Growing Hearts

By: Lady DeathAngel

Disclaimer: I don't own GW or it's characters and I'm not making any money off of this so please don't sue me. ^.^

Warnings: None really . . . yet. ^^; Later there will be need for them . . . a big need. But for now things are peaceful. For now . . . ^.~

A/N: Chapter three is up! Yay! Well, the plot thickens now, and I hope you enjoy it.



Four Years Later

"Your Highness, word has come from the Western most kingdoms about the OZ situation."

The ruler of the Sanq Kingdom, King Peacecraft, glanced at his young daughter and then at his advisor and then back to Relena. "I'm terribly sorry . . ."

She waved a hand to assure him it didn't matter a mite. "Yes, yes. I know of your duties Father, and this is, after all, much more important than a menial birthday celebration."

His eyes flashed with pain for his daughter, but he nodded and turned to leave the room, his advisor at his heels.

Relena watched them go through cool, blue-green eyes. When he was gone she sighed and walked to her window.

"It wouldn't hurt him to make an effort you know." She said to the bird on the window sill. "I know that this OZ business is grave, of course, but it's my birthday." She laid her chin in her hands, her lips pouting. "Mother says to be patient. She also says to be grateful that Father took the time to plan this ball for me. But it's not for me. Not really. It's for the benefit of him and all of the other kings and barons and marquesses and dukes. Their political benefits."

The bird chirped, the sound long and wailing. She smiled softly at it. "Yes, I knew you'd understand where I was coming from. No one else does, certainly." She felt tears prick her eyelids. "Oh this is so stupid! I'm fourteen today! I should be enjoying myself, not crying and whining like a baby!"

The bird nodded and chirped its ascent. "So you agree do you? I thought you would."

She stood up and stroked the bird's soft head with an equally soft finger before shooing him out of her room. "Before Laura finds you." She said.

Relena walked to the door and opened it, stepping out into the drafty corridors of the castle. She really needed to begin to find the good things in life again. She was a year older, and a year wiser. Her brother was coming back for a visit. Of course it was only because he and his fellow knight Treize and their squires were passing through. Still, she hadn't seen him in so long, it would be great to be able to yank on his long blonde tresses and call him a spoiled old codger like old times.

That thought in her mind, she made her way to the dining room for breakfast, a slight bounce in her step.

~*~



Hilde squirmed in her saddle, slightly restless. She'd been sitting too long. She really needed to stretch. But Duo and Milliardo and Solo and Treize were still holding up just fine so she had to, too.

Still, Hilde couldn't help but think how absolutely unfair life was treating her. It had been *her* idea for her and Duo and Solo to make a journey to Neron to become pages and then squires and hopefully knights as well. They hadn't understood of course, *why* she'd wanted to do it. Well, perhaps they had, but they were still against it.

"Why do you have to pretend to be a *boy* to be happy?" Solo had asked.

"She's obviously jealous of us." Duo had retorted with a light-hearted smirk. "She can't take it anymore and she's finally realized the only good woman is one who wants to be a man."

Hilde had smacked him in the face with her pillow. "You know that's not it Duo. I just need to prove to myself that I can do this. You know, be strong and smart."

"And only men can be strong and smart, is that it?" He'd asked with raised eyebrow.

"No." Hilde had said with a blush. "But you have better chances than me because you're missing things up here," she indicated her chest. "And make up for the lack of anatomy down there." She indicated . . . other places.

Both boys snorted but sobered quickly.

"Is this about your parents?" Solo had asked quietly.

Hilde's silence had been all the answer they needed.

Finally they'd both sighed and agreed, saying she acted more like a guy than a girl anyway.

Still, when they'd become pages and then squires, Hilde hadn't expected to be the fifth wheel. But no one wanted a short, small boned, feminine looking squire to call his own. So Hilde had been forced to travel with Duo and Solo. She felt so alone with them. The four of them being males they exchanged certain looks that Hilde couldn't, and honestly didn't want to, understand.

She had to bathe separately from them. Had to dig her own latrine. Had to hide her budding breasts behind layers of gauze that caused her to ache. They didn't know she was a girl obviously, and Hilde really couldn't complain. It had been her brilliant idea anyway. It just hadn't worked out the way she'd wanted it to.

"We're stopping here to water our horses." Milliardo called over his shoulder to Solo, Treize, and Hilde. They all nodded and turned the reins to a stream that flowed through the forest.

As the horses rested Hilde took the chance to stretch slightly. God's Bones but her thighs hurt. She'd known this would happen though. Horseback riding had never been her 'thing'. She could fence with the best of them. She was the best archer. She could use a dagger and hold her own in sword fights against opponents three times bigger than she was. But riding horses? Something she could definitely live without.

