Disclaimer:
I worship Sostu. I am poor.
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The day of the engagement party,
Tuesday to be precise, the sun rose like any other day. Rising with no
premonition of the antics ahead or that when it curled up in the clouds of
night it would wish it hadn't bothered to get up. No, in fact, the sun rose
enthusiastically, bright and cloudless in the saphire morning. Inciting the
song birds into song and quelling the midnight orchestra of insects, it rose
bursting with golden happiness.
Relena, well rested, also rose
enthusiastically. She shook herself off and crept out of bed, making sure not
to wake the sleeping Heero. He slept silently, without snore or other annoying
nocturnal noise. He looked peaceful and, well just peaceful, which was enough. He
rolled over when she got up, the bed became even as he rolled into the middle
of it on his stomach. His arm tossed sloppily over the edge of the bed, as if
subconsciously reaching for Relena.
Relena stroked it lightly, smiling, although she had to admit sleeping with
Heero, in the literal sense, was comfortable, she still looked forward to
Friday night.
Most of the planning for the
party was already done, and all that was needed now was some time to relax more
then anything. Late into the night, she had picked out an outfit, made
reservations, sent out invitations, it was short notice, but since everyone
knew it was coming...
So, she decided, what better way to
spend the day then with Sally and Wufei? Off the top of her head she could
probably find a dozen things, but out of politeness, she felt it was
appropriate.
Seperately, Sally was completely pleasant to be around, although a bit earthier
then Relena, Sally was witty and headstrong. She always made for an interesting
conversation.
Wufei was pleasant if you weren't a conversationalist, he could stand stock
still for hours without a word or seemingly any other hint of life.
Both were melodramatic to the
extremes, constantly masking their affection for each other with petty fights
and frivolous insults. Wufei would say something, anything, sexist just to get
a rise out of Sally and Sally would have none of it, which Relena thought was
both comical and in a rather ridiculous sense, romantic.
They would go into hissy fits and huffs over things they both knew meant
nothing.
Sally knew Wufei respected her, and Wufei knew Sally respected him, but meeting
half way on the issue was not anything either of them wanted to do. Relena
sighed, thinking about them with a smirk on her face, "Just like a page
out of 'Pride and Prejudice'..." she almost said aloud.
Relena snuck downstairs in her
night gown and bathrobe to find Zeches reading the morning newspaper.
He looked over at Relena with pure terror in his face, "You wore _that_ to
bed!?"
"Better then nothing." Relena said stifling the urge to laugh.
Zeche's face went pale, but he then struck a pose of dignity, "Yes, I
suppose." He turned away and tried to relax, fingers clenched tightly on
the paper.
Relena sighed and walked out
into the dining room where a meal was already prepared for her. After a light
breakfast she went back upstairs to dress. Heero was just waking up. He eyed
Relena sleepily. She began to undress and Heero realized he was awake,
sniffling when he got a nosebleed. When Relena turned around to look at him,
with no shirt on, and a question mark in her eyes Heero's nose practically
exploded.
Heero froze and fell off the
bed, hitting the floor in the same position he had frozen, partially drooling.
When Relena was finally dressed, and Heero finally arose from his state of
catatonia, they made it downstairs, Heero was still a little dazed.
Ahh but this was the least of the escapades of the day.
Heero went out for the day to
relax while Relena took the soul responsibility of daycare for Wufei and Sally.
The first stop on their day's itinerary was the city zoo, an impressive mix of
people in fuzzy animal costumes roaming about and nearly domesticated real
animals, safely behind bars. After walking around in circles for several hours
under Sally's direction, and another hour arguing over why women shouldn't be
allowed in zoos, the most satisfying moment arrived for Wufei.
As he was walking, minding his
own buisness a terribly cute fuzzy zebra came up and hugged him, spouting out
the sachirine phrase akin to something like, "Hidy ho! Visitor!" Of
course, and rightly justified by all known self-defense laws Wufei punched out
the stripped mugger with one punch in the fuzzy nose. And as retribution for
his act of violence recieved a smack on the head by Sally. Relena wasn't sure
whether to laugh or cry, somewhere in-between her face of confusion lay.
The next stop, lunch, was
spent at Chez Beim Fressen. (AN: Beim Fressen is french for when eating)
Wufei complained about how French food was weak and that forcing him to eat it
was, (AN: you knew this was coming folks) INJUSTICE, and he made damn sure
everyone knew about the atrocious crimes committed against him, that is,
in-between bites.
Next stop, for better or
worse, was the museum of fine arts, but they never quite made it. On the way,
in the busy downtown streets they briskly hurried along. Whenever possibly
Relena preferred to blend in and go with the crowd. And since it was so
unbelievable a person of her stature, wealth and importance would walk around
like any old joe-shmoe, noone bothered her. They were walking down Pearl, no
wait, Pine street, no wait... Sally looked around confused at the seeminly
endless maze of streets around her. Wufei was ranting on and on about how
terrible the food had been, the horrors of the zebra attack and just the
general state of decay western civilization had fallen into when his thoughts
were abruptly interrupted.
A car was screeching to a halt
in front of Sally. Wufei jumped without thinking and pushed Sally out of the
way of the car. They fell to the ground and instead of Sally groaning about how
her back hurt now, and Wufei complaining about her rudely interrupting his
thoughts, they were silent. Wufei looked utterly and silently amazed at himself
and shocked at Sally's reaction, who looked now dumbfounded as well.
Both were, to Relena's great
relief, totally silent the rest of the time as Relena brought them back to the
mansion. The party was only about 3 hours away. What other calamity was waiting
to rear it's annoying head? What three letters in this world could ruin
everything with one swift and clumsy move?
"Duo! It's time to go!"
Duo straightened his tie. "How do I look babe?"
Hilde pulled the tie slightly to the left and admired Duo from a foot or two
back, nodding her head gratefully in approval she outstretched her hand.
The party was perfect, on the
surface at least. Everything was in order, the decorations were fine, the
caterers on time, Heero and Relena were present and accounted for, and things
seemed to by just fine.
As Duo arrived, Heero took him into the coat room and asked for the ring. He
was going to propose to Relena in front of everyone again and give her the
engagement ring. Now, even though she'd get the wedding ring in 4 days, being a
gundam pilot he could afford such an extravagant gesture of affection. (AN:
Hahaha, yeeeaaaah right.)
Duo nervously twiddled his thumbs, "Uh well, He-san, it's like
this..."
Heero grabbed Duo by the collar and thrust him onto the wall, "Where is
the ring?"
Another guest walked in, saw the scene and exited quickly. Duo coughed,
"Well, there goes the only witness, they'll never find my body, will
they?"
"Not in a recognizable state, but you and Hoffa will have a lot to talk
about." Heero said through his teeth.
He dropped Duo to the floor and sighed, thinking out loud. "Hn. Where can
I get an engagement ring in 5 minutes?"
Duo rubbed his throat timidly, "Well, you could swipe one off someone
else..."
Heero smirked. "Seeing as that was _your_ responsibility, I'll leave it to
you."
Heero walked out the door. Duo removed a small box from his pocket, "Well,
I was saving this for you babe, but Heero needs it more then I do right now.
Sorry babe..."
The public proposal, a miracle from god, went fine.
Heero bent on knee, publicly
professed his love to Relena who, although a bit (and rightly so!) teary, took
the ring gratefully. And much to Zeches' bound and gagged dismay they kissed.
It was not a polite kiss, nor a passionate one, it was a gentle kiss, full of
nothing more then affection, trust, and amazingly enough, love...
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