When We Were Young 5

[kaigou]

Because I am still awake, and because the cabinetry for a getabako has not mysteriously built itself.

rating: PG-13
pairing: 3+4
warning: go somewhere else if you want blissfully happy.

This is not chronological, and the entire series revolves around conflict, and not necessarily resolution. You're welcome to write the resolution between the two for any of these conflicts, if you want. Open season.

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Quatre wrinkled his nose at the carrot slices in his salad, and carefully picked around them. Only when a hand appeared in his vision, waving under his nose, did he start and look up with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, Rel, I'm just not in a very social mood today, I suppose." He did a habitual sweep across the restuarant, but it looked like both the paparazzi and any potential stalkers had decided to at least let Relena get through the first two courses in peace. Quatre gave her another regretful smile. "I'm afraid I was lost in my own thoughts."

"I was mostly arguing to the choir, I expect." Relena shrugged and had another onion ring. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing." Quatre leaned back, and pushed his salad plate away with two fingers. "Preaching at me about what?"

"Yes, you have a very nothing expression for about ten minutes there," Relena observed. Her faux-stern look faded into one of friendly concern. "Really, Quatre. We're friends. I'm here to listen if you need me to." She paused, and her lips quirked into almost a smile, but it was promptly buried under diplomatic training into a completely deadpan expression. "And I promise not to breathe a word of it to Dorothy."

Quatre had to chuckle. "It's not really that important. Just a little...annoyed at Trowa right now."

"What? Trouble in paradise?"

"It's hardly paradise." Quatre couldn't help but snort. "Unless you mean his case resolution record, which continues to be perfect."

"That's not what Heero says."

"Heero's wrong."

Relena's eyebrows went up at Quatre's quick response, but she said nothing.

"Yes, I'm biased. But still, he works such long hours." Quatre shrugged. "I do, too."

"You're a lot alike that way." Relena dipped another onion ring in the ketchup, then dipped it again, before biting down with a pleased look. She'd sworn they had the best onion rings in Brussels; Quatre had no interest in eating onions, flour, and grease, but Relena seemed to enjoy them immensely. "Actually, all of us are, now that I think about it." She held up her glass as their waiter passed, and turned back to Quatre with a frown. "So you argued about how many cases he has?"

"No." Quatre sighed, and propped his chin on his fist, giving his closest friend a smile. "It sounds stupid but...we argued about the war."

Relena blinked.

"Well, not precisely. I don't even remember how it came up, now. Just some random comment on my part, teasing him, I think, and I compared something to sleeping with Duo."

Her eyes went impossibly wide, and she froze with the onion ring halfway to her mouth. A large drop of ketchup splatted on the plate, but she didn't notice.

"Err, I didn't mean like that."

She visibly deflated, and bit into her onion ring with a disappointed expression.

"But..." Quatre leaned forward, lowering his voice. "Trowa thought I did."

"Oh." Relena brightened visibly, and Quatre nearly rolled his eyes. "So he's jealous?"

"More like..." He thought for a minute; the sex had been wild, and he had no idea his body could bend in some of those ways, but Trowa's certainly could, and... He frowned, and reminded himself he was eating at a very pricey restaurant with the current Vice Minister. "I think jealous does cover it."

"That's good. A little jealousy is always a good thing." She nodded, then frowned. "Within reason. Too much, and I don't know about you, but it makes me want to punch someone." When Quatre didn't respond, she wiped her fingers on her napkin, and pushed away the remains of her appetizer. "That's why I dumped Heero, after all."

"Yeah...wait, what? You said it was mutual!"

"It was. Sort of." Relena's smile became pained. "If someone so much as looked at me funny, Heero was on them like paint on plaster. It was flattering at first, then amusing, and then just annoying, and finally infuriating."

"You dated for two months," Quatre reminded her.

"The process apparently doesn't take that long," she retorted. "After he spent an evening sulking because I had to dance with heads of state and couldn't spend every dance with him, he and I had it out. I ended up throwing his entire overnight bag at him--" She frowned, lost in recollection-- "and I've always wondered why he might think an entire arsenal was necessary when spending the night, and I have missed that thing he could do with his tongue--"

Quatre winced. "Too much information, dear."

"But--" she raised a finger, eyes crinkled in a half-smile, "I won't put up with being treated like someone's possession." Relena lowered her hand, and all humor was wiped from her voice. "Is that what's going on with you two?"

"No. I don't think so." He shook his head. "No, it's worse. I told him, and then that night we were supposed to hang out with Duo and Hilde." Quatre scowled. "The whole time, Trowa just glared at Duo. Outright. It wasn't obvious to Duo--he did ask me halfway through the movie what was up, but Hilde picked up on it, and I think she had a miserable time. What really gets me is that I know Hilde had a huge crush on Trowa in the year or so after the war, and you don't see me pouting in the corner because of what happened back when we were kids!"

"Kids with big machines," Relena pointed out. "Not really kids."

"We were young," Quatre protested. "And stupid."

"Stupid enough to sleep with someone else's man."

"He wasn't anyone's man!"

"Ah-hah! You did sleep with him!"

"Yes! No!" Quatre threw up his hands. "It was right after Heero self-destructed. I was upset at what had happened, but Duo was worse off, since he'd considered Heero not just a compatriot but almost a friend. We didn't do anything. We just talked about it, and finally slept. Like puppies, for warmth."

