Disclaimer: blah blah blah.... I don't own em never will. Such is life but I can sure dream up a storm.

Story: Building a Better Mousetrap 101

Being a Mouse doesn't mean you're helpless or weak.

Current Pairings: 1xR, 2+OC, 3x4, 5xS, H+OC, 6xN

Chapter 4 – The rewards of shopping

Mouse was sitting alone in her dorm room Friday night working on her homework and planning a few upgrades to the online game she had created called 'Mousetrap'. That afternoon while Duo had played thru a couple of levels before they went to English Lit, he'd made a few suggestions. They were good suggestions and she was mentally rewriting the program as she worked on her calculus homework. Math was like working with a Computer, easy. It was liner and pretty straight forward. Follow the formula and voila your had the answer.

Her cell phone sat on the desk next to her, she didn't expect anyone to call, but like most people her cell was never far away from her. Hell she still didn't quite believe this afternoon had happened, and she now was the possessor of each and every one of the ex-Gundam pilots phone numbers as well the former Queen of the World. Every now and then she'd flip her phone open and scroll thru her address book, if she paused on Duo's number longer than the others who could blame her. He'd even filled in his e-mail address as well. Strangely so had Relena Peacecraft.

She had her dorm room all to herself, her roommate Gloria had gone clubbing with a couple of other girls. She'd asked Mouse if she wanted to go with, but she'd declined. Gay night clubs just really weren't her thing. Turned out, Gloria was what they called a 'Lipstick Lesbian' at least that's what she laughingly referred to herself as. The petite curvy blonde with the baby blue eyes didn't look like she swung that way, but she did. Gloria was pretty cool actually, she'd told Mouse on day one what her preferences were, she'd said she wanted to give Mouse a chance to change room assignments if it made her uncomfortable. Mouse had told her, that as long as she didn't try to jump her in the middle of the night, it didn't make one whit of difference to her what sex Gloria's bed partners were. They worked on a plan for when one of them wanted to 'entertain'. Hey it was college and they were only 18, stuff like that happens,... a lot. Mouse figured it would happen to Gloria a lot more than it happened to her (if at all) so she had a nice spot all picked out in the Dorm lounge.

It's was a little after 10pm when her phone rang and she nearly fell out of her chair. Honestly, really and truly she hadn't been expecting anyone to call. So it startled her when her phone went off, grabbing it she checked the ID. Duo? Huh, what the fuck? She must be dreaming again, maybe she had fallen asleep at her desk. Calculus was pretty boring after all. Regardless she answered it, Dream or not.

"Mortuary, you stab 'em we slab 'em." The husky male voice on the other end started laughing his ass off.

"Damn, you nailed that one on the head. I knew it was a good idea to call ya. Whatcha doin?"

"Homework. I thought you said you had some party to go to?"

"Hell no, we're stuck at some prissy stuck up 'Cocktail Party'. All their doing is sipping champagne and eatin these 'little bitty sandwiches'. (he sang that part in a high falsetto, obviously that was not Duo's definition of food.) There ain't no Cocktails, and this is definitely NOT a party. Auurrrgghhh, I am sooooo bored, talk to me. Plleeaassee." Mouse grinned at the exasperated tone in Gundam Pilot's voice.

"We're are the others? Why don't you guys try to sneak out of there and do something else?"

"Can't, I promised Heero I'd stay at least as long as he did. He and Relena are busy kissing ass. Well Relena is Heero's just glaring at everyone while he hovers over her. Wuffie is talking philosophy with some ancient guy. Trowa and Q already snuck out. Hilde's the lucky one, she wasn't invited, so she went clubbing with a couple of girls she met in class." Now why did that sound familiar to Mouse? Hmmm.

"Sounds like your screwed there buddy boy."

"Ha, I wish, at least that would have be fun……"

-

Heero scanned the crowded room yet again. Relena was talking to some muckity muck from the middle of nowhere. (sigh) This was going to be a long night, Trowa had already snuck out with Quatre and if he knew them, which he did, they were already back in their room screwing each other silly. Lucky Dogs, he probably had 'hours' of this shit left before he could get Relena alone. And if the party lasted long enough he 'might' have to wait until tomorrow night. Damn it sucked having a rich and famous girlfriend sometimes.

