Heero's Girl: Alright… now that I've fixed all of the chapters, graduated high school, and enrolled in a college-

Wufei: Finally, she's doing something with her life!!!

*WHACK*

Heero's Girl: SHUT UP!!!! -_-;; yeah… as I was saying… I can now continue to work on this fanfic!! ^___^ Now keep in mind that I'm going through writer's block right now, so from this point on I'm struggling to get this out, k? But I know it's been a while, and I'm sure you people don't want to wait anymore… ~.~;;

Chapter 14: "I think something terrible happened to me before to get me like this."

While Heero and Blaze seemed to be kissing and making up, in the literal sense, Trowa went to find Relena. Hopefully she would be able to give him some answers…

It didn't take long. Trowa walked down the dirt paved street, looking in the windows of small shops. A couple of Arabic people waved at him, knowing him as Master Quatre's friend. He waved back briefly, and continued walking. Finally he stopped outside a diner, and peered into the window, noticing a very familiar looking blonde. He quietly walked inside and sat down at the small table, and gazed at Relena from across the table.

Relena glanced up slightly, then quickly lowered her head and dabbed her eyes with the napkin.

"Are you alright?" Trowa asked her.

Relena gave a small laugh. "Compared to what? No I'm not alright… I knew I never should have brought it up… I'm so stupid!!" she scolded herself.

"You're not stupid." Trowa reassured her.

Relena gave another laugh, and shook her head. "Yes I am. I shouldn't have pursued him as long as I have… I've just been a little girl chasing a dream…"

Trowa sighed quietly, then asked, "what happened?"

Relena was quiet for a minute, then took a shaky tear-filled breath. "I… talked to Heero… and I wanted to know how he felt… and I asked him if he cared, and he said he did…"

"But he misunderstood what you meant, didn't he?" Trowa replied. "Heero never really was good at subtle hints, especially not with emotions…"

Relena shook her head. "I should have realized it… that he didn't know what I meant… he seemed to think about it at first, and I wasn't sure if he was confused or not… but I thought he understood."

"So you told him, didn't you?" Trowa said, helping her tell her own story.

Relena nodded and sniffed. "More like showed him…" She sighed heavily.

Trowa raised his eyebrows at this. "That was bold of you… I never thought you were the type to go all out…"

"Neither did I… but after keeping it bottled up for nearly three years, it does tend to get a little tense…" Relena explained.

"Did he respond?" Trowa asked finally after another moment of silence. Relena shook her head.

"I think I surprised him…" She gulped back tears as she attempted to finish the story. "T-then…she walked in… that girl…"

"Blaze??" Trowa inquired. Relena nodded. "So that explains it… I figured it would be something like that…"

"She ran out, and Heero went to go after her, and I realized that there was a big mistake. I tried to ask him, but he got angry at me… he said that our meanings got mixed up." Relena whispered. She looked up at Trowa then, her eyes threatening to spill over. "He was so angry at me! I didn't mean to ruin anything. If I knew that they were…. You know… then I never would have stayed here."

Trowa looked at her in silence for a moment. Finally he said, "They… weren't really together… They share a room and Heero trains her… and they were… well, friends I guess you could say. It's just that you know Heero. He's not well on human emotion, and Blaze is just stubborn. They didn't admit it to each other…"

Relena sat in silence for a while. Finally, she took a steady breath and held her head up. "I can't face him now. I won't be able to look at him."

"He wasn't angry at you. He was mad at the situation. If anything, I'm sure he's scolding himself instead…"

Relena shook her head. "You didn't see the look that he gave me…" she swallowed the lump in her throat. "That probably hurt more than the misunderstanding…"

Trowa took Relena's hand in his, and tilted her face to look at him. "He's not mad at you. I know Heero. He didn't want to hurt either you, or Blaze."

Relena looked into his face for reassurance, and surprisingly found it there. She looked at the glass of water in front of her. "I can't stay here. Even aside from what's happened. I have a position to keep, Trowa. I guess this just gives me an extra push out the door."

"Where will you go?" Trowa asked. "What about your brother?"

"Milliardo??" Relena said.

"No, you're other brother. Of course Milliardo. Or Zechs, whichever he prefers…" Trowa replied. "You know he'll protect you…"

"Yes, I know…" Relena replied. "But I haven't been able to contact him…"

"Contact who?" said a familiar voice next to them. Relena and Trowa looked up to see Noin standing there. She grinned. "You're talking about Zechs, aren't you??"

Relena nodded. "Do you know where he is?"

"Me?? Actually he just contacted me asking where you were." Noin explained. "I came looking for you to tell you…" Noin then noticed Relena's tear stained cheeks and red eyes. "Hey… are you okay?? What happened??"

