Author's note: I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters. I also don't own the song Crash and Burn. I'm poor; don't sue me.

Wedding Bell Blues

Relena sighed. She had finally chosen a forest green and cream dress that looked very much like a business suit. Her hand touched the green pendant she wore on a gold chain; it had been Heero's Christmas gift to her. The girl sighed again. She had had so much fun over the Christmas holidays.

It was January now and Relena was miserable. The ESUN council had decided that she should get married. Moreover, they even had a list of "acceptable" suitors. It wouldn't be so bad if some of the guys actually cared about her, but they were more interested in what power or prestige they could gain by marrying her.

"God, I'm only seventeen," she thought. "I had wanted to wait a few years before I even thought about marriage. And I had wanted to marry someone I loved and who loved me."

Hopefully she could escape from the party before long.

***

"Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork," Relena thought.

It was midafternoon, but she still hadn't had time to eat lunch. When her desk intercom went off, Relena welcomed the interruption.

"Vice-Foreign Minister, there's a group of men here to see you," her secretary, Kari, said. "They mentioned something about missing you at the party."

"Give me a few minutes, Kari."

Trapped, Relena felt trapped. She couldn't get away from them. At that moment, she spotted the window. Sure, she was on the second floor and it was freezing outside, but still, it was a way to escape. Relena quickly opened the window and shut it again after she had crawled out on the ledge.

She looked down. The snow drifts had piled up enough that Relena wasn't worried about the fall.

"Here goes nothing," she thought.

Relena jumped. The snow cushioned her, but when she got up, Relena was shivering. Rubbing her hands together to warm them, she started down the street. She had just reached the downtown area when Relena noticed someone was following her.

"I really don't need this today," she thought as she began to run.

As she wasn't watching where she was going, Relena rammed into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Relena?! What are you doing out here?"

Relena looked up to find a pair of dark blue eyes watching her.

"Heero?"

Heero helped her up and steered her into a coffee shop.

"Have you had lunch yet?" he asked.

"No..."

"Come on, it's my treat."

Heero waited till Relena had devoured a sandwich, before asking her what was wrong. Relena explained her situation as best she could. While she did this, Heero noticed she was coughing and appeared exhausted.

"Relena, why don't you go home and get some rest?"

"I can't. I've got to go to this ball tonight. I've already blown off two parties this week, so I can't get out of it."

Heero watched her leave, with concern written on his face.

***

Relena felt miserable. She stood alone in a corner. Her sleeveless pink gown was stifling. Her head was pounding. Slowly, the girl made her way to the door. She was startled when someone wrapped her coat around her.

"I'm taking you home."

Heero placed his hand on her forehead; she was burning up. With one arm around her waist, Heero led Relena outside.

"Hey, where are you taking her?" called one of the suitors.

"I'm taking Relena home; she's not feeling well."

"Who the hell are you anyway?"

At that moment, Relena's car pulled up. Heero quickly helped Relena into the car, then got in the passenger side.

"Thanks," he told Quatre as they drove off.

"No problem. How is she?"

"Not good."

Heero carried a semi-conscious Relena up to her room. He left a moment while she changed, returning with a glass of water and aspirin. After she took those, Heero tucked her in bed with the teddy bear he had given her.

Both Quatre and Pegan, Relena's butler, were waiting for him.

"We need to get a doctor here as soon as possible."

"I'll see what I can do," Quatre said.

Several hours later, there was a knock at the door. When opened it revealed two people dressed in Preventers' uniforms.

"Sally, I'm glad you could come," Quatre said.

"Where's Relena? Wufei's got my bag."

"Heero's with her; she's in bed."

A half hour later, Sally knew what was wrong.

"She's got pneumonia. It would have been just a nasty flu, but since she's so overworked, Relena's body can't fight it off. I'll give her antibiotics, but it'll take a few weeks for her to recover."

"The hard part will be keeping her from doing too much and keeping people from bothering her," Pegan commented.

***

Ding-dong.

A sleep deprived Heero opened the door to find several cheerful people.

"Yo, Heero! We heard that Relena wasn't feeling well, so we came to give her a hand," Duo said.

He, Hildie, Trowa, and Cathy hauled their luggage inside. While Trowa helped Cathy and Hildie take their luggage to the guest rooms, Duo was finding out about the situation from Quatre.

"We told her office she was sick, and we haven't had any problems yet. But we're pretty sure people are going to show up wanting to see Miss Relena."

"That's stupid, she's sick what could she do? So basically, we're keeping people from bugging her."

"Yeah. I fell sorry for her; you know, the ESUN council is pressuring her to marry."

"That's insane."

"Yeah, they even have a list of "acceptable" candidates."

