Disclaimer: now if I owned these guys, why would I be writing the stories when I could just make them into episodes and make money off them. ^_^.

A.N.: Hey everyone! I just got this idea and so I decided to just write. After Relena's 18th birthday, she goes through her childhood memories that Zechs recovered. What happens when she finds a locket that has a picture of herself and Heero? What had happened so long ago? Have fun reading this you guys.

Once So Long Ago ~ Chapter 1: Chest of Memories - By ~Crystal Delphina~

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Millardo Peacecraft slowly walked down the halls of the Sanc Kingdom Palace that Relena now owned and lived in. The wine colored carpet that was trimmed with a gold color, cushioned his footsteps so that as he neared her door to her suite, there was silence except for the rustle of his clothing. He had arranged a surprise for Relena when she woke up that morning and had left her for two hours to examine it. He stopped in front of her door, did a quick knock, and waited for a reply.

"Come in." The muffled voice came through the door.

He opened it and quickly walked in examining the state of his sister's room. Relena sat on her bed with her back propped against the headboard of her bed with pillows. Old photograph albums and books lay strewn across the sheets. A wooden chest stood open pulled up to the side of her bed for easy access. She looked up from whatever she was staring at and peered up at her older brother with glassy eyes.

"Thank you Millardo. But why now?" She smiled at her brother as he walked over to the bed, and sat on a chair nearby.

He remained silent for a minute pondering her question. There was a simple answer, but it seemed as if there needed to be more of an explanation. He might as well start at the beginning.

"Well, being that you turned 18 last month, you now can really take control of the Sanc Kingdom. I realized that you know nothing about our parents and really what they did before you. I know this can't help you much, but I wanted you to have some kind of family history." He nodded towards the photos that Relena had obviously ransacked through all day.

"Well thank you once again. What a wonderful thing to wake up to. There was a couple of pictures of them, and a few pictures of us. I didn't look much different when I was two did I?" A small grin graced her face as she slightly fingered the photographs.

"I got a lot of this stuff from the Dorlin's. Apparently your, uh, mother, had kept whatever her husband could recover from the palace. I guess they kept it from you. Well anyway, Noin told me to come up and tell you that breakfast will be ready soon. The others are already downstairs and ready. I'll see you soon." Millardo rose from the chair, glanced over the mess one more time, and walked out of the room. "By the way, Heero wanted to tell me that I need to get new security equipment. Apparently he was running diagnostics this morning," Millardo added with a slight smirk before leaving the room.

Relena grinned wider at that thought. Heero could be such a handful sometimes. At least her brother and Heero weren't tearing each other apart. It's amazing what a few years of peace could do to soldiers. Yet of course they still had little spats, but that was why Quatre, Duo, Wufei, and Trowa were here, to hopefully help keep them in line.

Well actually not really. They had all traveled to the Sanc Kingdom to celebrate one of their friends coming of age and had accepted her invitation to spend a couple weeks there to relax and catch up. Although it took a while to get it out of him, Heero enjoyed seeing his fellow comrades, including Duo. After spending a year with Zechs, as he preferred to call him, he needed a break. Last year, after a year of finding his emotions, he finally came to Relena one day saying he did care for her. She gladly asked him to stay with her, and after some reluctance decided to live with her, under the cover of being her personal bodyguard, which Zechs accepted as reasonable. She had been happier in the past year then almost all of her life.

Relena rose to go down stairs but decided to look quickly in the chest for anything else interesting. She was happy she did when she moved a couple of photographs of her, and decided to take them and show the others. Luckily, there was one of Millardo so that way Noin could see it. After she removed the photo, something shiny caught her eye. Inside the trunk was a chain, or more precisely, a chain with a heart shaped locket attached to it. It looked like it hadn't been polished in a while, but still seemed to hold a gleam. She held it up and tried to open it. It took a bit of prying, but inside was pictures of what looked like herself and a young boy on the opposite side. It was hard to tell with the old photo, but the boy looked to be about her age, which she guessed was seven or eight, and looked to have blue eyes like herself and brown hair. A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts though.

"Relena, everyone's waiting. Are you ready?" She could hear the muffled voice of Heero on the other side.

Still clutching the photos in one hand and the locket in the other, she managed to open the door and smile at Heero. He gave a slight smirk at how she tried to hold everything.

"Heero, could you please put this around me?" Relena asked while holding the locket up to him. He took it from her as she swiped her hair back around her shoulder. He examined it for a second before unclasping it, and bringing one arm around he re-clasped it at the back of her neck. She turned around and smiled at him.

"Come on, we better go before Noin comes up to yell at us for keeping everyone waiting," Relena said while grabbing Heero's hand and walking down the stairs.

