Vampiric Sacrifice Chapter 1: The Beginning, a gundam wing/ac fanfic

Title: Vampiric Sacrifice

Author: stefani teee a.k.a. Koneko ^Å^

Koneko-chan says!

Hello again from one of those fanfiction writers who get one idea in her head (one for this anime, one for that anime) and starts a new fic before her others are done. I got a sudden idea for guts and gore. Don't as me why as I personally can't stand most of those stupid horror movies. You know with the stupid blonde who walks into the evilly creepy mansion when you KNOW the entire audience is screaming "GET OUT OF THERE!" and still she goes in and gets murdered by a guy in a ski mask and a portable paper shredder. They're stupid, and I get scared of every little thing whether it's stupid or not. Other than that, this is a new fic o' mine for Gundam Wing and (which I swear is one of the best animes in the world {cute and very well drawn guys, what more could you want?!}) and it's a little AU. Yes, I am a fan of the straight coupling (I can handle the Trowa/Quatre thing 'cause it makes OK sense though, at least, not too much of it…) and this is one of those. I might do a Yaoi sometime, as I am quite open though I have preferences. And no, Relena is not a bitch no matter what some of you people say. (Some of you are so MEAN!) Anyway, review, email, the works.

Notes about this fic, it contains plenty of blood, guts and gore. Some subjects might be OOC for the GW gang, but if these circumstances ever came up in real life (I sure as hell hope not), I'm sure it would be something akin to human nature for them to act this way.

One more thing, I'm telling you in the beginning so don't come to the conclusion that the girls are flirting with every GW guy. The names they call them (i.e. honey) are there because they've known them all for so long, they're all comfortable with it. I repeat, DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS! Leave that to me.

~*~*~*~

Tap-tap.

The girl's eyes shot open. Her hand moved swiftly under her pillow, grabbing a gun that lay beneath it. It would have been useless against these creatures under normal circumstances, but she knew what they were. And so, the bullets were made of pure silver. She tensed… she hated the nights now. A while ago, even several months ago, she had loved the night, loved walking out on her balcony to look at the moon and the stars and think. Now, she hated it, hated how, some nights, they would come back, trying to finish the horror they had already done to the place. The Peacecraft manor was a place full of fear, the few servants that stayed were always suspicious of anyone that rang the doorbell at night, and they never left the building out into the open air.

"Come out you cowards—now." The moment those words came out of her mouth, she caught sight of about two to three of the creatures crawling outside her bedroom window, eager to be invited in. "Get away from here." She hissed, knowing they could hear her, even through the glass. She sat up in bed, glaring at one of them that she could see through her window. "Invite us in, little one." They taunted her. They looked almost human, but the cold moonlight that washed over their already pale faces was deathly. They all stood finally on her balcony, staring at her through the sliding glass doors. Two males, and one female. All three were exquisitely beautiful and perfectly chiseled. But they were monsters. "I'll never let you in here… not for any reason. Not again."

Last time, one of the staff had unknowingly invited them in… sad to say, Marie was laid her grave the very next day. And they'd wreaked havoc in her house that night, the one night she had been away. She reached into a drawer beside her bed, and pulled out several of the blessed wooden stakes, given to her by a priest that had known very well what she was meaning to do… to protect the people she had left. It had been quite unknown to anyone that those blood-sucking vermin had killed her parents. She opened the door to her balcony, slamming it behind her as she went. "You're not getting an invitation, you scum, so screw off."

One of them laughed strangely, tapping on the glass. "Come out and play little birdie, the moon's crying blood for you already." The girl frowned in disgust, as she saw dark red blood drip from their fangs… they'd already fed tonight. . And someone's mother is going to be crying at their funeral tomorrow… she thought feeling a vague sense of pity before she pushed it out of her mind. She needed to concentrate, wait for the perfect time. They hissed, crawling towards her on the walls of the apartment building. A male one whispered lowly, "Let us in little Peacecraft bitch, and let us drink of you like we drank of your family before." She clenched her teeth in anger.

"No… but I will come out." She told them, glaring. "Move away from the balcony first." They obeyed her, still smirking as she stood up, drawing her sheer robe around her otherwise naked body. She tied it tightly, not wanting it to get in her way when around these monsters. She grabbed two of her stakes that had been made especially for killing these monsters, and had been exquisitely carved. She walked out onto the empty balcony. All was silent, as the vampires clung to the walls, all around her. "Get away from here or I swear you're all going back to Hell." She warned them all, and brandished her gun, just as one of them jumped her, smashing the thing out of her grip and she watched it as it fell through the spaces in the balcony. "Shit." She muttered as she shoved the vampire off her and kicked him hard enough to smack back onto the wall he'd jumped from. Whipping the other stake from the pocket in the sleeve, which she'd slipped in, she faced them all still holding their vertical position on the wall by their clawed hands. The same one jumped down to the ground to face her.

She turned quickly and grabbed her army knife, a silver one that had been strapped to her leg, and thrust it into the vampire's throat, having no time to aim anywhere else, and needing to keep an eye on the others. She could tell it was hard enough to have gone through. The vampire screamed in agony, clutching its throat as the blood from its previous victim poured out… a lot of blood.

From where she was outside, Relena Peacecraft Dorlian which was who she was, heard Gabriel wake, inside. He was still in his bed where he'd been sleeping in his bed which they'd brought in, hiding from his own room since the vampire attacks had started, and watched in fascinated horror as the vampires turned to look at him through the window with their ferociously disgusting grins. His eyes widened, more in fear than fascination now and the little boy looked ready to cry as a female walked over to the glass and began to coo. "Come out little boy, come out and play." Her voice was soft and persuasive but the little boy was terrified, and he could see the insane gleam in her eyes. "LENA!" he cried as he saw the blonde outside, fighting those monsters. "STAY INSIDE!" she yelled back, "THEY CAN'T TOUCH YOU IF YOU'RE INSIDE!" Gabriel grabbed at the blankets, clutching them hard and stared with horror as the female vampire didn't seem to want to leave the glass. The other female laid a hand on her, as the three males were busy fighting Relena. "Don't play with the child, Rosalyn, all he's good for is food…" Rosalyn pouted like a little girl denied of her doll, before looking back towards Relena who was currently fighting all three of the males. "Then we can just kill the little birdie." She said happily as she watched the fight. Gabriel shuddered uncontrollably and he watched Auntie Lena fighting those things.

"AHHHHH! FUCK OFF!" growled Usagi, as a vampire leapt from behind and clung onto her by her long hair, snapping at her neck, "Get off me you damned vampire!" She yelled, grabbing the long knife from the other vampire's throat (it was wounded but not dead) and shoved it behind her, into another vampire's gut.

It let go with a wounded scream and she had enough time to wrench it out and shove it into the more fatal place… its heart. It exploded into dust and the flying ashes momentarily blinded Usagi… but the others weren't. With blood trailing down the front of its chest, the vampire she'd stabbed attacked her, taking advantage of her momentary blindness. He grinned as she screamed quite nicely when his claws raked against her abdomen, so that the wounds gushed with blood. Not enough to kill her just yet, but enough to slow her down… a lot.

As soon as Gabriel saw his favorite aunt get hurt and the blood already seeping through the tears in her robe, "LENA!" he screamed, scared that she would die too… just like his mother.

