Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

AN: I wanted to get this out on Wednesday, but I didn't finish all I wanted to get in this chapter. I had about 8 pages done on Wednesday and I thought maybe I should just end it there; but I decided against it. After Wednesday, I got extremely lazy on writing, but I forced myself to write the rest. I can be very determine when I want to be. I don't think anyone actually reads this, so I can just ramble on and on and no one would care. Well, hope you like this Chapter. It's my longest chapter - I'm quite amaze that I can write this much.

Chapter 6: Blueberry Muffins

The traces of sunlight from the clear morning sky was seeping through the pink lace curtains of Relena's window. It was a Saturday and Relena was compensating for the sleep deprivation that students have to endure in order to attain their much needed education. However, once she got a whiff of the fresh bake blueberry muffins; Relena knew that she might as well face the music. She buried her head deeper into her pillow and groaned.

Katherina Dorlian had been doing this to her daughter for as long as she can remember. It was a trick that her own mother had taught her. First, you entice your prey with a mouth-watering feast. Once they prey is within your territory, you threaten to remove the delectable meal if they don't cooperate. Of course, this plan actually only worked when the kids are young. Once they get older, children doesn't seem to regard fresh baked blueberry muffins in such high esteem. Therefore, you had to alter the plan a little bit. If the food didn't work then you resort to bribery, punishment, blackmailing, and even begging. Usually, punishment and blackmailing would do the trick.

When Relena was a kid, Katherina would use this plan in order to attain information about surprises, such as birthdays and anniversaries. Relena was a sucker for blueberry muffins. Once she saw the blueberry muffins on the table, she would immediately tell her mother everything as she stuffed her mouth with the fresh baked goods. However, that trick lost its magic when she turned ten and decided to learn how to bake. Relena no longer needed her mother for the muffins; so Katherina had to resort to other means in order to attain her much needed information.

Relena knew it was useless fighting with her mother. Her mother would eventually find out, so it wasn't worth it to be strong and stand your ground. If you hold out, then you there is the possibility of some sort of punishment or some kind of embarrassing pictures leaking out. It was a wiser idea, to just enjoy the muffins on the table and spill. So she trudged down the stairs wearing her pink pajama bottom and white tank top.

"What do you want to know now, mom?" Relena inquired as she grabbed a muffin and started to munch.

Katherina looked at her daughter and shook her head. 'That girl and her blueberry muffins.'

"As I recall, yesterday afternoon I allowed my daughter to go out to dinner with three girls and one gay boy. From what I can remember, none of you guys had a car and you walked to the pizza place which is approximately two blocks away from this house. Are my recollections correct, so far?"

Relena nodded. She was only half paying attention to her mother. Currently, she was trying to savor the fresh-baked blueberry muffins on the table. She knew what her mother wanted; but her mother had a way of drawing things out. Relena was just relishing her treats as she waited for her mother to finish with her antics. 'I swear she should have been a lawyer instead of a nurse.'

"However, when you came home last night two minutes before curfew, you came out of a silver Mercedes."

With that information, Relena dropped her second muffin, "You were spying on me."

"No, I wasn't spying on you. I was merely sitting by the window doing my bills at 11:58 at night."

Relena gave her mother a disgusted look, "Spying and lying to your daughter. That's a new habit for you, mom. Where is all this coming from?"

"Hey, remember who's interrogating who here!" Katherina glared at her daughter mockingly. Relena was a stickler for the rules. She always did the right thing, never wanting to hurt anyone. It could get on Katherina's nerve sometimes. She was a teenager. Did she not have a rebellious bone in her body? They would often get into pseudo arguments due to the Relena's "goody-too-shoe" attitude.

Katherina trusted her daughter. Relena hadn't done anything to loose that trust. Most of the time Relena surprised her with her maturity. She always seem to understand what's going on and is willing to adapt to the situations. Relena acted too much like an adult sometimes. Katherina wished that Relena would loosen up and act her age and yesterday was the closest thing she got to being acting like a teenager – coming home with a boy she did not leave the house with just barely making it on time for curfew. Katherina wasn't about to pass up badgering her daughter about this incident.

