Cole saw them the minute they walked in the room. She'd been bored out of her skull having depleted her short supply of inane chit chat and was forced to listen to the other people around her supply theirs. Her date was a family friend named Baron. Appearance wise he was an acceptable date, but personally he was dumb as a stump. Or maybe it was just that any conversation topic that didn't involve him was out of his scope of understanding. She was staring at the door longingly when they walked in. Her stomach did a horrible flip-flop-splat thing in her belly. While the pair moved off to an open spot near the entrance with another couple, Cole stood there silently counting how many of Wufei's orifices she could stuff a stiletto heel into.
A tidal wave of insecurities swept up and threatened to drown her. A very large part of her wanted to run and hide like a little girl before they saw her, but she couldn't. Cole was a Catalonia and they did not sulk or pout, and they did not swerve from their duty. She'd stand here and be polite even if it killed her. Her thoughts were broken when the foursome was joined by another two couples. What the hell? Cole recognized the two new women immediately. There was no question they had to be the two women in his files. Watching the group, her eyes narrowed. What is going on here? Every instinct she had told her something big was going on and she didn't want to miss it. Sucking up the bulk of her fear and insecurities, she excused herself from the group she was in and headed towards the new group to find out what was going on.
************
They were waiting for the happy couple to arrive. After all that was the sole purpose of Wufei and his friends for being here. Because of her political and social standing, Relena had to make an appearance at this function. Being that it was his wedding night Heero didn't want to stay any longer than absolutely necessary. So his friends were drafted to run interference when the couple wanted to leave. Their Heero and Relena's attendance here tonight would also serve the dual purpose of informally alerting the public to their marriage. By the length of time it was taking them to arrive, Wufei was fairly sure the couple was celebrating early. He felt uncomfortable here. Like there was an itch between his shoulder blades that he couldn't scratch.
Restlessly, he scanned the room. His eyes fell briefly on a pretty woman in a sapphire blue gown walking in his direction. He gave her a smile then continued his survey of the crowd. Suddenly his head snapped back and refocused on the woman. What the hell? That can't be Cole. Of course he knew who it was, but his mind didn't want to acknowledge it. In the first place she was wearing a dress with one wicked looking slit that almost went clean to her hip. He wasn't sure how she did it, but sometime since he'd last seen her she'd sprouted an extra couple meters of leg. There was something different about her face, and she'd done something foofy to her hair. This was NOT Cole. This was some woman that just… well he didn't know what. But it was not Cole!
Woman was the operative word. As she closed the final distance between them and he caught the whiff of the scent she was wearing he inwardly groaned. His fingertips started to tingle and he felt the heat pooling in his groin. Not now! He was yelling at his unruly body but his body was yelling back at him woman! Womanwomanwomanwoman. So much for his much vaunted self control. Oh gods this was going to be a long night. He stood there semi hard while she walked up and flicked him a glance with her ice blue eyes that was every bit as frigid as their color suggested.
"Chang" she said coolly. Then she turned to her cousin "Dorothy, I was under the impression you couldn't attend tonight. Otherwise I wouldn't have come."
One of Dorothy's eyebrows twitched at her cousin's odd behavior. Normally Cole would embrace her warmly then say something like: 'Oh great you came! Now I can get the hell out of here!' She noticed Wufei was watching Cole with great intensity. His jaw was clenched so tightly his cheek was twitching. It was obvious that Cole was deliberately ignoring him. Oh my. She thought, so that's how it is. What an interesting development. Well what was a girl to do? Just play along and enjoy the fireworks.
"Indeed I wasn't going to attend, but something came up I just couldn't say no to." Since she was watching very closely for it, Dorothy saw the subtle tightening of Cole features. Another quick glance at Wufei confirmed her suspicions. Oh yes, they've got it bad. She was busy trying to think up another comment that could be taken more than one way when Wufei spoke up.
"Don't play games with her Dorothy, I didn't ask you here." He waited until Cole turned and made eye contact with him. "We were both asked here by Heero and Relena."
"Really? And did they invite them too?" She asked nodding her head in the direction of Anna and Shelby. "Just what have you gotten yourself into Chang?"
"I haven't done anything wrong!" he shot back at her. Both of their voices were starting to get louder and people were starting to stare.
Anna glided in and saved them from making a scene. "Wufei, why don't you introduce us to your friend?" she gave them both a smile that had far too many teeth.
Cole gave a quick appraisal of the woman before her. She wasn't fooled by the killer body. There was a formidable intelligence hidden behind the sexy packaging. "Oh were not friends." She replied "I'm just a fellow preventer who's been asked to keep an eye on Wufei. He's been getting himself into trouble lately." Although she couldn't see him, Cole could almost feel the flush creeping in to Wufei's cheeks behind her. "By the way I'm Cole Catalonia." She offered her hand and a toothy grin of her own.
"Hello I'm Annabella, and this is my fiancé Quatre." Anna had to smile. The poor woman didn't realize what she was doing, but Anna could pick it up clear as day. Cole clearly saw Shelby and herself as the reason Wufei was in trouble and was making a not so subtle declaration to back off he was under her protection.
As a rule Anna didn't like to use her abilities to tamper with people's lives, but watching this woman try to protect Wufei from her appealed to her soft heart. She ignored Shelby's arch look as she told a little white lie to knock Cole a off balance. "So you're the one we've been hearing about. Yes, Wufei's told us all about you. I suppose sooner or later we'll have to sit down and have a little chat. Obviously this is not the time or place."
Wufei was grateful that Cole was turned away from him because it gave him time to cover over his surprise. He didn't know what the woman was up to and he wasn't sure he wanted to know either. Cole seemed just as taken aback as he was.
"Uh… yes… it's a pleasure. Um… I guess we'll have to find time to talk somewhere else." She answered. After a moment she seemed to snap back into herself. She scanned the entire group. "So just why is it you're all here again?"
The reason why walked into the room at that moment. It took Cole's trained eye three whole seconds to take in the overly pleased faces on both of them, the sparkling ring of diamonds on Relena's finger and the corresponding white gold band on Heero's. "Oh my." She said to the group around her "That's going to cause quite a stir."
