Choosing Fate
Chapter 5
By Lady Saffir

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the GW boys or girls, unfortunately. The story idea is mine though.

To everyone that has written or left a review, I'd like to thank you. You don't know how happy I am when I check my email. Feel free to send any comments, criticisms (constructive, please) and questions to Rinoah7@cs.com. I'll try to reply as soon as possible.

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Three months into the new school year, I was convinced I had life figured out. Pay attention in class, be polite to the teachers so they'd be more inclined to give a little leeway, and hold your friends close.

My relationship with Duo was working out quite well too. We never fought - ever. I was comfortable around him. I could be myself and have no fear of him thinking me odd or childish in my sometimes strange notions.

Duo. Just hearing his name created a little glow inside of me. I'm not talking about the way those horrid teenage movies portrayed a girl in love, either. I was...content with the world. As long as I had Duo to lean on, I could survive anything life threw at me.

We developed a pattern early on in the school year. While it was true that we saw each other during the day, we only exchanged small talk. We laughed with our friends and quietly stored information away to talk over later.

Our newest topic was the way that Dorothy was treating Wufei. At some undefinable point, her teasing had turned into out right barbs.

I guess I should explain Wufei a bit better, so you can understand why he put up with her for so long. Wufei's outer personality can be quite crass and rude. You have to dig - and be very persistent - to find the true Wufei. Underneath his cool demeanor is pure mush. No matter how much he denied it, the boy loved romantic, fairy-tale endings. He was a self proclaimed cynic, but the little memorabilia and trinkets scattered about his room told a different story.

He was also extremely loyal, and was a textbook study of love being blind.

Anyway, halfway through our eighth grade year, Dorothy suddenly decided that Wufei was being 'incredibly mean' to her. Which should be read as the boy finally growing some balls and telling her what to do with her ideas.

Of course, she immediately broke up with him, and he fell head first into an almost depression. We shared science and algebra, so I was able to keep a semi close eye on my friend.

Algebra with Mrs. Hemlin was always a nerve-wracking affair. A slightly older woman, Mrs. Hemlin was my height, with graying hair, thick glasses, terrible hearing, and a monotone voice that put even the strongest of will to sleep.

Once she started lecturing she was also deaf to the world, so it was fairly safe to talk in class. Or pass notes.

/What's up?/

/Nothing. I was just thinking about cutting my hair. Apparently long hair on guys is 'disgusting'./

/NOOOO! Forget whatever SHE said, your hair is beautiful./

/You can write 'Dorothy' - I promise I won't go into fits./

/'Sorry. Anyway, I.../

I was suddenly aware of the silence in the room, and looked up to find Mrs. Hemlin glaring at me.

"Since you were taking such wonderful notes, Miss Peacecraft, why don't you come to the board and work this problem for us?"

With much reluctance - and a scathing look that Wufei merely shrugged off - I advanced to the front of the room to do battle with a quadratic equation.

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Heero and I remained very good friends, even if I didn't spend as much time with him now. There were some things I felt that I couldn't talk to Duo about, so I turned to Heero.

Right now he was trying to help me pick out a Christmas gift for Duo. I had never had trouble finding presents for either of the boys up to this point. It seemed that dating Duo had messed up that ability.

Gloria had dropped us off at the mall two hours ago. So far we had found presents for all of our friends, and were now in search of the 'perfect present'. I was beginning to suspect that such a thing didn't exist.

Heero stopped suddenly, giving me an exasperated look from underneath his unruly bangs.

"Lena, you're making this harder than it should be. In the past you've been able to shop with no trouble."

"Heero, I'm not doing this on purpose!" I protested. I glared at the surrounding stores, mentally commanding the perfect gift to appear in the window.

Heero sighed, then grabbed my hand to drag me into Toys 'R Us at the end of the mall.

"We," he commanded, "are not leaving this store until you buy something for Duo."

Oh dear. Heero in commander mode is a force to be reckoned with. I sighed and gave up, tagging along behind Heero as he marched down the aisle.

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I ended up buying this model kit that looked entirely too complicated to derive any amusement or joy out of. Duo, of course, loved it. He also began to assemble it immediately, paying the real world, and me absolutely no attention.

