This is a new pairing for me.  I had decided that you don’t see much of this pairing, next to none, in fact.  You especially don’t see this concept very often.

 

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Disclaimer:  I do not own Gundam Wing.  The series and characters are owned by their creators.

 

Know Me, Love Me

Part One

 

By:

Izreina Maxwell

 

“Don’t you realize how completely and utterly boring these conferences are, Milliardo?”  Relena looked up from her packing and stared at her brother standing in the doorway.  “There is no use for me to keep going.  Nothing ever gets accomplished.”

She heard a sigh come from him.  “I’ve told you before,” he replied.  “It’s a publicity thing.  Just your presence there is enough for them all to settle their differences, if only for that weekend.”

Relena nodded a bit sarcastically.  “Right.  One would think I wouldn’t have to do that, but I guess people aren’t just that smart.”  She closed the lid to her suitcase and clasped it shut.  “This routine is getting old, Milliardo.  I’m sick and tired of holding everybody’s hand through these talks.  These are grown men and women.  Can’t they think for themselves?”

“Relena, I’m sure that’s not the case.  They just need some encouragement.  You are an idol to them, a symbol of peace, of stability.”

“Maybe I’m tired of being an idol!”  She spun around to face her brother.  “And I am far from stable.  You above all people should know that.  I’m sick of this lifestyle.  Everyday, I get up at the fucking crack of dawn.  By the time I get out of the shower, my breakfast is sitting on my desk.  I eat while you or Paegan read my day’s schedule to me, which is extremely repetitive.  After I eat, I dress in almost the same outfit I did the day before, except maybe a different color, or with a slight variation.”  She pulled her suitcase off the bed and carried it to the door.  She dropped it onto the floor in the hallway.  “I go downstairs into my little office; sit at my little desk; debate with two or three politicians for a few hours; take a break for lunch, which is usually a sandwich and a small glass of iced tea; then go back to the debates for the rest of the afternoon.  I join you and Noin for dinner, where you talk about your day’s events and I listen, wishing I had the exciting life that you two do.  I leave the dinner table, return to my room, and I might do a little reading before going to bed.  And the next day, it begins again.  I’m sick of it!”

She strolled across the floor and sat down at her desk, shuffling around a few papers.

“I realize you’re a little burned out –“ he was cut off after dodging a rather large book that was thrown at him.

“A little burned out?!”  She glared up at her brother, her face becoming almost as red as the blazer she was wearing.  “Milliardo, I’ve been doing this fucking job every day for the past two years.  I don’t get weekends, I don’t get vacations.  Hell, I don’t even get sick days.  A little burned out doesn’t even begin to cover it.  You know, there are times that I look forward to being kidnapped just so I can have a rest.  But that doesn’t happen anymore since you assigned the ‘perfect soldier’ as my personal bodyguard!”

After dodging a second book, he stared at his baby sister for a few moments.  Her face remained red, and even darkened some, as he remained silent.  He nodded.

“Alright, fine,” he finally stated.  He stepped out into the hallway and returned with her suitcase.  He threw it onto her bed.  “Unpack.  We’ll simply tell them you can’t make it.  You had another engagement.  Pack your winter things.  You’re going to the mountain cabin and you’re going to stay there until you relax.”

“Wonderful,” she said in that sarcastic tone.  “And with ‘Soldier Boy’ watching me every minute, I’m sure to have loads of fun.”

“Wrong,” her brother replied.  “Yuy’s not going with you.”

She raised a brow.  “Oh?  You mean I get to go somewhere without ‘Mr. Trigger-Happy’?”  She shot out of her chair and in a few steps, had her arms wrapped around her brother’s neck.

“Chang’s going instead,” he said.

“What?!”  Relena backed away from him.  “I’d rather have Heero!  Wufei needs an attitude adjustment.  Milliardo…”

“You’re not going up there alone.  You seem to disapprove of your previous escort, and Chang is the only one that doesn’t have another assignment.”

“But…  What about Duo?  I know for a fact that he’s free.”

“Because I don’t trust you with Duo, or Duo with you.”

She just stared at her brother a moment before shedding her blazer and throwing it at him.  “Oh!  Just… get out!”

