A/N: Sorry about the wait. I really am working on this story, but life is getting in the way so I thought I'd at least try and get something up for Valentine's Day.

Chapter 89

Trowa was up early, intending to spend as much time with Kiri as he could manage. He'd promised Quatre when he visited last night that he would stay in his room and rest and he had. Today he was going to see Kiri.

He knocked on Kiri's door. Duo was on duty again and he let Trowa in.

"She's still sleeping but I expect she'll wake up soon."

"Weren't you on duty yesterday?" Trowa asked with a frown.

"Yeah, the schedule's really screwed up right now but Heero's gonna get it fixed as soon as he gets a minute. It's no big deal, though, because it isn't like we do anything but watch movies anyway." Duo answered.

"You know I can probably help with watching her if that's all you do," Trowa said. "With the real threats gone it isn't like I'd be at risk to hurt myself."

"I'll mention it to Heero," Duo said. "But I wouldn't count on it. You know what a stickler he is for following protocol."

Trowa shrugged, only wincing slightly at the pain in his shoulder. It wasn't that bad, all things considered. "Can't hurt to suggest it."

Kiri shifted on the bed. When she didn't move again, Trowa leaned over her and gently kissed the edge of her lips.

Her eyes opened and she smiled at Trowa as she looked up at him.

"Morning, Kiri," he told her softly.

"Good morning, Trowa," she answered. She still sounded a little sleepy but she sat up. Trowa kissed her again.

Duo couldn't help the smirk on his face. Those two were just too adorable. Of course he had to tease them.

"Why don't you two get a room?"

"I thought we were in a room," Kiri said a little too innocently.

Duo snorted. "You know, I think I liked you better when you didn't talk."

"Not me," Trowa murmured softly in Kiri's ear.

Kiri scooted a little and Trowa sat carefully next to her. His shoulder was still tender and while he'd been through worse, he didn't see a point in taking chances with it now that he was certain Kiri would be okay. Besides, Sally had threatened to keep him in bed again if he didn't take it easy. Now that Kiri was awake, Trowa didn't want to risk being forbidden to see her. Trowa put his good arm around Kiri and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head.

"I'm glad you're okay," Trowa told her.

"I'm glad you're okay, too," Kiri said.

"Right, well, just so you know Heero said Une'll be here soon for a debriefing," Duo said, interrupting their sweet nothings. He didn't add that "soon" meant "sometime today" and could be in five minutes or in five hours depending on Une's schedule. And she would show up unannounced because "soon" was enough of a warning in her mind.

"So?" Trowa asked.

Duo rolled his eyes. "SO unless you wanna get written up for fraternizing, you should probably quit making goo-goo eyes at each other for a few minutes."

If Duo had to keep his relationship with Heero a secret it was only fair that Trowa and Kiri did the same. After all, there were specific rules about Agent/Victim relationships. They were absolutely forbidden while a case was still active. Une wouldn't be able to look the other way. Trowa would get fired.

Kiri's eyes widened and she looked up at Trowa, pulling away from him a little. "I don't want you to get in trouble."

Trowa gave her a gentle smile. It was nice to know that she cared about him getting into trouble. "I won't."

Duo snorted again. "Yeah, well don't blame me when Une transfers you to another case."

"She won't," Trowa insisted. He knew Une needed him on this case. They were so close to finishing it up now that Decart and Chase were dead it would be stupid to assign new agents to the case. Besides, Une owed him several favors. He could use one for this if it became necessary.

Trowa and Duo both turned to look at the door when someone knocked on it. Trowa tightened his grip on Kiri without realizing it as Duo answered the knock.

Quatre came in, his look of worry dissipating as he saw Trowa. "There you are, Trowa. Sally was looking for you. I think she wants to check your shoulder."

Trowa loosened his grip on Kiri. "She can check it in here," he said casually.

"I'm sure she can, Trowa," Quatre answered. "But I don't know how comfortable Kiri would be to have you in here half dressed."

Trowa shrugged. "It wouldn't be anything she hasn't seen before."

Kiri's cheeks tinged pink and Trowa had to work to keep the smirk off his face. He'd wondered if she remembered that morning in Cathy's trailer. Had it really been only a few weeks ago? So much had happened since then.

Quatre was shocked at what he could feel coming from the couple. Trowa was intentionally baiting Kiri and Kiri seemed to be enjoying the memory of something that they had experienced. Quatre didn't know exactly what the memory was but there was quite a bit of lust thrown in the mix so he could guess.

"TROWA! That's not the point!" Quatre protested, appalled at the lack of propriety.

Duo sniggered and Kiri looked like she was trying not to laugh, too. Trowa did feel a little guilty about baiting Kiri and teasing Quatre like that, so he decided to end things before they got out of hand.

"If it bothers you so much, I'll go back to my room." Trowa gave Kiri a light kiss on the cheek and got to his feet. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Kiri nodded to him with a smile on her face. Trowa grinned back before heading out with Quatre tailing him.

"Trowa, I know that you and Kiri like each other but you need to be more prudent with your public displays of affection," Quatre lectured as they walked to Trowa's room. "If Une found out…"

"She won't," Trowa interrupted. "And besides, she knows I'm quitting after this case is up so what good would it do for her to fire me?"

