Twice in a Lifetime

By Bluefire

Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, would I spend my time writing fanfics? Of course not. I'd be. . .*looks away and coughs* Um, well anyway. Onward ho!

Warnings: AU, slightly OOC, 1xR

Chapter 1

The plaza was filled with bright sunlight, washing over the red sandstone walkways. Relena sighed and stepped outside, into the light. Somewhere in the nearby trees birds were chirping at one another, only adding to the spring atmosphere. People milled around the park located on the opposite end of the plaza, across from the school she had just exited. Sighing a second time, she shouldered her book bag carefully onto her left shoulder and began her daily shuffle towards the bench in the park where she studied until her brother got off work and picked her up.

Other students streamed out of the building behind her, talking loudly and laughing with one another. Yet a third sigh escaped her lips as she glanced up at the dark brick structure behind her, blocking the sunlight and casting a huge shadow across the plaza. On either side of the building, shops and small cafe's were buzzing with activity on the warm afternoon. A part of her wished she were in the middle of those groups of students, heading towards the ice cream parlor or newly added Starbucks, and another part of her said that would never happen. She chose to listen to the second. Mind over matter. That's why I'm stuck here, isn't it? she thought grimly to herself, weaving her way through all the people. Most were tourists, stopping and taking pictures of the old, regal school. She shook her head at them unconsciously as she went past. This town was far too busy for something so small, in her opinion. Far too touched by the outside world, really. It should have stayed a quaint little village on the outskirts of the English countryside, basking in peace and solitude, the way it was before the wars.

Eyeing a few dangerously careening in-line skaters warily, she shoved her bag off and sank into the hard bench. Luckily, the park was shaded enough that the days heat didn't touch her much. Like everyday, she chose to ignore the world as it ignored her in equal measure. A few moments of digging through the bag produced the magazine she had been intent on reading all day. Shoving a few strands of loose blond hair from her eyes, she closed her eyes a moment and leaned back, reveling in the sounds all around her.

"I wouldn't advise sleeping, if I were you. This place might look nice, but you really never can tell who's what."

Her eyes flew open to see who had chosen to address her this way. Cold blue eyes met her turquoise, almost glowing from beneath a mop of choppy brown hair. Her breath caught in her throat a moment. He had one arm casually slung over the back of the bench, and a black bandana wrapped around his temples, giving him a somewhat reckless look, all with a pair of army cargo pants and scuffled black boots. Not the type of person she would typically converse with. She did a double check. An earring in one ear, a chain bracelet around his wrist. Not the type of person she would typically associate herself with at all.

"Who are you?" she demanded, crunching the magazine slightly in her hand. He almost seemed amused, by the way his mouth curved up in the corners ever so slightly. He leaned back, regarding her with a cool eye.

"I'm wondering if I should tell you. You aren't acting like you really want my company." A flicker of something passed through his eyes for a moment, before the ice in them returned. She almost shivered at the hardness displayed in those orbs.

"Maybe that's because I don't," she retorted, a touch sullenly, which only seemed to please him more. It was just a slip of a smile, but for him, it seemed somehow like something unusual.

He rose suddenly, looming over her in a threatening sort of way. "That'll change," he whispered breathily in her ear as he whisked past her, fading into the trees as he left. She gaped at her lap, from lack of anything else to gape at.

"Relena!"

She looked up to see Milliardo standing in between two columned arches that lead from the plaza, motioning for her to come. Shutting her dangling jaw, she grabbed the bag up and slung it over her shoulder, nearly tripping over her feet in an effort to get there faster.

"Who was that?" Milliardo asked icily as she climbed into the car, heaving a sigh of relief.

"I don't know."

He regarded her with open curiosity before starting the car and flooring it away.

* * *

"And you say I'm an idiot," Duo muttered. His waist length-hair, pulled into a loose braid, flopped as he shook his head to emphasize his point. Heero didn't even turn to look at him, still observing the blond girl from through the leaves of the short tree they had met behind. Around Duo's forehead was a bandana, black, just like Heero's. He wore all black, loose pants with a T-shirt. "You had to be an idiot, didn't you? Just go off and scare her like that. She'll probably take off running next time you so much as breathe near her."

