~ My ~ Fair ~ Princess ~



By Alexia Goddess



Chapter Eight






Rose Manor was lit like a giant ruby; red satin swags swooped in and
out among the grand greek pillars. Those new fangled 'light cords'
were weaved among the branches of the trees, the glass domes
surrounding the little electrical wires that gave off the light were
tinted red.

Awaiting its turn to stop directly before the grand, wide steps that
led up to the dais that was the 'front porch' of the manner was a 
grand carriage, the deepest, most highly polished of black, trimmed
with dark silver. Inside, however, was an even grander sight of a
young lady clad in the deepest royal blues and blacks.

"Relax, my lord," Dorothy said in the soft, hinting-at-sultry-voice
that had become her normal tone.

Milliardo glanced at her, pulling his eyes momentarily away from their
vigil of watching the steady tide of women and girls step out of the
carriages. So far, there hadn't been a single one that rivaled Dorothy
in beauty, grace, or presence, but there were at least five more
carriages before them, and countless more behind...there was still a
chance... And there was still that Relena girl to deal with...

"I will win this," Dorothy told him. "Have faith. You are the one who
trained me, who kept me up till midnight making me learn to dance in
these awful shoes. You're the one who stood over me while I practiced
by pronounciations, my verbs, my nouns, my vowls. Don't go chicken on
me now, my lord." 

Milliardo smiled and reached over to pat Dorothy's black satin gloved
hand affectionately. "I won't, my dear, I won't." He then withdrew
his hand, as the carriage moved. It was their turn to enter the Rose
Manor.





*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*





"You're trembling." Heero stated his observation without any qualms.

Relena looked at him, and swallowed. Colenol Quatre hadn't joined them,
and she was desperately wishing he had...

"I'm nervous, of course I'm trembling," Relena said, her voice somehow
remaining calm and poised, though her hands, twisting themselves up in
the pale white-gold, seamless skirt of her gown doubly betrayed her
unstable confidence on top of her shaking fingers. Heero said nothing,
until, out though a slit in the curtains covering the glass paned
window of the white, gold trimmed carriage did he spot two familiar
figures.

"Look," Heero said, his voice indifferent. Relena looked out her own
window and drew in a sharp breath.

"She looks lovely..." Relena commented on the clinging gauzy black gown
Dorothy wore. Part of her hair was pinned up with black opal studded
pins, the rest of it tumbling down her back in a cascade of ice blonde
curls. Her gown was strapless, daringly low, even more so than the
one middle dip in Relena's gown. She had a train, which a manservant
lifted to keep it clear of the dirt as she stepped out of the carriage,
asissted by Milliardo...

Relena furrowed her brow. This was only the second time she had seen
Milliardo, but she had the strangest feeling she'd met him before...
Before the horse races. She hadn't noticed it then because what
attention she had shot his way had been directed more at Dorothy.

But as she contemplated this, Dorothy and Milliardo disapperaed into
the entrance hall of the Rose Manor, and it was hers and Professor
Yuy's turn at the red carpet.

Heero stepped out first, and Relena went to accept the hand that the
footman held out, not giving a second thought to the notion that Heero
would help her out, as every other outting they'd gone out on he'd
never given the slightest indication he'd ever do such a thing for
anyone.

So imagine her slight, but pleased, surprise when the Professor glared
at the footman and took Relena's hand himself. He then bent over and
lifted the golden loop on the underside of the edge of Relena's train
and handed it to her. She slipped the loop over her right index finger,
and flared her pale gold fan trimmed with darker gold. Further was
she surprised when Professor Yuy proceeded to hold out his arm to her.
She took it, hiding her pleased grin behind her fan.

"Stand up straighter," Heero murmured. Relena corrected her posture,
embarrassed at having forgotten. She mentally double checked everything
about herself and her appearence as the doors to the entry hall were
opened for them. A footman took Relena's white fir wrap that buttoned
in the front of her chest, as well as Heero's coat and tophat.

Again, Relena slipped her arm through Heero's offered one, and he
gave their names to the announcer as they stepped up to the open
doors that lead into the ball room.

"Announcing Lord Professor Heero Yuy and Miss Relena Dorlayn." The
announcer declared. Only about half the room paused to glance at the
newest arrivals, intending to simply glance away. The same thing went
through many of those who found they didn't want to look away from
the dazzling couple that stood at the top of the steps leading down
onto the ballroom floor.

"That girl in black on Milliardo's arm was a looker, all right, but
she didn't have this one's...presence." One man commented to his wife.

"Indeed," The wife replied, craning her neck discreetly to keep her
eye on the girl as she, on the Professor's arm, descended the stairs
like a glistening pale golden angel.

