Left Behind
By Kiyoko
10/10/01

The braided haired pilot made his way down to the pier near one of the Winners' many mansions to take a load off from his last mission. Duo leaned over the rail to feel the cool ocean breeze rush past his soft face.

Staring into the horizon, He reached back for the little, black hair band holding his neat braid from falling apart. Once he managed to slip the tiny band from his chestnut hair, Duo ran his battled scared hands through the mass of hair undoing the braid.

Once again he felt the cool ocean breeze rush past his face and now through his loose hair. The young American boy began to feel a sense of peace that he rarely felt.

From behind him, Duo heard a loud shuffling noise that would give shame to an elephant heard if compared. Duo turned around only to find a small group of young European boys walking on the pier. As his eyes met those of the leader, he felt uneasiness rise inside him.

Trying to clear his mind of all his thoughts, Duo turned back to the calm ocean.
From behind him someone began to speak, "Hey beautiful, doing anything later tonight?"

' I feel sorry for the poor girl those boys are trying to pick up. 'Duo thought.
A few seconds passed until the boy began to speak again. "I said, hey beautiful, doing anything later tonight?"

Duo's sympathy for the lady started to kick in ready to defend the poor girl. He turned around to look for her, but the only thing he found was the group of young boys gazing in his direction.

"Well? "The boy asked.

Duo looked around again. "Are you talking to me?" He responded a puzzled expression on his face.
The boy replied, "Who else would I be talking to? "

He thought that Duo was a girl. The cloudy picture slowly became clear. Rage began to surface in Duo that he had felt all too many times.

In a stern voice he shouted, "I'M NOT A GIRL, YOU MORON!" and with that, Duo stormed off toward the Winner Manor.

The angry pilot stormed into the mansion ready to rip the head off anyone who tried to talk to him. Later that night the others had managed to calm Duo down and began to pour a round of drinks. Heero lifted the drink to his mouth when Quatre stopped him, "Um Heero?" he looked up at the blonde boy with his trademark glare. Hesitantly Quatre continued, " Relena will be stopping by later tonight. I just wanted to warn you." Heero sneered at Quatre almost to say that it was his fault she was coming in the first place, which it probably was.

Half an hour later everyone's cheeks were becoming rosy. Poor Quatre, not being a heavy drinker, was a lot redder than the rest.

"Pathetic." Wufei mumbled peering at the blonde from across the table. A moment later the doorbell rang and Quatre stood up to answer it. Trowa's lips curled at the sight of Quatre trying to stumble to the door to answer it.

When Quatre returned, Relena followed him in and laughed at the sight before her. Relena boldly sat next to Heero, who knew he was virtually in no position to do anything about it, although that didn't stop him from protesting.

"Get away from me!" he grumbled.

"That's only the alcohol talking Heero." Relena replied.

"You know you want her!" Duo screeched.

"Shut up Onna!" Wufei snickered. With that all four of the pilots (excluding Duo) went into an uproar. Relena feeling that she had missed something spoke-up, "What's so funny?"

Wufei screamed onna again and toppled to the floor laughing hysterically. Relena looked at Trowa, who was probably the most sober at the time, pleaded with her soft eyes and glowing smile to tell her what was so funny. Trowa leaned over and whispered what happened to Duo.

Relena put her hand over her mouth to conceal her surprise as she looked at him.

"Go ahead laugh it up," sighed Duo.

"You can't help it if you have feminine features." Relena began to laugh and soon the others joined in. She soon realized that was not the right thing to say, (though the other pilots thought so.) because Duo reached for another can of beer.

Considerable time had passed since Relena had arrived and the whole lot of them were quite drunk. Relena was quite happily leaning all over Heero and to her surprise he wasn't complaining.

Thoughts were swimming through her head. 'If only it was always like this' she thought. At that moment without thinking, Relena pulled Heero to the ground. Soon the two of them were in a loose embrace, her soft lips brushing over Heero's. Relena's tongue had made its way softly into Heero's mouth caressing his gently.

The other pilots were too busy making jokes and drinking to notice them, to everyone else the rest of the night was a complete blur.

In the morning Trowa, Duo, Quatre, and Wufei woke-up on the floor.

"Hey, where's Heero?" Duo looked around the room.

"What happened to Relena?" Trowa added in his quite voice.

