Oh yeah, I don't lay claims to the Gundam Boys and/or any of the other characters from that series—Gundam Wing………But Shiane, Lucy, Savannah, Amethyst and Jonathon are mine.

Chapter 8

Downstairs the Gundam pilots had long been finished dressing and gathered back in the living room waiting for the others, along with Maremeia.

"You're going to dance with them you know," Maremeia remarked.

The guys looked at her and nodded. They knew this would happen, and they were ready for it. Quatre and Duo actually looked forward to it, but the other two had masked their emotions so nobody could tell what they were thinking.

"Oh, here they come now." Maremeia said as they could hear the girls coming down. "Jonathon, you can come out now." she called over her shoulder. Shiane's cousin, Jonathon had arrived just moments before so Maremeia told him to wait in another room until the girls came downstairs and so he wouldn't make the Gundam pilots edgy and suspicious.

The girls went into the living room and joined the others as Jonathon came into the room and stood beside Maremeia.

Shiane looked at the guys and they looked totally different, except for the expressions on their faces. Trowa was dressed in a dark blue suit and Quatre was in plain blue suit. Duo and Heero were both in black suits.

Seeing the girls, stray thoughts went through each of the pilot's minds.

"Wow! They look drop dead gorgeous!" Duo thought, trying not to drool.

"They all look beautiful!" Quatre and Trowa both thought.

"They look different, but pretty." Heero thought.

She then looked around the room some more and spotted her seventeen-year-old cousin, Jonathon standing beside Maremeia. She glanced at a clock on the wall, which read six forty-five p.m. before looked back at her cousin, who was dressed in a plain blue suit, much like the one Quatre was wearing.

"What are you doing here Jonathon?" Shiane casually asked her cousin.

"What? Shiane you're here?" he asked surprised to see his younger relative, "Mrs. Maremeia you didn't tell me she was going to be here!" he said.

"What, and spoil the surprise?" she said laughing, "I asked you here because your grandmother wants you to go with them. And you all need to be leaving right about now," she replied looking at the clock.

"What's going on? Who are all these people? And what's Shiane and her two friends doing here?" Jonathon thought.

Suddenly Duo walked up to Savannah and offered out his arm to her. She smiled as she took it and they walked together out the front door. Quatre walked over to Lucy and did the same. They walked out together, as Trowa went up to Shiane and copied the previous pilots. She looked up slightly into his green eyes and took his arm; they walked outside to the others.

Back in the house Jonathon went over Hilde and offered his arm not knowing what was going on as Heero went over to Amy and offered his arm. Both girls accepted their escorts' arms and went outside followed by Maremeia, who watched the whole process with a faint smile on her face. There were two cars waiting to take all of them. And nobody bothered to explain to Jonathon what exactly was going on. He figured that he would eventually find out later from one of the girls, even if he had to force the story out of them. But he wanted to know who these strange young men were and how they were connected to Shiane and his grandmother.

The drive to the banquet hall was a silent one. The drivers stopped at the front doors, waited for the young people and Maremeia to disembark, and walk into the building. Arm in arm they made their way into the hall and looked around.

"Wow!" Shiane said under her breath taking in the sight, a look of amazement on her face. There were lots of tables with four or five chairs in the room.

"This must be the dinning room," Shiane thought. There were some French doors open leading into an even larger room with no roof. She dropped her arm from Trowa's and said, "I'm going to go look around. Okay?"

He nodded his head so she left him and wandered around. When Shiane walked through the French doors she saw the other three Gundams in the very front of the room.

"Wow! Those are it!" Shiane whispered. She looked around some more and saw lots of people standing around chatting or dancing. She didn't see anyone she knew so she went back to the dinning room. Shiane looked around and spotted Trowa lingering with the others. Going straight to him, he didn't seem to notice her until she stood right next to him.

"Hey Trowa, I saw the other three Gundams," she said quietly. His gaze immediately went down to hers.

"Where are they?" he asked quietly.

"They're in the next room," she replied, "Come with me, I want to know which one is which." she added smiling. A hint of a smile played on his lips as she reached back to take his hand and allowed her to lead him. She made her way back to the balcony with Trowa in tow and this time she went all the way to the front of the room to look at them. Shiane dropped his hand as they looked at them. For a few minutes they were silent.

"Shiane, I don't really want to draw attention to us, so let's do what everybody else is doing," he suggested tilting his head towards several couples dancing to a waltz tune playing.

"But I don't know how," Shiane said quietly lowering her head, feeling a slight flush enter her cheeks.

"Don't worry. It's easy," he replied. She looked back up at his reassuring words.

He gave a slight bow, so she returned with a small curtsy. He moved closer and took one of her hands and placed it on his shoulder, then he put his hand on the side of her waist and with his other hand, he took her other hand and held it up about shoulder level at an angle.

"One, two, three. One, two, three." he counted as he moved them about on the dance floor.

She picked up the rhythm, and when she finally got used to it, he started answering questions he somehow sensed.