"That other one that you were staring at bordered on the obscene," A
sister jibbed at her brother. "This one would be much better for you to
gawk at." The brother only gave his sister a withering glare, to which
the sister only laughed.

"How peculiar..." A duchess fluttered her fan, glancing at the girl.
"She looks strikingly like another young noble woman I once knew..."
She commented to herself.

Relena was *very* aware of all the eyes on her. A second unknown lady
at the same party? Quite peculiar, it was, and Relena knew it. Relena
drew in a sharp breath as she felt a pair of piercing eyes on her, and
she turned slightly to see a darkly clad Dorothy across the room, on
Milliardo's arm, talking to a man whose handsome face made Relena's
breath catch. But he, too, had a woman on her arm, a woman Relena
recognized from the Professor's descriptions and sketches, provided by
Trowa (how he got them, she didn't know), as Lady Une.

So the man whose arm she was on, talking to Dorothy and Milliardo,
could only be...

"Professor," Relena said softly, so as not to attract attention.

"Hm?" Was Heero's only acknowledgement that he heard her, as he
continued scanning the ballroom.

"Over to our right, Professor," Relena said, fluttering her fan
lightly. "I believe you'll find a most peculiar sight to be of interst
to you."

Professor Yuy glanced discreetly over to where his competition had
gotten a head start with Treize Kushreinada. Heero gave Relena look.
Relena's chest tightened, and she swallowed, her palms sweaty with
nervousness.

"I can do it," She said. "Honestly, I can." She insisted. Heero's only
reply was a 'hn' and a narrowing of his eyes. He nodded to the punch
table, indicating where he would be when she finished her
'performance.'

Discreetly patting her hair and smoothing her skirt, Relena crossed the
room, heading for Milliardo, Dorothy, and the man whom she had to
impress more than Dorothy in order to 'win.' But luck was against her
that night, or so it seemed, for a young, handsome, and obviously
extremely wealthy, probably the son of a duke, intercepted her and
bowed, asking her to dance. Just as he asked this, the song to which
the dance went with was one of the ones Relena knew best.

She glanced at Milliardo, eyes twinkling with a smug smirk. Dorothy
also threw her a malicious look of truimph, and laughed at something
Treize had said and touched his arm.

"My lady?" The young duke inquired again. Relena snapped out of her
staring at the foursome across the room, and realized she had no
choice. Even to politely turn him down, him. being obviously so
important, would decimate her chances at winning Heero's bet.

Suppressing a slightly frustrated sigh and letting a gracious, serene,
polite smile grace her face, she curtseyed, and laid her arm on his
offered one.

"Of course, my lord," She said sweetly. And so he swept her onto the
dance floor. He was a very good dancer, but to Relena's surprise, she
was better. Throughout the rest of the song, there were two dances
going on; the dance that consisted of lifted skirts and fancy footwork,
and the other went on between Relena and her partner, a dance that
dealth with Relena keeping certain areas of her atonamy out of reach
of his hands.

"Would you...like to go visit...the gardens, my lady?" The duke's son
inquired with a suggestive wink. Relena was tempted to slap him. But
that would only solve to get hr kicked out of the 'game' (and most
likely the party) before either had begun.

Relena was saved the delimma of finding a way to 'politely' turn down
the duke's 'offer' when a tremendous crash resounded throughout the
entire ballroom. Even the music sputtered, as the musician's fingers
slipped, then regained their rightful rhythm and the music flowed on.

The soure of the commotion, however, was far from being able to
recover so smoothly or quickly. A servant that had been carrying a tray
of half filled champagne flut glasses had tripped on the corner of the
tablecloth on one of the buffet tables. Result? Instant catastrophe.

Relena glanced across the room. Treize seemed merely amused, though
Lady Une was clearly outraged. Relena looked back at the servant, who
now looked, upon a second inspection, to be quite young. He looked
as though he wanted to die as he scrambled to put the trays of fruit
back on the table, sweep the shattered remains of the flut glasses
back onto his own tray, all the while not noticing that one of the
buttons on his shoes was missing...

Relena narrowed her eyes as she saw a lady nearby, smirking, her eyes
dancing with smugness. Her skirt was made of lace... Relena's eyes
hardened as she saw the shiny brass shoe button ensnared in the lacy
hem of the lady's gown; she had tripped the boy deliberately.

Relena excused herself from the duke's arms and made her way over, the
only person in the entire ballroom that was moving, let alone moving
straight for the poor serving boy. Relena grabbed a handful of napkins
off the buffet table and got down on hands and knees with him, helping
him clean up the destroyed champagne. When it was all mopped up, and
the glass piled on the tray, Relena pulled him to his feet and took
his hands, inspecting them. They were sliced and bloody from the
glass shards. Relena took two cloth napkins off the table and wrapped
them around his hands.

