Gundam Wing does not belong to me. If I did own it, a) I wouldn't be writing crappy fanfics, b) Heero and Relena would have been together by episode 2, and c) I'd be a helluva lot richer than I currently am. And that's a lot. So you no sue me, ok? All I have is my laptop, and I'm gonna have to die before you get your grubs on it.

Slight warning against bad writing. If you don't like it, I welcome constructive criticism.



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Pairings= 1xR (main), 2xH (slight), 5xS (slight)

Warning: This fic is AU and there is OOCness in it

POV= Relena

Italics= Thoughts

** before and after text= flashback/ later that day

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Of All Places...

By Mai

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Being new to New York city could have been an excuse for getting lost on the first day of school. Not ever seeing a neighborhood could have been an excuse for not knowing where Broadway intersected. But the fact that I got lost, and the fact that I have been visiting the city every year since I was four made the situation inexcusable.

So there I was, 8:05 on a Monday morning, the first day of school, and I could not for the life of me find where the heck 101 east 18th street was. Ten minutes left. Of all the places to get lost, New York is not one of the most pleasant. Ok, so I got off at the right subway station. I climbed the right exit stairs. Hell, I even found 18th street. So where did I go wrong? Grumbling obscenities in my (almost) native tongue, I stalked up and down the block looking for my target building. "That's funny", I thought to myself as I eyed a bleak grey warehouse, "I wasn't aware Baron's College Campus High School's in a storage building." Sarcasm drip. Baron's is supposed to be a specialized science High school, but I guess in this case they specialize in camouflage. I wouldn't have been so confused either, if it weren't for the fact that three very bright digits were conveniently located on the front of it: 101.

Sighing, I continued my walk. Feeling a little desperate, I summoned up enough courage to ask someone on the corner. "Oh!" the woman exclaimed. You're looking at it." Oh. How nice. "Thanks", I mumbled with a smile, feeling a little pissed at not having seen it earlier. It's not like the huge banner in front of me that read "Baron's College" was THAT visible.

Now that I had found the damn building, I had to worry about not making it to class in time. I was cutting it close, but there's nothing like a good, late entrance to introduce a new student, right? Keep on thinking that, Relena.

I had only permanently moved to New York 2 months earlier, and I really didn't know anyone. Just months before I had been living my little sheltered life, on a little Greek island in the Mediterranean, and had gone to a little private school. I was used to being a foreigner, but only when I was surrounded by other foreigners. Here, things would be a little different. For one, I was transferring in during senior year, unlike everyone else, who probably had known each other for at least four years. Besides that, everyone came from the same place. and that would be NYC.

Finally I noticed I was on the 15th floor, and was standing right outside my assigned class. Maybe I shouldn't have worn so many bracelets today. They might not accept my look. I should have taken the pins off my bag. Maybe the Offspring t-shirt was a little much. "Shut up Dorlian. It's too late now to worry about what you look like. You should have thought of that this morning, idiot." I took a breath and walked in. "Greeeaaaat", came my first thought. "Everyone's here. There are no good seats that are in the back corner". And that wasn't all. the only seat that was actually empty was behind a bunch of rowdy guys. Having no choice in the matter, I walked over and took the seat.

Ten minutes later, the guys were still rowdy, two girls to my right were having a conversation about losing their virginity, and an unusually quiet brown haired guy was to my left. The teacher had not walked in yet.

"Ooowww you baka!" came an unexpected scream from ahead, and I looked up feeling a little startled, only to see one of the guys in front of me rubbing a spot on the back of his head. On a spot right above a two-and-a- half foot long braid. Interesting. Just as suddenly, his head, along with two others, turned. They were staring. With their eyes. "Shut up Relena", I told myself. They just happened to turn around, that's all.

"Hi", the one with the braid grinned. "I'm Duo, who the heck are you?" I stared back. "I, uhm. I'm Relena." Smooth, Darlian. Really slick. Now they must think you're a rocket scientist.

"Duo, leave the girl alone" A new voice mumbled. It was the brown haired boy. Barely audible, but I caught it, and apparently so had the three others sitting in front of me. "Aaw, Heero, why do you have to be such a party pooper?" came the reply, accompanied by a glare. One of the three, who was Asian and had his hair tied back joined in. "Maxwell, she is not aware of your mentally challenged personality. I suggest you bother Hilde, as she is by now used to your petty ways." "Injustice! Wufei, if suckiness were actually in the dictionary, your name would be under it" Duo whined. Wufei's faced darkened a shade. "What do you know about justice? Your hair must interfere with your neurons' abilities to function."

