Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing
Relena glanced up at her husband curiously when a light knock sounded at their bedroom door. Meeting her gaze, he gave no visible indication if he was expecting the interruption or not. He quietly crossed the room, opening the entryway and allowing the guest into Relena's sanctuary.
Their guest's blue eyes sparkled mischievously at the stern face peering down at her. Her smile only slightly alleviated the tension of his tightly knit brows. "Well," Hilde said in a calm voice. "I wasn't expecting to find you in the birthday girl's room." Her grin deepened as she threw him a suggestive wink.
Heero's face softened still more, shaking his head before looking back at the golden blonde at the vanity. She gave him an assuring smile and a nod to dismiss him. At the silent signal, he nodded, almost imperceivably, and stepped around Hilde and out of the room.
"I'm glad you came," Relena said softly, watching Hilde close the door.
Hilde's smile melted into a look of concern when she turned her attention back on her girlfriend. "Everyone's worried."
"I understand," Relena replied. Sinking into silence, she turned her attention back onto the brush she was dragging through her already smooth locks of hair. Her eyes visibly glassed over as she slipped into herself, again, deep in thought.
The somber silence made her guest's skin crawl. "It's not true," she interrupted. Her voice was weak, but the statement was definite. There was no question in what she'd been telling herself. She would not believe that this could be happening to her best friend.
Relena took a steeling breath, closing her eyes as she set the brush down on the vanity. The air in the room was heavy. There was so much to say. But what she needed to discuss with Hilde had to be done in confidence. This was her only chance to get these affairs in order.
A deep and heavy sigh broke the silence as Relena prepared her words.
"Heero loves me," she said softly, turning to face her best friend.
Hilde smiled to reassure her. "We all know that," she said in a jesting voice. "Glad you finally got the memo." She sealed her comment with a weak giggle, before allowing her smile to slip, again.
Relena brought her nervous fist to her chest, fighting the shaking within her. Her eyes dropped to the carpet, studying the texture as though it was a work of art, portraying the meaning of life.
"We were married last month."
Hilde's only response was a stunned silence as the time stretched between them.
Relena took another deep breath as her mind stumbled through the coming request. It was so much to ask.
How could even Hilde ever offer this?
"I'm worried about him," Relena continued. Tears misted her tired eyes as she looked back up into Hilde's. "Heero does not show much emotion, but he feels. He feels so very strongly. About everything. His emotions drive him. They are—his perfection."
Hilde nodded in silence, afraid of the point Relena might be trying to drive home.
"When I met Heero," she continued. "He was convinced that he had no worth. That he was better off dead. And so, he sought death." A sad smile twitched on her face as her eyes drifted into memory. "Duo remembers."
Hilde bit her lip, slowly approaching her friend, as she listened intently. A passing thought as to whether this was Relena's last request incited a powerful pang in her chest. She swallowed the concern, trying to concentrate on the words.
"Now, he lives for me." It was not pride. Just a simple fact. Everyone knew. Relena had been the last to catch on, but there was no point denying it—especially considering the circumstances.
"I see a fertility specialist, next week," she said. "They're going to harvest and freeze my eggs, to protect them from the chemotherapy." Relena took another steeling breath, her shoulders drooping as though the confession exhausted her.
Hilde's stare hardened that the confirmation of the rumor she never wanted to believe.
"If I—if I don't make it—"
"You will." Hilde's voice was almost angry, breaking Relena's concentration. The tremble in the sound was visible all over her body.
"If I don't," Relena continued, fighting the objection with the sound of her own determination. "I need you to promise me something."
Hilde shook her head but voiced compliance. "Anything," she whispered, on the verge of tears.
"He needs a reason. He won't have me, anymore." Large, heavy tears fell freely from Relena's eyes as they locked on her bed.
"Please," she continued in a strained tone. "For me—for him—" Relena used all of her strength to lock eyes with her best friend as she made her request.
"If I—if I'm not here to have my babies—would you consider—will you bring my children into this world?"
Hilde's hands flew up to her mouth and her eyes widened in shocked silence, broken after several seconds as she choked out a breath she never realized she was holding. "Yes," she stumbled. "Yes. Anything. Anything, I swear."
Relena's breath calmed as Hilde crumbled in tears, rushing forward and falling across Relena's lap. "I'll do anything for you," she cried.
Both women shook with emotion, clinging to each other for dear life.
As their bodies calmed, Relena clarified her intention. "Thank you so much. I'll put this in my will, just in case. Heero will be angry when he finds out, but it's necessary. I'm sure of it."
Hilde nodded, understanding. "I just hope you're wrong," she whispered.
:::
Relena and Hilde made their way down the stairs to breakfast, but were intercepted by a Chinese Preventer agent.
"I need to speak to you," he said to Relena.
"Now's not the best time," she responded, trying to step around him.
"Or," he answer, stepping in her way, again. "Perhaps it is."
Her light blue eyes met his colbalt black ones challengingly. He pulled a picture part way from a manila folder in his hand, showing Relena in a white kimono positively aglow beside Heero, dressed in black.
Hilde smiled, excusing herself with a wink.
"I think this can wait, Agent Chang."
"At what point did you think doing this in secret was wise?"
At that moment, Heero walked into the room. "Relena," he called, looking at Wufei domineeringly. "Breakfast is ready."
She smiled at her husband before turning her attention back to her damage control. "I have somewhere to be, Agent Chang. If you won't consider it a relaxed breakfast with friends, you can always consider it an in-brief."
