Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and am making no money off of this fic.
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Maneuvers by luvsanime02
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Chapter 1
Heero gets back from an early morning run to see Relena waiting for her outside of her apartment.
"What's wrong?" she asks, concern rising up within her at the sight of her friend standing there so early, especially since they didn't have any plans to meet up. "Where's your security detail?"
As soon as she asks, Heero realizes the question is pointless. Relena's no longer involved in politics officially, which means she's no longer so high profile that she needs constant watching. Still, Heero hopes that Relena is keeping a security detail at her home, even if she goes out on her own.
Relena looks up at Heero's voice and smiles. "Good morning, Heero. I should have known you'd be out even though it's so early."
Heero freely admits that she's never been one to sleep in. She moves around Relena to open the door and let her walk inside. Heero hopes that Relena hasn't been waiting out in her hallway for too long. Whether or not she's quit her position as Vice Foreign Minister, Relena's still connected to too many people in high places, such as her brother, to ever be entirely safe. Not to mention she was almost kidnapped two weeks ago.
Once they're inside, Relena waits in the living room while Heero takes a quick shower. When she comes back out, she sits down next to her friend. "What's up?"
"I can't come over just to see you?" Relena asks. She's trying to sound hurt, but the humor in her voice is overriding everything else.
Heero leans her head back against the couch, her damp hair soaking into the cushion. "You can," she agrees. "But you never come over without checking if I'm here first."
Relena's also never come over this early before. It's not even seven. "That's true," Relena admits. "There's nothing wrong, though. I just had an idea that I wanted to run by you."
Heero quirks an eyebrow in interest, and looks over at her friend. Relena seems excited about something, now that Heero's paying proper attention. "What is it?" Whatever has Relena this energized is guaranteed to be interesting.
"Well," Relena says, turning to lean her back against the arm of the couch and prop her feet up on the seat next to Heero's leg, "I was wondering what you think about us going into business together."
Heero blinks. She's not sure which part of that to address first. "What business?" Heero honestly didn't think that Relena's next move would be to open up a private business.
Relena smiles mischievously. "Oh, something along the lines of private investigation and security."
Heero takes a couple of seconds to ponder that, and feels her own lips pulling up into a small grin. "You're talking about doing what Preventers does, only with just the two of us."
"Sort of," Relena admits shamelessly. "Just us at first, yes, but I do want to expand later on. And it wouldn't just be a peace-keeping force like Preventers. We'd be working more with individuals than organizations. At least, for now."
For now. In other words, Relena has some sort of long-term plan. This business she's talking about starting up would just be the first step. Looking into Relena's eyes, Heero sees that sharp determination and fearlessness she's come to expect, yet suddenly realizes has been absent in Relena for a long time now.
"I'm in," she decides impulsively. She has no idea what Relena's up to, but hell, Heero needs to make some kind of decision about her own life, and something tells her that she's not going to regret this. It'll be a welcome change, her and Relena working together.
Relena grins at her, and then reaches over and hugs Heero, quick but heartfelt. "Thank you, Heero."
Heero waits until Relena sits back before continuing. "So, what are we really doing?" she asks.
"What do you think about ruling the world?" Relena asks, idly smoothing out her skirt before looking back up at Heero.
Heero stares at her friend. "I think it sounds like a lot of work," she says truthfully. It's certainly never been one of her goals.
Relena muffles a laugh against her hand. "I guess you don't want to rule the entire Sphere of Humanity then, either?"
When she takes a minute to think about it, Heero understands what Relena's saying. Her plan involves more than Earth; it encompasses the whole of humanity. The main problem with fairly governing humanity has always been its division. And that problem's only grown more exasperated the longer humans have been leaving Earth and living among the stars.
Heero shakes her head. "Not especially," she answers finally, her voice wry. "You'd never be able to take a vacation ever again." She's not speaking so much about herself, of course, but offering Relena a warning. After all, they're not truly talking about what Heero wants to do.
Relena nods. "Technically, if you didn't trust the people around you, that would be true."
And of course Relena's smart enough not to surround herself with incompetent or untrustworthy people. Heero sighs, but she's already committed herself to Relena's idea. Still. "Are you sure? Nothing like finally retiring only to become a dictator."
That makes Relena giggle, leaning against the couch and hugging her stomach. "Don't be silly, Heero," she scolds mockingly. "I'm only talking about political reform, not dictatorship."
Right. Heero believes that, absolutely. She hopes the skeptical look she gives Relena conveys her extreme disbelief.
Stifling her laughter, Relena shakes her head at Heero's antics, though she's still smiling. "No, really. I suppose 'ruling the world' was too strict a phrase to use. What I want is more like 'refashioning everything into an actual working and cohesive order'."
Heero blinks. That sounds doable. Difficult, but doable. "Dictator," is all she says, though, just to hear Relena protest some more. The pillow Heero gets hit with in the face in retaliation is totally worth it, and soon they're calming down and starting to outline a feasible plan together.
Yeah, Heero's already glad that she agreed to help Relena with this. Reforming the entire Sphere of Humanity sounds like a decent enough objective to keep Heero occupied. For now.