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"Took you guys long enough. We're all starving," Duo said smirking.

"Sorry Duo. You're actually the only one that's starving. The rest of us can control our stomachs," Sally inputted while smiling at the two that just walked in.

"Well anyway, sorry everyone," Relena apologized while sitting down in her appointed seat. As the food was coming out, she looked around her at all the young adults surronding her. Times had changed, and so had they with the ongoing peace.

Duo and Hilde were still on L2 working in the scavenger business. They planed on getting married next year actually, after having been going out since the end of the war. Wufei and Sally, which were still partners at the Preventers office, had actually began to start a relationship, though neither would admit it, and no one was supposed to know. It was so obvious though, so few rarely missed the signs. Then Trowa and Catherine were still working at the circus while making sure everything ran efficiently. The brother and sister team were very populer. Lastly was Quatre and Dorothy. After helping her work through her hardened "war is the only way of life" exterior, they had grown fond of each other. Not to be forgetten either, were Millardo and Noin who had been married for a year now after completing the terraforming project.

Relena started to eat her scrambled eggs while placing her things to the side to show to everyone after breakfast was through.

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Everyone was comfortably sitting in the sitting room and light chatter was floating about.

"Relena, what was it you wanted to show us?" Hilde questioned interested in the photos she was holding.

"Oh, I just thought you all might me interested in how Millardo and I used to look," she replied why handing the photos to Hilde. Hilde had a grin spread across her face as she looked up at first Millardo then Relena, and almost burst out laughing. Millardo was sitting up in an apple tree aiming at an apple at Relena, and Relena was on the ground aiming one up at him. Both of them seemed to be laughing. As Hilde continued to pass the photos, she took notice of the locket that hung around Relena's neck.

"Hey Relena, when'd you get that? It's very beautiful."

"Oh this," Relena looked down at the locket then reached behind her to unclasp it, took it off and handed it to Hilde. "I just found it in the chest."

Hilde opened it, and automatically recognized Relena, though the other person didn't really look like anyone she'd met before. She took a closer look then blinked.

Wait a minute, yes it does kinda looks like..., oh never mind, not possible

She handed it to Duo who examined it the same way as her. Then he looked up at her.

"Hilde," he slightly whispered.

"I know," was all she said in reply. Duo handed it on to the others, each of them having the almost same reaction. Relena was taking notice and getting curious.

"You guys, what is so interesting?" she questioned, wondering if maybe something was wrong.

"Oh nothing" one or two of her friends replied. Heero had also taken notice and was getting curious. They looked at each other then turned back to their friends. Noin had just received the locket and was the last one to look at it, then gasped.

"Relena, do you know who is in this picture?" Noin asked quite simply.

"No. I was actually hoping that maybe Millardo can help me figure it out."

"R-E-L-E-N-A, did you look at this carefully?" Duo stressed her name, wondering if she had any idea.

"Um, well sort of. Heero told me to come downstairs by the time I had opened it," she replied with somewhat of a shrug.

"Here, look at it again, and tell me what you see. You too Heero," Noin stated handing the locket back to its owner.

Relena took the locket and peered at the pictures once more, while Heero looked over her shoulder. She stared intently at the picture of the young man in the locket. Everyone else in the room waited, while trying not to shout out what they had realized.

Then it suddenly struck Relena, and she gasped. She turned quickly to look up at Heero to see if he had realized it yet. When she met his eyes, she knew he had also figured it out.

"Heero..." Her voice wavered a slight bit.

"Yeah, I know," was all he said in a calm way.

"That's you!"

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Well I hope you guys enjoyed that. Tell me if you think I'm off to a good start. I do realize that there are probably about ten or more out there like this, but just humor me, and let me have fun. Please tell me if I should continue, because as many as my readers may know, I won't continue stories if no one has interests in them. So yeah, give me your comments and criticism. Hope to write another chapter to this! By the way, as with almost all my other stories, I love reviews, and I love blackmail. To get the next chapter if you really like this story, I need at least five reviews (don't you all just love this system of mine ^_^) so anyway, if you like the story, just take the two extra minutes to review it. Thanks ya all. Ciao babes! ;-)

~Crystal Delphina~

Did I ever mention that five out of five gundam pilots say reviewing is good? One grinned and nodded when I asked him and complained of being hungry. One politely stated that it would only be respectful to give writers encouragement. One held a gun up to me and threatened to kill me, but then I quickly reminded him that I have control over him and that this was a new 'mission' so he agreed. One said something like 'onna are weak so shouldn't be writing so it was un-honorable' so I hit him hard in the head and 'tried' to knock some sense into the guy, until he agreed. In addition, one just stayed quiet, so I took that as a yes. SO, do as our little friends say before I stick Heero on you. ;-)