Disclaimer: I don't own any Gundam Wing characers. I only own Clare, and this plot.

Chapter One: Tangle My Words

"Please tell me you're not going to wear that." Clare said, eyeballing her brother.

Quatre looked in the mirror, tugging at the collar, "What's wrong with it? I think it makes me look charming and superior."

"Quatre… its pink. And.. are those hearts?" Clare asked accusingly, yanking on the sleeve to inspect the cross-stitching.

"No!" He said defensively, pulling his arm from her greedy grasp, "Besides, who says that guys can't show the joy of different colors and shapes?"

"When it's a guy as sensitive as you, people will start talking if they see you in pink." Clare said, scrunching her nose up. She loved her brother dearly, but he certainly was naïve for his age. A few years had passed since the incident with Mariemaia, and the ex-gundam pilots were all nearing the ripe age of twenty-one. Clare had always idoled her older brother, her being the youngest Winner sibling of the lot, and someday wished to follow his footsteps as a gundam pilot. Fortunately, the war ended by the time she was old enough to understand the severity of living the life of a pilot, and now she just wanted to live her life. Quatre moved out from all his guards, telling them to go on an adventure. He asked Clare to move in with him, since he was always the type to get lonely. She befriended the other pilots quickly, and the girls who they had befriended. They were now getting ready to attend some formal dinner that Relena was speaking at; she had invited everyone for support.

"Fine." Quatre sighed, flopping his hands down from the collar, "I'll put on the green striped shirt." Clare smirked, happy for victory.

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"Yeesh. The ceiling goes on for hours!" Catherine whispered frantically to Trowa. The two had just entered the hall the dinner was taking place at, and Trowa took a quick glance up. Cathy was right, the ceiling was quite tall. Catherine took his hand, and he led her through the crowd, weaving around till he found the table with their last names, scrawled out on a sign, placed on top of the table. Catherine had admitted to Trowa she lied about being his sister – she felt terrible for lying to him, but she didn't want him to leave and continue being a pilot, and getting hurt, or worse, dying. So her brilliant plan was to intrigue him with the whole 'I'm your sister!' routine, which worked for a while, but when the guilt had finally took her to her breaking point, she came clean, and couldn't be happier. Especially since there was certainly some sexual tension between the two, and it would be just … wrong for her to pursue a relationship if he thought it was incest.

As Catherine took her seat, which Trowa gladly pulled out for her, he spotted a tall platinum blonde in a semi-skimpy red strapless strut in, and he quickly sat. Maybe she wouldn't see them.

"Cathy! Trowa!" She shouted, waving her sequined purse around. She rushed over, well at least as fast as someone in stiletto heels could rush, shoving people who were in her way. "Excuse me!" She muttered to rather wide man, crashing into him, and successfully plowing him from her path. She flopped into a seat next to Catherine, who suddenly became quite busy unrolling her silverwear. "Really funny guys, pretending to not see me back there!" Dorothy said, forcing a chuckle, and showing off her gleaming white teeth.

"Yeah, heh heh, we gotcha!" Catherine muttered, trying her hardest to sound sincere. She knew it came out uncaring, but Dorothy was too busy looking at her teeth in Catherine's spoon to hear.

"Hey guys, how is everyone?" Sally's voice rang out as she got closer. Catherine yanked her spoon from Dorothy, who was beginning to start talking. She didn't even notice.

"Great! We're just splendid!" Dorothy said, speaking for the group. Sally smiled. She could see the horror in Trowa's and Catherine's eyes.

"Woman! Why did you walk ahead of me?" Demanded a very flustered looking Wufei, who was straightening his tie. He looked quite panicked, to be honest.

"Because you're a big boy and can navigate through a crowd yourself." Sally retorted, taking a seat. The two of them started dating once the war was officially over. They constantly faught, and never seemed to get along, but then Wufei would surprise everyone by turning into a romantic at the most uncommon of times. This wasn't one of them. He sat down, starting to bicker when Quatre and Clare showed up, Duo not far behind them. They soon scrambled to their seats, everyone having a small conversation with someone else.

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"Yeah, and then she ended the call with, 'over and out'!" Duo said, cracking up, as did Clare and Quatre, who were listening. He was talking about Hilde, who, moved away once the war was done. There was always an unspoken flirting between her and Duo, however, she seemed to have moved on, and began dating this real cork named Clyde or something snubby like that. However, she was happy. He certainly was more her type that Duo ever could pretend to be, and the two of them moved away. Hilde still called them all quite frequently, not wanting to lose friendship with any of them, especially Duo.

