"Relena Darlian, have you been listening to anything that I've been saying in the past ten minutes?"
She stared at him languidly over the edge of her champagne flute, hardly hearing Dorothy Catalonia's exasperated remark. She affected a look of apology after a moment.
"Of course I have, Dorothy. You were saying something about the contractors you hired for that apartment complex on C102?"
Dorothy, annoyed at the spot-on recollection, frowned.
"Yes, well," she continued in a more unpleasant tone, "they've cost me far too much, considering the paltry returns I'm expecting for the first few months on this." Her eyes flickered to the side, irritated. "I knew that converting the former OZ installations into civilian housing wasn't going to be easy, but I had at least hoped that someone would be interested in moving into them—especially considering the lower rent."
Relena was hardly interested in the conversation at hand, but she forced herself to offer some kind of reassurance.
"Doesn't Quatre have any real estate connections he could put you in touch with? Or perhaps a few contacts in marketing?"
Dorothy's eyes alighted somewhat at Quatre's name, but her tone was neutral.
"I think I've exhausted all his human resources at this point," she said with a slight grin. "I'm quite a demanding woman, you know."
Relena couldn't help but smile back at the comment. "I'm well aware," she said gently. Eyeing her friend with a bit more amusement, she added coyly: "Still, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help you."
Dorothy's grin fell. "I'm going to pretend I don't understand what you're implying," she said coolly. "In fact," she continued with a more irritated look, "I'm quite sure I said the same thing to you when you brought this up . . . oh . . . when was it . . . a month ago?"
Relena simpered despite herself. "I'm not allowed to suggest . . . whatever it is that you think I'm suggesting more than once, then?"
Dorothy frowned. "That's correct," she replied succinctly.
Relena's smirk faded into a slow, sweet smile. "And if something did happen—"
"—which it won't," Dorothy finished with pursed lips, glaring at Relena.
"Well if it did," she continued with the same smile as before, "I'm sure you would tell me, wouldn't you? As my good friend?"
Dorothy let out a small "Hmph!" at that, tossing her wild blonde hair over her shoulder crossly and taking a swig of her champagne. She eyed Relena with some icy amusement after a moment of impetuous silence.
"And what about you, Darlian?" she countered in a more hushed tone, glancing over to where Relena's eyes had previously been drawn. "Would you tell your good friend Dorothy Catalonia if something were to happen between you and the Perfect Soldier?"
Relena blushed darkly at the question, trying to keep her eyes from straying back to his figure.
"Nothing's happened," she lied, her voice quiet.
Dorothy stared hard at her friend as if to ascertain the truthfulness of the claim—but, after a minute of looking back and forth between Relena's blushing face and Heero Yuy's impassive mask from where he sat on the couch in the adjacent living room of the Darlian estate, she finally let it go, relaxing.
"Fine," she said reluctantly. "Can we get off this topic now? It bores me to tears."
Relena nodded mutely, and was even a little grateful as Dorothy went on to rattle off her other investment plans for the near future.
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...
