She landed on one of the branches of a big tree, which grew in the middle of the Black Forest. Trees here were usually very huge, about 500 years old. The leaves on the branches were covering up the sky over the forest. But no matter how dense the trees were, they could not hide her white and beautiful wings. Her platinum blonde hair was long, just like her brother Miliardo’s. She smiled as she watched the young man sit down, leaning against the tree that she was perched on.

"I've finally found you, perfect soldier." The angel smiled as she changed her appearance. Her hair became a honey blonde color, which was not as bright as her platinum blonde. Her wings disappeared as she jumped down from the tall branches.

"BANG!" She landed painfully on the solid ground.

Oh no, I forgot that I couldn't fly.... and the ground here is solid. Unlike her home, which had floors made of material that was softer than cotton candy. They were clouds, which changed color with the sunrise and sunset.

She got up slowly, and saw the young man, who was sitting, watching her get up as she tried to dust off the dirt that was on her long white dress. Now she was standing up and staring back at the young man.

"Hello, my name is Relena Darlian, what's yours?" She smiled as she introduced herself to the stranger.

Heero stared at her.

She fell 10 feet from the tree, and she was not even hurt......and what now--She is asking me who I am?

He was confused by her presence.

".............." He ignored her and closed his eyes, trying to sleep again; his nap had been interrupted when she fell out of the tree.

"Hey, I asked you what your name is! Why are you so rude to a person you just met?" She tried to wake him up by speaking loudly.

"What do you want?" Heero said coldly; his eyes were still closed.

Your life; that’s the reason why I am here. There was pity in her eyes, but Relena’s smile returned as she opened her mouth to speak.

"I asked you first so you should be answering first," Relena said.

".............." Heero became silent again. Even though Heero didn't answer, Relena's happy smile remained. She started speaking again.

“Well…actually, I already know who you are,” she said as she sat down beside him. “Heero Yuy."

"Who are you?" Heero now pulled out his sword, pointing it at her. But Relena didn't look at him, she just smiled.

"I told you already, I'm Relena Darlian. Why are you pointing your sword at me? I'm not your enemy. Plus, killing won't lead to peace," Relena said with a smile.

"I will destroy you," Heero said, staring at her. But Relena just smiled at him as her answer to him.

Two months had passed since Heero met the strange girl in the woods. During that time, she followed him everywhere; to the market, to the forest and to the market again. Relena was always the one who asked the questions but she seemed to answer them on her own. On their last trip to the market she had pulled him to a shop as if she had never been to a market before.

"Hey Heero, what's this?" Relena pointed to the ice cream shop.

"What do you do with it?" Relena asked as she looked at the ice cream; paying no attention to the fact that Heero was ignoring her as usual.

“You eat it, my lady,” the old shop keeper told her.

"What does it taste like?" Relena pouted as she look once again to the different colours of ice-cream, thinking of bitterness, spices and salty.

Heero stared at her; she had lived with him for the last two months, but she was still a complete stranger to him. He was puzzled by her—by the way she acted, as if no one has ever tasted ice cream before; by the way she talked, by the way she ignored his coldness and by the way she smiled at him.

Just who is she…? Heero asked himself. He looked at Relena once again; the sunlight shining on her made him think that he saw wings on her back.

"It's sweet, haven't you eaten it before?" the old man asked.

“No, am I supposed to?” Relena answered as she looked at the white ice cream.

"Here, this is free for you because you are kind to an old man and you look pretty too." The shop keeper winked at her.

"Really? Thanks!” Relena gave him a great big smile.

As she was enjoying her vanilla ice-cream, she ran towards Heero.

"Heero, do you want to try it too?" Relena held the ice cream close to Heero’s mouth.

Heero blinked as his daydream ended; before he knew what he was doing he had taken a bite of the ice cream that Relena had offered him. Relena smiled at him, and they walked back. This was the first time that Heero felt his heart beating fast…and his face turning hot, so that he thought that maybe he should see a doctor.

One thing that Heero had noticed about Relena was that she was always smiling; she had never shown sadness or anger. She was the opposite of Heero, who was always cold and scary. The first time Heero saw her smile leave her face was when the instructions for his new mission came.

A dove flew to Heero from the town and gave him his new mission which was to kill the enemy that would be crossing the Black Forest tomorrow morning. While he was writing his reply, Heero saw Relena playing with the dove. He gave the letter to the bird and it flew back to his superior.

"Leave this forest this afternoon if you don't want to get yourself killed," Heero said.

"Why let them control your life?" Relena asked seriously.

"How did you know?" Heero asked suspiciously; he was not used to seeing Relena when she was not smiling.

