Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the plot and the original characters. Everything else belongs to someone else as you should bloody well know by now.

And Younger Too

Soon it had made its way all over Preventers that Noin had received the ultimate in chocolate gifts from a guy who was not Milliardo Peacecraft. It started out with Relena and Hilde discussing it when Dorothy, who'd stopped in to chat with Relena had happened to over hear enough that she'd stayed where she was to eavesdrop instead of making her presence known. The rest was history and soon everyone was asking the big question of who was this guy and was it over between the Ice Man and his lady. It was only a matter of time before said Ice Man heard the rumors and after confronting his sister to confirm the fact that Noin had in fact got chocolate from some guy and to confirm that it wasn't just a gesture between friends. A half an hour later Milliardo left his sister's office with his ears ringing from his baby sister's lecture on the fact that this guy was obviously interested in being more then friends and that he was going to lose Noin if he didn't get his butt in gear and win her back. The only thing he really took from the whole lecture was that someone was trying to take Noin away from him and that he couldn't allow. He loved and needed Noin. He wasn't going to lose her and he was going to make that quite clear.

Finding her in their office Milliardo strolled in without closing the door which he was going to regret a great deal later on. She was at her computer and didn't even notice him coming in until he'd been standing in front of her desk for several moments. Finally sensing his presence Noin lifted her head from what she was doing and turning in her seat looked up at him and blinked. There was something wrong but she couldn't put her finger on it. "Hey, you. What's up? Something wrong?"

"Is this guy that sent you the brownies the reason you don't have time for me anymore?" Milliardo stated point blank seeing no reason to pussy foot around it. Months before she'd always had time for him and had always been available to come with him to functions and parties, now she was always busy and he was beginning to suspect why. She'd always had excuses but were they the truth was the question at hand.

"What?" Noin asked slowly, blinking at him again as she tried to comprehend the hidden meanings behind his words. If she were entirely honest Wufei was the reason she didn't have as much free time as she use to but it wasn't like she was involved with Wufei romantically which seemed to be the underlying question here. And hold the phone, what did he mean making it sound like she had abandoned him or something? There had been plenty of times when she'd needed him and he hadn't been there. In fact she'd gone to plenty of trouble in the past to be there for him when he needed her without a proper thank you. "Yes I have been spending time with the guy that sent me the brownies but so what? It's not like you have a say about who I spend time with. Not to mention the fact that I've spent plenty of time with you too."

"You're mine. Of course I have a right to get upset when you're spending all your time with another guy." Milliardo said rashly then wished he'd bit his tongue when her eyes flared up dangerously at his words. "What I meant to say was that you're my girl, Noin. I'm not comfortable with you spending so much time with this guy who seems to be trying to monopolize all your time and who might be interested in you as more then a friend."

"Your..girl. That's who I am to you huh?" Noin said carefully, getting to her feet as she slapped her hands down on her desk before leaning forward with her purple eyes flashing dangerously. "How dare you say that. Listen here, pal. If I were your girl you'd be sending me cute gifts, calling me names like sweetheart and love instead of by my friggin last name, for Christ sakes, all the time. You know it's really funny that you're complaining that I never have time for you anymore but how often did you put yourself out to be there when I needed you? Last year I asked you to come with me to my sister's wedding but you couldn't be bothered to rearrange your schedule to take two friggin days off to come with me and you could have if you'd wanted to badly enough. The only reason you're calling me your girl is because you suddenly realized that there's someone out there who is willing to put himself out occasionally to let me know I matter to him. That I'm worth going to a little trouble over. You're worried that I'm going to expect you to act like a boyfriend instead of a buddy you occasionally sleep with!"

"Noin..I..I can't believe you'd say that." Milliardo said in shock, gapping at her. Had the two not been so absorbed with each other they would have seen that a small crowd of people were congregating in front and around their door listening in. Though at this point, Noin was too pissed off to really care and he was in shock. "I don't..I treat you well, Noin, and you know how much I care about you."

"Well believe it, buster. And no, I don't know how much you care about me because you never tell me and reading your face is harder then getting Maxwell to go for a hair cut." Noin said with a mutinous look on her face, getting even more angry at the fact that he seemed to think that she should be honored or something that he'd picked her to be his girl. Ha his girl..that was a laugh. She was his buddy, his friend and maybe she was as close to a romantic love he'd ever have because the ice around his heart that she'd been trying to melt for years had yet to lose even a layer. And maybe it wasn't meant to. Well she was sick and tired of trying and she was tired of him not showing any emotion when it came to her, damn it. "And you treat me fine for a pal but I don't think you have any idea how to treat or please a girlfriend so you can march your ass over to your desk because I don't have anything else to say on the matter other then I will be seeing MY male friend tonight and if you don't like it you can just sit on it and spin."

