Never, Ever, After

By: Prinder

Warnings: Slight swearing.

Rating: PG-13 just to be safe.

Summery: Relena really should be more careful about what she wishes for…

Disclaimer: *Grumble, grumble* *sigh* …I do not own Gundam Wing, nor will I ever own it. I am just a poor, pitiful wannabe-author that isn't worth suing, so, if you please, just don't.

"Denotes speech."
'Denotes thought.'

Denotes writing.

"Denotes over a phone or any other form of com-system."

(Denotes my interruptions.)

Chapter nine

"Alright, how bad is it?" Relena asked her, strangely matched, friend, Dorothy as she turned around twice to show off the dress that she had put on.

"I just don't think it's the right color, Miss Relena." Dorothy replied as she tapped her pointer finger thoughtfully on her lower lip.

"No, I like it Dorothy! The shape of it works on Relena. I would look like a toad if I wore something like that!" Hilde exclaimed from her position on Relena's window-seat in her bedroom as they helped her pick out something nice to ware to the upcoming party that she was going to attend.

"I don't know why I'm even bothering…" Relena sighed as she changed out of the emerald green silk evening dress and reached for the next dress that Mrs. Jones had acquired for her; a loose fitting, long-sleeved, dress, dusty rose in color. "It's not like it matters anyways. I'm only going for Heero's sake."

"Oh really?" Dorothy questioned slyly, "And just what makes you say that?"

"You're not out to charm Yuy are you?" Hilde quipped.

"No! Of course not! Really you two, do you honestly think that little of me?" Relena asked as she walked out of her bathroom to let them have a look at it.

"Ugh! Put it back! That's hideous!" Dorothy commended, pushing Relena back into the bathroom.

"So, if you aren't out for Heero in that way, then what do you mean?" Hilde asked.

"I want him to meet this old school mate of mine--"

"Oh my god!" Hilde interrupted.

"You're setting him up, why?" Dorothy said as Relena showed them a sleek, all black, velvet dress with a matching over jacket.

"God Relena, you look like you're going to be going to a funeral." Hilde sighed.

"I might as well be, seeing as this just might be what kills me." Relena murmured as she turned to go change again.

"Which, once again, brings us to the same question of why." Dorothy stated.

"Because I want to, that's why. Is it really that hard to believe?" Relena replied.

"YES!" the pair chimed from the other side of the bathroom door.

"…That wasn't funny, girls…" Relena said sternly as she opened the door and stepped out dressed in a simple, light blue, party dress with off-the-shoulder straps, sleeveless, and flared out delicately from her curvaceous hips and dipped sharply above her chest in a V-cut, showing off her what little bit of cleavage she had.

"Oh wow, I like this one…" Hilde breathed as she gently touched the fabric.

"It's too childish." Dorothy said.

"You're so picky! It is not! I love it!" Hilde snapped.

"I honestly don't know why I'm even looking for a dress, if it weren't for the press, I would go in just a potato sack if I could get away with it." Relena groaned; this was proving to be more of a chore then she had originally thought it was going to be.

"It is so. I'll have you know what Marie-Maya wore that exact same style to her twelfth birthday!" Dorothy countered, ignoring Relena completely.

"Point taken. I'll go try something else…" Relena said as she turned to try something else on.

"I talked with Sally today." Hilde commented offhandedly, changing the subject before a fight could ensue between herself and Dorothy, as Relena peeled herself out of the dress and unzipped the back of the next one.

"Oh, and how is she?" Dorothy asked, joining in the small talk.

"She seemed well. Though she was a bit mad at Une for not allowing her to give Relena that offer--"

"What offer was this?" Relena cut in from her half-in-half-out position in the next dress, her curiosity piqued.

"Oh, that? Nonsense really, just that there seems to have some new technology out for helping the blind." Dorothy replied casually, glancing at Hilde slyly out of the corner of her eye. Their plan was working perfectly; Sally would be pleased.

