Relena breathed a sigh of relief upon reading the morning headlines at her desk, though her cheeks reddened in irritation at the specific wording of them.
The 'Queen of the World' Makes a Comeback!
Relena Peacecraft Makes Peace with Casper Strickland
Vice Foreign Minister Impresses During Intimidating Second Interview
She frowned as she swiped the headlines away, the black surface of the table clear once more.
Will they ever stop calling me "Queen Relena"?
Even while this niggling annoyance remained, she felt, for the most part, content. After all, she had gone back on Casper Strickland's news program and successfully fended off his many "gotcha" questions regarding the rumours of restarted mobile dolls with a far defter diplomatic hand than she'd employed the last time around. The news coverage reflected that, even if the manner in which it characterised her "triumph" was a little too theatrical for her tastes.
What had surprised her more than her own confident "comeback," though, had been the sudden outpouring of public support for the Mars project—her fierce and unflinching defence of it on the widely-watched news show had the unexpected effect of boosting interest in it and increasing recruitment levels overnight where before there had been a dearth of applicants.
She'd even had the rare call from Milliardo and Lucrezia from their station near Mars, and both had beamed (or, in her brother's case, looked mildly pleased) at her like proud parents.
Added to this welcome surprise was a surge of support for the Preventers in the ESUN parliament as a result of the successful raid carried out in Bangkok by Lieutenant Po's team on the ground in January. The capture of key leaders of one of the biggest illegal arms and narcotics rings in Southeast Asia gave the organisation a serious boost of credibility, and with this came an increase in the funding that it had so desperately needed.
Of course, the bust-up of the crime ring didn't come without its own set of rumours to quash: namely, that the leaders had been taken down in a one-night raid by a single agent while they slept.
She frowned as she recalled hearing the details of the attack from Sally, who—although denying the rumours—had nonetheless been hesitant enough in their private conversation to lead Relena to believe that, indeed, what she suspected was the truth.
Heero, you idiot.
The thought of him charging into enemy territory without back-up was both terrifying and infuriating, even a month later. The fact that he was due to return to Brussels to give a full report detailing the specifics of the events any day now only made her temper grow worse; furthermore, it had been so long since she had seen him, and since he'd contacted her in any way, that the bitterness that had been roiling within her since his departure had only grown with time.
She pulled up her agenda for the day on the tabletop to distract herself from getting any angrier than she already was, focusing instead on the immediate business to be addressed.
Space Technology Committee hearing at 1000 . . . Mars Commission meeting at 1200 . . . Afternoon tea with the Foreign Minister at 1400 . . . Dinner with Mother at 1900 . . .
Relena scanned the appointments with a sigh, resting her chin on her palm.
At least when he was here, I had an excuse to get away.
Ever since Heero had left, she'd been starting to forget what it was like to have "free time," or what that phrase even meant anymore. When she wasn't running between meetings, speaking at public events, and overseeing committee hearings, she was reading materials for the next day's meetings, or sleeping—and she hadn't even been able to do much of the latter given recent circumstances.
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...