Milliardo walked out of the bedroom.  He stopped in the hallway as she slammed the door behind him.

“Do you think that was a wise idea, Master Milliardo?”

“No,” he replied as he passed the elder.  “No, Paegan, I don’t.  But I’d rather have Chang there than Yuy, especially with her at that level.”

 

“Listen, I don’t like this anymore than you do.”  Relena glanced at her new bodyguard sitting next to her.  “Let’s just deal with this.  You go do your think, I’ll do mine.  As long as we stay out of each other’s way, we should be fine.”

The Chinese man shrugged his shoulders, not even glancing to her.  “Watever.  I’d just like to make it clear that I’m only doing this because your brother mad it an order.”

She scoffed.  “The same could be said both ways.”

Wufei raised a brow, still not looking in her direction.  “I thought you wanted a vacation.  And isn’t the mountain cabin you favorite place?”

She glared at him.  Even though he couldn’t see it, he could feel it.  “Yes, on both accounts.  But, that’s not the point.  Since I appointed him as my advisor and laison to the Preventers, he seems to order me around as he would one of you.”

“Told you where to go, who to go with, and how long you stay there?”

“Yeah…”  She folded her arms and leaned against the back of the seat.

“So why didn’t Heero come with you?”

“He makes me feel… uneasy.  He’s great at his job, don’t get me wrong, but… I don’t know.  I guess all of that silence and constant eye contact creeps me out.  I used to find it kinda interesting, but then he was assigned to keep watch on me 24/7.  I used to feel safe around him, but I’ve begun to feel frightened at his stare, even angered at times.”

She shrugged.  “Don’t tell Milliardo I said anything.  In his eyes, Heero’s the only one he trusts with me.”

“So why am I here?”

“Other than Duo, you were the only other one free.  And Milliardo doesn’t trust Duo.”

“Why not?”  Maxwell can keep you safe and entertained, if you can stand him for that long.”

“He’s also a notorious womanizer.  I swear he’s slept with twenty different women in the past month.”

“And you would know this, how?”

A small smirk came to her face, wondering what kind of reaction she would get from Wufei.  “I was one of them.”  She couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the look of shock on his face as he shot her a stare.

“Ha, ha, very funny,” he stated as he turned his attention back out the window.

“Seriously, Wufei, I am a woman.  I like hearing rumors just as much as the next woman.  Not to mention half of those women are on my staff.”

He nodded.  “And Zechs doesn’t trust him for that reason.”

She nodded.  “So like it or not, you’re stuck with a person about to go crazy.  And believe me Wufei, you’re in for a wild ride.”

He took a glance at her one more time.  Something had changed within her.  He could feel a difference in her posture, her voice.  He wondered, at that moment, what Zechs had gotten him into.

 

“Zechs, what possessed you to send her up there?  And with Wufei?”  Noin sat in once of the two chairs positioned in front of his desk.

“She wanted a vacation, so she got one.  As for Chang, she didn’t want Heero, and she’s not going alone.”

“But, why Wufei?”

“Because, I’m too busy, and if you say anything about Maxwell, I’ll divorce you.  You know damned well what I think about him.”

She nodded.  “Alright, alright.  I see your reasoning.  Now, you canceled a very important conference so she could do this.  Why?”

“She’s stressed and highly agitated.  It wouldn’t put forward the right message.”  Besides, that’s the last thing we want her to be, is agitated.  God knows what would happen if she lost control.  He looked up to his wife.  “Besides, she’s right.  I push her to do too much.  She’s still young.  She deserves to act young, if only once in a while.”

She nodded, eyeing him.  “Right…”

There was a knock on the door.  Zechs looked past Noin as Paegan entered.

“My apologies for disturbing you, Master Milliardo, but I just thought you’d like to see the weather report.”  He handed a newspaper to Zechs.

Zechs glanced at it briefly.  “A blizzard.”  He looked up to the elder.  “They’ll be fine, I’m sure.”

“Yes sir,  I made sure personally that the cabinets were stocked and enough firewood was cut.  I had some help from Master Yuy.  After all, my back is not what it used to be.”

