A/N: Valentine's gift fic for Maevemauvaise. I have to also give a huge thanks to Amberlyinviolet for being super patient with some D/s questions from me as well as doing a great beta read. Any mistakes you see are my own and NOT her fault though.

A/N #2: This fic is complete in five parts and I will be posting a chapter every day or as I get it edited. So you're not going to be waiting months or years for updates on this. And yes, I'm working on updates for my WIPs.

Warnings: D/s, BDSM, fluff, angst, violence, language, smutty smut smut (of the 2x5 variety only). Also cliches because… I really wanted to do some fun things. And a few Star Wars quotes because Star Wars.

Pairings: 2X5, 3xR

True Romance

Part 3

"Oh, sorry, excuse us."

Trowa turned at the sound of a familiar voice.

Duo and Wufei stood in the aisle behind him, each holding a travel bag, weary expressions on their faces.

Trowa arched an eyebrow.

"Sorry, our seat is just past you," Duo gestured to the two open seats further up in the first class cabin of the shuttle.

Trowa had to smirk as he moved aside to let them pass.

For almost every undercover op that he and Duo had ever run they had been subjected to the worst possible shuttle accommodations. It seemed, however, that Duo had been able to convince Une that travelling in first class was essential to his and Wufei's identities for this mission.

"Headed to the moon?" Duo asked as he stored first his and then Wufei's bags in the overhead compartment above their seats.

"Unless you know of a stop in between?" Trowa asked.

Duo smirked and then held out a hand.

"I'm Max Brown and this is my fiance, Fai Song."

Trowa shook Duo's hand and then Wufei's.

"Alex Haber. My girlfriend and I are going to a friend's wedding at the Achelois resort."

"No kidding? We're headed there too - not for a wedding though."

They had decided that it might be useful for their missions to have a reason to interact and Wufei had been the one to suggest, two days ago, that Duo be his 'usual over-friendly and obnoxious self' and introduce them on the shuttle.

Duo looked past Trowa at the empty seats behind him.

"Your girlfriend of the invisible variety?" He asked.

Trowa rolled his eyes.

"No, she's of the signing an autograph for the cabin crew variety."

Duo lifted his eyebrows.

"She's someone famous or just that gorgeous?"

"Both," Trowa gave a long suffering sigh. "Which has its benefits but also its drawbacks."

Duo nodded and it looked like he was about to continue the conversation when the woman in question herself walked over. She looped her arm through Trowa's and smiled broadly at Duo.

"Well hello - do you and Alex know each other?"

"Just met. I'm Max and this is my fiance Fai. Are you - holy crap are you Queen Relena?"

Relena rolled her eyes.

"Just plain Relena." She held out her free hand.

Duo shook it and winked.

"I don't know if I'd ever call you plain," Duo disagreed.

"Didn't I tell you she was gorgeous?" Trowa said.

She smirked and leaned her head on Trowa's shoulder.

Trowa fought very hard to remain at ease.

He had met Relena at the shuttle gate less than an hour ago, taking over from her usual security detail and falling into his role as her boyfriend as easily as he managed most undercover assignments. He took her bags in one hand and kissed her on the lips in greeting. She had smiled politely at him, had wrestled her bags back from him and even brushed away his hand when he reached for hers.

It was not going well. Or at all according to plan.

"Max, let them take their seats," Wufei spoke up.

He sounded tired and he looked… tense.

Trowa arched an eyebrow at Duo, who had lost his friendly grin and merely gave Trowa a brief shake of his head.

So apparently things weren't going according to plan with them either.

"When you get bored in a few hours just remember we're only a row down!" Duo joked as he took his seat beside Wufei.

Trowa felt confident that during the eighteen-hour flight he would find himself desperate for their company at least once.

He nodded and then stood aside so that Relena could take the window seat before sitting down beside her.

They were silent during the takeout, Relena pulling out what looked entirely too much like official paperwork for someone claiming to be on vacation as soon as they were cleared to move about the cabin.