"Okay go on with the interrogating" Relena said as she continued with her muffin.

"Question number one" Katherina said inquisitively, "Who was driving the car?"

"Heero." Relena answered as she finished off chewing the piece of muffin inside her mouth.

Katherina gave her an inquiring look, "Heero, huh? He seems like a nice guy from the couple of times I've seen him."

"He is." Relena was not giving up superfluous information. She would make her mom sweat this out. The short answers would remain until her mother snapped. After all, she was spying on her last night. Relena was sure that her mother trusted her and the whole spying thing was probably due to curiosity, but she was still spying.

"Did he meet you guys up at the pizza place or something?"

"Nope."

"Was he invited by one of the other guys?"

"Nope."

"Did he give the others a ride home too?"

"Nope."

"How did the others get home?"

"Walked."

Katherina gave her daughter an irritated look. She was getting annoyed by her daughter's short answers. She was getting nothing out of her daughter. The picture Relena made, happily focused on eating her blueberry muffins, was getting on her nerves. Relena was goading her on purpose and it was working. Katherina was never a patient person and she could not take anymore of this game of Q&A.

"Okay," Katherina finally snapped. "I know that you left this house with four people, none of which were a straight man; but you came home with a straight man that was not invited to the outing that you set out on with your friends. I know what happened at the beginning and at the end. Can you fill me in on what happened in the middle?"

Relena laughed at the face that her mother made. Her mother really did have any patience. She cracked after like a minute of questioning.

"Can you please stop that laughing before I shove those muffins down your mouth?"

"Hey, leave my muffins out of this?" Relena said defensively as she pushed the basket of muffins further away from her mother.

Katherina gave her daughter an odd look 'She is way too overprotective over those muffins.'

"Okay, okay," Relena conceded. "I'll fill in the gap for you, but no interrupting, okay?"

"I don't interrupt." Katherina answered her daughter innocently.

"Okay and I can't stand blueberry muffins."

"Okay, I won't interrupt. But remind me to keep you away from blueberry muffins. I don't think your affinity towards them are healthy."

Relena scowled at her mother but started her edited version of the story. She told him about how her friends' inquiry about her past made her think. Therefore, she went to the park to be alone and contemplate about everything. However, that wasn't a good idea since her thinking just lead to some sort of breakdown. Once the tears started to fall, they just wouldn't stop. She told her how Heero saw her crying and sat by her. Relena just decided to leave out the whole trying to comfort her by holding her and stroking her hair and back.

Relena was not one to leave her mother in the dark. However, her mother could be overbearing sometimes; especially about boys. She knew that if her mother found out about that, then she would push her to try and seduce him or something crazy like that. It was too early in the morning to hear some cheesy pick up line from her mother. Plus, she definitely did not want a lesson on flirting from her mother. Her mother did not have to know any of those things because it was nothing; and she would just make it into something. The emotional breakdown she had yesterday already took a lot out of her and she doesn't have the energy to deal with an exited mother planning her outfit on her "sure-to-be" date with Heero.

Katherina listened to her daughter's tale patiently. She tried really hard not to interrupt; she even resorted to the muffins. It was really getting hard for Katherina not to interrupt her daughter, especially when she talked about her friends inquiries. Therefore, she shove a muffin in her mouth, to keep her mouth from talking. She didn't realize that her daughter was having a hard time trying to deal with everything. At first, Katherina was worried that the divorce and moving had really take a lot out of Relena. However, Relena had seem to adjust to everything. She had made friends quickly and she didn't really complain about school – just the basic snobby girls, mean teachers, and creepy boys. That was nothing new.

Relena actually seemed happy considering the situation. Katherina didn't think that Relena was still having problems and this news of the breakdown was really a newsflash. She watched her daughter as she talked about the difficulties that she was going through and tried to explain the conflicting emotions that she was filling. She watch closely as various emotions flash through her daughter's eyes.

"I'm sorry, princess." Katherina said as she went over to her daughter to hug her. "I didn't know that you were feeling this way."

"Mom, it's not your fault." Relena explained. "You shouldn't be apologizing."

"I should have known, though. I just thought that you were okay. You seem fine. Everything in school was fine. You made friends and everything."

