A/N: Alright, just a head's up, there's no yaoi in this. However, I do portray Trowa and Quatre as extremely close friends. But don't worry, nothing more. The ending of this is dedicated to my best friend, Hillary. Long chapter! Much love, minna-san!

Chapter 9: Second Chances and First Dates

The pilots and Relena left the party a little after 3 am. As they piled drowsily into Quatre's limo, Trowa caught Quatre's eye. 'Oh great, that's the "We need to talk" look,' he thought, as Trowa raised his eyebrows at him. Quatre flashed a smile, since he knew he wouldn't have to talk until they were home at least.

However, Trowa's wishes were granted far too early for Quatre's taste. Relena had fallen asleep on Heero's shoulder, something he would have delighted in, except Duo had fallen asleep on his other shoulder. And he couldn't move Duo for fear of waking Relena. Conflicted, Heero nodded off as well. Trista had fallen asleep with her head in Duo's lap, which simply added to the comic scene. Quatre laughed nervously, "Boy, we're a tight group."

"So what's going on?" Trowa asked, flickering a smile.

"Uh, what do you mean?"

"I saw Heero kiss Relena tonight," he replied in a smooth tone.

"What! Really?" Quatre said, shocked, "So that's what Tizzy meant by 'things have changed.'"

"Do you think they broke up?"

"Well, if you said he kissed Relena…" Quatre laughed, "I'd take that as a definite break-up."

"You seem happy," Trowa said, still smiling a silky smile, "Why is that?" Quatre blanched. How did the young pilot sitting next to him look right through him?

"Um, the thing is…"

"Yes?" Trowa smirked at the blonde Arab.

"I told you what she said to me, that one day," Quatre explained quickly, "About being in love with me? I've been thinking about it. If she told me that, why was she with Heero the next day?"

"Maybe she had conflicting emotions," Trowa said, a little too confidently, "Maybe she liked both of you." Quatre narrowed his eyes at him.

"What would make you say that?"

"You're not the only one who talks to me in this house." Trowa jerked his head in Heero's direction.

"So she liked both of us." Quatre leaned back against the limo seat, thinking.

"You still didn't answer my question," Trowa said, "Why are you so happy about this change of plans?"

"I think I have feelings for her," Quatre said simply. 'There, now he knows,' he thought triumphantly.

"And what makes you think that?" Trowa asked, spreading his hands, " You two hardly ever talk to each other." Quatre's heart sank. Leave it to Trowa to continue interrogating him.

"Sometimes, I think I need to find a new best friend, you know that?" Quatre shrugged, trying to turn the tables.

"No one said you have to tell me," Trowa said with a pompous smile.

Quatre sighed. "I've been talking to her almost every night now," he explained, "You know about my insomnia. She usually wakes up about the same time I do."

Trowa laughed, "So you two have been having a secret friendship?"

"Ack! Well, I wouldn't call it secret…we just never see each other much during the day…"

"Even though you live in the same house?"

Quatre sighed again. There was no winning this. "Alright, so I was being secretive," Quatre said finally, "I just didn't want anyone- namely you and Heero- to notice I was falling for her."

"I don't think that's a problem anymore," a voice interjected. Quatre and Trowa looked up to see Heero watching them both.

"Man you two are so sneaky!" Quatre whispered angrily.

"Maybe you can fill us both in on the details," Trowa said, smiling at his fellow pilot.

"Or maybe I'll leave you two gossips to discuss it among yourselves."

"You kissed her!" Tizzy yelled from the doorway.

"Don't make so much noise!" Heero yelled back. He clamped a hand over her mouth before dragging her into the room and slamming the door. "Who told you that?"

"Wufei overheard you telling it to Duo," she said, "Did you really kiss her?"

Heero raked a hand through his hair, "Bunch of nosy gossips," he murmured, "So what if I did kiss her?"

"Well, its just so…so…un-you!" she replied, still looking at him saucer-eyed. Heero shrugged.

"And I have you to blame for that," he said simply.

"But why'd you just kiss her? Isn't that kinda brash?" Tizzy asked, sitting down on his bed. Heero laughed lightly, and Tizzy could swear he blushed momentarily.

"I couldn't tell her," he said, "I just didn't know how. I was thinking so hard about how I could let her know, then I just stopped thinking." He thought for a moment. "That's what it is with you two Maxwells. You teach people how to not think." Tizzy giggled.

"It worked though, didn't it?" she said, before gasping, "It did work right?"

Heero shrugged again, "She kissed me again afterwards, does that mean it worked?" Tizzy shrieked.

"Oh my gosh! That's so sweet!" she gushed.

"Yeah, yeah," Heero mumbled, feeling slightly annoyed, "So why didn't I see you kissing Quatre? Aren't you supposed to be the one who's good with her emotions?"