"Hey everyone! Thanks so much for being here!" Relena said, nearing them, flustered. The girls got up and hugged her, the boys just smiled and shook her hand. She took a seat – she wasn't scheduled to speak for a bit. A spiffy man took the microphone, and started blobbing about something most likely important, but they all seemed to daze out. Relena traced her finger on the rim of her wine glass, glancing at the seat next to her, the signboard reading 'YUY'. She sighed, and furrowed her brow. It was just like him to not show up. Heero had joined the Preventors, along with the other ex-pilots, to help protect Relena from danger. When she had heard of it, she thought that perhaps Heero had changed, especially when the two of them nearly kissed, with no thanks to the helmets of the space suits blocking them. But the two barely spoke to each other. It seemed their 'friendship' had gotten more awkward, even after Relena pretended as if nothing had even happened. Lady Une had mentioned to Relena that she could recruit Heero to be a personal bodyguard to her, but she turned down the offer. She didn't want to force him into doing something he didn't want to do.

"Relena Peacecraft!" Some bloke said on the mic, and people started clapping, and watching her expectantly.

"Miss Relena! Its you! Your turn to speak!" Quatre whispered frantically, nudging her. Blinking, she snapped back into reality. She grinned wide, gave Quatre a thank you nod, and gracefully walked up on the stage and grabbed the mic.

"First I want to thank all of you for attending this benefit. Its just wonderful to see everyone coming together for the sanctity of peace." People cheered and clapped, and Relena took a nervous breath in, her hands shaking. She wasn't perfect at this public speaking thing, not even now. Once the cheering died down, Relena smiled again and began speaking. "We are all here for unity, we are all here to keep on restoring this peace we have worked so hard to fight for! We are finally seeing results, and I can't tell you how much it moves me to see the nations of the World coming together as one in this time! I am in love with ………HEERO?"

The crowds gasped, and the ex-pilots and the girls glanced around awkwardly. Relena flushed after realizing what she had technically just said, but the 'perfect soldier' just stood his ground, keeping an emotionless face plastered on. He had just made a royal entrance, showing up late, go figure, and was actually dressed in a suit. However, Relena's surprise to see him came out, and well, now the crowd began to murmur. "Oh, excuse me, I mean, I am in love with the idea of peace!" She glanced around – she had officially lost the crowd. Everyone was staring at Heero, who was sliding into his seat. Relena made a quick exit off the stage, and a real doorknob of a man took the stage, and got everyone's attention back by some accountant's joke. Relena slid into her seat, still flushed.

"Heero, why did you have to show up then?" She asked, flopping her head down on the table.

"Hn." Was his response, as he played with his napkin.

"Its okay Miss Relena, no one was listening." Dorothy said flatly.

"Thanks Dorothy, that certainly cheers me up to hear no one was listening to my speech on peace." She mumbled, deadpanned, from her faceplanted spot on the table.

"I think what she means," Quatre began, eyeballing Dorothy, who quickly glanced at her fresh manicure, "Is no one will remember that."

"Yeah, at least we knew what you meant." Clare added, giving a reassuring smile.

"Thanks, guys, you guys are the best." Relena mumbled, lifting up her head.

"So.. just how long exactly have you been in love with Heero, then? Or was it peace you were in love with? I got lost in there somewhere." Duo said, giving a mischeivious grin. The death glare he got from Heero and Relena was enough to make him give a quick chuckle, "Kidding, kidding." Or it might've been the fact Heero's hand was reached into his pocket, certainly grasping a gun. Or a knife. Or some form of a weapon.

Heero felt a rush of pride in himself as he again, had victory of Duo, who stepped back away from his joke. He of course had no showing of this on his face. He clicked the safety back on his gun shoved ever so sloppily in his pocket, and fished his hand out and onto the table. He lowered his head, so his bangs lay in his face and glanced at Relena next to him. She looked bothered, troubled, and in another zone completely. It wasn't his fault she blurted out his name. He just simply was late, a pawn in this crazed accident. Of course, he felt guilty for being late to the dinner – he really wanted to hear her speak. Actually, he wanted to see her talk. He wanted to see her move, breathe, smile, laugh, fiddle with her hair when she got nervous, and blush. He wanted to see her in all of her beauty. It wasn't his fault Duo turned off the damn alarm clock. He made a mental note to break his nose sometime for that one. He wanted to reach over to her and tell her it was okay, he was ecstatic she invited him, and give her a hug to cheer her up.

Instead, he kept fiddling with the napkin, keeping the stone look of monotony on his face.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading this! I really like the start of this, usually I despise my first chapter of stories. I haven't written in a while, and I hope this is good! Please leave a review, constructive criticism, or a simple 'hello'! I hope you enjoyed this! Thanks!

-Kam