My gift from Duo was a snoopy watch. Snoopy and Woodstock were hugging in the background, and I decided that Duo had the knack for finding exactly the right thing. I adored Snoopy, and the watch was just too cute for words.

Christmas was wonderful without the gifts though. Milliardo and Lucy had shown up the day after Christmas, with a very big announcement. Milliardo, a firm believer of the 'less is more' approach, couldn't have caused more chaos if he had tried.

We had settled into the rec room to watch a movie and were fast forwarding through the coming attractions trailers at the beginning. My parents were on the couch, my brother and his wife occupied the love seat, and I was stuck with the floor.

Oh so casually, Milliardo looked around the room and said two simple words.

"Lucy's pregnant."

Now, we all know Lucy's name, so we didn't have a hard time grasping that part of the sentence. And we all knew what pregnant meant, so it should have been a no brainer, right?

Wrong.

My parent's acted as if Milliardo had just announced his intentions to fly to the moon using only his arms for transport. Dad floundered for words, his gaze swinging between his son and daughter-in-law like he was watching a tennis match.

Good ol' mom though, seemed to get her brain functioning a bit faster than that.

"She's...pregnant? You're sure? I mean, how far along are you?"

My father appeared to hold his breath at that one, as if waiting for one of them to say, 'oh, shucks, you caught us.'

Lucy simply beamed, her smile bright enough to outglow the Christmas lights.

"Ten weeks yesterday. My doctor confirmed it just a few days ago. Isn't it wonderful?"

My parents were acting like Lucy had just used a new definition of the word wonderful, but I, having not lost my mental faculties, did the only thing I could.

I jumped straight into Milliardo's arms, practically squeezing him to death.

"You are? She is? Wow...when's the due date?"

Thrilled that at least one family member was happy, both Milliardo and Lucy took turns babbling meaningless information at me.

Interrupting a long winded speech about having neutral pastels in the nursery, I leveled my brother my harshest no nonsense look.

"When is it due, and what are you naming it? Erm...he...um, she...oh, argh! - it! What are you naming your child?!" I floundered for the proper wording.

I was surprised Lucy's jaw didn't fall off from the force of her smile.

"Annette Marie if it's a girl, or Patrick Emerson if it's a boy."

I honestly thought they were kidding at first, but the disgustingly happy looks they were giving each other and us showed they spoke the truth.

"The poor kid's going to need therapy," I muttered.

Luckily my mother's wails about being to young to be a grandmother drowned my words out.

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"Stop yapping about your brother and start spilling the juicy gossip about Duo. And Heero."

"Like your men a bit older than you, do you?"

"That, is the SINGLE most disgusting thing I have ever heard you say."

"I guess I shouldn't throw in a comment about you being a relative of Heero's then, should I?"

"No."

"You're no fun."

"I know. Now stop stalling and starting talking."

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Heero and Catherine had broken up some time ago, and while Catherine had moved on. (to a certain someone named Quatre) She hadn't quite told the object of her affections this, though. Heero vowed not to rush into a relationship just yet. He said he needed time to figure out what exactly he wanted in a girl. This was spoken with a blush staining his cheeks, and that told me that Heero had already decided what characteristics his dream girl would possess. More importantly though, it made me believe Heero had already picked her out.

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Valentine's day was here yet again, and this was the first time I had looked forward to that dreadful day.

Duo, chocolate lover that he is, received a large chocolate kiss during History class. The school had a fund raiser selling balloons, and for two dollars you could buy a balloon, attach a personal message, and they would deliver it and anything else you could tie to the balloon.

Class was interrupted for ten minutes while they sorted and passed all of the balloons out. Lucky girl that I am, I received three balloons, but only one was from Duo. The other two were gifts from Catherine and Marie. We had decided to get each other balloons (ones that only had a 'friendship' theme, of course) so that there was no chance of feeling left out.

If worse came to worse, and no secret admirer balloons were given, we could giggle and blush like it had been a surprise gift. It is the mark of a true friend if they'll go to lengths like that for each other.

Ten minutes till lunch, the school secretary came over the intercom, and read off a lengthy list of people with flowers waiting for them in the office. It almost came as a surprise when my name was called, but then I remembered the silly grin Duo had been wearing yesterday afternoon.

I practically skipped to the office, along with Marie and Catherine. Only Catherine and I were actually getting flowers, but Marie, being the nosy person she is, couldn't wait.

