Disclaimer: Always the same.

Author's Notes: So many more thanks;) I really appreciate every comment and review. I do. I hope I can keep on giving you fun things to read;)

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To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky
by Kristen Elizabeth

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Heero stared at her for a long time after her declaration. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears; her full, rosy bottom lip quivered ever so slightly. It suddenly occurred to him that he missed the real Relena. The laughter she gave Duo, the healthy glow in her cheeks when they had gone swing dancing, the soft lilt of the European accent that had echoed in her voice over the phone. The girl in front of him was too sad....something had to be done to bring back the Relena he was all too quickly falling for.

He reached out and touched her chin to steady it. "Do you really think you're not good enough to play Odette."

"Yes." But with the weight of his Prussian blue stare boring down onto her, the affirmation was less than convincing.

"Why do you think that?"

Relena's tongue darted out to wet her lips. Heero blinked, momentarily shaken by the sight. "Well..." she started. "You've seen me in class. I trip...I stumble...I never get enough height on my jumps...my turnout is inconsistent." Her eyes lowered. "You know...that I can't do it, Heero."

"I know that you think you can't," he corrected her. "But I don't think I've ever seen you really dance. I've seen you get nervous and make mistakes." Heero let his fingers fall from her chin. "I'd like to see you dance Odette...really dance her. With me. What do you say?"

She looked up into eyes, but saw no mocking or condescension in their depths. All she saw looking back down at her was honesty with a tinge of a challenge. Eyes that she could trust. Relena's gaze darted away. They were also eyes that had seen Dorothy Catalonia on a beach...

"All right," Relena finally said. "I will dance Odette." She swallowed. "But not for you. For me."

Heero nodded. "That's how it should always be."

Relena stepped away from him. "After all, you're the one with something to lose. Everyone already expects me to look ridiculous on stage." She paused to hold back her next words, but they pushed their way out of her mouth. "This is your last chance to lobby for someone else. I'm sure Dorothy would make a good swan princess."

Heero frowned. "Why Dorothy?"

"I don't know..." She idly pressed the satin toe of her pointe shoe into the tiled floor. "I just got the impression that you two had...um...history."

He didn't say anything for a moment. "It doesn't have any bearing on her ability to dance."

Relena heart thudded in her chest. That should have been his moment of clarification, when he proved Dorothy's words wrong and declared his innocence. Her mood took another nose-dive. So...the other girl hadn't been lying. "I suppose it doesn't."

Right then, the door to their studio opened and Treize stuck his head out, searching. When he spotted his two principal dancers, he frowned. "Mr. Yuy....Miss Dorlian," he called out. "Take your time. Really...forty people aren't waiting for you at all."

Heero indicated for Relena to walk ahead of him. She did so with her back straight, her chin level, presenting a picture of calm determination. Inside, she was a wreck.

Her perfect posture fooled everyone but Heero. As Treize and Lucrezia started the tedious process of teaching Relena everything it had taken Hilde nearly a month to learn, he watched her carefully. His history with Dorothy...what had brought that up? If you could even call a few drunken kisses after a fight with his father at their house in the Hamptons a history. It hadn't taken him long to sober up enough to stop things; Dorothy's hand on his thigh had been like a cold shower and a dozen cups of coffee. They hadn't really spoken since.

At least, to each other. When he caught the distrust in Relena's eyes and the tenseness in her slender body when he lifted her, Heero had to wonder just how much talking Dorothy had been doing with everyone else.

****

"Duo?"

He lifted his head from its sleeping position on Hilde's arm and blinked sleepily at the woman standing on the other side of the hospital bed. "Mrs. Schbeiker?"

Katja rubbed her forearm and tugged on the sleeve of her waitress uniform. "How is she doing?" she asked nervously.

"She's...um..." Duo searched his girlfriend's sleeping face. How could he tell the woman that her daughter was hanging over the very sharp edge of depression. "She's still adjusting to the news."

"Oh my baby..." Katja sat on the edge of the bed and stroked Hilde's cheek. "My poor baby."

"She really could've used you today," Duo continued, with more reprimand in his voice than probably should have been.

Hilde's mother looked down at her stained, pink dress. "I would have been here the whole time if I could have been. But at least...she had you." She took her daughter's hand. "She's very lucky in that respect."

Duo scowled. "Everyone keeps saying that. But I'm not some knight on a white horse, you know. Hilde's going to be okay and she's going to be okay because she's really strong. Not because she has me to lean against."

Katja let the boy get the thoughts off his chest before she nodded. "Of course." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Go home, Duo. I'm sure your parents miss you. I can stay with her for the rest of the night."

He hesitated. It was the first time he had ever seen Hilde's mother act like a real mother. "They're going to release her in the morning..."

"I think I can manage to get her home."

"But, she'll be on crutches and painkillers and..."

"Duo." The older woman's voice was firm. "I need to do this for Hilde. You've done more than enough already."

