Chapter 6: Snow
Relena admired the landscape of her home as her friends walked around and talked. It had been Noin's idea to have a picnic in the back yard . . . the only obstacle to overcome being eight inches of thick snow covering the ground. Relena was looking out over the perfect white lumps that would be peppered with roses in the summer, and commented on the snowman Trowa and Catherine were making to Hilde who walked beside her. Heero's mother was standing with Dr. J and Heero under one of the trees. Relena wondered if she should go over with them, but her thoughts were interrupted very quickly.
"Yo, Hilde!" Duo called and the petite girl turned to a snowball full in the face. Some of it sprinkled onto Relena, who grinned as Hilde yelled at the boy.
"Duo, you idiot! C'mon Relena, let's get 'im!" she bent quickly and Relena followed suit, both girls grinning as they chased Duo across the snow. Hilde managed to tackle him and, with their combined power, they stuffed handfuls of snow down his back.
Clapping commenced and Relena looked up from where she and Hilde were in the snow, catching sight of Quatre applauding them and chuckling, before Relena cocked her head at Dorothy who stood behind the blonde pilot, then smiled devilishly as she pushed herself up, gathered a mitten-full of snow, and charged the now-frightened boy as Dorothy knocked him down from behind. The two girls stuffed snow down his dark green sweater as he grabbed handfuls of the icy stuff and rubbed it in their hair, grinning and trying to escape.
Hilde was rolling on her back laughing at them, pushing herself up and grinning as the girls finished with their blonde victim before a hard-packed snowball slammed into her head from behind. Turning, she found another one hit her in the face, stinging and wet as it knocked her beret off, but nothing compared to the injuries she'd collected in the war. With malicious intent in her eye, she chucked one back at Duo, dodging another as it came hurtling her way. She only just caught sight of Sally hurling a huge, hard snowball at point blank range into the back of Wufei's head where he sat reading a book by the side of the house, but then was preoccupied as Duo propelled another her way. She hit him in the face with another and the Deathscythe pilot stumbled and fell into Trowa and Catherine's snowman as the siblings watched in wide-eyed horror. Duo shook himself, getting out of the pile of mush he had created from their orderly little snowman, and laughed nervously to the pair before breaking out in a full dash away from them, the siblings hot on his trail.
"Relena!" Duo cried, grabbing the pacifist and holding her as a shield between him and the angry pair, "Protect me!" He glanced around past her head to see Catherine hefting a snowball, waiting for a clear shot. "You wouldn't hurt a princess, would you?" he backed up quickly, dragging Relena with him, so that Trowa couldn't circle around behind him. He eventually ended up with his back to the tree that Heero and his mother were standing under as Duo hid behind the slender girl. Finally, Heero shook his head and detached Duo from his precious shield, taking her aside and slipping one arm around her waist to watch as Duo shrieked and fled a barrage of snow.
Relena blushed in Heero's casual embrace, smiling nervously as she watched the fights continuing. Dorothy had teamed up with Sally upon Wufei, who had made a barrier by tipping the ironwork table on its side. Relena noticed that the blonde warmonger occasionally sent a snowball flying at Quatre, who stood by, trying to keep out of the way.
"Here," Heero's mother came over to the pair and started brushing the snow out of Relena's hair with her fingers. Heero, as if having forgotten that he was still holding her, quickly let go and blushed. To be truthful, it had seemed such a natural position to him, he had forgotten about the real boundaries that separated them. He was still disconcerted about the scene in the wrapping room and was determined not to let anything similar occur, and so had promised to keep his distance from now on. However, he could not help the omnipotent presence of his mother, and knew the necessity of the appearance of affection. How he could accomplish this while still maintaining his diffidence and seclusion would be an interesting feat to observe.