"She told me all about it, about Dr. J and the others," Relena said as she turned her head toward Heero.

"Who is 'she'?" Heero asked, getting more and more doubtful.

"The bird that just came. I know that you don't want to do it--you hate killing!" Relena said as she pointed in the direction that the dove had flown.

Yes, she was the first person that had said that to him. He hated killing, but what could he do? That was his mission, if he didn’t do it, peace wouldn't come. But he wanted to do the dirty work......in order for the others to live life in peace. He didn't ask more about the dove, because he had gotten used to Relena’s weird behavior.

"................" Silence was his answer once again.

"Why are you so emotionless?" Relena asked, giving him a bitter smile.

"Look who's talking, you don't even have emotions yourself," Heero said.

"What do you mean?" Relena asked.

"You can't feel anger, sadness or pain. Smiling is just your mask, because you have nothing inside," Heero said coldly.

Just like me...... because we both can't show our emotions...... Heero thought.

"That's because.........never mind," Relena said, almost revealing her secret, her identity.

That's because I'm an angel, I need to smile wherever I go...........

"Just listen, Heero. If you don't stop killing, God won't forgive you and Shinigami will come to get you," Relena said.

"If there's a God... I wouldn’t still be here," Heero said coldly.

"Of course there's a God; you just have to believe me," Relena told him.

"I'm going to set up for the battle tomorrow, and when I come back, I don't want to see you here," Heero said.

".............." Relena just looked at him....... with shock, surprise; she felt powerless, and there was a hurt expression on her face which she wasn’t even aware of.

Why, why Heero? Why won't you let me help you? You can get hurt like this...... I can't believe him....no one has ever been like that to me....... why do you have to be so cruel to me? Maybe he hates me following him…he hates me after all. But if I don't…then…I have never seen such a human before…is he a human?…….. Where will I go now?

So Heero left. After he came back, he saw that Relena had already gone as he had told her to do. He sharpened his sword so that it would cause wounds with the slightest touch. He frowned as he sat down….now, whenever he sat leaning against that huge tree he would get the feeling that Relena would fall from it as she had done when they met. He understood that he had said something that would hurt her feelings, but saying it was the only way to make her leave. For some reason, he wanted her to be safe; for some reason he wanted to protect her, but without her company he felt kind of lonely.

Relena was now at the other end of the forest; if she had moved one more step forward she would have left the border of the forest...... But as she stepped out on the ground, she heard the sound of something metal. She looked down to see why there was pain shooting up her leg. She had been caught in an animal trap. She used all her strength, trying to open the jaw of the trap but she couldn't.....

I can't get it open.... am I going to be stuck like this for the rest of my life? She sat down as she touched the red, sticky liquid coming from her wounds.

Is this....my blood? Ouch, it's hurting me....I should change back to angel form right now... she thought as she stood up and said the magic spell. However, nothing happened. She said it once more; still nothing. Her wings didn't appear; just some feathers that fell onto the grass.

What's happening?...why can't I change back into an angel?...... This was the first time that she had ever felt scared.

She looked up to the sky. Home was now so far away, it was like she couldn't reach it anymore.

"Heero where are you? Please help me! I can't get home! I won't follow you anymore, I promise! Please don't get angry with me! Please don’t ignore me now like you always have...." Her shouting slowly turned to sobbing.

"I want to see you Heero….where are you?…I can't find the way back….? Why didn't you come?" Relena whispered as she burst into tears.

She missed him; if he had been the one who was trapped, he would have known what to do because he was perfect. Hot tears started to roll down her cheeks as she felt the pressure in her heart, as if someone had suddenly attacked her. She kept thinking that it was over, but the truth was that it kept coming back to haunt her. It was a strange and painful feeling that no one could understand, like someone had slashed open her body. She couldn’t smile anymore, couldn’t force herself to smile. She couldn’t find the words to describe how she felt.

The pain in the human world…even if there are more people suffering, their pain wouldn’t compare to mine; living forever is worse than death….

Slowly she learned what pain is... slowly she got used to a broken heart, knowing the dark side of this life. She understood what sadness is, what it is like to be lonely, what anger feels like, the feeling of falling into the deepest abyss. And she finally realized that she had fallen in love with Heero.

Not realizing that she had finally turned back to her angel form, suddenly her brother appeared in front of her; the tall man with the long platinum blonde hair which looked just like hers. She stood up and discovered that the wounds on her leg were already healed.

"Brother......" Relena said with a smile.

"Relena, he is going to kill people again today," Milliardo said.