"Hey Deux, come over here a minute!"

Hild's head shot up at the sound of the name her friends had given her. She yelled a quick okay and then jogged toward them.

"What is it?" She asked.

"You've got the best eyes of any of us." Solo said, a slight waver in his voice. "Could you climb that tree and tell us what you see?"

Hilde gave him a look laced with concern and then proceeded to shimmy up the tree. When she was high up enough, and seated comfortably, she gazed across the horizon. It took her a few minutes until she spotted it.

"I see a campsite!" She yelled down. "It looks pretty large, I'd say more than a hundred men definitely."

"Do you see a flag?" Solo called back up.

She squinted her eyes and then they widened with disbelief. She squeezed her eyes shut a moment before opening them again and starting down the tree at such a hurried pace she fell. She would have hit the ground hard, if Duo hadn't caught her.

She started to thank him, and then realized he wasn't setting her down. She blushed and looked up, ready to yell at him, but he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were glassy and Hilde's heart turned to ice.

"You feel it, don't you Duo?" She whispered.

He blinked, a little life returning to his face. He set her down and nodded. "Yeah."

"It's Oz." She said softly before turning and running through the trees in search of Treize and Milliardo.



~*~



Relena was bored. She gazed out at the sea of people before her and frowned. She didn't know hardly any of these people. And the ones she did recognize, well, they were to far away for her to even consider speaking with.

"Excuse me Your Highness." Relena turned to see Laura.

"Yes Laura?"

"Your father has requested that you join him on the ballroom floor. There are some people he would like for you to meet."

Relena nodded. "I will go to him at once." At least then she wouldn't be forced to sit still and watch others having fun. Now she would just be mingling with those having fun.

As she neared her father she saw his eyes land on her. He smiled and beckoned her forward more quickly. "There she is! The young woman of the hour!"

She smiled at her father's obvious happiness.

"Relena, I would like you to meet Master Zhing Shin. He is the leader of the Dragon clan from the far Eastern kingdoms."

Relena turned to face him and, placing her hands on her thighs palms first, she bowed. "Nice to meet you." She said softly.

When she rose she saw that he was smiling from ear to ear. "What a clever child!" He said before bowing. When he once again rose, he was facing her father. "And how did she know our custom of greeting and thanks?" He asked genially.

"I thought it would benefit my children to know, not only our customs, but also those of other countries, kingdoms, and cultures."

Master Zhing Shin seemed to like that response as he continued to speak with her father animatedly. She had blocked the voice however, in favor of another. It was a female voice.

"Would you look at her? She doesn't deserve to know our customs. She taints our traditions when she enacts them."

"Meilan!" A male voice said. "Watch your language. This is, after all, her country. It would profit you to learn some manners about how to act in the presence of royalty other than yourself. Especially as my wife."

Relena was glad to have the man admonish his wife, but he hadn't defended Relena either. And the other girl's hot words made her blush.

"Don't mind them." Another male voice said.

Relena turned and found herself gazing into some of the greenest eyes she'd ever seen. She backed up a step and more of his face came into her line of vision. He had a nice, aristocratic nose. Smooth lips that curved into a kind smile. And a head of blond hair.

"Um, who are . . ."

"Quatre." He said quickly on a bow. "Quatre Raberba Winner."

She curtsied. "I'm Relena. Relena Peacecraft."

She straightened and smiled. "So, you are the legendary Quatre Winner. I've heard a lot about you and your kingdom. You are also from the far East are you not?"

He nodded. "That I am. That is why I can tell you for a fact, Meilan is not to be taken seriously. She's still young and headstrong. And willful."

Relena glanced behind him to see the couple who had been speaking about her only moments before.

"She's beautiful." Relena said, taking in the skillfully woven jet-black hair and prettily tilted, dark eyes.

"Yes. She is. And she knows it."

"Is the young man with her her *husband*? Aren't they awfully . . . *young*?"

Quatre shrugged. "Not really. I was a bit surprised to hear that you weren't already betrothed, Princess. It's very natural for royal families to join their children in marriage to gain strong allies and better their chances in a war."

Relena nodded. Actually, the man was handsome as well. His dark hair was pulled back from his head in a tight ponytail just above his nape. His eyes were tilted upward as well, giving him an air of intelligence and strength.

"Do you know them well?" Relena asked.

"Well enough. Although, my father would prefer that I didn't see them so much. Theirs is a family line proud of fighting ability and strength. My father believes in total pacifism."

Relena glanced at her own father with a sad smile. "So did my father. Until a year ago."



~*~



Relena had to admit that she was very glad to have met Quatre. He was intelligent unlike most men that she knew. And she found she could talk to him for endless amounts of time. He was also a good dancer, something that had both shocked and pleased her. Most of the young men she'd danced with before Quatre wouldn't stop stepping on her toes.

