"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," she muttered. "This is just not my day."

"It could be worse," Wufei said joining her at her side and walking out of the Council Chamber with her. "You could have ended up betrothed to the oni."

"You're not helping," she said as they wandered back to her family's house. Night was already well set in, and the lanterns decorated in the shape of a stylized phoenix holding a flame in its beak on either side of the streets had been lit. They were the only two walking outside at this time of night and their voices seemed too loud in the quiet air.

"Is it so bad?" he asked.        

"What? The day I've just had?"

"No," he said in irritation. "The idea of getting married."

"Well…" Sally trailed off thinking about it and tried to explain it. "I've spent my entire life fighting them on this one. No one has the right to order my life for me, tell me who I can and can't marry and how I should live my life. If I allowed this marriage to happen, it would be too much like giving up. They'd win and I can't allow that."

"Oh I see; it's not the point, it's the principal," he said smiling into the darkness.

"Exactly," she agreed. "But you know, now that I think about it, I've never really considered the possibility before. I know a lot of the Outlanders marry who they will, marry for love and such, and I suppose that must be the thing I'm fighting so hard for. But it appears that with all my constant struggling against this patriarchal societal law, I've forgotten that I'm really looking for the right to choose and I haven't used that right. Missed the forest for the trees I suppose you could say."

There was a long pause, then Wufei said

"Well if you were going to choose, do you know of anyone you'd want to be with?"

Sally's heart was hammering in her chest and her throat went dry. She didn't know if he was asking her out of curiosity, but there was a very large part of her that hoped he wasn't. There was also a part of her that was running scared. Did he really mean…? Could he possibly…? It was ridiculous, there was no way he could feel the same way about her! He was four years younger than she was (three years and four months to be precise). He was her partner for heaven sakes!

…He was her partner. Her match. Sally had never felt so torn between hope and despair.

"I…Yes," was all she could say. She was glad that the shadows obscured her face, because there was no hiding her expression behind her usual teasing banter.

"Who?"

 It was probably her imagination, but it looked like he was holding his breath. Sally decided to do the stupidest thing she could think of. She plastered on her usual teasing expression, the I-know-something-you-don't-know-and-I'm-not-gonna-tell-you expression; laughed, and said

"Now that is a secret."

Wufei let out a gusty sigh and replied

"You are a stubborn woman."

"Pot calling the kettle black," was her unflappable response.

"So it is. I guess that one of the reasons we make such a good team."

"Here's my house, at the end of the street," she said. "We can put you up in one of the guest quarters."

As the turned to part for the night Sally called out to him from the threshold, smiling reassuringly. "Oh and Wufei…I'm sorry my father tricked you into this. You don't have to worry about being married to me. I'll figure out a way to get you out of this."

* * *

Wufei lay awake staring at the ceiling from his comfortable bed in the guest lodgings. He was faced with the dilemma of a life time. Here he was, promised to the only woman in his life he'd ever truly come to love with all of his heart, and he was sworn to lose her in the morning. Should he do the honorable thing and let her go, or should he follow his own heart and fight to keep her? And she still had no clue about how he felt about her. He'd been within one breath of telling her that he loved her that night but had backed out at the last moment.

Coward, he thought at himself. That was still leaving aside the touchy question of how she felt about him. Did she love him? Or was her interest in him merely platonic? There had been times, when she'd thought he wasn't looking, that he'd caught her looking at him. There'd been a softness in her eyes that wasn't just her usual humorous sparkle. Wufei was sure he wasn't imagining it, but feared he might be misreading it. This was one of the few times when he wished he had more experience with women. He just wasn't sure if she returned his carefully hidden feelings or if she was just being kind and agreeable to him.

"I'll figure out a way to get you out of this," she said. As if being her husband was a fate worse than death, he thought, tossing on to one side. Then again, for someone who'd been fighting with every contender every year for the "privilege" of remaining free to decide, marriage might be a fate worse than death. If that was so, then he didn't have any right to force her into this. Wufei had to admit to being surprised at himself. By any logic, he should be just as reluctant to hit the altar as she seemed to be, but he wasn't. To his amazement, he was even starting to like the idea. Maybe he really shouldn't be so surprised after all; he had given her that bracelet. It was an old family heirloom alright…and often times it could mean precisely what Wufei had said it meant. But more often that not, it was a betrothal gift. A gift a man gave to a woman he wished to make his wife. Wufei, hadn't had the nerve to mention this fact, so he'd lied to himself and told her and himself that he only meant it as a token of his respect for her; but deep in his secret heart he'd warmed every time he saw her wearing his gift. Perhaps the thought of her as his betrothed was what had warmed him.