The Chinese man took a step back, allowing the lady of the house to pass.
She took Heero's arm and followed him to the table, where he stood her at the head, sitting beside her as she took in the array of faces. "Sit down," she encouraged her guests.
To her left, Wufei sat, eyeing her husband with mischief. Beside him his wife, Sally, Relena's doctor and old friend, avoided eye contact. Across from Sally Relena's would be sister-in-law wore her normal peaceful and cheery complexion, holding her fiancé's hand as he also eyed his sister. Duo Maxwell sat to Sally's left, ignoring Relena's brother's presence as soon as Hilde took her place beside him with something frightening shadowing her eyes. Across from Hilde sat Catherine Bloom, who was the most talkative one at the table in Hilde's absence. Rounding off the end of the table, Relena's close friend Quatre sat with his elder sister, Iria, to his right and Trowa Barton to his left. Most of them looked to the head, where Relena stood, but all were intently listening, regardless of where their wandering eyes settled.
Looking to Heero a moment for her strength, Relena prepared herself for the announcement.
"Thank you all for coming here, today. It means more to me than words could possibly say."
She swallowed, looking to each person at the table with powerful emotion.
"Apparently, in my career, if you want all hell to break loose, you have but to take a vacation. That is to say, there have been several rumors in the last few months.
"I don't regret that, though. Let the fools whisper. I will only confront those things they say that are based in truth."
Heero folded his hands under his chin, leaning on the table as he gazed at nothing.
"First, let me thank you for your hospitality. Each of you—even the ones I wasn't up to seeing." She winked at Catherine, who offered her a kind smile in reply. "But for the ones I have, I am thankful. I didn't realize that my life—my career—over these last few years has distracted me so. I've been neglecting my health and my relationships, and you guys don't deserve that." Relena bit her lip looking lost for a moment.
She raised her head with a renewed smile. "Some people," she glanced quickly at Heero before continuing, "would have preferred that I stay home the last few months, but I'm still convinced I made the right choice. I've met new friends, explored new places, tried new things and—even participated in new traditions." Her eyes fell to Wufei.
"Do you realize what you were wearing?" He mumbled.
"Yes," she hissed. "I'm here, aren't I?"
He stared at her for a moment, before turning his sights back on Heero. "Well played, Yuy."
Heero nodded, slightly, before turning, Relena encouraging her to continue.
"The truth is," she said in a shaky voice. "As I'd said, some of the rumors are true." She felt suddenly cold as everyone at the table studied her tiniest expressions. "I am—sick." She waited until her breathing steadied before she spoke, again. "I've come home to face my condition head on. The next few months are going to be—hard. And, um—" She reached up and wiped a silent tear from her eye. "I'm going to need your support."
Silence filled the air at the table. Heaviness made it hard, even, to breathe. A range of negative emotions swept the guests, and Relena knew that for the moment, she had to, again, be the strong one.
"Hey," she said with the kindest smile she could muster. "I've got you guys. We've already come through hell, together, and we can do it, again. I'm going to beat this. I promise."
With that, she lowered herself into her seat, sipping a cool glass of water.
Her thoughts were anchored, again, by the feeling of her husband taking her hand. She met his Prussian blue eyes, remembering how incredibly kind they'd always been. He looked across the table at her guests, each of which, whether teary eyed or dry, were smiling back at her to show their support. When she looked to him, again, he smiled, too.
"I love you," she whispered.
"Ai shi teru," he answered in a soft tone.
:::
Soft, warm and wrinkled fingers slid around the polished golden knob of the Darlian estate, as the opposing hand gently maneuvered a key in the lock. With a steeling breath the old house manager pushed the door open into darkness. The large pink ribbon over the knocker danced with the movement. He stepped into the empty mansion, observing the familiar layout of the home through sad eyes.
Hiding a frown under his overstated grey moustache, he pulled a folded white sheet from a pile atop the foyer cabinet, shaking it free of its creases. With a sigh, he tossed the top corners over her favorite full sized, antique, oval dressing mirror.
His glacial speed kept pace with his train of thought. This would be his final chore in this house, and he was in no hurry to finish it. As the work carried him through from the entryway to the parlor, he paused in the quiet reflection. A single tear snuck out from behind his full, bushy eyebrows and slid silently down his leathery cheeks.
This house had never been so quiet as it was now. It would never know the joy it held for family and friends just a short while ago. It would never again smell the soft scent of her perfume, or feel her heels stop at the mirror for a last look out the door on a busy morning. Never would it taste the tension between its mistress and her long time estranged love when they passed each other awkwardly on the stairwell. Nor would it hear the feminine whispers of juicy gossip. No. After today, this house would never, again, see Relena Darlian.
Though Relena Yuy had promised at the wedding reception her husband demanded—amongst the pomp and circumstance—that they would be moving back into the large home when the babies came.
To be honest, Pagan couldn't wait until he got to meet the little Yuy children—even if they were bound to be the worst mixes of their mother and father. More passionate trouble the world had never known.
A/N: OMG. That's it! (It almost feels anticlimactic after all that work.) Thanks for everyone who's stuck by me in the series. I know it was a bit long. Certainly the longest I've written, yet. I hope it did justice to the women (and men) who face this condition every day. Keep up the fight, becase we're cheering for you.
(Yes, the fertility thing will work out for Relena. See, look. The author said the babies would come!)
It was dramatic and sad, but it was a happily ever after. I just can't help it, sometimes, you know?
I hope you enjoyed it. R/R Let me know!