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine." Relena said, quickly brushing her off. She didn't want to explain the entire ordeal again… "So what about Zechs?"

"Conveniently enough, he's going to come here to get you. He's leaving tonight, and he'll come in tomorrow. I already informed Quatre so that he can be let in." Noin smiled. "He's really worried about his little sister…"

Relena blushed at this. "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be putting me through twenty questions to make sure I'm alright and everything…" the blonde sighed. "I'm sure he and Pagan can work something out to keep me safe. How will I be able to reach the public without attempted assassinations??"

"Don't worry about that right now, Relena…" Noin said. "Lets just take this one step at a time, alright?"

Relena nodded.

The next day Relena was greeted by her brother. Zechs stepped off of the white jet and immediately embraced his little sister. "How is everything?" Zechs asked her. Relena smiled at him in response, though it didn't reach her eyes.

"We'll talk when we leave…" Relena said quietly so only her brother could hear. Zechs looked at her, completely puzzled. He scanned the faces for some sort of clue, his eyes falling on Heero and the girl he stood with. He narrowed his eyes.

"Yes…yes we will." Zechs replied. Then he noticed Noin standing nearby. "Noin…" he said, leaving his sentence unfinished, which was not uncommon when it concerned his long time friend.

"Hello Zechs…" Noin said, the look that she always gave him still bright in her eyes. Duo and Wufei both rolled their eyes.

A moment passed as the two stared at each other. Finally Quatre clapped his hands to move on. "So… Zechs, are you leaving right away?"

"I could stay for a few minutes…" Zechs responded. He once again looked at the girl that stood precariously close to Heero. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met."

"That's because we haven't." she replied. "I'm Blaze, pilot 06 in training." She shook his hand, and Zechs eyed her, but said no more. He raised an eyebrow at Heero, but Heero gave no response to his silent inquiry, and kept his face as stoic as always.

Minutes later, the entire group sat around a collection of tables that had been pushed together. Zechs interlocked his fingers and rested his face against them as he thought. The others were silent as well, except from occasional coughs from Duo, who was never able to really handle silence.

The air was entirely made of tension. There was tension of the war, tension concerning the earlier incident between Heero, Blaze and Relena; tension between Noin and Zechs that was always there when they finally saw each other after a while… the entire thing was suffocating.

"So lets review… Hampshire has opened up five factories for mobile suit productions, and is now changing Preventers bases on colonies into his own fighting force." Duo finally said, unable to sit still any longer.

Zechs nodded. "That's right. I've gotten word that there's a new mobile suit being created. I've tried to send men in to get more information, be a part of their productions, see how things work, their schedules…but their security is tight. A number of them haven't come back."

"Looks like you need a professional to go in there. Not just men that have been trained as Preventers, who have never really had to deal with tactics of actual war." Trowa said.

"Are you offering to go in?" Zechs said, looking at him, putting his hands down.

"I don't see why not…" Trowa replied. "We need to know what we can, as soon as we can."

"A big concern right now are the Preventers bases on the colonies." Heero said.

"Yeah…" Duo agreed. "How are the colonies suppose to defend themselves?? They're already infiltrated!"

"We're not going to have to destroy them, are we??" Blaze asked with worry. "Aren't most of these Preventers being forced into this??"

"If they fight us, or if they threaten the colonies, then we have to destroy them." Wufei said harshly. "There's no room for kindness. If they pose a threat, then they will be removed."

"Well if they're to be removed, then it'd better be soon before they do some serious damage to the colonies…" Duo said darkly.

"Still, it would be a good idea to keep casualties to a minimum…" Quatre said.

Relena left with Zechs soon after that. Heero and Noin continued to train Blaze in the simulator, and this was the time when Noin decided to mention a couple of things.

"So… Heero…" Noin started. Heero turned his cold glare on her, and a small smirk played at her lips. "I've heard that you've softened up…"

"What?" Heero replied.

"I see how you act around her…" Noin pointed out. "You and Blaze seem much closer now. That's a shame for Relena."

Heero clenched his jaw, and continued to watch the radar and a few vid screens.

Noin sighed, and turned to face Heero completely. "Come on, Heero. You can't keep it hidden forever. Everyone knows that you two care for each other."

Heero shot her an icy glare. "What are you getting at, Noin?"

Noin shook her head at the ceiling. "why do I even bother? Okay, okay… the truth is, Relena talked to Zechs, and Zechs talked to me."

Heero remained silent for a moment, then said, "So you know what happened then…" The ice in his eyes melted a little bit.

