Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Heero and Relena ❯ College Days ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, or anything associated with it. I do, however, own this story. After three chapters, do I need to keep saying this? ;)

Rating: R/PG-13, I suck at ratings. :)

Heero & Relena

College Days

(April 2, AC 199)

Heero stood on the 16th floor balcony. The illumination of the artificial sunrise shed its slow consummation of the city below him. He looked down from his top floor to see the beginnings of the usual morning traffic jams. The wind gently swooped his blond-dyed hair across his features. His lightly-colored teal-green contacts reflected the fresh new light spreading across his balcony. He was simply dressed in a pair of blue-jeans and an unbuttoned long-sleeve white shirt. The slight breeze blew across his bare feet. Heero leaned with his elbows against the midriff-high stone railing, lost deep in his thoughts.

A nineteen-year-old girl, the same age as Heero, stepped out onto the balcony. Heero's long bathrobe was firmly tied around her waist as she towel-dried the excess water from her hair. She bent over to quickly wrap her hair up in the towel, then moved to stand about a foot away from him and also leaned on the railing. She stared at him for a moment, observing his usual calm mood. Then she looked toward the sunrise.

"You're thinking about her, aren't you?" she asked. Heero snapped out of his thoughts and looked up at her, before quickly looking down to study his hands. The girl lightly smiled at his reaction.

"I know you, Yuji (A/N: pronounced 'you-jee', another of Heero's codenames). You try your damndest to not let a soul take even a peek inside what you are about, but I do know more about you than I should, don't I?"

Heero remained silent. She sighed. They both enjoyed each other's presence in the pursuing silence that followed her typically-unanswered question. Without warning, Heero's eyebrows furrowed. He turned to her, glaring at her, (A/N: but not giving her his infamous death-glare ;) ).

"Emi, what if I told you that I'm the most dangerous man alive?" He said with as much seriousness as he could muster. She stared at him for all of two seconds before bursting out into laughter.

"Oh, dangerous? Who do you think you are, a Gundam pilot, or something?" she said still laughing. Heero humphed.

"That's what I thought." He said, turning up his nose and facing back toward the sunrise. Her laughter died quickly at his statement.

"Are you trying to say I can't take anything seriously, Yuji?" She said in a low, dangerous voice. Heero looked back at her and smiled inwardly. <<<She still has no clue I know all about her being one of the best assassins still alive.>>> he amusingly thought.

He turned around to face the open patio door and leaned backwards against the railing on his elbows. He completely faced the inside of his apartment, except for his eyes, which fixed on her. His mouth unnoticeably turned up at the edges to smile. She continued to "seriously-pout" at him. He twisted his face toward hers and turned serious again.

"No, Emi, I do take you seriously. Otherwise, I wouldn't be having sex with you, much less acknowledge your existence," he said. Her face softened at such an open admission from him.

"Yuji, tell me about her. She must be an incredible woman to have ensnared a heart as thick as yours," Emi said passionately. Heero sighed, <<<I supposed it wouldn't hurt to let her know just a little bit about Relena, and I hurt so much without her.>>>

"She is… She is…" Heero struggled to find the right words to describe Relena in a nutshell, but that nutshell quickly grew into a garden. Emi waited patiently.

"She is… <<<my missing half, but I can't say that!>>>… She is all I need," Heero finally settled.

"Mmmm. How wonderful to find your one true love. You must be the luckiest person alive, if only you could tell her as much," Emi said as she walked back into the apartment, not giving him a chance to retort. Heero furrowed his eyebrows again as he followed her inside. His laptop beeped as he closed and locked the patio door. Emi went back to the bathroom. Heero made sure she had closed the door all the way before grabbing his laptop. He closed the bedroom door as he went out to his dining room. He setup his laptop and quickly decoded the urgent message.

"For your eyes only: Agent SF01. Code Blue. Mannigan and his crew have been spotted on Colony LAR23458 in Cluster 3. Your mission, stealth infiltration to intercept and destroy all stolen weapons. Avoid contact with the traitor and his crew. SF03 has been assigned to secure them. Report to LU immediately. Out."

