Relena's Secret

 

Pairings: none so far

warning: gender-bending

 

------------------------------------

 

Vice-Minister Dorlian lay on a gurney, his face pale under a thin layer

of dust. He was dying.

Relena fought back tears of despair. It was like a scene out of a nightmare.

Any minute now she expected to wake up, find herself safe in her own bed,

her mother's voice calling her to breakfast. But instead she was riding

in a van, virtually kidnapped by a group of strange men.

 

"Relena," rasped Mr. Dorlian.

 

"Yes, father." She leaned forward to better catch his words. He struggled

to speak.

 

"You must know this, before I die. Your true name is not Dorlian, its Peacecraft.

Relena Peacecraft, and you are the younger son of the King Peacecraft of

the Cinq Kingdom."

 

"No! That can't be!" gasped Relena. Then, "Son? Don't you mean daughter,

father?"

 

"No, its the truth. I'm sorry I had to hide it from you for so long, but

you are not my daughter. You are King Peacecraft's son.  You are a boy,

Relena."

 

"He must be delirious," thought Relena. She turned to her kidnappers.  "He

needs a hospital! You must take my father to a hospital!"

 

But the kidnappers refused, saying something about security and risk.  But

her father was in danger of dying now, from his wounds. When she tried to

argue, they stuck her with a needle and the world spun back into darkness.

 

When she awoke, she was no longer in the van, but in a room of some sort.

In a corner, she could see the men who were in the van, standing around

a figure lying in a bed. Her father. As she watched, still groggy from the

tranquilizer, they pulled up the sheets and

covered his face.

 

*****

 

Relena Darlian sat in the shuttle headed for earth and tried to clear her

mind. So many things had happened in the past few hours: her father murdered

by OZ, the revelation of her true heritage, and a meeting with a mysterious

"Dr. J" who knew Heero Yuy.

 

"Heero." For some reason thinking about that silent and sullen boy helped

her bring her thoughts into focus. Dr. J said that he was really a kind

and gentle boy, and that the necessity of war had made him harsh. She could

believe that. He's fighting for peace, she thought. The Cinq Kingdom had

stood for peace. So had king Peacecraft, her real father.

 

She knit her brow momentarily. What had father said before he died?  That

she was King Peacecraft's son? Was that simply delirium, or was her father

speaking the truth? Who would know?

 

Lulled by the roar of the shuttle's engines, exhausted by grief and confusion,

Relena fell into a troubled sleep as the craft re-entered the atmosphere.

 

*****

 

Her mother was waiting up for her when she finally arrived home, stark grief

etched into her elegant face. Relena felt a fresh pang of loss as she greeted

her mother. Now that she knew that Mr. Dorlian was not her real father, was

she going to lose her mother too?

 

"Did you father tell you anything?"

 

She wants to know if father told me the truth about my parents, Relena thought.

And briefly thought about lying. If she could pretend that nothing had changed,

she might still have her mother. But no. There were still too many questions,

and she needed to know the truth.

 

"He told me, some," said Relena. "But there are still things that I don't

understand."

 

Mrs. Dorlian burst into fresh tears. "I told your father," she said. "It

was wrong to deceive you for so long. You should have been told the truth,

as soon as you were old enough to understand. It would have made things

easier on you."

 

"Please mother. Tell me everything. I need to know all of it."

 

"Relena. I am so sorry to have lied to you all these years. You are not my

husband's daughter. You are the youngest child of King and Queen Peacecraft

of the Cinq Kingdom."

 

Relena nodded.

 

"And you are their son."

 

Relena's legs suddenly gave out and she fell down.

 

"I'm so sorry..." Her mother kept repeating over and over, as she rocked

the confused Relena in her arms.

 

"Mother..." Relena said. "You will always be a mother to me. No matter who’s...son

I really am."

