"Now what?"

Chang Wu Fei had trained all his life to fight, survive, and defeat his opponents without mercy. Now that there were no more battles, no more Zechs or Trieze. WuFei merely stood at the door leaning against the nearby wall.

"I dunno, anyone for a game of poker?"

Duo Maxwell was most likely the last person you’d find losing it without any wars going on, he could entertain himself for hours with his hair alone. Duo walked over to the couch and proceeded to kick back and put his feet on the table.

"No thanks, Duo. Well, we’re all at peace now, thank goodness."

Quatre couldn’t help but smile, his dreams had come true and, at least for the moment, Sandrock could take a break. He went to go sit next to Duo and easily slipped over to stare at the boy with soon to be the worst hair tan in the world. They called him Trowa, for the record that is. Mr. Barton was in a deep trance thinking over and over about all those lives he was responsible for ending. He procceded to cry on Quatre’s shoulder and stopped abruptly as the last young man walked in.

"You baby, I’ll never know why they made you a Gundam pilot."

Heero Yuy always had a thing for being blunt, and he always said what he thought. Quatre stood up forcefully, nearly giving Trowa a concussion, and stood in front of Heero.

"At least he shows his feelings! It’s good for the soul to let those sort of things out too."

"I have no need for feelings, they only weaken you in battle."

"Battle...we are done with battles, or are you still in denial that Zechs and the rest are all dead?!"

Heero reached for his gun to, for once in his life, shoot someone and not have it jam.

"Hn*"

Duo started breaking into a maniacal laughter. "They don’t call me the master of stealth for nothing."

Heero realized his gun had left him and he cursed under his breath that he didn’t notice his gun missing when he had it smuggled from him as he walked in. "Curse you Duo, curse you." Quatre sighed and then changed the subject, "So, what’s up with you and Relena, eh Heero?" WuFei only murmured two words,

"11 times."

"11 times that you spared that girl's life, and you call Trowa and the rest of us weak." Heero was fazed and desperately wanted to shove lead into WuFei’s skull. Duo jumped off the couch realizing this was going to turn out far more exciting than twirling his hair around. Then suddenly the door became ajar and a voice was heard from outside the room.

"Heero? Are you in there Heero? My name…well, you know my name Heero and I know yours now too. Come out Heero, we need to talk, in private."

Heero’s face turned as pale as a ghost, and instantly the core survival function of his brain kicked in and did what was necessary, slam the door shut. There was a slight thud outside and held back tears could be heard. "No! she followed me back home! Why must she plague me so?" Heero had regrettably broken the lock on the door after slamming it with all his might. Relena knocked softly, "Let me in Heero, please." The other pilots broke into dark laughter, even Wu Fei smirked, but they were halted by the signature death glare from Mr. Yuy. Duo hopped up and down the walls for a moment laughing as if he had witnessed Dorothy make a fool of herself over and over again.

"So Heero, who’s the lucky lady? Not such a great pilot after a-" Heero had pulled out the gun, as usual. "All right, I’ll shut up." Duo flinched, "You’re just no fun though." From outside the was a slight rhythm being played on the door; starting with patterned scratches to low tapping, then a repeat of the same beat. Trowa looked out the window to see only more and more seagulls landing on their dock to mock the pilots by releasing their stools all over the shiny, new dock.

Unbeknownst to the rest, Duo had been taking music lessons part-time between skirmishes. He unlocked his case, assembled his saxophone, and proceeded to play a sultry tune to increase to tone in the room at that moment. Quatre was startled at first, but only smiled at all the wonderful mysteries of Mr. Maxwell. Heero was too busy holding the door shut to take the time to respond to the pilots in the room, but if he did, Duo would be in great need of a fairly large barrier (Preferably an insane ward) to keep Heero from ripping his lungs out.

The voice started again from outside, "Heero, why must you push me away. Don’t you feel the bond the two of us have?" Her voice quavered ever so slightly, "Don’t you think everything in the past meant at least something?" Heero pulled the gun to his chest and then started crying, crying as if he was responsible for the death of millions. "I…I…I’m out of bullets." Heero was running out of options, and for once this seemed like the best plan at the time. Relena stopped trying to open the door and started crying also, "Heero, don’t you think you are being drastic? Death is the easy way out." Heero only smirked, "I would have destroyed you, Relena-" Relena finished his thought for him, "But you didn’t, you never did. Think about that, Heero."