"And that is?" Relena asked, not missing the slight tone shift in Dorothy's voice; they were up to something.

"It's no use anyways Relena! You need someone willing to do it." Hilde quipped.

"I can't very well say no to it if I don't know what it is Hilde, what is it?" Relena said as she walked out of the bathroom dressed in a cream dress that clung to her like a second skin with the skirt so long it hid her feet and trailed slightly as she walked and had a sheer, cape-like, train that could be attached to her fingers by a ring on each hand, almost giving her the affect of having wings. Hilde and Dorothy were speechless. "Dorothy, Hilde, you two alright?" Relena asked in a worried tone, unable to see their expressions.

"We're fine Miss Relena, it's just that you look…" Dorothy said, her voice trailing off.

"You're so gorgeous!" Hilde squealed as she jumped up and hug the blind woman, surprising her slightly but she quickly recovered and soon was hugging the raven-haired young woman back.

"Thank you…" Relena whispered, knowing that Heero was listening in on them from the other side of her bedroom door. She could almost hear him tightening and loosening his fists before he walked off on soundless steps, the slight swish of the air the only sign that he had even been there. 'What are you up to now Heero?' she caught herself wondering before shaking her head and joining in the conversation with Sally, who Dorothy had called on Relena's videophone, and the others.

From what Sally told them, the basic idea of it was simple, two people get a special chip placed in the back of their optical lobes that acts as a transmitter from the person with full sight to the person without; by sending the data of what the one person sees to the other, it allows for the blind person to see, roughly, the chips still lack on being able to grasp the finer details that human eyes are able to see, what the other sees. The only thing they lacked was a volunteer to do it.

*****

"You said that there was no cure." Heero stated, his voice deadly calm, as he pinned Doctor Conner into the white brick of the hospital wall.

"M-Mr. McCall! I did no such thing!" Maria stammered.

"You deliberately withheld information from your patent--" Heero growled.

"I had no choice! Preventer Earth ordered me not to--" Doctor Conner said shakily.

"She had no right and no place to make you withhold information from her!" Heero snapped, his eyes burning angrily.

"I assure you, Mr. McCall, if it wasn't a risk to my losing my lively-hood, I would have told Miss Dorlain." Maria whimpered, sure that he was going to kill her if he didn't get his answers.

"I want information and I want it now. What is this treatment?" Heero demanded.

"I'll tell you everything…" Maria said, giving in and, after explaining the whole technique and how it worked, Heero left, seeming to have faded out of sight, like he was never there to begin with.

Relena took a different approach to the situation. After she had spoken to Sally she called Preventer Earth's office and, after some heated discussion, Relena said, "I want to do this Une."

"I don't think you understand what this would mean, Miss Dorlain." Anne replied calmly.

"I know the risks but I really have no choice if I am to continue to serve the people." Relena said firmly, she wasn't going to back down.

"That's fine, but you forget, you still need someone who is willing to--" Une was cut off by the sound of someone flinging her door open, at which point Relena heard the unmistakable sound of Heero's voice on Une's line.

"I'll do it."

If either of them had chosen that moment to look at the screen, they would have see Relena with a watery smile and mouth the word, "Heero…"

*****

The night of the annual class-reunion ball was something to remember for years to come. This wasn't necessarily a good thing in Heero's mind. With the music playing the moment they entered the room, the high, intricately painted, ceilings, the gleaming crystal chandelier in the center of it, the soft autumn color scheme that was their school colors, and the light-pink champagne that flowed freely only seemed to further enhance the feel of impending doom in the pit of his stomach.

"What is it like?" Relena asked, leaning over to whisper into his ear, unknowingly making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as breath fanned the sensitive flesh there. He didn't answer. "That nice, huh?" Relena muttered wryly, cursing Heero's lack of care for the scenery and thanking her stars that he had, at least, offered to go through with the operation in a few weeks. They could have done it sooner but Relena wasn't in the mood for sporting a new bandage to a semi-public gathering.