"You'd better go get that taken care of," She told him kindly. She
bent over and picked up the tray bearing the glass shards and handed
it to another servant. The serving boy looked at her in awe, then
turned. He nearly tripped again as he stepped on the loose flap of one
of his shoes. Relena put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. She
reached down and lifted his foot, inspecting the shoe in a manner that
made it clear to everyone watching that there was a button missing.

Knowing that she had forfeited the winning of this wager the moment
she had gotten down on hands and knees with the boy, Relena say no
reason to not do what she was about to do. She strode over to the
lady in the lace, reached down and snatched the brass shoe button out
of the lace, snagging and ripping the lace overskirt clear up to the
waistline. The lady shrieked and stepped back, examining her skir then
glaring at Relena. Relena held up the brass button for all to see, and
a murmur went through the ballroom.

Relena didn't know this, but the lady with the lace was a duchess who
was notorious for 'secretly' seducing serving boys, and making their
lives horrible if they refused her. The majority of those present
realized that the serving boy had to have been her latest failure.

Lady Une left Treize's side, and went to the musicians and gave an
order that would hopefully salvage the rest of the ball. The musicians
struck up a dance tune that everyone knew. A few woman laughed in
delight; this was the dance that for men, meant it was time to choose
the lady they wished to dance with the rest of the evening.

Relena sighed and gave the boy back his shoe and button. He thanked
her profously, and she hugged him on impluse, and another servant that
looked to be the serving boy's elder brother came and guided him out of
the ballroom.

Relena stood, be the buffet table. The people around her were in
conflict; shun her, or congradulate her on her detective work? Ladies
weren't supposed to be so indipendant, but times were changing...

Relena was oblivious to this. However, she was not oblivious to a
particular set of footsteps coming up behind her.

"I failed, I know," Relena's shoulders were slumped in defeat, her head
hung in shame. "I'm sorry," Was all she was able to offer. "I just
couldn't let that boy be made a mockery of. Do you know what happens
to his kind when they're disgraced? They're thrown out, and most often
they live the rest of their lives on the stree because no one else
will hire them." Relena held back tears; that was what had happened
to her own mother.

Relena stiffened as she felt hands, familiar hands, take her by the
shoulders from behind and straighten her posture. One of the hands
reached around her and tipped her head up.

"Don't slouch," Was all Professor Yuy said. Relena turned around,
automatically keeping that proper posture. Though his mouth remained
straight, his eyes smiled kindly down at her. Relena blinked in
surprise.

"B-but..." She stuttered. "I...I failed...we...you lost your wager,
Professor!"

"Perhaps," He said. "But you were in the right. That is what counts."

Relena didn't disagree, but she thought he would have been furious
with her for blowing her -*his* chance at winning...

Heero started to hold out his arm, when a voice interrupted the 
action.

"Brilliant performance, Miss Relena," Came a voice that was soft, yet
had commanded armies. A voice that was chocolate and cream, yet at
the same time steel and wild winds.

Heero turned and Relena looked past him to see Treize Kushreinada
nearing, Milliardo at his side and Dorothy still on his arm, though it
was quite obvious both had expected her to be on Treize's arm by then.

"M-my lord..." Relena swallowed. Was he mocking her?

"Good to see you again, Professor," Treize greeted Heero. Heer only
nodded in reply. Relena regarded the two. They had the attitude when
dealing with each other that two old enemies would have, two old
enemies that had been forced to work together once and had just never
bothered to be enemies again.

"Miss Dorothy informs me that you have already met," Treize once
again addressed Relena. Relena forced a polite smile and nodded.

"That we have, m'lord," She said. "At the horse races last week."

"She also tells me you seem to have a dislike of the activity," He
stated. Relena blushed.

"I...Animals..." Relena had prepared her typical lie, but she sighed
inwardly. Lies served no more purpose here. "I detest the activity,
my lord." She said. Her tone was surprising; honest, yet somehow 
managing to keep from being offensive. Treize smiled.

"As to I," He said. Dorothy blinked in visual surprise, and Millardo
scowled momentarily before his expression cleared.

"You know," Treize began. "Milliardo was also just telling me how you
reminded him of his little sister, the Princess Regina." Treize sipped
at a glass of wine he took from a passing servant.

"Oh?" Relena raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Milliardo picked up. "My half sister, actually. Part of London
used to be the very small kingdom of the Sanq Kingdom. I believe you
are staying at Sanq Palace?" Relena nodded.