"I know and I just wanted everything to be okay."

"But it's not. Everything is moving so fast, isn't it, princess."

Relena laid her head on her mother's shoulders and took comfort the warm embrace of her mom, her best friend, her family.

"I was so blind not to see it. You act so mature for your age that I forget that you're still so young and if this is difficult for me, then this must be a hundred times worse for you. I guess I just wanted to believe that you were okay that I didn't look."

"I wanted to be strong for you." Relena sniffled as the tears found their way down her face again.

"Princess, you don't have to be strong for me." Katherina exclaimed. "I am the adult here, remember. I am the one that needs to be strong for you." She looked at her daughter in her arms and a wave of guilt took over. She caused this. Her daughter was crying in her arms on a Saturday morning.

"Princess, look at me" she said softly, but firm.

Relena hesitantly relieved her head from her mother's shoulders and loosened the arms around her mother so she can look at her. They were both crying now. Katherina lifted Relena's chin, "Princess, it's okay to be confuse and lost. It's only natural, but I don't want you to bottle all this up anymore. If you want to scream and cry, go ahead and scream and cry. I don't want you to hide your emotions because you're worried about me. Let me handle it."

Katherina pulled her daughter back into her embrace, "Your mom is not as weak as you think."

They held each other, a wave of understanding washed over the mother and daughter. Everything wasn't okay. It wouldn't be for a while, but they would get through it. It was only natural that everything was a little messed up. The only thing they can do is go on with their new life, and learn to adjust.

Katherina realized that she had to act more like a mother and watch her daughter closely. Her daughter wasn't as strong and put together as she appear, she was vulnerable. Katherina needed to remember that her daughter was very fragile. As a mother, it was her job to help her become strong.

Relena realized that she didn't have to be strong all the time. It was okay to let it all out and just cry. The world wasn't going to fall apart if she crawls up in her bed and cry. She didn't have to be all grown up, she was still young.

"Look at us, it's Saturday morning and we're bawling our eyes out." Katherina found the whole situation kind of funny. Their little emotional revelation was seemingly out of place. It was clear, sunny day outside. You can hear the neighborhood kids playing outside and people mowing their lawns. And here they were, crying in front of a basket of blueberry muffins. "We're pathetic."

Relena laughed at her mother's observations. "Well it seems like we've hit rock bottom and its only 10 A.M. It's still early and there's nowhere to go but up. We still have a lot of time to make up for our pathetic show over here."

"You want to go shopping. We deserve a couple of new stuff."

"Tell me again, what am I doing here with you?" Duo whined as he followed Hilde to a large two-story colonial home. Duo was rudely dragged from his nice, comfortable bed by a crazy chick named Hilde.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this Trowa/Relena thing," Hilde answered resolutely. "I was thinking last night and you're right this doesn't make sense. Trowa knows he has to work for Relena and he had never had to work for anyone in his own entire life. He always had an ample of girls to pick from. Why does he decide now that he wants a challenge?"

Duo groaned. He knew everything Hilde was saying was correct, but it's still Saturday and it's before noon. 'It should be illegal to wake up before noon during the weekends.'

Hilde noticed Duo's attitude, "You were the one so worried last night. What's with the attitude today?"

"It's before noon," Duo exclaimed. "Couldn't this wait a couple of hours? I need my beauty sleep."

"There are some things that can't wait," Hilde bit out. Hilde was determined to find out what was going on. This whole situation kept her up all night and she wasn't going to wait any longer. She already waited till morning.

"Okay, okay, I'll cooperate and be good," Duo surrendered. He heard the determination and anger in Hilde's voice and he knew he wasn't going to win. He just had to take a nap later on today. There was no point on arguing with a girl on a mission, he learned that from the women in his family. Once a girl made up their made, there was no point stopping them. If you get in their way, you will just end up badly hurt. "What exactly is the plan?"

"We're going to talk to Trowa."

"Yeah, like that got me anywhere yesterday," Duo grumbled softly. However, not softly enough since Hilde heard and gave him a reprimanding look.

"Just knock on the door." Hilde commanded.

"Yes, sir!" as he gave her a mock salute.

