Place: New Daimro Battlefield, SE

Time: 3:28 p.m.

Mood: Excitement, entertaining

Status: awaiting the commencement of a conference

~*~*~*~

One month had past since the drunken decisions set forth in Madame Keeri's Karaoke Bar, but to Relena, Hilde, and Dorothy, the month had past so quickly. Late night training between Noin and Hilde had filled in a lot of the time, as Hilde wanted to make sure she was ready to compete (illegally, if necessary) in the RMSTC. If she was going to break the law, she was going to make sure she'd break it for a damn good reason. Duo curiously questioned her where she was all the time, but she responded 'out' and said no more. Duo wanted to question her further, but an angry glance from Hilde and no supper the next day taught him quickly not to.

Dorothy and Relena had spent days, essentially, in the malls surrounding Dorothy's house, shopping for clothes and boys. Dorothy still hadn't broken it off with Quatre, as they all agreed to set their plan in motion on a particular day. Although she would look with Relena for a decent boy, she did not look at the boys ("I'm still with Quatre, technically, so I won't look. Damnit.") Not finding any worthwhile, it simply gave them another excuse to return to the mall the next day.

Catherine filled them in on any and all meetings the Gundam pilots had held during the month. The motion to create a female division had been crushed, but by such a close number of votes, that Hilde actually felt they could have done it, if only they had tried harder. The boys had rejoiced in their victory, but found it at a price. Catherine had snuck in a trace amount of chocolate super-lax into their cookies, so the girls found some joy in that.

Today was the day the Registered Mobile Suit Tournament Competition officially opened, at the conference being held outside on the new battlefield itself. A large crowd had gathered under the sunny, summery blue sky, donning shades and caps to protect their eyes from the glare. The press sat in chairs set up in front of the podium, which was situated on top of a plain platform. The five Gundam boys sat in chairs on either side of the podium, looking both nervous and excited. The president of the RMSTC stood behind the podium, tapping the microphone. A dull thud echoed through the speakers with each hit.

Dorothy stood alone beside the platform in a light sundress, looking bored and indifferent. She already knew what he had to say, but thought she might as well hear how he was going to cover up this great injustice, not allowing women to compete. Hilde and Relena had not come with her; they said they would arrive after the conference had finished and competitions could begin.

"Ahem," the president began. Immediately the low murmur of the crowd hushed, and an eerie silence fell. "My name is Mr. Donnex. For those of you who do not know, I am the president of the Registered Mobile Suit Tournament Competition, aka RMSTC, and today we officially begin these competitions."

Dorothy let out a quiet scoff. "Wow. I really didn't know that."

"It is rather astounding that so much could be accomplished in so little time. To have this stadium built within a month, on budget, is truly a wonder to me. To have so many young people here, willing to compete, is an even greater accomplishment. It shows that we did not complete all this hard work and planning in vain.

"The people responsible for setting the guidelines, rules of conduct, and even coming up with the idea of the RMSTC are those who are situated around me," Mr. Donnex continued, gesturing to the boys sitting at either side of him. "Without their time and knowledge of battle, we couldn't have begun such a large scale project in the first place. Thank you, boys."

A warm round of applause broke out from the crowd. Dorothy hissed and booed, knowing it was pointless. But it made her feel good, so she did anyways. They didn't even mention excluding women, she thought menacingly.

"Now, without further ado, let the competitions commence!"

~*~*~*~

The air inside the mobile suit hanger was practically crackling with excitement. Hundreds of pilots were moving about, chatting with each other or showing off their mobile suits. Heero, Duo and Quatre stood and waited for the remaining two pilots to finish explaining codes of conducts to the eager pilots. Wufei and Trowa each had a separate group to debrief.

"Well, I think that went over well," Duo said, not able to keep himself from smiling.

"Well? It went over fantastic! Did you see how large the crowd was?" Quatre exclaimed, contracting the excited feeling from everyone around him. The joy was so contagious.

