"Come in," she said, turning away from her work.
It was Pargan. "You have a call," he said.
"Of course," said Relena, pushing herself away from her desk and standing. "It’s not the Italian representative again, is it? She shouldn’t need so much help running her province."
"No, miss. It’s Duo Maxwell."
"Duo!" Relena exclaimed. She rushed downstairs to the communications room to pick up the call.
"Duo?"
A figure appeared on the screen, blurry, but undeniably the American pilot. "Relena! Hey, what’s up?"
She smiled. "Things are going well here. How is it down at the Preventors?"
"Going good. Actually, there hasn’t been too much to do lately. Everyone’s really settling into peace, ya’know. We’re working on some new projects now, like bringing wild animals and plants to the colonies to make ‘em more comfortable."
"That’s good. So no one seems to be rebeling against the system anymore?"
"Nah, they’re all real happy. Everyone’s putting their energy into making life more worth living. Oh, hey, didja hear? About Sally and Wufei?"
"No, what?"
"Well, they finally made it official." Duo leaned in and winked. "They finally admitted that they were dating!"
Relena laughed. "At last! I’m glad. Maybe someday, they’ll get married. How are things going with you and Hilde?"
"Oh, yeah," said Duo, blushing. "Well, um, I-"
"The God of Death has finally found himself a Goddess, that’s what!" a voice called from off screen.
"Ack! Hilde, when’d you get home?!?" cried Duo.
"Just now. Is that Relena?" asked Hilde.
"Yeah, and- hey!" An enthusiastic Hilde elbowed Duo off screen. "Hey, Relena! How’re things?"
"Good," said Relena, suppressing laughter. "So what happened?"
"Well, just last night, we were out to dinner, and he finally popped the question!" Hilde winked and held up her ring finger. "And wouldn’t you know, he got me a black diamond ring!"
"Hey, this is my phone call!" Duo reappeared on screen. "Let me talk a little!"
"And wouldn’t you know it’s the only thing that’ll embarrass him!" continued Hilde, ignoring the now blushing boy trying to push his way onto the screen.
"Go make dinner or something!" said Duo, turning a furious shade of red.
"You can’t order me to do anything ‘till we’re married!" teased Hilde, sticking her tongue out.
"Aw, c’mon, we decided not to get married until later, gimme a break, I’m hungry now!" whined Duo.
"Fine," laughed Hilde, "but you have to say ‘please’."
"Awright, ‘please,'" said Duo. "Now would you let me finish my conversation?"
"Fine, fine," said Hilde, giving him a quick hug. "See ya soon, Relena!"
"Bye, Hilde!" Relena said.
Duo smiled, watching Hilde mince off. "Anyway, how’s Heero?" His face changed to a more serious expression. "Is he still brooding?"
"Well, he was until this morning." Relena looked puzzled. "This morning- something changed. He would talk to me all of a sudden. I’m not sure what happened, but I hope he stays this way."
Duo nodded. "I’m glad. That’s the real reason why we sent him down there, you know."
Relena was surprised. "What was the real reason?"
"To try to get him out of his melancholy." Duo leaned on the console as he spoke. "We all got pretty depressed after the war- it’s hard, you know, fighting all your life, then having it all taken away. But we all got over it. Heero never did. He seemed almost happy around you sometimes, so we thought that maybe going back would help him. I’m glad to see that it did."
Relena was stunned. "He was happy around me?’
Duo laughed. "Yeah, he was. I guess you have to know him really well to be able to tell."
"But I don’t get it. Wouldn’t he feel the same way around you and everyone else?" Relena asked, confused.
"Nah. We’re his friends, but with you, I think he likes to know that he has something to protect. He loves you in a different way than the rest of us," explained Duo. "Not that he would ever tell me something like that, but after you live with a guy, you get to know him."
Relena smiled. "You two are really close, aren’t you?"
Duo nodded. "It’s odd, he’s always so annoyed with me, and he never acts like he likes me, but deep down I know that he loves me. He loves all of us, and we love him. That’s why we’re so worried."
Relena nodded. "It’s like a big family down there, isn’t it?"
"Yeah, I guess you could call it that. Anyway, could I talk to Heero?"
"Sure, I’ll go get him. Goodbye, Duo."
"See ya later!" Duo waved as Relena left to get Heero.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Heero was in his room typing up his homework when he heard a strange noise at the window. It sounded like someone was scratching at the glass. Warily, he turned towards the first-floor window. Sitting on the ledge was Tsuki, the little cat. Heero smiled a bit, and opened the window to let her in.
"Nyao," she purring, jumping in to rub herself against his ankles. Heero sat back down at his computer, and she jumped up into his lap. Oddly comforted by the little creature, Heero scratched Tsuki’s ears before returning to his homework.
They were still sitting that way when a quiet knock sounded at the door.
"Come in," said Heero, forgetting about the cat on his lap.
Relena opened the door and then paused in surprise, her mouth open. Then she began to smile.
"Huh?" Heero was confused, then realized what she was laughing about. A slight grin appeared on his own face, as Tsuki leapt off his lap to run to Relena.
"So what did you want?" asked Heero.
"Duo is on the phone," said Relena, reaching down to scratch Tsuki’s head. "He wants to talk to you."
"All right." Heero stood and walked out the door behind Relena.
"I guess I’ll have to take you back to the kitchen, right, Tsuki?" said Relena, picking the kitten up. She immediately began to purr, as Heero and Relena walked down the hall.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
"What took you so long?" asked Duo, surprised at the slight smile on his friend’s face.
"Tsuki," answered Heero.
"Lucky? Who’s lucky?" Duo demanded.
Relena smiled as she closed the door. The she sighed as she bent down to pick up Tsuki.
"You cause too much trouble," she said. She remembered the happy look on Hilde and Duo’s faces when they were teasing each other and sighed again. She loved Heero so much, but he most certainly didn’t love her back, not like she wanted him to. Whatever Duo might say. She was just someone to protect, nothing more special than anyone. A tear ran down her cheek before she quickly wiped it away.
"Nyao?" asked Tsuki, surprised at her friend’s sudden change of mood.
"You wouldn’t understand, Tsuki," replied Relena. "You’re just a cat. I wish..."
She let her voice trail off as she walked back towards the kitchen. Some things just aren’t meant to be, she told herself sadly, and that’s that. If Heero had ever loved her, then she had certainly scared him off when she went chasing after him. Relena shivered in embarrassment, remembering. Lost and upset at her father’s death and the shattering of her perfect world, she had wished to die, and not having the strength to kill herself, had searched for someone who she knew would. She had thought Heero would do that. Actually, she thought, wincing, I wanted him to kill me even before Father’s death. Life was just too overwhelming. Thank goodness I found something to live for before I managed it... I found that I could protect people who could not protect themselves.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Later that night, Duo was almost finished helping Hilde clean up the kitchen when she brought up their conversation.
"Is it just me, or does Relena seem lonely?" she asked as she dried the last dish.
Duo looked surprised. "I don’t know, she didn’t seem that way to me. But Heero seemed lonely to me."
Hilde nodded, then turned to lean on the windowsill. "I guess they both are. Everyone else from the war has found someone but those two- Heero stays locked up in his work, and Relena stays locked up in hers. They have a reason to be lonely."
Duo wrapped his arms around her from behind and whispered in her ear. "Maybe they’ll find each other some day. But we’ll never be lonely, will we?"
Hilde turned around and pulled Duo closer to her. "No, we never will be. ‘Cause we found each other."
The moonlight shone in the window on the two figures, so close to each other that they only made one dark shadow.
[Chapter Three | Part Five]