It was as if their minds had been connected because at the same exact moment they all rushed to the door and headed for the stairs. When they got to the top, the four hung-over pilots tiptoed to Heero's room.

Duo, the first to arrive, peered through the keyhole.

"I can't see shit!"
With that Duo carefully twisted the brass doorknob. He opened the door just enough to look inside.

"Maxwell, what do you see?" Wufei pushed the door open so everyone could see.

"I knew it!" Duo whispered.

"Shut up Maxwell!" Wufei backhanded the American boy on the head.

"Ouch! What the hell was that for? "Duo was shortly interrupted by Trowa

"This is so immature, leave them alone."

"You ran up-stairs also Trowa." Quatre reminded the stoic teen and Trowa blushed.

"Heero is going to get a big surprise when he wakes-up." Duo snickered. Trowa closed the door and the others headed down stairs toward the dining room.

Heero gave a little grunt as he sat up in bed. He looked outside the window to see the sun pouring into the bedroom. How long had he been asleep? And how did he get to his room? He couldn't remember.

"Relena," he mumbled and turned to the soft body at his side.

"Holy shit, how the hell did this happen?" 'It was her plan all along,' he thought. Relena lay there in a deep slumber, her arms tucked around the sheets. Heero notice she was still in her under garments. 'Maybe we didn't' he thought. The Japanese got-up and reached for a pair of pants ruffled on the floor.

'At least I'm still in my boxers,' he said to himself.
Heero struggled to get his pants on while hopping around the room. Clumsily he bumped into a chair and hurled down to the floor creating a loud 'thump'. The youthful body in Heero's bed began to stir and Relena awoke to find Heero on the floor, attempting to pull his pants on.

"Ohayo Heero," she said in a light sleepy voice, "Keep them off, I like you better that way." Heero finally managing to button his pants then burst from the room not bothering to grab a shirt. Relena snatched his wrinkled button-up shirt from the floor and threw it on. The shirt was a little large for her, but long enough to conceal what shouldn't be seen by anyone but Heero. The young princess hurried down the stairs after him. When Heero entered the dining hall all of the other pilot's voices ceased. A large grin developed on the braided pilot's smooth, tan face. Heero glared at Duo which only made him smile ten-fold.

"Not a word Maxwell," he shot at Duo.

"What?" Duo protested. Even for being very hung-over, Duo was surprisingly cheerful and quite annoying. Not even a moment later, Relena skipped into the room with a warm smile on her lips. The brave girl walked over to Heero and grabbed him from behind.

"Relena let go! Leave me alone!" the smile slowly faded off her face as she released the perfect soldier.

"That's not what you said last night!" She said still frowning, but still couldn't help swooning at his tight, muscular body.

"And get out of my shirt," he yelled. Relena began to unbutton his shirt tugging at the top button. Duo nearly fell out of his chair at the thought of a peep show. Trowa kicked him under the table, signaling him to maintain himself. Duo frowned at the quiet pilot but received the message.

"Don't be so cruel Heero!" Quatre scolded frowning at him disapprovingly.

"I didn't mean now," Heero looked toward Relena. She re-buttoned the two she had undone smiling sweetly at him.


"You're not as mean as you look," she replied. Heero taking her comment as an insult, began to say something but was interrupted by Wufei, "She whipped you good Heero and only after one night of passion."

At that, Relena blushed furiously and Heero suddenly charged at Wufei, but was held back by Duo and Quatre.

"You uncompassionate Jackass!" Heero struggled to get away but was no match against the other two.

"You shouldn't talk Heero, your not even human!" Wufei shot back.

"BAKAYARO!" Relena rushed over to Heero and placed her hands on his shoulder.

"Heero please!" she said in a soothing voice, "he's not your enemy."
Heero could see the smirk on Wufei's face that screamed 'whipped'.

"Move!" The struggling Japanese yelled. He had become too much for the two pilots. Duo and Quatre's grips loosened. Heero was free. His rage became too much and he shoved Relena sending her hurling toward the floor. Heero went for Wufei who already sense what was coming. Heero thrust his right fist at Wufei who did a front flip over Heero's head.

That left the three other pilots the chance to tackle Heero again and succeeded.