That nutcase Zechs and his equally stubborn Noin are husband and wife as well as being partners in the Preventors, so there's no stricture against it, he thought. I know that in the Alliance, dating among the ranks was discouraged as unprofessional, but maybe…

Maybe after all this was over with he could make her a real offer. A marriage of equals like it should be, not the cow-towing subservience expected among the Clans. Satisfied with that, Wufei firmly shut his eyes and willed himself into sleep.

On the other side of the house Sally was lying awake with troubled thoughts as well. What a predicament. Here she was, the best female fighter in Phoenix Clan (out of necessity rather than by choice) who had beat off every contender for her hand and dowry, but now she really didn't want to fight. She loved him…he aggravated the hell out of her sometimes (most of the time) but she didn't want it any other way. Sure, she was proud of her independence; proud of her accomplishments in the Outlands like getting an education on her own merits, achieving the rank of Major on her own merits and getting her doctorate… but she knew she wouldn't be truly happy without him in her life.

Oh she could allow the marriage ceremony to go through and let herself be married to him. She'd get what she wanted that way, but that way was wrong. It wouldn't be fair to him and in the end it wouldn't be fair to her either. She had no right to think of only herself when marriage was supposed to be something that both parties were supposed to want. It wouldn't be honorable and it was taking the easy way in. Plus, there was also the fact that if she allowed the ceremony to continue, she'd be giving her father precisely what he'd wanted all this time. She'd be saying that treating her like chattel was okay and she would be reinforcing those same wrong traditions that she despised. She knew that there were unhappy young girls out there among the Clans who had been following her story for years. She brought them hope, she was a symbol of strength and courage and rebellion. If she lost to her father now all those repressed women would lose all the faith and hope they'd invested in her. She couldn't let them down.

Good reasons, all of them. But even so, Sally was still aching in her heart. She'd never believed in the term heartache up until this point; it really was like an ache. When the marriage ceremony was called off (and it would be) Sally would return with her partner to the Outlands and they'd go on exactly the same way as before, friends and nothing more. The thought of being faced with him day in and day out knowing he didn't love her like she loved him was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She let them come. The ice maiden had finally melted, the strong and independent warrioress had a chink in her armor large enough to march an army of mobile suits through, she'd fallen and fallen hard and there was nothing she could do about it. Her pride and honor wouldn't allow her to marry him; her love for him wouldn't let her leave him.

At least we're still partners, she thought, but she wasn't sure whether to be happy about that fact or depressed by it. For how long could things remain like this? How long before he moved on to other things and Sally was left out of his life, or worse (in her estimation) kept as an important part of it but only as his best friend, his ex-partner? He still had to restart his Clan, and no halfbreed would ever be good enough for that. She couldn't marry him and that was that. But oh how it hurt!

I'll just have to be happy with what I have, she told herself sternly, trying hard not to sob. After all, she had everything she'd ever dreamed of as a child; independence, good friends, the freedom to go where she would and do as she pleased without having to look over her shoulder for watchful disapproving eyes. But now…it just wasn't enough. She wanted to be with the man she loved and have him love her in return too. She wanted to wake up each morning and make him smile (she thought he had a very nice smile). She wanted to be his partner in every sense of the word, share her troubles as well as her joys and know he was going to be there for her too. He could frustrate her to no end, but Sally thought she could do with some frustration. It would be worth it because she loved him all the more for it. It might sound strange but she loved him for his faults as much as his virtues.

Ironic, that's what it is, she thought sadly. So close, yet so far away. This whole situation is impossible.

There was no help for it, tomorrow she would just have to challenge him to a fight like she had everyone else, and ask that he lose to her. That was another thing about him, Sally had watched him fight before and he was absolutely amazing. There was no way she'd be able to beat him at hand to hand combat unless he let her. When it came to skills at martial arts, Sally might be the strongest in her Clan, but Wufei's prowess left her in the dust easily. She could admit that much to herself. That was the thing when it came to the martial arts…there was always a bigger fish. Wufei was a much bigger fish. Uneasily, she fell into a restless sleep in which she dreamed of looking in a house from the outside but not being let in.

 * * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The show and its characters are the sole creative property of Sunrise, Bandai and Sotsu Agency as well as its creators Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Matate. The Twelve Clans and all of its affiliated work is the sole creative property of me.