Relena got up, one hand holding her stomach protectively as she swore under her breath for being so careless. There was no time to bind it just yet, but she put enough pressure on it to staunch the blood flow a little. With her other hand, the blood that had stained her hand, now ran down the wooden stake that she'd held. A priest had blessed it, giving it the duty to slay evil beings. She did not like her chances at all, but these males weren't especially evil, they were just hungry. Eternally hungry. She attacked the one on her left first, kicking it off the balcony so that it fell; several stories down, giving her enough time attack the other. "You are bleeding…" it murmured, staring at the blood that had stained her robe a dark red hungrily. "Yeah. And you're gone, Dead Boy." She snapped testing her stake of its sharpness. "Come and get me."

It attacked. It might not have been a particularly powerful one, but its training was better than most and it most definitely wasn't careless of its moves. She didn't like it at all that her vision was beginning to go fuzzy around the edges. She shook the dizziness away, now was no time to drop into a faint. Jumping up to avoid another slash from its talons, she landed behind it, shoving the stake into its chest. It looked down to see the tip of it protruding from the front of its dirtied shirt and exploded into ashes. Wiping the stuff off her clothing surreptitiously, she turned her attention back to the one that was climbing up the walls to fight her. The things just didn't know when to quit.

"Your friends just left on a jet plane to Hell. Aren't you going to join them?" she asked in a sarcastically sweet voice. "You're going to die, woman." It snarled as it bared its fangs, trying to intimidate her. "That's not going to happen tonight, vermin." She snapped back, holding up the stake in her hand in a threatening manner.

It was an easy dusting. Apparently, he was all talk and she quickly silenced him by decapitating his smirking head. It rolled only once before it and the body which had been previously gushing blood from its neck, exploded into dust. The balcony floor was dripping with blood and it was already dripping off the edges down into the darkened field beneath.

The two women were watching her apprehensively now that their henchmen (which she suspected the men were) had been dusted, and one of them stood in front of the other, baring her fangs. "You're going to die, Miss Fighter for Peace." She said glaring.

"Ooh, fighting for peace… the little birdie's has a special mission in life!" squealed Rosalyn like a little girl. "Yeah… and soon enough, those she was going to help are going to be crying… before we slit their throats." In an instant, both of them had leaped off the balcony, landing on the street several stories below and continued running.

Relena grimaced despite her wound at the blood draining off her balcony floor… it was quite disgusting. But apparently Gabriel was more worried about his aunt than disgusted because he opened the door and Relena stumbled in, falling to the carpeted floor as soon as the door was closed. The kid was a smart one and she willingly gave the credit as soon as she saw the first-aid kit that had been brought from under the bed as soon as he'd seen her get swiped. Dammit, the wound stung. She bandaged the thing quickly, but rather awkwardly and wrapped the gauze around her stomach so it rather resembled a mummy's wrappings. She shuddered to think of meeting one that night. They weren't as clumsy as they looked… she should know, she'd fought one just the other night.

"Gabe," she gasped, "call Preventers HQ—say, say Air finished the vermin off, but got an injury, inspection of viral encoding needed." She didn't think that they had poisoned her, but she was not going to take any chances.

Gabriel nodded, and, still trembling, picked up the phone, dialing the numbers slowly. A hassle with the medics when they'd driven there in Relena's car (with great caution of course) and she was proclaimed perfectly fine, with a more well bandaged stomach. They drove home silently, as Relena looked silently for anything that might be hiding around. Only when they reached home was she able to give a sigh of relief and flop down onto her bed. A sigh of relief, but not of complete relief.

Noin was dead. She had been killed by the vampires that night when Relena had been out, and Milliardo was still in a coma from loss of blood. Every single day that was what she woke up to. And that was why Gabriel was under her charge now, now that both his parents weren't around to take care of him. She smiled grimly as she wiped the grass stains off the gun she'd found in the grass when they'd walked back in, and checked the bullets. They were all in. Closing it and slipping into a simple pair black jeans and a black tank top so that she could hope to blend in with the night a little, she placed on the belt she'd had specially made to fit her stakes, gun, and various other items that she needed. She touched the silver cross hanging from a chain on her neck before tucking it in underneath her shirt.

"Aunt Lena…?" asked Gabriel fearfully, "Where are you going?"

"Hunting." She replied bluntly knowing he would know exactly what she was talking about. "But—b-be careful." He ended, knowing not to stop her. He was a good kid, and if he were a little—a lot older, he would probably have wanted to go out and help her instead of staying back and being scared. He was, after all, her brother's son. "Keep safe, dear one." She whispered to him before closing the door behind her.

*~*~*~*~*

Duo hid behind of the huge gnarled trunks of the trees that grew around the darkened place. He didn't like this place… there was evil in the air. Not that he was one of those Seers who knew for certain, but working for his organization had given him almost a sixth sense for stuff like this. Other people might call it just a gut feeling. He thought of it as something more than that, he seemed to know with a certainty of what they were… and what they were going to do. Why wouldn't he? After all, he'd been at this kind of thing since he was fifteen.

He checked his watch furtively. It was time to move in for the kill. He moved silently to the ancient iron-shod gate. He looked at the lock, it was so old it had rusted through so there would be no point in picking it, one yank and it'd probably disintegrate. But the thing was that he couldn't move the gate without making a noise as obvious as clanging a gong and screaming "I'm here you bloody bastards, come and get me!" He looked around for any other way to get in. The fence then… he thought grimly, getting a running start before leaping up and vaulting over it. "Damn." He swore under his breath wiping his hands surreptitiously on his black jeans. The fence was slick with wet blood, how it had got there he didn't want to know.

Crouching, as to remain relatively unseen, he moved closer to the gigantic door, dampened by bloody handprints all over the wooden splinters that stuck out of the wooden boards nailed together, and peered through a particularly large crack. Nothing in sight. He entered the place cautiously, and as quietly as he could. He began to examine the lower level rooms for any sign of life… or the undead. Perhaps even coffins. He knew some vampires had adapted to sleeping on beds like humans, but most preferred their coffins, which were made quite grandly, no matter what the outer room might look.

His head jerked suddenly at a sudden creak in the hall behind him and a muffled curse as whoever it was stiffened. He quickly exited the room, his gun out in case it was what he expected it to be. Well there certainly was someone and he suspected her instantly. "I finally found one of you, vampire." He growled lowering it to her chest where her heart would be. To his surprise, she glared, "I? I am no demon… but I do suspect you."

By god he recognized that voice! "RELENA?!" he hissed in amazement. "Duo?!" she hissed back, staring at him in blunt amazement. "What are you doing here?!"

"A question I want to ask you!" he hissed back, as both of them were careful enough not to catch the attention of the owners of the house. "You're a Vampire Hunter?" he asked gesturing to it. "That's totally impossible!"

Bit rich, coming from you."

"I have no time for this. I came to hunt a vampire. And since you are holding a stake that has been sprinkled with holy water and blessed as well without burning, I assume you aren't who I'm looking for." He told her shoving his gun back into his belt. He looked at her still holding her stake with a wry look, "Listen little girl, this is no place for a babe like you. You could get killed."

