A.C. 201

She laughed so freely that it startled him as if out of a deep sleep. When she reached for his hand, he gave it to her without hesitation, and met her half way. His skin tingled from their point of contact, the sensation shot from his palm up his arm and spread to warm the whole front of his torso. His chest and stomach contracted involuntarily as he let out a deep sound of delight, and he pulled her into him.

She quieted momentarily. He tucked her face into his neck, deliberately rubbed her cheek with his hairy jaw. She squealed and squirmed but he held her close until they both stilled, she felt squeezed every time he inhaled. He smelled like wood smoke and sunlight and sea, and was much broader than she remembered. Her words were muffled by his sweater when she finally spoke.

"Are you really going to stay here?"

"If you'll approve my application."

The combination of his embrace and his voice was too much for her, she stepped back feeling suddenly hot. He tilted his head to look at her and waited, there was a mark on her right cheek from being pressed against the zipper of his jacket, he fought the urge to trace it with his thumb. She had more colour in her skin than her ESUN days, and he was selfishly glad to feel more relaxed about her safety now.

She cleared her throat and almost ran back to her desk, snatched up his application and tried to focus on his neatly slanted handwriting. With her back to him, she busied herself by reading the contents again, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, flustered. He followed and stopped behind her, the ear she had just exposed was rosy pink, and he could see peach fuzz on its soft shell against the light from the windows. He remembered feeling the heat from the Earth's atmosphere in the cockpit of his mobile suit, and thinking then that he would die for the colonies, but he would survive for her. The odd timing of the thought did not bother him, he had long gotten used to the way Relena intruded his mind seemingly at random.

Many have killed and died for ideals, but they had not the fortune to find a reason to keep on living. Was it less selfish then, for him to have survived for the sake of another?

Brave are those who march off to fight, braver still are those who come back to rebuild what's been destroyed, she once declared, it was one of her last speeches as the Vice Foreign Minister. Relena was the youngest to hold the office, and the youngest to retire from it.

Let us be generous and forgiving, not giving way to envy and resentment. For we who lived through the catastrophe of the war have all been given another chance at life. How then shall we live? The founders of a great nation once challenged its citizens to pursue happiness. Today I put forth a new challenge to you, ladies and gentlemen of the Earth Sphere and colonies, to pursue peace. Peace first within our own hearts, then with each other, and finally with all mankind...

He knew that speech by heart, he'd helped her rehearse it. It was no longer the wishful thinking of an ideologically naive young girl, but a call for shared responsibility to every human being. That had been an especially difficult year; five assassination attempts and a coup from within the Preventers that almost destroyed the organization. He was called in on special assignment officially in June of that year, though he had been tailing her secretly for months.

Presently, she turned around to look at him, her face half hid behind the thin sheet of paper, but he knew by the shape of her eyes that she was grinning.

"You have quite the ambitious plan Mr. Yuy, are you sure you can handle three careers in tandem?"

"I like to keep busy." He replied easily, and tried to ignore the way she looked at him through her lashes. Relena schooled her expression into a semblance of professionalism, and lowered the page to look at him seriously. She took a deep breath.

"The resettlement program requires that you use your assigned acreage for agriculture or forestry, and that it is yours for as long as you are the active steward. A half hectare may be cultivated for subsistence should you desire to do so, and any developments including but not limited to wells, irrigation, houses and earthworks will be funded by the land holder. The deed will be transferred from the Crown to the heir of settler with full mineral rights if inherited by two consecutive generations..."

She faltered as he stepped into her space, his eyes squinted half in amusement and half impatient. Still she attempted to finish speaking.

"It is encouraged for foreign settlers to integrate into general society, participate in the celebrations of civic holidays and volunteer at local charitable organizations. Should the settler decide to enter into civil union with a citizen-" she blushed redder and swallowed determinedly, "his or her immigration status will be updated to full citizenship, with the right of representation and property ownership, for as long as the union shall last."

"I read it, I signed it." He shuffled even closer, the tips of his heavy work boots almost touched her dainty flats.

"In that case," She breathed against his lips with a smile, "welcome to the Sanc Kingdom."