Between Love and Hate

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. Although I do own Nikki, Derek and anyone else you don't recognise from the series.

A/N - Eventually, i get to post this... stupid fanfiction server being down delayed all my updates (aswell as everyone elses) and wouldn't let anyone review, at least i'm hoping that's why hardly anyone reviewed ah well...

Burgandy: Thanks for the review, very encouraging lol.Hurry up to get your next post up!

miroku-has-darkness: Thanks for the review.

Oh and italics are either flashbacks or the writing on letters. You'll work it out though...

Chapter two: A chance to change

Location: Earth – Spain – Costa Blanca - Denia

Heero sat on a pool chair, his laptop balanced on his lap, and basking in the suns delirious rays. The sound of exotic bird cries echoed through his mind, whilst off in the distance he could hear the sounds of the Mediterranean waves crashing against the rocks. He closed his eyes, shielding them from the blindingly bright sun. It was midday and he knew that the suns rays were most harmful at this time of day; he should have been inside, resting as most others do during siesta. But Heero liked to use this time to his advantage, at this time it was peaceful and quiet, there was no rowdy kids running up and down the Denia streets and there was no busy shoppers scurrying to get their groceries before the shops closed for siesta. No one, but him.

He closed his laptop, setting it over to the side, and into his briefcase. He couldn't have it being waterlogged. After all, it was his only form of escape from this secluded foreign country, which he was now living in. He settled back into his deckchair, enjoying the hot rays of the sun that he could feel heating his skin.

"Arrghh!" Cold water splashed over his nicely warmed tan body. He jumped up from his chair in surprise, glancing down to the head that had just emerged from the water in the pool. "I'll get you back for that!"

Large chocolate brown eyes stared at him from behind long fluttering lashes. He glared at them, sighing deeply; the owner of the brown eyes began laughing hysterically.

"Nicola…" Heero growled through gritted teeth. The girl stopped laughing and brushed her dark brown bangs out of her eyes.

"Heero, why must you insist to call me that when you know how much I hate it?" She asked, her English was accented with a Spanish twist. She grabbed onto the side of the pool and hoisted herself up.

"You just answered your own question." Nicola scoffed as he smirked at her, drying himself with his towel. She snatched the towel out of his hands, grinning at him slightly and then drying herself off.

Heero, somewhat annoyed at her actions, lifted the towel out of her hands once she had finished and gave her a small push backwards. Nicola's face lit up in surprise as she stumbled backwards into the pool.

Smirking, Heero set himself back down into his chair, pleased to have gotten his revenge. He tilted his head back and listened for her head to pop up and start countering coloured language at him, after a few moments, he was surprised that he hadn't heard her come out. Glancing over to the pool, he noticed, that she was not in his sight; he noted the fact that there were small faint bubbles breaking through the top of the pool where he had pushed her.

"Oh shit." Heero jumped up from his chair, his heart racing rapidly in his chest. 'She should be up by now.'

"Nicola." He shouted, forgetting that raising your voice above a whisper was banned during the hours of siesta. And without thinking twice, Heero dived into the deep end of their pool. He pushed the water out of his way, trying to get a full scan of the pool.

He felt her hand on his shoulder, and turned around quickly, wanting to sigh in relief, it was then that he realised that they were both still holding their breath. He grabbed her arm, and kicking off the pool floor, thrust himself up to the top, bringing the girl with him. His head broke through the water as he gasped for air, Nicola doing the same thing, he turned to face her as she grinned mischievously back at him.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" He asked her, not able to withhold the anger from his voice.

"What's wrong Heero? Where you worried?" She faked an innocently curious face.

"Of course I was! I'm paid to guard your life, not drown you in our pool!"

"Is that all?" She asked again, a slight smirk playing on her lips. Heero frowned at her.

"No…" he told her reluctantly. Nicola placed a finger over her lips, hushing him.

"Don't say a word." She reached out, placing her hands on his shoulders and pushed him down slowly under the water. Heero grimaced in confusion before taking a last breath and ducking his head under.

Pushing them both further under water, Nicola pressed her body up close to her bodyguard's. Wrapping her leg around his, she smiled at him before leaning in hastily.

Heero met her half way, taking her mouth in his own. He kissed her passionately reciprocating her actions, his hand resting on the back of her head to push her closer to him. Deepening the kiss, Heero felt he couldn't get enough of the intense feeling however much he got, he just couldn't satisfy his needs and this gluttonous hunger that seemed to be overpowering him. Kicking his legs, he pushed them to the top, were they both broke away at a loss of breath, leaning his forehead on hers, Heero stared into her enticing brown eyes, feeling lost. Nicola flashed him a dark smile, pressing her lips against his once more.

"See…" She told him in between kisses, "What you would be missing, if I wasn't here." Heero pulled away from her, diving under the water, he grabbed her legs, and hearing her incoherent squeal he pushed her up onto the edge of the pool.

"Yes, a whole lot," He jumped up beside her, "and all of this." He added whilst kissing her lightly on the lips before walking over to his deck chair and throwing himself down. He closed his eyes once again, feeling a wave of tiredness overpower him. 'I really have to stop these all-nighters.'

Heero was dry in no time. He glanced at his watch, 'Three thirty? What have I done for three hours?' He suddenly remembered the passionately heated kisses he had shared with his girlfriend.

He suddenly remembered her last words…

"See… what you would be missing, if I wasn't here."

He had answered her truthfully; he would have been missing a whole lot. Nicola had unlocked a part of him that even he hadn't known was there. His heart.

He could even admit now, that he had changed dramatically; he wasn't so much the 'perfect soldier' anymore, in fact he was probably as close to normal now as he would ever be.

"Derek? What do you want?" Heero asked down his cell phone.