Heero quietly entered his father's study. His father always spent Saturday mornings taking care of some business. It was the perfect time. Everyone in the house wanted to sleep in on Saturday mornings. This way, he would be done with everything before everyone wakes up and he could have the rest of the weekend to spend time with his family.

Patrick Yuy came from old money. His great grandfather immigrated to the United States from Japan. They experience a hard time at first – living in a whole new county, a completely different culture room those of that they were used to. However, those hard times would not last. His great grandfather was a very cunning and intelligent business man. By the end of his life, he found himself the owner of a very successful Sake company.

The business grew and remained successful throughout the years. It was passed down from one family to the next. However, Patrick Yuy was never interested in running the company. His father had understood his son and allowed him to explore his interest. The company was still owned by the Yuy family but it was now run by very well-educated entrepreneurs. Patrick would look into it every month or so. Most of his time was spent on his Software company. Patrick Yuy had found his calling in technology. With the help of his family's money, he was able to organize a company that would cater to the needs of automotive technology.

As much as he was dedicated to his job, he always made sure to have time for his family. When he saw Heero, his only child, enter his office; he immediately drop his pen and closed the file that he was looking over. Heero would never come to him on a Saturday morning unless he wanted to talk about something privately – meaning he didn't want his mother to know.

"What can I help you with, son" Patrick acknowledge his son as he motioned him to sit across his red-oak desk. Heero sat down, but he didn't say anything. He just sat there, looking at the family portrait behind his father's head. Heero was in deep thought. He didn't know why he came to see his father. He wanted to talk, but he didn't really know about what or how to go about it.

Patrick notice the perplexity on his son's countenance. His son was having a hard time with something. "Why don't you just tell me the first thing that's on your mind?"

Heero looked at his father in the eye, "Trowa."

"Trowa?" Patrick asked surprised. Trowa was like a second son to Patrick. He had even joined them on their little vacation to Japan during the summer. From a peripheral view, most people would think that Trowa and Heero were complete opposite. Trowa was innately a lady's man – good looks combined with his boyish charms. No girl can resist and Trowa definitely took advantage of that. In contrast, Heero was more concern about getting rid of the girls than attracting them. Even though they were opposites when dealing with the opposite sex, they think very much alike and have similar attitudes. You just had to know them closely to notice. There was always a strong bond between Heero and Trowa, an understanding. Patrick couldn't remember a time when they didn't get along. Those two weren't the type of people to dwell on trifle things.

"He's interested in this girl" Heero stated.

Patrick chuckled, "that's nothing new. When it comes to Trowa, there's always a girl."

Heero stood up and walked over to the window. He stared at the vines that adorned the fence, deep in thought. Patrick stared at Heero, a little bit confused. 'What could be the problem? Trowa liking a girl? Trowa likes a new girl every week. Heero had never cared before.' Then it finally dawned on Patrick, "you like this girl."

This was definitely shocking. Heero had never shown interest on a girl and he definitely had plenty to choose form. Once Heero entered Junior High, girls would constantly call or come over. They were all vying for Heero's attention. However, Heero would always pretend like he wasn't there or make up some lame excuse. At first Patrick thought that Heero was some kind of 'late-bloomer', and he just wanted interested in girls yet. Yet when high school came around, Heero's lack of interest in girls still did not change.

Patrick blamed it on his mother. When Heero was a child, Patrick had acquired is own mother to look after his young son. Heero developed a very close relationship with his grandmother. Aoki Yuy was a very traditional and idealistic woman. She filled his grandson's head with fairy tales and romantic ideals about princesses and their knight and shining armor. On her death bed, she had advised Heero to be patient and not be tempted by those 'evil witches'.

Apparently, Heero had taken his grandmother's words to heart. He definitely did not fall for those 'evil witches.' Patrick was worried that his mother had filled Heero's head with this ideal that no girl can ever live up to it. "Tell me about this girl." Patrick was keen to know who could possibly catch the interest of his son. 'What kind of girl does Heero like?'

