The night Heero Yuy realized he was in love with Relena Darlian, he was in another girl's apartment.

At the time, he was renting a studio apartment on his university campus, where he was close to wrapping up his freshman year. That night he had been minding his own business, studying at his desk, when a scream from the apartment across from his diverted his attention. Being the former soldier that he was, he couldn't bring himself to readily ignore the screams of a woman in peril. And as exciting as his complex variables were, he decided his homework could wait.

And so he rose reluctantly from his workspace, opened his apartment door and peered outside into the hallway. It was after midnight and the space was still and silent under the fluorescent lights. Heero decided he might have been imagining things - he was prone to nightmares and flashbacks, remnants of spending his formative years at war - and started to shuffle back to his desk when the door of the apartment across from his sprang open. A blonde, blue-eyed girl bolted into the hall, her eyes wide and frightened. She stumbled and Heero unconsciously caught her, a result of his quick reflexes. He blinked down at her as she gazed up at him. Her pink lips parted and she cried, "Heero! Thank God! You've got to help me."

Heero looked blankly down at… what's her name… and frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"T-there's a rat!" she shrieked, her eyes brimming with tears. Heero thought her reaction was absurd, but then she was just a girl. Probably came from a pampered upbringing and never had to deal with anything as unsavory as vermin in her apartment.

Heero rolled his eyes and loosed his arms from her grasp.

"Are you sure?" he asked, one brow arching skeptically.

"I saw it!" she insisted, her eyes wide and excited. "It was huge!"

"Fine," Heero muttered, traipsing after the girl into her open apartment. For the next several minutes, he searched vigilantly around and under her furniture, including a bright blue sofa, and even checked beneath the fluffy pillows resting on top of the cushions. He was about to declare the place vermin-free when he heard a scratching sound coming from inside the wall. He turned his gaze toward the sound and, sure enough, the rodent came darting out from underneath a nearby end table. The girl shrieked in response. Heero bent down and approached the tiny creature. It froze and went rigid, and he scooped it up in his hands.

"See?" He walked up to the girl, who instantly recoiled and leapt back. "It's just a mouse." The thing was small and gray and squeaking in his hands. Heero looked down at it and smiled. "It's harmless."

"That's a rat!" his neighbor cried incredulously. Heero frowned and shook his head, thinking her rather stupid.

"Sorry, but… no." Heero continued to just stand there, holding the mouse in his hands. The poor thing was shaking.

"Well, aren't you going to do something?" The girl glared at him.

"Like what?" Heero frowned.

"Kill it!" she screeched, closing her eyes in apparent anguish. Heero chuckled, wondering how Relena would react to a mouse in her home, or an actual rat. Probably not like that, he decided. He tried to picture it, and the thought made him smile.

"Now Heero," she would scold playfully, tilting her head. "Did you adopt a pet and forget to tell me?"

Ignoring his neighbor's shrieking, Heero walked out to the hallway and set the mouse down. It stayed still for a moment before darting off and disappearing into a crack in the wall.

"Ew," the girl said in dismay. "You just let it go? It's just going to get back in here, you know." She folded her arms and glared up at Heero.

"You're welcome," he grumbled. He wasn't about to release the thing outside when clearly it lived inside the building. Like he did.

"You're right," she said with a sigh, her features relaxing. "I'm sorry. Thank you for at least getting it out of my apartment." She reached over and grasped his bicep. "I'll have to make it up to you." Heero quirked a brow, wondering what she meant by that. He hadn't spend enough time with women - other women - to claim to understand them.

"How about a drink? I've got beer and wine and…" Her voice trailed off as she turned back into her apartment. Heero shrugged and followed after her. He didn't particularly like this girl, but figured accepting a drink after doing some kind of service was the appropriate social norm.

She motioned for him to sit on the couch as she padded into her kitchen and opened her refrigerator.

"Is light beer okay?" she called to him. Heero gave an indifferent shrug.

"That's fine."

She wandered back over to him and offered him an ice-cold can, smiling down at him.

"I'll be back in a sec," she said brightly, and bounded off toward another room. In a 'sec'? Heero frowned as he sipped his beer. Who talks like that?

A few minutes later she re-entered the living room. Heero nearly spit out his beer when he saw what she was wearing. Which wasn't… much. She sauntered toward him, a smirk playing on her lips.

"What are you doing?" Heero asked flatly as she approached the couch.

"I told you," she cooed, moving dangerously close to him. "Thanking you for earlier." She tried to crawl onto Heero's lap but he backed away, sloshing beer onto his pants in the process. She giggled, undeterred, and grabbed his shirt by the collar. Heero's eyes widened as she brought her face uncomfortably close.

"Why, Heero," she purred. "You'd think you were a virgin or something." Her eyes glazed over. "How adorable."

