Thank you, again, to my beloved Beta, Stormy Monday. And for everyone's support. OMGosh, I'm so glad to be publishing FF's, again. :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing


Project Earthworm. Project Earthworm. Project Earthworm.

Relena thumbed through the lower drawer of her filing cabinet. One might expect a name like "Earthworm" to be in the first or second drawer, but Relena kept it in the locked compartment for slightly safer keeping. Certainly, her office was cleared for holding Sensitive Compartmented Information, but this was a special classification: Caveat Bedrock.

She wasn't risking anyone getting undisclosed information on this project. Too much at stake.

Her eyes sparked when she saw the letters. Still squatting, the pulled the portfolio to her chest, locking the drawer, again.

Coming back to her feet, Relena opened the burgundy cardstock, revealing the project lead on the first page.

Preventer Wind.

Recent correspondence showed that the terraforming project on Mars had been held up, but she'd gotten word, today, that the complication in the agronomics had been cleared, and that the extra hands they'd sent would be landing shortly after the first harvest season.

Harvest season, she thought excitedly. We're growing food on Mars!

Relena made a soft, joyful noise as she sighed. She turned and set her key on the desk, slowly peeling her eyes from her work to adjust her seating.

Her entire body jerked in surprise.

Someone else was in the room.

When Relena registered the face, blood had already rushed from her extremities, leaving an uncomfortable cool wash in its place.

Heero Yuy.

He was amused. And-curious?

It wasn't an expression, per se. She really couldn't even begin to describe it to someone who didn't also know him intimately. His face was perfect. Angelic and emotionless. He was chiseled in stone.

But under dark, messy locks, his eyes spoke volumes.

Not the expression of his brows or lids or cheeks. It was in his actual eyes. Somewhere in the irises or the pupils.

So much emotion.

She was glad to see humor. It would be such long chapters between his sparkles of humor, but it was always her favorite, even if it was wry and sometimes inappropriate.

He was laughing at her, not with her, as the expression goes.

Relena's cheeks burned. The split second of panic upon seeing him must have made her look such a fool in his eyes.

"It's-complicated," she said.

He issued a wordless grunt in response.

"You wouldn't understand. What are you doing here, anyway?"

Heero finally blinked, looking around the room. Relena had three offices.

For her "vacation" work and when she simply wanted to be comfortable with the tedious things on her plate, Relena kept a home office, but that one was the least used. There was no one in the home to keep her there.

During the day, she was usually found uptown in the Earth Sphere Unified Nation Headquarters building. Vice Foreign Minister, Relena worked in the East Wing of the building and was readily accessible to the general public. This was not ideal for keeping or working with classified information.

Instead, Relena's classified work was kept in a Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility office-the one she was standing in at that moment. The SCIF was a bland, highly secured building outside of town, nearly forty minutes' drive from her residence. It was not only strikingly less welcoming than the high-rise uptown, but the building Relena kept her sensitive work in was impossible to enter without proper clearance.

The blonde woman eyed her old friend with a mischievous grin. "You're not supposed to be here."

His lip tightened ever so slightly, implying a smile.

Security measures never could slow Heero Yuy down.

She sat down, ignoring him, and turned back to the work, surrounding her estranged brother.

"So what are you afraid of?" He asked. His voice was dark and earthy, but soft. Heero wasn't much for speaking, so when he did, it came gently, and yet commanded the attention of all who heard him. Relena had seen entire rooms of angry bureaucrats fall silent before him. Wherever he was, he reaped respect.

The query was exactly as she'd expected. To be honest, she was acting out of what he would see as ordinary. Relena had been through a war at his side. She'd looked gundams in the eye without flinching. She'd face warlords and tyrants without a hint of dread. Heero saw her as strong and brave, and she knew it well, but now he'd seen a new development: Anxiety. Of course he would know that it didn't belong.

Relena pressed the folder shut with her palms. "You wouldn't understand," she said.

"Try me."

She sighed, slumping in her chair. Her ocean blue eyes met his midnight ones. Disappearing for months was normal for him, and seldom required a briefing, but a minor change in personality would need to be explained, whether she'd like to discuss it or not.

"I had a friend," she started. "Well, and old friend-a former friend-an ex friend."

He folded his hands near his lips and stared at her.

Relena took a breath. Even thinking about explaining this put her on the defensive. Anyone in their right mind would debate that there was nothing to fear.

"You know I don't have a lot of friends, so when I do make one, I try to keep them." She licked her lips. "I can be a bit of a people pleaser."

Across her desk, Heero's face was stone, but a small glimmer in his eye showed his familiarity with this personality trait.

"Maybe too much so," she continued. "Anyway, when things fell apart I tried to remain cordial. I tried too hard. I let boundaries get blurred and I-regret that. When I finally put my foot down and told her we couldn't see each other, anymore, she seemed to back off, but it wasn't real. Next thing I know, she's dating my secretary."

"Christoff?"