Duo shook his head, "Poor kid."

Relena slept most of the day which Sally said was normal. When she woke, the girl wasn't hungry, but Hildie managed to coax her into drinking a cup of broth. Her fever had stopped climbing; it was now a steady at 105. Everyone took turns watching over Relena.

The next morning people began to arrive at the door. They were annoying and persistent; Heero and Wufei had the most success at getting rid of them. All Heero had to do was unleash his death glare or Wufei start fingering his katana and people got the message. By five p.m., they were sick of it. At the next knock, Wufei opened the door, gave the speech about no visitors, and shut the door. Or tried to.

A briefcase had been shoved between the door and it's frame. A young woman, about twenty one, stood outside.

"Listen. I'm Kari Takaishi, Miss Relena's secretary; is she alright?"

"Miss Relena will be fine. Now..."

"Good," Kari interrupted, "What do you want me to do with her work?"

Wufei didn't know what to say, finally, "Why don't you come in."

Kari scooped up the briefcase and made her way inside. After seating herself in a chair, Kari watched as everyone, except Heero who was watching Relena, joined them.

"I've canceled all of Miss Relena's appearances for the week and I brought the important paperwork with me."

"Cancel all of Relena's appointments for the month; she's not going to be well enough to do much for awhile," Sally said.

"Sakura, that's her aide, and I can handle most of the nonessential stuff, but she's going to have to take care of the important stuff."

"We'll see what we can do, but ESUN has been working her way too hard."

"I know, Miss Relena hasn't had a real vacation since she became Vice-Foreign Minister."

After making arrangements, Kari left. Quatre and Trowa began to make dinner. Sally rubbed her temples; she couldn't believe Relena dealt with this kind of thing everyday.

Heero slumped in a chair, watching Relena. She was asleep again. He was very worried about her; the girl worked herself way too hard and didn't take time to have fun. When the Marimeia incident had ended, Heero had started building a life for himself. He worked for the Preventers now, mostly undercover

Most of the other gundam pilots worked with the Preventers in some capacity. Wufei was a full-time Preventer with the codename Nataku. Both Duo and Trowa were part-time Preventers with the codenames Shinigami and Heavyarms. Heero had been surprised with Hildie had offered her computer expertise, which was on par with his own. Quatre wasn't officially a Preventer, but he was always willing to help in an emergency.

"Heero? I'll take over now; you can go get some dinner," Quatre said entering the room.

A week later, Relena was feeling better, though her friends wouldn't let her do much. She sat in bed working on some of her paperwork; Heero was screening her phone calls. Relena listen with half an ear as Heero cut off a stream of protests by hanging up.

"Who did you mortally offend this time?"

"The ESUN council; they want to speak with you. I told them they would have to wait till next week."

"Let me get this straight, you just hung up on the ESUN council."

"Hn."

Relena shook her head, that was classic Heero alright. Everyone, but especially Heero, had been pretty protective of her the past couple of days. It was nice to be around people who where more concerned about her than her title. She was so sick of people not seeing her for herself.

"I really should see the council as soon as possible."

"The doctor's orders are no visitors until Monday afternoon."

The girl sighed and leaned her head against her hand. She was enjoying her time away from the office, but it was too good to last.

"I'll enjoy it while I can," she thought.

Heero paced back and forth in the front hall. Relena had kicked everyone out of the living room while she met with the ESUN council. The door opened and Relena politely escorted her guests to the front door. The second they were gone, Relena bolted upstairs. Heero followed.

He found Relena sprawled on her bed, teddy bear clutched to her chest, sobbing her heart out. Heero hesitantly sat down beside her; he wrapped his arms around her, turning her so she was crying into his shirt. Heero stroked her hair and let her cry, offering silent support.

"The council is going to give a ball, once I'm feeling better. If I haven't made a decision by then, I have to choose my husband there. If it weren't for my damn job, no one would care about be at all!"

"That's not true, Relena, there are lots of other reasons for people to care about you besides your job. You're kind, sweet, funny, determined, pretty, and you believe in what you fight for." Heero paused, the whispered, "That's why I fell in love with you."

Relena shifted so she could look him in the eye. She seemed to be searching for something. Then she threw her arms around his neck and whispered, "I love you, Heero".

They sat like that, until Heero realized Relena had fallen asleep. Gently he tucked her in bed. He couldn't believe he had actually told her he loved her.

Over the next few days, an idea started forming in the back of Relena's mind. She had been surprised when Heero had told her he loved her, but she was glad he had. Something told her that he was telling the truth. Relena had had a crush on Heero since they had met. That crush had deepened into something more as she encountered him again and again during the war.