Relena bristled, "Not like you will little boy." She shot back continuing past him but keeping her footsteps light. He came back beside her, "Hey, sorry Lena… but this is just… unbelievable." She laughed harshly and holding the stake in a tight grasp. "Unbelievable? You want to know unbelievable? That the press and the public believed that Noin died of a wild animal attack in the Sanq Kingdom and my brother is in a coma because he was in that same attack!"

"Hey, slow down… I knew your brother was in a coma and Noin is dead but I never figured…"

"Then Commander Une's job was done quite well." She snapped before looking remorseful, knowing that she couldn't take out her feelings on him. He was, more or less, a great friend. "Sorry… but, after everything's that happened to me…" Duo smiled jerkily, patting her shoulder awkwardly. "Hey, no problem. Now that we know for sure, we're on the same side, and I'm pretty sure you're not going to stand for me telling you that I can 'handle this on my own', let's get moving or else Wufei's going to kick my ass."

"Wufei? He's here?"

"Sure is. He's outside covering for me in case I die. Or at the most, if he hears any blood-curdling screams coming from my vocal chords he'll come running. Trowa's out there too." Relena shook her head sighing, "I see you haven't changed."

"But you certainly have Lena. You gave up the politician life for this?"

"You have a problem with revenge?"

"Hey, I know Noin and Milliardo were family—"

"Too bad it wasn't just them. King and Queen Peacecraft were killed by them too, and the entire thing was glossed over as a terrorist assassination."

Duo winced, "Ow… that one must've been harsh to find out."

"That and the fact that they're going to be after Milliardo to finish the job, Gabe, and me."

"Gabe?"

"Come on, you remember him. My nephew? Gabriel?" Recognition dawned on Duo, "OH that kid! Yeah, I—FUCK!" he cursed loudly as he suddenly whirled to face a vampire sneering at him, seconds before he plunged a stake into its chest. It looked down in surprise as he yanked it out, before it disintegrated into ashes. "My, my, the little birdie's left her cage and come to play!" said a delighted voice in the shadows and Relena whirled to face Rosalyn. "So it's you." The words were quite calm but she wondered a lot about this woman, she was insane that could be seen, but she was certainly evil and it'd probably be difficult to kill her.

"Dear, it's not a good idea to talk to your food before eating… they're not quite as appetizing." Scolded a voice from behind the vampire, and Rosalyn had a delighted look on her face at the sound of the same woman Relena had seen on the balcony. "But Jacey…" she pouted childishly as the woman came up behind her, hugging her from behind. Rosalyn leaned against the woman's chest. "But I want to play…"

"Later darling."

Relena wrinkled her nose as the two vampiresses continued to hug, always knowing of her presence, but appearing not to pay her attention. "Oh!" cried Rosalyn clasping her hands suddenly as if she had been struck with a sudden idea. "We haven't introduced ourselves to our new friend… I am Rosalyn DeVere." She said smiling, her fangs flashing as she did so.

"Darling I don't see a reason…"

"But it's much nicer to be polite to the little birdie before it sings its last song."

"Fine then. I am Jacinta Sheldon." She frowned. "Don't you want to eat her now, darling?"

Relena had had enough. Duo was still busy fighting the lesser vampires that were swarming him like a bunch of bees and she was staring down these two lesbian vampiresses with a look of disbelief when this Jacey woman asked so nonchalantly. "You won't be eating anyone else tonight, Fang-face."

"Ooh, you go and rip her throat out for calling us names. Bad, bad birdie." Rosalyn shook her finger at Relena with a tsk, tsk sound.

"Anything to please, Rosalyn darling."

Then, Relena was swept into a whirlwind of combat skills with the older woman. She, a 21 year-old with limited abilities that she'd learned over the last few years (ever since she'd known about her parents' real killers) and a woman who'd probably lived centuries with a lot more vampiric strength on her side. It wasn't long for the vampiress to land a swift blow to her, slicing the skin on her upper arm deeply and before she could stop herself, she screamed, shrilly, before attacking back, kicking, clawing, and punching. The woman caught both her arms and she wrenched hard to release them. When that didn't do much else, she lunged at her, biting down hard on the woman's face. She didn't have fangs, but the ones she had worked for ripping the flesh on the woman's face and seeing the blood well up and spill over. The vampiress gave a scream of pain as they continued to attack each other ferociously while Rosalyn watched, knowing full well Jacey's abilities. "Rip her throat and let me drink of it," she crooned to her lover, "and then we can drink of a princess again."

Duo, done with the 'lesser vampires' advanced on them. "Shit, LENA!" he yelled horrified as he saw blood drip from both of them, smearing on the ground, on the walls they crashed into, their clothes. He would've joined the fight if a hand hadn't clamped onto his arm. "No, no little boy. Jacey is having a little dance with the birdie before it sings its last song and dies for us."

"Like hell she will!" he yelled, wrenching free of the clawed hand. "Bad, bad boy… you should listen to Rosalyn, you don't want to end up like my Mummy."

"And what happened to your Mummy?" he spat out at the dark-haired, dark-eyed vampiress. "I slit her throat and laid her beside my Daddy so he could give her a kiss before they went to Hell."

"You monster!" he growled, pulling out his gun, but she swiped at it, knocking it down the hall. "Bad little boys aren't allowed to play with toys."

"But bad little boys don't listen to what bad ladies tell them to." He snarled back, lunging at her, knocking her off her feet and onto her back as they wrestled in a deadly embrace, her fangs snapping for his throat, and his hand trying to find anything pointy and wooden. Silver would do just fine as well.

The sound of a "twang" suddenly could be heard among the two fights going on in the hall and thunked right above Rosalyn's left shoulder as she snapped at Duo's neck. "You get off him, and YOU," he said, directing his order to Jacey, "get off Relena."

Rosalyn scrambled off Duo quickly and stood, staring at Jacey who'd also let go of Relena, her cheek torn open, and blood trailing from multiple different cuts on her body as well from the fighting. Relena wasn't much better off. The wounds she'd gotten earlier had reopened and blood was seeping through the bandages and through her shirt. She also had several deep cuts from the other woman's long talons and there was a long, bloody gash across her temple.

"Yo Wufei, ol' pal, you certainly took your time."

"I came only when I heard someone scream."

"I'll have you know it wasn't me."

"Shut up Maxwell, we'll sort this out later." Duo fell silent as the two vampires eyed the three of them carefully. "Jacey? I don't like that toy he has in his hands." whimpered Rosalyn staring at Wufei. "Don't worry darling, nothing will happen." replied Jacey confidently. "How—?! " Just behind Wufei, a vampire suddenly dropped through the rotten ceiling and grabbed at the boy, causing quite a disturbance. The two females quickly made their exit as Relena dusted the vamp and leaving Wufei coughing with the choking dust. By the time they had tried to find the two vampiresses, they had disappeared. "Dammit, I lost them." cursed Relena as she wiped the blood angrily off her face where a cut on her temple was bleeding down her face.

"Now, would you care to inform us on why the hell you're here of all places tracking a pair of renegade vampiresses?!" asked Wufei, trying to keep calm. "I'm a vampire hunter, just like you, you idiot."

"Idiot?! I just saved your damned life!"

