Night Of Blue

By Perfect Soldier

Chapter 2:

Days passed quickly between then and Christmas Eve. Snow began to fall in think sheets overnight. Soon, everywhere was covered in a sofr white carpet of snow. Christmas Eve finally came. One by one, each former gundam pilot and their female counterpart arrived at the Peacecraft mansion. All except one. The pilot least likely to turn up. Relena knew he wouldn't come even if he was invited. He was never kind to her, always leaving her, pushing her aside. Nothing could break the walls around his heart. Nobody could get through to him no matter how hard they tried. Relena didn't get her hopes up too high. The day went by quicker than expected, and the lazy afternoon rolled on into the evening.

The stars glittered in the sky and the moon shone brightly . The sky itself was pitch black and not a cloud in sight.

Duo and Hilde quietly slipped away from the others to set up the fireworks. As they worked, Duo noticed Hilde looking rather worried.

"These are easy to put up Hilde! No need to be scared!" Duo said cheerfully. "Look, I'll set off a starter firework ok?" Hilde still didn't look too convinced that these fireworks were going to be 'user friendly'. Duo bent down and stuck a firework in the snowy soil. He lit it and turned round to face Hilde. "See? Nothing to it!"

"Duo! You're standing too close! Move...." But the shriek of the lit firework interrupted her. The firework flew up into the sky brushing along Duo's back, as it took off into the sky. A loud shout was let out, except no one could hear it under the whistle of the firework.

"Braid on fire, braid on fire!!" Duo shouted. He ran around trying desperately to put out the small flame slowly eating his braid. Hilde couldn't contain her laughter. She burst out laughing and dunked Duo's braid into the snow. The flame extinguished at once. Duo brought his head out of the snow spitting out the mouthful of white snow crystals he had accidently eaten. "Man! My beautiful braid! It took me years to grow this! Now its withered away to practically nothing! Its got cinders and .....ACHOO!" Duo sneezed.

"Come on Duo, lets get you inside. I'll finish the rest. No fireworks for you!"

"Yes mother." Duo grumbled. Hilde then playfully hit Duo on the shoulder.

* * * * * * * * * *

Another shriek pierced the night sky as a red sparkle flooded the midnight air. Everyone was outside standing on the balcony wrapped up warm. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, although there was a bitter wind weaving its way through the mass of people. However, one girl sat apart from the rest. Everyone else had someone to cuddle up to to keep warm, but not her.

'Besides, who would want me as a girlfriend?' Relena thought to herself. After the next firework, Relena retreated into the warmth of her house and to the sanctuary of her bedroom.

Relena switched on her bedroom light and walked over to her bed. As she sat down, a familiar, very worn out teddy bear lay on her pillow. The bear still had it's red ribbon around his neck. Three years had passed since she had received that bear, and the memory was crystal clear.

'How could I not forget?'

*Flashback*

A shuttle was waiting to take Relena to yet another peace meeting at Colony Cluster 06. As Relena boarded, she saw a mechanic coming past her.

"Excuse me." he said with his head facing the floor.

"Thats alright." she replied. 'Thats funny, why wasn't he looking up?' The mechanic had kept his eyes down as if they were glued to the floor even after he had passed Relena. It was as if he didn't want to look at her. As Relena kept walking further up the shuttle, she saw that something was already occuping her seat. A small, chesnut brown teddy with a scarlet ribbon sat perfectly posed with a letter under its arm. Relena's face was covered wit curiosity. Her hand reached out to pick up the letter. She read it slowly absorbing the information. Immeadiately she ran to the window.

"Heero!" Relena shouted A boy in his late teens in blue uniform, turned his head in response to his name. He removed his hat and revealed prussian eyes and dark unruly hair. The boy smiled.

Relena looked at him and returned his smile. Then did something to him which he had done to her the very first day she met him. She ripped Heero's letter in half.

"Next time, give it to me in person." The only difference was that there was no tears to dry in Heero's eyes. He mearly smiled and walked away.

*End Flashback*

To this very day, she still had the fragments of the birthday card that Heero had given her all those years ago. Relena had hoped that he would come today, but that would be pure chance if he did come. She had tried her best to keep in touch with him, but he never returned any of her messages.

'I'm so pathetic,' Relena thought, 'He doesn't care one bit about me.' Relena walked out onto her own balcony. The fireworks were still going on. Different colours flooded the night sky. From the position of her room, Relena looked over the whole of the Sanq kingdon. Many firework diplays were taking place. Different patches of light exploded and then sparkled away into nothing, The moon shone brightly over the houses and forests giving them a silver glow.

"Heero.....where are you?" Relena whispered to no one.

"Right beside you." Relena's eyes widened. She spun around quickly, frightened by the sudden voice. Nothing. A cold breeze swept past her like a ghost. She was so sure that she heard Heero's voice. Yet, he wasn't anywhere. Unknown to her however, a pair of wings were gently beating above her head.