The fact that she was in love with Heero was one of the reasons Relena had not wanted to be forced into marriage. It was now obvious to her that she could not avoid getting married; the ESUN council would be on her case until she did. But maybe Relena could do something to make it a more enjoyable experience.

Relena watched a snowball fight between Duo and Hildie. However it had started, the fight ended with a kiss. Duo and Hildie were so happy together; that was the kind of happiness Relena wanted in her life.

She turned her attention away from the window; the words of the song on the radio suddenly hit her.

Let me be the one you call

If you jump, I'll break your fall

Lift you up and fly away with you into the night

If you need to fall apart

I can mend a broken heart

If you need to crash, then crash and burn

You're not alone

That was what she wanted in a marriage. Someone who would be there for her; someone who would love her for herself.

Relena made her way downstairs. A smile lit her face at the sight in the living room. Trowa sat on the couch reading a book. Cathy was asleep with her head resting on his left shoulder. Quatre was asleep in the same position on Trowa's right side. It looked like they had been watching a movie earlier.

As she passed the study, Relena noticed Sally and Wufei chatting with Lady Une on the vidphone. Relena continued on her way, entering the library. Heero was perched on a ladder, reading a book. He looked down as she entered. Relena hoisted herself up on to the library's desk.

"I don't have any options really." she paused before continuing, "I'm going to have to get married before the council will get off my case."

"There's absolutely no way you can get out of it?"

"No; I just wish..."

"You wish what?"

"That I could marry someone I loved."

"Did the council tell you who to marry?"

"No..."

Heero hesitated. He wanted to ask her, but...he shook his head. How hard could it be? She had already told him that she loved him.

"Relena," he climbed down the ladder and stood in front of her. "Um, would you marry me?"

There he had said it. Relena's blue-green eyes widened. She flung her arms around his neck, kissing him full on the lips.

"I take that is a yes?" Heero gasped when the kiss ended.

Relena nodded, then began to giggle. Heero looked at her quizzically.

"I was just...about to...ask you...the same thing," she finally managed to get out between her laughter.

Heero wrapped an arm around Relena's waist. The two of them contentedly walked out of the library.

They broke the news to the others at dinner. The reactions were hilarious but supportive.

"I doubt the council will be very happy about your choice," Sally said.

"Yeah, but they can't do anything about it; they didn't tell her who to marry,"added Quatre.

"You could always tell them after you got married," Hildie suggested.

"That's not a bad idea. I don't really want my wedding turned into a media circus," Relena said.

"We have two weeks before you're "allowed" to go back to work," Cathy said. "We can get the wedding planned and done."

As everyone started discussing wedding plans, Relena and Heero shared a look the said, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

It was a week and a half before her wedding. Relena couldn't believe how much they had gotten done so far. They had a church for the service and would be holding the reception at a scenic little country club. Invitations were being printed and sent out.

Relena tilted her left hand, so the ring on her fourth finger caught the light. Heero had gotten it for her a few days after the proposal. It was simple, a small oval opal set on a slim band of gold, but it suited Relena.

"Here it is!" she said, pulling a leather bound portfolio off her bookshelf.

Inside it were sketches of a wedding dress and bridesmaids gowns, as well as patterns.

"My friend, Madison Taylor, made these for me when we were in school."

Sally flipped through the drawing, before stopping at a sleeveless dress with crisscross straps in the back.

"I like this one."

"Great; I just have to show these to Cathy and Hildie and see if Marimeia likes the flower girl's dress."

Relena was going shopping with Sally, Hildie, and Cathy to get the flowers and other stuff like that. After lunch they were going to the dressmaker's and dragging the guys with them for tuxedo fittings.

As they were walking out of Cherry Creek Floral, Relena notice something in a store window. Telling the others she'd meet them at the coffee shop where they were having lunch, she made her way to the window. In the window was a model of the Mars terraforming project so far. The terraforming project was a pet project of hers, and she was gld to see people were taking an interest in it. Turning away, Relena ran right into someone.

"I'm sorry," she looked up. "Milliardo!"

Her older brother's smiling face looked down at her.

"Zechs!" called a dark haired woman making her way through the crowds of people.

Noin carried a shopping bag and looked surprised but pleased to see Relena.

"Would you two like to have lunch with me?" Relena asked.

"Sure," Noin said.

Relena waved to the others as she, Zechs, and Noin got their own table.

"So what's new with you Relena?" asked Noin after they ordered.

"We-ll, I'm getting married," she answered.

"What!?" sputtered Zechs.

Relena explain everything that had transpired to date. When she finished, Zechs looked her in the eye for a long moment.

"Good," he said at last. "This isn't something that someone else put in your head. You made the decision to marry Heero on your own."

"Then you don't mind?"

"No, not if this is what you really want."