(A/N: SF01=The SF-part stands for the Preventers' Special Forces Unit, in other words, the Gundam pilots. The Gundam pilots decided they liked the designations the old military force, Oz, had named them. Therefore, Heero is SF-Zero-One, Trowa is SF-Zero-Three, etc. LU=Lady Une.)

Heero studied the specs of the secret base following the orders. He then locked his laptop, got up, and walked to his bedroom. As he was entering, Emi emerged from the bathroom completely dressed and ready to leave. Heero started stripping his clothes off, ignoring her.

Emi was too startled to hide her surprise, but managed to sit on the bed and watch him strip only his shirt before donning a black tank top that he quickly tucked into his jeans. He then put on a pair of matching black socks and running sneakers.

"You know, that outfit does no justice to your hair!" She wasn't surprised when he didn't answer. "I take it you're not going to lecture again today, huh, Yuji?" Emi asked.

"No," was his only reply.

"I suppose you could copy my notes, if I may treat you to dessert again," she said, smiling coyly up at him. Heero started packing her books into her backpack. She reached him as he finished and handed it to her. They both walked out to his front door.

"Don't be a stranger, Yuji. I still have a lot more I can teach you so that you'll keep her satisfied for the rest of your lives," she winked at him, before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Heero held the door open for her. His eyes softened just a bit.

"Thank you," he said, as she happily bounded down the corridor like a grade-school girl. His mouth dropped open at the flagrant display of youth during her departure. <<<Sweet girl.>>> he thought, as he shut the door. Heero returned to his bedroom to grab up his black leather jacket and Preventer badge.

"Heero! Long time, no see buddy!" Duo said as he playfully, and lightly, slapped Heero on the back of his shoulder. Heero glared at him.

"When are you going to learn doing that is dangerous for your health?" Heero gritted out. Duo leaned in close to Heero so that no one else could hear his reply.

"Maybe when you get the guts to go after Relena!" Duo jumped two steps back from Heero quickly before sarcastically adding, "… or maybe hell will freeze over first!!!" Duo smirked at Heero. Heero was now giving Duo that death glare.

"I'm still wondering why I didn't kill you four years ago, Duo Maxwell." Heero said coarsely. Duo shrugged his shoulders and openly ignored Heero's threat. Duo walked over to the table by the water fountain to grab a donut.

"Yes! Somebody finally had the sense to buy grape jelly donuts!" Grinning from ear-to-ear, Duo wolfed down one jelly donut in one bite. Heero moved to stand beside him and continued to glare.

"You're going to get fat," Heero stated.

"At least I'll die happy! Hell, I didn't think I'd live this long anyway!" Duo managed to say through another mouthful of donut. He swallowed his second donut. "Heero, c'mon man! Live a little! The war is over! We just have these boring, pathetic little battles to worry about now. You have to admit, protecting Relena has been a snap so far! Learn how to chill out, or isn't that why you're going to college now?" Duo gave Heero his full attention, patting his stomach and smacking his lips happily.

"No, I'm going to college to at least be able to say I have a bachelor's degree," Heero said. Duo leaned at the waist toward Heero with both his hands crossed on his chest.

"Hmmm, a bachelor's degree in what, socializing?" Duo didn't have a chance to move as Heero quickly had his gun pointed between Duo's eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" Heero asked angrily. Duo straightened back up and put both his arms up in a "I give up" gesture.

"Whoa! I think what you're doing is cool, man! Hell, I lost count a long time ago how many times I've socialized! I'm still not sure how Hilde managed to settle me down! Hey, I didn't mean anything by it. I just think it's healthy for you. Not to mention it's about damn time!" Duo smiled. Heero was pissed off, as usual when it comes to Duo, so he gave in and put his gun away.

"I suppose Hilde and Talon (A/N: Talon is Hilde and Duo's baby boy.) would be upset with me if I killed you now," Heero said monotonously.