Trowa watched her reading and making notes, his eyes draw to her lips when she tapped her pen against them as she read. It was distracting but it also made Trowa smile. It seemed like such an innocent and thoughtless gesture, not at all something that a woman with that much political capital would be doing.

"You're staring at me," Relena murmured, not looking up from her work.

"I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you," Trowa pointed out defensively.

"Afraid I'm going to die of a papercut?" She asked and looked over at him.

Trowa narrowed his eyes.

Relena sighed.

"Listen, I don't need - are you sure you wouldn't be more useful working with the others on whatever they are up to?"

"How do you know they aren't part of your escort detail?"

Relena glared at him.

"Because Une promised me that you were the only one I had to put up with. If she's going behind my back to -"

Trowa held up one hand to forestall what promised to be a furious tirade. He had heard Relena complain about her security details before. At length.

"They aren't. They have a separate mission."

Relena let out a huff of either relief or annoyance and settled back in with her paperwork.

It was an hour later when she spoke again.

"How did you get saddled with me anyway? I know you don't particularly like me so I doubt you volunteered."

Trowa raised an eyebrow at that, but she wasn't looking at him.

"It was decided that Heero couldn't do it, and Une would rather cut off her own arm than deal with whatever debacle you and Wufei would find yourselves in." Relena smirked fondly at that. "And Duo said something about not being able to work with someone who had even more rigorous hair care standards than he does."

"He did not," Relena scoffed.

"I don't dislike you," Trowa felt the need to say.

"You don't have to lie to me, T - Alex."

"I'm not lying. I've always admired you. Especially after what you did to that bastard from L1."

Relena looked up from her papers and smiled at him.

Trowa felt himself smiling back. It seemed natural, easy - and maybe it was for his cover. But maybe it wasn't. He found his smile faltering as he realized he didn't quite know.

Relena's own smile disappeared.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. I am not doing this again." She shook her head.

"Doing - what?"

"Don't smile at me like that. Don't make jokes and pretend - don't you dare do this to me again, Tr - Alex."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Trowa asked her in as quiet a voice as he could. "You want me to avoid smiling at my girlfriend for the weekend? You want me to be silent and dull?"

"That's not -" she took in a deep breath. "Nevermind. You're right. I'm sorry. Just… let me get back to my work. I need to have figure out this briefing before my conference call in two hours."

"I thought you were taking a vacation, Relena."

She scoffed.

"I am, which is why I only have four conference calls this weekend instead of twelve."

At his shocked look she shook her head.

"You all think I just sit around and play dress up don't you?"

"That's not at all what I think," Trowa assured her.

"Then that look -"

"I think it's ridiculous that you can't have even a shuttle flight to yourself without having to worry about whatever crisis is threatening the Earthsphere," he explained.

"Oh. Oh." Her face softened. "I'm sure the Earthsphere would survive without me, but -"

"I'm not so sure," he disagreed and then waved towards her work. "Get back to it. I won't bother you anymore."

She looked at him for a long, silent moment before shaking her head and then looking back down at her papers.

-o-

Relena dropped her bags beside the bed and felt a sense of profound relief.

It had been less than a day - just an eighteen-hour flight and the two hours it had taken to get from the shuttleport to their hotel suite - but already Relena felt as if she absolutely could not stand to do this for any longer.

She heard the sound of Trowa locking the door to their suite and then his soft, almost imperceptible footsteps as he walked through the suite and into the bedroom.

"I want to have a look in the closet and the bathroom but then I'll let you have your privacy," Trowa said.

Relena nodded, not bothering to turn and look at him.

She waited silently while he completed his inspection, just as thorough as Heero would have been.

"Is there anything else on the itinerary today?" He asked her.

She looked over at him and noticed a tightness around his eyes. Good. So he was miserable too.

"Dinner with a few of the girls. You could just order room service if you didn't want to go out or -"

"I'm coming with you," Trowa interrupted her.