"Relena! There you are!" chimed Clare, Candice's unrelated twin, as she was called when they were in school, partly due to the fact that they were always talking together and both looked remarkably similar. Relena recalled how both of them ran to help her when Oz attacked the school all those years ago.

"Clare, how are you?" Relena asked as she loosened her hold on Heero's arm, as she wanted to go without her walking stick and so she had enlisted his help as a seeing-eye-person.

"I'm okay. I'm so sorry about what happened to you though, it just doesn't seem fair." Clare replied as she let Relena feel her face with her hands.

"It's alright, I've gotten through worse and this will be no different."

"But, Relena, this time it's permanent!" Clare cried.

"Don't do that, Clare, please don't. I'm fine, all I need right now is the support of my friends, family and the public. I need everyone to be strong for me, to prove that peace can survive without me leading it." Relena said comfortingly, rubbing the other woman's shoulders with her hands in a soothing motion. Heero turned his attention to the rest of the room and began to scan the crowd with his, green-contact-covered, eyes.

"We will, Relena, you'll see, we will. I have to go and speak with Rubella; she just walked in through the door, okay? I'll see you in a bit!" Clare said with a smile before dabbing her eyes and rushing off. Heero raised an eyebrow.

"Nobody came in through the door." He remarked as he let Relena take him by the arm again.

"I know, but she wanted to go to it was less uncomfortable so I let her think that I believed it." Relena replied as they began to walk. Heero made an odd, almost too soft to be heard, noise.

Relena smiled, "Please, let's not revert back to grunts again, shall we?"

"Glad that I didn't miss the party. Hey Relena." A smooth sounding voice said as its owner stepped into their way. Relena let her jaw drop before she smiled.

"If it isn't the greatest gentleman of them all, Tommy Tucker." She replied, fully aware of how Heero's grip tightened on her arm almost painfully at the mention of the pale-haired gray-eyed young man.

"In the flesh. It's so good to see you again." He said as he bowed and kissed her free hand lightly. Making her grin.

"Flirt." she commented as she pulled herself out of Heero's grasp and slapped Tommy playfully on the shoulder.

"Brat." He teased back.

"The one and only." she replied, "Oh, I should introduce you! Jessie, this is Tom--"

"Tommy Tucker, yes, I gathered this much." Heero interrupted her.

"Nice to meet you Jessie." Tommy said extending his hand out to him. Heero didn't bother to shake it and looked away. "So, Relena," Tommy began, quickly placing his hand behind his head, choosing to ignore the whole thing, "How would you like to dance with me? For old time's sake?"

"Tommy, I really don't know, I can exactly dance very well anymore and I--"

"Relena! Jessie! There you are!" Candice's call cut in, drowning out Relena's excuse.

"Hey Candy, I see you've met Relena's new friend already." Tommy said as he hugged the voluptuous young woman, dressed in a, lavender colored, dress made of the finest of silks.

"Yes, over the vid-phone believe it or not! And how have you been Tom? You old cad!" Candice charmed.

"Flattery will get you nowhere with me, Candice, and you know it." Tommy joked.

"I had to try. Well, Mr. Jessie, aren't you going to ask me to dance?" Candice asked as she turned her attentions to Heero. Relena forcefully plastered a smile on her face before trying to urge Heero forward with her hand.

"Go ahead Jessie, you need a brake anyways. Don't worry about me, I'll stay right here with Tommy. Go on and have some fun!" she said as he finally moved, giving in to her on the promise of: "Just one song".

'Why isn't that making me feel any better?' Heero mentally shuddered at the thought of her being with Mr. Tucker for any longer then necessary.