"No she won't." Heero's tone was confident as he turned from his spy point and faced Duo smugly.

"Not her."

"You're crazy. I've said it before; I'll say it again, I'm sure. I still don't agree with you. There has to be a better way to get her." Duo crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree, regarding Heero with a searching look.

Heero raised his eyebrows, which some how came across as menacing. "And what would you rather have me do, Duo? Tie her up and take her to some lab where she'll be so frightened she'll never trust us, ever? Kidnap her?" He rocked his head slowly from side to side. "No. You know as well as I do why we don't pursue those tactics."

"Maybe," Duo let out his words slowly, choosing them with more care than he usually had with his tongue. He kept his violet eyes downcast, not meeting Heero's penetrating glare. "But..." he looked up, clear-eyed, "But did you have to go be such a freak, either? You could have at least been nice or personable. Oh wait," he added sarcastically, "You don't know how to be personable. How rude of me to forget."

"Shut up," Heero growled, just stopping himself from reaching over and slapping the slouching boy across from him. "We have work to do, now that we've found her."

Still bickering, the two young men left the park as unnoticed as they had come.

* * *

Crossing the plaza again, Relena kept a sharp lookout for the unusual man who had confronted her the day before, but he was nowhere in sight. Slumping down onto the bench, she gave the park one last searching glance before digging out the magazine she had never had a chance to read the day before. The sun was even brighter than it had been yesterday, and it glared at her from the glossy magazine pages. Summer was coming, and it seemed like everyone except Relena was welcoming it with wide arms. Although she could sympathize with the longing for summer vacation for school, she wasn't sure which was the better of two evils, being stuck at home all day or going to a dead-end school.

She hunched her shoulders forward slightly and roamed the magazine cover with her eyes, finally deciding to open it. Flipping to an article on genetic engineering, she geared her eyes towards the start of the article and let herself forget the world for a moment.

"The 'Science Journal'? You actually find that interesting?"

Her head snapped up to discover the strange boy was seated next to her again, peering down at the magazine she held with consideration. He reached forward and touched the corner of a page with his thumb and index finger curiously. Then he looked up at her. "Are you planning on doing some bio-technological experiments in your basement sometime soon? You seemed to enjoy reading this crap."

"It's not crap," she half-hissed, jerking the magazine from his fingers. "And no, I won't be doing any experiments any time soon, unless it involves making people disappear. Namely, you."

He smiled that tiny smile again. "So, you do have some spirit. Wouldn't have thought so from the way you act so tired all the time."

She narrowed her eyes at him, taking in the fact that his smile was turning to a smirk. "What do you mean, 'all the time'?"

He shrugged non-chalantly, but as the smirk faded a smug look replaced it. His lip curled slightly. "I've just seen you. That's all. You never act happy. I just wondered why."

"My demeanor is none of your business." She drew herself up a little straighter, trying to appear commanding. "Why are you bothering me?"

"What? So now it's a crime to try and have a decent conversation?" He raised an eyebrow and leaned back, his arm strung casually over the bench as it had been yesterday. The smile was faintly reappearing again. His eyes were completely separate from the smile, cold and glittering like two round orbs of blue ice. They were calculating her, summing her up and judging her in a glance.

"Conversation isn't a crime; harassment is," she shot back. To her surprise, he laughed. It wasn't a pleasant laugh; it had a steely ring to it.

"I'd hardly call this harassment," he commented once the spasms of laughter had died down some. He was still chuckling, a deep rumble in his chest. She crossed her arms and pressed them to her stomach, glaring at him as well as she could. If he noticed, he didn't let on.

"And what would you call it?" she bowed her head slightly, keeping her eyes trained on his face.

"Trying to be. . . personable," he seemed to add the last as a tack-on to the rest of his sentence.

"You probably don't know how," she muttered dryly, turning away from him.

His laughter stopped, and she could tell he was staring at her, the kind of stare that bore holes into a persons skull. She shifted her body uncomfortably, wishing he would drill his eyes into someone else's head. "Hn." He gave a little grunt, like he was thinking of something. She looked up, and realized he wasn't staring at her, but through her. He was lost in thought somehow, and probably didn't even realize he was staring.

