Title: The Kiss
Author: Demoness Mark
Rating: PG
Dedicated to: Iris (Most especially you Iris, as it was your challenge that prompted this ficlet), KMF, GundamGirl, Mizaya, Zapenstap, Nonny, Purdy (See you made it to this list)
"I'll see you tonight, Heero, assuming I don't have to work late, and you don't go in early," Relena said as she bent over to brush a kiss over his lips for the 4,817th time. It was passionless, stale, nothing like what it once had been like in the early days of their relationship.
Their marriage had started as a mission (Finally Mission Status reference, it's a great story if you get a chance to read it) but had become something more. Now it was but a sham, with the once bride fucking the former best man.
Heero grunted, shifting uncomfortably in his chair, and flipped the page of the weapons manual he was browsing, refusing to look up and allow Relena his pain that her light, habitual, passionless kiss caused in him. He loved her, had always loved her, always would love her, and yet she no longer loved him. First his love had been for the innocent she had been when he had first met her, then as the symbol of peace she had become and finally as a man loves a woman.
4,817, even the number was uninteresting, lacking the roundness of 5,000 and the excitement of the first.
Lost in his thoughts, he distantly heard the door shut, and breathed a sigh of relief. It was hard to be around her wondering when she would leave him. Their marriage had been perfect in the beginning. But then as time went on, they had started to drift apart, though he didn't know why. She started working later, and he took a promotion, which required that he work nights, not knowing what else to do. They barely saw each other, and she found satisfaction elsewhere. He didn't blame her, after all, what else could she do if he no longer satisfied her, and besides how could she love him, a murderer. It was only to be expected that she wander. And he wanted her to be happy.
She had been discreet. He wouldn't even have known if Quatre hadn't confronted him with it. He apologized for the hurt that his affair caused to him, but refused, he claimed, to hurt him worse by keeping it a secret. But Quatre was still his friend and proved it with the gentle lie that no matter how hard he tried it was still Heero's name she cried. Heero had forgiven him, if he could forgive Relena; he had to forgive Quatre, especially with that proof of Quatre's fondness for him. But he knew better than to believe him; however, it was still a nice thought. One that Heero would cherish when she finally left him.
He broke out of his thoughts at the sound of a muffled sob at the outer door. He proceeded to the door and waited a moment, both to decide whether he really cared who was crying outside the door, and so that they wouldn't be expecting the door to open if it was a trick (after all he still had enemies, not to mention those his wife had), before fling open the door.
Relena fell at his feet. He realized that Quatre had been honest about Relena's feelings, and wondered if the 4,818 kiss would be different. If it would be like the first.
