<html><head></head><body>Name: Dariel Storm
Handle: FireStorm
E-mail: StormAngel321@hotmail.com
Title of fanfic: Ten Thousand Angels
Category: Romance

Ten Thousand Angels

"Oh, Noin, isn't it wonderful?" Relena squealed. "In less than two hours, I'll be Relena Peacecraft-Yuy!"

"I'm ravishingly happy for you darling." I drawled slowly. "But if you don't stop hopping around like a demented rabbit on a sugar high," At this, I faked a cough that deliberately sounded like the name 'Duo'. "You're gonna hurt yourself. Now sit down so I can do your makeup." Relena obeyed but jumped up again as Trowa Barton walked through the door.

"I just wanted to let you know that Heero is here."

"Thanks Trowa," I said above Relena's excited yell.

"No problem."

"Hey, hey!" Duo sauntered in. "How's the bride to be?"

"Hyper," I replied. "I cannot get her to sit still!"

"Well, I could tell Heero that the bride is scared out of her mind and won't come out of the room..." Duo said evilly. Relena jumped up and shook her head frantically.

"Yes," Trowa said, catching on. "Wufei, Quatre, and I could block the door so that you couldn't get out..."

"Oh, Duo, Trowa! Don't do that!" Relena gasped.

Trowa winked at Noin, though his face remained impassive. "Do you promise to be good for poor Lieutenant Noin?"

"Yes, yes!" Relena sat and closed her mouth. Lucrezia smiled at the two Pilots.

"Thanks guys."

"Don't mention it Lu!" Duo chirped. I rolled my eyes as I put the finishing touch on Relena's makeup. I HATED being called Lu. The only one whom I had ever let get away with calling me Lu was Milliardo Peacecraft, known as Zechs Merquise at the time...

*Speaking of the devil, look who just walked in.

He knows just where to find me,

Here we go again.*

"Relena!" A familiar voice filled the room and once again, Relena jumped up. But this time instead of one of the Gundam Pilots, it was the very last person that I wanted to see.

"Milliardo!" Relena hurled herself into the comforting arms of her older brother. Milliardo swung her around, laughing in his gorgeous baritone. My stomach felt like it was infested with a million butterflies. I cursed myself softly. After all he'd done to me, after all the walking out and the distance between us, I was still in love with him. I conveniently sighted a piece of lint on Trowa's dark suit and took a trek across the room to brush it off.

"Strategic retreat, huh Lieutenant?" He asked. Trowa's voice was loud enough so that I didn't have to strain to hear it but just soft enough so that Milliardo couldn't distinguish the words being said.

"Absolutely." I replied. On sudden inspiration, I took a rose from the vase on the table, snapped the stem, and slipped it in his buttonhole. I kissed him on the cheek. "Shall we go?" He offered his arm to me with a nod. I took it quickly and, silently thanking Trowa for playing along with my crazy charade, we exited the room.

I could feel Milliardo's eyes following me the entire way.

*I can tell he's gonna ask me to dance,

but that's not as far as he wants to go.

I need ten thousand angels to help me tell him no.*

"May I have this dance?" It was about midnight at Relena and Heero's wedding reception. I lifted my eyes and found them drowning in a pool of ice blue. Zechs leaned closer. "There's so much we need to catch up on." He glanced to Trowa and I had the sudden urge to cry. Totally stupid reaction, I know, but oh gods, I really did love Zechs! I hated him with a vengeance, but at the same time, I loved him with all my heart. Having him think that I loved Trowa was beyond awful. Why did I try to make him jealous in the first place?

I mentally shook myself. "You vowed when he walked out that last time that you would never fall in love with him again, that's why. It only brings you heartache every time." I felt that wall of ice that time with Zechs had perfected form itself around my heart.

Zechs didn't give me time to argue with him. He grasped my hand firmly and pulled me out on the floor. His arm looped my waist and pulled me closer, chest to chest. My heart was pounding like crazy, I was struggling hard to breathe. Forget about that wall around my heart, it wasn't doing me much good tonight. "Oh, God!" I thought frantically. "I need your help tonight."

* Lead me not, into temptation.

Heaven help me to be strong.

I can fight all that I'm feeling, but I can't do it alone.

Help me break this spell that I'm under,

Guide my feet and hold me tight.

