Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and am making no money off of this fic.
AN: Written for the April 6th Cocktail Party prompt found here: gwcocktailfriday . tumblr .com (/)post/172519036481/inkxlenses-luxurious-pinks-shipped-kirbies. (Without the spaces and parentheses.)
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Just One Day by luvsanime02
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Somehow, Relena thinks that she should have expected her mother to arrange something like this for her twenty-first birthday. It's still a surprise for Relena to walk into her favorite restaurant and see the place cleared out. All of her friends (acquaintances, really) clap and give Relena their congratulations, and now the twenty minutes her mother spent earlier on getting Relena's hair into the perfect french braid makes much more sense.
Relena tries to swallow the disappointment, and instead smiles politely at everyone gathered around her. They're all young women around Relena's age, from the same kind of old money families as her own. Relena knows all of their faces and names, but she couldn't have said when any of their birthdays are, or their favorite color or anything.
Relena's favorite color is still pink, and this is a very good thing. Everywhere she turns right now, there's more pink. Nothing garishly bright, of course. No, the room is decorated in soft, tasteful shades of pale pastels. Relena sees pink champagne and pink wine and pink mixed drinks and pink pastries, all artfully displayed. Her mother must have spent quite a bit of money in order to get everything catered and arranged exactly so, not to mention reserving the restaurant for the party.
It's just that. Well. When Relena's mother had asked to have lunch with her today, just the two of them, and when she'd helped Relena pick out her outfit and braid her hair, Relena had thought...
She'd thought that her mother actually wanted to spend the day alone with her, just the two of them, with no fancy nonsense. They would have a carefree lunch at Relena's favorite place, with her mother smiling indulgently as Relena orders her first legal drink.
Clearly, that simple celebration isn't what her mother had in mind. Relena forces herself to focus on the people who are only gathered there to wish her a happy birthday because her mother called them up and it would have been too impolite to refuse (not that any of them actively dislike her, as far as Relena knows), and she pretends to be enjoying the party. It's exhausting within ten minutes, and Relena had really wanted something else for today.
Is spending one day alone with her own mother so much to ask for? Apparently, yes, and Relena had only actually been hoping for a couple of hours together. She picks up one of the champagne flutes and sips from it carefully. It tastes light and fruity, and Relena quite likes it, but she would have enjoyed it more if her mother would spare Relena more than a fleeting glance and smile as she flits around the room making sure that no one is feeling left out.
Congratulations, Relena tells herself, because her mother obviously isn't going to, you're all grown up now. She suddenly gulps down the remaining liquid in her glass, inhales sharply as the bubbles climb up her throat and sting her nose, and Relena wonders why she never gets anything that she really wants.