"You are not going to even talk to this man again and that's final." Milliardo said with his ice blue eyes going to freezing temperatures, a show of emotion but not the kind she wanted. He couldn't even get truly angry about the idea of her with another guy, Noin thought with a slice of pain. If he caught her in bed with a guy he'd likely calmly tell the other man to leave the room and then pretend it had never happened. "Do you understand me, Noin?"

"I understand that I'm sick and tired of you telling me how things are and should be. I understand that I'm tired of telling myself that you'll grow to love me and that I'll get the happily ever after I always pictured to get me through the war. I understand that you don't want to risk losing me because I'm safe and comfortably worn in for you but that's going to change. I am going to see my friend tonight and any night I want and there's not a damn thing you can say about it. And you know something, Milliardo? I never really thought of him in a romantic way because I was always thinking about you but now that you've pointed it out I've realized a few things about him. Want to know what those things are?" Noin said as she came around the desk and turning to face him Noin moved in until she was nose to nose with him. "I've realized that he's a kind, considerate man who treats me with respect. That he would never put work before his family and that he sees me, the real me and will never try to change who I am. And I've ALSO realized that not only is he better looking then you but he's ten times more sexy too and..and ..and..he's YOUNGER then you too." Noin said at a near shout before turning on her heels and marching out of the room pushing past the people there and strolled purposely down the hallway leaving stunned faces and Milliardo standing alone in their office, staring into space in a state of absolute shock.

"Wow..I never saw that coming." Duo said with a his jaw practically on the ground as he and the other pilots dragged themselves away from the office window where Milliardo was still standing, as if frozen to the spot by Noin's words. They'd been walking past and Duo had refused to budge as he'd eavesdropped, the others reluctantly drawn in too. "I figured they'd be the way they were sixty years from now with Relena still pulling her hair over them."

"Bout time she let him have it." Heero said with a shrug and he stuffed his hands into his pockets. He was personally pleased with what Noin had done though Relena was going to give him an earful about it later no doubt. She was so set on them that he was surprised she'd never attempted a shot gun wedding and asked him to hold the gun to the groom's head. Not that he would have minded the holding a gun to Milliardo's head part. "I don't care what Relena says. Those two were never meant to be more then close friends."

"Well I hope Noin doesn't do something foolish like get involved with this male friend to spite him. Dates on the rebound never work out right." Duo said with a shake of his head thinking of several examples he could come up with. "But I was talking to Hilde earlier and according to Relena Noin went a little mushy over the present and talked about the guy as if she really liked him. Apparently Relena was really worried because she thought there was something in Noin's voice that hinted that Noin was a little too fond of the guy if you know what I mean."

"And Relena has commented that Noin always seems busy lately and I have noticed that Noin doesn't quite look at Milliardo the way she used to. Maybe Noin has found someone else and this will be the start of something wonderful for Noin." Quatre said with a sigh, hoping that it was since he was fond of Noin and wanted her to be happy. "She did say he was kind and a nice guy, you could hear affection in her voice too. I don't think that was just pride talking. Maybe this was the wake up call Noin needed to see that she has a great guy and a chance at that happily ever after she wants."

"Well she won't get that with Peacecraft." Trowa said with a shake of his dark brown head as he listened quietly to their opinions on the subject. "He cares about her but I don't think he's up to caring about her the way she needs him to. Plus Noin isn't the type to use someone to get back at someone else."

"Well then after we've personally looked the guy over and made sure he's as great as Noin says he is we'll do our best to protect him from Peacecraft." Duo said with a wink as he started walking backwards for the heck of it, trusting Quatre to warn him if he was about to hit anything or anyone. "Course we can only help the new guy when Relena's not in the room because she'll borrow Heero's gun and shoot us if she knew we were cheering for the other guy." Everyone agreeing on that point each of them noticed that Wufei was silent during the whole thing but just assumed it was due to his hatred of gossip and useless chatter.

