Cotillion


It started off like any other night for Heero Yuy.

He was quietly sitting in his favorite armchair, a gift from his loving wife and two children years ago to prevent him from falling asleep in his usual "uncomfortable" position in whatever was available at the moment, and reading over his notes from a recent case file from work.

To his right sat his oldest child, Zerina, her long dark brown hair falling down past her shoulders as she was engrossed in what appeared to be another murder mystery book, obscuring her crystal blue eyes from his view. He could hear the faint canned explosions and gunfire erupting from the latest video game his second child was playing in his bedroom down the hall, the only other noise in the moderately sized home he and Relena bought the year after their wedding nearly twenty years ago.

It was actually quite nice to be relaxing by the fire with most of his family nearby, a scenario his fifteen-year-old self would never have dreamed of having. If only his dear loving wife was home instead of working late again, then the scene would be complete.

The peaceful moment was soon interrupted by the ringing of the house phone on the night table to his right. He glanced over to Zerina, the slightly annoyed expression on her face signifying that she had no intention whatsoever of answering it, and sighed to himself before standing up to grab it himself.

He hesitated a moment at seeing Relena's work number flash on the I.D. screen, wondering briefly why she would be calling from the basic office phone and not her vid phone, and immediately went on guard.

"Is this line secure?" he asked upon answering, his voice low.

Relena's soft laugh in his right ear caused him to relax his tense posture. "Everything is fine on this end, Heero. I just didn't want to risk Rina seeing me... Is she there now?"

His deep blue eyes darted over to the girl in question who had somehow sensed her parents speaking about her and was already sitting up. She rolled her eyes and grunted her disapproval at having to leave her comfortable spot, slamming her book shut in irritation and jumped to her feet.

"It's getting too loud in here, I'm going to my room," she grumbled as she stepped a little louder than usual past her father towards the door of the study. She didn't bother shutting the door as she continued her noisy pace down the hallway.

Heero waited until he heard her stomping ascend the staircase before he continued the conversation. "She's gone now," he stated simply.

There was a sigh of relief on the other end of the line and then a momentary pause as he assumed Relena was choosing her words carefully. "Good. I just didn't want her to overhear what I'm about to ask you."

Heero was in the process of sitting back down into his warm inviting chair when her last four words stopped him, the familiar feeling of dread filling his chest as it usually did with those particular words. "Which is...?" he asked cautiously, his mind already filling with various scenarios of torture that she was implying.

He could practically hear Relena roll her eyes, much the same way his teenage daughter had just done. "I wouldn't be asking you, Heero, if there was any other way for me to do it instead. Believe me, I would."

He waited patiently as she took a deep breath and began her request, something she'd clearly been practicing to say to him. "As you already know, I've been working extensively on this proposal with Representative Perkins for the Mars project, because we need it done by this weekend for her to present it to the Senate to be approved."

Heero nodded to himself as she paused again, the next sentence apparently hard for her to get out.

"Ms. Perkins has fallen ill and they have requested that I go in her stead in order to give the proposal as well as help push for it's approval. They think it might actually be better if I went anyways, seeing as how I still have some sort of influence over the Senate."

Heero's paranoia was starting to get the best of him. As much as he enjoyed hearing Relena's elaborate excuses to get him to do things, since they were always such a point of great entertainment, his fears were overpowering that amusement. "So, what is that you need to me to do? It's not your usual habit to ask me to take care of the kids for a few days for unexpected business trips."

She gave a small nervous laugh at his abruptness. "No, it usually isn't." There was a deep intake of breath before she finally got it out. "I had a previous engagement on Saturday with Rina that she doesn't know about at Dorothy's estate. An orientation for... Cotillion."

Heero frowned at the last word. "Cotillion?" he questioned, wondering why Relena was even considering something so archaic this late in her life. Not that it was unnecessarily unheard of for older married women to still have a debut in high society, but the more recent traditions called for younger girls to be debutantes.