Zechs smiled at the old man and nodded.  “Of course.  Thank you Paegan.”

He nodded.  “Quite welcome, sir.”  He turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

“Zechs…,” started Noin.

“They’ll be fine, Noin.  You don’t know as much about Relena as you think.”

 

It was just beginning to snow as Wufei and Relena pulled up to the cabin.  Relena walked up to the door to unlock it as Wufei began unloading their luggage.

Wufei was a bit surprised at how little she had decided to bring.  His past experiences with women and traveling had shown him that they prefer to take nearly their entire wardrobe, occupying no less than a dozen bags.  But Relena only had one piece.  He shut the trunk to the car and carried two suitcases up the front steps as Relena opened the door.

She walked in and laid the keys on a small table near the door.  She walked across the room and turned on a flashlight that was sitting on the kitchen table.  She laughed a bit as Wufei searched the walls for a light switch.

“What are you laughing at?  And where’s the light?”

“There’s no electricity out here.  The hot water heater runs on gas, and there are gas space heaters in the bedrooms.  Give me a minute to find the kerosene lamps and matches.”

“No electricity, huh?  I’m beginning to think I’m going to enjoy this trip as well.”

“Good.  Okay, stop where you are.  Turn to your right and walk straight forward.  You’ll see a stack of firewood.  The fireplace is just to the left of that.  There should be a starter log already in the fireplace.  I’ll bring you the matches as soon as I light a few lamps.”

“You know this place pretty well in the dark,” he said as he slowly walked in the direction she had said.  He was careful in case there were things in his path that would cause him to trip.

She laughed.  “My father… I mean, Mr. Dorlain had this place built just for me when I was about seven.  He and I spent many winters here.  In the past few years, Milliardo’s been the one to come with me.  It’s my quite place.  A place where I can relax, meditate.  I know every inch of this cabin, from top to bottom.”

“Still doesn’t explain how you move so well around in the dark.”

He heard a few moments of silence before she let out a very hesitant sigh.

“There’s a lot that I can do that is hard to explain.  Just know that I can.”

He raised a brow and looked in her direction.

She pulled the box of matches out of the draw and lit the lamp, before walking over to him and the fireplace.  “Care for a little demonstration of part of my abilities, China Man?”  She looked up at him with an amused grin.  “I’m going to use the bathroom.  While I’m in there, rearrange this room however you want.  Put things in the middle of the floor, whatever.  Then you find a place, blow out the lamp, leaving you in total darkness, hide the lamp in that place, then you hide somewhere else.  Then see how long it takes me to find the lamp and you once you hear that toilet flush.”

He watched her a moment then nodded.  “You’re on.”

She nodded and handed him the lamp.  “Good.”  She walked down the hallway.

As soon as Wufei heard the bathroom door close, he went about his work; moving furniture, small items were taken off their perches and placed in various places on the hardwood floor.  Anything that was knocked over, or ran into, he’d hear it.

His deed was finally done.  He put the lamp on the floor against the wall near the front door.  He blew it out and maneuvered over his carefully placed obstacle course.  He found a position sitting on the hearth of the fireplace as he heard the flushing of the toilet.

 

She stepped out of the bathroom door.  She had taken off the snow boots and had set them, along with her heavy coat, on the bathroom floor.  They would have made too much noise.  She stopped at the end of the hallway where it met the main room.  She could feel it in the air that things were out of place.

She sniffed the air.  The fumes of the kerosene tickled her nose.  The lamp was nearby.  She started to walk towards the source of the smell, but stopped herself.  There were things scattered on the floor, waiting to trip her.  She carefully stepped over the obstacles and turned towards the door.  A few more objects prevented a straight and steady path, but she got around them with no problem.

Quietly, Relena picked up the lamp.  Her trip back across the obstacles had to be smoother than the first.  The slightest movement could make the glass clink against the rest of the lamp.  She knew right where the obstacles were this time, so going back wasn’t difficult.

She continued quietly around the main room.  As she approached the fireplace, she felt a change in the air.  The air was warmer.

Hah.  There he is.

Slowly she leaned down and put the lamp on the hearth, barely a foot away from Wufei.  Then, she quietly removed the glass from around the wick and set it on the hearth beside it.  She pulled a book of matches out of her pocket.