"You'd probably have a worse assassin than yourself after you if you did kill Duo now." Heero and Duo hadn't seen Trowa leaning up against the doorway opposite them.

"Hey Trowa! How long you been hiding there?" Duo grinned.

"Long enough to hear about Heero's college degree," Trowa said. "C'mon, we're starting the meeting," Trowa said, then turned around and left the room.

The remaining two ex-Gundam pilots looked at each other. Heero turned to leave, and Duo grabbed one more jelly donut before doing the same.

"They don't have a name for themselves yet, as far as we know, but they are an official force which is definitely appropriating weapons and mobile suits. Their intentions are unknown, though it's safe to say they're probably trying to overthrow the Earth Sphere United Nation and start a new war," Lady Une informed Heero, Duo, and Trowa.

Intelligence has also noticed one of their puppet politicians is attempting to get closer to the Vice Foreign Minister," Heero perked up just a bit, "…therefore, I have decided to place at least one Gundam pilot as her bodyguard on a permanent basis," Lady Une held her breath, waiting for the expected reaction.

Everyone looked at Heero.

"No," Heero said simply. "It won't be me."

"Heero, I don't know if you knew about this, but I made a decision about a month ago to try to rotate the other four pilots as Relena's special bodyguard," she paused, "She managed to escape all four." Lady Une advised him gravely.

"What!" Heero slipped out of surprise, and turned to look at Duo and Trowa, both of whom had their heads down shamefully. Heero got angry.

"You call yourselves Gundam pilots, and you let the Vice Foreign Minister GET AWAY FROM YOU!!!" Heero said softly, grounding out the last bit. Duo and Trowa looked up at him angrily.

"It's not like we had any choice. Wufei wasn't really paying attention when she got into a taxi instead of her limo. Poor Quatre was too self-conscious to follow her into the ladies room. She escaped out the window! She shimmied down the tree outside her bedroom with Trowa right outside her door!" Duo said exasperated. Heero narrowed his eyes.

"How did she escape from you?" Heero asked. Duo blushed and looked to Trowa for help. Trowa's eyes widened and he looked to Lady Une. Lady Une was surprised, coughed, and turned away. Heero took in all of their reactions.

"Well?" he asked impatiently.

"Well, it went sorta like this, see, she kinda, well like Une said, this politician-guy is getting close to her, and she's allowing herself to get sorta closer to him, so uh, one day instead of getting into her limo, she walked up to his with him, and she told me don't even think about following her," Duo fumbled out.

"You let her go with the enemy!!!" Heero was seriously pissed off now.

"Hey! Don't overreact! Nothing happened! I secretly followed her and watched every move they made. Nothing happened and he had his limo driver escort her back to the mansion safely. I followed her the whole time; she has no clue that I saw and heard everything." Duo explained in a hurry.

Heero calmed back down, but was still visibly angry.

"Heero, you are the only pilot left. I've decided to try a different approach, for both yours and the Minister's sakes. I want you to watch her 24-7 from a short distance. I'll tell her that she'll have a tail on her wherever she goes, and that it'll be an unknown soldier. If she asks if it's you, I'll tell her it's an evasive Gundam pilot. She won't be able to guess which one with that answer. This is the most difficult assignment the Preventers have right now, and you are the only one capable of carrying it out. Should you choose to accept, your mission will begin immediately after you destroy the stolen artillery. This mission will last indefinitely, perhaps months, or even years. You must be her complete shadow in everything she does and everywhere she goes. It's your choice should you choose to reveal yourself to her. This mission will end when the Preventers have gathered enough proof to arrest everyone involved in this new organization all in one foul swoop. I need to know your answer now," Lady Une said.

"Mission accepted," Heero stated.

A/N: You guys are all so sweet!!! Having never attempted anything like this before, I am extremely flattered by your reviews and I am so happy you like my story. I apologize for having taken so long with the chapter; I did have a chapter four written, but I decided to add two-three chapters in between since it was too big a jump in time. As soon as I get the new/real Chapter Five done, I'll get it out here. Thank you all so much again! =))))