"And I'll thank you for it, but other than that, what I do is none of your business!" she snapped at him before sighing and taking a deep breath. "Look, I'm not a pampered and spoiled little child, and right now, if this proof shocks you, then you haven't looked much through the years." Wufei took a deep breath, trying his hardest to remain calm. "Fine. We're taking you to the medics over at Headquarters." Relena groaned, "They're going to be pissed at seeing me again… fine. Let's go, I'll take my car—"

"I'll take it. You can go with Duo and the rest of the guys."

"Everyone else is here too?"

"They're waiting at the car. Keys?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out the jangling ring. "You hurt my baby and you're dead, you hear?" she warned him before following Duo. "Women." Snorted Wufei as soon as they were out of hearing distance.

"MEN!" yelled back Relena, telling him that she had indeed heard him. "So Duo, how's Hilde?"

"Kinda pregnant."

"WHAT?!"

"Um…" Duo shrugged, "Hey, it just… happened!" he looked defensive. Relena sighed, shaking her head. "Duo, Duo, Duo… what am I going to do with you?"

"Give a guy some slack and not dissect his sex life maybe?"

"Perhaps." By this time, they'd exited the mansion, and kicked down the rusted gate that fell with a muted "ker-thunk" in the muddied earth. They made their way to the road, and the first persona Relena recognized was a tall young man with outrageously long bangs. "Trowa!" she called, waving forgetting about her injuries, and wincing as she did. The blood had already seeped into all her clothes and the fact that she'd been hurt earlier didn't help. Trowa was at her side in a matter of seconds, looking at her first in amazement for being in such a place, and then concern as he looked over her extensive repertoire of injuries. "Are you… are you okay?" he asked quietly, examining several of the deeper scratches. "Nothing a trip to the medics at Headquarters won't fix… don't worry, I'm just fine. How are you anyway? I haven't seen you for several years now."

"I've been around."

"Still at it with Dorothy aren't you?"

"No."

"WHAT?!"

"We broke up a while ago."

"And you didn't tell me?!" she was flabbergasted, and rather hurt. Why in the world hadn't her best friend told her something like this?! She humphed her displeasure before shrugging and saying, "I'm not going to have a long discussion with you until later. For now… good to see you again." She hugged him before grimacing at the pressure on her injuries. Trowa seemed to notice too because he gestured towards the car behind the grove of trees. "Let's get moving then." Duo, who'd been completely ignored for the last couple of minutes, was already way ahead of them.

"Quatre! How you doing?" asked Relena, opening the car door and sliding in with practiced ease, sliding on the leather interior beside Quatre. Now it was the Arabian's turn to be flabbergasted, "Re-Relena-sama?" he paused, "What are you doing here?!"

She sobered quickly. "I was here to hunt a couple of vamps. The real game got away, dammit." She swore under her breath before shrugging it off. "So how's it been since I last saw you last?" she asked absently as she began examining the blood draining from her abdomen with what looked like a bored expression on her face. "Relena-sama, are you all right?" he asked hesitantly. "Oh sure, just got scratched." she replied, as Trowa and Duo got into the two front seats, Trowa driving.

In the intense silence, Duo finally asked, "So how's everything going?"

"Gabriel's fine, Milliardo's the same, and the rest of Peacecraft manor is a wreck. Oh, and I'm still hunting down those two vampiress bitches back there." Quatre raised his eyebrow at the language. The Relena he knew didn't use such words at all. Relena was looking out the window, and Quatre blinked when he saw the heavy-duty pistol in her hand lying on her lap. Taking a closer look, she wasn't absently admiring the dark beauty of the starlit night, her eyes were roving around trying to see as far as they could through the darkness, looking for something. Vampires Quatre realized, and the entire thing fell on him all of a sudden. "Relena-sama… why are you… why…?"

"Why am I doing this?" she finished his question for him. "Um, yes."

"Because it's a revenge thing. Getting information is a lot easier than previous years, I'll have to say." Satisfied that there were no undead following them, she relaxed, leaning back against the leather interior. She winced as the pain in her side reminded her suddenly of her wounds. "Dammit, how the hell am I supposed to go to the political meeting tomorrow, like this?!" she muttered to herself holding her side carefully and scolding herself mentally. "They can't see the Vice Foreign Minister looking like she'd just had a fight with a wildcat."

"I assure you, you would look much better off. Wildcats know when to retreat when a couple dozen of their kind die in front of them." Wufei commented from beside her. "And I'm sure you would know." She replied, not joking as she kept herself busy, to try and staunch the blood flowing from her wounds. "We're almost there." Wufei assured her as he and Quatre helped her, making makeshift bandages for the moment.

The car slid to a smooth stop in front of Preventers HQ and with hardly any help at all, Relena made it into the medical ward for an examination. For once, she wished Sally hadn't gone back to medical school to finish her education. She would've liked her friend close by especially with these poking and prying doctors tsk tsking her over ever wound.

"Relena?" asked someone behind her, and the girl turned to face the one guy she'd hadn't seen for over two years. "Heero?" she gaped, before she shut her mouth thinking how much like a fish out of water she must look like.

"Are you all right?" he asked, looking down at the multiple bandages on her body, not to mention the bandages that wound around her head. "Maybe I bit off a little more than I can chew." she replied nonchalantly. She could admit mistakes, and she didn't have to hide all the mistakes that had happened that night. She looked down in disgust at what he was seeing right now. Dried blood was smeared all over her clothes, and her skin, and blood was still seeping through the bandages all over her. In other words, she was a mess and looked it. He raised an eyebrow, "A little, Relena?"

"Alright, a lot more than I can chew. And I definitely choked." She looked around for Wufei who still had her car keys. He was nowhere to be seen.

"How have you been?" he asked almost hesitantly, definitely not comfortable with her new line of 'work' as he could see. "What, you mean you didn't check up on me this time?" she asked bluntly, knowing full well what he always did. "Dare I lie to you?" he asked just as bluntly.

"Amuse me. Pretend you haven't and I'll invite you over and then if we don't get attacked, I can keep and eye on Gabe and we can continue talking if you want."

"I'm game."

"Good, then all we have to do is wait for Wufei and if he destroyed my car, he'll wish he never met me tonight."

"From the highly colorful description from Duo, I assume that you would both be dead if he hadn't shown up."

"All right then, then I'll make him wish that he never touched my car keys."

"…" That was normal, she was beginning to think he'd gone farther along in his 'throwing away the past' thing than she'd known. Finally, the Chinese guy appeared at the doors looking miffed. "Did you damage my car in any way?"

"Woman, why the HELL did you not tell me what car it was? I was looking around that damned place for a car and when I tried the keys, one old lady came at me with a handbag! And when I finally find it, which I assure you, is very hard when you have a black eye from a handbag, I see those… THINGS inside that car!"

Heero looked mildly interested. "Things?" Relena answered Wufei and explained to Heero at the same time. "Outfits. I was supposed to be bringing that stuff over to a friend's place tomorrow… we'll need for tomorrow night. Must've hurt your ego to be driving around with playboy bunnies stitched on the things, huh?" she teased Wufei.

Heero was looking dumbstruck. "You… playboy bunnies…" he repeated dumbly and Relena had to laugh, she'd never known this guy to be a blundering idiot. Okay… minus the idiot. Duo looked dumbstruck, and slightly interested. "Don't tell me you're a model for Playboy magazine!"

"What, haven't seen me in the latest issue?" Duo turned red, but he persisted, "No, really Lena… Playboy?"