Tizzy blushed a deep pink, "I couldn't think of a way to tell Quatre either. It's kinda different with us though. He knows I dated you. He also knows that I, at one point, had a crush on him. But dating another guy doesn't exactly hint at the fact that I still like him."

Heero thought for a moment, "You two talk at night, don't you? He'll probably ask how you're doing after our break up." Tizzy's eyes brightened.

"Thanks, Hee-chan!" She hugged him before dashing off to think of a plan.

'What am I doing?' Quatre asked himself, 'This is ridiculous, following her out into the woods.' He knew where she was; she had gone to the lake to "think." At least that's what Duo said. 'I really need to do this though, I'm going stir crazy just thinking about it.' It was two days after the party and Quatre hadn't spoken to Tizzy since. He was avoiding her, because he knew that when they did talk, he would inevitably ask her. After what felt like a lifetime, Quatre reached the lake and Tizzy was staring into the pond.

"Hi Tiz," Quatre said softly, so he wouldn't startle her. She looked up at him and smiled what looked like a forced smile.

"Man, I'm glad you're out here," she said shakily, "I was afraid you were mad at me or something; we haven't talked since Relena's party."

"I'm sorry, I've been sorta busy," he lied. She'd hear the truth soon, he hoped. He sat down by her, "So I heard you and Heero aren't together anymore. I'm very sorry."

Tizzy laughed, "It was a fairly clean break. We both knew that things weren't progressing." Now it was Tizzy's turn to tell a little lie, "Besides, I knew he was more in love with someone else." 'Not a total lie,' she reminded herself. "Did you hear he kissed Relena at the party?"

"No!" Quatre replied, as shocked as he could make himself appear, "When did you break up?"

Tizzy blushed, "At the ball."

"Talk about your quick rebound." Tizzy laughed again, a sound that somehow made Quatre feel nervous.

"I told you it was a clean break," she smiled. An abrasive silence fell between them.

"Hey Tizzy? Can I ask you about something?" Quatre's heart felt like it was going to jump into his throat if it pounded any harder, and he knew all of his time for procrastinating had evaporated.

She smiled, relieved of the silence, "Sure."

"Do you remember the night you came to talk to me, um before you started dating Heero?" Quatre said as quickly as he could, "You said we could forget it happened and that maybe we'd bring it up again."

Tizzy looked at him for a moment before smiling slyly, "Does this mean we're bringing it up again?"

"Uh yeah," he replied, breaking away from her gaze. 'Always when I think I'm past the hard part…' he thought. "Well, last time we talked about… this, I told you I didn't know how I felt about you."

Tizzy merely nodded. 'Better not interrupt,' she thought, sweetly, 'Sounds like he's been thinking about this a lot.'

Quatre was less calm. He looked at his hands as he wrung them. "Um, I guess I was just thinking that we've spent a lot of time together," he said quietly, "And I was wondering if you'd want to, maybe…" Suddenly, Quatre started laughing.

"Wha-what?" Tizzy exclaimed.

"I'm sorry," he replied, getting a hold of himself, "I guess I'm laughing because what I want to do is ask you out." She continued to stare at him.

"And why is that funny?" She couldn't help but smile at his mirth.

"Well, I was just thinking about how normal all of this is," he said, "We might be in the middle of a war between the whole human race, but no matter how many anomalies there are in our lives right now..." By this time, Tizzy was laughing in agreement; however the next comment cut her laughter short. "Falling in love is always the same." She looked into his sea colored eyes.

"Are you in love with me?" she asked. Quatre felt as if his heart had sprung an inner leak and sucked itself downward.

"Uh, um…" Now Tizzy was laughing. Quatre turned pink.

"Oh, Quat, I'm sorry," she said, "I think this whole thing is just way too stressful right now. Maybe it'd be good to tell you that you're the real reason Heero and I broke up." Quatre's eyes widened; he didn't want to be on Heero's hit list. "He knew I still had it bad for you. Plus, he was having second thoughts about us too. The whole letter from Relena kind of sealed the deal for both of us." He just looked at her, dumbfounded. She shrugged, then gazed affectionately at him. "So I guess, now I should tell you I'd love to go out with you and we should get together sometime soon." Quatre and Tizzy laughed, both feeling relieved.

The two of them sat there, saying nothing. The sun had begun to lazily drift away, and its progress was charted on the small lake in front of them. "C'mon," Tizzy said suddenly, pulling Quatre up by the arm, "Let's go home." A kind of peaceful silence filled the void between them as they walked back to the warehouse.

Quatre knocked lightly before pushing the door open a few inches. "Heero?" he asked. 'Just my luck, just my luck…' he thought, as the brunette assassin walked over to the slightly opened door.

"Hn?"