"I…" Heero's brows shot up. He wasn't, but… "That's none of your business," he growled. He wrenched himself away and bolted up from the couch. The girl whose name he was still racking his brain to remember looked up at him in astonishment before bursting out laughing.

"Oh, Heero," she sighed once she'd composed herself. "Just relax, will ya?" To his surprise, she reached up and yanked him by the belt, pulling him toward her, pelvis-first. Heero had no idea what the appropriate response was now; clearly things had escalated beyond the point of mere politeness.

He was baffled in part because he had, over the past year, immersed himself in the university setting, trying to carve out a normal existence. Whatever "normal" entailed. In addition to attending classes and studying, that involved parties and dates and other social situations that Heero was still trying to navigate. But, even after all this time, he still found himself perplexed by his peers. As far as he could discern, all the other students seemed to care about was getting drunk and getting laid. But Heero found he didn't have much of a taste for alcohol, and avoided becoming inebriated - he preferred to be on high-alert at all times. Sex, however, was another story. It was something he had come to enjoy, even took pride in being… quite good at. But his experience, so far, was limited to one person. Not because they had made any sort of commitment. Heero just found that, try as he might, and despite her own insistence, he just couldn't stay away from Relena Darlian for very long.

And she had encouraged him to go to school, to try to make friends and date and do all of the other "normal" things people their age were supposed to be doing.

"You should experience for yourself this new, peaceful world you helped create," she'd said.

Heero had wondered, though, after the first time they'd slept together, and then the next time, and the next, and the next... if Relena had really meant it when she'd told him he should date around. But, then, again, he couldn't claim to understand women.

But this one, in front of him… She scared him.

She leered up at him with a wolfish grin as she started undoing his belt. She was very pretty, and blonde, like Relena, but her hair was bleached, not the natural, honey shade he decided then and there that he preferred. And her blue eyes weren't as blue; more of a gray… She turned them up to him and he decided they looked crazy.

Heero wasn't sure how to proceed. Relena had said he should fully immerse himself in the college scene, and he knew random hook-ups were part of that. He had managed, up until now, to avoid situations like that, though. He wasn't sure why, exactly, but as the girl's fingers found the button of his jeans, something felt… wrong. Like he was being disloyal to Relena. Even if, for all he knew, at that moment, she could very well be tangled up with someone else.

The thought made him burn. He briefly considered pushing his inhibitions aside and going through with it, just to prove that he could. But if he asked Relena, what would she tell him to do? What would she want?

Heero took a step backward, severing the girl's contact. She glared up at him impatiently.

"Seriously?" She gaped at him and threw up her hands. "What's wrong with you? Are you gay or something?"

Heero's glowered at the insinuation. "What if I was? Would that be a problem?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, it would be, because I'm trying to have sex with you." Heero's eyes widened at her bluntness. Relena was much more… demure. And innocent, somehow, even though, by now, he could recall multiple times he had had her in... well… not-so-innocent positions. He smiled at the recollection of the last time, in particular, when they'd cleared a spot on her desk, her legs wrapped around his torso, and… Well, needless to say, Relena ended up having a very productive night in the office, without managing to get any actual work done.

Heero let out a snicker. Which, apparently, his neighbor took to be a confirmation of her suspicions regarding his sexual orientation.

"Ugh, I should have known," the girl groaned, slumping back against her sofa. "Pretty boys like you are always gay…"

Heero's frown deepened. "Pretty, huh?" But then he couldn't help but chuckle. "Actually, I'm not gay…"

Her mouth dropped open. "Then why don't you want to sleep with me? Everyone wants to sleep with me."

Heero's eyes rolled. He'd had enough of this narcissistic drama queen. He turned his back and strode to the door.

"Thanks for the beer," he called over his shoulder.

"Aw, come on Heero, I didn't mean it like that!" She got up and sprinted over to him in the open doorway, apparently not caring if someone in the hallway should happen to walk by and see her in her negligee. She held the door open and pouted up at him. "Tell me the truth. Do you have a girlfriend?"

Heero frowned. Did he? Was Relena...

"I don't know…" He said slowly, his eyes narrowing. "But I'm going to find out."

With that, he walked over to his apartment, went inside and shut the door behind him, without looking back at his half-dressed neighbor. He took a quick shower and changed into fresh clothes, then packed his laptop and his few necessities. He locked up the apartment and headed for the nearest spaceport.

A/N: Hello, loves! I hope you enjoyed this little adventure... I know I enjoyed toying with poor Heero in this; it's so fun to write him all baffled ^_^

This fic was originally exclusive to AO3, but I decided to share it here because it's no fun posting it in just one place :P So. Yeah. Anyway. How ya been?

This is a one-shot (aww) but I have toyed with the idea a "part two." Eh... we'll see. Let me know what you think!

Hugs & Heero!

- RFP