The lovely Athenise from Tumblr has translated the FT epilogue for me, so this is what I promised to her for all the cutesy details spelled out in good old English. Now, I'm not a FT fan but I can't help but love the fact 1xR is canon. I do, however, take issue with the way it was handled. And so, this is my take on what happens after the proposal. I'll be incorporating FT canon but...in my way.
Which means M rating, naturally.
Part 1 - Disappearing
Leaving the lives they know behind, Relena got a taste of what her brother must have gone through those 30 years prior.
After a life of being accustomed to having what she needed at hand and readily available, her sudden lack of resources was the first thing to make itself apparent. Her money was a good as useless. That was Relena Peacecraft's money. She no longer even had the name to call her own, let alone the assets.
The smell of bread baking from a local café drew her in and just as quickly, a firm hand on her hip steered her away from her path. She looked up at her recently acquired fiancé questioningly before her reached into his pocket and handed her a slightly squashed protein bar.
She had always held in the highest regard the need to keep a stiff upper lip in tight situations, and for a short while she had done just that. As Heero checked them into a motel in the Martian outback, using what she could only assume was a hacked credit card, his first instruction to her was to take a bath.
He'd said it commandingly, and she'd almost taken offence to it coming from the man who had only a day ago claimed her for marriage, until she realised he was simply removing the option for her to challenge him. There was a reason he wanted her to be alone.
When the sting of the water washed over her grimy body, she watched the pattern of ripples and listened to the echoes off the tiles walls. It was then that a stiff upper lip morphed quickly into a trembling bottom one, and she tasted salty droplets fall down her cheeks and felt a pain inside her chest that preluded the flood.
When she came out, she was overly conscious that not only did her face betray every sign of her distress, red puffiness included, but that her options for attire had been limited to a towel that only barely covered the essential parts.
She supposed she shouldn't feel the need to be shy around him, considering their current status, but it was yet another thing that she would have to get used to. She'd always been brought up to hold in regard certain values, and the modesty of women was one of them. On their way in, she had seen many a couple, clearly unmarried, clinging to each other as they picked their keys up from the kiosk. It was so natural to others, that she felt positively alien to feel as she did in that moment.
She peered out from around the corner of the bathroom door. She was relieved to see him laying on the bed with his eyes closed. Unsure if he was asleep, and sure he was the type who slept lightly anyway, she cleared her throat nervously to get his attention.
When his eyes opened, he was staring right at her, her stomach fluttered and she felt heat rush to her face. Those eyes were always intense, but given their current situation she could help but feel all but naked, despite the towel and door between them.
"I'm coming out," she tried to sound normal but it came out off-key in a way that made her sound very silly.
One hand holding the towel closed and the other giving one last tug down at the back, she came out from behind the door, making a conscious effort not to make eye contact with him again.
"I'm going to order some food," he said, apparently ignorant to her distress. She wasn't sure if he was truly unknowing of her thoughts, of if her was simply doing her the courtesy of not acknowledging them, but she was thankful for it. Emboldened, she reached for her clothes before hesitating.
Mottled with dirt, she couldn't very well wear what she had taken off. Those were Relena Peacecraft's clothes, and she had died in them.
"I can pick up some things on the way out?" He offered, as though reading her mind, and she couldn't help but smile. She'd heard lamentations about men not knowing what women want but Heero so far had been everything she needed, a firm hand guiding her to where she needed to be. She needed to survive this, and though she had no idea how, she had no doubt in her mind that he did.
"Some clothes would be nice. Some jeans, a top, some underwe…" She stopped herself short of that sentence with a poorly disguised cough, her face burning. She had just asked Heero Yuy to buy her undergarments a day into their relationship. If only her mother knew.
When she saw the tugging of his lips, she knew he was no longer attempting to save her embarrassment but she didn't really care. She'd not seen Heero smile much, but that amused smirk made all awareness of her near undress return tenfold.
In the echo of her mind, a naughty part of her wondered what would happen if she dropped her towel.
Shocked by the direction of her own thought, she subconsciously clutched the thin white cloth tighter around her.
"28B," he stated, "shouldn't be hard to find." He took up from her bed, walked over to the chair where she'd dumped her clothes and replaced the brassier she'd apparently been holding all along back on top.
Face flushing in the knowledge he'd been fondling her undergarment while she was bathing, she turned to give him a piece of her mind.
The feeling of his hand, rough and calloused, gently pushing her damp hair behind her ears and tipping her face up to look at his own stopped all thoughts in their tracks.
"Relena," he spoke softly, his deep timbre familiar and rich. He touched his forehead to hers, his eyes searching hers in a way that made her chest flutter. "Stop trying to be brave. Especially not for me."
She felt the warmth of his breath against her, the vibration of his voice through her. When his other hand slipped around her back, a blank fuzziness took over her senses, replaced with nothing but the feel of him touching her, guiding her closer to him, against him, with a gentle strength that was uniquely his.
"Don't open the door." He commanded softly, before the chill of the room suddenly made itself apparent where his warmth had once been.
Slightly dazed and with a warmth in her that had been previously absent, even in the heat of the bath tub, she noticed for the first time since her assassination that she was calm. She lay down on the slightly stiff sheets one could expect from an establishment of this nature and took a deep breath.
Two things were certain at this point.
Whatever the future held in store for her, Heero would be instrumental in it.
And that the way her heart thrummed in her chest at the memory of his touch, however innocent and however meant to simply reassure her, promised that marriage would only be the beginning of it.