He was invited to a special dinner in a new restaurant built between two of the pyramids, it was a black tie event and everything, and Quatre was dreading it. But he was bound by not only polite image but law to attend, and Relena had even volunteered to keep him company. There was only one problem with this plan, Relena had volunteered someone else to keep her company.

Heero held his tie out at arm's length. "Is this some sort of self detonation device?"

"Not quite," Quatre was a little short on patience so he just snatched the tie and proceeded to tie it properly around Heero's neck. "We're trying to look professional, you know that, right?"

"Um…professional?"

"You can't be armed, you have to act like a real human being around everyone, and you have to eat whatever they feed you no matter what it is."

"What?!"

"Too late my friend, you already agreed to this," Quatre passed Heero his jacket and put on his own. The boys peered at themselves in the bedroom mirror for a moment. They were looking at two young men dressed in way overdone tuxedos with hair actually washed and combed and out of their faces. "This is really scary."

"No one ever knows that I agreed to this. I'll kill you, seriously, it's not personal, I just can't ever risk something like this getting out."

"No problem, it's not like I ever want record of being seen in one of these-"

"Say cheese!" Duo ran into the room with a camera and took a picture before the boys could even turn around. "Ha ha! I'm getting that look on your faces framed so our grandchildren can laugh at it!"

Heero turned to go after Duo but tripped and fell flat on his face because of the annoying black shoes. Duo took the opportunity to take another picture and then dash back out the door laughing so hard that he could barely move. Heero picked himself up quickly but was stopped by Quatre.

"Don't bother, we have to leave in five minutes."

"But I can't let that camera live-"

"I'll assign Cassie a mission to go get it back later. Now come on, those shoes are leaving scuff marks everywhere. Remember, no threatening anyone, no matter how much you want to. Just hang on Relena's arm like the lawn ornament she wants you to be and try to smile once in a while. And no, your face won't stick that way."

"Quatre, Relena wouldn't-"

"Heh, it's politics, everything is about lawn ornaments. Now it's just a few hours, we've lived through far worse hellish nightmares, though I must admit not too many. Remember, just smile and nod…"

"Heero Yuy," a girl took Heero's hand and smiled. She had green eyes with bright crimson red hair that was ornately styled in a bun balancing precariously on her head. She wore a white dress that could've been used at a wedding, very elaborately decorated with jewelry to match. She was escorted by a boy that looked like her twin in a modestly casual tux without a tie. He just wore a black shirt with the top button opened. Heero blinked. Why'd he have to wear a suit when not everyone did?

"That's Mishii and Moiya Tomoyo," Relena whispered to Heero. "They're from that odd organization MIND. She'd better go find someone else to flirt with-…oops. I mean, why don't you introduce us?"

"I simply must have a dance with the famous Heero Yuy," Mishii giggled. "Don't you look ravishing this evening. Will you treat a young lady to a good time?"

Heero locked eyes with Moiya for a moment. Somehow he saw something very familiar in his eyes, something that was instantly hard to place, like a face or fact that Heero had forgotten long ago. Moiya nodded. "I'd love to dance with Relena, if that's all right with you."

Heero and Relena exchanged a glance and shrugged. There was a dance floor a little farther into the ballroom, and no one had sat down to eat yet so Heero figured it fell somewhere within the realm of that inane word 'polite' that Quatre had been repeating so often. Quatre had seen the exchange and was not bothered at all by being the odd man out; he smiled, nodded, and offered to go find the group a table for dinner. He then booked over to the other side of the enormous room as fast as he could while still being polite, completely abandoning Heero to a young woman that had a look on her face that much resembled a shark.

Heero looked to Moiya and Relena as Mishii snatched his hand and headed towards the dance floor. He couldn't exactly place why, but it was suddenly a very big problem in his mind that Relena was being left alone with the enigmatic MIND leader. Moiya caught the look and simply arched a single red eyebrow, careful not to acknowledge Heero's intense glare. The perfect soldier was brought back to Earth very forcibly: Mishii stepping on his foot.

"Ouch," Heero commented irritably to himself. He turned the glare onto Mishii.

"Honestly, Mr. Yuy, you really are out of practice with being inconspicuous," Mishii chided as the two entered the sea of dancing couples. The song was that of a slow waltz, very sophisticated and probably several hundred years old. Mishii grinned. "Do you even remember how to dance with a lady?"