"Relax guys, I'm no slut, they're… props."

"Props?" Heero finally voiced still looking rather dumbstruck. "Yeah, props. I've got a scene to catch these two vamp guys that the disposal crew couldn't deal with, so they sent in the big guns… or at least the girls."

"The girls."

"Mmhmm, me and Dorothy." Trowa's head jerked up to look at her. "WHAT?!" he almost yelled, a strange thing when around the guy, as his friends noted. Perhaps he wasn't as over his ex-girlfriend as he'd insisted. Not that they really knew what had happened, it'd all seemed to go perfectly well until they'd suddenly announced they were officially over.

"Yeah, Shiebecker would've come along, but apparently she was a little… under the weather." She cast a quick glance at Duo and muttered under her breath, "And I finally find out why." While Duo was busy trying to look completely innocent and avoiding any glances thrown at him. "So Catalonia and I were chosen to take on the job."

"But you don't know anything about… about… you know." Relena snorted, "Oh believe me, I definitely know a lot about 'you know', Quatre. Where is a little too private for me to discuss with you guys, but I assure you, Dorothy and I've got the moves down pat."

"I won't even ask." muttered Duo under his breath.

"She can't!" burst out Trowa suddenly before turning quite red when all eyes turned to him. "I mean… um…" not for the first time, he was at a loss for words, but it was not his normal silence. It was his embarrassed-as-hell silence.

"Who can't? Me or Dorothy?"

"Both of you…" he said slowly brushing his hair out of his big green eyes almost nervously. "What are you planning to do?"

"We're going to play dress-up, go to the club, find those guys, and dispose of them. Of course, there'll be plenty of other sex-crazed idiots over there, but we can handle 'em." she told them all matter-of-factly.

"You're Vice Foreign Minister, you can't go… someone would recognize you." stated Heero suddenly, back into Perfect Soldier mode after his shock. "I took that point into thought, but with a lot more dress-up on my part, we'll pull it off. Can you imagine me as a Japanese geisha?"

"A WHAT?!" he yelled, before lowering his voice when several of the medics shushed him as they passed by. "A geisha. As I recall, Dorothy's going as a…" she paused, trying to remember, "oh yes, she's going as a dancer."

"Dancer…?"

"Mmhmm."

"Well, that can't be too bad…" muttered Trowa already conscious of the knowing gazes of his friends. "Did I not mention pole-dancer?"

"A WHAT?!"

"She's going as a general. I'm going as a particular… one of them has got to be in those vamp boys' tastes."

Heero was getting that, You'll-do-it-over-my-dead-body look and he looked ready to stock up on silver bullets and go after the two vamps himself without resorting to the "big guns". Relena smiled rather sardonically… she knew that look quite well. "Screw that idea that's blooming in your mind like a bitch in a bar Heero, you're not taking over this assignment." Heero blinked at her choice of wording before striving for a semi-innocent look, "I had nothing of the sort in mind."

Relena rolled her eyes, "Yeah, and I just resigned from being Vice Foreign Minister and have made up my mind to be a striptease artist. Come on Yuy, I know you too well to fall for that."

"Apparently we don't know you just as well, Lena." Quatre said quietly from the sidelines sipping from a Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate. Relena gave him a rather sarcastic grin. "I'm not surprised Quatre honey, you haven't seen what happened after the funeral."

The boy blushed red (he was prone to do that no matter what) but he managed to stutter, "We all send our deepest sympathies for Miss Noin—" while Heero didn't look happy with the implied intimacy.

"I know you all do, I already knew it even though only you came to the funeral," she glanced at all the other faces who uncomfortably looked away, "and it must take a lot of work to go on with your lives after all that's happened."

"But we're not as different as you are, Lena."

"I got a new line of work, I'm advertising to the world as a slut tomorrow night, and I'm a vampire hunter. Oh yes and a girl out for revenge. That's all." She stood up from the hard plastic seats that all their talking had gravitated them towards. "I've got to get going… Gabe's probably missing me."

"Gabe?" asked Duo looking up, "He your new lover?"

"Obviously not Maxwell, you know very well he's my nephew." She shuddered, "Ew, I do not want to even think how gross that would be." Duo grinned unrepentantly. Relena sighed shaking your head. "Any of you busy tonight? You mind crashing at my place? The entire household is freaked and Gabe's gonna be frantic when I get home… and with Brother in a coma, and Pagan off to England for help…" she looked at each of them in turn, with a pleading look on her face that they knew all too well. Some things never change. It was the look with those big blue eyes with the long batting eyelashes in the innocent-looking face. A complete Relena trademark look.

Five minutes later, they found themselves squashing in amongst themselves in Relena's car wondering what they were doing there as they all tried to ignore the multicolored fabrics of Relena's "props". And also her driving, she might be a promoter of peace, but hell she was worse than a speed demon. Finally, the neared the Peacecraft mansion, a looming building with only a few lights lit inside, and all in all, looking like a place gloomy and frightened. "Man, what happened to this place? It's like… I don't know, some scene from a horror movie."

"You could say so… be on your guard when we go up the path, there might still be some bloodsuckers lurking around here. I doubt it, but the smell of blood definitely draws things that I don't like closer."

"Blood?"

"I decapitated one of the vampires that I was fighting on the balcony… it had just fed." Duo had a sick expression on his face. "God I don't even want to think about that."

"So that's why I'm telling you all to be careful." She smiled rather solemnly as she parallel-parked the car (not daring to drive through to the driveway) on the street outside and swept to the keypad on the gates. They swung open silently and she slipped in, the others following her, mimicking her silent footsteps as she hurried towards the house, heading for the servants' entry. It was an old enough house to still have one, but all who wanted to, went through whatever door they liked. As soon as her hand touched the doorknob, a growl emitted from her side and, from the light shining from inside, she could see a figure standing there, rather hunched, and chewing something in its mouth, blood spurting out in rivulets down its chin. She shuddered as she recognized the mangled body of a rabbit. "Oh Allah, what is it?" asked Quatre in alarm.

"Quatre, all of you, get in NOW. I'll deal with this…" she said, already beginning to reach for her belt. But they, being who they were would not leave that girl to fend for herself against that… thing. It was not a vampire, they could see that much. "What are you?" muttered Relena, trying to figure it out, "What animal could you be?" the thing growled, and ripping the rabbit out of its huge jaws with a clawed hand, and spat blood at the ground, several inches away from her feet. She had steel herself not to recoil in disgust. "Pece… craft." it hissed, sounding amazingly human for the thing, with the long ragged fur, claws, and drooling jaws. "Yeah, that'd be me. What do you want?"

"Roz…lin. Ja… see… you, care—ful." It managed in between growls… its vocal chords apparently weren't designed for human speech, but it was doing its damndest to try. "About them? I'm more worried about myself in a current situation with a… with a… what are you?" It sniffed at her with its nostrils before answering slowly, "Frend." The ex-gundam boys were beginning to grow restless at this point. She didn't trust this thing as far as she could throw a knife. "A friend huh? And why would you want to be my friend?"

"Roz…lin. Bad. Trust you. You care—ful. Roz—lin danger—ous."

"She's an insane bitch of a vampiress and she's got a girlfriend with a long set of talons. I know she's dangerous."

