The Third Degree by Miss Megaboo

(Dedicated to Mistress Amethyst Une for not only inspiring this fic, but for also agreeing to help improve my very rusty writing skills. Love ya, girl! Hope it doesn't suck!)

It was a tragedy. It was a disaster! No, it was actually just a pure and utter failure…

As the emergency service trucks pulled away from the Darlian manor, Relena couldn't help but feel a wave of relief wash over her. It was only when she realized that this whole mishap would almost definitely appear on the evening news and in the morning papers, did the Vice Foreign Minister give out a great, and final sigh. She could already imagine the headlines the newspapers and tabloids would come up with. The whole incident would be taken out of context. It's not like she had meant for this to happen and Relena hadn't gotten hurt. How could something like this have happened in such a highly watched over dignitary's home, the news reporters would ask? In the Vice Foreign Minister's house no less? There had been no other witnesses except for the two at the scene of the crime. One was her-and she wasn't talking- and the other had arrived too late to do anything. He had no answers for the authorities either.

"Relena."

The other witness…

"I do not," she said, emphasizing the 'not', "want to talk about it…Heero."

She really didn't. Relena still felt a little shaky and she could still feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Or maybe that was just because of Heero. It wasn't hard to hide the feeling, though, because she was bound and determined to keep her head. It was enough that they could easily communicate without words, but it was entirely something else that no matter what, he could always see through her. No matter how hard she tried, it was like he could read her thoughts. Not this time, though!

"Relena, you know I'm going to get it out of you. You should just tell me. Une will probably be calling in five minutes for a status report. I need answers. You wouldn't give the police a statement, either. This is serious."

Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like meeeee…

Relena could see Heero's jaw tighten as he jerked his phone out of his pocket. "Yuy, here."

"BUDDY! What's goin' on?!"

"When did you change my ringtone, Maxwell?"

Relena couldn't help but smile. Even over the phone, a full three feet away, she could hear Duo ignore his best friend's question and launch into his own tirade.

"You're all over the NEWS, buddy! They've got video of the house and everything! Fire trucks, EMS, and police cars! And look, there you are threatening one of the cops with a gun. Une'll be happy about that one…What in the world happened over there? Did someone die?"

Heero closed the phone and gave her a piercing look.

"Heero, I really should go clean up in there. It's a real mess…" And with that, Relena took off gracefully around him, cut through the dinning room, and into the kitchen. The scene of the crime.

The Vice Foreign Minister only got there a few seconds before her bodyguard and was instantly trapped against the island in the middle of her kitchen. Heero placed both arms on either side of her; there would be no escaping now even as he peered around at all the damage. He was so close that Relena could almost feel his body heat and the smell of his aftershave was starting making her drool now. She wouldn't have minded her current predicament if it had been under other circumstances.

'No, keep your cool, Relena. Keep your cool,' she thought to herself, shaking her head. 'Don't tell him anything. Keep with you story: you don't know what happened.'

"Relena, you could have been seriously hurt," Heero scolded her after he completed his scan of the destroyed kitchen.

Needless to say, it was a complete mess. The kitchen table and one of the chairs had been knocked over in the tussle and one of the counters was completely destroyed. And though Relena seemed to have tried to save the day with a few dish towels, they didn't seem to have done any good as they lay there abandoned on the floor.

"Tell me what happened, Relena."

"Nothing happened, Heero. It was an accident. No one died, and I think that should count for something. So I'd appreciate it if you'd quit giving me the third degree."

Heero glared at her. "Your house just caught on FIRE, Relena. Half of your kitchen is destroyed," he said, picking up one of the dish towels Relena had obviously used to try and put out the fire, as it was completely charred. "We're going to talk about this. You didn't give any of the emergency teams any straight answers, but I except the truth."

In all honesty, the fire hadn't been all that bad. The damage had been limited to a small corner of the kitchen and Pagan had been wanting new counter tops anyway. Even the former queen of the world was allowed to make a few mistakes, right? That's when it caught Heero's eye. Reaching around her, Heero picked up a sodden black hunk. He gazed quizzically down at the woman in front of him.

"It was just an accident…I didn't mean for them to burn."

Heero's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "How can anyone possibly burn toast?"

Well, that's it! I hope everyone enjoyed it. It's the first thing I've really written in a VERY long time. I'm really rusty, I know. But I'll hopefully become better thankst to Une. So, make sure to check out her stuff and all of my upcoming and pervious material. Check my profile for further details and don't forget to review and fave, please!