Seeing the argument about to start, I decided to turn my attention away from the two. "Soo." I turned to the voice. And looked into two of the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. How could I not noticed them before? Such a deep Prussian blue. I stared into them. and realized he had asked me a question. "What was that?" "I was just asking what you thought of this class." I looked around. The three in front were still fighting, the two girls to my right were now talking about tampon brands, and the teacher was here but appeared to have trouble finding her papers. I looked back at him and flashed a nervous smile. "So far? Pretty good." He didn't smile. Come to think of it, he was the only one in class who I hadn't seen smiling. But those eyes made up for it. "Stop! Wake up and smell the chalk" He looked at my shirt and smirked. "You like The Offspring?" Damn. "Yeah. I know a lot of people think they really suck, that they're not really a punk rock band, but I've been listening to their stuff for a while now. Actually more like I've been worshipping them for a while now." T-minus three to laughter. 3.2.1...0. zero? zero? Nothing came. "I like them."

So now I was pretty much in dreamland. This guy had incredible taste in music (in my opinion) AND came in a pretty cute. I mean hot package. He was a little quiet, but hey, so was I, so it couldn't have been that bad, could it?

I was snapped out of Lala-land when the teacher announced it was time to get our ID cards. We all sat down patiently-or as patiently as a class full of 17 year olds could get, and waited for our cards.

Half an hour, and 40 kids later, I still hadn't gotten my card. Sighing, I tried to raise my hand, but a tap on my arm stopped me. "You can get it at the college library. I'm pretty sure it's because you're new." At my blank look, he continued, "The guys and I will take you there. It's really not that far." He turned toward them. "Wufei, Trowa, Duo. Let's all go to the college library. Apparently they still haven't figured out where to send the IDs." Duo turned. "Why, does your girrrrllfriend need one?" Heero glared at him. "Shut up Duo, I'll kill you."

Duo seemed unfazed, and continued with his chatter. "So then I told Hilde, Why babe? Why would you do such a thing, I mean, who cares whether you read the whole book! As long as you hand in the essay. Seriously man, the babe's got no sense of time management. Why spend all your time reading, when you can stroll over to the library and read the spark notes? Sheesh! She's almost as bad as Heero over there, highlighting the book and stuff. Isn't it enough that you've read it?" The one sided conversation continued, but no one was paying attention. They got up and made their way to the library building.

"Where are you from?" Heero asked in a monotone voice. "How did you know?" God, you were probably so obvious. So what was it, genius? I knew it! It was the clothes. No, it was the fact that you know absolutely nothing about anything. That's it. "I saw your Offspring cd. It was the overseas edition." "Oh." Then I felt stupid. Curses. "I'm from Cyprus." Stupid.. He probably has never heard of it. It's only a shitty island. "I've been there. Near Turkey, right?" Before I could respond, we arrived.

"Here we are." Duo said. "Heheh. Do you mind if I don't go in? I sort of had a little fight with the security guard." Wufei looked up. "I do not like him. The other day he attempted to take my ID away, claiming it was faulty. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, So I told him that if he ever attempted to pull any other injustices on me I'd personally challenge him to fight."

Trowa rolled his eyes. "We'll wait out here. Duo and Wufei are waiting for the girls anyway." So that left Heero and me to go in. Getting the ID was an easy task; Heero did all the talking. Pretty soon, we were free to leave. Outside, the little group had expanded to a group of five. Two girls that Relena recognized as students from class came up, excitedly chatting. "Hi," the shorter of the two started. "I'm Hilde, and this is Sally--" "Hilde's my girl!" Duo excitedly interrupted. "I'm with Wufei," Sally stated. "We pretty much don't hang a lot in the city, we all live in Queens." This caught my attention. "Really. I also live in Queens." Just the Duo let out a whoop "Ooh yea, an addition to the crew! Ojousan, we usually hang at Heero's place. That's mainly because when we leave and come back, it's always clean. And I know MY house is never like that. Only one thing, you're never allowed to touch his computer--" "--Duo shut up. Lets get going."

Yeah, so that was my day.