"Naked puppies?"

"Would you stop!"

"Just asking."

"If you tell Dorothy, I will paint your car neon green."

Relena pursed her lips. "Escort me to the next gala, and I won't tell Dorothy."

"Hey!" Quatre gaped. "You're not supposed to tell her anyway, or anyone! Friends, damn it."

She pointed a neatly-manicured finger at her chest. "Politician." The finger swiveled to point at Quatre. "Businessman." She smiled. "You know how to deal."

"Great. If Trowa starts glaring at you, too, don't be surprised." Quatre ran fingers through his hair, frustrated. Relena sighed and reached over, taking his hand and pulling it away from his head, squeezing his fingers. "We've been together almost two years. We've been living together for a year. Why is he so upset about something that happened seven years ago?"

"Maybe he's just worried that you might change your mind." Relena sighed. "That's why I couldn't make it work with Heero. I couldn't reassure him every possible minute that I'd always be there for him. I couldn't promise that. And I couldn't promise I would give him everything I have and am, because some things I do want to keep for myself. To him, I might as well have said I didn't love him after all."

"Great," Quatre groaned. "I hate your armchair psychology. Trowa's hard enough to handle without me having to run around behind him and coddle his insecurities."

She looked surprised. "Well, I didn't mean it quite like that--"

"But that's how it feels, sometimes." The dam had broken, and Quatre tried his best to keep his voice low, and not sound too much like he was complaining, but he was, and it felt good to finally tell someone. "Every penny I spend, he watches with this look on his face like he's counting it up in his head, and every time I ask him if he wants to do something, if I don't wait after that night for him to ask, he gets sulky. Like he's keeping some kind of internal scorecard. I asked him to dinner, he asks me, I asked him if he wants to catch a movie, then he has to ask me. And then I had to go and blurt out about Duo, and just one lousy night where we didn't even have sex, it was perfectly harmless, and--"

"You mean innocent." Relena's glance was too sharp, but she didn't look like she was teasing. In fact, she had her politician's face on. "You said harmless."

"Yeah, harmless, I mean, innocent."

"Are you sure nothing happened? Because you look very guilty right now."

"Because now it feels like everyone's treating me like I am!" Quatre shook his head. "This isn't about me, it's about Trowa being convinced I'm going to throw him out any minute, if he doesn't hold his own or some ridiculous shit--"

"Did you tell him that was ridiculous?"

"What? That he's jealous of Duo?"

"No, about holding his own." Relena let go of Quatre's hand, leaning back so the waiters could clear their plates and refill her glass of tea. Only once they had privacy again did she give Quatre an exasperated look. "It's not very wise to tell one's lover that his issues are ridiculous shit, Quatre."

Quatre had to take a second to get over the surprise of Relena using profanity; minorly annoyed at her victorious look, he snapped, "it's hardly wise to get a stick up one's ass about things long gone in the past." He frowned when she didn't lose that smile. "You've been hanging out with Dorothy too long."

"Hardly." Relena picked up her fork, and stabbed at her green beans. "If that were true, I would've kicked you in the head and sent you home to Trowa by now."

"He's on a case."

"Then I'd send you to headquarters. With roses. And kneepads." She smiled sweetly. "Doesn't matter if it happened seven years ago, and I don't think it matters if he's being irrational. If you're willing to put up with it, then don't rouse the sleeping lion, and if you do, be prepared to grovel."

"Kneepads." Quatre sighed. "For the grovelling, I take it."

"Copious amounts."

"He doesn't like roses."

"Insert flower of choice. If he were female, I'd suggest chocolate. Maybe take him a new chess set." She smiled, a bit wickedly. "And then, be sure to let him win at least the next ten or fifteen times, until he's come to his senses and gotten over his fear that you'll ditch him and run off with Duo." She snorted. "Because no matter what Heero thinks, Duo is certainly not much of a catch unless you like a lot of hair, and excellent piloting skills."

"I'm not really one for that much hair." Quatre couldn't hide the leer. "But the piloting skills...now, those do have their benefits."

"You! You did sleep with him!"

Quatre just smiled in a knowing manner, and made plans to do his grovelling in the bedroom. His knees would thank him for it, he was sure.

Comments

[edenfalling]

Sane!Relena. I love you for that alone, though I find this entire series fascinating in its exploration of Quatre and Trowa's various insecurities and blind spots.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

I always do my best to write Sane!Relena. I'm trying to think of when I've ever made Relena the bad guy. Hrm. Wait, I did it in the fairy-tale I wrote, but even that could've qualified as simple teenage nastiness and not outright insanity. I like her; I try to write her with some respect.

Yes. I'm all about highlighting the insecurities and pitfalls of the combination, in this series.

[edenfalling]

I like this Quatre and Trowa much better than their common portrayals as nothing but sweetness and light, or as wounded, weeping souls healed by Twu Wuv. They seem more like real people, and they're much more interesting to read about because of that.

[nataliethompson.livejournal.com]

Because no matter what Heero thinks, Duo is certainly not much of a catch unless you like a lot of hair, and excellent piloting skills."

Oh God!! That line killed me. :)

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

I figured she had a right to some snark, and from an outside observer, I can't say I'd blame her. Those two things are his strong points, after all. *snicker*