"Would you be willing to walk me down the aisle?"

"I'd love to."

After eating, the three of them met up with the other girls. Hildie and Cathy offered to go get the guys for tuxedo fittings, while Sally picked up Marimeia from Lady Une. They would all meet at the dressmaker's shop in twenty minutes.

As she, Noin, and Zechs walked to the dressmaker's, Relena asked, "Noin, would you be my maid of honor?"

"I'd be honored to."

While the boys were being fitted for their suits, Relena discussed the dresses with the seamstress.

"I'd like this dark lavender silk for the bridesmaid's dresses and the white silk for my gown."

"All right. I'll take your measurements now, and you'll need to come back in five or six days for fittings and final adjustments."

The gang trooped back to Relena's home. Relena was sent upstairs to get some rest.

"We don't want you relapsing before your wedding," Sally said.

Lady Une came and picked up Marimeia. After she had left, Zechs went to go get his and Noin's stuff. Noin went upstairs to find Relena reading a copy of Tiger Burning Bright.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Noin asked.

"Pretty well actually."

Noin sat at the foot of the bed, "You sound surprised at that."

"I think that I'm surprised at getting what I want. I'm marrying a man I love and who loves me. I'm having a private ceremony with my friends, without having a camera pressed into my face every second. That's not something I thought would happen after I became Vice-Foreign Minister."

"Who's coming to the wedding?"

"Just my friends. I didn't want a bunch of people who didn't know me there."

"Is your foster family coming?"

"No. I was only really close to my foster father. My foster mother is a wonderful person, but she has been one of the people who's been pushing me to marry the "right" type of guy. Somehow, I don't think she would approve."

"So who's playing mother of the bride?"

"Lady Une."

"Figures. What movies do you like?"

"Huh?"

"Sally and I thought it would be fun to have a movie night."

Sally and Noin disappeared and reappeared a half hour later with a bag of videos. Cathy ordered pizza for everyone. They settled down in the living room as Noin popped the first tape in the VCR.

"What movies did you get?" asked Duo.

"Miss Congeniality, Lord of the Rings, and Help," Sally replied.

Relena fell asleep with her head resting in Heero's lap during one of the chase scenes in Help. Heero simply pulled one of the blankets laying around over her. Zechs smiled; he could tell his little sister would be in good hands.

The day arrived. Relena found herself quite calm. She had always heard that brides were nervous at their wedding.

Noin was pinning the veil in Relena's hair.

"You look beautiful Relena."

"Thank you Noin."

Noin handed Relena her bouquet of white roses and lavender. The two of them went to join Zechs and the other girls outside the sanctuary.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"I think so," Relena replied.

The music began; Relena watched as one by one the others walked down the aisle. Finally it was her turn.

Relena couldn't remember most of the service, but she must have done everything right cause she was kissing Heero.

The reception was lots of fun. Everyone had nice things to say in their speeches, even Wufei. Relena threw the bouquet which Noin caught. Then the bride and groom shared the first dance. Relena smiled as she recognized the tune as Truly Madly Deeply, one of her favorites.

At the end of the reception, Relena and Heero got into a white limo and headed off to their honeymoon.

"Well, now all we have to do is tell the world," said Sally.

***Three Days Later***

All were anxiously waiting for the guest of honor, Relena Darlian, so they didn't notice the raven haired woman who was trying get their attention. Finally, with the help of a blond, she climbed up on a table, placed her fingers in her mouth, and shrilly whistled. That got their attention.

"Thank you. Miss Relena will not be coming tonight. She was married three days ago and is on her
honeymoon. Have a nice day."

She jumped down and began to leave. While Relena's suitors tried to pump her for information, her blond companion's glare quickly sent them on their way.

"Well, that went well," Noin told Zechs as they exited the building.

***Two Weeks Later***

Kari sat at her desk in front of Relena's office. It was Relena's first day back at work.

"Excuse me, is Vice-Foreign Minister Darlian in?" It was one of Relena's suitors.

"I'm sorry sir; there's no one here by that name," Kari answered.

"I'm sure this is the office."

Heero Yui walked in with a take-out bag.

"Mr. Yui, go ahead; she's expecting you," Kari said with a smile.

He went into the office, the suitor hot on his heels.

"Miss Darlian!"

Relena looked up from her work.

"Yui," she said.

"What?"

"My name is Relena Yui."

"But how?"

"I got married, duh."

Heero escorted the speechless man out of the office. The minute he was out of the room, Relena burst into giggles. Heero returned, and they started their lunch of take-out Chinese food.

"Heero."

"Hn."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Being there for me; falling in love with me."

Heero leaned over and kissed her.

"You're welcome."

Owari (the end)