 

*****

 

Relena woke up the next morning with a very bad headache and lay for a while

staring at the pink canopy above her bed. Then she looked at the pink satin

sheets with lace trimmings and pink and white feather comforter. Her eyes

roamed the room, taking in the lacy white curtains, the proud display of

dolls and stuffed animals lining one wall, the delicate floral pattern on

the wallpaper.

 

"This is all wrong," she thought as she sat up in bed. "I'm not a girl,

I'm a boy. I need a new room."

 

She, no HE, peeled off the pink checkered pajama's with bunnies embroidered on

the hems, and contemplated his next moves.

 

He strode purposefully toward the closets and began looking for anything

that a boy might be able to wear. There was precious little. He finally

found one pair of jeans, and a couple of T-shirts. He pulled put on the

clothes and studied himself in from of the mirror.

 

"Not bad." He thought. "But I've got to do something about this hair."

 

He briefly considered cutting it all off, but then decided that some boys

did wear their hair long. He rummaged through a box of ribbons and hair-ties,

until he found a piece of wide ribbon in dark blue. It was the rather of

the frilly side, but it was the best he could do at the moment. He tied

his long blonde hair back in a ponytail and put on his best scowl for the

mirror. It took a little practice. 

 

"Better." He thought.

 

Before he left his room to go to breakfast, he rang the maid and instructed

her to take the clothes that he had pulled out of the closet and his school

books, and move them to another bedroom. 

 

"Some place where the predominant color scheme isn't pink," he said.  "And call

the chauffer, I'm going shopping after breakfast."

 

*****

 

St. Gabriel Institute three days later.

 

Relena entered the room dressed in the dark blazer and pants ensemble that

was the required uniform for male students.

 

"Relena-sama?" Relena's classmates gathered around and offered their condolences.

"We're so sorry about your father!"

 

"Please," said Relena. "Don't let your hearts be weighed down on my account.

Tonight is our school party after all. I'm sure my father would want us

to be happy too."

 

Then one of the girls looked at Relena quizzically.

"Why are you wearing a boy's uniform?"

 

Relena allowed the corners of his mouth to turn up in a tense little smile. "You

might think this a little strange, but I just found this out myself. I'm actually

a boy, you see." 

 

The girls just gaped at their heroine turned hero in silence.

 

Relena's blonde-haired classmate, Eugene, was standing a short distance

away and was also staring at Relena with an open-mouthed expression of shock.

But for some reason he was also blushing furiously.

 

"Relena-chan is a boy..." he thought to himself. For some reason that made him

very happy.  Urm...quite happy in some places. Luckily, no one else noticed.

 

"Relena-sama," said one of the girls, trying to make conversation in the

stupefied silence that followed Relena's confession. "Did you know that

Heero is transferring out of our school already? He hasn't been here a month!"

 

"Heero..." Relena furrowed his brow for a moment. "Excuse me, ladies." He

bowed, a little stiffly.  After all he hadn't had much practice.

 

"You made him run away!" wailed one of the girls after Relena had left.

 

"I can't believe Relena-sama is a boy."

 

"But he's so handsome," said another girl dreamily.

 

"You're right, he is."

 

"Oh, yes. Trust Relena-sama to be perfect in every way."

 

All of them sighed happily. "That is why we love you so much, Relena-sama!"

they chorused.

 

*****

 

Relena found Heero in a deserted computer labs, typing something.

 

"You're leaving to go fight, aren't you?"

 

Heero whirled around at the sound of Relena's voice. His gun was in his

hand, and pointed straight at  Relena's head. If he found it odd at all

that the girl he had known was now dressed as a boy, he didn't let it show

in his expression. He stared Relena down over the barrel of his gun.

 

Relena returned his stare without flinching. Then he smiled tightly.

 

"If you shoot me now, the noise might attract others. You don't want that, do

you? I'm not trying to stop you from leaving, so why don't you just stay

long enough to enjoy the party? Listen, they're playing a song now."

