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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to Gundam Wing¸ or its affiliates, that honor belongs toSotsu, Sunrise, ANB and some other brilliant people so please don't sue me cause I'm poor. A Gundam Christmasby: Epyon Zero Part one: The Gathering of Old Friends A quiet snowfall blanketed the ground, and the light tones of Christmas carols could be heardon the wind. Relena Peacecraft/Darlain gazed out of a bay window in her room and let out acontented sigh. "Christmas will be here soon, I can't wait to see all the others again" she thought toherself. No sooner had the thought left her mind than she heard a knocking on the door. "Who isit?" she called. "Miss Relena, please come downstairs, there are visitors here to see you." Pagan,her butler replied. "Just a sec Pagan, I'll be right out. I wonder who it could be?" Coming down the staircase the first thing Relena saw was a flash of black and brown beforeshe was tackled. "Relena! Merry Christmas!!!" Duo Maxwell yelled as he embraced her in aGundam strength hug. "Duo, Duo. DUO GET OFF ME NOW!!" Relena screamed. "Oh jeezsorry." After getting up off the floor Relena turned and gave Hilde a hug. "Sorry about DuoRelena, he got away from me." Hilde blushed a bit, embarrassed at how childish her boyfriend wasbeing. "Forget about it, anyway if your lucky maybe Duo will get a dog collar from Santa." Bothgirls got a chuckle out of this. Halfway across the room Duo turned and look accusingly at thepair. "Are you making fun of me again?" he asked. "So is anybody else here yet?" Hilde asked as Relena motioned to her to sit down. "Not yet,you're the first to arrive. Milliardo and Noin will be here later tonight, and everybody else will bealong tomorrow." Relena replied. Just then Duo bolted in, and looking at Relena shouted "OurROOM here is bigger than our HOUSE home!" Hilde grabbed the excited pilot and dragged himdown toward a sofa. "That's lovely Duo, now why don't you sit and CALM DOWN a bit." "I'm actually glad that you're here first Duo" Relena said. "Why's that Relena?" Hilde inquired."Because, you can help me put up decorations." Relena looked over at Duo and smiled sweetly. Duo groaned and slumped back. If his room was any indication, Relena had a HUGE house andhe'd be at that most of the day. Still . . . it meant that HE had time to get to know the layoutbefore everyone else showed up. That could prove handy . . . A new day dawned and right off the bat Duo was eating. Down in the kitchen he was sitting infront of a plate of pancakes four feet high, and by the look of things that was just the beginning. Seated around the table, and trying not to be sick watching Duo, the food black hole, eat wereQuatre, Trowa, Wufei, and Heero Yuy. Relena came in and everyone greeted her with a pleasant"Hi Relena" with the exception of Duo and Heero. Duo because he was too busy shoveling foodinto his face, and Heero, well he just looked up at her and went back to his coffee. Relena sighed."Why am I even expecting a response from Heero anyway?" "It's not like he'd give one." Also seated around the large table were Sally Po, Catherine, Dorothy Catalonia and Hilde, butthey seemed to be having a conversation and not paying attention to the men at the other end,except for Hilde who occasionally glanced over to make sure that Duo wasn't chocking. Just asshe got herself a cup of coffee and a Danish, her brother walked in arm and arm with LucreziaNoin. As Relena looked at the couple, she noticed something, but she just couldn't put her fingeron it. Hilde however, did pick up on it. "Is that what I think it is on Zechs' hand or am Ihallucinating?" Narrowing her eyes, Relena now saw what she was taking about. "Oh my God, Ithink you're right, I think my brother and Noin got married!!" Upon hearing the word "married"everyone's heads shot up and glanced around. After Noin started to blush, nine pairs of eyes wereglued on her and Zechs. Then everyone rushed over and began to pepper the pair with questions. Again the onlyabsentee was Heero who thought to himself "What's the big deal. So they got married. Why thehell did I come here anyway?" At this point a little voice in head that vaguely sounded like Duosaid "Because you wanted to see them all again, especially Relena. Admit it you baka. You missthem!" Heero never answered because he