"Hello?" she waved a hand in front of his face. His eyes twitched a moment, before his stare moved to her hand, and before she knew what was happening, he had caught her arm in a death grip, harder than iron, and twisted it so she was forced to pull near him.

He didn't say anything as he pulled her to her feet, and started to drag her off towards the trees. She let out a small gasp and drew in a deep breath, ready to scream. He clamped his free hand over her mouth. People in the plaza were staring at them, wide-eyed. A few people shouted, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. In only moments, he had her in the trees, and wasn't stopping there. They kept going for a few minutes, and by now, she could tell they were in some remote part of the park, because it was so silent. Even the birds seemed hushed.

Finally, they stopped near an odd looking sort of shrub, a kind she had never seen before. He took the hand off her mouth and put to fingers to his lips, omitting a low whistle. Then the hand was back, and he was tapping his foot impatiently.

She writhed, trying to make him, loosen his grip a little, but he only tightened it, so she saw no use in struggling more. He was waiting for something, more likely someone, but who? Or what, for that matter?

She didn't have long to wait. In only a few moments, a boy, her age anyway, with a braid at least a meter long trailing behind him, appeared from the bushes, wearing the same kind of bandana as her captor wore. He looked at her in surprise, and then to the boy who held her.

"I. . ." the violet eyed boy began with a gulp, and shot another glance at Relena again. "I thought you weren't going to scare her, Heero." So that's his name. "I thought you were going to tell her slowly, not kidnap her!"

"I changed my mind," Heero snapped. "It was taking too long anyway. We don't have the time."

She started to ask, "Tell me what?" when she remembered the hand still clamped over her mouth. Heero noticed, and took the hand off slowly. "Tell me what?" she asked, looking up at the taller boy who held her, and at the boy with the long braid.

"Oi, Heero . . . the mess you've gotten us into this time," the braided boy muttered, combing one hand through the long bangs that fell around his eyes. "Come on. We'd better get going if we're going to make it on time."

* * *

Heero looked down at Relena. "Are you all right?" he asked stoically, seating himself beside her. She still clutched her stomach slightly and looked up at him with big turquoise eyes.

"You didn't tell me we were going to outer space," she mumbled, looking away again.

"I didn't tell you we were going anywhere," he reminded calmly.

"Of course, how could I forget," her voice was laced with sarcasm . "You kidnapped me." After they had traveled some distance further through the woods, they had come to a car, and from there, driven to a private shuttle port, and eventually, to the shuttle itself. And the part that irked Relena the most was that they still wouldn't tell her where they were going. Of course, the second biggest irk in her life at the moment was space-sickness. "You could have at least warned me."
"I'm sorry," Heero told her. It didn't sound very much like he meant it, but Relena clung to it, since it was the only thing she had at the moment. "I'll get you some medicine."

He disappeared into the next room, and reappeared a few moments later holding a bottle in one hand. He carefully poured two out, careful not to spill with the way the shuttle was shaking in some atmospheric turbulence at the moment. He pressed them carefully into Relena's hand , before seating himself beside her once more. She glanced up at him curiously, obviously wondering at the unusual display of kindness from the mostly biting man.

She gulped down the pills, wondering why she was cursed with space sickness. The entire time, she could feel Heero's eyes watching her like some sort of hawk. No, not a hawk, she corrected herself. More like a wolf.

"Where's Duo?" she asked finally, breaking the silence between the two. She didn't turn her head to look at Heero, even though she could feel his eyes still trained on her.

"Up front. Piloting," he replied in a monotone voice. She hid her surprise quite well, she thought, by only letting out a tiny gasp and then quickly shutting her mouth again. What sort of teenager knows how to pilot a shuttle? He let out a low chuckle at her reaction, for which she promptly turned to glare at him for.

"Well? It's not as though that's normal." He chuckled even more at her comment. She frowned. "Then again, I have just been kidnapped by two maniacs," she muttered with a shake of her head.

He stopped chuckling. It was a little startling in the way he just cut off the laughter so abruptly. "You'll understand why we're doing this when we get there." His voice almost sounded reassuring. Almost.

