Choosing Fate
Chapter 6
By Lady Saffir

DISLCAIMER: I don't own Gundam Wing or it's characters. I'm also not making any money off of this, which is a bad thing, since I'm kinda broke. :(

Thanks goes out to Fatima, Cindy, and Rose's noodle o'death for encouragement and support.

"You need to write something realistic. Make it depressing, mortifying, etc" - Ghost-chan

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The following month, our homeroom teachers calmly informed us that it was time to schedule for our classes at the high school.

I panicked.

Then I saw the form they were passing out, and realized that I only had to pick two elective classes. I knew one was going to be band, so what did that leave me with?

A huge list of classes I could take, and no clue as to what I should do.

I immediately marched over to Heero's that afternoon, determined to work this scheduling thing out. And to get help with my algebra, but that was beside the point.

"Heero?" I called out, standing in the foyer.

"He's up in his room, Relena. Go on up; I'll call you two down when the brownies are ready."

Okay, so I was also over here because Gloria cooks really well, and her deserts are wonderful.

I practically ran up the steps, only slowing when I reached the landing. I thought I had made enough noise to wake the dead, but then I heard Heero's stereo going full blast.

Shrugging, I knocked on the door anyway. He didn't answer, but I took the fact that the door was already partially open as a sign he wasn't completely naked or anything.

Well, I was half-right, at any rate. He still had his jeans on, but his shirt was off.

Wow.

"My, my, what big muscles you have," I teased.

Then I remembered my conversation with Catherine a few weeks ago, and blushed. I hadn't really seen Heero with his shirt off in quite a while; when he had started junior high, the shirt only came off if he was doing something really sweaty, like mowing the lawn.

"Relena! What...don't you know how to knock?" Heero hissed at me, his face crimsoning. He quickly pulled the shirt on, then leveled his best glare at me.

"I did knock, but you have your 'awesome system' turned up so high, you didn't hear me," I retorted. "Besides, the door was already open."

Heero's face was still pink around the edges.

"All right, fine, it's my fault. What do you want?"

He seemed to think I was after something.

"What? Can't a friend show up at another friend's house without wanting something?"

Heero eyed me, then strode across the room to turn the sound system down.

"Having trouble scheduling?"

I gaped.

"How'd you know?"

Heero snorted and plucked the sheath of papers from my hands, tapping a finger underneath the large logo.

"Riverview High fall scheduling; the title kind of gave it away," he smirked, whapping me on the head with the bundle.

I stuck my tongue out at him, flopping down on his bed as I did so.

Heero sat down as well, gesturing to the bookbag I had dropped in surprise.

"Algebra?"

At least I had the decency to blush.

"Yeah."

My soft admission made Heero smile. Shaking his head at my oh so obvious actions, he proceeded to go through the list of classes, pointing out the merits of each.

"You might like the creative writing class. Mrs. Jerring also teaches ninth grade English, so you'd have her twice.

"Now, Mr. Reddik, the computer teacher, is a bit odd. He hasn't quite updated his sense of humor from when he was in high school. The jokes suck," Heero stated bluntly, sending me into a giggling fit.

Heero continued, ignoring my outburst.

"Your best bet would be to take your foreign language now. They schedule those classes so it's easy to get them your first two years. After that, good luck."

"Um...what kinds of foreign language?" I asked. Milliardo had taken French, and so had my mother and Lucy. They were all the time spouting things off, and laughing like loons. It kinda gave a person a complex.

"Well, you can take the standard French or Spanish, and be as dull as the rest of the school, or you could be semi-interesting..." Heero trailed off, leaving me to nudge him in the ribs.

"And?"

"And take either German or Japanese," he finished.

"Gee, lemme think about which one you're going to suggest," I drawled, raising an eyebrow at him.

"German, of course. Who'd wanna take a ridiculous language like Japanese?" Heero deadpanned.

"Riiggghhhtt. I'll be sure to mention that to your father next time I see him," I snickered, watching Heero's face pale at the thought. Hitori Yuy was big on upholding the tradition of his ancestors, and that little comment could cause BIG trouble.

"You wouldn't," Heero growled, swiping at me.

I ducked and slid off the bed, dancing a few steps away.

"I dunno...I mean, it'd take an awful lot of help in algebra to forget that one...EEP!"

Heero dove for me, tackling me around the knees. That effectively toppled me over, and put me in danger.

It was a well-known fact that I was extremely ticklish, and neither Duo nor Heero had ever had a problem holding back in that area.

Heero didn't have to hold me down to tickle me. Once the torture started, it was all I could do to move, except to thrash around.

"H, H, Heero! Stop, please, ack! Can't...breath..."

Heero didn't fall for that ruse.

"Floor...hard...ouch..."

Heero simply picked me up and threw me on the bed, then resumed tickling.

I was managing to return a few of the tickles (Heero being slightly ticklish), so we were both rolling around laughing and shrieking.

I'm sure it won't take you much imagination to picture how red my face was when Gloria walked into the room.

"Heero Yuy! What are you doing?!"

Heero was so startled he fell onto the floor.

"Ah...tickling?" He offered weakly. His blush almost matched mine.

Gloria looked between the two of us and 'humphed'.

"Not on the bed. Now, the brownies are ready if you two would like some."

With that she stood to the side and waited for us to preceed her down the stairs.

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Mom was well over the initial shock from Milliardo's announcement. Every time we went shopping, we had to stop in the baby section, and she would inevitably buy something. Then she'd take a catalog, and order even more stuff when we got home.