 

Relena tilted his head to captures the strains of melody drifting from the

party downstairs, then turned to Heero, "Come on." He held out his hand.

 

Heero wasn't quite sure what made him lower his gun and take the blonde

boy's hand.

 

They made their way through the halls toward the grand ballroom, Relena

leading the way.

"Are you still going to try to kill me?" Relena asked without looking back

at Heero.

 

"Yeah."

 

Relena glanced back quickly to flash Heero a smile. "I'm not afraid to die.

I understand what you're fighting for now. I met Dr. J while I was in the

colonies. He told me about you. How you're fighting for peace in the colonies."

 

Relena turned away and didn't notice the look of confusion on Heero's face.

 

"I think we're fighting on the same side."

 

Suddenly an explosive boom rocked the building. Screams were heard from

the students and chaperones gathered in the party.

 

"They've found me!" Heero cried. He dashed off to his gundam.

 

Relena darted to the nearest window to take a look at what was happening.

He saw several dark mobile suits surrounding the school and firing at the

buildings.

Students were running every which way in panic and confusion. Some were

hurt and bleeding. Teachers were trying to get everyone to safety.

 

"Is this OZ's doing?" thought Relena. "Targeting a school? How could they!"

He felt a blazing rage toward the people who had killed his father and were

indiscriminately attacking the school. Without thinking, he ran down the

stairway that would give him the quickest access outside.

 

*****

 

Teachers shouted at him as he made his way to the schoolyard. They were

trying to evacuate everyone to the basement. "That's a good idea," thought

Relena. "I'm sorry I can't follow your directions."

 

He nimbly avoided one teacher who made a grab for his arm, then ran outside

where the battle raged.

 

Two Aries mobile suits were standing in the yard, firing away at the school.

The air was thick with smoke, dust, and the smell of explosives.

 

"This is hideous!"

 

Relena watched as buildings crumbled under the assault and burst into flames.

Then he noticed two of his friends huddled on the ground not too far away.

He ran over to them.

 

"Relena-sama!" The pair lifted tear and dirt streaked

faces to him and clung to his arms. Apparently they had tried to flee the

buildings, but had been immobilized by fear and confusion.

 

"Are you hurt?"

 

The girls shook their heads wordlessly.

 

"The teachers are gathering everyone in the basement," Relena tried to

reassure them with a smile.  “It'll be safe there. Come on, stand up.  You

can do it!"

 

The girls got up on their feet shakily.

 

"Go on, I'll be right behind you."

 

The girls took off without a backward glance, and Relena turned to face

the two mobile suits, armed with nothing but his fury.

 

"How dare you attack us!" He cried.  Relena knew that he was acting foolishly.

He could easily get himself killed. But he was too angry to care.

 

Suddenly,

the two mobile suits were enveloped in a bright swath of light, and they

both exploded in flames. In their place stood a gleaming white mobile suit. 

Relena blinked.

 

"Heero? Is that you?"

 

The mobile suit raised its beam weapon straight toward Relena. 

 

"It is you." Relena drew himself up, and held his head high. "I'm ready Heero.

Go ahead and shoot me now."

 

But the shot never came.  Instead, another Aries appeared on the scene and a

hail of bullets descended on Wing. Stray shots hit a nearby building, and Relena

heard himself scream as chunks of concrete and metal fell toward him.

 

"Its unmanly to scream," he thought as he shut his eyes tight. But he couldn't

help himself. "I guess Heero won't get to kill me after all."

 

But when he opened his eyes again, he was still alive. Wing had moved to

block the fall of deadly rubble. The attacking Aries was quickly dispatched.

 

"Heero? You saved my life? Why?!"

 

No answer came from the mobile suit cockpit.

 

"Wait, don't leave! Not yet!"   Relena called out to Heero, but it was too late. The

battle was over, and Wing had already transformed into a fighter.  It took off into the night

sky, blowing scorched dust in its wake.

 

--------tbc---------