Relena folded her arms.

"You don't have to go to dinner with me. You're clearly tired and neither one of us wants to spend time together after -" she hesitated.

"After what?" He asked.

"After the flight from hell," she muttered, feeling almost as embarrassed as she was annoyed. She had been frustrated, not just with her work and the fruitless conference call with the colonial labor ministers, not just with the ever present reminders that as much power as she seemed to have she was still powerless in her own life, not just with Trowa for being his usual irresistible self; she had been frustrated with herself as well - with her seeming inability to get over a man who clearly tried to actively avoid her and had for years had been frustrated and she had taken it out on Trowa during their flight, snapping at him and brushing off his attempts at conversation, and she had gone out of her way to annoy him on their way from the airport to the hotel, wading through crowds of people to sign autographs while he glowered at her side, no doubt calculating just how likely this was to result in her death. She had behaved badly and as much as she regretted it, she was still frustrated enough that she didn't want to apologize to him for it and she knew that more than a little childish.

"Oh."

Relena gave him a look.

"You thought I was going to say something else?"

"I did," he confirmed but maddeningly didn't elaborate.

She glared at him and he arched an eyebrow in response.

"Fine. Come with me and listen to a bunch of women gossip about people they went to highschool with."

"It sounds thrilling," he snarked right back at her.

"I'd like to shower now if you've decided it's safe enough for me to use the bathroom. Or is there a chance someone hooked up poison to the shower head?"

Trowa rolled his eyes and gestured towards the shower.

"Have at it, princess."

She whirled around, ready to snap at him, but he was already gone from the bedroom, the door closing softly behind him.

Relena forced herself to take in deep breaths and calm down.

Trowa Barton was an asshole. She knew this. She had known this. Trowa Barton disliked her, probably despised her. All she needed to do was make it through the next forty-eight hours and then they would go back to having enough distance between them that it didn't bother her as much.

She kept telling herself that as she showered, scrubbing away a day's worth of travel, but by the time she had dried her hair and applied fresh makeup she still felt a simmering anger towards the man and a fair amount of irritation with herself for caring at all.

She changed into the gold sequin and lace cocktail dress that she had bought months ago for a date that she had later had to cancel due to a political emergency.

She had never been able to reschedule the date, and the dress had hung in her closet almost as a mockery of her non-existent personal life ever since.

She pinned her hair up, slipped into the gold pumps that, like the dress, had been purchased solely for the date that wasn't to be, and looked at herself in the mirror.

She looked tired, but she decided that she also looked good. She looked successful - she was successful. And maybe she wasn't getting married to her high school sweetheart this weekend; maybe she wasn't here with an actual boyfriend - but she was doing important work and she was no longer a teenaged girl desperate for the validation of her peers and parents. Especially not since she had lost her parents and especially since it had been made painfully clear to her that she had no peers.

Tired of feeling sorry for herself, Relena stepped out of her bedroom and braced herself for an evening spent masquerading around with her fake boyfriend in front of girls who had barely tolerated her at school and had had no interaction with her since.

"You aren't wearing that."

Trowa was on the couch, long legs stretched out in front of him and resting on the coffee table, a beat-up paperback novel in one hand. He had changed into a dark gray three-piece suit that looked expensive and certainly fit into his cover as a male model.

"What do you mean I'm not wearing this?" She demanded.

Trowa scowled at her.

"You don't have anything less… noticeable?"

She arched an eyebrow at him.

"You're," Trowa gestured at her, "you're going to be impossible not to notice. You might as well wear a sign that says 'I'm the Queen of the World, please assassinate me.'"

Relena clenched her jaw against the first few things she wanted to say to him.

She drew in a deep breath and reminded herself that she was a diplomat. She was calm, cool, collected and -

"You don't have anything less sparkly? Or that shows less skin?"

"Trowa. We are at the premier resort on the Moon. We are surrounded by people who spend a small colonies GDP on their wardrobe. I will not stand out because my dress sparkles and you can see my back."