A month later, I was happily settled in my new weird high school, with a group of new weird friends. "Hey Relena!" Hilde shouted across the hall, "We hang tonight at Heero's place!" I nodded my head, waved, and proceeded to my first class. AP Biology was my favorite subject. Trowa and Heero were also in my class. I walked in and made my way toward my usual seat. Right before I could sit down, I was halted. "Ooh Relena, you're looking hot today. Whatever could be under that oh-so- short skirt?" A taunting voice called out. Uh ohhh.. Treize Kushrenada. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Heero and Trowa tense, as Treize got up and made his way to my seat. "Relena," he drawled. "How nice to see you in this fine yet small piece of clothing. You have just made my day." He slid his arm around my waist, but before he could say anything, Heero stood up in front of him. "What do you want Treize?" "Heero Yuy. I'm sorry, is Relena YOURS?" He taunted with obvious sarcasm. Heero stiffened before replying. "I wasn't aware that she belonged to anyone. What I am aware of is that she certainly isn't yours."

Treize scowled. "We shall see, Yuy. I do not feel like putting up with you at this moment." With that, he turned his back and walked to his own seat. Heero sat down. "You ok? Has he bothered you before?" I looked at him in surprise. "No. I didn't even recognize who he was at first. Why?" Heero glanced back at him, noting that he was still staring at Relena. Again he scowled. "Basically, he wants to piss us off in various ways. He doesn't like us at all. Last week he asked Sally whether she would have sex with him. Wufei told him to back off or he'd cut him up. I guess he took it seriously. Just watch out from him." Scary. "Alright."

**Later that day.**

"Hilde, I'll meet you outside at 5. I have a meeting with the principal." I yelled at Hilde as I ran into the school building. All I had to do was discuss my adjustment to the new school. I guess it was standard procedure for transfer students. Only problem was that these meetings were always so late.

"Thank you, Mrs Meyor, for having this discussion with me. See you on Monday!" Phew. Finally I'm out. Walking down the stairs of the building, I thought about what the guys and girls had planned for tonight. Then, I heard a scuffle and a curse. Alerted by the noise, my adrenaline rushed through me like lightning. "Who's there?" I asked aloud. It could have been anyone. Baron's High School was, after all, located in a college building. "Ohh shit Relena. Why do you always have to act without thinking? Look at the situation you're in now. Palavi!" I cursed myself in Greek. There could have been a number of people walking in and out of the staircases at this time. However, not anyone tries to hide their location, or their identity for that matter.

"Hello Relena." I jumped. It was Treize. "My, are we frightened today. Please, try to relax," he said as he stepped closer. Shit. I realized I had nowhere to go, as the wall was behind me. He got closer. "Why don't you come with me?" he asked, as he pushed me against the wall and ran his hand through my hair. I flinched. I didn't know what to do; I didn't know what he wanted with me. Shit, what do I do, how do I get out? He started lowering his head toward mine, and as he did so, he took hold of my jaw and forced my mouth open. My eyes teared, and I squirmed, trying to get out of his hold, all to no avail. "Miss Darlian, please. You'll enjoy this more if you stay still." Pressing me against the wall, he pulled at my sweatshirt. "Isn't it too hot for this?" He lowered his head some more. I cried out.

"Treize, put your fucking hands down. And step back." It was Heero. Heero. I sighed in relief, a slight shudder of a sound escaping my lips, and I slid to the floor. "Yuy, I told you to stay out of this," he hissed. Then he turned and walked through a nearby door. As soon as he was gone, Heero turned to me. "Are you ok, Relena?" I sniffled. Pull yourself together, woman. Get your ass up! "I'm ok Heero, just a little shook up, that's all. He eyed me carefully. "Are you sure?" "I'm positive. Let's just leave." He took my hand. WOW. "Don't walk alone. Please. I'd hate it if anything happens."

What did he just say? He didn't. Naaah, that almost never happens in real life. Again those gorgeous blue eyes bore into mine, and for the first time I saw an emotion other than anger or boredom. I couldn't quite place it, but I knew that whatever it was, it was something positive. Slowly, he pushed some of my hair behind my ear. And leaned in. His kiss was beautiful, his lips so soft and unlike anything I had ever imagined. He sighed and pulled back. "I.Relena. I love you." If it were possible, my eyes teared up even more. "I love you too, Heero." He sighed again. "Duo will have a field day with this. He's like the media. No matter how much you try to cover things up, something is always revealed. And the media learns first. And spreads the news."



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AN: Please review, this is my first fic and I'd really appreciate it. I was kinda in a hurry to finish it, and I know there are lots of flaws, so go ahead and tell me. I could always fix'em. Better than sticking to crappy writing o.O