By: Brat Princess

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. That's going to get old real quick...

Dedication: For the guy who broke my heart, whose I broke in return, who just recently once again broke mine -_-;; Anyway..

A/N: OMG!! You people that reviewed are ABSOLUTELY awesome!! I didn't think I'd get any. Thank you all so much. *sniffles* Made me so happy. I hope you all continue to stick with this story.

********************************************************************** When It Starts to Fade By: Brat Princess ************************************************************************

~2~

Relena bit down on her lip to stop the gasp that nearly tore from her throat. Heero. Engaged. Another girl. Those words didn't go together well. Relena had never prepared or trained her mind or heart to ready for these words. Quietly, she slid away from the entrance as the conversation continued, and worked to will away the tears threatening to escape her eyes. How could it really be that Heero was engaged to someone else? He'd only been gone...sixteen months.

"So, you're thinking about announcing the big day pretty soon?" Duo's voice drifted out, catching Relena's attention.

Heero was the one to answer, "Within the next few weeks, for sure."

"That's ....great. Heero, buddy, I want to tell you that I'm truly happy for you. Especially for surviving after catching one like Sergeant Noin over here....ow! Meaness..." Duo muttered, playfully.

"I'm not a catch. And I am nice," said the female voice tonelessly.

"Yeah, really? Compared to what?"

Relena almost giggled. Had it not been a female voice doing the arguing, she could've sworn it was Heero who was fighting with Duo. She fought with Duo with such ease that it was so terribly and somehow painfully similar. This trait must've had Duo thinking that this was the right girl for Heero.

"One question," Duo's voice suddenly turned serious.

"Hn?"

"Have you told Relena?"

There was a moment of silence, before Heero answered quietly, "No."

"Relena? Who...oh! Relena. Well, I mean, we could go tell her now. I forgot that you were her head bodyguard, but really, we could wait until we tell everyone else."

Duo laughed nervously, "That wouldn't be such a good idea, Angel Face."

"Why? Does he have to like, reserve a day off?"

A pause, and then:

"Yeah, yeah," Duo explained, "I uh, feel pretty honored to be the only one that knows right now."

"And that's only because you can't keep your nose in your own business," Heero said.

"Naw, the reason for that is because the best man should rightfully be the first to know."

"Relena!"

Relena nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard her name being called. She whipped around to see Hilde approaching her quickly.

"Oh, Hilde! Hello. How are you? Enjoying the party?" Relena managed to get out without sounding too suspicious. She also raised her voice to alert the occupants of the study.

They all fell quiet.

"I'm enjoying myself," Hilde smiled, "I'm so happy for Sally and Wufei. He's the first of the boys to be married. Ofcourse," Hilde shrugged, "He's already been married once, so he's progressing much faster than the other four, I suppose."

Relena nodded, "It's hard to picture any of the others getting married, but for Wufei, I guess it's only natural."

Relena's gaze swung to Hilde in worry, "Oh, Hilde, I didn't mean..."

Hilde held up a hand to silence her friend, "That's alright, Relena. I know what you mean," her gaze drifted to the floor, "And you're exactly right."

There was an awkward silence from all five people in both places, until the shuffling of feet caught Relena's attention. Heero, followed by Duo and the woman exited the study, looking a bit concerned about the two women standing in the hall.

"Hilde-babe! Ha-ha...how long you been out here?" Duo asked, appearing innocent.

Hilde shrugged, "Oh, Relena and I have only been out here a few seconds. I saw her walking this way, so I caught up to talk to her," Hilde paused to give her boyfriend a puzzling look, "Why?"

"Oh, no reason. We were just, um, planning something...if you'll promise to keep it a secret I'll tell you."

Hilde nodded warily.

"Uh...bachelor party for Wufei!"

Both Heero and the unfamiliar woman swung their gazes to Duo, successfully hiding the confusion they were sure to feel

"Isn't that right, Camilla?" Duo nudged her.

She narrowed her gray-blue eyes at him, "Mm-hmm. Yeah. They were planning a bachelor party for Wufei, and I just....hung around to make sure it was nothing too extreme."

"Now, you promise you won't tell Sally? Or Wufei for that matter?"

Hilde and the woman whom Duo called Camilla exchanged partly knowing, partly exasperated glances, and all three women nodded.

"Well, I'm certain since you boy sare planning a part for Wufei, then it's not out of the ordinary for us to throw one for Sally," Relena suggested, sharing a small grin with Hilde.

Hilde suddenly turned quickly back to the lovely dark-haired woman, and studied her for a moment, before realization dawned on her features.

"Oh, Camilla!" she threw her slender arms around the stranger, and hugged her asif she were an old friend, "I had no idea! I didn't recognize you at first."

"Well, going from a uniform to an evening gown is quite a transition, especially for me," Camilla admitted.