"Sanq Palace was the capital of the Sanq Kingdom, before the war,"
Treize continued. "Half the palace burnt, taking the princess down
with it. There have been rumors that perhaps the princess survived,
rescued by one of the Sanq Queen's disgraced lady's in waiting, but
it's all just speculation, of course."

"Of course," Relena said, her tongue suddenly feeling thick and
heavy as visions of flame flashed across her vision, the smell of smoke
suddenly clogging her senses...

Then it was gone. Relena forced her attention elsewhere as Treize
exchanged pleasantries with a blank faced, still voiced Heero.

The music, the song which the men asked their favorite lady of the
evening to dance, picked up its pace. Only Heero noticed the way 
Treize's eyes flickered back and forth between Relena and Dorothy. Had
Heero had the notion to let his face portray expressions, he would have
smirked. So they were still in the game after all.

Relena saw the twinkle in Professor Yuy's eyes, then looked at Treize
to see him looking at her. He then glanced discreetly at Dorothy.
Dorothy didn't notice, but she was clearly waiting for Treize to ask
her to dance.

"My lady," Treize asked. Who, it wasn't quite clear...

Until he held out his arm to Relena.

"May I have this dance?"

Pleased- no, thrilled surprise donned Relena's face, and she smiled,
not because she was now dancing with the wealthest, most legendary
noble in London, not because she had won, not because she hadn't let
Heero down after all, but because as everyone stared at her -*Her!-
dancing with Treize Kushreinada, she knew she had *finally* proven
that she was somebody worthwhile...

Relena also knew that when this dance was over, Heero would have to
beat off the boys and men with a stick. She had finally made a higher
reputation for herself. She remembered the bank account she had in her
name, she rememebered all her training, and tears came to Relena's
eyes.

She finally had the means to make her dream a reality...

Relena made a mental note to ask Quatre and Heero to accompany her to
the country the next day, to hopefully purchase a plot of land suitable
for opening a ranch that would serve as a retirement home for abused
race horses.

A a summer finishing school. For the common folk. Relena wanted to
provide an opportunity for others to reach their goal in higher places.

Relena looked over Treize's shoulder and met Heero's eyes across the
room, and he nodded to her. Relena's heart soared. The music ended,
she curtseyed to Treize, he bowed, and she went to Heero. Heero smiled
ever so slightly as another song began to be played. He set down his
wine glass and held out his arm to her, which she accepted. Heero
guided her to the dance floor, and took her in his arms.

"Your shoulders are tense again, princess," He whispered in her ear,
and Relena laughed as they began to dance.




The End.



WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!

Phew! *wipes brow* It was an uphill struggle through throught this
whole thing! Or at least this last chapter...

In response to a view reviews I've gotten, as for this story being
'uneventful,' if you mean that there were no chases, or fistfights,
or espionage, that was my intent. This is my FIRST story every written
(let alone completed!) with absolutely no violence. Don't worry; 
'Kitten's Sunrise' will MORE than make up for 'My Fair Princess's' lack
of physical activity (YOU HENTAI'S GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER!!!!!!!).

Thank you all soooooo much for your faithfullness! This fic has more
reviews than 'Kitten's Angel,' wow! Kitten's Angel was my pet fic
(meaning it was the fic I was dedicating most of my effort to) while
writting this one. I guess my 'not my best work' is better than I
thought! *tears* I'm so flattered!

Anyhoo, before I shut up and go start another fic, I want to thank;

Raven: My beloved, my better half, who has, is, and always be there for me.

Rose-chan: My BEST friend on the planet, my sister in christ, the one who makes me feel worth the air I breathe.

Arion: Despite being a Relena-Hater, has always humored me and not flamed me when I wrote pro-Relena stuff. Thanks, girl! Now quit looking at the shirtless Heero pic and FINISHED PREDATOR!!!!!!

Juno Trevan: My beta-reader-to be. Once again, your input was one of
the highlights of writing this story. I soooooo appreciate your
support!

Ayanami-Chan: You are the QUEEN of all Heero/Relena fics, you're liking
my humble work was a BIG boost to my low self esteem. *hugglez* THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

MoonLight Storm: *hugglez* The sweetest reviewer ever; your support
was so pure and enthusiastic. Thank you soooo much!

Mouser: Aaaaaw...you think I'm talented? Look who's talking! I love
your fics! I hope you continue to give your opinion on my work; I
greatly value it!

And last, but not least;

Athena and Makura; my muses!!!! *hugglez fire-red Athena and shadowy
Makura* Thanks, you two!!!

Anyhoo, that's about it! *hugglez all* So until next time, Ja ne!



Smile More, Dream Always,
Alexia Goddess