The creature stumbled forward, but stopped when all five guys present cocked their pistols. "You… under—stand. Roz—lin. Power. Evil."

"What power?"

"Don't know… will find out." It promised looking at her through soulful brown eyes. They seemed so sad, even though the rest of it was so horrendous. "Fine. You wanted to call me a friend. Well friends have to trust each other. Do you trust me? And can I trust you?"

"Trust you." It agreed, "You… trust."

Duo looked like he was about to protest but a quick look from Relena quelled that idea. She was still the same person, willing to give that thing a chance. "Good."

"Come back… find you… you care—ful." It growled before shambling back into the underbrush of the hedge, and thoughtfully taking the rabbit with it. Relena looked mildly thoughtful as she finally entered her house and let the guys in. "Relena… do you think you should've done that?"

"No, I don't think I should've done that, but I've done it already. And I'm interested to see what information he might bring."

Heero had been silent for a long while now, and he finally spoke. "You feel sorry for him." he stated, knowing her too well, and knowing to fire point-blank. Relena shrugged, "Yes Heero, I do."

"Who's there?! Come on out, I know you're here!" a voice quavered as a shadow fell on the floor. "Who's there?!"

"Mrs. Petri! It's me!" called Relena and the old lady seemed relieved until she found her and the guys armed, and Relena's clothes spattered with blood along with the multiple bandages. "Miss Relena!" she cried running to the girl, dropping the silver knife on the countertop as she began to fuss over the girl. "Oh you shouldn't have gotten into such scrapes, Miss Relena!" the distressed woman cried.

"I'm fine… and you were afraid of more vamps weren't you?" The woman looked downcast, "Marie's dead… I don't want anyone else, especially that wonderful little boy to be killed too…" she looked more old and shaken than she actually was. "Mrs. Petri, you should have more faith in me!" she chided gently as she helped the old lady down the hall and the guys followed silently, Heero, last of all picked up the knife from the countertop. He looked it over carefully, just in case that woman had more on her mind than—

"Yo Heero, you don't trust anyone, do you?" asked Duo from his spot leaning on the doorjamb. Heero dropped the knife back on the countertop. "I do trust people. But I'm always careful." Duo shrugged, "Damn, sometimes I wonder what the kids'll be like." Heero raised his eyebrow warningly and Duo quickly followed the rest of the gang down the hall. The last thing he needed was to be knocked out by Heero (who could definitely pack a punch). Heero followed a little while after and found them all in the sitting room, sipping cups of tea (Quatre looked perfectly at home) and a little boy with platinum-gold hair tied into a short ponytail at the nape of his neck was cuddling against Relena. She had just come back from changing, and wearing baby-pink sweatpants and a white baby tee. The picture of innocence had the bruises not already begun to blacken her skin, and the bandages not showing everywhere. Heero studied the little boy, he had his father's hair, but the eyes were definitely his mother's. He was Gabriel Marquise, Zechs and Noin's only son.

The little boy was hugging his aunt with a death grip that could've rivaled a gorilla's. He was scared and she knew it, trying to comfort him as he quietly bit back the sobs that were already starting to threaten to spill and which he did not want when around these people. He looked around at them with round eyes. "Aunt Lena… who are these people?" he whispered in her ear. "They're my friends, Gabe."

"Oh." He smiled sweetly, looking so adorably cute that they had to wonder if this really was Zechs Marquise's son and not say Quatre's (who could pull up the same adorable expression when brought to the extreme). Relena grinned, her arm around the little kid. "You tired still, kid? Wanna go to bed?" he suddenly sat ramrod straight and he shook his head violently, "No… I'm… I'm scared. They might come back." Relena bit her lip. She definitely did not want her nephew to be scared stiff of those vermin (which as he said, might come back), and she didn't want him listening in on what she wanted to discuss with the guys.

Mrs. Petri saved the day when she stood up, "Well then, little master, you can come and play with Shelley… she's still awake. All those things coming here have scared her enough that she had can hardly ever sleep… do you want to?" Gabriel blushed red for a moment before nodding. "Okay." he got down from the seat and took the old lady's hand. "Bye bye." He said, waving to the rest of them in the room and both of them walked out the door.

Relena then proceeded to sprawl across the entire length of the wine-colored sofa and stretching. "Mmm…" she moaned as she sat back up to see all of them staring at her. "What?!" she asked defensively, "You have not had that kid hang on your ribs yet and learned how much oxygen that death grip can make you go without."

"What's happening tomorrow?" asked Trowa seriously, coming back to the topic still on all their minds.

"Well, I'm having a meeting with the ESUN, going out for another conference after that—"

"We were talking about your after-dark activities."

"Oh." She looked rather grim, "Honestly, I think this is one of the trickiest gigs me and Dor are have had to do for a while. It's a total guessing game and I don't have the time to go through that entire bar. Then there's the fact that there are some major slimeballs down in that joint." She was twisting a lock of hair while she talked, an indication that she was thinking hard about something.

"Then we'll go with you, and you can find out those guys, then we deck them and you shoot them." Duo suddenly came up with an idea. Relena blinked, "You coming along? Umm… maybe. I'll have to ask Dorothy. Hold on." She walked over to the vid-phone and immediately, with flying fingers, input the numbers for Dorothy's. The huge screen went wild with static for about a second before Dorothy appeared on the screen. She was dressed for bed, apparently and lounging on her bed wearing a tank top and silk pajama shorts. "Hey Lena." She greeted her friend, before she checked the clock and frowned, "Maybe you don't realize, but it's way past midnight."

"Yeah, I figured a watch could tell time too," responded Relena wryly as she gestured to the guys behind her, Trowa had turned his back and was apparently talking with Quatre, probably hoping Dorothy wouldn't recognize him. But sorry to say, the back of his head was quite distinctive along with the other guys' and Dorothy recognized him and looked rather upset before focusing back on Relena. "I see. So… what's the problem?"

"You wanna a coupla dates for tomorrow night?" asked Relena bluntly, making Dorothy raise an eyebrow. "Depends on who the cuties are… oh no, you don't mean them…"

"Well, actually I was…"

"Lena…"

"Dorothy, it'd be safer." Dorothy groaned, "Rel, maybe we're going to talk a little more privately." She said hinting hugely and of course, all got the message. Relena shrugged apologetically and said, "Be right back." before walking out the room and into the hall.

"Lena, you know they can't come!"

"Because you broke up with Trowa right?" Dorothy winced, "Oh, he told you."

"Yep. And I wondered why a certain best friend wouldn't, but that's okay, I still learned about it."

"Well, it's a long story."

"Good, you can tell me tomorrow, now just tell me why they can't come."

"Relena, you're cornering me."

"I'm giving you a chance to get out of it. Give me a reason." countered Relena-the-politician. Dorothy-the-Ice-Queen gave her one of her frosty glares before saying, "I don't need to have Trowa laughing at me behind my back because I have to be a pole-dancer tomorrow and calling me a skank just because I know all the moves to make the guys drool."

"Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?" asked Relena wryly.

"Rel, be serious! I can't do that!" Relena sighed, "Dor, since when have you ever cared what any guy ever thought of you? I mean, you've slept with… how many guys?"

"Please do not dissect my sex life, please."

"No really, when have you ever cared what any guy thought of you?"