It was that final thought that clicked everything into place. His eyes narrowed at this conclusion and he shook his head, even though he knew his wife couldn't see him. "No," he replied to her still unasked question. "She'll kill me."

Relena huffed at his words. "Heero, please, it's unlikely. She's not yet smart enough to plan a completely guiltless crime. She'd have to be in her twenties before she would be capable of getting away with it, and even then, she would already be over it."

"You underestimate Rina's anger. She's very much like you-" he cut himself off at her sharp intake of breath in offense, before smoothly changing his phrasing," your brother. Holding a grudge is second nature to them. And that's assuming she won't care if she gets arrested. She could very well kill me and willingly submit to the punishment, knowing she got her revenge anyway."

"Do you really have to be so dramatic? It's just afternoon tea for a few hours and then you can come home."

"At the Winners' mansion with Dorothy and other equally annoying women," he countered.

"Heero, some of these women are my friends and colleagues, or wives and daughters of those important people that I need to keep up appearances with in order to maintain the goodwill of our government and overall peace of the galaxy."

He was about to reply with another negative answer when he decided to change tactics, knowing that just telling her no would not be sufficient enough at this point, especially with her last volley of words. "I have to work on an important case this weekend."

It wasn't entirely a lie. While there wasn't anything specific to work on with this particular case, any type of research was still technically working on it.

"Une has already approved delegating your tasks to the other members of your team, who are just as capable as getting that important case done."

He didn't miss the sarcastic twist she emphasized "important" with and tried to quickly think of something else, slightly alarmed that Relena had already gone over his head to speak with his boss. "They'll need me to oversee everything."

"She has assured me that they will alert you to any important information they may come across during the weekend to which I wholeheartedly agreed that I would excuse you from this orientation should that situation occur."

Damn it, she had really thought this one through. His mind struggled to think of something, anything, to get him out of this incredibly undesirable situation with his daughter.

But Relena was well armed in this battle. "Let's just cut to the chase, Heero. It's only one day. And Commander Une has made it very clear that Duo is close to needing some supervision at work as he seems to be slipping up a bit more frequently. She's suggesting that he might also need a vacation, which means his many children would also need some supervision."

Heero swallowed the lump in the back of his throat at the thought of the infamous Maxwell children and what Relena implied. He opened his mouth to fight back, but knew she had him cornered. Afternoon tea was at least much more quiet than spending weeks with a Maxwell. And he certainly had more of a choice at the Winner mansion, since he knew the layout and its various hiding spots and could spend an hour or so there, then bail, unlike the Maxwell household where he would be trapped both physically and mentally.

He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, already hating himself for getting soft and losing his edge. He made a mental note to brush up on his political tactics and vocabulary so that he wouldn't be caught off guard again with her and at this stupid function. "What time?"

"Meet and greet is at eleven, high tea at noon, information about the event and it's expectations at one followed by a tour and quick bout of refreshments in time for any questions and answers."

Heero bit back a growl and closed his eyes in irritation. "You said it was just afternoon tea."

"I also said it was just 'supervising' the Maxwells."

This time the growl came out and he threw himself into his chair in defeat. "I'll see you tonight when you get home."

Her laugh annoyed him a bit for once in his life. "Oh, sweetheart, do you really think I'd be that dense to come home at this time? I have too much paperwork to get done for this proposal. I'll be staying overnight and be home in the morning. I will see you then and hopefully in a much better mood."

He shook his head in complete disbelief at his current predicament. "You really had this planned out, didn't you?"

"Would you believe that it was only a few hours ago that I received notification for this weekend? I really had to get the big guns out for this one."

He allowed himself a small smile, impressed that his wife was still able to get things done her way so many years later since he first met her. "I love you."

There was a hum of appreciation. "I know. I love you too. See you in the morning." There was a quick pause before she suddenly remembered something. "Oh! Whatever you do, don't say a word of this to her. I'll break the news to her tomorrow when she's out of school."