It was no wonder that I sighed the way I did when the doorbell rang. No doubt it was Bob, our friendly neighborhood UPS man. Bob was thirty-something, married, and had two daughters, one of which wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up.

How do I know this, you may ask? Well, after the first ten deliveries, mom started making small talk. THEN she made him a plate of goodies to take home, for all of his hard work.

Did I also mention my mother was having her mid-life crisis?

Luckily, when I opened the door, it wasn't Bob, but Heero and Duo.

"Hey, guys. What's up?" I asked the question carefully. Heero was grinning like an idiot, and Duo was all but dancing around the livingroom.

"I passed," Heero answered cryptically.

It took me a minute to realize that he was tossing car keys from hand to hand. Then I remembered that his sixteenth birthday had been the past Saturday.

"Oh. Oh! Congratulations!"

Heero waved my words off.

"Thanks. Now come on, we're going."

"Where?"

Heero opened his mouth to answer then stopped. He blinked, cocking his head to the side. Finally giving up, he looked at Duo, who only shrugged in response.

"It's debatable. Just get your shoes on and let's go."

Now, if this were one of Duo's animes, I could just run off, and my parents wouldn't care, as long as I was at school tomorrow morning.

But this isn't one of Duo's animes, so I had a bit more trouble convincing mom that I'd live to see another day.

"Relena, it isn't that I don't trust Heero's driving. He just passed though; I think he should take a little more time driving by himself before taking others," my mother lectured through the phone line.

"Mom...it's Heero. Not exactly the wildest, craziest kid on the planet. I think I'll be safe."

I could hear my mother pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Come on, mom. We'll probably just end up going to the mall," I wheedled.

In the end, I won, and we all piled into Heero's car.

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The end of May came, and with it our middle school career ended as well. Last year the county school board voted to change all junior highs to middle schools, and move the ninth grades into the high schools.

I was a high schooler - could you believe it?

Mr. Treize and Ms. Une's wedding also occurred, and the whole gang was invited since we were both students and friends of Marie. Minimal fuss went into the wedding, but it was absolutely beautiful.

Ms. Une's dress was very understated, with long sleeves that trailed down to end at her wrists. Her dark hair was left down for the occasion, gently falling to curl about her shoulderblades.

Mr. Treize looked devastatingly handsome in his white tux.

Afterwards, when the newlyweds were leaving, I made the mistake of saying something about wanting to get married.

Duo stared at me, his jaw on the ground, and a gleam in his eye.

"Babe, you tell me when, where, and what color, and I'll be there."

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"Wait, wait, wait. Here he is, practically telling you that he wants to spend the rest of his life with you, and you're contemplating dating his best friend?"

"When you put it that way, I sound like a horrible person."

"I'm beginning to wonder."

"Let me try to explain it better. I didn't sit down every day and weigh the pros and cons of each of them. I loved Duo - I still do.

"The idea of dating Heero, of being more than just a friend...it was there in the back of my mind, lurking, just waiting for a chance to pop up. Duo would be giving me a large hug, and out of nowhere, the thought would flit through my head of what it would feel like to have Heero be a major source of comfort for me.

"And let me tell you, it made me feel like a horrible person, suddenly thinking about one guy while my boyfriend was holding me."

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I made a very big mistake at the end of June. I was spending the night at Marie's, along with Catherine. Marie had the bright idea to play truth or dare, and I stupidly chose truth.

I've never made that mistake again, I can assure you.

Anyway, I knew something was wrong the minute I said 'truth'. Catherine and Marie exchanged an evil grin, and cornered me.

"So...Relena...do like Heero in the boyfriend way?"

You could almost cut the silence that followed that particular question. Did I like Heero that way? My head said it was horrible to be thinking like that, but my heart was another matter. I had known Heero for many years, and in a way, I loved him. But did I love him enough to want to kiss and hug and make that step from friend to girlfriend?

"Possibly."

My two friends pounced on that, dissecting that one little word to death.

"Really?"

"Are you going to break up with Duo to date Heero?"

"He's a good kisser!"

I literally backed myself into a corner of the couch, and pulled my pillow up to cover my face, leaving only my eyes to peer over the edge.

"I don't know, guys. I mean, I love Duo. He's everything that a girl could want in a guy. He's sweet, funny, caring, nice, sensitive, cute..." I trailed off, trying to blink back tears. The thought of not being able to share a part of my life with Duo really hurt.

I was glad when the girls surrounded me in a group hug, murmuring silly things to try and cheer me up.

"Too bad you can't date them both," Marie sighed wistfully. "Just think, you'd get twice the valentine's gifts, twice the kisses, hugs, attention...and you'd probably get spoiled rotten, since the guys would compete to give the best gift."

I had to laugh at the mental image of me being buried under a mound of stuffed animals. My laughter signaled the end of the 'serious' stuff, and we turned our attention back to more mundane things.

Like whether or not Marie should try to hook up with Wufei, or Trowa.

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I couldn't get the thought of dumping Duo for Heero out of my head. When I was with Duo, it was just us. No problems, nothing. But when we were apart, a little devil sat on my shoulder and whispered in my ear constantly.

I was feeling quite wretched about the whole thing. My laughter started to die, and more often I spaced out, totally unaware of the world around me.

When Duo asked if something was the matter, all I could think to tell him was that I wasn't sure what was wrong with me; that it was probably just a case of the blues, nothing to worry about.

God, I felt horrible.

And that was why I confronted Heero two weeks later.

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