"Since I met Trowa." The blonde replied quietly, sitting up from her bed and coming closer to the vid-phone in her room. "Since I learned that not all guys care only about what my body has to offer."

Relena winced, she'd known Dorothy had had quite a reputation back in high school, but being Relena's best friend had shielded her quite a lot. "Dor, just let them come. Come on, I don't know what happened between you two (though I assure I will find out) but think on my side, I've get five guys (extremely protective guys of anyone they've ever met and consider a friend) and you're expecting me to walk back in there. I don't want to start by saying, 'Oh, we decided we're just going to go ahead with the masquerade as a pair of whores and take the risk of getting raped out in the street.'"

Dorothy shook her head, "Fine, fine, Lena. I can't argue with you. But if that guy makes one wrong move…"

"Trust me, I'll keep them in line…" I hope… I'm not the best to handle these guys… "Well, then, see you tomorrow." muttered Dorothy resignedly before signing off. "Bye." Relena replied to the blank screen before walking back into the room. "It's a go." She announced, "Thanks for wanting to come," she added, "we could use the help."

Quatre smiled at the blonde, "We're your friends Relena… of course we'd do all we could to keep you safe." Relena hugged the considerate boy hard. Heero frowned, but before he could do more, she stood up and grabbed the other four (who were sitting on the same sofa) and crushed them all in a huge hug. "I missed all of you." she finally told them all. Wufei seemed at a loss for words, Duo was grinning, Trowa was still silently brooding about Dorothy, and Heero was… well, smiling. Softly. "We all missed you too, Relena. That's why we came around to visit." Relena grinned and clapped her hands in delight, startling all present. She seemed suddenly younger again, "Great! We can have a sleepover. Of course… if it ever got out that I had a sleepover with a bunch of guys, the press'll be all over me…" she frowned before shrugging it off, "oh well… please?! Gabe'll be thrilled!" Duo grinned, "I'm game!" Wufei instantly smacked him. "You're marrying Hilde in several months Maxwell because you couldn't keep your dick in your pants. Don't go after any more." Duo grinned, winking roguishly at Relena before saying out loud. "Are you kidding? Heero would kill me for putting the moves on his girl." Heero looked like he was ready to kill Maxwell just for saying that. Relena however, was present and he figured seeing a friend being strangled in front of her wouldn't be so much of a pleasant sight.

Relena blinked before shrugging, "Okay… consider me confused. But that's okay. Master bedroom now! Hup-two, all of you!" clapping her hands, she led them into the room before darting out on a trek to find all the sleeping bags (they were not sleeping in the same bed with her!) and Gabriel. After finding, and depositing all of these in the master bedroom (along with plenty of popcorn and movie stuff), she headed into the shower that connected with that room, warning them all firsthand that any who ventured into that place would be instantly castrated. After a quick shower, she came out, rubbing her dripping hair vigorously with a white towel. She found Gabriel and Duo talking avidly and bouncing on his bed, while the others were lounging around the place comfortable in what they were already wearing. Except for Duo wearing only his boxers and a white undershirt. His clothes had been quite torn and battered in the fight back in the manor.

Wufei was looking through the bookshelf at all the titles she'd stocked up on over the years. Quatre was eyeing the admittedly Stradivarius violin (that she still played) in the glass cabinet. Trowa was looking at all the stuffed animals around Gabriel's bed (probably because a lot of them were little lions). And Heero was busy looking at all the little trinkets and other things lying around her room. He was, at moment, just picking up a plain book with a dark cover. "NO! Don't read that!" shrieked Relena running and snatching it, shoved it into a drawer, and slammed it shut. "It's uh, private!" Heero blinked but nodded slowly. "Right… sorry about that." she sighed in relief, before noting that everyone was staring at her. She crossed her arms across her stomach and stared stonily back, "Yes?"

"Nothing, nothing at all lil' lady."

Relena plopped onto the thickly carpeted floor beneath her bare feet and responded to Duo's comment, "Don't call me that, you're no older than me."

"I'm not going to answer that." he replied knowing full well she knew he didn't exactly know his own age very clearly, nor his own birthday. Relena smiled gently as she noticed his sudden silence, leaning back against the bed and patting his leg (which was the closest part of him to her), "It's okay, little baby, you're gonna grow up as big and strong as me in a couple of years." She said in a babying tone, her eyes sparkling with mischief. Duo wrinkled his nose before patting her back on the head in the same condescending way, "I'm not going to worry old lady, I'll stay young all my life!" Relena pouted, "HEY!" and there conversation was funny enough to make Gabriel burst out laughing and tackling Relena, wrestling his aunt to the ground as she began laughing and struggled against the kid's very strong grip.

"Miss Relena?" came a timid little voice from the hallway. Both of them stopped wrestling and the guys (who'd been watching in mute interest) all looked at the little girl standing at the door, peeking in with a shy face. "Yes, Shelley?" asked Relena sitting up. Gabriel turned red and hid behind her, to try and hide his blushing face. "Um, could you come with me to the basement to get Grandma's pillows…? I'm scared, and Grandma won't come with me…" she asked, rather adorably with her impossibly huge eyes. Relena laughed, "Me? Or Gabe?" the little girl blinked, "I don't know. You both make me feel safe." Relena smiled kindly, standing up and grabbing Duo's ear behind her back (who was currently holding in a laugh by biting his lip) yanking on it and shooed Gabe on. "Come on, protect the little girl from things that go bump in the night… you've learned enough to take care of the spiders." Gabe turned red, "Okay," he muttered and walked out after the girl. Relena smiled at the two of them, "They're so cute aren't they?"

Duo yanked his head away from Relena and rubbed his ear before bursting out into laughter, "Man, the kid's got a girlfriend quicker than his dad ever did!" Relena looked at him archly, "How would you know?" Duo shrugged, "I dunno actually, I'm just guessing."

"Well don't guess, that was wrong." She never continued, having decided not to go into her brother's (who was still in a coma) love life. And definitely not mention Noin at all. "Anyway!" she chirped, striding over to the DVD collection next to the wide-screen TV, she began looking through them. They were all quite old. Really old actually, but technology for watching TV hadn't improved much since then (technology had turned mainly to war) and they were content with it all. "Hmmm… Big Daddy? Nah… Armageddon?" she looked around, "Nope, not that one, hmm… Gosford Park?" she blinked, "GOSFORD PARK?! Oh god, why do I even have this movie?! It was total crap!"

"Never seen it."

"Don't, I swear it sucks." She went back to her collection, "Tomb Raider, Titanic, Harry Potter—"

"HARRY POTTER?!"

"Yeah, I found it okay… Sixth Sense," she shuddered, "Hate that movie, freaked the hell out of me, Carrie II, that one wasn't so bad, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Matrix, 40 Days, 40 Nights, The Lord of the Rings… ooh, how about that one?!" she looked around at the guys who were all looking at each other. "What? It's a good movie!"

"There aren't any cute girls in it!" voiced Duo from his spot on Gabriel's bed. Relena frowned, "I don't have any porns for your tastes Duo, my friend."

"I wasn't asking for one!" he replied insulted, "But how about a movie with one cute girl?!" Relena cocked her head, "Hmm… give me a definition of cute, then I might find one."

