Title: The Arrangement
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Pairing: Heero/Wufei; surprise background pairing for other pilots
Categories: pre-slash AND established relationship, angst, romance, drama, post-series, action/adventure
Length: (really) Epic [~250,000 words!]
Warnings: violence, skeevy undercover activities


Author on LJ: maldoror_gw 
Website: Raygun Works

Author's Summary: "Wufei, struggling with his demons, agrees to a wartime fling with Heero, no affection needed or wanted. But the 'arrangement' lasts and grows as they join the Preventers. It could become a source of strength for both... if they let it."

Review:
This may be my very favorite Gundam Wing story.  For those not familiar with the fandom...

This site will give you the facts, if a bit dryly, and this one explains some of the popular fan interpretations of the main characters.  For those not interested in surfing, let me sum up: political space-operatic warfare, with mechas piloted by teenagers, and the battle lines are constantly redrawn.  The movie follows the series and gives everyone one last conflict to overcome, a conflict in which one of the pilots has switched sides. 

Heero is the ostensible leader of the pilots, although this is fodder for reasonable arguments, and has the social skills of a wolf raised by an assassin and a mad scientist (hint, hint).  He is fairly popular in fandom, and usually paired with either the female lead, Relena, or the pilot Duo.  Wufei was a cynical pacifist, member of a Chinese clan that had emigrated to one of the space colonies, and in an arranged marriage to a girl he barely got along with - and then the war came to his home, and his wife died defending the colony.  He subsequently gained many complexes and decided to fight in her name. He usually doesn't get much play in fandom, or is paired off with the medic Sally, but some authors have been including him in fic in the last few years.

This epic posits the idea that both of these characters, thinking themselves to be rational at heart, may have been willing to engage in some practical, stress-releasing "arrangement", and that while they think it won't impact their decisions or fighting ability, it most certainly does.  The author states repeatedly that this isn't a romance. I respectfully disagree. When two characters become intimate, and they become more fully realized as people because of that relationship and what their partner means to them, and we see how it all happens, it's a romance. Even if it never gets mushy, or the characters are allergic to the word "love". It's a well-written romance, too.  The characters develop in front of your eyes, and the author writes fantastic action sequences that let both Heero and Wufei do what they do best, together.

This story begins at the start of the war, continues throughout the series, and while the relationship does effectively wipe out the effects of the movie, the story continues beyond that point in canon.  The story has violent missions, including undercover work.  While most of the skeevy-er undercover work is done by other pilots, it's still a part of the story, and your mileage may vary. If you don't like reading violence, DON'T read this story.

The Arrangement is best found on the website. It's near the top of the page, and as there's 40+ chapters including epilogues, you'll have plenty to read!