The small office was pure chaos and we had to wait several minutes before we approached the front of the line. The office helpers looked frantic, and I couldn't blame them. With over a hundred rabid, hormonally charged girls stampeding through the office, I was surprised no one snapped.

Catherine's flowers were found first, and the small bouquet of flowers might as well have held a bomb, such a shock they produced. Quatre of all people had sent her flowers, and the smile that stayed plastered over Catherine's face made me think they weren't an unwelcome gift at all.

The biggest shock came when my flowers were handed over. Three flower vases were set in front of me, and I couldn't help stuttering in surprise.

"Ah...I, I think there's been a mistake."

I received a very nasty look from the girl. She flipped the tags over, pointing dramatically to the 'Relena Peacecraft' scrawled on all three.

"You're the only Relena in the school, let alone the only Peacecraft. It isn't a screw-up, they're all yours. Now move, please."

The girls helped me carry the vases to the bandroom, where Mr. Treize had volunteered space to hold the assorted gifts. We managed to find one corner that was relatively empty, and it was with eager hands that I tore open all three envelopes at once.

"Hey, babe. Hope the flowers don't wilt before you get them. Duo," I read off, laughing. Only he would make a joke like that.

"Forget Duo's; we knew he would send you something. Open the others up!" Marie urged.

I stuck my tongue out at her, but obligingly turned the next note so they could read it.

"To my beautiful baby sister. Call me tonight. Love, Milliardo."

Okay, that one wasn't so bad. Which meant the next one would be a whopper, or be from my parents. I wasn't sure which one I was hoping for.

I slowly opened the final note, and my jaw dropped.

"To a very beautiful person."

Catherine ripped the note out of my hand, turning it to see if there was a name on the back. No name was to be found though, and the mystery flowers bothered me for the rest of the day.

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I couldn't tell if Duo would like the idea of me receiving flowers from someone else, but he laughed it off, and said he was glad someone else agreed with him.

It was driving me crazy though, and I dragged Heero over to see them. He liked playing detective; maybe he could go around interviewing all the boys and find out who sent them.

He merely touched the bear that was holding onto the vase with a gentle finger and smelled the roses. The three roses were white and surrounded by sprays of baby's breath, and the vase was an intricate piece, with a string of colored glass snaking its way around the clear body.

"Heero! You aren't paying attention! Help me figure out who sent these - otherwise I'm gonna die of suspense!" I wailed, but Heero merely changed the subject.

"Did Catherine like her flowers? Quatre had me help to pick them out," he added, and I latched onto that bit of information.

"Really? So he does like Catherine! She's going to die when I tell her tomorrow!"

I spent the next half hour pumping Heero for info, and forgot all about my quest to meet my mystery gift giver.

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Three days later, Catherine pulled me aside with a juicy bit of news.

"Relena, you are NEVER going to believe what I heard my mother saying the other night. She was on the phone with Heero's mom..."

She trailed off to let the suspense build.

"And?"

"And it turns out Heero borrowed some money from his mom to order flowers for this girl," Catherine gushed.

I still couldn't see where this was headed.

"So? Now I have something new to harass Heero about."

Catherine sighed and whapped me on the back of the head.

"Stupid! You didn't let me finish. Anyway, Gloria 'accidentally' overheard Heero placing the order, and get this. They were for a girl here at our school, and she clearly heard 'aft' as the last part of the name!"

The implication didn't hit me until I repeated my name a couple of times.

"You think Heero sent those flowers?" I choked. Heero was my best friend! Admittedly, Duo had also been my best friend...but Heero?

"Catherine, promise you won't tell anyone that. Promise!" I demanded, deathly afraid of what might happen if that got out.

"I wasn't going to tell anyone! Heero is still my friend, and besides, who would believe it?"

With that, Catherine's mouth took off again at full speed, but I blocked her out. It wasn't possible, was it? Heero knew that I really cared for Duo - in fact, I was pretty sure I was in love with him. He wouldn't ruin that, would he?

I was pretty sure he wouldn't, but the tiny thought of Heero liking me stayed in the back of my mind. I found myself watching Heero closely, catching all of the little things I had never noticed before.

I was in love with Duo, but god help me, I started to think of what it would be like to date Heero. And I wasn't sure it wouldn't be a bad thing.