[Gundam Wing] Changes
Title: Changes
Author: telepathicpixie
Rating: PG
Character: Relena Darlian
Word Count: 397
Notes: 100_women prompt #23 - hair.
Summary: When Relena turned sixteen, she cut her hair.


When Relena turned sixteen, she cut her hair. Heero got her a teddy bear and a birthday card and the rest of the Earthsphere went ballistic because Princess Peacecraft no longer had her long, flowing gold locks. Dorothy immediately hauled her to a hairdresser for extensions, saying, “I like conflict as much as the next warmonger, but renewing tensions over your hair length would be absurd.” Relena had to agree and submitted to the fashion-forward torture in the interest of world peace, although she grumbled during the entire procedure. It had never occurred to her, in the course of bringing about global pacifism and reinstating the Cinq Kingdom, that her entire life—down to her hairstyle—would suddenly and inexplicably become an item of utmost interest to the entire planet.

Four years later, she had successfully negotiated herself out of the world government. It had been fine for a while—to smooth universally ruffled feathers—but Relena hardly wanted to be trapped in the position forever. She had particularly outrageous expectations of having a life of her own at some point, which necessitated putting someone else in charge. Having gleefully escaped the reins of leadership, she was thinking about furthering her education—perhaps a law degree, since while she was sick of politics, she did enjoy a good argument.

Also, rather vindictively, she chopped her hair into a chin-length bob.

Thankfully, by then, the media had better things to worry about than Relena’s grooming habits and, this time, Dorothy was the only one who noticed. The public was not nearly as enamored of the woman as they had been of the girl and seemed fairly content to simply forget about Relena, except in the occasional past tense.

“Your glory days are over, you realize,” Dorothy told her over coffee. “And it’s tragic, really. You could have been marvelous.”

Relena sipped her latte. A woman passing by their sidewalk table did a double take before moving on, apparently unable to reconcile the diamond-encrusted queen or the childlike ambassador with the young woman in plain black slacks and a white blouse and dark blonde hair framing her jaw line. “I wouldn’t declare me to be completely washed up just yet,” Relena said dryly. “We’re still young.”

Dorothy snorted. “You think you can top being queen of the world?”

Relena smiled. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”


Table here.