"I don't know how to describe her, exactly," Heero began. "She just seem . . . real, I guess. When she smiles at you, it's because she genuinely cares. When she laughs at Duo's antics, you can tell that she's really enjoying herself and she's happy. But behind those laughter and smiles, she's lost and confuse, vulnerable."

Patrick looked at his son, 'This isn't just a crush. He can really fall for this girl.'

"I found her crying yesterday and I just had this overwhelming feeling to hold her and protect her. To make everything go away, just so she wouldn't cry anymore. I don't know how to describe it; I just didn't want to see her cry, to see her so sad."

"You care for her," Patrick stated.

"Yeah, I guess I do. I guess you can also say we're friends."

"And Trowa." Patrick was afraid of Heero's answer. Trowa and Heero had a strong friendship and he would never thought that a girl would be the one that comes between that.

"He wants her."

"And how do you feel about that."

"I don't want him to have her." Heero took his eyes away from the vines and looked at his father, pleading for some sort of advice, help – anything that would shed some light in this situation.

"The way I see it, it's not really your decision to make. It's hers." Patrick stood up and walked over to his son, "From the way you describe her, she doesn't seem like the type of girl to fall for Trowa's charm."

"I'm just afraid," Heero closed his eyes, "that she's here for Trowa. That she's the one that could turn Trowa around. I never stopped Trowa from doing what he was doing because it wasn't my job. No matter what I do or say, it wouldn't change him. I've always believed that a girl would come along for him. I'm afraid that she's the girl."

"It's up to her to decide that." Patrick answered with sympathy. He didn't know what to say to his son. He had also believed that a girl would come along to change Trowa and he didn't know what to say to Heero's little theory.

"Hn." Heero had decided that this conversation was over and headed towards the door.

"Heero," Patrick added before Heero left, "but that doesn't mean you can sway her decision."

"Oh you gotta be kidding me," Trowa exclaimed as he saw his two visitors that had woken him from his slumber. His hair was in disarray, only wearing a black boxer, and clearly not happy with his visitors. "What do you guys want?"

"You know what we want Barton," Hilde shouted as she pushed Trowa aside and let herself in.

Duo looked to Trowa apologetically, "Hey, I'm just following the little lady."

"Didn't I tell you to go change," Katherina said as she looked at her daughter's outfit with disdain. They were walking around the modest structure of the infamous Autumn Hill Mall. There were a moderate number of stores to pick from but it wasn't exactly the place to go for high end fashion.

Katherina always had an eye for fashion. As a teenager, she would always spend a great deal of her time looking through fashion magazines. She always knew what was "in" at the moment. Of course, coming from a middle-class background; her family didn't have money to throw around. Therefore, Katherina found a way to look fashionable at the right price. Half her teenage years were spent at the mall – looking for great deals. She often wonder how in the world did her daughter not get her affinity towards fashion.

"What I changed," Relena grumbled as she looked over her outfit. "There is nothing wrong with my outfit. Where just at the mall."

"Changing your pink pajama bottoms for gray sweats and white tank top for a blue one is not what I called changing" Katherina answered incredulously.

"Mom, it's just the mall."

"Fine, but if we see a cute guy out here from your school. Then it's your loss."

"Don't worry. I think I can handle the grief."

"Oh, I forgot we don't need to impress anyone else. Don't we already have, Mr. Heero Yuy" she teased.

"Mom" Relena whined. "I thought we were done with this."

"What gave you that idea. Our little crying fest was only intermission. I made you blueberry muffins in order to get answers about a boy, and I'm going to get my answers."

"Heero and I are just friends" Relena said frustrated.

"All I'm saying is he seem to care about you, comforting and giving you a ride and all."

"Mom, if you saw a friend of yours bawling her eyes out, wouldn't you go over there and comfort her. And would you let a friend of yours, walk herself home in the middle of the night. Especially, when you have a car parked a block away. What he did was only logical."

"Would it kill you to be optimistic for once. A nice guy takes a liking to you. Why can't you accept it, instead of trying to reason."

"Because there is nothing to accept." Relena exclaimed, she was getting tired of this conversation. 'I do not want a relationship right now and I don't want to be stressing about boys and my so-called love life.'

