Heero was a disgusting morning person. At least that's what Duo called him when the two of the bunked together during the war and he tended to rise at the "buttcrack of dawn" to go for a jog. According to his braided best friend, he was disgusting enough to not need an alarm clock although Heero did have a digital one on his nightstand that he only used to tell time. This morning wasn't different from other mornings since the war ended per se: it was gray and cloudy outside because the sun hadn't risen yet, he went for his usual jog around his block, showered, and had a bit a breakfast. By the time he completed his usual morning routine, it was about eight o'clock and about time to pick Relena up from her place.
Contrary to what people believed, Relena Darlian Peacecraft, former Queen of the World and Princess of the now defunct Sanq Kingdom, didn't live in a castle. Since the boarders between countries had been dissolved, she had turned the Sanq palace into a museum that was dedicated to pacifists through the ages and moved to the capital. Her house of choice was a modest three bedroom house in a neighborhood that was teeming with families, dogs, cats and treehouses who were too busy spinning their own wheels to notice the reclusive Vice Foreign Minister.
Heero pulled into the driveway and came out of his car, walked up the cobblestones that lead to her red front door of the yellow house and rang the bell. After a moment, Relena opened the door and greeted Heero with her usual warm smile.
"Good morning, Heero. I hope you slept well."
"Hn."
"Ready to go?" Relena stepped outside and locked her door, then walked with Heero to his car and slid into the front seat. The drive to her office was quiet which was usual for them but Heero couldn't stop himself from looking at her curiously, looking for something, anything about that showed how she could really be. She didn't seem to notice the extra amount of attention that she was getting from the man she had once pursued, in fact Relena's mind always seemed to be elsewhere during their drives to her office.
The day progressed normally, Relena only had a lunch meeting and spent most of the day reading through proposals. Heero sat with her in her office checking over security parameters and stealing glances at his love interest. She looked very pretty in a soft beige pantsuit, a pale blue blouse and a pearl necklace. Her blond hair was long and loose and she didn't wear a lot of make-up, but her look seemed to be slightly androgynous just to confirm that she would be taken seriously as a person instead of as a young woman.
"Heero? Is something wrong?" Relena's concerned tone startled Heero out of his musings.
The bodyguard recovered quickly, "No of course not. I was... just thinking about something Duo said. I met up with him and the others last night."
Relena seemed to brighten slightly, "How are they? I miss them terribly."
"They seemed well," Heero packed up his things. "Ready to head home?"
She nodded and grabbed her briefcase. The drive home was also quiet and Heero got out first to do his customary security sweeps through Relena's house while she waited for him in the car. Relena's house was decorated in airy, soft shades from the dove gray carpet to the upholstered flowered couches to the blond wood tables. The red door opened into a tiled foyer with the large living room that the lead into the dining room and kitchen on the left side. Directly after the foyer was the entertainment area with a large fireplace and entertainment center with glass doors that lead to the well kept backyard. A small hallway led into two bedrooms and the study. And that was where Heero noticed It.
It was actually a variety of things. A variety of very cute things. While all the other rooms were tidy because Relena was a naturally tidy person and since she lived by herself there was never much of a mess to clean up, the study was actually where she spent most of her time and the large desk had pens, stationary, and other office detritus scattered all over it.
And every single one of them was... cute. The pencil holder that sat at the corner of the desk was made out of ceramic and shaped like a sleeping tabby kitten was crammed full of pens and pencils that came in a variety of pastel colors and had cartoony drawings on them of cats, dogs, moons, stars, rainbows, flowers, etc. The ball-point tops were clear plastic and were shaped in stars and hearts, some of them even had little flowers in them, or if the pen was pressed down, the top would light up. The erasers were shaped like fruit and the notebooks had hearts with wings on them with silly phrases and came in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes.
Heero stared. In the office, Relena used the standard black and gold pens, her notebook organizers were bound in black leather, and they were basically stuff that served their purposes. Why on earth would she need all these gaudy, girly office supplies?
"Heero? Is everything all right?" Relena's voice called from the study doorway. Heero spun around with a blue pen with a plastic star in his hand to face her. She blinked and stared at the object in his hand, then grinned suddenly. "That one's my favorite."
"It's... amusing," he said honestly as she joined him at the desk.
"It is, especially if all you've been doing is reading proposals. Sometimes I need to be cheered up, even in the smallest way possible and this stuff serves its purpose," Relena answered, stroking a strawberry shaped eraser fondly with her fingers. "I can't use them in the office though, imagine the look on all those faces if I whipped out, oh a Hello Kitty pen with dangling bells to take notes during a meeting."
"Hn. Maybe they'll be jealous that they don't have one," Heero remarked without thinking. His charge stared at him incredulously before she burst out laughing. He smirked, handed her the pen and finished up his security sweep.
Heero was getting ready to go when she stopped him. Smiling, Relena handed him the blue pen with the star. "For all of your hard work. See you tomorrow."
Heero accepted the pen and pressed it lightly into his thumb to see the star light up. He nodded and gave her a small smile, then went home. When he reached his apartment, he called up Duo in the vid-phone.
"What do you have to report, soldier?" Duo asked half jokingly. Heero held up the pen. "What the heck? It's a pen. With a star on it...!"
"It's her favorite. It lights up too."
"So what are you doing with it?"
"Relena gave it to me. She has more of these. Well not this pen exactly but she has more that are like this one... all of them are... cute. It amuses her."
"So, the princess has a weakness for cute things," the braided man was grinning. "Here, this is what you do..."
/-/-/-/
The next day was long and boring. Relena Darlian couldn't wait to get back home so that she could take a hot shower and finally unwind after such a troublesome day. Muttering the latest proposals and contracts under her breath as Heero performed his security sweeps, she kept working mentally as she bade Heero goodbye.
As soon as he left, she took off her shoes and wiggled her toes happily in her stockings, padding around the house as she put things away. After her shower and putting in some leftover spaghetti and meatballs she had made the night before into the microwave, Relena leaned back against the counter when her elbow brushed against something.
On the counter was a lead pencil with lavender plaid printing and a small heart shaped crystal dangling from the top. Relena frowned as she picked it up, noting that she didn't have one like this. She noticed that someone had put masking tape on one side and wrote "Thanks for the pen. Hope you like this. HY" in small, neat letters. The microwave beeped, signaling her food was done but her thoughts were suddenly a few miles away and focused on messy brown hair and a pair of mysterious blue eyes.