Duo switched over to his second instrument and played a low jig. Wu Fei glanced up at the sound of this new noise in the room. "A clarinet? Isn’t that a weak instrument?" Trowa stepped in drastically, "Not at all, when the musician is one with the instrument, they are an unstoppable force, for music is universal, just as my flute is to me." Wu Fei shrugged and thought it over for a moment and smiled. "You've been away from Heavy Arms too long." Trowa merely sent a quick glare in Wu Fei's general direction.

It was apparent that Relena was getting bored of waiting for Heero to step away from the door and started unscrewing the pins that held the door up. (She apperntly had a screw driver in her Hammer Space) "I'm right here, Heero! I'm coming!" Heero only flinched and came out of his aura of fear. He leaned off the door as Relena undid the last screw and was pleasantly leaning on the door to open, she opened it all right. Relena crashed to the floor and Quatre rushed to help the corpse up. Heero was keeping himself busy in the corner staring into the void of nothingness that was Relena’s head. Duo readily eyed Relena’s look of wanting for Heero as she regained her minimal shroud of dignity and lifted her coat off her shoulders to be escorted to the most royal closet in their facilities. Duo Found his opportunity to get involved and snatched the coat from Relena.

"Let me take that Miss, anything for a pretty lady, Vice Foreign Minister." Relena didn’t speak, she was focused on her target now and nothing else. She reached out a hand to his shoulder, "Heero." He shrugged her hand off and continued now to stare in a different direction, preferably the corner of the ceiling. Relena wasn’t fazed, she had faced worse encounters. "Heero, I need to jog your memory." She got into a more comfortable position in the couch and began again. "There was that moment, that faint and brief moment inside the Libra. You pushed me away then, but I sensed for just one second that you really wanted to pull me in." Trowa went to make some popcorn, considering this will be the most action they’d see in this condo for a least a week.

Relena always need at least a week to recuperate from her failed visits with Heero, and that was how this one was going. Wu Fei started moaning, he couldn’t imagine that this was how he would spend the rest of his days, watching these two fools sparing haplessly until the day one of them died, most likely at the other’s hands. WuFei stood up and went into the guest bedroom and lied down to relax his mind from his daily woe’s. Quatre had become the group mediator since the day they all met. He stayed in the living room with Heero and Relena awaiting his chance to join in on the one-sided conversation, that Relena apparently was trying to make two-sided to no avail. Duo was scavenging through Relena’s coat, finding nothing more than simple things like gum wrappers, pens, coins, and sheets or paper covered with writing saying Heero over and over again on both sides, simple things, normal things. He shrugged and got up, leaving the coat on the ground. He stared down at the coat, as if it would realize that it had just been handled by the Great Destroyer; that alone should make the coat hang itself up.

Heero was perfectly in his state of mind. He had become as aware as a dog had, a conversation would sound like this to him in his own mind: "Blah blah blah blah Heero, blah blah blah Zero blah. Blah blah Gundams blah blah blah blah? Blah blah Relena? Blah blah Zechs blah." Heero wouldn’t hear what didn’t have any importance to him in the near or far future. The mere fact that he hears Relena would most likely be that what proceeded after it would be something he wouldn’t want to hear, so hearing that might prevent whatever was coming. Heero finally got tired of Relena’s ranting and took a step toward her, Relena’s face lightened and she closed her eyes to reaffirm she was really here, unlike the nightmare she calls most of her other dreams.

Heero faked a smile and lifted his arms toward Relena. The girl’s jaw dropped as she thought she was about to receive some form of affection and love this boy finally. His hands strolled up her shoulders and rested there a moment, she remain perfectly still. Heero increased the intensity of his joy and lifted his right hand for her cheek. She gasped and as he approached her vision blurred her tears of joy, it had been a solid year of attempts of getting Heero to release the feelings she knew he had for her. Heero stopped a moment, their lips were two inches apart.

