Chapter Eight

The magazine was slammed down in front of her and the cold eyes belonging to Tony were staring up at her. She hadn't heard from him in two days, but she was perfectly fine with that. She looked away from the magazine and saw Hilde glaring at her, hands on her hips, "You should read that article."

Relena looked back down at the magazine, picking it up and flipping through until she saw Tony's face again. There, just a few sentences in, were evidence of Relena's 'affair'. Verbatim, Relena and Heero's texts from the other night out were printed and published for the world to see. She reached for her phone, scrolling through the texts just to make sure they hadn't missed anything. She wasn't sure if she wanted to vomit for the publicity that her secret, nonexistent sex life with Heero was getting or if she wanted to scream for the publicity that her secret, nonexistent sex life with Heero was getting. She forced herself to read on, realizing that this was Tony's very public way of calling off the wedding.

Finally!

Relena set the magazine down, clenching her fists tightly and lowered her head to the table. She took several deep breaths before asking, "Has Heero seen this?"

"No, it just came out today."

It was too early for bad publicity.

"Well, I got what I wanted, even if it wasn't how I would have liked," Relena tried to see the positive side.

"Oh! What are you going to do?" Hilde asked, exasperated, "You'll have paparazzi all over your doorstep and work. Preventers will have to huddle around you so these vultures don't get a shot of you."

Relena cleared her throat, tossing the magazine aside, "Its fine. This will blow over in couple days."

"I don't think so!" Hilde reached for the magazine and began waving it in Relena's face, "This is a big deal; not only for you, but for Heero too. You know he never wants to be in the spotlight. You know he likes his privacy. All those boys ever wanted after the war was some peace and quiet. This will not give him any peace."

Relena stood, aggravated at the German woman, "Don't talk to me like I don't know what Heero wants. However, Heero knows very well what my life is like and that it is unavoidable to be in the spotlight if he were to be with me. Since he has decided that I'm the one he wants, he'll have to cope with the flashing lights. I don't need to be lectured from you."

"What's going on?" Heero asked, entering the dining room with sleepy confusion. Duo was yawning behind him, still half asleep.

"You two make an awful lot of noise this early in the morning," Duo said, still yawing widely.

The girls silenced, feeling very awkward about their argument. Relena sat back down, trying to finish her eggs. If word had gotten out already, she was going to be in for a long day at the office. She wondered how many reporters would try to sneak in and how many nasty stares she would receive. Hilde sat down, tucking the magazine underneath her arm.

"What's that? Gossip this early in the morning?" Duo laughed, spreading jam onto his toast.

Relena felt her cheeks heat up and Hilde forced a smile, lodging the magazine securely against her body. She would fight anyone that tried to take it from her; unfortunately, her pilot was stealthy and quick. He had ripped it from her before she could react.

Duo flipped through the pages, smiling jovially until he saw the article. Relena watched his eyes moved as he read quickly. His jovial smile faded with each line. Even Heero was watching his comrade, his bites of egg being chewed slowly. Duo looked up, sighing heavily and looked from Heero to Relena.

Without a word, Duo passed the magazine to Heero and pushed his plate of food away.

Relena decided it was time to go to work. She didn't want to be there for Heero's reaction. Although the texts were true and the article was based solely on Tony's point of view, she knew it was still going to be tense inside the house. What the article didn't know was that Relena and this 'secret love affair' weren't actually having sex. They hadn't been together since Tony and Relena started dating. They had the history of it all wrong. But it was pointless to argue with that. What was done was done and now, Relena had to face the chaos and wrath.

She was out the door and just as Hilde had predicted, there were reporters standing on her yard. She didn't want to believe that they knew where she lived. She held her elegant parties at the mansion for a reason. Over fifty reports were on her lawn and she was getting blinded by the cameras. She tried taking a deep breath, but her nerves took hold of her just then.

The consequences of her actions were now being shoved into her face. She felt like she failed. She had always wanted to inspire instead of disappoint. She never really wanted to turn this into a big deal. She had always loved Heero and she knew that no matter who she was with, Heero would always win.

She wanted to fall onto the ground. She didn't know how much longer her legs would be able to hold her up. She had faced mobile suits and evil scheming politicians. She had even faced her corrupted and misguided brother on Libra without faltering, but now, this was about love and not peace. However, just as her legs finally gave out, she was lifted up. The dark brown and green jacket of Preventers wrapped an arm around her waist, balancing her weight and letting her regain her composure. She was walking before she knew it and the reporters separated. The cameras were still flashing and they were still yelling questions, but she knew she'd be okay. She waited until she was safely inside the car before thanking Heero for saving her, but it wasn't Heero.

Duo smiled at her sympathetically, "You'll be okay, princess."

"Did he read it?"

Duo nodded, "He's going to talk to Une. Don't worry about any of this. It'll blow over soon."

"I never wanted to be that girl, Duo," she sighed, leaning against the car window. "I never wanted to be a cheater."

"You're not a cheater. We're the only ones that know what really happened. Yeah, no one will be willing to hear your side, but I promise you, no one will hear Tony's side for a while either."

She scoffed, but not questioning him anymore.

Heero knocked once as he was turning the handle to her office door. She had been back to work for only five minutes and he had one new large case for Preventers in his jacket pocket. True to form, she was already on the phone, scowling and arguing with the President. From what Heero could catch, it was mostly about security measures for the President's meeting on L4. Heero waited, it would only be another moment before he would hang up on her. He had a habit of doing that when she wouldn't give in to his demands. Just because he was president didn't mean he could boss Commander Lady Une around. She had been Treize Khushranda's assistant for years, after all.

She huffed and slammed the phone down, but only waited a second before giving Heero her attention. Without a word, he handed her the disc. She took it, inserting it into her own computer and didn't question him at all. He liked being under her command. They exchanged few words and got their assignments done just as efficiently. If Duo had joined him, the surprise on her face wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying from words.

Slowly, her eyes widened and her mouth opened.

"Tony Samoz is into sex trading," Heero said, clarifying whose information she was looking at in disgust.

I think the next chapter will be the last. No promises though! How's that for juicy drama?