"Ahem…um do you have the keys to the jeep?" he inquired sheepishly. On the way back from the lake, Quatre had gotten an idea. However, it involved the jeep, which was usually only driven by Heero.

Heeroleveled his right eye in between the crack in the door. "Why do you need them?" he said sharply, "Is it mission related?"

"Uh…no, not exactly…"

"Then why do you need to take the jeep?"

Quatre fidgeted. The one day he didn't want to explain himself and to the one person he REALLY didn't want to explain it to. He sighed, "I wanna take Tizzy out to dinner."

The eye narrowed at him. "And why should I trust you with Tizzy?" he replied finally, "As her ex-boyfriend, I have a responsibility to her." Quatre swallowed hard. Could this be any worse?

"C'mon Heero, its me Quatre," he begged, verging on whining, "I just want to take her to dinner. I'll have her home before eleven!" He internally griped, 'Great, now it sounds like you're asking her father for permission or something.'

The eye narrowed again before Heero shoved the keys through the crack in the door, "I'll be listening for you guys at eleven. Now get lost."

Quatre ran off as Heero slammed the door and turned to Tizzy who was sitting on his bed.

"Heero! That was a nasty trick!" she scolded him. She'd been in there since her and Quatre had returned from the lake, because she'd wanted to tell him what had happened.

"I didn't see you doing anything about it," he replied placidly.

"I didn't want Quatre to think I was in here for the wrong reasons," she said, poking her index fingers together. Then she glared at him, "And since when are you Mister Sense of Humor?"

Heero merely shrugged and smiled at her. "Better get going; you have a date."

Tizzy knocked lightly on Quatre's door. 'I'll just say I wanted to talk to him,' she thought slyly, 'No harm, no foul.' When he opened it, she was lightly enveloped by the smell of cologne and she noticed he was wearing a light blue polo. The shirt was the same color as his eyes, and she thought she was going to drown in them.

"Hey, I was looking for you," he said, beaming at her, "Do you want to go get some dinner?" Tizzy shook her head lightly in order to stop staring at him.

"Oh, uh, sure." She headed for Duo's room to change clothes. When she returned, it was Quatre's turn to stare. She'd changed into a little black skirt and a black button down blouse.

"Lets go," he said, still smiling and leading her towards the warehouse, "I got the keys to the jeep." Tizzy laughed inwardly.

"Nice ofHeero to loan them to you," she said innocently.

"Uh yea."

It was a long drive to town and Tizzy couldn't help but feel anxious. She felt strange being out alone with Quatre. Her and Heero had never really gone on any dates after the first, and that hadn't been intended as a date. And it didn't help that Quatre seemed unusually calm. He'd look over at her every so often and for some reason, it made her self-conscious. 'His eyes look like their on fire, he's so happy,' she thought, 'Has he been waiting as long as I have? And the way he keeps staring at me. Its so genuine…' She decided to watch the road. The headlights swam through the thick woodland ahead of them. The night was quiet, still, and somehow ominous. The shadows began to slowly frighten her. Quatre rescued her from her thoughts. "Are you ok?" he asked, still smiling.

"I'm fine, but its kinda creepy out here in the woods," she said honestly, happy he'd broken the silence.

"I think its because its so quiet," he replied as he slid in a Dashboard Confessional cd.

Tizzy smiled at him. 'How romantic!' she couldn't help but think to herself, 'How on earth did I go from Heero to this?' "So where are we going?" she asked him, trying to keep conversation going. They were on the edge of town.

Quatre blushed, before looking over her, "I was thinking I'll just drive around till you see somewhere you want to eat." She blushed and thought, 'How sweet! What am I gonna do with myself!'

However, there was one restaurant in town, and neither of them said anything as they passed it. Tizzy could have sworn she saw a drug deal going on in the parking lot. As Quatre drove out of town and onto the highway, Tizzy saw the smile begin to fade from his face. She slid her hand under his. He blinked at her, before smiling again. Instead of just holding his hand however, she began to massage his fingers in between hers and run her fingertips along his palm. Altogether, it was very sensual and very distracting.

"I figure we'll just keep driving," he said suddenly, trying to keep his mind on driving, "We can drive to the next town if we need too."

Tizzy shrugged, "It doesn't matter; this is fun."

"I mean, I'll take you anywhere," he said, the fire back in his eyes, "I'll drive to Brazil if I need to. Or to the airport. We can to Paris, if you like. Or London, or Barcelona, or Athens…"

Tizzy was laughing when the two spotted a sign near an upcoming off-ramp. It was above a little lit-up house and the sign read 'Giovanni's.' That night, Quatre settled on taking Tizzy to little Italy.

A/N: There really is a beautiful Italian restaurant somewhere near Savannah Georgia named 'Giovanni's.' My friend and I used to write stories together, and it was one of our settings. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review either way!