She looked at him again, giving her best glare. "Where is 'there'? And why are you taking me? You haven't told me a single thing."

He leaned forward, piercing blue eyes staring her down, and moved so close that their noses practically touched. He's trying to scare me. And doing a fine job of it too. She felt two iron hands grasp either of her arms, and flinched. He's probably going to kill me. The thought came with surprising calmness.

She was, needless to say, more than a little surprised when he smashed his mouth against hers, pulling her into a crushingly strong embrace. Her senses were dazzled for a moment, but when she finally realized what was happening, she squirmed in his grasp.

He pulled back quickly, giving her a penetrating look once more. "You don't like being kissed?" Again, the amused flicker in his eyes. Then he let go of her and turned away. "I guess people never change." The last comment was barely audible, but she heard it well enough.

"What do you mean?" she ordered, putting her hands on her hips. He ignored her. "Explain!" she demanded louder. "Look, you have told me next to nothing the entire time I've known you! Just tell me who you and Duo are, and where you're taking me, and why!"

Her shouts died away in the plain little cabin they were seated in. He spurned his head away, and didn't look at her for what seemed the longest time. She kept her scowl at full force on him.

A few minutes passed, and then a few more, and he still did nothing. She crossed her arms and turned away from him, so their backs were facing one another. Giving a sigh of exasperation, she slumped against the cabin wall and stared out the window.

"We were in love."

She spun around to face him. "Wha. . .?" He had lifted his head, and was staring at her intently. It wasn't the cold glare, it was something else.

"We were in love," he repeated, his voice growing more full. "And then you left." His voice cracked some. "You left me there. If it hadn't been for this, I would've. . ."

"Hadn't been for what? And I've never met you before in my life!" she protested. He raised his hand and put one finger to her lips.

He let out a long, slow sigh and shook his head. "I suppose there isn't an easy way to tell you this. We -Duo and I- are from a parallel universe, I guess you would call it. In our universe, you are Relena Peacecraft, the vice minister of foreign relations, a high political figure. You were assassinated. We came here for you , so you could return with us before the public could find out what had happened and a another war could be started." He finished in a whisper, refusing to meet her gaze.

"No. I don't believe you!" she felt tears springing to her eyes, though she couldn't say why. "That's impossible!"

He looked up at her with sad eyes, or at least that seemed to be pretty emotional for him. "It's true." Her lips still tingled from the kiss. How could that be possible?

"There's no such thing as a parallel universe, and even if, how would I know you're telling the truth?" She clenched her hands in to fists, and blinked, trying to restrain the tears.

"Your brother is Milliardo Peacecraft. Your father and mother are dead. You have a birthmark on your left thigh, and a scar on your right elbow from climbing a tree when you were eight," he rattled off.

"You had appendicitis the same year." He stared at her, waiting for some response. Her mouth hung open. There's no way he could know all that. . . could he? "You're meant to come with us, I know, because you would have died in this world otherwise when the Relena in our world died.

She touched her lips with trembling fingers, eyes locked on his. "But. . . ?"

"I failed to protect you, Relena." He inched closer to her on the bench they sat on. "Can you forgive me?"

"I. . . I loved you?" she asked, fingers still over the bruised flesh of her lips. He nodded, leaning ever closer, moving his body towards hers. "And . . . " she gulped, "You loved me?"

He nodded again. "You'll come, Relena? Your brother misses you. I've missed you." His nose was almost touching hers again, but it wasn't unpleasant or even frightening this time.

"You mean . . .Milliardo is there too?" she gasped. This is all too much.

"Of course. You'll like our world better, I think, considering how unhappy you were in yours." his nose was touching hers, and his eyes were so intense, she forget to say anything, or do anything, for that matter, but stare into them.

They were interrupted by someone clearing their throat loudly behind them. "If, uh, you two are done, I could use a little help in the cockpit." The two drew apart and Relena blushed, Heero glared. Duo winked and strolled back off towards the front of the shuttle.

"Baka," Heero muttered. He looked back to Relena, and seemed to be deciding something. His mind made up, he leaned over and kissed her cheek quickly, before getting up and heading towards the front of the shuttle.

* * *