"I'm not interested in you weakling. You let your rage get the better of you. You're a weak soldier." With that, Wufei left the room. He was right, he had gotten the better of him, but Wufei was wrong to attack Heero's weak point; Wufei too collapsed over a moment of weakness. He had realized what he had done. The next day the others would find Nataku and Wufei gone.

Now that the danger had passed, the other pilots let go of Heero. He stood-up feeling embarrassed about what he had done. He turned to look at Relena who had her slender fingers rubbing her shoulder. Feeling utterly alone, Relena refused to look up at Heero. Quatre went past Heero and helped the hurt princess out of the room.

"What have you done?" Trowa said with a hint of shame in his voice.
Billions of different thoughts were swimming through his head. Feeling helpless, he was not able to grasp even one of them.

Quatre brought Relena to a private room and ordered one of the servants to retrieve a pack of ice. The heartbroken girl began to weep furiously into his arms.

"He will never repair what he has done. Heero just should gave killed me, it would have hurt less."

"You heard what Wufei said. What he didn't say was that you were Heero's weak point." Relena's sobs slowed and she let out a pathetic laugh.

"With Heero, you need to read between the lines. He was trained to be the perfect soldier, and he is, but they didn't prepare him for… for… well… for someone like you. Heero has never known love in his life, and then you came along and mess up his whole world. He blames you for showing him something that he thought never existed. He is too proud to show his weakness. That is why he will never admit that he cares for you. But I know he will apologize for what he did. His guilt is too heavy to ignore this. He wronged you Relena and he knows that."

"How do you know all this?"

"I'm the compassionate one, remember?" Quatre smiled at Relena who returned the smile. After she calmed down a little, she went back to Heero's room and slowly took off his shirt. Once removed, she held it against her face and took in the light scent.

"Heero," she sighed.

With that, the sorrowful princess dressed into the garments she wore the night before. After she had zipped-up the spaghetti strapped, lace dress, Relena began to walk through the door. If Heero had been invisible, she would have walked right through him. Relena only noticed he was there because she ran right into him. The girl only looked into Heero's dark cobalt blue eyes and moved to go around. He gently grabbed Relena by the arm so she could face him.

"Wait." Heero whispered. Relena motioned to move and he spoke again," Please Relena." She stopped holding back a sob and the two turned to face each other

"I'm really sorry for what I did. It was wrong. I am so ashamed of myself, of what I did to you. I just wanted to get to Wufei so bad, but you were in my way."

"I'm always in your way Heero; it's been like that since we first met."

"All those times that I threatened to kill you; I didn't mean it… ever." A light glow filled Relena. 'Maybe he does care.' She thought hopefully

"I don't know what happened last night, I don't remember anything. Did we…?" Relena cut him off and placed a slender finger over his mouth.

"You don't need to worry Heero, nothing happened but innocent kissing."

"What about the clothes?"

"Oh that, well…" Relena paused for a moment and the princess began to blush, "you took off my dress and I took off your pants, but as I told you nothing happened. I wouldn't let you do something that you would regret if I could help it, even if…" Relena's voiced trailed off into nothing. Heero looked at her, his eyes urging her to continue, but she couldn't.

"Even if what?"

"Even if I wanted it to." Heero sighed. He was a little uneasy at her last words, but overall it was a big relief. 'If I ever took her to bed, it would be with love in my heart.' He thought. He reached up with his right hand and gently stroked Relena's cheek.

"I have caused you such pain." Relena grabbed his hand and held it close to her face. She closed her eyes and thought 'It was all worth it for this moment.' Heero gazed at Relena's beautiful face, he didn't want to disturb her but he had to go.

"Relena." She opened her eyes with a smile on her face.

"I have to go." The smile slowly faded from her face and her eyes fell to the floor," but I will see you again, I promise." With that Heero pulled his hand away from Relena's grasp. Once he was out of sight she did the only thing she could do and for the second time that day she cried.

Heero stunned by what he said headed down stairs to bid farewell to Quatre and thank him for his hospitality. Quatre smiled as Heero walked away.

"Goodbye Heero," The blonde Arabian pilot shouted.

"See you on the battlefield," Heero called back, "You can count on it." Relena felt the earth tremble as Wing Zero left the premises. She wiped away the thin stream of tears running down her flushed face.

"I will be strong for you Heero."

THE END!

A/N: I hope that everyone like the story. I worked hard on it and it took it forever for me to write. Go easy on the flames.