"Some of the mobile suits here are pretty impressive," Heero said, neither amused nor agitated. "We just might have some worthy competition."

Duo waved his hand impatiently, scoffing at the idea. "We'll have no problem cleaning through these boys. They might have tough suits, but we've got the skills." Silence fell again, and the boys simply stood and watched as other pilots walked by. They couldn't leave just yet, in case someone needed some help or had some questions. They also had to tell of a slight twist in the competitions right before they began. As it was difficult to talk over the high level of noise in the hanger, Duo motioned to a tough looking mobile suit, but Heero simply shook his said, saying that it still wouldn't be that tough of a competitor against Wing Zero. They spotted Hilde and Dorothy, who were looking at a formidable Taurus suit, and waved to them. Dorothy gestured for Quatre to come over to her, and immediately he did so. Duo laughed, making the whip-like action with his finger again.

Suddenly the boys were distracted from their fun; distracted by none other than a girl walking by. Duo's jaw dropped, and even Heero looked as though he was interested (in something, for once). She looked, for some reason, vaguely familiar to Heero, but he wasn't quite sure why. She wasn't overly tall, but had a slight build that was hid by her casual jeans and t-shirt. Her hair was long and a light blonde that curled away from her face, and her eyes seemed to sparkle as blue as the summer sky. Duo let out a wolf whistle as she past, but she glared at him and flipped him the bird ('gave him the finger'). A faint scent of lilacs followed her as she went.

"Relena," was all Heero said.

~*~*~*~

"Quatre, we need to talk."

"What about, Dorothy?"

Dorothy sighed, clapping her hands against her sides to stop her from reaching over to him. I don't need to do anything over-dramatic; just get it over with, she calmly told herself. Repeating the words she rehearsed in her head, she fought to keep her composure. She looked at his innocent face, his bright blue eyes, and, at the thought of what she was about to do, she was almost ready to break down and cry. "Quatre, it isn't you, it's me," she began clumsily.

"What do you mean, Dorothy?" he asked, the faint smile on his face nearly fading.

Stop smiling; you're making this harder.

"Dorothy?"

"I mean," she continued, her tongue slipping over the words. She involuntarily removed her hands from her sides and continued, "that we - there are other girls out there – better girls - for you; ones that'll love you more than I do."

"What?"

Why can't you just catch on?! You are making this way too difficult!

"I want us to just be friends, that's what!" she shouted, immediately wishing she hadn't.

Look away! Don't let him see you're hurt!

She turned her head from his gaze, but it was too late. He had seen the tears welled up in her eyes, and she had seen the hurt expression erupt on his face, spreading like a dark cloud, blurring his usually bright, blue eyes. "I see," he responded, his normally warm, sweet voice etched cold and icy. It looked like he wanted to say something far different, but he simply continued, "But I would like to know why."

Suddenly Dorothy's eyes dried up, and she no longer felt like crying. He allows them to discriminate against women, and then wonder why I'm upset?! But she knew that wasn't the real reason why she wanted to break up. She had to tell him why; she owed that much to him.

"You - you're too damn nice!" she half shouted, causing a few passersby to glance in their direction. Even Quatre looked surprised.

'Excuse me?"

Dorothy wanted to scream at him, but forced herself to keep her voice below an extreme level of volume. On the brink of hysteria, she madly continued, "Look, you are just not the kind of guy I'm looking for! I want one that'll do stuff to piss me off, and then I yell at him and we get back together better than ever! I want a guy that'll try to use me and take advantage of me, someone that is going to lie to me just so he can get into my pants! Because then I have a reason to be pissed off, but – you – you never do anything like that; you're sweet, you're concerned about my feelings, and, and you always want my opinion and I just can't stand it anymore!"

Quatre moved as if he wanted to say something back, but couldn't find any words. It didn't matter to Dorothy; she turned on her heel and fled the room. All she wanted was to get out of there before she burst into tears.

 ~*~*~*~