Chapter One

"Good Lord! Who is that intimidating gentleman?" Tony leaned into her ear, whispering surprisingly as he continued to wave at the guests. She turned to look at him and followed his eyes to see whom he was referring to. It didn't take long to spot him. There, in the corner of the dining hall was a tall man, with unruly brown hair and stone cold blue eyes that were set on her. Their eyes locked for the first time in five years. Even after all of those years, he looked the same. His stoic expression had unchanged. His intense eyes that would always bore into her soul were still as powerful.

She felt a chill sweep over her, causing her skin to bump up. Five years had been too long.

She felt her hand rise and wave to him, not sure why. Her fiancé leaned into her again, "Do you know him? Is he a guest of yours?"

Relena smiled mechanically, "He was a friend of mine during the Eve Wars."

"Well! We must go and say hello to the fellow pacifist." Tony exclaimed, tearing away from the delegate crowd and pulling gently on her elbow. Behind his back, she grimaced. She didn't have the heart to tell him that Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier and former Gundam pilot, was no pacifist.

Heero stood where he was, keeping his eyes on Relena and her fiancé. He watched them approach without a single inclination that he even wanted to speak with them. Relena plastered a smile across her face with fierce determination. Five years ago, they had parted and she was left heartbroken. He left without another word to her. It took her five years to recuperate and, like clockwork, he decided to come back into her life.

For such an event like this evening, she could only assume that Quatre had invited him along. She was pleased to see Quatre attend, along with Trowa and Duo. The American pilot had brought his wife, Hilde much to Relena's pleasure. They all had stopped by to pay their respects and then went to mingle. She wished she would have been able to join them; however, Tony had secured her closely to his side while he did his mandatory pleasantries. He was the guest of honor, after all.

As soon as Tony had reached Heero, the politician extended his hand out to the ex-soldier in greeting. Heero's eyes never left Relena's, but he slowly took Tony's hand and gripped tightly. There was no shaking motion, a simple squeeze and Tony pulled back quickly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister…"

"Yuy."

"Mr. Yuy, named after the pacifist Heero Yuy, I take it? Or was he a relative?" Tony droned on in his charming, savvy tone that swooned all of his and Relena's coworkers. Everyone bought his charm, even Relena.

"No," Heero answered sharply, finally turning his eyes away from Relena and onto Tony.

"Oh? Yuy has only been known to belong to one family. I would be surprised if other people had the name Yuy other than the deceased Heero."

"Hn."

Tony shifted uncomfortably, looking to Relena for assistance. There were only a few times that his charm didn't help him and he had to rely on Relena's connections to make a good impression. That was why he had proposed to the Foreign Minister after all. She knew more people than he did and he was all about social climbing. His blatant admittance about this to her on their third date had won her over slightly. If he was this honest with her so early in, what would stop him from being honest with her forever? She fell into, what she thought was love. Now, weeks away from the wedding, she was starting to think this relationship was nothing more than business.

Relena cleared her throat, still holding the mechanical smile in place and extended her hand to Heero's. The Perfect Soldier took it lightly and willingly. "Thank you for joining us tonight, Heero. How long have you been back on Earth?"

Tony watched the exchange curiously.

"A few days. Quatre informed me of the dinner tonight and invited me to join him. I hope I haven't ruined the evening for you and your fiancé."

She shook her head, "Not at all. You're always welcome to join us."

"Of course, any friend of Relena's is a friend of mine." Tony laughed, wrapping an arm around her waist possessively. "After all, in a few weeks everything she has will be mine and mine hers."

Heero's expression hardened even more, his deep blue eyes narrowing at Tony. The guest of honor cleared his throat nervously, "Well, we must get back to the party."

Relena nodded to Heero, following the encouraging push of Tony away from her old love. The crowd dissolved them and Heero had disappeared when she finally looked back, hoping to still see his eyes glaring at her.

Eventually, Tony had been ripped away from her. She felt like she was finally able to breathe properly for the first time that night. She strode across the dining hall, taking glasses of champagne as the waiters passed. By the time she had reached the terrace, she was downing her fourth glass. To her delight, she found Quatre and his company reveling in the nighttime heat of the summer. Duo wasted no time, picking her up from her feet and twirling her until she became dizzy. Trowa and Quatre hugged her tightly, congratulating her on her marriage. Hilde was the only one that didn't seem pleased about the news. She hugged Relena, forcing a smile as they chatted about the wedding. Relena was no fool. She knew that there were more people that shared the opinion of Hilde's. Tony and Relena were a match made in political heaven and no one could deny it. It made perfect sense for them to wed. The paparazzi had a field day when they announced the wedding.

Once the boys had wandered off to the side yards of the mansion, Hilde grabbed Relena by the shoulder, "Are you doing the right thing?"

Relena forced a smile, "Of course, it makes perfect sense to marry Tony."

"Oh yeah, it makes sense all right, but is he really want you want forever?"

Relena's smiled slipped for a moment, realizing that this arrangement did mean forever. "Well, forever is uncertain, but right now it is what I want."

Hilde seemed to accept her answer, turning away from her and stared out into the gardens. After a while, the former German soldier spoke again, "Did you see Heero?"

"I did. It was certainly a surprise."

"He went to L2 a month ago. As soon as you made your announcement to marry Tony, Heero has been trying to figure out a way to come back to you. He wasn't so sure you would be happy to see him though, so he stayed away."

Relena frowned, watching the Gundam pilots horseplay in the gardens, not caring that they were ruining the shrubs and rose bushes that her gardeners had worked so hard on for the past week. "It's been five years, Hilde."

"I know! He knows that, but you can't let something like that stop how you feel about him. I've known since we were fifteen. I your eyes when I mentioned him to you on Libra."

"Feelings change, Hilde. People change. When we were fifteen, we were foolish and took on more than we were capable of. We meddled in more than we should have. That war was beyond us and we took it on anyway."

Hilde sighed heavily, leaning down and resting her head against the marble veranda, "You're so stubborn. Always. You never stop fighting for what you want even if no one sees what you see. So… why are you giving up on Heero so easily? He runs, you know that. You've always known that, but he always comes back to you."

"I'm tired of him running," Relena sighed, closing her eyes.

The women stay silent a while longer. There was nothing left to say. Both of them knew the truth, but there was nothing more to be done about it. Finally, Relena pushed herself away from the veranda and walked back into the dining hall. She wanted to be left alone so she sought out Tony and bid him goodnight. He didn't seem distraught at her early departure and simply kissed her cheek and went back to conversing avidly about the Terraformation projects.

The walk up to her bedroom was quiet, the noise contained to the large room. However, she felt as if someone was watching her. The feeling didn't stop until she was safe in her own room and locked the door behind her.

Hello! I've got a new story for all of you! I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter. I have a week vacation so I should be updating again soon. I won't wait a year to update. That was awful! I felt so bad about it.