"The red one is mine, Heavyarms, and the one on the end with the triton staff is Wufei's, Nataku." he said.

"And the other one is Heero's? Wing Zero wasn't it?" she finished glancing up at it.

"Yeah," he replied.

They danced for a little while longer but after two more songs they stopped and exited the dance floor. They gazed around searching for the others and when they spotted them, Trowa and Shiane made their way to their group. On their way, Shiane saw Duo and Hilde dancing happily; they seemed to be having a very good time. Hilde spotted Shiane and asked Duo if he wanted to go join them. He agreed, seeing as they had danced to three songs. So they stopped with one last twirl and made their way through the throng of the other dancers to get to the group they had come with.

Quatre and Savannah were also coming from the dance floor as they joined Amy, Heero, and Maremeia. Hilde went to Amy's side, starting a lively conversation with the younger girl.

"Lucy and Jonathon must be dancing," Shiane thought not seeing them anywhere. She smirked mentally; she knew Lucy secretly liked her cousin.

Quatre looked like he still wanted to dance and that he enjoyed it, but Savannah looked like she wanted to kill something. She actually didn't really like dresses and dances and only suffered through this one because of who had escorted her and her friends and that Grandma Collins had asked them to come. But her eyes lit up as Duo asked, "Savannah, wanna go dance?"

After he asked that she looked extremely happy and went with him to the dance floor.

"Savannah and I had never danced like this before. But I like it, it's actually fun and in a weird kind of way it was quite relaxing." Shiane thought. "Savannah must have not had a very good time with Quatre but with Duo...that's another story."

Quatre must have seen the smile on Shiane's face, because he went over to her and asked her to accompany her to the dance floor. She accepted his offer and followed him. He led her into the dance the same way Trowa had taught her, so she was doing pretty well.

"What's going on? You look funny," Shiane said, glancing up at him. She had been watching other dancers and just then looked at her own partner.

"Well, Savannah told me that you couldn't dance even if your life very well depended on it," he said laughing.

"Well, now she's wrong because Trowa taught me," she said in a soft tone looking away once more, while a faint blush stained her cheeks.

"You're a natural Shiane," Quatre commented. "I never knew Trowa could dance, let alone be able to teach a waltz." he added thoughtfully.

Shiane grinned but then asked, "So how bad was Savannah?" she looked back at his face, into his expressive green eyes.

"Not very bad, but not nearly as good as you." he replied with a smile that lit up his angelic face.

They were dancing to another waltz tune for a few minutes more until a man in his late twenties tapped Quatre on the shoulder. The two stopped, Quatre releasing his hold on the girl. He then backed off as Shiane mouthed sorry to him and walked away. The older man gave a slight bow and Shiane returned with a very small curtsy. Taking her casually in his arms he began to dance. She noticed that he was muscular beneath his suit and wondered who he was.

"Hi. I'm Shiane Collins," she said staring into his face. His shoulder length black hair was pulled into a low ponytail and made his black eyes seem more intense. His beige suit contrasted his dark features, masking his nature. He didn't look familiar, but then she had never accompanied her grandmother to anything as formal as this.

"I'm Chang, Chang Wufei," he replied as the girl's last name tugged at his mind. It seemed familiar but at the moment it evaded him, but he knew that it would come to him later.

As he said that she stifled a gasp. "This guy is the fifth Gundam pilot!" she thought, "I'm going to have to tell the others immediately after this! They'll definitely want to know!"

She looked over at the Gundams so he wouldn't see her face. He carefully watched her and then following her gaze he found what had caught her attention.

"I see you're interested in them also. Have you seen them before?" he asked with a careful, yet curious tone.

She looked back at him and replied as innocently as she could, which was very well, "No. I haven't. How many more are there?"

"There are two more," he said, instantly a bit uncomfortable. If he had been standing still he would have shifted his weight to one foot.

"What are their names?" Shiane asked without thinking. Her curiosity always seemed to get away from her.

"I'm sorry but I must to leave now. Something has come to my attention." he replied quickly before leaving her. He looked startled and a little suspicious of her questioning as she watched him swiftly walk away.

Shiane went and found Quatre standing not too far away from her. He had been watching Shiane since he left her wondering what was going on. He found a place where he could watch her from, so when she concluded her dance with the mysterious older man, he could get back to her side to speak with her. When he saw her alone she met his gaze and she waved to him to join her once again.

They danced a few minutes in silence before Quatre asked, "So who was that?" he asked twirling her around.

"It was Chang Wufei." Shiane replied promptly.

"What?" he asked startled.

"It was Wufei," she repeated patiently.

Just then two men came out of nowhere and asked them to go with them. The two teenagers were puzzled but agreed to go with the strong looking men, whom looked like bodyguards. They followed the men to a small room on the far side of the ballroom.

Inside, Wufei sat in a chair looking very important watching the teenagers as they came through the door. One of the men shut and locked the door behind the younger two and then placed himself in front of it. Then the other man grabbed Quatre by the arms and pinned them behind his back.

"Shiane!" Quatre gave a startled cry.

TBC