"Oh, Relena," Hilde turned and pulled her friend closer to Heero's fianceè, "This is Camilla Eastman Noin. It's Miss Lucrezia's...."

"She's my sister, Relena," said a familiar voice from dirrectly behind her.

Relena turned to see Noin, standing there, smiling at Camilla, "I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you sooner, but I've been looking for my baby sister for around twelve years, and only discovered she was still alive six months ago."

Camilla smiled brightly at her older sister, "It was weird, really, how we found each other," the Angel Faced woman spoke, "I was working with Miss Schbeiker here, and a few other Preventers on the Terra Forming project on Mars, when I came across Zechs Merquise. He told me I reminded him of someone, and ofcourse, I thought at first, he was picking a bad-tasted way of hitting on me. Then he showed me Lucy's picture."

Lucy? Relena inwardly pouted, This girl had no right to call her best friend the very name that she had given her. Lucy had been the name Relena had christened her guardian with after some four years of being accompanied everywhere by her.

Camilla stuck out her hand, "I'm very pleased to meet you, Miss Foreign Minister."

Relena smiled, and shook the offered hand, noting that her eyes matched the shade of Noin's perfectly.

"It's good to meet you as well, Miss Noin."

"Oh, please, Miss Relena. Call me Camilla."

Relena smiled a forced, tight smile, and tightened her grip on the delicate hand, "Camilla."

Relena studied the faces of her three commrades. None of three seemed surprised at this knowledge. Why had Relena been the last to find out, especially when she and Noin were so close? Knowing this stung slightly simply because it felt remotely like betrayal.

Relena released the girl's hand, and stepped away fromt he small group, offering a smile, "I suppose it's time for me to head back to the party. It won't be formidable for the Foreign Minister to be wandering the halls while two of her closest friends are celebrating such a happy time."

"Yeah, I guess it's about time we had head back too," Duo said, throwing his arm around Hilde's slim little shoulder, "You coming, Yuy?'

Heero noticed the evil twinkle in his friend's eye, and nodded. He held back for a moment, though, letting Relena leave first with Noin following close behind, before he offered his arm to Camilla.

The six of them reentered the party discovering that their absenses were barely noticed. Sally was teasing Wufei as she tried to teach him to waltz. Dorothy was flirting with Trowa Barton, while Catherine, the big sister of the former Gundam pilot, stood by and glared at the younger woman.

Others were either dancing, or standing at the buffet table, chit-chatting about more or less nothing.

The night wore on, and Relena allowed men to dance with her, step on her toes, and fill her ears full of nonsense about her great beauty and her powerful persona.

She noticed something imparticular. The more you wanted really bad nights to end, the more they dragged on and on, endlessly.

And Relena was having the most terrible of evenings. Her dress was a little too big, making her straps slip off her shoulders every now and then, her shoes were a good deal too small, rubbing blisters on the feet she kept dancing on out of courtesy to the young Preventer men, and besides also having a horrbile hair day once again, she had found out Heero was engaged to another woman.

Could it get any worse?

No sooner had Relena sat down to take a break, was she once again asked to dance, but this time by the Preventer she knew only from seeing earlier that day.

Her new bodyguard Jerome Jackson.

"I won't batter those toes of yours anymore than they already have been," he assured her, grinning knowingly.

Relena smiled back, and shook her head, "God, this night has been so long," she muttered, taking his hand as he led her out to the dance floor.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," his eyes were locked somewhere behind her, but only for a moment befor ethey returned to her, "You look very lovely this evening, Foreign Minister Dorlain."

"Thank you. I sure don't feel lovely. My feet are too huge to fit properly in these shoes, my hair refused to curl this evening, and...are you tired of hearing me complain??"

Jerome chuckled lightly, "Honestly, yes. You're the Foreign Minister. You're beautiful, interesting, and have the best job in the world. Surely you can find something pleasant to talk about."

Relena, though slightly taken aback that a 'lowly Preventer' would point out that she was complaining, had to smile at the ease of which he approached her conversationally.

"Well," she began, "I just found out that someone was engaged to an old fancy of mine..."

Jerome's dark eyes grew wide for a moment, "What? You fancied Chang...?"

Relena shook her head vigorously, forgetting that no one was supposed to know about Heero's engagement, "Oh, no! Not-not Wufei!" she couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face, "It's someone else. But I can't tell you who right now."

She said this calmly, but in reality, she felt like she could tell this guy anything, and the secret would be safe with him. And she'd only known him for a day. Sort of.

"Hmm...maybe I can guess. We know it isn't Duo because he hasn't proposed to Miss Hilde yet...probably won't either. Who could it be?" large brown eyes scanned the room, and locked immediately upon Heero Yuy and Camilla E. Noin.

Somehow, deep down, seeing the way they looked at each other, and their obvious closeness, he knew it was them.

