strained his neck to get a better look. This was something he just had to see.

'OK, calm down Duo,' he thought to himself. "Just relax and think about Heero.' Duo quickly dashed that thought, as if he did pretend it was Heero, he might get carried away and start totally making out with Relena, which was something he'd rather die before doing. The two continued leaning towards each other until they felt the slightest bit of contact, at which point they quickly parted. Though only a few molecules of their lips had actually touched, and the time of the kiss could only be measured in nanoseconds, they had still satisfied the requirement.

At that moment, Lady Une appeared at the microphone on the stage. "Welcome, everyone. I'm glad you all came to this celebration of both the end of the war and the holiday of Christmas. We would like to ask that everyone take their seats at the dining tables now so we may begin serving dinner. As you enjoy your meals, we will have many guests who will speak to you about important issues relating to this milestone event in all of our lives. Thank you for your patience." The five of them headed towards their assigned table, which was right up in front by the stage. They found Wufei was already there.

"Hey, Wufei, how ya doin'?" Duo greeted him.

Wufei sat with his arms crossed and didn't answer. Duo sweatdropped. Wufei still seemed a bit tense...after all, it had only been yesterday that he'd had to kill Treize himself. They took their seats at the large, round table and were soon served up an appetizing banquet of Christmas ham, potatoes, vegetables, and many other traditional holiday foods, including desserts. Duo drooled and gobbled down his food rather quickly. He found himself regretting that later, as once the guest speakers began talking, he had nothing to do but listen as they droned on endlessly. Most of them were stodgy old politicians who rarely had anything interesting to say. Sure, they were talking about things that were relevant to the recent happenings, but Duo had just got done fighting in the war; he wasn't ready to hear others prattle on incessantly about it. Duo made a mental note that when he made a speech next week at the New Year's celebration, he'd make his interesting.

As boring as Duo found the speeches, they were still a lot more tolerable than the conversations at the table, which consisting of Relena rattling on about God knows what and batting her eyes at Heero. Only Quatre was polite enough to at least feign interest in what she was saying; the other pilots tuned her out as best they could. As Duo's mind began to wander both during the speeches and during Relena's jabbering, it inevitably roamed back to Heero. Duo was feeling more comfortable around Heero than he had in the morning. He was beginning to gain more confidence. 'I can do this,' he thought. 'I can be just friends with Heero after sharing a wild night of passion with him.' Duo suddenly realized he shouldn't have thought those exact words even to himself, because they brought his mind back to the naughty area he'd been trying to avoid all day. Luckily, he was snapped out of his thoughts when another guest finished his speech and everyone began applauding.

"Thank you, Mr. Miller. This concludes the guest speaker portion of the evening. We now bring your attention to the karaoke machine set up here on the stage. Please, feel free to come up and belt out your favorite tunes for all to enjoy. Have fun." A few whoops rang out from the audience, which seemed unusual for the type of party they were at. Duo suddenly realized that, although the food service had stopped awhile ago, the drink service was still going strong. 'Great,' he thought, 'Now we have to listen to a bunch of drunk old aristocrats singing "It's Rainin' Men."' He began listening to what Relena was saying for a minute. More mindless garbage. 'Well, I guess it's better than listening to that.' Duo began thinking that if he had a camera with him, he'd be able to take pictures of all the big politicians at their drunkest and use them for blackmailing purposes.

A familiar face stumbled over to their table. "Hii~~ii," Noin said, in a voice that indicated she'd obviously had her share of drinks that night. "How're ya'll doin'?"

"We're doing fine, thank you," Relena said, glancing at Heero. "Are you feeling all right, Noin? The loss of my brother must have been very hard on you..."

"No, 'cause, ya see, that's where yer wrong," Noin slurred. "He's alive, I tell ya. I can fffeeeeel it. I can feel it right here," she said, pointing to her elbow. Everyone gave her strange looks. They began to question the logic of there being no limit on drinks at the party. Noin looked at an invisible watch. "Woah, I have to go now. It's almost my turn at kari...karo....singin'" With that, she stumbled off towards the stage. Everyone sweatdropped.

"She seems to be doing...well," Quatre said.

"Yeah...I guess everyone's dealing with the end of the war in their own way," Duo said. Saying that inadvertently reminded him of how he and Heero had ended up "dealing" with the war. His thoughts were interrupted when Noin reached the stage and began belting out her song of choice.

"Let's talk about Zechs, baby! Let's talk about him and me! Let's talk about all the good things and the bad things that he's done to me!" Everyone sweatdropped.

Things stayed pretty much the same for the next couple hours; Relena continued to talk about things that really only mattered to her, occasionally with a flock of groupies hovering around; Duo kept trying, unsuccessfully, to stop having sexual fantasies about Heero; Heero continued to try to figure out why Duo wasn't showing his true feelings...and when he got frustrated with that, started having sexual fantasies about him; Quatre would occasionally add comments to Relena's ramblings, and other times talk quietly with Trowa; Wufei sat with his arms crossed, looking both troubled and bored at the same time. Finally, Duo decided he couldn't take anymore. "Well, I think I'm gonna call it a night, you guys."

"It's still pretty early. Are you sure?" Quatre asked.

Duo looked up at the stage. Noin was up there singing again. "He's too Zechsy for his shirt!"

"Positive."

"OK, I guess you're right." The five pilots and Relena got up and left the ballroom, hearing one last snippet of Noin's singing before they left.

"He's a pilot, you know what I mean, and he does his little turn in his Gundam! Yeah, in his Gundam!"

The six of them got in the elevator and rode up to their floor, reminding both Heero and Duo of the night before when they had rode up together. Only this time, there was no rushing off the elevator and squeezing into Heero's room for a night of passion; instead, everyone just said goodnight and went to their respective rooms.

Relena closed the room to her door with a sigh. She had noticed that Heero had been acting really distant the whole night...what could the reason be? Relena thought hard for a minute. "Of course, it must be the kiss!" she thought aloud. "Heero must be jealous that my virgin lips were touched by another before he got the chance! My poor, sweet Heero..." Maybe Heero was upset because he thought she had enjoyed the kiss, which she most certainly had not. It was traumatizing that her first kiss had been with the very person who seemed to always come between her and Heero, and who had a crush on her, no less! Relena came to a decision: she would need to be extra affectionate with Heero to prove her love to him. She just couldn't bear to lose him because of a simple misunderstanding. "I will have my destiny," she said with resolve, "whatever it takes..."

Tsuzuku...* * * * * * * * * *

Spazz's Omake Theater!

Spazz: Yeesh, that's a creepy way to end this part...poor Heero.

Chibi Duo: Poor Heero?! You made me kiss her!

Spazz: Yeah, well, that was one of the twisted scenes I had planned out from the beginning of the fic...sorry, but I thought it was funny ^_^

Chibi Duo: You would...you torture bishounen for fun.

Spazz: Nuh uh, you can't prove that...there were no witnesses!

*Other Chibi pilots enter*

Spazz: Hey, Heero, is that a gun in your spandex, or are you just happy to see me?

Chibi Heero: *Pulls out gun*

Spazz: Oh...heh heh.

Chibi Heero: *Points gun at Spazz* Why do you keep torturing us? When will Duo and me get back together?

Spazz: Soon enough, don't worry...I love you two too much to keep you apart much longer! Sorry that the other boys haven't gotten much love because of it...you know, Trowa, you haven't had a single line yet in my fan-fic, have you?

Chibi Trowa: ...

Spazz: Err, yeah, that's what I thought. Anyway, more insanity is soon to come, so stay tuned! Ja naaaa!