School's out and it's Christmas. But this time, Christmas doesn't seem as bright and merry as it's chalked up to be. However, things change when Heero's close friend and sister, Hilde, announces that she's coming home for Christmas from college...but she's bringing a friend, Relena, with her. How can Heero deal with his undeniable attraction to her and this virus that everyone around him, including her, seems to be linked to?

My Sister's Best Friend

By: Tanni

Ch.1

High School, every day, was as boring as blowing spit bubbles and popping them with your finger in front of a mirror. At least, that was how every day of school seemed to Heero. Just as boring as the next day, and the day after tomorrow and on and on. It was some consolation that this year would be his last…and then there was collage. Hilde, his sister who was a junior in collage, had told him life after High School was such a different life style.

"It's more freedom", she had said. "And you can get drunk off your ass, and no one gives a damn! Except for maybe your room mate who'll have to clean up after you…" Heero couldn't help but smile at his wild and crazy older sister. She was crazy, but she was a genius. The smartest kid in her graduating class, valedictorian, and all of the above. He couldn't help but look up to her, to at least some degree. He wasn't going to get to see her until February sometime when he had the time off, since she wasn't going to come home for Christmas. He supposed he would have to wait.

His quiet friend stepped out from the connecting hallway just as Heero was about to walk out into the warm, breezy ocean air of Santa Barbara. Heero nodded to him, "Trowa."

"Hey." He didn't say much most of the time, and neither did Heero. They had a sort of silent, unspoken friendship. But it was a very strong friendship; one that hadn't broken since the 3erd grade. Their other friend, who hadn't showed up due to a make up test, was Duo. Duo seemed to do most of the talking for the three, which suited Heero and Trowa just fine. However, today, his friend Trowa seemed to have a lot on his mind that day. "So, is your sister coming home for the holidays?"

"No. She can't make it; she has to study. Too much school work." Trowa nodded and started flipping through a magazine he had tucked under his arm. Heero glanced over and recognized the title as being, 'Time' magazine, a title that Trowa often read when he was thinking.

"When will you see her next?" Heero shrugged and didn't say anything for a few moments. Trowa silently walked beside him, patiently waiting for his answer.

"February…probably." Then something suddenly dawned on Heero for him to ask, "Why do you want to know?" He didn't say anything for a long while, and just as Trowa had done for Heero, Heero waited patiently for his reply. It must have been at least two minutes before Trowa had said another word, or done anything, by the time Heero heard, and felt, the crisp, waxy magazine pages being shoved into his hands. Its white and printed surface glimmered back up at him, almost trying to use the sun's rays to impair his vision of the text and the picture of the red, curly, short haired girl lying feebly on a hospital bed. "That's…" Heero couldn't finish the sentence as he stared at the picture of his best friend's sister lying there, on the hospital bed in critical condition. "What is this?" he finally said.

"She's in critical condition, as the article states, due to a new virus that's sprung up from somewhere on the East coast. I wasn't sure on how to go about telling you, or Duo, about her condition. This was the only way I knew how to. I don't mean to scare you or sadden you, Heero." Heero had stopped in his tracks, and was reading the article intently. So far, there had only been six known cases, three of them being expired ones. That meant that Catherine, the woman lying there in the picture and Trowa's sister, only had a 50 chance of survival. But for as long as Heero had known Catherine, he had never known her to go down easily without of fight. So at least, perhaps, luck would be on her side. Not much was known to the public, or anyone for that matter, concerning the virus. Only that its symptoms were deadly, such as its recorded 112 degree burning fever.

Bellow Catharine's picture, there was a list of names of the currently living victims of the virus:

Catherine Bloom 19 yrs (above picture)

Martian Edistine 33 yrs (right picture)

Milliardo Peacecraft 24 yrs (left picture)

The last name seemed vaguely familiar to Heero, but he didn't know why it would and couldn't place its origins. Still, he glanced over to the right to look at Milliardo Peacecraft's picture. Unlike Catharine's picture, the man named Milliardo didn't look so feeble and instead was standing proud and tall with a girl by his side smiling brightly into the camera. It was odd though, her name wasn't written anywhere in the caption. But that hardly fazed Heero as he turned to look back up to Trowa.

"What's going to happen now?" Heero asked quietly.

