Grand Prize Winner Chapter 5: Bumps in the Road, a gundam wing/ac fanfic

I can't tell you how pleased and overjoyed I am to have such wonderful readers. So far this is the best response I've ever gotten for a fic! Thank you so much for all of your great reviews! I just hope I can live up to expectations. I also hope that I can satisfy everyone—in fact I have a rather evil little plan in mind now…^.^ Hopefully you will find it as amusing as I'm going to! Keep reading, and I'll keep working! Thanks again!

Grand Prize Winner (pun intended)

Part 5: Bump in the Road

Milliardo Peacecraft smiled at the sight of his slight sister standing in front of the Winner estate as they pulled up. He wrapped his arm more securely around his wife's waist, dropping a quick kiss onto the top of her head.

"I think this marriage is going to work out just fine," he confided. His wife, Noin, glanced up at him and lifted an eyebrow.

"Really? They hardly know each other. In fact, they've only met a handful of times since the end of the war," she pointed out. Milliardo nodded.

"That's true, but he's a good man, and they're probably very compatible."

"I hope you're right," Noin agreed, and allowed him to help her out of the limo once it had come to a stop before the estate. Relena was waiting, playing nervously with a few strands of her hair. She seemed rather nervous about going inside herself, but broke out into a large smile at the sight of her brother and sister-in-law.

"Milliardo!" she cried, racing forward into his warm embrace. Milliardo laughed and spun her around, then handed her over to Noin for another hug. "I've missed you both so much! How was Mars?"

"Red," Noin replied dryly, then laughed. "You look wonderful! Have you gone inside to see your fiancé yet?"

"That can wait while I greet my family," Relena said, then placed her hands on Noin's protruding stomach. "It looks like I'll be an aunt soon," she added.

"Due in three months," Noin agreed, smiling broadly. Milliardo grinned as well, once again possessively wrapping an arm around his wife.

"It's a boy," he added. "You're going to have a nephew."

"She's going to have quite a few in a matter of months," an amicable voice called, and the trio turned to see Quatre, casually dressed in loose jeans and an emerald green tee shirt. "And quite a brood of nieces, as well. Ms. Noin, it's wonderful to see you again."

Noin smiled as Quatre kissed her hand, then looked up just in time to see Milliardo's face darken momentarily in his familiar flash of jealousy. He was smiling again in a matter of moments, however, and received his own warm handshake from Quatre.

Quatre himself was busy glancing over his wife-to-be as he escorted her into the estate. He didn't find her absolutely stunning, but with her honey-blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, she was a pretty young woman. Her soft, pale coloring was offset nicely by her casual jeans and soft pink shirt. She wore only a small amount of makeup, but she had enhanced her rosy cheeks, and her light mascara further accented her eyes.

"You look nice," he told her honestly. She smiled up at him, a bit distractedly.

"I'd have dressed up more—" she started.

"Nonsense," he replied. "You don't have to dress up to come home."

Relena's tentative smile faded into a wince. She'd been afraid of this. "Quatre…I think we should talk."

Milliardo shook his head as his sister led her fiancé away.

"Quatre's not going to like this," he murmured to his wife. Noin sighed and met his gaze, eyes troubled.

"No, he won't. I don't think that anyone would."

He shook his head again and pulled his wife closer, trying to ignore the sense of pending doom. It seemed sometimes as if Relena was trying to annoy Quatre out of marrying her. She was, by all appearances, getting a nasty set of pre-marital nerves, and her wedding was still over a half a year away.

"Do you really think this is going to work?" Noin asked a few moments later.

"I sure hope so. I really like him."

Angel Tsuiraku placed her hands on her hips and lifted her eyebrow at Duo's bent form. He was on his haunches, ear pressed against the crack in the double doors that led into Quatre's bedroom. That he was eavesdropping on the argument inside was obvious, though why was beyond her.

"Duo Maxwell," she said firmly, practicing a "mom" voice. Duo jumped and glanced rather sheepishly over his shoulder at her.

"They're arguing," he stated, rather defensively.

"They?" she questioned, her eyebrow arching further.

"Relena and Quatre. She got here this morning along with her brother and sister-in-law," Duo explained. "She's just told him that she wants to move out when they get married."

"Didn't you tell me that she just turned down his request for a small, quiet wedding?" Angel asked, forgetting her anger in her surprise. This marriage wasn't going well already, and it hadn't even started yet.

"Yeah. Sounds like she's trying to piss him off recently."

"Why?" Now Angel's tone held a note of confusion along with surprise. Duo shrugged and turned back to the door.

"She doesn't love him. If she pisses him off enough, he won't marry her."

Angel blinked again, then smiled. She lightly shoved Duo out of the doorway and reached for the knob.

"What're you doin'?" he squeaked.

"Going in," Angel replied with a shrug and an innocent smile.

"You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"They're fighting!"

Angel sighed. "Oh, all right. I promise not to go in if you promise not to spy," she said matter-of-factly.

"Fine," Duo agreed, disappointed. After a quick shake on it, they parted. Angel had to find something to do to occupy herself until Quatre emerged from his room. She decided he would probably need a person to listen when he finally did.

