A/N: Prompt 01-05. Can you believe I've had this completely finished since last summer? Yeah. I suck. I'm aware. But here we are anyway.
Warnings: Zechs-bashing sort of. Maybe slightly AU if you wanna get technical.
"This isn't a public decision, Millardo. This is a personal one and I hope that someday you will be able to appreciate the difference."
She shouldn't really be walking. Not by herself, not down a deserted stretch of road in the dark. Relena used one hand to lift her bangs off her forehead, blew out a breath, then let them fall back into place. This was crossing that perilous line between what she could do as an individual person and what she couldn't do as a public figure.
"But, blast it, I am a public figure. I am not public property!" It sounded just as good, just as logically sound this time as any time she'd said it in the past. And yet….
"Of course you aren't property, Relena. No one ever said you were, but this is getting ridiculous."
Patronizing bastard. Her hands clenched, bouncing in an angry rhythm against her thighs as she stalked faster down the sidewalk. Idiot. She was not a child to endure condescension as if it were her duty. She hadn't been a child since the Lady Une, one of her brother's allies at the time, had blown her father into the next life. She was mature enough to hold that behind clenched teeth too, when it would be so easy to hurl it at him. Reminding him of his failings, pointing out the ways he had hurt and betrayed her in the past negated the act of forgiveness that had allowed him into her life in the first place.
It was an act Relena had never regretted. Everyone deserved a second chance… but her brother was fast ruining that as well.
Stupid.
"You are the public face of peace, Relena. You are the figure everyone sees and pins their hopes for peace on, but who can trust a peace official who spends her nights off in clandestine meetings with the most dangerous terrorists the world has ever seen?"
As if he wasn't a traitor, terrorist and leader of a bloody coup attempt. As if he wasn't just as dangerous… except that he wasn't and that was part of the problem. Jealousy. Rivalry. He had never gotten his chance to prove that he was the superior pilot and Millardo had to be sure, in his own mind, that he was the best at everything. Relena was utterly convinced that her brother considered himself the better sibling in their relationship. Surely he had done more, endured more, seen more than she had. Surely he was the bigger person by abdicating his position as heir in her favor. But he could still do her job better than she could.
"Well he's certainly the better martyr."
"Of course it hasn't hurt your standing yet, but only because we've been devoting time and resources to combat the loss of faith your 'nights out' cause. But why waste those resources? We don't have unlimited time and the public's belief will only stretch so far. Why not take the opportunity to redirect those resources to better effect?"
Seventeen blocks. Relena pressed her hand to her side, slowed and focused on her breathing for a moment. She hadn't been out and about this much in a very long time. With the exception of these few hours every Friday night, her every minute was scheduled to within an inch of its life. Within an inch of her life. She hadn't walked more than a couple dozen feet at once in… she couldn't even remember how long.
But there it was and, like usual, it looked like every single light in the house was on, spilling out onto the sidewalk. Pausing on the walk Relena could already hear the laughing male voices. Things like walls had no effect on those special people who flew Gundams. Her special people.
"What is it you get from those nights anyway? Male companionship? Relena there are hundreds of thousands of men more than willing to throw themselves at your feet, to accomplish your every whim. Men who would never cause a moment of unease in the public's opinion. Men who- Relena?"
"If it were the first time you had made this speech I would hear you out, Millardo. If it were merely the second time I would at least listen. But this is more than repetitive and I am not going to sit here yet again while you try to change my mind. You cannot change my mind. Elizabeth, call my driver."
"I… ah, Lady Peacecraft, he… he's already gone home for the night," her assistant stuttered.
"What?"
"I gave him the night off," Millardo put in. "Your 'friend' Maxwell called here earlier and I told him you couldn't make it this week."
"Excuse me?" Relena whirled to stare at her brother, lounging on the couch, utterly confident in the outcome.
"It's just one week Relena, and once you see how easy it is to give up I'm sure you'll come to agree-"
"No." She snapped off the word so sharply that he couldn't help but shut up and stare. "Have you lost your mind, 'brother'? You do not make engagements for me without my permission and you certainly never cancel them without the same. You are my brother. We're bound by genetics and I had hoped that eventually we would be bound by affection as well. I grant you your experience and your intelligence but you only advise me of your opinions. You do not make my decisions for me. You do not get to have the final say in anything I do and you do not get to tell me where my affections should lie!"