 

He sat quietly, waiting.  He heard no movement whatsoever.  Nothing.  He didn’t even hear the door open.

He began to feel as if he was wasting his time.  No person can move that quietly, can they?

He heard the strike of a match beside him, ad he was proved wrong.  He looked, wide-eyed at the woman as she lit the lamp and placed the glass back over it.

She smiled at the look on his face.  “Any questions?”

“Yeah…how?”

She smirked and stood up with the lamp.  “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”  She carried the lamp over to the table and put it back in its place.  She lit a few more lamps in the main room before tossing Wufei another book of matches.  Then she proceeded through the rest of the cabin, lighting lamps and candles in various rooms.

He caught the matches and watched as she disappeared into the hallway.  He shook his head as he started a fire in the fireplace.  Maybe he really would enjoy this trip.  That woman seems to have another side to her.  And that little test was only the tip of the iceberg.  And, truth be told, it was turning him on.

 

The storm outside was building intensity.  So much snow had fallen in the course of the night that the front porch of the cabin couldn’t be distinguished from the front lawn six steps down.  Only the top of the car was visible because of the blizzard.  But it was very quite and cozy inside.

Relena sat on one end of the couch, sipping a cup of tea.  She flipped through the pages of a magazine she had brought along.  Out of the corner of her eye she could see Wufei watching her, intensely, from a chair on the other side of the living room.

She couldn’t stand it.  The Chinese man watched her like a hawk. She had gotten the same from Heero, but this look was different.  She could see something in his eyes, but she couldn’t exactly tell what.

She had expected not even a glance from him the entire time they were here.  After all, he didn’t in the car on the way up there, even when they got there.  But after last night, he never took his eyes off her.

It wasn’t that his gaze made him uncomfortable, far from it.  But, it made her nervous that he just sat there, doing nothing.

She had ignored it at the beginning, but it was driving her crazy.

“Please don’t stare,” she said, not taking her eyes off of her magazine.

“I was told to keep an eye on you at all times.  I’m only doing what was ordered.”  He couldn’t help it, though.  He knew his orders were only to make sure she didn’t get into trouble.  But after last night, he wanted to watch and see what marvel she did next.

The more he watched, however, the more his mind began to wander into those ‘what-if’ scenarios that can get a man into trouble.  He needed to be busy.  His eyes left Relena for a moment, searching for something to do.

Relena glanced at him, briefly, as she finished her tea.  She set the cup down on the side table next to her magazine.  She stood up and walked into the kitchen, opening a door near the corner.

“Follow me, Wufei.”  She started down the stairs after grabbing a lamp.

He did as he was told, eyeing her strangely.

“Until now, only my father and Milliardo have been allowed down here.  And only the two of them knew the truth behind it.”

She stopped at the base of the stairs and turned to him.

He stopped on the last step as she faced him.  The intensity in her eyes was something he’d never seen in her.  In the background, he could swear he heard running water.  And the air seemed much warmer down here.

“Not even Heero knows all there is to know about me, Wufei.  And you should feel privileged that I’m willing to share it with you.”  She turned around and carried the lamp around the room, lighting various candles.

Wufei’s eyes adjusted to the dim light.  He looked around the rather large underground cavern.  Part of the cavern held an underground hot spring.  That’s where the running water came from.  He eyed the other part of the cavern, though.  It was laid out to look almost like a martial arts training gym, including the display of various weapons.

“The cabin was built on top of this cavern so that I could have a place where I could let out a bit of steam.  Pay careful attention, Wufei, as I tell you what I need this place for.”

She set the lamp down near the stairs and started walking towards the mat.  She shed the long sleeved sweater and threw it down next to the lamp.  She slid off her socks just before stepping onto the mat.  She sat cross-legged on the mat and looked over to Wufei, motioning for him to join her.

Wufei stepped off the bottom step and slid his shoes and socks off.  He set them next to her sweater, along with his tunic.   He joined her on the mat and sat, similar style, across from her, facing her.

“Let me start by saying that Heero Yuy wasn’t the first one trained to become the ‘Perfect Soldier’.