"Heero… we found you a job." Derek answered

"Hn, okay, and…"

"You're needed as a bodyguard, it's a very high profile job, but there's a glitch."

"A glitch?"

"Yes. We couldn't find any jobs for you within this proximity, and this one is your only choice."

"Hurry up and tell me where I would be located." Heero snapped impatiently.

"Spain."

"Spain?" Heero asked in disbelief. "You could only get something in Spain."

"Yes Heero, you had the best job available for you with Relena, but you messed that up." Heero growled down the receiver.

"This is the only job we could get you that wouldn't have you completely and utterly bored. This one is a high profile job, therefore enabling you to use your level of training and strategic abilities. This is the best we can get. Take it or leave it Heero?"

Heero sighed… Spain… it was so far away from the place he now called home.

'I will be back one day Relena.'

"OK. What are the details?" He asked, the man down the phone sighed in relief.

"Right, you are now the official bodyguard of Nicola de Rivera." 'Her name sounds so familiar,' "Her profession as a model should mean that she will have a lot of over-obsessed stalkers trailing her every move, oh and the press, try to keep her away from the press unless she wants the publicity." 'That's why she sounds so familiar… the semi-famous supermodel, Nikki de Rivera.'

"I hear she's quite a talkative girl, so Heero…?"

"Hn?"

"Please converse with her, and do not give her the cold shoulder. You got that?"

"Yes."

"Ok great. That's it. I'll book you a flight to Madrid for tomorrow morning."

"Madrid?"

"Yes, that's where her agents have situated her. Although I hear she plans to move within the next year."

'Hmm I've always wanted to go to Costa Blanca.'

"OK. Email me the flight arrangements."

That had been the start of this completely new life. The change, as he thought of it, because really, so much had changed since then.

He met Nicola de Rivera the next day in Madrid, and mentally noted that she was even prettier than she was in the magazines. The tall girl had taken to him immediately, and during the ride had tried to make conversation with him, asking him question after question after question. And so started his profession as Nikki de Rivera's personal bodyguard.

After a while, Nicola had started to break away the barriers to his soul and work her way into his heart. It had taken a long and exhausting six months for the two to finally realise that they had a spark, a connection, a bond, upon which they started to form a relationship.

As planned, Nicola had started to search the country for a new house to spend her well-earned fortune on. She found it in Costa Blanca, a beautiful old building, with seventeen rooms, a large pool and a magnificent garden. This house, of course, had been Heero's choice, but Nicola also had fallen in love with it at first sight, the fact that it was in quite a secluded area of Spain didn't bother her in the least. And so a year after Heero had taken the job, they moved into the house at Costa Blanca.

It has now been two years since they moved in and three since Heero had left the Sanc Kingdom.

"Heero!" Nicola called him from the house, Heero's eyes jolted open. 'Had I been sleeping?'

"You've got a few letters here, do you want to come and open them?" Heero noted the time on his watch, four o'clock. He could here the tourists exploring the area, the children parading the streets, and the shoppers back to the marts. The sun was already starting to set behind the hills, 'damn these short days'. He got up, shaking his head to rid him of his drowsiness and walked into the house.

"Here." Nicola pushed the letters into his hands, smiling at him and then walking off, singing in her nicely tuned Spanish voice. 'Probably going to sort out her closet, God knows, she really needs to, she has too much clothes in there.'

Sticking his finger in between the parting of the first letter, he pulled it along, tearing the envelope open. He took the piece of paper from the envelope carefully, and opened it slowly. He could never be too cautious.

'It's from Derek'

Heero, Nicola's employers have given her a two-month break, because she has an important photo shoot in July, so they have rescheduled her holidays. Please inform Nikki of this...

Heero grunted and crumpling the letter, threw it in the trashcan.

"Nicola?" He heard the Spanish voice upstairs, which was still singing, halt midway through a sentence, notifying him that she had heard the call. He then heard her feet running over to the banister of the stairs.

"Yes?" She called, heavily accented with her Spanish voice.

"Your employers have rescheduled your holiday period." He heard her groaning. "You now have two months free from tomorrow morning."

"Nicola?" He called again, unsure of whether she was listening.

"Yes, I heard you Heero. I'm going to go think of what we can do." He heard her feet scurrying back into their room.

Heero glanced down at the next letter, it was handwritten, 'I recognise that handwriting, is that Quatre's?' Without hesitation, Heero ripped the envelope open and took out the letter.

Heero,
I am contacting you to inform you that I shall be having a 'get-together' at my house next week. I shall be inviting everyone from our group and would be delighted if you would also attend. To make the arrangements more suitable, you are all more than welcome to stay here for a few weeks. I feel that this should give us all more time to catch up on things that we have missed.
Please respond soon, so I can get an idea of who all will be attending.
Many thanks for your time.
Yours truly,
Quatre and Dorothy Winner.

'Quatre and Dorothy Winner' a slight smile escaped from Heero and danced across his lips. He had briefly been in contact with his old friends, but only Duo and Quatre. Duo had written to him over a year ago informing him of his marriage to Hilde and how Quatre and Dorothy were to be married within the next three months. 'Looks like I missed, yet another wedding.' He sighed gently and placed the letter back in the envelope.
He fetched his laptop from outside and hastily brought up his email editor, writing a reply to Quatre. He hit the send button and went to make his way upstairs.

"Nicola? I have an idea." He told her as he reached the doorframe to their room, leaning against it he watched his girlfriend as she flicked through a 'Vogue' magazine.

"You do?" she asked without tearing her eyes away from the column she was reading.

"Yes. How do you feel about going to the Sanc Kingdom for a few weeks?"


'The heart that can no longer love passionately, must with fury hate' - Jean Baptiste Racine

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Love ya'll

Allura