"Relena-"
These are my friends, Millardo. They laugh at my outfits and I laugh at their jokes. I chose them and, god only knows why, they chose me. I will not give them up. Not for you. Not for some potential downturn in my public approval ratings. Not for anything."
"Relena you don't know what you're sacrificing for this! The price you're going to pay-"
"Is the price I'll pay. I know that, but this isn't a public decision, Millardo. This is a personal one and I hope that someday you will be able to appreciate the difference."
And it hadn't been as hard as she would have thought to leave him there, stunned and hurt and confused on her couch to walk to Duo's. In a weird way it was harder to cross the last twenty feet to the door and knock loudly as she walked in. Just as if nothing had happened and as if she didn't know that her brother had told her friends she wasn't coming. She couldn't imagine what they'd thought of that but….
The lights were almost blinding after the dark of the streets and she stopped just inside the tiny three-by-three patch of foyer, blinking.
"Relena! Hey, dude, someone go get Heero. Relena's here!" Predictably it was Duo's grin she spotted first, his deep blue-purple eyes tossing her a wink. "Your brother said you weren't coming."
"Zechs doesn't speak for me," she snapped, then froze, realizing what she'd said even as Trowa came up on her right and helped her off with her jacket. She never, ever called her brother Zechs. Zechs was the enemy who fought alongside the people who murdered her family. Zechs was not… was not Millardo.
"Uh-oh. Heero!" Duo climbed off his overstuffed chair and wandered out toward the back staircase.
"Want to talk about it?" Quatre asked from his spot on the floor, offering her the large tray of cheese popcorn and chocolate chip cookies.
"Not really," she said, taking three cookies… which was really barely a quarter of the number she actually wanted. "What're we playing?"
"Nothing yet," Wufei said, exchanging a dark look with Trowa. "Idiot-of-the-long-hair has been freaking out about 'how can we possibly play if there are uneven teams?' for the past hour."
"Which is why I was upstairs not listening," Heero put in from the doorway.
"A worthy sentiment." Completely unable to stop herself, Relena stepped over Quatre and around Wufei to get to Heero, and totally aware that he wouldn't mind, wrapped him in a hug. His arms came up around her and for just one second she was suffused with the feeling that, for once, she didn't have to be in control. If anything went wrong while she was here, these men were more than capable of taking care of it… or killing it. Whichever.
"Heero." Duo poked the taller brunette's shoulder. "Heero, she called him Zechs!"
Making no move to rush the hug, Heero eventually let her go and asked, "Do I need to know?"
Relena shook her head. "I believe in second chances, Heero, but I'm not a pushover. Nobody gets a third. Not even my brother."
Heero met her eyes, nodded, then walked over to Quatre, poking him in the ribs with his foot until the blonde handed him a game controller.
"Shit. Want me to pants him in public?" Duo asked slinging an arm around her shoulders.
From across the room the usually silent Trowa put in, "I would suggest gum in his hair."
"Ooooh. Or honey. Like gallons of honey all over those blonde locks." Duo grinned as he manhandled her over to the couch and gave her another cookie.
"Honey washes out eventually," Wufei countered. "Gum on the other hand has to be cut free."
"Naw, Sister Helen used peanut butter to get it out of my hair all the time back in the day."
"What about LG-nitro explosive adhesive without the explosive part," Quatre suggested absently, busy popping the Super Smash Brothers 47 chip into the console.
There was a moment of silence.
"Ooooooooh. That stuff doesn't come off for anything. Not even industrial grade acid," Duo breathed, his eyes alight.
"You know, normal people would just egg his car," Relena put in, wondering how far this was going to go before Heero put a stop to it.
"Oh shut up and eat your cookie," Duo replied, handing her yet another one. "I'm planning here."
"Chose your character," Heero cut in, dropping a controller on Duo's head. "I'm on Relena's team. Wufei is with Quatre. You can have Trowa."
The quality of the laughter spilling from Duo's mouth was not at all reassuring. But it was familiar. And familiar was good. She'd be off to a country she'd never even seen come morning.
A/N: Well, that was... fun. Weird. Just plain strange, since, as a rule I don't really like Relena that much. I'm not anti-Relena as a person, but I never thought I'd write anything from her POV. I apologize for any inconsistencies. I really do.
And P.S. look for more stories from me in the very near future. More stuff I've had done for forever and some FMA stuff that's new.