*****

Relena stood proudly, having finished speaking to the group of politicians before her. They were the World Council, and while she had significant influence, she still had to speak often before them to retain it. Her eyes scanned the representatives briefly, searching for a certain face although not expecting its presence. It was wishful, hopeful thinking, more appropriate to when she was younger, when she had first met him.

He had been her dreams, her idol, her reason for existing. Or that was what she had told herself in starlit smiles and goofy grins, kept to herself in sleep. That didn't prevent her from making an idiot of herself whenever he was near, though; screaming his name, clinging to him, and wishing desperately that he would feel something for her. She had been such a hopeless romantic then, not that she really had changed now, only two years later.

She seemed to have had a crush on each of the infamous gundam pilots at one time or another, briefly even upon Duo, Heero's partner, and she suspected, also his lover. But now she seemed to have a stubborn attraction to the quiet, severe Chinese ex-pilot. She knew, or at least she told herself, that she didn't really want him, that is was childish to continue to pursue even the faintest emotion for him, but he remained in her thoughts. It had been months since she saw him last.

And for a fleeting second as she descended from the podium, she almost thought she saw him again, hidden in the crowd before she blinked, and only saw a shadow by a door. She shook her head, wondering vaguely if she was so tired and stressed that she was hallucinating, then as she inhaled, she could have sworn she smelled sandalwood. Then that was gone, too.

*****

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