I need ten thousand angels watching over me tonight.*

Zechs had always been a good dancer, even back at Lake Victoria, and I was no slouch. Together, we had won awards for our skill. But tonight, the dance-floor was nothing but a battleground. Zechs steered me out to the softly lighted balcony. The scent of roses filled my nose.

"So, you and Trowa huh?" Milliardo asked softly. Before I knew what I was doing, I was shaking my head.

"No, no." I shook my head. "We're just friends."

"Good," He said with his mysterious smile. "I would hate to think that you had forgotten about me so quickly." I bristled.

"How dare he?!" I thought savagely. "How dare he say that, when he won't even look me in the eye."

*It's time to face my weakness.

Look at me in the eye.

Lord knows it won't be easy, but I've just got to try. *

"You self-righteous bastard!" I hissed. The tensing of his muscles was unmistakable. I thought I even saw him flinch, but no, that was impossible. "You knew that I care for you and yet you walked out, AGAIN, and just expected me to wait for you AGAIN. Am I wrong about that?" He still wouldn't look me in the eye. " Look at me, damn it! Look me right in the eye and tell me that I'm wrong!"

"You're right." He admitted. That frank and honest confession caught me off guard and I blinked quickly. He raised his eyes to mine and I felt myself melt.

"NO!" My mind screamed. "You do NOT love him! NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!"

But, as his hand rubbed small circles on my back, my heart, with the rest of my body, countered my head in a duel for control that was sure to give me a splitting headache. But I was still ok. I was still going with my mind, with the flawless reasoning that Zechs didn't know what the word commitment meant, unless it was in battle with his precious mobile suit. And I, thank you very much, was not TallGeese or Epyon. I was Lucrezia Noin, and I could MOST CERTAINLY live life without him.

*I can't let myself get lost in his arms.

That's how I got my heart broke before.

I need ten thousand angels to walk me out the door.*

Well, that little bout of girl power lasted all of two seconds. Actually, it lasted until the time that he started playing with my hand.

"Damn," I thought. "He knows my weak spot." I fought the urge to shudder as his long, powerful fingers caressed my own. He traced the lines of my palm with the utmost gentleness, as if I were made of glass and might break. His thumb stroked the spot where palm and wrist became one and as the feeling shot into my head that was it. I didn't have the will to fight him anymore. My heart had won the war. His eyes never once left mine.

Zechs knew that he had won once again. I could feel it in the triumphant way he held me against him. My blood was singing, my skin felt warm. Breathing under my own power was totally not an option as my whole being fell into time with him, my heartbeat, my lungs, my thoughts, my feelings. I was no longer Lucrezia Noin as my soul blended and merged with his.

"Great," I thought ruefully. "So much for gung ho Noin power."

"I know I've hurt you before," Milliardo whispered in my ear. "But this time, I promise you, it will be different. I'll never leave your side again."

"Promise?" I whispered back. My voice sounded small and breathy to my ears.

"I promise," He replied. "Lucrezia Peacecraft has too nice of a ring to it to let you go again."

My jaw must have dropped halfway to China as our dancing came to an abrupt halt. "Lucrezia Peacecraft? Zechs, what are you trying to say?" Well duh. That was a stupid question, Noin.

"I had wanted to do this later but I guess this is as good a time as any." I felt him slip something onto the ring finger of my left hand. "Lucrezia Noin, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

I held my hand out in front of me in shock. On my finger rested a platinum ring housing a truly exquisite sapphire cut in the shape of a flower. The band was carved in the shape of a vine that twisted around my finger with tiny silver leaves sprouting around the flower. In no place was the band solid metal. I loved it. It was almost as perfect as the man who had given it to me.

"Of course!" I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him. "Of course I'll marry you!" I raised my head to God above and thanked him for watching over me tonight.

"He certainly did send me an angel." I thought, laying my head on Milliardo's shoulder. "Just not in the way I had expected."

*I need ten thousand angels, watching over me tonight.

Ten thousand angels, watching over me tonight.

Ten thousand angels, watching over me tonight, watching over me tonight...*

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. The last time that I said I did, people came from Japan and arrested me, subjecting me to abstract horrors like the International Teletubbies Marathon *shudder*. The song is by Mindy MacCredy.
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