got up right then and there and left the room."Wonder what's with him?" Duo asked himself, downing the remains of the pancakes and takingoff after his best friend. Part two: The Gang's All Here After the initial furor over Zechs and Noin had quieted down everybody joined Heero and Duoin the living room, which was basically a ballroom with furniture. The entire palace was deckedout in Christmas finery, garlands, bows, lights, mistletoe, the only thing missing was a tree. "Okall that we have left to get is a tree. I'd like to thank Duo and Hilde for helping me decorate." AtRelena's mention of Duo decorating the other pilots and guests nervously glanced around andthen at Duo. "What!!! It's not like I did anything to the decorations." Duo defensively shot back atthe group. "Getting back to the tree we need a tree that's a minimum of 50 feet high if we want it to lookrespectable." "Fifty feet! No offense Relena, but where are we gonna find a tree this big and howwill we get it in here." Duo exclaimed. "He has a point Relena, trees that size don't grow justanywhere." Quatre put in. "I'll handle this one Relena, since I can remember some Christmaseshere." Milliardo stood up and swept a hand around the room. "On the first point of where to get atree, about 15 kilometers from here there's a forest with evergreen trees at least twice the size weneed. Second my parents had this room modified to hold a tree that size. There's a hidden cargoelevator under the floor that we can use to bring the tree up" he concluded. "That's great Zechsbut we still don't have a way to cut down the tree and get it here." Duo muttered. Milliardo glared at Duo for interrupting him. "I was getting to that Maxwell. In the hangerunder the palace there are five old Mobile suits that the family kept for cutting down trees. That'show we're going to get a tree. Satisfied Duo?" From the look on Zechs' face if Duo said no he'dbe walking to get a tree. "Yeah . . . yeah that's fine. We'll take the suits and go get a tree." "Can Icome?" Relena asked. "NO!" Both Heero and Zechs looked at each other, both having said theexact same thing. "Why not?" Relena pouted. "I'll go with Heero, he's a great pilot and besides it'snot like we're going into a war zone or anything, we're just going to go get a Christmas tree." Atthe thought of his baby sister getting into a confined Mobile Suit cockpit with Heero YuyMilliardo was ready to kill, but then he caught the look on Relena's face. It was one of those sadpuppy dog looks that melted past every barrier, including common sense. "Fine, you can go, it isChristmas after all." Relena's face lit up and she gave her brother a hug and sped of for the hanger. Zechs then caught Heero by the arm and spun him around. "Yuy if anything, and I meanANYTHING, happens to Relena you'll regret ever being born." Heero just took this in stride and headed off for the hanger on Relena's heels. Having seen and heard the entire discussion Noinwalked over and slipped an arm around her husband. "Getting paranoid in our old age are we?"she asked with a smile. Zechs turned and looked at his wife, the smallest of grins visible on hislips. "No, just overprotective. No matter where he goes or what he does my sister follows thatsuicidal psychopath everywhere. What's more he doesn't seem to care or notice." "Oh believe me"Noin grinned "He notices her. I've heard some stories about just how much he notices her." "Lucrezia you'd better tell me what your talking about or I'll go track him down in TallgeeseIII." Noin then proceeded to tell her husband the story of what happened when Heero had firstmet Relena, and what had happened at the naval base. "He did WHAT! I'll kill him . . . " Milliardoexploded. He now seriously began to head after the pair until his wife dragged him back."Zechs.Zechs sit down will you. She'll be fine. That was along time ago. Heero would rather die thancause her harm now." "All right, all right" Milliardo fumed. "But if she comes back with so muchas a sniffle I'll track that boy down and personally nail him to a wall." Part three: Antics in the Snow Heero moved the Leo through the ankle-deep snow quickly making up for lost ground. Eventhough he had Relena riding shotgun he still managed to keep his mind on his mission. Mostly.Every few seconds his eyes would discreetly wander up and down her lithe frame, picking outpoints of