It never was just one dance, as soon as he had finished with Candice, he would find that Relena had already promised the next dance to another girl, and then another after her. Tommy joined in on the fun near the end however and, after Heero was sure that he had had his toes stepped on every single woman there, with exception of Relena, who still held the to belief that she couldn't dance yet, Tommy jokingly offered to dance with him. Successfully ending the party with Heero's threat of giving him a black eye if he tried to lead. All on the way home, Relena couldn't stop snickering. Obviously she had put the vagabond up to it, though she made it, strangely enough, up to him by giving a kiss on the cheek before going to her room for the night to get some, much overdue, sleep.

*****

"Damn it, Heero, listen to me…" Relena said, two weeks later in Heero's room, grabbing onto the strap of his tank top from behind him, making him stop moving about the room and, hopefully, pay some attention to her.

"I said I was going to go through with it and that's it." He replied as he shrugged her off and went about what he was doing, repacking his duffle bag.

"Heero, if you're doing this because you feel responsible, I don't want you to!" Relena said as she attempted to follow him around the room.

"Sit down before you crash into something." Heero said sternly as he forced her to sit on the edge of his bed, not sure if he was more worried her braking something or something braking her.

"You didn't answer my question…" Relena murmured softly as she closed her eyes behind her sunglasses, silently reviling in the feel of him seeming to care about her well being. It was so touching how he seemed to be so gentle and yet so firm in his ways when he was troubled.

"I want to do this Relena. It's a simple procedure and won't change my sight any, except that you will be seeing through it as well." Heero answered as he pulled himself away from her and swung his duffle bag strap over his shoulder.

"Are we done here now?" Relena asked as she stood up and, opening her walking stick, followed him down the stairs and out the front door before climbing into her waiting pink limo. Vaguely she wondered what it would be like to see it again, even if she was, for the most part, looking at it through Heero's eyes.

"Now Relena, are you sure you have everything?" Amanda questioned from her seat next to Pagan in the front.

"Yes, I'm sure, and even if I did forget anything, I could always have you come back and get it for me, right Mother?" Relena asked, playing innocent.

"Sure." Her mother replied, laughing.

"Heero, what about you? Is there anything that you think you might need?" Quatre asked.

"No."

"Are you sure? You know I'm more then willing to help if I can." Quatre added.

"Quatre, you're already going to be looking after things here for me while we recover. What more do you want to do?" Relena asked, knowing full well that he didn't know what he was getting himself into.

"I'm fine." Heero ground out through clenched teeth; he was really starting to hate how people seemed to be mollycoddling him. An idea struck him and slowly, so as to not give any hint as to what he was going to say, he said, "I'm sure… Mom." and with that, they drove off, leaving a flustered and sputtering Quatre behind in their wake.

Upon being checked into the hospital, they were guided into separate rooms so that they could be changed out of their street clothes and prepared for the operation room where two teams of surgeons, one for each, were waiting.

"Can you tell him that I'm sorry about how I've been acting towards him lately? I've just been so unsure about what I should say about how I feel about him…" Relena asked hopefully.

"I promise I'll tell him before he's put under, if that makes you feel better." Sally, who was in charge of working on Relena, said.

"Thank you Sally…" Relena smiled before she allowed herself to relax.

"Are you ready to begin?" Sally asked as she placed a clear-plastic mask over the younger woman's nose and mouth. Relena could only nod slightly as the gas began to take affect. While Sally seemed to be having a rather easy time with her patent, Doctor Conner had to put up with a fuss from hers.

"I want to say something first." Heero said, pushing the mask away and sitting up, his glare leveled with Maria's.

"Mr. McCall, we need to get--"

"It's okay Conner, Miss Relena wanted to say something too before she got put under." Doctor Po said, interrupting as she placed a gloved hand on the other woman's shoulder. Maria nodded before allowing Sally to continue, who said, "Jessie, she said to tell you how sorry she's been for her behavior as of late." This seemed to calm the perfect soldier a bit, as he closed his eyes and nodded his understanding before lying back down and, placing the mask over his face, allowed the vapors to lull him into nothingness.

*****

'Umm… is it over already?' she thought as she rolled her head back and forth on the pillow, attempting to shake the fuzzy feeling out of the gas-inflicted haze in her mind, unwilling to open her eyes just yet.

