"What do you think of my disguise?"
Heero stared at Relena's outfit with contained amusement as she exited a black car from the side of the road.
"It'll do," he replied after a moment, turning away from her as he led her through the main entrance to the apartment complex.
Relena followed him with a pout, her hands planted on her hips. "I put a lot of thought into this, you know!"
He glanced back at her as they entered the elevator, one eyebrow raised at the remark.
"I'm sure you did," he monotoned.
The young minister frowned at the reply, staring into the mirror at the back of the elevator at the outfit she had especially chosen to wear so as not to be recognised. Jean shorts on top of black stockings with red ballet flats on the bottom, and on top a white, floral-patterned blouse, sun-yellow neck scarf, big sunglasses, and a white sunhat under which all her light hair was collected in a messy bun.
As she examined it again, she reddened in embarrassment at how badly all the pieces went together, especially in comparison to the smartly-dressed Heero Yuy in his Preventers jacket, white shirt, and black dress trousers.
"At least nobody will recognize me," she muttered to herself, loosening the scarf a little. She sighed at her poor taste in fashion, and suddenly felt all the more thankful that her mother had been buying her clothes all those years.
Relena blushed when she caught Heero glancing at her from where he stood near the button panel, and he, too, quickly averted his gaze, pushing the button for his floor. As the doors closed and the elevator began to travel up, Relena felt her stomach quiver with anticipation.
This is my first time at his apartment.
The thought made her want to giggle nervously, though she suppressed the urge, merely clearing her throat instead. The sound made Heero's curious gaze shift back to her, but she looked away again, too red in the face to meet his eyes.
It seemed a bit strange to her that she should feel nervous at all, and, beyond that, that it was, indeed, her first time at Heero's abode. They had known each other for four long years by then—four years fraught with conflict, death, destruction . . .
But there's more than that, isn't there?
Relena only had to glance at him from the corner of her eye to summon up that familiar feeling again, though she somewhat silently lamented that he didn't return it at that exact moment. He was focused, as ever, on the "mission" at hand—or, in this case, getting to his floor without the elevator breaking down midway through.
She guessed from his tense expression that he usually took the stairs.
Still, given her reminiscing about their "relationship" (if she could call it that), she did find it odd that she'd never before been in his apartment; although, after thinking on it, she supposed that she never would have had the opportunity to in the past. After all, they'd never been this close, even when he'd been on her security detail; more to the point, she couldn't imagine the "old" Heero finding any reason to "invite her up for coffee," as it were, given his tendency to be a stickler for protocol.
She smiled at the thought.
He's changed.
The elevator peeped as it reached Heero's floor a few moments, and Relena—after jumping a little at the noise—stepped through cautiously, looking both ways for any sign of other human life-forms. When she did not detect any, she sighed a little in relief, though even this was short-lived as Heero brushed past her to open the door to his apartment. She jumped a little at the sensation of the skin of his upper arm touching hers, and as he opened the door, she eagerly skittered through it.
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...