Heero breathed a sigh of relief at that statement and relaxed some more into his chair. At least she cared enough to drop the bomb on their teenage daughter. Clean up work was way easier than that task. "Thanks... Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Heero ended the call by pressing the red button on the phone and set it down beside him on the right armrest. He took a moment to relay the conversation in his head, trying to imagine the many ways this would affect his daughter and her unpredictable teenage moods. He really wasn't looking forward to Saturday.

With a sigh, he reached over to his recently neglected case files and went back to skimming over his notes, grateful for the distraction.


xxxxxxooxooxxxxxx

Out in the hallway near the door and standing flat against the wall, Zerina was trying her best not to show her anger.

*Cotillion? Seriously?!*

She turned her head at the sound of light steps coming down the stairs and watched as her younger brother came into view. He frowned, his deep blue eyes showing his confusion. "Zer, what are you-"

Zerina immediately shushed her brother by sticking a finger to her lips. She motioned with her left hand for him to go back the way he came as she quietly crept back from the doorway. As she stepped down the short hallway, she glanced back to make sure their father hadn't heard them and then crossed her arms in irritation. "Mom and dad are planning something horrible, Aleph."

She watched her brother's expression change through a range of emotions, first confusion, understanding, and then fear. "What is it?"

She took a deep breath and spit the word out venomously. "Cotillion."

Aleph was again bewildered, and then gave a small laugh as he realized what she meant. "Oh, that." He raised a hand and patted his older sister on the back sympathetically, before heading down towards the living room on his way to the kitchen. "I was worried it involved me." There was a snicker as he disappeared from view before adding," Enjoy your bonding time with mom."

Zerina narrowed her eyes at her brother's exit and growled in frustration. If there was one thing she absolutely hated, it was being forced to dress up for frou frou fancy pants parties with a bunch of airhead girls and their stupid mothers who babbled on about nothing but the latest fashion trends, who was dating whom, and which people were beneath them.

She had more important things to do, like work on her recent pet project of restoring an older model car with her cousin Kent and longtime friend Samael. There was also the stupid speech about peacekeeping tactics or whatever that she had to at least get a rough draft in soon for her Young Diplomats group her mother had forced her into as punishment for fighting again at school.

Zerina was still angry about that. She had been defending herself when that stupid witch Eloise Centinaio dumped her frozen slushie down the front of her shirt and laughed in her face. She'd seen the blonde girl bully other girls, including Zerina's best friend Tetra Winner, and get away with it because her parents had donated a massive amount of money to the school. And it wasn't the first time she had done stuff specifically to Zerina for some still unknown reason.

But Relena was angry that her daughter didn't take the less violent approach of "talking it out" and sought out the school's local chapter of the Young Diplomats, some random government sponsored youth group that the ESUN created in order to "grow, nurture, and teach today's youth to build a better future through stimulating discussions and bridge different views". Zerina's fate was sealed when the group's leader met with her mother and was thrilled to see that the daughter of the former Queen of the World would be volunteering.

At least her father had managed to convince Relena to end the punishment when school was let out for the summer. So, she only had another month of torture before she would be free.

But now it seemed her mother had managed to plan another form of suffering for her only daughter. And her father was actually willing to allow this to happen!

There had to be some way to get out of this. But how?

She tried to think of something as she wandered upstairs to her room and got ready for bed, setting her mystery book down on her dresser as she pulled out a dark purple pajama tank top and short set.

Her best bet was finding out a bit more information about the stupid event and then using that intel to formulate the best plan of action. Maybe Tetra could help her, seeing as how her mother was apparently someone deeply involved with the whole damned thing. She would have to know of some way to get kicked out or disbarred or whatever it was that got one out of these types of things.

Satisfied with this small start, she nodded to herself and got into her bed, snuggling her black comforter. Her mother would regret this decision.