***Part 3***

It was getting late, but Heero was still wide-awake and decided to take a walk to calm his tense nerves. The restless youth wandered through the halls of the palace in wonder. A lot of things had changed since he had been gone. There were many more lavish banquet halls and conference rooms, as the palace had to be equipped to hold more people now that the Cinq Kingdom was center stage in the political arena during the new era of peace.

Hilde walked down the huge corridor with the latest stack of papers that Relena needed to look over. While she was generously invited to stay at the palace, Hilde thought she would at least make herself useful, asking Noin for little errands to run. When the bright young woman saw Heero wandering aimlessly through the halls, she had a wonderfully mischievous idea. Hilde rushed over to the lone pilot.

"Hey, Heero! I'm so glad I found someone. Can you do me a huge favor and deliver these papers to Relena's office immediately? I just got a call from Noin who informed me about the worrisome situation that's developing. She wanted to show me some of the upgraded Taurus's I might need to pilot if something should come up."

"You're going to fight, too?" the young man asked.

"You betcha. I wouldn't let you guys have all the fun," she winked as she shoved the enormous stack of papers into arms. "Thanks Heero, I owe you one."

"Um" Heero began, but the girl had already rushed away and disappeared from sight. As Hilde ran off down the hall, she grinned to herself, "Well, at least part of that was true. Ha HA! This will force them together." She giggled and then went to join the other pilots and the girls, who were watching a movie in the large entertainment room.

Relena sat at her desk looking frazzled. "I've got to get through these papers so I can relax at the party tomorrow," she mumbled to herself. "I wonder what the others are up to?" she continued to think out loud, something she found herself doing quite often these days. "I'm afraid I'm not a very good host, sitting all cooped up in here. I hope they're having a good time."

Heero slowly approached the door and gave a nod to the guard stationed outside the office. "Why are you hesitating?" Heero thought to himself. "It's only Relena." But, in fact, that was exactly his problem. She made him falter, and the Perfect Soldier couldn't stand making any mistakes. The mysterious Gundam pilot stepped through the door into a dark reception area. "Oh well, no one's here. I'll just have to leave these--" he began to think, but then noticed a faint glow coming from under a doorway. He knocked softly and opened the door, which revealed an elegant office with high ceilings and a spacious interior, with large windows which framed a beautiful view of a nearby lake. Relena sat shuffling around papers and looked up upon hearing the door open. When she saw who had entered, her face remained calm, but underneath she was barely able to contain her surprise at seeing Heero in her doorway. Her face then softened. "Heero, I didn't expect to see you here at this time o! f night. How may I help you?"

Heero walked up to her desk and held out the stack of papers, dropping them in front of her with a loud thud. "These are for you."

The girl let out a heavy sigh. "Great, more papers, just what I needed," she thought to herself sarcastically. "Thank you for delivering them to me, Heero," Relena told the young man as she went back to reading over and signing the many documents on her desk. She expected the pilot to leave quickly after he had completed his task. When he was still standing in the same position right in front of her desk a few minutes later, Relena stopped her work and looked up at him. She studied his face, which was still stoic, yet slightly older-looking and more handsome. His tank top and spandex days were over, as he instead opted for loose, dark denim jeans and a nicely-fitting, thick, black turtleneck, revealing his well-cut body, which had grown more muscular over the years. With all of the dark attire along with his hair, still in the same messy-yet-attractive style, his Prussian blue eyes seemed to pop out of nowhere. "He looks good," Relena caught herself thinking, "but wh! y is he still standing here?"

"Why am I still standing here?" Heero thought to himself. For some reason he couldn't leave. He just kept staring at her. She looked up at him too, but then he saw her face become serious. "Heero, why did you actually come hereto the Cinq Kingdom?" Her eyes were searching his, but he kept a cold shield over them. "Let's be truthful now," she continued, "I know you would never just come here for my birthday, you probably wouldn't even come here at all. So what's going on?"

"..."

Relena kept talking, "Look, I can understand the girls being here, even Duo, because Hilde's here, and Quatre because he's one of my very good friends. But all of the Gundam pilots? YOU, the Great Heero Yuy??? That's a little hard to believe. Something is happening, I can feel it."

Well, Heero thought, she was smarter than she looked. He couldn't just tell her what was happening, Zechs and Noin would kill him. They still didn't want Relena to know of the danger that had been discovered and the danger the girl herself was in. Heero needed to think of something, and fast, something unexpected, to distract her thoughts. He walked around to where she sat behind the desk. Relena stood up to face him. He had gotten taller, but then again, so had she.

"Heero?" she questioned. Then a thought came to the Wing Zero pilot: Relena had always managed to surprise him or make him surprise himself, whether she made a comment about his eyes, asked him to dance, or blocked him from Duo's bullets those years ago. This time, Heero wanted to be the one to surprise her. Thinking back to what the princess had just said, Heero did the most surprising thing he could think of at the moment to distract herhe started a conversation!