"You're awake." Heero's voice stated from a few feet away from her place on her bed.

"Am I really?" She asked, afraid that the operation was unsuccessful. Heero didn't reply and curiosity got the better of her and, slowly, she opened one eye and then the other. Relena began to laugh as she saw herself lying on the bed. Heero must have been watching her.

"What?" Heero asked, the image of herself blinking out as he shut his eyes for a second before opening them again.

"Am I allowed to get up?" Relena asked as she fumbled for the electronic head-lift on her bed rail.

She saw the sudden drop and lift as, she guessed, he nodded his head before saying, "Just take it easy though."

"I will Heero." She replied as she sat up slowly before getting out of her bed. It was a strange feeling, watching her body move through somebody else's eyes. It was, almost, like an out-of-body experience. She walked over to where she supposed he sat, trying to remember to step to the left when Heero saw something to her right that she could trip on and vice versa.

"Po says that, as soon as your body gets used to the computerized optical lobes, you will soon be able to see through your own eyes again but, until then, I'll be doing the job for you." Heero said as he stood up, his point of view quickly changing from looking up at her from his seat to looking down at almost the top of her head, he was so much taller then herself.

"I didn't realize that they had done that. I thought that this was it." Relena murmured, wondering why she wasn't informed of the change of plans and, in the dark recesses of her mind, she pondered just how she had failed to notice his height. "Is there a mirror in the bathroom, Heero?" she asked suddenly, catching him off-guard.

"…Yeah." He replied after a moment, as he tried to figure out what she was getting at.

"Oh good, come with me please." She said taking him by the hand and quickly going into the small room in question, stopping only when she reached the mirror. Heero raised an eyebrow at her. Before she rolled her eyes dramatically, saying, "Well, look into it."

Heero eyed her for a moment longer before turning his attention to the reflective glass object. He felt Relena tighten her hand happily around his own.

"I missed seeing that face." She smiled as she reached out a hand and clumsily traced her fingers around the image in the mirror. Heero turned to look at her again but she hurriedly placed her hands on his shoulders, saying, "No, no, no! Wait, please turn back, I'm not done yet." inwardly, she noted how sad and shaky her eyes looked as he stared at her figure. 'So this is what he saw when I couldn't…' she thought bitterly, as she frowned before looking away from him, folding her arms comfortingly over her chest. He watched her the whole time.

"What--" Heero began.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter." she murmured, cutting him off, before putting a smile and changed the subject, saying, "Can we go look outside now? I missed watching the birds."

Heero felt the corner of his mouth twitch upward slightly, she sounded almost like a little girl and not like the young woman she was now. He nodded and led her to the small window in the room and pulled the curtains aside so that they, or rather he, could see out. Behind him, he heard Relena sigh as she brought the tips of her delicate fingers to her mouth as she stepped closer to his backside, unknowingly fanning his neck with her shallow breathing. He tightened his jaw in a vain attempt to ignore the sensation the action gave him.

"Heero…?" she whispered, sending a hot prickling feeling down his spine.

"Hn?"

"Thank you."

"Don't--" He paused, deciding to say something completely different then his usual, "You're welcome."

________________________________________________________________________

Right then, thank you all for the new reviews, I hope this makes your day. I tried to get this one done sooner but life kind of got in the way and, well, you know the rest…

I have the new current standings for you all; you guys are really having fun with this aren't you?

Well, here it is!

Current Standings:

In first place: #7 with 19 votes.

Second place: #2 with 10 votes.

Third place: #6, #4, #12, #13 with 9 votes.

Fourth place: #1 with 8 votes.

Fifth place: #8, #9 with 7 votes.

Sixth Place: #10, #14 with 6 votes.

Seventh Place: #15 with 5 votes.

Eighth Place: #3 with 4 votes.

Ninth Place: #5, #11 with 3 votes.

Thank you all and I hope you have a good day!