"Your back?" Trowa got up from the couch and came towards her. "I was referring to the length. What - there is no back." He said as he walked around her to see for himself.

Relena whirled on him.

"No. There is no back and it's a cocktail dress Trowa. It's supposed to be short. Do you really think that if I walked around in a floor length burlap sack I would be less likely to be assassinated?"

Trowa rolled his eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous. You -"

"No, you don't be ridiculous," she stabbed him in the chest with her finger. "I might not get to decide how I want to travel from my apartment to my office, I might not get to decide who is on my security detail, or who I eat my meals with or who my personal assistant is or what I get to wear for public events, but this is not a public event, and if you try to tell me that what I am wearing makes me some kind of target, so help me I will show you what Wufei and Duo have taught me how to do. This is my vacation, damnit, and I am going to wear my fancy clothes that I never get to wear anywhere else because I don't have the time to even go out on a date. Do you understand?"

Trowa stared at her for a solid minute. She arched an eyebrow when he remained silent.

"I hear you, princess," Trowa said.

"And don't call me princess! I -"

"Queen then?"

"It must be comforting to find yourself so amusing considering that no one else does."

"It's not my fault I'm surrounded by plebeians."

Relena was startled out of her anger. She unwillingly laughed and Trowa smirked.

"Are you finished yelling at me or should I go back to the couch and make myself comfortable?"

"No. I'm finished for now."

Trowa nodded.

"Make sure you remember to call me Alex outside this room. You called me Trowa just now."

Relena scowled at him.

"Make sure you don't try to tell me how to dress outside of this room and I don't think I will lose my temper enough to slip up and call you Trowa."

-o-

Growing up as a mercenary and a mechanic before trying his hand at terrorism had been, Trowa reflect as he sat with Relena and her rich childhood friends, if not a good childhood certainly more interesting that their youth had been.

For the past two hours he had listened to the small group recollect stories about stealing horses or drinking illegally or driving illegally or, in the case of Jordan, the self-proclaimed rebel of the group, attending anit-OZ rallies.

Trowa actually felt his brain go numb.

"Tell us again how you two met," Marie asked him just as Trowa found himself vaguely hoping a threat to Relena's life presented itself. "It's just… you're so handsome and Relena's always been obsessed with politics."

Beside him, Relena bristled at the comment.

Trowa just smiled and twined their fingers together before resting their hands on the table.

"I suppose it's a good thing I am this handsome - she never would have noticed me otherwise."

Marie laughed.

"We met at a charity event a few months ago," Relena said with a sigh, tugging at her hand.

Trowa kept his grip firm. It was the only contact between them all night and maybe she didn't care too much about the two of them looking like an actual couple, but this was Trowa's job.

"And what is it that you do, Alex?" Amy's fiance Mark asked.

"I'm a model."

The entire table stared at them.

Relena sighed.

"Is there something wrong with that?" She asked and it was in the voice that Heero and Duo had labeled her Crusader Voice. Trowa winced.

"No, no, it's just… I didn't realize you would have much in common with a… model," Amy mumbled.

"Why wouldn't I? Just because Alex poses for photographs as his job that doesn't mean that is the only thing he can do with his life. He works with a wonderful charity group. He cares about politics. After the war he volunteered with the colonial rebuilding projects. I'm honestly not sure I could find someone I have more in common with."

The table was still staring.

"And we do share excellent taste in clothes," Trowa added.

A few of Relena's friends laughed weakly at that, but it did the trick to break the tension.

Trowa leaned close to Relena and whispered against her ear.

"You do realize that not every argument has to become a battle, don't you princess?"

When he pulled back she was glaring at him.

"Well, I think we were going to have a look at the Lunar Lounge - anyone care to join us?" Mark suggested a few minutes later after everyone had settled their bills for the meal.

Most of the group demurred.

"I think we'll call it a night too," Relena said as they rose from the table.