"Why don't you believe I would come here?" he asked her, his voice still lacking emotion as usual.

She sighed and hung her head down, gazing at the flood of paperwork drowning her poor desk. "Oh, I don't know, Heero. It's just-it's just not like you."

"And you know me so well?" he asked, unable to hide a tone of almost amusement. He took a step closer to the girl.

The question caught her off guard. "Well, yes...no...I don't know. I just know"

He gazed at her. Was that a smirk appearing on his lips as the eloquent Relena Peacecraft couldn't answer a simple question? Again, he stepped closer to her. He was finally aware the girl had feelings for him, he just wasn't sure about his own for her. But he did realize he liked the fact that when he moved towards Relena, the young lady became nervous, with her eyes darting about, her heart beating faster, her cheeks blushing a bright crimson red.

After a long pause, Relena continued her previous ramble, but this time, she knew what she wanted to say. "I just know you ran away. You left us all," Relena said coldly, as her butterflies had now turned to anger. Now Heero was the surprised one, once again. She had never been harsh to him before. He too, became bitter, as the subject was a sensitive one for him, and he began to defend himself. "I didn't run away. I needed time. Besides, it's no concern of yours," he growled. "I did what I felt needed to be done."

An awkward silence filled the room. Both their tempers had risen, but then fallen back into place. A thick calmness now hung in the air. "It hurt, Heero," Relena said quietly, "I know you never cared, but it hurt me just the same." She was trying to contain her pain, but Heero saw through her façade. For a moment, he wanted to reach out and reassure her that he had never meant to hurt her. In his youth, he didn't see how much she really cared for him. He was too focused on other things, other missions. But during the past few years travelling throughout space, Heero had grown wiser. He saw things in his past that he had overlooked before. Yes, he was still the Perfect Soldier, just more aware of his surroundings, especially the people. But did this new human awareness make him weaker? He would soon find out.

Heero was now so close to the girl that they could both hear each other breathing. He tightly made a fist in both of his hands, trying to restrain himself from giving into his ever-growing desire to touch her, to put his hand up to her face and to know what it feels like to be alive. Heero looked at Relena, who avoided eye contact. However, she could feel herself being drawn in to his intense gaze. Just as her eyes met his, footsteps were heard and the door to Relena's office swung open. Even though the pair had managed to jump back from each other before they were interrupted, the two still seemed pretty close together as Noin entered the room. "Oh! I'm sorry for disturbing you Miss Relena, I should have knocked."

"It's really okay, Noin. You didn't disturb anything." Relena replied. Heero had now backed into the corner of the room.

"I was actually looking for Heero," began Noin, "Hilde said he might he here." Noin gave a glance at the boy before stuttering, "Uh, Heero. You're needed for someuhhelp with sometechnical questions down at the Hangar. Please come with me." Heero understood something important had come up about the rebel group and started to follow Noin out of the office, but Relena had also understood there was an underlying meaning to the sketchy request.

"Oh, no you don't." Relena said firmly. "You guys are telling me what's going on, NOW."

Noin gave Heero a look, as if to ask if he had spilled the secret she entrusted him with. Relena saw this, also. Nothing much slipped by her nowadays as an experienced diplomat. "No, Noin, Heero didn't tell me anything. I had sensed something was wrong for a while, but the Gundam pilots coming here only justified my suspicions. If you had really wanted to keep something from me, you shouldn't have brought the pilots here, for when they all assemble, it seems there is always something about to happen. I should hope you think me capable of knowing that." The princess's weary face now grew livelier as fiery determination filled her eyes. "Now please tell me what you have been hiding. As a friend, I'm asking you, but as your superior, I will command you to reveal this secret. Which will it be?"

Heero raised his eyebrows slightly, impressed with the little speech, while Noin only sighed. She began to recall the long, disturbing list of news as they walked to the Hangar in which the Gundams were being kept, where Sally was already briefing Zechs, Hilde, and the other Gundam pilots about the latest reports from Lady Une at the Preventer's Headquarters.

"We've finally managed to find out who we're dealing with," Sally told everyone. "There has been news of a new rebel group calling themselves 'Dark Storm' lead by the dangerous pro-war general Jasper Hollowfax."

"Are you serious?" Noin asked her with a surprised look, "Hollowfax went to the same Academy as Milliardo and I, don't you remember, hon?" she looked her fiancé.

"How could I forget," said Milliardo, "he was a brilliant strategist, but everyone knew him to be radical and reckless. He was completely addicted to warand power."

"Great, so we're up against a power-hungry, war-crazed maniac?" questioned Duo.

"Seems to look that way," Sally said.

"Eh, so what's new?" replied Duo casually. He then let out an enormous yawn. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to get some sleep cause there's gonna be a party tomorrow and I want to be awake for it."