It's Not a Valentine's Day Present
by Zapenstap
There was a hole in her sock. Relena could feel it, a worn tear just under her smallest toe on her left foot. In fact, her toe was sticking through that hole in a most annoying fashion, and because she was busy on her feet in a crowded, noisy room, there was no way to fix it now. She had nowhere to put her clipboard, for example, and nowhere to sit down. Besides, Wufei was guarding her today, and if she was going to look awkward and disorganized, he was the last person she wanted to know about it. She was the image of the perfectly poised lady, the concerned and proper diplomat, never mind her casual clothes this morning and the hard hat she was forced to wear in order to supervise the reconstruction of the auditorium today...on her week off.
Relena turned back to the activity in the hall. The room buzzed with people and energy. Papers flew everywhere. The sounds of tools jarring her eardrums and the screech of metal on metal made her cringe. Everywhere furniture was being moved, tech sets were being tested, the podium was being raised, lights brightened and dimmed from overhead.
It was just several dozen sweaty workers, Wufei and herself in here. This was her project, but most of the work was being done by professionals. She just wanted to make sure nothing went wrong and occupy her time somehow. It was technically her time off, February 10th to the 16th. She had two days left of her vacation and here she was, working. Well, sort of. Stage construction and tech sets were not anywhere in her job description, but she found supervising something like this more enjoyable, even if she did have to wear a hard hat. And there was to be no signing of papers, or political debates, or anything of that sort this week, which was vacation enough.
Well, except for the few crazy political activists who managed to stalk her wherever she went, like that fat and flustered council member rushing toward her from the side doors right now.
"Miss Darilan," the old man in a suit huffed as he shuffled into the room, looking overly winded and purple-faced with his bulk and disheveled appearance. He looked like he had crawled beneath a door to get in here. She smiled at him pleasantly. Wufei would get him. That's why he was there. "Do you have the reports for the Sydney Conference?" he asked, breathing heavily. "I heard you were here and I need them by tomorrow..."
"She is on vacation!" Wufei hollared at the man as he stood like a glowering gargoyle at her side. Leaping three feet in the air, the man puffed and scurried off, hedging from Wufei's dragon-eyed glare.
"Miss Darilan," a woman with frizzy brown hair practically shouted in her face, bursting into the auditorium with a group of workers, waving a packet of paper in the air. "Vice Foreign Minister! Your opinion is needed on the North Quadrant Mining proposal by four o'clock at the latest..."
Relena shuffled her clipboard and passed a stuffed manilla folder full of construction notes into the greedy hands of a passing boy heading toward the workers. "Uh, the Sydnery reports should be on your desk," she shouted over her shoulder to the retreating old man, and turning back again, found herself face to face with the bristling brunette. "Oh, Miss Witherby," she gasped in a smile as she practically fell over backwards from the woman's proximity. "I'm afraid the proposal will have to wait until I come back. There's no way..."
"Miss Darilan," the woman quipped in a most patronizing tone, practically bowling her over, "the Mining Proposal has been in queue now for nearly three days. If you have any concern for..."
Wufei came to her rescue, grabbing the aggressive lobbiest by the arm and hustling her sidewise like a crab out of the room. "This is a resticted area while the remodeling is in progress," he said in even, pedantic tones. The woman protested, flinging her arms about wildly, shrieking like a banshee. "And Miss Darilan is on vacation," Wufei continued, ignoring her outboursts. Relena did her best not to laugh. "Please make an appointment next time," Wufei finished as he pushed her firmly out and shut the door on her face.
Relena smiled and pushed her hair behind her ears. It was getting long again, so long she had to keep tying it back so it wouldn't slacken and look limp during the day. She'd have to schedule an appointment to have it cut soon.
Wufei came back to her side with a face like a rock sheet, watching all of the activity with a placid stare. He wasn't exactly her best friend, but he respected her for how hard and honestly she worked and they had come to understand each other. "Whose idea was it to have the conference hall remodelled on Valentine's Day anyway?" he said crossly.
"Mine actually," she replied with a smile, not at all offended or contrite.
