"Ah! This fresh air feels so good!"
Heero only raised a single eyebrow as Relena took in a deep breath, examining their surroundings with a stupidly happy smile on her face.
She looked at him, her eyes bright with excitement. "Now, let's find somewhere to camp for the night."
He only grumbled in agreement, still feeling completely disinclined towards the entire 'camping' trip that Relena had arranged for herself months ago. In fact, it had been a fixture in her calendar long before he had become her bodyguard, and so he was forced to begrudgingly go along with it. Nonetheless, he had put some controls in place—he made sure the campsite was no more than twenty miles from the nearest Preventer base in North America, and that all the accompanying crew were equipped with all the necessary safety and emergency knowledge needed.
This 'crew' of three extra guards—their presence being insisted upon by Commander Une—especially irritated him, since he had previously thought Une to have enough confidence in his abilities to be able to handle Vice Foreign Minister Relena Darlian by himself. He had unconsciously glowered at the guards throughout their training session pre-departure, and that seemed to keep them in line.
He fell just short of Relena's skipping pace as he surveyed the surrounding forest for any signs of movement, ignoring the extra security detail following them. She suddenly stopped after a few more minutes of searching, pointing triumphantly to one spot.
"Here! This will be perfect."
Heero looked at the dry, flat patch of grass below, nodding in assent as he waved the other guards over.
"Set up the tents and then go find some firewood," he nearly barked at them.
Relena frowned, her hands resting defiantly on her hips. "No, no, Agent Yuy, I'm in charge of all of that! What's the fun in camping if someone else is doing everything for you?"
Heero blinked in confusion at her remark, though she walked past him, her light hair bouncing against her back even while tied in a braid. She promptly grabbed the supplies from the equally surprised guards, dropping them to the spot she'd picked.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. You just keep watch," she told them confidently.
Her bodyguard frowned. "Minister Darlian, don't be stubborn."
She sighed, kneeling down to the ground as she reached for the tent poles and smiling somewhat wearily at the other guards.
"Gentlemen, would you give us a moment?"
The men seemed eager to leave their cantankerous boss in her hands, and she contained a grin at the thought of these men—all older, taller, and generally more menacing-looking than Heero Yuy—being intimidated by him. Heero maintained his stiff composure, though it became slightly more relaxed in their absence.
Once they were out of sight, she spoke in a softer voice, addressing him informally again.
"Heero, you must understand," she said, smiling as she notched together the various tent poles, "I'm not new to this. I used to go camping with my parents as a child." She slipped the fabric of one corner of a tent over the connected poles, her smile easing. "Not that we went very often."
Heero tried to imagine Mrs Darlian and the late Minister Darlian outfitted in the same outdoorsy garb as Relena was in that moment—a dark green, long-sleeved button down shirt, brown cargo pants and heavy brown boots—and found the idea almost comical, given the wealth and renown of their family.
However, seeing Relena in that outfit, he thought it somehow suited her; the few wisps of hair that had escaped from her braid and floated down to gently frame her face, slightly flushed from working in the chilly autumn air, seemed to complete the picture.
YOU ARE READING
Slow Burn
Fanfiction[Gundam Wing A/C; a 1xR series of vignettes post-Endless Waltz.] He had always been conscious of the fact that she—Relena Darlian Peacecraft, Queen of the World—loved him, and him alone. And yet that was the problem, since he could never give her wh...