Heero blinked, instinctively reaching for his jeans pocket to pull out a gun on this annoying individual, but then remembering that he wasn't armed and checking the impulse with a very strained sigh. He then rolled his eyes, glanced back at Relena one last time, who was already dancing with Moiya, and hoped with every inch of sanity he had that Duo wasn't going to show up with the camera. He placed one hand on Mishii's waist and took her hand in the other, and proceeded to lead her in a surprisingly flawless waltz.

"Very good," Mishii's smile widened even more. "I was half sure you were about to kill me. I suppose since you really are such a gentleman then I can offer you advice."

"Which would be?" just because Heero was acting polite didn't mean he couldn't be grumpy.

"Don't worry about my brother and Relena, he won't hurt her unless she really starts being a politician. Which she isn't at heart, so I'm sure they'll enjoy each other's company."

"What?" Heero almost stopped dead. Almost.

"Aww, come on, the famous Heero Yuy can't be afraid of some competition, can he? What, just because she doesn't have the best ideals in the world doesn't mean that eventually someone else is going to try and flirt with her a little-"

"Is this polite conversation?"

"No, but no one else can hear us, baka. Let me phrase it in a way you can understand. Relena likes you, so her taste in men obviously isn't that good, Moiya has much better taste in women, is a huge judge of character and therefore certainly isn't that interested. Relax, you're attracting attention."

Heero was really, really beginning to dislike this individual. He led her around in a very nice dance but wanted it to be over as quickly as possible. He wasn't exactly sure how she was insulting him but he was sure it was an insult, either way there was only one immediate solution to end the problem. Well to end it politely at least. "Look, I think Quatre wants to cut in."

Quatre was standing at the edge of the dance floor watching this exchange with a look of rather uncharacteristically amused shock on his face. In one motion Heero let go of Mishii and pushed the blond Arabian into his spot. Quatre, caught up in trying to deal with this as politely as possible, just shrugged rather benignly to Mishii and continued the dance. Having been freed of that undefined but still definitely cruel and unusual torture, Heero went over to check on Moiya and Relena. Not that he was concerned or didn't think Relena couldn't take care of herself, but still, Moiya was related to the girl he'd just gotten away from, and nothing good could come of that.

Moiya was leading and talking animatedly to Relena, who was nodding and being polite, actually looking barely strained at all. In fact the only thing that seemed odd was the fact that Moiya had on a pair of black gloves, so that he wasn't actually touching Relena. Very carefully Heero got close enough to hear the conversation.

"…so, Miss Relena, do you really think that this true peace will last? Most of the people in the world stopped fighting because they were tired of war, not because they were driven by an ideal. Memory is a faulty teacher, the impact of memories fade with the passage of time. People will forget what wars are like, and humans are naturally curious to try and remember those annoying little things that they forget."

If Relena hadn't been very used to defending her long battered ideal she would have been at a loss for this. Heero smiled, suddenly very happy he had given her so much trouble with it. "It will take a very long time for that to happen, Mr. Tomoyo-"

"Call me Moiya, please."

"Oh, of course, Moiya. It will take a while for that to happen and when it does there will still be plenty of memories to remind people of what happened. That's what we're working to preserve with the treaty, they'll all know hundreds of years from now how we felt."

"But do all of the people on Earth and in space share your ideal?"

Heero cursed softly as Relena ran into the same roadblock that he had always presented to her. There was no way around this and the look on Relena's face confirmed it. "Well, no…but I think it's safe to say there's more of a majority now than ever."

"Majority of who?" Moiya continued, and now the tone in his voice bothered Heero severely. He pushed through a few chatting couples. "The majority of the people that actually fought the war?"

"I think that the people who actually fought are those who hope for peace the most," Relena lost her polite smile.

Moiya gained a small smile of his own, but it wasn't very polite. "Well, you think so, and I bet almost everyone here thinks so. But there are people out there who disagree, very angry, unhappy people who have always suffered for ideals like true peace but have never been recognized."

Relena blinked. "I can't imagine who you're talking about."

"Most people can't," Moiya caught sight of Heero and the smile widened. "But you really should excuse me, now isn't the time to talk about things that are already unchangeable. This treaty will surely be your most crowning achievement Miss Relena," he stopped dancing with her and bowed very politely. "I wish you the best of luck. If you'll excuse me, I'd like to meet some other guests…"

As he walked away Moiya nodded to Heero, who put a hand on Relena's shoulder quite protectively and glared daggers at his counterpart until he was on the other side of the ballroom. Heero sighed. "Are you all right?"