She intended to be that person.

Relena, Sally noted, put Wufei on edge. The three of them were sitting around Quatre's large table for lunch. Relena herself looked a little troubled from her fight with Quatre earlier, and Wufei was beyond tense. She decided that it was more than likely the fact that he didn't agree with Relena but wouldn't vocalize his displeasure which made him so nervous. He was also probably a bit shifty because of his plan to split up her marriage. He kept very, very quiet and sat very straight up in his seat. He didn't even try to catch Sally's eye, afraid he might give something away.

"Wufei, how are you?" Relena asked after a moment, trying to generate conversation.

"Good." It was a terse, one-syllable answer—very safe. Relena nodded at this and didn't press the issue further. It was quite obvious that something was on Wufei's mind, something he didn't seem eager to share. She turned instead to Sally.

"How many people are here?"

"Well, there's Wufei and I, Duo, Hilde, Catherine, Trowa, Kathleen, Heero, Makoto—" Sally watched Relena fight to hold back a response at the mention of Heero's love interest—"Dorothy, and Angel."

"Angel?" Relena asked, unfamiliar with the name.

"An actress," Sally supplied, "and a friend of Duo's. I think he brought her along because he didn't want to leave her alone for so long in the apartment. He and Hilde are staying until the wedding."

"Oh…well, that's nice." Despite all attempts at conversation, something was still caught in Relena's mind. "Sally, Quatre just told me he didn't want to move in with me at the Peacecraft estate…he gave in after a while, but he…well, let's just say it wasn't easy."

"Onna, this is all Quatre has left of his father."

Wufei, who had been all but silent, surprised them both. What he said, Sally realized a moment later, was true. All Quatre really had left of his late father was the estate and the Winner Empire. Relena seemed to consider this.

"And my home is all I have left of my real family," she replied.

"Except for Milliardo." Wufei glanced at her. "Quatre does have his sisters, but he watched his father die in front of him right after an argument. This is his home. It is never easy to make a man leave his home."

Relena sighed and shook her head, upset with his reasoning, upset over the fight…Sally knew that the whole engagement scene had taken its toll on Relena as well.

"He'll come around. You're getting married. He's just uncertain about things right now."

Relena nodded, sighed, and tried to smile. "You're right. Of course you are. Thank you, Sally."

Dorothy stayed shut up in her room for the afternoon; staring up at the sky out of her window and feeling very much like a caged bird. She had nowhere else to go, nowhere else to turn…that knowledge kept her trapped here in an estate full of people that she had tried to leave behind. Most particularly, the blonde angel sitting in his office, working on paperwork until his nerves were calm enough to join his guests. The fight had been a doozie…damaging to a couple planning their marriage.

So why, she asked herself, did she enjoy it so much? It couldn't be because she was experiencing feelings for the new Mr. Winner.

She flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder and considered her position. She was in no place to dispute the wedding that would take place in a few months. And she certainly wasn't about to announce her feelings.

And just who in the hell was that Angel girl?! Flitting around as if she was going to stay forever!

No matter, she supposed. Seducing Quatre out of marriage wouldn't work…he was too much of a gentleman for that approach. But what approach would be appropriate?

She'd stay in her room, she decided, until she figured it out.

Quatre sighed deeply, resting his chin on his linked fingers, elbows resting on his large desk. Sooner or later he was going to have to face Relena and the rest of his guests, but for now the solitude of his office seemed the best atmosphere for his mood.

He'd be leaving the place of his birth, the home of his childhood, for a girl he barely knew. He saw her on the television more often than he'd ever seen her in person. And yet he would be leaving this place behind for her. He never imagined that he'd be reconfiguring everything for a woman who had his respect, but not his love.

Life certainly did have its twists, and Quatre wondered idly if this twist would break him in two. It wasn't exactly looking very bright.

He was so lost in thought, and so used to being alone and uninterrupted in his office, that he jumped when the door was quietly opened. In walked Angel, balancing a tray very expertly in one hand. On that tray were two cups of tea.

Without a word, she placed his cup on a saucer on his desk. How she had known that he needed the calming warmth of a cup of tea was beyond him, but at this point he didn't care.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, wrapping his fingers around the steaming cup.

"Sure." She smiled at him and headed for the door, understanding his desire to be alone. She paused at the door, however, and glanced over her shoulder at him. "Quatre?"

He looked up at her again, cup halfway to his lips. "Hm?"

"Chin up. You're too good a person for this mess not to work out in your favor. You'll do the right thing."

And with those words of encouragement, she disappeared from his office doorway. Quatre sat, frozen for a moment as he contemplated her words, and much cheered by the show of faith in him. It would work out, for he and Relena had done too much work for it not to.

Calmed, Quatre finished his tea and went downstairs to join his friends.

In the next chap. the rest of the characters will get a say. I would have added more but I didn't want this to seem cramped. So stay tuned for Catherine, Mako, Kathleen, Trowa, Duo, Hilde, and probably a bit more of Relena. Please keep reviewing with ideas and requests! I'm having so much fun forming ideas from your suggestions. Happy reading!

*Angel