"It isn't about you," Quatre said with a frown. "It will make the Preventers look bad and we both know that public opinion is fickle. Any bad press will cause problems."

"Fine," Trowa agreed. "We will keep it under control. Happy?"

Quatre rolled his eyes and didn't answer. He was happy that his friend had found someone to have feelings for but there was a time and place for it. Under Une's nose wasn't it.

"Ah, Trowa. There you are," Sally greeted as they entered Trowa's room. "Let's check out that shoulder today."

Trowa dutifully let Sally poke and prod him. Once she declared him on the mend he asked, "Sally, can I go to the office for a while? I have a few reports that I need to finish up and e-mail to Colonel Une. I promise it will not cause any further damage."

"Well…I suppose," Sally said. "But just make sure you take it easy afterwards." While Trowa had been resting more since she'd threatened to take away his visitation, she still worried that he was going to overdo his Preventer tasks and undo all the progress he'd made the last few days. And with Kiri officially awake she knew that he would take every opportunity he could get to be with her so he would do all of his Preventer work at once instead of doing a little bit each day.

Trowa promised and headed for the temporary office Heero had commandeered for their group to use until Kiri was released from the hospital again. It was on an upper floor in the hospital so it wasn't a big deal to go up and fill out reports. And if Sally thought he was overdoing it, he was easy for her to track down and drag back to his room. Even though he didn't particularly care for doing paperwork, Trowa knew that if he got it done now then he would be able to spend more time with Kiri later.

He was almost done when Heero came in, talking on the phone.

"No. Relena will you just…" Heero glared at Trowa.

Trowa raised an eyebrow and Heero shook his head. He wasn't mad at Trowa.

"Relena. Listen to me!"

Relena didn't seem to be listening.

"DON'T YOU DARE! Relena! If you do I'll never forgive you!" Heero pulled the phone away from his ear. Trowa could hear Relena still talking on the other end as Heero punched a button. "She'll regret that," he growled.

"What's going on?" Trowa asked.

"She called to tell me that she's going to announce our engagement. I told her I wasn't interested and she kept babbling on about it." Heero was getting more worked up as he explained. "She said she'd release our records if I didn't go through with it."

Trowa was surprised. "You're sure that's what she said?"

Heero nodded. "I'll fix it."

With that he swept out the door, slamming it after him.

Trowa frowned. That didn't sound like Relena. Blackmail wasn't something she thought was worthy of her status. He picked up the phone and dialed her number. He was going to find out what was going on.

"Hello?"

"Relena. It's Trowa."

"Oh. Hello. How can I help you?"

"Heero seemed very upset after the phone call he just had with you. Can you explain what happened?"

Relena sighed. "I forgot he doesn't always understand sarcasm."

"That doesn't tell me why he was upset."

"You have to understand that I wasn't serious! I was just trying to…I was trying to get him to tell me why he's always been so distant and…and why he won't go out with me," Relena told him in a rush. "I think he took me seriously and I really was trying to joke with him! I thought it might make him more comfortable telling me the truth."

"What did you tell him?"

"That I wanted us to go out and he said no, but then I asked him why and he wouldn't tell me. So I made the comment that he would tell me when I announced our engagement and released your records to the public. And before I could add that it would be when hell froze over, he cut me off and started yelling at me. He wouldn't let me explain that I would NEVER do that and I was trying to make a joke out of him not telling me what I wanted to know. He wouldn't listen when I tried to apologize. He hung up on me. Can you tell him I didn't mean it and I'm sorry? I would tell him myself but he didn't answer when I tried to call him back."

She sounded like she was on the verge of tears and Trowa did feel a little bad for her. At the same time, he felt that reinforcing why she shouldn't say those kinds of things wouldn't go amiss.

"You should know by now that he doesn't always get when you're teasing him and our war records are nothing for you to be joking about," Trowa admonished. "I will do my best to clear this up but you need to get it into your head that he isn't interested in you."

"But why won't he just tell me why not?"

Trowa rolled his eyes. "I can't imagine."

Relena sighed. "Okay. So I'm being annoying to him. But all I want is an answer. Is that really asking too much?"

"Are you sure you really want to hear the answer? Maybe he doesn't think you can handle it."

"I can handle it!"

Trowa wasn't really sure about that. She'd been following Heero around like a lost puppy for years and still couldn't guess why he wasn't interested in her. But maybe she would be willing to actually listen to him now.

"Tell you what. If I talk to him and get him to call you back will you promise me that you will listen to him and hear what he is saying, not what you want to hear?"

"Yes! I will listen to what he says but he has to actually say it!"

Trowa shook his head on his end of the phone. "Okay. I will talk to him. It may take him a while to calm down enough to talk to you so don't call him. Let him call you when he's ready to talk. Deal?"

"Deal!"

Trowa hung up with a sigh. Getting Heero to tell Relena about Duo was not going to be easy. But until Relena got her answer about why Heero wasn't interested in her she wasn't going to drop it. He wanted to finish his reports before he had to figure out how to fix this new mess.