But to Relena, he only shrugged, "Oh, well, guess I'll find out later on, huh?"

Relena lifted her shoulder, causing a strap to slip, "Perhaps."

A chill ran down her spine when Jerome, with cool, soft fingertips, pushed the strap back on her shoulder.

But the tap on her shoulder a moment later, nearly turned her to a puddle of goop.

She could always tell when Heero was near, or if Heero was touching her, so she straightened her face the best she could before turning to acknowledge him.

"Yes, Heero?"

He loomed nearly a head taller than her, his dark, narrowed blue eyes fixed on her wide, sapphire ones.

"I need to tell you something," he said, without emotion. He never asked, he just always stated.

It was odd, Relena thought, how Heero could practically give her orders to do a particular thing, without really being demanding. He had to know that she was virtually wrapped about his pinky finger. She knew herself that if he asked her, whatever it be, she would do anything for the man.

Relena followed Heero into the hall, away from the crowd, where he turned to her, looking rather serious.

"Relena..."

It was only customary, a tradition, for her to answer him the same as she always had.

Softly, she replied, "Heero?"

"I think that it's right for you to know I'm getting married. I figured I should tell you so I could go on and plan a day off for the wedding," he explained coolly.

How could he be so quick and easy with this sort of thing? Relena herself could tell that the only reason he was telling her was so she wouldn't get her hopes up. Yet in his eyes, there was no flash of emotion, or regret at waiting so long to pursue her, or anything. Nothing except the statement itself, which proved he was serious. But then, when was there a time when he wasn't serious?

Relena sucked in a deep breath, getting ready to act surprised, "Oh...well, alright," she cleared her throat, and willed away the tears, forcing a smile to her lips, "Congratulations, Heero. I'm happy that you've found someone to be happy with."

Heero studied her carefully, making sure not to make his emotions evident. Why did her smile hold sadness? He was sure she'd moved on. Well, he wasn't sure, but she had waited a damned long time, and he thought that she had eventually grown tired of it. He knew he had.

In a way, Heero had known she would be upset. After all, he'd have expected her to start weeping silent tears, and asking why had he led her on for so long?

That's what it felt like he had done to her. There'd been times when he came so close to telling her his feelings, moments when he found himself indulging in small gestures of affection, like brushing blonde strands away from her face, wiping a tear from her cheek, looking her in the eyes, and for short periods of time, letting her see all the emotions he was feeling.

Something had always interrupted them, and it had always gone back to square one when they would meet again.

This time their distraction was permanent, because this time it was Camilla. And Heero was quite certain that he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with Camilla. It made sense. She was a soldier, he was soldier. She'd been trained as a child, he had as well. She had serious emotional issues, as did he. They could work out these problems together. He knew what to deal with while in the company of Camilla. She'd seen the same things, fought in the same war with the same weapon, with the same monster chasing her, screaming in the back of her mind to just die, that her life had no worth.

And they'd both pulled through, survived the war, and weakened that demon considerably.

They understood each other, and they could heal each other. This inevitably led to affection, which led to love.

It was just the way it was meant to happen. Relena didn't belong with someone like him, who had killed so many seemingly without regret.

"It'll be around the first of November," Heero informed her, taking her continued silence as a dismissal.

Relena nodded her head in affirmation, "Alright, I'll make sure to have back up during that week. Good luck, and congratulations again, Heero."

Before he could thank her, she spun on her heel, and walked swiftly back to the party.
* * * *

Relena left the party earlier than she'd planned, because the tears just wouldn't hold any longer. She told Pagan to take the rest of her bodyguards home later on, that she would find a way home herself.

As the young Minister exited the building, someone came rushing out behind her, cursing softly.

Relena turned to see Jerome Jackson.

Being frusterated, and tired, and hearing him curse, Relena took it out on him.

"When I first met you, sir, I got the assumption that you were rude and nosy. When you were such a gentleman tonight while we were dancing, I thought I may have been wrong. I guess I assumed right in the first place, because not only are you seemingly following me around, but the language coming from your mouth is..." Relena got cut off.

"Oh, shut it up, Foreign Minister," he griped, catching up with her, "I'm your security, and you left the building alone. I had to come after you. And you know what they say about 'assume'...it makes an ass out of the both of us. As for my language, I'm certain you've used worse," he offered his elbow, "Now, shall I escort you to the limo, milady?"

She felt like slapping the taste out of his mouth for being a smart aleck. She stuck her nose in the air, and started down by herself, letting her straps slip from her shoulders.

Tears were already formed at the corner of her eyes, and she was so tired.

Then she did something both embarrassing, and rather clumsy.

She got her swollen feet tangled, and took a fall toward the pavement, giving a shout of surprise.

Jerome caught her arms from behind to keep her from falling face first.

"I've got ya," he announced, steadying her on her own feet once again.