interest. "I have to focus. Relena is a friend and NOTHING MORE." he beratedhimself. Still he couldn't help but notice that Relena had matured since he'd last seen her. Lessthan 6 inches almost the exact same thought we're running through Relena's mind. "I have to saysomething to him, if I don't I'm going to go insane." "Heero" she said "How far behind the othersare we?" "Not very far" Heero replied. "The scanner says that there's a suit about 200 yards infront of us. Relena, thank you for the comment earlier about my piloting skill." Relena nearly dida double take to make sure she was talking to the same Heero Yuy. "No . . . no problem Heero. Iwas stating what's true." "Everyone knows that your one of the best Mobile Suit pilots whoeverlived. Even my brother says it and that takes . . . " Relena never got to finish the sentence, becausejust that second the Leo was struck by a massive physical impact and headed for the ground. "Yes, Bull's-eye! Score one for Shinigami!" Duo crowed as he watched the giant snowball nailHeero's Leo and drop it to the ground. "Hey I even surprised him, I wonder if that had somethingto do with his passenger." Seeing the suit starting to stir Duo decided that he didn't want to be invisual range when Heero got back up. Come to think of it, he didn't want to be in the samecountry, so he tore of after Quatre, Trowa and Wufei. Heero realized two things as the ringing in his head diminished. First he was going to strangleDuo when he got a hold of him. Only Duo would be childish enough to hit a Mobile Suit with agiant snowball. The second thing was that there was that Relena had somehow ended up in hislap pinning him down. "Uh . . . My head, what was that?" Relena murmured as she came around."Heero what's . . . " Just then Relena realized where she was, wrapped around Heero pinning himto his seat. She blushed fiercely as she untangled herself and got back in her seat. Even thoughhe'd never consciously admit it, Heero now had another good reason for slaughtering Duo.Righting the Leo Heero half turned and told Relena to "Hold on." Then he pulled the beam saberfrom its socket and hit the burners chasing after Duo. Relena took one quick look at Heero andleaned back. He'd zoned out everything else, his face set in a stony mask. His Prussian blue eyeswere like chips of ice. Besides she could bet what was rolling around in Heero's head, one simplephrase, "Omae o Korosu" Wufei was the first to notice that Duo was catching up to them. "Maxwell" he called over thecomm "What exactly have you been up too?" The reply took a few seconds. "Uh . . . Would youbelieve that I hit Heero and Relena with a giant snowball." Wufei smacked his palm against hisforehead, his face contorted in a grimace. "Only YOU Maxwell are childish enough to hit aMobile Suit with a snowball. Especially when Yuy is in that Suit." "You do realize that Heero'sprobably going to tear your arms off Duo." Quatre piped in. "Uh . . . never thought of that one."was Duo's only reply. No sooner had Duo gotten these words out of his mouth when he saw Heero's Leo zoomingtowards him with the saber out and ready. "Dammit!" Duo shouted to himself. "Heero had to takethe suit that had weapons didn't he." Heero meanwhile was thinking of what would be moreenjoyable, dismembering Duo's Leo or just dismembering Duo. He was just about ready for eitherwhen he felt a hand land on his shoulder. "Heero, leave him be." Relena said softly, "Duo wasonly having a little fun, besides I think you've scared him enough." Heero's brows furrowed infrustration, when Relena took that tone she always managed to get past his defenses no matterwhat. "Fine" was all that Heero was able to mutter before he turned the Suit and swung the saberbearing arm down towards Duo. Duo squeezed his 2 eyes shut, preparing to meet God face to face. After a few seconds hecracked one eye than the other. 'Waa. . . I'm still alive." Duo whispered "I was sure Heero wasgonna gut me." Duo then double-checked to make sure he was all there and t hen he heard Quatreover the comm. 'Come on, snap out of it Duo we have to get this tree back to Relena's." Turningon the scanner Duo noticed that not less than a foot from where he was there was a felled tree justthe height they needed. Shrugging off what had just happened Duo grabbed the tail end of the treeand the 5 suits began to head back to Relena's.