"I will stop him, but you have to understand that he is only doing it for his master. He believes that risking himself in battle can bring the world peace," Relena said.

"The court has made a decision already Relena.... Shinigami will come to get him today," Milliardo said as he saw the shocked expression on his sister’s face.

"No they can't....I must go to save him," Relena said as she started to turn around.

"If you really want to save him then don't go, because you are....." But Relena was already gone.

As Relena was getting closer to the place where Heero usually was she could already sense the blood.

She finally found Heero behind the trees, using all of his strength to strike at his enemies; there were only two left. She wanted to stop them so she ran up to Heero.

"Heero!" Relena shouted, as she changed form again.

"Relena, what the hell are you doing here?!" Heero shouted as he finished off the last enemy. Then he spotted the blood and the dirt on Relena's dress.

"Heero, hold on to this," Relena said as she held out a feather from one of her wings.

"Relena are you hurt?" Heero asked, ignoring her feather.

"Please, Heero, you have to hold onto this, and if a guy with a long braid comes searching for you, you must show this to him. I can't stay here right now because I need to go home and explain to them that you're......." Relena said as she stuck the feather into his hand.

She stopped as she saw Heero push her away as he was stabbed; the sword went right through his body. But Heero didn't care; he turned around and chopped the enemy's head right off. His injuries caused him to collapse. Relena got up from the ground and try to help Heero up.....

He was breathing hard and his vision was very blurry as he lay on Relena’s lap, but he could still hear what she was saying.

"Don't worry Heero, I'm going to save you....you won't die." Relena tried to turn into angel again as her eyes began to fill with tears. Her hair was starting to turn into its ordinary colour again and her wings started to appear on her back.

"...Relena, you are not hurt...are you?" Heero asked. He didn't know that Relena was an angel because his vision was blurry. But one thing he knew was that he felt warm around her, the angelic feeling around him made him think that he was already dead, just like the time when he saw her wings at the ice-cream shop.

"No, of course Heero, you have protected me...Heero don't speak, I'm going to summon the cure for life now," Relena said as more tears fell onto Heero's face; she was afraid that her magic wouldn’t be strong enough.

"Mission Complete..." Heero smiled for the first, and last, time.

"...Heero?.." Relena started to shake him but it was of no use, he was already dead. She started to use her magic on him.

"It's no use Relena....he is already dead." Milliardo said from behind her.

"Brother....." Relena sobbed.

"....I should have told you earlier....." Milliardo hugged his little sister.

"No, I know, I did hear you. I heard you say that I am the one that would make him die. But I didn't listen to you. I’m sorry," said Relena, as she cried in her brother's arms.

"Shinigami will come shortly, so we need to leave," Milliardo said.

"No…it was I that killed Heero, a life for a life, I will give up my place of being an angel for him," Relena said as she moved away from her brother and once again went back to Heero’s body. Miliardo was shocked to hear his sister's decision, but he understood because he remembered that someone had once said that being in love is better than being up there. He smiled at her.

"I understand little sister. I wish you happiness." He released his wings and flew off into the sky, waving back at her.

"I will stop Shinigami from coming! Goodbye Relena," Milliardo said.

"Thank you, brother." Relena smiled.

She turned around to face Heero, and whispered something as her wing started to open; feathers were flying everywhere. Heero slowly woke up as he saw Relena holding him up. They smiled at each other; no explanation was needed because now he understood.

“I won’t go on any more missions,” Heero told her.

"Then let's go and open an ice-cream shop so we can eat ice cream every day!" Relena smiled joyfully. They started walking back to town from the forest.

"Where did you go after I told you to leave?" Heero asked as he held her hand.

"I almost forgot!" Relena pulled her hand from Heero’s grasp and she started beating on his chest.

"What's wrong now?" Heero asked.

"I was caught in an animal trap! I was lost in the woods! I didn’t know where you were and I couldn’t go home either! The animal trap really hurt!" Tears began to fill her eyes as she remembered that Heero had not been there to help her.

"I promise that I will protect you from now on!" Heero reassured Relena so that she wouldn’t cry. She nodded as she continued.

"But an angel came and saved me!" Relena smiled with the tears still in her eyes as she remembered her brother's appearance.

"………." Heero looked at her.

"And I will never forget him." Relena looked up at the sky, as if she could see her brother again.

"Yeah, right," Heero said as he became sensitive towards the 'him' that Relena was talking about. When Relena saw his expression she laid herself into his arms and smiled.

"I love you," they whispered to each other. Relena finally gave him the angel kiss.

Between heaven and the human world, from being an angel because he is here. Ordinary love is not that bad at all.

The End

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