Duo looked down at his sneakers. "Not really. But okay." He stood up and kissed Hilde's forehead. "Tell her I'll be over to see her tomorrow after ballet class. Wait, no...don't mention ballet class. Just tell her I'll be there after I...um...get my hair cut. No....after I...."

"I've got it," Katja smiled. "Goodbye, Duo."

He started for the door and turned back to see Katja adjusting her body next to Hilde's on the bed. She tucked her arm under her daughter's body and rested her chin on her dark curls. Duo smiled and left the tiny hospital room.

****

Relena debated calling Quatre that night and pouring out every woe to her old friend, but somehow, she couldn't bring herself to dial the international number. Instead, she seated herself at her desk, withdrew the pink stationary her mother had insisted she have, although the entire world relied on the speed of email, and began to write him a letter. It took a long time; her French was better when she spoke than when she wrote.

"'I don't understand why I was chosen'," she wrote to him in her flowered script. "'Sometimes I think it would be better for everyone if I just declined the role. But I suppose it's too late for that now. I am Odette. And Hilde, poor Hilde who should have the role and is so unhappy...I feel like I've wronged her somehow. Have I, Quatre?'" Relena lowered her pen for a moment before signing her name with a flourish.

As an afterthought, she took up the pen again and added a postscript. "'I miss you so much. You're the only man in my life who doesn't confuse me. Call me when you get this letter. Or better yet, fly to see me...but not on the weekend of the workshop. Trust me...you'll have better things to do.'"

She folded up the letter, placed it in a matching envelope that bore the address of Quatre's father's chateau just outside of Paris and set it aside to be mailed in the morning. After a quick trip to her private bathroom to scrub her face and brush her teeth, Relena wandered back to her bed and sat down to set her alarm for six AM.

The knock on her bedroom window nearly sent her into cardiac arrest. She dropped the sheets in her hand and spun around to face the lace curtains. There was a shadowed figure outside; for the first time, she cursed the fire escape. Wasn't there a more practical way to get out of the building in an emergency, instead of one that left her open to the city's predators?

"Who's there?" Relena called out, unable to hide the wobble of fear in her voice.

The reply was muffled through the glass and lace. "Don't be afraid, Relena. It's me." There was a pause. "Heero."

Her heart dropped another inch, but this time, it wasn't from fright. "Heero?" She approached the window with much caution and drew the curtains aside. Heero, indeed, was the person crouched on the wrought iron platform. She pushed open the window panes, forcing him back on his heels. "What the hell are you doing here?"

She had never cursed in his presence before. Heero blinked. "Um...I wanted to see you."

The simple words succeeded in stopping her heart for a moment. "You...you wanted to see me? This late at night?" Relena swallowed. "You could have called...."

"I could have." Heero looked up at the night sky. "It's not a full moon anymore, but it's still nice. Don't you want to see it?"

She sighed, a mixture of exasperation and longing. "I couldn't just see it from the window?"

He shook his head and held out his hand. "Come on."

"I'm in my pajamas..." Relena pulled at the strap of her tank top.

"I'll give you a minute to get dressed."

She propped her hands up on her hips. "What's gotten into you?"

Heero looked down at the iron floor of the fire escape. "Today in class...you looked so...lost. I know what it's like to be lost."

"You do?" Her voice was a whisper.

He nodded and glanced back up at her. "So, will you come out? To the park?"

Relena hesitated for another moment before finally giving in. "Hold on." She left him at the window and disappeared into her walk in closet, re-emerging a moment later dressed in jeans, a zippered navy sweatshirt and sneakers. After grabbing her keys, she climbed out the window and joined Heero on the fire escape. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she told him out loud. What she didn't express to him was the vague sense of excitement that had suddenly overcome. Sneaking out to Central Park with a gorgeous guy in the middle of the night....

The thrill threatened to block out all her common sense. Relena had to steer herself back to what she knew about Heero. What she had learned about him that very day.

Heero offered her his hand again and helped her down the fifteen flights of escape stairs. They received more than one strange look from the people in the building who's windows were open; Relena prayed that none of them recognized her and called up to her brother.

When they reached the street, a taxi was waiting for them; it was quite a ways to Central Park. In the cab, Relena had a thought. "Heero...um...how did you know which window was mine?"

"Process of elimination," he replied. "I knew your building and floor from the student directory. I took a gamble that yours would be the window with lace curtains."

She had to smile. "It could have been my brother's room. He is a ballet dancer. Or was, anyways."

"I can't see Millardo with lace." Heero shrugged. "I made the right guess, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did."

They were quiet the rest of the way to the park. Heero paid the taxi driver and the cab sped off into the night. Relena looked at the impenetrable green wall of Central Park with a fair amount of apprehension. "Is this safe?" she asked him.

"As safe as anything is in the city." Heero reached for her hand and was a bit surprised when she didn't automatically take it. "I want to show you my favorite spot."