Lost in his own thoughts Wufei was only vaguely aware of what his friends were saying. How could the onna have said those things about him, Wufei wondered getting a bit red in the cheeks as he recalled the fact that she'd not only called him good looking but sexy too. When he'd first heard the rumors that had resulted from the brownies he'd been vaguely amused by how far off they were though the idea had stuck in his head. Which, of course, had brought up questions he hadn't wanted to answer but were now coming back full force. He rarely went out of his way for anyone, much less a female but he had on occasion gotten Sally juice or a sandwich for lunch without being asked..this was no different. Okay so maybe he'd gone to the shop for lunch on the slight chance that they might have those brownies because she'd mentioned them but that didn't mean anything. So maybe he'd paid the ridiculous price those crooks charged for the stupid things but he'd already ordered them before he'd known the price. Besides, like Lucrezia had said, they were just friends..there was nothing wrong with a friend bringing another friend something. So then why the hell had he snuck into her office to leave it there instead of giving it to her himself? Why had he been so pleased when she'd sent him a big smile in the hallway earlier in thanks? And did she really think he was sexy?

"Hey, Wufei..where are you and if it's a daydream involving a naked or several naked women I want to hear all the details." Duo said elbowing his friend in the stomach and had to grin when Wufei just blinked at him owlishly with a look that said plainly that Wufei had been too deep in thought to hear him. "Where did ya go, buddy?"

"What? What do you want, Maxwell?" Wufei said with a scowl, his cheeks going slightly pinker as his friend just grinned at him with a look on his face that Wufei didn't like at all. What had he missed? "Aren't we suppose to be going to meet with Relena about that conference?" Wufei said trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, Duo. Leave him alone. Whatever he's thinking about has to be ten times more important then what runs through your head when you daydream." Heero said with a smirk and everyone broke into laughter including Duo with Wufei even smiling though more out of relief then anything else. Quickly he shook himself back to attention and made the effort to pay attention to his friends as they walked the rest of the way to Relena's office who was indeed tearing out her hair at the situation between her brother and Noin. Which was about to get worse once she heard about the big fight.

Late that Evening

Wufei walked into the gym late that evening for her lesson to find Lucrezia already there dressed in black shorts and light blue T-shirt doing stretches to warm up for the lesson. He hadn't been sure she'd show up and if he were honest he hadn't exactly been sure whether he'd been hoping she would anyway. He'd done his best to pretend that everything she'd said had been her way of slapping back at Peacecraft but there was this little voice inside of his head pointing out that maybe Lucrezia had meant what she'd said and really thought he was all those things. It wasn't often that he was called kind and considerate much less good looking. Well Sally did but she did it in a teasing way and in that case it was usually when she was trying to set him up on a date with someone. Not even aware that he was staring at Lucrezia now he had to admire her form as she moved, her body having a beautiful grace to it that was a pleasure to watch. Like the Mulan from the ancient stories of China. The story was about a girl that had dressed as a man in order to take her father's place in the war. He could see Lucrezia doing that though you would have to be an idiot not to realize she was a female. She was strong yes but there was something delicate and essentially female about her regardless of her face or form. Realizing he was staring Wufei looked away for a moment then looking back at her shook his head then went into the men's change room, coming out shortly in loose black pants and a black sleeveless shirt. Walking towards her he approved of the fact that she'd gotten their usual swords out and had begun going through simply drills while leaving his off to the side for him. Picking up his sword Wufei joined her on the mat, silently warming up as well without a word.

"Uhmm, Wufei?" Noin finally said after he'd been there for five minutes without saying so much as a word to her which she took to mean that he had been there for the fight and that she hadn't just imagined passing him while she'd been storming out of the office. "About what I said to Milliardo earlier..what I said about you..I hope you weren't offended. And I wanted to thank you..for the brownies. It was really sweet of you."

"I wasn't offended..and you're welcome." Wufei said gruffly not knowing what else to say. Obviously she hadn't meant what she'd said about him to Peacecraft and that should make him happy. Strangely though it didn't and if he wasn't mistaken he was actually..almost disappointed. "Though next time you want to slap at Milliardo I would suggest you stick with the truth. It has more of a punch that way."

"But I was telling the truth..sort of." Noin said, her cheeks going slightly pink as she concentrated on her footwork and not him which was taking a lot of skill. She'd been so nervous when he'd walked in and was getting more so by the second "You really are a great guy, Wufei and any girl would be lucky to get ahold of you..sexist remarks and terrible taste in colors for a kitchen aside."

Blinking Wufei's own cheeks went a tinge pink and it was through sheer training that he didn't drop the heavy sword on his foot. Looking at her Wufei hesitantly smiled at her and was pleased when she gave him a small smile in return. "Oh...well you can do much better then Peacecraft...Lucrezia. A man would be lucky to have you as his..love of baseball and terrible taste in colors for a kitchen aside."