"Yeah, I do." Noin replied. "And aside from Relena, I'm glad that you're opening up. You should be happy, Heero. Lord knows you deserve it."

Heero wanted to say more, but he held back. Instead, he went to another topic. "I didn't mean to hurt Relena." he said quietly.

Noin brightened at this. "It's okay, she understands. Just… don't try to bring it up with her, she's still pretty sore from it. She's a big girl, though. She can handle herself."

"Hn…" Heero replied, and that was the only answer he gave. The conversation was dropped when Blaze stepped out of the simulator, jumping up and down at her happiness of beating it. A ghost of a smile tugged at Heero's lips.

Heero sat down at a table, and stared blankly at the food on his plate, for he wasn't feeling very hungry at the moment. Thoughts kept confusing him, and he didn't know what to do. Duo chose this moment as an opportune time to sit down with the chair backwards.

"So, Heero ol' buddy…" Duo said with a grin. "I've heard from an unnamed source that you and Blaze have finally hooked up!"

Heero choked on his first bite of food, and glared icily at him.

"Ha! So it's true!!" Duo said, his voice ringing victory. Then he started chanting, "Heero's gotta girlfriend, Heero's gotta girlfriend…"

Heero pulled out his gun and pointed it at Duo from under the table. "Shut up, already." Heero demanded. Duo looked at Heero's gun as if it was nothing more than a napkin- completely and utterly harmless. Duo merely sat there with that grin of his, and stared at Heero with his jovial violet eyes. Finally, Heero said, much quieter this time, "Don't tell anyone, or I'll kill you then bring you back to life just for the sole purpose of killing you again."

"Don't worry, man… my lips are sealed." Duo said, patting Heero on the shoulder.

"I wonder if that's even possible." Heero replied.

"Hey!!" Duo protested.

It wasn't two hours later that Wufei crossed Heero's path, then stopped to add his two cents.

"You're with Blaze?" Wufei stated more than asked.

"News gets around fast, doesn't it?" Heero said icily.

"What are you doing, Yuy?" Wufei said quietly, the darkness in his voice. "You know this isn't the time to become attached to someone." Heero merely glared at him from under his bangs, and Wufei muttered to himself in Chinese before continuing what he was going to say. "Something may happen, Yuy. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it but no one is saying it." There was a slight pause before Wufei said, much quieter, "I respect you. I don't want to see you weakened."

With that Wufei walked away. Heero cursed to himself in Japanese, and went back into his room, where no one else could give their own personal commentary to his personal life. Especially the type of commentary that voiced Heero's fears.

Blaze was in their room, studying the blue prints of mobile suits. There was also a notepad resting on her lap, as she sat Indian style on her bed.

"How is it that everyone can know about you and me??" Heero demanded as he stomped into the room.

Without looking up, Blaze replied, "It's a secret, so naturally everybody knows about it."

"Hn…" Heero replied, and crossed his arms. "Still, it's only been two days…"

Blaze laughed. "I'm amazed it's lasted this long…"

"What are you doing?" asked Heero, who was in desperate need for a change of subject.

I'm studying the build of mobile suits so that I can know their weak points when I fight them in the sim." she replied.

"How're you doing?" Heero asked, as he sat on her bed with her, and looked at a couple of the layouts that she had.

"I don't know…" she replied with a shrug. "I've got Leos, Aries, and Taurus's memorized, and right now I'm working on Tragos."

"How long have been studying these?" Heero asked curiously.

"Twenty minutes…" she said, sounding almost puzzled. "and I already know their strengths and weaknesses, where to hit and where not to hit. I'm sure that with a little bit of practice, I could even pilot them."

Heero was shocked by this. Twenty minutes and she already knew all of the technicalities of three major mobile suits?

Blaze continued talking. "It's like I've already got the information in here." she tapped her temple. "It's just coming back up after being buried for so long." Her posture was stiff and hunched as she said this, and Heero took her hand.

"It scares you. Why?" he asked.

"I don't know…" she whispered. "I think something terrible happened to me before to get me like this."

Heero watched her as she looked at her hands, and Wufei's words echoed in his mind. 'Something may happen, Yuy. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it but no one is saying it.'

"Whatever it was," Heero said. "Won't happen again." Blaze looked up at him and gave a sad smile. She hugged him then, and he whispered in her ear, "I promise."

_________________________

Heero's Girl: yeah, that looks like a pretty good ending…

Heero: It's short than usual, yet it took you forever. Your readers are going to kill you.

Heero's Girl: Not yet! They still have to wait for me to finish this!!

Heero: Ok, they'll kill you afterward, then…

Heero's Girl: *muttering* lets make this as long as possible…

Heero: -_-;;