Relena, tired, heart broken, embarrassed, and sore, couldn't hold in frustration any longer. It was either use the handsome man near her as a punching bag, or burst into tears.

When she spun around bursting into tears, she nearly knocked the unsuspecting Preventer over by slamming into him.

"Oh, God, I've had the most terrible night," she cried, feeling his arms come around to support her, "Oh, I'm sorry I've been so rude, Mr. Jackson, but I've had a bad day, and a worse evening," she sniffed, "You see, I was completely wrong about someone that I thought...cared for me, and...." she shook her head, let go of him, and plopped onto the bottom step.

"Miss Relena?" Jerome sat down beside her, and tilted her chin up, "You want to talk about this?"

"Don't call me 'Miss Relena', please. It makes me feel old. I'm only twenty-three. Relena's just fine," she said, rubbing at her red eyes.

Jerome smiled slightly, "Alright, Relena. You want to talk about what's got you so upset?"

She looked up, and couldn't help but give a sheepish osrt of smile, "Everything. You know when you just have those days...where you don't feel attractive at all, and nothing fits right, or looks right, and then it just seems to mess things up through the whole day?"

Jerome gave a nodd.

"Well, earlier, I suppose the day started out alright. I'll give today that much credit. My hair, make-up and clothes didn't do the right thing, but I was feeling pretty good up until tonight."

"Okay, so your make-up messed up, your dress doesn't fit right, your shoes are quite noticeably too small," he grinned when she gave him a reproachful look, "And your hair is a bit messy," he wiped at the tears lingering on her cheek, "Trust me, Relena, none of that stuff makes you any less attractive in anyone's eyes. I think you know that, so what made this day so terrible for you?"

Relena took a deep breath, and sniffed a couple of times, "Mr. Jackson, incase you haven't heard from the grapevine already, Heero Yuy and I...well, we used to be sort of....close," she said, choosing her words very carefully.

Jerome nodded, "I've heard those rumors."

"Well, I had feelings for him for a very long time, since I was fifteen. In fact, I still do."

Jerome nodded, and urged her to continue.

"I was...wandering the halls tonight, and I happened to come to a room where I heard voices. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but...I overheard Duo, Heero and this Camilla girl talking about weddings. I heard Duo mention that it wouldn't be long until Heero and Camilla would be announcing their own engagement," Relena glanced at Jerome, "But you mustn't let on that you know. No one is supposed to know yet," her eyes shifted to her lap, "Heero approached me earlier, and told me himself. He claimed he was just telling me so he could book an off day," the tears started flowing again, "He really never cared."

Relena let Jerome wrap his arms around her shoulders, and lay her head against his, and just cried.

"It's alright," he said, "He's just the kind of guy that doesn't show that stuff, I guess. Then there are the idiot men who do this sort of thing all the time, just to prove they have power over a girl....uh, sorry."

"It's okay. The truth is, he probably didn't care. I was just a lovesick teenager, probably," Relena sniffled, and looked up into Jerome Jackson's chocolate brown pools, "I just...maybe I just wanted him to be the one to make me feel special. He made me feel strong, and important. But I wanted really to feel beautiful and loved. I guess I'm neither in his eyes."

A rush of anger swept through Jerome.

Here he was, sitting on the bottom step, on a beautiful night, with a gorgeous girl in his arms, and all he could think of was ripping the stuffing out his superior officer. How could one man be so blind? How could any man resist such a beautiful young woman, with such a strong heart and streak of stobborness?

"I don't know," he said aloud, "what you are in Heero Yuy's eyes," he cupped her chin, "But in my eyes, Miss Relena, you don't have to worry about feeling beautiful. Yuy's blind if can't atleast see that much."

Relena felt that chill again, but heat rushed to her cheeks. This man, that she hardly knew, had complimented her on her beauty. And he wasn't some important politician, or some obsessive fan. He was her bodyguard, one that didn't see her as superior because of her position, but because of her strength, and admired her beauty. The man staring into her eyes, that had called her beautiful, was also himself one of the most beautiful human beings she'd ever seen.

Thick, dark hair that fell across his forehead; deep, dark, chocolate eyes, a winning smile...he had this very attractive mouth, that seemingly drew her in.

His breath tickled hers, they were so close.

Relena couldn't help it, she just went for it.

The kiss was short, sweet and full of affection.

However, the two weren't alone. The witness to the kiss stood atop the stairs, anger rising, fist clenching at their sides.

Jerome kissing Relena....it was totally intolerable.

It could go no further. The witness would stop this fling in it's prime.

Even if causing one of the two people bodily harm was necessary.

* * * *

To Be Continued....

* * * *

Author's Note: So who do you think the witness is? I'm not telling...but I'd love for you to e-mail me and tell me who you think it is. That's me hinting for readers to REVIEW...PLEASE!

~Brat Princess~