They sat next to each other as the lights in the hall dimmed.

"My father invited some entertainers from a western kingdom." Relena whispered to Quatre.

"I wonder if they're any good." He whispered back.

"Lords and Ladies!" A voice called. "I present to you, Linalie's astoundingly amazing acrobatic troupe."

There was a smattering of applause that rose to a roar as the lights went back on just as a woman came flying from the air only to land on two hands on the ground and flip across the room, landing finally in a man's arms.

"It seems that they are *very* good." Relena said, leaning toward Quatre.

He nodded. "Yes it certainly does."

The show continued just like it started. High flying men and women who landed lightly on elephants backs. The most amazing things though, were the two introduced as Trowa and Catherine. They had each brought with them a large cat. Trowa a lion and Catherine a tiger.

Relena couldn't help but gasp when they both entered on the backs of their animals. They flipped off and landed behind the cats, who each gave a mighty roar.

They gave quite a show with the lion and tiger, but that was nothing compared to what they did after leaving the room and then reentering.

Trowa walked confidently to a board and stood still, arms and legs outstretched. Catherine walked to a table a ways away from the board. She smiled at him and winked before reaching behind her. The lights in the room glinted off the silver metal of the daggers she held, fanned out, in her right hand.

Relena realized their intent and grasped Quatre's hand tightly. She squeezed her eyes shut as the first dagger was released. She heard it thud as it imbedded itself in the wood. When there was no yell of pain, only yells from the crowd, she opened her eyes again.

The dagger had landed scant centimeters away from Trowa's face. Relena breathed a sigh of relief and clapped and shouted with everyone else.

Catherine threw twelve more daggers until Trowa's entire form was outlined by the hilts. That was how the show ended, and Relena was sad that it did. That had been a wonderful gift for her birthday, and it had cheered her considerably. She didn't want to see them go.

She got her wish in a way, when the doors to the front hall could be heard bursting open and a group of disheveled people entered.



~*~

Quatre saw the men enter and immediately knew something was wrong. His fears were confirmed when a man with long blond hair ran up to the king and whispered something to him urgently.

The king's face paled visibly. And he shook his head in disbelief. The entire hall had fallen silent which made the blonde man's next words audible.

"It's true, Father. OZ is coming and they're not very far."

Quatre's eyes widened and he felt someone's hands on his arm. He looked down to see Relena staring up at him, her own pretty eyes wide as tea saucers in her eyes.

Someone in the hall screamed and another yelled that it couldn't be true.

"It is!" A man with brown hair yelled. "Our squires saw their camp!"

A man who had made his way to the knight and the three young men behind him grabbed one with red-blonde hair and shook him. "Tell us what happened boy."

"We, sensed something was wrong." He said haltingly. "That is, Duo here, and I. But neither of us would ever make good scouts, our eyes aren't that dependable. So we asked Hil . . . Deux to climb up a tree and tell us what sh . . . he saw. He called down that he'd seen a large camp that could have been easily over a hundred men. And we asked him to look for a flag and he did and when he came back down he told us he'd seen an OZ flag."

The man laughed. "So this is based on the story of three kids? What are we all worked up for then? This is probably just a story made up to get them and their knights famous." He turned to sneer at them. "Well I'll tell you what you are *really* going to get. Time in a dungeon!"

He grabbed Solo's arm and was reaching for the one with short dark hair when a boy with long, brown hair that hung down his back in a braid yelled for him to stop.

"We wouldn't lie about something like this! It's part of the Code of Honor not to lie!"

The man sneered. "And what does the Code mean to a couple of future commoner vigilantes?"

"You may think it means naught to them." Treize said. All eyes turned to him. "But you can believe me, the son of a duke and Prince Milliardo's friend, when I say that these squires would never lie. We wouldn't permit it. And if you don't take their, and our, word that OZ is on the move, than anything that happens, the many that will die, the fields that will burn, the fault lies in your hands. Not ours."

There was silence for a few long moments, which Relena removed her hands and buried her face in them instead.

Quatre leaned down. "Lady Relena?" he said softly.

She looked up at him, her eyes dark and filled with tears that threatened to spill over. "What if something happens?" She asked. "I couldn't stand it. I'd die if something happened to my family."

Quatre took her hand in his and brought it to his mouth. His lips brushed the skin of the back of her hand and after the kiss he continued to hold her hand.

"Please don't worry Relena." He whispered.

She stared at him for a moment before nodding. "Okay." She breathed.

What Quatre couldn't and didn't want to say was that he was worried as well. And that all of Relena's fears were well placed.

A/N: As always, please review. I love hearing from my readers. Ja! ^.~