"Well, my father is going to come and pick me up so we can catch the next flight to New York right here any minute now…" Just as he said those words a gold-tan Suburban pulled up and beeped lightly. "In fact that's him right now." Trowa made a start to leave, but turned around to say a few last things, "I'll go the East coast to visit Cathy." He looked down at the ground solemnly, "This will probably be the last Christmas I'll ever get to be with her for." Heero nodded his head slightly, still trying to take in all the information. "And Heero, I probably won't be back in time for graduation." At those words, Heero's head shot up to meet his friends emerald eyes. "In fact, you probably won't see me for a very, very long time." Trowa continued walking towards the Suburban, his hands jammed down into his jeans pockets, and his back rigid.

"Hey, Trowa!" Heero yelled to his friend, and Trowa turned one last time, "…I'll send you an email, or something." All he received as a reply was Trowa's faint nod and the sound of the car as it pulled away. Heero was effectively alone this Christmas, but that was the last thing on his mind as he walked the path to his house he and Trowa had walked together after school for the past nine years, but this time, he was all by himself.

The phone was ringing, and ringing, and ringing, that insistent sound that just wouldn't shut up! Even at six 'o clock on a Saturday morning it wouldn't give out justice to the sleep deprived and lonely. The sound was enough to rouse Heero from his bed and lumber over to the kitchen to answer the call.

"What?" he asked half a sleep and impatiently into the phone's mouth piece.

"…Heero?" He blinked once, and then twice, at the voice coming from the other side of the line.

"Hilde?"

"Yeah, it's Hilde. You sound pissed or something. What's up?" Heero rubbed his eyes and took the cordless phone over to the couch and sat.

"No, not pissed, just tired. Why are you calling so freaken early?" He heard a small gasp come from the other side.

"Oops, sorry Heero. I forgot that over here we're three hours a head of you guys." And then he remembered: she was all the way on the East coast, in New York. All the way over there…and so was Catherine and Trowa and that virus…

"Hilde, are you sure you can't come back to California for Christmas?..." He said uncertainly, but with hope for her answer to be yes.

"Actually, that's the reason I called. I am coming home for Christmas." He blinked, surprised.

"You are?"

"Yeah." Heero stood up from the couch and headed towards the laptop in his room.

"I'll check online for the earliest flights…"

"Heero," Hilde started, "I already have the tickets. It's just a matter of packing and getting a ride from the airport to Santa Barbara."

"Oh." Heero stopped his trek to his room upstairs and did a quick u-turn back to the bottom stair.

"Heero, did you get your license yet?" He blinked.

"Yeah."

"Good. I had forgotten if you had or not…" she laughed a bit, sounding unsure of what else to do, "So that's great, you can pick us up from the airport." He blinked and he absently noted he had been doing that a lot this conversation.

"Us? You're bringing someone with you?" He could picture Hilde as she shut her eyes in exasperation and slapped her palm against her forehead.

"Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to mention her at all!"

"Her?" Hilde was bringing a girl home with her?

"Yeah, Relena." Hilde heard nothing come from her brother in any sound. "Oh come on, I've only mentioned her about, what, a million times? Remember…Relena Peacecraft? Best friend of your sister?"

"Oh, yeah." The name should have clicked with in that instant; if only he hadn't been so sleep deprived.

"So yeah, she's staying with us for Christmas. Just make sure to give mom a heads up, okay? I hope she doesn't mind…"

"I don't think mom would mind if you brought along an extra guest…" Heero wanted to sigh. It was only typical that the first time he'd get to see Hilde in what seemed like forever, but was only months, she would be constantly surrounded by her friend. "Why is she coming here anyways? Doesn't she have family to be staying with?"

Hilde sighed, "Well, that's classified information…", she laughed in a joking manner, "But to put a long story short, she's been having some family troubles and I thought she could use a break." Heero nodded, but she couldn't see him. "Okay, well, I'll have to get going. I'll call you about a two hours head start when you need to pick us up tomorrow morning?"

"Sure."

"Okay Heero, I'll talk to you soon! Bye!" She hung up before he could say 'bye' back. But she had always done that. Just another of the many quirks of his older sister Hilde. He wondered what that girl Relena Peacecraft would be like…

"Relena Peacecraft…" It was a nice name. A bit familiar too- "Wait, Peacecraft?" It all dawned on him way too late and Heero resisted the urge to call Hilde back to ask her about the name. She would be busy, or yet, not even in her apartment anymore. He sighed and decided he would just have to wait until tomorrow morning when he went to pick them up from the LAX airport. Until then waiting was all he would be able to do.