Wufei looked at her askance, glassy black eyes sharp as tacks. "What for? It's a holiday."
Relena straightened her arms and folded her hands in front of her, the clipboard caught between her arms and her abdomen. She smiled as she watched a few construction worker attempting to lower the curtain rod. Serveral cut-off curses reverberated about the hall as it tilted down on one side and just about lopped off the head of a scrawny man in overalls and no shirt. "It needed to be done," she said. "And Valentine's Day is not a holiday, especially not for single people." Lifting the clipboard, she skimmed the list with her pencil. "Which reminds me, Wufei. If you're not too busy, I could use your help with the rafter adjustments. I need someone whose not afraid of being that high." With her pencil, she pointed up to the ceiling where the stage lights hung on a criss-cross network of gated walk-ways and slender beams, then smiled at him.
He glared at her. "You always just take what you want, don't you?" he said, and smiled slyly. He hadn't budged a bit. "Well, you've got me. But I still think you ought have taken the day off."
"What for?" she asked genuinely. "Honestly, I don't know what I would do myself."
"Eat ice cream. Sleep in. Read a book."
She shrugged. "This is more satisfying. I like working, Wufei. I like it." Nodding to him, she added, "thank you for helping."
He shrugged and strolled off, but cast one last glance at her. "You know, you could have taken a day to spend some time with Heero." His tone was underlined with a comic contempt over what he believed was Heero's infatuation with her.
Relena just waved goodbye at him with her fingers and he shook his head before leaping off the stage and striding up to where the construction superviser was assigning tasks. She chuckled. He didn't understand. Catching sudden movement by her ear, Relena turned and ducked expertly as a flat board swooped just over her head.
"You almost killed the Vice Minister!" one of the men carrying it shouted at the other man.
"What do you mean I did!" the other man shouted back.
Rising fluidly, Relena smiled, moved to the edge of the stage and sat down in an abandoned chair with the clipboard on her knees. Well, she had gotten rid of Wufei. Leaning over her legs, she looked around to see if anyone was watching her specifically and then reached for her shoe. Dislodging it, she quickly adjusted her sock and slipped the shoe back on her foot. She wiggled her toes in relief.
"You should have Wufei watch you."
She lifted her head at Heero's voice, heat rising into her face for a variety of reasons. One, she had been so sure no one had seen the embarrassing hole in the toe of her sock. Heero was worse than Wufei in catching her at imperfection. And two, he was Heero. Anything that involved Heero was awkward and dramatic and entirely too comfortable for comfort.
Smiling like everything in the world was perfect because she made it that way, she stood, straightening her back, leaving the clipboard on the chair. Her mood was surprisingly cheerful still, even in his presence.
"I'm all right, Heero," she told him over-diplomatically. "It's quite safe."
She remembered she was wearing that ridiculous hardhat and flushed, reaching to pull it off her head. Before she could get there, Heero had removed it for her, reaching into her personal space and plucking the large plastic bowl off her head. Wisps of hair flew down in front of her eyes and she blinked, swiping them aside as she looked at him with as pleasant an expression as she could manage.
It was difficult. He was wearing a white shirt with the sleeves torn off, smattered with dust. Unbeknowest to her he had been with the working crew, probably all morning, watching her when she didn't know it. It wasn't surprising, considering he often turned up to help out wherever she was scheduled to be, but he acted like it was completely ordinary thing for a normal person to do and, well, it wasn't. At least, it wasn't normal for anyone who consistently pretended to have no personal interest in her at all. They had known each other for what, almost five years now?
She liked that shirt on him. She could see the full length of his arms and a great deal of his upper chest and neck. His muscles were toned, his skin dark and he was sweaty from heavy labor. Okay, so that wasn't necessarily attractive, but it made her think of other things that made a man sweat. One day couldn't she lead him into some locked and darkened room where they could remove each other's clothing, sink into the shadows and make love to each other? As she looked at him, she imagined it, his weight over her, his hands stroking her body, his lips melting into her lips gently and aggressively. She shivered. That would be wonderful, wouldn't it? Hot, sweaty love-making between two people who cared a great deal about each other, who had pined after one other hopelessly for so very long.