"Of course," Relena blinked rapidly again, obviously very confused. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason," Heero had never stopped to wonder whether he was a good liar or not. "He didn't bother you?"

"Who? Moiya? Of course not, he was quite polite. In fact the only thing unusual about him was that his hands were a little bit cold."

Heero took a turn blinking. "He was wearing gloves."

"I know, but his hands were still really cold. What an interesting person, Heero you have to tell me more about this group called MIND, they do seem rather strange-"

"Later, I think everyone's sitting down for dinner," Heero led Relena over to the table, and started looking around for Quatre. He was about to go track Moiya down again to interrogate him on who had warped the mind of his sister so badly when the entire occurrence was brought out center stage. In a very polite way of course.

"Why Quatre!" Mishii's voice rose several notches to attract attention. She'd been dancing with Quatre for a little while, apparently they'd been debating too. Now a few of the other couples were staring, staring at Mishii's sudden indignant look and Quatre's utter disbelief.

Quatre's confusion was obvious from the start. "Um…what? What did I say?"

"That is the most rude thing anyone's ever said to me in my entire life!!" Mishii suddenly pushed Quatre away and actually slapped him. Lots of people started to stare.

"But…but I don't understand-"

"What kind of a person are you? So insulting, and you call yourself a politician!"

"No, wait, I never said-"

"You think that being the Winner heir would influence your manners somewhat, but I guess not. I demand that you take that awful comment back this instant."

"But…what comment?"

"Oh I'm sorry, are you too afraid to say it now that the entire ballroom is listening? Now that you have to be human in front of other people?!"

Quatre's face was turning magenta. "But I didn't say anything, Mishii, why are you-"

As Mishii continued yelling at him, with literally the entire ballroom tuned in, Heero caught sight of Moiya grinning from far off. Heero mouthed a message, "Make her stop that. Now."

"No way…" was the response, as Moiya tipped a glass of expensive wine in Heero's direction. Relena saw this exchange and went off to confront him. Heero decided that it was still worth an attempt to get Quatre out of the situation.

Quatre had backed up a few steps. "Really, Miss Tomoyo, I didn't say anything insulting-"

"We all believe you, really, we do," Mishii folded her arms. "Honestly, I might not even want to sign this treaty if people like you are going to be there-"

"Wait," Heero stepped in front of Mishii, trying to appear as threatening as possible. "What did he say?"

"Something far too rude to repeat. No one would be able to eat on a settled stomach!"

"Try us," Heero employed his best deathglare.

Mishii sighed, realizing that not every gundam pilot was quite so into her little game. "I simply couldn't. But he at least owes me an apology for his lack of manners."

Quatre stared incredulously. "But I didn't do anything-"

"He apologizes. Really. Good evening Mishii."

"Hmph," she crossed the room to join her brother, leaving the rest of the crowd to stare holes through the gundam pilots.

Quatre was at a temporary loss for words. He just kind of stared at the retreating figure of Mishii like he'd been betrayed beyond any hope of a doubt. Heero glared at Quatre until the blond Arabian spoke up. "I have no idea how that happened."

"You let her take advantage of the fact that you didn't want to be here. Baka."

Quatre blinked. "How do you figure?"

"She knew you were an easy target."

"This coming from an extremely social person."

"Quatre, don't be sarcastic just because you were just embarrassed a little."

"A little?!" Quatre echoed as he folded his arms. "Now no one's going to take me seriously-"

"Don't worry about it, she's just trying to annoy you. If I were in your place I wouldn't let her succeed so easily next time."

"I'd still like to know where you got this random piece of social advice from."

Heero glowered at him and started walking back towards the table. He talked as he tried to find Relena. "Mishii and Moiya are here to start a war, remember? They feel like predators and are acting like it accordingly. Mishii really isn't our problem, Moiya is the one who's going to be doing all of the talking."

"How do you know?"

"Because he's acting like just another politician. He wants the advantage of surprise badly here. Mishii's just having her warped idea of fun."

"Ah," Quatre nodded, although a little doubtfully.

"I don't expect you to understand it," Heero folded his arms.

"Good. I want to go back to the room."

"Not a chance."

"Really? Is this an 'under threat of death' situation?"

"I dare you to find out."

"No thank you."

"I thought so."