"Hot, sexy, passionate—" Wufei sighed, throwing a pillow at Duo's face. "Shut up Maxwell, we're not here to hear you rant about sexy women."

"At least it's better than hearing you rant about weak women!" he retorted and Wufei would've hit him if Relena had stopped an oncoming brawl and said, "The Mummy? The Mummy Returns? Princess Mononoke? Moulin Rouge?"

"What in the world is that?"

"What, Moulin Rouge? You haven't seen it?"

"No…"

"It's about a girl and a guy who fall in love but the girl's got to screw some duke guy, and the guy isn't supposed to touch her at all and then there's this hassle with a strip club (it looked like it to me) becoming a theatre."

"Whoa, that's a couple of hot babes that I could watch!" yelled Duo and the other guys simply shook their heads and sighed. Even with his fiancée, Duo was impossible. Relena shrugged, "Moulin Rouge it is then." She popped in the tape and settled onto her own bed with a bowl of popcorn and noticed none of the others had moved. "Well? Are you coming? It's a long movie." She warned them all, moving over, and waiting. The opening credits were already coming up. "Come on!" Duo was already seated on Gabriel's bed and she reached over, grabbed his shoulder and yanked him down next to her on her own bed. "Come on then, Duo, you can sit on the bed beside me, when no one else is!" she then promptly flopped onto her stomach, and leaned against Duo's thigh as she continued to munch popcorn. Slowly, everyone else came and seated himself on the admittedly huge bed. She smiled and continued to munch on popcorn as the movie began. As the camera view took a nosedive around the city, Duo made radical comments like, "God that dude is freaky!" "Why the hell's he singing?" "Man, where's the chick?!" until Relena propped herself up on her own elbows before yanking on Duo's braid that was quite close to her hand. "Hush up! This is a musical!" Duo groaned, "And I said yes to this?" he moaned to himself.

"Shhh!" hissed Relena as she concentrated back on the movie. Heero, on the other side of her, couldn't help but notice how into the movie she was. How she sang along at some parts with her relatively good voice (she would never be a true singer and knew it, but she liked to anyway) and how she laughed and cried so easily with everything that happened.

"Oh! I'm so sorry Miss Relena, we didn't know you had guests over!" cried two female voices at the door. Relena looked up to see two of the maids (old enough to be around her age) at the door holding the feather dusters. "We thought you'd be out tonight… we're so sorry…"

"No it's all right… if all your work is, done come and join us. We're watching a movie." One of them looked at the TV and she brightened, "I love this movie!" she immediately plopped herself on the floor next to Duo, and the other, shaking her head at the other girl, took a place on the floor. Duo grinned at the one closer to him, noticing how nice a view he had with this height. Relena was right next to him, noticing his gaze and sighed. She'd have to beat some sense into him, and perhaps the realization that he was ENGAGED already would come to him.

One of the girls reached over, snagging a handful of popcorn from Duo's bowl and munching happily as she watched. He looked quite startled at having food taken away from him (you recall… this is Duo we're talking about) and the other maid immediately smacked her friend. "We're not here to fool around, remember?"

"Then what are you here for?" asked Heero semi-suspiciously. "We're here on an invitation from Miss Relena when we were supposed to be working… I don't think this is proper…" The more prudent one looked rather worried. Relena laughed, "Leigh, you're perfectly welcome here, along with you Natalie. This is a movie you two and I have watched in here so many times I can't count."

Knock. Knock.

"Miss Relena?" asked someone else from the doorway. "There's a young lady at the door and I wasn't sure if I should let her in because of, well…" she hesitated, shaking. Relena frowned and paused the movie, getting up off the bed and taking her gun from the dresser. "I'll be back in a second." She told them all, and slipped out, making sure they didn't follow as she ran to the front door. There, on the doorstep, was Dorothy with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. "Hey Rel. Can I crash here tonight?" she asked, rather sardonically. Relena blinked, "But I thought, you know, Trowa…"

"He's not going to bother me, nor am I going to bother him, or anyone else… can I?"

"You know I would never say no." Dorothy smiled and walked in, taking off the slip-in sandals she'd worn and glanced at Relena's gun. "So you were suspicious."

"Who wouldn't be with callers that come around in the early hours of the morning?" replied Relena rhetorically as she closed the door behind Dorothy and walked with her back to the master bedroom where everyone still was. When they reached it, she poked her head in and announced the news, "Hey guys, we've got another guest here!"

"Bring 'em in, you've got a big enough room!" called back Duo as Relena walked in. Trowa, who'd just eaten a small handful of popcorn, looking up at the platinum-blonde girl at the door behind Relena and almost choked. "Dor-Dorothy!" he gasped. She shot him a wry smile, "Happy to see me, lover?" she asked sardonically.

"Don't call me that." he replied stiffly.

"Relax, I was just joking." She told him just as stiffly before staking out a spot on the bed nearer to Duo's side, farther away from Trowa, next to Relena. It was only when the movie ended, and they were at a loss to do, when Duo got an idea that they later wondered whether or not they were out of their minds to listen to. But listen to it they did, and a game of Truths was played, the alcohol part along with it. It ended with everyone quite (hell, completely) drunk.

Trowa and Dorothy found themselves hanging over each other laughing at something or other that came up in their (strange) conversation (something that ranged from dancing elephants, to pink giraffes and purple lions) with each other. "Mm, yoush smell so *hic* goodsh." Slurred Dorothy, burying her face in his white undershirt while her hands roved along the nape of his neck. Trowa was quite as gone as she was (along with everyone else) and his hands weren't idle either as they wandered up and down her back, his face buried in her long blonde hair. "Yoush have such *hic* pretty hair…" he murmured, his words not slurring as much as hers but still quite inhibited. "I think you'dsh taste even better." She replied changing her position in his lap and with her tongue began slowly to stroke his skin with her tongue, beginning with as much of his chest as was visible above the undershirt, making a trail up his neck and where she met his lips in a hard kiss. She could taste the alcohol in his mouth, and he the alcohol in hers. She was already sucking on his tongue and as he stood up with her in his arms and carried his light burden to one the bedrooms next to Relena's (which she had earlier said were for any of them to sleep in) to continue on without interruption.

He sat heavily on the side of the bed with her still in his arms and she continued kissing him, and sucking hard on his tongue, her hands sliding up underneath his shirt to feel his heated skin. His own hands were pulling her down on him, and then sliding down the back of her pajama shorts, and realized that she was wearing a thong. He pushed her shirt up, and off her, so that all she was wearing was a bra (he couldn't tell if it was black or gray, or whether or not he cared about the color, he was too drunk to think) and her pajama shorts. She moaned and scrabbled at his shirt, finally able to get it off as well. It didn't take long for things to go too far, when you're completely inhibited, can barely remember your own name, and completely unsupervised. Things did. And the aftermath of it all would hit them quite hard the next day.

~*~*~*~

End Chapter. Ooh, long one! Aren't you proud of me? *beams* I had an idea and kept with it! I'm working on the next chapter now, and it's just about done… just wait awhile, I've got other fics to update on. *grins* *then pouts as she remembers something* But some of you PLEASE read Breaking Through re-edited! I worked hard on that and I only got 1 review (I'm very happy that one person reviewed of course) but I thought it good enough for all the HY/RP fans out there. It really is better than the original. Oh well, please REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!