Kurenai

Noin walked through the streets of the Sanq Kingdom in some civilian clothing hoping to not attract attention from anyone. All the chaos that was surrounding the kingdom was starting to frustrate her greatly, walking away from it and taking in some air would do her some good. Though she knew the people there knew that something was up, things were starting to change and it was possible by now that they were aware of the enemies starting to corner the kingdom. Putting everything together was hard enough but keeping it together was starting to prove even more difficult now. She walked into a nearby diner and took a seat by the windows to look at the people as they passed by and went about their business. A smile came to her face as she saw a few children playing and laughing while they ran around chasing each other. A waitress soon came by and took Noin's order of a coffee and some apple pie, walking away and chatting with other customers that were apparently regulars. Sitting there left her time to let her mind wonder from one thing to another, eventually resting on the subject of Relena's brother. She had heard that he was in space recently taking on the name of Milliardo Peacecraft, hearing such a thing just didn't feel right to her. She knew enough about the man's past and was starting to wonder what his motives were up there and, most of all, if he would return to the Earth to help his sister keep the Sanq Kingdom safe. As Zechs Marquise he was a fighter but as Milliardo Peacecraft he was bound by his family name to be a man of good will and non violence. She hoped that Zechs would return and come to help them fight and possibly stay for a time. How selfish these thoughts were, was she really worried about the safety of the kingdom or longing to be with Zechs once more? She tried to shake the thoughts out of her head and looked back at the crowd passing by and felt her heart pull slightly as she caught sight of someone with long platinum blond hair walking past the diner. She left the money for the food that had been ordered and ran out to follow the person, quickly getting lost, turning from one side to another to find that person again. Once more she caught sight of the person as they turned the corner and ran after them, excitement built up in her as the hope of this person being who she thought it may be caused her to increase her speed as she ran around the corner and called out to the person in the relatively empty street.

"Zechs, is it you," she stopped to catch her breath as the person started to turn around, "Zechs?"

A young girl turned around and stared at her, then looked around to see if anyone was going to respond to the woman. She then turned back around and continued on her way as everyone else went back to what they were doing before the interruption. Noin felt her heart sink a bit at the realization that she had chased down a complete stranger. It was now apparent to her what was really on her mind.

The uneasiness in the air was starting to become annoying as she sat and watched him flip from one page to another of the notes she had taken for the class. Was he playing with her now? He had to be if he would ask to see her notes from the class then start a study session from there. Left, right, left, right, his eyes skimmed through a page and went on to the next until he started holding in a laugh. Dorothy glared at him even more wanting to know what was funny.

"Is there something that's amusing you," she tried to keep her defenses up.

"Oh... not really," he turned the paper so she could see and pointed, "You make cute 'I's."

She found that trying to find words to attack back with difficult now. In all honesty she had expected him to ask her why she bothered to write notes for something she doesn't believe in or something else, not sitting there reading through and finding the way she wrote cute. She reached over and tried to take back her notes before he swiped them back up and turned his chair around.

"To tell the truth, I think you didn't need a study session at all," he kept his chair turned to her and flipped to the end of her notes,"I think you set this up for something else, isn't that true?"

"Why would I bother to do that," she asked him feeling that she could get a hold over this situation like she wanted to.

"Well... there's a few reasons I can think of... but after looking at this," he trailed off a bit, "I have a good idea why you wanted to be alone together."

She sat back in her chair and started to like the way this game was being played now, "Well then, Quatre, tell me why we're here then."

He took note of the usage of his first name this time and turned the chair around to look at her directly when he said this, "Why are we here, Miss Dorothy? That's a simple answer. I've known the answer to it ever since you asked me to come here in the first place. I didn't think you would be so forward with it, which I admit, took me by surprise. Yes, the reason we're here, alone, together... I know it."

She couldn't wait for him to go ahead and just say it and was starting to think of why he was stalling for so long, 'Come on now, Quatre... Just say it like you want to. I want to see what you plan on doing after all is said and done. Will you try to get the upper hand and interrogate me now that I'm here alone or will you just leave, letting me know that you're aware of who I am?'

Quatre looked at her calm face and was sure he knew what she was thinking right now and proceeded to put on a smile, "We're here because... Because you like me of course!"

"What," her face left its calm behind and was replaced by an outraged one, "Where did you even get that idea!"