Relena stared confusedly into her love’s eyes. Heero opened his lips, "Close your eyes." She reluctantly obliged and her body seemed to glow. Heero waited till he was sure she was truly blind to his next actions. He saw Duo creeping up from the corner, but it was all too late. Duo managed to grab Heero and thrust him forward. Heero unwillingly had his face crash into Relena’s and at that moment their lips met. Relena shrugged off the pain in a matter of a split second and embraced Heero. Heero was stuck and he knew it. They remained lip-locked for over four seconds already, Heero had to think fast, this wasn’t good! His mind surged with millions of thoughts, of those thoughts they were of killing, of desperation, and for just one moment, of pleasure. This cleared out of his mind the second he thought on it more than a second, another second he was stuck to this girl! Another second was spent thinking of the coat on the ground, and how it was all this coat’s fault. That coat was still plesantly laying on the floor, being defiant to the Great Destroyer’s ego.

His pilot’s state-of-mind finally kicked in and flooded out the other emotions from his mind. He pulled away abruptly and burst out of the room. Relena didn’t completely expect the tearing away of the two of them, but once she got over the shock she was smiling. Quatre, Trowa and Duo were in their sofa now; popcorn in their hands, faces toward Relena, and jaws dropped twice the normal. They sat there another minute or so and finally they looked over at another. They slowly regained their composure and then Relena stepped toward Duo. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek,

"Thank you."

Duo was incapable of speech. The coat was still on the floor. Somewhere, off in the distance, a dog barked.

-----------------------------------------------

Heero ran as far as his legs could take him into the night. His head was swirling in great circles at a pace faster than any Verniay Engine could go. With his last bit of energy gone, he fell to the ground, he lay there a moment or so, breathing heavily. Relena’s voice kept speaking to him, peircing through his original fire wall that kept uncontrollable emotions out of his way. He screamed into the night, "Curse you Relena!" He slammed his hands in the dirt, the trees swayed gently as the moon beamed down upon the Gundam pilot. He then passed out.

Duo was still very out of his head also. Back in the condo, he banged his head against a wall a few times, murmuring he had done something very stupid. He wondered if he could find some old mobile suit he could crawl into and self-detonate. Duo thought about what would come from all this, if Heero was thinking of doing something of the same, or maybe he’d be back, to literally drain every drop of blood from Duo’s body, slowly.

WuFei had seen a little too much emotion for one night and took off on his motorcycle to downtown to cleanse this from his head in the local night life. Duo had blocked out everything else around him, seeing the past 5 minutes over and over in his head. He just had to be the one to do this. Duo thought about how Heero for one moment seemed to glow with joy as their lips kissed. When all was considered he figured he had done justice for these two kids. Yet, when Heero’s mind came to, seeing his deathly pale looking face made Duo understand he had done something that no one should have to endure.

Quatre had earlier tried to console Duo with no such luck. Duo was so out of it he didn’t even know Quatre was yelling at him to stop. So, Quatre did the logical thing, he fastened a peice of wool to where Duo was banging his head. It was the best thing he could do. Quatre left Duo and went into the kitchen, he stopped to brew some coffee and went to go find Trowa in his room. Trowa lay on his bed motionless, he seemed to be comatose. "Heero left." Trowa only moved his eyes to look upon his fellow pilot, and friend. "I know, Heero might do something drastic now." Trowa continued, "He acted on his emotions, that’s a good thing. I just don’t think he was ready for that yet."

Quatre lowered his head and hoped Heero didn’t have access to any guns at the moment. Trowa once more stared into the wall and Quatre went to pour the fresh coffee. He stepped into the living room, "You want any?" The person he addressed was just smiling, it seemed she was incapable of any sort of response. She just smiled. "Can I have some coffee?" Quatre was shocked to find her functional once more, "Sure Mrs. Dorlin."

She looked deep into Quatre’s eyes and whispered, "Please, just call me Relena." Her coat was gathering fresh dust.

Heero had indented the ground with his sore fists. He lay down now, looking toward the sky. Seeing a comet clash through the atmosphere, he remember the 1st time he came to this planet. He remembered the beach, the schools, and he remembered that 1st time he met Relena, how different they were back then. She was just a girl and he was a crack pilot with little experience in the field of battle. He thought back to a few minutes ago, and he thought hard upon it. His 1st intention by grabbing her was that of to push her away, just like on Libra; yet, this time, he didn’t want to push, he wanted to pull her in. He had no worries yet, he was still acting the part. He was still in control as his hands coursed up her shoulder. That was the moment, he thought, the moment their lips were inches apart, that is when he snapped. His whole being lost it’s balance and his emotions were then in control. Everything after that was all a blur, yet he was left with a sense of warmth from the whole event.