"Princess, sooner or later you're going to have to take that risk. If it's not Heero, it's going to be another guy. I know my relationship with your father hasn't been the best illustration of love, but that doesn't mean you should give up on it."

"Mom, I'm not ready for love. I can't deal with it right now."

"I'm not asking you to fall in love with him, princess. I'm asking you to be a regular teenager. When you find a guy you like that likes you back, then give it a chance and go out with him. I'm not asking you to fall in love and get married, Relena."

"It's not that easy," Relena sighed defeated. She wanted to be a normal teenager and be able to just go out with cute boys and such. However, she had been living this life for so long that she didn't know how to be normal. She couldn't just do that; she didn't want to get hurt. It seemed like everything that had to do with boys always lead to pain in the end.

"Fine, we'll drop it for . . ." Katherina wasn't able to finish her sentence because she accidentally bumped into a well-built man with familiar green eyes. She stumbled backwards and landed on her butt.

"Miss, I'm so sorry."

"Oh, no it was my fault," Katherina explained as she brushed off the dust on her outfit. The man with spiky-brown hair and blonde highlights gave her a hand and helped her up. "Katherina?"

"David. I didn't recognize you." Katherina smiled at the nice man that she had met a week ago. He was a friend of her boss and he had visited the clinic with her boss's husband. "This is my daughter, Relena."

"Hi, I'm David Foster. I know your mom's boss." He reached out his hand for a hand shake.

"Oh, are you a doctor, too?" as she returned the gesture.

"Me a doctor. I don't think I can handle the all that blood. No I'm a mechanical engineer. I work for Elizabeth's husband, Patrick."

"Oh, I see." as she nodded her head.

"So you guys doing some shopping?"

"Yeah, just looking around, spending some time with my daughter."

"That's great." David said awkwardly. "I guess I'm going to leave you girls to do your mother and daughter thing."

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Foster," Relena said smiling politely.

"It was my pleasure and Katherina . . . It's nice to see you again."

Relena gave her mother a skeptical look as they watched David's form disappear. "He's a nice guy."

"Yeah."

"A nice guy that seems to take a liking to you," Relena began as she made sure to keep eye contact with her mother.

"Oh no, you are not going to use my own words against me. It's a completely different situation."

"Hypocrite."

"What are you talking about? It's a different situation."

"No it's not. Stop being such a hypocrite. Mr. Foster is a nice guy who is interested in you. But not, you two are not going out because you don't want to take the risk. If it's not Mr. Foster, then it's going to be someone else, right?"

"Fine," as they stopped in front of mannequin wearing a black dress. Katherina's eyes gleamed. "I'll go out with David."

"You will!"

"If."

"I don't think I like the sound of this," Relena mumbled.

"You go to homecoming."

"I'll go to homecoming."

"You didn't let me finish. I'll go out with David, if you go to homecoming with a date. And it has to be a straight man, too. You can't ask Quatre to be your date because that doesn't count."

"Quatre counts."

"I said straight."

"Why do you have to be so specific?" Relena groaned.

AN: So what do you guys think? The plot is moving slowly, but I'm getting there. Be patient with me. I can not stress enough - PLEASE REVIEW! It's always nice to know when someone is reading my writing.

Thanks to my Reviewers from last chapter. Reading reviews always makes me all warm and fuzzy (maybe not warm and fuzzy, but I always enjoy to hear from the readers.)

CrimsonDragon010: Yeah, Relana's mom was lacking some "paper" time. At the beginning, I really wanted to show a close/fun relationship between the two; but I got side-tracked. There's just too many characters and some of them will be neglected at some point. NoHeero/Relenainteractions in this chapter, but I'm planning on some on the next one.

Remiera: I know what you mean, I get really engrossed in almost everything I read, except for non-fictions. I haven't really found a non-fiction that I got really into. That's why I stick with mostly fiction. (Especially after reading all those history books in my history class.)

PureAngelEnchantress: I'm so glad that you thought it was sad. I was trying to make it touching, but at times my ideas doesn't seem to be the same on paper.

Attolia: Yeah Heero is sweet in this story, which is way of character. But it's my story, right? There was no war, I can change there personalities up a little.

Thanks you guys! Please Review!