"Its okay if you do, ever since I came here there's been a lot of girls doing weird things around me. You see, I come from a family that's pretty much dominated by women so I could tell that you liked me, but you're a lot different than the other girls. They usually are so embarrassed to come up to me and say something. I only got the idea that you liked me when one of the girls said something about a date," he gave a nervous laugh that just made her even angrier at him. The look on her face assured him that this wasn't what she was expecting at all, explaining her lack of words. Placing the notes back on the table for her to take back, he sat back in his chair and smiled. Dorothy was less than amused by this, wanting very badly to force him into a corner again not to be placed into one without even noticing. She reached over and took the papers off the table.

"Well, Mister Winner, you're on the right track though perhaps a little off to the left," she stood up and stared at him as she did. The gentle look on his face was becoming an annoyance, she turned away from it and began to leave in a fury.

"You know, you may be right. Though I do wonder why someone who doesn't care about pacifism at all is at a school like this," he watched her ignore his comment and continue leaving him there. Quatre started to wonder to himself if what he had said about Dorothy had even the slightest bit of truth to it at all, maybe just like him she had become part of this whole thing for a reason and not just because she was told to. He too started to head out of the library feeling a bit relieved that he survived this encounter and was sure that a small victory had been claimed in that hour as he came upon torn pieces of paper scattered near a trash bin. Picking up a piece of torn paper from the floor, recognizing the handwriting as Dorothy's.

Relena spotted the blonde moving rather quickly through the hall. She had never seen Dorothy in such a way before causing her to wonder about what had made the other girl deter from her usual calm. A girl nearby whispered to her friend next to her.

"I guess things didn't go well with Quatre," she whispered. Relena walked over upon overhearing what was said.

"Quatre?"

"You didn't hear about it? She went up to him and straight out asked him if he wanted to study with her," the girl screeched.

"Of course everyone knew it wasn't a study session. She's been keeping in eye on him for awhile... almost as much as she did with Heero before swords started clashing between them," the girl's friend said as she recalled the event. Relena excused herself and followed the direction Dorothy had gone, unsure of what to expect. Heero had told her to be careful around the girl but wanted to believe that his concern was a little misplaced. Heero concerned, that was something to her. Did it mean anything? Probably not, he was probably just saying it because he felt she was important at the moment and didn't want anything to happen to her. Still, even though it was only said for another reason it made her happy to know that he was watching out for her anyway. She finally caught sight of Dorothy and hurried to catch up with her completely. Dorothy slowed down as she heard the footsteps coming up to her and looked to see Relena running up to her. She instantly put up her defenses and greeted her.

"Miss Relena, whatever are you in a hurry for," the question came out as if it were rehearsed over and over before. Relena stopped once she caught up to her and waited until she caught her breath to say anything.

"I was worried, that's all. You seemed upset," Relena looked at her concerned. Disliking the look she was receiving, Dorothy looked over to where Relena had come from.

"It was nothing that you need to be concerned about."

"One of the girls told me that you were going to meet with Quatre today. They suggested that you were upset possibly because of it," she took caution with what she said noticing that Dorothy looked at her once she said the boy's name.

"Yes, I did see him recently."

"Then it was because of him...?"

"No, not at all. You see... we were... playing a game of chess and he cheated"

"Chess," Relena asked seeing Dorothy's eyes light up mentioning it.

"Yes, I guess I wasn't paying attention to the game that well. He ended up wining this time," her eyes glanced over to where their 'match' had taken place. The entire conversation felt so cryptic to Relena that she was certain that something other than a chess game had happened between the two.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, thank you for your concern but as you can see it was not necessary. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to my room for the rest of the afternoon," Dorothy started to leave Relena there, "Goodbye Miss Peacecraft."

Relena watched her leave, unsure of what to really make of the conversation she had just had with Dorothy. It was like every other conversation, short and leaving her trying to think of what was really being said. She was certain that whatever had happened was not a chess match and if it was, it was one that ended in the angry defeat of Dorothy. Maybe if she asked Quatre about it he would tell her exactly what happened, or maybe Heero would tell him not to say anything to her about it if he hadn't already. She sighed and became upset with the feeling that more was going on around her than she knew and at some point it had to stop.
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Yeah... took awhile to type up... I really didn't want to end it at the end of the whole Quatre vs Dorothy thing. Plus it added some interaction between Relena and her. Really I think this story is going to turn AU bad soon... which really wouldn't be so bad really. .. meh... anyway yeah... Have to start thinking about what to write for other stuffs...