He cursed himself for not being stronger, WuFei was right, he was weak. He was weak enough to let his guard down, and that was inexcusable. He was a soldier, this wasn’t the way of his kind. Heero tried to clear his mind and ponder what to do next. He stood up, as if he needed to be ready for whatever this world was to through at him next.

Relena had left a minute or so earlier and Quatre was sipping his coffee as Duo entered the room. His head was black and blue with a little blood on his temples. Quatre only smiled to see his friend somewhat in control of himself again. "Coffee, Duo?" "Yes, black." Duo slumped into the sofa, his head was throbbing with pain, but he didn’t notice it much. "Quatre, what do you think will happen now?" "I don’t know, Duo, I don’t know." Relena had left her coat and Duo finally managed the energy to pick it up, dust it off, and hang it in the closet. Duo bolted the coffee down, with the last bit left in the cup, he looked down to see his battered image and he cringed and realized how much he beat himself for this mess. Quatre put his arm around his friend's shoulder, "You might have done something good, who knows. Only time will tell now."

Heero looked into the sky, he knew she was there, watching him. Relena came out from the brush into the clearing, she slowly stepped towards him. "Relena, Don’t.." She remained two paces from being in his arms once more. She stopped and looked up into the sky, she had seen the comet also. Their minds worked alike, and she longed to be with him once more. She looked to see Heero holding back from collapsing. He trembled in the night, trembled like he had seen his death before him. "Relena…why.."

She stepped one step closer.

The wind rose up around them and she shivered. Heero aimed his attention to her and his head darted to look deep into her being. She turned away a moment, she was over her head and she knew it now. Then, with full reign over himself, he took that last step toward her. He took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders. She turned around and found herself in his arms once more. What had he done? She smiled once more and he just kept staring, deeply into her eyes. She leaned forward, as did he, and they embraced. Heero had no blurs in his mind now, this was the way it was to be.

They kissed for at least 10 minutes, and so they stopped to breathe once more, then they went another 10 minutes. They then remained in each others arms and they swayed back and forth with the trees, Relena rested her head on his shoulder. Now, they were both at true peace.

Duo had an ice pack to his wound and decided it was time for him to take action, he was going to go find Heero, and let him be his judge, jury, and executioner. If Heero felt it, he would kill Duo. Quatre knew his friend always like climatic ends, yet he felt in his soul Heero would not do this. Duo thought this was just like all those western movies he’d seen, it was a one man draw, and he would be the man without the gun. He got up and headed towards the door, but he found himself blocked by Trowa with his hands spread out each way to indicate Duo was going nowhere. Duo then gave Trowa a look of annoyance and collapsed into his shoulders as he passed out.

Heero and Relena walked a ways and they came out near the beach they first met. The parts of his suit from long ago that was intended to kill him remained in this sand somewhere. He thought about Doctor J, that must have been his doing, removing the essential part. His hands held hers and they stopped right by where the fence was, the place they laid eyes on each other. They sat down and stared into the ocean lit by the moonlight.

Neither of them spoke a word, they just remained in each others company. There they were, and they fell asleep on the sand, hand holding the others hand, and they slept.

WuFei had returned and went straight to his room. The others didn’t bother speaking with him, if he wished to have an audience with them he would summon them. Duo was out like a light and Quatre had found a nook in the room to rest his eyes. Trowa went around to he and Duo and covered them up for the night, and then he himself went to bed. The coat was snug in the closet.

The sun rose about an hour later and the beach lit up once more, yet the two stayed asleep. No longer was Heero tormented by his own dreams, now he dreamt of the girl he loved and how much she meant to him now.

Duo had escaped the condo on his own, being the master of stealth that he was. He finally found the two on the beach and he smiled with a swollen head, "Looks like I did some good after all." He then went back to the condo, feeling it best to leave those two alone. He opened the closet and pulled out the coat; he threw it to the floor once more, "I want them to remember."