She imagined it as he talked to her about the dangers of assassination attempts and kidnappings (though there hadn't been a single one since the war) and she simply smiled at him, nodding her head in absolute agreement, staring into his eyes. Yes, guns and danger and explosives. Yes, calamity abounded about her person because she made the world perfect. Yes, he would protect her. Smiling, she nodded, returning the usual words in sweet, grateful tones, her heart fluttering only a little. He was so beautiful and so concerned, but the truth was that she didn't make the world perfect; he only thought she did. She was just a voice and face in a crowd of hard-working people, but for some reason Heero always seemed to associate her with saving the world, no matter how many times she corrected him, or turned it back on him. Still, the guns and danger and Heero protecting her she was all right with, even if there wasn't any actual touching between them.
In her bemused state of mind, she imagined sex some more with him as he talked, and wondered if he imagined it too. It didn't make her blush, not because she wouldn't be embarrassed if he knew, but because she knew it would never happen...ever. They both had too much propriety, too much self-consciousness, too much goodness. They were too kind and too understanding and too damn interested in wanting the absolute best for the other. So it would never happen. They would stand like this forever, complimenting each other, giving all they had to everybody else, desiring nothing for themselves, and the world would slide on by without them as they grew older. It was really quite funny.
She'd cried about it before. She'd been frustrated and love-sick and now she just didn't care anymore. Never mind. Just forget it. She would grow old and die a virgin pining for him. What did it matter? Romance was over-rated and over-idealized anyway.
"Here," Heero said suddenly. "I got you this."
She blinked as he handed her a little box of expensive chocolates tied with a pink ribbon. She took it uncertainly.
"It's not a valentine's day present," he said in an absolutely flat tone.
She nodded. Of course not. "Thank you, Heero," she said, though she was a little puzzled.
He shrugged. "I was just in the store and when I saw it I thought of you."
"Oh," she replied. He just happened to buy her chocolates on Valentine's Day, but not for Valentine's Day. His eyes were quiet beautiful as he looked at her. She didn't know what to say. "Thank you," she repeated. What did he want her to say, if this was not a Valentine's Day gift, or even if it was?
"I have to get back to work," he said, catching her eyes for a brief second. Then he turned and walked away, seeming satisfied of all things.
She shook the box once, experimentally, listening to the chocolate rattle for no reason. Smiling to herself, she let it hang forgotten in one hand, unsure what to do with it as she watched him go.
Wufei sauntered over to her side. "What was that all about?" But he sounded like he knew, almost like he was taunting her. He probably was.
Relena shrugged, not sure what to say or feel. Though she would like to joke about it, she was almost angry and she didn't know why. "Nothing. He just gave me a present."
Wufei's eyebrows climbed a mile. "A Valentine's Day present?"
She shook her head, clutching the box with two hands now. "No. He said it wasn't."
"It's Valentine's Day."
"That's right," she agreed.
"What is it then?" he asked.
"Chocolate."
Wufei just looked at her, then arched an eyebrow at the box. "In a nice little box, tied with a pink ribbon."
She nodded. "I know."
"Not a Valentine's Day present?"
She sighed something that almost sounded like a huff and shook her head. "Nope," she said, and then made a face at him to lighten the mood. Never mind. Just forget it. It would never happen.
He chuckled. "Right."
She nodded, pursed her lips after Heero's retreating form and tried not to sound wistful and pathetic. "Right." She didn't want to sound like she was pining after all, especially because that's what she was doing.
But nothing more would happen, she knew.
This was just the way it was.
Based on a true story. ^_~ PLEASE REVIEW
This is a ONE-shot fic, people! It's a true story and nothing more happened in real life. Besides, my true 1xR romantic dramas are way more entertaining, don't you think? Which reminds me, I really ought to get working on part 11 of Temper the Soul, huh? I apologize to all of you who were waiting and got this instead. I couldn't help it, honest! Temper's at kind of an interim before all the action scenes explode and the transition is a little tricky. Thank you for reading this story, though! Please review it! I would LOVE it if you did (and quite annoyed if you didn't and I found out! -_- ) Thanks! ^_~