Relena followed close by him as he led her down a small path towards the center of the park. After few minutes of silence, Heero cleared his throat. "Do you trust me?"

She blinked. "Why? What are you about to do?"

"Nothing," he replied. "I meant, overall. Do you trust me?"

"I..." Relena kicked a pebble with the toe of her sneaker. "I don't know you very well..."

"You don't trust me, then." His voice was more than a little disappointed.

"It's not you," she emphasized. "I've never been very good at pas de deux class. Especially since..." Her mouth abruptly closed. "I'll try to do better....with the lifts and stuff."

Heero frowned. "What were you going to say before you stopped?"

Relena shook her head, her dark blond ponytail whipped against her cheeks as she quickly changed the subject. "So, where is this favorite spot?"

"Just up ahead." He let the topic drop; evidently she didn't wish to talk about it. "I think the boys are going to be there tonight."

"The boys?"

Heero glanced over at her. "You'll see."

They came out of the forest of trees and jogging paths into a wide open space that surrounded a beautifully carved stone fountain and were greeted by the haunting notes of a saxophone. On the other side, a brass quartet was set up, playing to the late night strollers and power-walkers.

"The boys," Heero informed her. "Ed, Bill, Samson and Dewey. They're out here almost every night. I discovered them when I was thirteen."

"What were you doing out in the park this late at night when you were thirteen?" she asked, a twinkle in her blue eyes.

Heero cleared his throat. "I just...had to get out of the house one night." He reached for her hand again. "I'll introduce you when their set is..." He trailed off when, again, she refused to take his hand. "Relena...have I done something wrong?" The hand he had offered her reached up to scratch the back of his head. "I'm not very good at this sort of thing, I know. But I didn't think I was scaring you. Am I scaring you?"

Relena looked up at the sky; the waning moon stared down at them. "I'm just not sure why...why you asked *me* out here...." She took a breath. "...when Dorothy Catalonia is so....accommodating."

"I had a feeling she had something to do with this." Heero sighed and looked beyond the fountain to where his quartet was beginning B.B. King's, "Please Love Me". "I'm not sure what she told you, but whatever it was..."

"You don't have to explain yourself to me, Heero," she interrupted him. "Your sexual history is so entirely *not* my business."

Heero sighed. "I didn't have sex with Dorothy."

Relief washed over her at the simple statement. "Really?" she finally said. "But she told me..."

"She told you what she's probably told everyone." He gritted his teeth. "I can't decide if it would be better to be thought of as gay or having had sex with that...." After a pause, he continued. "It was a few minutes of bad judgement from too much alcohol. That's all."

"Oh." Relena bit her lip. "I'm sorry I believed her, Heero."

He lifted his shoulder, dismissing the incident. A moment passed. The night around them was cool; a sweet breeze pushed the gently wailing strains of the brass band over to them. Relena closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Spring was upon them and the park smelled like fresh flowers and clean earth.

Heero watched her enjoy the moment. Her dark, thick lashes rested against her smooth cheeks; her lips parted slightly, moist and pink. He swallowed. She was too lovely to be real. He had the sudden fear that if he pinched himself, he would wake up in his bed with his father pounding on the door, calling him a....

Relena reached for his hand, entwining her fingers with his and unknowingly driving away his demons for the time being. He spoke before he thought, a habit he had formed in the weeks he had known her. "Dance with me?"

"Yes," she replied softly.

He led her closer to the band and received greeting smiles and approving winks from the four men. Hoping the darkness would hide his pink-tinged cheeks, Heero put his hand around Relena's small waist. Just like at the swing club, she placed her own hand on his muscled shoulder. Their free hands remained clasped together as they began to dance.

They moved perfectly with each other and with the music. Relena gave herself up to the magic of her surroundings; there were no awkward fumbles or missed steps. She and Heero danced as one and it was so perfect that other couples doing the same stopped to watch. Taking the initiative, Relena rested her cheek on his collarbone.

Heero inhaled the scent of roses from her hair; the delicate, fragrant flowers suited her. His hand moved up to press against her lower back, drawing her even closer to his body. He had the overwhelming urge in that moment to feel those pink lips against his own. To do so, he pulled back slightly and moved his arm around her to lift up her chin.

She met him with a dreamy smile. When he closed his eyes and lowered his lips to hers, her only hesitation was internal. Relena responded to his kiss with equal passion, ignoring her brain's cry to slow down. She would not let Jean-Paul ruin her first real kiss with the memory of his own forced ones. Heero's lips were gentle and although eager, they were not demanding.

The kiss didn't end until the final notes of the song faded into the breeze. Heero drew back, completely intoxicated by the taste of her lips and more content than he could ever remember being.

Relena opened her eyes. "Heero," she whispered. "I don't feel lost anymore."

He smiled. "Neither do I."

****

To Be Continued