A/N: This takes place soon after Rei and Hiiro meet in the garden. The fuzzy AU-ness of the backstory here is probably more apparent in this chapter.
After the catastrophe with the black-haired woman in the negotiation room, and maybe-catastrophe with her in the gardens, Hiiro felt mildly thankful that Relena was too caught up in other tasks to see him that day. He spent the rest of the afternoon fulfilling a mysterious need to move, alternating weights, cardio, and dexterity training well into the evening, and still he slept rather fitfully. By the time Relena's personal assistant found him in the morning, the sun was already quite high in the sky.
As he walked into Relena's gilded office, he felt an unusual pang of affection for the straw-haired queen-of-everything, though she looked quite as she normally did. Ok, queen-of-half-of-everything. He had loved her so intensely, at one time, and maybe he still did. But he was never quite sure that he liked her, and in any case, it wasn't something he had even thought about in a long while. He wondered to himself if it was another bizarre side effect of the acidic warmth he had been feeling in the pit of his stomach for almost an entire day now, but quickly decided that he didn't want to know.
"Hiiro? Are you … daydreaming?"
Caught in an awkward out-of-character act, Hiiro did what he usually did in such situations and remained both silent and expressionless.
"Nevermind," Relena moved on quickly, "I wanted to tell you about my meeting with Queen Serenity."
This time he frowned. "When was this?"
"Oh, we met this morning for breakfast. Just the two of us... well, she brought her daughter as well. Cute girl, sort of a brat, but still charming … strangely pink hair..." Relena trailed off in thought, clearly trying to piece together how a blonde queen and her black-haired king had produced pink-haired spawn.
Hiiro frowned even more. This was hardly relevant. And a weirdly pedestrian topic of discussion. But, he thought, if this alliance did succeed, it would be because of this: because Relena and Serenity, when it came down to it, were women. Him, Lady Mars, the rest of them, they were soldiers, warriors, bureaucrats, and loyal vassals – they could not reach across the table with empathy and friendship the way their queens still could.
Both Hiiro and Relena seemed to snap back to attention at the same time.
"Do you know what she told me about the yesterday's little incident?"
Of course, he didn't. And he didn't think he wanted to. Not that it would stop Relena from telling him.
"She says that she thinks Lady Rei yelled at you and threatened you because she likes you."
Relena's smile could definitely not be any more smug, but she had more to say, apparently.
"I told her, quite honestly, I had no idea what you part of the conversation was exceptionally odd; it was like we were mothers trying to set up a playdate for awkward children. Well, in any case, we made good progress, really."
She paused, looking off to the side, before continuing.
"Actually, I'd say we're 99% there."
"99%?"
"We decided to each appoint a full-time liasion to each other."
"And?"
"And Serenity says she'd like it to be you."
Hiiro did his level-best to look surprised, which, in his case, was a simple matter of remaining essentially expressionless.
"Why?"
"I'm not entirely sure. I mean, to hear her say it, it sounds like she wants this for Mars. But I'm a little skeptical about this alleged crush, especially the part where anyone would build their foreign policy around it. Serenity is pretty guileless, but surely not to that extent."
"Perhaps they just have no other opinion."
"Perhaps. But she did say that if we sent you, they'd send Venus."
"And that's good?"
"Venus is Serenity's number one – just like you. She knows there's no other way I'd send you. And I'd like it to be Venus. "
This, Hiiro wanted to hear.
"She could be useful in our organization, we don't need fighters or wizards, or whatever they are. We have plenty of analysts and guards. We need an ambassador, and that's Venus. She's also probably the only one of them that either charm or tolerate all of my generals. Although, without you around, that's not as enormous a task. So the question remains, can you charm or tolerate the senshi?"
Hiiro sensed the pointed question behind the question, and his mouth went suddenly very dry. In self-defense, he refocused his gaze on the landscape painting that hung above her desk.
"Hiiro, I want to be honest with you. I want this to happen – if you'll agree to it. I mean, I admit I have some reservations. I'm not fully sure that I can trust you to give 100% to making this alliance work. I worry about our own organizational morale with you out of the picture."
She hesitated here, and Hiiro lowered his eyes until they met hers. She did not look away.
"And yes, there is some regret in my heart – although I have can honestly say, that I am much more amused by this situation than jealous."
This was more than Relena had said about her feelings in years, and still Hiiro couldn't find any words to say, even assuming he were inclined to speak them. Relena stilled a small quiver in her lip, and after a moment to steel herself, spoke again.
"I am a queen, Hiiro. No matter what you think, I am more queen than woman. This alliance is important. It means peace, and the satisfaction of the sacred ideal that my family stands for. There is no personal consideration that could even come close to making me even question doing everything in my power to make this work."
The iron in Relena's eyes left Hiiro in no doubt of her sincerity. She still cared for him, but that feeling was barely a drop compared to what really mattered to her.
"I think I've already said quite enough on the subject. Give me an answer, Hiiro, will you go?"
Hiiro was not exactly an unemotional man. But he prided himself on exceptional control of his mind when the situation called for it, and to be honest, the situation had been calling for it for five years running now. Part of it was probably genetic, and part of it was a strong logical conviction that his own exceptional abilities allowed him to control his destiny to the extent that any individual could, but he simply did not experience dizziness, racing heartbeats, and lumps at the back of the throat.
In this moment, his head swirled with maelstrom of thoughts, his heart thumped against his ribcage so loudly, he could hear it even over the terrible din of the blood rushing past his ears. Aware, somewhere deep inside him, that he was stepping into a Charybdis-whirlpool of fate that not even the great Hiiro Yui could escape, he answered.
"Yes."
Note: I'm reasonably confident that very very few people will read this. Yet, I can't help but come back to this, years and years a after its conception. There are two chapters half-written on my computer, and a few more plot bunnies in my head that would love to get out, but obviously, caveat lector, given my extremely shady update history.