So, if Trowa and his little blonde shadow are gone that left only Wufei and the Baka. Wufei didn't mind these little gatherings as much as the others, his formal upbringing and love of anything scholastic usual meant he could find someone to have a decent conversation with. So where was the braided menace? Out off all of them he hated these things the most. They just really were not the Cocky Americans style, he'd rather be drinking beer and eating pizza than sipping champagne and the delicate appetizers the rich thought of as party food. Personally Heero agreed with him, but sometimes you just couldn't avoid these things when you were dating Relena Peacecraft and had, with the help of your four friends single-handedly saved the world from annihilation.

Ah, there's the Baka sitting backwards on a chair at one of the far tables. Not that anyone would notice, as the Japanese teenager had perfected the 'stoic look' years ago, but Heero was rather startled to see Duo chatting on his cell phone. Who the Hell can he be talking too? He doesn't call anyone but us or Hilde, who had gone clubbing, and probably wouldn't be able to hear a damn thing the Moron said while she was in a loud noisy bar. The others were here, or very distracted at the moment. Wait, No… he couldn't have? But from the sound of the cheerful laughter floating across the floor, he must have. He'd called Mouse. What was he thinking? He'd only met her officially this morning and had seen her just a few hours ago.

Fortunately for Duo (and Mouse), Heero was about as relationship savvy as a rock, or at least the accepted male perceptions of how guys were supposed to act towards girls. You know the unspoken rules, like never call her right away, let her stew for a few days first, don't get to close to fast, she'll 'expect things', pretend you're an unfeeling lump of clay… Okay so Heero's hadn't been pretending, I mean he' had' told Relena he was going to kill her and then actually almost shot her, would have too if Duo hadn't shot him first. So he didn't tell his best friend later that he should back off, instead after they had returned to their dorm room, (Damnit, had been way too late to spend any quality time with Relena) he just asked if his assumption was correct. It was, and Duo had grinned and told him it had been the best part of his evening. They went to sleep and woke up late Saturday morning. For Heero that meant about 7 am, for Duo noon.

-

It was just a little after 11am when Relena called Mouse, and asked her if she wanted to 'sneak' out, and go shopping. Mouse was intrigued, seems Relena had never been to a Mall before. When she went clothes shopping it was usually only at very exclusive shops or she went directly to a designer. This was going to be a challenge. Relena's picture was often splashed all over the news headlines… The Peacecraft this or Miss Relena that…So Mouse grabbed a pair of her baggy jeans, an over sized button up shirt and a ball cap and beelined it to Relena's very private and posh room. Come you think they were going to stick the ex-Queen of the World in a regular dorm room, and with a roommate? She had the best room in the whole school, set aside for those extra special students. By the way that was perfectly fine with Heero. Wink wink.

The girls walked plain as day out the gate of the campus and caught the bus that ran straight to the big mall closest to the school. Mouse also suggested that Relena get cash to pay for anything she bought, as waving around a credit card with the name of 'Relena Peacecraft' on it would generate unwanted attention. Like somebody might think they had stolen it, which they could eventually explain, or worse, realize it really was 'Miss Peacecraft' and notify the news media, or even worse than that, Heero. It was probably the 4th best day in Relena's Life, the first three all had to do with Heero, obviously. Like meeting him, their first kiss, the 'first time', not necessarily in that order.

That night when Heero came to Relena's room to pick her up for their date he found her not exactly dressed to go out. Instead she greeted him at the door in a satin and lace teddy she had bought that day at a lovely store called Victoria's Secret.

"Relena?"

"Hey Heero." Purred the dark blonde girl as she pulled her sexy, and very astonished boyfriend into her room.

"Ah, don't we have a date tonight?"

"Oh yes Heero, we are definitely having a date alright. We're having it right here." No one had ever accused Heero of being stupid. He made sure to lock the door behind him as he came completely into the room and swept his stunning girlfriend into his arms.

"Where the Hell did you get this thing? And can you get more?" Relena giggled at the hot look in Heero's eyes which more than suggested the fragile garment wasn't going to survive the night. That was okay with her, it would give her a reason to sneak out and go shopping with Mouse.

---

AN: Okay I know a lot of you are Relena bashers, (Me too usually) but for my little story she's matured a great deal since the anime. So what are the rest of the gang doing this Saturday Night? Read on and find out.