Relena smiled, sadly. "Yeah. She would take his stories about our work and twist them into things they weren't. She told him I was being unfair, that I was cruel. She even convinced him, finally, that I was sexually attracted to him-that

I was sexually harassing him." Relena's shoulders dropped. "So he quit. And then she broke up with him." She reached out and touched the desk, looking at her fingernails. They were clean and strong, but plain and worn from countless hours of seemingly endless paperwork.

"And that's when you hired Regina?"

"Yes." She looked up at him with a sureness in her eyes. "The odd thing, though, is that then she started dating my secretary-again."

Heero's eyes widened slightly.

She gestured openly. "I know that happens, but the timing. I'm telling you. Something wasn't right."

He frowned.

Relena squeezed the bridge of her nose, breaking eye contact. "Regina never did trust me. I couldn't count on her, even for the basic needs of the job. And with so much other stuff going on, I had no choice but to assume she was being used to get to me. I had to let her go."

"What other stuff?"

"She began contacting my brother and my mother. She even started showing up at Quatre's office pretty regularly, asking about me. I didn't have a single relationship, business or otherwise, that she didn't force herself into. I had to get away from her. Regina wasn't the only one. I stopped speaking to a dozen people. I just couldn't know who all was there to get information and bring it back to her."

"So you just secluded yourself?"

"What choice did I have?!"

Heero straightened in his seat. "Regina's gone, now?"

"Based on the fact that you knew both of my last two assistants names, I'm willing to assume you know the answer to that."

"Having a stalker isn't unusual for someone of your position."

"Stalker? No. It wasn't-sexual."

"Why would it need to be sexual?"

Relena opened her mouth to respond, but to be honest, she wasn't sure of the definition of what she'd faced. "So, if stalking is not necessarily a sexual thing, what exactly makes it 'stalking'?"

"Unwanted obsessive behavior from one individual to another," he said in a very technical tone. "It's harassment for the purpose of intimidation."

"Oh," she answered softly. "But if it's not-sexual-then what would cause someone to act that way?"

"Her medical files say she suffers from sociopathy, but I'm inclined to think it may be psychopathy."

"Uh uh." She touched her chin, unfocused on the room for several minutes, until a new thought seemed to strike ground. "Wait." Relena looked up at him. "You believe me?!"

"Of course," he said.

"But everyone else thought I was paranoid. I was starting to think I was paranoid."

"There's no reason for that inference. I didn't look into her psychiatric records until after she'd displayed a length of erratic behavior. It's a pretty cut and dried behavior pattern: Get close to you and isolate you from everyone else."

"She didn't get you," Relena said, shrugging and offering him a playful smirk.

Heero's face seemed lighter for a moment, but the expression faded just as quickly as it appeared.

"So you looked into her records? I thought you were joking."

"No. But again, I only checked because she was displaying unnatural symptoms. I'm a gentleman, you know."

Relena chuckled. "You look tired," she commented.

It was true. His face was more haggard than she was used to. Granted, having met at the ripe old age of 15, the years came quickly for the pair, each cycle of months apart bringing new changes to be met in each other's profiles. The circles around his eyes, though, were deeper and darker than she'd expect, and there was a paleness in his cheeks that almost seemed ghostly.

"I demand you rest," she continued in an assertive, but diplomatic tone. "I'll have Pagan prepare your room, across from mine. You must stay as long as you can-and you may stay as long as you like." Her smile glowed when she looked at him.

"I was thinking I might extend my stay to make sure your stalker keeps her distance, anyway."

She blushed, though she wasn't sure why she would, anymore. "Yes. And we'll overlook the indifference you've shown your health, of late."

"Hn." He stood, moving toward the door. He stopped at the threshold and looked back.

"Jenny wasn't her real name, was it?"

"In a way, perhaps," he answered. "'Ginny'. Her real name is Virginia Riley." His gaze stayed fixed on her for more than was comfortable. Something smoldered

behind them-a question she didn't really know the answer to. Relena left her work forgotten on the desk, approaching him with an apprehensive air. She put her hand on the door, studying that stare.

"It's fine, Heero. She's gone, now It's over."

He was frowning shallowly. "These things don't tend to go away. I'll be around," he said.

Relena smiled. "Thank you."

"No," he replied.

His hand came up and a finger traced her jawline up toward her ear. His thumb bumping her lip as he went. Heero's eyes seemed to jump from each feature of her face to the next, before they bore back into her own. Relena gasped when he leaned over her. His mouth closed over hers, pulling her in. There was a fluid softness to the movement, even as her bottom lip was grazed by his teeth. In the warmth, his tongue touched her and a thousand thoughts clouded her mind.

But suddenly, the heat vanished as he pulled away, straightening at arm's length, again.

"Thank you," he said, as though he'd not been interrupted. "For being my friend."

Relena's mind fell silent as he turned and walked away. She closed the door slowly, moving back to the desk. The blonde lowered into her seat, pressing the folder and key down with her palms.

'My friend'?

Relena swallowed. That kiss-

'Friend'.

She huffed, shaking her head. She brought her fingers up to press out the tension in her forehead.

"Bastard," she said in the emptiness.