"No, we should go," Trowa argued. "This is the first vacation you've had since I've known you. You should enjoy it."

"Darling, do you really feel up to going to a dance club after we spent the entire day on a flight?" Relena asked him.

"Of course - when else am I going to get you to relax and enjoy yourself?"

Relena's glare softened slightly and Trowa hoped that she recognized his apology for earlier.

"If you're sure?" She asked.

Trowa nodded.

He doubted she would be at any greater risk in an exclusive club that she had been in the restaurant.

Besides, he had read about the Lunar Lounge - the entire ceiling of the club was a trans-steel bubble that provided a three-hundred and sixty degree view of space. It had been a long time since he had been able to get such an unhindered view of the earth and space. Not to mention Duo, with his passion for interstellar architecture, would be jealous when Trowa described it to him after the mission.

As it turned out, the Lunar Lounge was far more crowded than Trowa would have thought possible.

They lost track of Relena's friends almost immediately, and while that was no loss in Trowa's book nor, he suspected, in Relena's, the sheer number of people in the club put him on edge.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Trowa had to practically shout in her ear to be heard over the music.

"Maybe not," she agreed but instead of moving towards the entrance she moved farther into the club.

Trowa reached out and grabbed her hand.

Relena looked down at their hands and then up at his face.

"Please stay close to me," he said.

She looked ready to argue but someone bumped into her from behind and she staggered forward into his arms.

Trowa caught her and he experienced a moment of deja vu. Except, unlike the last time she had been in his arms two years ago, he wasn't drunk or horribly depressed. This time he was perfectly sober and only slightly irritated - and more than capable of cataloguing the facts that she still wore the same perfume, her hair was just as smooth and soft as it had been that night, and her blue eyes just as impossible to avoid looking into.

Trowa let her regain her balance and then stepped back.

They stared at each other for a moment, but then Relena's gaze shifted above Trowa and to the ceiling of the club.

Trowa looked up as well and his breath caught at the sheer beauty of the view.

Duo had to see this, he decided. While Trowa had a love/hate relationship with space, he knew that the L2 colonist would have happily spent the rest of his life in an EVA suit if he could. The man loved the dark simplicity of space, the glitter of light and life, the distance of everything.

After only a few minutes they were bumped into again.

"We should just go," Relena said, leaning close to make herself heard. "This is much too crowded."

She was quiet the entire walk back to their hotel suite, and Trowa couldn't tell if she was still upset about earlier or simply tired.

"Your friends were… something," he said once they were back in the room, feeling the need to say something to her.

"What does that mean?" She asked.

Trowa shrugged and took off his suit jacket.

"You just grew up very differently than I did. I was never rebellious enough to… what was it Sarah did? Ride a horse naked at midnight on a dare?" Trowa smirked at her but Relena just stared at him.

"What?"

"I get it, Trowa. I get it."

"Get what?"

"I'm not one of you. I'm not - I'm not like you or Duo or Quatre or Wufei or Heero. I know that. I know that I didn't pilot a mobile suit, I didn't win any battles but I - I'm not one of them either. I didn't spend the war like they did. I had to hold my father while he died and then I had to walk away from the woman who murdered him - the woman who now controls far too much of my life - and I had to grow up and become a symbol for a cause that I wasn't even allowed to fight for because it was far more important that I be a symbol than an actual person. I used to think - I used to think that you understood. No one has been through what you've been through, and no one has been through what I've been through and you used to be - I used to think we were friends, Trowa. I used to think there were five people in the world who knew what it was like to be a child without a family or a childhood. And you made it perfectly clear to me that night two years ago that you don't think of me that way - I get it, Trowa. I'm not your friend. You don't think I understand and you don't think I'm good enough or broken enough or - or whatever I'm not enough of for you to care about me but I get it. I do not need the constant reminders from you that you think I'm just a civilian."

Before he could even respond, Relena walked into the bedroom and slammed the door closed.

Leaving Trowa staring after her in complete confusion.